Chapter 7
Although their identity IDs placed the four members of the protagonist group in different sections, they had swapped seats with other people and were now sitting in the third row.
By Qin Su's estimate, Samuel was standing about seventy centimeters from the other three protagonists and five meters from Qin Su himself.
To reach his seat, Qin Su had to pass the protagonist group.
The aisle was not so narrow that only one person could pass through it. Strictly speaking, it was wide enough for two, but given where Samuel was standing, their bodies would touch as Qin Su passed him.
What if that contact as they brushed past each other was taken as deliberate "provocation"?
He only wanted to ride the protagonist group's popularity and use them to get into the manga readers' line of sight. He had no desire to offend them and become their enemy.
At the same time, to deliberately create the false impression that his aura was stronger than the protagonist group's, he needed to deal with the obstruction without saying a word, even though they had never interacted and were still complete strangers.
Samuel's stiff, head-turned posture made it clear that he was out of the loop and had frozen, not that he was deliberately standing still.
Judging by his posture, Samuel had clearly been heading toward his own seat.
In that case—
He had to find a way to bring Samuel back to his senses and let him continue with what he had originally intended to do before Qin Su interrupted him.
That was when Qin Su thought of the Cold Blast Bomb in his hand. Fortunately, the thing his sister had commissioned people to develop was small and easy to carry, and he had brought enough of them.
A sudden blast of chilling air could indeed freeze someone back to their senses.
In an instant, Qin Su had a plan, his expression unchanged and his steps toward his seat uninterrupted.
He would reach the distance he wanted in twenty seconds. Walking with an indifferent expression, Qin Su finally had time to glance at the increasingly frequent bullet comments about him that had appeared since he entered the venue.
When Qin Su entered the protagonist group's field of vision, the manga's camera naturally picked him up thanks to the protagonist halo.
At the sight of that familiar figure again, the readers whose curiosity had been piqued earlier fell briefly silent. Then the screen filled with exclamation marks, interspersed with excited comments about this "pleasant surprise."
[...!!!]
[Broad shoulders, a strong waist, long legs, red-soled leather shoes, a silk shirt (pant pant). An Alpha's waist (his specifically) is a deadly weapon! Every step is so domineering. Why step on the floor? Does the floor even appreciate being stepped on like that? (doge)]
[? Did something weird sneak in here?]
[That's right, we Alphas are all like this (adjusts tie) (clears throat)]
[It's him, it's him, it's really him, our Alpha... Wait, what was his name again?]
[Damn it, so much time has passed, and there's still not a scrap of information about him? What's this new Alpha character's background, anyway? Where are my internet connections?!]
[Is it possible that we can't use our connections because he doesn't exist in real life? (doge)]
Qin Su: "..."
The truth was always so "plain and simple." The netizens probably wouldn't believe it, but he came from the same Earth as they did—he really was from the real world.
Forget the netizens not knowing his "background" in the manga world. Rounding things off, he had entered the manga world alone and was practically a triple-nothing: no background, no foundation, and no gender.
[Where's Emperor Wen? Why is he so slow this time?! Given how Little Brother Wen usually operates, he can dig up the color of anyone's underwear within three minutes if they're interested in our precious Mu (yes, he's that much of a freak).]
[I have a way to judge whether his background is powerful. Won't we know once we see where he sits? As everyone knows from the manga so far, any family with a bit of a background does its best to give its children an identity ID with a special, auspicious number that also ranks near the front. That way, they have a distinctive identity ID from childhood. So the school sorting students by identity ID number is, in a sense, a way of periodically currying favor with the powerful.]
[Genius! Now that I look closely, almost all the freshmen sitting in the first six rows of the freshman section are from families with some background.]
[Huh? Why is that spot in the middle still empty? I'm just saying, is it possible that's his seat?! Let's wait and see!]
[Looking at the direction he's heading, that's definitely it. Being able to sit there, he really is an important character!]
Qin Su: "..."
No, no, no. There was another possibility: the system had been "lazy."
The empty seat did belong to him, but the reason he sat there had nothing to do with the netizens' guesses.
[Are they about to brush past each other? What does this mean? It means if you keep thinking about someone, your feelings will be answered! Sure enough, as long as he puts his mind to it, our precious Samuel can succeed at anything!]
[Can't wait (starry eyes)]
Thanks to the increase in bullet comments and this world's natives' innate admiration for powerful Alphas, the Life Points total in the upper right corner of Qin Su's vision kept climbing.
[Bullet comments +39, Life Points +39 minutes. Current total Life Points: 166 minutes.]
[Current native favorability +160, Life Points +16 minutes. Current total Life Points: ...]
Five... three... one.
The twenty seconds were up.
Qin Su finished counting down in his head and, as planned, was standing five steps away from Samuel.
The moment Qin Su narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Samuel, he crushed a Cold Blast Bomb.
The other natives near Qin Su immediately felt an even stronger, more chilling and ruthless pressure than before envelop their bodies. They involuntarily drew a soft breath, their bodies tensing.
He doesn't seem to have a very good temper.
For a moment, the nearby natives all labeled Qin Su that way.
"!"
Samuel's head was buzzing, leaving him unable to think. A second ago, his mind had exploded when he unexpectedly met the Alpha's gaze. The next, he saw the Alpha frown, and a bone-deep chill swept over him. The Alpha's icy, harsh pressure brought Samuel abruptly back to his senses, his legs turning to jelly. Only then did he realize how twisted his posture was, with his body facing his seat and his neck turned backward...
As Qin Su felt the Cold Blast Bomb's "shell" curl up at his fingertips into a speck much smaller than a grain of rice after it was released, he saw the stunned Samuel's shoulders visibly tremble before his legs went weak.
"..."
The closer one was to the Cold Blast Bomb, the lower the temperature. Seeing Samuel's face turn pale from the sudden drop in temperature, Qin Su quietly apologized to him in his heart.
But heaven and earth would destroy those who didn't look out for themselves. To stay alive by maintaining his persona, he had no choice.
Still, Qin Su did not break stride, nor did he intend to disrupt his pace by quickly taking four steps forward.
Because, just as he had expected, He Muzhi and the others would not stand by and do nothing when their companion was in trouble. After noticing Samuel's condition, He Muzhi, who was closest to him, looked away from Qin Su and covered three steps in one, catching Samuel.
In less than two seconds, He Muzhi had carried Samuel to a chair.
Everything was going smoothly, and the way ahead was clear. Qin Su strode toward the only seat still empty...
To the others, it looked as though the tall Alpha had glanced at Samuel simply because he was in his "path." There was no other meaning to the look; he was merely looking. Yet that careless glance brought a wave of cold, ruthless suppression bearing down on them.
Even so, from beginning to end, he never spared Samuel, this "accident," another glance.
He Wenyuan had been watching Qin Su, gloating that Samuel, that fool, had dared block the way and provoke someone who was not to be trifled with. He was waiting to see the joke when he saw He Muzhi rush forward and scoop up Samuel, who had presumably embarrassed himself because of the Alpha's suppression. His face immediately turned black as the bottom of a pot.
"Are you all right?"
"Are you okay?"
Lailisi and Lin Yin asked Samuel worriedly.
Samuel shook his head. His friends' concern reminded him of the twisted posture he had stood in before the Alpha. Looking embarrassed, he said quietly, "I'm fine, it's just..."
Samuel hid nothing from his companions about what he had just felt. Lowering his voice even further, he said, "Judging by the pressure I felt, that Alpha is definitely no lower than S rank."
He Muzhi was an S-rank Alpha, which gave Samuel a point of comparison.
However...
He Wenyuan rubbed his chin, shifting his sinister gaze from Samuel to the Alpha in the middle of the first row.
One look told him this was someone he could latch onto and try to work with.
He disliked everyone around He Muzhi equally. He couldn't handle He Muzhi and the people around him, but... that Alpha definitely could.
While Samuel spoke with his friends, Qin Su had already taken his assigned seat, just as he had planned.
Phew...
Qin Su sat down, looking relaxed but secretly holding himself tense to maintain a big shot's sitting posture. Deep down, he let out an almost imperceptible sigh of relief.
He could finally relax a little.
Relax completely? Impossible, absolutely impossible. As long as he was "in front of people," he had to stay on his guard.
Almost as soon as Qin Su sat down, a prerecorded electronic voice sounded from the suspended space in the middle: "Dear students, welcome to the Fourth Military Academy! With excitement... let us give a warm round of applause to welcome the Class of 26..."
Although the freshman entrance ceremony had officially begun, many of the freshmen in Qin Su's section looked toward the suspended stage in the middle only briefly before they couldn't help looking back, glancing in Qin Su's direction from time to time.
Freshmen in the other sections noticed and followed the crowd, looking over as well. Qin Su became the center of attention.
Qin Su had expected this and dutifully maintained his posture.
Seeing Qin Su sitting in that conspicuous seat, both the people at the venue and the manga readers thought, Just as I expected.
[Just as I thought!!! I'm satisfied, I'm out... Pfft, no, the thirsty girl in me is back!]
[He's sitting in the first row. I really want to know what his identity ID is!]
[Remember how whenever a new character appeared before, we'd quickly learn their name or circumstances from their introduction? When has it ever been like this? The new character has already appeared twice, and we still don't even know his name or identity ID. How did things get so rough for us? (protests)]
Once Qin Su sat down, the freshmen near him felt as though they were sitting on pins and needles.
The people farther back might not know, but those sitting in the first row understood perfectly well that the last Alpha to sit down was in the number-one seat in their row.
No one understood better than they did just how high the literal value of an identity ID was. Money alone couldn't buy one...
More importantly, even with an Alpha pheromone-blocking patch on and his Alpha pheromones sealed off, he could still exert such a powerful, chilling pressure on them. They could hardly imagine how terrifying his pressure would be without the patch.
This Alpha was definitely no ordinary person.
The moment Qin Su sat down, they involuntarily sat up straight and quietly reined in the pheromones they had been releasing without restraint.
There was always someone stronger. Whether in identity ID ranking or pheromones, they were clearly no match for this Alpha, and all of them settled down.
As the Alphas and Omegas gradually reined in their pheromones, the air in the formerly chaotic freshman section grew fresh.
The third row.
After hearing Samuel's words, He Muzhi looked toward the seat in the first row. "But..."
"But what?" Samuel tilted his head, puzzled.
"He's wearing a pheromone-blocking patch." He Muzhi had seen it clearly: an Alpha pheromone-blocking patch was neatly affixed to the spot on the back of the other man's neck where an Alpha's gland was located. "He hasn't been exercising intensely, so there are no conditions for his pheromones to leak, and we haven't smelled any trace of his pheromones. Why can he still exert that kind of pres—"
"Maybe..." Samuel interrupted He Muzhi. "He's an SSS-rank Alpha? We haven't seen one, but rumor has it that even without using their pheromones, SSS-rank Alphas can put tremendous pressure on people, physically and mentally. Don't you think?"
He Muzhi fell silent. He had never seen an SSS-rank Alpha and couldn't comment.
Lailisi blurted out, "If we could get hold of his enrollment records, wouldn't we know?"
As soon as she said that, not only Samuel and the other two but also the people around them turned to look at Lailisi. Facing their gazes, she shrugged and spread her hands. "As everyone knows, every student's enrollment records contain their detailed information. The gender field naturally states what rank they are."