Chapter 5
"Wait a moment." The familiar roommate standing before him made Qin Su realize in an instant that he had returned to the real world.
Jiang Lu didn't understand, but he figured Qin Su must have a reason for saying so. He nodded. "Ah... all right."
As Jiang Lu finished speaking, Qin Su pulled his phone from his pocket and lit up the screen.
The current time was displayed.
Qin Su remembered clearly that when he appeared in the comic world, the time had been.
In other words, day and night were reversed between the comic world and the real world. Daytime in the comic world was nighttime in his original world, and daytime in the real world was nighttime in the comic world.
He would enter the comic world every day at, then return to the real world at.
Rounding it off, that meant twenty-four hours a day. Normal people got time to rest, but he had to keep going nonstop.
"..."
Was he supposed to be a perpetual motion machine?
Realizing this brutal reality, Qin Su shut down and felt an urge to pinch his philtrum.
Having processed the information in three seconds, Qin Su gathered his thoughts and returned to his roommate's original question.
Why was he here?
He had definitely been in the dorm at midnight yesterday, yet now he was on a tree-lined avenue. Qin Su suspected the system randomly refreshed his "landing" location.
As for the question of where he'd gone last night... Qin Su turned his gaze from the familiar surroundings of the real world to his university roommate, hesitating to speak.
No one would believe him if he told them. From now on, he, an ordinary university student, had a secret he couldn't share with outsiders:
Every day at in the real world, he would transmigrate into the ABO hot-blooded comic Interstellar Legend as a military university transfer student who faced imminent death because he had no popularity points.
Qin Su stared at him expressionlessly, making Jiang Lu's scalp tingle. He asked quietly, "Is there s-something on my face?"
"...No." Qin Su had no choice but to lie in answer to his roommate's question. "Something came up last night, so I went home for a bit. You were already asleep when I got back, so I didn't disturb you."
"I see." Jiang Lu didn't doubt him. Qin Su's home was in the same city, and Qin Su had mentioned it was quite close to their university, so going home was perfectly normal. "Well... I'll get going. Teacher Lu needs me."
Although they were in the same class, they took different electives. Qin Su had been invited to take part in some project with Professor Bai, and Jiang Lu had his own things to do. Despite being roommates, they mostly saw each other in their required classes.
Qin Su nodded. "See you."
"See you."
Jiang Lu hurried away, and once he was some distance from Qin Su, he unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
Although both of them had been considered geniuses who skipped grade after grade since childhood, one genius was never quite like another. Qin Su, for instance, gave off an icy, "keep away, strangers" aura from head to toe.
When they had first been assigned to the same dorm, Jiang Lu's heart had pounded whenever he saw Qin Su, and he'd been afraid even his breathing might displease him. Only after they'd spent a long time together had he become certain that, intimidating as Qin Su looked, he was a very decent person.
Of course, that was provided one didn't provoke him.
No sooner had Jiang Lu left than Qin Su strode toward the university gates, sending messages as he walked.
He had no classes that afternoon, but even if he had, he would have needed to take leave and go out.
Since he had already decided to pose as an Alpha in the Interstellar Legend comic to gain popularity points, the first problem he needed to solve was "pheromones."
No Alpha pheromones?
A perfume formula, one of a kind, personally blended by him and never shared with anyone else.
Rounding it off, how could that not count as "pheromones unique to him" in another sense?
According to the enrollment handbook information the system had transmitted, formal classes would begin in three days, when the new students in each class would officially meet.
They would attend classes and train together. According to Jiang Lu's description of the ABO world, Alphas and Omegas, unlike betas, would leak some pheromones during intense exercise, even when they weren't in their susceptible periods.
He needed to hurry and blend "pheromones" unique to him before classes officially began.
That way, he could inadvertently leak "pheromones" during class training and create the illusion that he had them.
The clothes he wore could enter the comic world with him, which meant the "pheromones" he personally blended could also be brought into the comic world.
Not long after sending his message, Qin Su received a reply. He didn't put his phone away, instead opening the Interstellar Legend comic in the car on the way to the B&K Perfume Research Institute.
Although he had seen the bullet comments about himself while in the comic world, he needed to check the actual effect of his strong act for himself, so he would know what he was doing the next time he posed as an Alpha.
Upon opening the comic, Qin Su immediately spotted himself at the edge of the page, with black hair, a black shirt, and black pants.
If he hadn't attracted the protagonist group's attention at the time, he would have been an inconspicuous gray shadow at the edge of the comic, with no presence whatsoever in contrast to the brightly colored AO protagonists.
After his "performance," however, the protagonists' "gazes" had turned him into a different kind of "focal point," even at the edge of the page.
Even the shadow behind the trees was looking at him.
After he finished carefully studying the panels in which he appeared, a call popped up. As soon as Qin Su answered, he heard a familiar voice.
"Xiao Jiang said you're going to the perfume research institute???" Qin Dai's voice was full of disbelief. "Did the sun rise in the west?"
"Xiao Jiang" was the person Qin Su had just messaged, as well as his older sister Qin Dai's executive assistant.
"...Sis." Qin Su's tone was gloomy.
Hearing that familiar tone, Qin Dai clicked her tongue. "Looks like I don't need to scatter glutinous rice." That tone—this was definitely her real brother.
Qin Su: "..."
Besides being a domineering CEO, his sister liked to scatter glutinous rice and stick up talismans in her spare time. As she put it, being a domineering CEO was her profession; warding off evil was her life.
He had never understood it before, and had been utterly astonished.
Now the boomerang had struck him. He and his sister were much the same: being an ordinary student was his profession, while acting strong in a comic was his life.
Qin Su didn't have time to talk much. Thinking of his sister's work, the Strong Handbook, he looked down at his shirt and remembered that in eleven hours and forty-nine minutes, he would enter the comic world again.
By then, it would be time for the "new student entrance ceremony."
A man needed good clothes as a horse needed a good saddle. If he wanted to gain popularity points and the favor of the natives present so he could keep himself alive, his clothes naturally couldn't be ordinary.
Qin Su made a snap decision. "Sis, I need clothes that are understated, luxurious, and tasteful, while also being high-end, grand, and classy. I'd like Assistant Jiang to deliver them to the apartment near my university in three hours."
After a long silence, Qin Dai uttered four words: "A peacock spreading its tail?"
Qin Su: "...Precisely."
He did need to spread his tail, but he couldn't let the comic world's natives or the netizens reading Interstellar Legend in the real world see that he was doing it.
"...Wait for it." Qin Dai hung up with a click. Although she didn't understand why her brother had suddenly taken an interest in things like "perfume" and "clothes," he must have his reasons.
When she was being "superstitious," no one in the family had ever tried to stop her, either. What their family had in abundance was an attitude of "we don't understand, but we respect it and wish you well."
After hanging up, Qin Su dealt with his earlier coursework while he was still on his way to the perfume research institute.
With less than half an hour left, Qin Su arrived at the apartment, chose suitable clothes, and changed into them.
When the time came, a familiar white light flashed before Qin Su's eyes. When he opened them again, he heard a clamor in the distance.
Above him was an arc of blue sky. Judging by its curve, it was clearly an "artificial sky."
Under the artificial sky, the enormous venue was packed with people. From where Qin Su stood, the crowd below was as dense as a swarm of ants.
Above the huge circular stage in the center, the pixelated words "Welcome to the 26th class of new students" floated in the air, giving off a distinctly futuristic feel.
The venue's layout was identical to the images and data 777 had given him more than ten hours earlier. This was clearly the site of the "new student entrance ceremony."
Qin Su: "..."
Sure enough, the "landing" locations in both the comic world and the real world were randomly refreshed by the system.
Qin Su looked at the upper right corner. There were twenty-four minutes and sixteen seconds left on his life countdown.
Over the past twenty-four-plus hours, he had spent most of his twelve hours in the comic world reviewing data on the venue and the important people attending. During his twelve hours in the real world, apart from resting for over an hour in the car on the way to the perfume research institute, he had spent the rest of the time learning how to make and blend perfume.
Despite working nonstop at such intensity, Qin Su found that he wasn't as "tired" as he'd imagined.
Could it be...
After binding with the system, would his life be tied solely to the "life countdown" from now on?
"Could I die suddenly from overwork?" Qin Su asked the system in a low voice. It hadn't appeared while he was in the real world.
[Of course not. You will only die if your comic popularity points are too low to extend your life.]
"..."
Although he had guessed correctly, Qin Su couldn't quite describe how he felt.
He was the chosen beast of burden, forced to work around the clock but unable to die.
After feeling emo for one second, Qin Su returned to full health. He swept a sharp gaze across the venue and chose where he would make his "entrance": the spot where the four members of the protagonist group stood. As expected of the protagonist group, they drew the attention of everyone around them wherever they went.
With twenty-three minutes left on his life countdown and no time to waste, Qin Su avoided everyone's gaze and quickened his pace.
New student area.
There were five minutes left before the entrance ceremony officially began, and the new students were arriving one after another.
Whatever their reasons, every year many Omegas and Alphas of A-rank or above would show off what made them unique at the welcome ceremony for new students, the day when the greatest number of people in the university gathered together.
For Alphas and Omegas, pheromones were something special.
The scarce and rare S-rank Alphas and Omegas in particular would pretend their "pheromones" were leaking, making others present turn their heads because of their pheromones.
It was a silent display of intimidation and arrogance.
Many lower-ranked Alphas, Omegas, and betas experienced varying degrees of discomfort because of these deliberately oppressive pheromones.
The Alphas He Muzhi and Lailisi and the Omegas Lin Yin and Samuel had all properly placed Alpha or Omega pheromone-blocking patches, respectively, over the glands on the backs of their necks.
As a result, when He Muzhi smelled other people's pheromones, he frowned and showed his displeasure.
Samuel, however, looked around and, after saying goodbye, temporarily parted ways with He Muzhi and the other two.
Less than a minute later, Samuel ran into Ji'en.
"Ji'en?" Samuel's voice was full of pleasant surprise. "What are you doing here?"
He remembered that his younger cousin's class wasn't in this area.
"I'm looking for someone, an Alpha." Ji'en's heart beat faster as he thought of the Alpha whose name he hadn't had time to ask on the train. "What about you?" He remembered that his older cousin's class area wasn't here.
"I'm looking for an Alpha too," Samuel answered honestly.
"Huh?" Ji'en looked surprised. "What a coincidence." Before Samuel could speak, Ji'en joked, because the coincidence was too great, "We couldn't be looking for the same Alpha, could we?"