The night deepened, and the ground of the streets emitted changing colorful halos, illuminating the bustling comrcial district.
Although good children had already gone to bed, many corporate workers were just getting off work, loosening their uncomfortable ties, doffing their high-end fabric suits, boarding streamlined hover cars, and shuttling between the neon lights and tall buildings, enjoying the evening breeze while deciding where to vent stress and relax tonight.
The roaring of hover motorcycles zipping past brought a screeching noise and long dazzling trails, drawing curses from so hover car drivers.
However, all these had nothing to do with the dim streets below, where nurous trucks quietly drove, delivering goods and necessities to the various rchants and proprietors within the city.
Occasionally, the headlights of a large truck swept over, illuminating the girl walking slowly at the side of the street, but soon, her figure would subrge into the dark environnt, becoming less distinct.
"Beep—— Beep——"
Red warning lights flashed on and off, and a special steel wire fence surrounded a large pit by the side of the street. Inside, several construction-type Autonomous Units were busily repairing the ground and walls, apparently, the facilities had been damaged not long ago by the aftershocks caused by a High Rank Transcendent.
The light shone on the girl's appearance. She was not very tall, with silver-gray short hair and a sowhat vacant look in her eyes. Carrying a square backpack, when the road ahead was blocked by a barrier net, the girl stepped on a nearby railing to get around, spreading her arms wide as if walking a balance beam.
Without the lively and innocent leaping movents of a child, in the alternating light and dark of the orange-red warning lights, her gray hair was also tinted with orange-red hues. She walked calmly through, occasionally stopping to jump to the inside of the road, watching the night trucks thunder past, the breeze they stirred up slightly lifting the hair at the side of her face.
After the trucks passed, the girl returned to the railing, stepping over it carefully, her body occasionally tilting but quickly readjusting.
Compared to the neon-bathed corporate elites or the enthusiastic college students, the girl seed out of place, like a speck of dust in the corner of a vibrant world, unnoticed and silent.
The Central Star Domain was wealthy and prosperous, but this didn't an that everyone lived a beautiful life. The lower and upper strata of the social structure were like parallel worlds that never intersect.
The extravagant expenses of the corporate elites on a single night, casually ordered drinks costing tens of thousands, might be the annual inco for so people.
Similarly, even as students of the Central Star Domain, not all were geniuses or exceptionally talented. There were always those who had to clumsily spend a lot of ti and effort to learn what seed like simple skills and abilities.
But they still lived in this world, and it was because of their efforts that many elites were able to free up their ti to do easier tasks.
The girl slowly walked past the repair area and once again entered the dim streets. However, this ti, it was not as ordinary and calm as before.
"Clang——"
The sound of a tal bat hitting the ground echoed, followed by cursing and the sound of chasing footsteps from a nearby alley.
The girl at the intersection saw a figure dashing out of the alley, running fast. She instinctively wanted to dodge, but it was already too late.
The severe impact sent her flying, followed by consecutive rolls on the street, the sharp pain and disorientation left her mind in chaos. But then ca even greater danger. A heavily loaded truck was approaching rapidly in the distance.
In the midst of the shrill screeching brakes, she only saw the dazzling headlights drawing closer and then the world collapsed in a thunderous crash.
The last fra in her mory was of her flying high up in the air as if looking at another stranger. The girl fell like a battered doll and rolled still without moving.
...
Ti passed, and it seed a long while before the black world was pierced by pain that brought her consciousness back. But by then, she was no longer on that dimly lit street.
She was surrounded by a bright dical environnt, a white blanket and ceiling, an IV tube in the back of her hand, and the ticking of dical devices beside her, all indicating she was in a decent hospital.
Groping to sit up, she looked around. Unfortunately, besides her, the ward had only another vacant bed and no one else.
Was she saved? But it was difficult for her to feel happy about it, for dical expenses in the Central Star Domain were far from cheap, and she could not afford them. She would likely have to carry the debt for a long ti to co.
Because of her awakening, a nurse soon ca over, checked her body, and then told her to continue lying down to recuperate.
"Although your bones have been set, the damage to your internal organs is not so easily healed, you still need to rest for a while before you can be discharged."
…
"You an the dical expenses? Those have been paid for by soone already."
…
"The person is not very old either, a young man wearing a black jacket."
…
"I don't know how to contact him, but he cos to visit you every few days. You've been unconscious for a week now, and you had a concussion before, so you slept for a long ti."
After answering the girl's questions, the nurse comforted her a few more tis and then left the ward. It seed she was very busy and didn't have much ti to stay.
The room fell quiet again, and the girl slowly explored and sensed her body. She was now 17 years old, just finished the holiday at the end of her second year of high school, about to start her third year, with a Primordial Sequence 3 ability.
In other Star Domains, advancing to Sequence 3 in the second year of high school would make one a very good student, but in the Central Star Domain, where prestigious schools abound and geniuses gather, such talent could only be called average, nothing noteworthy.
After learning that she didn't have to worry about the dical expenses, she finally relaxed and then lay back down on the bed, slowly drifting off to sleep again.
The next day, the girl saw the youth in the black jacket that the nurse had spoken of. He stood beside the hospital bed, hands in his pockets, watching her as she woke up.
His eyebrows and hair were completely devoid of pignt, making the youth, with his head inside the hood, seem albino, utterly pale, his gaze stone-like, not lively at all, as if his consciousness was adrift in a very distant place.
"You're awake," he spoke, his voice not as unpleasant as she'd imagined, but rather normal.
"Hmm, who are you?" The girl struggled to rember. She had never seen this person before.
"Big Sister asked to save you. Just thank her," said the youth, speaking cryptically.
"Big Sister is?"
The youth gave no answer, as if there was no such command inputted into his machine, hence no response.
Unable to get any information, the girl gave up. She wasn't the type consud by curiosity. Everyone's life has its difficulties, and sotis, asking too many questions can hurt people.
And so, the room's occupants remained silent until the nurse ca to change the dressings and ask about her condition, breaking the quiet.
"Here, take this. I'm leaving," he said.
A communication chip for contacting purposes was left behind as the youth followed the nurse out, leaving the girl alone in the ward.
On the black card was a burning 'Z' emblem, nothing else written on it, its luminescent green color transitioning in a way that, against the black background, it seed particularly striking as if the burning symbol was about to leap out.
Should she make contact?
Clutching the card, the girl slowly made her decision.
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