"Our enemy, these creatures or extraterrestrials you see and speak of, are what we customarily call Great Spikes. According to our current assessment, they hail from a source energy martial civilization whose technological foundation is entirely different from ours..."
The voice continued over the television and radio broadcast.
On the screen, combat footage of the Azure Coalition shifted constantly. Splattering blood and endless blades filled the display, laying bare the brutal, breathtaking reality of it all.
Just moments ago, the voice had spoken of a force that had quietly guarded humanity for nearly a century. A hundred years of silent sacrifice—for everything that drew breath, they fought without retreat, barring the open skies with their flesh and blood.
The students in the dining hall fell silent, glancing aside because some of those very defenders were sitting right before them, burying their heads in their bowls and wolfing down food.
Last night, these people had saved the school and everyone in it. Some of them didn't look especially burly. They joked and laughed, they cried out in pain, they cursed aloud. Naturally, they were someone's sons or daughters, someone's older brothers or younger sisters, perhaps even fathers or mothers to young children. And yet they were the ones who fought those things called Great Spikes...
Looking closely, every one of them bore fresh wounds or old scars.
At this moment, set against the backdrop of the broadcast, the entire dining hall fell quiet, save for the sounds of soldiers shoveling rice into their mouths and swallowing greedily.
Those who had just been crying in agony and swearing over their injuries now gritted their teeth and fell silent, unwilling to make a scene and embarrass themselves.
The field medics bustled back and forth between the rows of long tables, applying bandages to the wounded while they ate.
Aside from Rusty Sister, who was still gazing with keen interest at the television screen, Wu Xu didn't even raise his head. Wen Jifei didn't even turn to meet Yao Yue's gaze.
Truth be told, none of them were used to such scenes—unaccustomed to being the focus of ordinary people, looked upon with such reverence.
"What the hell? It feels like we bastards suddenly turned into saviors overnight. Look at that, dear Lord God—didn't I tell you? I'd pull my foot right back out of hell and grab hold of your robes again."
A white soldier muttered to himself, clearly feeling rather good inside. He got up and went to ladle himself another bowl of rice.
The hunger that went unfelt while channeled in source energy became overwhelming once the state was temporarily dropped, leaving every soldier with a ravenous appetite.
The soldier set his bowl on a windowsill strewn with shattered glass, ladling rice with his left hand, carrying it back with his left, and holding his spoon with his left.
Almost everyone in the hall was using their left hand to hold their spoon or chopsticks, with only a small minority using their right. This was not a matter of habit, but because the right hand was their primary weapon hand.
After a whole night of slaughter, their main weapon hand couldn't possibly steady a pair of chopsticks or a spoon right now. Of course, should battle call again, activating their devices would still allow that hand to draw a blade and take the field.
Having been handpicked to receive the first batch of tenth-generation devices and accompany Wen Jifei to Linzhou, these fighters were naturally the elite among Stream Vanguard's rank-and-file. Due to their varied backgrounds, most were seasoned veterans of a hundred battles.
*Clatter... tap!* The chopsticks in Wu Xu's hand suddenly slipped, striking the tabletop before tumbling to the floor.
Though he possessed super combat power, he had exerted himself the most in battle. Wu Xu's current condition was even worse than the others', as he barely had a dominant or secondary hand when fighting.
*Patter, patter, patter...* Amid the silence, a girl stood up, hurried to the front counter to fetch a fresh pair of chopsticks, and ran back to Wu Xu's table.
She stood ramrod straight and offered them with both hands.
By then, Wu Xu had already picked up his fallen pair. Momentarily dazed, he looked up at her.
Met by his gaze, the girl's eyes instantly filled with flustered panic.
Dressed in an all-black combat uniform, Wu Xu wasn't particularly bulky. He was tall, well-proportioned, and slender, with military-cropped hair. On his habitually numb face, his youth and simple, straightforward nature still lent him a touch of boyish innocence. At the moment, his skin bore several scabbed cuts and streaks of dried blood... while his eyes, as always, showed not a ripple of emotion.
To put it another way, Comrade Xu was practically the perfect embodiment of every young girl's romantic fantasy of an apocalyptic warrior.
That cold, invincible figure.
"Thank you." Two softly spoken words—the only two words he had uttered from the moment he arrived until now. Wu Xu took the chopsticks and went right back to eating with his head down.
At the same time, *tap!* Wen Jifei set down his chopsticks.
His fourth bowl was empty.
"Do you want more? I can get some for you," Yao Yue offered gently, reaching for the bowl.
"No need, I'm full." Wen Jifei shook his head and looked back up at the television.
By now, Kemore had addressed several more topics in the broadcast, explaining the nature of the Great Spikes, the current human situation, and more.
"I am sorry."
Toward the end, his voice carried a heavy, remorseful weight as he said:
"After nearly a century of effort, we were ultimately unable to prevent this massive invasion. Nor can I offer you hollow comfort by claiming this is anything less than a catastrophe for all of mankind. I cannot give you a timeline, nor tell you when all of this will end...
"However, one thing will not change: we are still fighting, and we have not given up. We will continue to fight on, using our blood and our lives to guard the sky above.
"We, humanity, have a fighting chance."
The voice faded.
As if to validate Kemore's words, the broadcast shifted again, displaying a sequence of glorious and inspiring scenes:
The counteroffensive in Antarctica, fields of Great Spike corpses strewn across ice plains and bare earth, the resistance of super combat powers and elite armed forces across the globe, the lines of evacuated citizens under their protection, and more.
"Whoa!" A brief gasp swept through the dining hall before the murmur abruptly died down.
On the screen, an aerial photograph taken by the Rejecters slowly panned into view, showing Yuejiang University.
In the image, collapsed buildings and panicking crowds surrounded a colossal metal craft resting on the campus plaza. A figure armed with a gun stood atop it, flanked on three sides by heaps of Great Spike corpses.
Seen from a macro perspective, the human battle formation looked like an expanding circle, swelling outward.
A lone figure in black, spear in hand, threw himself into a horde of Great Spikes.
A figure in grim iron armor stood firm amidst a field of Great Spike corpses, longsword in hand, turning slightly to gaze calmly upward, waiting for several black specks descending from high in the sky.
In one corner of the campus, smoke curled upward from cooking fires.
Then, the final image froze on the screen.
"Holy shit!" The Stream Vanguard fighters in the hall, foreigners included, blurted out the curse in unison, a mixture of surprise, excitement, and pride.
In the photograph, under the moonlight on a long avenue, the entire stretch of street was blanketed with corpses of Great Spikes and the wreckage of flying craft. A solitary figure holding a blue column sword stood at the center of the road, and on the ground behind him, numbers were carved deep into the pavement.
"Who... 1923, who is that?" Wen Jifei and the others clearly recognized him, and very well at that. Having guessed as much in her heart, Yao Yue asked tentatively, full of anticipation.
Her roommates, along with every student, teacher, and logistics staff member present, stared at the frozen image, waiting for the answer.
The sight of one man holding an entire city shook everyone to their core.
"Han Qingshe," Wen Jifei snickered softly, whispering, "Looks pretty breathtaking, doesn't it? Don't worry, you'll get used to it."
"Huh? Okay." Yao Yue thought to herself: *Wait, isn't his name Han Qingyu?*
"Major The Qing." Fortunately, Rusty Sister spoke up far louder than Wen Jifei.
Glancing at the bewildered faces around them, she explained with immense pride, "Because there are many majors in this world, and many people have 'Qing' in their names... Later on, you'll understand why this one has 'The' in front of it."
Chapter 613