But thanks to Zoe Pierce’s interruption, the atmosphere between Chase Shaw and Nathan Lockwood visibly eased.

Miles Sherman and the others, who had disembarked the shuttle first, noticed the change in the trio the moment they saw them again.

Erin Xavier had watched the whole exchange. At that moment, she felt that neither the self-proclaimed composed Nathan Lockwood nor Chase Shaw, whom she usually found childish, could compare to Zoe.

Once off the shuttle, Zoe Pierce let go of their hands.

The sky over Siren Star was overcast and grim, the landscape vast and desolate.

Visible motes of dust drifted through the air.

Zoe Pierce’s expression instinctively grew serious. This was clearly not a place for fooling around.

The teachers standing by the shuttle and speaking with Miles Sherman were all dressed in training uniforms, their faces solemn and stern.

They seemed fine seeing Miles and the others, but their brows furrowed at the sight of Zoe Pierce.

It had been many years since an Omega had come here for training.

Mr. Troy relayed Director Quinn’s words to the man in the lead, Adrian Chapman. Even Chapman, who normally trusted that Jasper Quinn wouldn’t act recklessly, felt this particular decision was a bit rash.

Siren Star was no place for kids to play house.

His gaze lingered on Zoe Pierce, who had been singled out in the instructions. A battle-hardened man like him could easily spot the traces of her training and the rhythm of her breathing.

’Good, not as absurd as I thought. They didn’t actually send a fragile Omega here.’

"Let’s get acquainted. I’m Adrian Chapman, the resident instructor here. For the next four months, I will be in charge of your duties."

The five of them stood ramrod straight before him. Even Zoe Pierce’s back was perfectly straight. A flicker of satisfaction passed through Adrian Chapman’s eyes.

He continued, "The Xenobeasts you hunt on Siren Star will not earn you academic credits like they did during the joint exam."

This isn’t a joint exam. This is a real trial by fire.

"Even if you feel you can’t go on, you must stay here for the full four months."

It was common knowledge that the exhibition match between Zoe Pierce’s team and The Empire was scheduled for March of next year. All told, that was about half a year away. After spending four months on Siren Star, no matter how much public attention they had, it would have mostly died down.

At this, Adrian Chapman paused.

"The instructors here won’t hold your hand and teach you everything like they do at school. You’ll have to figure out the system here for yourselves."

The school’s station here was more like a base of operations. The instructors had their own missions and wouldn’t be supervising Miles Sherman and his team around the clock. At most, they’ll offer a bit of guidance during their downtime.

For the most part, they would have to rely on themselves.

This wasn’t school anymore; it was the real world.

For example, a team like Miles Sherman’s was considered complete. A complete team could accept missions directly, without needing to hire an additional Omega for pacification.

After his brief explanation, Adrian Chapman led Zoe Pierce and the others back to the school’s station, which resembled the dormitories outside the joint exam venue.

During the ride over in the interstellar hovercar, the difference between this place and the Capital Star was immediately apparent. There was none of the lush landscaping; everything seemed to be covered in a layer of gray dust. The buildings were simple and functional, designed more for practicality than aesthetics.

And from the school station’s location, one could glimpse that the layout of the area was not so simple.

This place seemed to be a core area for the Federation. Banks, local embassies, a local hospital, and even a military garrison were all within this central circle.

They had just landed on the garrison’s landing pad.

After spending a week here, Zoe Pierce had a clear sense of how different this place was.

Stepping outside the station, one would see all sorts of people. Betas were numerous here, while Alphas and Omegas were rare. Siren Star was the largest hub for the surrounding star systems because it was the most stable major planet in the vicinity.

The smaller surrounding planets were extremely prone to Xenobeast rampages, but Siren Star alone had been completely stabilized, thanks to troop deployments from the Military and the combined efforts of multiple parties.

People are naturally drawn to safe places, which had led most inhabitants of the smaller planets to immigrate to Siren Star.

Zoe Pierce also came to understand what Adrian Chapman had meant by the "system" here.

The Federal Military had placed early-warning systems on the nearby smaller planets. Whenever a Xenobeast outbreak occurred on a small planet, it was announced immediately. Large-scale outbreaks were naturally handled by the military itself, while smaller conflicts were left to civilian organizations.

Right now, Zoe Pierce and her team were considered one of these civilian organizations.

There were many teams like theirs.

Most people formed teams to accept missions, traveled via shuttles from Siren Star to the location of a Xenobeast Tide, and upon their return, presented proof of completion to receive a government subsidy.

To Zoe Pierce, this system sounded a lot like being a mercenary.

But this method was undoubtedly more advantageous for her. A team heading out on a mission was perfectly normal, and no one would pay special attention to which planet they were going to.

One day, the group was in the mecha training room.

When Zoe Pierce emerged from the training pod, drenched in sweat, Nathan Lockwood projected the information from his Intelligent Brain.

"I found something interesting."

"Planet B36 hasn’t had a Xenobeast Tide in nearly six years."

Nathan Lockwood had compiled the frequency of Xenobeast Tides on Planet B36 over the past few years into a line chart. For the last six years, the Federal Military hadn’t issued a single alert. But looking at older records, one could see that there used to be five to six Xenobeast Tides every year.

Then, the number gradually decreased, and just when it had fallen to three to four Xenobeast Tides a year, it abruptly stopped altogether.

Naturally, this was a good thing—after all, the Xenobeast Tides were gone.

But it clearly didn’t follow the laws of nature.

"Zoe Pierce, the matter with your family gets more and more interesting the deeper we dig," Erin Xavier remarked after looking at the data.

"To think a small-time energy mining merchant could stir up so much trouble, and now, it seems like other elements are involved."

"It makes it even more obvious that the mining accident that involved you and your parents was no accident."

Zoe Pierce pressed her lips together, staring at the line chart floating in the air.

Nathan Lockwood continued, "There’s also the population issue. On Planet B36, ninety-nine percent of the population is Beta."

He switched to another chart. It showed the census data for all the small planets in the vicinity. Planet B36’s population numbers were completely skewed.

It was almost entirely Betas, and every year, Alphas and Omegas were emigrating away from it.

Even though Betas made up the majority of the population, the ratio should have been around eighty percent. This proportion was staggering; it was almost as if someone was trying to build a planet purely for Betas.

This data was difficult to find on the Capital Star. It could only be discovered by coming to Siren Star and digging through the Military’s publicly released files from previous years.

Nathan Lockwood was the one who had taken the trouble, piecing together the details to compile this dossier exclusive to Planet B36.

Wesley White, a Beta... what role did he play on a planet like this?

It wasn’t just Zoe Pierce; everyone couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.