Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 448: Tears and Fireworks

"I'm telling you all now, I'm his boss from now on! If any one of you dares to bully him again, I will break your arms and legs!"

At the back of the school compound, a big bloke about 1.8 meters was smirking looking at a group of five to six high schoolers lying on the floor. Several other students were looking their way with their legs shaking. Behind this big bloke was a gentle and weak-looking bespectacled guy with a shaved head, wiping the blood coming out of his nose.

The big bloke seemed to be in quite a mood and pulled a guy off the ground and growled, "Wang Dog, what did I tell you last time?"

The student by the name of Wang Dog (?) might've looked malevolent on the surface, but at that moment, he was as docile as a dog. With a shaking voice, he said, "Brother, Brother Wang, I remember your warning, but this time it was this guy's fault, and it was him who came over to us to pay us protection fee, asking us to protect him in the future. However, two days later, he went around telling others that we forced the money out of him and told everyone we're just a random group of ruffians and are nothing compared to the real gang of people that watches over him. We could not allow him to continue spreading such nasty rumors, so we…"

The big bloke didn't waste time and slapped the words out of the student's mouth. "Stop making up stories to distract me. I told you, if any one of you comes to this school again, I would beat one if I see one. Did you think I was joking? Today, since all of you dared to come in again, I'll make sure all of you crawl out on your knees!"

The face of this Wang Dog turned white, yellow, and finally black. At long last, he squeezed out this sentence. "Wang Hwa, if you dare to do that, don't blame us when our boss comes to seek revenge. Our boss is not someone you can deal with…"

Before he could finish, a punch came right at his face and the words dovetailed into a blood-curdling scream. Two of his front teeth were punched loose and his face was a mess…

Wang Hwa, a high school bully from XX High School. While he was only 15, he was already 1.8 meters tall. That combined with his bear-like body and triangular eyes gave him the impression that he was a killer. The teachers as well as the students wouldn't dare to hold his gaze for more than five seconds, and he was labelled a "hopeless student" at school. Homework, self-study, and morning exercises had nothing to do with him, and cheating during exams, coming late to school, and playing truancy were his daily life.

However, this student, unbeknownst to most students and teachers of his school, had conquered the land around 10 kilometers of his school. Be it mugging, extortion or blackmail, no one dared to do those near this school, and the school was even thus nominated by the local government to be the best local school…

15 years old was the age where a student knew the importance of numbers because it was the age of school exams. The difference in one number could cause the difference in the school that they could apply to, and this… was not something that could be solved using punches.

Wang Hwa stared with wide eyes at the math textbook, but he had no idea what he was reading. After a long time, he slapped himself on the back of his head before walking to a bespectacled boy who busy studying. The boy was the model student who he had just saved a few days ago.

"Bro, help me explain this formula. What in the world is happening? How come suddenly this number will turn to this number?" Wang Hwa chuckled as he slapped the boy intimately on his shoulder.

The boy first had condescension flash across his eyes before quickly piling the smiles. "Brother Wang, of course I'll explain it to you… By the way, Brother Wang, I still haven't thanked you for the incident earlier."

Wang Hwa laughed and replied with ease, "Why are you bringing that old thing up? It's no biggie…" Before he finished, the bespectacled boy suddenly pulled out a real leather wallet from his shirt and pretended to count the money inside before pulling out three 100 RMB notes and passing them to Wang Hwa with a smile.

Wang Hwa continued to smile before the smile gradually froze until it was a serious face that was looking at the boy.

The boy was startled and immediately forced a laugh. "Right, right, this is my mistake. How could Brother Wang take the same amount of money as those ruffians? This is my fault." Then he pulled another two notes from his wallet and offered them to Wang Hwa. The smile on his face looked fake, but there was a smugness in the boy's eyes.

Wang Hwa's punch swiped the five bank notes and attached them right on the boy's face, cracking his spectacles and teeth…

"You're truly a disappointed. Your mother went through three days of pain to give birth to you and wasted her last breath to feed you, but you have grown up to become a school bully that extorts other students for their money? Where do you have the face to face your mother? Get down on your knees! You bastard son, get down on your knees…"

"…Juvi? Of course a bastard like yourself will end up in juvi; you bullied your little brother just yesterday, didn't you? Doesn't his mother treat you well? Even though she's your stepmom, no one in this village has anything bad to say about her unconditional love towards you, but you don't seem to appreciate it. Fine, go to juvi then!"

"Go to university? Who do you think you are? You think we have the money for you to go to university? Even if we did, you think you could graduate? Go out to get a job! Your brother is the genius in his household, he will be the one that will go to university. Take a look at yourself; who do you think you are?"

"…Join the military? Your physique is meant to join the military after all…"

Wang Hwa sat in the captain's chair, looking at the 3D image of the space around the spaceship, but his thoughts had returned to decades ago, to his high school years, juvi years, and later army days. The good, bad, fussy, pronounced memories surrounded him.

Wang Hwa looked at the people around him. The two Black Star Troopers were similar to him in the sense that they also came from Old Earth. They were loyal, brave and were every bit a soldier as he was. They were truly humanity's guardians.

Then came the general workers and Defense Unit soldiers…. They were just normal people, not Homo Evolutis. They did not have superpowers in space wars, and when facing such a large fleet of energy, they didn't even have the power to save themselves. They… had already prepared to sacrifice themselves.

Then again… so were himself and the two Black Star Troopers. Even though they were Homo Evolutis, on a battlefield of this scale, it was as he said, they were only enough to create a large scale fireworks display.

Actually… he didn't need to do this. The Black Star Troopers only answered to Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. Even the military didn't have the right to order them. Jacko, who was a major, was actually one rank lower than him, so he didn't have the power to order them to attack, but…

But these were the children!

Wang Hwa had a soft spot for children. He liked hanging out with them, because he loved seeing the smiles on their faces. Other than that, Wang Hwa had extreme respect for the academicians. Among the Black Star Troopers, he was the person who respected the Academy the most. Furthermore, he was studious even though that didn't reflect in his results. He was one of the few among the Black Star Troopers to volunteer to take the university entrance test… even though he failed every time…

He enjoyed watching society improve and every child get treated the best they could. Furthermore, due to the interaction between western and eastern styles of education, the type of eastern education where the child was put down was dropped in favor of the western style education that propped up the children. Every child was given the opportunity to go to school and enter university, and juvi was no longer a thing!

Therefore, Wang Hwa's favorite thing to do on the City of Light Moon was to visit the schools. Whenever he saw the smiles of children, his heart warmed and it gave him a happy feeling…

Yes, he was happy!

And now, that damnable fleet was coming to destroy this happiness. Right before them, there were 9,000 children's lives who were being threatened, and there were more children behind them on the second defense line…

He would do everything to protect them!

Suddenly, a pilot interrupted Wang Hwa's thought. "Captain, we're entering the transport shuttle's creator's particle zone. Very soon we'll enter its free zone and be able to communicate with them."

Wang Hwa came to and replied, "Communicate with the shuttle and have the leader broadcast our conversation to the entire shuttle."

Just like that, five minutes later, the two ships met each other. After a few words of conversation, Wang Hwa's face appeared at every corner of the ship and everyone on the shuttle could see him.

"Hello, how are the little ones doing? Hi, my name is Wang Hwa and I'm a Black Star Trooper! I've brought along my unit to protect all of you!"

Wang Hwa concluded his short speech with a guffaw. After he said those words, the shuttle was stunned. However, that quickly turned into cheers. This was a Black Star Trooper unit! The Black Star Troopers had arrived!

From who knew when, the Black Star Troopers had become something of a superhero unit among humanity. Movies using them as the heroes appeared like mushrooms after spring rain. That combined with the government s, the image of the Black Star Troopers achieved a godlike status among the people. They were invincible, loyal, brave, and they were the staunchest defenders of humanity!

The appearance of a Black Star Trooper unit dispersed the shuttle's anxiety instantly. The feeling of relaxation and ease they felt couldn't be described with words. Many people started tearing up… perhaps because they were reminded of their husbands or sons at the first defense line…

A woman suddenly collapsed hugging her own son and daughter. Her son, Lee Xia Ya, wiped away his mother's tears and asked, "Mom, what's wrong… This man is a Black Star Trooper? He's going to help daddy?"

The woman smudged the tears on her face and said, "Yes, he… and his friends are going to help your parents." As she said so, her tears became even fiercer.

Lee Xia Ya's face, though, was glowing. With stars in his eyes, he said, "This man… is so handsome! Black Star Troopers are so handsome! I also want to become a Black Star Trooper in the future! Mom, I also want to be a Black Star Trooper!"

The woman ruffled the boy's hair gently and said softly, "Okay, Xia Ya… will be the strongest Black Star Trooper."

"Yes, I'll be the strongest Black Star Trooper!" Lee Xia Ya looked at the screen with his eyes glowing until the image of the guffawing man disappeared…

After the spaceships parted, Wang Hwa stood up and got into his space armor. Of course, this was merely a ritual, as this was a battle that had no use for space armor.

"Open up the sealed box!"

Wang Hwa ordered the workers. With the aid of a few AI robots, the large container was peeled open. Inside it sat a spherical, pure silvery white ball-like object. It was about 15 meters in diameter. This was no longer the first prototype. After 10 years of retouching by Bo Li, this was the latest prototype.

This steel ball was Steel Ball Progressive Prototype Two. It was created by Bo Li using Wang Hwa's body capability and Homo Evolutis power. It was, in other words, custom-made for Wang Hwa.

Beside Wang Hwa, the two Black Star Troopers had stepped into their own Space Combat Jets while Wang Hwa raised his hands and told everyone there severely, "Comrades, every friend on this space… I'm not one for inciting speeches, so… I only have one thing to say…"

Wang Hwa saluted them and walked into the Steel Ball saying, "Let us meet again at the Hall of Remembrance!"

Four hours later, the transport shuttle arrived at the second defense line. The first thing they did was inform the people about how the Black Star Troopers had shielded their retreat, which was met with lowered gazes and silence by the people at the second defense line…

The Space Combat Jets, the guardian spaceship, and the silver ball created a large fireworks show in space. They blocked the enemy's progress for three hours. 10 minutes after the battle began, the guardian spaceship was shot down by the large fleet. 1 hour and 15 minutes later, the two space combat jets exploded one after another. Three hours and twenty minutes later, the steel ball that had been moving around the battlefield suddenly stopped moving and ten seconds later exploded in space…

When the second the transport shuttle arrived at second defense line, the cannons at the base roared at once, adding colors to the fireworks that were still erupting in space…

At the second defense line, Lee Xia Ya, who was watching the fireworks through the public television, had his tears fall from his face and shatter into pieces as they hit the floor…