The person on the stage was a boy who looked extremely timid. He didn't have the courage Moran had to pick up a microphone and speak. When his name was called, he just wanted to hurry up, touch the comet like those who had failed before him, and get it over with.
"Wait, did I... awaken?"
The boy turned his head in a daze. Under everyone's gaze, his hair gradually turned from black to green.
Right, that was it. No pain like Elder Gu had mentioned—his hair had simply turned green.
The crowd stared blankly for a moment, followed by a burst of thunderous applause.
Down in the audience, Moran was losing his mind:
"How come he didn't scream? How come he didn't go through any pain?"
The person sitting in front of Moran didn't look back at him. Rather than watching this clown, it was better to look at the boy on stage. This bro was way better than this guy named whatever-ran; at least the kid was composed.
Unlike him, who had rolled around on the ground.
"Um, thank you, everyone." The boy on stage bowed. This modest attitude immediately won him the favor of many.
"Kid, what's your name?"
The host was also getting interested this time. After all, this was an Awakened, and it was the first time he had ever seen such a polite one.
"Gu Feng," the boy replied. But he clearly had no idea what he should do next. Should he bow to the host and then leave the stage? Gu Feng fell into deep thought.
"Alright Gu Feng, you can go back." Elder Gu, sitting nearby with his eyes closed, waved his hand, signaling Gu Feng to return.
Gu Feng nodded gratefully, then walked off the stage.
He had no idea whether Elder Gu could feel his gaze, especially since the elder didn't even twitch an eyelid. But the image of such a powerful figure was already deeply engraved in Gu Feng's mind.
Gu Feng clenched his fists, secretly vowing to himself that he must one day become a person like Elder Gu.
***
People came and went on the stage, but the comet remained completely indifferent to them all.
Down below, on his way back to his seat, Gu Feng was met with respect from the people around him.
"Wow, classmate Gu, you're amazing! How did you do that?"
"Hey, teach me your secret! Why did the comet react to you? Did you press some kind of hidden switch?"
"..."
Facing everyone's questions, Gu Feng could only nod and smile, because he had no idea how to answer them either.
"Hey... you with the surname Gu, come over here." A discordant voice called out.
"Me?" Gu Feng pointed at the tip of his nose with his finger.
"Yeah, come on over, come, come."
The person speaking was none other than Moran. They were both Awakened ones, so why was this kid getting all the attention?
Moran waved his hand, a pair of crimson eyes locking onto Gu Feng's innocent gaze.
Gu Feng felt a bit scared, but still walked over.
Someone grabbed Gu Feng's hand: "That red-eyed freak doesn't look like any good news. You better watch out."
Moran wasn't deaf; naturally, he heard what those people were saying, and he looked at the speaker with dark lines across his face.
The person caught the creepy glare, immediately turned their head back, and didn't make another sound.
***
"Oh, come on, I'm not going to eat you." Moran threw his arm around Gu Feng's shoulder. "Relax, we're both Awakened... By the way, what's your ability?"
"I... I don't know." Gu Feng didn't dare to shake him off, and his already quiet voice dropped a few more decibels.
Seeing the timid look of the Awakened boy in front of him, Moran grew interested and teased, "Is your ability turning your hair green, by any chance?"
"I... I really don't know..." Gu Feng lacked confidence. "Could it... really be that?"
"Hahahaha!" Moran let out a hearty laugh. "If that's your ability, what's mine? Do my eyes shoot red laser beams?"
"Maybe it really is." Gu Feng looked into those crimson eyes and nodded earnestly.
"..."
For a moment, Moran didn't know what to say, but that didn't affect his interest in this kid. He loosened the arm draped over Gu Feng's shoulder and said with a smile:
"Here's what we do, let's become sworn brothers."
"Huh? I don't think that's a very good idea..." Gu Feng gave a weak reply.
"Stop dilly-dallying like some delicate maiden." Moran extended his right hand. "We just shake hands, no need to prick fingers for blood oaths or anything. You have no idea, there were plenty of people wanting to become sworn brothers with me just now. Don't worry, I've got your back from now on."
Seeing that Gu Feng was still hesitating, Moran grew a bit impatient.
"Hey, we don't even have to die on the same year, month, and day."
And so, Moran felt the warmth of another hand pressing against his right palm.
Moran: "..."
A single conversation had left Moran speechless twice.
Actually, Gu Feng hesitated because he felt he shouldn't trouble others so much, and suddenly becoming sworn brothers upon a first meeting felt way too abrupt.
Yet, remembering how straightforward and bold this guy had acted on stage—and sensing no malice from him whatsoever—Gu Feng decided to shake his hand after all.
"Alright, from now on you acknowledge me as your big brother, and I'll call you my kid brother."
"B-Big brother?" Gu Feng blinked.
"Hey, don't ask it like a question. Do it again."
"Big brother."
"Ah, there we go, that's right." Moran nodded in satisfaction. This was the first time he had ever taken in a underling. Even though the kid looked a bit silly, it only stirred up his desire to protect Gu Feng even more.
***
"Yuanchu..." Han Xinnian gently tugged at Yuanchu's collar, shaking him back and forth. This was already the nth time she had called him.
Such a gentle force wasn't enough to wake Yuanchu up, but that didn't stop the young girl from putting on a pouty expression.
Finally, after shaking him countless times, Yuanchu showed signs of waking up.
"You're awake." The girl's expression instantly shifted to pleasant surprise.
Half-asleep, Yuanchu asked a question:
"Whose turn is it?"
Han Xinnian stood up slightly, looking back and forth. Until she spotted a green-haired person seemingly conversing with someone else, she sat back down and told Yuanchu, "Almost. It's your turn next."
Yuanchu stood up, stretched lazily, and patted his face. Once he made sure he was fully awake, he sat back down.
"What's the deal with that little green-haired guy?"
"He's another Awakened. When he awakened, the comet glowed with green light, and once everyone came to their senses, they found his hair had turned green."
Yuanchu nodded. Seeing the person next to him return to his seat in dejection, Yuanchu knew it was his turn.
***
"Next."
Yuanchu walked onto the stage and nodded at the host. Seeing that the old man next to the comet was fast asleep, Yuanchu contemplated giving him a kick.
Forget it, forget it, too many people are watching. Yuanchu changed his mind and shook his head.
He sized up the comet before him; this huge rock gave him a strangely familiar feeling.
Whether it was his imagination or not, the stone seemed to emit a faint blue light, but it vanished instantly, returning to pitch black.
Yuanchu reached his hand into the depths of the fissure. A warm current spread through his entire body via his hand. Yuanchu found the energy very familiar, though he couldn't quite pinpoint where the familiarity came from.
At that exact moment, a deep blue radiance burst from inside the comet. The surrounding scenery lost its original color, turning into an eerie, inky blue.
Yuanchu lost his focus, pulling his hand back in a daze as he turned to face the audience.
His eyes flashed with a deep blue light, as if nothing hidden in this world could escape his sight. A translucent ink-blue shirt materialized over his shoulders, gently swaying in the breeze. The whole person looked like an immortal who had drifted down from the heavens into the mortal realm.
Everyone in the audience stared blankly at Yuanchu on the stage. They saw Yuanchu slowly raise his right hand to his chest, where a single drop of water gathered on his index finger, and then fell silently.
Before the droplet even hit the ground, the stage where Yuanchu stood miraculously formed a crystal-clear pool of water. Accompanied by the falling droplet, ripples spread outward in circles with Yuanchu as the center, continuing until they vanished at the very edge of the stage.
Elder Gu opened his eyes, watching the ripples dissipate right at the toes of his shoes. He looked up at the crowd, only to find every single pair of eyes filled with a pure, foolish blankness, and the elder spectators sitting behind him wore the exact same expression.
Elder Gu raised a single finger, muttering an incantation under his breath as green light continuously pulsed from his fingertip.
He pointed his finger directly at Yuanchu. The green light shot straight out, landing squarely on Yuanchu's ink-blue shirt.
The shirt seemed to sense it, dissolving into nothingness shortly after.
Along with the disappearance of the shirt, the inky blue in Yuanchu's eyes gradually faded, vanishing back into his pitch-black pupils, and the ripples on the ground stopped.
Everything vanished as if it had never happened at all.
Amidst the gasps of the crowd, Yuanchu's body pitched forward and fell straight down.
At the very instant before he hit the floor, Elder Gu caught Yuanchu steadily in his arms.