In the First Dining Hall of the Empire’s First Academy, special sections were set aside for Omegas and Alphas. The Omega section, in particular, was supplied with far higher quality dishes. Omegas and Alphas whose secondary genders had already been determined almost always dined in their designated sections, while Betas lined up to get food in the main cafeteria.
Today, most people in the cafeteria were glued to their terminals. Whether walking, standing in line, or eating, their eyes never strayed from their screens.
Shi Xin supported Joyce with a touch of concern. Although current terminals differed from ancient smartphones by warning users of obstacles without blocking their field of vision, as a recently transmigrated Ancient Earth native, Shi Xin couldn’t help but worry that Joyce might trip while walking and staring at her screen.
“Wow! Everyone in this thread is saying they’re going to wait outside the Omega dining section at noon to get Gary’s autograph! I want his autograph so badly too!” Joyce clutched her heart, looking completely smitten. “How can someone like Gary exist in this world—so gorgeous and talented?!”
As she spoke, Joyce suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, completely petrified.
“What’s wrong?” Shi Xin asked casually. Already used to Joyce’s dramatic antics, she looked toward the food counter, wondering what was on the menu today.
Her long black hair was tied into a simple ponytail, revealing a gentle facial contour and a cool, calm expression. But when bystanders followed her gaze, they saw her beautiful black eyes locked intensely onto the cumin roasted lamb chops.
A flurry of non-verbal signals instantly swept through the surrounding crowd:
Our secretly elected Beta campus belle, Shi Xin, wants cumin roasted lamb chops today! Everyone know your place and don’t order that dish, or if Shi Xin can’t get any, she’ll be depressed all afternoon!
At the same time, Joyce snapped out of her brief trance, threw herself onto Shi Xin, and began crying hysterically. “Shi Xin, my unrequited love has died before it even blossomed! Even though Gary is still single, he already has an official marriage partner! I’m heartbroken—hurry and comfort me!”
Shi Xin let out a sigh, her forehead practically covered in black lines. She dragged Joyce toward the cumin roasted lamb chop window while offering perfunctory comfort: “Fine, I’m comforting you, I’m comforting you.”
Even though Joyce knew full well that Shi Xin would only offer such half-hearted sympathy, she still wailed sorrowfully, “You heartless thing, are we besties or not? How can you be so perfunctory with me?!”
Thinking of the tips that had accumulated in her novel’s backend account, Shi Xin said to Joyce, “I’ll buy you a lamb chop for lunch.”
Joyce instantly straightened her back, craning her neck to peer into the food window. “There are cumin roasted lamb chops today?! Can you buy me two?”
Shi Xin gave her an icy, indifferent stare.
Joyce sniffled dramatically. “I’m heartbroken, yet I can’t even eat two lamb chops. Sigh, I’m so sad.”
Shi Xin deployed her subject-changing technique: “Who is Gary’s marriage partner?”
Joyce’s spirits instantly revived as her gossip mode kicked in. “Gary truly is an Omega kissed by God! Not only is he beautiful and talented, but he also has an astounding 35% compatibility with the Grand Marshal! Do you know how rare that is? Ever since the Grand Marshal reached marriageable age, she placed her genetic profile into the matching database. Any Omega or Beta willing to be with the Grand Marshal can run a gene match with her.”
She glanced left and right, then whispered softly, “I tried it too, but I only got a 0.001% match. What a shame—the Grand Marshal and I are off by just one decimal point and two zeros!”
Shi Xin’s lips twitched slightly. Removing a decimal point from 0.001% and adding two zeros behind the 1 makes 100%… Classic Joyce logic.
“The crush of my life and the hero I worship are about to get married, I’m so heartbroken,” Joyce babbled to Shi Xin.
The tail of Shi Xin’s brow twitched slightly as she said to the cafeteria server, “Excuse me, four portions of cumin roasted lamb chops, split across two plates, please.”
Joyce threw her arms around Shi Xin. “Ahhhh, Shi Xin, I love you! How about we just get together?!”
Before Shi Xin could respond, several people nearby suddenly turned around and shouted at Joyce: “No way!” “Take your hands off Shi Xin!”
Frightened, Joyce immediately released Shi Xin, grabbed her plate, and fled the scene of trouble alongside her.
Shi Xin maintained her cool demeanor, her eyes glued strictly to the lamb chops on her plate while secretly swallowing her saliva. She didn’t actually want to appear so gluttonous, but as a Huaxia native from Ancient Earth, her pursuit of delicious food had been ingrained since childhood. Even after transmigrated into the interstellar era, her food-loving heart couldn’t be stopped.
However, Shi Xin didn’t focus entirely on her lamb chops this time. As she ate, she pondered Joyce’s words.
Gary was an Omega with a 35% compatibility with the Grand Marshal—the highest in the entire galaxy aside from herself. Most importantly, both she and the Grand Marshal were female, while Gary was a male. A man and a woman together was what conformed to the laws of nature!
At this moment, Shi Xin intentionally shoved the rules of the ABO universe to the back of her mind. Because even if Gary and the Grand Marshal got together, it would still be the Grand Marshal topping Gary, not the other way around. That had long ceased to resemble the male-female dynamics of Ancient Earth; here, ABO was the absolute primary gender, while male and female were mere physical traits.
Shi Xin nodded to herself, feeling that her logic was completely sound. The Grand Marshal should definitely end up with Gary. As a citizen of the interstellar empire, she absolutely, positively, 100% supported them!
Just as Shi Xin finished her meal, her terminal suddenly chimed with a message from an unfamiliar number.
She handed her dishware to a cleaning robot and casually opened the message. A single line of text popped up before her eyes:
Why did the web novel change authors?
A sixth sense told Shi Xin that this message came directly from Grand Marshal Cecil.
“Shi Xin, are you browsing the forum too? Did you see the collective heartbreak thread on the main page? Everyone is saying that thank goodness we still have you, otherwise they’d all turn into lifetime celibates.” Full and satisfied, Joyce immersed herself back into the forum, unable to pull herself away.
Although the semi-transparent screen of Shi Xin’s terminal hovered before her eyes, without her privacy permissions, only Shi Xin could view its contents. This was one of the features that made Shi Xin marvel at the advanced technology of the interstellar age. But what she was most grateful for was that despite having no memories of the original host when transmigrating, she could read interstellar script, understand interstellar speech, and communicate effortlessly. Otherwise, how could she possibly write web novels on the net?
Shi Xin and Joyce strolled slowly with the crowd toward the academic building. Sunlight filtered through the gaps between tree leaves, casting dappled spots on the ground. Instead of relaxing her brow in such pleasant weather, Shi Xin pondered how she ought to reply to the Grand Marshal.
After giving it some thought, Shi Xin decided to give Gary a helpful push while she was at it, replying:
Actually, I’m really not the author of that book. Gary is the real author. Plus, Gary has an astounding 35% compatibility with you—the two of you couldn’t be a better match.
Cecil had just stepped out of the Imperial Palace, having declined the Emperor’s invitation to lunch, leaving her with little appetite at the moment.
Listening to her chief of staff, Cecil sat in her mecha shuttle, browsing the forum while speaking with her. “Shelley, why do you think Shi Xin hasn’t tried contacting me at all?”
Logically speaking, Shi Xin should have messaged her yesterday. After all, Cecil was a Grand Marshal, the female lead in her story, and her soon-to-be spouse.
Her chief of staff, Irene Shelley, pondered for a moment. Scenes from The Untold Story of Me and the Interstellar World’s Top Female Alpha immediately flashed through her mind, and she stated with absolute conviction: “Grand Marshal, I believe Shi Xin is playing hard to get! This is one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems from Ancient Earth Easterners. As an Ancient Earth Easterner whose genes are 80% Eastern heritage, Shi Xin is undoubtedly intimately familiar with these stratagems. You must be careful, Grand Marshal!”
A wave of realization washed over Cecil. Deep meaning glistened in her ocean-blue eyes as her crimson lips curled slightly, her fingers twirling a lock of her long chestnut hair. “Hah, I certainly won’t fall for it.”
Five minutes later, she added, “Though I am quite curious—that Gary guy has been hyping himself up as the author for so long, so why hasn’t she come forward to set the record straight?”
Shelley carefully observed Cecil’s expression before offering a gentle way out: “I think you could send her a message to ask, Grand Marshal. Perhaps she’s simply too foolish to realize she’s being impersonated, or maybe she’s too naive to know how to fight back. Isn’t that how the protagonist in her novel acts? Silly, always making mistakes, needing her Alpha to step up and resolve everything for her every time, without even showing gratitude.”
Cecil nodded. “Mhm, then I’ll ask. If she doesn’t know how to handle it… as her future partner, I suppose I can lend a hand. After all, dealing with matters like this is far too easy for me.”
Shelley nodded: “Indeed, Grand Marshal.”
Just a few seconds after the message was sent, Shi Xin marked it as read.
The smile at the corner of Cecil’s mouth widened, though she tried her best to project a sneering composure. “It truly is as you said—she’s playing hard to get. The moment my message went through, without even telling her who I was, she read it immediately.”
Shelley couldn’t hold back and accidentally walked straight into a landmine: “Grand Marshal, where did you get her network ID from? Since she didn’t even know it was you, yet read the message so fast, it seems like she’s a bit open to anyone…”
Cecil: “…”
Cecil shot Shelley a lethal glare, and Shelley instantly shut her mouth.
However, when Shi Xin’s reply came through, Cecil’s face darkened in an instant.
This Omega is courting death simply because she shares a 99% compatibility with me! She really has the exact same personality as the protagonist in her book—always saying the opposite of what she means! Deep down, she must have fallen for me long ago! Saying things like I should be with Gary… she’s definitely just jealous!