Chapter 127
Darren had just left when a black and gold mech landed outside the white spider webs’ boarder. Osborne opened the cockpit and jumped from a height of dozens of meters.
The starship he was originally riding in was somehow tampered with, making the energy converter break halfway through the journey. In order to ensure Cecil and the other candidates’ safety, he abandoned the starship and crew members and rushed over alone with his mech. He saw the whole process of Cecil’s fight from the cockpit.
The way he waved his sword was so dazzling, like a gust of wind, and also like a bolt of lightning, turning bloody killings into beautiful art. When all the dust had settled, he stood on the spider’s back with a calm smile, this scene was like a bullet that penetrated through Osborne’s heart. His breathing quickened, his heartbeat was in disorder, and he gazed at the teenager on the screen with an obsessive expression that even he didn’t notice.
He walked to the edge of the spider’s web and hoarsely asked, “Cecil, are you okay? Is anybody hurt?”
“We’re good, now the goal is to quickly melt these spider webs, so we can get out.” Zhou Yun Sheng sat cross-legged on the spider’s back and casually waved.
“Wait a while longer, the rescue team will arrive soon, they should have the dissolving agent.” Osborne stood still, his gaze never leaving the boy’s body. In fact, he had a few barrels of dissolving agent in his cockpit, but he would never take them out. He wanted to stay with Cecil for a while longer.
He turned away and came back a few minutes later carrying a huge plank of wood, he pushed it across the white spider web and reached out, “Cecil, come out first.”
“Nah, it’s nice here.” Zhou Yun Sheng waved. Although the phantom spider was disgusting, the flexible fur that covered its body was very soft, just like sitting on a carpet.
Osborne hopped onto the plank and walked over to him. A phantom spider was as big as a car, enough to sit the two of them. Zhou Yun Sheng moved aside to welcome Osborne’s arrival, but he couldn’t help but mockingly say, “The rescue team always seems to come after everything is done.”
“Our starship was tampered with. I’ll definitely thoroughly investigated it when I go back.”
Osborne sat next to the boy, his expression serious, but his heart was beating wildly. He felt nervous, and his palms began to sweat. He couldn’t help thinking of their last unpleasant conversation and said in a low voice, “Cecil, I said some inappropriate things before, I’m very sorry. Please believe that no matter what you want to do, I’ll unconditionally support you.” But that doesn’t include you showing off your half-naked body.
Of course, he didn’t dare speak the last sentence.
Zhou Yun Sheng glanced at him and waved away his concerns, “It was just a small tiff, I’ve already forgotten about it.”
Osborne finally regained his composure after ten days of uneasiness. He wiped the sweat on his palms on the spider’s fur, then lowered his head to hide his smile. He was too fond of Cecil’s brightness and open-mindedness, and he liked how he lost the ability to speak when in front of him.
He feared that he would anger him like the last time. If Cecil was not happy, his mood would be very nervous.
The two men sat in silence for a moment. The other candidates were firmly stuck, some couldn’t even open their mouth and eyes, the only one who kept his five senses was the Alpha. He was a fan of Osborne, he spoke hoarsely, “General Matthew, is that your exclusive mech?”
“Yes.” Osborne nodded.
Zhou Yun Sheng also noticed the quiet, luxurious looking black and gold sleek mech, he couldn’t help but glance at it some more. Osborne’s heart was moved, he asked, “Do you want to go in and take a look?”
Zhou Yun Sheng was about to agree when the Alpha asked in surprise, “Cough, isn’t this ultra-mech something that only people with 3S level spiritual power and physique can enter? Otherwise, the massive pressure of the nine groups of energy stones starting up together will crush the people inside?”
Average mech only used one group of energy stones, after starting up, the pressure was enough to kill B-level people and below on the spot. So Chelman Military Academy had very high requirements for the students’ physique for this reason. The more energy stones built into the mech, the more powerful its performance, but its spiritual and physical power requirements were also more stringent.
Only five mech were loaded with nine sets of energy stones in the galaxy, it’s not because of its very high precision manufacturing and technology requirements, but because very few people could control them. If the driver didn’t have 3S level spiritual and physical power, as long as they crossed into the cockpit, they would be crushed into minced meat by a pressure hundreds of times greater than Empire Star’s gravity.
Therefore, the ultra-mech were equivalent to legends in the galaxy, currently only three people could drive them in all the stars, and the Lennon Empire had only one, Osborne. Osborne was the youngest and most powerful of the three, he’d once single-handedly wiped out a whole minor planet of Zerg, his ‘Strongest in Empire Star’ title was not groundless.
Zhou Yun Sheng was fascinated by the black gold mech, he jumped along the giant plank of wood to get out of the spider web, then cherishingly touched its cold metal shell.
Osborne immediately followed and said in a tense tone, “Want to go into my cockpit and take a look?” This was his private territory, no one was allowed to enter (of course, they couldn’t enter even if they wanted to), but he was happy to let Cecil invade every single inch of his private territory.
“How do you know I can go in?” Zhou Yun Sheng blinked his peach blossom eyes at him.
Every hair on Osborne’s body stood erect. He liked it when the boy was focused on his body, it felt like a thread was pulling out from his heart, tightly winding around his body, slowly, until even breathing became difficult. He took a deep breath and said, “I can feel the strength in you, intuition tells me that you and I are the same.”
Zhou Yun Sheng smiled, his toes lightly touched along the mech’s surface as he jumped up, arriving at the cockpit’s entrance in three jumps, then, under the attention of everyone in the stars, he gracefully stepped in.
A smile quickly flashed across Osborne’s eyes, then he also jumped in.
“What the fuck, he really went in!” The Alpha still stuck in the spider web couldn’t help but explode in foul language. He’d had no previous contact with Cecil, he didn’t understand his strength, although he’d watched him solo a dozen phantom spiders, he’d relied on superb swordsmanship, accurate judgment and agility, from his appearance, he didn’t expect such a slender person would have 3S level spiritual power and physique.
Such people were able to abandon protective clothing and travel across the universe in their fleshy bodies at their leisure, an abnormal group, there was no more than ten of them in the galaxy. If he was not mistaken, wasn’t Cecil an Omega? Since when did Omega defy the natural order this much?
The Alpha was completely in a trance. The audience on the Star Network were also speechless with astonishment. They had also guessed at Cecil’s strength before, but many believed that his spiritual strength and physique should be S-class, they wouldn’t ever guess he was 3S.
“Oy, is this a scam?”
“Scamming a ghost ah? If you knew you were gonna die, would you go in and look?”
“Cecil is definitely not an Omega, he must be an Alpha. Old Bernard concealed his sex in order to keep him as a trump card. These political schemes go too deep!” Conspiracy theories were coming out.
But in any case, Lennon Empire now had another 3S level player, which was a good thing. The major forces would be focused on the Bernard family, because they knew that the rise of the Bernard family was unstoppable, unless Cecil was killed pre-maturely.
Old Bernard felt the cloud of gloom accompanying the Bernard family’s rise back to glory. Even if Cecil could become a powerful force to defend the Empire, there would always be selfish people who wanted to kill him, maybe the hostile Freedom Federation and Ballou Republic forces would collab to eradicate Cecil.
He had to make his grandson stronger as quickly as possible. He began calling the personal terminals of old contacts, and the results were very satisfying, they had seen the value in Cecil and offered their sincerity.
In Chelman Military Academy’s cafeteria, all the students were staring at the big screen with dull expressions. They would’ve never imagined that Cecil had a 3S level spiritual power and physique, even in the eyes of some of the most excellent Alpha, this was an abnormal existence.
Kyle smiled in delight and said, “He really is the most special.”
Joshua didn’t make his mood obvious, but his hands, which were holding a knife and fork, were trembling. He’d thought that Cecil had S or 2S-level spiritual force, B + or A-level physique, but now he found that he had underestimated Cecil because of subconscious jealousy.
His character was bright and open, he was knowledgeable, interesting to converse with, brave, strong, independent, with indomitable determination and boldness. And these were the qualities Osborne admired most, no, admiration was treating them lightly, he loved them. He could see that Osborne’s attitude towards Cecil was becoming more and more gentle, they had the same potential, sooner or later, they would stand at the same height, the genuine article of standing shoulder to shoulder.
And he, once praised to be a lover that could most match with Osborne, now looked like a joke. There were now people on the Star Network ridiculing Osborne for having no eyes, if they weren’t dating in secret, he would’ve long been attacked along with him. Joshua’s face was pale with anxiety. He tried to tell himself that Osborne was not a fickleperson, and this temporarily made him feel better.
He stared at the screen and tried to guess what the two were doing inside the mech.
Zhou Yun Sheng was from an era with the same level of advanced technology, he was proficient in a variety of electronic machinery, so he was no stranger to the internal structure of the mech. While touring the cockpit, he was designing his own armor in his mind.
Osborne quietly followed him, showing him a variety of gadgets, laying out all his knowledge without the slightest reservations.
He tried to restrain his desire to get closer to the boy, he was prepared to raise his guard, but he also tried to think of a few jokes, just as he was about to speak, Darren’s figure appeared on the 360-degree observation screen, he and his companions were quickly running with a few big bundles of herbs.
“I should go down, thank you for your generosity. When I have my own ultra-mech, I’ll also invite you in for a visit.” Zhou Yun Sheng waved and jumped straight out of the more than 10-meter high exit.
Osborne glanced at his cousin on the screen with gloomy eyes, then followed him down.
Seeing Cecil falling from the sky, Darren and the rest were dumbfounded. They certainly knew the origin of the black gold mech, so they were undoubtedly shocked.
“Why are you fooling around, shouldn’t we be squeezing out the juice?” Zhou Yun Sheng removed several iron drums from his space capsule.
“Yes, I’ll squeeze them right away.” Darren looked at the boy with awe, then he dropped the grass into an iron drums to crush with a stone, but he also didn’t forget to drive away his cousin that was closely tailing the boy, “As you can see, we’re not in danger anymore, and no one pressed the helper, you can leave. Please come earlier next time, don’t just wait for the excitement to be over.”
Osborne really wanted to grab the boy and strangle him, he stood silently for a moment, saw Cecil concentrating on making the juice, not even giving him the corner of his eyes, then left, depressed. The mech started rising into the air, and the boy on the screen slowly became a black speck, until he disappeared into the layers of foliage. He suddenly felt heart palpitations.
His heart couldn’t bear the pain of separation, as if he’d already lost the boy numerous times, finding him after pursuing him through the darkness, only to lose him again. He landed and immediately opened the Star Network, looking through the countless surveillance videos to find the boy’s exclusive channel, then the heart palpitations finally calmed down.
Zhou Yun Sheng used the patrinia juice to melt the spider web, rescuing the trapped candidates, then they ran for one day and night, finally arriving at the rendezvous site. With nothing left to do, they directly reclined on the grass.
The candidates arriving after them also followed suit, and soon a large pile of bodies laid on the grass.
As soon as the deadline arrived, the school counted the number of people present, 475 people went in, 462 people came back, they could determine that three were dead, leaving 11 people missing, but the school would join forces to search the jungle until their life or death was confirmed. Those who arrived safely would be immediately sent back to Empire Star.
The results were quickly summed up, and as the leading instructor, Osborne personally handed a military medal to Cecil. The boy smiled and accepted it, looked it over for a while, then pursed his red lips to print a kiss on it. The sight of this scene made a wave of electricity pass through Osborne, every hair stood on end, clamoring with desire for the boy.
He even quickly sketched a scene of the boy kissing him in that way in his mind. He couldn’t control his own thoughts, sooner or later, he would go mad from this longing. He found it difficult to walk away, then he noticed that many of the candidates were revealing questioning or resentful looks. They hadn’t witnessed Cecil’s Zerg hunting process, so they naturally didn’t believe that an Omega could top the list.
“Darren must’ve helped him cheat. Omega sure have it made, as long as they have a beautiful face, there will always be a strong Alpha to bring them a half dead Zerg to kill. But even cheating has to have a limit, isn’t 6857 points too exaggerated? Even General Osborne’s score was not that high, who does he think he is?” One of the students mocked, and contemptuous laughter sounded.
Osborne didn’t bother explaining, he opened his personal terminal and played back every instance of Cecil’s kills on a holographic screen. Every battle was a perfect combination of superb bodywork, accurate marksmanship, abnormal speed and 100% correct judgment. No one could turn killing into an art form like him.
He’d boldly walked into the middle of a group of a dozen phantom spiders, cutting them into meat balls with a relaxed and pleasant expression, the video was too thrilling, the ridiculing candidates were shocked speechless.
The man who’d just complained lowered his head, his cheeks turned purple, like he’d just received dozens of slaps, on the Star Network, countless people were ridiculing his ignorance and narrow mindedness.
“Anyone else wants to complain that Cecil was cheating?” Osborne looked around, the candidates who were touched by his cold eyes lowered their heads to avoid it.
“Very well, then let’s watch a video.” He clicked on his personal terminal and played a front-line combat video. CT073, after all, was a mineral star, the army periodically spent a lot of effort to eliminate the Zerg inhabiting it, cutting short their reproduction and evolutionary cycles, so the environment here was bad, but it was heaven compared to the real front line.
The evolution of the Zerg produced wisdom and more terrifying appearances, if Zhou Yun Sheng had to describe them, they were less like insects, more like aliens. They were indestructible, highly poisonous, with sharp teeth that could directly bite into a starship, some were very big, dozens of meters high, each step causing mini earthquakes.
The soldiers on the front line were fighting such fearsome creatures. Simple equipment was unable to hurt the Zergs’ hard shell, so humans invented mech, but even so, Zergs still held the advantage. They multiplied and evolved at a faster rate, almost every few days, they would annex another planet.
If they were allowed to advance, sooner or later, humanity would go extinct.
After watching the video, the candidates were silent, finally sobering up to how much responsibility they had to shoulder.
“Now do you know what a real fight looks like? You should be more concerned about how to improve yourselves, that will make you live longer. Now you’re dismissed, you’ll receive a notice of admission to Chelman in three days, please report on time.” Osborne closed the holographic screen and was about to offer to send Cecil home, when he saw Old Bernard standing outside in the hallway.
Cecil ran over and hugged him, and both grandfather and grandchild smiled brightly. When Old Bernard’s gaze swept over, his pleasant smile instantly turned into cold anger. He still couldn’t forgive the man who had given his grandson such a life-long shame.
Osborne straightened his back and respectfully saluted, then he stood stiffly as he watched them leave. He could see Cecil again after three days, it was only three days, gone in the blink of an eye. He told himself this, but he couldn’t ignore his inner anxiety and uneasiness.
He went to his school assigned single-family villa and found that Joshua was standing in his carefully cultivated rose garden, sniffing the most beautiful one. His eyelids were slightly lowered, his face revealing a holy and brilliant expression, this scene would’ve made Osborne deeply fascinated in the past, but now it had suddenly lost its soul sucking-like magic.
Osborne paused and found that his heart, which had once started beating wildly at the sight of Joshua, was now very quiet. The attraction to the surface couldn’t be compared to capturing the depths of the soul. He never knew that he was so superficial, just because of a beautiful face, he’d hastily discarded the happiness that was almost in his hand.
Thinking of how he’d already lost the right to worry about Cecil, and of how Old Bernard had vowed to never allow a marriage with the Mathew family again, redness gradually floated into his dark eyes.
He turned and fled, looking pitiful.
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Zhou Yun Sheng went home and immediately started designing his own mech. The Empire’s largest military factory could customize a mech for the individual, as long as you could afford it, even an ultra-mech could be made. But generally no one had such a mech custom made, because they simply couldn’t control it.
Old Bernard contacted several top designers and let his grandson communicate with them through the Star Network. Three days soon passed, and Zhou Yun Sheng arrived at Chelman Military Academy on time to attend the admission ceremony, rejecting the school’s request to speak on behalf of the freshman, and choosing the most inconspicuous position to sit.
He was the only Omega recruited into Chelman since its inception, he was powerful, looked beautiful, and was slender, almost no place was imperfect. He was wearing a starched uniform, each button was buttoned up according to the regulations, holding his cap in one hand, the other hand on his knee, it was clearly a very elegant sitting posture, but it produced a dangerous atmosphere.
He’d combed his black hair back, revealing his chiseled face, and because his skin was too pale, his eyes looked blacker, his lips redder. Such an eye-catching appearance, even though he was sitting in the most secluded corner, people couldn’t ignore him.
The candidates had went back to watch the whole exam video, they’d already learned that Cecil had 3S level spiritual power and physique, no doubt, he would become the Empire’s most dazzling star. They no longer dared to say anything about his sex and his marriage rejection scandal, instead they were awed by him.
When the ceremony ended, Cecil stood up and the people sitting around him made way for him.
Zhou Yun Sheng leisurely strode out of the auditorium and saw two figures standing by the exit, his spine suddenly stiffened. He tried his best to keep his eyes wide open, because he was too excited, his eyes were starting to water. The man who was smiling and talking to Osborne was Adounis, he could never mistake his extremely beautiful face.
He quickly walked over, his exploring eyes made contact with the other man’s eyes for a moment, and he finally recovered his reason. Even if this person was Adounis, he was an Adounis that had lost his memories, they were currently strangers.
He slowed down his pace, but couldn’t help but reveal a wistful smile.
Osborne had already froze like a statue when the boy had started looking in their direction and walking over, he was gratefully enjoying the feeling of the boy watching him, but then he noticed that boy was not watching himself, but the man next to him, Kyle Kleist.
His eyes were very warm, mixed with nostalgia, love, excitement, and disbelief. The boy quickly paced over, but he didn’t even give Osborne the corner of his eyes, which made Osborne’s calm heart set off waves. His left hand, which was holding his cap, slightly trembled from trying to restrain his fear, his fingers had turned pale.
He was all too aware of the hidden meaning behind the boy’s gaze – Cecil had fallen in love with Kyle at first sight.
This kind of thing is absolutely not allowed to happen! Cecil can only belong to me! His heart roared, the painful emotions blocking his nostrils and eyes, giving him breathing difficulties and an urge to cry at the same time. At this moment, he could no longer escape his true feelings.
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T/N:
Fickle-見異思遷- jian yi si qian – never satisfied with what one has/ to change at once on seeing something different