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Character List
[dropdown title=”Character List”]Qiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Zhuang Yu: A doctor in ML’s army.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Sang Bu: MC’s roommate. Information System major.
Yun Xiachu: MC’s classmate, a first-grader at intermediate college.
As students began to exit the classroom, Qiao Zhiya decided to stay. He set an alarm clock to remind him of the class time in the afternoon, then continued to dig through his notes.
The midday sun shone warmly through the window, casting Qiao Zhiya’s figure on the table as a long shadow. Ning Kongran, who had just finished his research in the morning, came down from upstairs. When he passed this corridor, he noticed the shadow on the table.
What appeared first was a hand holding an electronic pen, then a slender wrist with a beautiful curve, an arm wrapped in a school uniform, and finally, a slender, graceful body. The young man’s fluffy golden hair was lowered, covering up his face and nameplate on his chest. Two prominent, pointy ears were peeked out from the golden strands of hair.
Ning Kongran, who was just taking a casual glance, suddenly stopped. He instinctively turned his body to the side, blocking a ray of sunlight that slanted in.
Qiao Zhiya, who noticed the change in the light, froze for a moment. He stopped his hand that was just writing down his notes. Then, he looked up at the place where the light changed, and met a pair of gentle amber pupils. He was startled, and quickly sat up straight and moved back a little, his ears subconsciously trembled.
Ning Kongran also turned back as if frightened, and took a step to leave. He hesitated for a moment, then took back the foot he had stepped out, turned around, and walked back a few steps. He decided to open the window that Qiao Zhiya was leaning against.
As the taller man looked at him, he said in a gentle tone, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you just now.”
“It’s okay.” Seeing that the other party was so friendly and polite, Qiao Zhiya quickly sat upright and waved his hands to indicate that it’s fine. He looked at the empty corridor outside and felt embarrassed to ask.
“Is it forbidden to stay in the classroom after class? Sorry, I don’t know…” Qiao Zhiya thought this must be the case. Otherwise, why did this person stand outside and look at him so strangely just now?
Ning Kongran finally saw his face clearly. His gaze lingered on the pointy ears, then quickly darted on the nameplate and the e-book scattered on the desk. He replied, “It can be used, as long as you leave before another class starts… Are you a first-year student?”
“Yeah.” Qiao Zhiya nodded, hesitated for a while before introducing himself, “Hello, I’m Qiao Zhiya.” He tried to be as polite as possible, but it came out a little stilted instead.
The young man’s voice was very nice. It would be even better if there was no hint of caution in it.
“Ning Kongran, fifth grade.”
The taller man then took a step back, leaving a safe distance between the two of them that was neither rude or offensive. With a kind smile and tone, he continued, “I’m here to use a facility near this classroom. Just a friendly advice: if you want to accelerate your understanding in mecha manufacturing, you can go to the Internet. The opening hours of the laboratory building in Campus C are limited, and it is not convenient for students from other campuses to review after class.”
Ah, so it was possible to practice mecha manufacturing using the starnet cabin?
Qiao Zhiya was taken aback for a moment, and immediately became pleasantly surprised after digesting the information. He couldn’t help showing him a big smile, and said gratefully, “Thank you for reminding me. If I have a chance, I will go.”
This was good news. If there was available teaching material on the Internet, he could learn even faster!
When he spoke, Qiao Zhiya subconsciously turned his head to the side, revealing the spiritual power simulator worn on his ear. Ning Kongran, who was wondering why Qiao Zhiya replied like that, immediately had a realization. He looked dumbfounded – no wonder he could feel a hint of annoyance in the youth’s voice.
“I’m sorry, that must’ve been rude of me,” He apologized again, politely not looking at the simulator in Qiao Zhiya’s ear.
Qiao Zhiya was puzzled and looked at him strangely. Why was he apologizing again? Did he accidentally slight him or something?
‘It’s been a long time since I saw such pure and clear eyes…’  Ning Kongran thought. Suddenly, his communicator’s notification sound rang. While taking a glance at Qiao Zhiya’s pure, green eyes, he glanced at the message that was just sent to his communicator.
“Well, it is nice to meet you, senior. See you next time.” Qiao Zhiya smiled and waved his hands, tactfully posing to end their conversation.
Ning Kongran paused as he turned off his communicator. He looked at him gently for a few seconds, put a smile on his face again, nodded and replied: “Me too… See you next time.”
“Goodbye.” Qiao Zhiya responded with a smile.
His review progress was interrupted by this strange man who suddenly appeared. Qiao Zhiya picked up his electronic pen, got up, and packed up his things. He then went to the next classroom ahead of schedule. It should be still in the Campus C area, around the laboratory buildings.
On the way there, he met a few senior students returning from dinner. He belatedly had a realization – since Ning Kongran was a fifth grade student, he should be about the same age as Chu Yan, but why did the taller man look so mature? He didn’t look like a seventeen or eighteen year old at all, but looked like he was in his early twenties.
Was he repeating a year?
He thought of Ning Kongran’s dignified yet gentle aura, and shook his head to deny the guess – it shouldn’t be that case. Such a confident and indifferent temperament did not seem to be exuded by a repeat student.
If he couldn’t find the reason, then he should have shelved it for later. He put these doubts behind him, and quickly stepped into the gate of the laboratory building. He could see Chu Rong after the afternoon practical class, and he missed him very much after being separated for a few days.
The first-grade mecha manufacturing practice class was very simple. It was the basic of all basics – recognizing various materials and tools. Overall, very boring and dull.
Because he had missed two whole months worth of content, Qiao Zhiya had to make up a lot of class materials. Fortunately, he had a good memory, almost photographic in nature, and he made up very quickly.
Not far from Qiao Zhiya was a familiar boy, Yun Xiachu. He deliberately lingering around, ready to help the older youth to make up for his lessons as soon as he asked for help. However, since Qiao Zhiya didn’t ask him at all, Yun Xiachu’s face became darker and darker. He finally stopped by his side, staring at him with a stern face as he thought:
‘Hmph! He’s an Exoplanet Native, so why didn’t he ask me about the past lessons?? Is he going to give up catching up with this class? You can’t do that! Don’t give up!!’
His gaze was so hot that Qiao Zhiya was finally burned out of the ocean of learning by his eyes. He glanced at the young boy and asked with concern, “What’s the matter, is there something you don’t understand?”
Yun Xiachu’s eyes that had just lit up darkened again, then glared at him with increased intensity. His milky voice got high and almost cracked, “I-I’ts you who don’t understand!! I learned these basic things when I was five years old, how could I not understand!” He turned around and ran away. He was so angry that he almost tripped on his way out.
Qiao Zhiya: “…” Sure enough, he was a pre-teen baby. Such a strong temper, his explosion point was  also very incomprehensible.
After the afternoon practical class ended, Qiao Zhiya used a communicator to contact Chu Yan. After learning that the other party was going to practice with Yuan Xiu this weekend and therefore would not go home, Qiao Zhiya decided to not go back to his dorm room to change his clothes. Instead, he went to the south school gate, and ran towards a black hover car parked at the corner of the street.
Chu Rong opened the car door at the right time, and stretched out his hand to grab Qiao Zhiya who ran up to him.
The door of the car was closed immediately. The vehicle then drove off at a speed fast enough that other students nearby did not see anything clearly.
“Chu Rong!” As soon as Qiao Zhiya’s foot landed, he immediately stretched out his arms and rushed towards the tall man with a cold face, rubbed his head on the White-Haired Monster’s chest, and said excitedly, “I miss you so much, do you miss me? Have you ordered a batch of good jade? When I get home, I’ll make you another potion, okay?”
“Sit down!” Chu Rong let go of his back collar and reprimanded him. But his heart was soft to this clingy Bald Chicken. He rubbed his fluffy blond hair, pinched his pointy ears, and continued his lecture, “How can you run out like that? What would you do if you hit something? Too reckless.”
Qiao Zhiya tilted his head to let Chu Rong rub his ears better. Despite the White-Haired Monster’s knife mouth, he knew that he actually had a tofu heart1knife mouth, tofu heart = tsundere basically. Insulting/being hard towards something despite actually liking the said thing.. The youth’s happiness was undisguised, and he smiled as he replied, “I’m paying attention; look, I didn’t hit you with my flying hug right? How long have you been here? Have you eaten? Campus C is too far away from here. I could have come out earlier.”
“Why didn’t you change your uniform out?” Chu Rong pushed him away with disgust. He still somehow managed to rub the youth’s ears vigorously before retracting his hand. Then, he tried to clean the stain on his chest as he asked, “What is this? You got into a fight at school? “
Qiao Zhiya looked down, shook his head and explained: “No, this afternoon is the practical class of mecha manufacturing, and it’s about identifying the tools used. I think I accidentally spilled some oil while doing maintenance practice on one of the tools there.”
In fact, Chu Rong knew his course schedule and had already guessed the source of the stain. But he still succumbed to his impulsive nature and asked the youth.
The Marshal frowned, feeling a little irritated because of this slight sense of loss of control. His eyes met Qiao Zhiya’s purely joyful eyes, and the irritability immediately dissipated a lot. He raised his hand and brushed the youth’s long bangs, and said, “Let’s go for a physical check-up first. After that, we’ll go home and have dinner.”
“Okay.” Qiao Zhiya nodded obediently. Unable to suppress his excitement, he raised his hand and took out a large pile of mechanical dolls from his space ring and put them on the chair. From the pile, he picked the largest, the most delicate and intricate. He then presented it in front of Chu Rong. “I made this for you. Do you like it? There is also a magic stone embedded inside this one, with a magic circle painted on the inner wall. So, you can put this in your study to relieve fatigue.”
“…you actually drew a magic circle at school. What did I tell you before?” Chu Rong’s face darkened.
Qiao Zhiya was stunned. With a careful look, he slowly retracted his hands and lowered his voice. Appearing guilty, he defended himself, “I have locked the door, and I asked Qiuqiu to watch for me, so I won’t be discovered, I swear.”
“I will not let this one slide.” Chu Rong raised his hand and pulled his ear. He took a look at the animal-shaped mechanical doll, put it away under Qiao Zhiya’s expectant eyes, nodded and said: “However, your craft is not bad.”
With his creation affirmed, Qiao Zhiya immediately became happy. He excitedly started to introduce other dolls to the Marshal.
Chu Rong listened to him quietly, responding a few words from time to time, and he gradually softened up.
The hover car stopped in front of the white building that he visited last time. Chu Rong took Qiao Zhiya to the eighteenth floor through a special lift. There, they met Zhuang Yu. Chu Rong immediately asked the doctor to do another check-up like last time.
“Some spiritual fluctuations are detected. However, they are very weak and unstable. Only one instrument – the most sensitive one – can detect it.” Zhuang Yu reported excitedly. As she reread the test sheet in her hand, she became even more excited with the implication of this data. She was so happy that she wanted to hug Qiao Zhiya and rub him bald2means to rub him for long periods of time, to the point he’ll become bald because of too much rubbing, which leads to hair loss..
Qiao Zhiya, who noticed her intention, immediately hid behind Chu Rong. In return, he got an unpredictable look from Chu Rong.
“Can the physical examination at the military academy detect this change?” Chu Rong asked.
Zhuang Yu immediately put away her joking mood, and replied seriously: “No, the instruments in the military academy are not even comparable to those in the military department, let alone the ones here. But if Qiao’s power grows again… then I can’t predict the outcome.”
Chu Rong frowned even deeper. He looked back at Qiao Zhiya, and asked, “Are you sure your spiritual strength hasn’t gotten stronger recently?”
“Nope.” Qiao Zhiya shook his head. He glanced back and forth at the two of them, and told them his own guess, “I suspect that the change is actually related to the stone grass. To be precise, it is related to the potion made from the stone grass.”
After that day, he paid special attention to his own power. After repeatedly confirming that his spiritual power did not increase, he began to recall carefully all events that might influence someone’s spiritual power. In the end, he could only pinpoint the stone grass as the most likely culprit.
The wood-type magic power contained in the stone grass was very rich, and this was probably caused by the long-term exposure to the energy storm at the red tin mine. Due to the harsh conditions, only the plant that had mutations in this aspect could survive. And that mutations lead to the hyperactive wood-type magical power contained within3this was changed a bit from the original: “In order to increase its survivability, some mutations have occurred inside the stone grass, which made the wood-type magic elements in its body very active.” because Evolution Doesn’t Work Like That. I’ll explain more in my nerd-corner below..
To put it into perspective: most normal plants had the innate wood-type magic power of 50. Then, the magic activity of this stone grass was at least 80.
He purified the stone grass’ essence when making potions, and later infused it with spiritual power soothing agents. Because he used his own magic power during the process, there’s a high probability that he had absorbed some trace elements of the grass’ magic power. Thanks to that addition, his total magic power had temporarily increased.
“–And I think that activity will be slowly metabolized away. After all, I am not a stone grass, and I don’t have the proper anatomy to support that level of magic power.” Qiao Zhiya finished his guess, and then added: “To prove my conjecture… let’s do a controlled experiment with a starnet cabin.”
Chu Rong immediately signaled Zhuang Yu to fetch a special helmet from the medical room.
Qiao Zhiya skillfully put on the helmet again, and this time there was no robotic sound in his ears. He then took off his helmet, looked at Chu Rong and Zhuang Yu, and shook his head, “I can’t log in anymore.”
In other words, the spiritual power brought by the stone grass had almost completely disappeared. This meant that the spiritual power he used to log into the Internet before was just his magic power that was infected by the activity in the stone grass. Because his magic power at that time was particularly active, it managed to be detected by the starnet cabin and misunderstood as spiritual power.
Zhuang Yu’s face fell when she heard his words. She was a little frustrated: “How could this be? I thought I could help you improve your spiritual strength…”
Chu Rong frowned, thoughtful.
Qiao Zhiya glanced at their expressions, looked down at the starnet helmet in his hand. He actually felt a little joy in his heart.
His speculation had been confirmed. This actually… gave him a hint – if he could find a way to increase his pool of magic power, the devices of this world could detect it as a spiritual power.
This was huge for him!
Mae's nerd corner
How evolution actually works AKA why it’s called “survival of the fittest”:
To start, “mutations” just mean a part of your DNA suddenly becomes wonky due to various reason (example: UV radiation, or your body machinery just decides to skip its work and fucked up a part of it during DNA replication). This happens randomly to a random part of your DNA! It cannot purposefully change the part that would be beneficial for you. If it somehow does, you just got lucky. Also, most of the time, if a mutation occurs, your body would Eliminate it immediately.
Though, there IS something called “epigenetics” that could modify your DNA (or the central dogma) depends the environmental condition. But that’s a separate thing and We Don’t Have Time To Unpack That. Go youtube it if you’re really curious.
*) central dogma: the process of making an amino acids from DNA. It goes like this: DNA –transcription–> mRNA –> tRNA –translation–> amino acids (outside of central dogma) –polymerization–> protein.
Let’s now talk about those Darwin finches thingie. A flock of finches somehow made its way to the Galapagos, a place very different from its previous environment. Let’s say there’s two groups of finches in a place: Group A and Group B.
Group A had a mutation that makes its feather twice as silky, while group B had a mutation that makes its beak shorter but stronger. Group A couldn’t find food that could sustain its population because they had E-level luck for the mutation lottery. While Group B’s mutation accidentally makes them better at eating seeds, which was plenty in this new environment. This means finches in Group A would die of starvation, while Group B would be thriving and able to reproduce.
With time, only finches from Group B can repopulate the place. Which means, now all of their children have this “short but stronger” beaks, which is different from the original finches. This long, long process is what we call Evolution.
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
1knife mouth, tofu heart = tsundere basically. Insulting/being hard towards something despite actually liking the said thing.2means to rub him for long periods of time, to the point he’ll become bald because of too much rubbing, which leads to hair loss.3this was changed a bit from the original: “In order to increase its survivability, some mutations have occurred inside the stone grass, which made the wood-type magic elements in its body very active.” because Evolution Doesn’t Work Like That. I’ll explain more in my nerd-corner below.