Beyond the Zenith

The lonely four-story building at the edge of the Ninth Army’s combat training base was built in the Bear Alliance Republic’s architectural style. Apparently, it had always been used to house retired army commanders, so despite its age, both its upkeep and security were maintained to a strict standard.

The building’s windows directly faced the training ground. There was a longstanding tradition that during morning drills, the recruits’ calls had to be loud enough to wake the old army commanders.

At its peak, three retired army commanders had lived in the building at the same time.

One could only imagine the three old army commanders, jolted awake at the same time every morning, standing at three different windows in their pajamas and bedhead, either giving lectures or swearing at the top of their lungs. That had likely been a sight to behold.

It was probably more awkward for those who were bald.

Shen Fengting was the only retired Erasers army commander residing in the building at this time, and he was not bald, though his thinning hair had turned mostly white. He gazed out the window, chilled by the November night breeze.

Behind him, the lock turned with a click, and the door opened.

Shen Fengting eagerly turned, then quickly put on a stern expression. The children were late. He needed to look serious and give them a good talking-to.

“Grandpa!” a sweet voice called out as footsteps approached.

“Grandpa.” Another voice followed, somewhat muffled and strained.

If Han Qingyu or any of the other recruits had been present for this scene, their jaws would have dropped.

The person calling Shen Fengting “Grandpa”[1] was Wan Xiujing. This was surprising, perhaps, but not entirely unexpected.

The other “Grandpa”[2] came from S-19, the sparring robot.

They were cousins.

Seeing the displeasure on the old man’s face, Wan Xiujing hurried over, pulled out the blue crystal energy core she had just collected from Han Qingyu, and held it up.

“Grandpa, look! This is what Elder Sister[3] and I earned!” Wan Xiujing exclaimed, expression sweet as she showed off her gains. “Hmph, we thought that stinky Bluefish was going to skip out on payment. We were furious! He wasn’t at the barracks after training, so we had to wait downstairs for him forever.”

After explaining, she set down the energy core and eagerly went behind the sofa to massage her grandfather’s shoulders.

“Sorry for making you worry, Grandpa,” said S-19, sounding somewhat uneasy.

Shen Fengting didn’t speak, nor did he pick up the blue crystal on the small tea table beside him. When he glanced away from the energy core, his eyes were rimmed with red.

This was the same look he wore while hiding behind the window and watching his granddaughter, sheathed in metal and standing mute on the training ground, pretending to be a sparring robot that served as a sparring partner.

Wan Xiujing, still standing behind her grandfather, didn’t notice his emotional state. It was hard to say whether this was because she was young and naturally optimistic, or because the thrill of earning her first energy core had simply distracted her. Either way, the little girl was still calculating like a young businesswoman.

“That’s one core. When the sparring assignment is done, the army will pay two more, so that’s three,” she said, running through the numbers. “Plus, she’s been using the army’s energy cores during the sparring sessions, so that’s a lot of savings. Hm, three cores... That’s enough to last Elder Sister a month.”

From nearby, S-19 added, “Actually, I’ve been trying to control myself. Two a month might be enough.”

Two, three cores a month. These calculations would be baffling to an outsider. They referred to the number of energy cores S-19 needed to sustain life beneath the metal.

The Coalition’s soldiers typically referred to absorbing energy cores in a non-combat state as being “nourished,” which helped to improve their physical fitness and source energy sensitivity.

This differed from S-19’s situation. She had to be nourished constantly because without it, she would die.

***

Back then, Shen Fengting had still been the army commander of the Ninth Army.

Although his wife had died young, she had left behind a son and a daughter, who both grew up and got married with children of their own.

His daughter worked in the Azure Coalition’s medical system, married into a distant military district, and had a daughter named Wan Xiujing.

His son was not qualified to armor up but stayed close by, working as a culture and academics teacher for the Coalition. He married a fellow teacher, and together they had a daughter named Shen Yixiu.

Shen Yixiu was three years older than Wan Xiujing. The “xiu” character in Xiujing’s name had been borrowed from her elder cousin’s.

That year, during the Qingming Festival[4], his daughter and her family couldn’t make it home because of work. So, only Shen Fengting, his son, his daughter-in-law, and his twelve-year-old granddaughter had gone to the family’s ancestral home, which wasn’t too far away, to pay their respects and enjoy the countryside.

When an army commander of the Azure Coalition traveled, security and secrecy were naturally very tight.

The gunfire, however, came not only from the mountainside but also from behind them. The deputy leader of the local district platoon, responsible for their reception and security, had opened fire on them.

Shen Fengting, himself a B-rank combatant, fought alongside his soldiers and eliminated every assassin within a dozen seconds.

The battle ended quickly, but he had still lost both his son and his daughter-in-law forever.

Twelve-year-old Shen Yixiu had also collapsed in a pool of blood. A bullet had pierced the side of her head and was lodged in her skull. Three bullets had also hit her in the back, one of which had even pierced one side of her heart.

Incredibly, she was still alive and breathing.

If she were to be treated with ordinary medical means alone, she would have undoubtedly died, so Shen Fengting abused his authority and did the one selfish thing he had ever done in all his years with the Azure Coalition.

Dead iron, alloy, and a dismantled, modified eighth-generation maneuvering device, all held together with metal strips, fused into a complete life-support system sustained entirely by source energy, keeping his granddaughter alive by force.

It was a blind, desperate attempt that went far beyond the Coalition’s technology. Yet, somehow, Shen Yixiu survived. She woke up over twenty days later.

From that day on, she could never be separated from the system. Not for a single second.

The Azure Coalition’s research division marked Shen Yixiu’s case as highly classified. Over the years, they attempted many times to replicate the system and create mechanical soldiers powered by source energy, but every attempt ended in failure.

This was the only miracle of its kind.

So, no one dared to take it apart. They didn’t even dare to replace the alloy parts when they cracked or rusted.

That same year, Shen Fengting was “advised to retire” and stepped down from his position as army commander of the Ninth Army.

The rules of the Azure Coalition were fair, sometimes cruelly so. Even the life of an army commander’s granddaughter was worth no more than a common soldier’s. Everything went by the book. The Coalition would not provide the energy cores needed to sustain Shen Yixiu’s life.

From that point on, Shen Fengting’s life had only one purpose—keeping his granddaughter alive.

He was retired, though, and while his cash salary continued, his source energy benefits were terminated. Soldiers earned those to use in battle. They would not be given to a retiree.

The old man tried to pick up some token jobs within the army, like the time he had presented Han Qingyu with a medal and managed to scrape together a meager source energy allowance from that.

It wasn’t enough. He tried buying energy cores on the black market, but sellers were rare and prices were steep.

Left with no other choice, Shen Fengting even started asking his former subordinate officers for loans. The once-revered, deeply respected old army commander gradually became the Ninth Army’s most notorious debtor, a man everyone avoided.

Nobody understood why.

The vast majority didn’t even know that his granddaughter, Shen Yixiu, was still alive.

He had persisted like this for five years, going on six.

Sometime earlier this year, Shen Yixiu told him that her metal shell didn’t seem as spacious as before, that it felt like the metal above her head was nearly pressing against her scalp.

His granddaughter was growing. Shen Fengting desperately wanted to see what she looked like now. She had to be about 170 centimeters, which was quite tall.

Then one day, Shen Yixiu said she wanted to earn her own energy cores. Shen Fengting thought about it for days, then agreed. He was old. Sooner or later, he would be gone.

That was how the sparring robot came to be.

S-19. Shen Yixiu.

“Grandpa.”

“Hm?”

“When this training cycle ends, I want to go to the front lines of the Witnesses.”

1. The title used here is 外公, which specifically refers to one’s maternal grandfather. ☜

2. This title is actually 爷爷, which refers to one’s paternal grandfather ☜

3. It’s not uncommon to call any older girls “Elder Sister” or 姐姐 in Chinese, even if they’re cousins or unrelated. ☜

4. Qingming is a day of ancestral remembrance and prayers in China. On this day, people typically visit their ancestors’ or deceased relatives’ graves and make offerings, praying for their blessings. ☜