Chapter 5

"...Oh."

Su Lin heard Hill murmur a response.

Then, the very next moment, Su Lin was caught completely off guard as the vile, arrogant, foul-mouthed Zerg in front of him hoisted him onto his shoulder, carried him through the intricate internal passageways of the Zerg fleet, and took him into another spherical room that looked quite luxurious.

There was also a healing pod in the room that looked just as luxurious.

Hill tossed Su Lin straight into the healing pod. The Zerg cursed and grumbled the whole time.

"I'm telling you, don't think those clumsy tricks of yours will do you any good. You're nothing but an inferior larva, Zerg trash. If Carlos weren't such a nag, I wouldn't care whether you were taken away as a toy or eaten-"

Su Lin bit his lip and said nothing the entire time.

Only when the advanced healing pod finally closed in front of him, completely blocking Hill from view,

did the unfortunate human abruptly relax and start gasping as though he had been deprived of oxygen.

He pressed a hand to his chest and could feel his heart pounding so hard it might burst right out of it. He also began to tremble involuntarily from how tense he had been earlier.

That trick actually worked on the Zerg too?!!

As Su Lin recalled everything that had just happened, his eyes filled with tears he couldn't hold back, and he thanked heaven ten thousand times in his heart.

When Hill had just told him not to "use tricks," he had thought the Zerg had already discovered that he was acting.

After all, acting made him nervous, and whenever he was nervous, he inevitably broke out in a cold sweat and trembled. His movements, expressions, and even his gaze would become stiff...

Fortunately, in the end, he had managed to bluff his way through it, just like before.

Thank heavens. What a relief.

Chapter 5

Su Lin had grown up in an orphanage.

The war between the Zerg and humanity had gone on for so many years that orphans like him could be found in every corner of the Galactic Alliance. Government subsidies were enough to keep him from starving, but not much more.

It could be said that Su Lin was more or less at the very bottom of the citizens who had normal privileges.

Yet someone like him had managed to gain admission to the Alliance's most prestigious institution of higher learning in the First Star Sector. Any one of his friends, his classmates, or even the shop owners and coworkers he encountered at his part-time jobs had enough status to crush him.

If Su Lin had been an ordinary person, he probably would have been quite happy to latch onto those young elites, work hard to get ahead, and strive to rise above others. But Su Lin had that damned strange constitution that was forever attracting trouble.

As a result, Su Lin's years as a student had been quite difficult.

At least, that was how it had been for the first few years.

Su Lin had never understood why his earnest and polite rejections made his seniors, classmates, the owners of the shops where he worked, and his coworkers... so angry.

After several close calls with being illegally confined, the then-still-young and naive male college student had gritted his teeth, spent a semester's worth of savings from his part-time jobs, and enrolled in a virtual online course on relationship problems.

Only after joining did Su Lin discover that the other students in the course were all there to learn how to seduce someone, while the problem he wanted to solve was the overwhelming number of same-sex admirers pursuing him. On discovering this, Su Lin had felt like crying but had no tears as he went to the extraordinarily experienced-looking teacher and presented his special request (though what he had really wanted to do at the time was ask the teacher for a refund). After hearing Su Lin's problem, the teacher's humanoid form, though clearly a virtual simulation, had given him a remarkably vivid, meaningful look.

"Oh, so you're afraid of getting caught out?" The teacher had said something Su Lin didn't understand, then smiled and sent him a set of materials.

"Then start by studying these cases and memorizing some classic lines."

After receiving the materials, Su Lin had initially thought he'd been scammed.

One reason for thinking so was, naturally, that the online course had been shut down the very next day, and the Star Network Supervision Group had made public the details of how they had scammed people.

The other reason was that the materials Su Lin had received looked utterly disjointed and made no sense at all.

The cases were all strange, and the so-called classic quotes had no logic to them whatsoever. They were nonsensical lines like "He and I are just friends," "Do you know that you're making me a little sad? I thought there was trust between us," and "I'm tired. I've clearly been trying so hard, but you still don't believe me"...

Su Lin really hadn't thought those teaching materials would be useful at all.

As it happened, Su Lin had encountered another extremely troublesome admirer at the time. With nowhere else to turn, he had clumsily used those lines in desperation.

Then, after returning home that evening, Su Lin had devoutly prayed in his heart for the scammer teacher for a long time, praying that the latter would live a happy, joyful, and contented life in prison.

Thank you, scammer teacher!

With those materials, Su Lin had managed to get through his remaining years in the First Star Sector more or less smoothly.

He just hadn't expected those methods to work on the Zerg too.

Now, Su Lin huddled nervously inside the advanced healing pod. Still fearful, he closed his eyes without realizing it.

The advanced healing pod's effects were indeed far, far better than the ordinary healing pod's. Su Lin could feel as though his body were soaking in warm water. The indescribable feeling of rejection gradually faded, and his whole body began to grow warm...

After an unknown amount of time, Su Lin finally opened his eyes again.

"Finally awake?"

Hill was squatting in front of him, glaring at him impatiently.