Summer, C.E. 62
Nangong Wentian crouched in the corner of the back kitchen, staring at the newly assembled "Star Core" 2.0 before him, his palms slightly sweaty.
Three months.
From spring to summer, a full three months, he had spent all his spare time on this machine. Soldering circuits, debugging the system, writing code, testing hardware—he had repeated every step dozens of times. Xiao Guang had stayed by his side, handing him tools, keeping watch, running errands, nodding off countless times late at night yet stubbornly remaining at his post.
Now, the most critical moment had finally arrived.
"Wentian," Xiao Guang whispered beside him, his voice tense. "Will it work?"
Nangong Wentian didn't answer. He stared at the blinking cursor on the screen, mentally running through the startup sequence one more time.
Power check—normal.
Hardware self-test—passed.
System boot—ready.
Every component had been painstakingly sourced piece by piece from the Dark Web, each chip the result of immense effort. All the close calls with being tracked, the losses from intercepted shipments, the countless sleepless nights—everything was riding on this moment.
He took a deep breath and pressed the power button.
The screen lit up.
Lines of text scrolled rapidly:
SYSTEM POWER ON
HARDWARE INITIALIZATION...
CPU: RISC-V P550 @ 1.2GHz - OK
RAM: 16GB DDR4 - OK
STORAGE: 2TB SSD - OK
ENCRYPTION MODULE: TPM 2.0 - OK
NETWORK INTERFACE: OK
DISPLAY: OK
BOOTING...
LOADING OS KERNEL...
KERNEL LOADED.
INITIALIZING SYSTEM SERVICES...
SERVICES READY.
SYSTEM ONLINE.
Nangong Wentian stared at the words "SYSTEM ONLINE," his heart pounding like a drum.
Success.
The system had booted.
He was about to let out a sigh of relief when the screen flickered.
All the text vanished, leaving only a deep, solid black. Then, in the center of the screen, a green dot slowly brightened.
The green was soft, like a distant star or the glow of deep-sea bioluminescence. It pulsed faintly, as if calling out to something.
Nangong Wentian froze.
He had seen this green light before.
On the night of his transmigration, at the brink of life and death, in his fading consciousness, the depths of the universe he glimpsed held this same green light.
The moment "Star Core" 1.0 had booted, this same green light had flashed across the screen.
Now, it had returned.
Before he could react, a sharp, intense pain exploded in his mind.
"Ah—!"
He clutched his head, curling his entire body into a ball. This pain wasn't an ordinary headache—it felt as if countless needles were simultaneously piercing deep into his brain, as if something was forcibly tearing open a barrier within his consciousness.
"Wentian!" Xiao Guang's face turned pale with fright. He reached out to steady him but hesitated, afraid to touch him. "What's wrong with you?!"
Nangong Wentian couldn't answer. His world had dissolved into chaos, with only the stabbing pain and the green light intertwining, devouring all his senses.
Then, suddenly, everything changed.
He "heard."
Not with his ears, but directly through his consciousness—the heartbeat of a mouse in the corner of the kitchen, rapid and frantic; the breathing of children in the distant dormitory, rising and falling in waves; farther away, the electromagnetic waves from a television in the village, faint yet clear; and...
He snapped his eyes open.
Within a hundred-meter radius, every faint electrical signal was clearly imprinted in his mind. He could even "see" the current flowing through the wires and "feel" the energy stored in batteries slowly releasing.
But it lasted only an instant.
The next second, all those sensations receded like a tide, leaving only deep exhaustion and disorientation.
"Wentian!" Xiao Guang's voice finally reached his ears. "Are you okay? Don't scare me!"
Nangong Wentian leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. Sweat soaked his back, and he looked as if he had just been pulled out of water.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands. They trembled slightly, but it was excitement, not fear.
"I'm fine," he said hoarsely. "Xiao Guang, I'm fine."
Xiao Guang didn't believe him. He crouched in front of him, staring anxiously at his face. "How can you be fine after what just happened? Should I call Sister Mary?"
"Don't," Nangong Wentian grabbed his hand. "Don't call her. I'm fine, really."
Xiao Guang looked into his eyes, confirming there was no pain there—only a light he had never seen before. He had glimpsed that light a few times—when Wentian created something new, when he thought of a brilliant idea, when he saw the future.
"Just now..." Xiao Guang asked cautiously, "was it that green light?"
Nangong Wentian nodded.
"You said before that you've seen it before?"
Nangong Wentian nodded again.
Xiao Guang fell silent. He didn't understand these things, but he knew that green light was important to Wentian.
"Then what just happened to you..." he paused, "was it good or bad?"
Nangong Wentian thought for a moment, and a slow smile spread across his lips.
"Good," he said. "Xiao Guang, it's good."
He stood up and walked over to the screen of "Star Core" 2.0. On the screen, the green light had vanished, the system had resumed normal operation, and the cursor blinked, waiting for a command.
But he knew the green light wasn't an illusion.
He closed his eyes, trying to recall the sensations of that fleeting moment.
The heartbeat of the mouse. The breathing of the children. The pulse of electromagnetic waves. The flow of electric current.
Those weren't illusions.
They were his ability.
Newtype. NT. In countless worlds, the ability known as "Newtype."
He recalled the descriptions from the UC Era materials—Newtypes could sense others' emotions, resonate with machinery, and transcend the limitations of the flesh in space. Those abilities had once existed only in fictional stories.
But now, he had it too.
Though only for a moment, though still very unstable, it was indeed the sprouting of a Newtype Ability.
"Star Core, create a new file, name it 'NT Ability Observation Log.'"
A new document window popped up on the screen.
He took a deep breath and began recording:
Summer, C.E. 62, after system activation
Event: First activation of "Star Core" 2.0, green light appeared on the screen, accompanied by intense brain stabbing pain
Perceived content: Weak electrical signals within a hundred-meter radius—rat heartbeats, human breathing, electromagnetic waves, electric currents
Duration: Approximately 3 seconds
Subsequent state: Perception disappeared, extreme fatigue, but no other abnormalities
Initial judgment: Possibly the sprouting of NT ability, originating from the same source as the green light upon awakening and the green light during "Star Core" 1.0 activation
He stared at the last line, lost in thought.
The green light during the crossing. The green light during system activation. The sprouting of NT ability.
There must be some connection between these three.
But he couldn't figure it out now. Too little data, too few observations—everything was still just speculation.
"Wentian," Xiao Guang's voice pulled him back to reality, "are you finished writing?"
Nangong Wentian snapped out of it and nodded.
"Then... will that green light appear again in the future?"
Nangong Wentian thought for a moment and said, "I don't know. But maybe it will."
Xiao Guang scratched his head. "Will you always be in such pain then?"
Nangong Wentian was taken aback, then smiled.
What Xiao Guang cared about wasn't what that green light was, nor what that ability could do, but whether he would be in pain.
"Maybe not," he said. "Maybe it won't hurt in the future."
Xiao Guang breathed a sigh of relief and grinned. "That's good."
Outside the window, the night had deepened. The chirping of summer insects rose and fell, and moonlight streamed through the window into the back kitchen, falling on the brand-new "Star Core" 2.0.
Nangong Wentian looked at the screen and silently thought to himself:
Whatever that green light is, wherever it comes from—since it was given to me, I'll accept it.
From today onward, he was no longer just a technologically advanced alien visitor.
He had new possibilities.
The next morning, when Nangong Wentian woke up, he found himself more alert than usual.
Not the kind of alertness from a good night's sleep, but an indescribable sharpness in his overall perception. He could hear sounds from farther outside the window, detect subtler distinctions in the aroma of food wafting from the kitchen, and even sense changes in the temperature of the air.
He quietly slipped out of the dormitory and went to the backyard.
The old locust tree still stood in the morning light, its leaves gently swaying in the breeze. He closed his eyes, trying to feel that strange perception from yesterday again.
But there was nothing.
Only normal hearing, smell, and touch.
He felt somewhat disappointed but quickly adjusted his mindset. That fleeting moment yesterday might have been just the instant of awakening. The true ability would require training to stabilize.
He recalled the records about NT training in the UC Era materials—meditation, focus, emotional control. Those training methods might be worth borrowing.
"Wentian!"
Sister Mary's voice came from behind. Nangong Wentian turned and saw Sister Mary standing at the back door, holding a basket.
"How did you know I wanted sweet potatoes today?" Sister Mary said with a smile. "I was just thinking earlier that it would be nice to have roasted sweet potatoes for breakfast, and then Tanaka brought them out."
Nangong Wentian was taken aback for a moment.
Of course, he had no idea what Sister Mary had been thinking just now. But in that instant, he truly had a vague feeling—as if he knew someone was about to call him, as if he knew Sister Mary was in a good mood.
He recalled yesterday's perception, those faint yet clear electrical signals.
Perhaps that ability hadn't completely vanished.
Maybe it had just grown weaker, needing time to develop.
"Sister Mary," he suddenly asked, "are you in a good mood today?"
Sister Mary smiled. "Yes, I slept well last night, and this morning I got to eat the sweet potatoes I'd been craving. Of course, I'm in a good mood."
Nangong Wentian nodded and didn't ask further.
But deep down, he knew it wasn't a coincidence.
During breakfast, Xiao Guang leaned over and whispered, "Wentian, what were you talking about with Sister Mary just now?"
Nangong Wentian thought for a moment and lowered his voice. "I think… I sensed what she was thinking."
Xiao Guang's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Not very clearly, just… a feeling," Nangong Wentian said, struggling to explain. "Like I could sense she was in a good mood."
Xiao Guang scratched his head. "Isn't that something you can tell just by looking? Sister Mary has been smiling all day."
Nangong Wentian shook his head. "Not by looking, by sensing."
Xiao Guang didn't fully understand, but he chose to believe it. If Wentian said he sensed it, then he sensed it.
"So in the future," he whispered, "will you be able to know what I'm thinking?"
Nangong Wentian looked at him seriously. "If you don't want me to know, I won't try to sense it."
Xiao Guang paused, then grinned. "Alright, I believe you."
That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Nangong Wentian returned to the back kitchen and booted up the Star Core 2.0.
In the UC Era database, he found records about Newtype training. The information was fragmented, but it was enough for him to piece together a preliminary training plan:
Meditation—sit quietly for half an hour each day, clear the mind, and focus on perception.
Focus exercises—choose a target, concentrate, and attempt to sense its "aura."
Emotional control—learn to block out external interference and avoid being influenced by others' emotions.
He created a new folder and named it "NT Training Log."
Day One: Attempted meditation. Found it difficult to calm my mind—kept thinking about various things. But I persisted for twenty minutes. Felt a bit clearer-headed afterward.
He shut down the computer and left the back kitchen.
Under the moonlight, the shadow of the old locust tree stretched long. He stood in the courtyard, closed his eyes, and tried to sense everything around him.
At first, there was nothing.
But slowly, he began to feel it—the faint breathing of the children in the distant dormitory, the sounds of Tanaka tidying up in the kitchen, and… an indescribable "aura" belonging to Xiao Guang.
It was very faint, but it was definitely there.
He opened his eyes, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
From today onward, he had a new path to walk.
That path was called Newtype Ability.
And he had no idea where that path would ultimately lead.
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