I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 281 – Trade-off

In a distant future, the empires of mankind span the galaxy, and glorious Earth has devolved into a peripheral backwater.

In Shanjing city in the Asian region, Wang Zheng’s dreams of becoming a mech pilot are crushed when his college entrance exam genetic score turns out a pathetic twenty eight, barely above an animal.

To make things worse, people get the impression he attempted suicide after being rejected by the campus beauty.

Then the closest thing to a family he has, the old man in the book store across the road, goes missing, leaving him only a mysterious birthday present.

- Description from Novelupdates

“You dragged me into this world. Now you kneel in it.” — Tim SlokovBy day, Tim Slokov was a quiet office drone. By night, a ruthless online critic of fantasy novels. But when a mysterious force transmigrates him into the dying body of an elven outcast—doomed and powerless—Tim realizes he’s become the tragic background character of someone else’s story.Only he refuses to die quietly.Denied justice, Tim is granted a single gift: the Shattered Necromancy System, a broken power fueled by death itself.[Seek Me, O Death — Passive]: Every kill becomes a servant. Every soul feeds his army.[Death Embrace — Active]: He becomes what he commands—gaining the power of his dead.[Arise — Active]: The battlefield becomes his stage, where his fallen rise again.Armed with cursed power, Tim must evolve himself—and his ever-growing legion of the dead—to claw his way up a world that wants him erased. But vengeance is only the beginning. As his strength grows, so does the truth behind his forced arrival... and the god-like force that wants him broken.Tim isn’t here to play the hero.He’s here to rewrite fate—one death at a time.

At level 2, most people unlocked their first talent; those who didn’t were considered fortunate, as they had the potential to unlock rarer talents requiring higher levels. The world’s most rare and powerful talents were revealed at level 5. But what if someone didn’t obtain a talent? Luck quickly turned to misfortune as they were labeled talentless, with no hope of gaining a talent. Sol was one such person who was unable to unlock his talent, but he refused to give up. He persistently fought and trained every day, slowly increasing his level despite the disadvantage in skills. He held onto the hope that, one day, he would be bestowed with a talent like everyone else. As years passed, his determination began to wane until one fateful day. You have leveled up! +5 Free stats. Talent Unlocked - [Siphoner]! This event marked the beginning of his story.

Transported to a garbage-filled planet in the interstellar era, Ji You was so poor she was nearly digging the soil to eat, but... the soil was toxic and inedible... With no other choice, she had to lower her standards and pick up trash and sell scrap, such as these beautiful grass seeds that no one wanted. She gathered them and threaded them into beads to sell online.But once she posted them online, someone left a negative review: 'Selling grass seeds? Are you crazy for money?'Days later, this person was pounding the wall in regret: 'I beg you, sell me a grass seed bead, just one! Just one is enough.'Ji You coldly responded: 'Not selling!'And then there's the sparkling stones lying all over the streets that nobody wanted. She picked them up, polished them into bracelets, and sold them online.People lashed out with their words: 'Selling such broken rocks - have you never seen money?'Days later, those same people were crying and wailing: 'I was blind, I was so shortsighted, to overlook such beautiful and pretty stones. I beg you, sell me one.'Ji You spread her hands: 'Gone.'