Dust slowly settled. The grating sound of rubble scraping against one another began to fade, leaving behind a suffocating silence among the dozens of enemies sprawled across the area.
Haoran stood upright, his breathing steady—in stark contrast to the chaos he had just created.
His cube-shaped left eye rotated once more, emitting a blue resonance that hurt the eyes of anyone daring enough to look at it.
"Time to go home," Haoran whispered.
He snapped his fingers.
Dimensional Restoration: Infinity Prims
In an instant, reality seemed to be pulled by a gigantic vacuum. Yan Shuo's vision blurred; the buildings that had been inverted, the floating debris, and the torn asphalt were suddenly sucked into a geometric vortex.
A heavy "vwoom" sound echoed in the ears.
Within milliseconds, the world was "reinstalled."
The streets of Laskas City returned to being smooth. The streetlights that had been bent now stood upright and glowed yellow once more. There was no dust, no fire.
However, the miracle left behind a horrific sight for the enemies.
Because the dimension had been restored to its initial coordinates while their bodies remained in the positions they were in when defeated, the result was physical chaos.
The man with green energy chains was now wedged inside a concrete wall that had just "reappeared."
The woman in the black robe was embedded halfway into the hardened pavement as if she had grown from it.
They were not dead, but space had locked them into positions impossible to resist.
The large golden book Yan Shuo had been riding slowly descended, landing gently beside Haoran.
Yan Shuo jumped down with trembling legs. He looked around, then looked at his uncle, who was casually putting his sunglasses back on.
"Let's go. This place will be crowded soon," Haoran said while slipping his hands into his pockets.
Yan Shuo followed from behind, his eyes never leaving the man in front of him.
"Uncle… what was that just now? I mean, everything. How could the buildings… and now everything's back to normal but they're still defeated?"
Haoran chuckled, his shoes making rhythmic sounds against the now-clean asphalt.
"That's called efficiency, Shuo. Why destroy a city when you can just borrow its space for a moment?"
They walked away from the battle zone, leaving behind the groans of the helpless enemies.
Yan Shuo, whose curiosity had reached the top of his head, began bombarding him with questions.
"Your Stellar… it manipulates dimensions, right? But its size… it seemed incredibly vast," Yan Shuo asked while trying to match his pace.
Haoran glanced slightly to the side, a faint smile on his lips.
"Technically, my Stellar creates a mirror dimension on a 1:1 scale with Earth. Inside it, I am the architect. I can move the battlefield anywhere—to the moon, to the center of the sun, or to the bottom of the ocean trench. Any object with a physical form, I can control its mass, position, and orientation."
Yan Shuo swallowed.
"But… earlier you seemed able to teleport anywhere. Suddenly you were behind them, then you disappeared when attacked. Isn't space Stellar different from speed?"
"Ah, that's the clever trick," Haoran replied casually.
"I can enter and exit my dimension whenever I want. And inside Infinity Prims, time flows much slower. One second in the real world is equal to one week in my dimension."
Yan Shuo's eyes widened.
"One week?!"
"Yes. So when an enemy fires a projectile at me, I just need to enter my dimension, take a nap, read a few books, then come back out right when the bullet has already passed that position. To you it looks like I vanished, to me it's just a boring workplace safety procedure."
Haoran continued explaining in the tone of a math teacher lecturing on a basic formula.
"For long-distance 'teleportation,' I only need to copy a region of the real world into my dimension. I remember the enemy's position, then in my dimension I casually walk behind them. When I exit back into the real world, voila, I'm already behind their backs without them realizing it."
Yan Shuo fell silent for a long time, trying to digest the insanity of that logic.
"Uncle… why are you telling me all these secrets? Isn't a Stellar ability the most confidential information for a user?"
Haoran stopped walking.
He looked at Yan Shuo with a gaze that was hard to interpret—cold, yet with a trace of warmth within it.
"Why?" Haoran repeated the question.
"Because you're just an ordinary human, Yan Shuo. A human who could die at any time, whether from terrorists or from choking on a candied dumpling seed. Telling you this secret won't change anything on the chessboard of the world."
The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy. Yan Shuo felt suffocated, realizing how small he was in the eyes of the legend.
The psychological tension choked the air between them.
But suddenly Haoran burst into loud laughter.
"Hahaha! Look at your face! So stiff like a dried chamois cloth! I'm joking, Shuo! I'm telling you because I'm too lazy to explain it again when you keep asking questions on the way. Besides, who would believe a kid like you if you leaked it?"
Haoran slapped Yan Shuo's shoulder hard enough that the boy nearly stumbled.
The atmosphere that had been dark instantly turned bright again.
"Besides," Haoran continued as he resumed walking, "if you want to be great, you have to know how high the sky is, so you don't get satisfied too quickly just because you can fly using a borrowed book."
Echo Behind the Shadows
As they disappeared around the corner, the sky over Laskas began to fill with the roar of engines.
Dozens of heavy transport aircraft belonging to the Stellar Defense Command (SDC)—the country's elite military organization—descended from the clouds.
The aircraft, with aerodynamic designs characteristic of Japanese technology, deployed hundreds of fully armed personnel.
The commander stepped down, surveying the sight of enemies wedged inside intact city structures.
He exhaled and lowered his mask.
"A clean, precise, and extremely annoying fighting style. Only one person can do this without damaging a single public facility," the commander muttered.
"Find Haoran. Make sure he hasn't left the city."
Meanwhile, in a filthy, remote corner far from the glitter of Laskas, a dark room was lit only by the glow of an old television screen.
Cigarette smoke billowed, obscuring the face of a man sitting on a scrap-metal chair.
The TV displayed amateur footage of the earlier street battle.
The man watched Haoran's calm figure.
"Half of my plan's progress was destroyed by just one person," his voice was heavy, hoarse from tobacco.
"Ranked fourth in the world… Haoran. The 'Space manip.' I underestimated his intelligence. I heard he was in another country, I didn't expect he was already in Laskas city."
The man extinguished his cigarette on a table covered with city blueprints.
"But this chessboard is still vast. Let's see how long you can protect your little pawns."
Without warning, Yan Shuo's vision spun again. Haoran used a bit of spatial manipulation to shorten the distance.
In an instant, they were standing in a narrow alley very familiar to Yan Shuo.
Buldam City. A small, quiet town, far from the hustle and conflict of Laskas.
"We're here," Haoran said.
The large golden book floating beside them suddenly shrank, reducing to the size of a pocketbook.
Haoran caught it, then with one elegant hand movement, the book vanished into empty air.
"This is my business card," Haoran handed over a dark blue metallic card.
"Don't lose it. You can use it to open a soda bottle if you're in an emergency."
Yan Shuo received the card with trembling hands.
"Thank you, Uncle. For everything."
"Go inside. Your parents must be having heart attacks watching the news," Haoran waved his hand, then his body gradually faded, merging with the afternoon light distortion, leaving a mysterious smile as a farewell.
Yan Shuo took a deep breath, then walked toward his house door. He knocked hesitantly.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The door swung open.
His father and mother stood there with pale faces. His father was holding a phone broadcasting Laskas Under Attack, while his mother immediately let out a small scream and hugged Yan Shuo tightly.
"Oh God, Shuo! We thought you… we saw on TV the city was destroyed!" his mother's sob broke out.
That night, at the simple dining table filled with the steam of warm soup, Yan Shuo told everything.
Of course, he slightly censored the parts that were too dangerous. He spoke about an "Uncle" who had saved him.
"He's amazing, Dad. He can make buildings float like toys," Yan Shuo said while spooning rice into his mouth.
His father only shook his head in disbelief, while his mother kept adding more food to Yan Shuo's plate as if trying to compensate for the fear they had felt.
That moment was so beautiful—the warmth of a simple family in the midst of a world starting to go mad from Stellar powers.
After eating, Yan Shuo showered to wash off the remaining battle dust.
In his room, he immediately opened his laptop.
The internet was exploding.
Headlines everywhere read: "Laskas Chaos Ends in Ten Minutes: The KSM (King Space Manip) Returns"
Yan Shuo saw footage of himself captured by CCTV cameras. He looked like a confused extra, standing on a book while Haoran beat dozens of enemies.
The comment section was full of speculation.
User22: "Look at that man with sunglasses! That has to be Haoran! The world's fourth-ranked Stellar user!"
OrienzuHunter: "Not just ranked 4, he's ranked 1 in tactical intelligence. He can win a war without shedding a single drop of sweat."
RandomGuy: "But who's the kid standing on that book? Is he his student? Why does his face look so clueless?"
Yan Shuo grimaced at the last comment.
He then remembered the business card Haoran had given him. He took his phone and entered the number printed on it.
As soon as it connected to the messaging app, a notification came in.
Uncle Haoran: Seen the news? You're famous as 'Clueless Kid.' Hahaha.
Yan Shuo typed quickly: Uncle! Stop making fun of me. And thank you for taking me home.
Uncle Haoran: Oh right, almost forgot. I have something for you. Check this attachment.
A digital file opened.
Yan Shuo's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he read the document title.
"SPECIAL RECOMMENDATION TICKET: NOXWARD UNIVERSITY – FACULTY OF STELLAR"
Noxward was the most prestigious university in the world, where geniuses and elite Stellar users were forged. Its entrance fee was equivalent to the price of ten luxury houses, and its admission exam was known to have a passing rate of only 0.1%.
"DAD! MOM! LOOK AT THIS!" Yan Shuo shouted as he ran out of his room.
In the living room, as his father and mother read the digital document, the atmosphere went silent for a moment.
His father wiped his teary eyes, while his mother covered her mouth in disbelief.
"This… this is free, Shuo? That uncle gave this to you just like that?" his father asked with a trembling voice.
"Yes, Dad. He said I need to know how high the sky is," Yan Shuo replied with newfound determination burning in his eyes.
Far away somewhere, at the top of a skyscraper piercing through the clouds, Haoran stood gazing at the horizon.
He turned off his phone, letting the night wind play with his hair.
"The world needs new people who haven't been contaminated by Stellar politics yet, Shuo. Let's see whether you can surpass my Moving Space," he whispered to the darkness of the night.