Chapter 14

"!!!"

[!]

Qin Su's words struck the sea like a massive bomb, stirring up a thousand waves.

So Qin Su wasn't in his Heat Period, and just not wearing a pheromone-blocking patch was enough to produce that terrifying aura. It's hard to imagine what would happen if his pheromones leaked during his Heat Period... terrifying.

Having reached that conclusion, the "audience" both inside and outside the comic reacted much the same way, both in their feelings and their expressions.

At the familiar dates, a flicker of astonishment crossed He Muzhi's eyes as he looked at Qin Su.

He hadn't expected...

Their Heat Periods were exactly the sa... no, they weren't. Even if he deliberately released his pheromones during his Heat Period, he couldn't unleash such overwhelming pressure.

[Confirmed by the man himself. That data is legit, and it really is "Qin Su"!]

[More importantly than his name, isn't Qin Su's pheromone pressure still this powerful even though he's not in his Heat Period right now?!!]

["This Alpha is ridiculously strong but far too gentlemanly." He doesn't use his overwhelmingly superior pheromones to bully people at all. That's the stuff. So satisfying, love it.]

[He's insanely handsome in every sense of the word (finger heart)]

[Guys, genuine question: what's with the look Mu Bao is giving "Qin Su"?]

[And you call him Mu Bao every other word but don't even know this? Mu Bao is looking at "Boss 1" like that because their Heat Periods are the same.]

[He Wenyuan @Wen-bro woke up to find "the sky had fallen." He used threats and inducements to make other Omegas "voluntarily" donate their glands to him, but he still hasn't found an Omega whose original gland had a Heat Period from the first to the seventh. Who would have thought He Muzhi and "Boss 1" would just happen to have matching dates~]

[Hey, that's enough. There are tons of Omegas and Alphas with Heat Periods from the first to the seventh. Our plague god isn't that petty, OK?]

[Ew, don't you think you sound ridiculous saying that? (eye roll) When it comes to He Muzhi, the plague god wouldn't be the plague god if he weren't petty. If he could, he'd love to kill everyone in the world who was even slightly similar to He Muzhi, so that not even their pheromones matched his.]

Amid a screen full of excitement, surprise, and shock, Qin Su sat down without a change in expression.

He couldn't suppress his delight at the rising barrage comments and favorability points, but he kept a carefully composed expression, acting as though he didn't care what effect his simple sentence of just a few words had had on the "audience" inside and outside the screen.

Finally, Qin Su stared at the barrage comments about "He Wenyuan," his gaze dark.

At least for now, he could be certain that He Wenyuan's "transplanted" gland could perform the functions expected of it during a Heat Period.

But...

To him, a visitor from another world, a "gland" was equivalent to a vital organ.

The education he'd received over the past decade and more had left a deep imprint he couldn't erase even after changing worlds. He absolutely couldn't transplant a gland from a living person. He couldn't do it even if it was voluntarily donated; when it came to organs vital to human beings, there was too much room for doubt in the word "voluntary."

Voluntary donation after a person died of old age... wouldn't work for him either. He needed Alpha pheromones above S rank, and Alphas with such pheromones were few and far between.

Moreover, based on his limited understanding of this world from the data he'd obtained from the barrage comments and the system, with the average person in the interstellar era living three hundred years, glands voluntarily donated after a natural death were extremely scarce and precious relative to such a long lifespan.

Many soldiers native to this world who had accidentally lost their glands on the battlefield in wars against the Zerg needed those glands more than he, an outsider from another world, did.

He would have to find another way to obtain a "gland" capable of emitting overwhelming pheromones.

There was no denying that He Wenyuan's willingness to transplant glands so frequently showed that he had exceptional skill and experience with rejection after gland transplants.

If Qin Su found a nonhuman gland that met his requirements for transplantation in the future, He Wenyuan's experience might prove useful.

I need to find a way to get my hands on it.

The thought flashed through Qin Su's mind.

In the enormous classroom, after Qin Su sat down, the second Alpha, who should have stood up next, failed to rise and report his situation as usual.

The homeroom teacher, Zhang Minglang, said nothing either. He had thought of the same thing as the students and was just as astonished.

The silence lasted longer than it should have. Qin Su remained calm throughout, as though he didn't think the scene before him had anything to do with him.

When Zhang Minglang came to his senses and stole a glance at the time displayed on his Optical Brain, he realized that the student who should have stood up after Qin Su to report his Heat Period hadn't risen.

"Ahem..." Zhang Minglang cleared his throat and looked at the Alpha five seats away from Qin Su in the same row. "You're next."

At the homeroom teacher's reminder, the Alpha, whose mind had stalled, instinctively stood.

Next for what...

Ah, right. They were introducing themselves and reporting their Heat Periods. The Alpha came to his senses and spoke. "Joseph Liweilun, Heat Period from the thirteenth to the twentieth."

"Raymond, Heat Period..."

Zhang Minglang's cough also brought the others out of their shock, and they took turns introducing themselves and reporting the dates of their Heat Periods.

After Raymond finished speaking and sat down, he couldn't help feeling relieved despite his shock at "Qin Su's" pheromones. Fortunately, he had only secretly checked Qin Su's data and hadn't rashly provoked him because of Xuan Jingxi's younger brother's words.

Otherwise...

Given Qin Su's pheromone rank, Qin Su would have "instantly crushed" him in every respect.

Then Raymond remembered that he was the one who had posted Qin Su's data on the forum. His whole body tensed, and he silently deleted the forum post he'd made about it on his Optical Brain.

Even after deleting the immensely popular post, Raymond still felt guilty and decided to keep his head down as an Alpha for a while.

Different voices rang out one after another in the classroom.

It wasn't their turn yet, and the students seated farther from the front row couldn't contain their urge to gossip. They spoke in low voices, trying to suppress their excitement.

"Qin Su's Heat Period isn't now. It's from the first to the seventh!!!"

"I can't imagine how shocking it'll be when Qin Su's pheromones erupt in full during his Heat Period!"

"We can only imagine it. Everyone knows military academies collect and report Heat Period dates as soon as students enroll to prevent the chaos that could occur when those periods begin."

During a student's Heat Period, they were automatically given leave.

"Whoa... there's another situation where we might experience it. If something unexpected happened on the battlefield, and a suppression mission wasn't completed on schedule, and the suppressants were lost, and his Heat Period hit full force, wouldn't that..."

"Shut up, Miles. How is that any different from a curse?" Although they badly wanted to see Qin Su's pheromones erupt completely out of control during his Heat Period, they would never want to see it happen somewhere as important as the battlefield, at the cost of any soldier's safety.

Every soldier's life on the battlefield was precious beyond measure in the fight to protect every planet and citizen of the Federation from Zerg incursions.

The others also gave Miles disapproving looks, and he sheepishly shut up.

He had only been speaking hypothetically. Did they have to get so angry? Besides, if it hadn't happened before, he wouldn't have suggested the possibility.

He Muzhi was in the third row, so his turn came quickly.

"He Muzhi, Heat Period from the first to the seventh."

Overlapping Heat Periods were common enough, since there were only so many days in a month. But Qin Su and He Muzhi's Heat Periods matching—and especially the glance He Muzhi gave Qin Su after speaking—still sent the barrage comments into a frenzy.

[I've lost count of how many times Mu Bao has glanced at Qin Su. What is this? Canon putting fan works to shame? A fan creator's worst nightmare has come true. No matter how hard you sell it, you can't beat the official work leading the ship.]

[Isn't it even better that "Boss 1" has never returned He Muzhi's gaze? (doge) The traditional AO pairing is delicious, sure, but isn't double Alpha more exciting? And with one Alpha obsessed and the other unmoved? Even better.]

[Ahem, have you all forgotten? At the start of this season's comic, "Boss 1" did take the initiative to look at He Muzhi in the greenhouse.]

[Um... just to clarify, our "Boss 1" was looking at all four of them: He Muzhi, Lailisi, Lin Yin, and Samuel, not just one person. I've said "you can eat whatever you like, but you can't ship just anyone" so many times I'm sick of it. And they're both Alphas! Everyone shipping them, wake up already! (roars) You can ship anything, huh? Your teeth are that good? Do you have a death wish?]

[It's obviously "you can't eat just anything, but you can ship whoever you like," okay? I can't with you thirsty girls.]

Qin Su: "..."

The pot was calling the kettle black. They were all a bunch of thirsty girls who could ship anything.

Still, thanks to the barrage comments for reporting the protagonist's glances to him in real time.

Respond? There was no way he'd respond. Only if he kept looking away would He Muzhi keep glancing at him, unable to understand his initial gaze, and let him be caught by the comic's camera.

After a long time, the Heat Periods of all five hundred students had finally been recorded. Zhang Minglang gestured with his eyes. "That's the class group for Comprehensive Class 6, Class of 26. Everyone, please join."

The group member list showed only the profile pictures of Zhang Minglang, the homeroom teacher, and his assistant.

"!"

Although there was no way to get Qin Su's contact information, they could be in the same group as him!

At once, the students joined the group one after another.

Each student's Optical Brain profile picture was the ID photo from their enrollment records, and their positions on the list were automatically sorted from highest to lowest according to the rank of their Optical Brains.

As the students joined one after another, the Optical Brain contacts bearing each student's name and identity ID kept jumping up and down Zhang Minglang's list.

Those with Optical Brains of the same rank were ordered according to the identity ID numbers used to register them.

This was Qin Su's first time joining a group. When he'd previously fooled the system into becoming his Optical Brain, he'd deliberately familiarized himself with all the instructions for using a normal one, so the natives wouldn't discover he didn't know how. He'd also had the system add a switch to control whether his Optical Brain was visible to everyone.

But this was Qin Su's first time using an Optical Brain to add others, so he cautiously refrained from joining immediately as the instructions he'd read had described. Instead, he watched several classmates from the corner of his eye and saw that their methods were much the same as the instructions. Without displaying his Optical Brain interface, he joined the group.

Everyone had already been curious about Qin Su's Optical Brain and eagerly watched his every move.

But though they stared wide-eyed, none of them could see how Qin Su had joined the group.

All they saw was the name "Qin Su" suddenly appear in the group chat list for Comprehensive Class 6.

The instant it appeared, it shot past homeroom teacher Zhang Minglang's Optical Brain and took the top spot.

The students: "?!"

Wait, they hadn't even blinked. How had he done that? Their Optical Brain interfaces floated before them in empty space, glowing in different colors and displaying different skins, but there was nothing in front of Qin Su.

All they'd seen was Qin Su raise a long finger and tap lightly in the air, and his name had appeared on the class group list.

Without a doubt, Qin Su had an Optical Brain that had been bound to him since birth, and its rank surpassed those of all five hundred others present.

Its rank was so high that only Qin Su could see it.

Didn't that mean its other functions were even more impressive?

They really wanted to see Qin Su's Optical Brain, but...

Seeing Qin Su ahead of them, his back alone radiating a powerful, cold aura that kept people at a distance, they lost their nerve.

They didn't dare.

It seemed they could only wait until a later class, when Qin Su chose to display it himself, for a glimpse of his Optical Brain's "true appearance."

The number of people on the list continued to grow. The students who had already joined the class group stared intently at the list, harboring a certain secret anticipation.

When all five hundred students had finished joining, the words "Qin Su" and "QS" remained firmly at the top of Comprehensive Class 6's Class of 26 list, never having dropped down.

[! What other surprises does "Boss 1" have that I don't know about?]

[As expected of Qin Su, as expected of a top-one boss leagues above everyone else! He's never disappointed me!]

["One" after "one," it's so reassuring (smiles)(sips tea)]

[Damn it, why is our Mu Bao ranked third? Even the homeroom teacher is above him... wait, doesn't this indirectly prove that the homeroom teacher really is no ordinary person? No wonder Qin Su knew him!]

[Just as I thought, I knew it! Every word and action of "Boss 1" has a deeper meaning! (Including that glance at the four protagonists by the floor-to-ceiling window)]

[Does that even need saying? Of course it does!]

[In a corner nobody noticed, the plague god next door is also ranked third in his class, exactly the same as your Mu Bao. If the plague god knew, wouldn't he be over the moon?]

[Tsk, tsk, tsk, He Muzhi is looking at "Boss 1" again. Why could that be? @plague god (doge)]

The students: "~~~"

Although there had been signs all along, now that everything had settled, they couldn't help feeling the excitement of having guessed right and being proven correct.

He Muzhi: "..."

Could someone tell him why Qin Su, who was leagues ahead in everything from his pheromone rank and background to everything he used, had that day...

Was what happened that day an illusion? Had he been "narcissistic" and mistakenly thought Qin Su was looking at them?

He Muzhi couldn't figure it out, and he didn't notice that he kept looking at Qin Su's back.

Everything that had happened since Qin Su appeared only made everyone inside and outside the comic more convinced that Qin Su had a "powerful background."

As expected of Qin Su. He really didn't disappoint them! Aah, how can we let our class be the only one to know about this?

We have to share it and let everyone know Qin Su is in our class!

Pride by association and excitement at being in the same class as a big shot filled the hearts of the vast majority of students in Comprehensive Class 6, Class of 26.

And the successive "shocks" Qin Su had caused led the students, who had been holding back their feelings and couldn't gossip freely with him present, to tacitly move their gossip to the school forum.

Naturally, the posts included plenty of photos of "Qin Su" from behind, taken from their respective angles.

Of course, while some were happy, others were envious and jealous. But those people didn't show it in front of Qin Su and the classmates who felt positively about him.

The freshmen in the other classes were also eagerly awaiting any news about "Qin Su."

As they watched the forum, they saw the posts from Comprehensive Class 6, Class of 26, and clicked into them without a second's hesitation.

Among them was He Wenyuan, who had already been paying particular attention to Comprehensive Class 6 because He Muzhi was in it.

Thinking that he might learn something about He Muzhi from the posts, He Wenyuan's lips involuntarily curved upward.

He Wenyuan's smile lasted less than a second. His eyes moved faster than his mind, and when he unexpectedly got a clear look at the photo in the post, he froze.

I'm so early today (thumbs-up)(like)