The Black Tower

Even the interstellar frontline war zone was more prosperous than Luo Ruzhuo had imagined.

The desolate, post-apocalyptic wasteland she had pictured was nowhere to be seen.

By the old standards, it could be called a less developed third-tier city at worst.

Luo Ruzhuo was escorted into a hall marked "Black Tower Guide Association," where the last of her ankle shackles were removed.

The testing center on Central Star had notified the local Guide Association an hour earlier, so they were prepared for the wild guide who had fallen into their laps.

The receptionist on duty that day was a woman with a round face, thick, silky blond hair, and a perfectly measured smile. Even faced with a once vicious criminal, her expression did not change.

"Hello. May I see your test report, please?"

Luo Ruzhuo was empty-handed.

The court officer, who had not yet left, handed over a thick stack of documents.

Weina, the office worker, entered the information and smiled at Luo Ruzhuo. "A C-rank guide. That's a very good rank. Your arrival has solved an urgent problem for us."

As she spoke, a troubled look flashed across her face. "The conditions here are simply too dangerous, so very few guides are willing to come of their own accord..."

Luo Ruzhuo filled in the rest herself: unless they were prisoners like her, forced to come and serve.

"Rest assured, the compensation is exactly the same as at the Black Tower on Central Star: 5,000 star coins a month after tax, three meals and lodging provided, two days off every week, and public holidays." Weina's smile remained unchanged, though she seemed a little awkward toward the end. "However, given the special circumstances of your current service, you cannot leave Zone A on your days off. You would need to submit an application for official business trips. Is that acceptable?"

Luo Ruzhuo nodded, thinking, Who would turn down a government job that fell right into their lap?

Weina entered the information into the Star Network, then printed out a contract and handed it to Luo Ruzhuo. Luo Ruzhuo signed it without hesitation. Luo Ruzhuo—that was the original owner's name.

Luo Ruzhuo could retrieve no memories from the original owner's brain, because the human brain was the vessel for spiritual power. After death, everything vanished. Even the most powerful psychic ability user could not pry memories from a dead person.

She could only piece together the original owner's basic information from the guard's memories.

Luo Ruzhuo was an ordinary person. Her parents died when she was twelve, after which her uncle and aunt adopted her. She began living alone when she reached adulthood at eighteen. After graduating from university, she joined the Feier household and worked as a maid for two years. At twenty-three, she killed the Feier family's young master, Phil Rice, who was also the head of the manufacturing department at Ankang Pharmaceuticals.

Ankang Pharmaceuticals was the largest biopharmaceutical company under the Feier Family and one of the giants of the Federation's biopharmaceutical industry. Its main production lines covered everything from nutrient solutions and Guide Elements to vaccines.

As for why Luo Ruzhuo had insisted on killing Phil Rice, while reading the guard's memories, Luo Ruzhuo had found a fragment among the countless specks of memory: a news story that had caused a huge stir eight years earlier.

"Shocking! Major explosion at Ankang Pharmaceuticals' Planet B-328 plant! Was he really the one responsible?"

"Emergency exit illegally converted into an office. Was it negligence by the design firm or a failure of duty by the builder?"

The incident was a combustible gas explosion at Ankang Pharmaceuticals on Planet B-328. An electrical spark caused by aging equipment ignited an excessive concentration of ethanol vapor in the plant. The radiant heat from the explosion immediately ignited combustible materials throughout the clean area, causing a widespread fire that engulfed the entire plant. On top of that, the planned emergency exit had been converted into a private space for manufacturing department head Phil Rice himself, leaving the workers with no way to escape and directly causing heavy casualties.

Luo Ruzhuo's parents had died in that accident.

"Compensation as high as twenty million star coins! Ankang Pharmaceuticals issues an apology, expressing sincere regret and remorse to the family of every victim."

The comments below covered all sorts of things. At first, people mourned those who had died in the major accident and strongly condemned Ankang Pharmaceuticals. But as soon as the twenty-million-star-coin figure came out, the comments abruptly changed direction.

"Twenty million! Ankang Pharmaceuticals sure is generous!"

"Who would've thought a still-warm corpse could turn into a cold twenty million in a bank account?"

"I heard it was a manufacturing department production line that had the accident. Even the most senior employee there only made 300,000 star coins a year. It'd take sixty-six years to earn twenty million. They really did work at Ankang Pharmaceuticals until they died."

"'Sorry for your loss' just turned into 'congratulations'!"

Luo Ruzhuo remembered how the guard in that memory had casually scrolled through the list, indignant as he furiously typed on his light computer: "An ordinary person couldn't earn that much in a lifetime, but all they have to do is die to get it. Why can't something that good happen to me?"

On the list of victims' family members flashing rapidly past, Luo Ruzhuo had seen the original owner's name.

But if it was a good thing... why had Luo Ruzhuo killed Phil Rice?

Luo Ruzhuo rested her head on her hand, lost in thought.

"In any case..." A sweet voice broke through Luo Ruzhuo's recollections.

"May I ask whether you've come across any information about guides before?" Weina's gaze was intent, and Luo Ruzhuo could see the longing for a workhorse on her face.

"It's all right if you haven't. You can start training today. We need you to begin work as soon as possible."

Luo Ruzhuo: ?

She had just been lost in the fantasy that the original owner might be worth tens of millions, only to be yanked back to the reality of being a workhorse.

"That's the situation." In the clean, brightly lit Guide Association, Luo Ruzhuo spread her hands helplessly. The silent court officer took back the pages Weina handed him after reading them.

The pages were thin, but the information on them weighed heavily on Weina's heart.

Luo Ruzhuo had read them long ago, so she was not surprised by Weina's dejected state.

"I'm sure you've seen the test report, Miss Weina. I'm sorry, but I can't start work for the time being. After awakening as a guide, I only have spiritual power, not a Mental Entity."

Long ago, after reading the guard's memories, Luo Ruzhuo had settled on the best explanation for the spiritual power that had inexplicably appeared in the original owner.

Mental Entity underdevelopment.

In this world, the human brain finished developing at around age twelve. Those with a tendency toward becoming sentinels or guides would awaken spiritual power, and a Mental Entity would then hatch. They would be tested with an instrument to determine whether their spiritual power had a destructive or healing tendency, ultimately determining whether they differentiated into a sentinel or a guide.

In the years that followed, until they reached adulthood, their Mental Entities would slowly grow to maturity and their Mental Domains would form. During this process, the Federation government distributed specially made Mental Entity growth potions to help sentinels and guides stabilize their Mental Domains. But for various reasons, some sentinels or guides awakened spiritual power yet could not hatch a Mental Entity, or their Mental Entity failed to develop fully, leaving them unable to form a Mental Domain. These conditions were collectively known as Mental Entity underdevelopment.

When Luo Ruzhuo transmigrated, the original owner had already been twenty-three. Awakening at that age was late enough—wasn't it normal that her Mental Entity couldn't hatch?

Weina's smile froze somewhat. She sighed helplessly, picked up the communications light computer on the other side of the glass, and tapped rapidly, sending an accurate report to the work group chat.

Before long, a group of about four or five people came hurrying over, dressed in white uniforms identical to Weina's.

The young man standing in the middle wore a white uniform, and the badge on it bore many bars and stars. He was visibly the leader of the group.

His face looked unexpectedly young, only in his twenties or so. Unlike Weina's distinctly Western features, blond hair, and blue eyes, he had a typically Eastern appearance. His features were refined and handsome, his brows and eyes picturesque, making him very pleasant to look at.

"Hello, Miss Luo." The young man gave a slight nod. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Fang Yingbai, president of the Black Tower Guide Association in Zone A."

President Fang was pleasant to look at, but what he said next did not make Luo Ruzhuo feel particularly comfortable.

"We understand the situation." Fang Yingbai knitted his brows slightly, looking rather like a worried beauty. "If we could, we would also like to wait until Miss Luo's Mental Entity is fully developed and mature before having you start work."

"But..." He sighed deeply. "The pressure on our Black Tower is simply too great."

"The front lines aren't like ordinary places. Fighting has been intense lately, and the sentinels here are battling contamination every moment of the day. Their contamination levels remain above eighty percent year-round, putting them on the threshold of mental distortion."

"Miss Luo, there's no need to underestimate yourself. Even without a Mental Entity for now, your spiritual power is rated C, which is already quite high. Besides, a guide's Mental Entity isn't necessarily required for purification."

At this point, his expression was natural and his tone light. "There's a kind of purification called Contactless Purification. The guide only needs to stay in a sentinel's Mental Domain for a little while. You don't have to do anything, and the contamination will decrease. This method is very suitable for you right now, Miss Luo. If you agree, we can train you later today. I'm sure that after training, you'll soon become an important asset to the Black Tower in the frontline war zone!"

The young man's eyes curved as he smiled, encouragement and expectation in his gaze. "Please help us, all right?"

Beauty often concealed many traps. Luo Ruzhuo had done fairly well for herself in the apocalypse, and a handsome face had no effect on her.

"No." Luo Ruzhuo refused without hesitation. "If purification is so simple, why are you short-handed?" Anyone could tell there was a catch.

After the population dwindled in the apocalypse, many social interactions had become simpler. She was somewhat impatient with beating around the bush. Frowning, she was just about to repeat her refusal when Fang Yingbai said helplessly, "I can guarantee that this method of purification will absolutely not cause you any harm."

"Moreover, the Black Tower can promise you three specially made spiritual power growth potions a day while your Mental Entity is hatching, half the working hours, and a maximum of two sentinels to purify per day. Four days on, three days off, double pay, and six months' salary in advance. In addition, we'll record this contribution in your annual service report to reduce your term of service. What do you think?"

Mental Entity growth potions.

Luo Ruzhuo rolled those words around on her tongue. She had to admit they were very tempting to her, since her spiritual power had been depleted after dying once. Besides, she was curious whether an interstellar spiritual power growth potion could help her ability break through to level six.

"All right." People died for wealth just as birds died for food. Luo Ruzhuo admitted she had been tempted.