Volume Two: The Many Faces of Youth—When Falsehood Feels Real Chapter 111: The Final Touches

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The students of Bancroft Academy couldn’t understand why there had been one major event after another in the school these days. There was a large-scale exam organized for the appearance of an Ultimate entity; the top scorer of the exam declared war on the entire academy; that challenger vowed to conquer the entire institution; a grand signing event hosted by the academy was attacked by mercenaries; the challenger’s club’s very first mission was to kill an Ultimate being; then it was revealed that he possessed a shocking ability to devour calamities; the host of the signing event nearly single-handedly disrupted the academy’s tactical leader’s arrangements, executing a thirteen-second finishing move.

Each of these incidents, one after another, seemed inseparable from two rising stars: Huo Ye and Ye Yu Hanya. One was a prodigious young author whose works sold across all the colonies, the other a young battlefield legend born into a military family—one literary, the other martial. Together, these two had stirred a great commotion throughout Bancroft.

The academy’s daily newspaper had barely finished laying out the pages for last night’s Huo Ye incident when the news about Ye Yu Hanya broke out. For the sake of sales, the staff pushed aside fatigue, their eyes ringed with dark circles like smoky makeup, and kept working—today they must get the article out! Back to typing!

What they didn’t know was that the source of this series of upheavals at Bancroft was actually the same person, and very few knew the truth.

Huo Ye had originally planned to continue some combat training, but shortly after stepping out from the battle arena, he saw a group in the hall looking around anxiously, some grabbing others and asking if they had seen Ye Yu Hanya, the reporter. Huo Ye immediately understood what was going on. “Are you all really this enthusiastic about your work?” he thought. So, he decisively logged off, not even letting a shadow be seen by those reporters.

Sitting up in his cryo-chamber, Huo Ye wiped the cold sweat from his brow and sighed, “Phew, that was too dangerous—almost got caught. I’ve only done a few interviews, so if you manage to catch me, I’ll admit defeat!”

Shangguan Yudie also rose from her room; Alice sat on her bed, watching her with an amused expression. She giggled, “Hehe, I didn’t expect you’d risk your life to buy time for my brother at the crucial moment. I’m claiming you as my sister-in-law—no running away!”

Shangguan Yudie glared at Alice unusually harshly. “Get lost!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Alice responded with a grin.

“Scram!”

Huo Ye had thought he’d need to lay low for a while, but after opening his crystal brain to check recent reports, he couldn’t help but gasp.

Less than twenty-four hours had passed since the event last night, yet nearly all the major media outlets’ front pages featured him, Huo Ye.

On this day, not only the Sola Colony but also several colonies closely linked by communication to Sola were all reporting on the matter. Huo Ye, the Son of the Black Death, humanity’s path of vengeance against calamity.

Huo Ye opened several official reports and felt numb. What kind of nonsense was this? “Humanity’s path of vengeance against calamity” just because I can eat calamity? Could you be any more exaggerated? I just recently advanced to an S-level student.

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If anyone knew what he really thought, probably eighty percent of the supernaturals would want to kill him for being so cocky and shameless. What do you mean you just advanced to S-level? Many people never even reach this level in their entire lives—don’t you have any self-awareness?

In any case, the media had painted Huo Ye as humanity’s hope, as a young generation’s unrivaled hero. Though mostly exaggerated, Huo Ye was still relieved that public opinion was generally positive toward him. He figured he didn’t need to worry too much, but since he was currently in the eye of the storm, peaceful days were not something to expect.

But no peace was not necessarily bad; his fame grew, and maybe it would bring more attention to his club and attract more promising talents. Huo Ye was skilled at finding joy in hardship.

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At noon, the members of the Star Cluster gathered at a hotpot restaurant called “Foley.” The hotpot was quite good, and everyone instinctively regarded it as the first choice for opportunities. This time, there was a new member, Luo Jiajia.

“What’s going on? What exactly is going on? The club leader can actually eat calamity—so amazing!”

“Yeah, big brother, why didn’t you tell us before?”

“Right, last night’s stunt really scared me. As someone involved, your shock is nothing compared to mine!”

“Leader, hiding your trump cards from your teammates is bad behavior, you know!”

The other four Star Cluster members bombarded Huo Ye with questions as soon as they saw him; the private room was like boiling water in an instant.

Huo Ye just smiled and casually said, “Nothing much. I just instinctively thought it smelled good and took a few bites. And… yeah, it really was delicious.” He had to hide the existence of Pandora but wasn’t exactly lying; in his perception, Pandora was like an instinctive force. Pandora told him calamity could be eaten—wasn’t that instinct?

Alice puffed her cheeks and said, “That’s too much! We’re here to eat!”

“All right, all right, no more talk,” Huo Ye replied casually.

The gathering was just a pretext for a meal—the real purpose was to meet and discuss. Naturally, there was some discussion during the meal.

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“Speaking of which, what’s our next step, Star Cluster?” Luo Jiajia, as a newcomer, asked.

Club leader Huo Ye said, “The biggest matter before us is the club war. Although the team is ten people, that includes substitutes. If we push ourselves, seven of us are actually enough. So the next step is to improve ourselves. With the points earned from hunting the Ultimate, the income from the racing event, and the wager on the forest fire, our foundation is about solid now. So, everyone, don’t be stingy with your points. As long as it helps you level up, Star Cluster will cover it all!”

Huo Ye’s words set the general direction, and no one had objections.

At that moment, Leilimi suddenly said, “Improving ourselves is important, but Jiang Feng and I are a bit of a burden. I think we should consider some external help.”

Jiang Feng twitched his mouth—this sounded a bit odd. These days, he had realized Leilimi wasn’t weak, just easily nervous. According to Huo Ye, if Leilimi could one day give her all, even Huo Ye might get a headache. So why was this top dog pretending to be a loser?

Huo Ye thought for a moment and said, “You mean, making some assistive machinery?”

“Yeah, not just for Jiang Feng and me. I can make them for everyone, but time is tight, so it might be impossible to tailor them all individually.”

“No problem, I’ll put mine aside for now. Xiao Yu’s Ice Blade Morning Dew is already pretty good, and her fighting style doesn’t really need mechanical assistance. That’s fine, right?” Huo Ye sought Shangguan Yudie’s opinion with this last sentence.

Shangguan Yudie nodded, indicating she had no issue.

At this moment, only Kazama Ruri, who was fully spirited only during meals, chewed on soup-soaked frozen tofu and said, “I don’t need it either. I’m lazy. Just training my supernatural skills is tiring enough, so no machines for me.”

“Got it. Then for the four others, I’m almost ready. I’ll go to the lab later and make the first-generation prototypes,” Leilimi said, her eyes shining brightly as she talked about her specialty.