Way of the Devil

Panda Novel

The department Jorin belonged to had come here to visit a light armor manufacturing factory. He borrowed a female uniform for Esha and brought her in here to widen her horizons. He did not expect to suffer an accident halfway through the visit.

A cluster of sparks suddenly flew out and hit Jorin in the back of his head. Jorin fainted on the spot.

Lu Sheng rubbed the back of his head. He made a pained expression.

When the other students saw that he was fine, the few who were about to alert the teaching staff stopped where they stood.

“Let’s bring you to the infirmary later and get you checked. We don’t want there to be any lingering effects,” the class representative, Shajay, said with a frown.

“Sure, I’ll go later.” Lu Sheng stood up and nodded.

When the others saw that he could stand up, they stopped gathering around him. They reorganized themselves, and the class monitor Shajay continued with leading the tour of the facilities.

That was how it was in a class. They appeared to be classmates, but the truth was that when the four years were over, if they were not especially outstanding students, most of them would not have anything much to do with each other.

Only a small group of students who were descendants of noble families or heirs to great fortunes would gather together to network. The others considered themselves lucky to even complete the course. They had no leisure to group together and look after each other.

Besides, only a certain number of students could actually graduate from a class. Everybody had to fight with everything they could to be counted among these numbers.

Esha supported Lu Sheng’s weight as they walked at the end of the lines. As he walked, he recalled Jorin’s karma and wishes.

‘This world is interesting. Humans are using their fragile and weak bodies to control the extremely powerful armors. Although they had weapons such as spears and cannons, they were nothing compared to the armors. However, the armors are too powerful. This shortened the gap between individuals greatly. If an adult and a child operated the same grade of armors in battle, the child could still kill the adult as long as his skills were good enough.’

Lu Sheng licked his lips. He went through Jorin’s karma and wishes.

‘Let me see… What are your wishes… Find out about the truth? Revenge?! The truth, huh?’

16 years ago, there was a tragic explosion in Celine City. It was said that the explosion was a planned crime, but the objectives were unclear. However, it was believed that the explosion was meant to kill some important individual.

The explosion had affected many buildings in the area. More than 60 people lost their lives, while 100 others were injured.

In the orphanage which Jorin was at back then, more than 30 of them had died from the blast. Most of them were orphans.

Jorin’s friends had all died in that accident.

Hence, his wish was to find the culprit and have his revenge.

‘In this society which is completely reliant on armors, the difference in armors will dictate everything. The effects of a person’s wit are amplified here. This is quite troublesome…’ Lu Sheng was feeling slightly depressed. He started to test out the Other World rules here.

However, the feedback he got from his Yang Essence was not too good.

The rules here were extremely rigid, peculiarly so. Any unnatural energy was weakened and limited to a mind-blowing extent. Inner force and Spiritual Essence aside, even the most fundamental Qi and blood were so heavily suppressed that they could not even maintain their form.

‘At least the time flow is alright. As expected, only worlds such as this one have the fastest flows of time. A day in Great Yin is equivalent to 40 days here. Not bad, not bad at all.’ As Lu Sheng followed the group around, he kept thinking about a way to overcome these obstacles.

If he wanted to break through the limits of the rules and adapt to the surroundings here for his main body to appear safely, he needed two years at least.

Naturally, if it was a simple task such as removing some of the restrictions, it would not be that difficult.

‘Since I’m here, I should settle the problems by playing by the rules here.’ Lu Sheng’s spirit kept scanning his new body, both internally and externally. He began precisely correcting and healing the problems and hidden wounds found on this body.

Esha supported his weight. She looked slightly worried.

As they toured around the factory, the other students were taking notes of their feelings and various data. The armor manufacturing data and techniques here were great in-depth knowledge to these students who operated armors in actual combat. It would be greatly helpful in their armor-operating skills in the future.

Lu Sheng took a few cursory glances and basically understood the technique of making armors here.

They were mostly similar to mechas. The most important parts were actually their materials and the control core.

Information on these two aspects was not exposed. The other parts appeared no different from a manufacturing line back on Earth.

“Alright, the tour ends here for today. It’s back to the dorms now, everyone. After this, everyone should hand in a 3000-word essay on their thoughts to Teacher Louis. Class dismissed.” The class monitor Shajay waved his hand. He informed everyone of the assignment, turned around, boarded a black car, and left.

Many of the other students also left by cars outside the factory.

Half of the class remained, including Lu Sheng. They were children from ordinary families. They scattered and went in all directions.

Lu Sheng continued to walk with Esha supporting his weight. He sized up the streets, roads, and shops here.

On both sides of the silver-grayish street were hardware shops, some of them closed, while the others were open for business. There was an occasional street food vendor between them. Customers could be seen lining up in front of the premises. It was a lively scene.

The streetlights followed the European medieval barn lantern style. Their outer coating was black, with square glass cover on the top. Electric bulbs shone within them.

The roads and streets were neat and clean. The passing vehicles also resembles those in Europe during the industrial revolution. Their engines roared loudly, but they did not move very fast. Many horse carriages were among the traffic as well. They had signs that read “available” on them.

‘What a strange world.’ Lu Sheng shook his head slightly. He hailed a cart and boarded it with Esha.

“No, Rinrin. Carts are expensive. We can just walk back.” Esha wanted to stop him, but she was too late. Lu Sheng pulled her onto the cart.

The two of them sat at the back of the four-seater. As the wind blew against them, their hair was lifted behind them.

“Alright, alright. It’s also right to take a cart. I’m sorry, Rinrin. I’ve forgotten that you’ve just passed out and are feeling weak…” Esha suddenly understood. She spoke with some remorse.

“It’s alright,” Lu Sheng said with a smile. “I’m already a second-year. It’s about time for me to find some income myself. I can’t have you supporting me completely.”

“But…” Esha was slightly stunned. She immediately widened her eyes. She was slightly happy, but fear quickly crept into her heart.

Rinrin was a top-performer in the Platinum Academy. He was handsome and had a well-balanced body. If he could earn money on his own, would she not become disposable to him?

In the future, without this part of their relationship, would Rinrin still want to go out with her?

The more Esha thought about this, the more frightened and worried she became.

Compared to him, she had nothing. Her looks were average at best. While her body might be something, there were too many female students with nice bodies in the academy. Long hours of training had resulted in the students having well-toned bodies, while she…

Esha lowered her head. She rubbed her thighs together. She suddenly felt sad.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Sheng found it slightly strange. However, as he gave it some thought, he immediately understood why Esha was feeling down based on the relationship between Jorin and Esha.

“It’ll be alright.” He reached out and pinched Esha’s cheek. “Are you worried that I might be liking some other girl from the academy? Don’t worry. Compared to those feeble ties of benefit, the ties between you and me are authentic.”

Although Esha was still feeling uneasy in her heart, she felt much better after hearing that. She took Lu Sheng’s hands of her own accord and placed it on her own thigh.

She seemed to have gathered resolve as she lowered her head, and sheepishly said, “If you want to… I… I can…”

“It’s fine. We should just proceed as we have promised.” Lu Sheng pulled her into his embrace with a smile.

While they sat on the cart, Lu Sheng took in the view of the city.

The Platinum Academy was located in the second largest city of the Alan Federation, Schudmann City. The largest special metal processing factory could be found here. There was also the largest banner alloy mine.

Platinum Academy was not the only one. There were two other middle-sized military academies that had laid down their roots here.

The feeling the entire Schudmann City gave Lu Sheng was that it resembled London during the industrial revolution. Under the cover of misty skies, the air was filled with scattered dust. The ground looked clean enough, but if one looked closer, they would notice a thin layer of ash on it.

The people here wore presentable clothes regardless of their financial status. They mostly dressed in grayish tones. There were few homeless people living on the streets.

Esha got off the cart halfway toward the academy. She went back to her rented house. For Jorin, she found a job near the academy, and used more than 90% of her salary for Jorin’s expenses in the academy while she herself led a tough life.

Lu Sheng did not follow her down. After sending Esha off, he went directly to the academy’s entrance and got off slowly.

The main entrance of the Platinum Academy was flanked by two colossal black metallic statues. They formed the doorposts, and the iron gates between them served as the entrance and exit.

At this moment, the iron gates were wide open. After paying for the ride, Lu Sheng walked in along the familiar path into the academy with the other students.

The teaching blocks and laboratory blocks were all white with black roofs. They were no different from a typical college.

The male students wore fitting shirts with neckties and long pants, while the female students wore shirts and black laced skirts.

At first glance, it did not feel like he had stepped into a military academy. Instead, it was more like he had stepped into a modelling star academy.

Lu Sheng walked along the shaded path to the dormitory with familiar steps. He quickly found his room, went in, and locked the door from the inside.

The only good thing about the academy was that each student got his or her own room. There were no exceptions.

After he went into his room, he quickly shifted his gaze toward a thin white metallic external armor which hung on one side of the wall.

Other than this set of armor, the room was spacious and bright. It was no different from a typical college dormitory.

Bedroom, study room, toilet, shower room, the facilities were complete. The only thing it was lacking when compared to a residential unit was a living room.

Lu Sheng walked up to the armor and felt its material.

It was ice cold and as smooth as silk.

He turned the shoulder parts and saw a row of inscriptions on the underside.

“Daily lightweight, Armor Model X17, for student training use.”

‘Is this the armor of this world?’ Lu Sheng scrutinized it with curiosity. At the same time, he removed the armor from the wall.

The entire armor weighed no more than six kilograms. The user’s head would be protected by a simple metallic helmet. It appeared not much different from a motorcyclist’s helmet with its roundish design.

The body of the armor was like tights. His body would be covered in the simple white metal, while his joints and vital parts would be protected by white cushions.

The entire structure of the armor was extremely simple.

“Let me see the real mystery of this world.” Lu Sheng pushed the core of the armor.