章 9: The Prodigy, Leah Astria

"Gulp."

Erian swallowed hard. Well aware there would be lots of energy here to absorb, Erian was still slightly thrown off guard.

Quickly calming himself, he immediately started selecting syringes with serum residues within.

If it weren't for the certainty that scavengers weren't allowed to dismantle the syringes within the Waste Treatment Yard, Erian would have dismantled them right there and absorb the energies within.

Using his hands covered with gloves, his hands rapidly sort through the pile of garbage. His glove protecting him from being punctured by the needles.

Roughly thirty minutes later, a quarter of Erian's box had been filled! Erian was so excited he ignored his surroundings entirely. Sieving through mountains after mountains of waste. His system would automatically recognise those with enough nuclear energy and Erian would immediately pick it up and place it within his box quickly.

A distance away from Erian, a young man watched him with furrowed brows. As a scavenger for half of his life, he naturally had an idea what Erian was doing, but wasn't this guy just too lucky?

He had personally witnessed Erian picking up two syringes with serums within! Even if it was just two during the thirty minutes he had been here, that luck was just too unbelievable! Even he had had that kind of luck since the past year.

An expression of hesitation appeared on the young man's face but soon cleared. Walking through the pile of garbage, he approached Erian.

"Hey there."

The voice snapped Erian out from his dazed face and he raised his head looking towards a young man roughly his age.

"Oh. Hello!" Erian roughly remember this person since he was also in his class. They had fought once during combat class. Even though Erian had been weak, the young man still had gone easy on him, unlike the others.

"Helius. I'm not sure if you remember me." The young man introduced himself with a smile.

"Yeah, I do remember you. What's up?" Erian's gaze wandered through the mountain before him and his eyes lit up. Quickly, he shifted a couple more Syringes and picked a particular one, placing it within his box without checking the content in front of the young man.

Helius's eyes flashed with a look but then he spoke. "Are you coming to class for the evaluation tomorrow?" also sieving through the garbage, he started picking up serums from this particular mountain. According to his logic, if Erian could be lucky, he also could be lucky.

"Uh? What evaluation?" Erian frowned, asking. This was the first time he heard about any evaluation going on in the school. Since they had gone through their final examinations, there was no use going back to school.

Helius was slightly stunned hearing this. "The Nuclear Pulse evaluation?"

Erian paused, now interested in what Helius was talking about. As far as he could remember, high schools don't have the necessary equipments to test one's nuclear pulse. It was something provided only to the universities. When applying to a university, it was part of the examination for necessary application. If you meet the requirements for nuclear pulse for a certain university, then you would be qualified to partake in their examination which includes but is not limited to combat experience, theoretical aspects and physical exercises.

But Helius was telling him there was a nuclear pulse evaluation within his high school, how could he not be surprised.

"Yeah. Some big shot from Star Evolution academy is coming to the school tomorrow to test if they could secure another talent within this hellhole." Star Evolution academy is one of the most prestigious academies in the city, Erian couldn't help but wonder why they would arrive at a place like this in search for talents.

As though he could read his though, Helius spoke. "I know what you are thinking. And I also had the same thoughts but that is until I realised their main reason for coming here."

"Which is?" Erian asked curiously.

Helius said only two words. "Leah Astria."

Immediately, Erian's expression darkened greatly and he felt as though his heart was been ripped out from his chest.

"I'm actually quite surprised you didn't know about it. From how close you two have been, I assume you were very ... close." Helius watched the various expression flickering through Erian's mind and shook his head in pity, but his hands didn't stop selecting Metal-glass syringes from the pile before him.

Taking in a deep breath, Erian visualized the first movement all the way to the fifth before he finally calmed his roiling emotions.

"We were close, not anymore. How does Leah relate to the arrival of the big shot?"

Helius frowned slightly and glanced at Erian. "You didn't know this too?"

"Know what?" A confused expression on his face.

"Leah has broken through Level Nine and through the serum Fu Tian bought for her, she managed to awaken her nuclear pulse yesterday. It is said she has a 4-star, High-grade pulse and she could literally coagulate faint traces of cold air through her finger tips!"

Helius paused and his eyes shone with admiration and envy before continuing. "With such talent, she could easily enrol to any college and become a possess the means to becoming a Titan! Naturally, the Principal pulled some strings and sent messages to the Universities in the City. This morning, she has been accepted as a Core Student of Star Evolution group. Since such a talent could emerge from this hm village, the school wants to evaluate us to see if there are other talents within this place. Which is the reason for tomorrow's evaluation."

This time, Erian couldn't control his feelings. He clenched his fist so hard that the syringe within his gloved hand instantly broke into pieces. His teeth released crackling sounds as though they were about to break from sheer pressure. The serum he gathered for more than a year was actually what Leah had used to awaken her Nuclear pulse.

If she had asked, there was no doubt the original Erian would have given it to her after all, he was thoroughly in love with her. But instead, she has asked Fu Tian to retrieve the serum for her use, inadvertently beating him to death.

One way or the other, she was the true reason for the real Erian's death. Which infuriated him to no end and at the same time, shattered his heart into multiple pieces.

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