[Alliance] Growing Up

"Three, two, one. Cheese!"

Cheers rang out, and camera shutters clicked in rapid succession.

Ren Yi tossed his graduation cap into the air along with his high school classmates. As he watched the caps spin in the sunlight, his gaze went distant for a moment.

In the blink of an eye, so many years had passed since he came to this world.

This world was different from his original home. It had unified early on and was governed by a political entity called the "Alliance."

Thanks to its long-lasting peace, social welfare was almost unbelievably good.

Everyone received free education through university and was assigned a job upon graduation. Even orphans had a comprehensive care system.

The bad news was that Ren Yi had joined the vast ranks of transmigrated orphans.

The good news was that he hadn't ended up in an orphanage. Instead, he had been raised by his older brother, who was more than ten years his senior.

Aside from that, this world was ordinary and unremarkable. For a transmigrator, it was hard to say whether that was a blessing or a curse.

"Hey, Bench." A hand suddenly landed on Ren Yi's shoulder.

Ren Yi turned to look at the newcomer, somewhat speechless. "Old Lu, what kind of ridiculous nickname have you come up with now?"

The newcomer grinned. "I came up with the nickname 'Bench' for you based on 'Chair.' Aren't you going to thank me?"

The newcomer was Ren Yi's best friend, Lu Zihan—the Zihan from "my Zihan."

Ignoring Ren Yi's displeasure, Lu Zihan threw an arm around him and pulled him along. "Bench, how's your preparation for the major test going?"

"So even our boss Lu gets nervous." Unable to break free, Ren Yi rolled his eyes and showed no mercy.

The Major Assignment Test was one of the biggest differences between the Alliance and his previous life.

The Alliance guaranteed everyone a fair education, so naturally there was no fate-determining college entrance exam.

But a person's energy was limited, after all, and everyone had to face the difficult choice of a major.

The Alliance had developed the Major Assignment Test for this purpose. It used brainwave scans to recommend the most suitable major for each student.

Lu Zihan gave an awkward laugh. "Come on, don't expose me like that. Aren't you nervous?"

Ren Yi shrugged. "Not really. It's not like they force you to choose the major the test recommends."

Lu Zihan immediately deflated. "My parents definitely won't let me change it. As for you, uh..."

He abruptly remembered Ren Yi's family situation. "You might be able to."

The two walked toward the school gate, chatting on and off.

Bang!

Just then, Ren Yi suddenly heard a muffled thud.

The sound was close, like a bag full of viscous liquid falling from a great height and bursting against the ground, with an indescribably wet, sticky quality to it.

Ren Yi stopped in his tracks, his heart pounding wildly for no apparent reason, as if the sudden loud noise had startled him.

He instinctively looked around, but the people nearby seemed not to have heard it. Students leaving school still bustled past, and a cleaner in the distance continued mechanically sweeping the ground without pausing in the slightest.

"What's wrong?" Seeing him stop, Lu Zihan stopped too and asked in confusion.

"You didn't hear that?" Ren Yi was looking from side to side for the source of the sound. He was surprised by the question.

Lu Zihan shook his head blankly.

Ren Yi frowned. He couldn't have imagined it. The sound had been too clear.

Following his instincts, he looked toward a dormitory building not far away. A group of people had gathered in a circle below it, each of them half a head taller than the two of them.

They were university students.

"What are the university students doing here?" Lu Zihan saw them too, his voice full of confusion. "Aren't they supposed to be doing closed-off military training?"

Alliance First Academy had a complete education system from kindergarten through university graduation, so students of all ages could be seen on campus.

But something was a little strange.

Ren Yi's heart beat faster. The summer sunlight was dazzlingly white, but it didn't feel hot against his skin. Instead, it carried a peculiar chill.

He touched his chest. He didn't know why, but he couldn't stop thinking about that sound.

He pulled Lu Zihan along. "Let's take a look."

Before they could get close, however, the university students spotted them first.

"What are you looking at?" The tallest boy stepped forward, staring fixedly at them as he spoke in a decidedly rude tone.

Ren Yi looked past him and scanned the center of the crowd.

There was nothing there.

Where Ren Yi had imagined something should be, the marble floor was polished enough to reflect people's images. There wasn't even a trace of a stain, as if it were silently mocking him for making such a fuss.

Ren Yi wrinkled his nose. It itched a little, as though something had irritated it, but he clearly couldn't smell anything.

"What are you doing here?" Faced with such rudeness, Lu Zihan got stubborn too. "You're acting all sneaky, and we're not even allowed to look?"

"What's going on?" The commotion caught the attention of the other university students.

For some reason, they seemed a little nervous when they saw Ren Yi and Lu Zihan.

Ren Yi tugged at Lu Zihan, signaling for him to leave first.

He was only a little curious about the source of the loud noise, but the group's reaction seemed off.

They had their major test tomorrow. Getting into a conflict now would be no different from fighting someone the day before the college entrance exam.

In any case, there was no need to get himself and Lu Zihan caught up in trouble for a reason like this.

But just as he lifted his foot to leave, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong. It felt as though something had grabbed his foot, with a faint, sticky sensation.

He reflexively shook his leg and stepped back.

Ren Yi looked down and saw that his shoe had somehow gotten wet. Several long, narrow water marks had appeared across the top.

He looked toward the source of the marks and saw a pool of liquid slowly seeping out onto the ground surrounded by the university students, flowing through the gaps between the tiles to his feet.

But if it was only liquid, why had it felt like that just now?

Before he could figure it out, a stern female voice suddenly rang out.

"What are you doing crowding around my students?"

"Teach!" Lu Zihan cried out in delight. Ren Yi turned and saw that their homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhang, had appeared behind them at some point. Her usually smiling face was now ice-cold.

Of course, that coldness wasn't directed at them.

Teacher Zhang shot a quick glance at the ground, then turned to the university students, her tone instantly turning colder. "It's military training time. What are you doing here? Who is your instructor?"

Under the pressure of a "teacher," the university students, who had been so aggressive just moments ago, immediately backed down.

"These two little... kids came over to us first," muttered the boy who had initially stopped them.

"My students are good children who haven't 'grown up' yet. They would never go looking for trouble." Teacher Zhang's voice rose sharply, and she paused emphatically on "grown up" and "good children."

Hiding behind Teacher Zhang, Ren Yi was a little touched to see her stand up for the two of them without hesitation.

But was Teacher Zhang usually this forceful?

"Sorry, Teacher."

At that moment, a girl wearing black-framed glasses stepped out from among the university students.

"I'm the discipline committee member. Just now, a student, uh... jumped from the second floor to avoid a dorm inspection and broke a water pipe here. That's why we gathered to deal with it."

Wasn't that excuse a little too out there?

Ren Yi felt his nose grow even itchier.

Teacher Zhang, however, seemed to believe her. She adjusted her glasses, and her tone softened a little.

"Since you're the discipline committee member, you take charge. Clean this place up and find someone to repair the pipe as soon as possible. Don't leave any traces."

With that, she didn't spare the university students another glance. She grabbed Ren Yi and Lu Zihan by the wrists and strode toward the school gate.

Ren Yi looked back and saw the university students crouching on the ground, furiously scrubbing the spotless floor with something.

The sticky stream that had seeped out had disappeared at some point, leaving only a few wet patches that were evaporating in the sunlight at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"You two!" Teacher Zhang's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Your major test is tomorrow. Why aren't you going home to get some proper rest instead of hanging around here?"

Under their homeroom teacher's intimidating gaze, Ren Yi and Lu Zihan could only agree repeatedly.

Teacher Zhang escorted them all the way to the school gate. Still concerned, she gave them a few more reminders about the test before letting them go.

"I saw your brother come to pick you up, so I'll head off first." Lu Zihan patted Ren Yi on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Good luck on the test." Ren Yi waved to him, then couldn't resist glancing at the school gate.

He suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, composed himself, and turned toward the roadside.

A somewhat thin young man in a white shirt stood there, leaning against an electric scooter.

The young man was looking ahead with a vacant gaze, lost in unknown thoughts.

"Bro!" Ren Yi called.

The young man was Ren Yi's older brother in this life and his only family across both his lives, Ren Man.

Only upon hearing the call did Ren Man's gaze slowly come into focus. He looked down at Ren Yi as he approached, and his bewildered expression immediately grew calm and gentle.

"Xiao Yi," he answered softly.

Ren Yi was used to Ren Man's somewhat absent-minded manner. Without being prompted, he picked up the helmet from the scooter and put it on.

Only after getting on the scooter did he notice that Ren Man hadn't moved.

Ren Yi paused, then followed his gaze and slowly looked down at his own shoe.

He had clearly only stepped in it, but his shoe was completely soaked, giving him an unpleasant, sticky sensation.

Ren Yi was just about to explain when Ren Man looked away and got on the scooter.

They rode the scooter slowly into the flow of traffic.

Putting the incident behind him, Ren Yi began telling Ren Man about things at school.

"...Anyway, Teach said my score was especially high, so I'll definitely get priority in major assignment. Oh, right, Old Lu said his uncle's escape room happens to be short-staffed, so I'm planning to work there with him over summer break..."

Ren Man didn't respond, but Ren Yi was used to his silence.

Ren Yi talked, and Ren Man listened. That was how the two of them had always gotten along.

After finishing his account of school, Ren Yi suddenly remembered something and asked, "Bro, did you go see the doctor today?"

Ren Man nodded in front of him. Ren Yi understood that he meant, "I went, and there's no problem."

On the surface, Ren Man looked like a man of few words, a super introvert.

But from a diagnostic standpoint, Ren Man had mild autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, putting him right on the borderline of being able to live independently.

The Alliance provided a well-developed support system for vulnerable groups like this. In Ren Man's case, his job was organizing books and documents at a library.

"Tomorrow..." Ren Man suddenly spoke.

Ren Yi was taken aback. It wasn't often that his brother spoke up on his own.

"Xiao Yi, you have the test," Ren Man said slowly.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, Bro, I've already researched it thoroughly," Ren Yi reassured him in a cheerful tone.

"The Alliance guarantees that the test won't cause any physical problems. It's just a bit of a mental strain, so I might need to rest for a few days."

Sometimes, he seemed more like the older of the two brothers.

As for the mental strain, Ren Yi wasn't worried at all.

Although Ren Man wasn't very good at expressing himself, his ability to look after himself and others was practically maxed out.

The only thing to worry about was whether his brother would fatten him up by three jin if he spent a few extra days in bed.

"Xiao Yi, you're going to grow up." Ren Man's voice was full of comfort.

His voice was very soft, as if he had been looking forward to it for a long time.

Ren Yi understood. People in the Alliance didn't regard their eighteenth birthday as the mark of adulthood. They believed that only after taking the Major Assignment Test did a person truly "grow up."

That was probably what Teacher Zhang had meant by repeatedly emphasizing it today.

"Yeah, Bro."

Ren Yi answered earnestly, the events of this life flashing through his mind.

"An elder brother is like a father" was no empty saying in his case. Because Ren Man was "not ordinary," the effort he had put into this could only have been greater.

For some reason, he replied earnestly:

"I'm going to grow up."