Dangerous Awakening

(This chapter is free.)

The onlookers were clearly divided into two camps. One of them consisted of the classmates I ran into at school every day, who were currently glaring with anger toward the center of the circle. The other camp was made up of noble students from Canglan Private High School whom we rarely saw around here. Their expressions were far more varied: some wore looks of malicious entertainment, some looked disdainful, and a few looked righteously indignant, though none of them had any intention of stepping forward.

A considerable gap was left between these two groups, allowing me to see what was happening inside without any effort.

First to catch the eye was a haughty-looking young man. Judging by his attire, one could tell his family background was quite extraordinary. At the very least, that suit whose brand I could not even name was not something students around our parts could afford. Behind the young man stood two students who looked to be around his age. Though their clothing was equally upscale, one could tell from the fawning expressions on the faces of the latter that they were little brothers brought along by the rich kid in front. Standing in front of this trio was a boy with shifting eyes. I vaguely remembered that he was a second-year student from our school, and I decided to name him Sauce Bro.

Clearly, this was a classic case of bullying the weak with power.

Such incidents were not common, at least not since I had come to this school. Even though an infamous noble academy stood right across from us, their school motto was notoriously strict, and these wealthy scions were not as overbearing as ordinary people imagined. For these children of prominent families, good upbringing was an indispensable part of them. But no matter where one went, scum always existed, and the Young Master before me who had brought his little brothers out to bully the weak was a typical piece of scum.

Regardless of whether this rich kid would face punishment from his school authorities after returning, for now, the boy standing before him was in for a bad time today.

The surrounding crowd discussed the matter in whispers, but not a single person stepped forward. The boy trapped in the middle obviously anticipated this long ago; he merely shrank his neck and quietly waited for the other party to finish venting and leave.

Most of the students on our side did not dare to provoke the wrath of the opposite party. This was not a matter of cowardice; the others were all people of extraordinary wealth and nobility. To them, making ordinary students like us vanish from the school took no effort at all. Meanwhile, although some people among the opposing group held the Young Master's behavior in utter contempt, they had no intention of stirring up trouble for the sake of an ordinary student. After all, regardless of everything else, that arrogant youth was still a member of their circle.

I never expected to run into such an irritating matter bright and early in the morning.

"A Jun," Qian Qian gently tugged at my clothes and whispered, "Let's go. Don't cause trouble."

I gritted my teeth, but still nodded and prepared to leave.

One could guess the events that would unfold next without needing to be told. Any random, groundless excuse would suffice to stage a one-sided beating or humiliation, and then that haughty-looking youth would derive distorted pleasure from the process. As for the unlucky boy from our school—comrade Sauce Bro—who would ever help him?

It was not that I lacked compassion, nor that I was devoid of a sense of justice, but as an utterly ordinary student, I was truly powerless when facing such a situation. Moreover, if I blindly stood out at a time like this, not only would it accomplish nothing, but it might even implicate my sister. Those weighty bigwigs could cause the household that my sister and I barely managed to prop up to collapse with just a casual flick of their fingers.

Yet... I really felt so unreconciled.

Before leaving the crowd, I turned my head once more and glared at the rich kid. The latter was currently swearing uninhibitedly at the cowering boy before him, occasionally glancing back as if flaunting his prestige.

"Scum," I said under my breath, "I really want to beat him up."

Little did anyone know that at this exact same time, the star above our heads underwent a tiny solar wind eruption, causing certain information belonging to this planet to undergo a moderate change. My thoughts in that single instant were amplified countless times and then received by a zero-lag communication system from some distant world.

It felt as though something clicked. Of course, I did not actually hear any sound; it was merely an impression, a feeling that something had been unlocked.

A wave of dizziness struck without warning. The scene of the gray, desolate metal world that I always dreamed of every night suddenly flashed across my mind, and then a slightly mechanical female voice sounded in my heart.

"Receiving external instruction set... Authorization confirmed... Fuzzy command analysis... Executing... Target confirmed, invoking Zenith Remote Space Strike System, preparing tentative strike... Begin!"

As the voice in my mind faded, a half-translucent column of energy as thick as an arm and resembling flowing water descended from the sky, finally disappearing silently at the feet of the rich kid in the center of the crowd.

Yet no one seemed to notice that beam of light. Everyone's attention was focused on the few individuals in the middle, to the extent that the near-transparent "pillar" was ignored. Ordinarily, I shouldn't have been able to spot something so covert, but for some reason, I clearly saw the trajectory of this "flowing water."

Then, I discovered that where the "water" vanished, the ground—originally paved with decorative cobblestones—now held a small, dark red hole. Surrounding the small hole, melted earth slowly flowed into the aperture created by the vaporization of the ground.

Astonishing destructive power!

My brain crashed within three seconds. The anomaly before me—which was in all likelihood triggered by myself—left me at a complete loss.

What on earth was going on here? A supernatural phenomenon? A ghostly haunting? Was an Ultraman passing by practicing his shooting? Or had I suddenly acquired superpowers?

Every single explanation was so hard to believe, but the sight before my eyes forced me to doubt whether I had run into something quite dramatic.

Perhaps it was merely an illusion, I thought to myself, but the events that followed confirmed that the scene before me was as real as it could get.

The overbearing youth suddenly took a step forward, seemingly intending to take matters into his own hands. But the moment he lifted his foot, he stepped squarely onto that tiny patch of magma-covered ground.

A few seconds later, a pig-slaughtering scream erupted abruptly.

Cloth was naturally a highly flammable material, and the ground thoroughly melted by mysterious energy far exceeded the ignition point of fabric. Before long, the young man's trousers caught fire. He frantically patted at the flames on his cuffs, but that seemingly very expensive pair of trousers apparently proved far too suitable as fuel. With his patting, not only did the fire fail to diminish in the slightest, but it grew increasingly fierce. The surrounding people finally reacted at that moment, successively grabbing whatever drinks, clothing, or half-bricks they had at hand and rushing forward to help extinguish the fire.

Right now, however, I had no energy to spare for the chaotic scene before me.

The voice that followed closely in my mind left me panicked and flustered.

"Tentative strike complete... Recalculating parameters... Calculation complete, switching to formal strike mode... Main weapon array beginning to charge... Auxiliary weapon array beginning to charge... Ready, all combat units fire at will in ten seconds... Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

Regardless of what was actually going on, only one thing was certain: I had awakened something rather dangerous. Whether that was a wild Ultraman from M7 or Megatron passing by Earth to buy soy sauce, everyone here would theoretically be wiped out by that kind of energy beam before long.

Judging by the fact that the previous "tentative strike" was sufficient to melt a small patch of ground into magma, the full-scale free-fire attack arriving in ten seconds would undoubtedly kill every single person here.

Damn it, doesn't this thing have a pause button?! I shouted internally. But no matter how hard I tried, that strange state from moments ago refused to appear again, and the countdown continued unhurriedly.

"A Jun, what's wrong with you? Why is your complexion so bad?" Qian Qian noticed the abnormality in the person beside her and asked immediately with concern, but I had no time to answer.

Damn it! Damn it! What on earth was that thing! Why wasn't it listening to me now!

"Six, five..."

Cold sweat began to stream down my face.

"Four, three..."

"Qian Qian!" I shouted abruptly, then grabbed her and bolted toward the outer perimeter—even though I knew our speed made it hard indeed to escape the impending full-scale attack.

No matter what, I could not let Qian Qian come to harm because of me!

"A Jun, what..." The girl was startled by my sudden movement and cried out involuntarily.

"Two, one..."

Bastard! I don't care what on earth you are! Stop right now!

Amidst my rapid sprint, a tiny slip of paper suddenly appeared before my eyes. Before I could even make out the string of numbers written on it, I felt a sharp pain in my forehead, and then... there was no more then.

Qian Qian's panicked cries drifted over vaguely.

"Severe system error, external instruction set abnormal, highest authorization permission lost... Zenith Remote Space Strike System halting operation..."

Damn it, Old Chinese Medicine Practitioners's GG was already posted up at the school gates.

This was my final thought before I collided with a utility pole and passed out completely.