Volume 1 - CH 1

A young alpha was leaning back on a leather sofa, not caring whether his slouching posture would add wrinkles to his black half sleeve T-shirt. He stared absent-mindedly at an age-old painting of a child that adorned the wall of the pantry. 

“Boss, I’ve never taken any annual leave in the three years I worked here. I’m tired. Please don’t give me any more tasks this month. I want to go to an island for a vacation.” Bai Chunian changed his posture and bargained with the omega standing in front of the tea cabinet picking out coffee. 

“Hmm?”

The rich aroma of Italian coffee filled the whole pantry. The omega straightened up. His two rabbit ears hanging in his gray hair stood up then drooped back down. The slender figure was wrapped in a suit vest.

“Only adults smoke cigars. Don’t corrupt yourself with bad habits like this,” Yan Yi said in a neutral tone. He glanced at Bai Chunian right after he said it, then turned around to continue boiling coffee.

With just that one glance, Bai Chunian immediately felt the powerful oppressive force generated by a high-grade pheromone. He couldn’t help but instinctively want to sit up straight and press his cigarette on the ashtray.

After all, the person in front of him was the president of the Omega Alliance. With a super high-grade pituitary rabbit gland, he had been sitting firmly as the strongest agent chief in the PBB base for many years now. When the rebel war happened fifteen years ago, he was promoted to the Major General position of the Pacific Biological Differentiation Base. Coupled with the financial backing of his tyrannical peregrine falcon alpha, no one had been able to shake his position so far.

Bai Chunian watched as Yan Yi placed a cup of coffee in front of him. The omega then sat at the other end of the sofa and elegantly stretched out his long leg. He switched on his laptop and lightly tapped on the keyboard. He said softly, “It’s just a small hostage rescue mission. It won’t take too much of your time.”

“I’m not going. I want a vacation.”

“Two hundred thousand yuan.”

“It’s not about the money.” Bai Chunian held his breath and leaned back on the sofa. He raised his fingers to retort, “It’s only May, but how many jobs have I taken this year?

“In January, I went to the rescue mission in the South African air raids. In February, I went to the frozen plague investigation in the Antarctic division. In March, I went to retrieve the fake differentiation stimulant that suddenly flowed into the market. In April, I captured two terrorist groups in a row. And last night I went to beat that little alpha who blocked your son in the toilet to confess.”

“Boss, you have a lot of elite omega subordinates under you. So can you stop gripping on me alone? Oh, or is it because I’m an alpha that you’re making me work like a donkey since omegas have weak bodies? My partner has been on maternity leave for half a year and still hasn’t returned. I saw the locations in his WeChat Moments. He’s been checking in into major attractions in Europe, and he didn’t even block me. I’ve only taken a weekend’s leave this year, isn’t it too much?”

“Child, I think highly of you due to your abilities.” Yan Yi held his chin while observing the hostage video on the notebook screen. “You can decide after watching this help-seeking video.”

There was no light inside the room in the video, so the background was almost pure black. From the furnishings and decorations in some of the shots, it seemed that the location was a small aquarium. The hostage was handcuffed in a glass tank filled with water.

“I can’t save him. He’ll just die. The tank seems to be 3 x 6. By the time I reach there, the hostage is already dead.” Bai Chunian indifferently changed his sitting posture. He crossed his hands over his stomach. “Then again, kidnapping cases are the police’s job. When did we start taking these heavy manual jobs? Is the alliance dying or did Uncle Jin go bankrupt?”

Yan Yi focused on examining the video, spinning a fountain pen between his fingers. “You must have heard about the explosion that happened in 109 Research Institute last month. Our spy told us that not only did the research institute face grave damages, they also lost an experimental subject specialized for combat worth three billion dollars.” 

Bai Chunian raised his eyebrows. “That is a heavy loss indeed.”

The experimental subject that specialized for combat raised by the research institute was the most advanced humanoid weapon that modern science could create. They had really powerful glands, differentiation capabilities more suitable for war, and a large number of associated abilities. Their self-healing abilities and toughness were far beyond ordinary people. Matured test subjects would be sold as biological weapons all over the world. The unit price for the selling would be determined by assessing the experimental subjects’ overall ability and could range from ten million to billions of dollars.

Yan Yi continued, “Coincidently after the test subject was lost in the streets, a human trafficking organization picked him up. They just thought he’s an ordinary omega and started searching for a buyer who would show interest in him.”

The video was secretly taken by the officers who went there, disguising themselves as buyers. The dark and shaky footage only showed a vague outline of the hostage’s back. His shoulders were slender and his neck and back were thin. Apart from his neck and head, the rest of his upper body was all wrapped up in white bandages. He had obviously suffered from very serious trauma.

Bai Chunian suddenly became a little interested. He sat up and moved closer to the notebook screen to observe more carefully. At that time, the noisy sound of scolding came in through the video. It should be some kind of regional dialect or the trafficker’s secret jargon. Upon careful identification, their words could be roughly understood as, “It’s guaranteed to be a top-notch good, so don’t look at it any further if you’re not going to buy it.”

“Oh, human trafficking.” Bai Chunian stroked his chin, “Repeat offenders, the scale doesn’t seem to be small.”

Unexpectedly, in the last few seconds of the video, the hostage who was handcuffed in the water tank looked back.

With the help of the faint light and the HD resolution of the computer screen, the hostage’s appearance was extracted and was magnified on the split-screen—the hostage was completely underwater. A young man with blond hair and blue eyes. His cheeks were nearly snow white and the silhouette of his side profile was extremely cold and handsome. He was like a sculpture of the goddess Venus submerged in water.

Bai Chunian couldn’t get back to his senses for a long while. He repeatedly watched the scene of the hostage turning back. His finger’s slightly trembled subconsciously and the hot coffee fell on his stomach, scalding his skin.

Yan Yi seemed to be expecting this reaction from him. He took a sip of coffee and took out a letter from the drawer. The paper was densely covered with dots and short terms. “What’s even more interesting is that we got a help message from this test subject half an hour ago. He didn’t say anything. He just communicated with us through a morse code. Do you want to know what message he gave us?”

Bai Chunian lowered his head and buried it into the crook of his arms. He stealthily pinched his own gland, trying to use pain to prohibit the instinctive secretion of pheromones, but it had no effect. In just a few seconds, the alpha’s pheromones brandishing his crazy desire overflowed all around the pantry.

With his profession, these kinds of the most basic codes were easily recognizable to him. The help-seeking message from the test subject only had two short words, “white lion.” 

White lion.

The strong pheromones of the alpha finally disturbed Yan Yi’s gland after a while. He thoughtfully took out an inhibitor from the drawer and pushed it towards Bai Chunian. “My information shows that you have a high degree of pheromone compatibility with the hostage’s pheromone. His condition now is not very optimistic, so maybe your presence can be more soothing to him.”

“Of course, it may be really awkward for you to be specifically called to save your ex-boyfriend. If you really don’t wanna go, then I’m not going to force you. But he is a special test subject and is very aggressive. If any emergency situation occurs, the people I sent there will take violent measures to forcefully suppress him.” 

“He’s not my ex-boyfriend. Just a friend with benefits.” Bai Chunian gnashed his teeth and let out a laugh. He rubbed his face to make himself sober. “I’ll go. Send me the location.”

Yan Yi was a bit worried. “If the hostage goes out of control and rebels…”

“He wouldn’t dare.” Bai Chunian twisted his wrist slightly and the sound of the bones cracking echoed throughout the room. After relying on inhibitors to do their best to suppress the restlessness in his gland, he said in a low voice, “If necessary, forcefully suppress and use violent means.”