...I’ve been underestimated.
Lei Ting smiled.
He could understand why he was being looked down upon. Before him, the last recorded "Double S" had been a silicon-based lifeform whose ability was "Black Hole Creation." When that creature existed, humans hadn't even become Orionids yet.
Later, through years of constant warfare, a vast amount of historical records were lost. People today only knew the potential combat power a Double S might possess once fully grown, but they couldn't accurately measure what that growth process looked like.
Add to that the chaotic state of the Federation's internal affairs...
The benchmark they used when formulating their plans was likely the Evenheiler of years past. Meanwhile, Onier—who understood Lei Ting’s situation better, though still not completely—had surely only told those people the surface-level facts, withholding his "guesses" regarding the true extent of Lei Ting’s personal power growth.
Consequently, the higher-ups knew Lei Ting was certainly extraordinary, but they didn't know *how* extraordinary. Not daring to push too hard all at once, they could only conduct tests bit by bit...
The Federation was also afraid of something happening to him—truly afraid. They had already lost one Evenheiler; they couldn't afford to lose a Lei Ting.
Lei Ting wasn't surprised by this. In fact, once he understood the issue, he began to consciously adjust his displays of supernatural power.
He wasn't going to do anything to the surface of the metal cube. Instead, he caused the metal inside the ships to undergo subtle twists and distortions, hidden from his teammates' sight. This made it appear as though his emotions were fluctuating wildly, to the point where his control couldn't precisely reach every metallic detail.
The effort he spent on this was actually greater than the effort it took to crush those warships into a ball. But it didn't matter. How could one fish without scattering bait?
After finishing this, Lei Ting flew out of the cube and gazed into the distance.
In that spatial rift earlier, the starry sky he had glimpsed... led toward the front lines.
...
In the distant void, a small starship flickered out of the darkness. It trailed a plume of light and fire, flying a considerable distance before confirming the jump engines had cooled. Then, it charged up once more and vanished with a forward surge.
After repeating this several times, the ship finally came to a halt just as it reached its structural stress limit.
"Blegh..." The sound of people "vomiting rainbows" filled the cabin.
"Get out, get out, get out!" the pirate captain barked irritably, waving them off. "If you're gonna puke, do it in the back! You bunch of rookies!"
The crew stared at him with grief and indignation—was it their fault they couldn't handle the pressure and vertigo of consecutive jumps?! Normal people were all like this!
But the pirate captain ignored them. He tapped a device near his ear; ripples like electromagnetic interference shimmered across his face a few times before his appearance changed.
Then, he leaned toward the person in the pilot's seat and said in a low voice, "Thank you very much for the rescue. It was our delay that caused the trouble. I am..."
The man in black-gold armor raised a hand. The pirate captain froze for a moment and shut his mouth.
"Your identities, missions, and specific methods of execution have nothing to do with me," a cold, deep, and utterly calm voice replied.
"Understood." The pirate captain abandoned the idea of introducing himself. "Where are we going?"
The mysterious supernatural mecha pilot said indifferently, "The war zone. I am not responsible for other matters. Once we leave the communications blackout zone, ask your questions yourselves."
The pirate captain nodded obediently.
He had no choice—this was truly the first time in his life he had seen a god-like figure slice a stable spatial rift between two flying vessels with a single stroke. Of course, the "blade" wasn't a physical one, but a beam of light shimmering with fine stardust.
Furthermore, this person's piloting skills were more than a little absurd. That reckless style of flying, pursuing absolute speed and maximum engine utilization, had made him think he was going to die on some asteroid more than once. Yet every time, the pilot either avoided the obstacle with a graceful, sweeping turn or simply warped out of that space entirely...
During this brief flight, they had brushed past death dozens of times. By the time they reached this sector, some of his comrades in the back were actually praying. He didn't even know what they were praying to—it wasn't like there were any widely practiced religions in interstellar society.
And...
"May I ask how we should address you?" the pirate captain asked cautiously. "We have to give a name when we report in."
"..." The mecha pilot in black-and-gold armor seemed to glance at him from the corner of his eye.
"You only need to tell them my appearance," he said. "For a soldier, curiosity is not a good thing. Restrain it. For a better future."
"...You're right." The pirate captain took a deep breath. "'For a better future, friend.'"
Soon after, they exited the communications isolation zone. The crew quickly began contacting their superiors through various means, while the young girl, Tita, started debugging the ship's internal communication system—this ship was their own property, hidden at the escape pod ejection point. When Tita had discovered that unknown dangerous individual, the mecha pilot with the absurd methods had suddenly appeared again. First, he threw the intruder into a patch of starlight to transport them outside, and then he brought the pirates in...
...Wait, starlight?
No... it couldn't be?!!
The pirate captain whipped his head around to look at the tall, slender figure, only to find that the man had already stood up from the pilot's seat, seemingly preparing to leave.
Before he could call out to stop him, the other man seemed to have anticipated what he would say. He waved his hand again and dissolved into fine stardust, vanishing on the spot.
The pirate captain stared blankly at the dispersing stardust, his lips trembling, momentarily at a loss for words.
Finally, he murmured, "...I really didn't expect that when an 'S-rank' flies a ship, they're very 'S-rank' about it too."
***
When the student transport fleet arrived, everyone began the return journey.
The inspectors' ships passed them by, their crews discovering in shock that most of the pirates had been rounded up at the original flagship's location. As for the rest...
"Guilty of heinous crimes and resisted arrest with force," Lei Ting said amiably. "So, they're dead."
"..." Green was speechless. His hand trembled slightly as he wrote the report; he felt like he didn't even know how to spin this to make the useful content exceed five hundred words.
"And..." Lei Ting reached out, patted his shoulder, and leaned in to whisper in his ear, "...I suggest increasing the squad to twenty-six people. The new addition should ideally have battlefield command capabilities."
Green froze, realizing something. A sudden chill slid down the back of his head. "You are the captain designated by the Federation..."
"But I don't need teammates, just as I don't need standard-issue weapons, most tactical planning, or a scribe."
Lei Ting looked at Green's external optical computer and spoke slowly. "I know you all can hear me, and I think you should understand... The Academy gives me knowledge and resources, and the Federation gives me power and status. Therefore, I will listen to what both have to say, and I will cooperate with the corresponding plans...
"...But, friends, I don't have the patience to keep playing these little back-and-forth games with you. There are people waiting for me to come home.
"Let's get straight to the point and resolve this quickly. I'm busy, and I believe you are as well."
Arrogance, indifference, and straightforward violence. This was what Lei Ting had decided to show people in combat situations from now on.
Since everyone said no Double S was mentally stable, what harm was there in showing them a version of "instability" that met social expectations?
Were the people behind all this nonsense truly stupid? No, no one who could become a member of the Federation's decision-making level was a genuine fool...
When a group of smart people suddenly acted stupid collectively, there was bound to be profit behind it. Lei Ting was the greatest "profit," but he had always behaved too normally—more normal than a normal person. It wasn't just beyond imagination; it was completely outside their projections...
Now, Lei Ting decided to give them a chance to perceive him. Whether it was a misunderstanding or not.
Furthermore, he believed that the group of scheming smart people would understand exactly what he wanted.
Finally...
"Yolanda, and... 'Cen Yan'? Is that the name?" He rubbed his chin. "What's the deal with them?"
"..." Amidst a terrifying pressure that filled the entire space, Green seemed to desperately want to take a deep breath to calm down, but the moment he saw Lei Ting's eyes, he quickly abandoned that thought.
This time, he lowered his head swiftly, avoiding the young Alpha's gaze.
"Cen Yan was found to have the 'Sublimation' virus in his body. It gave him powerful supernatural abilities, but it also makes him more difficult to control every day."
Green answered the questions rapidly.
"Its source is an ancient supernatural potion called 'Awakening.' Its effect is to unearth the supernatural potential of any carbon-based organism. When it was discovered by the Galactic Empire, it was stored in a cold storage area within a certain sector of a Ringworld, but the formula was never found.
"Later, the Galactic Empire extracted two substances from those 'Awakening' samples: one called 'Sublimation' and the other 'Boiling.' After they were successfully cultured, they were made into two new potions of the same names. The former's effect is to induce the awakening of powers in non-supers and ensure steady growth, while the latter's effect is to cause a rapid surge in the power of those who already have abilities. Both lead to a certain degree of emotional instability and loss of control, with the latter causing more severe loss of control than the former.
"In the current galaxy, only one individual possesses these two potions. It is known as 'The Devourer.' Its true identity is unknown, but it is the most wanted criminal in the Galactic Core. It successfully isolated the power cores of 'Sublimation' and 'Boiling,' which are two types of mutated viruses that the Galactic Empire had repeatedly tried to neutralize. Now, the emotional loss of control from 'Sublimation' can be manipulated by The Devourer, while 'Boiling' has regained the contagiousness it was once supposed to have. they are spreading throughout the galaxy. Every time they appear, it results in a horrific attack..."
Lei Ting frowned slightly. He thought of the extremely unstable power he had sensed from "Number Four" back in the pirate fleet—if it hadn't been for the array of controllers restraining him, that man alone could have sliced the entire fleet into fragments averaging five cubic centimeters.
That was why he had specifically noted the other's ability and deduced his identity from it.
Cen Yan, the once-promising genius medical scientist, was also the out-of-control superpowered individual Lei Ting had stopped at the ground port of the Capital System's third planet.
No wonder... no wonder.
No wonder that guy, a powerhouse who could achieve academic success through his own merit at such a young age, would lose control over something as trivial as a "forced marriage"—because what caused him to lose control wasn't a marriage issue at all, but the "Sublimation" virus. Or rather, it was "The Devourer" hiding behind the "Sublimation"!
