In the real world, at Station 13.

Watching Tendo find the last member of his three-person team, everyone knew that the final assessment, which had been building up for almost three episodes, was finally about to truly begin. From a theoretical standpoint, Tendo’s team was undoubtedly the strongest team present. This team had incredibly gathered the student ranked first, third, and fourth, making it an extraordinarily luxurious lineup.

Such a lavish configuration naturally made Tendo’s team the first to challenge the Earth Dragon Lizard. However, what made the audience burst into laughter was that Jing Liuli, who had consistently appeared timid and lazy, immediately got cold feet when Tendo mentioned that the Earth Dragon Lizard might be close to breaking through.

“T-Tendo, I suddenly remembered I have something to do, I’m leaving first!”

“Where do you think you’re going?” Tendo grabbed Jing Liuli by the collar.

“Tendo, can’t you just let me go down first?”

“You wish! You’re already here, let’s go!”

“Nooooo!!!”

Seeing Jing Liuli being dragged onto the stage by force, like a duck being herded to water, the bullet comments burst into joy.

‘Tendo: Want to get off work? Work overtime!’

‘You’re already here, and you still want to run!’

‘Help! What kind of sweatshop vibes is this?!’

‘Ah, capitalism…’

Amidst the harmonious atmosphere of the bullet comments, the showdown between Tendo’s team and the Earth Dragon Lizard officially began.

From the very beginning of the battle, Tendo’s team displayed extremely high combat proficiency. Caroline, as a technomancer, stood at the very back of the team, using her Star Energy Data Net to connect Tendo and Jing Liuli, perfectly acting as the team’s brain.

Jing Liuli, as a specialist, was positioned in the middle of the team, perfectly utilizing her auxiliary and diversionary roles. As for Tendo, the strongest member of the team, he naturally took on the most arduous task: directly confronting the Earth Dragon Lizard and doing his best to prevent it from affecting his teammates.

But even with such a perfect team composition, Tendo’s team was still completely suppressed by the Earth Dragon Lizard at the start.Even though Tendo constantly predicted the Earth Dragon Lizard’s movements using the powerful ocular abilities of his ‘Stellar Eclipse Eye,’ he still couldn’t find any opportunity to counterattack, only able to dodge.

As for Jing Liuli, although she tried to help several times, she always failed to find a suitable moment and could only constantly harass the Earth Dragon Lizard from all sides, trying to reduce the pressure on Tendo as much as possible.

It could be said that if the battle continued to develop according to this situation, it would only be a matter of time before Tendo’s team was defeated.

‘No way, even a team as strong as Tendo’s seems utterly helpless. How are the others supposed to fight?’

‘What was the production team thinking? They want to use such an opponent to create a highlight moment and reversal for the protagonist Chen Kong? Wouldn’t that completely collapse the power balance? How can Chen Kong’s team compare to Tendo’s?’

‘Tendo: Encountering a max-level boss in the新手 village, unable to win even with all my might…’

Watching Tendo’s team being completely suppressed, everyone felt that such a battle was simply too childish. After all, the two sides of the battle were never on the same level from beginning to end; there was no suspense regarding the outcome.

But just when everyone thought the production team wanted to portray the strength of the protagonist Chen Kong later through the crushing defeat of Tendo and the others, an exhilarating and passionate BGM suddenly sounded on screen.

Subsequently, on the arena, Tendo, upon hearing Caroline’s words from behind him, instantly changed his previous entanglement, proactively widening the distance between himself and the Earth Dragon Lizard.

Immediately after, Jing Liuli, who had been constantly wandering and harassing around, immediately took on the task of directly engaging the Earth Dragon Lizard, creating a precious window of opportunity for Tendo’s counterattack.

In an instant, the entire anime screen began to slow down, and the camera completely focused on Tendo, providing a close-up shot. Silver-white messy hair, azure eyes, facial features as exquisite as a work of art. At this moment, Tendo looked as if he had stepped out of a shojo manga.

It was clear that the production team had meticulously crafted this scene. After all, the level of detail in this close-up shot was so exaggerated that even the ceiling reflected on the distant arena floor was clearly visible.

“Star Energy Art — Azure!”

As Tendo’s calm words fell, the energy sphere suspended between his fingers traced a perfect arc, accurately striking the Earth Dragon Lizard’s left knee, which had a hidden injury. After a single blow, the powerful Earth Dragon Lizard actually knelt on one knee, its wound bleeding.

Witnessing this astonishing scene, an eerie silence fell both inside and outside the screen. The greater the sense of oppression the Earth Dragon Lizard had created earlier, the more shocking Tendo’s achievement of injuring it was at this moment.

To highlight the shock Tendo’s action brought to everyone, the screen fittingly switched to the protagonist, Chen Kong. At this moment, Chen Kong’s pupils were constricted, his mouth slightly agape, clearly unable to believe what Tendo had accomplished. And just as shocked as him were the viewers outside the screen.

‘Famous scene check-in!’

‘This blow pierces the stars!’

‘Mom asked me why I’m watching anime on my knees!’

Amidst a flurry of exclamations in the bullet comments, the camera shifted from the protagonist Chen Kong and finally focused on the Earth Dragon Lizard on the final assessment arena. The Earth Dragon Lizard, which had just been injured by Tendo’s Star Energy Art, had now completely stood up, exuding an unsettling and captivating aura. Clearly, the Earth Dragon Lizard was thoroughly enraged by Tendo. It let out a roar to the sky, so loud that many viewers, who were watching anime curled up in their beds, were startled and threw their phones.

However, in stark contrast to the enraged Earth Dragon Lizard, Tendo, who had already gained an advantage, had long since left the arena with Caroline and Jing Liuli. He put on his small sunglasses again, provocatively taunting the Earth Dragon Lizard in the arena.

“Yo, big guy, still sulking there? The assessment’s over!”

Hearing Tendo’s words, the Earth Dragon Lizard on screen immediately went into a fit of impotent rage. The viewers outside the screen burst into laughter.

‘Hahaha, this is what a protagonist should be like, who’s that random bystander in the audience?’

‘Stars? No, where are the stars? I only see one big star, Tendo!’

‘I’ve discovered that if I immerse myself as Tendo, this is a standard wish-fulfillment anime!’

‘About the True Protagonist Being a Bystander’

‘False protagonist: trembling in fear’

‘True protagonist: facing the strong enemy head-on’

Just as the bullet comments were singing praises for Tendo’s brilliant performance, Tendo, semi-reclining on the large bed in his dorm, leisurely observed the translucent light screen floating in mid-air that only he could see.

[Popularity Value +1…]

[Popularity Value +1…]

[Popularity Value +1…]

“Perfect~”

Tendo took a bite of the strawberry cake in his hand, very satisfied with the ‘production team’s’ work on this episode. After all, in this episode, he not only occupied nearly eighty percent of the entire episode’s screen time, but the plot also perfectly demonstrated his strength as the pinnacle of the Stars world. It could be said that his highlight scene, meticulously produced by the production team, exploded with a visual impact far beyond his imagination. After all, when he designed this plot himself, he couldn’t add so many ‘screen effects.’

However, although the audience’s reaction to this high-value plot was pleasing, Tendo knew that his leisurely days were almost over. This was because once the final assessment plot ended, everyone would obtain their suitable Star Essence. At that time, the gap between him and the others would quickly narrow.

After all, once they had Star Essence, the competition between them would no longer just be about raw numbers, but also about ‘mechanisms.’ And some popular characters chosen by the production team would have Star Core and Star Essence combinations that would be BUG-level existences.

Therefore, if Tendo still wanted to maintain his current invincible situation, he had to make good use of this valuable window of opportunity.

After all, after the final assessment, Prequel of the Stars: Embers would transition into a grand storyline that was much more intense and brutal than the final assessment.

In this grand storyline, the Ember Organization would not only suffer large-scale destruction, but all the Children of Stars would also be scattered throughout the New Federation, paving the way for the second season of Stars: Glimmer.

Thinking of this impending brutal war and his ‘magnificent vision,’ Tendo immediately sat up from his bed and opened his Popularity System.

“Although I’m currently burdened with a million popularity debt, if I want to continue maintaining my highlight performance in the upcoming major storyline, I must take a risk…”

Tendo’s gaze swept across the Popularity Mall and finally settled on a special item.

[Name: Decoy Bracelet]

[Effect: Can withstand one fatal blow, causing the host to enter a state of suspended animation, and awaken after one natural day.]

[Purchase Price: 100,000 Popularity Value]

[Purchase Limit: 2/2]

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep