Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: KarateChopMonkey, looking forward to the weekend
The two-day voyage was long and anxious. Near the outer space of Silverwater, thousands of Imperial main battle ships were arrayed in front of them. Countless other auxiliary ships roamed and shuttled between the main battle ships. They were well-trained and orderly.
The space fortress where the admirals were located was protected in the center of the space ships, surrounded by the stars. The pilot lights of one ship illuminated a circle of light, and tinted the dark universe with a poignant glow. They were the beacons, the pioneers, the hope for the future of the Empire.
Ye Fei stood alone in the control room of the space fortress, making final confirmations with the others through the military’s special communication channel, “All departments report back again.”
Gu Ang pushed the door in, just as he heard a sentence of feedback coming back.
“The vanguard army reports that no enemy situation has been detected for the time being.”
“Logistics troops are ready, standing by.”
“The ground is safe, everyone on the planet has been moved.”
“Did you move all the people?” Gu Ang caught the last sentence.
“Just in case.” Ye Fei put away the communicator and held it in his hand, “If there’s really a mass destruction, at least we should ensure their lives first.”
Gu Ang shook his head, inexplicably remembering the silent Bai SiNing again. Wasn’t it on such a day that he went from that lively teenager to silent? What did he see that day? How much despair and self-condemnation did he feel to become so closed?
The past had been buried in this vast universe, no one would know.
Gu Ang nodded slowly as he looked through the glass of the control room and saw Bai SiNing who was actively helping outside, “You’re right, just surviving is more important than anything else.”
Whether it was to keep the ever-loving Bai SiNing or to continue the grand trajectory of the Empire’s peaceful and stable development, it meant a lot to them. All that could be done was to fight the battle perfectly and beautifully. Everything was ready and poised to go.
Gu Ang looked out the window of the ship, a darkness, only the remnants of the nebulae interspersed through.
The universe was so magnificent and so big that they were all just small pieces of stardust. But each of them carried their own destiny and bond to form such a special army to appear here. To win, and only to win, regardless of the consequences.
Gu Ang spoke for no reason, “Let’s finish the fight as soon as possible, we have to go back early.”
Ye Fei stood behind him and reached out to hug him, “Thinking of HuangHuang?”
“Mn, will he think we don’t want him anymore?” Gu Ang turned his head sideways, rubbed his chin against his shoulder, and looked away again, “Children also have memories, he will definitely remember very clearly.”
His mind was full of that one sound after another “dad”, with tension and panic. He felt like a ruthless father, leaving a child of only half a year old like this, somewhat thin-skinned. But there was more to him than being a father. He was Ye Fei’s lover, someone’s friend, a general of the Empire.
Ye Fei rested his chin against the top of his hair and gently rubbed it, “He would be proud of us.”
He also told himself in his heart that he would be fine.
“Sorry, Commander and vanguard Gu, have to interrupt you two sweeties.” Shen Fei Zhou’s voice came over the communication channel, “On the enemy side, there’s a problem with the number of people coming.”
As soon as the words fell, millions of red dots suddenly appeared simultaneously at the edge of the space fortress’ detectors, densely packed like a beehive. Those dots spread rapidly and continued to increase at a rate of tens of thousands per second. The probe zoomed in on the image, countless strange-shaped Zerg formed an army floating in the universe, even including the extremely high energy intensity of the Zerg command. The matrix, which made people’s skin tingle, was moving in their direction at high speed and in an orderly manner.
Gu Ang was surprised, “This is what Lord Qi Cang called the Zerg test attack?”
At the beginning of their training session, they were prepared for a vicious battle. After all, a war that could bring about the entire extinction of the Bai SiNing family was by no means a small fight. But now, it seemed that the enemy was even bigger and trickier than they had imagined.
“Attention all troops, the enemy is hundreds of times more numerous than expected! Stay alert and give feedback at all times!” Ye Fei forced himself to calm down, his eyes bloodshot and deadly staring at the screen as he rapidly clicked on the strategy map for re-arrangement.
Those flashing dots of light were like provocations, mountains of rain.
In the observation room of the fortress, two men in military uniforms sat opposite each other, constantly watching the scene of the battle. Federation Marshal Ling JunHan looked at the data and took a cold puff of his cigarette, “It’s such a large order of magnitude in just the trial phase?”
Qi Cang flicked the cigarette ash easily, his posture loose, “Maybe it’s the butterfly effect, who knows. I remember this wave of Zerg’s attack, theoretically it should be tens of times less, what a miscalculation.”
Ling JunHan wrinkled his eyebrows, “Butterfly effect… what did you do?”
“Probably when exercising those few kids who crossed over earlier, they accidentally wiped out all the nine-star Zerg stationed at the border.” Qi Cang smiled with a bland expression, “They’re good at holding a grudge.”
“No wonder.” Ling JunHan hummed lightly and glanced at the monitor screen again, “I just came over to see the strength of the travelers. You wouldn’t let me be buried on an alien planet, would you?”
Qi Cang provoked, “Marshal Ling is afraid?”
Ling JunHan was disdainful, “Afraid of what? Big deal, let this old man himself on the field to fight.”
“Don’t worry, these kids are very strong.” Qi Cang exhaled a puff of smoke, “Our cooperation will not let you suffer.”
“To be so wild as to let your own men face a life and death crisis is indeed very characteristic of imperial savagery.”
“Not as much as you, Grand Marshal Ling, who loves his soldiers like a son.”
Ling JunHan raised his eyebrows, during the cooperation, he couldn’t argue with the old man. He continued to monitor the real-time battle situation, “The Zerg’s vanguard has entered within the human imperial army’s fire coverage. Ye Fei hasn’t ordered an attack yet, he’s very calm.”
10,000 star miles.
9,000 star miles.
8,000 star miles.
As the roaming Zerg loomed, an invisible pressure loomed over the hearts of all the soldiers on the field. The huge number alone made people tremble with fear. When the Zerg arrived at 6700 star miles, they relied on their naturally evolved information receiving organs to discover the presence of the human army.
“Squeak, squeak, squeak—” After a high-frequency but brief exchange, tens of thousands of long, striped Zerg reaching kilometers in length marched side by side and appeared in front of the ship.
Energy was continuously stored in the Zerg’s tail, followed by spreading transmission through the body, and finally concentrated in the mouths of these Zerg that reached a length of a thousand meters. Numerous balls of fire of different sizes, with tens of thousands of degrees of heat aimed at the human position and began to shoot.
In the dark and cold universe, tens of thousands of fireballs emitting dazzling light erupted. They kept speeding up, rushing, and coming with great force.
Ye Fei spoke, “Vanguard troops open the barrier.”
Gu Ang received the order and returned to the battleship camp of the vanguard force, immediately having the battleships of the vanguard force under his command unfold a protective screen across heaven and earth in an attempt to intercept the Zerg’s attack.
System prompt: Barrier is open, currently 100 percent energy left.
The protective barrier had not been deployed for long when countless fireballs smashed into the screen. The light green invisible screen shook violently, annihilating those fireballs and swinging out in undulating arcs. A bright spark exploded and the Zerg flew over. It looked like the first battle was won, but in reality it only barely caught the first wave of attacks. The thickness of the protective screen became weak and shaky, almost shattering.
Gu Ang was piloting a defensive warship, and there was no way to defend again before recharging his energy. He ground his teeth, “Report, Commander Ye, the barrier energy has forty percent left, there’s no way to defend against the next wave of attack. Requesting to return for resupply.”
The opponent came prepared and gave an opening blow. The first wave of attack directly caused the defense barrier to use sixty percent of its energy.
Gu Ang continued to give orders, “Second unit, open the defense barrier at the top, first unit, retreat!”
This was also a helpless move, very passive. Although the first team still had energy, there was no way to defend against the second round of fire. Facing the huge Zerg army, they could only save their strength as much as possible.
The second team had just unfolded the barrier when they encountered a second round of bombardment. This time, the energy consumption was still a full 60 percent! It was as if the ratio was calculated, grinding the human battle force down one at a time. These brainless creatures have long acquired the laws of cosmic survival in the midst of countless battles.
After carrying off the attack, the second detachment continued to retreat, and the third detachment topped it. This was also the last complete unit left in the human vanguard.
“Commander Ye, this is not the way to go on, we can’t just be used as a target!” Jiang HeYi, as the vanguard unit’s vice-captain, began to get cranky, “After this round, if the other side still continues to attack with this frequency, we’ll have to reduce our strength!”
“Zerg aren’t in full range of fire yet, continue the confrontation.” Ye Fei replied coldly in the communication channel.
As the chief commander of this war, every order he gave carried countless human lives, and the pressure was enormous. Because the number of Zerg was far from the prediction, if the firepower was activated early to suppress it, it would cause a great waste of firepower.
The logistics of each unit was limited, too much consumption in the early stages, and the later stages would really rely on soldiers driving mecha up and using their flesh and blood to trade lives with these bugs. If it came to that, then the battle would really have heavy losses. He wouldn’t give such an order unless it was absolutely necessary.
The Zerg’s long-range artillery bombardment continued, and the vanguard had already begun to suffer battle damage. One by one, battleships began to move out to fill the gap of energy replenishment with their steel bodies.
Ye Fei asked, “Captain Gu, how much longer will it take to restore energy?”
“It will take another forty minutes.” Gu Ang’s eyes were red, “Second batch of battleships, move up to resist.”
Forty minutes, in terms of engagement, was a long time. Every second of victory or defeat changed instantly. Those fireballs hit the battleship and scattered into countless Zerg corpses. They went forward and backward one after another without end. The cruelty and ruthlessness of war was complete, the lives of living creatures were like grass.
After hundreds of main battleships and thousands of auxiliary battleships took turns to resist, paying for a dozen main battleships to be reported off, Gu Ang’s voice finally came over the communicator, “The first detachment’s energy replenishment is complete.”
“Overhead.”
The Zerg’s cannon fire and the protective screen once again collided head-on, consuming each other.
An hour had passed, and the Zerg were already only 1,800 star miles away from the human vanguard. The distance was close and the battle was imminent.
Ye Fei clenched his fist and finally dropped two words, “Open fire!”
This signal quickly dispersed and reached the ears of every detachment leader.
Whether it was Shen Fei Zhou and Yin WenXuan who were waiting on the planet, or the Qi brothers who stayed in the large rear of the formation to cover the logistic troops, they ordered towards their men at the same time.
“Open fire!”
The resentment, worry, anger, and helplessness that kept brewing in their hearts were finally released at this moment like a floodgate. In an instant, firepower was released from Silverwater, from the main fleet, and from the space fortress.
All the battle fire was directed towards one place, concentrating on the attack. Particle annihilation cannon, x-gamma light wave, double ion spiral acceleration cannon Countless firepower intertwined, completely covering the Zerg forces that entered the fire coverage area.
The dark night sky was dyed fiery red, and the sound of loud artillery fire drowned out everything. Smoke rose, bodies and mechanical wreckage splashed everywhere, falling everywhere. Even the unique nine-star Zerg, in this arena of death and flesh and blood, had no way to be alone. Hundreds of top Zerg in the vanguard force lost six out of ten instantly in the Empire’s intense artillery fire.
Before the generals had time to relax, they saw a headache-inducing scene. Under such a comprehensive siege, the Zerg didn’t stay at all. A mass of tumor Zerg that looked like dead flesh piled up accelerated out from the swarm and covered the front of the vast Zerg’s army, forming a barrier that belonged to the Zerg alone. They follow the same pattern, first shielding, then accumulating energy to revive.
These brown tumor Zerg were constantly annihilated, smashed and melted by the human artillery, but because their own size was too huge and their defense was incredibly high, they still bought buffer time for the Zerg.
As long as they weren’t instantly cleaned out, then it wasn’t even a problem in front of these Zerg who were completely fearless of death. Through the constant influx of Tumor Zerg, together with the corpses of the dead Tumor Zerg as shields, the attrition of the Zerg army plummeted.
The original Empire relied on fire coverage to suppress saturation strikes, leaving the Zerg with no way to survive in the fire-covered dead zone. As long as there was enough battle power, they could be made to perish. But now, the Zerg with the tumor Zerg flesh and blood forged a wall of protection alive.
The regular ultra-long-range firepower of the human race suddenly lost its deterrent effect. And at this moment because of the Zerg’s accelerated march, the Zerg vanguard was already less than 500 star miles away from the vanguard where Gu Ang was.
The closer they got, the stronger the oppression.
“Loose formation number three.” Ye Fei made a quick judgment based on the situation and pulled the originally tight formation completely apart, sending the range and angle of the attack to the extreme. He squeezed the intercom, “All divisions fire freely!”
Although the number of Tumor Zerg was large, there was no way to protect them from all angles of 360 degrees. Ye Fei gave the order, and immediately some troops responded to the order. Some of them went straight up, some went down, and started striking in all directions.
The Zerg, though fearless of life and death, have their own drawbacks. Except for the nine-star Zerg, the other Zerg basically didn’t have their own thinking, or were extremely slow. They were more in a mode of absolute obedience. Therefore, when the human race began to constantly change the angle of the formation, Zerg dwarfed some. It was too late to change the formation of the Zerg, and once again received the baptism of the Empire’s relentless artillery.
In the flurry of artillery fire, another large Zerg body exploded into pieces from the air. However, they had nine star Zerg as their leaders, absolutely unique living individuals with reactive minds no less than human beings and unparalleled physical bodies. Just five seconds after the Zerg army was slaughtered again, more than 30 nine-star Zerg broke away from the group carrying the corpses of a bunch of dead brown fleshy bugs.
Relying on their hasty stance and perfect flesh shields, they quickly crossed the distance of these last few hundred star miles and appeared within the view of the crowd. Facing this kind of individual with extremely high energy intensity, they had already discussed their countermeasures.
The group consisting of Gu Ang, Jiang HeYi, Shen Fei Zhou, and the Qi brothers were the decapitation squad to carry out a quick decapitation of the nine-star Zerg. And the job of delaying could only be left to the mecha squads led by other officers under them to circumvent.
“Decapitation squad, assemble!” As Gu Ang ordered, several silver lights flashed and instantly gathered around the Luminous mecha, “Attack!”
Without too many words, Gu Ang led the crowd to meet the attack head-on. And behind them were tens of thousands of reinforcements for the mecha. The unmanned mecha were responsible for close combat, while the manned mechas were constantly looking for opportunities to aim and fire from the periphery.
The admirals who crossed over brought out their excellent skills and shot their heads off. This was war, cruel and ruthless. There was no way for any individual to compete with an army. The remaining nine-star Zerg began to dodge, lengthening the battle line as much as possible, and then constantly attacked the human army.
As the battle line was stretched too far, the human army also began to be somewhat tied up. They had to adjust their positions to shoot to avoid accidentally wounding friendly troops. This delay directly reduced the killing power of the entire army by three levels.
By the time the separate nine-star Zerg were eliminated by the decimation squad, the two armies were already face-to-face, and the Zerg army and the warships were in short contact. The meat grinder-like battlefield was like an abyss of despair, pulling the humans and Zerg on the battlefield into constant death. The universe was silent, those deaths were quietly passing in silence.
“The vanguard ahead can’t hold up, requesting reinforcements.”
“Battleship group 43, encircled from the right side.”
“Lord Qi MingYu’s mecha damage is more than sixty percent, please immediately return to the headquarters for repair.”
“Captain Gu is deep behind enemy lines and is now being pestered by dozens of nine-star Zerg, please provide immediate support!”
Numerous messages kept hitting Ye Fei’s nerves as the commander, the scene becoming chaotic. He sat in the command room, bracing himself to be highly focused, giving orders one by one. The number of Zerg was huge, as if it could never be consumed. There was even a constant stream of reinforcements arriving to join the battlefield, wearing down the Empire’s elite troops.
After more than ten hours of fierce battle, a certain squad of the imperial military finally still fled. And this escape was like a signal, or a chain reaction. Like a virus, it quickly expanded to the entire human army. Once the morale fell, it was a defeat.
Ye Fei rubbed his brow, his voice was hoarse with exhaustion, “All divisions withdraw.”
The various methods of attack were tried, but ultimately ended in failure because of the disparity in numbers. Interstellar warfare was not a game, nor could it be done on impulse. It was impossible to empty all the troops and fight until the last soldier was left.
With Ye Fei’s order, all the troops began to retreat in a disorderly manner. And Silverwater, finally, was completely occupied by the vast Zerg.
As soon as the countless Zerg landed, it was as if they had received a signal and began to frantically mate, starting to ovulate on the spot at a very fast speed. Silverwater had a lot of mineral resources, and all these resources were turned into a breeding ground for the Zerg to reproduce and mutate.
It was foreseeable that it wouldn’t take long for the Zerg to be replenished in numbers and expand to several times their size before the attack. And nearly a day of bitter fighting has ignited a war between the two sides, the Zerg will most likely use this as a springboard to immediately launch an attack on the entire Empire.
The mere anticipation of the consequences was unnerving.
Watching the imperial army crumble and retreat, Ling JunHan glanced at Qi Cang and frowned slightly, “Not going to rescue? With your reputation to stabilize the battle and let them regroup is not a difficult task.”
Qi Cang shook his head slightly, his expression gloomy, “This time is indeed my error in judgment. Taking the pre-crossing data for preparation, not considering the impact of the butterfly effect.” He sighed, “The strength is too disparate, the defeat isn’t unjust, I’m fully responsible.”
The troops were defeated, and it was too difficult to reverse the situation when they were already routed.
Ling JunHan hmmed and leaned back in his chair, playing with the lighter in his hand, “The Zerg are indeed more of a headache than I thought.”
Qi Cang rubbed his sore eyelids, “So, the war between the Empire and the Federation is a minor matter. To put it bluntly, it’s just an internal human fight, a fight between systems, but…”
“But the relationship between the Zerg and the human race is between the prey and the hunter, and is a great problem for all humanity.” Ling JunHan continued, “In addition to the previous technology deal, in the fight against the Zerg, I now officially represent the 36 provinces of the Federation to formally ally with your Empire.”
“That’s naturally good.” Qi Cang stood up, “Let’s go to the fortress hall and see if there are any other ways.”
Ling JunHan followed him out and saw the various detachment captains assembled in the center of the fortress, each with a difficult look on their faces.
Ye Fei saw the two coming and saluted Qi Cang, “My lord, we…”
“I don’t blame you guys.” Qi Cang waved his hand, “You were right to let the retreat take place.”
“Actually, the reason I did that is because there’s one last way.” Ye Fei raised his eyes, and glanced at the crowd again.
Qi Cang raised his eyes and caught the hope of victory. He moved his lips, “Tell me about it.”
“Six months ago when we started our training set, Lin XiuYong proposed to transform Silverwater into a giant bomb.” Ye Fei paused and continued, “What we discussed at the time was to strategically retreat if the battle damage exceeded sixty percent, wait until the Zerg take over the planet, then detonate it directly and destroy everything.”
Qi Cang pondered for a few seconds and gave permission, “The personnel have all been evacuated, so go ahead and blow it up.”
In order for the Empire to survive later, it was bound to be brutal now.
“But there’s a problem.” Ye Fei some intolerant statement of fact, “They have sun worms capable of shielding the launch signal, and we need an absolutely reliable person to stay inside the secret base under the Silverwater planet, to complete the detonation work through the physical manipulation.”
In other words, the survival rate of this person was basically zero once he or she stepped onto the planet. At the moment of triggering the self-detonation, it would be annihilated in space together with all the Zerg.
Whoever went to do the detonation was ready to give up his life. War was like this, very sad and merciless.
Bai SiNing, who had been silent on the side, snapped to attention and spoke loudly, “I’ll go.” He bent down and bowed deeply towards everyone, “Thank you all for letting me join the action, but I’m not as good at fighting as everyone else and didn’t help much. This time, everyone has tried their best to save my parents, and I don’t know how I can express my gratitude.”
He followed Ye Fei and Gu Ang in the middle of the year, kept on fighting in real life and grew by leaps and bounds. Learning to be more considerate of others, and finally understanding that if he could do anything for the people he cared about, he really was willing to do it. In his last life, he was able to block a shot for Gu Ang, and in this life, he was also able to die openly for everyone.
“Although there’s no way to travel back from the future with you guys, we’re all Imperial soldiers no matter what time and space we are in, so let me go.” When Bai SiNing raised his head again, his eyes were red, “Anyway, I died quite early in my last life, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Little Bai, no. You have too little experience in actual combat, and you’d probably become a Zerg prisoner before you even land on the planet. If you go, you’re giving up a life for nothing.” Lin XiuYong immediately opened his mouth to refuse, “My mission has been completed, the bomb will be loaded by me, I’m most familiar with.”
He hadn’t had the chance to confess yet, how could he allow this person to risk their life?
“Or else I…” Gu Ang glanced at Ye Fei and said sheepishly, “As long as the operation is fast enough, they won’t necessarily end up dead.”
“Light, don’t be ridiculous.” Ye Fei shook his head and interrupted him, “I won’t allow you to risk your life. I’m the chief commander, trust me, I can come back safely.”
“Forget it, you guys should stop arguing. I’m all alone, I’ll go.” Shen Fei Zhou frowned impatiently, “There’s no point in living, it’s better to die for the country.”
The Qi brothers also argued, just opened their mouths, and were interrupted by Jiang HeYi, who didn’t want to be a shrinking violet.
Qi Cang sighed that he had really picked the right people, and this was an awesome bunch of heroes. With a near-zero survival rate, not a single person was willing to be a deserter. Everyone was still arguing when Yin WenXuan suddenly squeezed out of the crowd, pulled open the hatch and flew out in a mecha.
Before the crowd had time to react, he had already disappeared from view. But in a minute’s time, a blinding white light suddenly lit up from afar, illuminating the dark night sky as if it were daylight.
Violent vibrations passed through the endless emptiness of space, and even the ship trembled.
Yin WenXuan’s voice came out of the communicator with a little light-hearted laugh. The background sound was the bomb’s five-second countdown.
Five—
“Gu Ang and Ye Fei have just gotten married and have a child, what are you two making a scene about? Don’t let your son live without a father before he’s a year old, okay?”
Four—
“Qi MingFeng and Qi MingYu, you two brothers have agreed to be together since you were young, and no one can do without the other.”
Three—
“Lin XiuYong, we’re clear on why you have invented the crossing over machine. Things aren’t finished, so how can you think of sending yourself to death? Take good care of Little Bai, he’s too cute, don’t let him become like that later.”
Two—
“It’s a pity that I can’t see with my own eyes which warrior is able to conquer Barbie, but I’m sure someone will be able to feel your gentle heart through your appearance.”
One—
“Shen Fei Zhou, there’s nothing to say… I simply think you’re an eternal second. I’m not quite at ease to give you such a critical task, haha.”
The countdown turned into a sharp ticking sound and then came to an abrupt halt.
“Well, don’t make a face like you’re attending my funeral, I’m not dead yet. I have the strongest mecha defense among us, and not 100% dead. Giving me a sad face won’t do anything…”
The turbulent airflow shook the starry sky, and all communications were completely cut off by the energy flow filled with various ions. With a boom, a violent explosion resounded through the stars. The silver planet blossomed like a magnificent flower, surrounded by a tumbling mushroom cloud, and a thick smoke swept into the air.
The Zerg emitted a garbled, shrill wail, and together with the ball of stars, annihilated into the universe, becoming dust. Everyone held back their tears, pursed their lips, and stared dead in the direction of the explosion.
They didn’t know if their tears were held back because the light from the planet’s explosion was too blinding, or because of something else. The violent fluctuations lasted for more than half an hour before finally returning to peace. The smoke passed, all was silent, quiet as if nothing had happened.
The planet turned into a black mass, as if no trace of life had ever existed.
Ye Fei came back to his senses and quickly ordered, “Everyone scatter and track, and turn on all life detectors! Search as hard as you can for any survivors!”
Although hope was slim, they didn’t let go of any possibility. Everyone landed on the planet in their mecha and searched like crazy for traces of Yin WenXuan. Even if he was dead, they had to bring the remains of the body back to the Imperial Star.
A quarter of an hour later, Shen Fei Zhou’s excited voice came over the communication channel, “I found Yin WenXuan’s rescue pod!!!! This damned life-saving compartment built with black dwarf star material!!! Although he suffered multiple serious injuries, he’s still alive!!!!”
“Great!!!” Cheers resounded throughout the starry sky through the fleet’s amplification device.
Being alive was better than anything.
Ye Fei’s eyes were a rare red, and his voice was almost silent from over-talking, “Medical team, go forward to rescue, the rest of the people return to the team.”
When Yin WenXuan was saved and brought back to the ship, the doctor immediately performed a five-hour-long emergency surgery, and fortunately saved his life. Everyone was so relieved that they felt drained.
After a day and night of sleepless fighting, struggling, resisting, fighting for everything, betting on their lives, they finally drew a victory.
“Big brother, you worked hard.”
“Mn, we won, we can go home and see HuangHuang.”
Gu Ang had mixed feelings, having experienced countless battles, never once was he as eager to go home as he was now. At this moment, he was so relieved that he pulled Ye Fei into a long kiss. He didn’t care that people were screaming next to him.
Gu Ang just felt happy from the bottom of his heart. Everyone was still there, and they had all returned safely, as they had said before.
With one day left to go back to the capital, Qi Cang urged everyone to get some rest. Everyone was physically and mentally exhausted, so they slept for the whole day.
When the ship was about to land, Qi Cang woke everyone up and summarized the battle. What kind of moves the Zerg would make in the future, they didn’t know. But the first attack was completely wiped out, which was indeed a devastating blow to them. But… it was no longer important what would happen in the future.
As long as the generals were around, the Empire would never die.
Qi Cang was very emotional, “Thank you for your contribution to the Empire, thank you for crossing back. Tomorrow there will be a medal ceremony, and when you graduate, you will be restored to the rank of admiral.”
Bai SiNing jumped up and down excitedly, “Do I get a medal too?”
“Yes, you get one too.” Qi Cang’s serious expression loosened, swept a glance at the crowd, “And, as said before, after fighting this battle I have a small gift to give you, in order to avoid leaking through the mission, we deleted the memory of you admirals. I have your memories and will return them.”
Gu Ang was thinking about HuangHuang at home,when he returned to his senses. As soon as he heard this, he looked up sharply, “Is it the section before we crossed over?”
He always thought he was selected as an admiral and was asked to participate in military missions. Listening to the implication, could it mean that there was something else going on?
“Yes, you will know the reason.” Qi Cang smiled meaningfully, looking at the young faces like they were his own children, “Almost everyone has their own personal reasons.”
“Can we have them now?” Gu Ang was a little anxious. He couldn’t wait to find out what the missing piece of the puzzle was.
Qi Cang smiled dumbly, “Okay, let’s land then go.”
He changed the destination location and directly let the airship land at the highest level storage hall of the Empire.
Along the way, Gu Ang was incredibly apprehensive. His memories of his last life stopped forever at the time of the divorce, and Ye Fei’s awkward and distant appearance. Every time he thought back on it, it hurt like hell. Becoming a stranger with Ye Fei was the most familiar nightmare.
If he could retrieve the blank memories, he might be able to make himself feel better.
After going through layers of hurdles, each person received a memory disc of their own. The thin sheet carried the top secrets of the Imperial experimenters.
Qi Cang cleared his throat, “Okay, everyone take their memory discs, enter the room individually and redeem them separately.”
Gu Ang’s fingertips trembled as he held the magnetic disc, his brain blank. He looked up and kissed Ye Fei, as if to comfort him, and as if to reassure himself, “I’ll be out soon, no matter what the other side’s reason is, no one should be angry, okay?”
The two of them crossed back after the divorce, and at that moment, they were impulsive, so maybe there was an element of gambling. He was excited and nervous about opening the magic box of memories. It was hard to go through the many twists and turns and cross back together. Now to lift the former dust again, it took tremendous courage.
“I can actually probably guess it.” Ye Fei shook his disc and curved the corners of his mouth a little, “But you can go and confirm it.”
Gu Ang hmmed and gave him another somewhat nervous look, “Then I’ll see you at the door later.”
The door was gently closed and Gu Ang walked into the room and inserted the magnetic disk into the memory reader. For just a moment, his head ached violently, his vision was hazy, and his nerves co-connected with the sudden memory. Many fragments flashed through his mind in a haphazard manner.
His hands and feet were cold, and he braced himself against the wall behind him to keep from sliding to the floor. When his vision became clear again, the blank that he couldn’t piece together in any way, suddenly had a picture.
Qi Cang asked him very seriously, “Admiral Gu Ang, you’re our target candidate, think about it?”
He sat across the table and replied, “Yes, if I could really travel back in time, I would like to start over with Ye Fei.” He rested the back of his hand against his forehead, “The situation now is too bitter, I can’t get past this hurdle in my heart and I can’t forget him.”
“But Ye Fei won’t necessarily cross back. Eight years ago, he didn’t even know you.”
Gu Ang laughed and said with feigned relief, “Then I’ll chase him again, it’s not like I never would.”
“You won’t have this memory of talking to me even if you travel back in time.”
“It doesn’t matter, even if I forget the reason, I still love him.” Gu Ang looked at himself at that time and felt a dense pain in his heart. Obviously looking haggard, yet stubborn and deep-hearted.
Like a persuasive priest, Qi Cang reminded again and again, “The experiment has only a half success rate, if it fails…”
“I divorced him anyway, and my life became meaningless and meticulous. If it fails, then I’ll go to him in a parallel world.” Gu Ang blinked bitterly, “Don’t ask, I’ve already made my plans.”
Gu Ang thought, I really love Ye Fei. So much so that even if it was only a remote possibility, he wanted to do it all over again. He wanted to go to him in the past and pluck out those bad results bit by bit. This way their love would always be a beautiful apple, without a bit of bitterness.
The screen switched, and the next second, he saw himself standing in front of the crossing machine, silently making a wish with the gods. “If I can really travel back, I wish I could become an Omega. Even if I condemn myself a little, I want to be with Ye Fei without obstacles. Wishes are hard, so I’m willing to use everything to make an exchange with the gods.”
At that moment, Gu Ang knew that after crossing over, he would lose his memory and no longer remember anything, and he was sick and reckless. But he thought that his future self would forgive the present him when he learned the truth.
Gu Ang curved the corners of his mouth.The gods heard him, and his wish came true.
The memory that was deleted was short and he quickly remembered the whole process. He went over the memories several times and thought about them, with a kind of belated gratitude.
What a blessing to still be in love.
When he walked out of the storage hall, it was dark outside and the rain was pouring down. The December weather was cold, blowing up the corners of his coat.
Ye Fei looked like he had been out for a long time, holding a black umbrella and standing in the rain waiting for him. The scene was the same as before the crossing, only now there was a lot more warmth in these eyes than the coldness of that time.
Gu Ang got under the umbrella and clung to Ye Fei’s arm, not mentioning his share for fear that Ye Fei would feel heartbroken. He tried to look relaxed and asked, “Finished reading the memories?”
“Mn, it’s the same as I thought.” Ye Fei’s voice was light, and he showed no emotions, “I took the initiative to ask for it, and when I heard you were coming over, I immediately agreed.”
So this, too, was a trap he had calculated. Fate was like a Möbius ring, the twists and turns, they always met.
Gu Ang tilted his head to look at him, the ink-colored rainy night, his pair of pupils slightly bright, reflecting his own blurred face. He asked in a low voice, his eyelashes fluttering, “Why did you follow me across? Obviously we were already divorced at that time.”
Gu Ang knew that it was him who made this unknown decision in the first place. In any case, he was capricious once again. He made an illusory bet, and Ye Fei let him win completely.
As the rain poured down, Ye Fei tilted his umbrella in his direction, his eyes red and his shoulders half wet.
When the tear fell from his left eye, Gu Ang thought that it was probably the first time he had seen Ye Fei cry. He still looked handsome, but his whole face was tainted with sadness, making his heart feel pity. He heard Ye Fei’s voice, blending into the rain, very soft, yet very hoarse, “Because, if I’m lost, I have to follow my Light to get home.”
(End of main story! There are 18 extras featuring a parallel world, Xiao Bai and Xiao Lin’s story and their daily life after this chapter.)
