In any other time and place, Yao Yue would have been overjoyed at this moment. Then, the instant they met, she would have gotten angry first, pouring out every bit of hurt and frustration she had bottled up over the past three years.
But this was not the time.
Both joy and grievance were battered and buried beneath a torrent of negative emotions—worry, terror, confusion, and anxiety.
Standing behind the door after saying those words, Yao Yue wiped hard at her tears and glared fiercely at the two girls still bracing against the iron door with all their might...
Perhaps because she had always seemed so meek and quiet, the tearful, reddened fury in her eyes startled the other two girls into involuntarily pulling their hands back.
Yao Yue opened the door and bolted out.
*Bang!* The iron door slammed shut behind her.
The third-floor hallway was completely empty.
Yao Yue turned her head and sprinted forward.
She had to reach the stairwell and get up to the roof. Building 4 had rooftop access—she knew that.
Outside, the chaotic, violent racket raged on, growing louder and more frantic by the second.
Her solitary footsteps echoed through the stairwell, pounding in time with her racing heart.
At this moment, Yao Yue had no romantic fantasies about a hero coming to her rescue. She certainly hadn't invited the other two girls along by claiming her boyfriend had arrived to save them.
In truth, in Yao Yue's memory, her former classmate Wen Jifei had never been a particularly reliable person.
Back in school, he was always late, slept in class, was clever but never studied properly, and had a head full of bizarre notions... Even though Yao Yue had faithfully mailed him her notes throughout all four years of high school, he still hadn't managed to get into college.
Even during their freshman year, when they still exchanged letters, Yao Yue had constantly worried that the military would kick him out.
Yet Yao Yue believed he was standing on that roof right now.
That idiot was entirely capable of something like this. Just like back during the class-placement exam, when she had grown pale, tremoring, and cold-sweating from nerves and low blood sugar. Too timid to speak up to the proctor, she had watched him crawl out through the back of the classroom, buy a bar of chocolate, and reach in through the third-floor window to place it on her desk, grinning with triumphant smugness.
To teach him a lesson never to pull such a stunt again, Yao Yue had held out until she was on the verge of fainting without eating the chocolate... and had still made it into the top-tier class.
As for him, he naturally landed in the worst class, and soon transferred away after his parents' divorce.
Now, Yao Yue had to go yell at him again, just as she had when she was the class study rep lecturing the "slacker" she was assigned to help—even though he always managed to infuriate her and make her laugh at the same time.
She had to scold him, tell him to get down and hide.
And Yao Yue desperately wanted to see him again.
Because it had truly been far too long.
Because today, they might both die.
There were still five flights of stairs to reach the top. Gripping the handrail, Yao Yue took the steps by leaps and bounds.
Reaching the fifth floor, she glanced absently through the window facing the stair landing... Just then, a black-armored monster that had leaped from a craft twisted its hideous head and looked right at her.
In the instant their eyes met—
"Ah!" Yao Yue shrieked in absolute terror, crying out as she slipped and fell backward onto the stairs.
What she did not know was that at the foot of every single academic building on campus, soldiers were standing guard—all because she might be in one of them.
Scrambling to her feet, Yao Yue resumed running toward the roof.
Only then did she realize that from her two falls on the way up, her elbows and chin were scraped raw, bleeding and throbbing with pain.
Why did she have to wear a skirt today of all days?! Yet in the next breath, she thought: *A skirt is nice, too.*
"Yao Yue, Yao Yue... Are you there? Can you hear me?"
Over the public address system, that gentle voice continued to echo, and the entire campus was listening.
***
On the roof of Academic Building 2, a communicator hung against Wen Jifei's chest. Patching the communication system of a Qing Spear-class craft into the campus speakers had been effortless. Rusty Sister stood behind him, and more than twenty Stream Vanguard fighters were stationed around the perimeter of the terrace.
"It's fine. She's probably just hiding, too afraid to come out," Wen Jifei said with a smile, turning toward the doorway of the small stairwell shed that opened onto the terrace.
Yao Yue's four roommates were standing there.
In her letters during their freshman year, Yao Yue had chattered on endlessly about her life at university and sent pictures. Wen Jifei knew where her dorm was, so he had gone there first. When he found only her roommates, he learned through them that Yao Yue was studying here.
She always liked finding empty classrooms to study on her own, having worked diligently throughout college.
The four girls stood there with tears in their eyes, still dazed and staring blankly at Wen Jifei in sheer nervous shock.
They were finally seeing Yao Yue's legendary puppy-love sweetheart in the flesh: the soldier boy in the army, the scoundrel who had stopped writing and left Yao Yue waiting all this time...
Yet he didn't seem like an ordinary soldier.
He—and the people around him—looked like the human super-warriors from movies, real and terrifyingly powerful. And Yao Yue's boyfriend appeared to be an officer.
The colossal, breathtaking ship from before was currently parked in the campus park square outside the dorm area, guarded by soldiers.
Just moments ago, Yao Yue's boyfriend had led his fighters and escorted the four girls, cutting down those monsters all along the way to reach this building. Only after searching several buildings without finding Yao Yue had he resorted to this.
"Right, Yao Yue scares easily. She definitely wouldn't dare run out." Having finally recovered their wits, the girls nodded vigorously, doing their best to reassure him.
"Yeah, she's always been a scaredy-cat. That's why I used to pick on her so much," Wen Jifei said, turning back toward the microphone to speak in the same gentle, everyday tone. "Yao Yue, Yao Yue, are you there? Don't be afraid."
In truth, Wen Jifei was terrified.
They had arrived late, and the campus was already littered with casualties. Wen Jifei was terrified that among the fallen might be the study rep he hadn't written to in three years.
These Great Spikes were definitely operating under coordinated command. Met with stiff resistance here, they had dispatched more craft in an endless stream.
The cleanup was still ongoing, far from complete.
At the same time, the Great Spikes on the ground seemed to have low-level field commanders. They would retreat, reposition, and designate targets. They had just launched a furious assault on this very building—though it had amounted to nothing.
***
The sun was sinking. Having hidden in the supply closet for so long, Yao Yue had emerged into the late afternoon. A breeze stirred, and a reddish glow washed over the rooftops.
"Yao Yue, don't be afraid..."
*Boom!*
In the distance, a Great Spike craft plunged from the sky, slamming broadside into the upper floors of an academic building.
That entire story began to collapse.
Wen Jifei's heart skipped a beat. Through his sniper scope, he strained to inspect the dust-shrouded floor.
At that exact moment—*clang!*
On the roof of Building 4, the iron door swung outward, slamming against the wall.
Yao Yue dashed out onto the terrace and froze in the open.
"Yao Yue!"
"There she is!"
The girls shouted in excitement.
Wen Jifei turned around.
The distance between the two rooftops was roughly two hundred meters.
Wen Jifei saw Yao Yue standing on the opposing terrace, bathed in the glow of the sunset.
His mouth parted... and he broke into a grin.
Yao Yue saw Wen Jifei, too. She stood frozen, looking at him—so familiar, yet so transformed. He wore an extraordinary uniform. Having never seen that movie, Yao Yue didn't recognize it, but she thought he looked dashing.
In his hands was a pitch-black long gun that resembled a sniper rifle, and a curved combat blade was slung across his back.
He...
"You! Plague Chicken, get down! Don't stand out in the open!" Yao Yue cried, waving her arms frantically as she shouted across to him.
Just then—*whoosh!*
A sound whipped in from her rear left.
Yao Yue turned her head.
A pitch-black craft skimmed past the edge of Building 4's roof.
Two black-armored monsters vaulted into midair, brandishing hideous Great Spikes as they lunged toward her.
Yao Yue froze in terror.
Then a voice shouted from across the expanse: "Turn around! Look at me!"
It was Wen Jifei.
Yao Yue whipped back toward him.
*Bang! Bang-bang!*
The sunset, the terrace, the corner behind the girl—two Great Spikes, before their feet could touch the ground, spewed massive sprays of vile blood and were blasted backward through the air by the tremendous kinetic shock of source energy bullets.
Chapter 602