Jiang Yue

Sirius Star System, Cloud Mountain Star.

The light of the sun was blotted out.

Jiang Yue raised his head. Through the one-way glass of his helmet, he saw not the sky, but an interstellar fleet packed as densely as a swarm of locusts.

The massive black warships hung silently above the clouds. The blue exhaust from their engines was the only starlight in that stretch of sky.

This was Military Floating Land No. 17, in the outer reaches of Cloud Mountain Star.

"Citizen reserve intake 782 has been mustered."

A cold, mechanical voice echoed across the vast Steel Plaza, harsh and utterly flat.

"Everyone, form ranks. Anyone who makes a disturbance will be executed on the spot for disrupting military discipline."

Along the edge of the plaza stood hundreds of Federation Provost Corps soldiers in powered exoskeleton armor. The Explosive Rifles in their hands gleamed coldly.

Jiang Yue stood in the gray Square Formation, his build somewhat slight.

Even beneath his loose, standard-issue Training Uniform, it was clear he lacked the hulking physique of a beast.

But he stood firm.

At that moment, Jiang Yue looked past the crowd toward the depths of space.

It was the best of times and the worst of times.

To reclaim lost territory in the Great Crusade, the Federation had instituted a wartime rationing system across the board.

Every second, hundreds of frontier planets fell to alien forces and were reduced to scorched earth; every second, countless Federation fleets planted their banners amid the ruins and declared sovereignty.

Before this vast cosmic meat grinder, there were no civilians.

Every adult citizen served the war effort.

"Hah..."

Jiang Yue let out a quiet breath.

This batch of reservists was not being sent straight to the front as cannon fodder. The Federation had only done that centuries ago, when it had run out of soldiers.

The Federation cared more about efficiency now.

Three months.

They had three months of basic training.

If they pushed past the limits of the human body through intensive training in those three months and became Level 1 Martial Artists, they could don Federation power armor and join the respected regular military.

If they failed...

Jiang Yue's eyes narrowed slightly.

Those who failed would be sent elsewhere: to heavy-industry Forge Stars or Mine Pits to work in production.

Nothing wasted. Everyone put to use.

A faint but unmistakable unease rippled through the surrounding Square Formations.

Ahead and to the left, a pale-faced boy trembled uncontrollably. The sound of his teeth chattering was especially clear in the deathly silence. He feared what lay ahead. Military service was an honor, but it was brutal too.

To the right, several burly people who had clearly been well fed were comparatively calm. Beneath their nerves, they even showed a hint of anticipation.

Jiang Yue neither trembled nor burned with zeal.

He simply breathed.

In this chaotic, uncertain age, he was the orphaned son of fallen soldiers, with no one to rely on.

The only thing he could rely on was the translucent panel before him, visible to him alone.

In the corner of his vision, the panel appeared:

[Action: Breathing]

[Status: In progress]

[Current Trait: Smooth Breath (White)]

[Description: Your breathing rhythm is slightly better than average, and your heart and lungs function steadily. Each breath faintly eases tension and slightly improves endurance.]

[Accumulated Progress: Increasing slowly...]

Months earlier, on the day Jiang Yue came of age, he had received both his conscription notice and this panel.

The panel recorded every action. As an action accumulated, it unlocked a [Trait].

Breathing, which he did every moment, had unlocked the [Smooth Breath] trait.

Every action brought a response.

Suddenly—

BOOM!!!

A terrifying sonic boom ripped through the silence above the plaza.

Every recruit instinctively looked up. A black assault craft had stopped dead a hundred meters above the Square Formation, like a meteor frozen in midair.

Its hatch burst open, and a figure leaped straight out without any kind of safety device!

That was a hundred-meter drop! And the Floating Land's gravity had been set to 1.5 times standard gravity!

The steel deck rang with a dull, heavy THUD.

As the dust cleared, a man in a long black Federation-issue coat slowly straightened.

He had only one eye. The socket of the other had been torn by some kind of claw, leaving three vicious scars that ran down to the corner of his mouth.

He carried no weapon, but the instant he stood upright, a suffocating wave of heat swept across the plaza.

Jiang Yue's pupils contracted sharply.

That was the force of his Blood Energy.

So intense it was almost visible, like the heat of a blazing furnace—his Blood Energy!

A Level 3 Martial Artist!

Rumor had it that fighters this powerful could withstand small-caliber autocannon fire with their bare bodies and survive briefly in a vacuum.

"Good afternoon, you soon-to-be-enlisted rookies."

"I think it's obvious none of you have earned the right to be called Sergeant yet. By way of introduction, you can call me One-Eye."

The instructor did not speak loudly, yet his voice seemed to bore straight into everyone's skull, bringing a stab of pain with it.

His lone eye swept coldly over the tens of thousands of recruits. Wherever his gaze passed, no one dared meet it.

Several recruits in the front ranks with weaker nerves buckled beneath the almost tangible pressure of his killing intent. They dropped to their knees and began dry-heaving.

It was an instinctive fear born from the gulf between their levels of life.

Jiang Yue felt it too.

His skin prickled as though pierced by needles, and his heart hammered under the pressure.

But he gritted his teeth and forced himself to adjust his breathing.

Breathe out... breathe in...

The [Smooth Breath] trait took effect. A faint, cool current passed through his lungs, helping him stay on his feet beneath the pressure instead of collapsing like the others.

Instructor One-Eye seemed to notice something. His gaze lingered on Jiang Yue's section for half a second before he gave a cold smile and looked away.

"I don't care where you came from, or how illustrious your family is."

The instructor raised a hand and pointed at the warships blotting out the sky overhead.

"The Federation doesn't support dead weight. In three months, anyone who hasn't met the standard for a Level 1 Martial Artist can get shipped off to a Forge Star to eat furnace ash! Only true Martial Artists deserve to grip a combat blade and take back humanity's territory among the stars!"

There was no encouragement, only the naked law of survival.

"Now, all of you!"

The instructor's voice suddenly rose like a thunderclap:

"Run twenty kilometers around the edge of the Floating Land! Anyone who doesn't finish gets no dinner tonight!"

"Move!!"

As the Supervision Team worked the bolts of their guns, the massive crowd of tens of thousands began running in a ragged stream.

Complaints, panting, and footsteps mingled into a chaotic tide.

Jiang Yue ran with the crowd, neither at the very front nor at the back.

He was looking for a rhythm.

Though long-term malnutrition had left his body somewhat thin, the [Smooth Breath] trait kept his breathing in a strange, steady cadence.

Three steps out, three steps in.

The cold wind cut across his cheeks like a knife.

His heavy military boots struck the frigid steel ground.

One kilometer... three kilometers... five kilometers...

The breathing around him grew harsher. Many had begun to fall behind, their faces flushed and their lungs heaving like bellows.

Fine beads of sweat formed on Jiang Yue's forehead too, and a trace of blood rose in his throat.

But he did not stop. If anything, his eyes grew brighter.

As he ran, he spared a glance at the edge of his vision.

There, as he maintained a steady breathing rhythm despite the exertion, the text that had once crept along at a snail's pace changed.

[Action: Breathing]

[Status: Under heavy load]

[Accumulated Progress: ++]

The progress bar was advancing a little faster than it had while he stood still.

So actions recorded by the panel can accumulate faster...