“Tap your wristband here to check in, then go over there to line up.”
Qin Zhen turned his head in the direction the nurse pointed. The waiting area was packed. Only the very last seat was vacant.
He was filled with shame and indignation. “Line up?!”
If he had to wait in line anyway, why had they broadcasted that emergency summons to hurry him up here?
The nurse, unaware of the humiliation he had just endured, shot him a glance. “What else? You are the last one to check in. Did you want to cut the line?”
“I!” It was too embarrassing to explain, so Qin Zhen pivoted. “Is it my fault I was the last to check in? The alarm did not go off until nearly eight o’clock. I did not even have time for breakfast.”
“The alarms for all expectant members are synchronized to go off at seven. If you did not hear it, you did not hear it. Do not blame others. As a soldier, do you lack even that much alertness?”
Qin Zhen was speechless.
So the alarm had gone off, and he had just slept through it?
No, he actually remembered hearing it, but he had been so immersed in a dream of becoming a War God and receiving the cheers of the nation that he subconsciously refused to wake up. Realizing this, Qin Zhen had no rebuttal. He walked over to his seat with a dejected expression.
If he could not blame the alarm, surely he could blame the wristband. If this device had not kept chanting “miscarriage, miscarriage,” would he have lost so much face? If he had made it to the dining hall a few minutes earlier, he might have finished eating and reached the third floor already, completely avoiding that broadcasted humiliation.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He took off the wristband and was about to smash it onto the floor when a sudden commotion broke out nearby.
“What happened? Did he cry just from a gestation sac checkup?”
“Could it be a puncture biopsy? I heard those hurt a lot.”
“No matter how much it hurts, can it be worse than fusing a Beast Egg? Ten to one, there is a problem with his gestation sac. I heard some people have congenital defects. Either the sac has no eggs and is just an empty shell, or the sac wall is too thin to meet the requirements for gestation.”
“What? Then what happens?”
“What else can they do? They remove the original sac and transplant a new one. But the risk of a replacement is much higher than a pure transplant. For those of us who already have a sac, once we fuse the Beast Egg, the cub automatically enters the sac to hibernate. For those without a sac, the cub crawls in after the transplant is finished. Both processes are relatively simple.”
“Removing the old one and putting in a new one can be done in a single surgery, right? That does not sound too difficult.”
“The difficulty is not the issue, but there are many variables. What if the cub wakes up during the removal? Once a cub loses its sense of security, it collapses. What if he has a rejection reaction to the new sac? That could also wake the cub. Or, if the cub is sensitive to its hibernation environment and notices the sac has changed.”
“Brother, how do you know so much?”
“My father told me. He spent half his life as a Beast Soldier and the other half as a Childcare Specialist.”
“A Childcare Specialist! So your father served in the Gestation Center? Impressive!”
While they were envious, a dark cloud settled over everyone’s hearts. Everyone sitting there was an expectant member with a gestation sac. They understood the advantages of a natural sac when it came to gestating a War Beast. They had been celebrating their luck yesterday, never expecting to face such a trial. No wonder the Gestation Center arranged for checkups immediately.
Looking at the male soldier who was quietly wiping away tears, Qin Zhen also began to feel nervous. It turned out that owning a War Beast was not as simple as fusing an egg. The gestation process was the real challenge.
He looked at his wristband. A few minutes ago, he had found it loathsome, but now he found it rather endearing. The warnings about avoiding miscarriage were actually quite necessary.
As the last person to check in, Qin Zhen began a long and agonizing wait. He shifted restlessly in his seat several times a minute. Watching groups of expectant members emerge from the examination room looking relieved only made his anxiety worse. Clearly, the probability of a congenital defect was not high. But as a transmigration protagonist, was it not a given that he would run into low probability events?
The ending might be happy, but the process was bound to be painful. Who wanted to suffer? If suffering was unavoidable, Qin Zhen could grit his teeth and take it, but if it could be avoided, he did not want to touch it at all.
Fortunately, the checkups were only for male soldiers, and only half of them had gestation sacs. After waiting from eight in the morning until eleven and watching twenty or so people leave the room happily, Qin Zhen finally heard his number.
“Expectant member number 1069, please proceed to Examination Room 1.”
By now, only he and the male soldier with the defect remained in the waiting area. Perhaps the doctor had given specific instructions, as the other man had not left yet.
“I hope this is not an omen of bad news,” Qin Zhen muttered, his heart pounding as he walked into the room.
The doctor was an old man with glasses and a cold expression. When he looked at Qin Zhen, his lenses reflected a chilly light.
“Lie down.”
Qin Zhen lay on the examination table. The cold leather gave him goosebumps, making him feel as though he were about to become a cold corpse.
“Pull your shirt up above the umbilical region.”
“The what region?”
“The umbilical region! Your belly button!” The doctor seemed impatient.
“I got it, I got it. No need to yell.” Qin Zhen was nervous to death. His reflexive backtalk made him seem like he had a bad temper.
“You! Why are you not wearing underwear?”
“Did you not say no trousers were allowed?”
“Is underwear considered trousers?”
“Is it not?”
The two stared at each other, seemingly locked in a stalemate. The doctor had no way of knowing that Qin Zhen was too distracted to think clearly and was answering entirely on instinct. The doctor’s grey eyebrows twitched as he sat back down.
A glob of cold gel was crudely smeared onto Qin Zhen’s abdomen. It was freezing. Qin Zhen could not help but shiver, feeling like he was one step closer to being a corpse. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling a slippery object moving back and forth across his stomach. He waited for this old judge in a white coat to pass a death sentence on his gestation sac.
The verdict consisted of only two words. “Get out.”
Qin Zhen was stunned. “What?”
“I said get out!” The old doctor had no patience for male soldiers.
“So my gestation sac is fine?”
“Do you want there to be a problem?”
“So it is fine then!”
Qin Zhen felt as though he had finally come back to life. He jumped off the bed in excitement, grabbed the old doctor, and planted a kiss on his cheek. The old doctor looked horrified and frozen in shock. The dark skinned man pulled away, baring his white teeth in a grin. “Doctor, is my gestation sac very fierce and strong?”
“Get! OUT!”
Qin Zhen did not mind. He skipped away happily. The old doctor’s eyebrows were twitching with rage and lingering fear. He pulled out his communicator and dialed a number. “Wife! Oh, wife! It was terrifying. Your old man almost lost his integrity today!”
Before he even made it back to the waiting area, Qin Zhen heard a nurse calling. “Number 1070, please go to Examination Room 1 again.”
Seeing the other male soldier stand up, Qin Zhen immediately wiped the smile off his face. Not long after, the soldier emerged from the room. Noticing there was still one person left in the waiting area, he could not help but look twice.
Qin Zhen approached him. “Brother.”
The soldier was surprised, then he said tentatively, “Did your gestation sac also have a problem?”
“My sac is great.” Qin Zhen smiled, then checked himself. He pointed to the number on his chest. “1069. We are neighbors. It is lunchtime. Want to grab a bite?”
The dining hall was the same as before. Before entering, Qin Zhen gave himself a mental pep talk. After all, he had just lost a lot of face this morning. His ability to adjust his mindset was excellent, and his method was simple. He just stopped caring.
When he reached the service counter, the beautiful nurse inside laughed immediately. She clearly recognized him. Qin Zhen did not care. He greeted her boldly. “Hello, beautiful. We meet again. We really are destined to be together.”
He looked down the line at the other nurses and waved. “Same goes for you ladies too.”
His voice was loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. They immediately shot him looks of surprise and condemnation. Technically, the Gestation Center was a military camp. Openly flirting with the opposite sex in a military setting was considered very low class. However, the nurses all laughed and waved back, so no one said anything further.
“Hey, Xiao Ni.” Qin Zhen thrust an empty tray into the hands of the male soldier beside him. “Take whatever you want. Make yourself at home. Do not be polite. When faced with hardship, you have to learn to turn your grief into an appetite, you know?”
The soldier’s mouth hung open. He did not know which part of that to criticize first. During their brief conversation on the way over, Qin Zhen had learned his name was Ni Hong. He had almost laughed out loud, which would have ruined the somber mood. Since there was no country called Neon in this interstellar era, it did not matter. Afraid he would not be able to stop himself from laughing, Qin Zhen had started calling him Xiao Ni.
Despite the talk about turning grief into an appetite, Ni Hong’s tray only had a thin layer of food. Qin Zhen, on the other hand, had two trays piled as high as mountains. With his hands full, he spoke to Ni Hong through a fork held in his mouth. “Xiao Ni, Xiao Ni, help me get a bowl of soup. Drinking soup before a meal protects the stomach.”
The word “stomach” came out a bit muffled, causing the nearby nurses to giggle again. Ni Hong felt embarrassed and wanted to disappear into the floor. But Qin Zhen had kindly waited to eat with him and was the first person in the center to show him any care. It felt wrong to just abandon him. So, Ni Hong quickly grabbed a bowl of soup and walked ahead with his head down.
“Xiao Ni! Sit here, sit here!”
Ni Hong pretended not to hear and walked all the way to the edge of the dining area to find an empty table. Qin Zhen sat down opposite him. After taking the fork out of his mouth, he said, “Why run so far? It is better to sit with everyone and socialize.”
“I do not want people looking at me with those eyes.”
“Eyes? What eyes? Oh!” Qin Zhen waved it off. “It is fine. It is not your fault your body has a problem. You just have bad luck. We are all comrades here. Everyone cares about you.”
Ni Hong thought to himself that he just did not want to be made a fool of because of Qin Zhen. But then again, although Qin Zhen’s understanding was miles away from the truth, his words hit close to home. Out of twenty eight expectant members, he was the only one who had a problem with his gestation sac. It would be a lie to say he did not blame himself. But was it really his fault?
No. As Qin Zhen said, it was just bad luck. Ni Hong’s self pity finally eased a little, but he still had no appetite. He poked at the steak on his plate with his fork without taking a bite.
Qin Zhen noticed. “Why are you not eating? I know, are you worried about the replacement surgery? Do not scare yourself. What you need to do now is eat and sleep well. You need to be in good physical condition to handle the risks of surgery.”
“There is no risk in the surgery.”
“What?”
“Doctor Chang said my cub’s energy fluctuations are very stable. A minimally invasive surgery like a sac replacement will not disturb its hibernation. He is a top gestation sac expert in the Empire and has achieved great things in the field of beast energy research. I trust his judgment.”
Ni Hong rested his cheek on one hand while the other continued to poke at the steak. “I just thought that since I had a natural sac, I could provide the best development conditions for the cub. I never expected the sac wall to be too thin. Even if the surgery is low risk, it will still affect the cub’s development to some extent.”
“Oh, that is okay!” Qin Zhen slapped the table. “If the first birth is a bit lacking, the second one will be better!”
His loud voice caused several people nearby to look over. Ni Hong could not believe his ears. “The second birth?”
“Yeah, think about it. After you replace the sac this time, the next time you fuse an egg, the cub will have a good sac to start with, right? By then.”
“By then, the gestation sac will be gone!”
“What?”
Qin Zhen’s stunned expression made it impossible for Ni Hong to stay angry. He slowly relaxed his brow and asked, “Do you not know that a gestation sac is a one time use organ for raising a War Beast? The beast needs a massive amount of nutrients when it is born, so it completely absorbs the gestation sac. After that, we only have the gene left in our bodies, but the organ itself is completely gone.”
“Is that how it works?”
The forum posts had not mentioned that at all.
“And even with the best gene activation technology, you cannot stimulate a sac to regenerate. Even a transplant will not work because the surrounding physiological structure is completely destroyed.”
“I see.”
“That is why I feel so down. One step behind means always being behind. For instance, we have to choose Childcare Specialists this afternoon. Given my situation, I will probably be at a disadvantage.”
“I am so sorry. I did not know everyone only gets one chance to raise a War Beast.” Qin Zhen’s sincere apology came to an abrupt halt as he belatedly caught a keyword. “Wait, what Childcare Specialist?”