Super Failing Student

On the news playing on the television, a host was reporting on an incident.

In the upper-left corner was a video clip.

"At 9:32 this morning, a pioneering team discovered the wreckage of a suspected alien-civilization aircraft that had recently crashed within an Arena Zone southwest of S City.

It is believed that this aircraft may be connected to the civilization truly operating behind the Arena Zone."

As the host spoke, the footage behind him showed a group of explorers excavating a massive spacecraft wreckage.

Countless staff members surrounded it, taking pictures, collecting materials, and so on.

It appeared to be part of some kind of aircraft, and it was enormous.

A long string of strange symbols seemed to be printed along its side. They looked like broken, intermittent wavy lines.

"Some scientists currently speculate that the symbols on this spacecraft wreckage may be writing from an alien civilization, and they are working intensively to decipher them.

We hope this will allow us to uncover the secrets of the Arena Zone."

The host continued with some encouraging remarks.

But Fu Junlin tilted his head as he watched the television.

"Huh? These symbols seem..."

"Hey! Stop looking!"

Big Black suddenly shouted from inside Fu Junlin's body.

It would have been fine if he had stayed quiet, but the moment he spoke, inspiration flashed through Fu Junlin's mind.

With a swish, he sprang up from the floor, pointed at the television, and gaped!

"Big Black, this can't be your spaceship, can it?!"

Fu Junlin shouted in his mind.

"No, you've got it wrong!"

"No way! Otherwise, there's no way I could understand the words on it!"

Fu Junlin loudly retorted.

That was right. The reason he had connected it to Big Black's spaceship was that he could somehow vaguely understand the meaning of those symbols!

They were the name of the spacecraft.

Maybe Big Black had been fused with him for too long. Fu Junlin had been able to borrow his abilities before, so some of Big Black's thoughts had also become shared with Fu Junlin.

Of course, that was mainly because Big Black shared Fu Junlin's thoughts as well. Once he parasitized him, he needed to access Fu Junlin's mind to understand this world.

Fu Junlin had not completely shared Big Black's mind, but he had at least learned the basic writing system.

Haha! Fu Junlin laughed wildly in his heart. Tilting his head and ignoring Big Black's attempts to stop him, he began sounding out the words on the spaceship.

"Shidetakowa something... biggest failure... one-way exile single-person spacecraft to Rikman Coal-Mining Planet..."

After reading it, Fu Junlin laughed so hard without making a sound that he could not straighten his back, smacking his thighs several times.

If he had not been afraid that people would think he was having some kind of episode, he could have laughed himself unconscious.

Shidetakowa Academy's biggest failure, one-way exile single-person spacecraft to Rikman Coal-Mining Planet.

"Failing student, hahahaha..."

"Exile, hahahaha..."

"Coal-mining planet—pfft, hahahaha..."

Fu Junlin laughed so hard that he sat directly on the floor and hammered the ground, making loud thudding sounds.

Big Black said nothing inside him, only letting out heavy, beastlike breaths. He was nearly mad with anger.

"So this is you, you failing student!"

Fu Junlin teased.

"Even a failing student is better than you, you pathetic rookie from a low-level civilization!!" Big Black snapped.

"Haha, fine, I'll stop. Wait, does that mean you were exiled? So you were originally sent off to be a miner?"

Fu Junlin asked, wiping away tears of laughter.

Humanity had long been mentally prepared for the existence of other civilizations, because the Arena Zone was obviously a product of a higher-dimensional civilization.

"This piece-of-junk spaceship was broken from the start. Halfway through the trip, it got disrupted by a white hole. The navigation went completely haywire, and I veered off by a hundred and eight thousand light-years. I had no idea where I ended up.

So I activated the ship's guidance function, set it toward the nearest planet with a living civilization, and ended up here."

Big Black sighed helplessly.

"Were you really exiled for being too much of a failing student...? Just how bad did you have to be for your civilization to be unable to tolerate you?"

Fu Junlin did not want to laugh, but he truly could not help being curious.

"Do you know what it means to be alive and waste oxygen? In our civilization, oxygen is precious..."

Big Black's voice grew somewhat desolate as he said this.

Being abandoned by an entire civilization was obviously not a pleasant experience.

"It's okay. You still have me. Our oxygen is cheap here—at least, it's still fairly cheap for now."

Fu Junlin pressed his lips together in a smile and looked up at the gloomy sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, filled with Electromagnetic Interference Clouds and heavy-metal pollution.

Only after a long while did Fu Junlin withdraw his gaze.

"Are you done training?"

Qiao Zishu's voice suddenly came from behind him, and Fu Junlin hurriedly got to his feet.

Qiao Zishu was drenched in fragrant sweat as well. The hair on her forehead clung to her skin, and parts of her close-fitting clothes were soaked through with sweat.

It had been a perfectly normal sight, but when Fu Junlin stared at her like that—

Qiao Zishu's face turned a little red.

"Have you seen enough?"

Qiao Zishu asked coldly.

"Enough... Uh, no, I wasn't looking... No, that's not it, I..."

Fu Junlin stammered a few panicked words. Mortified by his own stupidity, he simply covered his face with one hand and shut his mouth.

His behavior nearly made Qiao Zishu laugh again.

"Are we going?"

Qiao Zishu deliberately asked again with a cold expression.

"Yeah."

Fu Junlin took a deep breath before following Qiao Zishu out.

The gym was enormous. Not only did it have many machines, but it also had a huge variety of them. Some areas were dedicated to water-resistance equipment, which was usually frequented by girls.

The two chatted as they headed outside.

Suddenly, a room enclosed by huge floor-to-ceiling glass walls caught Fu Junlin's attention.

Three large characters were written on the door.

Gravity Room!

The equipment in the gravity room was no ordinary fitness equipment. It contained large, advanced simulation machines powered by energy-based simulated applications.

Someone was training inside at the moment. The room was divided into three sections, each of which could hold only one or two people at most.

One person was lying prone on the floor, apparently doing push-ups.

But his arms and legs were visibly trembling violently, as though he was about to be unable to support himself any longer.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans dripped from all over his body, as though he were draining water.

Though no sound could be heard, his mouth was wide open, as if he were shouting.

Even the surrounding air seemed to be shaking violently. Looking closely, the space in that area was slightly warped, rippling like the air above a flame...