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ntranslator: baumkuchen editor: glitterypanda

n……Zhan Yanchao and Ji Zuoshan had split.

nThis matter was something anyone with eyes could see. As for the reason, there were all kinds of different opinions. The most popular version was that Ji Zuoshan had stepped on Zhan Yanchao to climb onto a new, higher branch.

nBefore Ji Zuoshan could even react, Zhan Yanchao’s irascibility flared up first.

nHe pulled out all the people spreading rumours one by one in series. He would first interrogate them for the name of the person who’d spread the rumour to them, then set about dealing with them. Each and every one of them, whether they’d passed it along in public, or whether they’d discussed it in private, would receive either a light lashing, or a heavy beating.

nThis caused public opinion to rebound for a period of time, with people firmly believing that Zhan Yanchao had to have a guilty conscience, and cared about his reputation, for him to become so infuriated.

nBut people who dared to talk about him like that soon received another round of beatings.

nZhan Yanchao had broiling with rage recently, like a demonic star. Everyone, no matter who they were, kept a respectful distance from him. The only one who dared to talk to him, was his one and only older brother, Zhan Yanling, who’d come back from the front lines to run a summer training camp for students as part of his job.

nFor the past few days, his younger brother’s eyes had been bloodshot. Unable to sleep at night, he would run to the training room to do simulation match training in his mecha. After finding out about the reason for all this, Zhan Yanling felt rather helpless.

nMadam Zhan was indeed able to give birth to good children. Zhan Yanling was a very gentle person, both polite and dazzlingly handsome, but he had a beauty of a younger brother who was like the devil incarnate.

nIn a sense, the two brothers from the Zhan family were both people who could make others’ legs grow weak at just a glance.

nHe was eleven years older than Zhan Yanchao. By the time Zhan Yanchao began to show the first signs of being a shameful bastard, he had already become the most stellar Alpha of his generation.

nAnd only in front of this big brother of his did Zhan Yanchao know to rein himself in slightly.

nAfter joining the army, he’d had much fewer opportunities to come home. What’s more, as a young officer, Zhan Yanling had a lot of heavy duties. Even just fighting against the Zerg planet already exhausted all his energy, he really didn’t have the energy to attend to this honoured big Buddha at home.

nDressed in a stiff, dark blue military uniform with a red embroidered feather, a symbol of honour, on his shoulder, Zhan Yanling carried his younger brother who’d gotten up in the middle of the night to go crazy to the living room. He poured him a cup of black tea. “Drink, it’ll calm you down.”

nZhan Yanchao glanced at the cup. His lip curled. “I even thought that you would pour me some alcohol. Isn’t everyone in your army packing alcohol in their lunch boxes?”

nZhan Yanling replied gently, but leaving no room for disagreement, “Don’t be picky. You’ve already got it very good. On this planet, there are people who don’t even have clean water to drink.”

nIf it was anyone else daring to speak to Zhan Yanchao in this tone, Zhan Yanchao would have long since kicked them in the stomach.

nFacing his big brother, Zhan Yanchao didn’t dare act impudent. He took the offered cup and took a small sip.

nZhan Yanling said, “Hitting people is bad.”

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nZhan Yanchao raised his eyebrows. “They needed to be beaten! Each and every one of them **ing lacked a beating!”

n“Just because they were saying bad things about you?”

nZhan Yanchao sneered, “You think I’m scared of them talking about me?”

nZhan Yanling didn’t speak, waiting for his explanation.

nZhan Yanchao rapped his knuckles on the mahogany long table in front of him. “They were insulting Xiao Ji. If not for them bullying Xiao Ji, would I have bothered with them?”

nZhan Yanling’s lips pursed.

nSure enough, like his father and the housekeeper had said, it was all for that human sacrifice who’d already cut off relations with the Zhan family.

nZhan Yanling had never interacted with Ji Zuoshan before, just having occasionally seen that silent and handsome child when he went home to visit his family. He spoke very little. When meeting others, he would smile, but the arc of that smile was never very big, and rather gave others a cold feeling.

nZhan Yanling had never understood why his younger brother, whose strength had outstripped his peers by a whole level since he was young, wanted to raise a human sacrifice. That was until he received a video through an internal line some time ago.

nThat cold looking youth was having his spiritual power tested in a closed testing room.

nAfter he released his spiritual power, the dial-shaped tester’s pointer madly spun more than twenty rounds from its starting point, turning from a tester into a sped-up CD player.

nThe youth turned to the camera, cocked his head and asked, “Is the test over? Or do you need to change the instrument?”

nThat video had been sent to all people at or above the level of inner division of the military.

nIt could be said that the reason behind Zhan Yanling coming back this time was for Ji Zuoshan.

nHe originally thought that his younger brother had seen his capability and had planned on making the best use of this human sacrifice, but now, it seemed like this wasn’t the case at all.

nZhan Yanling said, “Yanchao, you’re currently not acting quite right.”

nZhan Yanchao exaggeratedly raised an eyebrow, but he wasn’t able to hide the exhaustion and sense of loss in his eyes. “What?”

nZhan Yanling asked him, “Are you taking him as a human sacrifice, or something else?”

nZhan Yanchao was a little fidgety. “Who says he’s a human sacrifice, he’s Xiao Ji.”

nZhan Yanling stared at him and found that he didn’t look like he was faking it. He couldn’t help but ask in doubt, “You’re taking him as a friend? But I heard that you weren’t very good to him.”

nZhan Yanchao looked at the black tea in the cup and said angrily, “I was very good to him! He’s the one with no conscience! I’ve never treated anyone else like this.”

nZhan Yanling said, “Are you like this to all your friends?”

nZhan Yanchao said, just and forceful, “I don’t have any friends.”

nUpon thinking of this, he actually felt a little wronged.

nEver since he was young and up till now, he’d only had one friend, Ji Zuoshan.

nHe often lost his temper, and had someone to cover for him, so he just kept on being nasty at every step of the way. Ji Zuoshan was the only one who had never gotten angry, so he couldn’t help but try to find out where Ji Zuoshan’s lower limit was.

nZhan Yanchao felt like it was Ji Zuoshan who’d spoiled him and then tossed him away and felt even more that this person was incredibly hateful. He thought, gnashing his teeth, I’ve found a reason now, I’ll use this reason to question him tomorrow.

nZhan Yanling watched as his younger brother gritted his teeth for a while, then broke into a smile after another while. He thought, this child really is a headache.

nBut now, he was more concerned about Ji Zuoshan.

nCurrently, it seemed like using the connection between Ji Zuoshan and the Zhan family to pull him into the West Road Army wouldn’t be possible.

nFinding someone born with strong spiritual energy was a once in a hundred years event. Zhan Yanling himself was such a special case, but after watching the video, he couldn’t help but feel his back run cold.

nEven now, the current him could only make the tester spin one round at most.

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nIt was impossible for any of the military districts to ignore this kind of combat power with limitless potential. They didn’t even want to wait half a year, wishing for nothing more than to be able to recruit him immediately.

nHowever, his current Beta constitution wasn’t best suited for handling mechas.

nFurthermore, they weren’t able to change the entire planet’s tournament system for him. Hence, they could only resist the itch of impatience, and put forward their wish to see Ji Zuoshan’s combat power when solo.

nAnd the coming summer training could be said to be the nearest, and the most suitable opportunity.

nBefore the mecha tournament, all the students in the mecha academy got the chance to train against the Zerg. The participants would pilot their personal mechas, and as for those without mechas, the military would provide them training mechas free of charge.

nThe competition used the elimination system. Only mechas could be brought into the competition area. Food, water and daily necessities were all not allowed to be brought in. Some of the mechas’ functions, such as mapping, scanning, etcetera, would be locked, and the competitors needed to collect specific spoils of war, announced in a daily broadcast, by sunset, draw a complete topographic map of the mountains and rivers of the uninhabited area, and finally return to the assembly point to submit their spoils and topographic map.

nThe competition was being held in a place that had once been invaded by the Zerg and had now become thousands of li of an uninhabited, closed-off, dead area.

nThe scorched earth could be clearly seen on the military’s satellite map.

nIt had its own new name, “The Scar”.

n“The Scar” was a region with a complex terrain. There were overgrown ruins of cities, rainforests dense with greenery, as well as a continuous, one hundred li of desert, with poisonous snakes, ferocious beasts, exiled criminals, and a few Zergs that had been captured and brought over but had lost their value as research subjects.

nBecause of the death rate, participating in this competition was on a voluntary basis. After all, no matter whether the planet was facing the imminent fate of extinction or not, there would always be a group of people for whom just getting by in the mecha tournament and keeping their Beta status was their highest pursuit in life.

nThe competition was organised by the military, and was equivalent to their preliminary screening. Those with outstanding performances would be added to a roster and become the focus of their observation.

nBut this selection was different from the past. Before the competition even began, everyone’s eyes were focused on the same person.

nIt could be said that the sole focus of this competition was the one and only Ji Zuoshan.

nZhan Yanling saw that there was a conflict going on between his younger brother and Ji Zuoshan, but he didn’t feel discouraged.

nJoining the army wasn’t a trifling matter. Zhan Yanling’s division was one of the core forces in the fight against the Zerg planet, and undertook the duty of frontal combat.

nIf Ji Zuoshan was mature enough, he would consider the West Road Army.

nZhan Yanchao, however, didn’t know his brother’s thoughts, and didn’t plan on thinking about them.

nThe next day, he woke up from a night of disorderly dreams and prepared to find Ji Zuoshan for a talk, to accuse him of ruining him then throwing him away. Who knew that the moment he entered the classroom, he would see a few people sitting around Ji Zuoshan. There were both males and females, all of whom had gazes as gentle was water.

nSeeing this, Zhan Yanchao’s heart burned with rage. He sat down with a clang.

nFor the past few days, whenever Zhan Yanchao appeared before him, he would always be able to make quite a lot of noise. Thus, Ji Zuoshan would ignore him and simply quietly write his notes, letting the people around him fawn on him with warm voices and soft words as much as they wished.

nZhan Yanchao’s spiritual energy also wasn’t weak. He shielded himself from all sound in his surroundings, leaving only the sound of Ji Zuoshan writing from ten metres away.

nHis fountain pen was new, his book was also new, but the hand holding the pen was still his.

nThe tip of the pen made a peculiar rustling sound against the paper. It was as if those words were being written on his heart one by one, making him unable to help but shiver.

nIn this entire world, only the sound of him writing was left.

nZhan Yanchao thought, in the past, that sound would come from right next to him. Without having to use his spiritual power, he had been able to hear it crystal clear.

nThe sound of him shaking his wrists when his hands became tired, the sound of him dipping his fountain pen in ink, and his soft sighs whenever he couldn’t solve a question……

nHe didn’t dare think any further. He felt an instinctive fear, as if, as long as he thought about it, he would really lose something.

nAt that very moment, in Ji Zuoshan’s body.

nJi Zuoshan, “……Ai.”

nChi Xiaochi, currently focused on playing his card game, didn’t even look up. “Liu-laoshi, ask Xiao Ji if there’s any question that he doesn’t know how to do, and explain it to him.”

n061, “En.”

nJi Zuoshan said in a small voice, “Why haven’t they left yet.”

nChi Xiaochi slapped his thigh, his words instilled with implied meaning, “Because your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens. Of course everyone will want to come and bask in your glory.”

n061, “……”

nJi Zuoshan, “???”

nThe humble and studious Ji Zuoshan, “Liu-laoshi, what does that mean?”

n061, “……He’s saying that you’re amazing.”

nJi Zuoshan thought over that for a while, slowly reflecting on it, before his whole face flushed red. He curled up and stopped moving.

nTo his surprise, it was Zhan Yanchao who helped him out of his embarrassment.

nZhan Yanchao, unable to stand it anymore, turned around and scolded, “Are you done talking? You all keep blathering nonstop, do you have nothing better to do?”

nFor the past few days, it was as if Zhan Yanchao had eaten explosives. No one wanted to set off his trigger. Everyone winked at each other, then scattered like birds and beasts.

nRosie shot Zhan Yanchao a glance, then looked at Ji Zuoshan. She found that his head was lowered as he wrote his notes, and his expression was unchanged, utterly unmoved.

nOf course Chi Xiaochi’s expression wouldn’t change.

nEven if Zhan Yanchao knelt down before him and asked to become his Omega, he wouldn’t even lift an eyelid.

nWhat mattered was Ji Zuoshan’s attitude.

nAnd after a brief silence, Ji Zuoshan let out another soft sigh, “Ai.”

nAs Chi Xiaochi pulled off another victory in his game, he casually asked him, “What’s wrong?”

nJi Zuoshan said, “……I really want to be a Beta.”

nThis was of course just a grumble.

nBetas were the gender that was least susceptible to pheromones. Ji Zuoshan didn’t want to be popular, not even a little.

nThe reason for this, was the painful memories from his “past life” making him afraid.

nHe had never been afraid of animals. What he was afraid of, were things like pheromones, which could turn educated people into animals.

nChi Xiaochi poked and prodded at his screen as he spoke, “When I was a celebrity, I also thought that it would be good to be an ordinary person before. But when I achieved an appearance fee of eight million per two hours, I stopped thinking that way. Everyone has their troubles. Betas will want to be awe-inspiring Alphas, who don’t need to do inconsequential jobs that only affect trivial matters for a living. Alphas will want to be Omegas, who just need to lie down to have food to eat. Omegas will want to be Betas, who have stable lives and don’t have to worry about being dragged away by someone to become a high-ranking prostitute at every moment. If you spend your whole life worrying, then you might as well not do anything.”

nThe slightly disheartened Ji Zuoshan blinked. “……Yes, that’s right.”

nSeeing that Ji Zuoshan’s mood had gotten a little better, Chi Xiaochi asked 061, “Speaking of which, are there pheromones that smell of Chinese medicine, clams, or durians, those kind of things? Those that can make someone’s dick shrivel up with a sniff.”

n061, “……”

nChi Xiaochi then asked, “Would you mind that?”

nXiao Ji thought about a him that smelled of clams, and was momentarily filled with hope, “No, I wouldn’t mind.”

nToday, Ji Zuoshan gained a new goal to strive towards: to be an Alpha with the scent of clams.

nThe author has something to say:

nI’m sure there’ll be a few people who can’t distinguish between the two brothers names qwq

nToday I’m busy to the point of balding as always, so I can only give you guys so much food.

nThe live, large-scale, chicken-eating game is about to start~

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npanda: I really have a feeling that JZS and ZYC will end up together…

nAlso, JZS is soo cuuuttteeee!!!!

nbaum: just a note, I’m currently overseas and will be for the next two weeks, so chapters may come a little late! If I can predict it, I’ll let you guys know on Discord, but this is just an overall disclaimer haha

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