Long-Awaited Campus Life

At four in the afternoon, on the elevated highway leading from Deep Blue Metropolis to the Nearshore District, a business van with an unassuming exterior but incomparably luxurious interior decor was driving smoothly along.

"Hey, ow, ow, ow! Caroline, easy, easy."

Tiandao sat in the back of the business van while Caroline, her face dark, tugged hard on his ear.

In front of them, Chen Xing rested her chin on her right hand and gazed blankly out the window, seemingly lost in thought.

As for Chen Kong, he was sitting beside Chen Xing, occasionally stealing glances at Coral Knight Wolf, who was driving in the front seat.

He was clearly deeply curious about him.

In the passenger seat, Yun Meng watched Tiandao repeatedly cast pleading looks her way from the back seat. Unable to bear it any longer, she finally spoke up on his behalf.

"Enough, Caroline. Let Tiandao go. Keep pulling like that and you'll rip his ear right off."

Upon hearing Yun Meng speak, Caroline was still somewhat dissatisfied with Tiandao for deceiving her earlier.

But in the end, she released the hand clutching his ear.

The instant she did, Tiandao came back to life.

He looked at Caroline, who had turned her head away and was deliberately giving him the cold shoulder.

Wisely, he did not poke the hornet's nest.

Patting Chen Kong on the shoulder, he asked with feigned curiosity, "Kong, those last three shots of yours were pretty interesting. How did you merge your Mark of the Void into the bullets?"

Although everyone knew Tiandao was deliberately changing the subject to avoid discussing his earlier "prank,"

they all pricked up their ears inside the van.

Because they really were extremely curious about this.

After all, before today, none of them had expected Chen Kong—the guy they had always considered dead weight—

to accomplish something so remarkable in this "test."

The Dimensional Audience beyond the Dimensional Screen was equally curious.

If they remembered correctly, Kong's "Star Energy Nullification" should only have been activated through "touch."

So how could even bullets now carry the effects of Star Energy Nullification?

Seeing everyone's attention focused on him,

the somewhat socially anxious Chen Kong stammered his way through an explanation of the whole story.

The reason Chen Kong had been able to make bullets possess the power of Star Energy Nullification

was entirely inspired by Chen Xing's Star Source, Bloodflame.

Bloodflame operated by using the blood of oneself or an enemy as fuel, continuously burning it into scorching flames.

That operating principle immediately gave Chen Kong ample inspiration.

He wondered whether his own blood could, like Bloodflame, serve as the medium for activating the Mark of the Void.

Because if that hypothesis proved true, he would then meet the conditions for activating both the Mark of the Void and The Visionary at once.

To that end, Chen Kong had even approached Doctor himself and proposed the idea.

But things did not develop as smoothly as Chen Kong had imagined.

Because Doctor's research had revealed

that the reason Chen Kong's Mark of the Void could nullify other Star Energy

was that the Mark of the Void was an extremely infectious form of "Attributeless Star Energy."

Any "Star Track" that came into contact with the Mark of the Void, regardless of its original structure,

could have the Star Energy within it fundamentally assimilated by the Mark of the Void, reverting it to its most primitive attributeless state.

Although this assimilation had a certain limit—100 points of Star Energy Value from the Mark of the Void could only assimilate 300 points of Star Energy Value from a Star Track—

the sheer strength and tyranny of the Mark of the Void were still plain for all to see.

As for the relationship between "Star Tracks" and "Star Energy,"

it was similar to the relationship between "spells" and "magic power" in a fantasy world.

Thus, the so-called Mark of the Void could be regarded as a powerful mass of Attributeless Star Energy with terrifying assimilative power.

But that brought forth an unavoidable problem.

Chen Kong's blood could indeed preserve a portion of the Mark of the Void for a short time.

But in the Stellaris World, where Star Energy saturated every corner,

the Mark of the Void did not affect only the Star Tracks unleashed by Star Envoys.

It was also affected by ownerless Star Energy of all attributes floating through the air.

Therefore, although Doctor's research had ultimately found a way for bullets to temporarily carry Chen Kong's Mark of the Void,

there were still three exceptionally harsh conditions.

Condition one: specially made bullet casings. Due to the Mark of the Void's immensely powerful assimilation, only certain rare and specific materials could temporarily avoid being assimilated by it, making them extremely troublesome to produce.

Condition two: Mark of the Void bullets could only be stored for a maximum of ten minutes. Beyond that time, they would turn into ordinary bullets.

Condition three: the effective range of Mark of the Void bullets was at most ten meters. The bullet's high-speed motion accelerated the interaction between the Mark of the Void inside it and the Star Energy outside, vastly increasing the speed of its "assimilation."

And the denser the Star Energy in the surrounding environment, the shorter the effective range of the Mark of the Void bullets became.

Yet even with so many harsh restrictions,

Doctor still gave the function of Mark of the Void bullets a highly positive assessment.

After all, combined with Chen Kong's "low presence" trait,

they could allow him to strike like a thunderbolt from the blue on the battlefield.

Just like in this battle against the Coral Knight.

The Coral Knight had such faith in his own Star Source, Sea Thorn Coral, that if he had not dodged the moment he noticed something wrong with his shield,

then even if Chen Kong's Mark of the Void bullet had not killed him,

he would at the very least have suffered light injuries, if not severe ones.

After all, the more powerful a Star Envoy was, the more likely they were to blindly trust in their own "Star Source."

In that regard, Chen Kong's Mark of the Void was practically the bane of every Star Envoy.

It was a bug-level ability that made it exceptionally easy to defeat the strong with the weak and score a first-meeting kill.

'So the essence of the Mark of the Void is cancer cells among Star Energy! I thought it was some kind of near-law-level ability.'

'Wait a second. Considering the effect of the Mark of the Void, I think I might understand why Chen Kong became Stellaris's protagonist. Do you think he'll eventually nullify all Star Energy in the world by himself for the sake of world peace?'

'Holy shit, we've got a prophet here. Taking a picture in advance!'

'You know what, you might actually be onto something. That really does seem possible!'

'No, if Chen Kong really does that, wouldn't he be making enemies of every Star Envoy in the world? Forget everything else—how would he get past Old Tian? Do you really think our Old Tian would just sit back and let that happen?'

'Hiss, that's true. Why do I suddenly feel like Old Tian's position is a little precarious? He can't be holding the villain's script, can he?'

'Old Tian is the villain? If that's really the case, then I'd rather see Old Tian, the villain, succeed. After all, Old Tian is more charismatic than Old Kong!'

Inside the van, Tiandao looked at the barrage of comments on the Dimensional Screen, and his heart gave a slight jolt.

He had not expected that someone among the Dimensional Audience could basically guess the broad direction of Stellaris's future plot merely from the principles behind Chen Kong's Mark of the Void.

That was right. The future Chen Kong really did develop in that direction.

And just as the audience had guessed, Tiandao really was prepared to stand against Chen Kong.

It was not as though Tiandao intended to oppose Chen Kong just for popularity.

Because even without the Popularity System, Tiandao would not want a world without Star Sources to emerge.

After all, whether there was world peace had never depended on whether Star Sources existed.

As a transmigrator, he had personally seen what a world without Star Sources was like.

He also understood that an overly idealized world could ultimately only remain an "ideal," never become true reality.

Chen Kong wanted to create what he saw as a "dreamlike utopia."

But Tiandao believed that such a utopia had been divorced from reality from the very beginning and simply could not be realized.

Thus, in a sense, the greatest difference between Chen Kong, this protagonist, and the other characters in Stellaris lay in their "struggle over paths."

But none of that had even shown the slightest sign in the current Stellaris Prequel: Embers.

Only after Season 2, Stellaris: Glimmer, began would the conflict between Chen Kong and the other thirty-five Starborn gradually emerge and intensify without end.

"All right, everyone. We're here."

After Coral Knight Wolf drove the vehicle into a detached villa in the Nearshore District of Deep Blue Metropolis,

he immediately stopped the car and informed them that this would be their temporary base for the foreseeable future.

Tiandao was the first to get out, staring in amazement at the lavishly decorated, obviously exorbitantly expensive small villa before him.

"Uncle, don't tell me your richest-man master bought this villa specifically for us to live in?"

Hearing Tiandao's words, Coral Knight Wolf thought for a moment before saying, "Not specifically for you. The entire villa district around here belongs to my master, Dorian. He merely took one of them out."

"Huh?"

Tiandao lowered his sunglasses with one hand, then stared in disbelief at the vast cluster of villas around them.

Other people counted their villas by the house.

This richest man Dorian counted them by the district.

Was this the life of the rich? It was way too enviable!

"All right, everyone. As for my master Dorian's circumstances, once you meet him tonight, he will naturally explain everything to you in full."

"Now, please come with me first."

"After all, if you wish to enter Trillan Junior High, you must first have suitable identities that will not arouse suspicion."

"And no identity is more believable than that of exchange students."

Led by Coral Knight Wolf, Tiandao and the others soon entered the villa before them.

At once, they saw school uniforms held up by rows of maids, along with student identification for exchange students.

Seeing this, Tiandao could not help sighing inwardly.

Long-awaited campus life. It was about to begin again.

PS: As always, please keep reading and send monthly tickets!

Recommended: a friend's book, "Rebirth: The Younger Sister I Raised Can't Speak"