APUTFFZG Chapter 23

Translator: Deyonna

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Bang!

The office door slammed shut, carrying with it a heart full of lingering anger.

"A bunch of idiots! Fuckers!* I'll find a way to blow their heads off sooner or later...!"

*dog-fucked

Antoine Edreck muttered a few more frustrated curses, slapped the documents in his hand onto the table with a "pa," and undid the top button of his collar.

Those old geezers in parliament are a real pain in the neck. All they care about is skimming off the military budget to line their own pockets, as if the army didn't have mouths to feed.

If hostile forces attack, those old geezers will be the first ones thrown out as cannon fodder!

Antoine slumped into the soft chair, exhausted. He stared at the mountain of documents on his desk, feeling a surge of irritation.

He'd been wrangling with them for five years, more often than not, and it had gotten so annoying that he'd even fallen behind on training. Forget it... the war's winding down anyway, so it's not a big deal to slack off a bit.

So that guy was under this much pressure too, dealing with the nobles and parliament while keeping up the legion's training without letting up?

The thought flashed through his mind, leaving no trace behind.

Antoine lifted his eyes and looked toward the wall of medals on the side of his office.

It had originally been just a smooth white wall, but over five years it had been completely transformed.

The entire wall was covered in a dense array of glass display frames, each neatly holding various medals and awards. They shimmered under the lights, representing the highest honor and power.

That made him feel a little better. "This office is finally mine. Those old geezers should be envious. If it weren't for…"

He carefully stopped himself from saying more and kept squinting at the medals, admiring them.

"This wall is perfect for displaying these. It's so pleasing to the eye. That boring guy only knows how to train and work, train and work. Even his office was so bland. He's dull and inflexible. No wonder he never got much support from the nobles."

But, much to his surprise, many military females supported that guy. They believed his death was suspicious, and there were even signs of an impending riot that they could barely contain.

That guy's adjutant has been sent to the frontier to defend the border. The rest of them should be demoted at the right time. They're right to be suspicious. The general they trusted didn't die, but…

Maybe it would have been better if he had died.

This isn't my fault, Antoine mumbled under his breath.

Who told him to be so arrogant and unyielding? It's no surprise he met his end.

"If I hadn't done it, someone else would have. At least he's still alive under my care, isn't that right?"

He let out an unsettling laugh.

"Once I've truly secured my hold on the army, maybe I can think about... making things a bit more comfortable for that guy?"

He skillfully let himself off the hook, then remembered that tomorrow was Sunday and the weekly special activity hadn't happened yet. He walked into the nearby lounge.

The once simple, functional lounge had been transformed into a luxurious mini screening room. He opened his terminal, and a message sent at ten o'clock that morning sat in his inbox.

Those ordinary good-for-nothing zergs just slack off when no one's watching. They're so lazy and slippery that I even had to send them an email to get them moving. They deserve to rot on that garbage planet for the rest of their lives!

Antoine clicked his tongue in annoyance, not bothering with anything else, and played the transmitted video directly.

The loading bar filled in a few seconds, and then the video began to play.

The screen shook slightly before finally focusing on the face of a female zerg with white hair and golden eyes.

Those familiar brows and eyes were now filled with suppressed pain. That once-sharp, unmatched pride and spirit was being trampled and humiliated, treated like garbage and ground into filthy mud.

Battered, exhausted, and utterly broken.

...What a beautiful sight.

Antoine's expression gradually twisted.

He watched the suffering before him closely, with an almost addictive fascination, greedily absorbing the freshly extracted flesh and marrow, feeling an unprecedented sense of pleasure and satisfaction.

Meanwhile, in the old city of Aitar.

As the night drew to a close, the biting cold snowstorm intensified. Yet a warm glow from the balcony pierced the bleak chill of the wind.

"Good... lift your head up a little more, and blink a few times."

Ye Er said softly, curling his index finger to press against the female zerg's chin, while his other hand held the eye drops, searching for a good angle to drop the liquid into those golden eyes.

The liquid spread across the surface of the iris, creating tiny ripples like shimmering gold scattered across a glassy surface, reflecting a small figure within.

"It's done."

Finally, after applying the medicine, Ye Er closed the cap of the eye drops. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the female zerg close his eyes.

"I've been wanting to ask, how do you manage not to blink when I put in the eye drops?"

Back then, the little dog he had picked up and brought home had needed eye drops too. Every time, he had to hold it tightly in his arms to keep it from struggling and squirming. After each application, he was as exhausted as if he had run 800 meters.

"Are military females really that good at controlling their bodies?"

A burning pain shot through his eyeballs. Xi Ze, his eyes closed in endurance, smiled softly at those words. "You could say that."

He lowered his head and rubbed his nose.

"Male Lord... could the concentration of the medicine be any higher? The current healing rate is a bit too slow."

Ye Er glanced at him quickly. "I'll ask Hughes to adjust the plan. Let's leave it at that for today."

It was already late. Leaving 015 to tidy up the medicine scattered on the coffee table, he went to the kitchen and brought back a cup of hot milk laced with sleeping medication. "Finish this and go to sleep."

For the first time, Xi Ze didn't reach for the milk. His eyes remained closed, and though his face was expressionless, a hint of impatience and restlessness was hard to hide.

"...Male Lord, can I skip the milk tonight?"

"What's wrong?"

Ye Er, belatedly realizing something was off, bent down and took a closer look at the female zerg's eyes. "If you don't want to drink it, then don't. But you should rest early."

Still a little uneasy, he added one more instruction before returning to his room. "If anything happens, just call me. I'll hear you."

"Okay. You should hurry and rest too."

Xi Ze curved the corners of his lips slightly and said in a low voice, "Good night."

"Click."

The lights in the living room were switched off. Ye Er instinctively turned back for one last glance.

The female zerg remained seated on the sofa, his silhouette blurred by the night, like a silent mountain range shrouded in darkness. His every breath was faint, barely audible.

[Star Calendar year 9037, November 13th. 56 border planets, including Licklon, Aitar, and Mino, will experience their first major cold storm of the year. Meteorological experts say…]

On the massive projection screen in the city center, an emergency broadcast interrupted the program with breaking news of the approaching storm.

"Bang!!"

A massive hailstone plummeted down, punched through the suspended blue light projection, and smashed a crater into the ground.

As if it were the first gunshot of a war, countless hailstones instantly poured down in a torrent.

"Haaa…"

The raging wind and snow were as sharp as knives, their icy blades carving into the surfaces of the houses. Whipped up in the blizzard, ice shards battered the windows with a cracking sound, shattering the peace within the room.

Deep in sleep, Ye Er furrowed his brow, his expression uneasy, but he didn't wake.

"Di—"

The central heating system let out a faint, prolonged hum before gradually shutting down. The warm air vents closed automatically, and as the blizzard seeped in, the room's temperature steadily dropped.

A bolt of blue lightning suddenly tore through the sky, lighting up the room for a fleeting moment.

The next second, a deafening rumble seemed to explode right next to his ear.

Ye Er jolted violently, his eyes snapping open.

He gasped for breath, then forced his eyes shut to steady himself. Once the pounding in his chest subsided slightly, he belatedly realized that the room was unnaturally cold.

"What's going on? Is the heating system broken?"

Ye Er grabbed a heavy coat hanging by the bed, hastily threw it on, and lifted the covers to get out of bed. But his feet landed on something soft and warm, unlike the cold floorboards.

He was startled, nearly jumping. "What is that?"

The switch clicked on with a "snap," and bright light instantly lit every corner of the room.

Curled up at the foot of the bed, unexpectedly, was motionless female zerg.

His spine was stretched taut like a bowstring, his tall frame half-hidden by the shadow of the bedframe. Ye Er had accidentally stepped on the female zerg's shoulder, which was now cold to the touch.

Bloodstains, scattered like dots, formed a winding path from beneath the female zerg to the doorway.

"Xi Ze…?"

Ye Er's pupils constricted, and he quickly reacted, tearing off his coat and wrapping the female zerg in it.

The female zerg's body, exposed to the cold air for too long, had become tense and rigid. His once warm, soft body was now cold and stiff, showing signs of hypothermia.

The sensation beneath his palm frightened Ye Er. For a moment just now, he had almost thought it was a corpse.

Without pausing to wonder why this had happened, Ye Er gently straightened the female zerg's body, using a little force.

He brushed aside the scattered strands of hair with his fingertips, revealing Xi Ze's colorless face beneath.

His eyes were tightly shut, his lips a sickly blue, the pain in his features seemingly frozen in place, his breath barely perceptible.

"Xi Ze?!"

He called out the female zerg's name sternly but got no response.

His heart trembled, then pounded violently against his chest, suffocating him with an overwhelming wave of panic.

Only when he felt a faint breath against his fingers could he finally breathe again.

But the situation was still dire. Ye Er forced himself to suppress his panic and kept examining the female zerg's condition.

"Xi Ze? Wake up, wake up... Can you hear me?!"

But in stark contrast to the female zerg's physical condition—

Ye Er suddenly sensed Xi Ze's mental power.

The jagged edge of the blade, once sharp and intensely aggressive, was now tattered and weak. Yet it was full of vitality.

It darted and leaped around the room like a newborn animal, eager to explore its new world.

A strange sensation spread through his calf, as if a small animal were nuzzling and whimpering affectionately, mistaking him for a mother to depend on.

What... is going on?

The scene before him was utterly bizarre. Ye Er didn't have time to think it over, and shouted toward the door, "015?!"

But maybe 015 was malfunctioning again. He called several times, but there was no response. Instead, he woke the female zerg in his arms.

"Hurts…"

Suddenly, Xi Ze let out a mumbled, incoherent sound. His tortured body seemed to jolt awake in response to the pain, his limbs convulsing slightly.

"015!"

Ye Er's expression turned cold. He laid the female zerg on the ground and stood up abruptly, but he couldn't leave smoothly—

A hand gently grasped his pant leg, and an indistinct mumble reached his ears, laced with a deep, hidden, suppressed longing.

"Male Lord…"

☰