"Ah!!!"
Shortly after Tendo finished speaking, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from Vivian inside the steam furnace. Although there were no visible wounds on her exposed skin, her face was pale, her expression was twisted in agony, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
It wasn't a physical pain. It was a immense torment from her soul—a sensation of being burned, torn, and reshaped. At this moment, Vivian was like a person undergoing the cruel torture of having her heart pierced by five fingers, with her senses magnified tens of thousands of times. Yet, she couldn't even pass out. Due to the unique nature of the soul, even if her body went into a self-protective coma, her soul would remain conscious, forced to endure this seemingly endless punishment.
Inside the steam furnace, Vivian stared intently at the emotionless figure standing just outside. She wanted to say something, but she was so tormented she didn't even have the strength to lift her eyelids, let alone speak.
In this situation, even Tendo's fans began to have some different thoughts. After all, they lived in a peaceful era and were watching the story from a god's-eye perspective. Most of them had the purest notions of good and evil and instinctively held every character in the show to these standards. This had nothing to do with whether they were good or bad people; it was determined by their inherent viewpoint.
"I've always known that Tendo is an overbearing character who never considers anyone's feelings, but isn't what he's doing a little too cruel right now?"
"Vivian looks so miserable."
"I'm done. Why do I feel like Tendo-sama's character design is breaking?"
"Didn't you guys forget what Tendo said to little Danica before? He's clearly helping Vivian, not hurting her!"
"Does a reason justify torturing someone like this? Is her pain fake? Does Vivian look like she's being saved?"
"I believe in Tendo. He's the kind of guy who would put himself on the line to create a perfect ending!"
Because of Vivian's horrific pain and Tendo's cold indifference, the once-unanimous "Tendo-sama" barrage of comments began to be mixed with more and more doubts and expressions of sympathy. After all, pitying an innocent victim is a fundamental human emotion for any person with a conscience.
However, Tendo never intended to offer any explanation for these comments. He needed the dimensional audience to discover, understand, and finally "apologize" to him on their own. The deeper the misunderstanding and the deeper the pain caused by it, the more guilty this part of the audience would feel in the end, leading them to want to "make up for it." They would use every means possible to help Tendo gain more "attention" and "popularity," thereby achieving their "atonement."
Therefore, in a sense, Tendo's "Above the Heavens" was not just a trap aimed at the protagonist, Chen Kong, to reap popularity; it was also a trap for the dimensional audience. In his pursuit of the "Beautiful, Strong, and Tragic" archetype, Tendo had long surpassed the other star characters. He knew exactly how to create the "tragedy" in the hearts of the dimensional audience without having to suffer himself. Children have to choose one or the other, but the grown-up Tendo wanted it all!
Not long after Vivian's painful, soul-deep cry, Chen Kong, who had just entered this quantum space, looked up abruptly and turned his gaze toward the source of the sound.
But before he could pinpoint Vivian's exact location, everyone, including Chen Kong, immediately noticed the bizarre, violent fluctuations in the surrounding space.
"Watch out! It's a quantum leap storm!"
Rias, the captain of the Steam Faction's Second Squad, suddenly screamed. His mechanical eye flickered wildly with data streams. "Everyone, hold onto your quantum beacons! If you let go, you'll be lost forever in the data torrent, and not even dust will be left!"
Before his words had even landed, a data torrent surged toward them like a tsunami. In the light green sea of data, Chen Kong instinctively clutched the dagger-shaped beacon in his hand. Although he wanted to help others, in the face of this powerful "tsunami," he could only watch helplessly as his companions were swept away like leaves by the data torrent, disappearing from his sight in an instant.
Soon, he too was swallowed by the violent data torrent.
On the other side of the quantum space, in a special space that replicated the old training grounds of the Embers Base, Chen Xing sat cross-legged in the center of the ring, with her eyes closed in meditation. Behind her was a massive quantum screen. The screen not only listed the location of all ten squad captains and vice-captains who had entered the quantum space, including Chen Kong, but also their basic Star Energy values and corresponding power levels.
The strongest among them was the captain of the Steam Faction's First Squad, a "madman" nicknamed "Mechanical Frenzy"—Yae Zai.
[Name: Yae Zai]
[Identity: Captain of Steam Faction's First Squad]
[Star Energy Value: 9870]
[Level: Third-Tier Upper]
Accompanied by a swirling green and black quantum space rift that blossomed on the ceiling of the training grounds, a muscular man dropped down with a clang, smashing heavily onto the open space not far from Chen Xing.
Yae Zai got up from the ground and patted the moon-white captain's robe on his body. Then, his solitary eye, not covered by a metal eye patch, looked at the high-ponytail woman in the center of the ring and said in a confused tone, "Hmm? Sun-God's Cursed Blade, why are you here?"
In response to his question, Chen Xing slowly opened her eyes. Her crimson pupils gleamed in the dim light. She stood up, and the cursed blade at her waist made a faint clinking sound as she moved.
"Two choices: defeat me, or… die here."
Yae Zai was stunned for a moment, then his lone eye lit up with a flash of excited red light. He grinned, revealing a terrifyingly savage smile.
"So you're Tendo's helper! How interesting, so interesting!"
Whoosh!
As he spoke, Yae Zai drew the rusty, seemingly about-to-shatter broken blade from his waist. He then ripped off his bothersome captain's robe. Under his open black combat suit, the power core on his chest released energy that made the air feel hot.
"Hahaha, come on, let's have a good fight! I've been wanting to do this for a long time, but that old geezer Liam said it wasn't a proper way to welcome guests and told me I couldn't be so rude. It was killing me!"
"But now you're the one who made the request, so even if that old geezer Liam finds out, he can't say a word against me! Hahaha!"
Looking at the dense, horrific scars on Yae Zai's skin and feeling his unadulterated, primal desire for a frenzied battle, Chen Xing smiled, a rare occurrence for her.
She loved this feeling—a twisted desire that had nothing to do with justice or a particular stance, but was all about the pursuit of the ultimate thrill of combat. And this twisted, pure desire perfectly matched the killing instinct deep within her soul.
That's why she had specifically teleported Yae Zai to her side. She wanted to have a good time playing with this guy. After all, interesting toys like him were a rare find.