APUTFFZG Chapter 17

Translator: Deyonna

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Axon First Research Institute

"...Look at yourselves! You're not applying yourselves properly. You don't even know where your studies are leading you. You research with no clear direction, day in and day out!"

"That question has been pinned to the top of the forum for so long it's practically growing mold, yet not a single student has been able to solve it. If this gets out, our institution will lose face!"

The gray-haired professor pounded the podium, sweeping his gaze over the listless students below, hating iron for not becoming steel*. After a round of harsh scolding, he finished with a classic line.

*An idiom: to be frustrated with someone for failing to meet expectations, and impatient to see them improve

"You are all the worst students I've ever taught!"

The huge classroom, built with high-tech liquid silver, was packed with zergs, but not one dared to speak. After a while, a hand slowly rose. "Professor..."

"Speak!" The old professor, still fuming, glared at the student.

"That question has already been solved. It was unpinned last night."

The moment those words were out, the restlessness below could no longer be contained. Professors with strict schedules might miss this explosive news, but the students wouldn't.

"Last night, the forum was in an uproar for the first time. Everyone is still discussing who beat the top fourth-year student and the second-year genius who had been quietly competing to solve the problem."

"Really?"

The old professor froze for a moment, then took his terminal off do-not-disturb mode. The next second, countless messages poured in, and a name both familiar and unfamiliar caught his eye.

"This name is...?"

---

[Hello! Your answer is brilliant, but upon verification, we found that you are not a student of this institution, so your response to this question is invalid. We apologize for any inconvenience and wish you a happy life!]

Ye Er closed the email, somewhat dejected, and switched back to the forum, where the question had already been unpinned. Only then did he realize it was probably an internal college group.

Students, teachers, experts, and scholars were all mixed together, debating and exchanging ideas, with posts of every kind scattered about. That had led him to believe, mistakenly, that it was an open study and discussion group.

Forget it. Just remember to look more carefully next time.

Ye Er closed the forum, searched for platforms that clearly offered paid problem-solving, and started working on new questions to make money.

Di, di.

An hour later, his terminal beeped with a notification. Ye Er put down his pen, tapped it, and found a new email with a money transfer notice beside it.

He opened the email first.

[Hello! Please pardon the ignorance and rudeness of the previous email's sender. This question is open to all students of the Empire, and the system automatically restricts respondents by identity and age. You fully meet the criteria, and your answer is brilliant. We hope you keep up the good work!]

[PS: Your reward for answering has been credited to your account. Please check it. - Axon First Research Institute]

The situation had taken a new turn, and Ye Er was slow to react. Then he saw the amount of the transfer and instantly sat up straight.

[Honorable Your Excellency "wwn," Axon First Research Institute has transferred 50,000.00 star coins to you. Please check your account carefully!]

How much?! Such... such a generous school!

Ye Er had assumed it would be just a few hundred star coins, a thousand at most. After all, it was only a question for students to answer. But now—

The plain school emblem now shone with a dazzling light of money!

The money instantly solved his current financial crisis. Ye Er sincerely and gratefully sent the school a confirmation of receipt, then booked an appointment with Hughes that afternoon.

---

The pain in his knee was throbbing again. Xi Ze pressed his palm firmly against it, enduring the pain in silence, beads of cold sweat forming on his forehead, his lips turning white.

A gaping hole, wide enough to fit his thumb and forefinger, had been pierced through it by a dark matter bullet. The bleeding had been forcibly stopped with special medication, but the wound stubbornly refused to heal. It was the culprit keeping him from standing.

"Are you okay? Is the wound hurting again?" 015 approached with a mop, its tone concerned.

After the intense pain of the muscle spasm subsided, Xi Ze took a breath and forced out a hoarse reply. "...I'm fine."

015 was about to ask more, but it suddenly received a request for entry. It quickly rolled over to Ye Er's room and knocked on the door.

Xi Ze faintly heard words like "visitor" and "appointment" and hesitated over whether to make himself scarce. In the end, he said nothing and simply shifted to the corner of the sofa.

Before him lay a hazy darkness. Ye Er's footsteps came from the room, growing closer, then passed by his side, stirring a slight cool breeze.

Then came the sound of the door opening, the male zerg's greeting, and another voice in reply, young, calm, and gentle.

Xi Ze didn't realize he was frowning and pressing harder on his knee, sending a sharper wave of pain through it.

"...All right, got it. I'll look over the details later."

Sensing a discreet gaze lingering on his face, Hughes's eyes flickered, and he glanced past Ye Er into the room.

"Come in." Ye Er signaled for 015 to show him the way, then went into the kitchen to get some water.

Soon, Hughes saw where that feeling was coming from.

The white-haired, golden-eyed female zerg sat quietly on the sofa in soft, thick pajamas printed with puppies. Even so, he couldn't hide his sharp, knife-like edge.

Although Xi Ze had occasionally appeared on the call screen, Hughes felt he was truly seeing him in person for the first time.

This female zerg, Xi Ze, looked so different from when he had first been brought to the hospital that Hughes could hardly recognize him.

Like a fallen alpha wolf that had been taken home and well cared for, he had pulled back from the tragic brink of death. Slowly regaining flesh and blood, he was returning to the calm, awe-inspiring bearing of a military female.

The female zerg lowered his eyes, his face expressionless, but Hughes could sense that he wasn't welcome.

"Good afternoon?"

With the one who could have played mediator gone, Hughes had to start the conversation alone. "I am His Excellency Ye Er's..."

He sat down on the chair 015 had brought in, but before he could finish, he suddenly met a pair of icy, lifeless eyes, their molten gold pupils narrowing into vertical slits!

Creak!

A harsh scraping sound suddenly rang out, shattering the quiet of the living room, followed by a loud bang as the chair fell to the floor.

It took Hughes several seconds to catch his breath.

"Are you okay? The system detected that your heart rate is too fast and suspects stress symptoms..."

Beside his ear, the robot housekeeper's worried voice echoed. His darkened vision gradually cleared, revealing the mess around him.

"What's wrong?"

Ye Er heard the noise and hurried out of the kitchen.

"I..."

A deep tremor paralyzed his heart and limbs. Hughes braced himself on 015's head, barely managing to stand straight, and said hoarsely, "It's nothing..."

He forced out a breath, calming his racing heart. But after a moment's thought, his expression gradually turned serious.

Male and female zergs alike were divided into clear hierarchies determined by genes. Higher-level zergs naturally suppressed lower-level ones, and the greater the gap in level, the stronger the sense of oppression.

Most female zergs were B or C level. On border stars like Aitar, most were C-level or below.

Hughes himself was a relatively strong B-level female zerg. Facing an A-level zerg, he would feel no obvious oppression, which was normal...

If his senses weren't mistaken, the terror he'd just felt came from the instinctive oppression and warning of a huge gap in level.

That meant the female zerg in front of him was at least S-level, or even the extremely rare SS-level. Females of that level were rare in the Empire.

Hughes looked at Ye Er, who seemed unaware, with complicated feelings.

That had been his* own shortsightedness earlier. But did this male zerg really not know what kind of monster he had picked up and brought home...

*Hughes

"What just happened?"

Ye Er still looked doubtful as he casually rubbed the female zerg's hair, mussing the neatly combed strands.

"I'm not sure."

Xi Ze let the male zerg mess up his hair, only tilting his face slightly toward Hughes, his golden eyes already back to normal.

Faced with two equally bewildered, innocent faces, Hughes was left speechless. Although he knew the suppression the female zerg had released was probably unconscious, he still felt as if he were having a heart attack.

"...It's okay. Let's continue."

He put on a professional fake smile and sat back down on the chair, which 015 had set upright.

The doctor in front of him had a shrewd, experienced air that belied his age. Without relying on many instruments, he could accurately assess Xi Ze's recovery, occasionally asking about small details of his daily life.

Xi Ze answered every question concisely and thoroughly, showing a precise grasp of his own condition.

"Have you had any more mental guidance?" Hughes kept tapping away with one hand, revising the treatment plan on his terminal as he asked.

Ye Er awkwardly rubbed his nose and said, "...Only once."

After learning he was a male zerg, Xi Ze had been repelled. Ye Er's guiding technique was also very unskilled, so he had clumsily done it once and simply shelved it.

"I suggest more mental guidance and pheromone appeasement. They can promote recovery and wound healing better than any medication..."

At this point, Hughes's typing hand paused.

As far as he knew, the male zerg in front of him was D-level. Normally, a D-level male zerg could only appease a female zerg up to B-level. Yet he had succeeded on his first attempt at giving Xi Ze mental guidance.

If Ye Er's identity information hadn't been concealed or forged, then he was also a monster who defied common sense.

"What's wrong?" Ye Er asked in confusion, impatient for the rest.

"It's nothing. Anyway, just have more guidance and appeasement."

Hughes remembered something else Ye Er had mentioned. "Your Excellency said before that there are occasional nightmares, yes?"

"You were a military female before, correct?" he asked Xi Ze. After receiving a positive answer, he added several more medications to the plan.

"Generally speaking, military females who come off the battlefield have varying degrees of post-traumatic stress. Mental guidance can ease it well, but it's best combined with professional medication."

Although the female zerg in front of him had improved significantly since Ye Er first picked him up, he still hovered on the edge of serious injury. Neither his severely damaged self-healing ability nor the injuries to his eyes, back, and legs had truly improved.

Hughes frowned, finished the treatment plan, and sent it to Ye Er. "I recommend starting with the less seriously injured eyes. The plan includes several topical medicines..."

The examination lasted three hours and finally ended just before dinner. Hughes packed up the instruments he had brought, and Ye Er walked him to the door.

"Medical resources in Aitar are still scarce. If you want him completely cured, you may need to go to the main star, but that will inevitably cost more money and energy... In any case, he is already Your Excellency's female slave. You can do whatever you want with him."

That female zerg's level was indeed high. Clearly, that was why he had been targeted and tortured so miserably back then. His previous identity was probably far from simple, and may even have been very prominent.

But all that was in the past. From the moment he became Ye Er's female slave, his past and future, even his life and death, had become the male zerg's property.

Whether he survived, and in what form, depended entirely on the male zerg's whim. The only fortunate thing was, perhaps, that this atypical male zerg stood before him.

"Okay, I'll think about it."

Hughes gazed at the beautiful, refined face of the male zerg in front of him. After that solemn reply, he smiled and took his leave briskly.

Ye Er closed the door and returned to the living room. 015 had already gone into the kitchen to prepare dinner. He sat next to Xi Ze and studied the treatment plan on his terminal.

But before long, a bill notification popped up—

[Please pay the treatment and medication fees: 49,998.00 star coins.]

Ye Er: "......"

That doctor was thoughtful enough to leave two coins, haha :)

---

The author has something to say:

[Reward received!]

Ye Ye: I'm rich now! (Happy)

[Please pay the bill.]

Ye Ye: I'm broke again... (Sad)

It's okay, your wife is filthy rich. In the future, you can buy any planet you want and wake up in a 500-square-meter bed every day. (Smirk)

☰