Chapter 11.6
A smile fleeted across...o...b..rne’s eyes. He looked deeply at the young man, then he not so gently picked up the broken boned Barnett and threw him onto the s.p.a.ceship.
Darren thought he would leave immediately, but he turned back and sat by the campfire and asked, “I haven’t had dinner yet, mind if I join you?”
“No biggie, eat up.” Zhou Yun Sheng handed him his share of the hind legs, finally he waved toward Barnett’s two minions, "Come here too, I don"t think a group of two will be able to make it out of this jungle alive."
At the same time, he recovered the soul force that was piercing into their brains. These two people had not gone mad from his attack, which meant that their hearts and minds were very firm, it wouldn"t hurt to make friends with them. And since he was under observation of the entire galaxy, he needed to showcase the Bernard family"s tolerance and generosity.
Seeing his intention to shelter them, the two were surprised but very touched, they immediately walked over and gave sincere thanks.
Osborne handed them the hind legs and walked over to the corpse of the poisonous hornet. He pulled off its wings and cut out two pieces of the white meat hidden in the root of the wings, then he returned to the fire to barbecue them, sprinkling seasoning from his s.p.a.ce capsule. The rich meat flavor spread in the air, and Darren started drooling again.
Zhou Yun Sheng had only eaten a few mouthfuls, he was hungry again, he couldn"t help but scoot closer to the other man and stare at the barbecue with sparkling eyes. He leaned in too close, so Osborne could smell the water vapor on him from his bath, although he had already put on a work-out vest, because he was trim and thin, his body was clearly outlined.
That view was s.e.xier than not wearing anything at all.
Osborne’s heartbeat sped up, but he didn"t show it on the surface, he slowly opened, “In fact, the most delicious meat part of the poisonous hornet is found in the root of the wing. It"s hidden below the hardest part of the exoskeleton, in an area that"s never exercised, so it"s very tender. Try it and see."
He causally held out the roasted meat. Zhou Yun Sheng quickly craned his neck to take a bite, his eyes widened then twinkled, he gave the General a thumbs up.
“Eat as much as you like.” Osborne handed over the rest of the meat. He saw his cheeks bulge, like a small hamster, and couldn"t help but give an indulgent smile. He even took out his handkerchief to help the boy wipe the corners of his mouth, skillfully as if he"d done it a thousand times.
“Cousin, roast one for me, quick quick!” Darren dropped his half of hind legs and urged.
“Roast it yourself.” Osborne smiled and impatiently threw over a piece of meat and the seasoning from his s.p.a.ce capsule. His att.i.tude towards the two people was too obviously different, it made the adjutant, who sat beside him, glance at him a few times.
Treating Cecil as gently as a spring breeze while treating his cousin as coldly as a chilly winter storm, the double standard was too obvious. Don"t forget that Joshua is still watching on the Star Network, pay attention to your manners ah!
The adjutant gave him meaningful look, deliberately reminding his boss: Since you"ve already broken off the marriage, and also made Cecil remove his glands, your chance has come and gone, quickly get over it.
Osborne grasped his meaning, and pleasurable mood dissipated instantly. He still felt a bout of obsession when he thought of Joshua’s holy face, but sitting next to Cecil, he was trembling with excitement. Only G.o.d knew how much self-control he spent to not run over to embrace the boy when he saw him again.
He couldn"t even bear having him disappear from his sight for even a second. However, everyone in the galaxy knew that he"d dumped Cecil first, and that he had a Beta lover, he and Cecil could never be together.
Osborne fell into an unprecedented stupor, suddenly wondering how he could"ve fallen in love with Joshua and fall into this deep quagmire in the first place. When the Cecil with removed glands had appeared before him, everything changed.
Everything he used to be stubborn about now felt more and more like a trap, a trap set to distract him and let him lose an important treasure.
He suddenly stood up and walked toward the star ship, if he stayed with Cecil, he would lose control sooner or later. He should find a quiet corner to sort out his thoughts.
Joshua, who witnessed this scene from his dorm room, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that Osborne"s tenderness was the result of feelings of guilt for Cecil. But to tell the truth, he didn"t like seeing Cecil and Osborne in close proximity, they were, after all, ex-fiancés, and Cecil had paid a great price for Osborne. He"d never believed that Cecil had truly given up on Osborne, he felt that he had purposefully chosen Chelman to get closer to Osborne.
Cecil is so attractive, what should I do? Joshua felt threatened, he closed his terminal and buried himself in his quilt, so he didn"t see when Osborne returned to the campfire.
He walked up to the boy and threw him a clean combat suit, then said, “Cecil, your every move is being watched by the galaxy, pay closer attention to these things later."
Zhou Yun Sheng immediately understood his meaning and asked, “What do I need to pay attention to? I"ve removed my glands and will soon become a qualified soldier. I"ve fought b.l.o.o.d.y battles and defended my homeland, I don"t think I"ve done anything inappropriate. General, you once said that even Omega must be strong, brave and independent, but it"s clear that you were only talking from the mouth, you"re no different than those who discriminate against Omega."
He paused and sneered, “You"re a hypocrite.”
“No, that"s not what I meant!” Osborne tried to dispute, he felt like a knife was being twisted into his heart. He found himself unable to bear Cecil"s misunderstanding. He hadn"t meant that Cecil shouldn"t be on the battlefield, he was just unwilling to let anyone else see his wonderful body. As long as he thought of someone out there on the Star Network having s.e.xual fantasies of Cecil, he felt manic enough to kill. But even he couldn"t understand these feelings yet, not to mention frankly declaring them out loud.
He now felt very uncomfortable and at a loss for words, no one could break his mind in just two or three sentences like Cecil.
Zhou Yun Sheng didn"t want to talk to Osborne again. He could treat him with a calm att.i.tude, but only if he was treated with a calm att.i.tude in return. He waved his hand and indifferently said, "Goodbye General Matthew. I hope you aren"t so nosey in the future, you don"t have the right.”
“Goodbye cousin.” Darren firmly stood on the side of his teammate. The free and uninhibited Cecil was so charming, he was worthy of a better person to love him. A broken off marriage was a broken off marriage, you shouldn"t selfishly attempt to win it back.
You don"t have the right, this sentence was like a sharp knife, fiercely plunging into Osborne"s chest. He did his best to not show a painful expression. He nodded stiffly, said he understood him, and led the adjutant back to the starship, leaving with a hoa.r.s.e apology.
He sat in the captain"s seat for a long time without moving, on the row of monitors in front, Cecil was eating barbecue while chatting with Darren, his smile clear and bright, his style of conversation extraordinary, drawing in Barnett’s minions to circle around him and listen carefully. He had some kind of unparalleled charm, making anyone surrender to him.
Gradually, Osborne"s eyes turned red. He was angry, irritable, at his wit"s end, anxious to tear his own starship to pieces.
The adjutant noticed the thinning air around him, and realized that his boss" spiritual power was on the brink of collapse.
“General, please calm down, don"t destroy the monitors.” He was worthy of being called the person most adept at reading body language in the First Army, the adjutant directly poked his boss’s weakness.
Osborne immediately recovered his spirit and reached for the closest monitor, to make sure that Cecil"s figure was still on the screen before sighing in relief.
The adjutant had never seen his boss care about a person so much, even when he was with Joshua, he was only highly infatuated, he never lost control. Who he really loved was self-evident. But as a person with high-end bad habits, the adjutant felt that there was no need to wake his boss up, so he kept a very ‘thoughtful’ silence.
Osborne stroked Cecil’s face on the screen and suddenly felt that this action was very familiar, as if he"d done it thousands of times. He liked the feeling of quietly watching Cecil, it was a calming, pleasurable,
happiness.
But he"d hurt him, and almost made him into the universe"s b.u.t.t of the joke. Osborne covered his eyes, so his deep despair couldn"t flow out from the depths of his pupils.
Just then, a medic walked up and whispered, “General, Barnett’s injuries have been treated, would you like to see him?”
Barnett was a SS physique Alpha, his resilience was amazing, coupled with the extremely advanced medical technology, as long as he soaked in the healing fluid, even heavy trauma could be cured in an hour.
“I"ll go.” Osborne stood up and walked toward the medical room. No one saw the fleeting killing intent in his eyes.
In order to win the ratings on the Star Network, there was a follow-up live broadcast on Barnett. He was now locked in a small compartment, and because his spiritual force had been stabilized by the healing fluid, he was finally aware of his bad situation.
He was now very quiet, and he also put on a repentant expression. He knew that no matter what he said it would be useless, so it was better to obediently plead guilty, then his family could restore a little reputation. And a sincere and guilty att.i.tude during the confession could also lower his sentence from death penalty to exile. Then in a few decades, he might be able to return to Empire Star.
But many matters could not be completely controlled, for example, if someone really wanted to kill you, your attempts to lie low might not be so successful. Osborne"s foot stepped into the compartment, and his spiritual power cemented into a thorn in Barnett’s brain.
Yes, his spiritual force could be directly used to kill, this was something only him and Old Mathew knew.
Barnett"s spiritual force that had just calmed down boiled once again. He jumped like a mad dog, launching indiscriminate attacks on everyone, shouting, “Why did you arrest me? Those people were only the Aldrich family"s dogs, the laws of Lennon Empire do not require you to take responsibility for killing a few dogs."
This comment sparked a great uproar on the Star Network, the netizens simply couldn’t understand where the Aldrich family"s sense of superiority came from. In their eyes, all the men under them were animals they could lead to the slaughter.
The netizens were speechless, unable to even post a comment, only a series of ellipses or eating feces emoji"s could sum up their mood.
The forces under the Aldrich family were also too speechless to shout in anger. They flatly rejected the summons from the Aldrich family"s owner and reach a consensus among themselves – the Aldrich family was not worthy of their continued allegiance.
Old Aldrich’s hair was worried white. He constantly called the terminal, only getting a busy tone, his heart couldn"t help but sink to the bottom. The Aldrich family looked like an unstoppable beast, but it all depended on the people at the bottom, if one day those people were no longer willing to support Aldrich, this leviathan would fall directly from the clouds to the ground, and that kind of situation could only be described as ‘tragic".
He never thought that his most promising son would ruin his many years of effort in just one or two sentences. He opened the Star Network, watching Barnett’s situation with an almost loathing mood.
Barnett had grabbed the weakest doctor and was trying to strangle him. His face was twisted, his eyes frantic, he had apparently lost his mind. In a case like this, the executive responsible for arresting him had the authority to kill him.
So Osborne moved, he twisted Barnett’s arm and punched him directly in his heart, then he faced the camera and solemnly said, "In order to protect the lives of all people present, General Osborne Matthew, according to the provisions of Article 1209 of the Lennon Imperial Military Law, the murder of suspect Barnett Aldrich. All relevant evidence will be immediately sealed in order to be investigated by the military court."
He commanded the soldiers to protect the scene in an orderly manner, then bowed to everyone at the other end of the screen.
No one blamed him, in fact they applauded, but the leader of the Aldrich family had red eyes. He knew that Osborne had done it intentionally, with his strength, it was not difficult to subdue a mad Barnett, he could"ve just hit his pressure points and knock Barnett into a coma, bringing him back alive. But he didn"t do that, instead he chose to directly kill him.
He had made his position clear – the Matthew family was not afraid to make the Aldrich family their enemy, and he has already launched a challenge.
His every move was in line with the law, even if Old Aldrich was mad, he couldn"t do anything to him.
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The scattered team members returned, Zhou Yun Sheng led them to beat up monsters, while also paying attention to the outside news, after seeing the report on Osborne killing Barnett, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
It wasn"t obvious, but that guy with an upright face was, in fact, very ruthless, only those following him could find the complete inconsistency ah. He silently sighed and put the matter aside.
After thirteen days of travel, they finally arrived near the rendezvous site.
“Full speed ahead, there are comrades surrounded by phantom spiders, they need rescue.” Zhou Yun Sheng monitored the danger and didn"t hesitate to run to the danger site.
As previously stated, the magic flower mantis was a very high level Zerg with almost no natural enemies on CT073, but the key word was "almost", coincidentally, the only monster that could make them feel fear was the phantom spider.
The phantom spider fed on humans and all kinds of high-level Zerg, and they could spray a very tough and sticky web that could only make those unfortunate enough to get caught in it wait for death. The spider web became more and more resilient and sticky the more the prey struggled, until the prey was unable to move a single hair.
At this time, the phantom spider would slowly walk over, spraying its corrosive venom onto the prey, melting the prey into a lump of meat to be eagerly sucked clean.
They always nested in groups, spraying their spider webs at an overwhelming rate, even a s.p.a.cecraft could get stuck in it and be unable to break free, not to mention humans. It was tantamount to meeting death.
Darren knew that he wouldn"t be able to rescue his companions and planned to call the rescue team. He took out his helper buzzer but couldn"t bring himself to press it- whoever pressed theirs would be automatically disqualified. He"d finally arrived at the finish line, why should he give up his victory?
He gritted his teeth and put away his helper, catching up to Cecil. Perhaps the trapped group had already pressed their helpers, and the rescue team would arrive soon. He hoped for a lucky break.
But unfortunately, those people had long been firmly trapped in the spider web, they couldn"t even move a finger, forget about pressing the helper. The viewers on the Star Network saw more than a dozen phantom spiders slowly crawling down from the treetops, their mouths dripping venom, small corroded pits appearing in the soil, and felt like their hearts were about to burst.
They were sending messages to the school, asking them to send someone to rescue the candidates, when they noticed that Cecil was running in despite the danger, then they felt anxious to pull him out of the screen.
The only happy ones was probably the Aldrich family. They did everything possible to delay the rescue team, hoping that by the time the rescue team arrived, Cecil would have already been eaten by the phantom spiders.
“Don"t come, we met phantom spiders, run away!” A candidate who was glued to the spider web heard the footsteps and quickly tried to warn them. His selfless act made Zhou Yun Sheng even more determined to save them.
Even if it was more than a dozen phantom spiders, they were not difficult to deal with. He abandoned his particle gun and dual wielded his energy swords, just as he entered the range of the spider ambush, the spiders shot down overwhelming web sprays from the trees.
The audience on the Star Network screamed helplessly, but the tragic scene they expected didn"t happen. Cecil dodged the ubiquitous spider webs with incredible speed. He ran through the gaps between the spiders" webs, waving his energy sword and splitting them into pieces. He jumped up and down, his actions nimble, and he somehow managed to jump on the back of a phantom spider, fiercely plunging his energy sword into its head.
But the phantom spiders were Zerg of tenacious vitality, even if their bodies were pierced, and their heads were cut off by an energy sword, they could survive for several hours. In those few hours, they relied on the villi on their legs to identify the prey"s position, determined to drag the prey into h.e.l.l with them.
They were more difficult to deal with than the magic flower mantises.
Zhou Yun Sheng was only probing them, he quickly jumped off and ran toward a phantom spider who was preparing to absorb the candidates.
The Star Network audience was severely shocked by his sharp skills, but they still feared the phantom spiders" perverted vitality, they grabbed the screen and frantically shook it, praying that Cecil would quickly escape. They liked him too much, he was like a beam of light, so dazzling, carefree and uninhibited, brightening up his surroundings.
They wanted to keep accompanying him, to witness his growth and glory. He shouldn"t die here, he shouldn"t die when his life was just beginning anew.
“What about the others? Where did Cecil’s team go? d.a.m.n, a group of Alpha and Beta, unable to keep up with Cecil"s running speed, are you not disgraced?!” A usually very docile Omega was now pounding on his table and hurling abuse.
As soon as he"d scolded them, Darren appeared, shooting his particle gun. But the phantom spiders were not afraid of particle lasers, their bodies were covered with a layer of very flexible fur, absorbing most of the damage, even if it pierced through, it would barely affect their movements.
They surrounded Zhou Yun Sheng, leaving behind a thick layer of spider web wherever he landed, but not even a single spider silk thread had contaminated the boy"s body. He was like a gust of wind, invisible and impossible to catch. This was definitely the most difficult prey they"d ever met.
The ground was covered in web, almost no place to rest the feet, the branches were also covered, just a little inattentiveness could land you in trouble. If it dragged on, the world would become a snow-white spider nest sooner or later, trapping anyone nearby. But this was within Zhou Yun Sheng"s considerations, he waved an energy sword and jumped up a phantom spider"s back, inserting it in the most vulnerable joints, quickly removing a leg, then he jumped onto another"s back, following the pattern.
Thanks to the phantom spiders" strong instinct to group attack, they rushed in one after another, so Zhou Yun Sheng never needed to touch the ground. He quickly jumped on the backs of each phantom spider, patiently stripping off their arthropod limbs, in the chaos, the phantom spiders even accidentally seriously injured their companions, weakening their combat effectiveness.
Darren was blocked out from the battle area by layers of web, at first he would frequently fire particle shots to cover his teammate, but as the battle continued, he actually relaxed and put away his gun, waiting for his teammate"s victory. When the rest of the team finally caught up, they stared at the dazzling boy endlessly maneuvering the white battle field, jumping as if flying, with fanatical eyes.
For the first time, they felt that violence and slaughter could be as beautiful as art. The teenager dismembered the phantom spiders with frightening speed, also not forgetting to cut the spider silk tightly wrapped around the distressed comrades as he pa.s.sed by them, so they wouldn"t suffocate.
Once they could move a little bit, they quickly clawed at the spider web blindfolding them, then stared at the boy.
Zhou Yun Sheng worked steadily for more than an hour, he finally cut off the last limb, then stood on the back of the phantom spider and asked, “Have you pressed your helper?"
“No, they ambushed us as soon as we arrived, it was too late.” A st.u.r.dy looking, handsome Alpha mumbled. His lips were glued together, so he had some difficulties talking, but he was the one who had warned Zhou Yun Sheng away.
“Patrinia juice can melt the web, I"ll let my team gather patrinia plants to get you out, then we can go to the rendezvous site.” Zhou Yun Sheng waved toward Darren. The ground and the treetops were covered in spider webs, he could only stay put on the back of the phantom spider.
Darren promised and led the team to find patrinia plants.
The dozen phantom spiders had not yet died, but they couldn"t move, they could only squirm on their abdomens. Zhou Yun Sheng was being shaken off, so he immediately cut off the head of the spider he stood on, then sat down to rest.
His personal terminal issued a quiet beep, updating the score for the number of Zerg he"d hunted – 6857, 10 times higher than younger Osborne Matthew"s score, he"d definitely created the latest record in Chelman Military Academy.
The Alpha looked at his terminal and exclaimed, “Cecil, your fighting skills and combat perception are among the best I’ve ever seen. You"re entirely worthy of being the newbie king."
Zhou Yun Sheng gave a bright smile and accepted his praise.
The viewers on the Star Network finally came back to reality after witnessing Cecil"s incomparably cool skills, they clung to the screen as if to fanatically kneel and lick it. How can there be such a beautiful and powerful creature in the world? Too unrealistic!