🪽 Day 19th of Anniversary Celebration 🪽
While fighting with Wayne in the gravity training room, Magelyn suddenly sneezed. In the mere three seconds before and after the sneeze, Wayne’s sweeping kick had already knocked her flat onto the floor.
She angrily slapped the floor. “Someone must be deliberately cursing me!”
Wayne burst out laughing. “You should reflect on yourself properly!”
Having already fallen down, Magelyn simply decided not to get back up. Her princess cut hairstyle was completely soaked with sweat and had lost every trace of its usual aesthetic appeal.
She changed positions and lay flat on the training room floor, finally catching her breath before saying, “Hey, I’m telling you, I just told you all about what happened earlier. Aren’t any of you going to react?”
Duchamp tossed aside the dumbbell, clapped his palms together to dust them off, then came over and lay down beside them in a neat row. “What kind of reaction are we supposed to have? Anyone with eyes can tell there’s something going on! Forget the military jacket, even during every meeting, whether consciously or unconsciously, do you know how many times the commander looks toward Qi Yan?”
Magelyn became interested. “I really haven’t counted!”
“…Neither have I.” Duchamp turned his gaze toward Long Xiyun. “Have you counted?”
Long Xiyun began listing the number. “During the strategic meeting about Tang Na, once every one minute and fifty three seconds on average.”
“That frequently?” Magelyn exclaimed. “Tsk, tsk. The commander keeps looking over there so often and somehow he hasn’t developed a squint!”
Duchamp: Was that the important part?
Magelyn suddenly remembered something else. “Long Xiyun, do you know what Qi Yan’s identity actually is? Listening to Vincent’s nonsense, that whole ‘intern consultant’ thing is obviously just meant to fool other people so it’s convenient for Qi Yan to move around the command ship. Considering the commander’s usual way of doing things, he doesn’t even avoid letting Qi Yan sit in on combat meetings. Qi Yan must have another identity!”
“I don’t know.” Long Xiyun spoke calmly. “I only know that Lorenz from the Technical Department thinks Qi Yan is smarter than he is. He practically wants to guard Qi Yan’s door every day but the commander forcibly dragged him back.”
Magelyn’s voice rose. “Lorenz? Lorenz is already the smartest person in our entire Expeditionary Force! Where exactly did the commander find this little genius?”
Seeing the three of them lying in a neat row on the floor, Long Xiyun kicked Duchamp, who was on the outermost side. “You three look like turkeys strung up in a row. Get up. We’re having another round. After we’re done, I have to take the men into the simulated battlefield for training.”
Duchamp jumped to his feet. “Fine. I’ll take people to train after we’re done too! Want to schedule a simulated match later?”
Long Xiyun nodded. “It’s scheduled.”
Two days later, the interference frequency for “Thousand Mile Eye” that Qi Yan had been constructing finally began to take shape.
“General, do you remember White Falcon?”
Of course, Lu Fenghan remembered.
Almost every Alliance soldier who went out on a mission was equipped with one, because it could break through the recording jammers used by the rebels, while the Alliance’s own video blocking systems were also ineffective against it.
Back in Leto, during the banquet the Qi family had held to celebrate Jiang Qi’s admission to Turan Academy, “White Falcon” had even played a small part.
“The interference frequency and White Falcon, as well as the rebels’ recording jammers, all operate according to the same theoretical principle.”
Qi Yan discarded all the specialized terminology and tried to explain it as simply and directly as possible. “To block a recording function, a jamming wave is released, causing the recorded footage to become nothing but a blank screen. The interference frequency works the same way by releasing a jamming wave, except instead of simply blocking what Thousand Mile Eye records, it replaces the recorded footage with images we have designed in advance, images that we want the enemy to see.”
A group of people were seated around the conference table, with Magelyn and the others all present. Judging by their sitting postures alone, every single one of them would probably have had to be sent back to the First Military Academy for retraining but all of them were listening with complete seriousness.
Qi Yan provided the technology, while they were responsible for figuring out how to make use of it.
The environment in space was complicated and the distances involved extended far beyond the limits of the human eye. Radar detection systems and long range monitoring devices were essentially two additional “eyes.”
The radar detection system could identify high speed energy bodies approaching within a certain range but it could only determine their number and location. The long range monitoring device, or “Thousand Mile Eye,” on the other hand, could transmit visual footage that allowed them to determine whether the approaching starships were a main ship or medium sized vessels, what models they were and what weapons they were equipped with.
Magelyn slapped a hand down on the table. “This is basically a cheat! Suppose I send ten medium sized ships over. The rebels look at the footage transmitted by Thousand Mile Eye, oh? Just a bunch of little shrimp. Aren’t they only ten micro ships? Come on, send ten small ships out to meet them!”
Duchamp immediately picked up the thread. “Pull a trick like that a couple more times and when we actually send out ten micro ships, they won’t know whether it’s real or fake. They’ll assume we’re still using the same tactic as before, so they’ll cautiously send out medium sized ships to meet us!”
The more Magelyn thought about it, the more exciting she found it. “We can even use small ships to disguise the main ship! Make the rebels think our main fleet has already arrived at Coordinate A. Once they send out everything they have, we’ll bring the main ship around from behind and blast them! Ah, tricking the rebels is so much fun!”
Long Xiyun said, “There’s no such thing as too much deception in warfare. It doesn’t matter if the disguise can’t be maintained for very long. What’s real and what’s false, mixed together, that’s what really throws people off.”
Seeing that Qi Yan was listening with interest, Lu Fenghan was quite tolerant and allowed them to discuss it for a while. Only when Magelyn became so excited that one foot was almost on top of the table did he finally rap his knuckles against the tabletop.
“All right.”
The command room immediately fell silent.
Qi Yan spoke up. “It’s only been preliminarily completed for now. I need to test its effectiveness.”
Magelyn snapped her fingers. “No problem! We’ll all listen to you!”
Qi Yan said, “Thank you.”
Duchamp asked from the side, “Does it have a name? Ever since Y God, it seems like every new thing gets a pretty formal name.”
Qi Yan answered, “It does. The General named it ‘Mirage.’”
They spent half a day testing it and confirmed that the interference frequency did indeed produce excellent results. Qi Yan then began organizing the test data and making adjustments to some of the finer details.
…..
Meanwhile, Magelyn and the others enthusiastically pulled up the star map and began discussing tactics, preparing to use the rebels’ Eighth Corps as their experimental little frog.
Newly developed technology often had a certain window of effectiveness. The first few times it was used, the results were usually astonishing. After it had been deployed several times, however, its effectiveness would inevitably be reduced to some degree.
After all, the rebels would not simply sit there and take a beating. They would review what had happened, study the technology and either find a way to crack it or come up with countermeasures.
For example, the new detection system Qi Yan had brought with him, “Catching the Wind,” had practically scared the rebels out of their wits during the first two battles but later on, once the rebels gained experience, even if they could not break through the system, they could still strengthen their starships’ defensive capabilities.
After some more time passed, the effectiveness of the ambushes would naturally decrease accordingly.
Therefore, “Mirage” had to be used at precisely the right moment, catching the enemy completely off guard and allowing it to demonstrate its greatest possible value.
Qi Yan had no idea whether Magelyn and the others had managed to reach a conclusion. He was in the equipment room and once he sat down, several hours passed without him noticing.
He rubbed the space between his brows and asked Pojun what time it was. Only then did he realize that it was already one in the morning.
“Has the General gone to sleep?”
Pojun answered, “Not yet.”
Qi Yan exited the program, shut down the optical computer and stood up to leave. Perhaps because he had been sitting for too long without moving, his fingers felt cold.
Perhaps it was because he had finally stepped out of his working state and his emotions had returned all at once. After taking two steps, his pace gradually quickened.
This feeling of wanting to see someone sooner, this urge to get there faster, should probably be called impatience.
The metal door of the equipment room slid open. Qi Yan stepped out and immediately stopped.
It was already nighttime. The lighting in the corridor had been adjusted to its dimmest setting, simulating the darkness of night, while the indicator lights on the metal walls blinked faintly.
At the corner, beside a porthole, stood a solitary figure. His back was turned. He was wearing a regulation shirt, his tall and straight figure resembling a blade fresh from its sheath.
There was a faint smell of smoke lingering in the air. Qi Yan remembered having encountered this scent before, in a café back on Leto.
“General.”
Lu Fenghan turned around, revealing a handsome, strikingly masculine face. The tense line of his jaw suddenly relaxed and a natural smile curved up at the corners of his lips.
“Mm.”
As Lu Fenghan walked toward him, Qi Yan also took two quick steps and came to stand beside him. “You haven’t gone to sleep yet? Pojun said it’s already past one in the morning.”
Lu Fenghan said, “My sleeping schedule isn’t fixed. It usually depends on the circumstances.”
Qi Yan was curious. “What circumstances?”
“Your circumstances.”
Lu Fenghan reached out and gently pinched Qi Yan’s cheek. “Are you tired?”
Qi Yan shook his head. “I’m not tired.” The image of that back he had just seen refused to leave his mind and in the end, he still asked, “Were you smoking just now?”
Lu Fenghan gave a soft laugh. “You smelled it?”
He did not brush the question aside. Instead, he explained why. “While I was waiting for you, I happened to speak with General Nie. The rebels have imposed that kind of reign of terror in Leto and the situation has reached a stalemate. A lot of people are dying without anyone even knowing and afterward, General Nie proceeded to dump a whole pile of matters concerning the country’s economy and people’s livelihoods on me. I was feeling a little restless, so I smoked a couple of puffs to calm myself down.”
Qi Yan understood the situation more or less.
He could even feel the helplessness and restlessness that Lu Fenghan was experiencing.
He had gradually come to realize that although his ability to perceive emotions had not yet fully recovered, leaving him rather slow and insensitive in many respects, he was exceptionally sensitive to Lu Fenghan’s emotions and could easily understand what the other man was feeling.
Before Qi Yan could offer any words of comfort, Lu Fenghan changed his tone. “But there’s no point in rushing these matters. I can’t abandon the front line, take the Expeditionary Force and rush to the Central Administrative District to snatch Leto back.”
He turned toward Qi Yan and in the depths of his eyes, the glint of a blade seemed to be reflected beneath the moonlight. “We need to be patient, don’t we?”
Qi Yan’s voice was firm. “Yes.”
He also knew that Lu Fenghan was good at restraining himself and reflecting on his own actions. At times like this, when his thoughts were tangled and his emotions were restless, he simply needed someone to give him an answer.
After falling two steps behind, Qi Yan reached out and lightly touched the back of Lu Fenghan’s hand.
Just as he had expected, Lu Fenghan immediately turned his hand over and clasped Qi Yan’s hand without the slightest hesitation. “Why are your hands so cold?”
Qi Yan did not answer.
He wanted to comfort him.
However, although it was merely a simple touch, he instinctively began analyzing his own emotions,
Nervousness, uneasiness, happiness…
So many different emotions surfaced from the depths of his heart simply because of that small point of contact.
Lu Fenghan remembered Eliza’s reminder and went over the events of the day in his mind. “When you listened to Magelyn and the others discussing those tactics for tricking the enemy, your emotions were probably curiosity and amusement. When they were listening to you explain ‘Mirage,’ their emotions were admiration and recognition, anticipation, excitement. Wayne was very dejected after losing his argument with Magelyn. When Duchamp mentioned nutritional supplements, he was bored and disgusted. When you saw the test results this afternoon, you were satisfied…”
This method could help Qi Yan connect the scenes stored in his memories with the corresponding facial expressions and tones of voice, allowing him to associate them with the appropriate emotions.
No one knew whether it would actually be useful, or whether it was even necessary.
But whether it was useful or not, Lu Fenghan was willing to try.
Simply because while Magelyn and the others had been chatting, there had occasionally been brief flashes of confusion in Qi Yan’s eyes whenever their expressions changed or their tones shifted, as though he could not understand what those changes meant.
Qi Yan listened carefully until Lu Fenghan finished. Then, he suddenly asked, “What emotion do you have toward me, General?”
Lu Fenghan thought about it.
There were too many answers.
They were even intertwined with one another so tightly that it was impossible to distinguish them clearly.
But if he were to dissect the most intense strand of flame burning within his heart at this very moment, it would probably be–
Desire.
Triple update on LA as we are celebrating!!
This September, our Realm is turning 1 year old! So for the celebration, we are making everything special! Send us your art and vote for your favorite novels to unlock more extra updates! Find out more about it at => Velicres Realm Celebration
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Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Statistically speaking, coffee would be appreciated.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 50 · I am Pojun.Chapter 51 · Unable to deceive oneselfChapter 52 · Resurrected from the deadChapter 53 · Hello, General!Chapter 54 · My hand is injured.Chapter 55 · Come to my place.Chapter 56 · First VictoryChapter 57 · Self-introductionChapter 58 · Never changedChapter 59 · One reasonChapter 60 · Gentle and restrainedChapter 61 · Only you are allowed.Chapter 62 · To the Souls of the FallenChapter 63 · His reliefChapter 64 · His ambitionChapter 65 · Date TimeChapter 66 Part 1 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 66 Part 2 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 67 · Did not leaveChapter 68 · Perceiving EmotionsChapter 69 · My own effortsChapter 70 · Bright FlameChapter 71 · Dress codeChapter 72 · Take me with you!Chapter 73 · MirageChapter 74 · I’m used to it.