There was silence in the dim room. A cyan-blue light emerged from the screen, illuminating the table and the figure of a young girl in front of him. The latter stared at the screen without saying a word.

"Anyway... that's it. Sorry, there's nothing I can do."

"I see."

The girl replied calmly and then cut off the call. Then, she stared at the screen without saying a word. At this moment, the door next to her opened, and then a girl with wheat-colored skin walked in.

"What's wrong, Anesta? This is the first time I see you look like this."

Seeing the expressionless face of the girl sitting at the table, the wheat-colored girl frowned and asked. In her memory, this girl always had a smile on her face, looking naughty and cheerful, but now she was full of sadness and anger.

For the tanned girl, this was the first time this had happened.

"…Just now the student council president sent me a message."

The girl named Anesda lowered her eyes and stared at the table. Her voice was completely devoid of her usual liveliness and excitement.

"The Garden Council has passed a resolution prohibiting any intelligent machines from appearing in human form at the Star Warrior Festival."

"What?!"

Hearing this, the wheat-colored girl's originally calm face suddenly changed color. However, this was obviously not the only bad news.

"...The Operations Committee has also made a decision to ban the emergence of any human-shaped intelligent machines... All currently manufactured human-shaped intelligent machines must be destroyed..."

At this point, Agnestda clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. The tanned girl was also shocked to hear Agnestda's answer. Although she knew that the situation was not good when she saw Agnestda's expression, she did not expect that things would turn out like this!

"Why is that? Is it because we didn't achieve any results at the Phoenix Star Martial Festival?"

Although she said so, the tanned girl herself felt that this was too unbelievable. Indeed, at last year's Phoenix Star Martial Arts Festival, the Operations Committee Chairman had specifically mentioned the special permission for humanoid robots to participate in the competition. As a result, the robot they made not only failed to win the championship, but was even smashed into scrap metal in the first round. To be honest, this result was beyond their expectations, causing them to bear considerable pressure for the entire year that followed.

Unlike other academies, the Alecanth Institute is divided into five factions, almost all of which act independently. The Ideological Faction is mainly responsible for studying basic theories and natural sciences, the Lion Faction's main research direction is Huang-style weapons and weapon equipment. The Superman Faction focuses on body strengthening and transformation, and the Black Woman Faction mainly studies new materials and manufacturing processes.

The last school of sculpture is responsible for anthropomorphism and its control.

Agnesda Joune and the tanned girl, Camilla Paret, are the core of the sculptors. Agnesda, in particular, is playful and frivolous, but has a keen sense of observation and genius calculation ability.

However, although they are both members of the Sculpture School, their goals are different.

What Aestha wanted was to create a unique and strongest pseudo-form.

Camilla's goal is to create a universal pseudo-body that can be used by anyone.

To put it bluntly, it is the difference between a proprietary machine and a mass-produced machine.

Although their goals are not the same, this does not prevent them from becoming friends.

However... Camilla was also shocked when she suddenly heard the news.

"Why is this happening, Anesta?"

“…Someone saw through our thoughts.”

Having said this, Aestha suddenly gnashed her teeth.

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know how he did it..."

When Aestha said this, she felt a chill in her heart. In fact, Aestha's ultimate goal was to create an autonomous simulacrum that had emotions and could grow, and she also hoped that her "children" would one day have the same rights as humans.

But what Aenesta didn't expect was that her wish, which had been hidden deep in her heart, was actually seen through by the other party! ?

"…How is this possible? How could someone who is not from our school be so familiar with Falling Star Engineering?"

After hearing what Aestha had told her about Fang Zheng's speculation at the meeting, Camilla felt numb all over. She hadn't expected that someone would be so perceptive that they could tell their true thoughts simply from the human figure design?!

"I don't know either, but now..."

At this point, Aestha gritted her teeth and said nothing. Fang Zheng not only saw through her thoughts, but also directly blocked all of Aestha's escape routes. Not allowing the creation of human-shaped simulacrums meant that no matter how far Aestha developed autonomous artificial intelligence, they would never be treated as humans. Maybe there would be an animal protection law like pets, but... the future that Aestha hoped for, where simulacrums would have the same rights as humans, would never appear again.

"But this is just the decision of the academy. As for the integrated corporate chaebol..."

"The Mother's Cord is very unhappy with us."

Aestha shook her head. Normally, the resolution of the school meeting would not take effect immediately, but would be submitted to the Academy City Operation Committee composed of representatives of the eight chaebols for discussion. If it was just a simple request without any reason to ban the creation of humanoid mimics, then it might not be recognized, but Fang Zheng had made the reason very clear. There were also smart people in the other chaebols. They knew that this was not groundless, but a real threat.

So in the end, the Operations Committee not only approved the proposal in the academy meeting, but also directly promulgated regulations, declaring that all humanoid robots manufactured in the Academy City are illegal, and all existing humanoid robots must be destroyed.

Not only that, this incident also made the Our Lady's Rope Foundation behind the Alecante Research Institute very dissatisfied. After all, they are also conducting similar research internally. In the past, other chaebols did not care about this issue, but now it is certain that after this incident, the other chaebols will keep a close eye on the Our Lady's Rope's research on humanoid bodies, and you can't say what else will come out.

In the eyes of the Holy Mother's Cord, this was all the responsibility of Anesda and Camilla. If they hadn't been so eager to achieve success, they would not have let the company's confidential operations leak out. So they also responded - just now, they had notified Anesda through the student union president of Alecante, requiring the "Sculpture School" to unconditionally cooperate with the operations committee's actions and completely destroy all humanoid simulacrums.

It is obvious that the Virgin Mary's Rope is planning to sacrifice pawns to save the chariot.

This is the sadness of the Star Vein Generation. Although in this city they are away from the discrimination of the outside world against them, on the other hand, they cannot leave this cage. No matter what talents and powers they have, they must be at the mercy of the chaebols.

So even if Aestha is unwilling...she doesn't have the final say now.

But this doesn't mean she will give up.

"...Kasugano...I will never let you go!"

Aestha gritted her teeth and spoke viciously.

“…A-choo!!”

Fang Zheng sneezed and wiped his nose.

"What's wrong, Kasugano-kun?"

Nagakura Imari looked at Fang Zheng curiously and asked, and the latter shrugged.

"Who knows, maybe there's a pretty girl missing me."

“Haha…”

Hearing Fang Zheng's answer, Nagakura Imari was confused, and Juba rolled his eyes without any curiosity.

"Maybe someone is secretly cursing you behind your back."

"How is that possible? A man as handsome, gentle and kind as me would never make enemies with anyone, right?"

"Forget it, I don't want to talk to you about this topic."

Juba shook her head. After more than a year of getting along, she had gained some understanding of Fang Zhenggan's character and knew that it was pointless to argue with him about this issue at this time.

"I just want to ask, regarding that new training method...is it really okay?"

"Of course... there's no way it can be okay."

Fang Zheng curled his lips.

"Otherwise, why would we ask you to sign a guarantee?"

At the beginning of the new semester, students including Juba were notified of the arrival of the new teacher. Of course, what was more important to them was the introduction of the "special course". According to Jiujiu Sakuya, this special course was specially prepared for students who had undergone the sublimation ceremony. As long as they could pass the trial, they could gain a new and more powerful force that could compete with other schools.

But this is not without cost. Before accepting special training, everyone will get a letter of guarantee, which informs them that special training may threaten their life safety. If they don't want to accept it, they can choose to give up. But at the same time, if they give up the special course, their status in Haoling Academy will also decline.

This naturally made Juba and the others feel uneasy, and they wanted to ask Fang Zheng to clarify what the special course was about. However, Fang Zheng said that this was an interesting secret, and you would understand it only after you experience it - it would be too boring to tell it now.

If he couldn't beat him, Juba really wanted to go up and hit Fang Zheng in the face.

Of course, if she really dared, Fang Zheng would certainly welcome her.

By the way, as Fang Zheng expected, Julie and Hodaka Masa signed the guarantee immediately, while Nagakura Imari hesitated for a moment and then signed it. Only Tachibana thought about it carefully, and finally signed the guarantee with gritted teeth and eyes, with the momentum of selling herself to bury her father.

To be honest, Fang Zheng could tell from this that... Juba might not be able to pass this special course.

Perhaps Tachibana herself did not realize that the main reason why she participated in the special course was that she wanted to be with Hodaka Masaru, and obviously, she was unwilling to give up her partner.

But the question is, in the face of death...how long can this persistence last?

Well, Founder said he will wait and see.

“Drip, drip, drip.”

Just when Fang Zheng had just finished his meal, suddenly, the communication device next to him rang. Fang Zheng greeted Julie and the others, then walked out of the restaurant and went to the corridor to turn on the communicator.

Soon, Dongtang Daohua's voice appeared in Fang Zheng's ears.

"Ah, hello, Kasugano-kun, about taking charge of the Seven Stars Sword Dance Festival..."

"I have trouble with Sylvia too, so I only agreed to commentate on the semi-finals and finals. Is that a problem?"

"No."

Dongtang Daohua also breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Fang Zheng's answer.

"Then, could you please come to Pojun Academy? I have something I want to ask you..."

If I go now, I can come back in time to see how Juba and the others are dealt with.

Fang Zheng calculated the time and then nodded silently.

"Of course."