MORIC - Chapter 143

Chapter 143: Who's Making a Grand Entrance

A Zerg slammed violently against the mecha's sensor screen. Xi Shuang screamed while asking Ling Xun on the other end of the comms, "How are you doing?"

After activating their mechas, they relied on energy for communication, similar to a radio, but with some static.

For instance, the sound of impacts from her side, along with the torrential rain and thunder, would all roar into one's ears.

They were, after all, just a bunch of inexperienced kids. Even though Xi Shuang was a year older than Ling Xun and had gone through countless rounds of training at the academy, passing all the basic courses, she still worried about accidents.

Ling Xun's academy life had just begun. Xi Shuang even regretted letting her be on the same team.

But on the other hand, she was glad they were on the same team.

Xi Shuang's mother and Ling Xun's mother were biological sisters.

Ling Xun's mother had always been a frail and sickly Omega, but thanks to her family's immense wealth, she never had to worry about finding a partner.

But it was a law of nature that an AO union would result in a child. Perhaps because of the mother's frailty, Ling Xun was pitifully small when she was born. She was premature and had to stay in an incubator for a very, very long time.

Even in the technologically advanced interstellar era, where the safety index for Omega childbirth was countless times better than before, there was still a one-in-ten-thousand chance of death.

Her little aunt had almost died.

This was all told to Xi Shuang by her Omega mother.

For as long as she could remember, she knew Ling Xun was her most precious cousin.

Just like her mother and her little aunt, the bond between sisters was the strongest emotion in a lifetime.

In some ways, familial love could absolutely transcend romantic love; all the worry and care were kneaded into the most tender of words.

But Ling Xun was just too much of a worry.

Though only a year younger than Xi Shuang, when they stood together as children, they looked several years apart.

Her cousin spoke softly, but her personality was stubborn. She always tried to get what she wanted herself, whether it was climbing a tree or going into the water.

She wouldn't let the servants get it for her; she had to scramble up and down herself.

It was as if her most fragile body was embedded with a heart of steel, one that bullets and cannons couldn't pierce through its innate stubbornness.

Even as she grew more and more delicate, like a pear blossom reflected in spring water, she was completely different from Xi Shuang's free-spirited style, which was like chaotic snow in winter.

When they stood together, they were always a study in contrasts, one still and one in motion.

Xi Shuang naturally assumed that since Ling Xun was like this, she must be an Omega.

But she never expected her sickly cousin to differentiate into an Alpha.

The ailments she carried from the womb miraculously healed because of the differentiation. Her spiritual power was on the same level as Xi Shuang's. Her body wasn't very sturdy, but she no longer fell ill at the drop of a hat.

Xi Shuang was a year ahead of Ling Xun, but they had been inseparable since childhood.

Either Ling Xun would come stay at Xi Shuang's house for a few days, or Xi Shuang would move into Ling Xun's room.

It was normal for Alpha girls to fight and spar. Ling Xun was better than Xi Shuang at kendo, and every time she won, she would look down on Xi Shuang and call her "Cousin."

Xi Shuang would just smile. "I think it's better if you're the older cousin."

In fact, everyone in their year knew that Xi Shuang and Ling Xun were close.

It was less about being close and more about being afraid that Ling Xun would disappear if she looked away for a second.

Even Wen Xinghuo had asked, "Are you two biological sisters?"

Xi Shuang shrugged, waving at a pretty Omega passing by, her eyes curving into crescents. "We are."

The next second, she started worrying again. "I wonder if my little sister will get into a relationship when she comes to the academy. That blockhead of hers is a lot like you, completely uninterested in that sort of thing."

Wen Xinghuo: "You sound like her mother."

Then she got a beating from Xi Shuang. "I see you clearly wanted to call me a mother hen."

Wen Xinghuo smiled. "You seem to treasure her."

Xi Shuang: "Of course. I swore when I was little that I'd protect Ling Xun for a lifetime."

She then cupped her face, putting on a look of feigned, youthful sorrow. "But when Ling Xun was little, she always gave off this vibe that she was about to kick the bucket in the next second. It made it so that whenever I was in the same room with her, I couldn't take my eyes off her."

Wen Xinghuo: "You'd still watch Ling Xun even when your girlfriend is in the same room?"

The Alpha known as the strongest in years wasn't fierce at all in private. She teased with a smile, "That's not good, is it?"

Xi Shuang: "My girlfriend would understand me, of course."

Wen Xinghuo shook her head. "You're only a year older than her. There's no need for all this."

She and Xi Shuang hadn't graduated from the same middle school, but upon entering Guyun Academy, they inevitably ran into old classmates. During breaks from sparring, they would chat about the past, and they loved to tease Xi Shuang.

"Xi Shuang, are you lonely? Your little sister isn't by your side~"

"Our top socialite Xi looks like a player, but she's always the one getting dumped. I say, if you shifted just one-tenth of the attention you give your sister to your girlfriend, you could probably have two kids in three years."

"Exactly, exactly. Doesn't your sister find you annoying?"

"Look, she's definitely messaging her sister again. Honestly, it's like a daily report."

...

Wen Xinghuo mostly just listened. She wiped the sweat from her face and glanced at Xi Shuang, who happened to have forgotten to turn on her privacy screen. Wen Xinghuo got a clear view.

The pinned contact was labeled "Cousin."

Simple and intimate.

It was just that Xi Shuang had typed so damn much that a single screen couldn't fit all her text.

Just then, the person on the other end replied.

In Wen Xinghuo's eyes, it was incredibly cruel.

Mm, read.

Wen Xinghuo turned her head. Xi Shuang was still smiling foolishly, radiating a kind of blissful satisfaction of having raised a child.

The other classmates were laughing too. Seeing Wen Xinghuo's bewildered expression, they even explained to her—

"For Xi Shuang, it's cousin first, girlfriend second, mecha third."

Only then did Xi Shuang turn and shout, "You guys treat your mechas like girlfriends, of course you're not as sentimental as I am!"

A wave of laughter followed.

Wen Xinghuo's curiosity about Ling Xun didn't last long, since Xi Shuang loved to talk about her.

She'd talk during sparring practice, she'd talk when buying new mecha equipment, and she'd even talk when scrambling to buy the recorded sayings of famous military officers.

"I'll send this to my cousin to see."

"Let's get one for Ling Xun."

"Everyone else has one, my Ling Xun must have one too."

It made Wen Xinghuo feel a bit pathetic, always being alone.

"My cousin is coming next semester! That's great, we can go to school together again."

At the end of the second semester of their first year, Xi Shuang bid farewell to Wen Xinghuo in the summer, looking forward to the future.

Wen Xinghuo: "It's not like you only see each other at school. You see each other on weekends, you even live together. What's there to miss?"

Wen Xinghuo got another punch from Xi Shuang, and she feigned a grunt.

Xi Shuang: "You blockhead, you don't understand. Some feelings are like... even when she's sitting right next to me, I still miss her."

After saying that, Xi Shuang herself was grossed out, shivering with goosebumps. "A bit cheesy."

Wen Xinghuo deeply agreed. "In a real Zerg Tide in the future, you two will definitely cause trouble together. Shouldn't you let your sister be a bit more independent?"

Xi Shuang: "I know, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If Ling Xun finds an Omega she likes, I'll give it my all to support her."

Wen Xinghuo: "You look really creepy right now."

Xi Shuang: "You're such a buzzkill."

Now, low-grade Zerg were swarming in from all directions, and beads of sweat had formed on Wen Xinghuo's face.

The mecha was bound to its pilot, its defensive capabilities like a person's spiritual barrier.

Amidst the blaring alarms, she yelled at a trembling Xi Shuang, "Xi Shuang, calm down!"

Xi Shuang: "Ling Xun? What's wrong with you? Say something!"

She didn't know how much time had passed. They still hadn't found Xi Zhoumeng and Chi Yueshan.

She was terrified that a friend she had just been laughing with would disappear in this sudden Zerg Tide.

That was too cruel.

The climate on Planet B-878 was abnormal to begin with. It could have two days and one night, or several nights and one day.

That was why the growing season for plants here was different from the norm, allowing for the cultivation of priceless, rare seeds.

Wen Xinghuo's mecha swept through a swath of low-grade Zerg. She wasn't at her limit yet, but she felt disgusted by the endless stream of them.

In the darkness, sounds were amplified, mixing with the rain, as if trying to completely sever a person's consciousness.

Sheng Yangkui was still curled up in her arms. Wen Xinghuo's sweat dripped onto her face, mingling with the tears Sheng Yangkui shed unconsciously.

Sheng Yangkui stared ahead, her lips parting, trying hard to recall the Zerg Queen's language.

This species had its own linguistic system. If humans were given enough time, they might be able to decipher it.

But mimicking the sounds was very difficult.

Xi Shuang was frantically searching for Ling Xun. Her mecha's shell was caked with viscous, foul-smelling blood. The creatures swarming her had evolved from low-level to a slightly higher grade, clearly having gained some experience, no longer blindly relying on numbers.

Xi Shuang was still calling for Ling Xun.

Again and again. Her voice, originally clear and bright, had grown hoarse from who knows how long of fighting.

Her throat tasted of iron.

She didn't know if it was exhaustion or if Ling Xun's lack of response had triggered her childhood memories.

The images of Ling Xun falling into the pond, nearly drowning, and Ling Xun falling from the balcony overlapped and repeated before her eyes.

The suicidal Ling Xun was her hallucination.

But she keenly felt the pain brought by this hallucination, which pierced through all her rationality in an instant.

"Mecha pilot, please maintain rationality!"

"Abnormal spiritual power fluctuations detected, please be advised!"

"Abnormal peak value detected ahead, please be advised!"

"Abnormal peak value detected ahead, please be advised!!"

...

Hearing the mecha's AI voice, Wen Xinghuo shouted Xi Shuang's name again.

"Ling Xun's comms are still on. Don't run around randomly."

Rainwater washed over the mecha's shell. Many trees had fallen. Ahead was the base where they were supposed to have their practical training.

Abandoned simulated Zerg mechanical devices.

Now they were occupied by real Zerg, making it impossible to distinguish between machine and creature in the rainy night.

All one could feel were the shimmering green lights, like will-o'-the-wisps, that were utterly terrifying.

Moreover, the leading Zerg was clearly unusual in appearance. Its limbs were like blades, and its ugly head seemed to have been replicated several times, overlapping as it stood under the high, suspended moon, as if it had locked onto Wen Xinghuo.

Sheng Yangkui looked up, and in an instant, she understood its intention.

It wanted Wen Xinghuo dead.

Both this mid-grade Zerg and the Zerg Queen far away on the capital planet, who was inhabiting a human body.

In her previous life, Sheng Yangkui was parasitized first. The Zerg occupied her body but didn't understand human joys and sorrows. However, it instinctively amplified human negative emotions, perhaps vaguely sensing the threat Wen Xinghuo posed to it.

But that practical training session failed to kill Wen Xinghuo; instead, Chi Yueshan was sacrificed.

In this life, Sheng Yangkui was still chosen, and Wen Xinghuo was still an obstacle.

A stumbling block for its next host, and also the hope of this generation of humanity.

The "War God" Mecha was practically seared into the Zerg Queen's memory.

Even if the Zerg had no emotions, even if their lifespans were short, all the memories from the rebirth to death of thousands upon thousands of Zerg would converge in the Zerg Queen's consciousness.

The War God Mecha must be destroyed. This was its instinctive decision.

The consciousness of generations of invaders, after thousands of years, still had a deep impression of the first generation. Their plan had been close to success, they were about to slaughter all of humanity and enter a new world, but then humanity inexplicably developed mechas, and there was that human commander on the battlefield who piloted the silver-white mecha. Even though they never showed their face, it was enough to make the Zerg wary.

Humans always passed the torch from one generation to the next, but the Zerg could not last forever.

The "War God" Mecha glowed with a golden light in the moonlit, rainy night, as if it possessed the inherent deterrent power of a ruler.

But the current Wen Xinghuo was not yet the hero of the future, who had been trained by her seniors and tempered by countless trials.

For a person to become a hero.

The first step is to lose family.

The second step is to lose friends and mentors.

The third step...

Heroes have always been lonely.

The current Wen Xinghuo was far from lonely. She thought of her deceased mother.

The faded gold thread on her hairband, an ordinary guard Omega from the edge of the Lower World.

She was always mocked for her tall stature, her different appearance, and her ideals that were unlike other Omegas who just wanted to get married.

A distant, lofty ideal.

Why should it be mocked?

I hope for world peace.

The brief, smoke-like memories of her childhood with her mother were forever imprinted on Wen Xinghuo.

She thought: If I kill them all, won't peace come?

With a sudden ascent, Wen Xinghuo piloted her mecha into the air, and the Zerg swarmed up.

Sheng Yangkui subconsciously closed her eyes, her sockets aching. The togetherness she had dreamed of, at this moment, left her speechless.

Because the current Wen Xinghuo was not yet strong enough.

With a bang, sparks flew from Wen Xinghuo's propulsion unit.

The protective layer Chi Yueshan had added did its job, but the last attack had missed.

The mecha crashed into a mountain rock, the cockpit shaking, as another tide of Zerg surged forward.

Wen Xinghuo picked up Sheng Yangkui, covered her eyes, and said, "Don't be afraid."

She still had her flesh and blood, and the three-foot blade that came with the mecha.

The comms were intermittent. She didn't know what had happened to Xi Shuang, who had also gone silent.

The crackling static sounded like someone's life hanging by a thread. Just as Wen Xinghuo was about to open the cockpit door, she heard a familiar voice—

"Is anyone there? My friends?"

The next second, a flamboyant mecha appeared out of nowhere. Its silver-white roses were colder than the moonlight. The twin rotating scythes on Xi Zhoumeng's mecha's flanks mercilessly chopped at the mid-grade Zerg.

In an instant, with a deafening roar, the mountain collapsed, and explosions echoed all around.

Xi Zhoumeng's voice carried a light, frivolous tone of someone who had been well-fed and satisfied—

"Oh my, so many ugly things."

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