ISMW Chapter 76

An alpha using mental power to pilot a mecha?

 

Isn’t that an omega’s piloting method?

 

Yu Chen thought he had misheard.

 

In this world, gender doesn’t limit your ability to pilot mechas, but it limits the way you pilot them.

 

The physical strength of betas and omegas is naturally unsuited for piloting mechas. Their tolerance limits for overload are inherently inferior to alphas.

 

If one insists on eliminating this “unsuitability,” then other things must be used to compensate—such as higher-performance anti-G suits, decompression fluid, cockpits, and escape pods… All these things cost money.

 

The massive increase in costs only allows betas and omegas to start and pilot mechas normally like alphas. To pilot mechas well, they still need extensive daily training. Unfortunately, betas and omegas lose to thick-skinned alphas in this aspect too. Not to mention that once betas and omegas go to frontline battlefields as mecha pilots, if they get injured, the medical resources needed to treat them are far higher than alphas with their powerful self-healing abilities…

 

All these reasons can be summarized in six words: unsuitable, unnecessary.

 

Betas and omegas have military branches more suitable for them. They don’t need to force themselves down the “mecha pilot” path that doesn’t suit them, and no beta or omega has the ability to walk this path alone.

 

Then one day, an oddball appeared on this path—Yun Xunlan.

 

He was clearly an alpha, yet could only pilot mechas using an omega’s method.

 

Even more absurd was that he used mental power to pilot mechas and could still achieve perfect resonance with 3S mechas. This indicated his mental power level was definitely no lower than SSS-level. But why would an alpha have such high mental power?

 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re SS-level.” Yun Xunlan spoke clearly and fluently, letting Yu Chen know he hadn’t misheard. “No matter what your resonance level with Jian Xing Chen is, I can help you reach perfect resonance.”

 

“I’ve also taught you my fighting style. As long as you stay within my fighting framework, I can coordinate with you to complete all tactical movements.” The young man paused for two seconds. “Well, not all, but most, because you haven’t fully mastered my fighting style yet, so I suggest you use the moves we’ve practiced.”

 

Yu Chen neither agreed nor refused.

 

He raised his right wrist to check Yun Xunlan’s physical condition again. The light brain AI system showed Yun Xunlan’s physical state was normal.

 

But Yu Chen felt the young man was very abnormal.

 

Everything Yun Xunlan said revealed a sense of “premeditation.”

 

He should have guessed earlier—what alpha couple in the world would sleep together for a fucking week without making love, spending every day learning to pilot on the mecha simulation platform? He abstained from sex to practice abstinence, but Yun Xunlan didn’t abstain. He even said dirty talk that Yun Xunlan loved to hear every day, dancing on his sexual fetish every day. Why wouldn’t Yun Xunlan want to make love with him?

 

“Something’s wrong with your body.” Yu Chen jumped onto Jian Xing Chen’s hatch platform and quickly entered the cockpit. “Did Jian Wenxi also hack your light brain bracelet monitoring system?”

 

Inside the cockpit, the mecha pilot seat was empty, but behind the seat stood a cocoon-like opaque oval object—undoubtedly, Yun Xunlan must be inside this cocoon.

 

Yu Chen approached to study how to open the cocoon’s door: “You don’t need to help me. Take Snow Owl’s escape pod and leave. I can pilot the 3S mecha alone.”

 

Yun Xunlan seemed not to understand his hint: “Don’t open that door. You can’t withstand my pheromone impact.”

 

He didn’t ask why Yun Xunlan would have pheromone impact, only making his words more direct: “I’m also a 3S-level alpha. I can handle it.”

 

“No.” Yun Xunlan also spoke more directly. “You can’t.”

 

Yu Chen: “…”

 

When he lasted fifteen minutes the first time, Yun Xunlan never said he couldn’t do it! Even at worst on the virtual battlefield, he only said “not quite good enough”!

 

“Baby, I really need to finish piloting quickly.” Yun Xunlan sighed. “Using a 3S mecha to kill the king insect is faster. We’ll solve it and go back together, isn’t that good?”

 

Yu Chen had no other choice.

 

His research was fruitless. He couldn’t find where the cocoon’s door key was, even suspecting it could only be opened from inside.

 

Therefore, after nearly nineteen years, when Yu Chen sat in this pilot seat again, his mind was filled entirely with thoughts of Yun Xunlan. He feared Yun Xunlan’s voice would stop talking to him, just like his parents.

 

They left as usual, and the last words they said to him were “wait for us to come back and celebrate your birthday with you,” but they never came back.

 

Yu Chen once thought he would never have such fearful emotions again in his life—if he hadn’t fallen in love with Yun Xunlan.

 

He told Yun Xunlan not to be afraid, but the one truly afraid was himself. Even his hands trembled when inserting the neural sensors, the painkillers seemed to lose their effect, and inexplicable dull pain flowed through his body via neural conduction.

 

Yu Chen originally thought this pain came from wounds on his spine and limbs. After careful feeling, he discovered it originated from his heart—an organ without wounds.

 

It relied on Yun Xunlan’s voice to continue beating. The rise and fall of Yun Xunlan’s voice would affect its rhythm.

 

“…What resonance level can you achieve with the 3S mecha?”

 

Yu Chen heard the young man’s breathing becoming more rapid, his voice growing weaker.

 

So he raised his volume, reminding the young man not to fall asleep: “I don’t know. When I tested at Anlos Military Academy, I suppressed my resonance to 12%. Any higher wouldn’t look like an SS-level alpha.”

 

“Then don’t suppress it anymore…” Just this short sentence required Yun Xunlan to catch his breath twice. “I’ve opened the second pilot authority for you… Now I’ll withdraw all my mental power. Try to see how high you can reach.”

 

As the young man’s words fell, Yu Chen saw the 100% resonance on the display screen instantly plummet to 0%.

 

After he connected to Jian Xing Chen’s control system, the resonance returned to 100%.

 

—Perfect resonance.

 

Yu Chen wasn’t surprised by this result. He would be surprised if it wasn’t perfect resonance.

 

But Yun Xunlan had no reaction. Yu Chen spoke to him: “Lanlan, it’s 100%.”

 

The young man remained silent.

 

“…Lanlan?”

 

“Mm? I’m here.” After the young man finished speaking, he paused again, his voice weak and hoarse, no longer able to hide his frailty. “Baby is so amazing… doesn’t need my help at all.”

 

Yu Chen regretted pulling the resonance to maximum all at once. He thought if he hadn’t achieved perfect resonance with Jian Xing Chen and lowered the resonance by a few points, then Yun Xunlan would have to keep helping him make up for those few points of resonance difference. This way, Yun Xunlan might not “fall asleep,” but he was also afraid this would increase Yun Xunlan’s burden.

 

“I need you. This is my first time fighting Severir insectoids face-to-face, and I encountered a king insect on my first try.” He deliberately showed weakness to Yun Xunlan. “I’m very scared. Please keep talking to me until we finish combat.”

 

“Mm.” The young man smiled and repeated what he had said before: “Don’t be afraid, I’ll stay with you.”

 

“When you don’t want to tell the truth, you love to change the subject.” Yu Chen stated Yun Xunlan’s crime and denounced it. “Don’t just make promises with your mouth—show me with your actions.”

 

Yun Xunlan made another “mm” sound through his nose: “Okay, Teacher Yu.”

 

Yu Chen desperately searched for topics to guide Yun Xunlan to stay conscious: “Do you know what I felt about you when I first saw you face-to-face?”

 

Yun Xunlan recalled past memories, speaking from his own experience: “…Wanted to fuck me to death?”

 

“…I wasn’t that early.” After Yu Chen denied it, he easily guessed the truth. “You wanted to fuck me to death, right?”

 

Yun Xunlan changed the subject again: “I fell in love with you at first sight.”

 

Yu Chen showed no mercy and exposed him: “You fell in love with my mouth at first sight.”

 

“You’re a person too…” Yun Xunlan said with certainty, “I think you’re my destined partner (命定之番).”

 

The system had asked Yun Xunlan, did he really like Yu Chen? Did he like Yu Chen because Yu Chen saved him?

 

It had asked many times, but Yun Xunlan had never directly answered “like” or “don’t like.”

 

Because he felt his feelings for Yu Chen couldn’t be defined or categorized by either of these two answers.

 

“Like” was too shallow, insufficient as a standard to measure his feelings, especially since he liked many people—even though he had only felt “romantic” love for Yu Chen.

 

And “don’t like” was completely untrue, because when he first saw Yu Chen, Yu Chen was already the most special existence to him—like the last brilliant meteor falling in the dark night, telling him dawn was near.

 

So his answer to the system was: “If I were an omega, or if Yu Chen were an omega, then I would hope he could be my destined partner.”

 

The system asked again: “What if you were both betas? Or like now, when you’re both alphas?”

 

Yun Xunlan said: “Then I would still hope he could be my destined partner.”

 

—The other half ordained by fate.

 

They didn’t need to worry about whether they could sense each other’s pheromones, didn’t need to delve into when their “liking” for each other began, and didn’t need to consider whether they could form lifelong marks representing exclusivity and possession. They just needed to embrace the predetermined fate of loving each other once they met.

 

After all, they would eventually love each other.

 

Look, Yu Chen was now saying: “Then I also fell in love with you at first sight.”

 

“When I first saw you, I thought you were like a G-type main sequence star.”

 

G-type spectrum stars are golden in color.

 

They dispel cold with bright warmth, illuminate the night with brilliant light, and capture planets with powerful gravity.

 

“I used to think being a small planet captured by you wasn’t bad.” Yu Chen’s voice was also hoarse. “Now I don’t think so anymore.”

 

Yun Xunlan couldn’t see his face and could only ask: “Then what do you want to be?”

 

“In the universe, single star systems are actually rare. Most are multiple star systems.” Yu Chen said. “In binary systems among multiple star systems, the brighter one is called the primary star, and the dimmer one is called the companion star or secondary star.”

 

“Do you remember Kaiyang and its companion star? They’re very close, but there’s actually no gravitational interaction between them, so they’re an optical double star, not a true binary system.”

 

“I want to be your secondary star, burning for you forever.”

 

But the young man didn’t respond.

 

Yu Chen’s heartbeat heavily skipped a beat. His sapphire-like eyes were washed by moisture, becoming even more pure and beautiful, as if all the bitter cold ice had collapsed and melted, about to turn into teardrops flowing down.

 

But Yun Xunlan didn’t want to see this scene.

 

Stars are all blazing hot. Water should evaporate when it approaches them, but he had no strength left to talk to Yu Chen.

 

And he suspected that even if he spoke, Yu Chen probably couldn’t hear him—the alarm from his light brain bracelet was too loud, drowning out all other sounds. Except for it, Yun Xunlan couldn’t hear anything. He thought Yu Chen must be the same, right?

 

But he had promised Yu Chen he would stay with him and keep talking.

 

Yun Xunlan struggled to open his lips, wanting to tell Yu Chen his answer.

 

“How the hell do you open this thing?!”

 

“Major Yu Chen, please stay away!”

 

“Need medical team bracelet verification to open…”

 

Yun Xunlan heard many people arguing. The medical team doctors were persuading Yu Chen to leave, but the man wouldn’t listen.

 

“Major Yu Chen, please put on the pheromone isolation mask.”

 

“I won’t!”

 

The cockpit space was limited. Yu Chen exited the cockpit to give the doctors room to open the cocoon chamber, but refused to stay far from Yun Xunlan. He also pushed away the pheromone isolation mask Ni Chun handed him. He didn’t want to wear that thing. If he wore it, he couldn’t smell Yun Xunlan’s pheromones. Now he couldn’t hear Yun Xunlan’s voice or see his face—would they also deprive him of his last sense to perceive Yun Xunlan’s existence?

 

“Why are you wearing it?”

 

He looked at the black pheromone isolation mask on Ni Chun’s face, smiling bitterly in a daze: “You can’t even smell…”

 

But deep despair appeared in Ni Chun’s eyes: “I also wish I couldn’t smell…”

 

Before the beta’s words faded, a white light flashed before Yu Chen’s eyes. At that moment, it was as if a supernova exploded in his brain. The intense impact temporarily blinded and deafened him. The extremely rich lychee rose scent was like poison, corroding him completely from inside out.

 

Yu Chen staggered a few steps, coughing up fresh blood. His legs were too weak to stand, but his gushing nosebleed reached the ground before his knees.

 

“Put it on quickly—!”

 

Ni Chun supported Yu Chen and forcibly put the pheromone isolation mask on him without explanation.

 

This time Yu Chen didn’t refuse, not only because he realized he truly couldn’t withstand Yun Xunlan’s pheromone impact, but also because he saw the doctors push Yun Xunlan out of the cocoon chamber.

 

The young man was placed on a mobile small bed.

 

Unlike Yu Chen, who was covered in blood from untreated wounds after tearing off the neural sensors, he had no wounds or bloodstains. His silver hair and snow-white skin were clean like a brand new sheet of white paper—even his half-open eyes were silver-white.

 

Why had his eyes turned silver?

 

Weren’t his eyes golden?

 

Yu Chen stumbled forward in a daze, wanting to confirm if he had seen wrong, because he had just experienced brief white light blindness.

 

But the closer he got, the clearer he could see. Yu Chen discovered he hadn’t been mistaken.

 

Yun Xunlan’s originally brilliant golden irises were now completely invaded by cold silver, no longer showing any warmth. His gaze couldn’t focus either, his eyes completely unfocused, but he seemed still conscious and could sense Yu Chen’s gaze among countless people.

 

Yu, Chen.

 

Yu Chen saw his lips move slightly, unable to make any sound.

 

“Yun Xunlan.”

 

Yu Chen responded to his call—there was gravitational interaction between them.

 

So Yun Xunlan heard his response.

 

The young man curved his lips in a gentle smile. He took a breath of air, then slowly exhaled, telling Yu Chen in a small, weak but firm voice: “You already are…”

 

—I want to be your secondary star, burning for you forever.

 

—You already are.

 

Yu Chen should have been delighted by this answer and should have been happy that Yun Xunlan kept his promise to keep talking to him, but what finally weighed heavily on his heart was still only fear and terror.

 

“Detected main system bracelet owner: Yun Xunlan, life signs completely disappeared. Please immediately confirm Yun Xunlan’s current condition.”

 

“Please immediately confirm Yun Xunlan’s current condition.”

 

“Please immediately confirm Yun Xunlan’s current condition.”

 

“…”

 

The continuous sharp warnings from the light brain bracelet on his right wrist left Yu Chen at a loss.

 

Yun Xunlan was right in front of him. How else should he confirm?

 

Should he check his breathing, feel his pulse?

 

But Yun Xunlan was surrounded by many doctors, each calmer than himself, communicating professionally and composedly—

 

“Cardiac arrest, need immediate surgery.” This voice belonged to Dr. Edmund, whom he had heard and recognized.

 

“Silverization value 5967, already exceeding the critical value by 50 times.” This voice was Pei Xingting’s, equally familiar.

 

Just one term mentioned in their conversation was somewhat unfamiliar.

 

—Silverization value.

 

Mu Xingyu, Edmund, Pei Xingting… the word these people had once refused to say in front of him was finally materialized.

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