It was Shao Ci’s first time seeing their faces. He had to admit that they were extremely attractive, and they both had their own uniqueness.
Although Edwin had an illustrious background, he didn’t like other people nagging him. When he dealt with things, he was very lowkey, even hiding his own status. Most of the people in the school didn’t know about it.
And right now, Pei Shijian was also a new student who had talent and popularity. Nobody knew he was the renowned God Time in the online mecha competitions.
So both of them looked like normal students strolling around the school. There weren’t any crazy fans following after them, either.
Thus they strolled straight into Shao Ci.
In the next moment, the system began to sound.
[Beep beep beep… Detected a more powerful character… Beginning to change capture targets in accordance with the system’s regulations… Change complete. The current capture target is Edwin.]
Shao Ci: “???” Hey, wait, why was it Edwin?! He thought it would be Pei Shijian.
[It’s because the capture target Edwin’s strength is higher, of course.]
Shao Ci: “…” Well, that was true. Pei Shijian was technically still in the first stages of his development. It was normal if his power couldn’t compare to Edwin’s.
When Pei Shijian saw the two of them, he was different from Shao Ci, who had been scared out of his wits. Instead, he smiled slightly, greeting them, as though he was seeing a friend. He didn’t treat Shao Ci with the slightest bit of strangeness.
Just seeing Pei Shijian’s attitude, anyone could tell he was the one who had unjustly accused the original host of peeping on the men’s bathroom!
The more Pei Shijian acted like this, the colder Shao Ci’s heart got. He would rather Pei Shijian come over and whip him a few times to work out the problem. He didn’t want Pei Shijian to keep plotting against him secretly. Still, there was nothing he could do if his character was just like this.
When Ji Zhaoyun saw his adored idol, he became excited and opened his mouth, but because of his nerves he couldn’t say anything. After struggling for a long time, in the end he only gave a casual nod, not even saying anything. His attitude was obviously icy… If it wasn’t for the fact that he was always praising Pei Shijian at home, even Shao Ci couldn’t guess that he was Pei Shijian’s fanboy.
No wonder the original novel’s Pei Shijian thought Ji Zhaoyun was his enemy for a long time. He even thought of killing Ji Zhaoyun several times.
When Shao Ci thought of this, he felt that Ji Zhaoyun was absolutely miserable. He was actually fanboying after someone like this. Sincerity really was difficult.
Edwin was just indifferent. He gave a careless greeting to Ji Zhaoyun, completely ignoring Shao Ci.
To Edwin, giving a second glance to someone like this was an insult on his own eyes. He was still thinking constantly of the dozens of mails he had sent to Prince Latiao in his excitement yesterday, and whether Prince Latiao would disdain him for being annoying after seeing them. He couldn’t help feeling regretful.
But when Ji Zhaoyun looked at Edwin coldly. After all, he was just some guy who lost to Prince Latiao and let things progress so far. If he was a little more useful, the circumstances would be different.
Shao Ci, staying self-aware, said nothing. He wouldn’t make things hard for himself.
It was just some greetings, but things actually got so awkward.
Since both parties had things to do, they dispersed quickly. When Pei Shijian passed by Shao Ci, he threw out a sentence casually. “I didn’t think you still knew some schemes. But you won’t be so lucky next time. Just wait and see.”
His voice was very quiet. Only Shao Ci could hear him. His heart tightened, and he whipped his head back, seeing a friendly smile appearing on Pei Shijian’s devilishly handsome face.
Then Pei Shijian turned away, leaving together with Edwin.
To be honest, when Shao Ci saw Pei Shijian’s smile, he was so shocked he nearly fell to his knees.
Could things still be okay when the original protagonist set his eyes on him! With his schemes, he could cause Shao Ci to lose his reputation easily… Although his reputation was already gone. Forget it, why think about him so much? Even if the entire empire thought he was a pervert who peeped on the men’s bathroom, so what! He would still live on.
Shao Ci was simply giving up on a hopeless situation.
Ji Zhaoyun, who had already walked ahead by several steps, turned to glance at Shao Ci. “What’re you looking at? Stop looking, hurry up.”
Shao Ci hurried after him.
Ji Zhaoyun went straight to selecting a private room in the restaurant, then ordered a bunch of expensive food. When the food came, he looked straight at Shao Ci and said unhappily, “What are you still sitting there for? Hurry up and come to serve me. Don’t you have the sense of a servant?”
…Shao Ci was wondering if Ji Zhaoyun didn’t even eat when he was by himself and didn’t have someone to serve him.
Well, the capture target had changed. Similarly, Shao Ci was a lot lazier. He hesitantly said, “Huh? But I’m just a beta. It’s not very good if I come in contact with you, right?”
Ji Zhaoyun said haughtily, “Although you’re just a beta, you’re doing alright, you’re much better than other betas. I’ll permit you to serve my meal more closely.”
Shao Ci really wanted to say, “So what if you die of starvation”, but he had to lower his head under this roof, and he still went over to feed Ji Zhaoyun.
Shao Ci was very curious about Ji Zhaoyun’s favorability score, so he asked the system, even though this laze-about system could only check if the score was negative, zero, or positive.
[The previous capture target’s favorability score is zero.]
Shao Ci: “…” Hey, then why did Ji Zhaoyun even make him feed him.
[It’s because the previous capture target’s favorability score towards most betas is negative, so the host’s 0 is more acceptable.]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Shao Ci didn’t start eating until he finished feeding Ji Zhaoyun. He quickly sank into the blissful taste of the food, flinging all the unhappy things into the back of his mind.
Was there anyone on the planet as easily satisfied as him.
After Ji Zhaoyun finished eating, his mood improved significantly. He watched Shao Ci and said, “There’s a mecha battle lesson in two days. You’d better practice properly when you go back. I don’t want to see you humiliating me.”
Shao Ci immediately remembered how terrible the original host’s mecha battle grades were. Immediately, his face turned pale. The reason he could be so amazing on the virtual net was all reliant on his spiritual energy. But in reality, where his body would collapse as long as he used spiritual energy, he could only operate manually.
And his manual mecha operation experience was only from the warm-up during the battle with Edwin yesterday. He even fell down several times.
That was even on the virtual net. Falling down didn’t hurt much. But in reality, with an omega’s frail body, it would probably break his bones, and he would have to lay in bed for several months…
The original host’s mother and father had already talked it out with the teachers. Every time they had mecha battle lessons, he just wouldn’t attend. But it was obvious that Ji Zhaoyun wasn’t someone who could be reasoned with.
…It looked like he would have to go into the virtual net and practice his manual operations properly.
Most of Shao Ci’s good mood dispersed in moments. He picked up the tea on the side, taking a sip.
“There’s still that damn Prince Latiao,” Ji Zhaoyun snorted. “I’m going to go teach him a lesson today. I’ll let him know how high the heavens are.”
Shao Ci nearly spat out the tea he just drank. He began coughing.
“What’s wrong?” Ji Zhaoyun immediately frowned. “You don’t think I can win?”
“No, no…” Shao Ci hurriedly said. “How could Prince Latiao win against you? I believe you will definitely succeed!”
“That’s just about right,” Ji Zhaoyun said. “You did pretty well today. Keep working hard in the future. I’ll think about increasing your salary.”
Shao Ci was shocked: “!” He actually had a salary! He even thought he was just working for nothing.
In fact, Ji Zhaoyun was a good person, huh… But when he thought of how he was given a beating as soon as he came, Shao Ci decided to forget it.
–
Physical education was in the afternoon. Shao Ci worked hard to toughen himself before he realized exactly how bad omegas’ physical strength was.
He only ran for a bit, but he was already panting for breath, while the surrounding alphas were full of energy.
But Shao Ci felt he was doing pretty good for transmigrating into an omega pretending to be a beta. Although he would occasionally feel jealous of alphas, he wouldn’t go around cursing that life was unfair or anything like that… After all, most omegas were locked up at home, otherwise they went to all-omega schools, and once they came of age they waited to be married off.
If he had transmigrated into that kind of omega, Shao Ci would just choose death.
When school was over, he returned to the residence. Ji Zhaoyun went fiercely back to his own room.
Shao Ci went back to his room too, putting on the helmet and entering the virtual world. As soon as he went in, he was stunned by the amount of mail. Before this, the original host only had ten-some letters cursing him out for being a pervert…
These letters were all from people who sent them through the competition, and the competition’s system forwarded it to him. There wasn’t any problem with keeping his identity secret. Nobody would know Shao Ci’s mailing address.
Yesterday, Shao Ci just fought a couple dozen rounds and left. He didn’t think of going to take a look at other places like the forum. He didn’t expect that he would actually become a small celebrity in the competition.
Shao Ci poked open a few letters to take a look. Shockingly enough, there were a significant number of love letters filled with all kinds of selfies. There were even some from male and female omegas. It really gave Shao Ci a shock.
And Edwin even sent him several dozen letters. When he picked them out, he discovered that they were written in the same tone as a fanboy’s. Shao Ci really couldn’t imagine the cold Edwin from earlier in the day actually writing something like this… If he knew Shao Ci was Prince Latiao, who knew how he would react.
And this Edwin guy was actually ecstatic after being beaten. In fact, he was a total masochist, wasn’t he! …But living like this, he wouldn’t have any problems doing his daily task. Shao Ci thought about contacting Edwin to meet up online after this stuff was dealt with.
He could do his daily task with Schezar in his dreams, so it should be possible online too.
Another portion of the letters were related to a collaboration. There were also several strong people who wanted to pull him over onto their side. When Shao Ci saw the huge number of empire coins, he got emotional, but in reality he was a potato. What use was an expert that could only live in the virtual net? He could only reluctantly ignore these letters.
As for the ones saying how much money he could get by doing a couple random commercials during the competition, Shao Ci was very interested. It was just doing a few ads, how wonderful it was to earn money so carelessly.
Thus, after Shao Ci got the system to thoroughly conceal his location, he went to ask the other party about the fees. Finally, he asked around several places and earned a good amount of honest money. In moments, he had tens of thousand of empire coins.
Although the original host’s family were nobles, they lived about the same as commoners. A year of their expenses was only a few tens of thousand empires coins.
When Shao Ci finished settling those things, he arrived at the square with the most people. Shockingly, the most conspicuous advertisement had a declaration of war.
It invited Prince Latiao to go to a certain virtual mecha training site to exchange pointers. If Prince Latiao won, then he could get a million interstellar coins. If he lost, then he would have to withdraw from the virtual mecha competition, and never participate again.
There were a huge number of people competing in the virtual world every day, but there were only a few people who were so arrogant. It quickly drew many people’s attention.
People could see the ad as soon as they walked into the district. It cost dozens of thousands of interstellar coins per day.
Shao Ci understood immediately. No wonder so many advertising companies were looking for him just now. It seemed it was because of this ad’s positioning.
Shao Ci: “…” The damn person who put up this declaration of war was definitely Ji Zhaoyun. Should he go or not… Although Ji Zhaoyun wasn’t participating in the competition this time, he was very strong. He had avoided death from Pei Shijian’s schemes several times. After the plot in the original novel finished, he even became a general and Pei Shijian’s capable assistant… So should he go or not?
Wasn’t this nonsense? Of course he should go! Shao Ci had confidence in his spiritual energy. If Ji Zhaoyun was giving away money, why wouldn’t he go collect it? That was a million interstellar coins!
Shao Ci went to an individual-use competition terminal at the side without a sliver of hesitation. These one-on-one matches were also held through the virtual mecha competition’s system.
After he entered, a screen to select his mecha appeared just like it did yesterday.
Generally speaking, a contestant would use the mecha he was most familiar with. They usually wouldn’t change at will. They were also more personalized, where they would put a special symbol on the mecha. For example, it was easy to identify who it was just by looking at the mecha for the experts in the top fifty.
But Prince Latiao’s appearance made Pei Shijian’s outdated mecha look less unique, which was why Pei Shijian’s fans fans were so unhappy.
Yesterday, Shao Ci only picked randomly because he was poor. Now, he had so much money from down payments that he had become rich in moments. Why would he pick the worn outdated mecha? He immediately picked the latest, most popular mecha. It only cost a few hundred empire coins.
In the real world, he couldn’t pilot any of these amazing mechas, so of course he would give it a try online. He wasn’t trying to play cool like the original protagonist or anything.
And if he was going to shoot ads, then he had to pick a custom appearance and spend a few thousand more empire coins. Still, compared to his ad appearance fee, it was nothing.
Shao Ci went straight to initiate the new functions, copying the lines the ad companies gave him onto his mecha. The plain white mecha quickly became colorful. It looked absolutely stuck-up. It was obvious the owner’s sense of beauty was trash.
Still, Shao Ci didn’t care about these things. Compared to getting cursed out for his sense of beauty, empire coins were obviously more important.
Shao Ci opened the screen. As expected, he saw Ji Zhaoyun sending out a challenge. There was an attached agreement explaining clearly what would happen if he lost and what would happen if he won. It had been approved by the competition and was legally binding. As long as he signed, he couldn’t back out.
It even had Ji Zhaoyun’s signature at the bottom.
In the virtual world, Ji Zhaoyun was also hiding his true identity. Here, his name was Stay Away From Me. It really matched his personality…
Shao Ci signed the agreement at once, then clicked accept. His sight filled with color, and he was sent directly to the battlefield.
It was already filled with spectators. They were people who had just heard the news and quickly bought tickets to come in. These unofficial battle rooms all had to be paid out of pocket, but one percent of the ticket revenue would be split between the two participants.
So when Shao Ci saw all these people, it was like he was looking at empire coins. He felt very emotional.
Most people had come to see Prince Latiao. They also wanted to know who had challenged him, even wasting his money to buy the ad space in the square. When they saw Shao Ci’s mecha, they were stupefied.
Didn’t Prince Latiao use an outdated mecha? Why did he suddenly change now? And it was whatever if he changed, but why did this mecha look so tacky? And it was full of a mess of words… Wait, these were ads!
A perfectly good mecha had been tormented into such a ghastly state. Just how many ads did Prince Latiao take?!
This completely shattered the showiness of Prince Latiao in their hearts!! Although this name was showy to begin with, they really wanted to ask exactly how poor Prince Latiao was…
And Edwin, who had people paying attention to news about Prince Latiao at any moment, was the first person to have bought a ticket. He looked at the battlefield, both anxious and excited. He couldn’t calm himself down ever since what happened yesterday. His mind was full of Prince Latiao.
Through the filter of his brain, Edwin thought that even such an ugly mecha had personality. He even thought of making his own mecha similar when he went back.
“Hmph.” Ji Zhaoyun sneered when he saw the mecha. “As expected, you’re just trash. You’re doing something like this to get strong for a moment, and even wanted to be compared with Senior Pei. Today, I’m going to make you lose and never think about competing in mecha competitions again.”
But Shao Ci didn’t care too much. He just looked at the various buttons inside the mecha, remembering what he had learned in school that day, and excitedly realizing he had remembered them. Now, he pretty much knew the things he hadn’t known yesterday.
Anyway, there was still a bit of time before the warm-up time ended. He would use this time to practice a bit.
Shao Ci began to attempt to operate the mecha manually. After his experience yesterday, his maneuvering was much better today. Although it couldn’t compare to the feeling that he and the mecha were one when he was using spiritual energy, at least he could walk without falling over.
The surrounding spectators watched the mecha take extremely stiff steps, just a tiny bit better than a beginner, and their expressions turned shocked. They had only seen videos of Prince Latiao’s heroic displays. They had no idea that at the beginning of the first match, Prince Latiao had gotten plenty of ridicule because of his terrible operations.
“Maybe he’s not used to the new mecha?”
“Gosh, he should be using a mecha he’s used to for a match as important as this. Why did he have to change?”
“Will he really lose because of this? Then I bought this ticket for nothing.”
Only Edwin was excited. His gaze fixed on the field, remembering the first time he met Prince Latiao. Through his mental filter, even if Shao Ci fell over, Edwin would probably still think it was a skillful, beautiful fall…
Soon, the warm-up time ended. Ji Zhaoyun also got serious, despite how he hadn’t considered his opponent a true threat before. Ji Zhaoyun had seen all of Prince Latiao’s videos before, and even he had to admit that his opponent had some skills. But if he wanted to be compared with Pei Shijian, he still fell short.
Although he was very strong, Prince Latiao’s techniques were very unpracticed, and he didn’t seem to have any understanding of strategy. He often seemed like a mecha operating beginner.
“Based on the video from yesterday, this Prince Latiao is going to try and sneak attack me as quickly as possible. For many people, their cockpits will be skewered before they can react,” Ji Zhaoyun thought. “As long as I block this first strike, then take the opportunity to attack, I can defeat him easily.”
Ji Zhaoyun sat calmly in the same spot, connecting to the mecha with his spiritual energy, waiting for his opponent to move.
People on his level typically use spiritual energy to maneuver the mecha. Otherwise, their hand speed wasn’t fast enough.
In this world, spiritual energy was decided at birth, but their physiques could be improved. Many things were set at the beginning. Even if Pei Shijian was the original protagonist who climbed up from the slums, his biggest cheat was his powerful spiritual energy.
In the moment the match began, Prince Latiao’s clumsy bearing disappeared. His mecha began to move quickly, attacking immediately.
“Just as I expected. If I hadn’t prepared, I might really have lost.” Ji Zhaoyun caught the blow as he had planned, his mind at ease but moving quickly. He seized the opportunity to attack his opponent in return.
It was reasonable to think that at such a high speed, according to his plans, Prince Latiao couldn’t possibly avoid him, but in that moment, his opponent disappeared in a flash, quicker than he had in the video.
“How could it be.” Ji Zhaoyun’s eyes widened, then he realized that yesterday Prince Latiao was using the most worn, outdated mecha, but today he had changed into a new mecha. It was normal for him to be faster.
So Ji Zhaoyun missed his best opportunity. Prince Latiao had already flashed away to a safe place.
“Shit, I actually made this kind a mistake. Forget it, I’ll use Plan B.” Ji Zhaoyun’s expression turned ugly. He pulled out a laser scalpel, rushing towards his opponent.
After watching the videos, Ji Zhaoyun deduced that his opponent wasn’t very good in combat. Since his first plan failed, then he would go with the normal method. In any case, he was confident in his strength.
Ji Zhaoyun’s guess was correct. Shao Ci really wasn’t good in combat. He hadn’t learned many skills to begin with. Yesterday, he had relied on his speed and the element of surprise to win. Now that he was faced with Ji Zhaoyun, who had investigated him thoroughly, it quickly exposed his shortcomings.
But with his powerful spiritual energy controlling the entire arena, Shao Ci could practically see anything Ji Zhaoyun was trying to do. He could avoid any blow. He could even avoid sneak attacks like he had eyes on the back of his head. If he wanted to lose, it was hard, but it wouldn’t be easy if he wanted to win, either.
As they exchanged blows, Shao Ci’s spiritual energy recorded all of Ji Zhaoyun’s movements in his memory. In the next exchange, it unconsciously exerted itself.
Shao Ci didn’t even realize it himself, but when he unconsciously used such a movement to attack, Ji Zhaoyun was stunned.
“He actually learned my moves. He learned so quickly. It’s even a move that not many people in the school learned,” Ji Zhaoyun thought back to the strange movements from the warm-up, and a terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.
“Could it be that this guy is a mecha piloting beginner? So when he wasn’t connected to the system, he was like that… In this case, then how terrifying is his spiritual energy?
“If this is the case, then he wasn’t purposefully imitating Senior Pei yesterday. It was because it was his first time, and he didn’t know what mecha to use, so he used the outdated mecha. But he won so easily…”
After thinking of this, Ji Zhaoyun couldn’t stay calm. He looked towards Prince Latiao’s mecha, his original disdain gone. Instead, it was filled with strong curiosity.
He wanted to know exactly how strong this person’s spiritual energy was.
Before that, the person with the strongest spiritual energy that he had seen was Pei Shijian. He could tell at a glance that even though Pei Shijian was much stronger because of his experience and all kinds of reasons, if it was just based on spiritual energy, this person would, without a doubt, be the strongest person in the future.
Besides, Pei Shijian still had terrifying skill, and he had an aura of infinite possibilities. It was exactly because of this that Ji Zhaoyun became Pei Shijian’s fanboy without the slightest hesitation.
But now, it seemed that he had found someone even more amazing.
In fact, from a certain viewpoint, Ji Zhaoyun and Edwin very alike. Both of them sought the strong, and their attitudes were close to being twisted. It was related to the original protagonist’s setting, to make it easy for him to collect followers, but now it had made it easy for Shao Ci.
Ji Zhaoyun’s eyes flashed with fanaticism. Without the slightest hesitation, he approached his opponent, even using the most dangerous method, reaching out with his spiritual energy to probe the other mecha.
It was an extremely dangerous method. Only people who were very confident in their spiritual energy would do it. When they had the upper hand, they could make their opponent fall into a trance so they had no way to operate their mecha, seizing victory for themselves.
If their opponent’s spiritual energy was stronger, as long as they were careless, the initiator could even fall into a coma. It was also likely for them to lose themselves in their opponent’s spiritual world because of the disparity in energy. It was a gamble.
It wasn’t that Ji Zhaoyun didn’t know the risks. But in that moment, all he wanted was to know exactly how strong this person’s spiritual energy was, so much that his own safety was secondary.
The people in the stands thought they were about to see an intense battle. Nobody expected that Stay Away From Me would actually fling himself over to embrace Prince Latiao’s mecha. What the heck was this, huh?! Weren’t they fighting perfectly well before?!
When Edwin saw what was happening, he nearly crushed the arm of the chair he was sitting on. His expression turned ugly. “What the heck is this guy doing? Is he trying to use tricks because he can’t beat Prince Latiao?”
The noise of the outside was distant. As his spiritual energy touched his opponent’s spiritual energy, Ji Zhaoyun sank into the middle.
In moments, this powerful spiritual energy dispersed most of his willpower. It was as though he was soaking in an ocean spiritual energy. There was a faint fragrance in the air.
No, this fragrance… Ji Zhaoyun jolted suddenly from his stupor, waking up from his daze,
Although Ji Zhaoyun felt like a long time had passed, it had only been a moment in the outside world.
Shao Ci felt awful. Someone invading his spiritual energy was just like someone peeling off his clothes. Since Ji Zhaoyun had sent himself to his door, then Shao Ci would move directly.
Just as Shao Ci picked up his weapon and aimed at his opponent’s cockpit, Ji Zhaoyun opened his eyes. His pale cheeks were flushed a faint red, and he looked towards the opposing mecha in shock. In the moment before he lost, his voice tore from his throat.
“You’re actually… an omega?”
The author has something to say:
I feel like an interstellar world is even more dog blood with an ABO setting…