Protagonist and Supporting Characters

At 8:30 in the morning, there were still thirty minutes until the Final Assessment.

The morning sunlight shone through tempered glass into the heavily guarded base training ground.

In the corridor, Tiandao Siming and Caroline walked into the training ground side by side.

He licked away the last bit of cream lingering at the corner of his mouth, savoring the irresistible taste.

Beside him, Caroline watched his childish behavior with a faintly disgusted and resentful look.

"Tiandao, are you a hamster or something? You ate so much that you even finished my slice of strawberry cake."

"What hamster? This is called strategic reserves~"

Tiandao adjusted his sunglasses, and a cunning gleam flashed across the lenses. "Besides, Caroline, today is the Final Assessment. Those guys are already foul-tempered on ordinary days, and at a time like this, they're like powder kegs waiting to blow. What if a fight breaks out later?"

Before he could finish, a timid figure suddenly ran over from a corner of the training ground.

"B-Brother Tian Dao, Sister Caroline."

Chen Kong was like a startled rabbit. Even his greeting trembled, and he seemed extremely cautious.

He was short and thin-faced. Even his training uniform was a size too large, and its cuffs had been worn pale.

Clearly, he had not been treated well at the base.

However, Tiandao did not distance himself because of that.

"Yo, classmate Kong~"

He threw an arm around Chen Kong's shoulders, smiling as he ruffled his messy hair. "So, did you eat breakfast?"

"I-I did."

"What did you eat?"

"Just a normal nutritional meal."

Chen Kong's voice lacked confidence.

Because he had not even gotten a normal nutritional meal. The other trainees had forcibly taken it from him.

Unaware of this, Tiandao immediately drew in a dramatic breath when he heard his answer.

"What?! On such an important day as the Final Assessment, you only ate that pig slop?"

Tiandao shook his head in grief. "No wonder you still can't activate your Star Core, classmate Kong."

Chen Kong blinked in confusion. "Huh? What I eat for breakfast has something to do with my Star Core?"

"Of course it does!"

Tiandao pointed at himself with a serious expression. "As Ember's number one genius, my brain consumes as much sugar every day as three grown adults. If you don't believe me, look..."

Tiandao suddenly leaned closer. Behind his sunglasses, azure eyes glinted with danger, as though stars were flowing within them.

Though they merely exchanged a glance, Chen Kong instantly felt an immense pressure coming from Tiandao.

It was as though the person looking at him was not a peer only half a month older than him.

But a fierce and powerful Star Beast that could tear him apart at any moment.

Seeing that this "protagonist" had been frightened by just one look, Tiandao immediately smiled. "See, classmate Kong? That's what happens when you eat nutritional meals."

"Why am I so strong? Obviously, it's because I eat double portions of desserts every day!"

"If you ate double portions of desserts every day like I do, you might awaken your Star Core right away."

"R-Really?" Chen Kong's eyes immediately lit up.

"Idiot, he's lying to you."

Before Chen Kong could consider whether that was true, a cool female voice came from ahead of the three of them.

His sister, Chen Xing, had appeared before them at some point. The scarlet long blade Bloodflame was strapped to her back, gleaming with an eerie light in the morning sun.

Tiandao and Caroline showed no excessive reaction upon seeing her.

But Chen Kong, whose shoulder Tiandao was holding, became visibly timid, like a mouse that had spotted a cat.

"S-Sis."

Chen Kong shrank into himself, not even daring to look directly at her.

Chen Xing did not care.

She had long grown used to having such a worthless, useless little brother.

Without even glancing at Chen Kong, she fixed her crimson starry eyes directly on Tiandao.

"Tiandao, trying to fool people again with that ridiculous dessert theory of yours?"

"How can you call it fooling people~"

Tiandao spread his hands with a grin. "Science has proven that sugar not only helps the brain think, it can also—"

"Shut up!" Xing coldly interrupted. "Do you think everyone is as obsessed with sweets as you are?"

The entire training ground suddenly fell silent.

The surrounding trainees all took several steps back in unison, clearly knowing what was about to happen.

After all, the last person who had dared speak to Tiandao like that had spent an entire month in the infirmary.

Since then, aside from Caroline, Tiandao's closest companion,

no one else had dared speak to Tiandao that way.

However, Tiandao did not seem to care much about Chen Xing's sharp tongue.

He shrugged indifferently, then put on a wounded expression.

"Classmate Xing, that hurts my feelings."

Then, as if he had thought of something, his expression suddenly changed. He stared intently at the exquisitely featured, queenly Chen Xing until she looked completely confused.

Just as Chen Xing was beginning to find it strange, Tiandao suddenly lowered his voice. "Classmate Xing, could your reaction be so strong because you don't actually look down on classmate Kong? Are you jealous that he gets my special guidance?"

"You should've said so earlier. If you'd said so earlier..."

"Hah?!"

Chen Xing's expression instantly twisted. "I'm jealous of that trash?"

She yanked the long blade from her back and pointed its tip directly at Chen Kong beside Tiandao.

"It's been two years, and he can't even do the most basic Star Energy Sensing. Trash like him deserves to—"

"Hey, hey. I can pretend I didn't hear other things, but isn't it a bit much to talk about your own brother like that?"

Tiandao suddenly put away his carefree smile, and his gaze beneath the sunglasses became dangerous.

In an instant, an invisible pressure spread outward from him.

Several nearby trainees had already begun trembling, and even Chen Xing's hand gripping her blade shook slightly.

But she was not afraid. She was stubbornly resisting that tsunami-like pressure by force.

"Was I wrong?"

Gritting her teeth as she held on, Chen Xing retorted, "Among the thirty-six trainees in the Star Project, he's the only one who doesn't even have a Star Core—"

"That's because his Star Core is rather special."

Tiandao suddenly interrupted her.

That sentence exploded through the crowd like a bomb.

Everyone turned doubtful, astonished eyes toward Chen Kong. Even Caroline, who believed she had mastered the intelligence on every trainee, could not help raising an eyebrow.

She seemed to be judging whether Tiandao's words were true.

After all, if anyone else had said it, even if it had been Chen Xing, Chen Kong's own sister,

no one would have found it particularly credible.

But when those words came from Tiandao, the top-ranked Stellaris trainee, the meaning was completely different.

Because Tiandao could not be bothered, nor did he deign, to lie to them.

"M-My Star Core is spe... special?"

Upon hearing Tiandao's words, not only everyone else but even Chen Kong himself froze in place.

Seeing how unconfident he looked, Tiandao gave a mysterious smile.

"Yeah, it's very special. So special that, aside from me, no one has guessed what your Star Core really is."

"So? Want to know what I found?"

Chen Kong nodded excitedly. The self-abased, dim look in his eyes now shone with something called hope.

And Tiandao, who knew the original plot of Season 1, did not mind revealing some information early to Chen Kong, the protagonist of this animated series.

So he leaned close to Chen Kong's ear and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. "Classmate Kong, it's not that your Star Core hasn't activated. It's that it's too powerful—so powerful that even you can't control it."

Chen Kong's eyes widened. "Then why can't I—"

"Shh—" Tiandao held a finger to his lips and smiled. "Classmate Kong, answers are more interesting when you discover them yourself, aren't they?"

At that moment, the doors to the training ground suddenly opened.

A squad of fully armed guards marched in with neat, uniform steps.

The Ember Organization insignia on their black tactical helmets gleamed coldly beneath the lights, warning strangers to keep away.

"Looks like the assessment is about to begin~"

Seeing the Black Dogs arrive, Tiandao released Chen Kong and lightly patted his shoulder.

"Good luck, classmate Kong. I have high hopes for you."

Encouraged by Tiandao, the top-ranked Stellaris trainee,

Chen Kong, the undisputed bottom-ranked member among the thirty-six Star Project trainees, seemed to receive enormous encouragement. His excitement was visibly apparent.

But that excitement did not last long before Chen Xing coldly poured water over it.

"Idiot, you actually believe that nonsense? Tiandao is obviously just messing with you."

"If your Star Core were really that special, it would be one thing if we hadn't noticed. But why hadn't anyone from the Organization noticed either?"

"You don't seriously think the people in the Organization understand Star Cores as little as we do, do you?"

Chen Xing's reasoning was sound and perfectly aligned with reality.

The looks everyone gave Chen Kong gradually calmed from their initial surprise.

Even Chen Kong had to admit that Chen Xing made sense.

His eyes slowly dimmed again.

Seeing Chen Kong get suppressed by his sister Chen Xing once more, Tiandao simply spoke up. "Classmate Xing, how about we make a bet? We'll bet on whether classmate Kong can awaken his Star Core during the Final Assessment."

"What do we bet?"

"How about desserts? If I win, your desserts for the next three months are mine. If I lose, then—"

Before Tiandao could finish, Chen Xing interrupted him.

"Fine, but you can't interfere to help him."

"No problem."

Tiandao agreed readily, and a cunning gleam flashed through his azure eyes behind the lenses.

After all, he had already read the original script through the Popularity System.

He knew that in the original story, Chen Kong would be driven into a desperate situation during the assessment and ultimately awaken the near-bug ability, Star Energy Nullification.

Therefore, this bet was a guaranteed win for him.

But to Tiandao's surprise, Chen Xing had not finished stating her conditions.

"Besides that, I want you to change the terms of the bet."

"Change what?"

Looking at Tiandao's confused expression, Chen Xing took a deep breath. Dangerous flames burned in her beautiful eyes, while her brown hair visibly began turning crimson.

"If I win, I don't want your desserts. I want you to fight me seriously, with everything you have."

At those words, Tiandao's carefree expression vanished as he silently removed his sunglasses.

In an instant, that terrifying, tsunami-like pressure once again swept across the entire training ground.

Though she had already felt Tiandao's oppressive aura once before,

Chen Xing still found it difficult to withstand it when it returned.

And this time, Tiandao was clearly serious.

As a result, his pressure was even fiercer than before, and even more... suffocating.

Looking at Chen Xing struggling to hold on, Tiandao calmly said, "Classmate Xing, I can let things slide once or twice."

"But three or four times? That's completely different..."

Tiandao walked up to Chen Xing, who had been forced down to one knee by his pressure, and looked down at her.

"After all, a lion will not tolerate a hyena provoking it again and again."

"So, wait until you've completely mastered your Star Core and understood its true purpose before discussing this with me."

"Because right now, you are far from qualified to make me fight seriously. You can't even withstand my pressure, can you?"

With that, Tiandao lightly patted Chen Xing's tense shoulder, then withdrew his pressure.

In an instant, the tense atmosphere in the training ground eased.

But proud as she was, Chen Xing did not want to admit defeat just like that.

Twice. Tiandao had suppressed her twice using nothing but Star Energy pressure.

Chen Xing gritted her teeth and tightly gripped the Demonic Blade Blood Flame in her hand.

Or rather, she could not accept that she did not even have the ability to strike at Tiandao.

Watching Chen Xing seemingly prepare to challenge someone above her station, Tiandao narrowed his eyes slightly.

Meanwhile, Caroline silently slipped a hand into her pocket, as if gripping something.

For a moment, the air throughout the training ground seemed to freeze.

No one dared speak loudly.

At that moment, the training ground's metal doors suddenly opened.

Accompanied by the crisp clack of high heels, a graceful figure walked into the training ground.

"Yo, bullying your classmates again, Little Tian Dao."

Instructor Yun Meng approached with elegant, catlike steps. Her curvaceous figure, wrapped in a black uniform, made quite a few adolescent Stellaris trainees secretly swallow.

But that was all they dared do.

Because they knew very well that while Yun Meng had the body of an angel, her heart was more devilish than any devil.

Only when dealing with Tiandao did she show that kind of "special care," like a big sister next door.

It was a privilege reserved for geniuses.

Faced with Yun Meng's sudden teasing, Tiandao immediately protested, "That's unfair, Sister Yun. Xing and I were clearly just having a friendly and productive exchange. How is that bullying?"

"Save it." Yun Meng lightly knocked Tiandao on the head, then turned to Chen Xing. "The assessment is about to begin, yet you wanted to attack your classmate without authorization. Chen Xing, have you forgotten the organization's rules?"

Hearing this, Chen Xing silently sheathed her Demonic Blade, lowered her head, and returned to the group.

Watching her retreating figure, Yun Meng said helplessly, "Little Tiandao, why are you always picking on Xing? The two of you are both the geniuses the organization values most. Can't you get along?"

Tiandao spread his hands. "Sister Yun, you can't blame me. Chen Xing deliberately provoked me. I was acting in self-defense."

"You..."

Yun Meng shook her head helplessly before saying, "...Forget it. I'll deal with you after the assessment."

"Now get back into the group. The assessment is about to begin."

"A lot of important people from the organization are here today, so don't you dare let me down."

At that, Tiandao immediately grinned. "Don't worry, Sister Yun. I'm the strongest."

In response to Tiandao's nearly arrogant declaration,

Yun Meng wanted to tell him to be more modest, but she did not refute him.

Because, just as Tiandao had said, among Stellaris's thirty-six trainees,

Tiandao Siming was, without question, the strongest.