The night grew deep.
In a room illuminated by soft lighting, Shi Xingzhou sat leaning back in a leather office chair. His long eyelashes were lowered, concealing his orange-red eyes. His pale fingertips toyed with a black ring. As the black ring spun back and forth between his fingertips, sparks of electricity faintly flashed.
“How is it? The portable mental-power-shielding device I invented works great, right? That good cousin of yours—our great Emperor—did his face completely change with fright when he saw you eat the Crimson Flame Fruit and remain perfectly fine?”
The person speaking from the other end of the holographic screen was named Yan Liang. He was one of Shi Xingzhou’s few close friends, a mechanical enthusiast who loved researching various devices. Both the modified energy-suppression collar on Shi Xingzhou’s wrist and the black ring in his hand—which could shield against all mental attacks and neutralize toxins—were his masterpieces.
Shi Xingzhou lifted his eyelids, shot him a glance, and couldn’t be bothered to reply.
Yan Liang winked and prodded, “Come on, tell me! Did his face change? Did that hypocritical smile that hasn’t changed for ten thousand years finally twist? If I wasn’t so terribly busy at the time, I would have hacked into the royal palace’s system to watch the live broadcast.”
Shi Xingzhou: “The ring was useless…”
“How is that possible?!” Yan Liang felt deeply insulted. His eyebrows shot up as he interrupted, “That is my outstanding invention! Let alone the fragrance and mental toxins of a mere Crimson Flame Fruit, even the mental storm attack of a Star Beast could be… Wait. If my ring was useless, are you okay right now? What is your stability value (mental power stability threshold)? The collapse rate of your Mental Sea…”
Shi Xingzhou gave him a heavy look.
Yan Liang immediately shut his mouth. Finally, before sweat could form on his forehead, Shi Xingzhou mercifully spoke up: “Your ring didn’t get used. Someone helped me.”
“Who? Do I know them?” Yan Liang asked naturally. “What method did they use to help you? Are they also a mechanic?”
Shi Xingzhou’s eyes narrowed slightly. Recalling the youth’s attempt to eat that pile of Crimson Flame Fruit in his place, a trace of a gentle smile flashed in his eyes. He changed the subject, “I used my mental power publicly twice today. Someone is definitely going to be too scared to sleep tonight. Keep an eye out and catch any tails. If anything comes up, go find Zhou Yi. You don’t need to worry about the Emperor; having seen with his own eyes that my stability value dropped by 1%, he should be too happy to sleep.”
At the dawn of the Empire, aside from the royal family, there were the Four Great Families. The Shi family was one of them.
The Shi family’s crest was a sharp sword shaped like a compass needle and a shield shaped like a wheel/dial. It symbolized that the Shi family was the sharp blade of the Empire, the protector of the citizens, and the most loyal guardian of the royal family.
But the once immensely wealthy and populous Shi family now had only Shi Xingzhou left.
Twenty years ago, Shi Xingzhou’s grandfather and uncles all died at the venue of peace talks with the Zerg. The desolate planet where the secret negotiations took place was blown to pieces. Both the Zerg and the Empire suffered heavy losses, each believing it was a trap set by the other, and the war reignited.
Fifteen years ago, Shi Xingzhou’s father died on the interstellar battlefield, leaving not even a corpse behind. Around the same time, twelve-year-old Shi Xingzhou and his mother were nearly robbed and murdered by space pirates while traveling.
Five years ago, during his susceptibility period, Shi Xingzhou suddenly encountered a Zerg assassination attempt, causing him to enter his Mental Riot Phase prematurely. Not long after, Shi Xingzhou’s mother and the previous Emperor—brother and sister—were simultaneously poisoned to death. The newly adult Third Prince, Luther Augustus, ascended the throne as the new Emperor.
For all these years, Shi Xingzhou had been investigating the truth of the past. He had rooted out quite a few people, and his methods of revenge could only be described as ruthless. He terrified the masterminds behind the scenes to the point where they couldn’t eat or sleep in peace, dreaming day and night of Shi Xingzhou’s death.
“Understood, I’ll go catch mice.”
Yan Liang muttered things like, “Refusing to satisfy my curiosity but still making me do grunt work,” while reluctantly nodding, ready to throw himself into the mouse-catching job Shi Xingzhou had assigned.
Just as he was about to turn off the holographic screen, he suddenly remembered something and shouted, “Wait!”
Shi Xingzhou raised an eyebrow slightly, looking at him.
“You’re handing everything over to me and Zhou Yi to handle. What about you?”
Yan Liang wasn’t complaining about his boss not working; he was just surprised. Usually, when issuing orders in the middle of the night like this, Shi Xingzhou would tell him to contact him directly if anything came up, rather than finding Zhou Yi and the others. Because he suffered from bone-piercing mental agony day and night, Shi Xingzhou almost never slept at night. On the contrary, finding something to do might actually make him feel a bit more relaxed.
But Shi Xingzhou actually wasn’t working tonight. What was he going to do?
Shi Xingzhou replied nonchalantly, “Sleep.”
Perhaps because Xi Xiuran had accompanied him for long enough today, his agitated Mental Sea had calmed down. He felt a long-absent wave of drowsiness and wanted to get a good night’s sleep.
Yan Liang: “!!!”
By the time Yan Liang snapped out of it, the call had already been hung up. When he tried to call back, a prompt informed him that the other party had rejected messages and to leave a voicemail if it was urgent.
Hanging up the call, Shi Xingzhou stood up and walked toward the bathroom. He raised a hand and took off the energy-suppression collar on his wrist—the one said to be impossible to remove even for a 4S-class powerhouse.
The instant he removed the collar, the entire room suddenly darkened. It was as if all objects were covered with a layer of black veil; the world was instantly reduced to only black and white.
With a click, the bathroom door closed. The sound of splashing water echoed, and color returned to the human realm.
***
Under the same night sky, within the same manor, someone had already finished washing up and was ready to get a good night’s sleep, while someone else was still staying up late fighting hard.
Xi Xiuran let out a yawn, lifted his eyes to glance at the large and small moons hanging high outside the window, chugged an energy drink, and continued writing furiously at his desk.
Overtime is impossible. Working overtime is impossible in this lifetime, but… I can generate power for love[1]“Generating electricity for love.” Internet slang for doing something passionately and voluntarily out of pure love/interest, rather than for money or obligation (like writing fanfiction … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2221668_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2221668_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
How can something done out of love be called working overtime?
For Big Boss Shi, charge!
At this moment, seven or eight holographic screens were lit up in front of Xi Xiuran. Each screen displayed Chinese characters he had handwritten. If someone who understood Chinese saw them, they would recognize that they were the plot outline, character relationship charts, and event records of Rebirth of the First Omega.
Xi Xiuran recorded the useful information while recalling the novel’s content. “The narration once mentioned that out of the four abilities, only one is offensive; the other three are support-oriented. The Protagonist Shou has super intuition, and mine dissolves mental-type toxins. Then is it possible that the last one is a healing type…”
Xi Xiuran drew a question mark next to the fourth ability, then looked at the character profiles on the left screen.
Rebirth of the Empire’s First Omega was a rebirth, “group pet”[2]everyone loves the protagonist jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2221668_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2221668_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, face-slapping novel. As the Protagonist Shou’s status and position improved, increasingly powerful and awesome big shots were bound to appear. These big shots would go from appreciating the Protagonist Shou to doting on him. Ultimately, the author created a setting similar to the “Four Emperors” or “Seven Warlords of the Sea.”[3]These are iconic power-scaling factions from the popular anime/manga One Piece. The author uses them here as a relatable shorthand to describe the power hierarchy of the big shots in the web … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2221668_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2221668_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });
As the ceiling of combat power, Shi Xingzhou was the “Pirate King”—dead right from the start. Occasionally, the narration or some important figures would mention a few words about how strong and invincible he was. Reading through the whole text, the line that left the deepest impression on Xi Xiuran was from a certain big shot mentioning Shi Xingzhou: [The blazing sun has fallen, and the myriad stars shine brightly… It is precisely because Shi Xingzhou is no longer here that you juniors are able to step onto the stage of history.]
This big shot was one of the “Four Giants,” and he was also an ability user. It was precisely because the Protagonist Shou gained his appreciation that he awakened his super intuition ability with his help.
“Then working backwards according to this setting, does it mean that all four big shots might be ability users? If that’s the case…”
Just as Xi Xiuran was drawing an equal sign between the “Four Great Abilities” and the “Four Emperors,”[4]reference to one piece jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2221668_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2221668_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); the terminal on his wrist suddenly let out a beep, indicating a pending message to be checked.
He glanced at it and found it was a new friend request.
—ID “Flying Bird” has requested to add you as a friend.
Who?
Xi Xiuran clicked into the person’s profile to take a look. It was the back of a guy with a “Shamate”[5]edgy/eccentric jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2221668_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2221668_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); hairstyle. He roughly knew who it was.
However, he was currently busy and didn’t want his train of thought interrupted by chatting. Therefore, Xi Xiuran pretended not to see it, muted his terminal, and continued recalling the settings of those three big shots. The “Father of Mecha,” Professor Ike, who developed various mechas and was the only one capable of creating SS-class mecha; the “Medical Titan,” Old Mr. Shen, the pyramid-topping figure in the field of biology who developed suppressants and other potions…
Two hours later, Xi Xiuran finally recorded all the information he could recall. He stretched his back, and only then did he remember the friend request.
Xi Xiuran opened his terminal and immediately saw dozens of new messages. Within the 20-character limit for friend requests, it fully demonstrated how an arrogant, toxic person’s mentality gradually collapsed step by step.
“Flying Bird” was the genius of the Alliance, Jian Feichen.
Perhaps because his face was slapped too hard during the day, Jian Feichen’s personality couldn’t bring itself to ask for a friend request. The first few requests had no reason filled in at all. Later, they gradually changed into a polite and courteous format: “Hello, I am XX, I have something to ask you.” But constrained by the 20-character limit, the polite request reasons were sent intermittently across a dozen messages.
Too long, too lazy to read.
Xi Xiuran scrolled straight to the bottom and finally saw an interesting one. It was actually a photo of half a bald head, barely recognizable as Jian Feichen.
Xi Xiuran: “!!!”
Wow, your Interstellar friend requests can actually include photos?
Xi Xiuran quickly took a screenshot to save it, and then accepted the friend request.
T/n: Please Vote on NU to support the novel. You can support the original author here. Happy Reading 💅
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