VANGUARD

With the first light of dawn, the familiar rhythm of life stirs in the narrow streets tucked between Vanguard’s towering buildings. Young children run laughing across the stone pavements, while youths shout from behind stalls in the bustling public marketplace. At the very end of the street, the massive Headquarters casts its gloomy shadow over the entire city.

Behind the stone walls of the Vanguard Military Academy, however, this noisy vitality gives way to a disciplined silence. Standing before the class, the academy instructor looks at the young warriors lined up in rows and announces that their training has ended—they are now graduates. Each is presented with official graduation uniforms symbolizing their new status in the military. Kai, the academy’s star student known as the "Golden Guard," accepts his new uniform without breaking his composure or cold posture.

As the students flood out of the academy, an explosion of joy fills the street. Young graduates embrace, laugh, and celebrate their achievement. Amidst the commotion, Kai navigates through the crowd with a completely expressionless, distant face. Suddenly, his eyes lock onto a young man surrounded by people—Ryu. Kai watches this cheerful boy who effortlessly connects with everyone, drawing people toward him without trying. Unable to comprehend the intense affection people shower upon him or the natural warmth between them, Kai shakes off his unanswered questions and keeps walking.

Entering the familiar alleys leading to his neighborhood, Kai encounters the village elders resting by the roadside. He greets them respectfully and briefly asks how they are doing. Spotting him, children playing in the street drop their wooden swords and run toward him. One of them shouts with admiration, "Big bro Genius! When I grow up, I’m going to be just like you!" Kai gives them a subtle nod of respect and silently makes his way home.

Nobody waits to welcome him at home. In the deep silence between stone walls, Kai sticks to his routine: he tidies up, washes the dishes, and finishes his chores. Once everything is spotless, he kneels before an old wooden chest in the corner of his room, inherited from his father. Slowly opening the lid, he gazes quietly at the old military sword inside, the worn fabrics, and the relics bearing traces of the past.

As the silent night yields to dawn, the first rays of sunlight fall upon the academy grounds. All the graduates from yesterday gather in the sprawling courtyard to take the military entrance exam. Hundreds of applicants stand side by side in a single line, waiting motionlessly to take their first step into the brutal trial ahead.

◆ ◆ ◆

As the graduates gather in a single formation across the field, the legendary statues of Vanguard’s Elite Proxies, carved from massive stone, loom directly before them. As the gloomy shadows of the statues fall upon the young candidates, all eyes turn to the exam instructor standing on a raised platform.

Pointing at the map before him, the officer speaks in a booming, authoritative voice:

"This is your first official mission! You will infiltrate enemy bases and outposts along the desert border to retrieve encrypted documents and bring them back to Vanguard. However, the most critical rule of this mission is this: If you are captured or compromised in the region, Vanguard will offer no assistance whatsoever, and your existence will be disavowed!"

As target locations light up on the map, the officer barks loudly:

"You will disperse upon my signal!"

The Golden Guard shifts his gaze from the map to the candidates lined up beside him. The merciless reality of the rule instantly ramps up the tension in the field. He coldly scrutinizes the ambitious and opportunistic looks in the candidates' eyes. The excited whispers around him blur into background noise; Kai retreats into his own quiet evaluation.

At that moment, several ambitious graduates rush to his side, hoping to capitalize on the power of the academy's top student. Sensing their opportunistic motives, Kai rejects them all without displaying a single hint of emotion.

Then, his eyes catch the boy who had drawn everyone's affection in the middle of the street yesterday evening—the one standing out with his cheerful energy. The youth stands beside another candidate. Kai sees none of the sneaky ambition of the others in him; he is entirely transparent and genuine. Kai turns his steps toward them.

Approaching the pair, he announces in a calm, cold voice that he wishes to join their team. Bystanders look on in utter shock as the "Golden Guard," the academy's genius student, personally joins this group.

However, the young man looks back at Kai with a wide, genuinely warm smile. He treats the genius before him not as an unreachable legend or a threat, but simply as a fellow human being.

"I'm Ryu. The honor is mine!" he says, extending his hand warmly.

The Golden Guard shakes his hand and utters his own name for the first time: "Kai."

Right then, a sharp whistle pierces the air. The exam officer lowers his raised hand abruptly and roars:

"Time starts now! Move out!"

◆ ◆ ◆

With the signal to begin, the candidates scatter rapidly into the forest. The rustling leaves and swift footsteps soon give way to an eerie silence.

After advancing for a while, the Golden Guard suddenly halts. Pointing toward a narrow cave mouth hidden among nearby rocks, he speaks:

"We stop here. We need a plan first."

Stepping into the cold, secluded corner of the cave, the Golden Guard takes charge immediately:

"Our objective is to extract encrypted documents from an enemy outpost on the desert border. The enemy base is too heavily fortified for brute force. A direct assault will expose us. We have only one choice: infiltration. We either neutralize one of the outer patrols and disguise ourselves, or we use the base's shadow routes."

Once the main points of the plan are laid out, Ryu steps up to the cave entrance to keep watch. Hands shoved casually in his pockets, he silently scans the bushes and the depths of the woods.

The Golden Guard wastes no time turning to the other candidate:

"What's your name?"

The young candidate grins slightly. "Nabito. I doubt I need to introduce you, Golden Guard."

Maintaining his cold distance, the Golden Guard continues: "I need to know your power to formulate our strategy."

"Lightning," Nabito says proudly. "I can control electrical currents."

The Golden Guard nods in acknowledgement. He then glances toward Ryu standing at the cave entrance: "And what about his power?"

Nabito waves his hand dismissively. "He doesn't have an ability. His aura is zero. His only trick is raw physical strength."

Hearing this, the Golden Guard shifts his eyes briefly toward Ryu. Revealing no emotion, he maintains his stoic silence.

Without letting the quiet drag on, he continues his interrogation. Without sharing a single word about his own life or past, he remains purely in listener mode through the eyes of a strategist:

"What will you do once you pass the exam and become an Elite Proxy, Nabito?"

Believing he has captured the genius's interest, Nabito begins to talk. He explains that he comes from a lower class and wants to gain rank and power to climb the higher echelons of the military. The Golden Guard simply listens, weighing the man's ambitious attitude in his mind.

After the conversation, the Golden Guard stands up. "That's enough rest. We move."

Signaling Ryu at the cave entrance, the trio sets off once more into the depths of the forest.

◆ ◆ ◆

Advancing toward the base, the three-man squad moves silently through thick bushes when Ryu suddenly freezes in place. Raising his right hand slightly, he signals the others to stop. His aura-less yet razor-sharp physical senses have picked up movement before anyone else.

"Someone's coming," he whispers in a calm but clear voice.

By instinct, the three duck behind a massive boulder at the side of the path, melting into the shadows. Soon after, tense footsteps and hushed arguments approach along the trail.

"You're always acting like the boss!" a male voice complains angrily. "Nobody elected you leader, you can't make decisions on your own!"

Immediately after, a girl's sharp voice retorts: "I'm not trying to be the leader! But as long as you two keep acting like idiots, I have to make the calls!"

A third male voice cuts in, hushing them both: "Enough, shut it! With all this noise, you'll give away our position to anyone nearby!"

The argument stops dead. Rustling leaves and rushed footsteps signal that the other team is moving away down the path. The forest settles back into a tense silence.

Once the other team's tracks fade into the distance, Nabito stands up from his hiding spot. Dusting off his clothes with a smug smile, he chimed in: "Maybe we took this mission too seriously. They're just a bunch of rookies."

The Golden Guard looks at Nabito with a blank, emotionless expression. In those cold eyes lies a silent warning—that those who underestimate their opponents are always the first to die in the field. Without bothering to comment, he turns away.

"Let's move," he says in a flat tone.

A brief walk through the forest brings them to where the vegetation thins out, giving way to the dry, scorching desert wind. Reaching the cover of a rocky ridge, their target—the enemy outpost—stretches out before them in all its imposing glory. Watchtowers, barbed wire fences, and heavy patrol boots render the border line a pitch-black wall waiting to be breached.

◆ ◆ ◆

From the cold cover of the ridge, Kai begins observing the enemy outpost in the middle of the desert. High concrete walls, yellow searchlights piercing the night, high-voltage wires along the perimeter, and trained soldiers patrolling the towers with heavy steps...

As Kai calculates the patrol rotations in his head, Ryu gently points down toward the base of the walls. The argumentative team that had rushed ahead of them has already reached a vulnerable spot of the base and initiated their breach.

In that hidden corner, the three-man rival team leaps into action. The first member bends the light around his body, vanishing into invisibility; suppressing his aura completely, he slips behind a guard and silently neutralizes him. Meanwhile, the girl in the group emits intense heat waves from her hands, sizzling and melting through the thick high-voltage wires. They slip through the glowing hole in the fence.

Instantly grasping the alarm and inevitable chaos this breach will cause in the outpost, the Golden Guard sharply commands Nabito:

"Quick, blow out the main power supply!"

However, Nabito hesitatingly pauses. Frowning, he asks, "Why?"

Having zero tolerance for hesitation during a tactical crisis, Ryu doesn't say a word. Without waiting for Nabito, he uses the distraction and shadows created by the other group to slide like a phantom toward the bunker entrance.

The Golden Guard shakes his head at Nabito's amateurish questioning. "Stop questioning and execute the order!" he snaps coldly, immediately lunging after Ryu toward the bunker.

Panicking under the fear of being left behind and Kai's crushing pressure, Nabito sparks an electrical current at his fingertips, hurling it at the main transformer panel with a loud crackle. With a violent shower of sparks, the tower searchlights sizzle out, plunging the area into darkness. As all the guards' attention shifts to the melted fence and the exploded panel, Nabito dashes nervously into the dark corridors of the bunker behind the pair.

◆ ◆ ◆

With the transformer explosion outside, panic erupts within the rival team inside; stealth is completely thrown out the window in the bunker corridors. Blaring sirens echo against the stone walls with metallic clangs, and spinning red emergency lights paint the hallway blood-red.

"Intruders! Lock down the corridors!"

Heavy steel doors crash shut as dozens of trained guards charge into the hallway armed with weapons and swords amidst the smell of gunpowder and dust. As soldiers corner the first group, they draw their blades. Right then, the wind user of the rival team steps forward and swipes his hand. A massive gust of compressed air blasts through the corridor like an explosion—ripping up stone tiles, shattering windows, and slamming guards against the walls with bone-cracking force.

Following the devastation, the first team presses forward to reach the heavy steel door of the central vault containing the encrypted files. Just as the girl begins melting the lock with her heat, Kai bursts from the dark shadow behind them.

The blood-red aura enveloping his body instantly manifests as two towering, imposing ethereal arms. Kai delivers a crushing blow with his dense aura pressure, slamming the unprepared girl against the wall. The wind-using male immediately reacts, blasting a compressed air shockwave at Kai. Though the impact pushes Kai back, his red aura sizzles as it absorbs the hit. Kai hurls a sphere of condensed aura and immediately draws his sword to strike.

The girl shoots a stream of intense fire from her palms, filling the corridor with a wave of heat. As Kai blocks the flames with his aura, the invisible member—having completely erased his aura—emerges like a treacherous shadow behind Kai, locking him in a tight chokehold. Kai doesn't panic; bursting his red aura outward in a sudden shockwave, he breaks the man's grip.

In that exact split second, Ryu appears beside the man without making a sound or emitting an aura. Pulling back his bare fist, he delivers a punch of raw physical strength to the man's chin so devastating that the invisible user smashes through the steel vault door, crashing inside the room.

Kai doesn't waste the split-second opening. With the heavy hilt of his sword, he strikes the girl cleanly on her temple, knocking her unconscious to the floor.

Only the wind user remains. Ryu charges in, throwing a brutal body blow to break the man's defense. The moment he staggers and loses his balance, Kai swoops in from behind, striking the nape of his neck with his sword hilt and aura pressure to take down the last candidate.

Meanwhile, Nabito stands at the corridor entrance, fighting off the main force to keep them away from the room. Shooting powerful bolts of lightning from his fingers, he shocks and downs the incoming soldiers. But guards pour in wave after wave; realizing he can't hold the line under the heavy pressure and burning smell in the air, Nabito is forced to fall back.

Ryu wastes no time stepping into the open room and grabbing the encrypted documents from the table. Kai sheathes his blade, saying coldly, "We need to go. Mission accomplished."

Ryu looks toward the corridor entrance. "Where's Nabito? We can't leave him behind!"

"He's a liability," Kai states flatly. "He has to fend for himself."

As tension escalates between the two, the stomping boots and shouts of dozens of soldiers echo from the end of the hall. Out of breath, Nabito appears running frantically ahead of the surging wave of guards:

"Run!"