Chapter 1

Ding—

At the sudden sound of an unfamiliar "ding," Qin Su opened his eyes almost instantly.

Aside from his own familiar figure reflected in the glass not far away, he saw four high-spirited youths on the emerald-green lawn below the floor-to-ceiling windows. They were sitting, lying down, standing, and bending over, their lips moving and their faces alight with brilliant smiles.

Sunlight fell on them, dazzlingly bright.

Beneath the shade of a tree some distance from the four, a human figure was faintly visible, half hidden behind the towering trunk.

Where was this?

Why did their features... look so familiar?

The instant Qin Su took in the unfamiliar surroundings and began to wonder, a mechanical electronic voice sounded in his mind, and a faintly glowing, eerie green interface appeared out of thin air before him:

[Name: Qin Su.

Height: 190.

Gender: ? (You are neither a confident, powerful Alpha nor a gentle, delicate Omega. You aren't even a beta as utterly ordinary as plain water.)

Background: ? (A transfer student from a blue planet.)

Identity ID generated: QS.

Current status: In the greenhouse of the Federation's Fourth Military Academy on planet Yikeliusi.

Current comic popularity points: 0.

Storage space: 0 (You can't even store your own corpse.)

Mission: At the time of binding, you were detected to be 0.001 seconds away from dying suddenly in your sleep in your own world. Upon successful binding, you have temporarily gained one minute of life;

Less than one minute remains before your sudden death in the real world. Please obtain comic popularity points as soon as possible to stay alive. The life countdown has begun;

Friendly reminder: Only by appearing within the comic's panels can you potentially gain comic popularity points through the audience's attention and affection. Only by becoming the No. 1 most popular character in the Interstellar Legend comic can you permanently extend your life in the real world;

The Interstellar Legend comic follows the principle of "popularity is king." All comic panels are based primarily on the "protagonists," then automatically captured and updated in real time according to the growth of the characters' popularity points. No one knows what will happen in the future;

While in the "comic world," you cannot see the comic's updates. However, any bullet comments about you will be updated in real time in the upper-left corner of the interface before you. If you wish to turn off bullet comment updates, please click the "close" button in the upper-left corner.]

[Loading complete. Welcome, host Qin Su, to the comic world of Interstellar Legend! I am System 777.]

For the final sentence, the system's voice changed from mechanical to lively.

Qin Su: "...?"

Interstellar Legend...

Wasn't that the hot-blooded interstellar AO comic his roommate Jiang Lu had been following lately?

Staring at the "?" in the gender field of the interface before him, Qin Su was briefly speechless. Then, prompted by the system's words, he asked the soul-searching question on his mind: "Does that make sense?"

The upper-left section of the interface reserved for bullet comments was completely blank, indirectly indicating that he currently had no popularity points at all in this world.

In other words, he didn't exist in the comic world as seen by its readers.

If things stayed that way, he would die when the one-minute life countdown ended.

But—

Qin Su presented the system with a reasoned analysis.

"In this ABO world, where the two genders A and O are the most popular, I'm neither an Alpha nor an Omega. I'm not even a beta, ordinary as they are in this world. That means not only do I have no pheromones, I can't even feel the pressure they cause. I don't belong to any of the six genders. So how am I, an ordinary human, supposed to gain popularity..."

777: [Death warning!]

"...OK, fine." Faced with the threat of death, Qin Su promptly changed tack. "System, I know you're in a hurry, but don't rush. After all, then again..."

Qin Su glanced at the life countdown in the upper-right corner of the interface, then turned his gaze to the four on the lawn outside the windows. His eyes darkened, and he fell silent.

Thanks to his real-world roommate Jiang Lu being a chatterbox overflowing with the urge to share, never stopping his "commentary and sharing" while reading the comic, it would have been hard for Qin Su, whose mind was already unusually active, not to remember who the protagonists of Interstellar Legend were.

The four people on the lawn whom he had seen the moment he opened his eyes in this world and found familiar were the four main characters of the Interstellar Legend comic.

As for who the figure behind the distant tree was, that didn't matter.

The immediate priority was to get himself captured by the comic's panels and successfully extend his "life" before the one-minute countdown ended.

And the simplest way to be captured by the comic's panels and have himself "born" in the comic world was—

Hype himself up by riding the protagonist group's coattails.

Even riding coattails required the right approach. Simply "passing by" the protagonist group would be the same as "actively" showing up to attract their attention.

It wasn't high-class enough.

A mysterious, inscrutable big shot stood above everyone else, making people look over of their own accord, sitting securely in command and plotting from on high.

As an outsider who belonged to none of the six genders, if he wanted to raise his upper limit in this special ABO world, stand out beyond the six genders in the future, and lay the groundwork for becoming No. 1 in popularity, he needed the protagonist group to "take the initiative" to notice "his existence."

And look over because of him of their own accord.

Right now, he had to use everything available to make himself appear mysterious and distinctive in the comic through the protagonists' perspective.

After rapidly analyzing the best position based on his surroundings, the lighting, and his location, Qin Su made a decision in an instant and spoke to the system again. "Anyway, watch me work."

Extending his life couldn't wait. He would first avoid dying when the 28-second countdown ended, then consider the other problems.

777 was baffled. "Work?"

Without explaining further, Qin Su promptly rose from his chair, walked to the center position he had picked out, and stopped. Using his reflection in the glass, he raised a hand to adjust the hair at his forehead, then used one hand to undo the top button of his shirt, which had been fastened all the way up.

He was usually busy and couldn't be bothered to put effort into matching clothes. The latest seasonal fashions delivered to his door by major brands were all black, white, or gray from head to toe, with black shirts making up the largest share. The clothes he wore now were black.

A foolproof black shirt and dress pants, a broad floor-to-ceiling window, the atmosphere created by the light and shadows falling on him, and a prime location that naturally lent him an air of looking down from above...

Maximum mystery and a sense of untold stories.

Looking at his reflection in the floor-to-ceiling window, Qin Su saw the "casual," free and relaxed "big shot" demeanor he had deliberately created. He thought to himself that the third rule in his sister's strong handbook really was right:

Black was the timeless classic for "faking a big shot's aura."

Everything was ready. All that remained was to attract a protagonist's attention.

Qin Su gathered his thoughts. With only 25 seconds left on the life countdown, he lowered his eyes and looked down, seemingly casual and indifferent, but without blinking once. His gaze settled on He Muzhi, the red-haired Alpha known as the sharpest eagle in the protagonist group, who lay on the grass with his hands pillowing his head.

Stare—

According to his roommate's descriptions of the protagonists of Interstellar Legend, He Muzhi's perception was extraordinary.

And in the real world, more than one person had told Qin Su things like, "Your stare is frightening."

With that double buff, if nothing unexpected happened, He Muzhi would notice Qin Su watching him.

When He Muzhi looked up, the other three protagonists present would follow his gaze and notice Qin Su standing before the third-floor window, given the good relationship among the four and the human instinct for gossip.

Then he would successfully "ride" the protagonists' screen time and be captured in the comic's pages.

On the lawn.

He Muzhi had been lying with his hands behind his head, his red eyes narrowed as he enjoyed the morning sun, which wasn't yet scorching. Then, as though he had suddenly sensed something, he braced his hands on the grass, sat bolt upright, and turned to look up.

The instant He Muzhi moved, Qin Su, having achieved his goal, decisively stopped "staring fixedly" and switched in a second to a lazy, "casually glancing down" demeanor.

Though his demeanor was lazy, for the sake of an "intimidating presence," the hidden "force" in Qin Su's gaze as he looked down at the four hadn't diminished in the slightest.

As he had expected, He Muzhi's sudden movement immediately drew the attention of the other three.

"Muzhi, what's..." Lailisi, the first to speak, raised her head, her violet-blue hair tracing an arc through the air.

Her puzzled voice stopped abruptly when she followed He Muzhi's gaze and saw the figure by the floor-to-ceiling window.

Lin Yin, who had turned around, and Samuel, who had straightened up from bending over, felt the same puzzlement.

What are they looking at?

With that question in mind, He Wenyuan, half hidden behind the tree, frowned and followed the four people's gazes...

Where the five were looking, a mysterious youth in black stood tall by the glass greenhouse's exquisite arched floor-to-ceiling window, both hands in his pockets. His eyelids were lowered, his appraising gaze falling on them from above. The countless flowers in full bloom behind the extraordinarily imposing youth were reduced to an inconspicuous backdrop.

The morning sun shone on the black-haired youth from the front and side, leaving half his slender figure bathed in morning light and the other half concealed in shadow.

Light and shade wove uneven shadows across him, keeping them from seeing exactly what the youth looking down at them from above looked like...

Under the other's cool gaze from above, the same question crossed all five of their minds:

Who is he?

Why is he watching them from there?

Meanwhile, after the comic captured the scene and updated in real time, the readers saw not only the familiar four members of the protagonist group and an old acquaintance in the shadows, but also, following the four protagonists' gazes, "Qin Su," appearing in the first scene of the protagonist group's arrival at the academy.

On the comic page, the sun shone brightly, an early summer breeze brushed the treetops, green leaves stirred, and light and shadow dappled the scene. The youths, their expressions varied, stood amid alternating light and shade, forming a "three-way standoff."

Beneath the surface calm, undercurrents seemed to be stirring. The sense-of-destiny buff was maxed out...

In the scene, "Qin Su," watched by the protagonist group and the villain alike, naturally became the indisputable focal point of the comic page.

It would have been hard for the comic's readers not to notice him.

Without a doubt, the instant the comic automatically updated after capturing him, bullet comments about "Qin Su" appeared among the many others:

[Aaaaah, it's finally my turn to be first! Checking in (hee-hee). Long time no see, everyone!!!]

[Am I the only one curious why the Interstellar Legend comic updates so strangely?]

[Wait... everyone! Did you notice? By the floor-to-ceiling window!!! Who is he?!]

Here we go, smooch [cat head]