Chapter 309 - 273: Will Lead You Astray
Chapter 309: Chapter 273: Will Lead You Astray
"Can you communicate with them easily?"
Alex stroked Gu Ning’s face, feeling her skin gradually warm in his palm.
"It’s fine." Gu Ning tried to pull away, but the arm she was resting on was wrapped around her back, leaving her no room to retreat. She could only duck her head like an ostrich and curl into a ball.
Although she and Alex had been intimate before, this felt completely different.
Alex acted as if he hadn’t seen her flushed face and shy expression, casually asking about her journey and how she was getting along with her escort team.
Gu Ning’s current communication ability was limited to simple daily interactions. With the translation earpiece, she could sometimes follow conversations and respond, but her answers were basically limited to phrases like "yes or no" and "good or bad."
She could manage slightly more complex sentences if she wrote them down, but she couldn’t speak them clearly.
Her outer clothes were off, she had no pen or paper at hand, and Alex was holding her and not letting go. She could only stammer out her explanation.
Alex listened with patient focus, not correcting her even when she made mistakes, and was able to basically understand what she meant.
He had personally taught her the language before, so he was well aware of her proficiency in the Beast Alliance’s common tongue, which was, for all intents and purposes, a complete blank slate.
From this, he also figured out that she hadn’t been in Zone 19 for long.
He had only had those few days to teach her the language systematically, so for her to be able to speak to this extent was already quite impressive.
Moreover, her language didn’t seem to be in the terminal’s database. From the way she wrote, he could tell the terminal struggled to translate her language, and because of that, she had picked up quite a few mistakes.
He could also hear that her speech carried the habits of her own language. Even though he had rarely heard her speak her native tongue, he could sense that it was a language very different from the one used in the Beast Alliance.
Based on this, he had always been skeptical that she was a Female Beastman from Sky Watch Point.
Sky Watch Point and the Beast Alliance were originally one and the same. They had only been completely separated for a few decades, so even if their languages had diverged, they should still be similar.
However, like the Beast Alliance, Sky Watch Point also had primitive tribes that refused to interact with other races. The Beastmen in these tribes had their own cultures and rules for survival. They used almost no technology, maintaining a primitive lifestyle and at most using currency to trade for daily necessities.
The primitive tribes were not large. They possessed more stable genes than other Beastmen, allowing them to maintain their beast forms for long periods without mutating. This was the biggest difference between them and other groups.
However, their population was less than one-thousandth of the total population of the Beast Alliance.
The Beastmen of these tribes were originally scattered throughout the Beast Alliance, Sky Watch Point, and the Sea Area. After the genetic disaster two hundred years ago, some of the primitive tribes joined the fight against the Mutant Species and suffered heavy losses. When the tide of Mutant Species receded, they gradually withdrew to the Upper District and the depths of the ocean. They established their own territories, ceased all contact with other groups, and forbade anyone from approaching or disturbing them.
To avoid conflict with them and to protect their tribes from being disturbed, the Beast Alliance designated their territories as protected lands.
Listening to Gu Ning’s accented, awkward phrasing, and considering her incredibly stable human form, Alex became more inclined to believe she was a descendant of a primitive tribe from Sky Watch Point.
The Beast Alliance had difficulty even approaching and communicating with the tribes in its own protected lands, let alone the primitive tribes in the Sea Area and Sky Watch Point.
For these two regions, those who couldn’t swim or fly couldn’t even reach their territories, so naturally, they wouldn’t be able to understand their languages.
But from the information he had obtained about Sky Watch Point, the primitive tribes there had likely already vanished.
The Beastmen who had gone over to Sky Watch Point back then were all radicals in favor of genetic modification. In their pursuit of greater power and a more stable, perfect human form, they would stop at nothing. They were practically the polar opposite of the primitive tribes.
With their fanaticism for genetic modification, they would not have spared the Beastmen of the primitive tribes who possessed stable genes.
With that thought, Alex became even more certain of Gu Ning’s true identity.
Her various behaviors and habits also lined up with his suspicions.
After Gu Ning finished describing the obstacles they encountered when entering Zone 15, Alex saw how much she was struggling to speak and gently interrupted her. He brushed the hair from her right ear, revealing the earpiece she wore. "The translator you’re using now isn’t very accurate. When we get to Zone 5, I’ll find a specialist to help you adjust it."
He was skilled with machinery and system programming, but linguistics wasn’t his forte.
"If you can, try not to use this system for translation anymore. It’s inaccurate, and it’ll teach you bad habits," Alex added.
Logically, the terminal shouldn’t have been able to translate a language that hadn’t been cataloged and approved for translation. This was especially true after Sky Watch Point and the Beast Alliance had cut all ties, with the former forbidding the Alliance from using any of the technology it had once provided.
Sky Watch Point held the other half of the terminal’s core cryptographic key, giving it significant leverage. To protect its own information, the Beast Alliance had to abide by the contract tied to the key and had also activated a firewall to block network access from Sky Watch Point.
At first, he hadn’t known Gu Ning was using the terminal for translation, so he hadn’t made the connection to Sky Watch Point. But thinking it over now, he realized there were suspicious details everywhere.
Gu Ning nodded, but still said, "I need to use it now. When we get to Zone 5, I’ll take the earpiece off."
There were too many uncertainties on the road. It would be more troublesome for her if she didn’t use the translator.
Alex stroked her head and said gently, "Okay."
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—
"If you’re awake, come out and eat." Barto’s voice came from behind the door, followed by Cook letting out a "WOOF!"
Hearing their voices, Gu Ning’s eyes lit up, and she pushed herself into a sitting position.
Alex glanced at the door, then picked up her clothes to hand to her when a small bottle fell out of her outerwear pocket.
He picked up the small bottle and looked at it. It was pain medication.
"You’re taking painkillers?" Alex asked.
Gu Ning said, "Mhm. It’s my bleeding period. My stomach hurts."
Hearing this, Alex’s expression turned slightly serious. He said, "You didn’t mention your stomach hurting last time. Why didn’t you tell me?"
He had also questioned Watson in detail and researched the characteristics of a Female Beastman’s heat cycle at Sky Watch Point, but none of his findings mentioned symptoms like hers.
Gu Ning said, "Last time, it didn’t hurt. This time, it does."
Alex thought for a moment and said, "Is it because you’ve been traveling so much without good rest?"
Gu Ning nodded, rubbing her stomach. "Keep warm. Rest. Then no pain."
Alex seemed to understand. He placed his large hand on her belly and gently massaged it. The deep warmth from his palm seeped through the thin fabric, soothing her skin.
Gu Ning felt a dull ache spread through her lower abdomen from his touch, and a surge of heat made her cheeks burn even hotter.