VAP - Chapter 123
Chapter 123: The Marshal's Journey is the Sea of Stars (19)
Unlike Yue Du’s peaceful and comfortable original world, which only had occasional small disturbances and dangers, a life-or-death battle was reaching its climax in the vast sea of stars of the interstellar era.
Sheng Xuejiu’s fighting style had always been clean and decisive, as well as visually spectacular. The Silver Lion, gleaming with a metallic luster, was like a beast come to life, baring its fangs at the enemy—the thermal weapons equipped on the mecha.
The design of those launchers was stunning, seamlessly embedded into the silver-white frame in an absolute fusion of technology and beauty.
The Zerg’s bodies were undoubtedly tough. The unique structure of their exoskeletons could effectively block human attacks; even ordinary thermal weapons were helpless against them.
This was especially true for the King Zerg, which could create bio-energy shields. They were tough, durable, and had fast reactions. Ordinary Sentinels found it difficult to keep up with their speed and were helpless against them.
But there were always those who could.
The First Seat Sentinels of every generation, and the First Seat Guides whose spiritual power was strong enough to break through the Zerg’s minds—they were the main fighting force against the King Zerg!
Inside the Silver Lion, Yue Du looked ahead, her eyes synchronized with the mecha, sharing its visual feed.
Before the King Zerg had time to deploy its small-scale shield, Sheng Xuejiu activated the energy cannon. A beam of light shot straight through the black void, precisely striking the King Zerg’s carapace.
Viscous green fluid splattered.
And this was only the beginning. Sheng Xuejiu controlled the Silver Lion to fire continuously, the beams of light nearly illuminating this entire section of the void.
Her reactions and five senses were absolutely at the pinnacle of power in this small world. Before the Marshal, the King Zerg seemed incredibly fragile.
Having retreated to the side, Samo, who had narrowly avoided being caught in the bombardment: “…”
In comparison, he felt like utter trash.
“I’ll go help them first. I’ll leave this to you, Marshal!”
The communication cut off. Admiral Samo piloted his somewhat battered mecha to the rear to fight the ordinary Zerg, taking them down one by one with each shot.
The Silver Lion suddenly stopped its assault.
The venomous King Zerg was small and had suffered a fatal wound from the previous attack, taken out before it could even use its venom.
But the larger King Zerg was different. Even with more than a dozen wounds gushing fluid on its body, it could still move.
It deployed its shield, its ferocious mouthparts opening wide. Perhaps it was letting out a shriek of anger and pain, but nothing could be heard through the vacuum of space.
Sheng Xuejiu: “It’s caught on. This type of cannon won’t work anymore, tsk.”
The King Zerg waved its limbs and attacked, the sharp tips of its legs chilling to behold. But strangely, it stayed by the side of the dying venomous Zerg, not moving too far away, as if it were guarding it.
However, the Zerg do not develop so-called camaraderie with their own kind; they only protect the Zerg Mother and the larvae.
Yue Du’s thoughts raced, and she said very quickly, “There’s something else on the venomous Zerg!”
And it was very likely extremely important.
Sheng Xuejiu understood. “Understood. I’ll try my best not to blast them to bits.”
Before her words had even faded, a very small long-haired cat appeared outside the mecha.
A Quantum Beast wasn’t a biological entity but a manifestation of one’s spirit, so of course it could fight in the vacuum of space.
But the problem was, what could such a small cat do? It wasn’t even as big as one of the King Zerg’s eyeballs!
Yue Du turned her head to look at the Marshal.
In a pause between actions, Sheng Xuejiu said thoughtfully, “Hmm, did you know some Quantum Beasts can metamorphose?”
Yue Du: “…I do now.”
Before her eyes, the cat’s small and delicate form rapidly expanded, growing to the size of the King Zerg’s head in the blink of an eye.
A pair of wings, the same color as its body, unfurled from its back. The feathers were soft and plentiful, each one distinct. The moment they spread open, Yue Du thought she could hear the sound of tearing silk.
The long-haired cat—or rather, a giant feline beast of some unknown species—flicked its cloud-like long tail, raised its head, and let out a silent roar at the King Zerg.
—Then it brazenly raised a paw and swiped down viciously.
The cat’s agility surpassed the King Zerg’s; it seemed born to be the nemesis of this kind of monster. Its claws slashed across the King Zerg’s face in just an instant, and what fell away was dripping green fluid and a gouged-out compound eye, a length of severed nerve still attached.
Yue Du’s gaze froze.
Sheng Xuejiu deliberately avoided looking at her expression, pretending to focus intently on what was in front of them.
Before the big cat had even acted, the Marshal had started charging the cannon. The five-second charge finished just as the King Zerg was recoiling in pain, its defenses down.
The cannon fire precisely hit its target, blooming in front of the King Zerg’s massive body.
Before the light and smoke from the explosion could dissipate, the low-level Zerg fighting with the other members of the assault squad all stopped. After a brief stupor, some fled quickly, while others remained frozen on the spot, only to be blasted to death by soldiers who seized the opportunity.
The King Zerg was dead.
Obeying the commands of the Zerg Mother and the King Zerg was the instinct of all low-level Zerg. Now that both King Zerg were dead, they naturally fell out of control.
However, this was no longer the Marshal’s concern. The giant cat-shaped beast shook its paws in disgust, then dissolved into mist and returned to its master’s body. The Silver Lion began its return journey.
As for the cleanup work, that was left to the others.
In the cockpit, Sheng Xuejiu first sent a message to Samo, telling him to pay attention to the important item hidden by the venomous Zerg, before cutting the communication.
She sat perfectly straight with her hands on her knees, looking very well-behaved.
—Just as well-behaved as the small long-haired cat.
Yue Du was silent for a moment, then asked in a strange tone, “So, why can it metamorphose?”
This involved the different types of Sentinel and Guide Quantum Beasts.
In the data available to all special humans, Quantum Beasts were divided into ancient and extant species. The latter were more common, while the former were rarer. Yue Du’s white deer was an ancient species.
Besides these, there was actually a little-known third type of Quantum Beast form, which researchers had named the Fantasy Species.
They were species that had never existed in reality, like the product of splicing and mutating various creatures together, and most possessed a unique aesthetic.
What were the conditions required to produce a Fantasy Species?
First, you had to be a hybrid of a human and a Spiral Star native.
Sheng Xuejiu said, “Anyway, that’s the situation. It’s already difficult for a hybrid to be born, and even fewer of their offspring are Sentinels or Guides. So, news about the Fantasy Species was suppressed by the Federation and the Empire. After all, if intermarriage between the two sides became common, how could they maintain stability? The information you gathered before didn’t include this, did it?”
Yue Du said, “No.”
Yue Du calmly accepted the fact that her lover was an interstellar hybrid. She had even met a half-vampire; what was a half-alien in comparison?
Compared to that—
“You didn’t hide your Quantum Beast’s state from them,” Yue Du said, referring to the assault squad. “Judging by how unsurprised they were, they’ve known for a long time. But the outside world doesn’t know, and other factions are completely unaware. It seems they’re very trustworthy.”
“The military is mine,” Sheng Xuejiu said with a small smile.
Yue Du: “So it’s not just this one squad? Your level of control is astonishing.”
The Marshal: “Thank you for the compliment, my dear.”
The assault squad was just a microcosm; the entire military belonged to Sheng Xuejiu. Therefore, the military would not escape her control. If Sheng Xuejiu forbade them from revealing the special nature of her Quantum Beast to the outside world, they wouldn’t say a single word.
From the generals and officers at the top, down to the rank-and-file soldiers.
The host’s desire for control was sometimes very obvious. Setting aside the likes of Qi Jiu and Yun Yijiu, just take Nai Yin. It was likely that not a single person in her entire castle could betray her. All the strings were held in the hands of a master who seemed to manage nothing, and no one dared to be disloyal.
And now Sheng Xuejiu had expanded her scope of control to the entire military.
Yue Du sorted out the key points, marveling at how formidable the host was while also despising the Main System’s unreliability.
No plot, no outline, just a character profile, and an incomplete one at that—the file hadn’t mentioned or even hinted at Sheng Xuejiu’s identity at all.
…Useless Main System!
Later, Admiral Samo squeezed out a written report on the incident.
Besides praising the Marshal and reviewing his own mistake of underestimating the enemy, the report also detailed what the venomous Zerg had been guarding.
It was a rare exotic metal. For the Zerg Mother, it was a rare source of nutrition; for humans, it was a scarce material for mecha construction.
Sheng Xuejiu rightfully received a piece of the exotic metal. At first, she didn’t pay it much mind, thinking of just casually melting it onto the Silver Lion.
But later, for some unknown reason, an idea sprouted, and she saved it instead.
Time flew by in a flash.
The vacation wasn’t long. Yue Du, who had blended in with the “wives’ group” to visit, blended in with them again to leave, returning to the Capital Star just before the school term began.
In the second semester, the Sentinel and Guide major was broken up, with students assigned to different sub-departments. After much consideration, Yue Du chose the Mecha Combat department.
The Mecha Combat department allowed for early internships. Sheng Xuejiu reserved a spot for her in the Silver Lion Legion and also said she would commission a mecha master to build her a deer-shaped mecha.
Yue Du imagined the scene: a giant mechanical silver deer pointing its antlers at the enemy, the tips firing laser beams or energy cannons, still smoking after the barrage.
Sheng Xuejiu insisted it was the most suitable design, believing that antler cannons were the “most romantic, most practical, and most adorable.” With three “mosts” in a row, she declared it would be an epoch-making creation and named it the “Deer Leap.”
Yue Du: “…”
She found it unacceptable. The idea was unacceptable, and the name wasn’t great either.
The Marshal ultimately abandoned the idea with regret.
Students at the academy all used standard humanoid training mechas, about two meters tall. Compared to Sheng Xuejiu’s giant beast-form mecha, they were more like mechanical exoskeletons fitted to the human body.
Yue Du had a unique advantage when it came to piloting mechas. Ordinary Sentinels relied purely on their physical fitness and five senses, while Guides relied on spiritual power for control. And Yue Du? She had both.
At the First Military Academy, capable people naturally earned support.
In addition, Yue Du had always been good at dealing with people. As long as she put her mind to it, it wasn’t difficult to win over a group of students who were strong but lacked experience.
A specific example was Ying Wei.
At some point, the words “First Seat” had started appearing in the girl’s speech even more frequently than “Marshal.”
Ying Wei participated in the final First Seat challenge of her sophomore fall semester and, as expected, lost again.
But this time, she didn’t have any negative feelings at all. After the match, she was in good spirits and sought out Yue Du for a review, and they would have another sparring match from time to time.
One time, it happened to coincide with a call from Sheng Xuejiu.
Hearing her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s second seat arranging to spar, the Marshal fell into deep thought.
“Are you two that close now?”
“Ying Wei is a good person. She’s strong, and she doesn’t have any major factions behind her,” Yue Du evaluated objectively. “Besides, you know Ying Wei is the female protagonist. There’s no harm in getting on good terms with her.”
Sheng Xuejiu said, “You don’t need to be on good terms with her. I can see she really admires you. Wouldn’t it be better to maintain a bit of distance and mystery?”
Yue Du didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and employed the great technique of changing the subject to finally move past the matter.
By the end of her sophomore spring semester, Yue Du had already made a name for herself in the holographic arena.
Anyone who frequently trained using this system basically knew that there was a certain student who was the “Invincible East” of the physical combat arena and the “Solitary Seeker of Defeat” of the mecha combat arena.
It might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the effect was more or less the same. In one mecha match, Yue Du was matched against Admiral Samo. Both sides used the stats of standard-issue mechas, and Yue Du won.
Mecha battles were anonymous, so Admiral Samo didn’t recognize his opponent as her. He only tentatively asked, “Marshal, is that you?” before logging off. When he didn’t get a reply, he gave up asking.
After this battle, a possibility suddenly occurred to Yue Du.
In this small world, individual strength was greatly weakened; equipment was the main factor. An unarmed Sheng Xuejiu couldn’t possibly fight against Samo piloting his dog-shaped mecha.
When equipment was equal, it all came down to raw skill.
Both Yue Du and Sheng Xuejiu had been weakened by the small world. Theoretically, they were both limited to the same level, whether in terms of physical or spiritual strength.
In other words…
If she and the host had a sparring match with equal equipment, who would be the final winner was not a foregone conclusion?
Yue Du’s eyes instantly lit up.
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