After Wen Yuncheng said she would be second, Lin Jinyu fell silent again. Wen Yuncheng started to wonder if she had said something wrong, but if Lin Jinyu was first, she would be second… wasn’t that a normal thing to say? Wen Yuncheng poked 1947.

[I’m not an emotions system, how would I know what a little girl is thinking!] 1947, the so-called “Long Aotian Growth System,” felt a headache coming on.

Wen Yuncheng fidgeted with her fingers and started looking for a new topic. “Well, let’s go to the Academy Exchange Tournament together.”

“Mm.” Although Lin Jinyu didn’t know why Wen Yuncheng had suddenly jumped back to this topic, she still agreed. Given Wen Yuncheng’s strength and her own, it was pretty much a sure thing that they would both be on the list of participants for the exchange tournament.

The conversation died again.

Wen Yuncheng felt the awkward silence. She perked up and said, “The Academy Exchange Tournament and the grand competition organized by the Empire—I want to participate in them all with you! I’ll also work hard to get into S-Class. I want to strive to become stronger with you.”

“Okay.” Lin Jinyu silently took note of this. She said, “We will.”

Time passed quietly like this. After all the first-year competitions ended, they welcomed their first vacation at Star Academy. A three-month vacation.

As she wished, Wen Yuncheng spent all her time in the Dueling Arena. Yan Ling helped her fend off numerous recruitment offers. Eventually, Yan Ling got tired of it and complained to the headmaster.

As a result, Wen Yuncheng’s backing was upgraded from Yan Ling to the entire academy. Even some nobles from the imperial family stopped sending her offers.

It wasn’t that no younger students disliked Wen Yuncheng and tried to cause trouble for her; it was just that those her age couldn’t beat her, and those older than her were too concerned about their pride to challenge her. Thus, they could only resort to a few sarcastic, cold remarks.

The relationship between Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu, however, became a hot topic of gossip within the academy. Some said they were enemies who couldn’t stand the sight of each other. After all, Wen Yuncheng never challenged Lin Jinyu. Many people seized on this point to call Wen Yuncheng a coward, arrogant, and petty.

But others felt that Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu had a good relationship—most of these people were girls, as they had seen the two chatting and eating together. If not for their broken engagement, they might have thought the two were dating. But since it wasn’t a romantic relationship… then it must just be a simple friendship.

The two weren’t suited for marriage, so they broke the engagement. But they had a good relationship, so they were just friends.

—As for whether anyone imagined some convoluted, one-sided romance, that was another story, not worth mentioning.

A month into the vacation, she noticed a new hot topic in the academy’s rumor mill—some prince of the Empire had taken a liking to Lin Jinyu and was trying to pursue her. After being rejected, he remained infatuated and deeply devoted, sending the Little Ice Mountain gifts, flowers, and all sorts of things every day in an extremely high-profile manner.

Wen Yuncheng: !

Where did this scumbag come from! The Little Ice Mountain is only seventeen! Wait, January has passed, so Lin Jinyu is already seventeen… No, she’s still not an adult! Not allowed!

[But dating young is pretty normal.] 1947 asked, puzzled, [Didn’t you date in your previous life?]

Wen Yuncheng: No, I’m picky about looks.

Wen Yuncheng was fuming but helpless. However, she soon thought of a new method: she decided to eat breakfast with Lin Jinyu every day.

Sometimes it was clear noodle soup for three points, sometimes it was three-delicacy noodle soup for six points, and sometimes it was beef noodle soup for nine points. Other times, it was a combo of soy milk, fried dough sticks, and hot dry noodles, totaling five points. The items produced by the System were always delicious enough that even Lin Jinyu, who didn’t particularly care for gourmet food, would feel happy eating such delicacies.

It just cost a lot of points.

[You really are… sigh.] 1947 was speechless. It had never seen a host like this. This good to a friend? But it had never seen Wen Yuncheng be this generous with Zhou Xuan and the others! Pfft, this damn brat is just greedy for Lin Jinyu’s face.

“Actually, you don’t have to do this every day.” Lin Jinyu said seriously, looking at the breakfast Wen Yuncheng handed her. Everything Wen Yuncheng gave her was delicious, and she had never asked where Wen Yuncheng got it from. Maybe she made it herself? If so, that would be too time-consuming and would delay her cultivation. And if Wen Yuncheng bought it… it must be very expensive.

After all, in a city as large as the Imperial Capital, Lin Jinyu had never eaten anything as delicious as the food Wen Yuncheng gave her.

“…You don’t like this?” Wen Yuncheng asked hesitantly, holding the steamed bun and soy milk in her hands.

Wen Yuncheng had clearly misunderstood. Lin Jinyu said seriously, “No, I just don’t want to be a burden to you.”

“But I don’t see it as a burden,” Wen Yuncheng said. “I really like being with you.”

“We can go to the cafeteria.”

“But that would cause trouble for you, right?” Wen Yuncheng paused, then said sheepishly, “Actually… it’s because that prince is pursuing you, and he keeps pestering you even after you rejected him. You know I’m a girl, but others don’t. See? That prince hasn’t bothered you again.”

“But he’ll have a very bad impression of you.”

Wen Yuncheng laughed. “There are plenty of people in this academy who hate me. What’s one more?”

It’s just being seen as a love rival, what’s the big deal? Lin Jue was one, there were others among the upperclassmen, and now there was just a prince added to the list. Within Star Academy, given the talent she had displayed, any competition would have to be open and fair anyway.

Lin Jinyu sighed. She didn’t want to see Wen Yuncheng at a disadvantage. But this person clearly didn’t take her words to heart. It was for her own good, being good to her… this kind of kindness… Lin Jinyu didn’t know how to refuse it.

The Little Ice Mountain, with a serious face, stuffed a few bottles of body-tempering pills into Wen Yuncheng’s hands, which Wen Yuncheng happily accepted.

During this time, Wen Yuncheng also fully charged the little robot she had given Lin Jinyu. After all, even though the combat module was removed, it still consumed energy.

She spent every day in the Dueling Arena, constantly practicing her skill combos. Wen Yuncheng discovered that if she couldn’t instantly kill her opponent in a short amount of time, she would almost certainly lose. Ever since Wen Yuncheng had placed eight turrets on the stage at once and completely blasted an anonymous Star Warrior (3rd Layer) opponent into a daze, the Dueling Arena had started to restrict her use of turrets and guardians. For example, guardians and turrets could only be set up after the match began, and she was limited to using only one guardian and one turret per match. These restrictions were meant to maintain a certain degree of fairness in the matches—

Otherwise, once the turrets were out, who could possibly compete? Everyone would bet on Wen Yuncheng to win, no contestant would be willing to fight her, the Dueling Arena would lose money, and Wen Yuncheng wouldn’t be able to earn experience or points.

After all, the mission was to win battles. There had to be a battle to have a victory.

Besides her daily battles, assembling parts in her spare time, and body tempering in the Fire Tempering Bath plus long-distance running, Wen Yuncheng also took on some small “side jobs.”

Of course, this was thanks to the enthusiastic promotion by Senior Yao Mu from S-Class.

After Senior Yao Mu learned that the mechanical armguards were made by Wen Yuncheng, he got the idea to commission a custom pair, providing the materials himself. This was because the ones sold by the academy weren’t forged from particularly precious materials, and overly simple, rare materials were difficult to forge and had a high failure rate. So, Yao Mu came to ask Wen Yuncheng if she could take his custom order.

At first, Wen Yuncheng refused.

“I know forging is a lot of trouble, but just give it a try. I’ll pay for the materials myself. Even if it fails, I won’t blame you… How about this, since you think one hundred thousand Star Stones is too little—”

“Wait, how many Star Stones did you say?” Wen Yuncheng suddenly became alert.

“One hundred thousand.” Yao Mu scratched his head, looking straightforward. “If one hundred thousand is too little, I can offer one hundred fifty thousand. But I don’t know how to assemble it… If you can help me assemble the finished product, I’m willing to pay two hundred thousand.”

He provides the materials? Just by throwing them into the manufacturing template and then assembling the resulting parts, she could get two hundred thousand Star Stones? Wen Yuncheng became serious and patted Senior Yao’s shoulder. “Senior, you’re a good person! I’ve thought about it. Since you trust me so much, I can’t possibly refuse! Just give me the materials and the Star Stones, and I guarantee I’ll give you the most perfect pair of mechanical armguards in a week!”

And so, the deal was made.

The raw material Yao Mu gave Wen Yuncheng was a type of obsidian ore that emitted a faint, orange-red glow at night. It was a mineral unique to the Starry Sky Continent and extremely rare. The reason it glowed was that it contained Star Power, but unlike Star Stones, this obsidian ore was extremely hard and difficult to shape. The ore was mostly black on the outside, with scattered, small, red, translucent spots. It could easily withstand attacks from those at the Star Spirit level (Level 50) and above.

It was expensive, but the cost wasn’t the main issue. The main problem was its rarity; it was priceless but had no market.

When Wen Yuncheng received that lump of obsidian ore, her hands were shaking. She finally understood why the academy wouldn’t take Yao Mu’s order! If it failed, who could possibly bear the cost! Thank goodness she had 1947…

According to Yao Mu, it came from his family’s mine. The workers who first excavated it didn’t even know what kind of ore it was. His father went to take a look personally and discovered it was obsidian ore. Their family didn’t sell any, as the output wasn’t large, so they kept it all for their own use.

“I always thought ‘my family owns a mine’ was just a meme…” When Wen Yuncheng learned this, she felt faint. She clutched her heart and whimpered, only to see Yao Mu ask her with a blank look:

“What does ‘meme’ mean?”

“Nothing, I was just complimenting you on how amazing you are.” Wen Yuncheng didn’t pat Yao Mu’s shoulder this time. She said with a serious expression, “Since you trust me so much, I’ll definitely do a good job!”

With the perfect conclusion of this transaction as a starting point, Yao Mu began to constantly mention Wen Yuncheng’s name, recommending her forging skills to his S-Class classmates whenever he saw them. He successfully brought Wen Yuncheng many major clients who provided their own materials and paid a crafting fee.

Thus, although Wen Yuncheng’s reputation within the academy during the three-month vacation was mixed, with some liking her and others being jealous, it was a mix of praise and slander. But! Her popularity in S-Class was excellent! Especially after they learned that there was no conflict between Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu and that their relationship was actually quite good, Wen Yuncheng was instantly accepted by S-Class, becoming a “fake” S-Class member who happened to be in A-Class.