Chapter 2: Dead of Night

Chapter 2: Late Night

Indoors, the fresh, sweet and tangy pheromone belonging to Xie Chi spread through the air.

Perhaps because Xie Chi's words were too absurd, Yan Wanqiu's expression froze, and even his pheromone pressure seemed to stall for a moment.

Xie Chi could finally breathe again.

He hastily withdrew his pheromones, his back already soaked with cold sweat. He doubled over, gasping for breath, sneaking glances at a thoughtful Yan Wanqiu from the corner of his eye.

Though Xie Chi seemed to be speaking recklessly, his reasoning was actually pretty solid.

His hearing was sharp—he'd only zoned out for a moment when thinking of his family, so Yan Wanqiu must have just arrived.

That meant the other man had only caught the part about marriage and didn't have solid proof he was a traitor. According to history, the other man didn't know he'd been in frequent contact with Yan Baiyue either.

Even the accusation Yan Wanqiu had just thrown at him was only "seducing the royal family."

So no matter what, he needed to come up with an excuse to cover up the original body's crush on the Third Prince. As for the suspicion of being a traitor for getting too close to Yan Baiyue—he'd worry about clearing his name once he'd saved his own skin.

What better excuse than claiming to be an A-gay to explain why he couldn't possibly date an omega?

The room fell into silence.

No one had expected Xie Chi to blurt out something so outrageous, and even Yan Wanqiu, mid-rage, froze for a few seconds.

That faint, crisp pheromone scent quickly faded into the air.

Yan Wanqiu instinctively sniffed, catching the last sweet hint of its lingering trail.

Then he snapped out of it and let out a cold laugh.

He wasn't buying Xie Chi's deflection. Regardless of the man's sexual orientation, privately contacting Yan Baiyue—that ungrateful snake who'd framed him—was still a fact.

Yan Wanqiu stared darkly at this guard whose pheromones were so obviously green, and after a long moment, said mockingly, "Since you're an A-gay, then I'll send an alpha to your bed tonight as a favor."

His tone was unhurried, a stark contrast to Xie Chi's nervousness.

"If you can't get hard, then we'll just cut it off."

Xie Chi, a die-hard straight guy who just wanted to settle down with a wife: "..."

Xie Chi gritted his teeth and replied, "Thank you, Your Highness, for your generosity."

.

"Ugh, what a mess."

After finally getting rid of Yan Wanqiu and hanging up the video call with Yan Baiyue, Xie Chi sighed and sat back down on the bed.

According to history, the original body wasn't exposed until Yan Baiyue showed up in Blizzard City. He had no idea what butterfly effect his transmigration had triggered, but the exposure point had come far earlier.

Two faint breaths sounded from outside the door—no need to guess, those were the guards Yan Wanqiu had posted to keep an eye on him.

Xie Chi looked around the shabby bedroom and felt even more hopeless.

The Northern Domain star system was resource-poor, frozen over for ten months a year, with temperatures dropping to minus one hundred degrees. Roads were frozen shut, shuttle ships were grounded, and no one could come or go. Countless people died of cold or starvation every year.

Blizzard City was the most lawless of them all, a haven for exiles and people with no papers. And the original body, as the right-hand man of a banished prince, was already staying in one of the nicer local places—but to Xie Chi, who had transmigrated from three thousand years in the future, it still looked like a dump:

The dorm was a single open room, maybe forty square meters, with walls over a meter thick to keep out the cold. The main heat source was the combustion furnace behind the dining table by the door—used to burn thermal ore.

The most primitive kind of heater—you had to feed it thermal ore like coal to keep it going.

There was no wall between the living area and the bedroom. To the right of the dining table sat a bed that was one and a half meters wide, and to the right of the bed were two tiny rooms—one bathroom, one kitchen.

The bathroom's hot water pipes froze all the time. Right now, during Blizzard City's brief summer, with temps outside hovering around minus thirty, the pipes barely worked.

But once the deep freeze hit at minus one hundred degrees, taking a hot shower meant falling back on the most primitive method—melting ice and boiling water.

With a crappy living situation, no prospects for finding a wife, and Yan Wanqiu's death threat hanging over his head, Xie Chi felt like his future was doomed.

What now?

The future was an age of total gender integration—men, women, Sentinels, Guides, ABOs, even half-A half-Guides, Walmart bags, attack helicopters... anything went.

But Xie Chi, your average straight guy, had been sent back three thousand years to a world where everyone was male and gender was determined by ABO. He'd never even considered omegas, let alone alphas.

Yan Wanqiu definitely hadn't bought his lame excuse. That "favor" was just a cat playing with its food. If he showed even the slightest sign of being off tonight, he was dead.

He'd come over in his own body, but he had no weapons—just his skills. Going up against a whole camp of guards, even he couldn't fight off that many people with his bare hands.

Just as Xie Chi was desperately wondering how to make himself gay, he suddenly spotted the plain platinum band on his ring finger.

Xie Chi stopped short, his eyes lighting up.

This was his ring.

His storage space had come along for the ride.

Xie Chi immediately opened the space ring to take stock of his gear.

Since he was always out on missions, his space ring was packed to the brim.

He quickly did a rundown of what was inside: three useless bank cards, twenty-seven fake IDs, three terminals, over a hundred quantum guns, sniper rifles, machine guns, portable quantum cannons, timed explosives, and drones, plus crates of nutrient packs, repair fluid, and a bunch of random everyday stuff.

"Thank God."

Seeing all those life-saving supplies, Xie Chi let out a long sigh of relief.

These were standard-issue gear in Star Calendar year 3000, but in Star Calendar year one, where even the star network barely existed, they were a total technological curb-stomp. Even if Yan Wanqiu was dead set on killing him, he had the firepower to fight back.

Ditching this doomed villain Yan Wanqiu and finding some star system to make money and find a wife would be a piece of cake.

Xie Chi felt a little better. He pulled out his go-to terminal from the space ring. The terminal was highly adaptable and automatically shifted into its default form when taken out—a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

Xie Chi put on the terminal glasses.

"Welcome back, user [AAA Murder Quote Chat]"

"Disconnected from the star network. Please check your connection."

Although the Northern Domain star wasn't covered by the star network, Yan Wanqiu had set up a makeshift signal tower in Blizzard City, which was how the original body had been able to reach Yan Baiyue.

Xie Chi found the signal source labeled "Blizzard City," easily cracked the basic password, connected to the star network, and used the AI to dig up all the historical data on Blizzard City and Yan Wanqiu from the terminal's database.

But the network was so slow that even the terminal's built-in AI was painfully sluggish at filtering. Xie Chi could only watch helplessly as a loading spinner appeared on his top-of-the-line terminal—the same one that got full bars even in deep space.

Xie Chi fell silent.

Seeing that the terminal wouldn't load anytime soon, he simply took out a quantum gun from his storage ring first.

The cold firearm spun once around his slender fingers. He keenly sensed something wrong, narrowed his eyes slightly, and examined the quantum gun.

Then, he raised the quantum gun and casually pulled the trigger at the wall.

The quantum gun made no sound at all.

Xie Chi's heart dropped. He immediately switched to another gun to test, but still nothing happened.

Refusing to give up, Xie Chi pulled out a quantum machine gun, a portable quantum cannon, a drone...

Five minutes later.

Xie Chi sat on the bed, looking utterly dead inside, staring at the explanation that had finally loaded on his terminal's smart assistant.

"Hello, since all your equipment is the latest terminal-linked devices, equipped with AI smart analysis, energy-saving, and other features, because the terminal's internet is too slow, forcibly using the equipment may cause accidents due to lag. For your safety, all equipment has been automatically locked. If you need to manually unlock, please visit the official website: [Click this link to jump]"

Xie Chi: "..."

He'd let out that sigh of relief too soon—he'd just gotten burned by the dark side of high tech.

Three thousand years in the future, the concept of "slow internet" simply didn't exist. No designer would ever have imagined someone bringing a terminal and weapons back to Year One of the Star Calendar. Offering a manual unlock option was already an extra layer of insurance.

But Xie Chi was already three thousand years in the past—there was no way he could access a website link from three thousand years in the future to manually unlock anything.

"Forget it. At least the terminal still works. I'll see if I can find a mechanic to modify the weapons later."

Xie Chi could roll with the punches. He abandoned the idea of escaping or fighting back, muttering to himself as he turned to look at the other screen, where the info on Blizzard City had finally loaded.

First was a map of the entire city. Due to how old it was, the map data was unclear, showing only that the city was in a basin, spreading outward in a circle from Yan Wanqiu's camp.

However, thermal ore—a crucial strategic resource that would drive ABO civilization's technology into a new era—had all its mining locations, though, clearly marked on the map.

A contemplative gleam flashed in Xie Chi's eyes.

It was the eve of Year One of the Star Calendar, a time of explosive technological growth for the United Kingdom of Eberis. AI technology was just emerging, new weapons and spaceships had just appeared, and every one of these developments depended on energy.

The United Kingdom of Eberis had at one point sunk into an energy crisis, which was exactly why the thermal ore in Blizzard City—which released astonishing energy just by burning—was so coveted.

At this time, thermal ore had only just been discovered. Limited by the technology of the time, mining efficiency and utilization rates were extremely low, only enough to meet the needs of Yan Wanqiu's camp and nearby towns.

It wasn't until Yan Wanqiu recruited a mechanic during Blizzard City's first freezing period that the situation improved. The development of thermal ore continued for over a century, directly fueling an industrial revolution.

It was also because of this that the eldest prince, Yan Huishi, was later able to persuade the Mechanical Civilization to send troops. Their technology surpassed the ABO race's, and he promised them countless thermal ore resources.

Being silicon-based lifeforms, the Mechanical race's energy crisis was even worse than the ABO race's. Even their reproduction depended heavily on energy. Before colluding with Yan Huishi, the Mechanical Civilization had almost come to a complete standstill. Thermal ore revitalized the entire Mechanical Civilization, and even three thousand years later, it remained an incredibly powerful force in the Interstellar Federation, controlling the entire Star Network and keeping all interstellar citizens under the round-the-clock surveillance of the Star Network's AI.

As of now, most of Blizzard City's energy still relied on external aid, and with the freezing period approaching, Yan Wanqiu was hell-bent on revenge and wanted to rapidly expand his power during the freeze. Energy reserves were the top priority.

This mining map was important, but how to present it was even more crucial.

After all, Yan Wanqiu was notoriously suspicious and cruel. If he, a suspected traitor, suddenly produced this map, he wouldn't even get a death sentence reprieve—he'd be killed on the spot.

But having a card in hand was better than having nothing. Xie Chi downloaded the mining map without a word.

Then came some scattered historical records, mostly about how Yan Wanqiu recruited talent, used thermal ore to upgrade weapons, crushed local warlords who tried to seize the mines, expanded outward, and fought the Mechanical Alien Race... However, because the history was so ancient, the terminal's database only contained some key figures and events.

He took everything, downloading it all offline for quick reference later.

He also went ahead and downloaded some technical books on thermal ore utilization. Even if Yan Wanqiu wouldn't live to see that tech era, they were useless for now, but they'd sell for a good price when the big energy boom came.

—Wait. Energy.

Xie Chi suddenly looked at his terminal. The remaining battery was sitting at 54%.

Three thousand years in the future, of course, they had long abandoned the inefficient and wasteful methods of directly burning energy stones or using them as fuel. Factories would extract every last drop of energy from each stone and feed it into the energy grid, and smart devices could auto-charge once connected to the Star Network.

Obviously, the Star Network here couldn't charge anything.

His terminal couldn't recharge, and his quantum guns and other weapons were just as dead.

Xie Chi: "...Tch."

Was this high-tech curse never going to end?

Even though he wasn't the type to blame fate, he now suspected the heavens were working against him.

Xie Chi grabbed at his hair in frustration. He didn't even have time to look up more info on ABO and pheromone disorders. He hurriedly dumped all downloaded data to the background and turned off the terminal screen to save battery.

"Knock, knock."

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Xie Chi immediately schooled his expression and calmly opened the door.

Looking at the middle-aged man carrying a thermal container, Xie Chi blinked, puzzled: "What's the matter?"

The middle-aged man smiled gently: "Captain Xie, His Highness has ordered that you are not allowed to leave your room for now. I'll be bringing your meals for the time being. This is today's lunch—I just packed it from the cafeteria. Please eat it while it's hot."

"Oh, thanks."

Xie Chi didn't know who the man was. He used his gaze to turn on his terminal glasses, snapped a photo of the man's face for a search, then reached out to take the container.

The door closed. Xie Chi carried the thermal container to the dining table, and only then did his expression change again.

He frowned, staring at the old-fashioned thermal container as if facing a formidable enemy, not knowing where to begin.

Three thousand years in the future, human labor was incredibly expensive. Hand-cooked meals existed only in middle- and upper-class households. People like them—killers operating on the fringes—basically relied on nutrient solutions for all three meals.

That was why countless assassin colleagues in the organization dreamed of earning enough money to retire and live a life of coming home to a wife and hot meals.

In that kind of environment, Xie Chi felt the same way.

Did people three thousand years ago actually get hot meals without even marrying a wife?

Xie Chi wanted to open the lunchbox, but after picking up the antique smart device he'd thrown on the bed, he searched for a long time without finding a power button. He then turned to the thermal container, feeling around but finding no fingerprint or iris recognition.

Finally, guided by the smart device's search result—"thermal containers should be unscrewed clockwise"—Xie Chi successfully unscrewed the container.

The container had three layers inside: the first layer was dry-fried pork belly with potatoes, the second was rice, and the third was a seaweed and egg drop soup where the seaweed and egg were almost invisible.

This was not a balanced meal.

Blizzard City was short on supplies and heavily dependent on imports, and since Yan Wanqiu was new in town, expensive produce was out of the question in the camp cafeteria.

But Xie Chi savored it. He clumsily unfolded the collapsible chopsticks, speared a piece of potato, and took a careful bite.

The crispy potato was rich with meaty flavor, and Xie Chi's eyes lit up.

So good.

Despite his brutality and short fuse, Yan Wanqiu was surprisingly thoughtful—even while confining him, he remembered to have meals delivered.

.

Night fell on the city's outskirts.

The Night Owl Syndicate's underground casino.

"Bang—"

A heavy gunshot rang out, and the casino's glass doors shattered. Cold wind rushed in instantly, carrying away the warmth inside.

Seeing the uniformed squad outside the door with the dark muzzles of their guns, countless gamblers scrambled up from their tables in panic to flee, chips and dice scattering everywhere.

Black leather boots gleamed coldly in the night snow's reflection, stepping on a playing card scattered on the floor.

A man with long white hair stood at the entrance, holding a machine gun in one hand, blocking the exit.

The scar-faced man from the back office rushed over with a group of thugs at the commotion, and upon seeing the visitor, he was both shocked and furious: "Yan Wanqiu! Do you know where this is? You dare mess with the Night Owl Syndicate, the biggest underground outfit here? You wanna die before the freeze ends?"

The casino was thick with clashing, pungent pheromones, and Yan Wanqiu's head was throbbing from the racket. His already unsettled pheromones grew even more volatile, radiating the oppressive aura of a top-tier alpha.

"Me, causing trouble for you?" he sneered.

"You had my guards ambushed and killed at the thermal ore mine, and you stole our haul. Did you really think I wouldn't come for payback?"

Yan Wanqiu's tone was sinister, his murderous intent undisguised, and even the scar-faced man, a veteran of the underworld, couldn't help but shudder.

But he quickly remembered what the boss had told him—never hand over the thermal ore—and steeled himself to keep blustering: "You're just a banished nobody. Blizzard City is Night Owl Syndicate's turf, so all the mines here belong to us! The boss said it plain: the thermal ore is ours to mine. From now on, we'll kill any guard of yours we see—ah!"

"Bang!"

Before the scar-faced man could finish, another gunshot rang out, and his head burst, blood spraying everywhere.

Yan Wanqiu aimed his gun at the rest, face blank.

He wasn't here to negotiate, anyway.

They'd dared to kill his men while he was down with Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome, so he'd hit back while their boss was gone.

Trying to intimidate him? They ought to look in the mirror.

"Ah!! Murder!!"

Screams tore through the crowd, and the chaos intensified. The already chaotic pheromones in the casino hit a new high.

Yan Wanqiu pressed his lips together in discomfort, feeling an inexplicable heat building inside him.

Unlike the headaches from his pheromone disorder, this heat came from a deeper, gnawing burn.

God, these pheromones stink.

Out of nowhere, Yan Wanqiu thought of that faint, fresh sweet-and-sour scent from this morning.

The only redeeming thing about that damned shadow guard was his pheromones.

Yan Wanqiu's expression remained impassive as he coldly holstered his gun and ordered, "Trash the place. Leave no one alive from the Night Owl Syndicate."

The Shadow Guard's intel said the Night Owl higher-ups were heading to neighboring Icebound City tonight to seek an alliance. That left only a ragtag bunch in the casino—easy pickings for his squad.

As he spoke, Yan Wanqiu casually picked up a mask someone had dropped on a table, pressed it over his nose as a makeshift filter, rubbed his throbbing temples, and got ready to head out.

Just then, Yan Wanqiu sensed something was off.

Wait a second—

This intel came from the Shadow Guard—and the Shadow Guard's former leader was none other than Xie Chi.

"Boom—"

A thunderous boom came from outside. Yan Wanqiu sprang back the moment he sensed trouble, barely dodging a bolt of blue-white electricity.

The current struck the wall behind him, blasting a massive hole in the casino wall.

Surprise flashed in Yan Wanqiu's eyes.

What kind of weapon was this? It shot lightning instead of bullets.

And with that kind of firepower—had the Night Owl Syndicate brought in artillery?

Chaotic footsteps crunched over the snow outside, and shadowy figures closed in under the moonlight.

Over a hundred fully armed Night Owl Syndicate members surrounded the casino. The burly man at the lead held a rifle-like weapon, his muscular arms still corded with veins from absorbing the massive recoil.

The gun was ringed by an electromagnetic coil, sheathed in transparent armor, the muzzle glowing red-hot, wisps of steam curling off it in the frigid night air.

The man holding the gun grinned menacingly: "Second Prince, raising hell on Night Owl turf—aren't you being a little disrespectful?"

The battered thugs lit up the moment they recognized the newcomer: "Second Master! It's them! They just said they'd wipe out the entire Night Owl Syndicate!"

The shadow guards Yan Wanqiu had brought also grew restless.

For a quick raid, they'd only brought fifty-some men tonight, and now they were outnumbered. The enemy's weapons were bizarre, and some were already showing signs of wanting to retreat.

Yan Wanqiu looked at the scene before him, realizing he had been betrayed by Xie Chi once again.

"Heh..."

He let out a cold laugh, his eyes suddenly turning bloodshot, and an oppressive, icy pheromone aura exploded from him.

The Second Master, standing closest, broke out in a cold sweat and nearly collapsed to his knees.

Yan Wanqiu seized that instant. His figure moved like a phantom, closing the distance in a flash. He didn't draw his gun again, but driven by his most primal violence and impulse, he grabbed the man's neck and twisted his head clean off.

The man who had been so arrogant moments ago didn't even get a chance to fire another shot before becoming a headless corpse.

By now, Yan Wanqiu was on the verge of losing control, his pheromones wildly agitated. He didn't even think to pick up the gun on the ground. Warm blood splattered onto his mask and long white hair, and he laughed with a manic edge under the cold moonlight, like a demon crawling out of hell.

"Ha... how ridiculous. I should have just killed every last one of you from the start."

He muttered to himself, his crimson eyes sweeping over the crowd temporarily paralyzed by his pheromones, taking in everyone's terrified expressions.

Yan Wanqiu casually tossed aside the headless corpse and strode toward the crowd without hesitation: "Come on, don't you all want to kill me? Why aren't you moving?"

A coppery sweetness surged up his throat. His rational mind warned him that if this continued, he'd fall into another bout of pheromone disorder, yet his mind only grew sharper, the headache and fever even easing somewhat, every cell screaming for blood.

Yan Wanqiu swallowed the blood, his tongue tracing his sharp canine teeth.

"You can all go die."

.

Back at the camp.

"Whoosh—"

Steam rose in the bathroom. Xie Chi, who'd finally gotten the water hot with the StarNet's help, stood by the tub in his bathrobe, waiting for the water level to rise.

After all that hassle, a thin layer of sweat had formed on his body, and the bathroom was thick with the sweet scent of alpha pheromones.

"Uncle Nie said Yan Wanqiu went to deal with the local troublemakers. I wonder if he still remembers to verify whether I'm really an A-Omega," Xie Chi muttered to himself.

"Better if he forgets. Please, don't even think about me."

The guard who delivered his meals was called Nie Huaiyi. According to historical records, he'd become a well-known guard under Yan Wanqiu in the future.

Yan Wanqiu had left in a rush without saying why he was being confined. Nie Huaiyi and the two guards at the door didn't dare speak much with him, and Xie Chi had to work hard just to pry this bit of info out of them.

Just as Xie Chi was thinking about sneaking onto the StarNet while the water filled, to look up how to be attracted to the same sex, a jumble of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.

Even the two guards watching over him hurriedly left.

Xie Chi listened intently and vaguely caught words like "Night Owl Syndicate," "His Highness is injured," and "find a medic."

He perked up.

Was this an internal power struggle? Then they really wouldn't have time for him, right?

Just as Xie Chi, still in his bathrobe, stepped out and moved to the door to eavesdrop, a deafening bang rang out as the wooden door was kicked open.

A thick stench of blood hit his nose.

Xie Chi was quick on his feet, retreating the moment the door was kicked, barely dodging the door.

He frowned and looked up, about to ask what the hell the intruder wanted, but before he could voice the question, a blur of motion shot toward him.

Xie Chi instinctively blocked.

The blow landing on his arm was surprisingly light.

Xie Chi seized the chance to twist the man's arm behind his back, looking up in confusion—and froze when he saw who it was.

The man wore a blood-stained white mask, the blood on his long white hair long since frozen in the cold outdoors, the strands tangled and matted together.

His clothes were tattered as well, his chest almost completely bared to the freezing air.

The man dragged an old-school electromagnetic gun with one hand, his other arm twisted behind his back by Xie Chi. His breathing was ragged, his firm chest rising and falling with each breath, flushed pink from the cold.

A little further down, one could see the taut muscles of his slim waist...

Xie Chi averted his gaze as if burned.

The air was thick with the man's pheromone scent—also woody, but unlike Yan Wanqiu's cold, aggressive aura, this man's pheromones were noticeably milder, carrying a sweet, warm undertone.

Xie Chi's cheeks immediately flushed.

Wait—was this the alpha "wife" Yan Wanqiu had picked out for him?