An alarm originating from inside the military camp was exceedingly rare. In an instant, it caused tremendous shock and alarm among the officers.
Security around the mines had always been strict, and the stationed military camp possessed abundant firepower. The large-scale destructive weapons stored in the armory were enough to blow up the entire planet.
Within Zone C, this was a universally known “secret.”
Ordinary space pirates would never dare attack casually. At most, they hovered around the edges of the mines, stole some resources, and fled. Nobody had ever dared break into the camp and cause trouble.
Fully armed company troops stormed into the medical division in force and carefully locked down and searched all three floors before finally daring to confirm that there were no suspicious hostile intruders anywhere in the camp.
The extraordinary mental-power reading had occurred because the alarm system itself had malfunctioned… It had mistaken the energy fluctuation produced by Song Zang alone for an attack by multiple enemies.
And Song Zang’s uniqueness was even more important than an enemy assault. Lieutenant Colonel Hall, who had still been attending an online meeting, hurried over, panting hard with excitement. He even held up a loudspeaker to issue instructions, explicitly forbidding anyone from leaking the information.
Violators would be shot.
After threatening his soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel Hall rushed nonstop into the examination room to see Song Zang. His excitement was obvious. He could not even speak and remained trapped in shock, unable to calm down.
Yin Chen was far more composed. He spoke evenly. “Our hostile-activity monitoring system still needs improvement. Send the damaged mental-power tester for repairs and charge it to me.”
“Understood!”
“Dr. Philip?”
“Huh? Ah, I’m here!”
The doctor, whose legs had been frightened somewhat weak, immediately stood upright. When he looked at Song Zang, his gaze contained a naturally rising trace of fear. If Song Zang’s aim had been slightly worse, or if his mental power had erupted out of control, then just now… Philip would have died without question.
Submission to an Alpha overwhelmingly stronger than oneself was also an instinct for survival. Dr. Philip cleared his throat, and his tone unconsciously became more respectful. “Mr. Song, our examination is not yet complete. Please release a small amount of pheromones so I can conduct a deeper analysis.”
“All right. I’ll try.”
Song Zang’s attitude did not change in the slightest. He was still a good child who obediently followed the doctor’s instructions. He tried focusing his attention on the gland at the back of his neck and struggled for half a minute… Useless. Not a single trace of pheromone escaped.
The scene became inexplicably awkward and silent. Inspiration suddenly struck Song Zang, and he began imagining Yin Chen without clothes.
This time, the response was immediate. A thin layer of heat spread over his gland. The strange rotten odor diffused through the room, and the green plant on the windowsill quietly withered.
Dr. Philip nearly fainted from the stench, but he was afraid Song Zang might become humiliated and kill him, so he absolutely did not dare say anything. Enduring the intense discomfort, he picked up a pheromone collection capsule and gathered Song Zang’s scent sample as quickly as possible.
“That’s enough. Thank you for cooperating, Mr. Song. Next, please proceed to the self-service examination center. Follow Little Star’s instructions, lie inside the scanning pod, and undergo a basic physical scan,” Dr. Philip said weakly.
Song Zang pressed his lips together, genuinely wanting to laugh. The doctor’s words were clearly an unobtrusive attempt to hurry him out.
The so-called self-service examination was indeed a completely automated medical process and extremely convenient. When ordinary soldiers felt unwell, they did not even need to trouble medical staff. They could simply lie inside a scanning pod and detect over a thousand common diseases and hidden internal injuries on their own.
Song Zang closed his eyes and allowed the cold machine to fully enclose him. Green light swept across his entire body. One second later, he felt a faint dampness on his right index finger, followed by a quick, light prick. The smell of alcohol spread immediately.
It was probably drawing a blood sample for testing. That really saved a great deal of manpower.
“Mr. Song, your housing will be arranged by the Sergeant Major. Your basic examination report will be available this afternoon. Whatever you want to eat or drink, please don’t be reserved. Just ask. My orderly will also be available to serve you at any time.”
Lieutenant Colonel Hall’s attitude had become almost excessively enthusiastic. As Song Zang listened, he visibly “panicked,” retreated half a step behind Yin Chen, clutched his sleeve, and lowered his head, every inch of his body language revealing unease.
Ah, a delayed genius. A genius ground down and oppressed by society’s malice!
Lieutenant Colonel Hall could not help sighing repeatedly. He warned Yin Chen again and again that he absolutely had to take good care of the Empire’s future treasure.
Yin Chen naturally curved his lips in agreement, lifted an arm around Song Zang, pinched the back of his warm neck, and led him toward his own residence.
From outside, Yin Chen’s assigned house had only A-8-level specifications. Its exterior was simple and dignified, carrying the austere atmosphere unique to a military camp. But once they walked through the front door, an entirely different world opened inside.
The place was essentially a luxury mansion. The interior decoration was extremely refined and filled everywhere with the Rose Empire’s distinctive high-class extravagance. Even the ornamental aquarium contained two… rare rose-colored starfield mutant fish.
Little Star quietly reminded him of the market price for such mutant fish: five million star coins.
Song Zang’s expression went blank for a moment. He removed his coat and sat obediently on the soft sofa in silence, afraid that if he casually broke anything, he would cause Yin Chen an enormous financial loss.
The AI housekeeper detected the guest’s mood and operated the ornate flower-shaped coffee table. Its top opened, presenting three plates of delicate snacks and one iced carbonated drink packed with bubbles.
Song Zang picked up the glass in surprise and took a sip. The impact against his throat was strong and satisfying, rather like an old-fashioned medicinal cola. Sweet with a slightly bitter edge, it had an unusual refreshing effect.
“Talk business? Or do it once first?” Yin Chen’s hand settled on his waist and slipped beneath the hem of his sweater.
Song Zang fell silent again for a moment. The fibers of his clothes still carried the strange residual pheromone smell, thin threads of it refusing to disperse. The AI housekeeper was softly asking whether it should activate the air-purification system, only for Yin Chen to reject the suggestion decisively.
“Baby, can you really not smell it? Even your ornamental fish are about to roll their eyes…” Song Zang asked in complete bewilderment.
Yin Chen was genuinely strange. He had accompanied Song Zang throughout the entire examination and never once revealed the slightest unusual expression.
After returning home, he could still immediately become interested in sleeping with him!
Good lord. What an insane pervert!
Yin Chen read the obvious accusation in Song Zang’s shocked eyes and sneered. “Song Zang, do you think I care? Even if your actual corpse rotted and spoiled, I could still eat you raw one bite at a time, chewing slowly until nothing was left.”
“…Baby, you’re insane.”
“What? You wouldn’t be willing to eat my corpse raw?”
Song Zang stared blankly for a moment. Perhaps the statement was too shocking. Bizarre, kaleidoscopic images abruptly surfaced in his mind.
A cold, translucent space squid could be eaten raw.
Cut the tentacles into small pieces and dip them lightly in soy sauce or other seasonings, or eat them plain. Either way, one could taste an unusual fresh sweetness. The moist mucus had an especially distinctive texture, like faintly bitter maple syrup flowing over the tongue, smooth and soft, lingering afterward.
What was this? Why did he suddenly want to eat space squid? Come to think of it, did space squid actually exist in this world?
A faint ache rose at the back of Song Zang’s head. The strange hollow sensation of a small piece of his brain inexplicably missing quietly returned. He wanted to seize those fragmented images and continue digging deeper into his memories, but Yin Chen did not give him the chance.
Song Zang had been dazed for too long without answering. Yin Chen’s gaze gradually turned cold. The rich, magnificent fragrance of roses silently spread, wrapping around Song Zang layer after layer, winding so tightly there was no gap left.
“Song Zang. You aren’t willing.” Yin Chen’s voice carried a smile, yet sounded exceptionally eerie.
“Hm?”
A chill ran through Song Zang’s heart. He abruptly recovered and instinctively inhaled deeply. His gaze instantly became slightly unfocused. “No… Baby, you smell so good.”
But no matter how sweetly he spoke now, it was already useless to Yin Chen.
What happened next could only be described as horrifying.
Yin Chen took an ornate, razor-sharp dagger from the coffee table and leisurely removed its sheath.
Song Zang thought Yin Chen intended to stab him. He was even prepared to obediently close his eyes and wait, but what followed was completely different.
Yin Chen turned the knife on himself and forced Song Zang to watch his movements directly.
The cold, gleaming tip plunged straight into the pale flesh deep at the back of his neck and cruelly pried outward. Yin Chen personally sliced open his own burning gland and gouged out half of it alive.
A rose fragrance as rich and intoxicating as strong liquor exploded instantly. Blood ran down the contour of his neck and across his long fingers, staining the white military shirt red, but even that was not the most horrifying detail.
The specialized structure of an Alpha gland was extraordinarily complex. Dense nerves and blood vessels tangled together, writhing alive in Yin Chen’s pale palm like some grotesque creature possessing consciousness of its own.
“…Baby, what are you doing?” Song Zang’s heart nearly stopped. His face turned pale, yet Yin Chen’s overwhelming pheromones were also deeply affecting him. His breathing became heavier and faster, and he could barely sit still.
A smile curved Yin Chen’s thin lips. Darkness filled his long phoenix eyes, but his coaxing voice was extraordinarily gentle. “Eat it. Prove to me that you’re willing to become one with me.”
Song Zang did not refuse. The longer he breathed in the rose fragrance, the more excited he became. Territorial instinct and reproductive desire surged up simultaneously, and a violent, bloodthirsty impulse suddenly exploded in his heart.
If Yin Chen continued releasing that terrifying pressure and sense of presence, every Alpha in the military camp… would either become disabled for life or be stimulated into madness. He truly acted without considering consequences.
What made Song Zang even angrier was that Yin Chen had inexplicably insisted on cutting himself open. That bloody, hideous injury served absolutely no purpose. Cutting apart a gland was like severing a limb even for a powerful Alpha.
“I’ll eat it. Baby, I’ll eat it right now.”
He really was somewhat angry, but the angrier he became, the softer his voice grew. Song Zang smiled, took the twitching half-gland from Yin Chen’s hand, placed it into his mouth, and deliberately chewed it carefully before swallowing it whole.
【You consumed Flower Seed: Crimson Glory. Attack +50】
The system notice flashed past his eyes and was casually dismissed by Song Zang without concern.
He was carefully experiencing the soft, living texture of flesh. Striking blood stained the corners of his lips, richer than rouge against skin smooth and pale as fine jade. His eyes were deep as rotating black holes, vivid, eerie, and alluring.
At least in Yin Chen’s eyes, he truly was breathtaking.
Yin Chen looked extremely satisfied, like a lover gently soothing suppressed anger and at the same time a top-tier Alpha deliberately provoking another Alpha’s authority. His hoarse voice carried malicious teasing from above. “Angry? Want to punish me?”
Who could endure hearing that?
Song Zang certainly could not.
＊
They did not discuss a single proper matter related to the instance. The two of them carried on until the following morning.
The AI housekeeper played wake-up music as soft as flowing water in the bedroom. The chaos scattered across the floor had already been quietly cleaned away, leaving no trace whatsoever of what had happened.
Song Zang lay motionless beneath the blankets and said darkly, “Let’s make one thing clear first. This does not count toward our three-day agreement.”
“Mm. I know.”
Yin Chen fastened his belt. His long legs were tightly enclosed in the restrained military uniform, the curve beneath his waist outlining an especially lifted backside.
“Song Zang, are you still angry?”
His voice was slightly hoarse, carrying undisguised satisfaction and laziness. The rose fragrance spreading from the back of his neck had also become warm and relaxed, drifting in strands across the bed and smelling exceptionally pleasant.
Song Zang stayed quiet for a while, then deliberately kept a straight face and nodded.
In truth, Song Zang was no longer angry today. Nobody could remain interested in fighting with a lover after spending an enjoyable night together.
But he believed Yin Chen’s behavior yesterday had been seriously problematic, especially when he looked up and saw the suppressant patch covering the pale back of Yin Chen’s neck…
The moment he imagined the bloody, hideous wound hidden beneath that thin patch, Song Zang became irritable all over again.
He had no choice. He needed to pretend he was still angry with Yin Chen.
The noble Alpha officer sat at the bedside bare-chested, his narrow waist covered in large patches of red marks and continuous knife wounds.
The injuries were very fresh. Specks of blood looked like brilliant roses blooming passionately across snow-white ground, unusually sensual.
Song Zang had not even inflicted them himself. He was not that cruel.
It had been Yin Chen who forcibly placed the bloodied dagger in Song Zang’s hand, then leaned against it himself with a faint smile, grinding out streams of scalding blood.
Infuriating. The more Song Zang remembered it, the angrier he became. Pervert. Lunatic!
But what could Song Zang do?
This was the baby he had chosen to love. He could only spoil him himself.
Yin Chen was not afraid of Song Zang’s anger in the slightest. He lazily chatted with him for a while. Before leaving, he deliberately pinched Song Zang’s chin and rubbed it, then leaned down to kiss him.
Seeing Song Zang deliberately pretend not to react, Yin Chen’s smile cooled slightly. He brushed against Song Zang’s soft, cool lips and bit them hard, leaving behind a deep mark.
After biting him, Yin Chen calmly dressed in his crisp military coat, turned around, and went to work, leaving Song Zang alone at home, thoroughly provoked and left hanging.
Bastard.
Yin Chen also wanted to stay, but today he genuinely could not casually skip duty.
Only yesterday he had brought the “buried genius” home. Yet from afternoon until late at night, he had never opened the door again, ignoring video calls and messages… while making an enormous amount of noise.
Within a one-kilometer radius, Yin Chen’s distinctive rose fragrance lingered everywhere, rich and overwhelming, stirring everyone nearby.
The house’s air-purification system had been operating at maximum power for a long time, but even that achieved little. No shielding equipment could truly block the terrifying penetrative force of a top-tier Alpha’s pheromones.
Lieutenant Colonel Hall had nearly gone insane with worry.
Every Alpha stationed at the mine had undergone strict training and would not easily start fighting from same-sex provocation. But even if Yin Chen’s scent had not caused a large-scale Alpha riot, the officers living nearby were still badly affected, restless beyond endurance, feeling as though ants crawled over their entire bodies.
There were no secrets in a military camp. Everyone knew Yin Chen had enjoyed an excellent night, and his presence had been far too powerful for anyone to pretend nothing happened. Instead, it left everyone burning with irritation.
Officers who were disciplined and had stable partners chose to visit the medical division for injections of strong suppressants.
More uninhibited single Alphas had no reason to hesitate. They simply found local Betas on the mining planet, picked several who looked decent, and paid money to vent their frustration.
This was routine behavior for stationed soldiers. As long as they had a little money, even if pheromones had not stirred them up, groups would leave camp during time off and find Betas for recreational relaxation.
On poorer planets, selling sexual services was especially common and was a legal profession recognized by the Rose Empire. Legitimate institutions provided workers with appropriate social medical insurance and conducted annual inspections to protect their lawful rights.
Of course, the regulations only allowed Alphas and Betas to sell such services. Omegas were absolutely forbidden. Once discovered, both buyer and seller would receive severe punishment. Omega bodies were too precious and needed protection for reproduction. They could not withstand such treatment.
Betas, who possessed no pheromones, could not completely eliminate an Alpha’s overwhelming □□, but they were extremely durable, and Alphas were very willing to pay for their services.
Elio’s Notes: The □□ blocks in this chapter are already present in the Chinese source. I’m preserving them rather than guessing at missing or censored wording.
After all, Betas themselves had little value and sold cheaply, unlike high-quality safe suppressants, which were extremely expensive.
Yin Chen looked down on those Alphas who paid for pleasure.
Military suppressants were free. Completely free. They did not need to spend a single coin.
Even if Imperial law clearly required the rights of sex workers to be protected… this was Zone C.
The most broken slum, nearly a lawless wilderness, a nest where the lower classes gathered. Violence ruled, and darkness flourished.
Even if someone truly forced an undocumented Omega into sex work, as long as it was never reported beyond Zone C, nobody would know. Some people were too lazy to care. Others had no authority to interfere.
The director of the Zone C Energy Administration was a typical example. He had bought the already hollowed-out position with money and was fundamentally an incompetent piece of trash. His parents had even been space pirates, and nobody knew how much dirty money his family possessed.
To say nothing of the patrol officers’ severe corruption and dereliction of duty. The hidden bullying, suppression, and class stratification inside the stationed military camp were no better.
Yin Chen’s gaze gradually turned cold. Intent on purging this disgusting atmosphere, he drew his gun directly during the morning meeting and executed several vermin whose conduct had gone too far. Super-S-rank mental power suppressed the entire room. Nobody could move.
Lieutenant Colonel Hall coldly watched the trash collapse onto the floor and secretly cheered in his heart.
This important official from Zone A’s inner circle had previously ignored worldly affairs, cold and fastidiously self-controlled. Who could have guessed that after encountering “true love,” not only would dry tinder erupt into flame, but even his personality would become fiercely intolerant of injustice?
Hall lacked Yin Chen’s rank and ability to protect himself. Even with considerable authority in his hands, he spent every day uneasy, afraid that here in remote Zone C he might be jointly assassinated by dissatisfied subordinates, framed through some scheme, and stripped of the uniform he had fought so hard to earn.
But he could quietly support Yin Chen and let him freely accomplish everything Hall himself had wanted to do.
After eliminating the people who should not have existed, Yin Chen offered no grand moral speech. With Lieutenant Colonel Hall’s tacit approval, he simply added one new camp regulation.
All soldiers within the camp, regardless of rank, are forbidden from participating in any □□ transaction involving money.
Violators would be shot.
Nobody objected, and the regulation became permanent. Yin Chen expressionlessly straightened his cuffs, heavy military boots stepping over blood spreading across the floor, then coldly continued to work.
His actual duties were fairly relaxed and resembled office work. According to what Yin Chen had explained to Song Zang the previous night, his role was essentially the chief overseer of the primary mines.
Soldiers on active shifts were responsible for supervising every lower-class Alpha and Beta throughout the extraction process, while Yin Chen… supervised whether those soldiers remained at their posts or neglected their duties. He also “assisted” Lieutenant Colonel Hall, making the final decision on the direction of deeper excavation whenever phased results appeared.
As for exactly what secrets lay inside those deep mines, Yin Chen did not know. His background information had been extremely vague. And his personal mission was actually to kill the Alpha princess who had sent him to Zone C on this assignment and expose the conspiracy behind it.
Yet that princess happened to be Yin Chen’s greatest patron in the Rose Empire, his true direct superior.
Yin Chen steadied himself. His probing gaze sank into the bottomless mining pit, following the crimson signal lights of the open elevator shaft all the way down.
In the information age, genuine secrets would never appear on electronic devices, much less be allowed anywhere near artificial intelligence. Otherwise, the moment the interstellar network suffered a major attack, the resulting leaks would directly shake the foundations of countless people in power.
He could only uncover the truth himself.
＊
Song Zang had not gone outside.
This body was still too weak and severely malnourished. His newly issued medical report showed deficiencies in multiple vitamins and special cells responsible for nourishing mental power. He would need long-term supplementation and a balanced, high-quality diet to slowly recover.
In short, it was the classic disease of poverty. Fortunately, he was still young and had not developed more hidden illnesses.
So once Yin Chen left, all the exhaustion that had been suppressed throughout the night surged over Song Zang at once. He forced himself to finish breakfast, then swayed back to bed and fell asleep.
After restoring his energy, Song Zang comfortably curled up inside Yin Chen’s luxury residence and ate another delicious lunch prepared by the robots.
The Rose Empire had developed a rich culture. Its dominant atmosphere valued romance, so naturally its culinary culture was no weaker and offered even greater variety than the real world. Dry compressed foods such as nutrient solution belonged only to the military and impoverished lower-class residents.
Song Zang became a little sleepy from eating too many carbohydrates and lazily curled up on the sofa, directly disabling the intelligent housekeeper service.
He stared at the blue-green veins crossing his wrist and began thinking about how to deal with his subcutaneous chip.
Something was wrong with it. More precisely, something was wrong with his AI Little Star. It seemed far more sensitive and active than other AI assistants and possessed an extremely high degree of 【autonomy】.
The problem was that Song Zang did not have enough money to purchase premium artificial-intelligence services.
In theory, his Little Star should have been painfully rigid. Yet Little Star… behaved like a living person.
Song Zang could not simply remove the chip. That would cause the population-management department to react, triggering a “suspected abduction” warning and instantly broadcasting his identification photograph across StarNet. Extremely troublesome.
What he needed now was long-term, complete signal blocking.
Little Star had not appeared last night because Yin Chen had activated the military-grade signal jammer in his home, a large and precise device meant to prevent anyone from spying on their intimacy through cameras.
Otherwise… Song Zang genuinely feared that once they got into bed, Little Star would continue secretly teaching him how two Alphas could achieve the best possible experience.
Portable jammers definitely circulated on the black market. Perhaps he could find similar equipment aboard Zhang Tao Xiong’s pirate ship.
That ship was currently stored inside the military camp’s confiscated-weapons depot.
Taking advantage of Yin Chen being at work, Song Zang decided to secretly play around inside the depot for a while and look for a convenient weapon at the same time.
Meanwhile, another major incident had erupted inside the battalion.
Every officer who had paid for pleasure the previous night had developed mental-power disorder symptoms, perfectly synchronized without a single exception.
Compared with ordinary Alpha instability, the way their mental power erupted was extremely abnormal.
Under normal circumstances, these Alpha officers would become animals obsessed with desire, treatable with strong suppressants and sedatives.
Yet according to the battalion doctors, they more closely resembled cruel, sadistic, cold-blooded predators, behaving as though they were on a battlefield, moving like ghosts and using brutal methods. They showed no interest in reproduction and cared only about merciless killing.
More than ten dead bodies had already been discovered. Their condition was horrific and gruesome, their skulls shattered apart, their most precious glands violently torn out by biting.
Yes. Biting.
The laboratory had confirmed that every bite mark came from human teeth.
Even stranger, the several Betas who had spent the night inside the camp selling services were completely unharmed. The ones who died were the elite soldiers.
Every victim who had been brutally hunted possessed considerable strength. All were Alphas assigned to guard the mines, with mental power at least bordering B-rank. They could fight spaceborne exotic beasts one-on-one without difficulty.
Yet there were almost no signs of struggle at the death scenes. They had been slaughtered one-sidedly without any ability to fight back.
Yin Chen personally inspected the corpses. The gland at the back of his neck suddenly ached, sending out a hot stress response.
He looked toward Lieutenant Colonel Hall, darkness gathering between his brows. “It smells like insects. Our natural enemy.”