Chapter: 45.X-Class Ability Users
Star Academy, Command Center.
The door to the soundproof small room slowly opened, and an elderly figure, a senior member of the Star Academy, walked out with a heavy expression.
He tightly held a terminal in his hand. Despite his steady footsteps, there was an undeniable sluggishness, as if he bore some heavy burden on his shoulders.
At the circular conference table, the high-ranking members who had been fiercely debating stopped their discussions upon noticing his arrival, all turning to look at him in unison.
The old man said nothing and walked straight to one end of the table.
He glanced around and, under the gaze of all present, began to speak.
His voice was not loud but steady as iron, cutting through the noisy background outside the conference room.
“Just now, Niguang contacted me.”
Those few short words were like a heavy bomb dropped in the room—immediately causing an uproar among the attendees.
“Where exactly is Niguang right now!?”
“As our S-Class, why has he only contacted us now?”
“Not only has Professor Tiancheng been captured, but the system’s key has also been seized. Is he still just watching from the sidelines?”
Intense questions surged in waves towards the old man.
He did not respond immediately but raised a thin arm and lightly tapped the table twice with his fist.
The crisp sound of the tapping stood out amidst the commotion.
This momentarily silenced the crowd.
“I understand everyone’s anger… Believe me, my feelings are the same as yours,” the old man said word by word, “but Niguang stated that he has other more important matters to attend to and cannot participate in handling this incident at the moment.”
“What? Is there anything more serious than this?”
“Does he know what he’s doing?”
As soon as the words fell, the argument erupted once more, even more fiercely than before.
At this time, a senior member, seeming to have been waiting for a long time, slightly leaned forward with a calm yet pointed tone: “It seems we need to think of another way.”
The old man glanced at him, his expression growing solemn as if he had already foreseen the upcoming proposal.
The other senior members gradually calmed down—at this moment, more than questioning, they needed strategies.
“Is there a list of A-Class ability users we can mobilize?” someone quickly shifted to the main topic, thinking about the next steps.
“But can regular A-Class handle this level of attack? The S-Class from the Moon Academy has already fallen.”
“Was his defeat due to the compatibility of abilities?”
“Are you joking? The opponent is the Black Flame Monarch.”
A new discussion rapidly unfolded, and the tension in the air once again escalated.
At this moment, the earlier speaker shifted his angle suddenly, adopting a slightly suggestive tone:
“Since A-Class and S-Class are unreliable… don’t we still have X-Class ability users?”
This statement seemed to hit a high-voltage line, and someone immediately slammed the table in rebuttal.
“Haven’t you given up on the X-Class plan? As long as the End’s existence remains, we cannot allow that group to mobilize!”
“The threat of the End has already passed!”
The man pressed on, his tone turning sharp like a knife: “Now we have a vaccine, and besides—this incident is unrelated to the End, isn’t it? Otherwise, the Black Flame Monarch wouldn’t have lost so thoroughly.”
A brief silence spread across the conference table. No one voiced a rebuttal, but neither did anyone immediately offer support.
Seizing the moment, he pressed: “Professor Tiancheng has been taken, and even the system’s key has fallen into enemy hands… If the enemy wants him to rebuild the β system—”
This assumption plunged the conference room into an unbearable silence.
If the β system truly fell into enemy hands, it would mean an unimaginable disaster.
The old man slowly stood up, his figure seeming even heavier than before.
He scanned each of the senior members present, his cold gaze cutting through them like a sharp blade, as if his mind was already made up.
“It seems we have reached a conclusion.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the conference room fell into a short silence again.
Everyone exchanged complex glances—some filled with doubt, some with reluctance, and a hint of unease. But in the end, they silently nodded.
The current situation allowed for no hesitation.
At this moment, perhaps it was time to validate the value of “X-Class.”
To look at the future of this world, does it require a powerful savior, or does it need an army composed of strong ability users—
“Let us temporarily restart the ‘X-Class Plan.’”
“Let ‘X-Class – The Greatest Masterpiece’ lead the way and take the other X-Class ability users from Star Academy along.”
“A deadline of six hours—at any cost, retrieve Professor Tiancheng and the key!!!”
—————–
A flash of lightning split the dark clouds, and the electric light streamed through the window of the cabin, illuminating Nagi’s face.
The tactical aircraft had just crossed a storm cloud and was now flying above the horizon, where the view suddenly opened up.
Sasaki’s ability continued to operate, casting pure white lines that pointed toward the direction of Professor Tiancheng’s approximate location, indicating they were heading in that direction.
The others perhaps were preparing themselves for the impending battle.
Everyone closed their eyes to calm their minds, silently reserving their energy and magical power.
Even Erika, exhausted from overusing her ability today, was now drowsy, her head gently resting against the side of her seat, her breathing steady.
Seated next to Erika, Nagi had also closed her eyes, yet her mind was restless.
She was pondering a question that had puzzled her for a long time.
—Why does the β system exist in this world?
This should have been content that appeared only in the DLC announcement of “Star Link 2.”
In her previous life as the “Elemental Overlord,” she had tried countless times to find plot materials related to the DLC but had always come up empty.
If Erika, as the heroine of the DLC, is a “living” existence that will naturally come into being in this world when the time is right,
Then what about the β system?
That is pure human-made—cannot arise out of nothing.
Why would Star Academy choose to initiate the development of this system at this point in time?
Nagi gazed out at the starry sky, a premonition surfacing in her heart.
Countless fragmented clues seemed on the verge of piecing together a complete outline—
—————–
“Regarding the β system, besides you, who else in the academy knows? Who desires for everything to happen as it is now?”
Inside the base of the Star Association.
Faced with Alice’s questioning,
Professor Tiancheng’s mind involuntarily drifted back to that afternoon years ago.
It was shortly after the outbreak of the “End Fragment” incident; Niguang had not yet become an S-Class ability user, and whether it was the special ring SEMA or the three major academies, everyone was striving to find ways to deal with the End.
As someone who had witnessed the death of the “Elemental Overlord,” and was a prisoner holding fragments of the End in their soul, he was confined deep within Star Academy, waiting for further strategies.
It was at that time that Professor Tiancheng first formally met Niguang, the memory remnant of the “former Elemental Overlord” created by the president of Star Academy.
He possessed abilities strikingly similar to the Elemental Overlord, along with most of his memories.
The moment his eyes shone with starlight, even the world itself would regard him as the “Elemental Overlord.”
It was at that moment he proposed a bold idea to himself—
“To deal with the End… perhaps we need a monitoring system.”
