Chapter 25#

A Joke#

They accelerated, finally managing to reach the surface and regroup with the other squads amidst a massive explosion.

The pursuing Zerg retreated gradually as they neared the cave entrance for some unknown reason. Aside from occasional spawn and scouts, they didn’t see any more large-scale insectoids. Still, they dared not let their guard down along the way, only deeming themselves temporarily safe once they returned to the stronghold.

Ning Feng opened the cockpit door. The moment his feet touched the ground, his legs went weak, and he barely managed to steady himself by leaning against the mech’s chassis.

Suppressing the alternating hot and cold sensations in his body, he turned to inspect the Blade Mech. The originally silver-white chassis was covered in yellowish-green fluids, and its feet were caked in mud, with deep gashes scraped into some areas. Fortunately, the engine wasn’t damaged; it could keep running after a quick energy cell replacement.

Touching the scratches on the frame, Ning Feng felt a pang of distress.

He usually paid close attention to Blade’s maintenance, waxing it whenever he had free time, and having Big Beard inspect and upgrade it at regular intervals. Scraped up like this, it would probably need a complete repaint back at base. And to think he had just added a stealth coating; if he had known, he wouldn’t have waxed it earlier.

“Thanks for your hard work, Blade,” he said, giving the chassis a firm pat. Blade let out a clanking sound as if in response.

Logistics personnel ran up, surrounding the mech to begin maintenance. Qiao Xi also followed, holding some insectoid remains he had picked up from who-knows-where.

“Look, Commander, I made a new discovery today… Oh my god! What happened to you guys—” Seeing everyone’s disheveled state, he gasped in surprise, quickly running to Yin Beichen’s side to ask with concern, “Commander, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” Yin Beichen climbed down from Dawn, swiftly stripping off his gear. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ning Feng passing by them without so much as a glance. He instinctively grabbed the man’s wrist, only to find the other’s body temperature was alarmingly low.

“Where are you going?”

“Taking a leak. Want to join?” Ning Feng smiled at him, looking somewhat exhausted.

Even though the other man was smiling, it made Yin Beichen’s heart tighten. He didn’t know what this feeling was, only that he disliked this emotion and wanted to rid himself of it as soon as possible. “We’ll debrief the battle in a moment. Mind the time.”

“Roger that, Commander,” Ning Feng said, dragging his heavy footsteps toward the forest.

“Adjutant Ning doesn’t look very well,” Qiao Xi said with worry. “Should I go check on him—”

“No need.” Yin Beichen gave him a cold glance. “Don’t meddle.”

“Oh…” Qiao Xi lowered his head meekly. Once Yin Beichen left, he tilted his head, staring at that tall, retreating figure and sniffing hard.

Once a person relaxes, their physical senses amplify manifold. Ning Feng felt a knife-like pain on his skin, and the scar on the back of his neck burned as if scalded by boiling water.

He knew the time for his insect toxin to flare up was near.

Ducking behind a tall bush, Ning Feng pulled out a syringe and expertly pushed the drug into his blood vessel.

He didn’t know if it was due to the influence of the nearby Zerg, but the cycle of his toxin flare-ups was getting shorter and shorter. He had just injected the antidote the day before yesterday, and yet symptoms were already showing again. Fortunately, he had brought several doses of the antidote, fortunately he had returned to a safe zone, fortunately… fortunately, they had found high-tier Zerg.

With his back pressed against a tree trunk, Ning Feng shut his eyes tight, gritting his teeth to endure the burning pain in his stomach while struggling to swallow down the copper taste rising in his throat. He felt as if his body were falling apart, not wanting to lift even a single finger.

He couldn’t give up. He had to get the sample.

Qu Yan had said that as long as they got a high-tier sample, they could develop an antidote before his birthday.

Yes, there was still hope.

**

The data used for the battle debrief mainly came from everyone’s recordings.

Yin Beichen placed great importance on debriefs. No matter how small the scale of the confrontation, he would carefully analyze, organize, and summarize it.

In the cave they had just escaped from, besides many tier-seven insect beasts, there were also tier-eight Infestors. Had the passages not been too cramped, they had no doubt that tier-ten Corruptors would have poured out.

But here lay the problem.

Tier-ten Corruptors were extremely ferocious. They only appeared near the deepest evolved hives, and would summon Vipers—a vicious flying unit capable of taking on scout aircraft on its own—with which they shared a neural link.

Despite having sufficient combat power to fight back, they had remained cooped up underground. For a Zerg race that usually did nothing but mindlessly charge forward, what on earth were they trying to do?

Watching the surging Zerg in the recording, everyone fell into a heavy silence.

“Are these bugs crazy?” Xiao Si frowned deeply.

“Could we have poked a hornet’s nest?” Xiao Wu said.

Yin Beichen’s eyes closed slightly as he ran a finger along his chin. “They are guarding something.”

“A Brood Lord.”

Suddenly, Ning Feng, who had been silent all this time, said slowly.

“A Brood Lord?” Yin Beichen’s brow twitched slightly.

“Are you kidding me?!” Qu Jingshan’s eyes widened. Realizing everyone was staring at him, he lowered his voice. “A Brood Lord is a troublesome tier-twelve beast. Can such a small place have something like that?”

It was no wonder he reacted so strongly. In previous battles between the Empire and the Zerg, they had only ever seen Brood Lords in large-scale engagements.

This high-tier Zerg didn’t attack directly. Instead, it used the symbiotic organisms it spat out to swarm targets until they were torn to shreds. It posed a massive threat to aerial units, especially battlecruisers, yet was highly fragile itself—even an ordinary single-person mech could grind it into the dirt.

Thus, Brood Lords typically hid deep underground.

Although a Brood Lord was controlled by the Overmind and the Broodmother, it possessed a considerable degree of consciousness. During periods when its link to the Overmind was severed, it could independently issue orders to the battle cluster.

“How do you know there’s a Brood Lord here?” Yin Beichen looked at him, his eyes flickering.

“Want to know?” Ning Feng let out a low chuckle, tilting his head and raising his eyelids. “Go on a date with me and I’ll tell you.”

“I don’t have time to joke with you.” Yin Beichen’s face instantly turned cold, his gaze piercing through him like a sharp blade.

“Ah, so fierce,” Ning Feng scoffed with a laugh as expected. “Actually, anyone could figure it out with a little thought.”

The ones they could see were already tier-eight and tier-nine adults. How could the Overlord they risked their lives to protect be only tier-ten? Besides, though this celestial body was small, its rock structure was extremely solid. It would probably take Nora’s photon cannons to completely blast through it.

“Inconspicuous, secure and sturdy, and right under our noses.” Ning Feng placed a hand on the star map, lazily tapping his finger. “If I didn’t want to be found in the future, I would also look for a place like this.”

Hearing this, Yin Beichen pursed his lips.

Qu Jingshan’s expression was rather unsightly. He had originally thought this mission wouldn’t be much of a challenge, never expecting there would be a Brood Lord inside. At the thought of having to bring along Qiao Xi, who possessed zero combat capability, he grew even more irritated.

Seeing the somewhat oppressive atmosphere, Ning Feng shrugged easily. “Actually, there’s nothing to fear about a Brood Lord. It’s so fragile, you can slice it apart in one blow. This is a tier-twelve sample, after all. Qu Yan will be thrilled to death.”

“Tsk, easier said than done.”

“Stop grumbling, Captain Qu. Let’s hurry up and draw up a plan.”

They discussed for a long time, formulating tomorrow’s battle plan, and before they knew it, night had fallen. Several of them casually ate some rations and went off to rest.

As it was a temporary stronghold, the bunker here was very crude, not much different from a shipping container. The temperature regulator inside was broken, making it feel like an oven on a surface that was nearly forty degrees Celsius. But under such conditions, having a safe place to sleep peacefully was already an immense luxury.

Ning Feng couldn’t sleep no matter how hard he tried, so he simply went out to get some fresh air.

Having just injected the antidote today, his body was still experiencing some reactions. He took out a cigarette, placed it between his lips without lighting it, and looked up at the sky.

The sky was a hazy grey, with not a single star in sight. Occasionally, a flare would streak across, illuminating the dark night, while vast clouds of dust rose in the distance, as murky and indistinct as human hearts.

Ning Feng just sat leaning there, his mind blank, thinking of nothing.

A Brood Lord… indeed quite tough to deal with.

If he could obtain the sample, his insect toxin would probably be cured, right?

At this thought, Ning Feng couldn’t help but feel delighted, and he began to imagine how he would celebrate once the toxin was purged.

First, he would treat Qu Yan to a proper meal, then spend the entire night drinking at a bar. Next was the Flood Dragon No. 2; he would definitely have Big Beard overhaul it, fitting it with the most expensive and newest engine—hopefully, he could still let him buy it on credit for a while this time. Right, the massage chair he had promised the old director hadn’t been bought yet; he had to arrange that upon his return…

Ning Feng counted his future plans one by one, feeling his spirits lift slightly again.

Just as the man was lost in these idle thoughts, a familiar voice drifted down from above.

“Why are you secretly smoking again?”

Ning Feng’s body stiffened, but he instantly relaxed again. “You need evidence to speak, Commander. I haven’t even lit it.”

“Smoking is bad for your health.” A gentle warmth flickered in Yin Beichen’s eyes.

“Captain Qu smokes way heavier than me, how come I never see you nagging him?”

“He isn’t my adjutant.” Ignoring the other’s banter, Yin Beichen sat down on the ground beside him. “What was up with you today?”

His breathing hitched, and Ning Feng blinked. “What do you mean, what was up?”

“During the mission, you were constantly spacing out and distracted, and almost ran into trouble several times.” Yin Beichen’s gaze locked onto him. “That’s not normal.”

“Just an occasional slip-up, nothing to make a fuss about.”

“What happened?”

His deep eyes were as tranquil as the night. Yin Beichen gazed at him, seemingly trying to peer into his very soul.

Rubbing his fingertips, Ning Feng felt a burning agitation under that gaze, a complicated emotion churning within him. He suddenly felt an urge to confess everything—be it the bizarre insect language or the Overmind’s toxin.

But how would Beichen look at him then?

Suddenly, a flare in the distance pierced the night sky, pulling his thoughts back.

His dark eyes sinking, Ning Feng suppressed his emotions, letting out two exaggerated sighs. “Little Chenchen, you really are getting naggy nowadays, fussing over this and that like some dorm matron. I really miss the cute little thing who would vomit and run a fever just at the sight of bugs.”

Yin Beichen: ……

Seeing Yin Beichen’s face visibly darken, his eyes carrying a hint of anger, Ning Feng bit down on the filter, feeling a secret sense of satisfaction.

This had happened when they first entered the military academy.

At that time, everyone was a green recruit with no real concept of the Zerg. Their only impressions came from videos, written records, and the belly-up specimens in the laboratories.

Bugs, right? Nothing more than that.

You take care of them with a few bangs and pops of a gun, just like on TV.

As the only son of the Yin family, even though Yin Beichen had been influenced by his five-star general father since childhood and had some understanding of the Zerg, he had never seen a live bug.

It wasn’t until after entering the academy, during their first virtual training class, that the instructor took them through an immersive experience of being swarmed by bugs.

It had been an absolute nightmare.

It could easily rank second among Ning Feng’s top ten psychological traumas.

Countless monsters covered the ground in a chaotic, surging tide. Although these were only tier-one spawn, as they dived toward them, it felt as if they were going to drown them.

At that moment, Ning Feng felt unable to breathe.

All the combat skills he had previously learned were forgotten; his brain seemed frozen, unable to produce any reaction, his eyes filled with nothing but hideous, ugly bugs.

As his classmates were knocked down one by one, Ning Feng also stiffly attempted to resist, but it was practically like throwing eggs against a stone.

……

Just as he was on the brink of despair, Yin Beichen rushed over.

“Open fire!!”

He hoisted a machine gun and fired wildly until the magazine was spent, then picked up others’ guns to continue strafing. Gritting his teeth, Ning Feng also picked up a machine gun and began to fight back.

Under their chaotic onslaught, the two actually managed to completely wipe out the army of several hundred spawn.

The instructor was shocked.

Since the establishment of this course, there had never been such fierce cadets. On their very first day of class, they had directly wiped out the demonstration Zerg!

Since then, Yin Beichen and Ning Feng’s reputations soared among their peers.

However, at that moment, the two of them had absolutely no time to care about that.

Although they were in a virtual training field, in order to pursue realism, the tactile, olfactory, and gustatory senses inside were reconstructed according to the real world. Looking at the viscous fluids and messy corpses covering the ground, Yin Beichen—the Flower of the Empire, the future Zerg killer, the youngest Major General—who was killing Zerg for the first time, was so terrified by the tier-one spawn that he vomited, fainted, and ran a high fever for three days.

For years, this had become the dark history Yin Beichen most wanted to erase, yet this guy loved to bring it up whenever he had the chance, making it impossible for him to forget.

“What a delicate Flower of the Empire,” Ning Feng’s starry eyes sparkled.

“Wasn’t that to save you?” Yin Beichen snorted coldly.

“Oh my, speaking of which, Little Chenchen even has the grace of saving my life!” Suddenly remembering something, Ning Feng quietly touched his amulet, his eyes locked onto the other, feeling somewhat nervous. “Then, according to the standard procedure, shouldn’t I give you some token of love like an amulet and pledge my body to you in return?”

The next moment, the air fell silent.

Ning Feng looked at those blue eyes, which sank like the sky above his head.

“I have no interest,” Yin Beichen said coldly.

No interest.

Ning Feng’s breath caught, his eyelids trembling slightly as he slowly withdrew his hand.

“How heartbreaking. Little Chenchen is always so unromantic.” His smile widened a bit more, looking excessively bright. “I wonder if you’re also this fierce with Qiao Xi.”

“Ning Feng!”

“Just kidding! What are you so tense about?” Nudging the other’s shoulder with his elbow, the man winked. “I have plenty of self-awareness.”

Gazing at the man’s smile, Yin Beichen parted his thin lips slightly. “I don’t want to hear this kind of joke again.”

“I know, I know. It makes you sick to hear it, right?” A few laughs escaped his chest, and Ning Feng scratched his bangs. “Actually, Qiao Xi’s conditions are pretty good, and he’s very attentive to your matters. Little Chenchen should protect him well.”

“It has nothing to do with Qiao Xi.” Yin Beichen frowned slightly, his face displeased. “It’s just that his identity is special, and his safety is extremely important. So tomorrow, your primary mission—”

“Alright, alright, I know what to do.” Cutting the other off somewhat impatiently, Ning Feng suddenly felt exhausted all over, wanting nothing more than to be left alone.

A trace of awkwardness hung in the air between them.

Yin Beichen lowered his eyelids, hiding the emotions slowly flowing deep in his eyes. “Earlier on the ship—”

“Ah, I’m so sleepy, bedtime, bedtime.” Ning Feng stretched and quickly stood up. “You should rest early too, Little Chenchen, we still have a mission tomorrow.”

Without giving the other any chance to speak, the man kept his eyelids lowered, quickly slipping into the bunker and throwing his body heavily onto the bed. Staring blankly at the sheet metal ceiling, he grabbed a pillow and covered his head.

He knew what Yin Beichen wanted to say.

But he didn’t want to hear it—not at all.

The thing he least wanted to hear was “I’m sorry”.

**

That night, Ning Feng tossed and turned on his floor mat for most of the night, only managing to doze off in a daze near dawn. Yet, not long after falling asleep, he was awoken by the piercing ring of his optical computer.

He frowned and hissed, irritably rubbing the back of his neck as he connected the call.

“Man, this early in the morning—”

“Brother Feng, we’re doomed!”

“You’re the one who’s doomed. Speak, what is it?”

“Qiao Xi is missing!”

“…Huh?”