Aside from that single glance amidst the raging blizzard, Lu Rong’s formal first meeting with Finié took place shortly after Lu Rong woke up.
At that time, he walked outward from the room where he had awakened, hoping to find someone to ask about the situation. The snow-white corridors seemed endless, leading to an unknown destination. All around was dead silence, and the entire world was as pure and immaculate as the color filling his vision.
After walking for about ten minutes, Lu Rong stopped in his tracks; he encountered the first person along this path. That person was hanging upside down near a breached hull section, with a bloody, bullet-battered hole straight through his forehead. Howling winds blew in through the torn breach, whipping the man’s hair into disarray.
It was evident that while he was asleep, this place had been attacked. Judging from the man’s dry, frost-free hair, Lu Rong deduced that the attack must have occurred within the last half hour.
Lu Rong picked up a gun-like object from the ground. The usage of such weapons was generally similar; after groping with it for a moment, he figured out how to operate it. Holding the gun, he continued forward, soon entering a large hall. This hall was clearly the main flight-control operations center for the spacecraft, and a giant holographic projection in the very center was still flashing the bright red characters: “ATTACKED.”
Lu Rong scanned the surroundings, spotting signs of a struggle and bloodstains. Chairs were overturned, and stray bullet marks marred the floor.
Following the trails, Lu Rong walked into a corridor on the other side and encountered a second corpse. With a quick glance, Lu Rong discovered that this person’s neck had been snapped, a clean and decisive kill.
He continued forward and soon spotted another victim whose spine had been kicked apart, looking like a swift, fatal blow.
Both of these individuals wore the same uniform as the first corpse, clearly belonging to the same faction of intruders. Meanwhile, the owner of the spacecraft, his savior, was obviously no ordinary person, having handled these intruders entirely on his own.
He was well-versed in human anatomical weaknesses, and his strikes were merciless, precise, and fast.
Lu Rong formed a preliminary understanding of his savior and guessed that he probably didn’t need any rescuing. Just as he was pondering this for a split second, a subtle sound reached his ears, originating from a room with an open door. Lu Rong raised his gun and walked in quietly.
The spacious room was clearly a medical bay. The treatment beds were in disarray, and desks and chairs were knocked over. Amidst the chaos, Lu Rong caught sight of a tall, straight-backed figure. The person had luminous, snow-white long hair; the ends were slightly messy, yet they hung resiliently down to his waist, swaying with the owner’s movements.
The other person was gripping a fragile human neck in his hand. Lu Rong watched without moving a muscle as the figure’s arm jerked sharply, followed by a crisp, bone-snapping “crack” that was spine-chillingly clear.
It wasn’t as if Lu Rong had never seen other people execute swift killing methods, but for some reason, the moment that fragile neck snapped, he felt his own nerves shudder in response, leaving him momentarily speechless.
The person didn’t seem to notice Lu Rong standing at the doorway. With a sweep of his arm, he tossed the corpse in his hand aside and stumbled forward a few steps. Perhaps due to the sudden relaxation after intense tension, his body listed to one side; clutching a nearby cabinet for support, he slowly sank to his knees.
He seemed to be struggling for breath, the hunching of his shoulders pushing against his military uniform, exposing the rapid, heavy exertion of his breathing.
It was hard to imagine that the person who had just killed so decisively could become so debilitated in an instant. The legs of his trousers were creased as he reached out a hand toward something on the treatment table nearby, but because of the distance, he couldn’t reach it at all. His breathing grew increasingly hurried, his fingertips trembled, and his hair fell forward from both shoulders, exposing a snow-white, delicate neck where the gland area was slightly swollen.
An Alpha… or an Omega?
Lu Rong sensed a trace of oddity. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong, and he didn’t dare activate his wrist-communicator’s receiver tier, fearing an unexpected mishap. He quieted his footsteps and crept closer.
When Lu Rong’s shadow cast over the person from behind, Lu Rong felt the sudden surge of alertness and murderous intent erupting from him. The other person rose fluidly; when he turned back, his sharp gaze was cold and piercing, yet it left Lu Rong momentarily stunned.
The person had a pair of golden, slit pupils.
The other person was also stunned for a fraction of a second, clearly not expecting Lu Rong to appear here. He subconsciously touched his face, his expression shifting in an instant. The next second, the person who had just been kneeling in fragility suddenly turned hostile, charging at Lu Rong without hesitation to launch an attack, the previous fatigue vanishing without a trace.
Lu Rong was startled for only a split second as he dodged the initial strike. “Is there some kind of misunderstanding?” He wanted to explain, but he realized the person before him showed no signs of stopping whatsoever; instead, every move was lethal. He immediately began to counterattack.
Based on the conclusions drawn from inspecting the corpses earlier, he cleverly avoided the other’s throat-locking and kicking tricks. After trading blows a few times, Lu Rong quickly noticed that his opponent was at the end of his rope, looking menacing, but actually lacking strength. Seizing an opening, Lu Rong grabbed the man’s wrist and easily subdued the person in front of him.
Lu Rong tentatively concluded that this person was indeed the one who had saved him. He vaguely recalled that his savior had seemed to be wearing a mask, whereas now he wasn’t. Was there something wrong with his face that he couldn’t let others see? Lu Rong wondered.
He pinned the person against a low cabinet, looking down to examine him closely. Finally, tilting his head, he said softly, “You saved me; I won’t hurt you.”
It was a promise, but the person acted as though he hadn’t heard it. He didn’t nod or shake his head; his expression even carried a sort of blank numbness. He simply turned his head slightly, keeping his eyes locked onto Lu Rong without a word, the hostility in his gaze still burning fierce.
Lu Rong knew that the moment he let go, the other would try to attack him again. He felt as though the person before him was like a giant python in the jungle, staring with wary, icy vigilance at anyone who came close, ready to kill all intruders.
Better to kill by mistake than let anyone escape.
Could he be an Alpha? Is he in the middle of a rut? But even for an Alpha in rut, this level of hostility was a bit excessive.
“If you want to kill me now, why did you save me in the first place?” Lu Rong, currently in the dominant position, lowered his head and asked.
The other person still silently appraised him, then looked away. However, upon catching sight of the communication bracelet on Lu Rong’s wrist, the hostility in his eyes inexplicably faded just a fraction. For safety’s sake, Lu Rong didn’t let go; his gaze swept across the treatment table and spotted an injection pen resting there.
He casually picked up the syringe, causing the person beneath him to instantly struggle. Lu Rong pressed down firmly to hold him in place and asked, “Is this a suppressant?”
Lu Rong had used suppressants to alleviate rut symptoms before, and simply took what was in front of him to be similar medicine.
The person was clearly stunned for a moment. He appraised Lu Rong once more, his brows furrowing briefly before relaxing again. Lu Rong allowed him to look. A few seconds later, the person finally gave Lu Rong a response: a very slight nod.
Uncertain whether the medicine here worked the same way as it did on Asta, Lu Rong asked further, “Where is it injected?”
The person remained silent for a few seconds. “The gland.” His voice was unnaturally hoarse.
The dosage in the syringe looked quite large. Lu Rong asked cautiously, “All of it?”
“All of it.” He received a brief, icy reply.
Lu Rong asked no more questions. The needle plunged deep into the gland. Lu Rong felt the person beneath him jolt sharply, most likely due to pain because, whether Alpha or Omega, the gland was an extremely sensitive area, and the needle had been inserted very deeply. Pain was to be expected.
Lu Rong slightly relaxed the pressure of his grip, watching the syringe automatically depress at a slow pace. As the liquid passed the halfway mark, Lu Rong noticed some text printed along the inner wall of the syringe barrel.
He lowered his head to read it closely, gradually frowning as he caught sight of the word “Omega.” Shifting his gaze back down to stare at the person beneath him, his frown deepened. The strange feeling he had when first entering the room and seeing this person’s neck was suddenly answered: during an Omega’s heat, the glands swell.
“You’re an Omega?” Lu Rong was exceptionally surprised.
The moment he asked, the person underneath him transformed from quiet to ferocious. His golden pupils constricted, and Lu Rong almost thought he was truly facing a wild beast. The next second, a hand grabbed Lu Rong’s arm that was pinning him down. Lu Rong watched as the person executed an incomprehensible, agile flip, slipping right out of his grip.
He snatched Lu Rong’s gun away, and before Lu Rong could even react, he pulled the trigger without hesitation and with lightning speed.
Lu Rong was not fish on a chopping board; predicting and dodging firearm attacks had become a skill carved into his very bones. He sidestepped the first shot and immediately closed the distance, pressing in close.
Presumably because a small portion of the suppressant had been injected, the Omega had recovered a sliver of strength. His moves were fierce and ruthless, every strike aimed straight at Lu Rong’s weak points without mercy.
Yet Lu Rong was not to be outdone. His counter-attacks were even cleaner and more concise, devoid of any sloppy movements. Block by block, he parried the Omega’s fierce onslaught. After just a few rounds, he once more caught the Omega’s fatigue-induced vulnerability, grabbed the other’s hand, and successfully disarmed him of the stolen weapon.
However, this Omega showed no awareness of surrender whatsoever. Losing the gun only made him more vicious; he dislocated his own wrist to tear free from Lu Rong’s grasp, quickly popped the joint back into place by itself, but since the gun had flown too far away, he had no choice but to engage Lu Rong in close-quarters combat.
Lu Rong’s patience and manners were completely exhausted by the Omega’s erratic volatility. This time, he directly dislocated both of the Omega’s arms and kicked him flat onto the floor.
When this person’s physical strength recovered, he might well be his match, or perhaps even stronger than him. But right now, as Lu Rong stared at his flushed face, a belated realization hit him: “In heat?”
The Omega was not provoked by his words. The corners of his eyes were tinged with an abnormal redness, and he gazed coldly up at Lu Rong. Under Lu Rong’s watchful eyes, the Omega mechanically shook his arm, actually resetting his own dislocated shoulder, lunged forward, and reached out to grab Lu Rong by the throat. Lu Rong dodged, grabbed the Omega’s hand, twisted it hard behind his back, and pinned him down once more.
This time, Lu Rong showed no mercy. He used his full strength, pinning the person beneath him firmly against the treatment bed.
Staring at the Omega’s somewhat flushed face, Lu Rong gained some understanding of the person’s sharp temperament.
Although an Omega in heat craved marking, no one wanted to be marked by a stranger’s Alpha pheromones, and thus naturally wished to avoid strange Alphas altogether.
In some Omegas, such reluctance manifested as fear, but in the person before him, this reluctance clearly manifested as ferocious aggressiveness.
Lu Rong’s gaze searched around until he finally spotted that same syringe lying in a corner.
That syringe had only been half-injected and had long since shattered on the floor due to the fight; the suppressant was clearly unusable now, and the gun capable of keeping this Omega in check had been kicked far away. Lu Rong looked over at the treatment bed and ultimately selected something that looked like a binding strap, tying the Omega in front of him up like a zongzi, hands and feet bound securely to a nearby chair.
Once finished, he checked the straps repeatedly to ensure they couldn’t be undone.
During the process, the Omega in his hands had reverted to a state of extreme silence, uttering not a word as if he had accepted the reality of being captured. But based on his earlier experience, Lu Rong knew the other party was undoubtedly scheming for a way to stand up at any second and deliver a knife-hand strike to his neck.
Therefore, Lu Rong retrieved his gun, gripping it tightly, and pulled up a chair to sit directly in front of the Omega. At this moment, the faint flush on the Omega’s face had grown even more pronounced. Lu Rong deduced that he must still be in heat, having received an insufficient dose of medicine and forced to grit his teeth and endure it.
Fortunately, he was wearing a suppression bracelet at the moment, which completely blocked his own Alpha pheromones from leaking out and thoroughly insulated him from the influence of the Omega’s heat-stage pheromones. This prevented him from being dragged into a reactive heat by the Omega, though it was also the reason he hadn’t immediately realized the person was an Omega in the first place.