Chapter 114 Top Alpha: He was once a crippled Omega. 24. You…

Seeing Gran's reaction, Qi Pingye felt relieved.

Facing the gun barrel, his expression softened slightly as he said, "Don't be nervous, Vice Captain. You know my injuries. You could easily kill me with a kick. There's no need to shoot."

“You’re very slippery; we have to be careful.” Grant raised an eyebrow.

“Actually, you already trust me,” Qi Pingye said.

Grant didn't say anything.

Qi Pingye said, "Vice Captain, aren't you surprised by something? Whether it's Qi Sheng and Lu Jin's child or Qi Yun and Gu Yuran's child, they should all be Omegas, but I am an Alpha now."

Gran paused, his eyes looking somewhat strange: "Does this mean... you're not using some kind of black market disguise drug or something, pretending to be an A in O?"

"No, so that's what you were thinking?" Qi Pingye was stunned for a moment, and after realizing what he meant, he was both amused and exasperated.

“Then why did you say my family’s Omega before…” he said.

Gran sensed something was wrong, his brow twitching slightly: "What era are we living in? Aren't Omega-Alpha relationships everywhere? So, you really aren't an Omega, but an Alpha? You were definitely born an Omega... and you underwent secondary differentiation?"

“Yes,” Qi Pingye said, “but the reason is probably different from what you think.”

He paused for a moment, then without further hesitation, recounted the events of two years ago in their entirety.

From Qi Mingzhao's appearance, to her own voluntary move away from the old house, to accidentally overhearing a marriage plot, to having her glands removed, to Qi Yun and Gu Yuran rushing back, to noticing something strange in their words, but being powerless to do anything, having her arms and legs broken, and being thrown into the Windwalking Sky Domain.

Qi Pingye thought it was something that happened a long time ago, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was only two years ago.

Grant initially remained calm, but soon his face turned green with rage, his teeth clenched. Finally, he slammed his gun on the table with a bang and cursed, "Damn those old pigs! How dare they do something like this! If they're so tough, I'll catch them. If that day ever comes, I'll cut them off from head to toe, and make them do no more inhuman things..."

Upon hearing this, Qi Pingye silently gave a thumbs-up to show his agreement and appreciation, and then said, "Does the vice-captain believe what I said?"

Gran cursed a few times, barely suppressing his anger. His chest heaved as he calmed his voice and said, "Actually, I've been investigating you for a while now. I have some clues, but they're too few to connect. Now..."

Now, with the clues and words corroborating each other, the outline of the facts has emerged.

“Furthermore, like you said, I’ve actually trusted you for a long time,” Grant said. “You’ve been with Black Lily for over two months, and our group has carried out thirteen missions together. If you really are one of their people, and you have ulterior motives, you’ve had many opportunities.”

"Even if you are not their child, you are still a comrade-in-arms whom I can entrust my back to."

Qi Pingye raised his eyes.

Two Alphas stared at each other through a glass enclosure.

"Thank you," Qi Pingye said.

Grant tugged at the corner of his mouth, his gaze softening for once, revealing guilt and self-reproach: "Child, it's not you who should thank me, but me, and us, who should apologize to you."

"I'm sorry we couldn't find you for so long. Two years ago, perhaps when you needed us the most, we were unable to..."

“I understand,” Qi Pingye said. “Central Star is not so easy to investigate, nor is it so easy to stay.”

Gran and his group's foundation is not on the Central Star, a place where the Light Party can control everything. If the Qi family, a core member of the Light Party, wanted to deceive them and drive them away, it would be easy.

Besides, what reason did he have to blame them? Just because they were suspected to be old friends of his biological parents?

It's not their responsibility that they couldn't help him.

Gran understood Qi Pingye's meaning, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and remained silent for two seconds before saying, "I have a responsibility, child."

His voice was hoarse: "I used to be the adjutant to the commander of the First Division of the Silverwing Legion. I was from the same hometown as your father, both of us came from the Gaia airspace, and we were quite familiar with each other. One day twenty-four years ago, I received a message from your father, pleading with me to go to the field hospital a little further ahead in the outer orbit of Far Voyager Star to pick up your mother and you, who had just been born."

"I found it strange; he rarely bothers me with these kinds of things. I texted him back, but he didn't reply. I called him, but his phone was switched off and no one answered. Considering what had happened in the past two days, I had a bad feeling, so I immediately went to that hospital..."

It was winter on Far Voyage Star. Gran, wrapped in a thick military overcoat, piloted a low-flying aircraft to the field hospital.

This is an extension of the planet Far Voyage into outer space, suspended high in the sky, already the front line in the battle against the alien species. Most of the patients in this hospital are soldiers and their families from the front lines.

Grant came here with the intention of picking up the person and leaving, but unexpectedly, he was attacked by a strange species as soon as he entered the hospital.

In haste, he had no choice but to fight while reporting to the military headquarters and rushing to the hospital ward.

However, the alien attack was far too fierce, unlike anything seen in aliens at that time or stage. By the time Gran broke through and reached the inpatient ward, there was nothing left but corpses and flesh.

“…I’ve seen the hospital’s internal surveillance footage,” Grant said with a somber expression. “It’s on the front lines and has emergency measures in place to deal with this kind of situation. When the situation became critical, the hospital activated its emergency response system. In the chaos, many mothers and fathers in labor picked up their babies and fled, while the rest were transferred to other hospitals.”

"Of course, there are many more... children, mothers, and fathers who died outside the passageway, inside the hospital."

“So,” Gran exhaled, “I bear responsibility for what happened to you. I failed your father’s trust. Two years ago, when I learned that you were still alive and had been taken to the Qi family in the Central Star by some twist of fate, I suspected a conspiracy, but more than anything, I was overjoyed…”

Over the past two years, Qi Pingye has thought a lot about the truth behind the child swap.

But whether it's Qi Yun and Gu Yuran's words and actions that have been completely unpretentious for over twenty years, or Gran's words now, they all seem to point to the same answer.

Accident.

That was indeed an accident.

He was somewhat bewildered, but also somewhat relieved.

“This was an accident,” he said calmly, “it has nothing to do with you. At the time…did my mother escape?”

As soon as Qi Pingye asked the question, he knew he had asked a stupid one.

His parents are dead, that's a fact. So, whether he could escape or not, does it really matter?

“No,” Grant’s answer was not unexpected. “She stayed behind to protect the children near the emergency exit. When we found her, she had already sacrificed herself. You weren’t around her either… The children who were taken away and sent away all looked very similar. We couldn’t be sure which one was you. The planet Far Voyage was in too much chaos at the time.”

"...Where is my father?" Qi Pingye asked.

“Die in the alien tide.” Gran said in a deep voice.

The ward fell silent for a moment, the atmosphere desolate and oppressive, like a graveyard covered in ashes.

Qi Pingye stared at the tranquil white light on the ceiling, his heart churning with a thousand emotions, then falling into a boundless stillness, like an empty, deep sea. He had never met these parents, yet he seemed to already understand grief.

“That alien attack,” he began, “was it the chaos on Far Voyage Star?”

“Yes,” Gran said, “that was the chaos of Far Voyage. In the 300th year of the White Night Era, during the winter of Far Voyage, a large number of alien species somehow and silently broke through all the defenses of Far Voyage and launched a full-scale attack on the entire planet. All the fortresses were breached from the inside, and the entire Far Voyage became a hell overnight.”

"So what exactly happened?" Qi Pingye asked again anxiously.

Grant glanced at him. This time, instead of refusing with evasive answers, he pinched his brow with a headache, pondered for a while, and finally decided to tell him.

"You being switched at birth may just be an accident, but the occurrence of this accident stems from a conspiracy that is inextricably linked to the Qi family, the Bright Party, and even the current president."

Qi Pingye's heartbeat quickened silently.

He didn't even dare to breathe too loudly, for fear of disturbing Gran's voice.

"Twenty-four years ago, your mother was pregnant with you and was about to give birth, so your father became the acting captain of that squad..."

As Grant spoke, a look of sorrow, complexity, and vicissitude welled up in his eyes.

That was twenty-four years ago.

Lu Jin, the captain of the 7th Special Operations Squad of the 1st Division of the Silverwing Legion, is pregnant and about to give birth. She will temporarily leave the team, and the vice captain, Qi Sheng, has been authorized to act as captain for two months.

The Seventh Squad is a very well-established special operations squad, and even without its captain for the time being, it hasn't changed much.

In the first month, they carried out their missions as usual, going to the battlefield and killing aliens. Although there were casualties, everything went smoothly. In the second month, they took turns resting and were responsible for daily tasks, patrolling two jump points on a certain defensive line and the nearby airspace, checking the situation, and clearing out scattered aliens.

Compared to going to the front lines to kill aliens, patrolling was a very ordinary daily task. Neither Qi Sheng nor the others in the Seventh Squad took this mission too seriously, aside from the necessary vigilance and seriousness.

But this very mission brought annihilation to them, to the entire Silverwing Legion, and even to the entire Far Voyage Star.

"The aliens appeared suddenly fifty years ago, attacking from many unstable natural jump points that can only travel in one direction. Their origin is unknown, and they are suspected to be alien creatures, which is common knowledge," Gran said in a deep voice. "But at that time, when the Seventh Squad was patrolling that airspace, they unexpectedly discovered a group of aliens that were not quite the same as the other aliens."

"They don't seem to be fully developed. In their outlines, the Seventh Squad vaguely discerned the shadows of local creatures from certain remote airspaces of the White Night Federation. This is an extremely important discovery."

"For fifty years, humanity has fought against alien species, resulting in countless deaths and injuries. We have been fighting against them and trying to find the origin of these uncivilized and irrational alien beings, intending to destroy them at their source. But many years have passed, and we have made no progress."

"After discovering the strangeness of this group of mutants, the Seventh Squad was overjoyed, feeling that heaven was taking pity on the White Night Federation and that the secret of the mutants was finally about to be revealed. Without giving it much thought, they immediately notified their superiors and then took the group of mutants back to Far Voyage Star to report the situation..."

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Author's note: I have a day off today and went to see the doctor. I have dry eye and conjunctivitis, so I can't stare at electronic devices for long periods of time. Therefore, I may take leave on the 3rd or 5th. I will post a leave note or change the announcement at that time. Otherwise, I will continue to update daily as usual [please].

This is practically a battle for the author's reputation regarding unfinished chapters. I've maintained daily updates for so long and don't want to take any time off, and I'll try my best not to! But please forgive me if I have to take a day or two off, my little angels. Thank you!