"Lyn Darnell, you brought this on yourself. Don't blame me for what happens next!" Marcus Han's eyes gleamed with venom. He raised his fist again.
"Stop!"
"That's enough!"
Two sharp, feminine voices rang out simultaneously, and two girls leapt onto the stage.
One was Tanya Bing, the ice-cold beauty whose presence always commanded attention. The other, though not quite as striking, was still undeniably attractive: Yan Murong.
"Marcus, one more hit and you'll kill him!" Yan rushed to his side, her voice tense with urgency.
"He asked for it!" Marcus snapped back.
"You better think this through. If you kill him, the Four Noble Clans are all going to suffer the consequences."
Her warning landed hard.
Marcus clenched his jaw, glaring at Lyn. He knew she was right. The Darnell Clan might be in decline, but if they were provoked into retaliation, they wouldn't just target the Han family—they'd target all four houses in the alliance.
Meanwhile, Tanya approached Lyn.
"You've done enough. Get down from here."
"Get out of my way," Lyn growled, his voice low but crackling with surging Qi. The storm inside him had only just begun.
Tanya blinked, caught off guard. "Don't be reckless," she said, this time softly. "It's okay to lose. No one will—"
"MOVE!" Lyn roared. His voice drowned out the entire arena. All went silent.
Tanya's face flushed red, then pale, then red again. She stomped her foot, furious.
"Fine! Go get yourself killed! See if I care!"
Still, she didn't leave. She just jumped off the platform and stood nearby—close enough to intervene if things got out of hand.
Yan tried once more.
"Lyn, listen. You can't keep—"
SMACK!
The sound cracked through the air like lightning.
Yan stood frozen.
Lyn had slapped her.
In all her life, no one—not even her strictest tutors—had dared lay a hand on her. And now this... this "failure of the Darnell clan" had just struck her across the face.
But Lyn was beyond reason. His vision was red, his blood boiling. The last ounce of restraint had vanished.
With a roar, he lunged at Marcus.
His Qi surged, overflowing through his limbs like an unstoppable tide. His veins felt like they were on fire.
He threw a punch—raw, unrefined, and slow. Even a novice could have dodged it.
But Marcus didn't dodge.
He couldn't.
Too confident. Too careless. He met the blow with his own fist.
The clash was thunderous.
A violent burst of energy exploded between them. Lyn felt his body tremble as if something deep inside had broken—no, unlocked. His mind cleared instantly.
Breakthrough!In that moment, his Qi soared.
The first stage of Starflare Qi—successfully achieved.
"ARGHHH!"Marcus screamed as he was flung off his feet and hurled from the stage.
He hit the ground hard.
The entire arena fell silent.
Yan stood frozen. Tanya's eyes widened in disbelief.
No one moved. No one spoke.
Lyn Darnell—the campus laughingstock—had just defeated Marcus Han, the academy's golden boy.
"I… I won…" Lyn whispered, more to himself than anyone else.
But the victory had cost him dearly. A wave of fatigue slammed into him like a crashing tide. His legs gave out.
He collapsed.
Just before his consciousness faded, he felt himself fall into a warm, yet faintly chilling embrace.
Lyn drifted through a storm of dreams—chaotic, surreal. Sometimes he was on Aurelia, other times back on Waterstar Prime. Faces blurred. Locations shifted. A haze of training halls and magical towers twisted into corridors of his academy.
Eventually, the storm faded.
He awoke, blinking up at a ceiling he didn't recognize.
It wasn't his dorm. The scent in the air was floral, the furnishings soft and feminine.
He sat up slowly.
Qi—check.No pain—check.His energy flowed steadily. The breakthrough was real.
"I've done it…" he murmured, grinning. "I can finally pilot a mech."
For years, that had been his dream—not out of pride for the Darnell legacy, not for the name he'd once carried, but because he loved it. The thrill of battle. The surge of metal under his control.
He threw off the covers, heart racing.
But as he stepped into the living room—he froze.
"Hey, you're finally awake."It was Fang Yang, lounging casually on the couch.
Tanya Bing's fiancé.
"Where… am I?" Lyn asked, stiffening.
"Bing's place," Fang answered, yawning. "You feeling alright?"
"Y-yeah." Lyn looked around, still unsure whether to run or apologize.
"She's in the training room," Fang added. "Practicing her Frostcore Technique again. Girl's gonna freeze herself solid one of these days."
He stretched, stood, and added, "Well, now that you're good, I'm off to bed. Don't break anything."
"Right… thanks…"
Lyn remained seated for a while, unsettled. He checked the time—it was past midnight. The Mech Training Center was closed.
And somehow, being in Tanya's house with her fiancé sleeping nearby was… unnerving.
Deciding he'd had enough awkwardness for one day, he quietly left.
He ended up in the Purple Bamboo Grove, where he meditated and trained in magic until dawn.
By morning, his stomach was a battlefield of hunger. At the academy cafeteria, he devoured two bowls of noodles, eight buns, and two fried sticks before walking—refreshed and satisfied—to his real destination:
The Mech Training Center.
This facility was where the academy's mech division honed their combat skills. Fully equipped with a state-of-the-art combat simulation system, it offered the closest thing to real battle short of war itself.
Entry was easy—just swipe a student ID at the front desk, which was manned by a grumpy old man who didn't ask questions.
Inside, students were free to select a mech unit and begin training.
Lyn stood before a gleaming simulator pod, his heart pounding.
This is it.
He climbed in, strapped himself down, placed the neural visor over his eyes, and exhaled slowly.
Let's see what I'm made of…
With a beep, the simulation began.
...