Morning sunlight spilled over the pristine white walls of Chiba Academy. The pathways were alive with students heading to class, the air humming with lively chatter.
Some speculated about the helicopters that had thundered overhead the night before. Others chatted about the latest game releases. A few pretended to admire the morning blooms—actually flaunting their new phones.
And naturally, there were the girls, casting sidelong glances at a certain white-haired heartthrob as he passed by.
"Kevin-kun, I baked these cookies just for you."
"You haven't had breakfast yet, right? Here's some milk—I got an extra just in case!"
Before Kevin could even utter a polite refusal, the girls had already fled the scene, leaving him standing dazed, hands full.
"Popularity really is a talent," Ryan commented as he strolled past, voice dry. He tossed in a playful jab: "Good thing you're with Mei, or people would be calling you a total player."
Kevin blinked, then held up the bag of offerings. "Mei trusts me. Still, it's a bit much. What are these girls even thinking?"
"Don't pretend to be humble. Here, let me help." Ryan snatched a baozi and popped it into his mouth, chewing contentedly. "Come on, pretty boy."
"Don't call me that! And Ryan, you're not that far off yourself. If you joined a club and acted a little less like a vampire, you'd be swimming in admirers."
"Please," Ryan muttered. "You make me sound like some brooding shut-in."
"You're not—exactly. But…" Kevin picked up his pace, searching for the right words.
After knowing Ryan for two years, he still couldn't quite put a label on him. Mysterious? Logical? Polite?
They all applied, but none felt complete. As they reached the second-floor classroom building, Kevin finally looked up, frowning in thought.
"It's like… you're always a step removed. Like you're living every day as if the world's ending tomorrow."
Thud.
Ryan stopped in his tracks. The corner of his mouth twitched—it was surprisingly perceptive, if clumsily phrased. Amoeba-like intuition, as expected from Kevin.
"Human nature is a complex thing. You can't just reduce it to that."
"I'm simple," Kevin replied with a grin, warm and blinding as the morning sun.
Too simple, Ryan thought, lowering his eyes.
This boy—who waited up all night for his girlfriend's delayed flight, who scaled a building just to see her—couldn't possibly be the same man destined to become a world-saving super-soldier.
Sometimes, Ryan was grateful he'd been sent to the beginning of the story and not the end. By then, most of the Flame-Chasers had gone mad with purpose.
Of course, the downside was having no "thighs to cling to" and no way to use future knowledge to manipulate anyone.
"What's with that stare? Got a problem with my gender? Go ask Su," Kevin muttered, rubbing his cheek.
"Just thinking," Ryan said casually. "You're not just simple—you're pure. That's why, even with the perfect opportunity, you climbed back up to the dorm and took a cold shower. Meanwhile, I spent the whole night clutching my—"
Whoosh!
A milk carton soared past Ryan's ear, slamming into a streetlamp with a dull thunk. He didn't look back. Instead, he grabbed his books and bolted.
Not the first time he'd poked fun at Kevin. And like always, Kevin would be sulky now, but by the time they were back in the dorm, he'd pretend it never happened.
Ryan didn't stop until the first bell rang, Kevin now trailing behind, breath calm as ever. Physical education majors were monsters.
Seriously… ran across the whole campus like it was nothing.
He watched Kevin's retreating figure. The pieces were falling into place.
He's been holding back. That scuffle the other day—he dealt with a Knight-Class Honkai Beast like it was nothing. Is this normal for Far East high schoolers?
Ryan shrugged to himself. Not even Path could explain these kinds of outliers. But at this point, he was 90% sure Kevin was anything but normal.
Adjusting his glasses, Ryan walked toward a towering, white structure enclosed by a high wall. A sign marked it clearly:
Physics Department Laboratory.
Chiba, one of the rare private universities worldwide, held contracts for several state-sponsored research projects. Its facilities were world-class—this lab even housed the Far East's only particle collider.
After passing through security, Ryan changed into his white lab coat. His rimless glasses lent him a scholarly air.
Between the lab and the front gate was a small garden, where cherry blossoms danced in the breeze. Sitting quietly on a bench was a girl with a long, blue ponytail, her eyes focused on a book. She took notes as she read, expression calm and studious.
Still don't understand how those two ended up together. A sage and a golden retriever.
Ryan clicked his tongue. Mei looked every bit the literary prodigy, but she wasn't just smart—she was a monster. Scholar, genius, prodigy—those words weren't enough.
At just nineteen, she'd finished coursework in physics, biology, and more, held three PhDs, led her own research project, and had unrestricted access to the entire lab. Veteran researchers either admired her or quietly resented her.
If Pathstriders could fall for each other, I'd think she was an Erudition simulacrum.
Ryan stepped into the garden, his shadow falling over the open book. Mei paused in her writing—pages already filled with dense formulas.
"You teased Kevin again?"
"That kid snitched on me? I just made a harmless joke. What, you here to get revenge for him?"
Mei looked up, a smile in her eyes, not a trace of anger. "Quite the opposite. I'm relieved you two haven't grown apart."
The words were light, but layered with meaning.
Ryan smiled faintly. "Not like I have many friends. And I don't have the energy to deal with people I don't like."
"A self-defense mechanism?"
"If nothing I do can change the outcome, at least I'll keep my core intact. That's something."
Mei didn't press further. Instead, she patted the space beside her. "I sent you the main points from the conference. Did you get a chance to read them?"
"Woke up at five to go through it—didn't even eat. It was, what, a hundred thousand words?"
He sat, glancing sideways. Dark circles under her eyes.
Scaling buildings at night and solving equations by morning. These two are something else.
He flipped open his notebook, revealing pages of intricate equations that looked more like Genjutsu than math. But Ryan calmly scanned through them, asking without looking up:
"I heard Dr. Mobius was looking for you?"
"She was. Her attending the conference was unexpected. She showed interest in my paper, though…" Mei glanced up, tone composed. "She's clearly working under some higher authority—looks constrained."
Ryan's brow twitched.
He hadn't met Mobius yet, but he knew the infamous scientist had been sniffing around for years. Tried to recruit him once. He had to admit—Mobius was brilliant, possibly even Mei's equal.
Imaginary Internal Energy—previously a mystery—was now under active research. Fire Moth was pushing ahead, and some like Ryan could even use it. But researchers wanted to go deeper—back to the origin.
"Your paper on the origin of Imaginary Space and Internal Energy must've intrigued her. What'd she say?"
"She showed me some unpublished drafts. Her theories differ, but they validate my approach." Mei picked up a fallen leaf and pressed her finger to the stem.
"If we think of this leaf as the world, Imaginary Space energy shouldn't be able to enter reality. Its very presence contradicts natural law. But for some reason, it is here. And if it gathers in high enough concentrations, it can affect organisms, climate… even the laws of physics."
Exactly. High enough levels of Imaginary Internal Energy trigger Honkai outbreaks.
Ryan didn't interrupt. Mei had never seen Honkai with her own eyes—only deduced it through theory. That alone was terrifying.
"And with her help, I revised my hypothesis on the energy's origin," Mei added, drawing a circle around the leaf on her notebook. "Energy doesn't appear out of nowhere. There must be something beyond the world's edge—a high-temperature source and a low-temperature one. Their interaction creates energy."
The Tree and the Sea…
Ryan's eyes lowered. He slowly raised a hand in mock surrender. "You have computational models to back all that up. You're a genius."
"Flatter me again and I'll hit you," Mei muttered, brushing the leaf aside. "Besides, you did at least 30% of the math. So why didn't you attend the conference?"
"Mu Continent's too far. And you know I don't care about prestige."
"Then what do you care about?"
Like any story, life needed a plot.
"To stand in the present, and look to the future. I can tolerate not knowing, but I can't accept not understanding. Whether it's knowledge or power…" Ryan clenched his fist gently, a quiet fire in his gaze.
"I want to touch it. Understand it. Explore it. Then surpass it. I want to become a Trailblazer."
To be a Pathstrider wasn't just to fight—it was to be moved by ideals, to grow by them.
Fighting Honkai Beasts and walking through the fog was part of it. But so was sitting beside Mei, scrawling equations into notebooks, piecing together the truth.
"To seek understanding is admirable," Mei murmured. She stood, brushing cherry petals from her skirt. "But don't forget—dead men can't walk any paths."
"Haha, expansion and survival aren't mutually exclusive." Ryan adjusted his glasses with a faint smile.
"Relax. I'm just a harmless researcher."