Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and the third time might very well be man-made.
By a striking coincidence, Lu Hao always appeared right before these live-streaming orbs ran into trouble.
One could say that the moment Lu Hao appeared, the live-streaming orbs were done for.
Why was that?
[What is going on? Why cannot we enter the other live-streaming rooms? It is pitch black, and we cannot see anything.]
[They were eaten by giant-mouthed beasts. I saw that last scene; such a big mouth, and it can fly. That is definitely a giant-mouthed beast.]
[Uh, what a huge coincidence. Could the Third Young Master Lu be an assassin of some sort? Like a live-streaming orb specialist…]
[It really is too coincidental, to the point where people have to wonder if the Third Young Master Lu is hiding something, or if there is something we aren’t allowed to see.]
[What could there be that we aren’t allowed to see? The people above are overthinking it.]
[Who knows? If it isn’t, why is it that one after another, whenever he appears, all those live-streaming orbs get eaten?]
[Could it be that the giant-mouthed beasts follow Student Lu to get food, which is why they keep secretly tailing behind him? Aren’t many beasts in nature like that?]
Lu Hao had anticipated all the mixed opinions circulating online. It wasn’t until he boarded the flying ship and entered his room, where privacy was exceptionally high and there was naturally no need to worry, that he finally opened his optical computer to contact the Lu family.
When Lu Hao headed to Fire Cloud Star, he had a live-streaming orb trailing him, making it inconvenient for the Lu family to talk to him. Now that he was back in his cabin, he could speak freely.
“Dad, have you seen the things on the StarNet?”
“Mm.” Lu Jingzhou wore a stern expression. Even when facing his youngest son, his facial expression remained unchanged. “What is going on?”
Having climbed to his current position through military merit step by step, Lu Jingzhou was certainly not foolish enough to genuinely believe that a meat-eating giant beast would actually have an appetite for mechanical products.
“Dad, I contracted a white ball of fluff.” When Lu Hao said these words, his expression was exceptionally calm, but upon closer inspection, it wasn’t hard to notice the tiny flickers of light in his eyes.
Very soft, very warm, the kind Fang Jing liked best.
At this, Lu Jingzhou fell silent.
In his early years, Lu Jingzhou had followed Elder Lu to the front lines, killing countless fierce beasts and zergs. The military merits he accumulated made him a marshal in every sense of the word.
However, over all these years, countless forced battles, the exhaustion of his abilities, and the depletion of his spiritual energy core had left Lu Jingzhou’s ability core teetering on the verge of collapse.
An ability user’s powers were stored within their ability core, which was equivalent to a cultivator’s golden core.
Whether an ability core or a golden core shattered, it was a fatal blow to an ability user or cultivator.
Because of issues with his ability core, Lu Jingzhou had already begun preparing to transition to post-war duties.
Precisely because of this, some people inevitably started harboring active thoughts.
Lu Chen had just been promoted to major recently. A thirty-year-old major was indeed quite remarkable and fully demonstrated Lu Chen’s strength.
Yet, this was far from enough. Once Lu Jingzhou stepped down, what would his youngest son do in the future?
Some people would simply not allow both Lu brothers to build meritorious careers in the military. Once Lu Chen and Lu Hao supported each other, they would inevitably stand in someone else’s way.
As for the second brother, Lu Huan, better not to mention him.
That fellow hadn’t entered the military; instead, he entered the Capital Star Research Institute.
Two years ago, they accidentally rescued a female mermaid from the zergs, and later they accidentally rescued a male mermaid as well. As a genius in the research institute, Lu Huan was naturally assigned to treat the male mermaid.
For reasons unknown, after being well-behaved for two years, the male mermaid suddenly turned violent, personally injuring Lu Huan and escaping with the female mermaid.
The injured Lu Huan barely escaped death. In the end, although Lu Huan managed to cling to his life, both of his legs were crippled as a result.
Lu Jingzhou didn’t understand why Lu Huan had been so overconfident as to chase after the escaped mermaid. Later on, he found out that this brat actually harbored that kind of feeling toward the male mermaid.
In the interstellar era, mermaids were considered a rare species, but that didn’t mean no one had ever seen them.
Without exception, mermaids were indeed extraordinarily beautiful and charming creatures, as if they had received Goddess Nüwa’s special favor; regardless of male or female, they looked utterly bewitching to all living beings.
In earlier years, some bosses wouldn’t hesitate to spend vast sums of money to send people out to search for mermaids, just to satisfy their own desires.
Among the three Lu brothers, the second one could be considered unreliable. Now only the eldest and the youngest remained, and yet the youngest had gone and contracted a level-ten pet beast. One could imagine how heavy Lu Jingzhou’s heart felt.
“I know.” Lu Jingzhou knew very well that since the matter had already occurred, dwelling on right and wrong would be futile and would only increase Lu Hao’s psychological pressure. “Do you have anyone you suspect?”
Lu Jingzhou wanted to know what exactly had happened at that time. He did not believe that his usually steady youngest son would make such a low-level mistake.
“No, Dad.” Lu Hao shook his head and recounted what happened during the contract. “Before the contraction, there was the pressure from second brother’s contract beast and the wild ice tiger. Normally, this should have been impossible, but Yuanyuan appeared so unexpectedly and abruptly that it was already too late for me to stop it.”
“Yuanyuan? Is that your contract beast’s name?”
“Yes. When it curls up, it is just a round lump with a round head and a round butt, so I gave it the name Yuanyuan.”
Lu Jingzhou: “What?”
Could you be any more casual with a name?
“Dad, I know your and big brother’s concerns. Actually, contracting Yuanyuan is also very good. It is no worse than other contract beasts.” In Lu Hao’s view, his Yuanyuan was pretty, cute, obedient, smart, and fluffy, and how was it not better than other contract beasts in every way?
Lu Jingzhou remained silent, thinking to himself that his son’s rebellious phase had perhaps arrived belatedly.
Or had his IQ gone offline, allowing him to talk nonsense with his eyes open to this extent?
A level-one contract beast versus a level-ten pet beast, did he even realize the gap?
His brain must have been left somewhere and forgotten, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to say such things.
Lu Jingzhou sighed. “Hao’er, you are very clear that a level-ten contract beast cannot provide you with any assistance on the battlefield. Of course, I also know that once contracted, it cannot be undone. What Dad means is…”
Lu Jingzhou stared at his youngest son on the screen, weighing his phrasing, though he wasn’t good at beating around the bush or using ambiguous language. “Perhaps right now you find it cute and think it doesn’t matter, but when you get to the battlefield and truly face zergs that eat people and possess iron-clad strength, Dad doesn’t know if you will regret it. But Dad wants to tell you that whether it is a level-ten pet beast or a high-level contract beast, they are not emotionless creatures. If one day you feel regret and no longer want to raise your Yuanyuan, then your father hopes you will think carefully from this moment on whether you truly have no regrets and whether you are prepared to take care of and raise Yuanyuan for the rest of your life. If you have other thoughts, once you return to the Capital Star, you can hand Yuanyuan over to the housekeeper.”
Zergs were a type of extremely dangerous and terrifying interstellar creature. Before humans migrated to survive in space, zergs were the rulers here. Later, humans appeared as intelligent beings with higher intellect than other fierce beasts. Zergs not only treated humans as prey but also periodically invaded planets inhabited by humans.
Some of these zergs grew several meters tall, while others were only a few dozen centimeters long. Regardless of their size, they shared one trait without exception, which was that they ate people.
The zergs seen in videos were ultimately not as terrifying or blood-chilling as seeing them in person.
In the past, many military academy students fancied themselves extraordinary. The zergs they saw were nothing more than specimens, corpses sent back for dissection, or zergs trampled under soldiers’ feet as seen in videos, along with pets of levels three or four. But once on the battlefield, truly facing creatures like zergs face-to-face, the feeling was fundamentally different.
Just like other military academy students, even as the marshal’s son, a place like the front lines wasn’t somewhere a sophomore could go whenever he wanted. Because of this, Lu Jingzhou had to remind Lu Hao.
Lu Hao listened quietly to Lu Jingzhou’s words, looking as though he were hesitating and thinking, before finally raising his head after a long moment. “Dad, I am very clear about this. I know your concerns, and I will not harm my contract beast, neither physically nor psychologically. I will protect it. Since I have already contracted it and brought it into human society, I will take responsibility for it for the rest of my life. I will not regret it. A contract is a contract. I am not feeling happy simply out of a childhood desire to raise a pet beast. I have thought about it very clearly. From now on, I will practice with redoubled effort. Even without a high-level contract beast, I can still make it.”
“Chirp.”
Fang Jing, who had been quiet all this time, sat obediently beside Lu Hao. He knew his servant was talking to his father, so he had to be polite and not disturb them.
Yet right now, he couldn’t help himself and let out a soft chirp.
There was no helping it; Fang Jing was simply too happy.
This was the servant he had chosen, speaking so gently and being a man with an extreme sense of responsibility.
How could his own eye for people be so good?
Fang Jing sat like a dog, one front paw covering his small mouth, letting out a gentle hee-hee sound.
That was Fang Jing laughing, laughing so hard that his big, round eyes narrowed into slits.
For a ball of white fluff to make human laughter, if it were anyone else, they would probably find it terrifying and spine-chilling.
Lu Hao probably wasn’t ordinary; not only did he not feel scared, but instead he lowered his head, rested his chin on his forearm, faced Fang Jing directly, and asked softly, “Yuanyuan, are you laughing?”
“Chirp.”
That’s right.
Lu Hao chuckled, stroked Fang Jing’s tail with one hand, and coaxed him, “Yuanyuan, look, this is my dad. Want to say hello?”
“Chirp.”
Fang Jing stopped laughing, sat up straight, and stared straight at the person on the screen with his big eyes. At this look, Fang Jing let out two chirps.
Wow, this person looked a bit like his servant, but…
Fang Jing turned his head to look back and forth several times before finally confirming that his own servant was still the most handsome and gentle one.
Because of their abilities, the lifespan of interstellar humans had increased. Lu Jingzhou, who was already in his early fifties, didn’t actually look old and was still in his prime years, though due to his ability core issue, his handsome face inevitably carried a trace of fatigue.
“Hm?” Lu Jingzhou leaned closer to the screen to take a look, asking uncertainly, “A-Hao, is Yuanyuan doing this by coincidence, or…”
The possibility that followed was something Lu Jingzhou couldn’t voice. Reason told him that a level-ten pet beast, aside from canine or feline pet beasts, how should he put it? Other pet beasts simply didn’t understand human speech at all.