Mind Armor

Graduation season, breakup season.

Bitter liquor burned down his throat, making his heart ache. Tears streaming down his face, Du Ke thought back on the four years of college youth he had squandered. There was regret, there was resentment, but more than anything, there was contempt for himself.

His ex-girlfriend's resolute expression had thoroughly awakened him. Once he left the ivory tower of university, brutal reality would come crashing down on him.

Yet when he recalled all those moments from the past, he could not stop the tears from flowing again. He slumped onto the floor of his rented apartment and raked his hands through his hair.

"Funny, isn't it? I'm finally going to grow old alone. I've become the man you hated..." The Douyin app on his phone kept looping a certain BGM.

Just like his mood at that moment.

A moment later.

He turned off his phone and exhaled a breath reeking of alcohol.

Du Ke reached up to wipe the tears from his face, then hurled the empty beer can hard against the wall. He cursed out the real reason that had made him cry: "This fucking beer tastes awful!"

He walked over to the window, wanting to breathe some fresh air.

It was not dark outside yet. The old residential complex lay bathed in the lingering glow of dusk. Du Ke badly wanted to throw his head back and yell "Ah!" to ease his mood, but he did not. He merely raised his head and looked at the distant sky, wondering what he should do from now on and how he could start over.

Suddenly.

A beam of light descended from the sky and struck Du Ke dead on.

Smack!

The light slammed into his body, and his eyes rolled back as he passed out.

It was a very, very long dream.

In the dream, a strange civilization flashed past like scenes from a movie. Everything in that civilization was transparent and ethereal, including the "humans" of that world, who were little more than illusory silhouettes. They gathered together, their phantom lights blending into one another like a wondrous ocean.

"The tides of the Ocean of Mind are surging fiercely, but we do not have much time left." An illusory figure looked up at the sky and murmured.

"The Mind Armor is being forged. We will successfully evade this natural disaster."

"Let us hope so."

Then the scene rushed forward. An illusory figure brought over a cluster of wondrous light. "The first Mind Armor has been forged. We have successfully found the balance point between mind and matter. Lord Saint Hall, we can proceed with the Mind Shelter Plan!"

Caressing the wondrous cluster of light, the illusory figure known as Lord Saint Hall looked toward the sky again. "Too late. Too late. There is no time left for us to prepare."

A brilliant radiance rose on the horizon. As it shone upon the ocean of civilization, all things formed from illusory light and shadow began to break apart.

"Lord Saint Hall, put on the Mind Armor and flee with the legacy of our Mind God Race!" an illusory figure proposed, drawing agreement from the others.

But Lord Saint Hall merely shook his head. He actually threw the wondrous cluster of light in his hand into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, the cluster vanished beyond the horizon, disappearing just before the radiance reached them. The next moment, the light from the horizon finally shone over them.

The illusory figures began to disintegrate, terror appearing on every face.

Only Lord Saint Hall faced it calmly and spoke softly. "A Saint Hall that abandons the Ocean of Mind to escape alone is no Saint Hall at all. Let the Mind Armor find its own inheritor."

Boom!

Everything.

Melted beneath the searing radiance.

"Hah!"

Du Ke scrambled up from the floor and saw that the clock on the wall pointed to midnight. His head buzzed. Then something suddenly occurred to him, making him jolt as he hurriedly climbed to his feet and ran to the mirror. Looking at his somewhat dull-looking reflection, he asked, "Mind Armor... was it real?"

A protective suit forged by the Mind God Race, a civilization beyond the ordinary. It could withstand powerful natural disasters, a miraculous protective device that existed between matter and spirit.

Once he thought of the Mind Armor, another image appeared in his mind.

A gentle mass of energy was wrapping around him. It had no form or substance, impossible to touch or see, yet it clearly existed. With a single thought, that energy could transform into armor and equip him.

"A dream?"

"A hallucination?"

"Or was it real?"

Du Ke raised his left hand, focused his gaze, and willed himself to imagine an Iron Man glove.

In an instant, a red-and-gold mechanical glove appeared over his left hand. Its appearance was nearly identical to the Mark 85 Nano Armor 2.0, Iron Man's final suit in Avengers: Endgame, and it was one of the few Iron Man suits Du Ke had actually studied.

"This is incredible!"

Du Ke was stunned. At that moment, his heart was overflowing with excitement, as though he had been hit by a five-million-yuan jackpot. No, it was even more thrilling than winning five million twice over.

At that instant.

All he wanted was to throw back his head and roar, "To hell with love! I, Du Ke, am back at full health!"

After cursing, he suddenly slumped weakly back onto the edge of the bed. Only after a long while did he forcefully raise his head and decisively bid farewell to yesterday. Having obtained the extraordinary treasure researched by the Mind God Race, the Mind Armor, he decided to make good use of it and begin a brand-new life.

He moved his left hand, and the mechanical glove moved with it.

But Du Ke quickly discovered a problem. Iron Man's armor came equipped with all sorts of high-tech weapons, from palm repulsor cannons to special nanoparticle shields. Yet he could not use any of them. On closer inspection, the glove was just an empty shell.

Its structure was similar to that of a large collectible figure. It looked flashy, but it was really just steel with a coat of paint.

"Why is my Iron Man armor different from the one in the movies?" He looked at the glove on his hand and swiftly summoned his thoughts, beginning to imagine a full set of Mark 85 armor.

In an instant, the armor wrapped around him.

Yet just like the glove, his Mark 85 armor was only an empty shell. There was no high technology inside. He could not fly, could not fire lasers, and even walking was difficult—its joints could barely move.

"Why?!"

"What is going on?!"

"Wasn't this supposed to be the powerful Mind Armor forged by an extraordinary civilization?!"

"Can I only create some metal shells?" Du Ke's mind was still racing. With a thought, he conjured Frostmourne. "It's cool, very cool, but... I never planned to carry Frostmourne around all day while doing things. What, am I supposed to go to cosplay events?"

Just then, a sharp pain struck his head.

A flood of information surged into his mind. When he came to, clutching his head, he immediately understood the information about the Mind Armor. It was not that the Mind Armor was not powerful enough. Du Ke simply was not powerful enough.

As its name suggested, the Mind Armor was powered by Mind Power, and that Mind Power came from Du Ke himself.

"Knowledge!"

"Knowledge is power!"

"As long as I master every piece of Iron Man technology from the movies, I can make the Mind Armor manifest a real Mark 85 suit!"

"And obviously, I don't have enough knowledge yet. I can't unleash the Mind Armor's true power. My Mind Power is even too weak to receive much of the Mind God Race's information stored within the Mind Armor... I can only keep cultivating Mind Power and acquiring knowledge to strengthen the Mind Armor!"

He took a deep breath.

At present, Du Ke could only obtain two pieces of legacy information. Yet those two pieces of information reignited the blazing fire in his heart: "Cultivation... coordinates..."