Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 28: Saving Energy

Chapter 28: Saving Energy

Everyone chuckled at her attempts, but Lyra was already pushing her limits.

To ace the entire course, she might just pass if she used her superpower to boost her body. But superpower particle detectors were scattered throughout the course, so cheating wasn’t an option.

She had to push her speed while saving energy for the rest of the exam. She took twenty-six minutes to finish, getting overtaken repeatedly.

A perfect score for this event was twenty points for ten minutes. She ended up with four.

The intelligent robots processed the data quickly, and within two minutes of her finishing, the rankings were out. She dropped from second place to somewhere in the middle.

She made a name for herself, but not in a good way.

Out of thirty thousand candidates, only two hundred would be chosen this year.

"Lyra, don’t be discouraged. Your superpower and psychokinesis are strong," Zinnia said, helping her up and trying to cheer her on, though she wasn’t confident either.

She just wouldn’t dampen her friend’s spirits.

Amidst the crowd, many eyes were on them. Lyra didn’t care about the stares, but Zinnia glared back at everyone.

Lyra nodded, "Four points, not too bad."

It was way better than the zero she had feared. Even a fraction of a point could leave many people behind.

Her calm demeanor drew sneers from passersby.

Zinnia’s eyes widened, and she grabbed one of them, yelling, "What are you laughing at?"

A young man, with black hair and slanted eyes, frowned as he was grabbed. He clenched Zinnia’s hand and raised his fist.

Zinnia wouldn’t back down and started to fight back. The escalation made the surrounding students stop and watch. Within a few moves, everyone realized how strong the two of them were.

"Hey, stop fighting! We’re all here for the exam. Let’s be peaceful!" Thierry pushed through the crowd and separated them effortlessly, surprising Lyra.

"Peaceful, my foot! Let go! I’ll kill this jerk!" Zinnia yelled, eyes blazing with anger.

"Forget it," Lyra said, pulling Zinnia’s hand. Despite her slender arm, she managed to hold back the furious Zinnia. "I’m not mad. We still have exams. Don’t waste your superpower."

The young man with black hair shook off Thierry’s hand. Then he crossed his arms and sneered, "Weak and can’t take criticism? I wouldn’t stoop to taking the exam with weaklings like you!"

He shot a disdainful glance at Lyra.

Suddenly, she scrutinized him, her face turning icy.

An inexplicable pressure spread out, and Jorath, the young man, looked down at Lyra, trying to shake off the chill in his heart. He even continued mockingly, "Not mad, huh? What’s with the face? Gonna cry?"

"Nothing, you just look familiar," Lyra said, turning her gaze away. He resembled one of the Shedd family kids, her former cousin.

Just then, the instructor arrived. They’d been watching from a distance and, without any reprimands, simply called for the psychokinesis test.

Jorath snorted, nearly provoking Zinnia again. He turned away, and Lyra called out, "Jorath Shedd."

"What do you want?" He spun around, glaring at her.

But Lyra wore a strange smile, "Nothing." Turned out her memory was still sharp after eleven years.

Muttering something about her being crazy, Jorath walked away.

"I can’t stand this anymore!" Zinnia tried to chase after him, but Lyra held her back.

"Our rankings are about the same now; we can take the test together."

"Sounds good!"

Zinnia was still easy to calm down.

Everyone considered Lyra a joke, including the instructors. Even their expressionless faces would crease with annoyance when they saw her.

"Lyra."

"Yes."

"Sit down, put on this helmet, and control the mecha on the interface for defense and attack."

Lyra obeyed. In the simulated universe, the mecha was attacked from all directions. She controlled the mecha with her psychokinesis, precisely defending and attacking without a single mistake.

On the display above the machine, her psychokinesis value kept rising.

Many others sitting around couldn’t handle it; feeling dizzy, their helmets automatically disconnected.

Waves of people swapped in and out around Lyra. By the third batch, with a ding, she finally removed her helmet—6079!

Among retest candidates with an average score of only three thousand, this number was astonishing!

Even Thierry couldn’t help but touch his head, realizing Cohen was right.

Cohen had said, "Never underestimate her."

After this round, Lyra’s score jumped from forty-four to sixty-four, rocketing her from 1800 place to 800 thousandth.

She had over a thousand competitors with similar scores.

People weren’t fools; they slowly retracted their mocking attitudes. Scoring perfectly in two events was no joke.

"Tch, I don’t believe it. Let’s see what her healing ability can do," Jorath muttered. He was one of the few who refused to acknowledge her prowess.

As many people’s attack methods were private, the superpower test wasn’t publicly shown.

But the scores were fully transparent.

Lyra entered and exited a specialized training room, emerging with another near-perfect score, skyrocketing her rank into the top hundred.

Superpower was the most critical category, with assessments covering type, level, talent, attack power, and defense capability.

Among the powers recorded by the Alliance, very few met all the standards.

In past years, the average superpower score for new recruits hovered between ten and eleven, highlighting the strict grading criteria.

Lyra’s score of eighteen was truly dazzling, only second to the top scores of nineteen held by Thierry and Zinnia. With eighty-two points, she shot straight into the top twenty.

"How can a healer score eighteen points!?" Jorath shouted from the front of the crowd. "Even with an S-Class talent and at level-five, how could a healer have combat and defense abilities? Are they really trying to fool us?"

The crowd began to murmur.

"Strange, could she not be a healer?"

"But her certification says healer. Maybe she’s a special type of healer?"

"If she’s special, then she’s not a regular healer, right? I think the test machine is broken."

The supervising instructor stepped forward, his expression stern. "Quiet!" He looked around before his gaze landed on Lyra. "For this exam, all the machines were standardized, and each room had an instructor supervising. There was no mistake."

Jorath shouted again, "Then how did she, a healer, get such a high score?"

"Yeah!"

"Exactly."

The instructor extended his arm and grabbed Jorath, lifting him effortlessly. "Superpowers have countless possibilities. Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. If you’re so confident, challenge Miss Shedd and see if you can beat her."

"Just what I wanted!" Jorath looked at Lyra with a challenging glare.

"I refuse," Lyra said. Her spirit had been drained from the exams, her face and lips pale. "I don’t want to waste my energy."

Engaging with him wouldn’t benefit her in any way. Why should she respond to his provocation?