Confrontation Behind the Warehouse

Lu Yuan walked to the edge of the clearing, his footsteps light.

The freckled boy was weighing Wang Shuo's cloth bag in his hand, while two lackeys blocked the way beside him. The three students' Soul Power fluctuations were scattered, and their stances were relaxed.

Wang Shuo sat slumped on the ground, his eyes vacant.

"Quite a lively scene," Lu Yuan said.

The three regular students turned their heads at once. Seeing the gray work-study shirt Lu Yuan wore, the freckled boy sneered. "Another trash picker?"

Lu Yuan ignored him. His gaze swept over the base of the wall: several sacks of damp grain and a haphazard pile of rusty metal parts. A few figures flashed through his mind.

Then he looked at the freckled boy, his voice even. "Chapter seven of the academy regulations prohibits private fighting and extortion. Violators have their allowances docked, and in serious cases may be expelled."

The freckled boy froze, then burst out laughing. "Regulations? Who are you to bring up regulations?" He took two steps forward. "I'm doing you a favor by taking a few Copper Soul Coins off you!"

The tall, skinny one reached out to shove Lu Yuan's shoulder.

Lu Yuan sidestepped, shifting half a step to the left as he did so. His toe lightly kicked the sack of grain that had suffered the most damp, whether deliberately or not.

Puff.

The dried, hardened crust split open, and gray-white dust billowed up like a little cloud of exploding mist.

The freckled boy was standing closest. Dust hit him in the face and poured down his throat. Caught off guard, he coughed violently, tears streaming from his eyes as he nearly dropped the cloth bag.

"Cough, cough... you fucking..." he cursed between coughs.

The tall, skinny one was caught in it too and backed away, covering his face. The short, stocky one escaped the dust, cursed, and strode forward to grab Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan didn't move.

The index finger of his right hand, hanging at his side, curled slightly. An extremely fine thread of Soul Power seeped from his fingertip and traveled along the ground through gaps between the blades of grass. A slender Blue Silver Grass vine emerged an inch from his sleeve, then withdrew.

A pale blue grass vine silently wrapped around the short, stocky student's ankle and tripped him.

The force was applied with great finesse.

The student was charging forward when something suddenly tugged at his foot, throwing him off balance. With a yelp, he staggered forward, clawed wildly at the air, and knocked over the pile of metal parts beside him.

Crash-clang!

Rusty gears, iron rods, and broken cartwheels came tumbling down, clattering together with a tremendous, harsh yet muffled crash. At the base of the quiet warehouse's back wall, the sound was like a thunderclap.

The short, stocky student fell into the heap of parts, banging his elbow against an iron rod. He grimaced in pain.

Dust was still drifting through the air.

The freckled boy finally stopped coughing and glared at Lu Yuan with bloodshot eyes. "You're courting death!"

Lu Yuan took a small half step back. "Half the academy could have heard that noise. The patrolling stewards should be here soon."

At those words, the three regular students' expressions changed.

Hurried footsteps sounded in the distance.

The freckled boy's cheek twitched. He stared at Lu Yuan, then looked at the cloth bag in his hand, clearly unwilling to give up. But the footsteps were drawing closer.

He spat viciously and threw the cloth bag to the ground. "You got lucky!" He turned and ran. The tall, skinny one and the short, stocky student hurried after him, and the three disappeared around the corner in a panic.

The cloth bag landed at Wang Shuo's feet.

Lu Yuan walked over, picked it up, dusted it off, and handed it to him. "Count it."

Wang Shuo took it, his fingers still trembling. He opened it and glanced inside. All ten Copper Soul Coins were there. His Adam's apple bobbed; he wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

Two academy stewards rushed into the clearing. One was older and stern, the other young and sharp-eyed. Both wore short batons at their waists.

The older steward surveyed the scene. The dust had yet to settle completely, metal parts were scattered across the ground, and there were signs of a fall at the base of the low wall. Wang Shuo sat on the ground clutching the cloth bag. Lu Yuan stood beside him, his clothes neat.

"What happened?" the older steward asked. "Who was fighting and causing trouble here?"

The younger steward crouched to examine the parts, then looked at the grain sack against the wall, frowning.

Wang Shuo opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Lu Yuan was about to speak when three people came running around the warehouse corner: the same three regular students from before. The freckled boy no longer looked panicked. Instead, he put on an aggrieved expression, pointed at Lu Yuan and Wang Shuo, and shouted, "Stewards! It was them! These two work-study students were fighting here, and they messed up the warehouse's things too!"

They had turned the tables and accused their victims.

The short, stocky student immediately rolled up his sleeve, revealing the abrasion on his arm. "Look! They even hit us!"

The tall, skinny one chimed in. "That's right! We were passing by and tried to break up the fight, but they pushed us over, and everything got knocked down!"

The three backed one another up.

The older steward looked at Lu Yuan and Wang Shuo, his gaze more scrutinizing now.

Wang Shuo grew anxious. "N-no, that's not... they were trying to take my allowance..."

"You're lying!" the freckled boy shouted even louder.

The younger steward stood, dusted off his hands, and looked at Lu Yuan. "What do you have to say?"

Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately.

His gaze moved across the clearing and finally stopped at the farthest corner by the warehouse wall. Broken planks and old hemp rope were piled there, and half of a dusty, palm-sized metal box protruded from beneath the rope.

A thick layer of dust covered the box. Its edges were worn, and there were several tiny holes on one side. A thumbnail-sized transparent crystal sat on top, also coated in dust.

Lu Yuan recognized it: an old-model Soul Guidance Recorder. The academy had purchased a batch over a decade ago, but they had gradually been phased out because they were troublesome to maintain. Most had been tossed into the warehouse to gather dust, and few people remembered them.

He had seen similar remains in a laboratory in his previous life.

The older steward grew impatient. "I'm asking you a question."

Lu Yuan raised a hand and pointed at the corner. "Stewards, perhaps that can tell us what happened just now."

Everyone followed his pointing finger.

The freckled boy's face changed instantly. He had clearly recognized it too, and a flicker of panic crossed his eyes. But he quickly forced himself to remain calm. "Th-that piece of junk broke ages ago! Nobody's used it in years!"

The younger steward, however, walked over, pushed aside the hemp rope and planks, and carefully picked up the metal box. He blew away the dust, revealing a blurred academy emblem on its side.

"It is an old recorder," the younger steward said. He turned the box over to examine its underside. A small recess there, where a Soul Power Crystal Core should have been fitted, was empty. "But there's no crystal core installed, so it probably didn't activate."

The freckled boy breathed a sigh of relief.

But Lu Yuan said, "We'll know whether it can be activated if we try." He paused. "This kind of old recorder was designed with a backup power slot. If it receives a sufficiently strong Soul Power impact or the Soul Power in its surroundings fluctuates violently, the backup slot activates and maintains a brief recording."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear.

The younger steward froze. He clearly hadn't known that detail. The older steward narrowed his eyes and looked Lu Yuan over again.

Lu Yuan continued, "The metal parts fell just now, and the impact was considerable. If the recorder's backup slot happened to have some power left and was activated by the vibration..."

He didn't finish, but his meaning was clear.

The younger steward hesitated, then took a dull white Soul Power Crystal Core the size of a thumbnail from inside his robes-the lowest grade. He carefully fitted the crystal core into the recess beneath the recorder.

There was a soft click.

The moment the crystal core slotted into place, the dust-covered transparent crystal suddenly lit up. The light was extremely faint, but it had definitely lit up. Then several lines of light flashed across the crystal's surface, and faint, indistinct sounds came from inside the box, like the scraping of jammed gears.

The younger steward's expression grew serious. Holding the recorder in both hands, he tried injecting a thread of Soul Power.

The crystal brightened a little more.

Then a broken, distorted voice came from the recorder, mixed with static-like noise:

"...meal money... go hungry for a few meals... borrow it for a while..."

"...give him back the cloth bag... leave now..."

"...you got lucky!"

The voices were muffled, but they could be made out as fragments of a conversation between the freckled boy and Lu Yuan. A burst of violent impact noise followed, and then everything fell silent.

The crystal went completely dark.

The younger steward pulled out the white crystal core. It had turned completely gray and dim, its power exhausted. He raised his head and looked at the freckled boy and his companions, his gaze turning cold.

The older steward sighed and shook his head.

The freckled boy's face went white. He opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself, but couldn't get a single word out. The short, stocky student and the tall, skinny one kept their heads down, too afraid to look at the stewards.

"According to chapter seven of the regulations," the older steward said slowly, "the three of you will forfeit your full allowance for this month and clean the warehouse area for one month. If there's a next time, I'll report it to the academic affairs office and consider expulsion."

He then looked at Lu Yuan and Wang Shuo. "As for you two, although you were forced into it, you were involved in the dispute and bear some responsibility. As punishment, you'll help tidy this area. Finish it today."

That punishment was clearly much lighter.

Lu Yuan nodded. "Yes, sir."

Wang Shuo hurriedly nodded as well.

The younger steward put the recorder back in the corner and dusted off his hands. "All right, everyone, off you go." He glanced at the freckled boy and his companions. "You three, go register at the stewards' office now."

The three followed the younger steward away, dejected.

The older steward gave Lu Yuan one last look, his gaze lingering on his face for a moment. He seemed to want to say something, but in the end he only shook his head, turned, and left.

Only Lu Yuan and Wang Shuo remained in the clearing, along with the mess scattered across the ground.

Only then did Wang Shuo recover his senses. Clutching the cloth bag, he stood and walked over to Lu Yuan, his lips trembling. "Th-thank you..."

Lu Yuan waved a hand and said no more. He crouched down and began gathering the scattered parts.

Wang Shuo hurried to help.

The two cleaned up in silence. The sun gradually slanted westward, stretching their shadows long.

When they were nearly finished, Wang Shuo asked quietly, "That recorder... did you really know it had a backup slot?"

Lu Yuan propped the last iron rod against the wall, stood, and dusted off his hands. "I guessed."

Wang Shuo froze.

Lu Yuan looked toward the metal box in the corner, dusty once more, his gaze calm.

Actually, he hadn't guessed. In his previous life, he had dismantled a scrapped unit of the same model and knew the design flaw in its backup power slot: its activation rate was extremely low, and it might not succeed even once in ten tries.

Luck had played a major part today.

But there was no need to say that.

"Let's go back now that we're done," Lu Yuan said. "We have class tomorrow."

Wang Shuo nodded hurriedly and followed with several lengths of hemp rope in his arms. As he left the clearing, he couldn't help looking back at the warehouse corner.

The old recorder lay quietly in the shadows, covered in dust, like a forgotten witness.

He hunched his shoulders and quickened his pace.

Lu Yuan walked ahead, his steps steady. The wind blew past, carrying the scent of the wild grass behind the warehouse.

His fingertips rubbed unconsciously against his cuff. There, the slender Blue Silver Grass vine silently withdrew beneath his skin, leaving only a faint, cool sensation.

The first day at the academy was not yet over.

And perhaps someone would remember that recorder again.