Chapter 8.5
Translated by Eve
Edited by Juurensha and Cat
His battle was as revolutionary as Lin Zhan’s in the original plot. After the assessment had ended, Sui Yuan’s reputation rapidly rose to a whole new level.
At present, he was no longer the "lucky guy" who had been taken under the wing of Adonis and the military instructors. His own strength had also gained the approval of the vast majority of people.
At the training camp, it was those with great might who were given a voice. It didn’t matter if this was a result of their own hard work or someone else’s help. Although there were still quite a number of people who were still dissatisfied with Sui Yuan, they all tried to push down their discontent. They did not attempt to bring it up again. At the same time, their veneration and fantasies regarding General Adonis grew even more profound.
Aside from the change that had occured from the people within the training camp, the name "Zheng Yu" also gradually spread amongst the common people, who looked to him with anticipation.
During his free time, Sui Yuan overheard many of Adonis’ close subordinates teasingly mention Zheng Yu’s name after work had finished. They congratulated Adonis on finding a successor so quickly.
Yes, to find a good successor, this was the real reason for why Adonis had been dispatched to the training camps during these peaceful times.
Adonis’ strength was undeniable. Although he was still at the peak of his career as a soldier, there were still people who were worried that he would be incapacitated. They were even worried about what would happen after his death.
Adonis’ name was already the glue that held the soldiers together and raised their spirits. The soldiers all firmly believed that as long as Adonis was there, victory was imminent. This was both a good and bad thing.
Adonis brought victory. As long as Adonis was leading them, the soldiers would excitedly muster up all of their courage and perform exceedingly well. However, no one wanted to imagine what would happen if Adonis was no longer with them.
War was ruthless. No one could predict who would survive—-It was only Adonis, who always stood at the front lines, who was special. He was always dancing on the line between life and death.
But, what if by chance Adonis met with some sort of mishap? If that pillar of support were to crumble, then would the soldiers still be able to attain victory? Just the thought of it made everyone feel as if they were facing the end of the world.
This was why just one Adonis wasn’t sufficient. At the very least, the soldiers needed one other Adonis-like existence.
And so, the Marshal assigned Adonis to the training camp, hoping that he would use his keen eyes to discover a successor to replace him. The military instructors were also aware of this, which was why they let him take Sui Yuan away. This was also why they gave Sui Yuan so much freedom, so as to avoid obstructing Adonis’ training.
Previously, the instructors had thought that Adonis would observe for quite a while before deciding who he would want to cultivate. What they had never considered was that he would take a shine to Sui Yuan who had displayed a mediocre performance.
Although they could not refute Adonis’ decision,it had to be said that during that time, the instructors had felt disappointed. The genius that they desired was not Sui Yuan —- Sui Yuan was not an Alpha. Furthermore, he wasn’t even as good as an average Beta.
However , the facts had proven that Adonis’ decision are always correct.
Sui Yuan’s shocking progress had been seen by the instructors. They then recorded it and relayed it back to the upper brass.
Everyone watched as he transformed from a bottom-ranking Beta into an existence that could stand above all Alphas in just the span of a few short weeks. Compared to Adonis, Sui Yuan stood out even more from the masses. He had high aptitude, and was also looked upon as a legendary figure.
Thinking back now, the instructors could not pinpoint just what it was about Sui Yuan that made him stick out from the rest. They could only chock it up to him being a magnetic force that drew fellow geniuses to one another. They could only sigh at how General Adonis’ eye for people was so frighteningly accurate.
At present, Sui Yuan’s rapid growth let a great number of people within the military division exhale a sigh of relief. Even though he was just a little trainee at the moment, everyone believed that with Adonis’ tutelage, the day where he would show his brilliance was imminent. As such, the Marshal also warned Adonis to guide Sui Yuan well. He must do his best to ensure that this heaven-sent talent wouldn’t suffer a premature death.
—–Although it was a bit of a shame that he wasn’t an Alpha, but a Beta who wouldn’t be affected by pheromones was much more stable. To some degree, they were even more suitable to be on a battlefield than Alphas.
Thus, Sui Yuan became Adonis’ successor in an extremely messy way. He took the place of Lin Zhan who had held this position in the original plot—-After all, in the original plotline, it was because Lin Zhan had made a name for himself during the assessment that he had gotten noticed by Adonis and had become his successor.
Consequently, when Lin Zhan had been exposed as an Omega, even though Adonis had discovered this, he helped him conceal this fact. Not only was it because he had a favourable opinion of Lin Zhan, but also because he had never found a more suitable successor.
—-In fact, after this assessment, shouldn’t Lin Zhan discover that he was actually an Omega?
Sui Yuan split his attention. On one side, he searched for all the important details for training. On the other, he observed 5237 who had kept silent this whole time. At the same time, he absent-mindedly thought about this matter.
Indeed, without 5237’s constant reminders, he had practically forgotten all about the plot......
While Sui Yuan silently mocked himself, the communication device by his hand, rang. Sui Yuan swept a glance at the name and then picked up the call. His tone was lively, "Ah Zhan, it’s so late. What’s the matter?"
No sound came out from the other side of the communication device for a good while. There was only the sound of heavy breathing, indicating that the situation of the other party wasn’t too good.
Indeed, speak of the devil and he shall appear. Sui Yuan’s voice immediately became filled with worry, "Ah Zhan? Ah Zhan! Is everything okay?! What’s happened?! ....Are you ok?!"
"Ah Yu......" Lin Zhan sounded like he was struggling, as if he was enduring something in silence, "I’m currently at the dorms......I........I seem to have encountered a problem. Besides you, I couldn’t find anyone else who could help me..."
"What’s wrong! You’re at the dorms? I’ll come look for you right away!" Sui Yuan suddenly stood up and shouted.
"W-wait a minute. Don’t come!" Lin Zhan refused him at once, "You...Do you know of any place near the dorms that would be empty? It’d be best if it was an airtight space..."
"Close to the dorms.....empty?......airtight?..." Sui Yuan understood that this was not the time to insist on inquiring about what had happened. He muttered these few requirements on repeat a few times. Suddenly, it came to him, "There is one! There happens to be one! I have the keys to training room four. I had previously borrowed them from the General. Let’s go there?"
"Ok!" Upon receiving Sui Yuan’s reply, Lin Zhan let out a sigh of relief, "I’ll wait for you at the entrance of training room four. You...You must come... come quickly!"
"Ok! I’ll come right away! Maybe I’ll be even faster than you!" Sui Yuan forced a laugh, then hung up the communication device. He grabbed the keys that had been prepared long before.
Although he didn’t care about the plot anymore, Lin Zhan had sincerely treated him as his best friend. Therefore, since he knew ahead of time that Lin Zhan would face this kind of difficulty, Sui Yuan had gotten the keys from Adonis—it wasn’t only because of the plot, but also was because he didn’t want to let down Lin Zhan when he came to ask for his help. If it was because of him that Lin Zhan was found out to be an Omega and had to be expelled from the training camp, then Sui Yuan would be depressed and blame himself.
"Has it begun?" Adonis, who was browsing the military reports, saw Sui Yuan’s actions and raised his head to ask.
"En," Sui Yuan nodded. He glared at the other with a bit of wariness, "Don’t you dare think about exposing his Omega identity! He’s not a bad guy. I don’t want him to feel sad."
"Aren’t you worried that I’ll be affected when his heat comes?" Adonis shrugged his shoulders helplessly—-Although he had considered this way of getting rid of the protagonist once and for all, he had abandoned it long ago because of Sui Yuan’s views on the matter.
"That’s your problem. It has nothing to do with me," Sui Yuan replied firmly . He put on his coat while glaring at Adonis. Soon after, he headed straight out the door.
After having trained, Sui Yuan had become very fast. Although the distance between Adonis’ residence and training room four was greater than that between Lin Zhan’s dorm and training room four, he still managed to arrive at the door before Lin Zhan whose whole body was weak.
After all, it was already time for lights out. There was no one outside. All the trainees went to bed early so that they would still have energy the next morning. Furthermore, the instructors also patrolled everywhere, as they prevented the students from wandering around at night. After the trainees adopted an early to bed and early to rise lifestyle, the patrols laxed.
Sui Yuan hadn’t even waited too long before he saw Lin Zhan’s silhouette. He opened the training room in a hurry and supported the other in. Then, he rapidly shut the door.
"Can you tell me what’s happened now?" Although Sui Yuan was a Beta who couldn’t smell pheromones, when he looked at the currently feeble, powerless and flushed Lin Zhan, and combined it with the earlier requirements of needing an empty place "free of people" and that "was air tight", he could faintly guess as to what was happening.
When Lin Zhan saw that Sui Yuan wore an expression that said he somewhat understood what was happening yet still found it hard to believe, Lin Zhan smiled bitterly, "I had always thought that I was a Beta. All of the tests had told me that I was a Beta. There was only a slight indication that I was similar to that of an Omega...but I had never thought that..."
"You’re.......an Omega?" Sui Yuan spoke with great difficulty, "This......are you in heat?"
"I don’t know. My knowledge of Omegas is superficial," Lin Zhan shook his head gently, "I don’t know what happened. I don’t know why I suddenly...became like an Omega. Anyways, it’s probably not my heat....I heard that heats should be more intense —- but even now, I’m finding it a bit hard to bear. If this is really my heat...what should I do?"
Sui Yuan had never seen Lin Zhan look this helpless. He fell silent. He also didn’t know how they could handle this," Apart from me....Does anyone else know? Did anyone else discover what’s different about you?"
".....There shouldn’t be anyone. I was really careful," Lin Zhan thought carefully for a moment. He then gently shook his head, "My roommates are Betas. They had already fallen asleep when my body started to change. They were sleeping very soundly. My movements were also quiet so they shouldn’t have woken up...All of the people in the vicinity are also Betas. As long as there aren’t any Alphas hiding somewhere around tonight then I shouldn’t have been exposed."
Sui Yuan nodded and exhaled, loosening up. When he saw Lin Zhan’s aroused appearance, he suddenly felt a bit awkward. He hastily averted his gaze, thinking to himself "see no evil, hear no evil." He turned his body to the side, "Since you haven’t been discovered, what should we do next? You...do you still want to stay here? Then you definitely can’t expose your Omega identity....however, how can we hide the change in your body? This kind of unique pheromone...you should know that aside from the Betas at the dorm, there are Alphas in all directions at the training camp!"
"I......I don’t know..." Lin Zhan hung his head. His slender body trembled. He felt resentful and embarrassed towards his identity right now. As for his future, it had become fuzzy and unclear, "Sorry. I......I want to be alone for a while."
The heavy silence encircled the two people. Sui Yuan silently placed the keys to the training room in front of Lin Zhan. Seeing the other boy overflowing with barely restrained emotion and despair, Sui Yuan couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty as a person who knew how this would play out, If it went according to the original plot, then aside from giving him the keys, he wouldn’t be able to do anything else for him. However, he currently had already decided not to adhere to the plot, so why couldn’t he give the other a little tip?
Sui Yuan pursed his lips and slowly opened his mouth, "I heard that there have been Omegas who used inhibitors......or something like that."
Lin Zhan suddenly raised his head, as his black eyes shined, bursting with hope.
"It’s not a legalized product. It is said that it was officially banned decades ago after a massive Omega rebellion. Only, there should still be some on the black market..." Sui Yuan scratched his head, a bit vexed, "That kind of thing can suppress an Omega’s pheromone production. If you could get your hands on that, then at least, as long as you’re careful during the day at the training camp, it shouldn’t cause any problems. But....I’m not too certain whether we can hide it from physical examinations—-After all, the internal development of an Omega is different from that of a Beta...."
—In the original, Lin Zhan was able to get the Omega inhibitors. After managing to get by at the training camp, he ran into a difficult situation during the physical evaluations just before graduation. He was discovered by Adonis, who then helped him cover it up.
".....If I can only get by temporarily, then so be it. When that time comes....then I’ll look for another way," Lin Zhan deserved to be called a resolute and persistent protagonist. He rapidly pulled himself together, after he heard Sui Yuan’s hints He radiated newfound vigor, "Thank you, Ah Yu. I really don’t know how to thank you."
"We’re friends, aren’t we?" Sui Yuan smiled while shrugging his shoulders. He then became stern soon after, "Are you still able to participate in tomorrow’s training? If not, I can help you take a day off. You should know, I still hold quite a bit of sway over the instructors right now."
"I don’t know. It would be best if I didn’t have to take a day off...If I can’t avoid it, then I’ll give you a call before training starts. At that time, I’ll have to trouble you," Lin Zhan said, apologetically.
"It’s nothing," Sui Yuan shook his head. He paused for a moment before he continued, "As for the inhibitors, I can help you investigate them."
"....Thank you," Besides these two words, Lin Zhan didn’t know what else he could say. To have such a good friend, perhaps he could consider this life as one without any regrets.
Once Sui Yuan had imparted all of his knowledge from the original plot, he retreated after performing this good deed Since ’the Lin Zhan’ from the original plot could buy the Omega inhibitors despite being completely ignorant about them, then now that this Lin Zhan had a clear goal, it should go off without a problem, right? —- Even if he encountered any issues, Sui Yuan could help him obtain the inhibitors according to the plot, so that the training camp’s storyline will continue on.
Sui Yuan, who had settled an important matter, felt happy. He returned to Adonis’ residence with light steps. He was just in time to see the other come out dressed in a bathrobe, as if he had just finished washing up and had planned to go to bed.
When he saw Sui Yuan push open the door and enter, Adonis’ ice blue eyes suddenly held him in place, emitting a frightening light. Sui Yuan’s steps halted, and the hair on his body stood up straight. A desperate feeling of dread had suddenly sprung up, like he was a prey being watched closely by a predator.
—-Adonis seems a bit strange....exceptionally dangerous....
"You...What’s wrong?" Sui Yuan asked cautiously. He subconsciously retreated back a step. However, he saw that Adonis was slowly stalking towards him. The entire room felt like it was filled with his power, oppressing Sui Yuan until his legs began to tremble. His body couldn’t materialize any strength to resist the oncoming pressure.
"Idiot! Did you not look at the ABO world settings that I gave you earlier on!" 5237 who had been quietly spectating this whole time, could finally bear it no more. It opened its mouth to harshly criticize its silly companion, "You had just stayed with Lin Zhan for such a long time. Your body is now covered in his scent. As for Adonis—-Ah ah, obviously, he can smell the scent of his heat on you! Even this weak scent can evoke such a big reaction. This level of pheromone compatibility is indeed a weapon of mass destruction. If he had met with Lin Zhan while in heat, then it’d be incredible if he could still remain clear-headed!"
Sui Yuan’s heart suddenly dropped.
Only, Adonis didn’t give him any time to think. He had already raised his arms and pulled him tightly into his embrace. His body was hot, nearly scorching Sui Yuan. Sui Yuan couldn’t help but react, as he also heated up. His mind was muddled. He could only feel the other’s lips wander all over his neck, sucking on his skin. Soon after, those lips opened slightly and abruptly bit down.
Sharp teeth pierced through his skin, and the immense pain made Sui Yuan sober up at once. He attempted to struggled, but discovered that he was still completely powerless.
"Adonis? Adonis? Zhao Xihe!!" Sui Yuan’s struggles were as useful as an ant trying to shake a tree. So, he could only shout as loudly as possible, hoping to wake up the other person. It was really unfortunate that the other person turned a deaf ear to his shouts. Instead, he placed his lips onto Sui Yuan’s, blocking the words that were to come out next.
"5237!" Since Adonis didn’t react whatsoever to his shouts, Sui Yuan could only beg 5237 who had, for some reason, suddenly began to pay attention to him, "Why did he bite me?!"
"Idiot. Did you not read any of the background information that was sent!? He was marking you," 5237’s tone was especially full of disdain, "This is an Alpha’s instinct. When they meet someone whose pheromones they like, and when they’re deep in their heat, they will first bite the other’s gland in their neck, pouring in their own pheromones. In this way, they are declaring that this person is theirs. No one else can touch them. At the same time, this lets them cover up the Omega’s scent, so that other Alphas can’t scent them—-It’s just too bad that you’re a Beta. Your gland development is very low, so aside from simply having to suffer being bitten, this kind of action has no significance to you."
"Then, why am I so powerless right now?" This kind of weak and helpless feeling made Sui Yuan, who had gotten used to being an extremely powerful soldier, feel extremely terrible.
"That’s because Adonis is in heat! Unlike an Omega’s pheromones that do nothing but announce that they’re ready to mate, an Alphas pheromones have two uses. The first is to attract Omegas. The other is to intimidate other Alphas and Betas," 5237 floated to one side. Seeing how Sui Yuan’s initial hard-working attempts at waking Adonis up turned into this current state of being helplessly at the other’s mercy, it didn’t know whether it felt pacified or discontented, "Although you’re a Beta and can’t smell those strong pheromones that would render any Omega senseless, you can still perceive its other function, which is its intimidating pressure. When a Beta is facing an Alpha’s intimidation, their four limbs can be rendered completely powerless. Their bodies will tremble in response—Of course, there’s also the feeling of fright that they experience. Anyways, there isn’t much of an effect on you. Really, it must be because you’re so familiar with him, huh?"
"In other words, what should I do right now to hold him back?" Sui Yuan sighed deeply, trying his best to ignore 5237’s tone, as if he was a peaceful bystander to someone else’s misfortune, and attempted to extract as much useful information from the System as best as he could.
"You can’t. Don’t think anymore. When Alphas are in heat, their combative capabilities can rise quickly and intensely by 50%, even 100%. Do you think that you, who was so much weaker than him even under normal circumstances, can get rid of him now?" 5237 snorted, giving Sui Yuan a devastating blow, "Furthermore, it’s said that Alphas in heat will have a huge boost to their physical strength and endurance. It’s not strange for Alphas and Omegas to make love for a whole week straight. So..."
Sui Yuan’s eyes suddenly widened, stupefied.
"So, the Body Restoration Capsule will be waiting for you, my dear~ Hahahahaha..." 5237 laughed particularly unrestrained.
Sui Yuan: "............"
—–5237, although the fact that you’re talking to me makes me really happy, but at this moment, I would rather you continued to stay quiet!
———In other words....Please! Shut! Up!
Juurensha: Oh noooo I hope ZXH doesn’t somehow bond with the protagonist (although I do like this protagonist)
Cat: QAQ I want a smut chapter, especially a bonding chapter QAQ.
Eve: ZXH is a loyal man *sips tea*. And also, even if there’s no smut, the foreplay is soooo ahhh *fans herself*