“As a student, do your own part well. I’ll give you three days to think it over and return to school to study hard. Otherwise… even if you end up begging on the streets, I won’t give you a single cent more. When Ryan Thompson says something, he means it!”

The man finished speaking, his expression cold and stern, leaving with heavy, suffocating steps.

In the corridor, a long silence, wordless.

Only after the man’s figure completely disappeared around the corner did Samuel Thompson’s heart become utterly calm.

He tilted his head back slightly, gazing at the not-so-old ceiling above. It felt as if a gentle breeze swept through his heart, whistling, swirling, carrying fallen leaves drifting into the distance…

There, there is peace…

There are blue skies and white clouds…

Unconsciously, his eyes seemed to grow a little moist.

“Any decision requires not just determination… but also the price that must be paid!”

He reached out, wiped his eyes, then looked at the tear stains on the side of his index finger: “Even if it’s… the meaning of life…”

From this moment on, practicing martial arts was no longer just empty words.

He had cut off all his paths of retreat.

Because…

The weak have nowhere to go.

Chapter 2: True Heart

Yaoyang Daily.

Time: Dawn Calendar, Year 1020, May 9th, 3:30 p.m. Shire Time.

It had been a month since Samuel Thompson left school.

At this moment, he stood beside a newsstand, head lowered, looking at the newspaper in his hands.

The headline: The Father of the Nuclear Bomb, Roger, has passed away. Below was a series of his achievements, such as leading the nuclear bomb development thirty-six years ago, successfully detonating Shaya’s first nuclear bomb after four years of work in Dawn Calendar 988, and so on.

The second piece of news: The Kingdom of Shaya has introduced fiber optic technology from the Alliance, and it is expected to be fully implemented in the next three years, replacing the currently slower broadband network…

After searching for a long time, Samuel Thompson finally found the information he wanted to see in a corner of the newspaper…

Latest update on the car accident involving Chihai Group’s leader, Chi Yutong: the accident has been determined to be entirely the fault of the other party… The accident was caused by a series of violations such as the other party cutting in, jumping barriers, etc…

Currently, the other party’s relatives have stated they will not appeal…

The media calls on the public to obey traffic rules and yield to vehicles…

…

Less than two hundred words—that was the entirety of the reporting on the incident where Chi Yutong killed someone while driving.

From beginning to end.

A full stop was put to the matter.

Samuel Thompson put down the newspaper, looked up at the dazzling sunlight above.

It was afternoon, the scorching sun hung high, yet it could never illuminate all the darkness on the earth.

Unlike parallel Earth, here, social media had yet to flourish, the internet was just developing, and once the newspaper reported and closed the case, the matter…

Was truly over.

No one would pay the slightest attention to it anymore.

“A person’s life…”

Samuel Thompson withdrew his eyes, stung by the sun, and lowered his head: “In just over a month, it’s been resolved… dead… died in vain… like duckweed swept away by the waves of a river, so fragile…”

Samuel Thompson tried his best to remain calm.

To turn his heart into a block of winter ice.

Calm, rational.

But his restless heart…

Could not be stilled.

“What can I do…”

Samuel Thompson said to himself.

But as a mere senior high school student, there was nothing he could do.

In the end…

He lowered his head, looking at his hands.

Hands that, compared to a month ago when he held a pen, were no longer so delicate.

What could he do.

His pitiful “intelligence” couldn’t think of anything…

No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t think of anything.

It was that if he thought too much, became too rational, things might head toward another outcome.

An outcome…

He absolutely did not want.

So, he understood.

Don’t think, don’t listen, don’t look, just be quiet… follow your true heart, and that’s enough.

“Pa!”

Samuel Thompson threw the newspaper in his hand into the nearby trash can.

The newspaper had used less than two hundred words to put a period on the matter.

But for Samuel Thompson…

The matter was far from over.

He walked forward, his expression calm.

But beneath that calm face, still tinged with a trace of youthfulness, was a heart burning with raging flames.

Burning, burning, burning again.

Under the blaze of this fire, his whole body felt hot, yet he was so repressed he could hardly bear it. It was as if something was blocking his chest, making it hard to breathe, as if…

Only by shouting at the top of his lungs, raising his head to the sky, could he dispel this oppression, this blockage, this powerlessness, this suffocation, completely!

Only with a wild howl that shook the heavens could he tear apart, shatter, and crush the gloom above his head!

…

Blue Star, with a diameter of 100,000 kilometers, is a planet rich in species. In the wild, ancient forests untouched by humans, ogres, tree spirits, fierce beasts, giants, and… evil dragons… are hidden.

The planet is vast, and due to magnetic field effects, Blue Star has no satellite technology.

Without satellites, there is no global surveillance equipment. Samuel Thompson could walk freely on the streets, stroll through alleys, walk along the roads, without worrying about being caught on camera anywhere.