Evening, in the second largest town in the Blackboard Region, Nocto City
The many tall buildings were like pencil blades stuck into the ground, straight as an arrow. The buildings would occasionally sparkle with white or green, yellow lights, and there was the vaguely of music as well.
Between the buildings, there were many suspended bridges connecting them, and these flowed with a constant stream of levitating cars. The car lights were like a river of neon lights, from afar, it looked like a sparkling string of pearls.
A row of wild geese lined up in a row neatly, slowly flying through the gap between buildings. Crossing over the bridges, flying over the cars, they flew slowly over a few patrolling white mechs.
Whoosh.
A humanoid white mech raised its head and glanced at the geese.
“What is it? Cady,” another mech beside it asked.
“Nothing. I just saw some wild geese, and that always reminds me of the situation back home. I wonder what it’s like back there now,” the white mech replied softly.
“Go see it if you have time, after all, once this martial law period is over, the higher-ups have said we get a week off,” his companion said with a laugh.
“True, I do plan to go back for real this time,” the white mech laughed as well.
Whoosh!
Suddenly a spot of white light flew across the sky above the city.
“What’s that?” The two of them looked up and noticed the white light.
“Don’t know, a signal glare?”
“Scan it.”
“It seems to be a firework that was reflected back.”
“A firework? Is it one of those new types? It’s so bright.”
“Forget it, let’s keep walking, once we complete our mission today we can go back and have a feast.”
The two mechs slowly continued to fly towards their determined destination.
Meanwhile, the white dot landed in a very normal pitch-black alley somewhere in the city.
The white light floated in the air lightly for a while, and then it landed onto the ground slowly. With a whoosh, the air twisted and turned transparent, then somehow a whole man’s body began to appear above the white dot.
He wore a white skin-tight suit, and there was a red line of light that kept flowing on his body, from his head down his back, blinking and twinkling continuously.
“I have arrived safely,” he smiled, the corners of his lips curving. Glancing around his surroundings, he found that the alley was completely void of people, and there was only a stray dog sprawled on top of some rubbish cans.
“Is everything okay? Ace,” a woman’s icy-cold voice came from the man’s collar.
“No problem, everything’s going swell. This degree of security is no threat at all, their scanning is too lame!” the man replied relaxedly. Unzipping the skin-tight suit he wore, he revealed a T-shirt and black leather pants. He pressed the suit lightly, and it instantly and automatically shrunk, turning into an ornate thick silver belt. Wearing it casually around his waist, the man instantly became a normal young person living in the city. He gave off a fashionable and wild feeling.
“I have to say, these clothes are pretty good, Six Flowers.”
“Thank you for the praise. That is an affirmation of my taste,” the icy lady replied. “I graduated from fashion design, after all.”
“Now that’s a surprise.” The man smoothened his hair, spiking up all of his short deep blue hair, so that it looked like a burning blaze reaching upwards. He also completely revealed his face, so handsome it was slightly devilish.
“Alright, I’d better explore this place properly, it looks like this Blackboard Region is doing pretty well for itself.”
“I hope you have fun, sir, but please don’t forget your mission.”
“Of course.”
“We will handle the search for the Black-Clothed General, please don’t worry about that.”
Turning off his communicator, the blue-haired man chuckled and strode out of the alley. As he passed, that sprawled stray dog suddenly had a fit, and fell down sideways, its whole body shaking. Blood flowed out of its eyes, and with two popping sounds, the wild dog’s eyeballs exploded.
“The optical nerves will also retain some information…” the man murmured, as he quickly melded into the crowd down the street.
**********************
The Blackboard Academy, in a large lecture room
A white-haired lecturer in a black suit was talking his tongue off in the front, never once stopping. Most of the several hundred students at the bottom were seriously writing notes, while others were simply recording video and audio.
Only the lecturer’s voice echoed through the classroom.
The seventy-eight-year-old lecturer, Andre was one of the few people in the Academy who fully supported the Deadlight Cannon Crossfire Web, he believed that once the Deadlight Cannon Fire crossed enough times, and was concentrated enough, then even the strongest close combat mech would be helpless when fighting in a small area.
“As for the claims that close combat mechs will be countered by the large battleships, right now, close combat mechs are countered by the large battleships, whereas large battleships are countered by long-range shooting mechs. And long-range mechs are countered by close combat mechs. They are all interconnected, this is the fixed rule that we concluded from many wars.”
In a corner of the classroom.
Garen held his notebook and was very seriously doing his notes. Somehow a bunch of rich and powerful heirs had gathered around as though it was natural, quite a few of them had decent backgrounds, and were top of the grade as well. They were all sitting next to him, some were taking notes and listening to class properly, and some were talking and joking with the only girl in the group.
The rumors about Britney’s praise of Garen had finally completely come out. As the person who held the true power in Blue Narcissus, Britney was already the Head of the academy’s Logistics Department, and she was also in charge of Blue Narcissus’ finances. The power of her family was terrifying, and although she had never met Garen officially, she was already very obviously on his side.
Vera and Kell also sat beside Garen, both of them looking very close to and reliant on him. They could also feel the contemptuous and jealous gazes from around them, so they felt slightly cocky. After all, the early bird caught the worm.
“Nono, that guy’s here too?” a boy beside Vera, called Monty, said suddenly.
“What?” Garen paused slightly, and looked at him for a moment before following his gaze to find a somewhat familiar figure.
Short blue hair, earrings, a tall figure. That boy was currently noting something down, his head lowered.
“It’s the young brother of that Cor who put you in the hospital last time. Last time he brought people over and wanted to teach you a lesson, remember that?” chuckled Monty.
“That incident, huh…” Garen frowned.
“It was not just that, this guy came looking for trouble during the finals as well, trying to trip you up. I heard that he spread the rumor saying that your weakness was your Willpower wasn’t strong enough,” said Monty with a cold laugh. He was Mondo’s younger brother, and his older brother had specifically told him to approach Nonosiva, so this was the best opportunity to show up. Others were afraid of those siblings, but Monty’s family was not intimidated by Cor and Caus. Even if they had the Thousand Year Tree and Black Rose behind them, he had the Blue Narcissus behind him too, so he was not scared of their background. Besides, they were more than a level beneath him in the organization, why would there be anyone willing to cross him for their sake.
“What do you want me to do? We’re bros, so just say the word and I’ll get them on it.”
Garen spun the pen in his fingers.
“It’s all in the past, this way the grudges will never end, so just forget it.”
“You sure are generous,” said Monty with a laugh.
“Nono was never a calculative person,” Vera said softly, as though she was part of the family.
“Fine, fine, fine.” Monty threw two boys a glance, and the two boys sitting behind Garen stood up with a smile, walking out of the classroom. One of the larger guys was working his fists, making loud cracking sounds.
Garen sensed it, but he pretended not to, and he lowered his head and continued to write notes.
Monty laughed.
“I’m going to the loo.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Bam!!!
In a dark corner of the corridor outside, a red-haired boy was hit by a ferocious knee jab, crashing into the wall as blood leaked out the corner of his mouth. His whole face was white, and he was in so much pain he could not even straighten up.
The two large boys pulled him up hard.
“Isn’t he a tough guy, that Caus? He dares to play tricks on my friend, hehe… I wanna see if he would dare to leave the room for his friend.”
Monty crossed his arms over his chest, leaning at the exit and he stared at the red-haired boy, laughing coldly.
“You’re one of Cor’s best friends, and you’re pretty close to Caus too recently. I’ve informed that guy, let’s see if he dares to show his face.”
“Monty… We never provoked you!” said the red-haired boy, his voice muffled.
“You provoked me, alright.” Monty spat on the ground and rubbed it with his foot. “Caus still hasn’t come out? It’s only a dozen seconds by foot from the class, looks like he’s forsaken you and ran off on his own.”
“What are you trying to do? This has nothing to do with me…” The red-haired boy’s heart was growing cold, he knew that these people were so domineering in their grade that even the lecturers could not control them. Their backgrounds were so powerful that no one would say anything even if they permanently disfigured a student or two. To them, it was just a matter of money.
“You’re looking for me, right?” Caus suddenly walked out from a corner and stood behind Monty. Looking at the red-haired student’s blood-covered face, his expression darkened. “Monty, what on earth are you trying to do?”
“Yo, yo… If it isn’t Caus, our newly promoted elite student? That won’t do~~ Elite students are impressive, what are we normal students to do from now on? Master Caus is a future star… Smack!!”
There was suddenly a loud and crisp sound.
Everyone was frozen, no one had thought that Monty would suddenly lash out without warning. Monty was also an expert in fighting, especially in close combat. For him to lash out suddenly, even Caus could not react in time.
He slapped Caus straight in the face, and laughed brutally.
“How is it? Mr. Elite? Fight me?”
Smack!
There was another slap, and the other side of Caus’ face began to swell.
“Why aren’t you fighting back? Aren’t you the inner school’s powerful elite student, why aren’t you resisting?” Monty said eerily. “What do you mean by not fighting back?”
Smack!
Smack! Smack! Smack! …
The slaps landed on Caus’ face one after the other. He continued to stand there quietly, not making a move to fight back, but his previously handsome face was already completed swollen.
In the classroom, Garen raised his watch, and looked at the video sent to it. Seeing that Caus had no intention of fighting back, he remained expressionless, turning off the connection, and continued to listen to the class.