Transcription
Our story begins with a young man awakening the most useless frank ability in history, a mere 1 cubic meter storage space. The entire school mocks him, calling him a delivery boy fit only for hauling bricks. But they don't understand the true terror of spatial laws. Imagine if you placed half of that space over someone's head and left the other half suspended in the air. Then in an instant, you force it closed. Yes, it becomes an absolute strike that ignores any defense. And what if you split that one cubic meter into 10 smaller spaces?
The cold mechanical hum of the drones echoes through the awakening hall of Joning First High School. At this moment, thousands of eyes are fixed on our protagonist wearing an old faded school uniform. He steps out from the corner and walks toward the high platform. We see him place his hand firmly onto the awakening stone.
In this world, monsters roam free and social classes are strictly enforced. The ability one awakens here almost entirely dictates where they will stand in the future. It determines if a person and their family can escape the miserable fate of the bottom tier. Naturally, every soul in the room is watching with baited breath.
But when the awakening stone finally lights up, the glow is pathetically weak. A dull grayish light barely covers the surface in a thin flickering layer. It looks like a dying candle swaying in the wind. After a brief, stunned silence. The crowd erupts into waves of laughter. They wonder if this even counts as an awakening. What a useless waste of talent. A pathetic ability.
The announcement rings out. Spatial volume 1 cubic meter. The entire hall goes wild with mockery. A 1 cubic meter storage space. Isn't that just a portable shoe box? Even logistics companies would find him useless for moving cargo. Some even joke that for a commoner, even his superpower reeks of poverty. Harsh taunts rain down from every direction.
Yet, he simply withdraws his hand in silence. Looking at the cold text on the screen, his face shows no anger. There is no resentment, only a deathly calm. He knows all too well that when you lack power, emotions are a luxury you cannot afford.
And then something happens. A blinding golden light suddenly explodes from the backstage, instantly drawing everyone's attention away. It seems young Master Xiao is about to make his entrance. It's an S-rank ability, the Red Lotus Nightfire. The Xiao bloodline is truly terrifying. Amidst the gasps of awe, the family heir, Xiao, steps onto the stage, surrounded by golden flames. Dressed in a magnificent uniform. His expression carries an unmasked sense of superiority. He is quite different from our protagonist, having been born at the finish line. Now that he has awakened one of the top tier offensive abilities, resources, status, and a bright future will naturally gravitate toward him. To be honest, it's a bit predictable.
However, instead of basking in the cheers, he walks straight toward our protagonist. He stops and looks down at him with a condescending smirk on his face. A cruel smirk plays on his lips as he speaks. "Linen, I wondered who it was. Turns out it's just the rat from the sewers." He raises a finger flickering with flames, pointing it directly at Lynn and's chest while mocking him one word at a time. "A level one spatial ability, one cubic meter. Actually, that is quite fitting." He continues, "When that poor beggar sister of yours is gone, you can use it to store her remains."
At the mention of his sister, the dead water in Lynn and's eyes finally stirs. A flash of icy killing intent flickers for a brief moment. Xiao catches this change and laughs even more wildly. "What? Not convinced. A guy like you standing here breathing is a waste of Gianing<unk>s air."
Having said his piece, he turns to instructor Wong. His tone isn't one of consultation, but a command. "The school has a guaranteed spot for a scholarship student to the War Academy, doesn't it? I recall it was originally meant for him." Instructor Wong's face turns pale as he whispers, "Based on grades and overall evaluation. That spot was indeed for Lynn." And well, "It's gone now," Ziao says, his voice flat yet carrying the weight of a death sentence. "I don't want to see a mediocre talent who isn't even fit for logistics wasting resources in a school where I, Xiao, exist."
Instructor Wong tries to protest, stammering that it's against the rules. "Rules." Xiao sneers as his flames suddenly surge upward. "In Xang, the words of the Xiao family are the rules." The hall falls into a deathly silence. No one speaks up for Linen. Everyone just watches. Some eyes hold sympathy, others gloat, and many wait for him to break. But he doesn't break. He simply looks up at Xiao with a gaze so calm it's terrifying, as if he's looking at a man who no longer has a future. Xiao hates that look more than anything. The smile slowly fades from his face as he growls. "I really don't like that look. Get out."
Instructor Wong size and hands over a form. "Sign it. This is the withdrawal application. With an ability like this, staying in school is pointless. Just accept your fate and find a job at the factory. Tightening bolts. At least you'll be able to eat." Linen takes the application, glances at it, and picks up a pin to sign his name in the box. His handwriting is steady without a hint of hesitation. He hands the form back and turns to leave without a single word of argument. Because in his personal code of survival, one never argues with the dead.
Just as he steps out of the school gates, the sky turns dark. Lightning tears through the clouds, and a torrential downpour begins to soak him to the bone. Yet he walks forward numbly as if he cannot even feel the cold. Suddenly in his pocket, his secondhand phone with a shattered screen begins to vibrate. He answers only to hear the cold, detached voice of a hospital administrator. "This is the first city hospital. Your sister Lencia's abyss cold syndrome has suddenly worsened. She has been moved to the intensive care unit." The voice continues informing him that he must pay 100,000 credits within 24 hours for the special medication. If the payment isn't made, they will be forced to stop the treatment and move the patient out of the ICU.
100,000 credits. The number hits Lynn and like a sledgehammer. To the wealthy, it's just a simple statistic, but for him, it's an astronomical sum beyond his reach. He desperately begs the doctor for just a few more days, promising that he will find a way. But the other end of the line goes dead, leaving only a cold dial tone. Standing in the torrential rain, his fingers slowly tighten, crushing the water soaked withdrawal form into a damp, ruined mess. It seems the world has decided to offer him no path forward, leaving him with only one desperate option. If the world won't give him a chance, he'll have to take it by force. He turns sharply toward the edge of the city, heading for the slums forgotten by light and order.
The further in he goes, the darker the path becomes until he finally turns into a deep, filthy alleyway without a single street lamp. In this moment, his gaze changes completely. He is ready to gamble his life. But as the thought crosses his mind, a stench so thick it causes nausea. A mix of blood and beast ws from the shadows. Suddenly, two crimson lanterns quietly light up in the darkness. We soon realize those aren't lights at all. They are a pair of eyes belonging to a creature that should only exist outside the city walls. A second rank shadow wolf known for their terrifying speed and power. These beasts are a true nightmare for any soldier. For an ordinary person, surviving even 3 seconds against one would be a miracle.
The thought of running crosses his mind, but he crushes it instantly. To show your back to a wolf is to invite a swifter death. And so instead of retreating, he takes a half step forward, lowering his center of gravity. With lightning speed, he grabs a rusted, sharp piece of rebar from the ground and holds it across his chest. To be honest, it's a poor excuse for a weapon. But this is the instinct he forged through pain and broken bones in the underground fighting pits of the slums. He knows that against a stronger foe, fear only brings defeat. Only by being more ruthless and desperate can one carve out a slim chance of survival.
Man and wolf stand off in the muddy, dark alleyway. A second later, the shadow wolf moves. It lunges like a black blur, aiming directly for his throat. Its movements are almost too fast for the human eye to follow. Relying purely on the intuition built from countless life and death struggles, he twists his body to the right at the very last possible second. He saves his throat, but the wolf's claws tear through his left shoulder and arm, ripping away a large chunk of flesh. Crimson blood sprays instantly into the rain. The intense pain makes his vision go dark, but he doesn't retreat. Instead, the agony ignites a primal ferocity in his bones. With a guttural roar, he uses the momentum of his twist to drive the rebar toward the beast's eye. The strike is fast and ruthless, but he has underestimated just how dangerous this predator truly is. He soon realizes the true horror of a second ranked beast. In midair, the shadow wolf forcefully twists its body, causing the rebar to miss its eye and strike its hard skull. Instead, the metal sinks barely half an inch before getting stuck. Enraged by the pain, the wolf jerks its head violently, and Lynen loses his grip, being thrown face first into the mud.
What follows is a truly primal struggle. We see them rolling together through sewage and filth as the beast repeatedly uses its powerful claws to tear through his flesh. Linen, now fighting like a completely crazed animal himself, abandons almost all defense, using his fists, elbows, and even teeth to strike at every possible lethal spot. Three deep gashes reaching all the way to the bone are carved into his back. The wolf's claws pin his shoulders against a wall, trapping him completely. It lowers its head, its foul smelling maw less than 5 cmters from his throat. He can see every detail of the gore on its fangs. Despair crawls over his body like ice.
But right then, a memory flashes through his mind. The pale smiling face of his sister, Lingia. She had told him he'd be the greatest ability user and asked for candied haws once she was better. He cannot lose. If he fails, what happens to Lia? What about the 100,000 credits? What about the hospital's threat to stop her treatment?
Just as the shadow wolf opens its jaws to crush his skull, his chaotic dying brain falls into a state of unprecedented calm, pain, fear, and resentment seem to be drained away, leaving only two things in his world. That looming wolf head and his own ability, the one everyone mocked as useless storage space. What is a space? It is an invisible, intangible, yet very real box. And if it is a box, it must have edges. Edges that appear and disappear when it opens and closes. A truly insane idea suddenly strikes his consciousness. What if an object were caught exactly on that edge?
His gaze locks onto the point where the wolf's head meets its neck. In the next second, he pours all his mental strength, his will, and even his very life force into a single crystal clear thought. He envisions the lower half of his space covering the head and the upper half resting just above the neck. The edge of the space aligns perfectly with the junction of the throat. He commands the storage space to close.
Suddenly, the weight pressing down on him vanishes, replaced by a geyser of hot, thick liquid that sprays across his face. He leans against the wall, gasping like a broken bellows. Looking down, his pupils shrink in shock. The shadow wolf's body is still slumped over him. Beside his legs, the wolf's head is simply gone. The cut at the neck is terrifyingly smooth, as if sliced cleanly by the sharpest laser imaginable. Fur, blood vessels, bone, and nerves. Everything is perfectly aligned without a single jagged edge.
Subconsciously, Linen closes his eyes and sinks his consciousness into his own ability space. In the next moment, his whole body shutters. That ferocious wolf head is floating quietly in the center of that tiny 1 cubic meter void. Its eyes still hold the cruelty and confusion it felt before death. And the cross-section is as smooth as a mirror. He finally understands that his abilities. Truly terrifying power was never about storage, but the edge of the space itself. As long as something is caught on that boundary, be it flesh, bone, or even solid steel, it will be severed directly by the laws of space. This isn't a normal attack. It ignores physics, ignores defense, and doesn't even care about the gap in strength. It is absolute cutting on a fundamental level. Was the second rank beast skull hard? It was split in two regardless. From now on, fire abilities, hardening abilities, or bodies of diamond will mean nothing if they cannot withstand the laws of space. The useless ability in the eyes of the world has finally bared its true fangs.
Looking at the wolf's head in his space, the corners of his mouth slowly curl upward. Finally, he can no longer suppress the wild energy of someone who has clawed a path out of a dead end. And he lets out a low, frantic laugh. To be honest, it sounds a bit mad. The laughter echoes through the rainy alley, carrying the frenzy of a survivor and the coldness of someone who has seen fate's hidden hand. But he quickly forces himself to calm down. Right now, the most important thing isn't joy, it's money.
Enduring the tearing pain throughout his body, he takes out his cheap folding dagger. Using the basic knowledge he picked up while helping people process beast materials in the black market, he cuts open the shadow wolf's chest. Soon near its heart, he digs out a fist-sized crystal glowing with a swirling deep blue light. It's a second rank beast core and a remarkably intact shadow type core at that. While such things require a license to trade through official channels in the underground black market, this is the hardest currency available. A conservative estimate puts this core's value at least at 300,000 credits. Not only is his sister's medical fee covered, but there will be a large amount left over.
He tucks the core into his storage space and quickly cleans the scene. He drags the wolf's remains to an inconspicuous spot in the alley, tossing a few scraps of meat around to make it look like it was scavenged by other beasts or discarded by a gang. Next, he peels off his filthy school uniform and throws it directly into a trash bin. That uniform represented his past, the identity of a law-abiding victimized student. From this moment on, that identity is over. He pulls a large black hooded windbreaker from the trash heap and uses the last of his energy to disappear. With a few coins at a roadside stall, he buys the cheapest white plastic mask available. A strange unchanging smiling face. He pulls up his hood and dons the mask and a completely new figure appears in the reflection. From now on, the student Lynn is gone. In his place is a hunter wandering through the night and shadows. He gives himself a new code name, Zero. It represents having nothing, but it also represents the beginning of everything.
Half an hour later, we find him at the Black Gold Market, the city's largest underground trade center. The entrance is hidden deep within an abandoned underground parking lot guarded by two burly men with weapons clearly bulging at their waists. Seeing his smiling mask and tattered windbreaker, they immediately mistake him for a pushover rookie. "Hold it." The one with the scarred face barks. He sizes Lynen up with a hostile tone, asking where this kid came from and if he knows the rules. The other guard, a bald man, is even more direct. He reaches out to block the path, demanding a 100 credit search fee to enter.
Lynen stops saying nothing and calmly scans the two men. His gaze finally settles on the weapon at the scarred man's waist. It's less than a meter away just right. The guard, annoyed by the silence, reaches for his gun. But before he can even draw it, Lynn and mental power pierces precisely into the middle of the barrel and the edge of his space expands. The space closes with a sharp click and half the gun barrel simply drops to the ground. The cut as smooth as a mirror. The two thugs freeze instantly. The scarred man stares at the half weapon in his hand and then at the metal on the ground, a chill running up his spine. They didn't even see what he did. They only saw a reinforced alloy barrel get bitten off by some invisible monster. To be honest, it's a terrifying sight. The unknown is far more frightening than mere strength. The bald man quickly pulls his hand back and forces a smile, stuttering for him to please enter.
Without a second glance, he walks directly into this lawless underground world where only profit matters. Inside, the market is massive and chaotic. The air is a thick mix of engine oil, cheap alcohol, and ozone. With neon signs casting every face into half light and half shadow, we see mercenaries in exoskeletons, black market dealers selling prohibited drugs, and informants exchanging bounty lists in the dark corners. He doesn't waste any time walking straight toward the most imposing three-story building in the center, the Black Gold Chamber of Commerce. Behind the counter, a heavy set manager is busy polishing a gemstone. Without even looking up, he asks what the stranger is selling.
Linen offers no verbal reply. He simply extends his hand over the counter and with a single thought activates his space. With a dull thud, the manager picks up the gold box, giving it a performative glance before tossing it back onto the counter. He claims the quality is average and the energy is messy. He offers a mere hundred,000, a price so low it's practically robbery. But Linen shows neither anger nor a desire to haggle. He simply watches the man. With a soft, cold chuckle, he raises his hand to return the gold box to his space and turns to leave. The heavy set man panics instantly realizing he misjudged his mark. Only an amateur would stay to argue. Walking away proves Lynn and knows the market better than the manager does. The man calls out desperate to renegotiate the price. He offers 200,000 then 250 as Lynn and keeps walking. Only then does our protagonist stop and turn halfway is posture calm. Under the flickering lights, the smiling mask looks particularly eerie. He demands 300,000 transferred to an anonymous black card. The manager's face twitches in pain. Ultimately, the man grumbles and agrees, sliding a pitch black metal card with no markings across the counter. Linen takes the card and turns to leave immediately.
The moment he steps out of the chamber of commerce, the manager's smile vanishes. He signals a burly man drinking in the corner with a sharp lethal gesture. The brute grins, leading four tattooed thugs to follow silently. Linen, of course, notices these five shadows trailing him from the very beginning. More importantly, as he walks, he decides to test a new application of his powers. He casually picks up a small piece of rubble from the ground. In the middle of a stride, he pulls the stone into his space, then releases it forward as his next foot hits the ground. The result is quite fascinating. The stone flies out like a bullet, carrying all the kinetic energy from his movement. He realizes his space doesn't just cut, it can store and release momentum. A far more efficient plan for a counterattack quickly takes shape.
He intentionally leads the five men through a confusing maze of back alleys within the market. Eventually, he leads them into an abandoned third-level underground parking lot. It is dark, remote, and completely devoid of people or surveillance cameras. It is, in other words, the perfect place to handle trouble. Sure enough, the five men surround him from different directions, blocking every possible exit. The lead brute heaves an alloy machete, his face twisted in a cruel cat-and- mouse grin. He mocks Linen, noting that the kid certainly knows how to run. He demands the card and everything else Lynn and is carrying, promising a less painful end if he complies.
Linen slowly turns to face them. The white smiling mask looks haunting in the dim yellow light. He doesn't show rage or make empty threats. He simply asks a question in a cold hollow voice. He asks if their heads are worth any money. The brute freezes in shock before exploding in a fit of rage, gripping his blade with both hands. He swings the blade down toward Lynn and's head with a vicious force that tears through the air. Against any ordinary person, this single strike would be fatal. The blade descends toward his chest, but Lynn and doesn't retreat. Instead, he steps forward into the strike, and at the exact moment of impact, the edge of his space is already positioned. It sweeps across the blade, causing the sharpest half of the machete to simply vanish into thin air. The brute feels the weight suddenly disappear, his momentum failing as he stumbles. He lunges forward uncontrollably, and Lynn takes the opportunity to slide within a meter of him. The edge of the space covers the man's neck, and then the space closes with a muffled thud. The cruelty and rage on the brute's face instantly freeze. His head, along with the tattoos on his neck, simply ceases to exist in our world. A second later, a crimson spray erupts from the neck as the headless body maintains its forward momentum before crashing heavily onto the concrete floor. The air becomes deathly silent. The remaining four thugs freeze, their mocking smiles replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated terror. They didn't even understand what happened. They only saw a living man's head vanish in an instant. Finally, one of them breaks, screaming in a panic. He yells about ghosts as the four of them turn to flee. But Lennon has no intention of letting them leave alive. He pushes off the ground, moving like a shadow. He pursues the nearest man like a ghost gliding across the floor. The thug doesn't even have time to look back before he feels a cold sensation at his throat. And then nothingness. And that was that. In just a few short seconds, only five tangled bodies remain in the parking lot. The crimson liquid spreads rapidly across the ground, looking very much like a hellish tapestry. Linen stands in the center, his black trench coat remarkably clean without a single drop of blood on it. He kneels down and calmly begins to search the bodies. A few minutes later, he stands up with a decent harvest, several stacks of cash totaling about 30,000 credits. To be honest, it's more than he expected. He also finds an exquisitly crafted military alloy dagger. He stores the money and the weapon in his space, then feels for the black card in his inner pocket. 300,000 on the card, plus this extra 30,000. It's enough. Finally, it's enough.
Behind that eerie smiling mask, his gaze seems to pierce the darkness. He sees the pale face of a child in a hospital. "I see you." Those eyes, which had been cold and dead for so long, finally show a flicker of warmth. He whispers softly that he finally has the money to save her. He carefully places the black card back into his pocket and prepares to leave. He turns away, leaving the blood soaked parking lot to the shadows.
Not 5 minutes after his departure, the sound of hurried footsteps echoes through the concrete. The heavy set manager from the Chamber of Commerce arrives, accompanied by a dozen fierce guards armed with energy rifles. They look ready for a fight. He demands to know where the boy is, cursing that five men couldn't handle one. He vows that when he catches him, he'll make him pay. The heavy set manager's curses come to a sudden, jarring halt the moment he sees the scene before him. The fat on his face trembles violently. His small eyes, usually squeezed into mere slits, are now wide and bloodshot with shock. He stares at the five bodies scattered across the floor. It is a sight that would haunt anyone's dreams. He collapses, his backside landing in the cold, sticky liquid, his lips trembling as his teeth chatter uncontrollably. He notices the nature of the wounds. He points at a neck severed as smooth as a mirror. His voice cracking with a mix of sobbing and endless terror. "There is no bruising, no tearing. It was space cutting. To use the laws of space with such precision and horror, the attacker must be at least a peak B rank or perhaps even higher." The manager's mind goes completely blank as a buzzing fills his ears. He wonders what kind of entity he has actually provoked. When did such a god of death arrive in Jang City? It is a question he likely won't find an answer to anytime soon.
Meanwhile, we see Lynn and putting on his school uniform and that faded white backpack transforming back into an ordinary, perhaps even frail-looking student. However, while clothes can be changed, a gaze cannot. The boy who once carried a hint of inferiority and restraint vanished in the rainy alleyway last night. Now, deep within his eyes, there is only a cold, sharp edge that won't melt. He heads directly to Jang City First Hospital. At the late night payment window, the duty nurse is nodding off, but she is jolted awake when he slams that anonymous black card against the glass. She doesn't even have time to put on her usual impatient expression before he speaks. He looks at her and says only one thing. "I see you." He tells her to use the best specialized medicine for Linia immediately. There are 330,000 on the card. If it's not enough, he'll find more. His voice is horsearo, yet it leaves absolutely no room for negotiation. The nurse freezes, then looks down at the black card representing a small fortune. She looks back up at him, taking in his cheap school uniform, her eyes filled with pure disbelief. To be honest, the contrast is staggering. A boy who looks like a struggling student casually producing over 300,000 credits leaves her speechless. But the balance on the card doesn't lie. And so she immediately changes her attitude, rising to contact the doctors and arrange the highest level of treatment.
Half an hour later, the process begins. The latest gene repair serum is finally injected slowly into Linia's body. He watches his sister's pale, paper thin face as a hint of color finally returns. Only then do his tightly wound nerves begin to relax just a little. The room is quiet as he sits by the bed, watching over her. He gently brushes back her sweat dampened hair. It is only in this quiet moment that the bone- chilling violence and killing intent in his eyes finally begin to soften. Lindsia reaches out, grabbing his hand to ask softly if he's doing something dangerous. She can smell the faint metallic scent of blood that he can't quite hide. She senses a profound change in him, something far removed from the brother she knew. His heart stings, yet he forces a gentle smile onto his face. as he has done a thousand times before. He ruffles her hair and tells a gentle lie that he simply sold his school enrollment slot to a wealthy family son. He claims the money is for her treatment, but Linia's eyes immediately dim. She knows exactly what that enrollment meant to him and his future. She knows the years of sacrifice he endured for that spot. With red rimmed eyes, she whispers that she is only a burden, but Lynn won't hear it. He simply pinches her nose and laughs like he's cheering up a child, saying it was just a silly slot. Even without school, he promises to become the strongest. He tells her not to overthink things and to focus on getting well. Once she's better, he promises to take her for those candied haws from the South City shop.
Once Linia falls back into a deep sleep, he tucks her in and watches her in silence for a long time. But the moment he steps out of the room, that flicker of warmth vanishes completely, replaced by a killing intent colder than the night itself. Xiao stole his future and trampled on his sister's dignity. It is finally time to settle that debt.
The next morning, sunlight spills across the gates of Jang City First High School. But as it touches linen, it seems to be repelled by an invisible chill. He carries his old backpack just as he is everyday for 3 years walking into the school grounds. However, this time he doesn't head to class. Instead, he goes straight to the academic office to pull out a registration form for the social martial arts exam. Since his guaranteed spot was forcibly snatched by Xiao, the traditional path through school is broken. He must choose a harder, more dangerous path. The social martial arts exam is a path of extreme risk. Those who take it are usually people without background or resources betting their lives for a future. They are the desperate ones pushed into a corner with no way back. And Lynen clearly belongs to that group. To be honest, he has nothing left to lose.
Just as he steps out of the office with the form, an irritating shrill voice echoes down the hallway. It asks if this isn't the school's former genius, Linen. He looks up to see Xiao approaching with a group of followers, his arm wrapped around a classmate wearing heavy makeup. He looks quite pleased with himself. He wears the look of a victor who has climbed to the top by stepping on others bones and now feels the need to turn back and gloat. Xiao stops in front of him, looking him up and down with a mocking sneer. He asks if the reason Lynn and missed class yesterday was because he assumes Lynn and is at home grieving, but Lynn simply doesn't have the energy to deal with him and tries to walk past. Xiao, however, slams a hand onto his shoulder. Xiao's gaze drops immediately to the registration form in Lin and's hand. He snatches it away and as he reads the words, a look of amusement crosses his face. It's as if he's heard the funniest joke in the world and he begins to laugh hysterically. He shouts for everyone to look at the social martial arts exam form. He mocks Linen asking why a guy who only awakened a level one storage space would ever want to take the exam. He asks if Lyn and is tired of living. His voice is so loud that a crowd of students quickly gathers in the hallway. Some whisper that Lynn and must have finally lost his mind from the stress. Others shake their heads and sigh, believing that for someone like him, taking the social exam is nothing more than a death wish. To be honest, they aren't entirely wrong. And then there are those who just want to watch the show, waiting to see if Lynn will bow his head and accept his fate like he always has. In their eyes, his past patience and silence have long been mistaken for weakness. They all assume that this time will be no different. They are mistaken just as everyone expects him to crumble. Xiao throws the registration form onto the floor. He raises his foot wearing limited edition tactical boots worth thousands. He grinds the paper into the dirt with his heel, looking down at Lynn and with a gaze full of pure malice. His tone is venomous as he speaks. He tells Lynn and that mediocrity belongs in the gutter and that this paper is nothing but a delusion. He claims crushing it is as easy as stepping on an ant.
In the past, Linen might have actually lowered his head, silently picked up the paper, and swallowed the humiliation. Yes, that was the old linen, but things have changed. He slowly raises his head and we see no angry shouting or tears of shame on his face. There is only a terrifying hollow calm. His eyes are like two dark abysses that swallow all light. Then, without a single word of warning, the silence of the hallway is shattered. A dull, heavy thud echoes through the corridor. Linen's body sinks slightly as his right leg transforms into a blur that is almost impossible to track. He delivers a massive, powerful front kick straight into Xiao's abdomen. The strike is so fast and so heavy that Xiao has no time to react. The sneer hasn't even left Zia's face before he is hit with the force of a high-speed beast. His body doubles over instantly like a piece of paper. He coughs up a spray of bile as his feet leave the ground, sending him flying backward more than 3 meters. It is a brutal sight to say the least. His back slams into the hallways display case with a deafening crash. The tempered glass shatters instantly, sending shards flying in every direction. The entire floor falls into a deathly silence. No one expected Lynn to fight back, let alone kick Ziao into a broken heap on the floor. Xiaoze slides down from the pile of broken glass like a heap of rotting mud curling up on the floor. He is deathly pale, so overwhelmed by pain that he can't even manage a full scream. As for Linen, he simply retracts his leg slowly and remains standing where he was. It is as if that kick hadn't sent a person flying, but had merely brushed away a bit of dust.
However, we are far from finished. From the crowd behind Xiao, a middle-aged man with a buzz cut who had been silent until now suddenly steps forward. The veins at his temples bulge as his aura erupts and the floor tiles beneath his feet actually begin to crack from the sheer force. He is an earthrank strength type awakened. This is the personal bodyguard the Xiao family assigned to Xiao, a hardened veteran who retired from the military. To be honest, he is a truly dangerous individual with a thunderous roar of, "You've got guts, kid." The bodyguard charges forward like a cannonball. His fist, the size of a clay pot, tears through the air with a sharp whistle toward Lin Anne's face. The surrounding students panic instantly, screams, gasps, and the sound of people scrambling backward blend into a chaotic mess of noise. Everyone knows that for a strength type awakened of this level, claiming a single punch can shatter bones is not an exaggeration. It is a simple brutal fact. And yet, Lynen does not retreat. Not only does he stand his ground, but at the very moment the fist is about to touch his nose, he actually moves forward to meet it. To be precise, he doesn't charge. He slides into the man's embrace like a drop of water, closing the distance to within a single meter. The bodyguard is momentarily stunned. That confusion quickly turns into a cold sneer. In his mind, close quarters combat is exactly where a strength type awakened excels the most. An invisible ripple in space flickers for a fleeting second. Linen doesn't even make an extra move. He simply lets a single thought fall quietly in the depths of his mind. He commands the edge of his space to cover the man's arm joints and then close. A sickening, bone chilling crack echoes through the hallway, and then the entire school sees it. They witness a scene they will likely never forget. Just an inch before the bodyguard's arms can touch Linen's body, they are severed completely at the elbows. The thick forearms and fists, still locked in a grasping posture, abruptly detach from the man's body in a clean, impossible break. Then, with two dull thuds, they hit the floor tiles. The cuts are as smooth as a mirror. There is a moment of dead silence before the crimson liquid finally reacts. As if delayed by half a second, the blood sprays from those two eerily smooth stumps, splashing across the white walls of the corridor in a wide van-shaped arc. The bodyguard looks down at his empty elbows, then at the two severed arms, still twitching on the floor. The ferocity on his face freezes completely. It takes another second for the agony to finally reach his brain. He lets out a scream that sounds barely human and collapses to his knees with a heavy thud. He rolls on the ground like a slaughtered animal. At this moment, the entire hallway becomes so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Everyone is paralyzed because they they hadn't seen what he did at all. Without capturing even a trace of an ability fluctuation, an Earth rank strength type Awaken's arms were simply gone. Just like that, they vanished.
Lynen calmly stepped over the bodyguard wailing in a pool of blood and walked toward Xiao, who was now utterly terrified. His courage had completely shattered. His face was as white as paper as he scrambled backward on all fours. His pants quickly soaking through from sheer loss of control. Linen stopped right in front of him. Then, under the gaze of hundreds of terrified and aruck eyes, he slowly lifted his foot. With his faded cheap sneaker, he stepped heavily onto Xiao Zay's distorted face, pinning his head firmly against the cold floor covered in glass shards. It was a moment of unprecedented humiliation. Linen looked down at the face deformed by fear. His voice quiet yet clear as an arctic current. His words reached everyone's ears. "I don't care about your guaranteed admission spot. During the grand exam, 'I will crush everything you're proud of.'" He promised to do it in front of everyone. Having said his peace, he slowly lifted his foot, not even bothering to give the boy a second glance. He turned and leaned down to pick up the registration form for the Social Dancer Grand Exam, which was now covered in dusty footprints. He gently patted the dust off the paper, shouldered his old backpack, and walked away with long strides through the path the crowd automatically opened for him. The sunlight through the corridor windows stretched his shadow long, lonely, and silent, yet carrying a pressure that made it almost impossible to look at him directly.
Meanwhile, in the principal's office, the old principal was staring at the surveillance footage with trembling hands. The screen was frozen on a specific moment. It was the instant the bodyguard's arms were severed. There was no obvious spiritual leakage, no exaggerated energy fluctuation, and the spatial ripple was almost negligible. The more subtle it was, the more terrifying the reality became. It meant Lynn Anne's ability wasn't a physical strike, but something acting directly on the level of rules. The old principle grew more alarmed the longer he watched, his teacups slipping from his hand and shattering on the floor. This wasn't just a level one storage space. This was the manifestation of spatial laws themselves. At this very moment, he finally began to realize the truth. He understood that he needed to completely re-evaluate this student whom everyone had previously dismissed as a mediocre talent. However, just as the school was beginning to realize his true value, the Xiao family had already developed a genuine intent to kill.
Inside the Xiao family villa, the atmosphere under the luxurious crystal chandeliers was as suffocating as a tomb. Xiao lay on the sofa with a swollen face. He was screaming for revenge, demanding that Lynn die a miserable death. Beside him stood Xiao Xiang, his expression unreadable. Xiao Xiang stood before the floor toseeiling window, listening in silence before dialing an encrypted frequency to reach a man known only as the Hound. The Hound led a squad of desperate outlaws who specialized in the dirty work of the wilderness. Xiao Xiang immediately offered 10 million credits to bury a single life. However, upon learning that Lynn and had neutralized an Earth rank bodyguard in a single move, the Hound demanded an extra 5 million for the risk involved. They needed to upgrade their gear, promising the death would look like an accident, cleaned up by wild beasts, so the military could find no foul play. Xiao agreed without a moment's hesitation. In his mind, it didn't matter what kind of monster Linen was. As long as he entered the wilderness, the vast, lawless wilderness would be his grave.
And so, the day of the Grand Exam finally arrived, a day that would decide the fate of every student in the city. This wasn't just about grades. The military had offered incredibly lavish rewards, especially for the topranked student. The prize was a priceless tier 3 energy core, something that could make any awaken green with envy. We see the playground filled with military transports. Students gathered in small groups, a mix of excitement and nervous tension in the air, while Lynn stood alone with his worn out tactical backpack. He looked completely out of place in the corner. After that incident in the corridor, no one dared to come within 3 m of him. He was like a block of ice or perhaps a black hole, inspiring an instinctive awe that kept everyone at a distance. Well, almost everyone.
Suddenly, a striking figure cut through the crowd and stopped right in front of him. This was Sue Schwa, the school's famous top genius, having awakened an S-rank ice ability. She was used to being the center of praise. She wore a white combat suit, her ice blue hair shimmering in the sun. She looked like a beautiful yet sharp blade of ice. Her voice carried a hint of a warning mixed with her habitual sense of superiority. She told him that the wilderness wasn't a school hallway and that a level one should stick with the main group instead of acting tough and dying. From her perspective, this was perhaps an act of kindness. But to Linen, this kindness, based on the assumption of her superiority, was simply annoying. He merely looked up at her and coldly replied with two words, "Too noisy." Sushwe froze on the spot, completely stunned by his dismissal. She clearly hadn't expected her condescending advice to be met with such bluntness. Her anger flared up instantly as she turned to leave. She called him an ungrateful fool and promised to watch him fail, while Linen simply lowered his head as if nothing had happened. To linen, people and words that don't matter are simply noise.
Soon, the hovering buses began to move, carrying the students toward their uncertain destiny. We see the vehicles pass through the massive alloy city gates and enter wilderness area 07. This is a completely different world, dominated by towering mutant trees. Thick, twisted vines crawl everywhere through the damp, foul smelling air, while unseen eyes watch from every shadow. It is a place of constant predatory observation. Every inch of this place serves as a reminder that this isn't a training ground. It's a place where lives are lost.
At the instructor's command, thousands of students flood into the jungle. Most are smart enough to form teams immediately, huddling together in groups of dozens to cautiously patrol the outer perimeter. Safety and numbers, as they say. For an ordinary high school senior, tier one beasts like hornwolves or iron skin boores are dangerous enough. But Lenin, of course, has a different plan. He doesn't join any team. The moment he steps into the jungle, he breaks away from the crowd and heads deep into the dense forest alone. His target is the tier 2 beast zone, an area marked in bright red on the map. While others fear the danger, Linen only cares about efficiency. The light is dim here, and a normal person would be checking every tree for an ambush. However, Lynn and spiritual power has already spread out like an invisible radar. Nothing within a 100 meters escapes his perception. And so, the hunt begins. A display of cold, calculated precision that we are about to witness.
30 m to his front left, a tier 2 venomous python waits in a tree, flicking its tongue as it waits for prey to deliver itself. Linen doesn't even slow down. As he brushes past, his spatial power flickers open and shut, and the snake's head simply vanishes. Nearby, a tier 2 Razerclaw cat is busy scavenging a carcass. The cat is incredibly fast, but before it can even land its leap from the bushes, its head disappears into thin air. It's a bit gruesome, if we're being honest. The headless body tumbles away by sheer momentum. Then there is the tier 2 rock armadillo, famous for its defense and a shell that can withstand axes. It barely pokes half its body out of the ground before the spatial blade cuts through shell and flesh alike, leaving two perfectly neat halves behind. With every kill, he calmly tosses the core into his storage space. His movements are practiced efficient and show no signs of wasted energy. Meanwhile, the numbers on his military points bracelet begin to jump frantically, climbing from 100 to 500, then 800 and beyond. On the giant screen at the trial command center, Lynn An's name shoots up like a rocket, soaring past thousands of other students in a matter of minutes. He quickly breaks into the top rankings and continues to climb.
However, just as he finishes off another beast and retrieves the core, the atmosphere shifts. A sudden, bone- chilling sensation of extreme danger locks onto him, exploding up his spine. He has no time to think, only to react. His physical instincts reacted even faster than his conscious mind. Lyn and lunged forward, rolling smoothly into the nearby thicket of bushes. At that exact moment, a large caliber sniper bullet, thick as a thumb, whistled through the air with a piercing screech, grazing the spot where he had just been standing. The round slammed into a massive tree behind him. One so thick it would take three men to encircle it, shattering the trunk instantly and sending with splinters flying. This wasn't a trial level attack. It was a professional assassination. Crouched in the shadows of the brush, Lynn Anne's eyes turned cold as ice. a high precision armor-piercing round from over a kilometer away combined with a pre-planned ambush route. He could think of no one but the Xiao family. If they wanted to eliminate him, then he decided none of them would leave this forest.
On a hilltop a kilometer away, the sniper frowned in confusion. He had expected this to be an incredibly easy task. But Lynn Anne's evasive maneuver was far too professional for a student. He moved like a seasoned wilderness wolf. The hound squad began to tighten their perimeter, splitting into groups to press in from the sides and front. They wanted to trap him quickly in a kill zone. They believe they were the ones hunting him, but they didn't realize that a true hunter never simply waits in the center of a circle to die. Lynn and spiritual power had already locked onto the positions, distances, and movement trajectories of all five men. And so, he didn't run away. Instead, he stayed low to the ground, moving like a ghost through the shadows to cut back toward the thinnest layer of their formation.
The first to fall was number three. The man held his tactical rifle, cautiously clearing the area ahead. He never expected the danger to come from above rather than from the front. As he passed beneath a massive tree, Linen was already hanging like a bat from the shadows of the canopy. The man only had time to look up. Linen was already within a meter. His spatial power flickered open, covering the man's helmet and head and then snapped shut with a faint wet sound. The sound was almost inaudible before the hound squad member could even shout a warning. Everything above his neck had completely vanished. Linen caught the body, gently leaning it against the tree so it wouldn't make a sound hitting the ground. Soon, number four was sent to check on him. He immediately saw the slumped body in its strange posture, its neck eerily empty. In that moment, the man froze in pure, unadulterated terror. His voice trembled as he tried to report in, but in that split second of distraction, Linen struck again from the side shadows, claiming another head. In just one minute, the Hound Squad had lost two men to silent executions. Now, even the battleh hardardened squad leader was starting to panic. He finally realized this wasn't a simple contract for a student. They were facing something that could harvest lives from the shadows without a sound. The squad leader, now convinced he was facing a literal demon, let out a desperate roar, ordering his remaining men to regroup. As he unleashed his C-rank wind ability, a massive blade storm erupted, sending countless high-speed rotating azure blades of wind tearing through the forest in every direction. Ancient trees, vines, and thickets were shredded like paper, and the dense cover was violently cleared into a desolate, ruined wasteland, where Linen finally came into view. A crazed, triumphant grin spread across the captain's face, believing he had finally cornered his prey. At that very same moment, a kilometer away, the sniper, who had been patiently tracking this specific area, finally saw his opening and pulled the trigger. The heavy round streaked toward its target with lethal intent.