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It’s around six in the morning now. And at this point, everybody already knew about the Honor Roll’s manifestation.

Mikel was right. The momentum and disturbance of this day’s Honor Roll manifestation were indeed so great that everybody was bound to feel it.

At first, it was only those who reached the Pulse Awakening Stage and above who could feel it, but over time, as the disturbance got stronger, even the weaker practitioners began feeling it too.

Even if they couldn’t in the end, the word of mouth itself was enough to spread the message around. This matter was also trending online, so it’s hard not to know about it.

In conjunction with that, the sky above the human civilization looked weird.

There were ominous dark clouds everywhere, so much so that they were almost blotting out the sun. It wasn’t ordinary dark clouds either; these ones were denser, and they acted as if they were storm clouds, occasionally flashing with lightning and thunder now and then.

Within those flashes of lightning, although it’s hard to make it out, there was a silhouette that’s hidden behind it.

It looked weird and unnatural wherever you looked at it. And because it’s so huge, it’s difficult to make out what it is exactly.

Everybody’s abuzz now. Many people stood outside of their homes, looking up at the ominous skies above the human civilization. Although they were told not to panic or be afraid, they couldn’t help it. After all, this commotion was too great and the atmosphere was too heavy and tense due to those dark clouds.

But as time passed and the clock hit seven in the morning, an incredible phenomenon happened above the skies.

Swoosh!!

All of a sudden, the skies cleared.

Every ominous dark cloud that blotted out the sky and the sunlight just suddenly disappeared as if they were swept into nothing by something.

That’s not the main thing, though.

It’s that giant scroll slowly unfurling to cover every inch of the sky that is the very phenomenon that everybody will remember from this day.

That gigantic scroll looked ancient, as if it was made from the oldest parchment there was. It also released a strong scent of old paper that permeated everywhere in human civilization.

It is so large that it practically covered the entire sky. The golden radiance it emitted was strong enough to compete with sunlight itself. And no matter who or where one was, everybody who was looking at this gigantic scroll suddenly felt too small to matter.

That’s the kind of impression the honor roll left on everybody.

"So this is the Honor Roll..." Ren whispered to himself as he stared at the sky.

He wasn’t standing; he was lying down on the roof of his house. He didn’t feel like straining his neck by looking up. Looking at the massive honor roll in the sky while lying down was much easier. Of course, his body was oriented the right way, which enabled him to read whatever was written in that giant scroll.

Ren knew about the existence of the Honor Roll. Like the world system, it’s one of the things that predates human civilization. It’s always been there since the beginning. It wasn’t until humans began clearing dungeons that it started manifesting for them to see.

In the story, the purpose of the honor roll was simple, and that is to record impressive achievements of the race it’s assigned to; in this case, that’s the human race.

The Honor Roll covers a wide range of possible achievements. Dungeon clearants, speed runs, solo or party rankings, martial arts, martial physiques, artifacts, weapons, and a few more miscellaneous listings.

When somebody achieves an impressive feat, the honor roll will manifest and will write down the general details of the achievement. The full details of the achievement will be released through official channels, mainly the World System, but for the honor roll, the general information was good enough.

Being recorded on the Honor Roll is an incredible achievement on its own, mostly because only truly impressive feats will appear in there. Of course, those who achieved feats impressive enough to be recorded by the Honor Roll will also receive rewards for their performance.

It’s a way to acknowledge their skill and also to motivate others to strive for excellence as well. That’s the real purpose of the Honor Roll.

Ren has said it before: This world is especially cruel to the lazy and unmotivated, but it does support those who are willing to put in work. Talent and opportunities aren’t given for free; they come with a cost—responsibilities—and only those who are willing to bear the burden will see success.

Everything in this world follows this rule. Which is why it’s not really surprising that there were many people who managed to go beyond the expectations of those around them by working hard and making use of every opportunity presented before them.

The gigantic scroll covering the sky appeared empty at first, but after a few moments, words began appearing on its surface as if someone were writing words on it using a feathered quill. The writing was cursive, neat, and decisive.

It read:

[The Martial Arts List]

That’s the Honor Roll list that manifested this time, and Ren wasn’t surprised.

Of course he won’t be surprised; he had already been spoiled. He knew what was going to appear already.

However, the same cannot be said for others.

Even though he’s within the walls of the clan compound, Ren could almost hear the commotion of the people outside when they discovered that there’s a new record-breaking martial art that’s going to appear.

The crowd began guessing what kind of martial art it was.

Was it an offensive, defensive, or auxiliary martial art? Or maybe it was a hybrid? Will it appear on the top 50? Top 25? Top 10? Or maybe even top 5? Is it strong? It is easy to learn? How many merit points would it cost to learn it? Actually, will it even be available to the public? What are the requirements to learn it?

Ren could tell that they’re getting ahead of themselves, but he doesn’t blame them. Had he not known what it is already, he’d probably be entertaining similar thoughts too.

The Honor Roll didn’t let the populace wait for too long. Shortly after it revealed which list will manifest this time, it began revealing the details of the addition to the list.

**

Category: Martial Arts

Entry: Green Lotus Core Technique

Designation: Generational Core Martial Art

Rank: #5

Record Status: Permanently Inscribed

Creator: [REDACTED]

**

That’s it. That’s all it wrote. After that, the scroll just remained there and will be staying there for the whole day. It will fade around midnight and won’t appear again soon, unless there’s a new record of course.

Like what was stated, the Honor Roll wasn’t one for theatrics. Well, it did place a green lotus icon next to the name of the technique, but that’s as fancy as it’ll get.

It recorded the general information about the achievement itself and did not bother explaining anything to anyone. That’s not its job. It records incredible feats, and it did just that.

This new, core generational martial art pushed its way to rank #5, truly an incredible feat, is it not?

It pushed the previous #5 martial art to the #6 position, which isn’t really a big deal since the rewards of the previous #5 had already been sent and probably been spent already. The Honor Roll won’t take anything back just because it fell down a single rank.

Seeing his work being acknowledged up in there filled Ren with pride.

Everybody in human civilization was now seeing this. Although they don’t know that it’s him, it doesn’t change the fact that he did something truly incredible. This was more than a feat; it’s a legacy, a proof of his own existence to this world.

Even if, in the future, something else replaced his creation in the #5 spot, Ren wouldn’t have cared. His achievement isn’t just something that’s new. It benefits the whole human race. Not everybody could achieve something like this even if they were to spend their entire lives trying to.

As expected, the world was shocked by this reveal. And honestly, a little resentful of the honor roll; they’re complaining because it didn’t reveal more information.

However, that part is left to the World System.

As soon as the feat was recorded, the World System sent a notice to every single human alive. Regardless of where they are or what they’re doing, they will receive and know about this.

This message contains more information about the Green Lotus Core Technique: its effects, its pros and cons, who could practice it, the requirements, and all that.

It even included the technique’s long-term effect on human society if the majority of the population were to practice it.

The world system also took the initiative to send everybody a virtual copy of the technique, which is its way of indirectly endorsing everybody to practice the martial art.

And because Ren had already fused perfectly with the seed and bred the Green Lotus Core Martial Physique, that piece of information was also included in there.