The colossal beast crouched upon the asteroid had awakened. It raised its long, elegant neck and slowly opened its eyes. There were no distinct pupils in its eye sockets, only a seamless whole, like two undying stars. Starlight glided over its black scales, turning them into a brilliant river of stars that flowed through its magnificent body.
It raised its upper body and spread its sky-spanning wings, standing proudly amid the surrounding stars.
It had every right to be so proud. Just those gorgeous dragon scales alone could shrug off the combined fire of an entire fleet. Even a Titan's main guns would struggle to penetrate its defenses.
Before such a behemoth, Yu Lian, piloting a heraldry mech and carrying a photon spear and a Dawn Sword, was as tiny as an ant—no, a bacterium... But if he was a bacterium, shouldn't it have ignored him completely? Yet it was still staring at him, motionless.
It seemed to let out a mocking laugh, though sound couldn't travel through space.
And yet Yu Lian could somehow feel its derision, and its undisguised contempt.
It opened its mouth with nonchalant ease. Gamma rays gathered at speed, their tremendous power enough to turn the surface of an entire Earth-like planet into crystal.
Yu Lian knew there was no way to dodge, and no way to stop it. All he could do was wait for death.
Getting blasted to death by planet-killing gamma rays would be a pretty spectacular finale for a transmigrator, wouldn't it?
"This stage is still too much for you."
Through the haze, someone seemed to be speaking to him.
"Come find me," the voice said.
Why should I find you? I don't hate psychics, but you mystical types are the ones I can't stand!
Hopeless, deluded idealists!
Yu Lian wanted to laugh, so he did. And just like that, the Star Dragon King that blotted out the galaxy, the gamma rays capable of destroying worlds, the mystic voice, and the indistinct figure beyond the endless void all disappeared.
His laughter turned into a violent coughing fit. He woke up coughing, and the first thing he saw was a ceiling light glowing a soothing blue.
"An unfamiliar ceiling... Well, actually, I do know this one."
This was Outpost 12 of the New Jade Gate planetary ground defense force, more than a hundred kilometers from the colonial capital of Tulong Harbor. Its main duties were to ensure the governor's office could monitor the wilderness and to protect the surrounding plantations and mines. That was the theory, anyway.
This colony had only been developed recently. The total population of citizens from the Commonwealth and the other nations of the Galaxy was still under 700,000, and a full 650,000 of them lived in Tulong City. That gave you an idea of how vast and sparsely populated the wilderness was. And you could imagine what kind of people would dare set up plantations and mines in a place like this. Calling them armed mobs was putting it mildly; they might even be better equipped than the defense force's riffraff.
Besides, the native Sandfolk were, on the whole, fairly docile, and were quite willing to work on farms and in mines run by Earthlings. A few of the more rebellious ones had turned to banditry, but they weren't considered a serious threat.
At least, that was what the Commonwealth's central government and the governor's office had believed for decades.
As for me... Yu Lian felt a little dazed as his memories grew clearer. For a while, he couldn't tell whether the future adventurer Yu Lian had taken over the body of the military academy student Yu Lian, or whether the student Yu Lian had gained the future adventurer's memories.
He slowly sat up and saw the mirror on the wall—and "his" face in it. It was a young, handsome, refined face, one that could have gone straight into show business without looking out of place. It was about half as handsome as he'd been in his previous previous life.
That was good. It would help the observers beyond the great universe relate to him.
Still, he looked a little younger than his actual age, like a rookie who'd never been beaten down by society.
His features and build were also on the delicate side, though thankfully not feminine. Maybe because he didn't have bangs. Of course, boys like this could easily come off as girly if they were soft in personality, but if he was a man through and through, maybe with enough effort he could still pull off the white horse, silver spear, handsome young lord look.
All in all, compared with the pirate face he'd had in his previous life, this one looked much more like a protagonist's.
All right. Starting today, I'm Yu Lian. I'm just Yu Lian, born on September 17, 808 in the Galactic Commonwealth calendar, and raised in an inland city on Earth, the capital of the Blue Star Commonwealth. My parents died young, but left me a little inheritance. My aunt and uncle, who raised me, were good people and treated me like their own. My younger brother and sister were both adorable, too.
I'd been the kind of kid other people's parents pointed to as an example, but I'd grown up in a restaurant on a food street. I couldn't get recommendations from any big shots, much less build an impressive résumé through fancy internships. So I had no chance of getting a scholarship to a prestigious university. But the high tuition at a top school was more than an ordinary family could easily afford. To enroll, I'd either have to sell the property my parents had left me or take on a crushing student loan.
My aunt and uncle had wanted to offer up their savings, but I'd refused. I was an adult, after all. I had to take responsibility for my own future. Besides, my younger brother and sister would need money someday, too.
So, was I ready to spend the rest of my life paying off student loans? Sell the house? Or skip university and get a job?
In the end, Yu Lian chose none of those options. Then, at the urging of the martial arts school owner's daughter across the street from the restaurant—the pretty childhood friend a little older than him—he applied to Central Defense University with her. They both got in, giving the legend of "other people's kids" yet another dazzling chapter.
The military academy was free, as long as you were willing to serve in the military after graduation.
And now, the year he was about to graduate had arrived.
As future pillars of the Commonwealth's armed forces, graduating students were required to spend some time interning in various military departments. It gave them material for their theses and helped them get up to speed. The Lunar Military Academy had kept up this tradition for a long time, and it was a good one.
But sending a top student from the elite Strategic Studies Department of a prestigious academy to a tiny outpost in the colonial defense force was a little hard to understand.
Well, apparently this kid... er, me, had been a bit too stubborn. He was sworn enemies with the "Blue Blood Brotherhood," the traditional campus bully organization that had ruled the Lunar Military Academy for decades. And it seemed he'd gotten on the school's bad side by standing up for a few classmates who'd been unfairly punished. He'd even mouthed off to the principal and the head of the instructors' department to their faces?
Huh. Nice work! Not very smart, though. Guess he was still young!
The adventurer Yu Lian praised the student Yu Lian, then abruptly realized this wasn't the time to think about that.
The major incident that would set everything else in motion—the siege of Tulong Harbor by an army of a million Sandfolk. The defense force headquarters' order to send reinforcements. And the situation of Senior Eleanor, who was still in the city... Well, if events followed history, Senior Eleanor would be fine and even make a name for herself. But she'd looked after him since their student days, so of course he was worried.
After all, Ina's team had been attacked, hadn't they? The butterfly effect had already begun. The "history" he remembered from his previous life could no longer be trusted.
Also, just like in his previous life, he was still a psychic-sensitive—in other words, a hopeless, deluded idealist.
...And more importantly, before he'd passed out, he'd said this was a trap!
"Idiots! Defense force riffraff are still riffraff! Was I not clear enough?" Yu Lian grumbled as he climbed out of bed.
He now recognized that he was in the outpost's infirmary. The wound near his lumbar spine had been treated again, and whoever had done it was clearly much better at their job than Nurse Belinda, who was mediocre in every respect. For the first time since being reborn, he could feel the body below his waist, though it still felt a little strange. The nanomachines seemed to be working, but they couldn't fully replace the function of natural nerves. Still, he could walk, run, and even fight normally.
He climbed down using the bed rail, but stumbled. The movement seemed to make quite a racket. The infirmary door opened, and a technical sergeant in his thirties hurried in with Miss Belinda.
"It's all right. Walking around will help your body adjust to the nanomachines faster. Just be careful." The male technical sergeant had a scholarly air and a kind smile. He looked like he'd make a good doctor.
He was Staff Sergeant Banks Shazabi, the official physician at Outpost 12.
"You're recovering very well... Mm, you really do have the constitution of a sensitive! And you can eat now, too. Youyou brought us... Ensign, Ensign?"
Yu Lian knew it was rude, but he ran straight past the doctor, charging "thump, thump, thump" into the mess hall, where the smell of food mingled with the chatter of a crowd.
About a dozen people were sitting in the mess hall, including everyone Yu Lian knew well. Lieutenant Monderson and Baka sat at one table, wolfing down food from their trays. Ina sat by herself at another. Her empty tray held two extinguished cigarette butts, and two empty bottles of liquor sat beside it.
Everyone stared at Yu Lian as he strode in, looking a little dazed. He hardly seemed to have come for a meal. He looked more like he'd come to flip the tables.
Lieutenant Monderson stood up and managed a smile, then clapped his hands. "Ha! Our Moon-man's here!"
The bear-like sergeant smiled affably and stood up to clap. Everyone else joined in, and some even cheered.
Yu Lian remembered that when he'd first arrived to take up his post, they'd held a similar ceremony. Everyone had gathered to clap and welcome him, but it had felt like a routine formality. This time, though, they were clearly sincere.
"Ensign, how would you like your steak cooked?" Youyou leaned out from behind the kitchen counter. Her face was dark, rough, and broad, and her grin wasn't much better, but it showed a row of bright white teeth.
Ina, meanwhile, naturally patted the chair beside her and pointed to another tray piled high with beans, stew, cake, and pasta with meat sauce.
Yu Lian was a little touched. Humans were social animals, and being accepted and respected went a long way toward satisfying the heart. On any other day, he'd have thoroughly enjoyed all this.
But...
"Eat, eat, eat! What the hell are you eating for?" Yu Lian rushed over, swallowed the cake in one bite, then darted up to the lieutenant.
"Where's everyone else?"
"...Asleep."
"Asleep, my ass! Get them all up, right now! Grab your weapons and get on the wall!"
Before you continue