At eighteen, Lu Yu nearly died at a landfill after someone swapped her college entrance exam scores.
No one knows how hard she worked to change her identity completely, repeat a year, and get into the Federation's top military academy at last, finally climbing out of the mire.
Only now she can never reveal her S-rank mental power at school again.
At a military academy full of the privileged, she seems to have low-grade genes, no mental power, no ability to pilot a mech, and mediocre grades.
"That's what students from the trash district are like," people say.
The Federation's future belongs to the privileged warlords' heirs of District One. They're all prodigies who have been expertly piloting fighter craft since childhood.
Lu Yu thinks they're right. She'll never be the Federation's future.
She'd much rather become its shadow.
If she can't get cold grades, then warm cash will do just fine.
Late at night, she accepts another job on the dark web.
[AAA Takes Any Job]: Mech entrance exam stand-ins and league match substitutes. Guaranteed S-rank results, all included.
[Anonymous Client]: Dude, are you really that good?
[AAA Takes Any Job]: [Image]
[AAA Takes Any Job]: All you need is enough money.
[Anonymous Client]: Deal.
Other people come to school hoping to earn honors.
She's not like those people born above the rest. She's here to make a fortune.
If nothing unexpected happens, she'll coast through a prestigious school, graduate, and bow out in triumph. Then she'll become a shadow beneath District One, rack up criminal charges like mission achievements, take lucrative illegal jobs, and have lots of lovers.
Maybe she'll become the Federation's most wanted criminal, take a bullet in the end, and live out her life in style.
Until one day...
As she crawls through the shadows, she suddenly swaps souls for a short time with Xie Wenxuan, the Federation military academy's top student and its most celebrated young mech prodigy.
She finds herself in the most heavily watched arena.
Over the comms, her opponent sneers, "Xie Wenxuan, there's no way you'll recover to S-rank in time. Give up!"
.
People say Xie Wenxuan is a once-in-a-generation mech prodigy, someone who has never been surpassed and never will be. No one can beat him at piloting mechs.
He knows that's not true.
When he was in his teens, he and an opponent whose ID was hidden as [****] took turns ranking first and second in the Federation Youth League for several years, neck and neck and far ahead of the third-place competitor.
He thought his opponent was just like him, a prodigy destined to enter a prestigious academy and earn honors, with a bright future surrounded by flowers and applause.
Before the Federation's college entrance exam, he sent his opponent a message.
[Xie Wenxuan]: See you at the Federation's top military academy.
[****]: .
But he never saw them.
His opponent vanished completely. He tried looking up their information, only to learn that their identity had been canceled and no record could be found.
...Maybe they were dead.
Later, after the brief soul-swap incident ended, Xie Wenxuan entered the back rooms of an underground mech arena for the first time and saw a beautiful girl beckon him with a finger.
"You want me to compete...?" The girl lifted her chin. "It'll cost you."
At last, after he managed to get her private contact information, he saw her communication ID and his pupils shrank.
[****]: .
A dead person had come back to life.
.
Blurb dated 2025.12.23
[Notes]
1. The soul swap is temporary.
2. The protagonists' names are provisional. I might change them if I think of something better.
3. More notes to come if I think of any.
Theme: Rekindling an old love, but what if the mirror never broke?
