After the Zerg General Was Accidentally Marked - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Disaster

On the twenty-ninth day of the voyage, the cargo ship Eddie dropped out of warp and entered its final gliding phase. Shortly after arriving at the Kovas Star Cluster in the B-System, it was captured by the star Kovas-3 and entered a stellar orbit.

Thirteen hours later, it would cut into the planetary orbit and initiate standard landing procedures.

For the first time in a long while, the ship was bathed in light. The cold, bright light of the star filtered through the portholes, casting a persistent glow on the floor. A few water bottles happened to be scattered there; the light passed through them, focusing onto a pile of packaging paper behind.

During this time, Everett had been trying to convince the female and Bigu that F was not the murderer. However, his efforts yielded little result.

“Just because Makka Pakka did it doesn’t mean it was hacked.”

“Even if Makka Pakka was hacked, it doesn’t mean the Magic Lamp Company did it.”

“Even if the Magic Lamp Company did it, it doesn’t mean F necessarily knew.”

Sears stopped the pull-ups he was doing and operated the translator with one hand. “If F doesn’t even know what is happening in his own company, then he is an idiot.”

Great, I just got insulted.

Bigu had even pinched a small figure out of candy wrappers and was stabbing it to shreds with his tail hook. “F! Kill!”

The aggression was high, and the insult was significant.

But Everett did not give up.

“What if I can prove F’s innocence?”

Sears felt the little male was becoming a bit obsessed. “Wasn’t your original goal to find the truth behind Major General Sears’ injury? Is it necessary to care this much about F?”

“I just feel that someone capable of creating the Karatin reagent wouldn’t be a bad insect.”

“It’s actually not that complicated. Makka Pakka is an old model, but it’s still within the light-brain system. You are a male with higher authority; once we land and access the system, checking Makka Pakka’s login logs from that period will reveal if it was hacked and by whom.”

“I will definitely find out.” Everett took the chance to propose, “But I need time.”

“During that time, can you stay by my side?”

Sears hadn’t expected the topic to go in this direction. He finally jumped down from the makeshift pull-up bar between the shelves. A thin layer of sweat covered the muscles of his arms from the exercise.

He had just finished his heat period and wanted to recover his physical strength as quickly as possible.

“I, and Bigu, are not going back to the Capital,” he emphasized.

“Then I can stay in Kovas for a while, too,” Everett insisted. “The investigation is halfway through; we can’t just stop.”

“And…” the little male hesitated. “And, I need you.”

“A mental power requirement. My mental power had issues before and I relied on medication, but now, as long as you are near, it’s fine.”

Both Sears and the little male had mental power issues. Sears’ was even more severe—his collapsing mental sea was only about 2% repaired. Once separated from the little male, he would eventually face the dead end of mental sea depletion.

In comparison, the little male’s issue was merely headaches, and he had the option of drug treatment.

So, in reality, it was Sears who needed the little male, not the other way around.

But the boy had said it this way, downplaying the gravity of his own needs.

Sears was not a fool. So he asked back: “Can I refuse?”

The topic ended there, unresolved.

The Eddie successfully transitioned into planetary orbit. Two hours remained until landing at the Kovas-3H surface aviation platform.

Everett came to find Sears again.

After the heat period ended, Sears had moved out of the eighth level he had smashed up and into the closer fourth level.

Sears thought the little male was coming to talk about acting together after disembarking. But he didn’t; instead, he brought out the locked box. The little male had been fiddling with it for days, but Sears never expected him to actually open it.

“I don’t have enough force or precision to directly simulate the shape of a key. But my mental power can perceive more; when it leaves my body, it can turn into a sort of viscous liquid.”

As he spoke, mental power surged from his palm, enveloping the entire box. “I can control the density of the mental power. First, I wrap the whole box, letting it slowly permeate inside, and then I make the mental power more solid and hard. Then…”

The bubble of mental power enveloping the box slowly moved away, and the shape of a key appeared in the center.

“Like a wax rubbing, I’ve obtained a mental power key.”

The mental power returned to its original position, and the key inserted precisely into the keyhole.

“And we can manipulate our own mental power.”

With a click, the lock opened!

By wrapping it in mental power, he can manipulate the objects inside?!

Sears had never heard of such a concept or method.

How to permeate? How to wrap? How to perceive? How to fit? How to change density?

Each question was enough to leave even the top mental power experts tongue-tied.

Yet Everett had done it, and it seemed effortless.

What kind of genius was this?

And what was his rank, really?

There was only one thing Sears was certain of: this little male would be a very powerful and unique Insect Emperor in the future.

“I’ve completed the third test, Teacher.” When Everett smiled, a shallow dimple appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Are there any rewards?”

With the arrival at Kovas imminent, Sears was in an excellent mood. He sighed, “What reward do you want, my Master?”

Everett stared into those blue eyes and said, “Can I…”

“Can I kiss your eyes?”

He should have refused.

No matter how one looked at it, this gesture was too intimate.

But… they were about to land, about to part. If nothing unexpected happened, they wouldn’t see each other again for a long time. In that case…

“Okay,” Sears replied.

The military female closed his eyes. His eye sockets were deep, his brow ridge sharp; even with the bite-inhibitor covering most of him, the high bridge of his nose was still evident.

Even with eyes closed, without the pressure of being watched, it was still a face with distinct angles and high aggression.

So similar.

Everett raised a hand to trace those features. He was very familiar with Major General Sears’ face; he had drawn it, photographed it, carved it, and sculpted it in clay.

The upper half of Solas’s face was at least 90% similar to Major General Sears.

A perfect substitute…

But was it really?

Perhaps because the wait was a bit long, the military female’s thick, long black lashes began to tremble slightly, as if he were considering whether to open his eyes.

“Don’t move,” Everett said.

He finally withdrew his hand, held his breath, and slowly leaned down, approaching the seated, eye-closed female with a touch of caution he might not even have realized himself.

He wanted to know: when he actually touched and kissed those blue eyes, who exactly would he be thinking of?

The long-admired Major General Sears, or the female slave Solas he had spent every day with?

Just as his lips were about to touch the eyelid, the female, having waited too long, finally couldn’t help but open his eyes. The long lashes brushed lightly against the male’s lower lip, bringing a tickling sensation.

The overly long kiss was interrupted just like that.

Sears then quickly closed his eyes again, trying to cover it up by pretending nothing happened.

Everett tried to hold it in, but eventually let out a burst of laughter.

Sears opened his eyes, somewhat confused, and asked in his raspy, recovering voice: “What… are you laughing at?”

Unexpectedly, the little male laughed even harder, clutching Sears’ shoulder and doubling over.

Then, laughing, the little male said: “I have a low ‘laugh-point’.”

Utterly nonsensical.

Sears shook his head. “Still kissing?”

Everett managed to stop laughing, though the corners of his mouth wouldn’t stay down.

He already had the answer in his heart.

“Solas, I want to ask you…”

Before he could finish, a loud bang echoed, and the starship suddenly jolted violently.

The little male lost his footing and fell directly into the female’s embrace.

“What…?”

Sears’ expression turned grave. He pushed the little male out of his arms and rushed out. The moment he opened the door, a wave of hot, thick smoke poured in. The little male behind him immediately began coughing.

Sears’ heart sank. There was still time before landing; if a fire started now, the worst outcome would be the entire ship crashing.

A fire? An explosion?

Sabotage? Or an accident?

There was no time to think. Sears returned to the room, threw the pre-packed bag into the little male’s arms, and shouted in his gravelly voice: “Grab your things! Find Bigu! Meet me at the top level!”

“What about you!”

“Extinguishing the fire!”

Sears grabbed a fire extinguisher and went down alone to the bottom level, which was continuously belching thick smoke.

Everett and Bigu didn’t wait long on the top level before the soot-covered female returned.

“How is it?” Everett asked.

Sears shook his head. “Too big. Can’t put it out.”

Everett immediately asked: “Are we going to die?”

Sears glanced at the little male. “I won’t let you die.”

The future Insect Emperor couldn’t die here.

Sears set down the fire extinguisher, used his mental power to slice a metal rod from nearby, and handed it to the little male. “Do you remember that notebook? It should have a simplified structural diagram of the ship.”

“I remember. The ship is shaped like a lying ‘b’. Three main parts: the large cargo bay at the bottom, the deck above, and the bridge control room at the front.”

They were currently on the top level above the cargo bay; next to them was the heavy iron door leading to the deck.

Sears nodded, explaining at rapid speed. “According to the fire’s intensity, the cargo bay will be burned through soon. The ship will execute emergency code, closing the passage between the cargo bay and the deck, then jettison the entire bay.”

“If the fire continues to spread, the ship will jettison the deck as well, leaving only the bridge control room connected to the engines.”

“Only the bridge is safe. We need to go there.”

“Do you remember how to pilot the ship?” Sears asked.

Everett was a bit dazed. “Huh? Me? Piloting the starship?”

“Never mind. Do you remember where the button for emergency automatic landing is?”

“I do!”

The little male subconsciously looked at the heavy iron door beside them. “But, how do we open this door?”

“Opening the door isn’t the key. The cargo bay has the lowest security level, so it didn’t matter that I destroyed the surveillance and stayed there for a month. But the deck is different.” As he spoke, Sears took out a pass card and swiped it by the door.

With a beep, the door lock status light turned from red to green, showing access granted.

This pass card was the one he had stripped from a robot on the day of his rebirth; he hadn’t expected it to come in handy now.

“The deck requires individual access authorization. We don’t have it, so we will definitely be blocked.”

Sears stood alone in front of the little male and the cub, his fingertips condensing mental power into thin, sharp blades as he settled into a combat stance.

“I estimate we’ll have to deal with two security robots on the deck. Don’t worry, they’re lowest-tier V-rank robots; they won’t have lethal weapons.”

Clank— the heavy iron door slowly opened.

Amidst a patch of smoke, over a dozen heavily armed T-rex robots on the long deck turned their heads in unison to look at them.

Their cold red eyes emitted an eerie glow. The dark muzzles of the guns in their hands pointed squarely at the intruders as one.

“Uh… Solas?”

“How many, and what rank of security robots did you just say?”

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