17: Chapter 17 Choice

Night.

It was very late.

Wang Pingan returned home without turning on the lights.

He just stood there in the entryway, back against the cold door panel, listening to the sound of his own breathing amplified, and amplified again, in the empty living room.

The mountain-collapsing, sea-churning cheers in the gymnasium, those fanatical, worshipful gazes, and the overly enthusiastic smiling faces of the leaders were all completely shut out with the "bang" of the closing door.

Today, he had become famous.

"Elite Training Program".

These five characters were like a branding iron, repeatedly searing his mind, burning him so badly he couldn't sleep.

He took off his shoes and walked barefoot across the floor.

He paced from the living room to the balcony, and back again.

Like a beast trapped in a cage.

Go, or not go?

This was not a multiple-choice question at all.

This was a boat ticket handed to him by the principal, the Education Bureau, the Martial Arts Association, and the entire upper echelon of Shencheng City.

A gold-plated ticket to a higher level.

If he didn't accept it, that would be ungrateful.

It would be spurning a kindness.

Wang Pingan walked to the wall of the living room, reached out, and gently stroked the family portrait hanging there.

The photo had been taken six months ago.

At that time, his parents had just returned from the front lines for rotation.

In the photo, his father was wearing a crisp military uniform, a slightly unaccustomed smile on his face, but the exhaustion in his eyes could not be hidden.

His mother was wearing a beautiful dress, affectionately clutching his father's arm, smiling gently and contentedly.

And he himself stood between his parents, still carrying a bit of youthful immaturity and silliness.

He looked at his parents' faces in the photo.

Looking at the fine wrinkles at the corners of their eyes, looking at the strand of white hair at his father's temples that he hadn't had time to dye.

He knew that everything he had now, this stable life where he could cultivate and spend money on resources without distraction, was all exchanged, bit by bit, with their lives and blood at the distant interstellar frontier.

Wang Pingan's hand slowly clenched into a fist.

What was his original intention for becoming stronger?

Was it to avoid repeating the mediocrity of his past life?

Was it to experience the thrill of stepping on others?

Yes.

But now, it was more than that.

He wanted to use his own strength to protect this hard-won peace.

He wanted his parents to be able to take off that heavy battle armor and smile at him securely, just like in the photo.

Instead of letting them worry about the safety of their son while on the distant battlefield.

Once this thought became clear, it could no longer be shaken.

Go! He must go!

Even if the "Elite Training Program" was a dragon's den or tiger's lair, he had to brave it!

It had the resources he needed, the platform he needed, and, more importantly, the perfect layer of camouflage he needed!

After a night of tossing and turning, Wang Pingan's heart finally settled.

He also formulated a brand new action strategy for himself.

"Build high walls, store plenty of grain, and bide your time before claiming the throne."

These nine characters he had seen in history books in his past life were perfectly suited for this moment.

His strength had to be improved secretly and frantically.

But what was shown on the outside had to be "reasonable".

He needed a reference point, a target.

A target that could attract most of the firepower for him, while also allowing him to "reasonably" surpass it.

This target had not appeared yet.

But he knew that in that so-called "Elite Training Program", there must be one.

All he had to do was find him, follow behind him, and play the role of a gifted "latecomer" struggling to catch up.

Every step would be taken steadily.

Every surpassing would appear reasonable and logical.

As for his true strength, that would be his deadly fangs, hidden in the deepest part of him, to be used only when necessary.

The sky brightened.

Wang Pingan, who hadn't slept all night, was not the least bit tired; instead, he was full of energy.

He walked into the kitchen and took two eggs and a carton of milk from the refrigerator.

He poured oil into the frying pan, cracked the eggs, listened to the "sizzle", and smelled the aroma of food permeating the air.

These ordinary, mundane daily tasks, full of the scent of life, actually allowed his nerves, which had been somewhat tense from a night of thinking, to slowly relax.

He suddenly felt that he had been thinking about it all wrong before.

Thinking too complexly, too heavily.

Whatever the conspiracies, whatever the undercurrents.

Deal with whatever comes.

As long as his fists were hard enough, hard enough to smash all rules, then all conspiracies and tricks would be nothing but worthless rabble.

After finishing breakfast and packing his schoolbag, Wang Pingan walked out of the house as usual.

Today was his last day as an ordinary student at Shencheng No. 1 High School.

The atmosphere in the school was still very heated.

Everywhere he went, he was the absolute focus.

But unlike yesterday, today, no one dared to look at him with those suspicious and scrutinizing eyes anymore.

Everyone's eyes held only the purest, unadulterated awe and worship.

Second-Rank Martial Artist.

These four characters were a chasm.

Completely dividing him and 99.9% of the students in the school into two different worlds.

Just as he walked into the classroom, his homeroom teacher, Liu Jianguo, came up to meet him.

Old Liu's eyes were red, and his eye sockets were a bit dark; it looked like he had been too excited to sleep well all night.

"Pingan!"

He grabbed Wang Pingan's arm, the force even greater than yesterday.

"I... I really don't know what to say."

This middle-aged man, who was always stern and dignified on the podium, was actually speaking incoherently at this moment.

"I have taught for twenty years, and you are... you are the most outstanding student I have ever seen! No, there is no one else!"

There were glistening things swirling in his eye sockets.

"After you go to the Elite Program, you must not embarrass our Class 7! You must cultivate well! Do you hear me!"

"You are the pride of our entire class!"

Wang Pingan looked at Liu Jianguo's face, revealing his true feelings, and his heart felt a bit sour.

He solemnly bowed deeply to Liu Jianguo.

"Teacher Liu, thank you."

Thank you for not giving up on me when I was still a piece of trash.

Thank you for being willing to believe in me when the whole school questioned me.

He would remember this kindness.

The classmates in the class looked at Wang Pingan with complicated expressions.

There was envy, there was worship.

But more than that, it was a sense of alienation.

A sense of distance from the heart, a feeling of not daring to get close.

Before, everyone could joke around, and could compete with each other about whose blood qi value was a little higher.

And now? There was no way to compare.

Someone could punch out over four hundred kilograms, while you were still smug about breaking one hundred kilograms.

This was not the same magnitude.

Those petty competitions of the past, that adolescent sense of rivalry and jealousy, all seemed so ridiculous and pale in front of the heavy sign of "Second-Rank Martial Artist".

Wang Pingan sat back in his seat.

He could feel that he and this class were already separated by an invisible membrane.

He no longer belonged here.

His gaze subconsciously swept to the seat in the first row.

Li Moran had been exceptionally silent all day.

He hadn't looked at anyone else, nor had he spoken to anyone else.

He just sat there quietly, reading books, doing problems.

As if everything that happened in the gymnasium yesterday had nothing to do with him.

He didn't make any provocative actions again, not even giving Wang Pingan an extra glance.

But it was this silence.

This calmness like stagnant water.

Actually made Wang Pingan feel an even stronger, more dangerous aura.

It is always exceptionally quiet before a storm.

A venomous snake that has been stepped on its seven-inch mark will always disguise itself as a piece of dead wood before launching a fatal strike.

Li Moran would absolutely not let this go.

Wang Pingan was absolutely certain of this in his heart.

The bell rang for the end of school. Wang Pingan put on his schoolbag and walked out of the classroom.

He didn't go home immediately but stood at the school gate for a while.

Looking at the students in groups of three or four, arm-in-arm, laughing, playing, discussing where to eat, where to play games.

He suddenly felt like he was in a different lifetime.

Just yesterday, he was still like them.

But now, he could no longer blend in.

Was this the price of becoming stronger?

He shook his head and gave a self-deprecating smile.

Turning around, he walked into the afterglow of the setting sun.

Starting tomorrow, he would step into a brand new world.

There, there would be no familiar teachers or classmates.

Replacing them would be the top geniuses of the entire Shencheng City and the most brutal competition.

Wang Pingan clenched his fists.

He could feel the blood in his body heating up slightly because of that anticipation for the unknown.

Elites of Shen City. I am coming.