Chapter 1: The Routine Holiday

In the history of humankind, there has never been a disaster that plunged all of humanity into despair.

Until twelve years ago, when the apocalypse descended.

At first, it was merely the occasional appearance of bizarre creatures, which were killed after injuring people.
Other than the discovery that the monsters’ bodies would naturally dissolve in a short time, this did not incite much panic.
But within the next week, these monsters began to appear all over the world.
They had strange forms, most possessing human-like limbs and heads; their bodies were large, with a basic standing height of over two meters.
These monsters were extremely aggressive, seemingly attacking any living thing within their sight, and for a time, the number of monster attacks worldwide skyrocketed.

The governments of all nations held emergency meetings to discuss solutions, while simultaneously deploying their armies to begin exterminating the monsters in their respective countries.
However, before they could stabilize the situation, the true apocalypse arrived.

Monsters resembling lions, but with swift speed and massive bodies; monsters with wings, capable of flight, in the shape of wyverns; there was even a colossal monster that stood over ten meters tall.
When all manner of high-tech weaponry failed to inflict effective damage on these monsters, people finally understood that the initial creatures were merely the weakest among them.

Humanity was thrown into a state of immense panic; technology was powerless before these formidable monsters.
First, a few small towns fell, and then, more and more monsters, appearing from nowhere, destroyed city after city, greedily devouring all living things, including humans.
The governmental systems of all nations collapsed into paralysis; for a time, humanity was utterly helpless against these monsters.

However, not all humans were without the ability to resist.
With the advent of the apocalypse, ability users hidden throughout the world began to take action one after another.
Ability users, who had previously existed only in rumors, were actually real, and their powerful intervention brought a glimmer of hope to humanity.
After discussions among the leaders of several major powers, the surviving humans began to gather in the central cities of these nations.
At the same time, ability users from all over the world gradually united to form an organization.
They called themselves the “Guardians,” slaying monsters across the globe while also searching for new ability users who had emerged after the apocalypse.

The power of the ability users gave humanity a moment to breathe, but the situation remained dire.
The congregated humans seemed to attract even more monsters, which also began to encircle the few cities where humanity had gathered.
The ability users themselves were in a precarious position, as even more powerful monsters continued to appear, and those who did not know how to cooperate were often surrounded and killed.
Moreover, after a monster’s corpse dissolved, it seemed to produce something akin to a miasma, which, although having low toxicity to the human body, did affect the combat effectiveness of ability users and, more critically, blocked the transmission of various signals.

Faced with these threats, humanity did not give up.
All the scientists gathered together and began to frantically research these monsters, and their research indeed yielded results.
Through the study of a type of crystal left behind by the monsters, humans gained a certain understanding of them and also discovered the immense energy contained within these crystals.

Three years after the apocalypse began, humanity, using the central cities of five major powers as bases, expanded the scope of these five cities as much as possible, creating five impregnable central cities.
And based on the fact that some powerful monsters possessed abilities like breathing fire and summoning wind, people named the monsters “Aberrant Beasts.”

Another year later, humanity invented technology that could utilize the “Aberrant Cores,” raising the defense of the central cities to another level.
At the same time, they also invented weapons and equipment specifically for ability users, which also utilized “Aberrant Core” technology.
At this point, humanity finally reached a stalemate with the Aberrant Beasts, and the new ability users, appearing like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, gradually deprived the Aberrant Beasts of their numerical advantage.
In order to cultivate these new ability users, the “Guardians” and the coalition government, after deliberation, decided to establish schools dedicated to training ability users.

Since the new ability users were mostly young children, and research into abilities revealed that the growth of an ability user’s strength was a rather metaphysical matter—training and even combat did little to improve it—in the words of one scientist, the power of an ability came from “the power of the heart”…

Although this statement was somewhat childish, after analysis, the benefits of a school system for the growth of ability users far outweighed those of militarized management.
Thus, the coalition government and the “Guardians” joined forces and, after spending nearly all of their reserve supplies, established three schools for ability users: the “Light of Hope” for cultivating various young ability users; the “Light of Divinity” for specializing in training support-type ability users; and the “Light of Bloodthorn,” which primarily accepted older ability users and directly trained combat personnel for the “Guardians.”

Under the protection of the “Guardians” and the central cities, humanity finally saw the hope of defeating the Aberrant Beasts…

The image on the screen froze on an emblem: a shield-like badge bearing a sword in bas-relief, flanked by a pair of open wings.
This simple emblem was the badge of the “Guardians.”

Almost all the children in the classroom let out a sigh of relief, some even dramatically slumping onto their desks.
One boy, in particular, complained loudly: “Teacher, can you show us some interesting videos next time? You’re always showing the ‘Guardians’ promotional film; we’re sick of watching it.”

The lights in the classroom gradually brightened.
Xia Lixing, who had been standing in a corner of the room, walked up to the podium and, while turning off the promotional film, replied, “If you’ve had enough of this, then how about for the next ethics class I play a philosophy lecture or a seminar on moral principles for you?”

A chorus of wails erupted from the children below, and the boy who had complained earlier cried out with exaggeration, “Heavens, I’d rather watch the promo film a hundred more times!”

Xia Lixing looked at his mischievous students, feeling quite helpless himself.
To be honest, he was also rather speechless about this so-called “Moral and Ideological Cultivation Education Class.”
It was true that ability users possessed great power, and if they turned to evil, they could bring immense harm to people.
But after all, such ability users were in the minority, and moreover, the emergence of evil ability users was not something a class like this could prevent.
However, this was a subject that the coalition government insisted on, so the three major schools had to make do.

Regarding this bizarre requirement from the coalition government, Xia Lixing felt that a certain friend of his was right: the high-ranking officials of the coalition government were just a bunch of stuffy old men with nothing better to do.
This could also be seen from the names of the three major schools.
‘Light of Hope,’ ‘Light of Divinity,’ ‘Light of Bloodthorn’… you wouldn’t even see names like these in a third-rate novel…

Thoughts were thoughts, but some rules had to be followed.
Xia Lixing looked at the students below who had started chattering amongst themselves and cleared his throat a few times. “Starting tomorrow is the regular holiday, which will be one week long this time.
Even though it’s a holiday, don’t relax too much.
Those of you who can should practice your abilities in your spare time, and don’t forget the date to return to school.
And don’t even think about sneaking into a search team.
Charles, I’m talking to you.
If I get another report about one of my students trying to join a search team under a false name, you won’t have to stay in this class anymore.”

The boy Xia Lixing had called out stuck out his tongue and didn’t dare to speak.

The regular holiday was a system implemented to allow these young ability users to balance work and rest.
Aside from the “Light of Bloodthorn,” the other two schools both followed it.
The school year began on January 1st, with a one-week holiday every three months.
After October 22nd, there were only two months of classes, followed by a long holiday until the next January 1st.
This simple holiday schedule was also related to the simple activity patterns of the Aberrant Beasts.
During each holiday period, the Aberrant Beasts were in a state of “rest,” almost all of them holing up in the few dangerous areas where they appeared and not venturing out.
This way, students who normally boarded at the school could travel to other central cities, and upper-year students could also join search teams to gain experience after obtaining approval.

The general admission age for the “Light of Hope” was around twelve, and the students in Xia Lixing’s class were merely twelve or thirteen-year-old second-years.
The most basic requirement for students to join a search team was to be a fourth or fifth-year, so naturally, no one in his class met the requirement.

After routinely going over some matters to be aware of during the holiday, Xia Lixing dismissed the group of children.
He had his own plans for this holiday: to return to the civilian safe zone where he used to live.

Civilian safe zones were safe areas established by non-coalition government organizations.
They were basically established by survivors themselves after the apocalypse, and their defensibility certainly couldn’t compare to the central cities.
But there was a reason these safe zones had survived for so long.
First, most safe zones were located in areas with sparse Aberrant Beast populations and were far from their main gathering areas.
Second, within these safe zones, there were usually a few “wild” ability users—mostly survivors who had awakened their abilities and voluntarily protected their respective safe zones.

Due to the limited capacity and resources of the central cities, and the fact that the roads from the safe zones to the central cities were infested with Aberrant Beasts, the coalition government tacitly approved of the choices made by those ability users.
At the same time, it dispatched search teams to find undiscovered safe zones.
Although it was impossible to safely bring all the people from the safe zones to the central cities, or to establish timely communication with them, it was still possible to record basic information about the safe zones and provide some assistance.

Xia Lixing had lived in a safe zone until he was fourteen.
In his fourteenth year, their safe zone was discovered by a search team, and Xia Lixing’s ability and potential caught the eye of the “Guardians.”
After some negotiation, Xia Lixing ultimately chose to join the “Guardians.”

Six years had passed since he joined the “Guardians.”
Xia Lixing had grown from a young boy into an ability user who could stand on his own, and was even specially assigned by his superiors to teach at the “Light of Hope.”
As a “Guardian,” his heavy tasks had left Xia Lixing no time to return to the safe zone to visit everyone, but now, he finally had ample opportunity to go back and take a look.

About ten minutes later, Xia Lixing’s figure appeared by the city gate in the surrounding wall.
Carrying only two changes of clothes, some compressed food, and water, his luggage consisted of just a small bag.
On his back was his ability weapon, a blade over two meters long.
This massive blade, a full thirty centimeters wide, was a standard-issue weapon of the “Guardians,” secured to Xia Lixing’s back by special equipment.
Because it was so enormous, it looked as if Xia Lixing himself were hanging from the blade, giving it a strangely comical feel.

Reaching up to take off the badge on his chest, he pressed it against the screen next to the city gate to register.
Xia Lixing glanced back at the peaceful city, took a deep breath, and then strode into the thin mist outside the walls.