Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lu Yubing was a student at Jiaotong University.

Today was just like any other day where she got up in the morning, showered, put on minimal makeup, and made herself ready for the day. The first lecture today was led by Professor w.a.n.g Xi who was a senior academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an esteemed member of the biological world, but…

Upon stepping into the cla.s.sroom, Lu Yubing did a double-take when she saw the old lecturer standing by the podium.

w.a.n.g Xi?

Who was w.a.n.g Xi? Oh right, senior academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, her biology cla.s.s lecturer.

However…

Lu Yubing frowned in her seat. Her cla.s.smates chatted around her while she sensed a strange cloud looming over her.

There was no mistaking it. She knew who w.a.n.g Xi was, however… There seemed to be no recollection of this professor in her mind whatsoever.

However, it seemed like none of the other students in the cla.s.s were fazed by the appearance of the lecturer. This observation quickly cast away whatever lingering suspicions she had in her mind. Perhaps her mind was just feeling absent today?

Lu Yubing shook her head a few times to wring off the distressed expression. Maybe all this studying was getting to her head. How could she not remember the well-respected Professor w.a.n.g Xi…

The lecture session was forty-five minutes long. Lu Yubing started listening to the lecturer and quickly began zoning out, her trance was suddenly interrupted by the cla.s.s bell ringing.

“Lu, cla.s.s is over, what are you staring at?”

A pet.i.te girl appeared beside Lu Yubing and waved several times to get her attention, then teased her, “Are you thinking about the hottie in the other cla.s.s?”

“What are you talking about?”

Lu Yubing quickly blushed and stammered, “Come on Hui, don't start any strange rumors… I was just thinking that Professor w.a.n.g Xi had been teaching us for the better half of the semester but for some reason, he still feels very alien to me…”

“Hm?”

The pet.i.te girl Lu Yubing addressed as Hui jerked slightly as she heard this. “Now that you mentioned it, I do get the same impression.”

The two exchanged a look. Lu Yubing was about to state something else that came to mind but Hui grabbed her and spoke first, “Alright, it's probably just all in our heads. Who cares right? Let's go to the library before all the good seats are taken!”

Just like that, Lu Yubing evacuated from the lecture hall with her friend.

Moments after stepping out of the lecture hall, she stopped again, this time afflicted with another queer sensation.

Earlier, there was nothing in between her and the door, but why did she feel compelled to walk around an invisible obstacle?

It seemed as if someone was standing in the middle of the path and both she and Hui instinctively knew to get out of that person's way. The problem was… n.o.body was standing there…

Lu Yubing shuddered uncontrollably.

“What's the matter with you?”

Hui noticed Lu Yubing acting strangely and turned to her with a concerned expression. “Are you feeling feverish? You've been zoning out a lot today.”

“No, it's nothing…”

Lu Yubing shook her head and brushed it off. She stole one last look at the cla.s.sroom door and noticed that it was shut without her realizing it…

Although she was still feeling slightly unnerved, she decided that there was no need to overthink it and proceeded to leave with Hui.

It would appear that today was destined to be more than any ordinary day. The moment Lu Yubing and Hui left the lecture building and arrived at the library, Lu Yubing suddenly felt a terrible throb in the center of her heart. She could not identify the source of this sudden sensation. It was as if a demon king had descended to reality or perhaps a rift had been forcefully torn open into time and s.p.a.ce. All she knew was that it left a deep, scarring impression on her!

Lu Yubing subconsciously turned in the direction of the lecture building and witnessed a sight that she would never forget for the rest of her life – a ripple in between the seams of reality, a wholly unfathomable sight, appeared above the building. It was as if reality were split cleanly in half with a sharp blade. The rift emitted a faint yellow-ray within and declared itself with an ominous presence!

The moment she witnessed this bizarre happening, the people around her all clutched their heads with their arms and screamed in pain!

“Lu, my head hurts, it hurts so much!”

Hui screamed in agony. She was in such overwhelming pain that her sharp nails like claws dug into her flesh without herself even realizing it!

“Hui!”

Lu Yubing was horrified by this sight and tried to brush off the throbbing pain in her head and help her friend. She carried Hui into the library and realized that the pain subsided ever so slightly after entering the sheltered s.p.a.ce of the library.

Despite the subsided pain, there was still an overbearing presence cycling inside the depths of her mind, a presence that had a terrible hold on her.

“What in the world is that?”

The people in the library slowly recollected themselves and looked outside the windows, each one of them pointed in the direction of the lecture building. The reality rift above the building vanished as abruptly as it appeared but moments after that, a bolt of green lightning burst out of the building!

The bolt of green lightning was unlike anything any of them had ever witnessed. It seemed to possess a life of its own and continuously spread and expand its web-like pattern outward. Everything it came into contact with was instantly vaporized into the barest molecular form!

They heard the concrete structure of the building crumbling around them!

In a split instant, the entire lecture building was vaporized into a cloud of dust. Amid the formation of smoke and dust were two faint figures.

Lu Yubing approached the window and looked outside, petrified with fear. She saw the two figures levitating mid-air. One of which was a figure completely covered in metallic sh.e.l.ls and had a metallic wing as well as a tail growing out its back. This was the ent.i.ty that produced the Armageddon bolt of lightning. It was a divine ent.i.ty that descended into the realm of mankind!

The other figure that seemed to oppose it was an ordinary human figure. With one simple glance, Lu Yubing could tell that this seemingly ordinary human figure was no mere mortal. How could an otherwise regular person stand amid the ever-expanding lightning storm and survive the instant vaporization of the entire building?

“Holy c.r.a.p, what or who is that?”

“Is it a robot? The terminator? Is this Dragonball?”

“Get out of here! Those are two psionicists battling it out!”

“Let's get out of here! That one who controls lightning demolished the entire lecture building in an instant. There's no way this building can do any better!”

Somebody cried out and alerted everyone in the library. Everyone shared the same sentiment and began to panic and scramble toward the back exit of the library!

“Lu, let's go!”

Hui cried out and followed the rest to the exit.

“Hui! Hui!”

Lu Yubing called after her friend and chased after her heels. Somewhere along the lines, the previous haunting feeling in her chest faded away but was replaced with another variant of heavy sensation like a boulder was placed over her chest. The more she ran, the harder it became to breathe.

“Boom!”

As soon as Lu Yubing made it out of the library, her ears were filled with the mighty crash of an earth-shattering explosion. The sky above was transformed into a sheet of dazzling green from the glow of the bolt of lightning!

The ground below her feet quaked like the Earth was being pulled apart in all directions!

Was it even possible for humans to achieve such great feats of destruction?

The thought crossed Lu Yubing's terrified mind.

“Run!”

“Go! Go! Go!”

“Help, can anybody save us!”

Lu Yubing found herself surrounded by harrowing cries of desperation all around her. Some people could not find the strength to even move their feet anymore and knelt on the ground helplessly. She wanted to help them but suddenly, the library was blown apart, and sent gigantic blocks of projectile concrete cras.h.i.+ng into the crowd. With her very own eyes, she saw some of them crushed under the weight of the boulder!

“Ah!”

More shattered concrete rained around her. She winced in fear but knew that she had to continue running. Every single thought in her mind in this instant was silenced. The only thing she understood at this moment was that she had to get as far away from here as possible!

More deafening noises filled her ears and more projectiles crashed all around her. The destruction transformed the entire compound into a h.e.l.lscape and when she finally ran out of strength to run, she looked around herself to see that the entire schoolyard was a ruin of concrete and the occasional splattered blood and body remnants.

“Boom!”

While Lu Yubing's mind was arrested with shock, she heard a mighty crash some distance behind her that made her jump. She sensed a presence behind her that was not as powerful as the previous presence she felt.

Lu Yubing fearfully turned around to see a dark-haired young man with darker eyes lying on the ground. His body was in horrible shape. Meanwhile, a metallic figure slowly descended from the sky above, emitting dazzling glows of green light around its silhouette. Its presence was sinister…

“Chen Chen, you've lost.”

The metallic figure seemed to speak by creating deep vibrations in the air around it. As alien as it appeared, it spoke perfect Chinese, “You who have had your psionic power suppressed and have only obtained a tiny quarter of my species are no match for me. This power you hold so much esteem in can only be compared to that of an infant.”

“I've lost?”

The young man on the ground made a valiant effort of getting up with one arm as the other arm was severed. He then grimaced. “You think you've defeated me?”

After that, sprouts of flesh emerged from the torn flesh that once held the man's severed arm. They crawled and intertwined with each other to form shapes to repair the man's body. The sheer sight of it made Lu Yubing's skin crawl.

“You're too naive if you think that your inventions can save you.”

The metallic figure remarked coldly, then waved his hand slightly and called the bolts of green lightning in the air, and beckoned them to his command. In an instant, they burst with a mighty explosion like a firework!

Amid the thunderous crash, enormous battle s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps appeared in the sky above!

Lu Yubing looked up, the horror had become a permanent fixture in her eyes at this point. She did not know how the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p appeared out of nowhere or perhaps it had been camouflaged in the sky above all along. However, their appearance only lasted a brief moment because the entire fleet of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps was blown apart by the bolts of lightning in an instant!

The city that was already largely devastated by this point was once again a.s.saulted by a rain of falling components of the destroyed s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. It set off explosions of various magnitudes all over the city and plunged the city into a sea of flames!

“Chen Chen, do you truly believe that earthly technologies could pose any harm for someone like me?”

The sky burned and the figure stood amid the fiery destruction, completely unaffected. Its clear and deep voice continued traveling through the air and reaching the ones below. “Since the birth of our species, we've seen countless civilizations, many of which are more powerful than mankind. We've seen them harness the power of nuclear fusion combined with antimatter and vacuum zero-point energy. At least those civilizations may pose some slight problems for us but human beings? Human beings are simply too primitive compared to them and hardly worth our time…”

“Heh, hehe…”

Despite having his fleet wiped out in an instant, the dark-haired young man chuckled at his predicament. In time, he broke into a burst of terrific laughter!

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

“What are you laughing about?”

The metallic figure hovering above was taken aback by this sudden outburst of laughter from the young man. “If this is your idea of buying time, I have to say that I expected better of you.

“w.a.n.g Xi, there's one thing that you forgot.”

The intimidating response of the dark-haired young man sent s.h.i.+vers down Lu Yubing's spine. “Of course, it's a simple task for you to kill me right here and now but don't forget that I have my artificial intelligence a.s.sistant. The moment I die, my a.s.sistant will detonate the nuclear weapons deposited around the world and simultaneously bring an end to the Dyson cloud project still under development. This will trigger a never-before-seen solar storm that will take all of mankind with me to the grave!

“This way, your plans are crippled as well. Your dreams of achieving G.o.dhood will turn to dust!”

What?

Lu Yubing looked at the dark-haired young man who had just uttered the most inconceivable sentence she had ever heard in her lifetime. This devil intended to bring all of mankind down with him? Could the metallic figure above be the savior of mankind while this human was the villain? Was this what this battle was about?

Hold on, this metallic figure built like an iron soldier was Professor w.a.n.g Xi?

“What?”

Even the metallic figure was taken aback by this declaration. The surge of electricity around him seemed to stop as well while he puzzled over the threat. If the metallic figure had anything resembling human expression, it would undoubtedly be one of great confusion now.

“Do you have any idea what you're saying?”

The metallic figure stopped for a moment and rebuked harshly, “Chen Chen, I know you better than you know yourself! I was the one who gave you a lesson on the sanct.i.ty of mankind and the pursuit of righteousness… How could someone like you who claims to be a guardian of mankind intend to bring it down with you in the moment of your death?”

“Why would I care about all that if I'm going to die anyway?”

A cruel flash appeared in the young man's eyes. He bore a smile with two rows of pearly white teeth exposed. “Come on, kill me! It's now or never!”

Faced with this difficult decision, the metallic figure suddenly hesitated.

“Kill him! Now!”

While the metallic figure was still puzzling over the difficult dilemma, Lu Yubing could not sit by idly as a silent observer anymore and screamed at the top of her voice, “Hurry up and kill him! I'd rather mankind die than to have our lives held hostage by a villain like him!”

Lu Yubing held back her tears and shouted, “All of my cla.s.smates died and our city was destroyed without repair. If you don't kill him now, you're desecrating the innocent lives lost!”

Both the metallic figure and the dark-haired young man looked in Lu Yubing's direction in unison, then exchanged an odd look with each other. There was not a word exchanged between them.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere became quite awkward.