CH 31

The third round of selection continued.

Lin Han gradually adapted to the life of the base, using nutrients at regular intervals every day, working peacefully, and continuing to work on the new mecha design at the research institute when he wasn’t busy, gradually getting used to the routine. Since most of the third round missions required Lin Han to keep an eye on the training field, he ended up becoming familiar with the soldiers even though he hardly talked to them about anything other than work.

Lin Han was staring at the mecha in the training field.

He had heard by chance that He YunTing’s earliest days had been like this, and that his performance at that time was still unsurpassed by anyone today, when the training was much more brutal than it was now, but he had persevered as the first, and finally entered the elite team directly… How he finally moved up all the way to his current position was another story.

What kind of person was he then?

Was he the same as now? Or, was he very different?

People were eliminated every day, and were mecha damaged every day, and every day, points were being deducted from soldiers for a variety of reasons… Lin Han sometimes felt that the system was too harsh when he watched the soldiers train, not to mention that after the third round, there was the most uncertain and cruel fourth round.

Lin Han heard that the fourth round was a practical exercise, but the most crucial thing was that the location was no longer limited to the base. They directly threw these pilots who passed the third round into the vast interstellar for the final grind.

Even if the base tried to ensure their safety, no one could predict what would happen — Star Pirates, Zerg, and all kinds of strange mutant creatures… In this interstellar world, resources were always the biggest conflict, and in the gap between planets, those gray areas that couldn’t be classified, often bred unpredictable dangers.

Usually in the fourth round, the special experts would stay on the warship or command center, in order to ensure the safety of the general tendency to remote guidance. There was even one year, when a particular mecha division directly applied not to participate in the fourth round of practical training, which was approved in the end.

But it was still the third round, and Lin Han didn’t think that far ahead for the time being.

Moreover, it was also an exercise, although there was danger, over the years there hadn’t been any major incidents.

At that moment, his communicator rang.

Lin Han finished his day’s work and just came out of the training ground when he met Qi Jiamu, who had been topping the list for this selection.

“Hello, Mr. Lin.” Qi Jiamu smiled at Lin Han, “It’s been a hard day for you too.”

His features didn’t look sharp, and it was dinner time, training was over, so everyone was still recuperating, and Qi Jiamu’s expression had a sunny teenage look when he relaxed. He greeted Lin Han politely, after all, he was the one who troubled Lin Han the most recently in the third round.

Lin Han looked at his young face.

In the past few days, Qi Jiamu’s mecha was always malfunctioning, either because of a malfunctioning internal program or an abnormal mental link, so Lin Han spent half of his work time helping Qi Jiamu debug his mecha.

In fact, his training performance had been very good, with few mistakes — but probably because he was the most outstanding, in private, he had also become the target of many new recruits’ displeasure. The suppression and clutching was everywhere, and such excellent people would be either supported or be turned on and bullied by a handful of others.

The fact that Qi Jiamu was too impressive in the selection, and that he himself didn’t seem to be as unapproachable as He YunTing, he wasn’t easy to get along with — he wouldn’t talk much, always sporting the same expressions with everyone he talked with, wouldn’t make friends, and was a loner.

Gradually, a small group of people began to have other ideas.

But with the base rules, and the selection and deduction system, they couldn’t openly suppress him, but they also couldn’t just sit and do nothing.

And the third round of selection finally let them find the opportunity.

They began to use various reasons to ‘visit’ Qi Jiamu’s mecha, and then tamper with certain parts — so that Qi Jiamu either suffered himself, or had to ask the mecha master to help him repair the adjustments.

In the base it was obvious to everyone that the General took extra care of Mr. Lin, and the people who secretly observed Mr. Lin before had been deducted points, but Qi Jiamu’s mecha was always in trouble, so Lin Han would be in frequent contact with him.

Many soldiers snickered, this would make the General deduct points.

Lin Han wasn’t stupid, and was able to guess this.

He didn’t know why Qi Jiamu didn’t say anything, and he couldn’t directly point it out, but could only subtly hint at it, “If you have any problems, feel free to speak up. You have to be careful.”

Qi Jamu lowered his eyes and hummed, “Thank you Mr. Lin.”

After saying goodbye to Qi Jiamu, Lin Han, who was going back to his room, had an idea, before turning around, and walking in another direction. When he walked into He YunTing’s room, he was still wearing his training uniform that he hadn’t had time to change out of.

They hadn’t seen each other much in the past few days, and when he saw him coming, He YunTing didn’t say anything, only a hint of suspicion showed in his eyes.

“General,” Lin Han didn’t intend to beat around the bush and cut straight to the chase, “I have something to tell you.”

Lu AnHe was munching and eating snacks, and when he heard Lin Han say this, his eyes widened, and his cheeks were still bulging like a hamster’s, not sure whether he should leave or not.

What, Mr. Lin finally got the message and planned to help out Boss?

He YunTing swept a glance at Lu AnHe, who was expressing various emotions with his eyes at the moment. 

——Keep eating, you don’t have to leave.

He quickly understood He YunTing’s meaning, shooting back a resentful look, telling him he actually wanted to go out.

He swallowed the food in his mouth, took a sip of water and said, “Mr. Lin, say what you want to, don’t mind me.”

Lin Han nodded, “I received a communication from His Royal Highness today.”

When Lu AnHe heard this, he immediately put away his careless posture, “Speaking of which, we haven’t had time to relay to Mr. Lin the events of the past two days.”

Lu AnHe then told Lin Han about the result of his private investigation of Wen Tianyao, “In summary, we have confirmed that what you said about Wen Tianyao is true, he’s indeed not neutral — but this information needed to be verified, please forgive me Mr. Lin.”

“It’s okay.” Lin Han nodded, after all, He YunTing still didn’t seem to believe he had the ability to read minds right now, and his words concerned the Imperial Prince after all, so it was normal to check.

Lin Han said, “Today, he… He talked to me a bit about the fourth round of training.”

The fourth round of practical training was after all the most critical part, the selection of the best pilots depended on this round, so generally the base would send a battleship, and the group of new pilots would be sent to the border area. Then through the exercise real-time observation of each pilot’s situation, the few who were the best would be chosen.

Lu AnHe softly exclaimed “Ha.”

Lin Han continued, “But His Highness said he would also go along, and asked me to send his regards to the General.”

He YunTing’s brows furrowed, making him look irritated.

“From what I heard from him,” Lin Han said, “it seems that he wants to make further gestures of goodwill toward the General on the battleship.”

From Wen Tianyao’s perspective, Lin Han was a good Omega to manipulate and one that He YunTing cared more about, while to outsiders, the Prince’s frequent befriending of the General was nothing more than the socialization of two people who adhered to a neutral attitude.

No one would know that what Wen Tianyao was calculating was merely the military power in He YunTing’s hands, a mecha force that held the most elite pilots in the Empire.

“I see.” He YunTing opened his mouth, “Thank you, Mr. Lin.”

Lin Han nodded, said “You’re welcome.”, and was about to leave after finishing what he wanted to say, when he was called by He YunTing again.

“Lin Han,” He YunTing raised his eyes to look at him, as he spoke in a flat tone, “if you really don’t want to go to the fourth round of practical training, you can go back to the Institute early.”

After all, it wasn’t like there hadn’t been a precedent for this.

Lu AnHe added, “Mr. Lin doesn’t have to worry, the fourth round of practical training will be conducted at the border area, but you just need to be on the warship for remote assistance.”

Lin Han smiled, “Since I was specially hired by the base, there’s no reason to leave early before I finish my work. Don’t worry, I’m not that spoiled.”

He YunTing only stared at him, his eyes deep.

Lin Han, for some reason, was a little bit alarmed by his look, and stood up to say goodbye, “And Lieutenant Colonel Lu said, as long as I’m on the warship, I’ll be safe — but if I don’t go, maybe some mecha will suddenly have issues that you won’t be able to solve.”

Of course, Wen Tianyao was also going to be there, so he could also take this opportunity to hear what he was really planning in the meantime.

But Lin Han didn’t mention this.

“Hmm.” A moment later, He YunTing spoke, “Then when we get to the warship, Mr. Lin should follow me. Don’t leave my field of vision.”

When He YunTing said the last sentence, Lin Han could finally hear a hint of command.

It was as if this was the tone he usually used to communicate with people, and all those heartfelt internal thoughts that had reached his ears before were as distant as another person. But Lin Han didn’t feel uncomfortable, precisely because he had heard He YunTing’s other voices, so he could understand his reason, the other didn’t want any accidents to happen. He nodded his head and responded, “Okay.”

After all, Lu AnHe was still present, and the last time he saw them holding hands was still fresh in his mind. Lin Han didn’t go further, just stood by the door to say goodbye to He YunTing.

Anyway, I should be able to guess roughly what He YunTing is thinking now, Lin Han thought.

The third training cycle was longer, and at the end of the month, all the soldiers who participated in the selection process finally had a half day of respite. Usually everyone was busy resting in this downtime, and there were some soldiers’ relatives who chose this time to visit their proud family members.

After all, it was only half a day, and they needed to apply for a visit to the base. The approval was very slow and the process was troublesome, so not many people would actually come.

Lin Han saw Qi Jiaze on this day. He was a very thin-looking Omega, clean-cut, not very tall, his exposed slender limbs had an almost sickly pallor. His face hadn’t much of an expression, he was taking every step very slowly, like he was thinking about something, but also seemed to think of nothing.

Lin Han was doing a final overhaul for the next day’s mecha when he suddenly heard someone call out something towards the outside of the training ground.

“A’Ze!” When Qi Jiamu saw the Omega, he called his nickname through the crowd, raised his face to smile at him, and waved his hand, gesturing for him to come over, “Brother’s here.”

Because Qi Jiamu would talk to him from time to time these days, Lin Han was somewhat familiar with his voice, and he raised his eyes to look. The Omega who came to visit heard this voice, his entire body stiffened for a moment like he just got an electric shock, before he slowly raised his head with a dazed expression, trying to follow the voice and looking around for the source.

“Brother…” His lips moved and murmured very lowly before he finally saw Qi Jiamu’s hands waving incessantly at him.

“A’Ze, this way.”

Qi Jiaze’s originally calm and waveless eyes finally lit up, the corners of his lips also rose little by little, and finally, as if he had regained his life, his pace quickened and he began to run towards the voice. With clumsy footsteps, he moved faster and faster, and finally nearly fell in front of his own brother and was helped by Qi Jiamu.

Lin Han originally thought nothing of it, only felt that this brother looked a little dull, so he withdrew his eyes and continued to work inside the mecha.

But just as he turned around, he saw the thin Omega’s back. Although he didn’t see anything unusual at once, his intuition told him that there was something odd about this person.

And Qi Jiaz was talking to his brother about something, his lips moving very slowly.

In order not to attract attention, Lin Han walked into the cockpit and closed the hatch. Because he had been active in the training field all this time, no one would be suspicious of him, and everyone knew that Mr. Lin had great business skills, and any problems that came to him could be solved quickly.

Lin Han put on his helmet, activated his mecha, and made small adjustments to the viewport.

Although he had no intention of peeking at the affectionate meeting between the two brothers, he still moved the view window to a position close to Qi Jiaze.

He couldn’t explain it, but there was always a sense of unease that came over him.

Lin Han apologized in his heart to Qi Jiamu for checking his brother like this, before he turned on the magnification function so that mecha could see the Omega’s every move from his position in the viewport.

Qi Jiaze looked no older than twenty years old, the tips of his hair were a bit faded, although it was black hair, it was shining with an unhealthy luster.

Qi Jiamu’s eyes were a little red and his expression wasn’t as calm as he showed Lin Han before.

Lin Han couldn’t hear what the two were saying, but he always felt that there was something strange about the communication between the two.

Qi Jiaze never took the initiative to speak, and each time it was only after the other person had said a long paragraph that he would nod or shake his head sluggishly and then speak.

Lin Han, who couldn’t find anything strange and thought he was being paranoid, was about to remove the view window—

Qi Jiaze suddenly turned around without warning, his eyes staring straight at Lin Han’s mecha.

This feeling of being stared at abruptly made Lin Han’s heart startled.

Even though he was wearing a helmet, he was inside the mecha, and he was separated from the view window, so it was impossible for Qi Jiaze to see him, and at most he could only observe a certain side of the mecha.

The color of Qi Jiaze’s eyes was very dim, and his pupils were slightly smaller than the average person’s, making anyone he looked at uncomfortable.

But he only stared at Lin Han’s mecha for a couple of seconds before turning around again, as if he had finished talking to Qi Jiamu, and began to walk step by step out of the base.

Lin Han’s heart was pounding and he was a little nervous for no reason, but he continued to stare at Qi Jiaze’s back as he left.

The person walked very slowly, at an even pace, even the hanging hands swinging in the same position, so Lin Han always felt… Like he was a machine that has been programmed with instructions.

And when Qi Jiaze was about to walk out of the training ground, Lin Han finally found the source of his oddness.

His hair was slightly longer and not properly fixed, but Lin Han still noticed the back of his neck—

There was a deep, old scar where his gland was supposed to be.