Chapter 53: A+A (I)

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Chapter 53: A+A (I)

Shang Ke left all of his cultivation and the good karma he had accumulated to Yan Lu. The instant Yan Lu successfully passed his tribulation, Shang Ke’s consciousness returned to the System Space.

The System: 【Main Mission… completed.】

Shang Ke: “…What’s with that pause in the middle?”

The System: 【According to System calculations, Host’s probability of completing the Penalty Mission was no greater than 35%.】

“So?”

【Host’s successful completion of a Difficulty ×2 Penalty Mission fell entirely outside System calculations. System may consider reassessing Host.】

“What exactly is your assessment of me?”

【Heroic Value below projected value. Completion rate below average.】

Shang Ke: “…”

Shang Ke decided to ignore the critical hit the System had just dealt him. After all, the mission was finally complete. Although he still had regrets, they did not hurt nearly as much as he expected. Perhaps it was because he knew he would meet that man again in the next world. With something for his heart to rely on, there was little left to fear.

The System: 【Penalty Missions grant no rewards. However, previously unlocked skills may still be trained. Curse Halo remains active.】

“Curse Halo? I’d completely forgotten about it until you brought it up.” Shang Ke asked curiously, “What actually triggers it? In the last world, it only activated once near the beginning, then never appeared again.”

The System explained: 【The condition for activating Curse Halo is—“evil.” There is no precise boundary defining “evil.” It primarily depends on Host’s moral character.】

Shang Ke: “…”

【Host may now select skills for further training. Of course, Host may also enter the next world immediately.】

How could he possibly give up the opportunity to train skills and readjust his state of mind in the Hundred Training Space?

The skills Shang Ke had currently unlocked included 【Cooking】, 【Musical Instruments】 (Piano, Flute, Violin), 【Weaving】, 【Hacking (Intermediate)】, 【Martial Arts (Beginner)】…

Without much hesitation, he chose to advance Martial Arts and Hacking.

After leaving the Hundred Training Space, Shang Ke began his journey into the next world…

A heavy, fishy stench permeated the air. Panicked shouts and the relentless sounds of battle filled his ears. Shang Ke opened his eyes and discovered that he was standing atop a raised metal platform. Below him stretched a densely packed sea of… insects?!

Black beetles the size of pumpkins surged toward his position like a tide. The electrical current running through the defensive wall knocked one wave back, only for another to immediately replace it. Under the constant assault, the barrier’s energy was being depleted at an alarming rate, and its defensive strength was plummeting. It probably wouldn’t hold much longer.

All around Shang Ke, soldiers rushed back and forth, seeking cover, raising their weapons, and desperately firing into the insect tide. Beams of energy streaked through the air and exploded among the swarm, splattering green mucus everywhere. Yet the black insects showed no fear, throwing themselves forward wave after wave as though there were no end to them.

Isn’t this a little too exciting? Shang Ke stared at the mass of insects churning across the ground and felt his scalp go numb. This godforsaken System always loved dumping him into the wrong place at the worst possible time. His poor little heart had suffered far too much abuse.

Shang Ke immediately began receiving the basic information for this world.

The planet he was currently on was called Aima. Humans here had six sexes: male Alpha, Beta, and Omega, and female Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

Alphas possessed powerful physiques and exceptional strength, making them natural warriors and leaders. Betas were comparatively average and could both impregnate others and become pregnant, but their fertility rate was extremely low. Omegas were physically weaker; after reaching adulthood, they experienced heat cycles and emitted pheromones capable of attracting Alphas, while possessing a very high fertility rate.

Of the three types, Betas were the most numerous and Omegas the rarest.

Shang Ke’s identity in this world was an Alpha named Filmore, a student about to graduate from the Imperial Military Academy. He had been sent to Via City, located along the northern frontier of the Aurei Empire, for a three-month field assessment. At the end of the assignment, the local commanding officers would evaluate them. Those who performed exceptionally well would receive a higher starting position and better opportunities for promotion.

Filmore came from a declining military family. His ancestors had produced two generals, one of whom had been a four-star general, as well as five field-grade officers and numerous junior officers. But after the family’s last field-grade officer died, not a single senior officer had emerged from the family in a century. The highest rank anyone had reached since was merely first lieutenant.

By his grandfather’s generation, the family had shifted its focus toward business and accumulated considerable wealth. However, its prestige within the military had almost completely disappeared. Filmore was the only descendant of the family in nearly twenty years to gain admission to the Imperial Military Academy, and everyone placed enormous hopes on him.

But after entering the academy, Filmore—who had once been a diligent student—fell in love with an Omega named Ryan. To pursue him, Filmore racked his brain for ways to win his favor, spent money lavishly, and gradually neglected his studies.

A beautiful Omega was already rare enough, so Ryan naturally had no shortage of suitors. Filmore’s strongest rival was an Alpha named Zeka.

Zeka was very different from Filmore. He came from a newly risen but powerful family, and his father was an imperial lieutenant general of extremely high standing. Zeka himself was also outstanding, surpassing Filmore by far in both appearance and ability. But he had one major flaw: he was notoriously fickle. He had pursued no fewer than a double-digit number of Omegas. In an era when Omegas were so scarce, this kind of “wastefulness” was practically outrageous. He had received more than a dozen warning letters from the Omega Protection Association alone.

Filmore believed his devotion might give him a genuine chance against Zeka, so even after the other suitors voluntarily withdrew, he stubbornly refused to give up.

In truth, Zeka was not particularly interested in Ryan. He was simply annoyed by Filmore’s persistent rivalry. So when the academy arranged the pre-graduation field assessments, Zeka secretly pulled a few strings and had Filmore assigned to distant Via City, far from the capital—out of sight, out of mind.

What he never expected was for this assignment to become a death mission.

Via City formed the northern frontier’s second C-class defensive line and was a relatively important strategic position. There had been no major battles in recent years, however, and its usual duty was merely dealing with small groups of Insectoids that slipped across the border.

Not long after Filmore reported to Via City, a massive Insectoid army secretly bypassed the Kantes Range and launched a fierce assault on the northern defenses. In only three days, they broke through the first defensive line and advanced directly toward the second.

Normally, the Empire’s military strength would have been more than sufficient to repel an Insectoid offensive. This time, however, the situation was different: the Insectoids had unleashed a terrifying Insect Sandstorm. Such a storm was caused by the particle resonance generated when more than two hundred thousand electromagnetic insects simultaneously self-destructed. Everywhere the storm reached, electronic equipment became completely disabled, while the radiation it produced was extremely lethal to the human body.

The major defensive positions along the northern frontier had no choice but to temporarily retreat, wait for the storm to pass, then launch a full counterattack. Via City, however, occupied a geographically unusual position within a stagnation zone of the Insect Sandstorm, making it the only defensive line still capable of blocking the Insectoid advance.

The longer Via City held out, the more time the other forces would have to withdraw and prepare for battle. If the city fell before the Insect Sandstorm ended, not only would the soldiers stationed in the other border sectors be threatened, but so would the more than four hundred thousand civilians living in two other frontier cities.

Thus, whether Via City could hold—and how long it could hold—became the key to the entire battle.

But most people were pessimistic. Via City possessed only C-class military strength, and its weapons and energy reserves could not sustain more than ten days of uninterrupted heavy combat. Even if its supplies were sufficient, the physical endurance of its sixty thousand soldiers would not last that long.

Under normal circumstances, supplies could be rapidly transported between the logistics zones and the frontier defenses, leaving little concern about shortages. This time, however, Via City had become an isolated stronghold and had to resist the seemingly endless Insectoid army without reinforcements.

Despite the grim situation, outsiders generally believed Via City could hold for at least seven days. In the original history, however, it fell after only four. Perhaps fortune simply abandoned them. Through a series of unpredictable accidents, Via City’s commanding officers were either severely wounded or killed in battle, until Filmore unexpectedly became the highest-ranking officer still physically capable of taking command.

Graduates of the Imperial Military Academy automatically received the rank of second lieutenant, while most soldiers stationed in the border regions were noncommissioned officers or ordinary enlisted personnel. Although Filmore had not officially graduated, he was participating in the assessment with the status of a junior commissioned officer. When the crisis struck, he temporarily assumed command of Via City and led the remaining forty thousand soldiers against the Insectoids.

But at the critical moment, Filmore lost his nerve. He understood the situation perfectly: until the Insect Sandstorm ended, Via City would receive no reinforcements. Its forces were almost certainly doomed. The only question was how long they could hold.

Filmore did not want to die, nor did he possess the resolve or courage to fight to the bitter end.

So he chose to run.

Although the Insect Sandstorm outside carried dangerous radiation, a physically powerful Alpha had a high chance of surviving a crossing, though some lasting side effects were inevitable. Compared with dying, Filmore considered those consequences insignificant. And so, while the soldiers were locked in fierce battle, he quietly fled Via City alone.

He planned to conceal his identity after returning to the capital and let everyone believe he had died in battle. That way, not only would he avoid the disgrace of desertion, his supposed heroic death might even bring honor to his family. What he did not know was that Via City was equipped with concealed electronic surveillance covering every corner of the defensive zone. Every one of his actions had been faithfully recorded.

His escape had catastrophic consequences. With their commander gone, the entire defensive zone fell into confusion, morale collapsed, and the Insectoids quickly breached the defenses. The soldiers were driven back again and again until every last one of them was killed.

Worse still, because the Insectoids broke through the defensive line ahead of schedule, they surged deep into imperial territory. Over the following six or seven days, another fifty thousand soldiers and nearly one hundred thirty thousand civilians lost their lives, while the defensive infrastructure suffered devastating damage. Only after the Insect Sandstorm finally ended and reinforcements arrived was the Insectoid force annihilated and the brutal war brought to an end.

Filmore’s desertion earned him universal condemnation and a military trial. Although he was not sentenced to death, his family was disgraced, their businesses rapidly collapsed, and they soon went bankrupt. Filmore himself grew weaker by the day due to radiation exposure. Combined with poverty and social rejection, his remaining years were miserable. He died at the age of thirty-five, leaving behind an infamous name that could never be erased.

Shang Ke had arrived at precisely the moment Filmore was being ordered to take command in the middle of the crisis. Faced with an Insectoid army covering the horizon, Filmore had chosen to flee.

Shang Ke could only choose to fight.

【Main Mission: Be promoted to Senior Colonel within ten years.】

Shang Ke could barely resist the urge to curse. Whether he could survive the next ten days was already questionable, yet the mission wanted him to become a Senior Colonel within ten years!

According to the System’s information, the Insect Sandstorm would last a total of thirteen days. Two had already passed, meaning at least eleven days remained.

In other words, before he could even think about completing a Main Mission spanning ten years, he first had to survive these brutal eleven days.

Fuck! What happened to easy and difficult missions alternating?! The last world was already Difficulty ×2. This one should be easy mode!

【Penalty Missions do not count toward the alternation. Host, please survive tenaciously and die heroically.】

Shang Ke: “…”

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