Chapter 2: Green is a Beam of Light (Revised)

【Initializing power infusion.......】

A line of system prompt appeared.

The pixel figure stretched out his hand, somewhat hesitantly, and picked up that syringe.

The close-up camera switched to the pixel figure's first-person view; only see the pixel figure aiming the syringe filled with golden liquid at his own blocky arm.

He pressed his thumb down, and the golden potion was slowly pushed into his arm.

Only see the pixel figure's body violently twitch once, and his body instantly burst into a dazzling golden flash, the effect almost covering the entire screen.

Details were hard to make out, only seeing a figure writhing and screaming in agony within the light.

The screen also darkened as the player fell unconscious, plunging into total darkness.

The screen also darkened as the player fell unconscious, plunging into total darkness.

After a few seconds, the player seemed to have just been awakened from sleep, accompanied by an eye-opening animation, and the screen lit up again.

The view was from a lying angle looking upward; first to come into sight was the pristine train carriage ceiling, the light somewhat glaring.

"The player" sat up.

At this moment, what appeared on the screen was no longer the black-haired default avatar from the opening animation, but the game character meticulously crafted by Yang Yixie—Ying Duo.

He sported a head of short hair so fluorescent green it could be called visual pollution, wearing a black hoodie casually picked by Yang Yixie, and sat dazedly in a moving train carriage.

The passengers coming and going around were also pixel-style figures, but they had no reaction to Ying Duo's actions, each simply doing things like lowering their heads or looking out the window, oblivious to the extra person and Ying Duo's astonishing hair color.

【Novice mission updated: Enroll in "Mitra Academy"】

【Current objective: Get off at Rust Plaza Station and pass Mitra Academy's entrance examination】

A mission prompt appeared at the top of the screen, while a small map unfolded in the upper-left corner, marking the approximate direction of the player's current location and the target.

Perhaps fearing the player wouldn't know how to operate, even the movement and skill keys were labeled.

"Whoa, this opening is quite immersive."

Yang Yixie muttered softly, his finger sliding across the virtual directional pad.

On-screen Ying Duo, under Yang Yixie's control, patted his butt and stood up.

The train carriage was still slightly shaking; through the simple blocky windows, he could see the tunnel walls flashing by outside, and occasionally lit advertisement boards.

These elements combined to create an atmosphere mixing cyberpunk and wasteland.

The train broadcast sounded, and a female voice with electrical static began making the announcement:

【Next stop: Rust Plaza Station; please, examinees taking Mitra Academy's entrance exam, prepare to disembark in advance.】

"Rust Plaza...... Mitra Academy......"

Yang Yixie instinctively repeated those place names, his finger directing his green-haired pixel figure to start moving toward the carriage door.

The train had already begun to slow down gradually; from this position he could roughly make out the platform's outline, a huge metal service counter covered in rust, with a few pixel figures scattered here and there standing on it.

The train came to a steady stop, and the doors slowly opened.

Ying Duo stepped straight off the train.

The platform was somewhat narrow; in many places one could see traces of repairs after damage, and the air was suffused with a thin layer of red pixel particles, like dust, or perhaps a symbol of some contamination.

【Welcome to Rust Plaza, this is the outermost edge of the slums, where the mercenaries' guild is stationed; in rare cases aberrant species may appear, danger level: low】

【Current mission directive: Follow the signs, head to the academy examination hall】

The mission directive appeared.

Yang Yixie's left thumb pushed the directional pad, controlling his pixel figure topped with a head of fluorescent green as he took his first step outside the carriage in this game world.

He also didn't forget to adjust his own sitting posture, switching to a more comfortable pose for gaming; the phone screen's light glimmered faintly on his black-framed glasses.

There were still several stops before he reached his destination, giving him plenty of time to properly explore this suddenly appearing "Wasteland Era".

————————————————

Shen Zexi bore a somewhat worn canvas backpack, leaning on the metal handrail as he stared blankly at the tunnel shadows flashing past outside the window.

He had just finished several weeks of field combat training, dusty and weary, fatigue still lingering in his brow, yet his eyes were exceptionally clear and gentle.

Shen Zexi only had time to find a hotel to shower, change into clean clothes, and then immediately boarded the train to Rust Plaza again, rushing to take Mitra Academy's final entrance examination.

"Finally made it in........"

He had just been running a bit out of breath, and the teacher's earnest admonition before departure repeated in his mind.

"Little Xi, after this field training you must definitely pass Mitra Academy's entrance examination; only there can the problem with you truly be resolved."

Mitra Academy is one of the most renowned and top-tier forces on this wasteland.

It does not belong to the Dome, nor is it under the Church's jurisdiction; it stands alone as a seminary dedicated to cultivating Special Ability Practitioners.

And those fortunate ones who have received divine favor and awakened supernatural powers are also called Special Ability Practitioners.

This gift called Aberrant Arts varies from person to person—it could be control over some natural element, or some divine technique of a conceptual law, while uncontrolled dispersal of power is equally dangerous.

Mitra Academy thus came into being.

Its very birth was to guide, nurture, and protect these fledgling Special Ability Practitioners.

Here, students learn not rigid church dogma, but how to understand and master themselves, systematically developing their own Aberrant Arts.

To ordinary people, Mitra Academy is both a guide to power and a divine warning; all forces on the wasteland hold it in awe and apprehension.

Shen Zexi was thinking about the upcoming entrance exam when the train suddenly jolted; he quickly steadied himself, no longer continuing to stand there in a daze, preparing to look for an empty seat to sit and rest.

He unintentionally glanced up into the carriage, and his gaze was instantly caught by a flash of dazzling color.

"Uh........ what is that?"

Shen Zexi blinked, almost thinking he had been out in the field too long, that the mutation had affected him so deeply he was hallucinating.

Only see not far away, by the door, a teenager about his size sitting there dozing off.

There's nothing unusual about that; what's striking is the teenager's head of bright hair, which in the dark provides its own strong illumination—an extremely ostentatious fluorescent green.

Shen Zexi's mouth corner twitched involuntarily.

Although the existence of Aberrant Arts makes having multicolored hair acquired later nothing surprising, such an outrageous hair color......

It must be dyed...... right?

But does there really exist a hair dye that can achieve such a terrifying effect?

"This...... is truly a unique aesthetic."

In the wasteland world, living precariously, it's understandable that everyone has somewhat unique ways of releasing stress...... right?

Maybe this is a new kind of performance art? Or perhaps it's a support color for some underground idol group?

He tried to move his gaze away from it, but that powerful color always manages to forcibly pull his gaze back.

Not only him, but several other young people in the carriage who were also going to take the entrance exam, as well as other ordinary passengers, more or less, directed their gazes toward that patch of 'green oasis'.

The entire carriage tacitly maintained an eerie silence that could be called strange; no one spoke, everyone simply gave that boy a silent salute.

Even if the passengers occasionally exchanged a tacit glance, they would immediately avert their eyes, pretending they had not been attracted by that Ying Guang Lu.

The train broadcast sounded again at this moment:

【Next stop: Rust Erosion Plaza Station, examinees participating in the Mitra Academy entrance exam please prepare to disembark in advance.】

Shen Zexi heard the announcement, his spirit lifted, he immediately shouldered his backpack and headed toward the door.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the boy with Ying Guang Lu hair also rise to his feet, seemingly also intending to get off at this stop.

Going the same way?

Shen Zexi secretly guessed that the other might be heading to the market at Rust Erosion Plaza, or perhaps to the nearby mercenaries' guild.