“Why don't we... form a team?”
Luo Yang closed the distance between himself and Qiu Shubai, lowering his voice.
“Team up?”
Qiu Shubai’s brow furrowed slightly. “Team up for what?”
“My re-examination mission allows for a team.”
“You want the examiner to help you with your test?”
“In a way,” Luo Yang chuckled, then his tone shifted. “Though in my eyes, it's more like a transaction.”
“Miss Ace, you wouldn't want... the news of you working for the Special Division to get out, would you?”
Qiu Shubai’s pupils dilated in shock. She looked at Luo Yang in disbelief, her voice hushed and urgent.
“How do you know...”
“Shh—” Luo Yang raised his right hand, placing his index finger just centimeters away from Qiu Shubai's lips.
“I recognize the energy fluctuations of a blood spirit stone, and I know the rules of the Special Division. I’ll keep your secret, and I’ll even help you with your missions. In exchange, you team up with me, help me complete the academy’s missions, and make up for the credits I lost because I failed Science.”
“What do you think? Mutual benefit. I think it’s very fair.”
Obtaining credits through missions was the only way to graduate from the Punisher Academy. However, if a student failed an exam, the academy would penalize them by deducting a significant percentage of their earned credits.
Luo Yang, a total failure in Science, had been troubled by this more than once. Ultimately, the solution he came up with was: mission grinding in a team.
According to academy regulations, the total credits earned for completing a mission in a team were twenty percent higher than for a solo completion, and the team members could distribute those credits among themselves as they saw fit.
While this system allowed many children from prominent families to hire strong but less wealthy students to grind missions for them—eventually pocketing all the points—one’s family background was, in a sense, part of a Punisher’s strength.
The scions got their credits, and the students they hired received extra money, resources, or even high-grade equipment. In a way, it was a form of resource redistribution.
A Punisher’s best reliance was always their own strength. In Shenzhou, every important position had rigid strength requirements. Even if someone used connections to get a promotion, their raw power still had to meet the standard.
In this era, those who were just making up the numbers would eventually die at the hands of a Heterosequence or a mutant beast.
Qiu Shubai remained silent for a few seconds. Then, as if reaching a decision, she pulled her phone from her pocket.
“While the academy rules don’t explicitly forbid an examiner from teaming up with a candidate, it’s definitely pushing the boundaries,” she said slowly. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Positive.”
“Then let's add each other's contact info first.”
Luo Yang felt a surge of joy. After several semesters of interacting with her, he knew this meant Qiu Shubai had agreed. He quickly took out his phone and opened the QR scanner on the KK app.
Beep—
The moment the KK scan finished, Qiu Shubai’s basic profile information appeared on his screen. Without looking too closely, he sent the friend request.
“Your friend request has been accepted,” a notification soon popped up on his phone.
“Now my credits are sorted.”
Satisfied, Luo Yang opened the friend info page, intending to change Qiu Shubai’s nickname in his contacts.
Then, he saw Qiu Shubai’s KK profile picture.
It was a young girl with long, silver-white hair. Her gaze was gentle yet firm, and she wore a form-fitting combat suit. She gripped a slender white sword, standing like a knight of the old world against the boundless, vast starlit sky.
“Why does this picture look so familiar...”
His finger froze; he couldn't bring himself to type a single character.
With his sharp Punisher observations, he could clearly recognize that this profile picture had been drawn by his own hand when he was a child.
Seconds passed before he managed to shift his gaze back to Qiu Shubai, who was still standing in front of him.
It was a story from a long time ago.
So long ago that he was less than ten years old at the time and hadn't awakened his ability yet. His grandfather hadn't yet cut ties with the family and taken him away from the capital to live in seclusion in Yuanxing City.
Back then, he was just a bored young master with a passion for the internet. He didn't lack money; taking drawing commissions online was just one of his hobbies.
One day, he met a customer who commissioned that specific drawing. Afterward, they had even stayed in touch as online friends for a short while.
He knew the other person was a girl and that she also came from a prestigious family. However, compared to him, that girl’s life hadn't been very good.
“Could it be?”
Long-buried memories surged back with a vengeance.
“What is it?”
Noticing the strange look in Luo Yang's eyes, Qiu Shubai couldn't help but feel suspicious. Was this guy about to make another demand?
“No... it’s nothing.”
Luo Yang swallowed hard, quickly finished renaming her contact, and exited the KK interface.
“I’ll send you the team invite in a bit,” Luo Yang said steadily, having regained his composure. “Do you have anything else? If not, I’m going back to prepare. We head to the mission site the day after tomorrow.”
“You’ve already read the mission details?”
Luo Yang nodded. “It’s just assisting the military in clearing a Level 2 Rift.”
Rifts, or spatial rifts, were special phenomena that began appearing on Blue Star centuries ago. They would distort the space around their location, forming a region independent of the world, used to transport and hatch invading mutant beasts.
They were classified by their internal danger level, from Level 1 at the lowest to Level 7 at the highest.
Because they had to physically endure the pressure of spatial transport, every mutant beast that completed the process would suffer severe injuries.
Furthermore, since mutant beasts often brought large numbers of embryos to hatch within these independent spaces, a significant portion of their combat force had to be dedicated to injecting energy into the embryos.
It could be said that the time spent inhabiting a Rift was the mutant beast swarm's most vulnerable period.
Humanity, however, could manufacture advanced war machines to withstand the pressure and consumption of spatial transport. Smothering the mutant beasts at the threshold before they could recover became humanity's primary means of fighting them.
At the same time, Rifts produced many rare resources, much like the “mystic realms” in ancient Shenzhou legends.
To make money, Luo Yang had accepted many missions from the Punisher Association to assist in clearing Rifts. Forget Level 2 Rifts; he had even been to Level 4 ones.
In his view, this re-examination was incredibly simple—at least countless times simpler than being forced to do a math paper.
Qiu Shubai’s brow arched in disbelief.
“Why do you make clearing a Rift sound as easy as eating or drinking?”
“What do you think?”
Qiu Shubai was momentarily speechless.
She wasn't particularly clear on Luo Yang's strength.
She had rarely collaborated with him on Ability Bureau missions, and the gap between their ranks on the academy's Ladder Rankings was too large for them to ever be matched together.
But judging from how he had effortlessly suppressed a Shadow rank Heterosequence yesterday...
Qiu Shubai let out a long breath. In her few interactions with Luo Yang, she always seemed to be the one getting frustrated.
It was better to talk to him as little as possible, lest she be driven to an early grave by annoyance.
“I can agree to the team-up,” Qiu Shubai said, a hint of sharpness returning to her eyes. “But you must also promise me that the matter regarding the Special Division must never be leaked.”
“Don’t worry, I’m a man of my word.”
Luo Yang stretched. The sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows hit him, framing him in a thin golden glow. His already handsome features were enhanced by a striking softness, drawing the gazes of many nearby girls.
“By the way...”
“Yes?”
“Do you have any spare weapons you don't use? If you do, let me use one. I'll pay for it if I have to—just give me a discount.”
“...”
Rate on N.U.
