Era of Mist

I’ve returned with my Heart Technique cultivation! I’ve returned with Nian Qi! I’ve returned with the power to pass the minor township exam and change my fate! Oh, and I’ve also brought back a mysterious system!

I have returned, bringing with me infinite possibilities.

BUZZ. His wristwatch gave a weak, pathetic vibration, reminding Shi Tiexin of one thing—’Ugh... I also came back with a debt of one thousand value points...’

’This won’t do. I have to make money and pay off this debt, fast!’

’Two percent monthly interest, a minimum payment of ten percent, and the rate doubles if it’s overdue—with no cap. Who the hell can afford that? The fourth of next month is just around the corner. I have to at least scrape together the minimum payment!’

’I need to find a job.’

And to find a job, he first had to go see the director.

Who was the director?

The director was Situ Zhennan, head of the Orphanage.

Situ Zhennan. The name sounded incredibly grand, like he should be some domineering and mighty figure, a General Situ or a Marshal of the Zhen Nan. In reality, however, he wasn’t.

Twenty minutes later, Shi Tiexin ran all the way from the public transit station back to the Orphanage. With the advent of the great space development era, various risks unique to the interstellar age followed. Although the popularization of martial arts led to an overall improvement in humanity’s physical fitness, allowing them to avoid or overcome many difficulties to some extent, exploring unknown regions of space was still extremely dangerous.

For example, the massive gas giant not far from Tumu Castle, Saturn, had been the site of a great crisis during its development. During the Era of Mist, there were many pioneers, many ambitious people who wanted to strike it rich in space, and many speculators rushing into the cosmos for a gold rush. Likewise, there were also many who died in space, disappearing anonymously.

Correspondingly, the number of orphans also skyrocketed, becoming a relatively significant social problem. To ensure the survival of these orphans, the Human Federation introduced various policies, one of which was the widespread construction of orphanages and providing them with a certain degree of institutional support.

Orphanages were standard facilities in almost every Space City and ground base. The Orphanage in Tumu Castle was located in the Mu Yuan District.

To save money, Shi Tiexin proceeded on foot. His whole body ached, but perhaps because his expression had been paralyzed for so long inside the Champion Scholar Stone, the pain didn’t cause the slightest change in his expression.

Jogging along, he soon saw the main gate of the Orphanage in the distance. The entire Orphanage was a single, massive building, a perfect cube standing there, looking solid and heavy, yet also monotonous and oppressive. The Orphanage building had eighteen floors above ground and six below, for a total of twenty-four. Each floor had nearly two hundred rooms, the vast majority of which had no so-called natural light.

Of course, for a mere orphanage, just being able to house these minors and keep them alive was enough. There was no need to consider things like living conditions.

Of course, there were definitely no strange odors. In this respect, it was infinitely better than the dorms for the trash class at Fengming First Middle School.

To be precise, the entire Tumu Fortress Space City had very strict controls on odors. The Orphanage had to meet the standards; if it didn’t, it wouldn’t get funded. If not for this mandatory policy, the smell in the Orphanage probably wouldn’t have been much better.

Shi Tiexin walked into the building. It was noisy and chaotic inside. The sounds of children of all ages playing, arguing, and even fighting echoed down the hallway. Occasionally, a roar from one of the older kids would silence the little ones, but it wouldn’t be long before the noise started up again.

WHOOSH. A group of seven- or eight-year-old brats suddenly rushed past Shi Tiexin in a pack, yelling obscenities as they tried to grab a little girl running ahead of them to pull her pigtails and skirt. Seeing this, Shi Tiexin didn’t hold back. He sent a big foot flying and kicked the ringleader, sending the little boy sprawling.

The boys didn’t say much, nor did they talk any trash to show their defiance. They just scrambled up and, WHOOSH, ran off again.

Shi Tiexin, for his part, didn’t say a word. He felt not a shred of guilt for beating up a little kid. This kind of scene was practically a daily occurrence at the Orphanage.

In Shi Tiexin’s memory, the Orphanage housed a total of about two thousand six hundred people. So many children, ranging from a few days old to fifteen or sixteen. With so many kids and so few staff, a good upbringing or education was impossible. Too many mouths to feed and too few resources meant that fighting, snatching, and forming cliques were commonplace.

Today you might see boys chasing girls to flip their skirts; tomorrow it could be girls chasing boys to flick their junk. You couldn’t say who was right or wrong, good or bad. They were all pretty much the same. Few of them were easy to deal with.

And Shi Tiexin was one of those who had established his dominance through countless fights and struggles, placing him at the top of the hierarchy among the more than two thousand children in the Orphanage. If that hadn’t been the case, he would never have gotten the qualification to study at the Star Worker School.

Normally, the final destination for these orphans was grueling manual labor at farms or paper mills. The even more miserable ones would go to the Waste Dust Factory to burn their lives away. How could they possibly have a chance at an education?

"Brother Tie, you’re back!" A thirteen- or fourteen-year-old boy saw Shi Tiexin and ran over. "Old Baldy is looking for you! He said to go see him right away!"

"Mm." Shi Tiexin didn’t say much, just nodded and headed for the stairs.

Watching Shi Tiexin’s towering, sturdy back and his steady, solid demeanor, the boy couldn’t help but scratch his head. ’That’s weird. Brother Tie seems a little different somehow. I can’t put my finger on it, but he just feels... more... more... more badass.’

The boy’s vocabulary was even worse than the old Shi Tiexin’s; after thinking long and hard, the only adjective he could come up with was "badass." Since he couldn’t figure it out, he didn’t dwell on it. He roared and chased after the brats who had run off. Here, the older children were responsible for educating and disciplining the younger ones. As long as they did a good job watching them, they could get a small allowance.

"Stop running around! Get your asses back down here!" the boy shouted, chasing the little brats as they began to tear up the stairs. Big or small, all the kids were incredibly fast. The children here ran up and down more than ten flights of stairs all year round; even the girls had astonishing stamina.

What’s that? Take the elevator?

Don’t be ridiculous. The elevators have been gone for a long time. With more than two thousand of these little monsters, what kind of high-tech equipment couldn’t they break? Besides, the Orphanage itself didn’t have much money. They had to save every cent they could on electricity; they still needed money for food!

Shi Tiexin also walked up the stairs at an unhurried pace.

For some reason, ever since returning from Fengming First Middle School, he felt that his way of thinking had changed. It seemed a bit broader, a bit more confident, a bit more composed.

The hardships experienced in the Champion Scholar Stone seemed to have also affected Big Brother Tie, causing his mindset to slowly shift from that of a fifteen-year-old orphanage tyrant to that of a sixteen-year-old Champion Scholar, a genius from the Heart Technique Sacred Land, and the top scorer in the entire school.

As he made his way up, wherever he passed, all the children, regardless of age or gender, dared not get in his way. They all waited for Shi Tiexin to walk past before they resumed their wild, shrieking running.

’So what’s so glorious about being one of the Four Celestial Kings?’

’How many delinquents are there in all of Fengming First Middle School? Besides, there are guys like Teng Chaoguo that I can’t even handle.’

’But here in the Mu Yuan District Orphanage, there isn’t a single kid who dares to defy me. Anyone who doesn’t submit, I’ll beat them until they do. Over two thousand kids bow their heads when they see me. In this Orphanage, I, Shi Tiexin, am the Iron Tyrant. That’s way more glorious than being some Celestial King.’