The Cannon Fodder Became the Empire's Beloved Omega - Chapter 60

Lin Fenghan’s brow twitched slightly, clearly expressing deep skepticism at Gu Yu’s response.

“There’s more than one place to practice shooting,” he said calmly. “Your home or Xingyun, take your pick.” He glanced at Yu Ruan beside him. “Come over. We’ll start today’s training now.”

Yu Ruan nodded, set down the gun in his hand, and walked over to Lin Fenghan’s side to listen as he explained the day’s training plan. The echo of bullets hitting the bullseye drifted from afar, and Yu Ruan couldn’t help but glance sideways, catching sight of half of Gu Yu’s face silhouetted against the light.

After emptying a magazine, Gu Yu set the gun down, removed his earplugs, and met Yu Ruan’s gaze for a moment, giving a slight nod. Then, without a trace of reluctance, he turned and walked out of the training room.

Yu Ruan was startled by his abrupt departure and quickly looked outside.

Gu Yu exited the training room, his tall, slender figure disappearing behind the door. After a moment’s hesitation, Yu Ruan murmured an apology to Lin Fenghan and hurried after Gu Yu in the direction he had vanished.

Rushing outside, Yu Ruan scanned the area and finally spotted a familiar figure at the corner. “Gu Yu!”

The figure at the corner paused and stopped walking. “Is something wrong?”

Yu Ruan hesitated for a few seconds. “I’m really sorry for leaving without saying goodbye yesterday. It’s just, I think both of us might have been a bit affected by the mark. It’s probably better if we spend some time apart.”

Gu Yu fell silent for a moment before turning around and looking down at him. “Do you really think it’s because of the mark?”

Yu Ruan wavered. He suspected the reality might be different, but for now, he couldn’t find a better explanation. He nodded. “Yes.”

Gu Yu didn’t speak for a long while. Then, suddenly, he leaned closer. “No.”

“…?”

“It’s not as powerful as you think,” he said calmly, his fingertips brushing against Yu Ruan’s neck, sending a chill through him. “Like now, I’m close to you. Do you feel any different?”

Yu Ruan froze momentarily, staring into Gu Yu’s dark blue eyes as his heart suddenly began to race wildly.

Heat inevitably rose to his face, and Yu Ruan instinctively took a step back, stammering, “N-No! Gu Yu, this isn’t right. You’re breaking the rules.” He glanced at the hand still hovering nearby. “At this distance, anyone would.”

The Alpha standing a step away lowered his eyelashes slightly, watching him quietly.

Yu Ruan suddenly lost the courage to continue fabricating excuses.

No.

He could lie to others with such words, but he couldn’t lie to himself.

This kind of reaction only happened with Gu Yu. No other Alpha’s proximity had ever elicited such an intense response.

Shyness and embarrassment were normal human reactions. But his racing heart and emotions only changed for Gu Yu.

“I…”

He took a deep breath, fixed his gaze on the Alpha’s eyes, and tried to voice his thoughts. But just as the words reached his lips, he heard footsteps. The person he had left behind earlier emerged. “Yu Ruan.”

Yu Ruan froze, and the words he had been preparing instantly slipped out, transforming into: “I’ll be staying here for a while and won’t be returning to Xingyun for now. If you need to reach me, you can contact me directly via comms. Be careful on your way!”

Gu Yu’s brow furrowed slightly. “That’s it?”

“……” Yu Ruan flushed crimson, utterly mortified. After a moment’s hesitation, he guiltily added, “Take care of yourself!”

With that, he couldn’t bear to look at the Alpha’s slightly darkened expression any longer and turned to run off into the distance.

Only when he returned to Lin Fenghan’s side did Yu Ruan feel as though he were enveloped in a sense of security, letting out a soft sigh of relief. Not daring to look back, he quickly said to the frowning Lin Fenghan, “I’m sorry, Professor Lin. I’ve said what I needed to say. May I return to class now?”

Lin Fenghan glanced at him, then at Gu Yu, as if assessing the strange tension between them. After a long pause, he reluctantly nodded. “Go back to training for now.”

Yu Ruan hastily agreed and hurried back to the training room.

Gu Yu watched his retreating figure disappear before slowly withdrawing his gaze and meeting Lin Fenghan’s eyes. “Next time, you don’t need to show up so, promptly.”

“If the two of you have any issues, I suggest being open and resolving them properly,” Lin Fenghan replied, glancing back. “Care to explain the situation?”

“There’s no situation,” Gu Yu coldly refused the request. “I have things to attend to. I’ll take my leave.”

Without waiting for Lin Fenghan’s response, he turned and walked away.

Not long after Yu Ruan returned to the training room, he saw Lin Fenghan stride in with a stern expression.

“Have you and Gu Yu had any disagreements recently?” Lin Fenghan asked.

“Disagreements?” Yu Ruan was taken aback. “What disagreements would we have?”

Lin Fenghan frowned deeply, seemingly lost in thought.

Yu Ruan stared at him blankly, assuming he must have had some kind of argument with Gu Yu outside. His heart began to race anxiously. “Professor Lin?”

“If you have something on your mind, don’t keep it to yourself,” Lin Fenghan suddenly said, as if concluding his thoughts. “Honesty is the best way to resolve problems.”

So, he really had noticed!

Yu Ruan strongly suspected that Lin Fenghan’s earlier departure was specifically to discuss the situation with Gu Yu. It was entirely possible that he already knew everything that had happened between them over the past couple of days. The thought filled Yu Ruan with a sense of shame, as if he’d been caught by his homeroom teacher after a lovers’ quarrel.

Embarrassed, he lowered his head and quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, Professor Lin, I understand. Actually, Gu Yu and I don’t have any real conflict. We just haven’t quite aligned on certain ideas yet. We’ll sort it out soon, please don’t worry.”

Even as he said this, Yu Ruan felt utterly uncertain.

Anxiously, he thought that perhaps he shouldn’t avoid the issue any longer.

After all, dragging it out wasn’t doing any good. It would be better to face it head-on.

Yu Ruan made up his mind: the next time he saw Gu Yu, he would honestly share his true feelings. He absolutely couldn’t let himself be scared into saying the wrong thing again before he could speak his mind.

“Senior Cheng, quick, I need your help!”

Cheng Mu was walking along the roadside when someone frantically tugged at his sleeve, pulling him toward the gymnasium without explanation. Puzzled, he couldn’t help but ask, “What’s going on? Why the rush?”

“It’s the simulation match!” the person exclaimed loudly. “Gu Yu has gone crazy in the simulated training match! If this continues, everyone is going to fail their final exams. Senior Cheng, you need to think of something quickly!”

“??” Cheng Mu was utterly bewildered. “What’s he doing in the training match? He has no grudge against any of you. Why would he deliberately raise the average score to make everyone else fail?”

Aside from written grades, practical performance also held significant weight in Starcloud Academy. Among these, a few elective courses with a military focus placed exceptional emphasis on practical results.

For instance, the simulated training match mentioned earlier was the highest-weighted component in these courses. Since the competition tested mecha operation skills, it required exceptionally strong motor coordination. As a result, it was notoriously difficult, with an extremely low pass rate.

Operating a mecha heavily relied on the pilot’s proficiency. If one couldn’t maneuver it as effortlessly as their own limbs, defeating opponents in a mecha battle was nearly impossible.

The training match precisely tested the students’ daily practice and proficiency. It also adjusted the scoring based on the students’ average performance to prevent a large number of failures.

However, Gu Yu was the sole exception among the students.

What seemed incredibly challenging to ordinary students was effortless for him. He could easily defeat large mechas that typically required multiple people to handle, rapidly raising the average score.

When he first entered the academy, Gu Yu single-handedly raised the semester’s average score by a staggering 50%, causing countless Starcloud students to fail that term and leaving them terrified at the mere mention of it. Since then, he had been granted special permission to exempt the course and had never set foot in the simulation training room again.

Who would have thought that today, for some unknown reason, he had returned to the training room?!

Watching one large mecha after another crash to the ground, followed by the “S Victory” popping out from the wreckage, everyone was dumbfounded: Was he trying to recreate the “beautiful” scenario where fewer than ten people in the entire grade passed the exam?

In terms of qualifications, none of them had the means to stop him. After much deliberation, they decided to split up, one person went to find Han Ran, another to find Cheng Mu, and a third to find Yu Ruan hoping that whoever found someone first could bring them over to stop this former prince who seemed to have lost his mind.

In the meantime, the rest formed small teams, attempting to slow him down through attrition.

Seeing this situation, Cheng Mu felt a headache coming on.

He walked up to the training room’s hatch door, massaging his temples, and tentatively knocked a few times, no response. Clearing his throat, he asked, “Um, Gu Yu! Gu Yu? Can you hear me? Let’s talk this out properly.” He glanced at the score skyrocketing toward the cutoff line and felt a twitch in his forehead. “Don’t joke around like this.”

After speaking, he signaled to the others with his eyes, urging them to stay quiet so as not to drown out any sound from inside.

Everyone immediately nodded vigorously and fell silent.

“…”

Unfortunately, after a long while, there was still no response.

“…” Cheng Mu was speechless. Staring at the tightly shut hatch door, he asked, “Who else did you ask for help? Did anyone go find His Highness Yu Ruan?”

“Yes, we did,” the person who had brought him there replied honestly.

“Where is that person?!”

“Still haven’t found them yet.”

“…” Cheng Mu fell silent. He glanced at the wildly fluctuating average score line glowing red on the screen, sighed, and picked up his light brain. Pulling up Yu Ruan’s contact address, he initiated a call.

Yu Ruan had just finished a training session when his light brain started beeping incessantly.

He had initially thought it might be someone else. Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened it, he saw the familiar name ‘Cheng Mu’. He froze for a few seconds, puzzled, before answering:

What could the other person possibly want from him at this hour?

“Ruan Ruan!”

The moment the call connected, Cheng Mu’s voice came through the headset like a cry for help: “Finally got through to you! Do you have time right now? There’s a big problem here that I need your help with!”

Support