Chapter 15

Optical Brains were bound to their users and operated based on their thoughts. The photos they took essentially reproduced exactly what the naked eye saw, one to one.

They were high-definition, covered a wide field of vision, and captured every angle.

The students of the Class of 26's Comprehensive Class had gathered in one thread by unspoken agreement, and there were plenty more photos like these.

He Muzhi sat on the left side of the third row, close to Qin Su, who sat at the far left of the first row. Whether students took pictures from behind or diagonally to the side, He Muzhi inevitably ended up in the frame.

For everyone else who was intensely interested in Qin Su, the different angles were a treat. For He Wenyuan, though, they were like knives that cut without drawing blood.

In the different pictures, He Muzhi repeatedly watched Qin Su from behind, sometimes frowning, sometimes pressing his lips together, and occasionally rubbing his chin.

He Wenyuan didn't know what was going through He Muzhi's mind. All he knew was that his own upturned lips quickly drooped, his face went black as the bottom of a pot, and his hand unconsciously returned to his mouth to bite his nails. He had only recently had them stimulated to grow and kept in perfect condition, but they were becoming pitted and uneven again.

"He's too dazzling..." He Wenyuan narrowed his eyes, which wore colored contacts the same color as He Muzhi's, and spoke quietly as he gnawed on his nails.

From the first moment he accidentally spotted Qin Su while watching He Muzhi from behind the tree, he had known Qin Su was definitely no ordinary person.

But...

Even a chosen "partner" couldn't take away the attention that should have belonged to him. He had to do something about it.

Because "He Wenyuan" was a villain in the Interstellar Legend comic, the comic's camera had automatically captured him from his very first appearance. His thoughts and every detail of his expressions were magnified right under the readers' noses.

[Hahaha, laugh, little Plague! Why'd you stop laughing? Don't you want to? Or is it because of our... Boss One? (doge) But seriously, I usually don't like watching "god-tier" villains, but one as "god-tier" as little Plague? I've got to take a few bites and see just how outrageously "god-tier" he can get.]

[Is it possible that He Wenyuan just doesn't like smiling by nature? (doge) It's not because of a certain Alpha.]

[Well, there we have it. (shrug) Everyone else is happy, and the world where only the Plague God is unhappy is complete. (smiling)]

[Every time little Plague bites his nails, some unlucky soul is about to have a bad time. Let's see who it is this time... Huh? It's our Boss One? Never mind, then. (heehee) With Boss One, who knows who'll be the unlucky one~]

[Our precious Mu showed us through personal experience (thinking) that you shouldn't pick up random people off the street. (serious face) Look, now he's got a creepy weirdo clinging to him. (sigh) Speaking of which, is it possible I might accidentally pick up Boss One someday?]

[Draw your sword!]

Qin Su: "..."

That was a lot to take in. It seemed he'd stumbled onto some juicy gossip about the villain and the protagonist.

But...

Some of the bullet comments hadn't explicitly mentioned him, yet they had still appeared in the little bullet-comment skin in his upper-left corner.

Could it be... bullet comments that expressed feelings where "every sentence left him unmentioned, but traces of him were everywhere" could appear too?

Staring at the minutes of Life Points increasing in step with the number of bullet comments, Qin Su silently continued enjoying the gossip.

Whatever kind of bullet comment it was, as long as it gave him more Life Points, it was a good one.

Abandon him? That was impossible. Whether the wind blew, thunder rolled, or knives rained from the sky, he'd run home by himself.

In the Class of 26's Comprehensive Class, Zhang Minglang stared for a while at Qin Su's name, firmly at the top of the list, before looking away at the students in the classroom, who were suppressing all sorts of emotions.

Never mind them—even he, their teacher, was excited right now.

His Optical Brain had been developed and manufactured by the manufacturer with the largest market share across the Federation's many planets. His student had thought his old Optical Brain was outdated and couldn't keep up with today's students, so he had specifically replaced it with a supposedly top-of-the-line model and rebound it for him.

Now it seemed there were Optical Brains even more advanced than his.

Like Qin Su's, for example.

He was genuinely curious: what planet and family did Qin Su come from? Even if that remained unknown for now, the Optical Brain at least further supported the notion that Qin Su was definitely no ordinary person.

Putting the thought aside, Zhang Minglang coughed twice. Once he had temporarily drawn the students' attention back to himself, he continued with the usual procedure for the class's first meeting.

"From now on, my assistant will post routine notices about any matters in the class group chat, so remember to check them. Of course, if anything comes up, please contact my assistant."

When he finished speaking, Zhang Minglang turned off his Optical Brain and continued, "Now I'll explain the class president selection."

"As everyone knows, we are a military school, and we bear the responsibility and obligation of protecting every citizen on the Federation's many planets. Unlike class presidents at ordinary schools, a class president here carries greater significance and has a more important leadership role."

"So the person chosen needs the approval of every student in the class."

Only then, when they went to the battlefield and fought the Zerg in practice, could they ensure that every member of the class would carry out the class president's orders.

The class president was more than just a class president. They were the class's commander, a position usually held by its most outstanding member.

"One month from now, a vote will be held to select the class president. Each of the five hundred students in the class will have one vote, and only one. Before then, every student interested in competing for the position should use your actions to earn your classmates' precious votes."

"Before that, twenty-five days from now, you will face your first actual combat against the Zerg since entering the Fourth Military School."

"Of course, our school is still very considerate. During actual combat..."

Zhang Minglang was still speaking, but the students' attention had already been drawn away by the prospect of actual combat.

"Actual combat?"

"Oh my god, so soon?"

"Honestly, why am I kind of excited?"

"Excited? You'll settle down once you've been on a battlefield. War is brutal. Those bugs are ridiculously dangerous, good at hiding and breeding, and as aggressive and destructive as they come. Otherwise, the Federation wouldn't have spent so long trying to wipe them out without succeeding."

"Agreed. Seeing how hideous those bugs are, each in its own way, in the educational posts on StarNet is enough to make you throw up yesterday's nutrient solution."

"Is it really that bad? There are so many ordinary schools on the Federation's planets, but we chose a military school precisely because we want to wipe out the Zerg and protect Federation citizens, didn't we? What's there to be afraid of?"

"Miles, I hope you can still hold on to that arrogant attitude when you see what those bugs look like in tomorrow's Zerg Research Course."

"...Do you think he'll be afraid of those bugs?"

Although no one said who "he" was, everyone understood without being told that it could only mean Qin Su.

The students stole glances in Qin Su's direction, their hearts filled with extra anticipation for tomorrow's Zerg Research Course.

In any case, upon hearing that they would face their first battle against the Zerg in their military school careers in twenty-five days, the students, who had previously only heard about battles with the Zerg or seen them on StarNet, felt a faint excitement amid their anxiety and fear. They all talked at once, expressing what was on their minds.

Qin Su: "!"

That was fast.

Qin Su appeared to be looking at the homeroom teacher in front of him the entire time, listening attentively to him speak. In reality, his eyes and ears were everywhere, quietly observing everything around him that he could see and hear.

Clearly, the school had deliberately arranged the class president selection after the first battle against the Zerg. It was plainly giving the prospective class presidents a chance to prove themselves, allowing the students to make the most appropriate choice while in danger.

To create the illusion that he was "experienced" and "all-knowing" when facing the Zerg, it seemed he would not only have to complete his courses before the first battle, but also do a great deal of extra reading to learn about, and even memorize, data on the Zerg. He would also have to pay attention to every class member's movements during courses and record their abilities.

That class president could only be him.

It wasn't because the class president was the commander of the whole class; his aim in building his big-shot persona went beyond that. Rather, it was because, whatever the environment or social circle, as long as he was there, his word had to be law.

Right now, the setting was the class. In the future, there would be more settings with a broader reach.

Before that, he needed to solve the problem that prevented him from attending any courses or activities, whether in the real world or the Comic World, before a certain time.

He had already solved the problem for the real world. Now it was time to solve it for the Comic World.

Qin Su decided to seek out the homeroom teacher alone after the class's first official meeting ended.

As for an excuse...

Qin Su's rapidly working mind considered everything he had done since arriving in this world, and he soon thought of one.

He'd go with... a "pheromone problem."

Ever since he had appeared in this world, he had worn an Alpha pheromone-blocking patch ninety-nine percent of the time he was in public.

And he had said his "Heat Period" was from the first to the seventh.

During the one percent of the time he had been in public without a pheromone-blocking patch, the pheromones he released had left everyone "suffocating and trembling." That was enough to show that his pheromones remained powerful even outside his Heat Period.

He could add another buff: "From midnight to noon, even outside his Heat Period, his pheromone concentration was abnormally high, enough to affect his classmates, and even a pheromone-blocking patch couldn't stop it." It followed naturally.

A meeting bred some goodwill. When he first met Zhang Minglang, he had not only revealed his knowledge of him without leaving a trace, but also expressed his respect by mentioning his book.

With these buffs stacked together—"his background was so powerful that no one knew the specific details of his admission," "his pheromone grade was a mystery, but his extraordinary qualities were beyond question," "he knew the homeroom teacher's background," "he didn't look down on others just because he was powerful," and "he could clearly have bypassed the homeroom teacher using his background, but chose to inform him out of respect"—

Zhang Minglang, who was not only a military school teacher but also a man with plenty of life experience, would subconsciously make a choice based on his past experience.

Experience was often very useful in making judgments, but it could also make people more cautious and conservative than ordinary people.

Presumably, the homeroom teacher would accommodate him and do him this favor.

"All right, that's all for today. Please arrive at the Zerg Research Course classroom on time at eight thirty tomorrow morning. If you have any questions, you're welcome to come ask me anytime."

Having completed the "new student meeting procedure" his assistant had given him, Zhang Minglang announced the end. "Everyone, I'll see you in the tactical analysis course the day after tomorrow."

To give students an immersive classroom experience, every course at the Fourth Military Academy lasted a full day. Zhang Minglang, their homeroom teacher, primarily taught tactical analysis.

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Teacher Zhang."

"See you next time, Teacher~"

At first, the students had thought Zhang Minglang was just an ordinary Beta who, like most mediocre Betas, had only managed to become a homeroom teacher through years of rote study. But Qin Su had taken the initiative to greet Zhang Minglang, who was already quite old in their eyes and still little-known, so their attitude changed, and they all said goodbye to him.

Zhang Minglang didn't particularly care about the students' attitudes.

In his view, he had simply lived long enough, been on the battlefield and saved people, gotten along well with everyone, and taught enough students in the past that some had become leaders in their fields. It had nothing to do with him personally, and it was perfectly normal whether people paid him any attention or not. He was just an old man who liked writing about his past battlefield experiences in his spare time.

Less than three seconds after watching Zhang Minglang leave the classroom, Qin Su got up and left.

Qin Su didn't want his classmates to learn ahead of time that he wouldn't attend any morning activities, so he didn't catch up with the homeroom teacher in full view of everyone.

Only when his classmates learned about it from a third party later would they make all sorts of guesses about him.

Since He Muzhi was in the same class, he would hear the students' discussions unless he was deaf. Once those discussions were captured by the comic's camera...

Wouldn't that generate buzz again? And the comic's popularity was closely linked to buzz.

However, the three seconds Qin Su deliberately delayed before leaving the classroom meant that he ran into an obstacle the moment he stepped out the door.

"..."

Looking at He Wenyuan blocking his way, Qin Su recalled the bullet comments he'd seen earlier and understood that the other man had clearly come for him.

He was also quite curious what He Wenyuan wanted with him.

Qin Su lowered his eyelids and met the gaze of He Wenyuan, who was looking up at him. His eyes were cold, his expression icy, and he had no intention of speaking first. In a confrontation like this, whoever spoke first would lose the advantage.

More importantly, Qin Su knew He Wenyuan was hostile toward him because of the way He Muzhi looked at him. Not knowing what He Wenyuan was up to by approaching him now, he naturally held his ground and responded to every move by staying still.

Although the brief standoff lasted less than three seconds, one of the people involved was Qin Su, who had become a figure of interest from the moment he entered the school, so more and more students came running after hearing about it.

And because it was Qin Su, the gossip-hungry "chas" hopping around the melon patch were dying of curiosity. At the thought of Qin Su, they all hid in the shadows to watch the drama.

[An a-asura field? I'm feasting on this drama.]

[I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe. Looking at the students is like watching myself. Everyone's behaving, but not completely. Between gossiping and being afraid, they've all chosen to gossip fearfully.]

[So what? We've still got to have our gossip. (munch munch) That's just how us greedy girls are. (pleased)]

[A round, sweet melon goes duang right in front of you, so let's all get together and munch, munch, munch~ Heehee, who can resist the temptation of gossip?]

[At a glance, the four protagonists' four brightly colored heads are lined up from bottom to top like a colorful string of candied hawthorns. It's seriously hilarious hahaha.]

Qin Su appeared to be confronting He Wenyuan expressionlessly, but he was actually sneaking glances at the bullet comments out of the corner of his eye and enjoying the gossip along with everyone else. When he saw that all four members of the Protagonist Group were in position, he clicked his tongue inwardly.

Sure enough, no one in this world could resist the temptation of gossip. Even He Muzhi, steady as he looked, enjoyed it.

Him?

Ever since he was little, he had liked keeping a straight face while secretly talking trash in his head. Except when he was being strong, he'd never been steady at all.

At the corner, Samuel stretched his neck out from behind the wall, poking out a head of curly pink hair. His eyes, the same color, were wide open, afraid he'd miss any details of the drama.

Above his head was Lin Yin, her orange hair cut to ear length, bending over and gripping the corner of the wall with both hands. Above Lin Yin's head hung a few strands of Lailisi's blue-violet hair. He Muzhi stood upright sideways, poking his red-haired head out at the same angle as his friends.

He Wenyuan: "..."

Five seconds passed. Standing one step away from Qin Su, under his cold, indifferent stare and oppressive air, He Wenyuan found it somewhat difficult to maintain his smile.

Yet Qin Su remained completely "unperturbed" by his arrival. There wasn't the slightest curiosity on his expressionless face; from where He Wenyuan stood, all he could see on Qin Su's face was indifference.

The way Qin Su looked at him was like looking at an insignificant ant.

That indifference, put another way, was no different from disdain.

It annoyed He Wenyuan. Apart from He Muzhi, this was the first time someone had dared give him such a look while he still greeted them with a smile. With He Muzhi, he did it willingly; with Qin Su, he was forced to.

That was because Qin Su's perfectly ordinary daily life seemed to them to be full of extraordinary signs that made them wary and afraid to act rashly.

Knowing countless people were watching them, He Wenyuan secretly took a deep breath in his heart, conceded defeat, and spoke first. "That day..."

He Wenyuan drew out the last syllable, but still couldn't see any curiosity on Qin Su's face. It was as if no matter how he tried to build suspense, Qin Su wouldn't be interested in what he was about to say.

That day?

Hearing those words, Qin Su rapidly ran through the places where he had crossed paths with He Wenyuan. He became distracted, focusing on guessing which day He Wenyuan meant, and maintained only basic social etiquette toward the man in front of him—

His eyes appeared to be meeting He Wenyuan's attentively.

"I saw it." Having received no response at all from Qin Su's face, He Wenyuan wore a brilliant smile. "The greenhouse."

Qin Su: "..."

So he meant their first meeting.

With the bullet comments and the person himself now confirming it, the half-hidden figure behind the tree back then had indeed been He Wenyuan, the "little Plague" mentioned in the comments.

Under Qin Su's cold gaze, which still showed no sign of wanting to ask anything, He Wenyuan could only continue his one-man show. "You were watching them."

Qin Su: "..."

Oh.

Qin Su really wasn't interested in hearing He Wenyuan repeat what had happened that day. He only found He Wenyuan noisy, blocking him from finding the homeroom teacher and wasting his life in the literal sense.

"He Wenyuan was there that day too?! Where was he watching us from this time?!" Samuel blurted out in a low voice, having discovered that the gossip involved him and his friends.

"Shh..." Lin Yin reached down and neatly clapped a hand over Samuel's mouth.

Lailisi didn't speak, but she looked creeped out.

Learning that this psycho had been secretly watching him again, He Muzhi only felt creeped out.

He Wenyuan no longer hoped to get a response from Qin Su and continued on his own. "I know every one of them very well."

No one would turn down someone eager to do things for them. He Wenyuan applied the experience that had never failed him before to Qin Su.

So what if it was Qin Su? After a few twists and turns of thought, he'd still have him in the palm of his hand.

"I wonder if there's anything you need me to..."

Qin Su: "..."

Mystery solved.

He Wenyuan clearly wanted to target the three members of the Protagonist Group other than He Wenyuan, but didn't want to earn a reputation for "hurting his friends" in He Muzhi's eyes. Or perhaps He Wenyuan's own background wasn't enough to deal with the other three, so he needed to borrow Qin Su's influence and throw his weight around.

If Qin Su accepted He Wenyuan's "kind offer" and the other three were removed from He Muzhi's side, He Wenyuan could also claim credit with Qin Su for "having helped him" and get him to stop targeting He Muzhi.

That way, he could also claim the moral high ground with He Muzhi: "You're only alive because of me."

He Muzhi would also come to hate Qin Su because of it.

He Wenyuan would reap all the benefits, while Qin Su would take all the blame.

It was like killing five birds with one stone.

What a shame.

Not only did he, Qin Su, lack "influence" in the Comic World, he had no desire to make an enemy of the Protagonist Group.

He wanted to manipulate him? Dream on.

That said, he had also quietly satisfied his own curiosity. It was time to reap a surge of comments and make up for the Life Points lost because of He Wenyuan's delay.

Qin Su narrowed his dark eyes in satisfaction and interrupted He Wenyuan's monologue. "Compared to them..."

[Here it comes!]

[High-energy moment ahead! Boss 1's answer is finally coming! Place your bets, no prizes though: will our boss 1 accept the Plague God as a lackey to use against the Protagonist Group? Or will he turn him down without mercy?]

"?"

He finally spoke, He Wenyuan had only just thought when he heard Qin Su's cold voice again.

"I'm more interested in you."

Qin Su deliberately said it in front of the four eavesdroppers from the Protagonist Group.

Getting the experience and data on gland transplantation and the nearly perfect solution to rejection from He Wenyuan would be far easier than searching for a needle in a haystack to obtain the same data when he understood only one percent of this world.

Hopefully, after hearing him, the Protagonist Group would realize he meant them no harm. As he had said, until he got scenes of his own, he only wanted to share their screen time and didn't want them to be hostile toward him.

"Huh???" The utterly unexpected answer shattered He Wenyuan's smiling mask. His mind went blank, and he lost control of both his words and his expression.

He Wenyuan had considered the possibility of being rejected on the grounds that he wasn't qualified to work for Qin Su.

He had never imagined that Qin Su's answer would be so...

His brain short-circuited, leaving him dumbstruck.

The words he had prepared to "persuade" Qin Su in case of rejection were now completely useless. Caught off guard by Qin Su, he was stunned for the first time in a long while.

At the same time, a few words were mixed in among the question marks filling the screen. The viewers' jaws had dropped so far they almost fell through their screens.

[???]

[Has this world turned into a fantasy novel?]

[What kind of wild twist is this?]

[I'm stunned, oh my god! I'm in a daze. Who am I? Where am I? What kind of outrageous words did I just hear?]

[Sometimes I'm troubled by how sensitive my ears are. I've already taken in the information, but my brain still hasn't caught up (face of agony).]

[What does this count as? Between accepting and rejecting him, boss 1 chose to... "counter-kill" the scheming "lackey" who came knocking?]

[As expected of boss 1! One short sentence, and the Plague God, who was so confident about using him, instantly lost his composure.]

[The Plague God, stunned.jpg]

[As expected of Qin Su. With the slightest move, he killed the "competition" in a way neither you nor I could have imagined.]

"..."

The many students hiding in the shadows and listening in were no less shocked than He Wenyuan at the "scene of the crime."

Barely a second after Qin Su finished speaking, before anyone had a chance to recover or react, he walked away at an elegant, unhurried pace while He Wenyuan and the students watching the drama from the shadows were still dazed. He took with him the Life Points gained from the comments that had surged again because of this little episode.

Excellent. He had used the "gossip" to get back several times the Life Points He Wenyuan had cost him.

Faced with He Wenyuan, who had tried to scheme against him and kill five birds with one stone, Qin Su chose not to give him a dignified farewell.

Although he, an outsider, truly was a "soft persimmon" in this world, he had a bit of a temper too, when circumstances allowed.

After a while, the spectators finally recovered, but Qin Su's conspicuous figure had already vanished from sight.

And He Wenyuan, one of the two people involved...

Was staring at the place Qin Su had left, his thoughts unknown.

Everyone: "..."

As expected of the mysterious and inscrutable Qin Su. His thoughts were truly... beyond their understanding!

So the question was, who were the "they" the two had mentioned? And what had happened when those words were connected to keywords like "that day" and "the greenhouse"?

The crowd, belatedly realizing this: "..."

Pfft!

This juicy gossip wasn't ripe!

"Uh..." Samuel, still squatting, was at a loss for words at the sight.

"Let's put it another way." Lin Yin ducked out from under Lailisi's arm, stood up straight, and asked her friends a soul-searching question. "Guys, does this mean we lost to He Wenyuan?"

He Wenyuan was already a miserable dark cloud hanging over their heads that they couldn't shake off. Once Qin Su said he was "more interested in He Wenyuan than them," the words lingered in their minds like a curse.

"Tsk." Lailisi raised an eyebrow. "Yinyin, that's a very unpleasant way to put it."

"So..." He Muzhi spread his hands. "Where exactly did we fall short?"

After He Muzhi spoke, the four looked at one another, questioning their lives.

Hiss...

What exactly made He Wenyuan worthy?!

[Boss Su: One sentence, and everyone inside and outside the Comic World can't eat or sleep because of me.]

[I'm dying laughing. Doesn't this count as boss 1 leaving after the deed, hiding his achievements and his name? (doge)]

[Rainbow quartet: Oi?]

[The four: Making noises in hopes of being noticed by "boss 1."]

[The four: From head to toe, they're refusing to accept losing to He Wenyuan.jpg]

Watching these comments scroll past, Qin Su went, "...?"

Wait, was that the point?

Shouldn't the point have been that he, Qin Su, meant the four of them no! harm!

This was absurdity's father opening the door for absurdity—absurdity had come home!

The Protagonist Group's abstract train of thought had nearly made Qin Su faint. He secretly took several deep breaths before suppressing the urge to withdraw into himself.

Since things had come to this, he would first solve the problem that had kept him from appearing before people in the Comic World.

Although he had been delayed for a while, Qin Su had long since memorized the Fourth Military Academy's map and soon found Zhang Minglang's office.

"...So." After a brief polite greeting and an account of the "facts," Qin Su concluded, "Teacher Zhang, I'm sorry, but to avoid my pheromone problem causing unnecessary trouble for the other students, I won't be able to attend the upcoming classes for the time being."

Qin Su didn't make it absolute. By saying "for the time being," he quietly left himself a way out.

"Of course."

Qin Su didn't forget to offer an assurance. "Whether it's the daily coursework or training, or even going to the battlefield, my current 'pheromone' problem won't stop me from doing any of it."

Zhang Minglang hadn't expected Qin Su to appear before him, much less say something like this.

Zhang Minglang said, "...Wait a moment. Let me think."

"Okay."

After speaking, Qin Su didn't rush Zhang Minglang to make a decision. His whole demeanor exuded a calm confidence, as though he had other ways and means of achieving his goal even if Zhang Minglang refused.

"..."

Zhang Minglang noticed Qin Su's unruffled attitude.

If it was because of his pheromones... Thinking back on Qin Su's conduct since enrolling, Zhang Minglang immediately understood.

So the reason Qin Su had stayed out of sight during the more than two days the school had given the freshmen to familiarize themselves with the campus after the entrance ceremony was that he knew how "overbearing" and special his pheromones were and was considering the safety of the other students.

"..."

Zhang Minglang liked him even more. As Betas who had been regarded as the Federation's scraps from birth, no one appreciated Qin Su's instinctive behavior of being "extraordinary yet respecting everyone equally" more than they did.

Although he was only an inconspicuous Beta, his age was there for all to see. As long as he didn't slack off, he would only gain more experience in every respect.

Not to mention that, as an old man who had been to the battlefield countless times and fought several wars against different kinds of Zerg, he had naturally seen many officers with excellent pheromone grades suffer gland damage in wartime accidents, throwing their Heat Periods into disorder.

Clearly, that wasn't the case with Qin Su. Earlier in the classroom, he had glanced at Qin Su's gland and seen no trace of injury. It was completely intact.

Qin Su's pheromones were simply too special and powerful.

If Qin Su were a citizen of Ikelios Planet, they could demand a post-differentiation gland pheromone retest in the planet's name. Unfortunately, they had no right to demand such a test from Qin Su, a transfer student from another planet.

More importantly, given Qin Su's background, he could easily have bypassed him and gone over his head to achieve his goal. Yet because Zhang Minglang was his current homeroom teacher, Qin Su had chosen to follow the rules.

After weighing the pros and cons for a while, Zhang Minglang spoke cautiously. "How about this? We'll try it for a month. If it hasn't affected your studies, we can discuss it again. What do you think?"

The answer was much as he had expected, and he had achieved his goal.

Although Qin Su was pleased, his tone betrayed no obvious delight or relief. His expression remained calm and his voice gentle. "Okay."

Qin Su wasn't worried that the school would single him out for a pheromone test. Ever since deciding to pose as an Alpha, he had crammed the basics of this world's ABO knowledge:

Citizens of the Federation's various planets underwent pheromone testing and grading after they began differentiating at age twelve. The right to test Qin Su's pheromone grade belonged to his home planet; the Federation's other planets did not have the same right.

With the problem settled for the time being, Qin Su took his leave at once.

Back in the dorm, Qin Su looked at the Life Points countdown in the upper right corner.

Thanks to the combined attention generated by the three incidents at the class meeting—his "pheromones," the "Optical Brain" ranking, and "He Wenyuan blocking his way"—

His rising comic popularity, meaning the comments about him and the Comic World viewers' favorability toward him, increased more than ever before.

Now, the Life Points countdown stood at minutes 58s.

Although it looked like a long time, converted into days, it was only a little over twenty-six—not even a full month.

Still needing to work hard, Qin Su sighed inwardly and continued being a beast of burden, working almost twenty-four hours a day without pay for the sake of Life Points.

"System, package all the Zerg photos and data for me within one minute." Qin Su emphasized, "If possible, make sure the photos of every kind of Zerg are high-definition enough to show every detail clearly, and put their descriptions on the pages with the large, high-definition images."

He had already placed himself over the flames of "boss" status, under the burning scrutiny of every eye. He absolutely couldn't disappoint everyone during tomorrow's Zerg Research Course.

Still less could he disappoint the homeroom teacher who had just agreed to let him skip all classes and training for the time being.

[Okay!]

Less than a minute later, Qin Su saw a brand-new folder appear on his skin.

He had previously read some books about the Zerg and learned that the vast majority of them looked extremely... horrifying, so he was somewhat mentally prepared.

But when he opened the folder and all the pictures in one directory appeared at once, Qin Su instantly broke out in goosebumps and felt a physical urge to vomit.

The Rat Louse, shaped like a gigantic, extra-long sausage, white all over, with a dense mass of eight thousand wriggling, soft legs;

The Water Tick, which lived in water, was bright red from head to tail, and had skin coated in slick mucus. When its cylindrical head opened its mouth, sharp, serrated teeth covered the lining of its mouth. It liked to eat brains;

The Sand Midge, whose snakelike lower body was covered in bumpy, copper-coin-sized tumors. Its upper body resembled a blooming "sunflower," and at the center enclosed by each split petal of pale yellow skin were row upon row of teeth like sunflower seeds, circling down toward its belly. It liked to eat human heads...

The Zerg came in all manner of bizarre and hideous forms. Only a tiny fraction were beautiful or cool-looking enough to appeal to his human aesthetic.

That tiny consolation was nowhere near enough to offset the intense visual impact of the hideous, terrifying Zerg that made up ninety-nine percent of them.

The terrifying Zerg now spread out across almost the entire dorm, at his mental command to the Optical Brain, occupied only one directory in the enormous folder.

There were ten such directories in all.

And he needed to go through every one of them at least once.

Qin Su: "..."

The sky was falling.

But what could he do? Apart from gritting his teeth and staring wide-eyed, could he run away?

The only thing that comforted Qin Su right now was that he hadn't drunk any nutrient solution since returning to the dorm.

Otherwise, as he forced himself to look at the Zerg, he would probably have thrown up as his sanity plummeted.

To put on a spectacular act in front of his classmates tomorrow, he really had it rough.

"Whew..."

Qin Su took a deep breath and steadied his miserable mood. The Optical Brain responded to his thoughts, and its display instantly expanded.

[You're really going all out...] His composure was solid too. As someone from another world where none of the bugs were frightening, Qin Su was the first host to encounter these Zerg without vomiting on the spot.

Now he was deliberately making the images so large. It was practically self-torture.

Qin Su fell silent for a second. "...It's okay."

Ever since deciding to pose as an Alpha, he had always been good at putting on a brave front.

In future classes, he would inevitably have to show his "Optical Brain" in front of his classmates. Before then, he needed to make its first appearance before them "stunning."

To that end, he needed to practice several times so that his use of the Optical Brain would make him look impressive. He was merely taking the opportunity to familiarize himself with the Zerg while also rehearsing his control and arrangement of the Optical Brain's displays.

In addition, he, an outsider, needed to urgently "desensitize" himself so that his classmates wouldn't notice anything unusual in his expression during the next day's Zerg Research Course.

A "battle-hardened boss" couldn't possibly be afraid of a single Zerg, could he?

In class, even if every student threw up, he couldn't show the slightest unusual reaction.

[...]

777 silently added another note to its strategy guide: Look at Zerg with the Optical Brain (high-definition and enormous).

After forcing himself to "desensitize" for four hours in the Comic World, Qin Su returned to the real world feeling numb.

Now that he had been "tempered a thousand times," he could give a cold laugh and crush a caterpillar he used to find revolting with his bare hands.

Though numb, Qin Su didn't forget to avoid letting his roommate notice anything unusual. He first returned to the apartment and changed into ordinary clothes, then went back to the dorm to get his textbooks. Jiang Lu wasn't there.

With an hour and a half left before class, Qin Su, who had stayed up "looking at Zerg to desensitize himself," promptly changed into pajamas and caught up on sleep.

During Qin Su's brief hour-and-ten-minute nap, his dreams were full of nothing but Zerg.

Qin Su: "..."

He was tired. How about just destroying everything?

But even if the world were about to end, he was still a student and had to go to school like a good boy.

Since he couldn't forget them, then...

He would treat it as revision.

But... what did this nearly self-torturous behavior of his count as? Had cruel reality slapped him, only to find him offering the other cheek?

Qin Su: "..."

Sure enough, everyone in this world could find their own retribution with pinpoint accuracy. Hadn't his just arrived?

When he was five minutes away from the classroom for his required course, Qin Su ran into his roommate, who was hurrying back from outside.

When Jiang Lu saw him, his gaze briefly darted away, and Qin Su didn't understand why.

As roommates, the two headed to the classroom together.

Along the way, Jiang Lu repeatedly glanced at Qin Su, who was thirty centimeters away, and drew deep breaths.

"What are you sniffing?"

Jiang Lu's nose twitched so often that Qin Su could hardly ignore it, and he temporarily pulled some of his attention away from the "bugs" filling his head.

Could there be some smell on him that I couldn't detect?

Good night!