novelraw Chapter 115 : Break Period
Chapter 115 : Break Period
The name "Polar World" originated from Crimson Snow Star's year-round unmelting ice and snow, where the ground had accumulated into an extremely cool ice sculpture world.
Because it resembled the polar regions recorded in ancient star records, it gained this name.
But in reality, the Polar World was very similar to small towns on other planets, filled with protected metal buildings displaying information about the interior of Crimson Snow Star's early cleared energy fields and rare minerals.
Crossing under the huge sign reading "Crimson Snow Star Polar World" and an archway carved from solid ice, Chen Sui first saw a long street that stretched as far as the eye could see. Along the street were ice-blue buildings that looked like houses carved from ice, but with one glance, she knew they were made of a special metal.
Crimson Snow Star residents wore specially made shoes that could adhere to the ice layer, preventing them from slipping on the ice-covered ground.
"Eat first or see the exhibition first? Raise your hand to vote," Zhou Chen looked back at everyone.
Such a large group of military academy students gathered together was somewhat eye-catching. Although they had changed out of their combat suits, gazes still lingered on them.
As soon as Zhou Chen spoke, most of those present chose the former.
His mouth twitched.
Jipuna expressed what most were thinking: "No matter how good the exhibition sounds, it's not real play, but eating is real eating."
The Crimson Snow Star exhibition was a 'social practice task' assigned by the Competition Committee's teaching team to the military academy students. Due to the unrecorded energy bodies appearing in the Red Moon Snow Plain, the Competition Committee had become vigilant, requiring military academy students to analyze large numbers of energy body capabilities and attack properties without prior knowledge, to develop basic judgment abilities when facing unrecorded energy bodies.
So essentially, it wasn't play, but more like outdoor learning.
As soon as Jipuna spoke, several people nodded.
Zhou Chen ignored him and looked at Chen Sui, who had raised both hands in the crowd: "Little Sui, did you think raising two hands counts as two votes?"
Chen Sui silently lowered one hand. "More beats fewer, so eat first."
Zhou Chen covered his eyes: "Eat! Eat! Let's eat!"
At the center of the Crimson Snow Star Polar World was a large shopping mall that gathered crowds from around. The upper building was a direct-supply restaurant cooperating with the research institute, while below were various shops covering aspects like clothing, residence, and transportation.
After eating upstairs, several people dispersed first, agreeing on a time to go to the exhibition, then each went to play downstairs.
Chen Sui turned back to wait for Gu Qinxue. The long-haired girl parted from He Lanqi at the entrance and walked up quickly.
"What did she say to you?"
Seeing He Lanqi suddenly hold Gu Qinxue and talk while constantly looking at herself, Chen Sui asked curiously.
A faint smile appeared on Gu Qinxue's face: "She asked me if you're easy to talk to."
"Hmm?" Chen Sui showed a puzzled expression.
Gu Qinxue understood He Lanqi's feelings well. The young lady firmly believed herself to be a genius, but now someone even more talented had appeared. She wanted to communicate with Chen Sui but couldn't bring herself to ask directly, so she had to find out Chen Sui's attitude first.
In Gu Qinxue's opinion, this was completely unnecessary because Chen Sui was indeed very approachable. Even someone with a temperament as difficult as Xue Yaoyao could get along well with her.
The two walked downstairs. While getting on the elevator, Chen Sui suddenly sensed something and instinctively looked back.
Two curly-haired wolf-tailed young men.
They followed closely behind them.
Chen Sui and Gu Qinxue were planning to buy hair accessories. She instinctively looked at Xie Chunshi and Xie You's hair.
Xie You was fine; other than his slightly long bangs, the length was just right. But Xie Chunshi's wolf tail was a bit too long.
Chen Sui didn't pay much attention until, at the hair accessory store, she turned around and still ran into the two of them, which somewhat surprised her.
"You like this?"
Seeing Black Mamba staring at a sword-shaped hairpin in the display case, with a huge pink mineral gleaming brilliantly, Chen Sui's gaze changed immediately.
When Xie You saw her, his first reaction was to look around. Not seeing Xie Chunshi, his face suddenly fell as he explained: "It's not that I like it!"
"I don't like it at all!"
He spoke firmly, and Chen Sui nodded half-believingly: "Oh, you don't like it."
She passed by this display case in the store and went to another side. Xie Chunshi heard her voice and looked over.
"Commander?"
Chen Sui wasn't too surprised, but seeing Xie Chunshi very seriously looking at the handcrafted braided cords here was somewhat unexpected.
Xie Chunshi was holding an emerald green cord, and upon seeing her, he offered it to Chen Sui: "I checked, this one is wider and should completely cover it."
He made a gesture with his finger.
The vine in Chen Sui's hair wasn't wide, just mixed among the fine hair strands, making it somewhat noticeable. It could only be wrapped with large sections of hair braided together, but this method meant the hair could easily come loose, risking exposure.
The cord in his hand was styled with a forest theme, with hand-crocheted leaves and flower buds that looked extremely realistic. The vine mixed in would make people think it was part of the decoration.
Chen Sui reached out to take it. "I'll ask Ah Xue."
She wasn't very good at doing her hair.
Chen Jia couldn't even handle her own hair, let alone teach Chen Sui.
During those years in the post-apocalyptic world, she always had short hair. Only after coming here, with Gu Qinxue's help in grooming, did her hair gradually grow longer.
Fortunately, it had grown longer.
Chen Sui felt somewhat grateful.
Otherwise, the vine would be impossible to hide.
"I—" I know how to do hair...
Before Xie Chunshi could finish, Gu Qinxue saw Chen Sui's beckoning gesture and hurried over.
So Xie Chunshi sighed, watching Gu Qinxue examine Chen Sui's hair length and nod with satisfaction.
The wolf-tailed curly-haired young man's eyes showed some resignation as he took another two cords from the braided cord rack and went with them to check out.
On the other side, Xie You saw them preparing to leave and quickly took down the sword hairpin, blending into the crowd and quickly checking out.
Chen Sui looked at him curiously, seeing Xie You put the accessory in his pocket. She raised an eyebrow, not knowing if it was due to the lighting or what, but she seemed to see a pink glow.
This Black Mamba, verbally rejecting but physically honest.
Chen Sui laughed, and Gu Qinxue braided her hair with the newly bought cord in the rest area. The vine trembled and stood up when her hair was spread out.
Seeing this, Xie Chunshi sent Xie You away, and the two came to another corner.
Black Mamba's face showed some impatience. "What are you doing?"
Xie Chunshi handed him the other two braided cords.
Xie You was taken aback. There was a movable lock for hanging pendants on them, and he unconsciously gripped his pocket.
"Did your old cord break?"
"I bought you a new one."
A flash of annoyance crossed Xie You's face: "I don't need it," he sneered. "I threw away that useless safety charm long ago."
"I'm not a child anymore. How could you think I still believe in these tricks for children?"
The safety charm was from when Xie You awakened. Because his awakening reaction lasted a long time, Xie Chunshi had prayed at an electronic shrine online. The online shop owner said buying safety charms would protect loved ones.
So Xie Chunshi, still young at that time, spent hundreds of thousands of star coins to buy those elaborately folded safety charm papers.
The Xie family elders, Song Baining, Xie Liuyun, the Song family elders, and Xie You and Xie Yi each received one.
His was even placed by Xie Chunshi before the electronic shrine, and he was fooled by the shop owner into making many 'offerings.'
To this day, Xie You didn't understand how someone as smart as Xie Chunshi could be tricked into spending so much pocket money by such methods.
If he really cared about him, why had he never come back after his awakening?
Xie You's eyes widened, as if this would hide the slight redness in them.
Xie Chunshi tied the black handcrafted cord around his wrist.
Xie You claimed he didn't want it, but when his wrist was grabbed, he didn't struggle, allowing the black cord to make a home on his wrist.
Xie Chunshi handed him another pink handcrafted cord: "This is for Little Yi."
"She can buy it herself," Xie You muttered.
Xie Chunshi smiled, his eyes curving.
Xie You's palm in his pocket was already sweating lightly, the safety charm somewhat hot, making his palm feel burned.
Xie Chunshi sat down with him at the side. Xie You looked at the other side, suddenly understanding that this action was intentionally sending him away. He narrowed his eyes but didn't pursue the matter.
On the other side, looking at the vine, Gu Qinxue's finger touched it, making Chen Sui frown and instinctively let out a light hiss.
Gu Qinxue immediately stopped her movement.
Chen Sui could break through an energy storm without making a sound, yet now she was very uncomfortable just having her vine touched.
"Is it Wood-Born Flower's energy overflow?"
Gu Qinxue carefully mixed the vine with hair strands, somewhat anxiously asking Chen Sui.
The analyst was silent for a second, enduring the energy fluctuation from her mental domain and a very strong sense of rejection. Wood-Born Flower's energy crystal had completely fused with the mental domain, but this kind of energy externalization had only occurred during her awakening period.
"It doesn't seem like it," Chen Sui's intuition told her this wasn't energy overflow. Her mental domain was large enough to handle Wood-Born Flower's energy. "I'm not really sure what it is."
Gu Qinxue faintly sensed her unusual nature. "If anything feels uncomfortable, be sure to tell us."
She only cared that this thing wasn't harmful to Chen Sui.
Chen Sui nodded, feeling somewhat comfortable from having her hair handled, like being petted. She sat on the high chair, her legs swinging unconsciously in midair, looking up obediently waiting for her hair to be done, appearing extremely harmless.
Gu Qinxue was infected by her demeanor, and the tense atmosphere around also relaxed considerably.
The cyan green cord blended well with Chen Sui's hair, completely hiding the vine.
Gu Qinxue also noticed that Chen Sui's hair strands vaguely presented a dark green color, even more obvious than when Lu Ting had pointed it out before.
But she knew Chen Sui had never dyed her hair. Gu Qinxue guessed it must be like her vine, a strange externalization phenomenon.
Having dealt with the vine issue, under the Xie brothers' following, they wandered around nearby, timing it to meet up with the group.
Zhou Chen, sporting an extremely eye-catching silver-white hair color, suddenly rushed up, followed by a flame-red Puluo.
Puluo originally had a buzz cut, and with this color, he looked like he had a flame on his head.
Chen Sui looked up and praised: "Puluo, good job, you're very eye-catching now."
The burly man covered his face with both hands up and down, crouching down in extreme introversion: "I said I didn't want it, but he insisted. We agreed on brown, but he switched halfway!"
Zhou Chen laughed a few times. He pointed backward: "This was your foot soldier group's idea, it had nothing to do with me."
Chen Sui looked over and only then discovered that every single foot soldier—He Shuangmu, Jing Yao, Zhao Jingzhi—all had flame-red hair. Lu Ting had highlighted several strands as a sign of group solidarity.
The Black Peacock's white hair was already eye-catching enough; the few strands of fire red made her look even more formidable.
Zhao Jingzhi, seeing Puluo's face full of despair, quickly comforted him: "It's okay, Puluo. Next time we'll dye yours pure gold."
Just as Chen Sui was about to smile, Jiang Zhongyu suddenly looked at her: "Our analyst group could all dye our hair green together."
Xue Yaoyao looked at him, then instinctively at Chen Sui, immediately nodding: "I support that."
He Lanqi lightly coughed, "It's not out of the question."
"No need, no need," Chen Sui waved her hand, somewhat helplessly.
"Let's go, the exhibition is starting," Zhang Yingjie had just finished tying Xin Ming's hair band, clumsily making a butterfly knot that couldn't be called pretty.
Xin Ming looked at him, her face showing a slight blush. Afraid of teasing from those around, she immediately composed herself.
The Ink Hills members were already used to it. Other familiar ones just made joking tsk sounds, then headed toward the exhibition.
The Crimson Snow Star exhibition was an essential project of the Polar World. Each session would select suitable exhibits for explanation, with other exhibits in the hall for self-viewing.
Among them were some energy bodies that appeared after the early energy fields on Crimson Snow Star but never appeared again. Due to the lack of large sample data statistics, their basic information was still unknown, differing from unrecorded ones only by having an image and name.
The exhibition attracted not just them but also many tourists from other planets.
The entire exhibition hall was packed with people. The military academy students were carried along by the flow of people. Zhou Chen looked at the map and immediately searched for the materials exhibition area: "Let's go southwest. That's the materials area!"
"We'll go too!" Noya hurriedly followed.
Zhu Jing Fu and Saint Laurent headed toward the southwest area. Ink Hills and Xitisi headed toward two energy body exhibition areas, while in Na Luo River, He Lanqi pointed to the energy field recording area on the other side: "There are fewer people there. Let's go take a look first."
The teams separated at the entrance.
To reach the southwest exhibition area, they had to pass through a long corridor. While Zhou Chen was still discussing what special materials could be found on Crimson Snow Star, with Chen Sui explaining the corresponding processing methods, as they got closer to the materials area, a familiar fluctuation grew stronger.
"What's wrong?"
Xie Chunshi noticed her suddenly raising her eyebrow.
Chen Sui lowered her voice: "A very strange energy fluctuation."
Xie Chunshi looked around the exhibition hall. Such large exhibition venues would place the most sensitive energy monitoring instruments. Once there was an abnormal energy level, an alarm would immediately sound.
Crimson Snow Star was also a planet with multiple energy fields converging, highly valued by the Border Army.
Chen Sui suppressed her inner discomfort and entered the materials exhibition area. The further she went, the stronger the discomfort she felt.
The intelligent robot in the exhibition hall was still introducing: "Crimson Snow Star is one of the early victim planets of the descent. Among the few fracture fragments that the current Interstellar Alliance can collect, one is in the Crimson Snow Star exhibition hall."
The fracture was the source of the earliest energy bodies to descend on the interstellar.
To this day, the Interstellar Alliance still had no information about the fracture, but its few fragments had been researched over and over by research institutes.
Chen Sui passed a circle of materials. "Where is the fracture fragment display case?"
A cute expression flashed on the robot's light screen: "The fracture fragment is in the front exhibition area."
Chen Sui nodded, looking up, preparing to go around the display cases one by one.
"Is this the White Jade Thunder Serpent scale armor?"
Zhou Chen saw a section of white snake scale armor in the display case, very similar to the White Jade Thunder Serpent scale armor that Chen Sui had peeled off.
Chen Sui glanced at it, nodding, then moving forward to see more materials. "These seem to be Crimson Snow Star mineral groups?"
"Crimson Snow Star is known for its transportation hub, but the planet has formed a very complete ice plain ecology with its own special mineral groups. However, after the energy field descended, Crimson Snow Star's ecology underwent tremendous changes. Many of these minerals have now completely disappeared."
The robot emitted mechanical sounds of explanation.
Chen Sui nodded. Through the display cases, she could see that some of the materials had perfect attributes, some even matching those in the collector's album Xie Yi had given her.
Walking to the front exhibition hall, Chen Sui suddenly felt an abnormal energy fluctuation.
She frowned, her gaze sweeping across the alarm instruments in the exhibition hall, showing no anomalies.
The fracture fragment was a long, metal-like piece with black edges, with irregular breaks around it.
Chen Sui's face was almost pressed against the window. Through the display case, her deep green pupils looked at the fragment inside.
Perhaps due to the exhibition hall's lighting, she seemed to see several lines on the fracture.
Chen Sui's finger unconsciously slid a few times along the lines.
She narrowed her eyes, feeling something was off.
Weak energy fluctuations spread around.
She took a deep breath, her chest feeling somewhat congested. She stood up, looking around. Among them were some energy body materials—White Jade Thunder Serpent, thunder bird, snow domain red shark spines, etc.
After circling back to the starting point of the fracture fragment display case, Chen Sui suddenly thought of something.
"Some energy bodies in the earliest energy fields are quite similar to those in the Red Moon Snow Plain."
Xie Chunshi nodded: "When energy fields descend, star beasts are first affected by energy. Crimson Snow Star has its own star beast ecology, forming energy bodies in the energy field with roughly the same ecology. Most of the Red Moon Snow Plain energy fields contain large amounts of ice attribute."
Chen Sui nodded. The Red Moon Snow Plain's ecology was stable enough, making the source of the black snake even more mysterious.
After finishing the materials exhibition area, Chen Sui looked at the fracture fragment, preparing to leave and head to other exhibition halls.
As they were leaving the way they came, outside the exhibition hall, in the Polar World, some changes suddenly occurred.
The ice layer in the Polar World was melting, water spreading, the patterns on the ice sculptures blurred by water droplets, with the extremely low temperature showing a slightly rising trend.
The temperature indicator standing in the center of the Polar World visibly moved upward.
Crowds on both sides of the street looked at this phenomenon with some astonishment.
"What's going on?"
"Hey, why is the snow melting? Who put out a fire stone?"
"It's all melting, it's not a fire stone."
Amid the bustling voices, the sky of Crimson Snow Star, still drifting with palm-sized snow flakes, suddenly raised a strong wind.
That windstorm brushing on faces didn't carry cold air, but a dry, scorching sensation, as if it had just swept over a volcano, with high temperatures suddenly attacking.
Most Crimson Snow Star residents wore extremely thick clothes with a special insulated, windproof material on the outer layer. Now struck by this hot wind, their body temperature instantly rose.
Black clouds covered the sky in patches, completely obscuring the sunlight. Red fire light spread from one corner of the horizon, as if blown open by a gale, rapidly spreading across the sky. In an instant, red light covered the entire sky.
If the military academy students were still in the Red Moon Snow Plain, they might have thought they had entered it again.
But soon, layers of black ash blew up from the ground. Dust danced in the air.
A huge crack split open from the fire light in the sky.
Among the crowd noticing this anomaly, someone quickly captured this scene, immediately exclaiming: "Fracture! It's a fracture!!"
No one in the Star Alliance would be unfamiliar with fractures.
Immediately, everyone's expressions changed.
The ice and snow on the ground melted at an extremely fast rate. The snow was covered by a black layer, the blizzard ceased, the ground cracked layer by layer, and flames emerged from the underground, melting all the ice layers and frozen soil.
The Polar World's ground subsided, the frozen soil collapsed.
Just as Chen Sui walked out of the southwest exhibition area, the entire exhibition hall suddenly began to shake violently.
This shaking was accompanied by an unusual energy fluctuation.
Chen Sui instinctively looked back, seeing the display case's light angle change, the fracture fragment flashing with lines of patterns under the light.
The pattern style slowly formed in her mind.
Chen Sui's memory awakened, and she instinctively replaced the black fragment with the black snake scale armor.
—That pattern was identical to the one on the black scale armor!
"Something's wrong, there's space energy fluctuation!"
Chen Sui turned her head toward Xie Chunshi.
The space energy surprised her teammates for a moment, but following her words, everyone had no time to care about much else.
"The energy level seems to have increased," Noya waved his hand, with bioluminescence appearing in his palm, a layer of lightning flashing.
Just as his words fell, a shrill alarm pierced through the exhibition hall, instantly spreading throughout the entire Polar World.
[Warning! Warning! Abnormal energy signal!]
[Warning! Energy field descent phenomenon!!]
Layers of lava surged from the ground, and a crack split open in the sky, as if someone had sliced it from top to bottom.
The military academy students immediately reacted, running quickly out of the narrow exhibition hall. The hall was crowded with people, who evacuated toward various exits under the emergency guidance of robots.
The ground shook, the earth cracked, and part of the exhibition hall had already subsided, with crowds buried by collapsing buildings.
Leaving the exhibition hall building, with enough space, the mecha sequences quickly activated.
One after another, mechas stood tall on the open ground outside the exhibition hall in the Polar World.
"Energy field descent! Save people first!"
Two Commanders exchanged glances, opened the mecha signal connection, and quickly sent the on-site situation and report to the Competition Committee.