The Breakthrough Amidst Despair

Huang Xiu didn’t know how bad the situation in the entire Ying City had become.

But she knew that if she was in danger and couldn’t be saved, she had to save herself.

She wasn’t one to sit and wait for death.

Even in a desperate situation, she would seek a slim chance of survival, especially with so many innocent students who had nothing to do with the virtual realm caught up in this.

“Everyone follow me! I’ll get you out!”

Huang Xiu had the girls form three lines, then she took the lead, riding the osmanthus tree giant as they charged out of the school. The cactus giant brought up the rear.

The No.1 Middle School campus was huge. Besides the basketball court and gymnasium, there was a soccer field with fake grass.

This had always been a point of pride for the students, but right now Huang Xiu hated how big the campus was.

Sitting on the ten-meter-tall giant, her gaze passed over countless treetops toward the school gate. The brown stone bearing the school’s name was hidden deep in the darkness, almost invisible.

“Don’t be afraid, follow me!” Huang Xiu yelled, her voice already hoarse.

The students’ nerves were stretched to the breaking point. The slightest accident could cause total chaos.

And chaos meant casualties.

So Huang Xiu kept shouting, using her authority to keep the students confident.

“So dry!” Her lips were parched, delicate and cracked.

She swallowed with difficulty, but the thick saliva only took away the last moisture in her mouth without wetting her throat.

“Cough, cough.” She coughed silently, not even daring to let the students hear her.

The osmanthus tree giant took slow steps, but its huge stride made the speed not slow.

“The virtual energy inside the osmanthus tree giant is running low.” Watching the school gate draw nearer, Huang Xiu grew more anxious.

Mutant plants relied on virtual energy to move. Once it was depleted, they would revert to their original form.

After the earlier fight, the giant had little virtual energy left.

If the giant collapsed now, they would be like fish on a chopping block, at the mercy of their enemies.

Even if Huang Xiu herself could escape, most of the students here would die.

“There’s still the last bit of virtual energy I’ve recovered…”

She bit her lip hard, tirelessly transferring the recovered virtual energy from her body into the giant.

“It should hold out!” The girl’s face was as pale as plaster.

Cold sweat dripped from her forehead.

She drove herself to stay awake through sheer willpower, refusing to let herself pass out.

“So tired, so cold,” Huang Xiu murmured, then a doubt rose in her mind.

Why was she still persisting when it was so hard?

‘How strange…’ She whispered in her heart. If it were just her, it wouldn’t be this hard.

Or if she only protected a few close ones, at least she wouldn’t be this miserable.

So what did these students have to do with her? Why was she worth exhausting everything to protect?

Was she addicted to playing hero?

Was it guilt?

Or did she want to show off in front of the girls, to relive a glorious moment she’d never experienced in her ordinary past?

Huang Xiu bit her lip and asked herself. Finally, she got the answer.

Ah, men remain boys until death. Even after transformation, she was still a boy to the end.

She had once longed to shine in mediocrity, to be the Prometheus who brought fire to the masses, even at the cost of her life.

So the unique sacrificial spirit of men still lingered in her.

Even transformation hadn’t erased it.

Huang Xiu suddenly laughed. “Even if my body changed, even if my gender changed, I’m still me. Still the same me.”

In that moment, her fear of transformation vanished without a trace.

Yeah, so what if she transformed? So what if she changed appearance? What was there to fear? She was still herself!

She was a grown man. Why waste time worrying about pointless things?

Changing gender just meant living a different way.

From now on, she was going to become a superhuman who protected humanity!

After coming to this realization, Huang Xiu suddenly felt relaxed.

From a body that couldn’t squeeze out a single drop of virtual energy, virtual energy began to surge forth.

In an instant, it filled half her body, suppressing the deep fatigue.

Her pale face regained color.

“What just happened?” Huang Xiu clenched her fist in confusion.

She could feel that her total virtual energy had increased, and her physical fitness seemed to have improved.

But the improvement was gradual, not very noticeable.

A strange guess came to her. She whispered in disbelief, ‘Could it be… I broke through?’

Closing her eyes slightly to sense her body, she saw a white ocean of virtual energy as viscous as mercury.

She remembered that after the adult stage came the mercury stage.

‘Looks like I really did break through…’

The girl’s expression turned strange. Then she recalled that Professor Yuan had personally come to recruit her as his student.

It seemed she really was an extraordinary genius.

She had always thought so, but before, she had been too ordinary.

Huang Xiu, accustomed to ordinariness, couldn’t believe she had such remarkable talent in the superhuman field.

Coming back to reality, the school gate was right in front. Huang Xiu’s heart relaxed a little.

She stood up, no longer sitting on the giant’s shoulder.

“Almost there!”

She encouraged the girls, letting virtual energy flow from her feet into the giant.

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The girl’s lips curled up. She could feel her strength. She was much stronger than before.

Hmph!

If that pig-headed teacher dared to come now, she would crush it into ground meat with one stomp.

“Keep up!” Huang Xiu called out, but then she saw a dark shadow rapidly approaching from behind.

The shadow was huge, moving on all fours, leaping ten meters in one bound, stretching its flexible body in the air.

Her pupils contracted. Her sharp gaze pierced the darkness and made out the shape.

It was a tiger wearing a suit!

The tiger was terrifyingly muscular, with steel-like chunks of muscle all over its body.

Its tail was as thick as a bowl, casually sweeping down roadside trees with a crackling sound.

Huang Xiu wasn’t the only one who noticed the pursuing tiger. Some girls at the back saw it too.

Their faces twisted in terror. Forgetting all formation, they sprinted forward.

They couldn’t outrun the tiger, but they just had to outrun their friends.

That was the dark thought in their minds.

Huang Xiu didn’t care about those few girls. Everyone had the right to survive.

“I have to stop it.” She didn’t know where this tiger came from, but she knew she had to act now.