Sitting cross-legged in a room, Noah absorbed the cold energy emanating from the white stone between his hands as he circulated the Hellfrost Peacock's secret technique.
Suddenly, he clutched his chest and endured the pain with strength.
Inside his body, his heart and stomach began to reform.
A long while later, he regained his composure.
A stream of information entered his mind, informing him that he had obtained a new ability, as well as explaining what the ability was about.
The particular skill had a rather simple name, devour.
It was the Hellfrost Peacock's unique devour ability. One could devour most materials to improve their physical characteristics. The impurities that were devoured could be stored, condensed and formed into a Distorted Seed that could infect other beings, turning them into corrupted monsters.
Suddenly, a bold idea came to his mind.
Focusing on his spirit sea, he commanded the swarm of soul-devouring insects to start devouring each other until only one was left alive.
This process would take months so he left them to fight in an isolated area within his spirit sea.
Rising to his feet, he entered an isolated room where a large number of pieces of various technological components were scattered about and continued working on a huge cube in the center of the room.
While he was still immersed in his new project, a big event was taking place at the Blackboard Academy that lasted several days.
It was a Mechs tournament.
The top three finishers among the freshmen would be promoted to elite students, enjoying an immense amount of benefits.
Although Garen managed to fight until the final moments of the tournament, he was tied with his opponent when both were knocked unconscious.
Although they were only one step away from qualifying to fight for third place, both Garen and the girl he tied with managed to demonstrate their talent and skill to everyone who watched their battle, proving that they were Mech pilots worth investing in and were on par with the third place finisher in terms of talent.
Several days later, in a meeting room inside a huge battleship, the top brass of the Blackboard academy gathered around a table on which a 3D projection of a document could be seen.
"What do the three of you think about this?" the dean of the academy suddenly said, after looking at the sphere.
The other three elders were the oldest professors of the academy, highly respected.
They were all strong Mech pilots, but their ranks were a bit lower compared to the dean.
The three watched the information displayed on the document carefully, while their faces revealed a dignified expression.
"I don't know where this rumor is coming from." a bald, wrinkled-headed old man said in a deep voice.
"But no matter whether that rumor is true or false, it is not a good thing for Blackboard Region."
"Why is it not a good thing? The higher the risk, the more profit we get. If we could obtain a component of the Forbidden Mech, then we would raise the quality of our entire Academy!" another old woman argued.
"Then we would need to have the ability to be able to take the risk!" The old man frowned as he looked the other person in the eye.
"You've become a coward after all these years?" the old woman scoffed.
"It seems to me that you have gone mad with your pharmaceutical research."
The two began arguing and insulting each other.
"Stop arguing. Didn't Karfi bring a surviving child from that attack?"
The one who spoke was a white-haired but radiant-faced professor.
His name was Sims. To date, he had been named one of the two strongest mecha pilots in the history of the Academy. He was the next best, after the dean who had not demonstrated her skills for many years. At the same time, he held the position of vice dean of the Academy.
"What about the kid Karfi brought in?" it seemed Dean Cruz had thought about that too. Karfi was one of the three strongest Black Star's at the Academy, and all three had reached level 4 willpower.
"The Black Star set off for the polar region. In such a short time, we could only send those three boys to represent us. It's also a form of training," Professor Sims said.
Cruz frowned slightly.
"Will there be any danger?"
"If eagles never leave their mother's nest, they will never really spread their wings."
"I agree with this point," said the elderly professor, nodding toward Slim's words.
"Behind the Forbidden Mech problem this time, there must be a relatively larger organization promoting it, just as it was twenty years ago. But if it is only within our Region, I will still be confident that it would ensure the personal safety of the children." After Sim said those words, he did not speak again.
Dean Cruz let out a long sigh.
"Very well. I'll pass this matter of the Forbidden Mech on to the Black Light trio to go ahead with the investigation."
"That's fine too. This case is already solved." The elderly professor nodded her head in agreement. "And what about the little boy who was saved?"
"He and the Forbidden Mech must be related. His family was destroyed and it seems that his enemy is also looking for something. If possible, ask him clearly about what valuables his family owns for his opponent to be doing something so important with them, if it includes having a component of the Forbidden Mech," Cruz instructed.
"Okay, I'll ask Karfi later."
In the southwest of the Blackboard region, a mangled black and red mecha plummeted towards the ground. Crashing and exploding in a blast that released a blast of energy that stretched a kilometer in diameter.
A black ball appeared on the horizon before exploding, revealing a majestic red and white Mech with mysterious patterns etched all over its body, giving it a sense of antiquity.
Several smaller Mechs appeared near the white and red Mech.
"Go down and retrieve the shard."
The person inside the Mech ordered in a cold voice.
Two Mechs descended to the site of the explosion to search for the object they had chased this Mech pilot here for.
"Based on your potential, to be able to force me, the Great Mech of Light, to take action personally, you should be proud," the lead Mech sneered as he looked at the remains of the exploded Mech.
Suddenly, the signals indicating the location of the forbidden Mech fragment disappeared from his radar, as if the object had vanished.
"What happened?"
He went down with his three other subordinates and asked the two who went down first what had happened.
"Leader! We have no idea what happened either! Suddenly the signal from the forbidden Mech fragment disappeared from the radar once we entered the cloud of smoke caused by the explosion."
Frowning, the Light Mech personally searched through the wreckage of the destroyed Mech but could not find the fragment.
"We'll have to report to home base immediately!"
The Light Mech straightened up and was about to fly away when a message came over his terminal.
Reading the message, the young man in the white mask piloting it was surprised.
"There is still another fragment within the Blackboard region?"
The young man dismissed the idea of returning to headquarters and first planned to capture the new fragment of the forbidden Mech.
Since he couldn't get the first one, he couldn't leave empty-handed.
A kilometer away, Noah stood on top of a building and watched the scene unfold in the distance.
Waving his magic gourd, he put it away again before disappearing from the scene.
It was he who stole the fragment of the Forbidden Mech.
Taking advantage of the camouflage provided by the cloud of smoke from the explosion, he quickly teleported to the cockpit before slipping the shard into his magic gourd and teleporting away again.
Inside the cafeteria, Clint Beza was asleep on his desk.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! Out of nowhere, a loud scream rang in his ear. The loud sound made Clint feel a numbing sensation throughout his body and immediately woke him from his sleep.
Clint seemed dazed. After taking a moment to regain his composure, he covered his ears and began to roar loudly.
"What are you doing, my ears!"
"You're screwed!" responded Red Moon tersely.
"Why?" asked Clint with confusion on his face.
"Why am I fucked?"
"You're dead!"
"Why?" asked Clint with an even more confused expression.
"You're an idiot! You're dead! We're dead this time!" continued Red Moon shouting.
"Oh my God...," Clint held his head as he screamed in agony.
After 10 minutes of forcefully resisting the intensely loud screams, Clint went to serve some customers before finally getting a chance to use the restroom.
"Mr. Red Moon, what the hell are you talking about this time, I can't take it anymore, I really can't take it anymore! If you keep this up, my sanity level will definitely go down, for real!"
He pulled down his pants, sat his butt on the toilet and let out a long sigh.
"I have some bad news to tell you," Red Moon replied angrily.
"We've been found out!"
"We've been found out? What do you mean?" Clint was confused once again.
"An expert is looking for my parts and they are already here in the Blackboard region," Red Moon said in a serious tone, "I'm not kidding this time. If they find us, we'll be dead meat. I'll be formatted and they'll definitely silence you."
Clint felt a cold sweat run down his forehead.
"S-Silencing me... You don't mean... They're going to kill me?"
How could this kind of TV dramatic progression happen to himself in real life?
"You'd better believe it.", Red Moon replied coolly.
"I'm telling you the truth. My original body was once known as the Forbidden Mech to your people, one of the strongest Mechs in space.
Even if it is just one of my parts, it would be considered a valuable treasure worth a small fortune to the average person. Having an expert come to collect my parts is no surprise. The only thing that was beyond my expectations was that they would somehow manage to find out about my existence.
"Forbidden Mech...," Clint swallowed hard, feeling as if he was being pulled deeper and deeper into this hole he had dug for himself.
"Mr. Red Moon... You're kidding me, right...?"
"You think I'm in the mood to play with you?"
Red Moon interrupted his thoughts directly.
"We have to find a way to escape from our pursuers!"
"Oh, my God... Oh, my God!" Clint began to gasp."
"The most important thing now is to keep our pursuers from finding us. I can sense that a couple of my parts are near this area, though I don't know if they can pinpoint our exact location at this point. However, just in case, I'll switch to a power-saving mode to reduce signal reception.
Red Moon quickly reported the situation.
"After this, you may not be able to sense their location, but the same can be said for them. You shouldn't have to worry too much for now. This is Blackboard City, the center of the entire Blackboard Region. It's surrounded by the most elite Mech division of Blackboard Academy, so they wouldn't dare try anything weird around here."
"So, that means I'm safe?"
Clint's face was as white as a sheet, he was terrified.
"You're safe for now. The only thing we can do now is bet everything on this. If they can find us even after I cut all the connections, then everything will depend on our luck.", Red Moon explained.
"What if I throw you in right now?" Suddenly, Clint had an idea.
"Too late!" laughed Red Moon coldly.
"Your body already has my mark on it, and anyone who comes in contact with me will be contaminated by some kind of aura. This kind of radiation-based aura will be easily recognized by them. With such an obvious trace, they will definitely kill you.
"No!" shouted Clint with his head in his arms. Luckily, everyone else had already left for lunch and he was the only one left in the tent.
"Lord have mercy on me, I'm just a normal 16 year old teenager, not some harem prodigy protagonist in one of those works of fiction!"
"Accept your fate, leaving it to luck without effort is a great option for you. You're nothing but a useless waste anyway.", Red Moon sneered. "Sooner or later, everyone connected to you will also be dragged into this ordeal. Your sister, your parents, your only friend Darby, Baylon, all of them will also be killed. Their only mistake was being related to a piece of shit like you."
"You must be scaring me!" Clint suddenly calmed down.
"That's definitely it, Lord Red Moon, you've always liked to scare me. Making this time's attempt so realistic must be part of your plan, it's my loss. Well, I'll be off, I need to get back to watching the store."
"I scare you? You're in a state of denial?" Red Moon was speechless.
"My sister and the others will be back soon. I must hurry or I'll get scolded again." said Clint, almost as if he were in a zen state. He got up and flushed the toilet.
"So not being able to handle reality forced you into a shell of your own delusions, huh?" Red Moon had nothing more to say.
Looking at the picture of the parties, their opponents were not simple characters. They would definitely try something big.
"Well, when it really becomes a problem, that'll give this guy the wake-up call he needs.