Thunderbolt Star Saga

Wednesday, October 2nd, overcast. I got the job at Boss Gu's café! Five hundred yuan monthly, working 7 to 11 PM. When Boss Gu heard I'm a scholarship student, he specially adjusted the hours. Starting today, I can finally stop relying on financial aid and truly support myself through school! Lin Fan snapped shut his moss-green journal, stretching backward as night breeze caressed his newly regenerated skin. Moonlight fractured into quicksilver glimmers on his lashes. The neon sign atop the distant research building pulsed, sharpening the resolve in the young man's eyes - someday, his Thunder Armor would blaze across the world stage. In this 35th-century Earth, energy armors defined social hierarchy. Each thousand-Fa energy threshold marked an evolutionary leap from Armor Squire to Armor Master. Cloudspire University, among global elite institutions, demanded both academic excellence and energy armor proficiency. Lin Fan remained that peculiar case - admitted with perfect academic scores yet stagnating in freshman year for three years due to his lagging Thunder Armor. Sparks danced between his fingers as he extended his palm. The monthlong deluge had gifted more than epidermal renewal - his cultivation system now underwent qualitative transformation. Post thousand-Fa breakthrough, dermal cells autonomously regulated thermal variance, eliminating dependence on natural cold snaps. Earlier in the dorm, experimental energy circulation had fused molten scars into steel bedframes. "Professor Xu, your requested cosmology history thesis." Lin Fan placed the ten-centimeter-thick manuscript on the desk, its edges still carrying library archives' camphor scent. "Regarding the 23rd to 25th century civilizational gap-" "Hush-" The silver-haired scholar raised an urgent finger, pupils contracting behind spectacles. "That's the era erased by the Mechanoid Crisis. Rampant AI nearly ended humanity." His whisper carried conspiratorial gravity. "Governments purged all records. These fragments you've uncovered represent archaeology department's greatest discovery in thirty years." Lin Fan's fingers absently traced the thesis cover. Now he understood recurring terms like "Mechanoid Commandments" and "Data Plague" from ancient texts - relics of humanity's war against its own creations. Ginkgo leaves rustled outside like settling historical dust. The café bell jingled as Lin Fan entered. Boss Gu froze mid-pruning, garden shears clattering on the counter. "Thirty-day no-show, brat!" His scowl morphed into astonishment upon noticing the metallic sheen on the youth's fingertips. "You... broke through?" "My apologies, during that period-" A heavy pat cut him short. "Deduct two hundred next month!" The café owner's glare dissolved into theatric pleading. "But tutor my daughter at original pay rate." He jabbed at the newly posted academic chart where a glaring 38% marred the general studies column. "That girl's Energy Armor hits two thousand Fa, but another failed exam means repeating sophomore year." During closing, Lin Fan polished siphon brewers while Thunder Armor energy coursed through his veins. Earlier, thirty-kilo coffee bean crates had felt weightless. The refrigerated case's reflection now revealed azure lightning dancing in his pupils - tangible manifestation of Thunder Armor's materialization. On the dormitory rooftop, the youth spread his arms to night winds. Electrical charges crackled through his hair as ambient energy converged at fifty Fa per second. For the first time in three years, the threshold of Armor Mastery pulsed within reach.