The aftermath of the "Midterm Ballet" didn't result in a suspension. Instead, it resulted in a black, silent hover-jet landing on the university's pristine quad.
Out stepped a woman in a suit made of "Phase-Silk"—fabric that literally blurred at the edges, making her difficult for a normal human eye to track. She wasn't from the Council, and she wasn't from the Bureau. She was from the Aethelgard Academy, a legendary institution hidden in the "Folded Space" of the Himalayas, designed to scout and train the "Specially Gifted."
"Li Ren," she said, her voice sounding like three people speaking in perfect unison. "Your 'Vibrationism' has triggered a Class-S sensor alert at our sanctuary. You are no longer a student of engineering. You are a candidate for the Vanguard of the New Epoch."
I looked at her, then at the jet, then at the Bio-Human currently hiding behind a pillar forty feet away—a grey-skinned man whose eyes were glowing with the artificial light of a siphoned soul.
"Is there a scholarship involved?" I asked, my voice flat. "Because I really don't want to take out more loans."
The Bio-Human didn't wait for my answer. He was the first of the "Restorationist" successes—Subject Alpha. His nervous system had been replaced with superconducting fibers, allowing him to move at speeds that ignored the local drag of air.
He lunged.
To the Academy recruiter, he was a threat. To me, he was a walking "Update Error." As he closed the distance, his hand glowing with the jagged golden energy stolen from Zhou Min, I didn't even drop my backpack. I simply adjusted my "Dao-Dash" frequency to 'Active Friction.'
Alpha hit an invisible wall of hyper-dense air. He didn't just stop; he bounced. He hit the ground and skidded past the Recruiter, his artificial energy sparking uselessly against the pavement like a broken toaster.
"Interesting," the Recruiter murmured, not even flinching. "You stabilized the air molecules in his path without a single hand seal. Your 'Vibrationism' is... remarkably efficient."
"He's coming with me," Lin Yue said, stepping out from the crowd of gaping students. She flashed a digital badge that made the Recruiter's eyes widen. "The Lin-Gong Group has proprietary rights to his 'subscription service.' If you want him, you have to go through the CEO."
She grabbed my arm and leaned in close. "The Academy is a cage, Ren. But they have the coordinates to the Bio-Battery facility. We use the jet to find the site, then we 'accidentally' crash the recruitment meeting to liberate the batteries."
"A rescue mission disguised as a school trip?" I asked, a grin tugging at my lips. "That's surprisingly efficient."
"I call it 'Corporate Synergy'," she winked.
As we boarded the jet—much to the confusion of the Recruiter—the internal "System" began to hum with a new, deeper frequency.
[NEW FACTION UNLOCKED: THE AETHELGARD ACADEMY]
[NOTE: THEY BELIEVE YOU ARE A 'NATURAL MUTANT'. RECOMMENDATION: CONTINUE THE LIE. IT IS MUCH EASIER TO BE A MUTANT THAN A DEITY IN A TAX-PAYING WORLD.]
[WARNING: BIO-HUMAN ALPHA IS NOT ALONE. THE RESTORATIONISTS ARE USING THE ACADEMY'S SCOUTING DRONES TO TRACK THE JET TO THEIR OWN BASE.]
I sat back in the plush, phase-silk seats, sipping a beverage that tasted like liquid rubies. Below us, the city of neon and steel began to shrink. Ahead lay the frozen peaks of the Himalayas, and beneath them, the dark, pulsing heart of a forgotten era trying to claw its way back.
"Ren," Lin Yue said, looking out the window as we breached the clouds. "If we pull this off, Dao-Dash is going to need a lot more than a 50 Yuan subscription fee. We're going to need a standing army."
"One thing at a time, COO," I said, closing my eyes to synchronize with the world's foundation.
"I still haven't seen the results of my midterm."