Chapter 3 — Beyond the Milky Way: The Miner Who Became a God of War

The next morning, when Lam Vũ and the mining team gathered at the entrance of tunnel number nine to receive tools, a strange figure appeared among the ranks of miners. She was a young girl, with a slim but strong figure, short, neat black hair, different from the carelessly tied hairstyle often seen on veteran miners. Her face was smeared with dirt that was deliberately smeared, but her eyes still shone with a sharpness that was difficult to hide.

"New prisoner transfer, number HT-2291," the supervisor announced, his voice cold as if reading a lifeless list. "Official title: Tư Lam. Crime: theft of federal resources in Cold Ash Belt colony. From now on, assigned to underground mining group number nine, under the direct supervision of the group leader." The girl — who called herself Tư Lam but was actually Úc Tinh Nhược, a former heroic pilot of the Freedom Fleet who was wearing a fake identity to hide — bowed just enough politeness, neither too obsequious nor too arrogant, a delicate balance that only someone who had undergone rigorous military training could display so naturally.

Lam Vũ stood watching from afar, a strange feeling arose in his heart. The way the new girl stood, the way she looked around to assess the terrain, the way she reacted to each of the supervisor's questions — all of it exuded a sharp calculation that was not at all similar to the panicked appearance often seen in prisoners newly exiled to the mine.

"What are you looking at?" Tiệp Phong nudged Lam Vũ's shoulder and smiled mischievously. "Like the new girl?"

"No," Lam Vũ replied curtly, but his eyes still did not leave Tinh Nhược.

The working session began, the team leader assigned Tinh Nhược to stand next to Lam Vũ to "apprentice". During the first three hours, the girl appeared clumsy on purpose - holding the drill in the wrong position, chiseling at the wrong angle, causing the team leader to scold her several times. But Lam Vũ, with the sharp eyes of someone who had worked in the mines since childhood, realized that there was something unnatural about that clumsiness, like a carefully rehearsed cover.

At break time between shifts, when other miners huddled together to eat their meager rations, Tinh Nhược sat separately in a corner, discreetly observing the entire tunnel area. Lam Vũ, irresistibly curious, walked over and sat at a reasonable distance from her.

"You're new here so you're not used to the job yet," he said, trying to start a conversation naturally. "Holding the drill incorrectly will damage the drill bit faster, the team leader will deduct the team's rations." Tinh Nhược glanced at him, her eyes quickly assessing from head to toe, then nodded slightly. "Thanks for the reminder. I'll pay more attention."

Her voice, although deliberately lowered and hoarse, still could not hide a well-trained accent, different from the way ordinary miners spoke.

"Are you from the Cold Ash Belt?" Lam Vũ continued asking, trying to probe.

"That's right," Tinh Nhược replied, without hesitation. "There's nothing left to live in there now, blocked by the Holy See after a battle."

"What battle?"

There was a brief moment when Tinh Nhược's eyes flashed a trace of pain, so fast that Lam Vũ almost missed it. "The battle between the Holy See and a group of rebels. It happened a long time ago, not worth mentioning."

Lam Vũ did not inquire further, but in his heart, his curiosity about this mysterious girl grew more and more.

In the afternoon, a small incident occurred when a gas pipeline in the tunnel leaked, causing toxic gas to begin spreading to a corner of the tunnel. While other miners were panicking and looking for a way out, Tinh Nhược, with amazingly fast reflexes, immediately calculated the wind direction in the tunnel and shouted out the correct escape route, saving at least five people from inhaling highly concentrated toxic gas.

"How did you know the direction of the wind so quickly?" The team leader asked, his eyes suspicious.

"It's just luck," Tinh Nhược replied, bowing her head in humility, but Lam Vũ standing nearby saw clearly the way she observed the airflow, the way she calculated in a split second — that wasn't luck, that was a skill trained in an environment much harsher than a normal mine.

That evening, after his shift, Lam Vũ happened to see Tinh Nhược standing alone in the hallway leading to the outside observation area, where one could see the artificial sky and the transport ships anchored in the central square. She stood there, her eyes focused on a specific ship, her face filled with something difficult to name — maybe nostalgia, maybe determination.

"What are you looking at?" Lam Vũ asked, walking closer.

Tinh Nhược was startled and turned around, but quickly regained her composure. "Just stargazing. There are no beautiful skies like this in the Cold Ash Belt."

"This is an artificial sky, illuminated by energy batteries. There are no real stars," Lam Vũ said, half joking and half serious.

Tinh Nhược smiled slightly, the first smile Lam Vũ saw on her face since she appeared. "Is that so? Maybe I've been used to living in an illusion for too long."

That sentence carries a deep meaning that Lam Vũ cannot fully understand, but it makes him feel a strange sympathy - both of them, in a way, are living under a shell that is not their true self.

"I heard that the Holy See is about to organize a Great Training Trial," Tinh Nhược said, skillfully changing the subject. "Are you planning on participating?"

Lam Vũ was stunned. "Why do you ask? I don't have a Spirit Bone and I'm not qualified to participate."

"I'm just asking," Tinh Nhược shrugged, but her eyes were fixed on him, as if waiting for a specific reaction. "I heard that this year's prize includes the Aurora Crystal. For someone whose loved one has Stone Marrow Poisoning, that must be a big temptation."

Lam Vũ was startled and turned around to look at her. "How do you know that?"

"Rumors spread quickly in the mine," Tinh Nhược replied softly, but her eyes showed a much more subtle observation than that of a prisoner who had just moved in just a few days. "I was just guessing. If I guessed wrong, I'm sorry."

Lam Vũ did not answer, but a vague premonition began to form in his heart: this girl was not as simple as she looked, and perhaps she had a separate purpose in approaching him.

"Who are you?" He asked directly, his voice becoming more serious. "A normal prisoner cannot react as quickly as you did during the toxic gas leak, nor talk like you are talking now."

Tinh Nhược was silent for a long time, her eyes evaluating him carefully, as if considering whether to trust the person in front of her or not. In the end, she just smiled slightly, a smile that was both mysterious and a bit tired.

“I'm just someone trying to survive, just like you,” she said. "Some secrets, when the time has not come, are best kept secret. But I promise, when the time comes, you will be the first to know."

Having finished speaking, she turned and walked away, leaving Lam Vũ standing there with a series of unanswered questions, and a strange feeling that his life was about to enter a big turning point that he could not yet predict.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the living area, Tiệp Phong was sitting with a few other miners around an energy-saving oil lamp, talking about the new girl. "I don't think that girl is simple," one person said. "When the toxic gas leaked, its reaction was as fast as a military-trained person, not at all like a miner."

"Maybe he used to work with the rescue team in the old colony," Tiệp Phong replied, but his eyes secretly glanced toward Lam Vũ, who was standing and chatting with Tinh Nhược in the far hallway. Curiosity mixed with caution in his heart, though he could not name it. Tiệp Phong had always been a careful observer of changes in the mining team, although on the outside he appeared carefree and cheerful.

That night, while lying on the familiar thin blanket, Lam Vũ thought about the mysterious girl named Tư Lam, about her sharp eyes unlike any prisoner he had ever met, about her meaningful words about Đại Thí Luyện and the Aurora Crystal. He remembered every little detail of the day: the way she calculated the wind direction in a split second, the way she deliberately held the drill wrong in the first hours and then gradually "learned" too quickly for a novice, the way her eyes followed the transport ships parked in the square as if searching for something familiar and lost. All of those disparate pieces, when strung together, paint an image of a person completely different from the cover of "resource theft prisoner" recorded in public service records.

He didn't know if she was a friend or an enemy, but one thing he was sure of: the path he was about to follow, whether he wanted it or not, now had a new variable, a variable named Tư Lam.