In the sun-drenched campus, the clamor gradually quieted down.
In The Woods area, Wade lay on the dense canopy, sunbathing with a leisurely look on his face.
His mind, however, had long since connected with the insects flapping their wings below.
Two dragonflies and a green-eyed fly, like a secret reconnaissance squad, flew toward the area disguised as a transformer room.
One dragonfly silently clung to the top of the wall on lookout, while the other stopped on a tree trunk, its compound eyes locked on the entrance.
The green-eyed fly, meanwhile, carefully crawled into an inconspicuous wire gap along the corner of the wall.
At first it was extremely narrow, only wide enough for a fly; after crawling for several hundred steps, the view suddenly opened up.
A wide circular corridor appeared before its "eyes." The ceiling was high, and the walls were dark gray, clearly printed with the yellow words "The Woods—Northwest Detention Room."
On both sides of the corridor were heavy alloy doors, silent and still, isolating another world.
The green-eyed fly flapped its wings along the ceiling as if it had activated a silence field, not making a single sound.
Just then, a female staff member in a loose green uniform pushed a meal cart around the corner and stopped in front of the door labeled "Northwest No. 1."
Standing sideways, she skillfully picked up a flat lunch box, bent down, and pulled open the rectangular iron gate at the bottom of the alloy door.
'Good chance!' The green-eyed fly accelerated, intending to dive in the moment the gate opened.
Boom!
A violent, crimson tongue of fire erupted from inside the door without warning, instantly swallowing the narrow opening.
High-temperature air swept through, and the green-eyed fly didn't even have time to struggle before being roasted into a tiny speck of charcoal in mid-air.
"Anda! You bastard!" The female staff member, clearly used to this, reacted quickly by stepping back and kicking the heavy alloy door in annoyance. "If you keep spraying fire like that, you'll go hungry today! Do you hear me?!"
In the canopy, Wade snapped his eyes open, his temples throbbing as if he had taken the hit himself.
'Damn!' he couldn't help but curse inwardly. 'What kind of crappy lab is this? No professionalism at all... They should at least put a label on the door saying who's locked up and what abilities they have!'
"Real damn bad luck!" He spat in a low voice, not expecting his first reconnaissance mission to fail in such a frustrating way.
"Wade—look here, I can't get up!" Just then, a pretty and anxious female voice came from beneath the tree.
Wade composed himself and poked his head out to look down. He saw Harper, whose skin was pink all over and who was wearing a blue and white school uniform, standing under the tree, jumping hard with her long tail swaying behind her.
Wade smiled and beckoned with his hand. "Don't move around."
A gentle current of air was generated out of thin air, steadily supporting Harper.
She gave a soft cry and instinctively held down her skirt. Enveloped by the air current, she rose lightly into the canopy and landed beside Wade.
"Where have you been lately?" Harper immediately leaned against Wade affectionately, her tail skillfully hooking around his waist as she complained, "Why were you looking for me so urgently? Is something wrong?"
"Don't mess around, it's broad daylight." Wade caught the restless tip of her tail with one hand and pulled a stack of rolled-up posters from his backpack with the other, handing them to her. "Look at these."
Harper took them curiously, and as she unrolled them, her eyes instantly lit up. "Starlight's autographed posters! How did you know I'm a Starlight fan?"
She excitedly slid her fingers across them, counting them one by one. "One, two, three... five! Where did you get these? Are they all for me?"
Wade didn't answer her, instead asking, "As my number one fan and the president of my support club, how many members do we have now? What's the composition?"
Talking about business, Harper temporarily suppressed her curiosity about the source of the posters.
She took out her phone and listed them like family treasures. "There are over two hundred core members in the school, mostly freshmen, with the male-to-female ratio being about half and half. As for your public 'Cyclone' account, its followers have already exceeded five hundred thousand!"
Harper said with a proud look, "We've taken some promotional deals, and there's over eighty thousand in the club's account. I've also earned about twenty thousand myself. If you need it, I can transfer it all to you."
Wade had no interest in this small amount of money for now and waved his hand. "I'm asking you, if I wanted to smear a superhero's image, what methods are usually used?"
Hearing this, Harper immediately perked up, thinking he was going to go after his number one nuisance, Chance the "Fire Dragon."
"You've asked the right person!"
She counted on her fingers and began to talk incessantly, listing everything from manufacturing scandals, hiring internet trolls, and editing videos out of context to inciting opposition and digging up dark history... listing all sorts of common or insidious methods one by one.
Harper patted her ample chest. "Don't worry! Leave it to me. I guarantee that guy Chance will be ruined, and people will get PTSD just from seeing him in the future!"
Wade listened quietly, his fingers gently twirling the tip of her tail. "Harper, you've misunderstood. I don't want to smear Chance... I want to ask you to help smear me."
"Huh?" Harper's face turned beet red, then she immediately stifled the reaction, her face full of shock and confusion. "Wh... why? Isn't it good to have high popularity? The more famous you are, the more solid your fan base is, and you'll have more choices after graduation!"
"Now is not the time." Wade sighed, brushing through his hair. "I'm only a freshman, and I'm already 8th on the rankings, putting so much pressure on the seniors that they can't breathe... Think about it, don't I have to fight those fierce seniors every few days?"
"If I keep being this high-profile, trouble will only increase. I have to leave some room for others and give myself some peace, right?"
Harper looked at him, the confusion in her eyes gradually fading, replaced by a misty look.
She reached out her arms to hug Wade, burying her face in his chest and saying muffledly, "I... I don't want you to keep getting hurt. I understand, I'll do it."
Wade smiled and pinched the tip of her ear, whispering, "Remember, just smear me a little to cool things down. Don't overdo it and turn me into a pariah... If my reputation gets ruined, you won't be able to escape either."
"I know!" Harper broke into a smile through her tears and couldn't help but kiss his face several times. "Wade, you're the true hero, always thinking of others."
Just then, a blast of hot air blew toward them.
The two looked up to see Luke, his calves wrapped in orange flames like the legendary God of Fire, slowly landing on a nearby branch.
He looked at the intimate pair and teased with a grin, "Oh, did I come at a bad time? You two really are in a good mood!"
Wade held the huddled Harper and waved back with a smile. "We're just... enjoying campus life."
Luke hovered in mid-air and raised an eyebrow. "A few of us are planning to go camping this afternoon and we're short on people. Do you two want to join us?"
Wade had been worrying about how to deal with "Golden Boy" without attracting too much attention, and this was like a pillow being offered just as he was getting sleepy!
He didn't hesitate much and agreed casually, "Sure, I happen to have nothing to do this afternoon and evening."
"Great, then we'll meet at the school gate at three o'clock." Luke waved goodbye, and with flames erupting from his calves, he turned into a streak of light and flew away.
Harper, however, showed a look of difficulty. She let go of Wade and complained with a pout, "I have a sorority event this afternoon that I have to attend, so I can't go with you."
"How about you send me back to the dormitory first?" She leaned into Wade's ear and spoke rapidly, "My roommate went out for an off-campus activity and isn't there..."
Seeing the expectation sparkling in her eyes, Wade gave a light laugh and picked her up by the waist.
"Eek!" Harper buried her face in his shoulder with a soft cry, her pink tail swaying happily in the air.
"As you wish, my little pink-skinned kangaroo lady."
"I'm—I'm not a kangaroo... I just have a relatively long tail."
The two floated up lightly and flew toward the dormitory area.
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