“You can’t be serious,” Damien Strauss shouted with a grumpy look. “That damn thing nearly killed us.”

The examiners ignored them. Shon and Zora dared not protest, for anger was not a Fraxian privilege.

“I don’t think they are apathetic,” Zora whispered.

Shon shot her a look.

“I think they are desperate.”

This made sense. The sudden boost in difficulty in this year’s Exam, combined with the storm broadcast on the morning train and the sudden storm in the interior, all signified that something about the world was rapidly changing.

For all these years, Shon had persevered by seeing opportunities where others saw despair. This time was no exception. If he could defuse this storm right here in the face of the volatile conditions, he could be chosen as a Stormrunner.

Mom, Lydia, he thought. I am only one step away from the life I promised.

Shon, Zora, and Damien approached the third storm nucleus.

Compared to the two previous ones, this nucleus looked rather mild. The dimension of the nucleus was much smaller, reaching only a few floors in height. Despite the high winds, there was no sand or debris in the area blocking the sight.

However, the Fraxian thermal sense told Shon that something was off, though he could not pinpoint the exact reason. After all, the thermal sense worked as a survival instinct rather than a quantifiable measurement.

“Let me scout the area.” Zora took off.

Suddenly, Shon understood the reason behind the bizarre feeling. He picked up much more information than usual. It was the jarring sensation of stumbling upon a photorealistic painting in an impressionist gallery.

But the realization came a little too late.

The moment Zora’s body soared across the boundary of the nucleus, she lost control of her movement. Her body became a dice in a cup, tossed and spun in every direction by a wild mix of currents. Unlike the last two nuclei, which she navigated easily with her thermal sense, this storm nucleus stripped away her balance and perception.

But worst of all, Zora’s screams began piercing the comms.

“Help me… It’s so hot here.”

At a closer look, Zora’s face turned red and dry, and not a bead of sweatdrop could be found. She was struggling to keep her eyes focused, but getting violently thrashed around by the winds only compounded her nausea. Having lost control of her grappling hook and jump pack, all that she could do was ride the most optimal currents by adjusting her body in delicate angles to ride the most optimal currents. This would not help her escape the winds, but it could buy her some time.

However, at this rate, she could lose consciousness at any moment.

Before Shon could think, he found himself dashing toward Zora. However, right before he was about to leap into the winds, a pair of strong arms pulled him to a stop.

“Are you stupid? This is suicide.” Damien Strauss panted heavily, still catching his breath.

“She will pass out from the heatstroke. Let me go.”

Damien shook his head.

Shon looked into the winds of the nucleus. Zora’s trajectories became increasingly contorted, a sign of her losing control. If she were to pass now, the currents would swallow her whole.

Before Shon could protest, Damien spoke into the earpiece.

“Zora, turn on your recon spear.”

“This is my last one.”

Damien looked at Shon.

“Do it, Zora,” said Shon. “It’s the only way we can get you out.”

“But the Exam. You will fail…” Zora’s voice trailed off.

“I will defuse it without recon information. I’m the best striker at the Academy, remember?”

No more sound came out from Zora’s end. However, the display on Shon’s arm beeped. Zora had turned on the recon spear.

Without a solid surface for the recon spear to dig in, the rawly exposed sensors only collected data for a few seconds before getting shattered by the winds.

Only two pieces of information showed up on the display. Firstly, the temperature around the nucleus was fifty degrees Celsius, enough to give Zora a heatstroke in the next few minutes. Second, the atmospheric pressure inside the nucleus was abnormally high.

“This is a heat dome!” Shon shouted to Damien.

“That’s impossible. Storms can’t happen in a heat dome.”

Damien was right. This should be impossible.

Back in the Academy, the meteorology professor had once brought out a steaming piece of roasted chicken covered by a glass cloche. Through the dome-shaped glass, Shon could see the steam building up inside.

A heat dome was like this plate, the meteorology professor explained. The cold air pressed down like a cloche, trapping all the warm air beneath. In this system, temperature and pressure would drastically increase under the dome.

The only problem was that storms were only supposed to form in low-pressure regions. A heat dome was high pressure, and therefore it should be stable. However, the air currents hurling around Zora’s body seemed to suggest otherwise.

Being a Stormrunner required a delicate balance of science and faith. Stormrunners should always seek out the scientific explanation At the same time, they must be prepared to fight against new monstrosities that seemed scientifically impossible. Some of the most brilliant Stormrunner scientists had lost their lives when they obsessively attempted to reconcile scientific dogmas with new observations.

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At the present moment, Shon knew two things for certain. The nucleus was definitely covered by a heat dome, and there were definitely storms happening.

An exception to the rule existed. Storms could form at the peripheries of the heat domes, where air pockets of different masses collide. For Zora to be exposed to both the heat and the storm, there was only one possible explanation.

“It’s not just one heat dome. It’s multiple layers of heat domes.”

The idea of nested heat domes sounded like something straight out of science fiction, and a heat dome spanning so small an area seemed like pure fantasy. However, after encountering the non-Newtonian dust wall earlier, anything seemed possible. It was such a pity that Zora wouldn’t be able to witness this. A scientist like her would surely be fascinated.

However, Shon and Damien were no scientists. They immediately jumped into action, with only one goal in mind — to destroy the storm.

The plan was simple. To break the heat dome, the cloche of cold air on top must be shattered. After that, all the pent-up hot air would burst out of the gap, creating an unpredictable system of pure chaos.

Well, so let the chaos be.

Damien propelled himself onto the face of a tall cliff right across the storm nucleus. Taking a vantage point at a small pile of rocks protruding from the midpoint of the cliff, he swiftly set up his rifle.

“Remember to throw the spear far. This is real bullets I’m firing this time.”

Shon nodded. An energy blaster was insufficient to detonate a thermal spear in midair. Only a real bullet could do that.

Firing his two grappling hooks, Shon skirted along the edge of the nucleus, carefully positioning him just a few feet away from the boundary of the heat dome. He could already feel the violent air currents from the colliding air pockets around him.

Using the rock formations around him for support, he gradually climbed higher. He could not go straight up to the heat dome, because the unpredictable air currents would toss him off course like they did Zora. To maintain enough momentum, he had to orbit the heat dome in a careful dance, elevating only a few inches at a time.

After completing five orbits in under two minutes, Shon reached the top of the dome. At this velocity, he only had one shot.

He threw the spear with all his might. The flare tied to the spear lit up immediately.

Suddenly, the ground shook again. It must have been the storm quakes. The imperial Stormrunners still did not manage to secure the Exam Center.

Shit, that meant Damien might miss his shot.

Before Shon could complete his thought, a bullet whizzed past his ear. Had it been an inch closer, Shon would have dropped dead.

Because of the quake, Damien did not hit right on target. The bullet scraped the tail of the thermal spear, leaving a trail of smoke. The thermal spear was swallowed by the heat dome before it could blow up.

It was too late for Shon to change his course. He already anchored his grappling hook at the boulder across him, pivoting under extreme speed and sharp turning radius. Pressed by an acceleration force equal to five times that of Earth’s gravity, blood rushed onto Shon’s head, making his world turn black.

Shon could barely see or hear anything, but survival instincts made him release the hook at the last second, launching his body right at the heat dome. However, he was so tired. He could just give up the fight and go to sleep right now.

But Zora still needed him.

Shon felt a massive heat wave crashing against his body. The thermal spear detonated eventually, ripping apart a large hole in the lid of cold air on top. Barrages of hot air flooded out from that opening, but they were not nearly enough to stop Shon’s momentum.

At the last second, he opened his eyes. With the wild currents now escaping, Zora’s unconscious body went into a free fall without support. Shon snatched her from midair and held her limp body tightly in his arms. He could still feel her faint heartbeat.

Shon had to do another three pivots before he decelerated enough for a safe landing. By the time he hit the ground, most of the air had already escaped the heat dome. He looked at the nucleus. The storm was gone.

But there was another quake.

The cliffs, with their already shakey boulders, could not stand both the force of the quake and the chaos of the escaped currents. There was a loud rumbling sound. Shon looked up slowly. A wave of boulders, rocks, granites, and sand rushed down the hill that Damien stood on. They reached Damien’s cliff in no time.

Damien noticed the landslide too, and he immediately propelled off his grappling hooks. However, he was a guardian, not a striker. He could not maneuver nearly as quickly.

A torrent of sand struck Damien, swallowing him and slamming him off his course onto the ground.

Shon immediately flew over to help, but he could not accelerate in time to reach Damien.

Another quake. A huge boulder was dislodged this time. It rolled down slowly from the top of the hill, gaining more and more speed along the way, finally accelerating into a death ball, heading straight toward Damien Strauss.

Damien struggled to move, but he could barely push himself off the ground. The contraptions in his grappling hooks and his jumppack were completely immobilized by the sand.

Damien, now sitting right in between Shon and the rolling boulder, looked up at the death heading his way. He closed his eyes.

Shon realized he could not reach Damien in time. There was only one way left.

Shon braked himself immediately. With only a few seconds to spare, he drew his only weapon, the tiny rock blaster pistol in his holster. Shon would have hoped for that blaster rifle, but he had given it to Damien earlier. He prayed that XetaCorps blasters could live up to their names.

Shon, Damien, and the rolling boulder lined up perfectly. Shon aimed down his sights. He pulled the trigger once, twice, and then rapidly.

A torrent of blue laser beams headed straight toward the boulder and Damien. Some beams went around Damien’s silhouette, leaving fist-sized holes in the boulder. Others passed through Damien’s body and burned through the boulder behind him.

By the time the boulder reached Damien, it had already become shot through like a beehive. Its structural integrity was completely pulverized by the laser blasts.

Upon impact, the boulder shattered into pieces. Damien was knocked back. The rock probably still broke a few bones in his arms, but at least he was still alive.

Shon rushed over and checked on him. The blaster shots had burned his stormrunning suit into a tattered rag. The laser beams left scorch marks and bruises all over his torso, but that was as far as the flesh wound went. Just like XetaCorps promised, the rock blasters were unable to hurt another human being. After all, that was why a Fraxian like him was allowed to carry them.

All the air currents in the simulation course dissipated slowly, leaving behind an eerie void. Finally, the examiners began to speak.

“Congratulations, candidate group 76, you have successfully defused the storm.”

Shon breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally over.

“Candidate Damien Strauss has been awarded 92 points for his excellent marksmanship and quick situational response.”

Shon looked at Damien Strauss, who was still slumped on the ground from fatigue and shock.

“Candidate Zora has been awarded 94 points for her intelligent reconnaissance decisions and robust application of scientific knowledge.”

Zora was still lying on the ground. She had regained consciousness. A team of medics were giving her heatstroke treatment.

Shon anxiously waited for his own score. This was the moment he had been training for all these years. This number would decide whether he and his family could turn their lives around.

“Candidate Shon has been disqualified.”

What? There must have been a mistake.

“Reason for disqualification: Candidate raised a weapon against a Valerian citizen. The candidate fired a weapon multiple times against a Valerian citizen. These are not only violations of the Exam rules but also offenses against the Valerian criminal law.”

Shon could not process this. This couldn’t be true.

Zora and Damien looked at him, both of them trying to understand the decision. Damien opened his mouth, but no words came out. He closed his mouth and looked away.

“Are you serious?” Shon spoke in both anger and despair. “Damien would have been dead if I didn’t do that!”

“The examiners have acknowledged that fact. The candidate will only be disqualified from the exam, but no further criminal prosecution will be pursued.”

Shon could not speak. He could not think. Disqualified. That word was all he could hear as the world around him crashed down.