The referee's announcement was like a clap of thunder, jolting the petrified audience awake.
After the dead silence came a mountain-shaking roar.
Discussions, exclamations, and countless suppressed, distorted bursts of wild laughter instantly swallowed the entire martial arts arena.
Celeste froze in the center of the stage, feeling like a newly discovered species being dissected from every angle by countless gazes.
The ten-second transformation time ended precisely.
The civil official uniform and glasses on her body faded in a shimmer of light, returning to her familiar combat suit.
With stiff movements, she fled the stage under the sticky weight of countless stares.
But the aftertaste of social death was only just beginning to ferment.
"Holy crap! She changed back! What was that? A new type of optical camouflage?"
"Optical camouflage my ass! Didn't you see the power behind that staff strike that shattered the ice armor? That was real!"
"So... that outfit is her combat form? This awakened ability is way too weird!"
"Weird or not, who recorded it? I need an HD copy! Senior Lin wearing glasses, that stoic and intellectual vibe... I'm dying! Isn't this better than a hot-blooded fight?!"
Countless gazes felt like molten glue, sticking firmly to her back.
There was scrutiny, shock, and even more wild laughter from those holding it in until their faces turned red.
Some of those gazes were so hot they almost burned her skin, coming from student reporters holding up their Light-computers, eyes sparkling with the fire of gossip.
"Student! Classmate Celeste, please wait a moment!"
A boy wearing thick glasses charged through the crowd like a small armored vehicle, clutching a sketchbook tightly, his cheeks flushed with excessive excitement.
"That uniform you just wore was so unique! Which unit's civil officer uniform from the Lost Era was it? Are those glasses a special Catalyst for mental amplification? Can you describe the feeling of the transformation in detail? This is very important for my thesis!"
Celeste's footsteps froze.
She now just wanted to find a hole to crawl into or die on the spot.
"Yes, yes!" another girl from the History Club squeezed through, her voice brimming with uncontrollable excitement. "And that glasses-pushing motion! It was full of the pressure of calm and strategy! Our club is currently restoring ancient military etiquette; this is definitely a major discovery!"
Before she could finish, a staff member in an official uniform with a committee badge on his chest parted the crowd and walked over quickly.
He intentionally kept a straight face, trying to maintain official dignity, but the fire of curiosity in his eyes burned brighter than anyone's.
"Classmate Celeste, I am a Special Observer from the Tournament Organizing Committee."
"Regarding the transformation ability you displayed during the match, we've checked all records and found nothing like it. This doesn't follow standard procedures. Could you please explain exactly what it is?"
Celeste looked at the three pairs of eyes exploding with curiosity before her. From the corner of her eye, she saw her own sister, Selene, clutching her stomach and shaking with laughter, her phone camera still pointed unwaveringly in her direction...
Her chest heaved violently as she forced a smile from the corner of her mouth that looked worse than crying.
In a subconscious move, she raised her hand and pushed the non-existent glasses that had long since vanished from the bridge of her nose.
At this moment, she summoned all her acting skills, imitating a professional tone so cold it was almost inhuman, and spoke one word at a time:
"A type of... unstable Heroic Spirit Summoning Possession Technique."
"The trigger conditions are random."
She intentionally emphasized the words "unstable" and "random," attempting to douse all of their curiosity.
"Just now, for example, it granted me the 'Insight into Weakness' trait."
"Heroic Spirit!" The boy with glasses became instantly ecstatic, his pen scraping against the sketchbook with a piercing noise. "I knew it! That glasses-pushing gesture and the lines must be the combat habits of that civil official Heroic Spirit! So precious! This is living historical data!"
The committee observer realized with a start and recorded quickly on his terminal: "Weakness Insight... no wonder she could pierce the ice armor in one hit. 'Unstable' and 'random'... we will note this with the highest priority. Thank you for your cooperation."
[Ding! Passive social death has triggered intense joy in a specific group (Researchers/History Enthusiasts/Official Observers). joy value +88! Host, you see, as long as you find the right audience, social death can also bloom with the flowers of happiness!]
Celeste's eye twitched violently.
I really thank your whole family's flowers!
Unable to take it anymore, she grabbed the still-laughing Selene and, using all her strength to escape, sprinted away from the scene like a hundred-meter dash amidst cries of "Student, don't run!", "We mean no harm!", and "Just a few more words!"
Only after ducking into the Hover Bus heading home and cutting off all outside gazes did she finally collapse into her seat, feeling her soul return to her body.
Having laughed her fill, Selene wiped the tears from her eyes and put away her Light-computer as if storing a peerless treasure.
"Sis, that expression of wanting to kill someone while having to keep smiling... Hahaha... it's definitely the best footage I've filmed all year! Don't worry, I'll treasure it forever and keep it under encryption for you!"
She paused, then added sincerely, "But seriously, that outfit with the glasses-pushing move was so cool. You had that stoic battlefield commander vibe."
Celeste gave her a weak roll of the eyes. "You really are my dear sister."
"I'm not joking," Selene leaned in closer, her voice very low and her eyes full of stars. "Is what you told the officials true? Is it really Heroic Spirit possession? You didn't just make it up?"
Celeste rubbed her temples, knowing she couldn't hide it. She could only explain with a mix of truth and lies, "It's a type of... unstable special ability. The trigger conditions are ridiculous, and the effects... well, you saw them."
As expected, Selene was led astray and patted her sister's shoulder sympathetically.
"Got it. A passive skill with unknown cooldown and random effects that can't be manually turned off. Sis, you've had it rough."
But then her eyes lit up again. "But the effect is really strong! You pierced through Xu Bingbing's turtle shell in one go! This is practically a god-tier armor-piercing skill!"
At the mention of this, Celeste also calmed down.
Although the process was agonizing, the "Weakness Insight" and "Ignore Defense" effects provided by the system were indeed incredibly powerful.
This made her feel a mix of teeth-gritting dread and helpless anticipation regarding the system's seemingly unreliable abilities.
However, at the thought of the venti trial card lying quietly in the system inventory, Celeste's mood instantly plummeted.
Venti's outfit...
That's a hundred times more embarrassing than Pela's uniform!
On a stage watched by thousands, transforming into a Bard wearing White Tights and a green hat, and even having to strum a harp and recite poetry...
That's no longer just social death.
That's social extinction!
She secretly resolved that she would never use this trial card in the tournament, not even if it killed her.
"Even if I have to use it later, I must save it for the Domain points competition..."
"At least in a Domain, the live broadcast cameras might not follow me the whole time. Moreover, social death through a camera is better than social death in front of tens of thousands of people!"
"Yes, it's settled!"
With this resolution, Celeste actually completely relaxed her mindset.
Anyway, her most embarrassing side had already been seen. For the next matches, she'd just leave it to fate!
As long as no more weird transformations were triggered.
She even began to seriously consider how to allocate her physical strength and mana for the quarter-finals against the defense-oriented warrior student, Gao Shen, to wear him down as much as possible without using her trump cards.
After all, a support class making it into the top eight was an unprecedented record in Yi City.
Her name, Celeste, was destined to be recorded in the school's history.
And her brief glimpse of Heroic Spirit Summoning would surely become the greatest legend and mystery of this year's Martial Arts Exam.