Silver starlight roared off the bow as Little Fifth pulled the ten-mile hull out of the hyperspace tunnel. Ahead of the railing, a thousand artificial suns blazed like brass lamps in the dark void. Right in the middle of that glaring star cluster stood the golden Star-Gate of the 1,000-Sun Astral Protagonist Academy.
Gu Changsheng stood at the helm in his dark-blue robe and seasoned kitchen apron. He rested one hand on the wooden steering wheel and used the other to fan out five heavy gold badges across the console.
They were the [Five Golden VIP Transfer-Student Enrollment Tokens] taken from Warden Tianfa’s private safe in Sector 6. Each badge carried Headmaster Hong’s personal seal and smelled faintly of expensive ink and old blood.
“Look at all those suns, Dad!” eleven-year-old Jiang Tuntun shouted, pressing her nose against the warm biosphere barrier. She licked her lips and pointed a chubby finger at the nearest yellow star.
“They look like salted egg yolks floating in clear broth! Can we dip steamed buns in them?”
“Touch a solar core without oven mitts and you’ll burn your sleeves,” Gu Changsheng said. “And nobody gets a second breakfast until we pass the front gate.”
