It was late September at Trillan Junior High, sunny and hot.

Inside Classroom 1 of the seventh grade.

Tendo sat in the back row, bored, his gaze unfocused as he stared out the window. He appeared to be zoning out, but in reality, he was examining his system panel.

[Name: Tendo Simei (Embers Organization Reserve)]

[Age: 12]

[Level: First-Order Starmancer]

[Base Star Energy Value: 850]

[Star Source: Vector Control (Development: 95%)]

[Star Core: Star Eclipse Celestial Eye (Compatibility: 100%)]

[Attributes: Strength S, Agility S, Spirit S, Physique S]

[Skills: Star Energy Control (Master), Shunpo (Master), Starbeast Encyclopedia (Expert)…]

[Current Popularity Value: 850,000]

[Loaned Popularity Value: 1,000,000 (Reached Limit)]

As Stars Prequel: Embers gradually approached the end of its first season, Tendo was no longer the ‘popularity debt defaulter’ who couldn’t scrounge up a single point of popularity. Now, he was a ‘popularity tycoon’ with a massive 850,000 popularity points in his pocket!

Although Tendo now had the potential to repay his ‘popularity debt’ in full, as the saying goes, the debtor is king. Since he knew he could definitely pay it back, he wasn’t in any hurry.

After all, he already had such an astonishing amount of popularity before the final “Year-End Fireworks” plot. Once that high-octane ending officially aired, wouldn’t his popularity value skyrocket? Tendo conservatively estimated that, given Stars’ current popularity on Station 13, he could expect a staggering three million popularity points after the intense ending aired, with no upper limit.

So why rush to pay back the system’s popularity? Let it stay owed!

However, not rushing to pay back ‘popularity value’ was one thing. Not spending ‘popularity value’ was another.

After all, only by letting ‘popularity roll into popularity’ could he accumulate more ‘popularity value’. Therefore, Tendo had been thinking about how to maximize the potential of these 850,000 popularity points within the limited remaining first season plot.

After much careful consideration, Tendo gradually found his answer. He would invest his current popularity into the upcoming “Year-End Fireworks” plot and then… completely burn himself out!

It was important to note that in the original ending of the first season, the high-intensity plot where General Envoy Byron led two branch Starmancer special forces teams to launch a surprise attack on the Embers base was bound to happen and could not be altered by any external factors.

This was because, on the surface, it looked like Byron was attacking Embers. But the truth was, Doctor intentionally lured him to attack!

That’s right, the Doctor and the Embers base, who appeared to be caught off guard, were actually well-prepared. This entire scheme was a trap set by Doctor to acquire a unique Mech-Star Relic called the ‘Perpetual Heart’ from Byron, a relic exclusive to the Iron Dome family.

The reason Doctor was willing to gamble with himself and the entire base to obtain this ‘Perpetual Heart’ was because it was crucial for him to achieve his ‘Third Perfect Awakening’. It was something he absolutely had to acquire.

However, the ‘Perpetual Heart’ was an exclusive treasure of the Iron Dome family. Not only were they strictly guarded by the Iron Dome family, but every ‘Perpetual Heart’ installed in a high-ranking member of the Iron Dome family was also imbued with complex self-destruct procedures beyond ordinary imagination.

If anything went wrong, these ‘Perpetual Hearts’ would immediately self-destruct, ensuring they wouldn’t fall into the hands of others. So, if Doctor wanted to obtain a ‘Perpetual Heart’, he first had to find a way to lure a high-ranking member of the Iron Dome family out of the ‘Third Floating City: Quantum Fortress’ and even out of the core area of the New Federation’s Seven Great Floating Cities.

Only then could Doctor extract the ‘Perpetual Heart’ from that high-ranking member without immediately triggering its internal self-destruct program. And only under these conditions could Doctor transplant this ‘Perpetual Heart’ into himself, also a member of the Iron Dome family, and fulfill the final requirement for his Third Perfect Awakening.

Although Doctor’s plan was perfect, Tendo, having read the entire original plot of the first season, knew that Doctor’s final plan both succeeded and failed. Its success lay in the fact that Doctor did indeed seize Byron’s Perpetual Heart and successfully transplanted it into himself, completing his Third Perfect Awakening.

However, its failure stemmed from Doctor not foreseeing that the Iron Dome family’s quantum technology had made a significant breakthrough just a few months before Byron launched his surprise attack. This breakthrough allowed them to implant a special restriction called ‘Quantum Guardian’ into every Perpetual Heart.

As a result, Doctor’s final breakthrough was both perfect and imperfect. It was perfect in that Doctor did successfully complete his Third Perfect Awakening. He genuinely became one of the few Fourth-Order Perfect Starmancers in the entire Starmancer world.

But it was imperfect because, unable to crack the ‘Quantum Guardian’ of the Perpetual Heart, Doctor couldn’t fully unleash its power, leading to a significant portion of his strength being sealed, allowing him to only display power comparable to a Mid-Tier Fourth-Order Starmancer.

Furthermore, the ‘Quantum Guardian’ of the ‘Perpetual Heart’ had a data link with the Iron Dome family’s ‘Mech-Core Hub’. This meant that as soon as Doctor approached the Seven Great Floating Cities, the core area of the New Federation, no matter how well he concealed himself or how advanced his stealth methods were, he would be instantly detected and located by the ‘Quantum Observers’ installed by the Iron Dome family within the Seven Great Floating Cities.

Based on this condition, even though Doctor completed his perfect awakening, he still couldn’t set foot in the core area of the New Federation. He was forced to remain on the periphery of the New Federation, establish new base organizations, and seek ways to crack the ‘Quantum Guardian’.

Tendo knew that this so-called ‘surprise attack’ was a scheme orchestrated by Doctor, which was why he never considered warning him about the impending attack on the base. After all, everything was designed by Doctor himself, so whether he warned him or not was completely meaningless.

In addition, Doctor in the original story not only arranged this awakening plan but also made proper arrangements for the Children of the Stars. This plan was called ‘Embers’. The implementation of this plan didn’t even wait until Byron and the others appeared. It had already been gradually put into effect even before the first season of Stars Prequel: Embers began.

Why did Doctor summon so many New Federation dignitaries who weren’t from the Embers organization during the final assessment? Why did he so ‘recklessly’ release partial information about the Stars Plan when it had just started to show results? Was he foolish? Of course not. He did it intentionally.

Firstly, he wanted to lure Byron to his doorstep.

Secondly, he wanted to find good homes for the Children of the Stars.

Yes, Doctor knew from the very beginning that he and Embers alone could never provide the 36 Children of the Stars with the maximum level of training. He had to disperse these 36 Children of the Stars among various forces in the New Federation.

By letting these forces wholeheartedly cultivate the Children of the Stars they acquired, these 36 Children of the Stars could unleash their greatest potential.

However, if Doctor wanted these forces to cultivate these Children of the Stars without reservations, then he and Embers had to completely disappear from this world and never reappear.

Because only when Embers and he were gone could these major forces completely trust the Children of the Stars, who had become rootless, and unreservedly provide them with vast cultivation resources.

This was ‘Embers’, a grand plan specifically designed at the cost of burning himself and the Embers base. In this plan, all Children of the Stars would briefly turn into ’embers’ in a raging fire.

Then, all Children of the Stars would, at a specific time, rekindle into a ‘glimmer’ from the scattered embers. And this second part, the rekindling of glimmer, was Doctor’s second plan to be executed after the success of the ‘Embers Plan’. A plan named Glimmer.

These two plans of Doctor were also the origins of the anime titles: Stars Season 1: Embers and Stars Season 2: Glimmer. One could say that although Doctor didn’t have many appearances in the first two seasons of Stars, all the story content of the first two seasons actually revolved around his plans.

And this terrifying scheme, meticulously planned over many years, not only perfectly demonstrated Doctor’s formidable strategizing but also left Tendo, with his foresight, unable to find any place to make changes.

After all, from his perspective, Doctor’s plan was undoubtedly perfect. Because Doctor was essentially utilizing all the forces of the entire New Federation to cultivate his own team. It was truly brilliant.

However, although Tendo was temporarily unable to view the original plot of the second season of Stars: Glimmer, he believed that this second plan definitely included the construction of a new base.

And also contact with other Children of the Stars. For example, Doctor would secretly contact one or more Children of the Stars he deemed contactable and inform them of his existence.

Afterward, Doctor would then leverage their special status within their current forces to integrate the resources controlled by these Children of the Stars. At a location he deemed suitable, he would build a brand-new base organization.

As for the name of this new base, Tendo believed that with Doctor’s meticulous, plan-oriented personality, it would most likely be called ‘Glimmer’. After all, Embers had completely vanished from the world and was absolutely impossible to reappear.

At the same time, Tendo, combining this with Doctor’s special care for him, was certain that the new base’s leader chosen by Doctor was most likely himself.

Because besides him, no one else could guarantee that they could fully win over the Children of the Stars who had left Embers years ago.

Thinking of this, Tendo couldn’t help but feel a little excited. Because if the plot continued this way, he would have to take the list of the 36 Children of the Stars and fight them one by one.

After all, even though these guys were obediently subdued by him now, except for a few individuals, most of them were rebellious at heart, outwardly submissive but inwardly plotting revolt. It was fine when they had no opportunity. But given an opportunity, they would definitely try every means to pull him, the pinnacle of the Stars, off his pedestal.

This mindset, coupled with the invincible spirit they cultivated after leaving the Embers base and being trained by their respective factions, meant that if he wanted to regain control of these ‘arrogant’ individuals a few years later, mere words would be absolutely useless.

He would have to use heavy-handed tactics! After all, fists were more persuasive than words!

As for the protagonist, Chen Kong…

From the second season onwards, he was going to have a hard time. Because Tendo and the other Children of the Stars were destined to become his adversaries, taking on the role of villains, starting from the second season.

After all, Chen Kong, who represented the interests of ordinary people, could not align with them, the Children of the Stars, who represented the interests of major powers.

And when he thought of Chen Kong’s new protagonist group, after finally defeating the other Children of the Stars and being on the verge of realizing their ideals, suddenly encountering him and Doctor, the two ultimate final bosses who should have long been dead… He imagined Chen Kong’s expression at that time would be very interesting!

Don’t think that Tendo mostly just focused on gaining popularity. But actually, when it came to being a villain… he was also very professional!

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep