Holographic Strategy

"We'll stop here for this morning. Class dismissed."

The teacher closed his book and left the podium, bringing the morning's lesson to an end.

Only after he had left the classroom did the students collapse onto their desks in relief.

"Oh my god, is this what the Label Development Department is like? Eight a.m. classes, six days a week!" one student wailed.

"I can't take it. Class burned through too many of my brain cells. I need food..." another said wearily, clutching his stomach.

"Forget it. While you're sitting here complaining, the upperclassmen have already cleared out everything edible in the cafeteria."

The last student gave up, pulled a flavorless Suck-Suck Jelly from his pocket, and began eating it.

Watching from the back row, Mo Bai couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth.

Good thing he was the only person in this world with cursed energy.

If cursed energy were widespread, he dreaded to think what kind of monstrous cursed spirits the students' resentment would produce.

Just as Mo Bai was about to take a walk around the academy, he turned and found a huge face outside his window.

"You nearly scared me to death..."

With only a pane of glass between him and Lynae, Mo Bai felt that if this kept up, he might develop a heart condition.

Lynae said nothing. She just grinned and tapped the window, signaling him to come out.

Mo Bai passed his sighing classmates and stepped into the corridor.

"Did you need something?"

He gave Lynae a puzzled look.

"Hehe. I came to hang out with you. I'm bored out of my mind," Lynae said with a shrug.

She was as carefree as ever. It looked like she had settled back into academy life completely.

"I only get to move around freely during my lunch and evening breaks. That's precious time..."

Mo Bai fixed Lynae with a helpless stare.

The implication was clear: he would keep her company, but it would cost her.

"Ugh. Extorting your own friend? You're evil."

Despite her words, Lynae took something out and handed it to Mo Bai.

"Cup noodles?"

Looking at the cup noodles in Lynae's hand, Mo Bai remembered the students' wails back in the classroom.

That ordinary-looking cup of noodles was probably a prized resource at the academy...

How depressing. Talented students came to Star Torch Academy from all over, only to worry about a little cup of noodles.

With that thought, Mo Bai glanced pityingly at the classmates slumped over their desks behind him.

"Hm. They look just like my old classmates," Lynae said, peering into the classroom.

"You were never like that?" Mo Bai asked, raising an eyebrow.

Even someone as experienced as Lynae must have been reserved when she first arrived in an unfamiliar place.

Besides, she had been using someone else's identity back then. Wouldn't that have made her even more careful?

"Huh? I skipped class on my first day. You have no idea how nice the breeze was that day. It felt amazing to race through it."

Lynae spread her arms as she spoke, seemingly reliving the feeling of air rushing past her body.

Mo Bai could only stare at her, speechless.

That was Lynae for you...

After stowing the cup noodles in his shadow, Mo Bai left the teaching building with Lynae.

Along the way, Mo Bai asked why she hadn't gone to see Rover. Her answer left them both envious.

Rover had received permission from the academy to go out and roam freely again.

"Aren't you still grounded? If we can't go driving, where are you taking me?"

Mo Bai was puzzled as they walked.

When it came to Lynae's idea of fun, racing cars was the first thing that came to mind.

"Hmph. The academy has plenty of exciting things to do. And this one happens to be close to your Label Department."

Lynae then led Mo Bai to the area above the Label Department.

There was a vast, open platform with an enormous simulation pod at its center.

"This is the academy's simulator. It's mainly used to test and train Label Department students on their coordination and compatibility with Tunnelers. But today, I'm bringing you here to try something else."

Lynae adjusted the huge capsule-like machine from outside, then raised a hand to gesture Mo Bai in.

"I set it to Holographic Strategy for you. You'll have to adjust the difficulty yourself, though."

Lynae walked him through it.

Before entering, Mo Bai asked her casually:

"Has anyone ever scored well on this thing?"

Lynae tilted her head in thought, then snapped her fingers.

"Among the students? Other than me, the best is Moqu from the Tunneler Engineering Department."

Mo Bai hadn't expected the answer to be that flaky drama club president.

But if even Moqu could put up a good score, Mo Bai figured he probably wouldn't do badly.

He nodded to Lynae and entered the simulation pod.

"Impermanence Heron?"

The name on the display looked familiar to Mo Bai, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

"I can only start on the lowest difficulty? Then I'll work my way up."

After setting the difficulty, Mo Bai pulled the lever to begin.

Bzz—

In the blink of an eye, Mo Bai found himself transported from the simulation pod to a strange space.

A vast plain enclosed by barriers of electronic data stretched around him. It looked thoroughly futuristic.

Ahead, Mo Bai saw his enemy.

It was a slender humanoid creature with distinctly feminine features and a body covered in broken white, hornlike armor. Kneeling on the ground, it held both hands over its face and sat turned partly away from him.

At the sight of its body, Mo Bai remembered reading about it in the library.

It was the most powerful avatar of the Threnodian from the Jinzhou war, a formidable foe defeated by Rover and Jiyan, the great general of Jinzhou.

Whoosh!

As if sensing an enemy's arrival, purple flames flared behind Impermanence Heron, then took the shape of two pairs of wings.

Looking closer, Mo Bai realized the wings were made of countless arms of different sizes. Some of the gaps where the arms met even held eye-like growths.

The whole thing was nauseating to look at.

Once its body had fully appeared, Impermanence Heron turned to face Mo Bai.

I might as well treat this as training.

Mo Bai made no hand sign to summon a Shikigami. Instead, he raised his fists in a boxing stance and faced it.