The Grand Academy Library was a cathedral of silence, a stark contrast to the grease-stained chaos of Workshop Unit 73. While the Elite combat cadets spent their afternoons breaking bones in the sparring rings and the standard logistics students relied on pre-digested digital feeds, Chen Xi preferred the physical archives.
Located deep in the sub-levels of the library, the archives housed the Old Era physical texts—tomes of theoretical physics, orbital mechanics, and quantum material sciences that the modern, System-reliant era had largely deemed obsolete.
To Chen Xi, they were gold mines.
He sat at a heavy oak table in the dim, amber light of a reading lamp, a stack of twelve massive textbooks beside him. He wasn't just reading; he was devouring data. His eyes scanned the pages at a terrifying speed, his Stellar Furnace Art quietly circulating to supply his brain with a constant stream of oxygen-rich, purified blood, preventing mental fatigue.
"Page complete. Turn," Sylphe’s voice hummed in his mind, operating at maximum processing speed. "Fascinating. The Old Era engineers theorized the existence of Aether-conduction before the Cosmic System even descended. Integrating this thermal-decay model into my database now. Next book, please."
Chen Xi closed Advanced Orbital Metallurgy and reached for a heavy, leather-bound tome titled Trans-Galactic Supply Chain Algorithms and Void Routing.
"We've been here for six hours, Sylphe," Chen Xi murmured sub-vocally, turning to the first chapter. "If you process any more data, your localized projection might overheat."
"I am a primordial intelligence, Chen Xi. I do not 'overheat' from human math," Sylphe scoffed gracefully. Her tiny holographic form was sitting on the edge of the desk, wearing a pair of simulated reading glasses that made her look impossibly cute and strictly professional. "Besides, knowledge is power. The more theoretical frameworks I absorb, the less raw energy it takes for the Origin Forge to construct them. Keep turning the pages, darling."
Before Chen Xi could flip to chapter two, the sharp, authoritative click of expensive heels echoed down the aisle.
Chen Xi didn't look up, his eyes effortlessly tracking a complex algebraic equation, but his heightened senses immediately profiled the approaching figure. Lightweight footsteps. A subtle, high-end floral perfume masking the faint, almost imperceptible scent of ozone.
"Oh, wonderful. An aristocrat," Sylphe groaned, peering over the edge of the book. "Chen Xi, lower your gaze. The incoming female is radiating an obnoxious amount of wealth, and her bio-signature is... unusual."
"Unusual how?" Chen Xi asked mentally.
"She is using a Class-A localized hard-light disguise," Sylphe analyzed instantly. "She looks human, but her bone density and internal bio-etheric pathways indicate silicon-based crystalline biology. She’s a Lumina Syndicate pureblood."
Chen Xi’s eyes flickered. The Lumina Syndicate. The wealthiest allied race in the human sector, absolute masters of galactic commerce and energy tech.
"Excuse me," a crisp, perfectly modulated voice broke the silence.
Chen Xi finally looked up. Standing across the table was a girl who looked like she belonged on the cover of an Inner City fashion magazine. She had flowing, platinum-blonde hair, piercing sapphire eyes, and wore a tailored, high-collar Academy uniform that lacked any combat division insignias. She carried a sleek, transparent datapad.
This was Aria Vance.
Aria looked down at the pile of books surrounding Chen Xi, her perfectly sculpted eyebrows knitting together in clear annoyance. Her gaze lingered on his faded grey uniform and the dull bronze wristband of a lower-tier mechanic.
"You have Trans-Galactic Supply Chain Algorithms," Aria said, her tone polite but laced with an undeniable edge of impatience. "I reserved that text three days ago. The digital archives are corrupted, and that is the only physical copy in the Academy."
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"I checked it out an hour ago," Chen Xi replied calmly, his voice smooth and entirely unbothered by her aristocratic aura. "I'll be finished with it in twenty minutes. You can wait, or you can check the desk when I return it."
Aria’s eyes narrowed. A Rank-C mechanic from the slums reading hyper-advanced void routing? It was absurd. "That book is post-graduate theoretical logistics. It calculates the gravitational drag on cargo freighters passing through binary star systems. With all due respect, Cadet, you are looking at the pictures. I actually need it for my thesis."
"She did not just insult my host," Sylphe hissed, her holographic eyes glowing dangerously behind her reading glasses. "Chen Xi, give me the word and I will wirelessly brick her datapad."
Stand down, Sylphe. She's a Lumina. They respect profit, not pride, Chen Xi thought.
Instead of arguing, Chen Xi leaned back in his chair. He glanced at the transparent datapad in Aria’s hand. Because of the glass-like interface, the holographic equations she was working on were visible from the back. To a normal person, it was backward gibberish. To Chen Xi, whose [Machine Empathy] and Sylphe-enhanced brain processed spatial data instantly, it was an open book.
"You're calculating a supply route for Class-4 volatile ores from the Perseus Arm to Earth," Chen Xi observed quietly.
Aria froze, her eyes widening slightly. She instinctively pulled the datapad closer to her chest. "How do you know that?"
"Because your base formula relies on the assumption that the cargo freighters will use continuous plasma-thruster burns to maintain speed," Chen Xi said, tapping a finger on the heavy leather book in front of him. "It's a standard corporate algorithm. It maximizes speed, but you're ignoring the thermal bleed."
Aria scoffed, regaining her composure. "The freighters are equipped with heavy-duty heat sinks. The thermal bleed is negligible."
"In a vacuum, yes," Chen Xi countered, his tone turning into the cold, surgical precision of a master engineer. "But your route passes through the outer corona of the Helios-9 binary system to shave off three days of travel time. The ambient solar radiation will heat the external hull. The heat sinks will overcompensate, drawing power from the magnetic containment fields holding the Class-4 ores."
He leaned forward, his dark eyes locking onto hers. "When a freighter drops out of warp, the sudden deceleration creates a micro-gravity vacuum in the cargo hold. Without full magnetic containment, the volatile ores will collide. Your ships won't arrive three days early. They'll detonate in the upper atmosphere of Earth."
Absolute silence fell over the aisle.
Aria stood completely still. Her brilliant, hyper-computational mind—a hallmark of her Lumina lineage—raced through the variables he had just presented. He was calculating thermal dynamics, orbital deceleration, and magnetic resonance perfectly in his head.
She tapped a few rapid commands into her datapad, simulating his exact scenario. The simulation flashed red. Catastrophic Failure.
He was right. A Rank-C mechanic had just casually dismantled an algorithm that had taken her three weeks to build, saving her hypothetical fleet from total annihilation.
"You..." Aria breathed, staring at him as if seeing a ghost. The disdain was entirely gone, replaced by a profound, calculating hunger. "Who are you?"
"Chen Xi. Unit 73. Logistics Division," he said, turning his attention back to the book. He flipped the page, letting Sylphe scan the next chapter. "If you adjust your vector approach by 0.4 degrees and cycle the thrusters instead of a continuous burn, you lose four hours of travel time, but the heat sinks maintain a stable temperature gradient. The formula for that is on page 412 of this book. I'll leave it on the table when I'm done."
Aria Vance didn't leave. She slowly pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. She placed her datapad on the table, her sapphire eyes fixed intensely on him.
To a Lumina, intellect was power. Efficiency was beauty. And this boy in the grey uniform had just demonstrated a level of both that defied logic.
"I am Aria Vance," she said, her tone entirely shifting. It was no longer an aristocrat speaking to a commoner; it was a merchant addressing a highly valued asset. "I oversee a... private supply venture outside of Academy hours. The corporate analysts I hire are rigid. They don't see the unseen variables like you just did."
"Oh no. No, no, no," Sylphe complained loudly in his head. "She’s trying to recruit you. Tell her you are exclusive! Tell her I handle all your analytics!"
Chen Xi kept his eyes on his book, but a faint, calculating smile touched his lips. "I build machines, Aria. I don't run shipping companies."
"Supply chains are machines, Chen Xi," Aria countered smoothly, leaning in slightly. The floral perfume washed over him again. "Just built with credits and ships instead of steel and gears. If you can optimize my routes like that... I can pay you."
"I don't need credits," Chen Xi replied.
Aria raised an eyebrow. "Everyone needs credits."
"I need rare ores. I need restricted corporate blueprints. I need access to the logistics auction house that only Inner City elites have clearance for," Chen Xi listed calmly, finally looking up from the book to meet her gaze. "Can the Vance family provide that?"
Aria’s crystalline eyes sparkled with genuine excitement. A transaction. She understood transactions perfectly.
"I can grant you a proxy-clearance code to the VIP auction networks by tonight," Aria promised, tapping her datapad. "And I can funnel Grade-B and Grade-A ores to your workshop under the guise of 'academic waste disposal.' In return, I want you to review my primary routing algorithms for two hours every week. Exclusively."
"I object! Two hours? With her?" Sylphe protested, her tiny hologram crossing her arms and pouting fiercely. "Chen Xi, I will compress your kinetic Qi and blow up her datapad. I swear it."
We need the auction house, Sylphe, Chen Xi reasoned. With Aria securing raw materials and Yuxuan securing Elite combat gear, we'll have an infinite loop of resources without ever exposing ourselves.
"Two hours a week," Chen Xi agreed, closing the book and pushing it across the table toward her. "But I don't go to the Inner Spire. You bring the data to my workshop. Unit 73."
Aria took the heavy book, her fingers brushing against the worn leather. She smiled—a sharp, brilliant smile that promised immense wealth and ruthless efficiency.
"It's a deal, Ghost of the Archives," Aria said, standing up. "I'll see you in Unit 73. Don't think about taking commissions from the Lin or Zhao families. You belong to the Vance network now."
She turned and walked away, the click of her heels echoing triumphantly in the quiet library.
Chen Xi watched her go, leaning back in his chair.
"She thinks she bought me," Chen Xi murmured softly.
"Let her think what she wants," Sylphe said, floating up to rest on his nose, glaring in the direction Aria had gone. "We just secured an unlimited supply of high-tier ores and a Lumina proxy code. By the time she realizes you are the one pulling the strings, we will have bought her entire syndicate."
Chen Xi chuckled, the sound low and dangerous. "Exactly. Come on, Sylphe. We have enough theory for one day. It's time to head back to the workshop. Yuxuan's Aether-ores should be arriving tonight."
The quiet phase of accumulation had begun. The elites were playing their games in the sunlight, but down in the dark, Chen Xi was quietly building an empire.