54: Chapter 54 Help! I'm a socially awkward homebody, and you want me to fight a D-rank monster that's way above my level?

Torch Base.

The golden glow of the ancient tree pulsed rhythmically and slowly, like a heart that had been beating for ten thousand years.

Su Chen stood on the highest stone step of the altar.

He wasn't wearing his mask, exposing his twenty-five-year-old face to the pale golden light of the sky.

Liu Yuyan was the first to arrive.

Her silver-white armor was retracted into her spark, and she wore a dark gray business suit with her hair in a low ponytail, her back perfectly straight.

She stood in her usual spot on the third step below the stone stairs, her hands folded in front of her, motionless.

Shuffling footsteps echoed from the end of the stone corridor.

Lin Xiaoman emerged from the stone corridor, sporting dark circles under her eyes so heavy they looked like they could drip ink.

Her hair was a messy bird's nest, and the front of her gray hoodie was stained with three solder burn marks.

Her left cheek bore the imprint of a keyboard—clearly, she had fallen asleep at her workbench and been jolted awake by her alarm.

A grape-flavored lollipop dangled from her mouth as she walked with sluggish steps and a vacant gaze.

Her entire being resembled a phone with only three percent battery remaining.

She thought she was here to report on her work progress.

Standing beside Liu Yuyan, she looked up at Su Chen atop the altar and mumbled indistinctly,

"President... the final round of stress testing for the communication network's underlying architecture has passed... Just one more day and we can—"

"A new war is about to begin."

Su Chen spoke.

The lollipop in Lin Xiaoman's mouth stopped moving.

Liu Yuyan's eyelashes fluttered, and her folded hands clenched into fists.

"The ancient tree has sent a premonition."

Su Chen withdrew his gaze from the dark golden branches of the ancient tree and turned to the two of them.

"Within seven days, a supernatural descent will occur in southeastern Europe."

He paused for a beat.

"It's not Class E."

Liu Yuyan's breath caught for half a second.

"Class D. At least one Class D, accompanied by multiple Class Es."

Lin Xiaoman had no intuitive concept of the grading system.

To her, the difference between D and E was just a single letter, like a ten-point difference on an exam.

But she glanced at Liu Yuyan out of the corner of her eye.

Liu Yuyan's fingers clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms.

The rising and falling of her chest quickened.

Lin Xiaoman's scalp began to tingle.

"This Class D, is it an exotic beast or an anomaly?"

Liu Yuyan asked.

"The ancient tree cannot determine its exact form."

Su Chen shook his head.

"We only know... it is very strong."

He didn't say how strong.

He didn't need to.

Liu Yuyan could calculate it herself.

The Class E Silence-Eroding Spirit in the Qin Province ruins had cracked stone bricks with its smoke whip and surrounded her from all sides with ghostly fireballs.

She had unleashed her Cross Slash and Eight Virtues as One, exhausting almost all her stamina just to barely slay it.

Liu Yuyan's fingers loosened and then clenched again, leaving bloody marks on her palms.

Su Chen's gaze shifted to Lin Xiaoman.

"You must come along too."

The lollipop dropped.

The plastic stick clattered twice against the stone bricks and rolled to her feet.

"N-No way, President!"

Lin Xiaoman's voice pitched up two octaves.

Her social anxiety filter shattered completely. The slouching, mumbling homebody was gone;

in her place stood a 152-centimeter-tall, wide-eyed, terrified girl who forgot to keep her voice down.

"I'm just an ordinary person! I can't even do a single pull-up! Am I going there just to be an appetizer for them?! The kind that wouldn't even get stuck in their teeth!"

Su Chen did not laugh.

Those eyes watched her quietly.

That kind of quiet.

Lin Xiaoman had seen it before.

Before giving any unalterable command, the President always had this exact quietness about him.

Liu Yuyan turned sideways.

She looked at Lin Xiaoman, her voice softening slightly.

"When I first went on a mission with the President, I was an ordinary person too."

Lin Xiaoman's lips parted slightly.

"During the battle of the East Sea, I stood on the deck of the destroyer, watching the President step on fire and soar through the air. Back then, I couldn't do anything."

Liu Yuyan's gaze darkened slightly.

"But it was that very moment that made me realize what Kindling truly is. It's not something you can understand just by listening to stories in the base."

Lin Xiaoman bit her lip.

She wanted to struggle some more.

But she met Su Chen's gaze.

There was no urging in those eyes, no command, not even expectation.

Only something heavier than all of those combined—trust.

Lin Xiaoman's hands slowly clenched the hem of her hoodie.

The fabric bunched up between her fingers, her knuckles turning white.

"...I'll go."

Her voice was soft, but she gritted out every word, just like how she used to force herself to stand when called upon by her teacher in school.

"With the President there... I'll go."

Su Chen nodded, offering no praise.

His tone grew slightly heavier.

"The frequency of the invasions is accelerating."

These words were like a bucket of ice water.

"The interval between the last time and this time is getting shorter and shorter."

His gaze shifted from Lin Xiaoman to Liu Yuyan.

"Next time, they might appear in multiple places simultaneously. When that happens, I won't be able to be everywhere at once."

He did not say any more.

There was no need.

Liu Yuyan straightened her back even further.

One day, she would have to face Class D, or even stronger, all on her own.

"When can the communication network be completely finished?"

"One more day."

Lin Xiaoman looked up, the pupils beneath her dark circles brightening a bit.

"The signal jamming module and the global monitoring relay nodes will go online simultaneously. The encrypted handshake protocol has already passed; we just need the final round of full-link debugging."

"Once it is complete—"

Su Chen paused for half a second.

"After this battle ends, you can begin the ancient tree's trial."

Lin Xiaoman stopped breathing.

The ancient tree's trial.

The transcendent sequence.

She would no longer be an ordinary person.

"Alright."

The corner of Su Chen's mouth curved slightly. It was very faint, gone in a flash.

---

After the two of them left the base.

Su Chen sat down beneath the ancient tree.

The pale golden light of the sky fell upon his face.

Ordinary, young, carrying the fatigue of not getting enough sleep and the relaxation of just finishing a grand performance.

He opened his notebook and simultaneously summoned the system panel.

"Current Points: 3,050"

"Current Realism: 1,010"

Su Chen stared at these two lines of numbers, his finger habitually tapping twice on the edge of the notebook.

Then, he began to do the math.

Teleportation Array—sending the three of them to the European War Zone.

Inquiry.

"Targeted Teleportation Array: 5,000 points."

Su Chen's eyebrow twitched.

A teleportation array was absolutely necessary to establish; future battles might span the entire Blue Star.

Yet a two-way teleportation array alone cost 5,000 points.

Lin Xiaoman's Class E spark—he had a Class E crystal on hand, which cost 1,000 points to craft, but still required another 2,000 points to bestow.

His own breakthrough to a Tier 3 Class D spark—required a Class D crystal plus an unknown amount of points.

With the three expenses listed, the deficit lay plain on the paper—he was short by nearly two thousand points just for the teleportation array, not to mention the rest.

Su Chen stared at the string of numbers in his notebook, his mouth twitching slightly.

The point deficit exceeded five thousand.

Conventional methods wouldn't be fast enough.

But a War Zone did not lack one thing—faith ignited in the midst of despair.

Artillery fire, ruins, displaced refugees, collapsed order, and souls that had lost everything.

When the holy light of Kindling shone upon that scorched earth, when the desperate witnessed transcendent power tearing through anomalies with their own eyes—

they would believe.

They would believe with all their might.

Because that would be their last hope.

And "belief"—was the greatest source of points.

Su Chen wrote a line in his notebook.

"War Zones do not lack despair. What they lack is hope."

He closed the notebook. Behind him, the golden light of the ancient tree pulsed.

The eight golden characters on the broken pillar stood silent in the light.

Civilization never dies, Kindling burns forever.

Su Chen stood up, picked up the mask beside him, and flipped it over in his hand.

The reflection on the bronze mask showed half of his face.

The Flame Keeper's chessboard crossed national borders for the first time.

Three lines.

All converging on a single point.

Enough to write a great play.