Rival

In the next round of training, Xu Lingqu held her position steadily in the middle of the pack. Everyone was buzzing about how she'd improved so suddenly. Eventually, they decided that while the change had been fast, it wasn't completely out of the blue. Looking back over the past few days, it was clear she'd been gradually keeping up with the physical conditioning drills—she'd just been at the very back, and no one had noticed. In just a few days, she'd gone from a nobody to a five-directional warrior, with only her mental power as a weak point.

Lin Xiao was thrilled about her roommate's transformation. Though she and Xu Lingqu weren't exactly close, it felt like betting on the right pick in the Sky Network's mech tournament quarterfinals—she'd made the right call, and it proved her judgment was anything but ordinary. Besides, in combat training, their group had genuinely benefited from riding on her coattails. The only pity was that the training base had signal jamming; otherwise, she'd be bragging to her friends every day about being roommates with Moye Military Academy's "Polaris."

The fingerprint lock clicked open—Polaris herself, Xu Lingqu, had just returned from the infirmary. Her physical condition had been alarmingly poor at the start, so the room for improvement after intense training was large and relatively easy to gain, like dragging a score from zero—or even negative—up to the passing line of sixty. Pushing beyond that was where it got difficult. Doctor Li had just discussed the drawbacks of her physique with her: she couldn't keep pushing herself to the absolute limit every single time, or her progress would become agonizingly slow. Riding the edge of physical limits was dangerous in practice, and without the reckless-yet-life-preserving mindset Xu Lingqu had shown in the earlier days, it would be almost impossible to trigger that state successfully.

"But don't rush yourself," Doctor Li had offered in consolation. "Your specialty is the commander track anyway. Your current physical fitness is more than adequate."

Just a commander... The image of that tall white mech flashed through Xu Lingqu's mind again. She climbed onto her bunk and lay down, suddenly realizing she missed Liu Ming. Sure, Jin and Xu Xiqin liked to chatter and make a fuss around her too, but it wasn't the same. Liu Ming's Samoyed-lifeform was far more comforting and endearing to look at than any human.

The door opened again. Lin Xiao shifted her covert gaze away from Xu Lingqu and toward Liu Zheng, who had just walked in. This S-level psychic girl, destined to become a mech pilot, wore an expression of exhaustion. Lin Xiao knew her a bit better than she knew Xu Lingqu, and that was how she knew—Liu Zheng had secretly been pushing herself with extra training lately.

During Moye Military Academy's trial period, the two most watched figures were Shen Shouli and Liu Zheng. The two of them had once put on a spectacular showdown on the sparring platform that drew every student over to watch. Every year, each of the six military academies produced their crop of standout figures. Everyone assumed Moye's would come from those two—but lately, it was plain to see that the spotlight had basically been "stolen" by Xu Lingqu. Whether through admiration or mockery, all eyes had turned to Xu Lingqu, including the instructors'. Lin Xiao could understand that Liu Zheng felt real pressure because of it.

And Liu Zheng herself thought the same. She was talented enough that Moye Military Academy's recruitment officers had come to her first, actively offering very tempting terms. Liu Zheng knew exactly what she was worth. Moye meant to overhaul its reputation this year, to stage a comeback in the military academy league. They needed outstanding students to stand out and hoist the banner, and the trial period was the perfect chance to prove it. Up until the combat training, she'd believed her greatest "rival" would be Shen Shouli. On the ring, he'd given her plenty of pressure and made her realize what a severe challenge she was facing. But right now, the light radiating from Xu Lingqu alone was drowning out everyone—including Shen Shouli, whom she'd deemed strong and dazzling enough.

Liu Zheng felt a little breathless. She put her things away and glanced over—Xu Lingqu had already drifted off to sleep. Liu Zheng felt a touch lost. As a roommate, she had witnessed Xu Lingqu's self-regulation firsthand. Xu Lingqu was, completely and utterly, a person with "no one else in her eyes." Unlike the psychological expectations Liu Zheng had set for herself, Xu Lingqu didn't seem to treat anyone as a rival. Everything she did each day was about surpassing herself. No matter the results, she never grew anxious or discouraged.

Liu Zheng lay on her bed, hands pillowed behind her head, staring at the ceiling and listening to the steady breathing from the bed beside her. Gradually, her heart calmed down as well. Xu Lingqu must have some kind of special magic—one that could quiet and steady everyone around her. With that thought, Liu Zheng, too, fell asleep.

The Xu Lingqu she was thinking about, though, was not resting easy at that moment. Perhaps because of the intense emotional swings during the day, that night she dreamed again about the end-times. She was walking down a road of scorched earth. She wasn't wearing a law enforcer's uniform; her clothes were ragged, and she didn't even have shoes. The land, just burned, didn't sear her bare feet. Xu Lingqu quickly realized that this was the day she had "evolved."

The apocalypse for humanity began with the invasion of Mutant Beasts. Yet within the end-times, a flower of hope also bloomed—the appearance of evolved humans. These people couldn't be infected, and when on the brink of death, there was a one-in-ten chance of becoming an evolved human. Evolved humans possessed extraordinary physiques and could directly fight mid- and small-sized Mutant Beasts, bringing humanity a glimmer of hope.

From then on, the law enforcer organization was born. Evolved humans bore the hope of saving humanity's future, fighting Mutant Beasts and eliminating infected humans, maintaining the survival of the four human bases like Lake Arden in the midst of the apocalypse.

The evolved human Xu Lingqu was born on this fire-ravaged street. Mutant Beasts didn't yet have the ability to start fires, so it was plain to see—this fire was set by humans.

Humanity needed evolvers. Evolvers weren't superheroes. Though they could fight Mutant Beasts and were immune to infection, they died quickly in battle, too—they weren't invulnerable, immortal bodies. So humanity manufactured accidents to create evolvers. A street was burned. Over a hundred ordinary humans perished, but there was a probability of picking up five to ten evolvers from the ashes. In the eyes of higher-ups playing "the grand game," it was a deal that never lost them money.

Law enforcer Xu Lingqu was born under such circumstances.

She snapped her eyes open and sat bolt upright. In the dormitory, Lin Xiao and Liu Zheng were still peacefully asleep. Outside the window, the instructors had already gotten up, going through their own daily training. Xu Lingqu watched for a while, then suddenly felt a scorching gaze beside her—Liu Zheng had woken up at some point and was staring straight at her.

"Can you shoot?"