“Fuck this workshop! Fuck this craftsman exam! Fuck the Association, and fuck this aberration contamination.”

Among the ruins of the observation station, a soot-covered Lou Feng painfully reached out and dragged himself from a narrow gap, hauling a sack full of scavenged canned food behind him. Gasping heavily for breath, he reached into his collar, yanked out an insect that had crawled inside, and crushed it between his fingers.

He could not even be bothered to scream anymore, having gone completely numb long ago. He was done. To hell with everything.

Never in his life had he cursed this much. 

“Why the fuck did I have to compete with Ji Jue? If I’d known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have tried this year.” 

After surviving all the ordeals of the night, Young Master Lou found himself facing this absolute disaster. Since he had no intention of being eliminated, he could only desperately struggle, like a salted fish thrown into a vat of brine. After all, he had already made such bold declarations before coming here. If he ended up getting sent home after failing to clear even the first preliminary round…

A few days earlier, Master Kong had told him, “I won’t stop you if you want to give it a try. But if you fail and embarrass me, you know what’ll happen when you get back, don’t you?”

Oh, he knew. He knew all too well.

Besides, even without his teacher’s particular brand of “motivation,” he desperately needed a craftsman certification to salvage his reputation...