CH 73

The emergency dispatch of this team left from the berth after half an hour.

Qi Jiamu had to go back to the base for something, so Lin Han let him go first, saying that he would take his time to go back by public flying machine. The other looked a little hesitant, afraid that Lin Han might have an accident, but finally Lin Han persuaded him to leave first, so he asked Lin Han to maintain communication.

After all, the general public couldn’t get close to the berth, and the sound of mecha landing and evacuation was heard all the time, from far away. It wasn’t too noisy, and the residents nearby were used to it. So Lin Han couldn’t tell which group was the ordinary mecha and which group was He YunTing’s army.

Lin Han acted like he had come here to help Grr buy something, and carefully shopped around several stores, picking out a number of different things, and ordering a small felt ship for the little one to play with.

When he approached a pet supply store, the owner of the store was leaning leisurely with his legs crossed, watching a TV show. When he saw a customer coming, he sat up straight and asked Lin Han what he needed with a smile on his face.

Lin Han casually mentioned his needs, and the shopkeeper enthusiastically introduced him to several different kinds of snacks and staples, and couldn’t help but glance at him while talking. Even though the man in the L Zone didn’t recognize his clothes as those from the Institute, he could tell that they were from the core district at a glance.

Lin Han, who was already an attention-grabber, had a much better temperament than the rest of them, and was as polite and gentle as the celebrities he saw on TV. The store owner, who rarely saw people from over there, asked half enviously and half curiously, “The store can support virtual orders, so why did you make a special trip?”

Lin Han smiled lightly and said, “I came here by chance, so I bought some things for my little one.”

The store owner learned that the one in his house was a Kudzuar — after all, there were only a few Oddbound creatures, and the envy in his eyes increased, “Then you can look at these small snacks in the store. It can eat and play with them and it will surely like it.”

Lin Han was about to follow his recommendation to choose some things, when suddenly he felt a slight tremor from the ground, and quickly calmed down. The owner of the store was eager to explain, “This place is next to the mooring, and there are often mecha mooring or landing. It’s normal, sir, don’t be nervous.”

“Mn.” Lin Han responded politely and nodded his head, and his expression looked relaxed, except that his original casual selection became a little stiff, and his hand unconsciously grabbed the snack recommended for Grr.

The store owner didn’t notice anything, still introducing products to Lin Han, then heard the white uniformed youth suddenly speak, “So from here to V Proton Star… about how far is it?”

“You mean the V Proton Star that just had an accident?” The owner of the store was very understanding, “In fact, I don’t know the specific voyage since the berthing and sailing volume is very large. Even if I was born here, I didn’t pay attention, only heard… it’s about a day or so. V Proton Star is close after all, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t ask the Empire for help.” Soon there was another not-so-subtle jolt, and the boss smiled at Lin Han, “It’s too far from our lives to care. Maybe this wave is headed for V Proton, don’t you think?”

Lin Han’s palms unconsciously began to ooze a fine sweat, squeezing the things in his hands, trying to say calmly, “…Mn.”

Maybe he had set off now.

Mixed with a certain roar that he couldn’t distinguish.

It wasn’t until those noises stopped coming from the moorings for a short time that Lin Han walked out of the store with the things the boss had packed for him. He stood there in a daze. It was still early, since he had just come out of the Institute.

Lin Han looked for the parking place of the public flying machine, which wasn’t too far away, and prepared to walk there. However, after walking for a while, he felt a little tired because he might have walked too fast or his hands might be heavy. After the realization, he rummaged in his pocket and took out one of the things he hated the most.

It was the nutritional supplement that he had wanted to open at the Institute. His colleague was talking about He YunTing at that time, but still tried to open it for him enthusiastically, which was declined by Lin Han. He YunTing would take the initiative to unscrew it for him several times before handing it to him, and even when he tried to cheat and wouldn’t drink it, he would use some methods he didn’t expect.

Lin Han looked down at what was in his hand, unscrewed it with a little effort, then drank it little by little without frowning, then threw the package away in silence and took the flight home alone.

There was still work to be done, plus the little guy had watched too much TV recently and he needed to restrain it a little.

Tomorrow there would be a new program test, and he was sure he didn’t develop a successful model and needed to continue to refine his research. He could actually do everything, except for his poor physique, and was no different from others.

Whether He YunTing was there or not, he could do it all by himself.

That was what Lin Han thought when he opened the door, bent down habitually, and waited for the little one who heard the noise to coo and run over to his shoulder.

Lin Han did follow his plan, working and living in an orderly manner, except that from the evening onwards, he started to keep checking the time, and even Grr sensed that something was wrong.

When it was time to go to bed, he was ready to disconnect the Internet in the living room to avoid Grr from popping up in the middle of the night to catch up on a drama, but when he walked to the TV, he still caught it watching the news.

The evening news announcer read a script saying that the emergency peacekeeping mecha team led by General had left, had made contact with the V Proton government, and would begin operations as soon as they arrived. The news cut to a debriefing from V Proton, where the Executive Prime Minister thanked the Empire for its care of his district and said he was confident that with General in place, he would get through this difficult time.

He YunTing wasn’t on the screen, and after a brief summary, the announcer moved on to the next news item.

Lin Han sat on the floor and instead of immediately turning off the TV, he froze for a while.

Grr originally thought he was coming to disconnect it, and at first he resisted a little, but after seeing that he didn’t make the next move after a long time, he shook his hair and carefully jumped into his arms. Grr took the initiative to stuff himself into Lin Han’s palm, hoping that he would be happier if he touched it.

After feeling Grr’s reassurance, Lin Han was able to pull himself out of the inexplicable emotion and followed his movements, gently stroking its head.

How could it be so strange, Lin Han thought.

Even if He YunTing was still at the base, still in the core area, the two couldn’t see each other often. Sometimes he was so busy training that he didn’t even have the time to contact him.

The only time Lin Han left the Empire was a while ago when he followed He YunTing to the border area for practical training.

He didn’t know what was going on there, and he didn’t even know what the V Proton Star looked like, so he couldn’t even say what he was told to say.

“What to do?” Lin Han scratched the little one’s fur, “I miss him right now.”

Grr couldn’t talk, but since seeing Lin Han take the initiative to kiss He YunTing in front of the zoo, it finally understood deeply that he was no match for that man. It could only reach a reconciliation with itself heartily; as long as that stinky-faced man wouldn’t mention the shaving matter again, it would reluctantly not bother with him and be tolerant.

The little guy didn’t know how to comfort Lin Han, it just had to put its paws away and started rolling around in his hands.

Lin Han was finally amused by its action, cupped it in front of him and looked into its wet little eyes, “Are you comforting me?”

Grr paused in his movements for a moment, then nuzzled him with his tail in affirmation.

“Thank you.” Lin Han held it in his hand and came up to him to thank him.

Grr’s nose twitched.

Lin Han had a reassuring feeling of being healed by it and looked at the little one in front of him, gently coming up and kissing the top of its head. He said, “I’m okay.” 

He was fine, but the little one was starting to act weird.

Grr started shivering and with a swift speed, the entire mass became hot.

It seemed that it couldn’t even roll around anymore, and all four paws were opened in a weird position in reverse, spinning around in Lin Han’s palm, and peeking out again, looking at Lin Han with its black bean eyes.

——It seemed to be excited and shy.

After a while, Grr jumped dizzily from his hand, retreated into the blanket and began to savor it.

Lin Han turned off the light before saying, “Good night.”

It was only before going to sleep that he inevitably recalled the afternoon’s events, remembering the familiar ebony scent coming from the interval of each other’s embrace.

A little pheromone was common when a couple were in love, and it was obviously not surprising. But Lin Han sat on the bed and suddenly felt that something wasn’t quite right.

— 

On the other hand, He YunTing’s emergency troops didn’t stop, finally arriving at the V Proton Star that had the riot in a day’s time.

Xu Zhiheng would follow, and he didn’t expect it.

However, Lu AnHe understood that He YunTing had doubts and explained to him right away, “Professor Xu said he would come along with us.”

He YunTing looked at Xu Zhiheng, who had a serious face, “It’s not always possible to guarantee your safety.”

Xu Zhiheng had considered this matter before he came, and said with no fear on his face, “I don’t need special care, but I must follow you to the scene. After all, it was my student, and the fermentation of the incident is too fast, so this research must’ve been carried out by someone in private,” he said slowly. “If I’m there, maybe we can solve the problem at the source. And then… General, please trust me.”

He YunTing finally just tensed his lips and didn’t resist again. Since his departure there was always a not-so-subtle blockage of depressed air in his heart, making him inexplicably feel annoyed and unable to find an outlet.

After arriving at V Proton, the government officials who were supposed to meet and explain the situation weren’t waiting at the promised location on time.

V Proton’s environment and climate were good, except for the fact that it wasn’t able to keep up with the production due to the backward technology, which led to the final jurisdiction of the Empire. It was almost considered an excellent planet to live on.

The capital was a rainforest city, no matter how expensive or cheap, lush trees that could only survive on V Proton were planted around the city, forming a unique ecology. Since most of the people on the planet were Betas, there was no strong chain of contempt within the Empire, so it was easy to live.

But this didn’t seem to be the case now.

The troops marched down the map towards the city, and the deeper they went, the more alarming it became.

If V Proton Star was a vibrant rainforest before, it now resembled a withered flower.

The original pride of the rainforest ecology had begun to show the exhaustion of the situation, obviously the most prosperous city of V Proton, was now like a dead city. All the houses had closed doors, many of the surrounding trees were broken, revealing traces of dried pulp, standing east and west on the roadside.

What was even scarier were the bodies.

The road was covered with bright red blood, from the original bustling store entrance to the road, the public aircraft ride point was piled with several unrecognizable limbs, burned by a flame from somewhere.

Underneath the trees — almost every one of them — there was more than one person, either dead or alive, but all motionless. Just as everyone wondered what was happening, as the roaring sound from the mecha echoed through the dead-looking city.

But when the troops turned on the biological search system, it again showed that there were clearly many more humans in the area. And according to the thermal feedback, the so-called living people exposed on the thermal display — were all people who appeared to be motionless.

“Stop.” He YunTing ordered. After realizing what was going on, his mind moved, “Turn on… …Zerg interference mode.”

The change happened in an instant.

After the mecha turned on the special sound waves dedicated to tempting the Zerg, the people who had been motionless and stacked in scattered piles gradually straightened up again. Their faces were yellowed, their heartbeats and breathing were clear.

Yellowish faces, heartbeats and breathing, not aggressive after being attracted by the burst of sound waves, but coming in groups toward them. The most obvious, of course, were the eyes that were no longer clear, and the pupils that were vertical in each one.

He YunTing heard a sharp intake of breath coming from the communicator between the mecha.

Soon, Lu AnHe’s voice rang out.

“Boss, these…” He paused for a moment, but didn’t say the word ‘people’, instead asked, “Do you want to charge the arsenal right away?”

If they weren’t ‘people,’ just one shot of the magnetic rail cannon and they would be instantly destroyed.