Prelude to the 120 Storm

Li Aoz nodded.

He had never heard of that name before.

White Candle Star doesn't have any famous main storylines or quests, Li Aoz only skimmed through the Walkthrough, so how could he remember them so clearly?

Unless he raises his Intelligence to 500 points and acquires the Mind Mapping specialization, it would be possible to extract and review all of his memories from birth.

But 500 points of Intelligence? Do they really think the Machine World Society is just sitting around doing nothing?!

With such high intelligence, without corresponding mental protection, Li Aoz probably wouldn't be able to hold on for long before he had to give up.

After saying goodbye to Mordot and the others, Li Aoz quickly slipped away, leaving Sylvia watching Li Aoz retreating figure, biting her lower lip, and looking at Mordot with a puzzled expression:

"Minister--"

Slap! In full view of everyone, Mordot slapped Sylvia across the face and scolded her:

"Can't you remember what I told you? Don't mention the armor, don't mention the armor! Are you out of your mind?!"

Sylvia was knocked to the ground, her mask cracked, and chaotic elements eroded her face, causing a stinging and burning sensation. Her already slightly red eyes became even redder, and tears kept welling up in her eyes.

"Can--"

"But what?"

Sylvia said, feeling extremely wronged:

"But Minister, that guy looks suspicious no matter how you look at him. If he came here to find Senior Melo, anyone with eyes would know to keep their distance after seeing this scene. Instead, he went further in and got trapped in our cordon. It just doesn't make sense—"

"Then what?"

Mordot said coldly, "You only came up with that word?"

"Reproduction..."

"Stop saying that!" Mordot said with concern. "Look at the other senior students! How much harm you cause them when you utter that word!"

Sylvia was taken aback, then looked at the others—sure enough, every senior student looked rather grim.

"The Crescent Moon and the Implant Equipment Vanguard are a painful memory for our generation, a lingering psychological shadow. Many students don't even know if they've been influenced by the Crescent Moon's genes—to say a newcomer is armored is simply reopening old wounds."

Mordot sighed, "I'm doing this for your own good... Don't mention this again. It's a good thing you're here with me, otherwise, if Guild Leader Koreina found out..."

Sylvia tensed up. "What will happen?"

"... Guild Leader Koreina is a veteran who came back for further training." Mordot looked at Sylvia and said with pity, "She killed 16 Night Butterfly People on the battlefield and was an extremely outstanding combat hero. Her comrades who came back with her died in the attack of Crescent Moon."

"Now, she won't allow anyone to mention this scar."

"You can choose not to heed my advice, but the consequences... are yours to bear."

Mordot patted her on the shoulder and sighed.

Glug...

Sylvia stood up shakily, head bowed, presumably she wouldn't dare say anything more from now on.

Mordot turned around and looked at Li Aoz's departing figure.

"Deducting 121 Credits in a week is just outrageous no matter how you look at it."

Mordot touched his neck.

Is this kid a little slow on the uptake? Mordot pondered.

—And he even said that his head wasn't actually human? "Interesting kid."

Mordot smiled.

From a biological frequency perspective, that guy is indeed only at the Gamma-rank, but... there are different levels within the Gamma-rank.

Even a few Gamma-rank mortals can cause trouble for the Zeta-rank, such as manipulating public opinion, secretly poisoning, and framing others.

Whether it was Lioz who did it or not is no longer important. What's important now is whether Lioz is even a 'person'? Introducing him to Wendy might be a very good option.

Just then, the testing box suddenly made a sound, transmitting information data to Mordot. He opened it to check and his expression changed drastically.

"The Source Matter content exceeds 0.618%, this is... a [social] citizen!"

Now, both Lioz and the armored vehicle became insignificant.

Mordot's first reaction was to immediately notify the Student Union and report to the Ministry of Education and the military that Social Citizen had infiltrated the school.

But he immediately realized his mistake and stopped his impulse.

No, we can't do that.

The emergence of citizens in society will cause panic throughout the entire civilization, requiring clandestine communication to maintain control.

With the army suffering defeats on the front lines, they have no time to worry about the problem of "society" intrusion in the rear. They might even send troops to take over schools and carry out "purification" operations, or simply not enter the schools at all and instead conduct precision bombing from orbit.

The military does this all the time.

The Crystal Tower Civilization has extensive experience in fighting against societies. If they discover a [society] invasion at the outset, they will decisively take such drastic measures to nip the threat in the bud. The members of the civilization will gladly accept this action—no one wants the entire civilization to fall together in the end.

But this is a school, after all! So many students are innocent.

"We can't worry about Lioz now, we need to quickly convene a meeting with the Student Union council leaders."

He carefully put away the test results, and without even bothering with disaster relief, he quickly ran away from the scene.

The Enforcement Team team didn't know why Mordot was in such a hurry, but they were somewhat aware that there might be some minor changes this school year.

"Although I'm very intelligent, in the end, it still comes down to charm!"

Li Aoz returned to the dormitory without incident. That evening, the school distributed anti-radiation medication to everyone, and Li Aoz pretended to take it.

After filling the tub with hot water, Li Aoz removed his bio-engineered head and lay down comfortably inside. "Ah—a bath after a fight feels so good. Today is a good day. I got the Saint Core, discovered traces of the [Machine World Society], and even the potion is almost in my hands. What a fruitful day!"

However, Li Aoz did not let his guard down.

Sylvia, a member of the Enforcement Team, has a remarkably keen sense of perception. Li Aoz suspected that she had a talent or expertise in psychic abilities, and she managed to detect something was off about Li Aoz.

As for that man named Mordot, he most likely saw through his armor.

The timing of his interruption of Sylvia was too perfect... it was as if he had come specifically to stop the check on her cloned identity.

"It seems that White Candle Star's hatred for armored vehicles has a long history... I overlooked that."

Despite saying that, Li Aoz didn't care about the risk of his physical body being exposed.

A week ago, when he first enrolled, he might have been a little nervous, but after a week of memory exploration, he is now quite at ease.

Based on the intelligence he uncovered, his immediate task was to obtain a Sequence Aura.

"Sequence Fifty-Six: [Crescent Moon]".