Star City Academy.
It was night, with a bright moon and sparse stars.
By the lake in front of the dormitory building, Mu Qing sat beneath a willow tree with her knees drawn up, her lips lightly touching a harmonica as she played quietly.
A breeze brushed across her cheeks, lifting several strands of her dark hair.
As she played, Mu Qing's pupils turned vertical, and the Rune Crystal embedded in her arm began to glow.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to suppress the turmoil in her heart, but scenes from the past kept surfacing uncontrollably in her mind, making it harder and harder for her to restrain herself.
Her eyes gradually turned scarlet, and two small fangs showed at the corners of her mouth.
Struggling to endure the palpitations in her heart, Mu Qing's face twisted in pain as she curled up and began to tremble.
She was once again on the verge of losing control.
Just then, Feng Qi arrived as promised and appeared nearby.
Noticing that something seemed wrong with Mu Qing, he immediately stepped forward and came to her side.
"Senior, what's wrong?"
As he spoke, he placed a hand on Mu Qing's shoulder. In an instant, a powerful suction force came from her body.
Because Mu Qing's mind was in extreme turmoil, the Nightmare ability he had just acquired activated automatically. Countless fragmented memories then surfaced in his mind.
A little girl appeared in the image. She looked to be around seven or eight years old, and it was clear that she was Mu Qing. She lay sprawled beside a wooden bed, tears streaming endlessly down her face.
On the bed lay a bloated man whose entire body had turned black. He reached out and grasped the little girl's hand, speaking with difficulty.
"Don't blame us. We had no choice either. From now on, you'll have to walk alone. I'm sorry. I have to go find your mother first... You need to learn how to take care of yourself and live on bravely."
Watching the girl continue to cry, the man began coughing violently. Black blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Then, with difficulty, he picked up the harmonica beside him and handed it to her.
"This is the only thing your mother and I can leave you..."
"Mu Mu, don't be afraid. Once you've eaten your fill, you'll have the strength to stand up."
The images in his mind flickered and jumped.
When the picture became clear again, the little girl stood timidly in the lobby of the Star City Civil Affairs Bureau, clutching several documents as she waited silently.
"Number 024, please proceed to Window 3!" The electronic announcement echoed through the Civil Affairs Bureau lobby.
Hearing this, the little girl immediately trotted to the window and climbed onto a chair with some difficulty.
The staff member behind the window was clearly surprised to see that a little girl had come to handle business.
"Little girl, what can I do for you?"
"I'm here to apply for an Orphan Certificate," the little girl said, pursing her lips.
Seeing the surprise on the staff member's face, the little girl took out, one after another, the death certificates of her father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, maternal grandfather, and maternal grandmother. Then she said,
"I just went to get my father's death certificate. Now I don't have any relatives left. I need to be sent to an orphanage, so I came to apply for my own Orphan Certificate."
The scene in his mind left Feng Qi stunned.
He couldn't imagine how Mu Qing had endured that dark period of her life.
He suddenly felt deeply sorry for this strong girl.
"Once I get the Orphan Certificate, I'll count as an adult and be able to take care of myself, right?" the little girl asked the staff member timidly.
Hearing this, Feng Qi felt a jumble of emotions.
Resources in Star City were relatively abundant, but they were still limited. When a child lost all relatives and had no cash savings, they lost the opportunity to receive an education and were sent to an orphanage to be raised by the state.
Once they turned thirteen, they had to fend for themselves. Their eventual path was generally to become one of Star City's lowest-class residents, doing the hardest and most exhausting jobs.
The reason he had been able to receive an education was because his parents had left him an inheritance, so he didn't need to struggle just to survive.
But orphans with no cash savings were completely different. Once they received an Orphan Certificate, the rest of their lives could already be seen at a glance.
Faced with little Mu Qing's question, the staff member opened their mouth, then forced a smile to comfort her.
"Mm, once you get the Orphan Certificate, you're an adult."
The images in his mind began flickering and jumping again. The scene changed, and a tall woman in a black uniform appeared beside little Mu Qing. She bent down and whispered into Mu Qing's ear.
"The blood of those people flows through your veins. That was the result of our experiment, so you need to come back with me and complete the remaining experiments."
As she spoke, she took Mu Qing's little hand and led her away step by step.
At that moment, Feng Qi could feel Mu Qing's resistance and struggle.
The image abruptly cut off, and then pain shot through his chest. His body flew straight backward several meters before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Coming back to his senses, Feng Qi hurriedly got up and barely dodged Mu Qing's heavy punch coming straight at him.
Boom! A crater was smashed into the ground.
"Senior!" he shouted hurriedly.
Hearing Feng Qi's shout, a conflicted expression appeared on Mu Qing's face. After standing still for a moment, she took a deep breath, and the scarlet glow in her pupils slowly faded.
"I'm sorry," Mu Qing said helplessly after regaining control, not even daring to look at him.
During her time at the academy, Feng Qi was the only student who had wanted to be friends with her.
But she knew that he would soon be like the other students at the academy, avoiding her and even discriminating against her.
"I'm fine. Now, shouldn't you teach me how to play the harmonica?" Feng Qi grinned, utterly unconcerned.
Hearing this, Mu Qing raised her head in disbelief.
"You... aren't you afraid that I'll lose control again?"
Glancing at the crater on the ground, he forced himself to act tough.
"Not at all. Do I look that weak? That punch was decent, but it didn't hurt much."
Mu Qing: ...
Looking at Mu Qing's complicated expression, he smiled and said,
"Senior, you don't seem to be in very good shape today. Go back and get some proper rest. We'll save the harmonica lesson for next time. Oh, and remember, breakfast together tomorrow." Feng Qi grinned.
Mu Qing opened her mouth after hearing this. In the end, she nodded with a complicated expression.
"Okay."
After Mu Qing had walked away, Feng Qi rubbed his chest and hissed. At last, he could no longer keep up the act.
The force of Mu Qing's punch was comparable to that of a prehistoric beast. It had nearly knocked his soul out of his body when it hit his chest.
If his body hadn't undergone several enhancements in Future Dreamland, that punch would have put him in the emergency room.
Lifting his clothes, he found that his chest was indeed covered in bruises.
But amazingly, those bruises were fading at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This didn't surprise him, because his Prefix Title in the dream had changed from Weak to Strong, and one of the abilities granted by Strong was accelerated self-recovery.
After lingering there for a while, he turned and headed toward the dormitory building.
Thinking of the scenes he had seen in Mu Qing's fragmented memories, a fierce glint appeared in his eyes.
Now, he desperately wanted to know who that woman in black was.
Mu Qing's transformation into a Rune Modifier might have been because that woman in black had used her as an experimental subject.
He even suspected that the deaths of Mu Qing's parents might have been caused by some kind of evil human experiment.
He felt that he had taken another step closer to the truth.
Behind all of this, there might be countless connections to the Scarlet Institute.
Before you continue