In 1995, as spring in the Northern Hemisphere drew to a close and summer began, Azure released a piece of news that seemed far from monumental:
[The Coalition Council has reached a final decision to integrate all six mothership-class Great Spike vessels captured by humanity at the end of the Zenith War into active combat sequence. The restructured fleet is named: Stars Expedition.]
To almost every ordinary civilian in the world, and even to the vast majority of Azure's lower- and middle-ranking officers and soldiers, the announcement seemed entirely reasonable and held no surprises whatsoever.
What interested them far more and spurred heated discussions were the thrill and glory of humanity possessing an interstellar fleet for the very first time, along with the renaming of those Great Spike motherships—names like Stars · Defector, Stars · Doomsday Wall, Expedition · Zenith Blade, Expedition · Mechanical Cradle...
Han Qingyu saw this news several days later, on a crisp morning.
Inside a luxurious hotel suite in Maple Leaf Nation, he had risen early and was sitting on a sofa by the window, holding what looked like a digest magazine.
By now, he was no longer surprised by his ability to read English reports.
The digest was not an official Azure publication, but a periodical from the ordinary civilian world—essentially a magazine compiling recent trending news.
To human society at present, anything regarding the source energy world was the best, hottest, and most bestselling news available.
"Impressive!" Han Qingyu murmured in admiration as he turned to that report. After lingering in curiosity over the ships' names for a dozen seconds, he casually turned the page.
Just like the vast majority of people in the world, he did not perceive any deeper implications behind the announcement.
[Two super combat powers in Mitli joined hands to slash apart a hurricane. Waiting in a soybean field for the hurricane to sweep over and envelop them, they slashed against the air vortex in the storm's eye, swinging counter to its spin until the tempest subsided into stillness.]
[A firefighter in Huaxia took less than a second to scale four stories of a building barehanded. Breaching a wall, he charged into the blazing fire and carried out a family of three who had already fallen into despair. First, he threw the parents high into the air out of the burning inferno, then leapt down swiftly while cradling the child... Handing the child to his teammates, he spun around and caught both parents.]
[During a fishing vessel shipwreck in the waters near East Island, emergency rescue personnel leaped straight from a helicopter and plunged beneath the storm-tossed sea, diving nearly two kilometers in a single breath.]
[A new police recruit in Italy calmly lit a cigarette when facing submachine guns, giving the mobsters from Sicily an eight-hundred-meter head start...]
The news was thoroughly entertaining. As Han Qingyu uncrossed his legs, he accidentally kicked the sole of the iron armor lying on the floor. The armor kicked back with lightning speed, cracking a floor tile.
It was around 7:30 in the morning. Yang Qingbai had just returned from his physical conditioning workout.
Wu Xu had also finished his personal morning practice. Fully equipped, he stood by the window hugging the Binggu Spear, lost in thought.
He Tangtang had previously confided to Han Qingyu that Wu Xu had an old flame in a place called the City of Sin—a girl whose sign was the cat. Han Qingyu had asked curiously twice, and both times Wu Xu told him: "Get lost."
Such was Major The Qing's current status.
Wen Jifei and Zhu Jiaming were outside the door smoking and chatting, busy deliberating something unknown.
"Where's Tangtang?" Han Qingyu called out. "Time for breakfast."
"Washing up," Yang Qingbai answered.
Water rushed noisily from the tap.
The faucet was left running, gushing heavily. The white soap lather had just been rinsed away. Holding a towel he had just used to dry his hair, He Tangtang stood before the sink, blank and stricken with grief...
His hair had begun to fall out.
This had not started just today; it had been going on for a few days, but because the amount shed before was modest, He Tangtang had not paid it much mind.
Today, it came out in clumps...
"Damn it, I'm only twenty-one!"
He Tangtang was the youngest of the Stream Vanguard clique, only twenty-one years old by full count. Little Prince, the oldest in the group, was almost twice his age.
Yet even that uncle in his forties had a thick, luscious head of hair... He Tangtang slowly raised a hand, pushed his bangs up from his forehead, gritted his teeth, and opened his eyes.
The forehead reflected in the mirror looked rather vast.
He Tangtang had always possessed a peaked hairline. Right now, the shape remained, but it had grown—from an "m" into a broad, gaping "M."
Gritting his teeth, he lowered his head further... Sure enough, the crown in the mirror had already thinned out considerably.
If this trend continued, his hairstyle would soon form a distinct pattern: an "O" on top and an "M" below.
"..." An emotion both helpless and sorrowful surged in He Tangtang's chest. Pulling himself together as best he could, he muttered to the mirror, "Is this serious or what?"
He recalled that the aftereffect of God Lü's peak burst had been baldness, but Lü was a super combat power. "I haven't even broken through to top-tier, damn it!"
"A future peak super, the greatest kidney striker in human history... if I go bald, will it ruin my image?"
He Tangtang pondered for a while without arriving at any clear conclusion.
He turned off the water, tossed aside the towel, and stepped out of the room.
Most people facing such a predicament would certainly hide it and try desperately to cover it up. But that was not He Tangtang's style. Walking into the living room, he sat squarely in the middle of the sofa with legs spread wide, then lowered his head.
"Look at me."
Rusty Sister stood up in bewilderment. Han Qingyu stood up as well. Wu Xu and Yang Qingbai turned around, and Wen Jifei and Zhu Jiaming walked in from outside.
The six of them formed a semicircle and stared for a while.
"So sudden?" Wen Jifei muttered.
He Tangtang snapped his head up to glare at him. "Bald?"
Wen Jifei replied, "I said sudden."
"Oh."
"How did you go bald all of a sudden?"
At that, subdued chuckles broke out. Everyone had originally felt they ought to show some kindness under the circumstances, but in the end, none of them could hold it in.
"What the hell are you laughing at?!" He Tangtang glared around fiercely, then sighed. "I'm asking if you guys think this is serious. Is there a cure?"
Han Qingyu thought about it and asked, "Does this run in your family?"
"No. Both my parents still have thick hair."
"What about your body? Does anything feel off physically?" Rusty Sister chimed in from the side.
"No, that either," He Tangtang said mournfully.
"How about we have Zhe Qiuhong take a look later? See if she has any ideas," Wen Jifei comforted him, though as far as he recalled, doctors generally had no cure for baldness—even if that doctor was named Zhe Qiuhong.
"...Fine. If worst comes to worst, I'll just shave it all clean in a couple of days."
He Tangtang was not the type to brood over such matters for long. Once he had vented, he moved past it. Putting aside his gloom, he got up, strapped on his gear, called out for breakfast downstairs, and took the lead toward the door.
Just as his steps reached the entryway and he reached out to pull the door open, a hum rose from behind his back, and the blue glow of his source energy apparatus swelled.
He Tangtang froze, his hand pausing mid-motion.
The others halted behind him as well.
Then they watched him slowly turn around and say dully, "I didn't press the switch."
"Yeah. Congratulations," Wu Xu said.
Advancing in source energy martial prowess naturally had specific testing procedures, but they were usually unnecessary, as one could easily tell from landmark differences or personal perception.
Among them, the "automatic" activation of the source energy apparatus—triggering the gear at will without pressing the activation button, relying purely on the surging internal source energy of the body to enter combat state in an instant—was the quintessential hallmark of a source energy warrior breaking through to top-tier.
"Tangtang, you're top-tier!" Excitement and joy rang in Rusty Sister's voice. Her iron armor clattered as she nearly jumped; she was genuinely thrilled for him.
On this ordinary morning, after being stuck on the verge of top-tier for three long years, the weakest combatant of Stream Vanguard's core group, He Tangtang, had finally ascended to top-tier.
Moreover, according to Zhe Qiuhong's theories, his top-tier was destined to be anything but ordinary.
For it also meant that the super Yanxiu inside him—originating from Alphonse and possessing the trait of devouring—had officially awakened from its slumber.
Chapter 732