Chapter 40

Qin Su had not forgotten that, to save on storage fees, he was still wearing the Combat Suit's inner layer beneath the black mock-neck shirt under his trench coat. Ignoring the looks from those around him, he focused entirely on getting back to his dorm without giving himself away.

The air was thick with gossip. As soon as Qin Su disappeared from sight, the people in the carriage began digging for juicy details.

"Did you see the case Qin Su was carrying? That S on it was obviously a mark made from a letter in his own name."

"Isn't that normal? A lot of people put their own mark on the things they use to show how special they are. I heard that on some planets with imperial systems, the royalty and nobles even use an ancient branding method to burn slave marks into their slaves' flesh. That's so brutal..."

"That's not what I mean. I mean, what's in Qin Su's case must be a special Combat Suit he brought from home. Its protection level has to be countless times higher than the ordinary Combat Suits the school gave us."

"...Does that even need questioning? Guaranteed. How could people with wealth like theirs actually let themselves get into danger?"

"But I heard Samuel say that he and Lin Yin ran into Qin Su when he really did go to the quartermaster's to collect a Combat Suit."

"Obviously, Qin Su put on an act to win people over and become class monitor. Get it?"

"All that for a measly class monitor position? Why would Qin Su care about that?"

"Tsk, can't you think a little more flexibly? With everything Qin Su has, of course he wouldn't care about being 'class monitor.' But at military school, the understanding is that all the students in a class have to obey the monitor's orders during practical exercises and regular classes. Think of it another way: how could someone like Qin Su allow anyone else to order him around?"

"...That's right," the person muttering finally understood. "Qin Su is obviously the sort who only gives orders."

Back in his dorm, Qin Su took off the inner Combat Suit and breathed a sigh of relief. He took out K-110 and carefully used invisible tape to attach the K-110 to various parts of his body. He had no idea that rumors were spreading through the military school that, "like the other students with powerful backgrounds, he was wearing a Combat Suit different from those of most ordinary military school students."

This was Qin Su's first time fighting the Zerg, and it would last five whole days. Unsure of what to expect, he quietly hid five K-110s on himself.

Just as he had calculated before, the first was the most effective. No matter how many he used after that, they would only build on the weakened effect, each one less effective than the last.

Even though he had already thought it through, Qin Su still prayed he would not have to use a single one, because that would mean he was in danger.

At 1:55 p.m., Qin Su sat aboard the spaceship, waiting for the jump.

Although he had already seen the designs of different types of spaceships in the system over the past month or so, Qin Su firmly believed that what he learned on paper could only take him so far.

Since this was his first time aboard one, Qin Su chose a seat at the end of the spaceship so he could get a better look at its actual interior with his own eyes.

As soon as he boarded, Qin Su placed the helmet he was carrying at his side in his right hand into the slot beside his seat, just like the other students, and sat down naturally. His movements were smooth, practiced, and casual throughout, ensuring no one could tell it was his first time on a spaceship.

From this spot, Qin Su did not need to turn his head or body and make movements that did not fit his composed persona. The curved seating arrangement sloping down toward the back gave him a clear view of the entire spaceship interior.

He could also be the first one off. From He Muzhi's perspective, even if all he saw was Qin Su's back, Qin Su would naturally occupy the lead center position in the comic frame.

According to the data he had read, the model currently provided for the Class of 26 freshmen was described as "small and old."

Interstellar people's idea of "small" was as unreliable as their idea of an "ordinary person's physique." From Qin Su's perspective as an Earthling, the spaceship he was riding in looked neither old nor small.

The vast space could easily accommodate five hundred people. At the very least, there was no one around his seat; everyone had gathered in the front half of the spaceship near the cockpit.

That was not all. Six Mechas stood in the middle, the smallest three meters tall and the largest six.

Beside every seat along the edges were the weapons and supply packs needed for the upcoming combat exercise.

Behind the seats was a transparent hexagonal viewing wall made of some unknown material.

At the very front was the cockpit. The things he had seen undergoing final checks at the side of the spaceship's underside when he boarded were probably tools they would need after reaching their destination. Overall, the spaceship's layout was simple.

After discreetly examining the spaceship in person, Qin Su finally had attention to spare for his classmates. He withdrew his gaze and discovered that the students beside him and across from him were all glancing at him from time to time.

Qin Su: "?"

For a moment, Qin Su had no idea what was going on. He promptly looked at the small bullet comment section in the upper left corner.

Seeing the bullet comments saying he was "getting special treatment" by wearing a Combat Suit different from most students', Qin Su had a black line on his forehead.

They really gave him too much credit.

But a groundless rumor like this was bound to affect his image in everyone's eyes.

Besides, he had gritted his teeth and acted strong for so long, raising his "strength" without limit. Would someone like that need a mere "special Combat Suit" to stay alive? That was an insult to a big shot's strength.

He did not want to lose too many votes in the class monitor selection, and he needed to secure the position by an overwhelming margin. Over the next few days, he would have to find a suitable opportunity to take off his outer layer and clear up the rumor.

The others in Class 6: "..."

Because of the rumors, the moment Qin Su appeared on the spaceship, everyone became intensely curious about his "Combat Suit."

They had thought that, judging by Qin Su's usual classroom habits, he would sit at the front, near the cockpit.

He Muzhi, Raymond, and the other Alphas had thought so too, so when they boarded early, they had chosen seats near the cockpit without hesitation.

The students of Class 6 had even tacitly left a seat open at the front, assuming it belonged to Qin Su.

There were more than enough seats; a mere five hundred of them could not possibly fill them all. Most students had habitually chosen the middle and sat in the central section.

Who could have expected Qin Su to board without so much as glancing at the seats in front and go straight to the last seat on the left, not far from the entrance?

"..."

Once again, they had "miscalculated" where Qin Su was concerned.

Curious as they were, they would never dare ask. They could only rely on being far enough away from Qin Su to discuss it in hushed voices.

"At least from the outside, what Qin Su's wearing right now is the Combat Suit issued by the Fourth Military School."

The outer Combat Suit and helmet formed a seamless protective layer. Unless they stripped Qin Su's outer Combat Suit off, they could not find out what his inner Combat Suit was like.

Or... they could pray that Qin Su's outer Combat Suit would be torn apart by the bugs during combat. That was a complete fantasy. Even if they were torn apart by the bugs, Qin Su's Combat Suit would remain welded to his body thanks to his outstanding strength.

Or perhaps... Qin Su would take it off himself in front of them?

"..."

In their dreams!

"So what? Who knows what life-saving treasure he's wearing underneath?" an Alpha said with a disdainful shrug.

It was bad enough that he was stronger than them, but he also had a mysterious, unfathomable background. Being jealous of him was as easy as breathing.

"Anyway, we'll never get an answer to this."

[I've wanted to say this for a while: this comic updates so damn fast. Even an octopus couldn't draw that quickly, right? Watching it all together, it's like every scene is being livestreamed to us, and the plot's completely unpredictable. Could it really be happening in real time?]

[...I give up on you people. Have you gone crazy posting bullet comments on TV dramas? So what if it updates a little faster? Is that a reason to keep treating a comic like a TV show?]

[You can't blame us. The updates really are that seamless, just like a serialized TV drama (aggrieved). Besides, the comic was promoted as a new "livestream-style comic." Even the random side characters' nighttime piss and shit get updated in real time. The whole point is an immersive, realistic experience. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so popular or have so many people obsessively following it.]

[A bunch of impatient kings, all talk and no action. Are your hands just for decoration? Not one of you useless people actually went up and stripped him. What cowards. Don't you understand that if you want something done, you do it yourself? There's strength in numbers. Get together and strip it off him so we can see! I'm so anxious I'm running around like an ant on a hot pan.]

Watching the bullet comments' real-time broadcast, Qin Su went, "..."

What terrifying text.

But never mind them. Even he, the person being falsely accused, was so anxious that he wanted nothing more than to strip off his outer Combat Suit and prove his innocence.

But he could not. His persona did not even give him the freedom to take off his own clothes.

The students of Class 6 were all aboard, but the spaceship did not depart until 2:30 p.m.

After starting up, the spaceship sealed itself completely and gradually flew out of the docking bay. The oxygen supply system activated, and pale blue light spread throughout the interior like veins, illuminating the ship.

The students of Class 6 temporarily withdrew their attention from Qin Su, who showed no sign of anything unusual, and curiously turned to look outside or glanced around.

After a while, the spaceship reached the designated jump point.

"Please prepare yourselves. First-time jump passengers, please place both hands at the sides of your seats. The jump will begin after a three-second countdown. This jump is from Ikelios 962 to Vitelta 5285."

Following the basic rule for his first spaceship jump and believing that "if the announcement says so, there must be a reason," Qin Su obediently placed his hands at the sides of his seat.

The instant he put them down, an invisible blue halo curled around his Combat Suit-clad arms.

At the same time, Qin Su felt his entire body being "suctioned" to the chair.

Qin Su: "..."

The chair had subdued him.

As the halo flowed around him, Qin Su secretly tried to move his arms and found himself firmly restrained in his seat. He was held so securely that he doubted he would fall out even if the spaceship flipped over.

He Muzhi was accustomed to jumps and used to the turbulence at the start and during the final landing. He had paid no attention to a rule meant only for first-time passengers.

The next second, however, he caught sight of Qin Su placing his hands on the armrests that extended from the wall at either side of the seat after a person sat down, his expression impassive. "..."

By the time the announcement ended, He Muzhi found that his own hands were already resting obediently on the armrests.

[Mu baby is so well-behaved! Cuddles!]

[...Fuck, he's so incredibly powerful, yet he still strictly follows the spaceship jump rules. That contrast makes him even more exciting!]

[The way Raymond looked at Qin Su and He Muzhi, then hesitantly put his hands on his wheelchair armrests at the end, was like watching myself.]

"Three..."

"One."

"Jump commencing."

The spaceship's hull suddenly shook with a violent, high-frequency hum. Looking out through the transparent wall, they saw the surroundings change drastically. It was so fast that they could only make out streaks of light racing through the darkness with great difficulty; the ones they could not track became mere points of light.

Ordinary citizens on most planets rarely experienced a jump from birth to death. Most jumps were for military operations, and even where civilian jump services were available, they could not afford the expensive interplanetary jump fees.

Counting carefully, apart from citizens native to Ikelios Planet, most students from other planets had only experienced one jump on their way here. In other words, it was normal for over ninety percent of the students in each class to have experienced no more than three jumps.

As such, the vast majority of students followed the rules.

When the spaceship folded space and jumped at a speed beyond what the naked eye and human brain could comprehend, they were unaffected, though their minds were in a jumble and they were too dazzled to take everything in.

The students who had relied on their jump experience and ignored the rules leaned forward or backward, or gripped the sides of the armrests firmly to steady themselves. Although they were not thrown all over the place, their bodies did sway.

Qin Su: "..."

Luckily, the chair had locked him in place. It would have been bad if he had started swaying.

As for the effects on his eyes and brain from the extraordinary sights around the spaceship caused by the folding of space, they were much "gentler" than what he experienced traveling between the real world and the Comic World.

Already accustomed to moving freely between two parallel worlds, Qin Su had no reaction at all. He could even remain clearheaded and carefully observe what was happening outside. Suppressing the excitement of his first jump, he kept a calm expression and immersed himself in the wondrous sensation.

He Muzhi had experienced thirty-six jumps and was long accustomed to the sights outside. Now, his attention was entirely on Qin Su.

Unlike the others, Qin Su was not at all dazzled by the sense of dislocated time and space produced by the jump. Clearly, he had experienced it several times and was used to it.

A look of understanding, as if to say "just as I thought," flashed through He Muzhi's red eyes. Only then did he turn to answer Raymond. "Don't be nervous. We're freshmen, so this is basically our first 'trial.' Even the bugs that are hardest for freshmen to deal with aren't actually that scary. Look..."

With his hands restrained, He Muzhi gestured with his eyes toward the armrest where his helmet rested. "Put that on and your full-body protection activates. In the peripheral area we're in, the small Kisslip Tree Armadillos are mostly less than a month old. Their bite force isn't enough to break through it."

That was without mentioning the special inner Combat Suit Raymond was wearing, which maximized his defenses. Even if the outer layer were shredded, his flesh would remain unharmed.

At worst, if he failed to dodge or kill one in time, a Kisslip Tree Armadillo might ambush him with a "face hug" and cover his head in disgusting drool.

Unless...

Unless he ran into a Kisslip Tree Armadillo that had been growing for more than four months and could swallow a person whole, Raymond had no need to worry about being torn apart.

If that happened... the other classmates wearing ordinary Combat Suits would be in danger.

He had given the Combat Suit his family provided to Samuel, but he had experience, so he was not too worried about himself.

"All right, you have experience, so I trust you." Despite saying that, Raymond did not stop praying to heaven in his heart.

At first, he had only come to polish his credentials. Now... Qin Su was going to the battlefield, so what reason did he have not to? Besides, Qin Su was in Class 6, the same class as him. To keep the family's reputation from being affected in Qin Su's eyes, his father would whip him onto the battlefield if he had to.

[Mu baby, don't raise a flag so casually!]

[As everyone knows, any team with the protagonist in it is bound to be "unlucky" (doge).]

[Leaving a marker to see if you're a prophet.]

After who knew how long, another familiar high-frequency vibration came. The sight of light streaking rapidly through the darkness vanished, and familiar white light appeared after the spaceship passed through the black hole ahead.

"Arrived at Vitelta 5285. The jump is now complete."

Less than three minutes after the announcement ended, the spaceship landed.

Immediately afterward, the hatch at the rear opened.

The moment Qin Su glimpsed the flowing halo restraining his hands disappear, he picked up the helmet beside him.

Qin Su fastened the helmet on with one hand, gathered the supply pack and assortment of weapons issued to each student, and placed them in their corresponding positions on his body one by one, following the manual he had thoroughly studied in advance. Almost the instant each item was put in place, it was firmly secured. To prevent them from falling off during combat, he had to connect to his Optical Brain and command the corresponding position to remove them from his body.

After finishing as quickly as possible, Qin Su was the first to leave the spaceship, walking with steady strides.

Although it was his first time, he forced himself not to show any apprehension.

Back in the dorm, Qin Su had already put on the Combat Suit to get used to it, so he did not feel restricted at all now. His movements were crisp and efficient.

Watching Qin Su's retreating figure, He Muzhi sped up what he was doing.

School was school, and actual combat was actual combat. With no teachers present, they were essentially left to fend for themselves. Raymond felt extremely insecure and quickened his movements, trying to keep up with He Muzhi.

The other students did the same.

The first to step off the spaceship, Qin Su strolled to the edge of the platform. After seeing what lay outside, his pupils, hidden beneath his helmet, could finally "quake" without restraint.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but boundless water.

Qin Su: "..."

It was his natural nemesis.

Nor was it water like the sea, with rolling waves that looked beautiful and evoked the leisurely feeling of a vacation.

It was as dark and deep as a pool that had not been stirred for hundreds of years, so green it made people uneasy. Strange plants unlike anything ever seen on Earth grew on it, along with the tops of structures that looked human-made. Even the duckweed on the still surface had an unsettling, eerie color...

The sky was so murky that not a trace of blue could be seen. This was obviously an extremely polluted planet, yet its native inhabitants still survived.

And where they now stood was a platform built high above the ground.

Standing this high up, there should have been wind, but ever since they landed, Qin Su had not felt so much as a breeze.

On the battlefield, smell was also an important source of information, and the Combat Suit did nothing to block odors.

There was no wind, and they were so far away, yet the fishy stench rising from below was strong enough to penetrate his nostrils and make him nauseous.

Qin Su held his breath and listened carefully. He heard something swimming through the water below.

The muffled sound of it cutting through the water made Qin Su's scalp go numb, reminding him of unpleasant memories from his journey through a tropical rainforest.

Heaven knew what monsters lurked in water made murky by all kinds of pollution and covered in green duckweed.

[A nightmare scene.]

[I don't know if any of you have seen that kind of video: a ruined, abandoned room filled with water, the bottomless water rippling eerily through the empty, desolate space... Brr, maximum creepiness.]

The people who got off the spaceship afterward saw Qin Su's upright figure standing at the edge of the platform and walked over of their own accord.

Some craned their necks to look down, while others gazed around, different emotions flickering in their eyes.

"Do we... really have to go down there?"

"My sixth sense tells me we'd better not casually disturb this eerie calm."

"Unfortunately, we have no choice." He Muzhi frowned at a plant not far from the platform, with four long, narrow, pointed brown leaves. "Broadleaf Lotuses grow alongside Kisslip Tree Armadillos. They've already spread to the area around the landing platform. If they advance another nine kilometers past it, the native inhabitants of this planet will be in mortal danger."

Humans were also on the Kisslip Tree Armadillos' menu.

Their task was to clear out the Kisslip Tree Armadillos on the outskirts. Without the nourishment from the mucus the Kisslip Tree Armadillos excreted after eating their prey, the Broadleaf Lotuses would quickly wither.

When He Muzhi finished speaking, no one said a word.

They naturally knew someone had to go down and make some noise, drawing out and killing the juvenile Kisslip Tree Armadillos hiding beneath the Broadleaf Lotuses. But looking at the murky water below, shimmering with a kaleidoscope of colors and so eerie that a single misstep seemed enough to send them plunging into a bottomless abyss, everyone's scalp tingled.

Of the bugs they had studied in class, Kisslip Tree Armadillos were not particularly frightening, and their data had also described the environment they lived in.

But that was nowhere near as discouraging as seeing it with their own eyes now.

Above the boundless water, they seemed so small, as though they were surrounded by bugs. It stirred an instinctive fear in everyone who had just stepped out of the "greenhouse."

Not wanting He Muzhi to feel awkward, Raymond broke the awkward silence. "So, who should we listen to now?"

As soon as he spoke, most of the students subconsciously turned to Qin Su, who was unquestionably the strongest among them.

The class monitor had yet to be chosen, meaning Class (6) had no one in command.

Noticing his classmates' gazes, Qin Su turned and walked toward the spaceship without a word. When it had docked, the spaceship had already lowered the "travel" vehicles carried along the sides of its underside.

"..."

Watching Qin Su, whose very back radiated cold indifference, some looked embarrassed and at a loss, while others frowned in dissatisfaction, as though Qin Su ought to have been their pillar of support at a time like this and taken responsibility for them.

Qin Su ignored their gazes and selected a Small Warship. He looked impassively at his Class (6) classmates and asked in a cold voice, "Who's coming?"