CH 93

After five years, the insect tide attacked again.

The insect tide this time caused an uproar in the entire federation—such situation was too unbelievable and sensational. A Zerg swarm was able to bypass the border defense line set up by the Federation, and also did not alert any other planets and fleets along the way, like a dagger stabbing straight into the heart of the Federation.

Not only did it break through the protective barrier of the planet, but it also wiped out the Federation’s garrison on the planet, raging in the city.

Why was this happening?

Could it be that the Zerg really evolved wisdom? Or that some humans from the planet were traitors?

Countless conspiracy theories were spreading wildly on the Starnet, and everyone was discussing every possibility in terror— after all, even if Zerg have not evolved intelligence, their reproductive ability and instinct to destroy alone made human’s exhaust everything to stop them. If this possibility really came true, no one could predict how the future war situation would develop, and no one even dared to think about it.

In addition to the discussion of the battle itself, there was another thing occupying the traffic of the entire Star Network.

Everyone knew that this insect tide was more dangerous than every one before, but the blow to the federal city area, even counting the entire federal history, was considered minor.

How was it possible?

All knew, the garrison on the planet was directly wiped out! And because the communication satellite was the first target of the Zerg attack, the rescue arrived six hours after the Zerg attacked.

However, neither the number of civilian casualties nor the extent of damage to buildings was serious.

What exactly happened on the planet during these few hours?

Many survivors of the cataclysm voiced out their experience on the Starnet, countless photos, videos, and a large number of posts about their personal experiences spread in the Starnet, and the heroes who volunteered to enter the battlefield appeared in the public eye — it was them who risked their lives, stood in front of millions of innocent civilians building an impregnable copper and iron wall with their own flesh and blood, and turned the tide under the overwhelming terrifying swarms of insects. All the Federation people were moved to tears, those who survived the disaster were filled with gratitude.

Among them, a short video attracted a lot of attention.

The video was very short, it seemed to have been shot through the window, the lens were blurry and shaking, although the image was not clear but one still could see the black swarms of insects flying by. Even through the screen, one could feel the horror and fear brought by these invaders.

But, there were two mechas flying in the air, surrounded by insect swarms.

One black and one white, fighting with their backs facing each other, their cooperation was extremely tacit, almost no insects could approach within a distance of ten meters near them, the artillery fire exploded in the insect swarm, and the destroyed corpses were flung away.

Under the pitch-black worm tide that covered the sky, the two mechas seemed so small, but they were as unshakable as beacons standing in the storm and could not be swallowed by the violent waves.

Judging from the time the video was shot, they should be the first two mechas to stand up and fight.

This video set off a great discussion on the Starnet:

“God, just two mechas can fight for so long under the siege of millions of Zerg, and they’re not at all at a disadvantage… What kind of magic pilot is this?”

“And their cooperation is really awesome. You can’t cultivate such a strong sense of tacit understanding even if you fight side by side on the battlefield for more than ten years!”

“I have a cousin who learned to pilot mechas. I showed him the video and after watching it, he said that the level of operation of these two mechas is very terrifying. Whether it is technology, predicting or field control, they are definitely the top in the industry! Such a pilot can be regarded as a national treasure, and now there are two at the same time!”

“Wait…that black mecha, doesn’t it feel familiar?”

Soon, searching by the tactics shown in the video and habits of the mecha pilot in battle and the small details of the mecha that were visible, the masses of Starnet found the owner of this mecha—it was the mysterious legendary figure, Haines Erost.

After the insect wave five years ago, he once again stood up as a saviour.

“I’ll just say it! This kind of operation is definitely god*-worthy!”

*it’s a term of respect towards experts at something, also seen in e-sports.

“So handsome, so handsome!!”

“In that case… Who is piloting the white mecha next to it? To be able to keep up pace with such a great god like Haines Erost, without showing weakness at all… Is there such a pilot in the entire Federation? Why have we never heard of it?”

“Am I the only one who noticed that the white mecha is very similar in design to the black one? I don’t know if it’s my illusion… I always feel it looks like a couple mecha?”

“Don’t be so sure, okay? Mecha pilots are generally alphas, aren’t they?”

While there was a lot of debate online a shocking post appeared on the Starnet and instantly topped the major discussion lists:

the title of the post was: “I seem to know why this great insect tide was wiped out so quickly.”

There was a video attached.

The video was shot from a distance, and the footage was similarly shaky, but the content shocked everyone.

This time, only the white mecha was shown in the video.

It swept across the murky sky like a silver-white lightning, and a huge swarm of insects tall as mountains and fast as tsunami followed closely behind it, the crazed whizzing and buzzing of the wings resounded through the sky, as if a huge constantly transforming monster was about to devour the mecha next second.

The silver mecha swooped down and slammed into the ground at a deadly speed!

One’s heart couldn’t help but clench tightly in an instant——!

However, the most shocking thing was that in the next second, a tongue of fire erupted from the ground, a deafening explosion shook the ground, and the scorching flames spread rapidly through the dense swarm of insects—the camera seemed to be hit by the airwave generated by the explosion and the image after shaking violently, suddenly darkened.

But that astonishing scene and the violent flames that dyed the whole world red were deeply imprinted in the eyes of every viewer, as if they could feel the terrifying temperature through the screen.

There was an explosive wave in the star network.

The entire Federation was discussing and searching fiercely —  have the pilot of this silver-white mecha survived the terrifying explosion?

More importantly…who was he?

Ge Xiu has been in the hospital for the past few days, unaware of the uproar in the outside world.

He has been in a drowsy state all the time.

Exhausted.

The only feeling is exhaustion.

There was no strength in the whole body, but the sleepiness that penetrated into his soul couldn’t be dispelled by sleep. Even though he has slept for more than ten hours in the past few days, there was still no signs of improvement.

Ge Xiu wasn’t surprised by this.

It wasn’t the first time he’s had this experience.

This rapid physical exhaustion only meant one thing — that is, the group of judges outside the virtual world was not satisfied with the extent of his punishment in this world, and decided to speed up the process and remove him from this world in advance.

Ge Xiu could clearly feel that he was rapidly becoming weaker, and even the time he stayed awake has greatly reduced.

Most of the time he was half asleep.

Ge Xiu hated that feeling.

Not just because he felt a loss of control over his whole body… but mostly because his nightmares intensified as he slept.

In fact, ever since the end of the last world, his nightmares have not stopped.

He couldn’t remember the content of his dream every time, but he always remembered that dark and cold feeling.

Therefore, after entering this world Ge Xiu had consciously reduced his sleep time.

In fact, in a sense, his sleeplessness was also to escape the nightmare that haunted him every night.

However, ever since his body begun to fail, this situation could no longer be avoided.

Ge Xiu was immersed in the nightmares, like a traveller who accidentally fell into the swamp. No matter how much he struggled, it would be to no avail, and he could only be dragged into the icy abyss bit by bit by that uncompromising heavy force.

Every time he woke up, there were different people by his bedside.

Sometimes Admiral Drost.

He looked older than before, depression and pain were written in every wrinkle from his eyes to his face.

Sometimes it was the nurse, or his two older brothers who he had barely seen before, and Igor would come occasionally to update him on the current investigation progress and current affairs outside.

Haines, on the other hand, was the one Ge Xiu had seen the least.

But, according to his caretaker, Haines seemed to have always come when he was asleep, and sat by his side for one night.

He seldom spoke, and never made any major movements, just sat quietly beside Ge Xiu’s bed and stared at him for a long time.

He hurried away the moment he found signs that Ge Xiu might be waking up.

—He seemed to have been looking for a way to heal him.

Ge Xiu knew it that because often, when he woke up, he’d see a new souvenir on the bedside table from another planet. Those planets were often places with advanced medical level or high level of biotechnology— And every time he saw a new souvenir on his bedside table, Ge Xiu knew that his treatment plan had to be changed again.

…and again and again.

The other party exhausted all methods and desperately searched for any method that brought hope, just to prolong his stay in this world, even if it was only a year and a half, to gain for him every minute and every second.

Ge Xiu was not good at dealing with complex emotions.

So when faced with this situation, he felt a little overwhelmed.

He really wanted to tell Haines that there was no need to work so hard, that his physical condition was not within the scope of medical treatment, but he didn’t know how to speak, how to make him stop…

Ge Xiu looked down at the little seashell in his hand.

The edges are glossy and reflected colours in the sun, pretty, but not practical.

It was at his bedside this morning.

Ge Xiu gently touched its blunt edge with his fingertips, the depths of his drooping eyes were deep and dark, complicated emotions were surging at the bottom of his eyes.

He wanted Hines to stop such useless efforts and attempts.

Over and over again, searching in vain for a way to save him, trying again and again to bring him back from the brink of death…

Why?

It just adds to the pain.

At this moment, the door of the ward was knocked gently, and a nurse came in to say: “Mr. Drost, you have a visitor, do you want to see them?”

Ge Xiu put the shell back on the cabinet beside him, and then leaned back while nodding casually:

“Okay.”

He was very bored anyways right now.

Five minutes later, the visitor pushed open the door and walked in slowly.

Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked at the young man standing beside his bed — he really didn’t expect it to be this one.

Percy Edmure looked away somewhat unnaturally, then put the gift in his hand aside, and cleared his throat:

“Cough…Are you okay?”

Ge Xiu nodded: ” Not bad.”

Percy fell silent for a while, secretly raised his eyes to glance at Ge Xiu, and then seemed to have made up his mind. Percy gritted his teeth and said:

“This time… I came to thank you… for saving me in that building…”

Ge Xiu took out a candy from under the pillow, peeled the wrapper and put it in his mouth, and replied nonchalantly:

“Don’t worry about it, you would do the same.”

“I wouldn’t.” Percy suddenly raised his eyes, looked directly at Ge Xiu, and said firmly: “If you were trapped in that building, I wouldn’t have saved you.”

He knew his character very well.

In the face of the misfortune of someone he has always hated, even faintly envied, the only thing he would at most would be to gloat at his misfortune, turn around and leave.

Even if the identities were exchanged, if he was Iris, he would never lend a helping hand when he saw someone who had been trying to make things difficult for him trapped.

“Oh.” Ge Xiu didn’t have any big reaction, just responded lightly.

Percy asked: “Do you regret it now? Saving me?”

Ge Xiu glanced at him incomprehensibly and said,    

“It’s your choice whether you save me or not. How’s that my business?”

He chewed on the candy in his mouth and continued somewhat vaguely: “I saved people so that you could use the mecha, fight the Zerg or evacuate the crowd—but, even if you don’t do it, I won’t regret it.”

Ge Xiu raised the corners of his lips and showed a bright smile:

“Because I would directly eliminate the factors that could make me regret on the spot.”

——His original sentence “kill without mercy” was not a joke.

Percy’s pupils shrank slightly.

He didn’t seem to expect that the other would give such an answer.

Percy forced himself to look away, and changed the subject a little stiffly:

“Anyway… Thank you for saving me, so want to thank the other classmates, they just don’t have the right to enter the hospital and can’t thank you directly…”

He bowed his head and took out a large bag of high-end candy from his gifts—before he came, he inquired from Igor about patient’s preferences.

Percy gritted his teeth:

“Although I still don’t like you much, but… I hope you get well soon.”

·

An hour later.

Percy sat in his room thoughtfully.

The lights were not turned on, and the whole room was shrouded in a layer of darkness  and shadows. He sat quietly in the darkness, his motionless figure like a silhouette.

His mind was so chaotic that it made it impossible to gather his thoughts.

On the big screen on the side, there are countless heated discussions on the Starnet, as well as the video of the silver-white mecha diving straight into the ground.

The video played automatically, but the sound was never turned on.

The room was once again dyed red by the silent explosion.

Finally, as if he had awakened, he opened his personal terminal.

There, a video also taken that day was kept.

Since the last time Percy turned on the recording function of the personal terminal in the training ground, it has not been turned off. As long as it detected Iris’ presence, it would automatically record him — he originally wanted to use this to record the other’s words and deeds to find his ugly and dark side to destroy his reputation, so that Igor would give up on his unrealistic infatuation with this Omega.

Ah…Igor.

Percy suddenly realized that he hadn’t taken the initiative to think about Igor for a long time, even the only time they met since the invasion was to ask Iris what kind of gift he would like.

That was… so weird.

Percy suddenly vaguely understood Igor’s unwarranted attention for Iris.

After all, even he… couldn’t get that peculiar Omega out of his mind.

But he still hated the omega.

Percy told himself over and over again in his heart with little confidence.

He raised his eyes, his eyes fixed on the screen, the silver-white mecha being chased by the huge swarm of insects — it was so light and elegant, passing through the air like a ray of light that could not be caught.

Percy took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind.

He lowered his head and cut out the video he took on the practice ground that day.

Then, clicked “Publish”.

——After all.

Heroes should get the support they deserve.

————————————————————————–

Bamboo has something to say:

Hheh, silly bamboo went back to get the charger today, new chapter for yall! And… here we go again.

3, 2….