The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 164 Six Years
Six years have passed in the blink of an eye, as if it were just a fleeting moment.

Now, Su Ninglong is eleven years old.

At the opening ceremony of the new school year, the little girl who used to be so innocent was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, a beautiful young girl who had grown to 1.5 meters tall took her place.

Her signature silver hair still cascaded over her shoulders like moonlight, making her exceptionally eye-catching.

Although there was a brief period in the middle when his hair color turned back to jet black.

However, after completing an extremely difficult task, that silver hue returned once again.

The young woman sat upright and indifferently in the center of the front row of the ceremonial seating.

That position, the center, symbolizing strength and status, belongs to the top performer.

The people sitting around her were all her classmates, whom she had studied with for many years.

They had long been accustomed to the girl's unique aloofness and temperament, and instead of feeling neglected, they naturally regarded her as the center of attention.

When everyone is chatting and laughing, they will take the initiative to strike up a conversation with her, creating a harmonious and familiar atmosphere.

The girl didn't completely ignore her; she would occasionally give a brief reply or two.

Whenever this happens, the students who receive a response immediately break into a bright smile.

Time has also left its mark of growth on others.

Song Liu and Xuan Xi have grown into handsome young men, at the most energetic and charming age.

Charlie, the "little troublemaker" who used to follow Su Ninglong around, miraculously managed to enter the inner courtyard and become one of its members thanks to Su Ninglong's almost harsh "pulling" and his own unremitting efforts.

However, he was not present at the moment, as he was absent from the ceremony due to an overseas assignment.

Charlie, perhaps because his features have fully matured, has shed his childhood naiveté and revealed an increasingly refined and outstanding appearance.

His outstanding appearance attracted the admiration of many girls, and he was surrounded by several "peach blossoms" from time to time.

Unfortunately, under the tutelage of Song Liu, a scoundrel who was good at "pretending," he seemed to have been led astray and was forcibly cultivated into a guy with an overflowing "dullness of perception."

Even if a girl mustered the courage to confess her feelings in public, he would only blink in confusion, say "Sorry, I don't know you," and then, like a startled rabbit, turn around and run away without hesitation, leaving the confessor in an awkward position and the onlookers who were both amused and exasperated.

Su Ninglong was in a similar situation to Charlie, attracting the admiration of many naive junior students.

However, this initial goodwill often dissipates quickly after a brief contact, or more accurately, it transforms into an attitude of keeping a respectful distance.

Rather than saying "I don't like it," it's more accurate to say "I'm afraid to like it."

When you wholeheartedly believe that you have fallen for a well-behaved, beautiful, and perfect girl who is highly regarded by teachers and elders, and fantasize that she might be a good wife and mother.

The next second, you can witness her decisively kicking her opponent on the training field several meters away, her movements precise and carrying an undeniable deterrent force.

This stark contrast is enough to extinguish any unrealistic fantasies.

Those classmates who had contact with her were well aware of this and were no longer surprised.

Moreover, only a hotheaded, impulsive person would make such a "foolish" decision as trying to pursue Su Ninglong.

She received six years of elite education from the Star Alliance, centered on "super rationality," which honed her thinking to be calm and efficient, and her personal emotions were strictly regulated within a rational framework.

Talking about "puppy love"?
To her, that was almost equivalent to incomprehensible redundant code appearing during program execution.

When she learned that someone else liked her, her first reaction was always, "Modern students are too precocious."

On the podium, Principal Yan once again demonstrated his signature "minimalist" speaking style.

A few words, powerful and resounding, heralded the start of the new school year.

The principal's assistant, sitting in the audience, held the lengthy speech that had taken him several days and nights to write. His lips twitched slightly, and he felt like he was about to foam at the mouth from the frustration he couldn't vent.

What does it matter how hard it is to write a manuscript?

Ultimately, it just became a document archived and submitted to the shareholders and the interstellar government.

He groaned inwardly, yet he had no choice but to complete this "ceremonial" task year after year, a task that was destined never to be read aloud by the principal.

Every time Su Ninglong sees this scene, she can't help but laugh. Being Principal Yan's assistant is really not easy.

After the principal finished speaking, he gave his seat to one of the school's shareholders who wanted to show off.

The shareholder spoke in a very somber tone, and Suninglong's eyelids involuntarily closed.

Song Liu leaned closer to Su Ninglong, a hint of smugness in her voice, and whispered, "Sister Su, have you noticed? There seem to be quite a few more male students enrolling this year than in previous years. I heard... five of them have already awakened their special abilities!"

Knowing he couldn't compete with true academic geniuses, he took a different approach. With his keen observation skills and extensive network, he successfully built himself into a well-known "intelligence network leader" within the inner courtyard.

Su Ninglong was indeed intrigued by this news.

Her cool, dark eyes flickered slightly, and then she turned around, her gaze like a precise searchlight, passing over the shoulders of her classmates in the front row and directly landing on the area behind that belonged to the students from the Foreign Languages ​​Department.

Sensing Su Ninglong's gaze, the freshmen from the outer college in the back row greeted her warmly, their voices filled with obvious excitement and respect:
"Hello, Su!"

"Hello, senior!"

"I hope to receive your guidance in the new school year!"

Faced with these enthusiastic greetings, the usual coldness on Su Ninglong's face instantly melted away like ice and snow.

A slight upturn of her lips formed a friendly and gentle smile, instantly softening her previously aloof features and making her appear approachable, like the warm spring sun. At the same time, her divine sense silently swept across the area of ​​newborns.

In just a moment, she caught the subtle difference in energy fluctuations and understood.

“Song Liu,” she said, her smile gentle, but her voice only reaching the ears of those around her, “your information is slightly inaccurate. It’s not five people, it’s six who have awakened their superpowers. It seems that the age range for awakening superpowers is getting younger and younger these days.”

Song Liu was taken aback by Su Ninglong's words and subconsciously asked, "I remember you also awakened at the age of four, right? Why do you say that?" He was somewhat puzzled by Su Ninglong's sigh.

“It might not be uncommon for young people to awaken their abilities,” Su Ninglong said, turning her gaze to Song Liu, her dark eyes filled with a hint of reminiscence. “But in the year I enrolled, among all the freshmen, I was the only one who awakened my special ability…”

Song Liu suddenly realized, stroking his chin thoughtfully, "Oh! Now that you mention it, it is indeed different. The total number of new students enrolled this year is not much different from previous years, but the proportion of awakened individuals has indeed increased."

This subtle transformation, like a trickle flowing into a river, often changes the landscape quietly before people even realize it.

He paused, then added a comparative piece of information: "In a horizontal comparison, I heard that the Star Alliance next door recruited three times more promising new students this year than we did, but among them, there wasn't a single superhuman."

This data reflects different cultivation strategies.

Hunters, as the frontline force against the contaminated zone, suffer from consistently high attrition rates and require a large pool of personnel for replenishment. "Pathfinders," the key figures who guide and assist the hunters, have longer training periods but significantly lower attrition rates.

Those who can truly be promoted to senior hunter assistants are even rarer and more precious.

For this reason, Star Alliance has proactively reduced the number of students admitted to its Leading Disciplines in recent years, adopting an elite, fewer but more selective approach.

“So you see,” Song Liu concluded, “the number of Star Alliance’s mentor graduates has actually remained at a relatively stable level over the years, basically in line with the number of our core hunters. After all, one person for one job.”

This meticulous allocation of resources is one of the keys to the Star Alliance's ability to maintain efficient operation despite relatively limited resources.

Xuanxi picked up the conversation, her tone carrying a hint of objective assessment of the competitors: "The Star Alliance's expansion strategy in recent years has exposed obvious shortcomings in the cultivation of mentors. Their hasty expansion has resulted in a shortage of qualified mentors, making it impossible to meet the ideal one-on-one configuration."

"So their solution is to lower the bar," Song Liu continued, offering a sharp critique: "The current common practice is for one guide to lead three hunters simultaneously, and you can imagine how inefficient and ineffective that is."

As he was speaking, his gaze inadvertently fell upon Zhou Yu, a student from the Foreign Languages ​​Department, who was dressed in a black uniform and had a tall and upright figure. The habitual mocking smile on his lips unconsciously faded a bit, and his expression became slightly serious.

He lowered his voice, shifting the topic to a more pressing concern: "But the difference in teaching quality isn't the most crucial factor. The Star Alliance is very savvy in business; the school can accept so many students because the Star Alliance's revenue is growing. On the Star Alliance side, however, the situation is less optimistic. Several shareholders have already withdrawn their investments, and the remaining ones are gradually reducing their stakes. Most of these lost resources have been snatched away by the rapidly growing Star Alliance. Meanwhile, the interstellar government's funding remains a drop in the bucket, with no substantial increase."

"What preparations are we making?" Su Ninglong tilted her head slightly, her clear eyes filled with curiosity, eager to see how the well-established Song family would handle this situation.

After all, the Star Alliance has only been established for a little over a decade, and its foundation is far less solid than that of those long-established families.

"Of course we will fully support Principal Yan and stabilize the situation!" Song Liu's answer was resolute, almost instinctively defending the school. "No matter what, we cannot let the Star Alliance fall in front of us."

"Pfft!" Su Ninglong couldn't help but chuckle. "There's no need to worry too much."

Her tone was relaxed, with a confident understanding of the situation: "Principal Yan has his own way of solving this."

In fact, Su Ninglong had already guessed it.

She had a gut feeling that Principal Yan, along with core members such as Yun Fei and Shen Zhaoming, must be secretly plotting a far more far-reaching plan.

Moreover, they firmly hold the trump card of "Master Su," which is like a giant bait radiating an alluring light, keeping the greedy shareholders on the edge of their seats.

Which shareholder isn't envious of Master Su's miraculous weapon-forging skills?
Who wouldn't yearn for a sacred artifact, crafted by his own hands, possessing unfathomable power?

If it weren't for the fact that this unique technology is impossible to crack or replicate, and Master Su's output is so scarce that it's almost impossible to produce a single copy, these profit-driven shareholders might even risk everything to find an opportunity to eliminate the creator of this "scarce resource" in order to drive up the price of the sacred artifact and make huge profits.

It is precisely because this "scarcity" and "irreplaceability" are the greatest safeguards that Suninglong is so confident.

In the short term, shareholders who are well aware of Master Su's value and understand the stakes involved will not act rashly.

They won't all leave until they get what they want.

A cold, venomous gaze suddenly landed on Su Ninglong's back. She didn't even need to turn around to confirm who it was.

It was Zhou Yu again. This young master of the Zhou family seemed to regard her as his lifelong rival, and the resentment in his eyes was almost tangible.

Whenever Su Ninglong thinks about the reasons behind this, she finds it somewhat absurd and laughable.

Phoebe, Charlie, and many other ordinary classmates who enrolled with him that year all awakened special abilities to varying degrees under the environment or opportunities of the Star Alliance.

Only Zhou Yu seemed to have been forgotten by fate, and no matter how much he struggled or how unwilling he was, he could not reach the threshold of that extraordinary power.

In an effort to change the situation, Zhou Yu repeatedly begged his father, Zhou Jiaxi, to use his privileges to have someone bring him into the simulator.

However, cruel reality repeatedly crushed his hopes.

The environment inside the simulator still couldn't generate even the slightest bit of supernatural power in him.

This constant sense of frustration eroded his mind like poison, making his already paranoid personality even more perverse and twisted.

Su Ninglong also "unintentionally" spread the details of the outcome of the bet from back then, as well as the "second-hand goods" he "generously" gave away, on campus.

This move forced the "Little Prince Zhou," who was used to being the center of attention, to bear the unpleasant reputation of being "shabby" and "down on his luck."

This humiliation constantly burned Zhou Yu's pride, making his hatred for Su Ninglong run deep in his bones.

"Tsk, that kid's eyes are glued to you like they're poisoned," Song Liu noticed the unfriendly gaze and nudged Su Ninglong lightly with her shoulder.

Song Liu and Xuan Xi were both familiar with Zhou Yu.

This young master of the Zhou family managed to stay in the Star Alliance thanks to Zhou Jiaxi's connections, but he remained in an ordinary class with no improvement in his studies or abilities.

For various reasons, the school had actually intended to subtly persuade Zhou Jiaxi to withdraw, but unfortunately, Zhou Jiaxi had too much influence.

Xuanxi's gaze swept indifferently in the direction of Zhou Yu in the distance: "The mentor he was assigned is excellent in both teaching methods and sense of responsibility; he's a very good mentor."

The tone shifted sharply, with a comment: "It's a pity that with a partner as useless as Zhou Yu, even the best mentor is useless."