Chapter 70 Just Partners 15
Although Ren Yi spoke lightly, the moment he left the blockade star, he almost immediately had a nosebleed, his mind went blank, and blood started seeping from his ears. He quickly fell into a semi-conscious state. The physical condition of this disguised persona was even worse than Ren Yi had estimated.
In the last moments before losing consciousness, Ren Yi managed to remind the system, "[Xiao Yi.]"
The system immediately replied, "Leave it to me!"
Before Ren Yi completely lost consciousness, he felt that he had forgotten to tell someone something.
For example, the system is controlled by a clone, not directly connected to the mech's control panel—he doesn't want to lose the entire system while failing to retrieve the fragments.
However, without the host's initial command, the system prioritized the safety of the alternate account and decisively chose the latter.
Given the host's current state of being in disguise, if it were to forcibly take over control, it would only cause further damage. Without hesitation, the system connected to the mecha's control console.
Fortunately, it remembered that there was a living person on the mecha, and did not turn "Galaxy" into fully automatic mode.
However, this was enough for Zhou Kai to discover the difference between the two command styles.
Zhou Kai couldn't quite give a precise description, but suddenly he felt like he was facing a cold machine—rigorous and precise, but devoid of any human warmth. It was as if he, the operator, was just a part of the mecha, and one with extremely high uncontrollability, the kind that he wished he could kick out.
(System, if it weren't for you being such a useless piece of trash, would my host have ended up like this?!)
Zhou Kai tried to banish the strange thought from his mind, but the current anomaly made him think more deeply. He finally recalled Ren Yi's seemingly unremarkable physical abilities, and comparing that to the suddenly shortened instructions, even someone as oblivious as Zhou Kai had a guess. However, he understood that this was not the time for idle chatter; the important thing was to deal with this mutant as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, the Alliance's garrison arrived even faster than expected. No matter how powerful the alien species was, it had no chance of winning when it was being pointed at by double-digit numbers of starship cannons. However, the attention of the arriving garrison was not on the downed alien species at all.
As the center of the battlefield, "Star River" was also surrounded by starships.
Although it is said to be "bringing 'Star River' home", the identity of the mecha pilots who are now piloting "Star River" is unknown, and they do not know whether they are friend or foe. They also dare not trust them.
Gazing at the mech at the center of the encirclement, Yuan Dongfeng, the legion commander in charge of this operation and also the garrison commander near Luodaixing, said, "Let's try contact communication first."
Regardless of who is inside the mech, they do not want to take action against "Star River" if possible.
Before their communication signals could be received by the other side, the mech had already approached the starship and assumed a standard posture for preparing to land in the ship's cabin.
The person in charge of starship control barely managed to suppress his instinctive urge to let the mech in.
—That's "Star River"! He actually kept "Star River" out of the ship's cabin!!
Overwhelmed by guilt, he forced himself to ask his superior, "Sir?"
Everyone here knew that letting that mech, whose friend or foe was still unknown, in was definitely not a wise choice, but no one could bring themselves to refuse.
After a brief silence, Yuan Dongfeng finally spoke, "Open the access pod."
However, he quickly added, "If anything goes wrong, execute a forced disengagement immediately." The latter is usually a special measure to prevent alien species from entering the starship.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the beautiful mech, which seemed to have been born for this universe, slowly landed on the starship. The moment it truly landed, it was as if people's hearts trembled twice along with the alloy plates supporting the mech.
Before anyone could have any more complicated feelings, the cockpit of "Galaxy" was opened, and an unfamiliar young man stepped out.
The latter's face was captured by a monitor and projected onto a screen in the control room.
Yuan Dongfeng was stunned for a moment, then quickly recognized the colleague he wasn't very familiar with, and exclaimed in astonishment, "Major Zhou?!"
They also noticed a blood-covered boy that Zhou Kai had carried out of the mecha.
Zhou Kai seemed to notice the location of the surveillance camera at a glance, and he opened and closed his mouth several times in that direction. Yuan Dongfeng easily recognized his lip movements.
"Medical team!"
The Alliance troops arrived in time, and Ren Yi's condition did not deteriorate to a critical point. Even so, he slept in the medical pod for several days, and when he woke up, he had already been sent to the Ninth Military Region Hospital of the capital planet.
The moment Ren Yi regained consciousness, he discovered that he could not contact the system.
Ren Yi: "..."
He finally remembered what he had wanted to say but had forgotten: he had asked the system to control the avatar, not to connect to the mecha—and now, not only had the fragments not been retrieved, but the system was lost.
Thinking of this, Ren Yi stared blankly at the ceiling for a long while, unsure of what to say.
When Zhou Kai came in, he saw Ren Yi's blank expression.
During the few days that Ren Yi was in a coma, he had enough time to investigate the other party's identity. After learning about the other party's past experiences, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Thinking back to when he knew that his body could not adapt to the pressure of the universe, yet he made that decision without hesitation, he couldn't help but worry. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the garrison nearby, he wouldn't have been sleeping for just a few days.
Therefore, after Ren Yi's condition stabilized, a psychological counselor was invited to help him.
However, given that the person in question is still in a coma, the past few days have only been relayed by Zhou Kai, allowing a psychological counselor to conduct a behavioral analysis of Ren Yi's actions on the sealed-off star. The conclusion reached is not optimistic, as the other party may have a significant tendency towards self-destruction.
Zhou Kai had just spoken with a psychologist and his mind was filled with a whole host of possibilities. Seeing Ren Yi's expression, his heart skipped a beat, but he still tried to remain calm. "You're awake?"
Ren Yi snapped out of his daze, nodded to Zhou Kai, and skillfully pressed the switch in the medical pod next to him, straightening himself up.
Zhou Kai was afraid that Ren Yi might do something drastic after he woke up, but he still remembered the counselor's instructions and put on a 300% performance, pretending that everything was normal. He also briefly told Ren Yi about his condition after he fell into a coma.
The alien species on Rodeel have been eliminated, and the base located on the planet is still under investigation.
Zhou Kai didn't discuss the specific progress of the investigation. Although these matters were indeed confidential, Ren Yi, as one of the parties involved, was still entitled to be informed after signing a confidentiality agreement. Surprisingly, he displayed remarkable emotional intelligence this time, realizing it wasn't appropriate to discuss these things with a patient who had just woken up, and instead began talking about Ren Yi's physical condition.
The medical expenses will naturally be covered by the alliance, and in addition to Ren Yi's assistance on the sealed-off planet, he will also receive a substantial bonus and honor. Regarding the latter, Zhou Kai explained, "The organization on Rode Star hasn't been fully investigated yet, and for safety reasons, this matter will not be made public for the time being, so the relevant awards will not be announced. But don't worry, your name will definitely be on the Red Rose Wall in the future."
Ren Yi didn't care much about these things. After all, when he was using a pseudonym, he had won almost every honor in the league. Even if he were a stamp collector, he should be satisfied by now, let alone that he wasn't.
Ren Yi simply nodded, indicating that he understood, and then asked the question he was most concerned about: "Where is 'Star River' now?"
Zhou Kai suddenly fell silent.
The military did manage to uncover Ren Yi's identity during his coma, but many questions remained unanswered. Due to the urgency of the situation on the sealed-off star, Zhou Kai didn't have time to ask, such as why Ren Yi possessed the authority over "Star River"? What was his relationship with the deceased Marshal Hall? Was "Star River" what he was looking for? And how did he know "Star River" was there?
Zhou Kai understood that he was definitely not the only one who wanted to know the answers to these questions.
If it weren't for his firm protection and the incident he uncovered during the investigation, the boy in front of him would probably be in the Alliance Investigation Bureau instead of peacefully resting in the hospital when he woke up.
However, Zhou Kai believes the main reason lies in the latter.
The significance of "Star River" to the Alliance is truly extraordinary. If it weren't for that incident that was discovered later in the investigation, no matter how tough his attitude was or how willing he was to make guarantees for Ren Yi, it would have been useless.
Ren Yi understood Zhou Kai's silence. Although "Star River" was a private mecha, its owner was special, and the Alliance would certainly not easily let go of it. However, Ren Yi remained calm throughout. "You should have found out that I am the heir designated by Marshal Hall."
This was a notarized alliance agreement that Ren Yi had made using a secondary account as a precaution, just in case of any unforeseen circumstances. However, if the main account does not agree, this notarized agreement is not valid and will not be made public. If the main account still does not agree after five years, the notarized agreement will automatically become invalid.
Ren Yi's alternate account was never going to agree to it anyway.
This practice is simply a backup plan that people habitually keep in mind after doing tasks for a long time, in order to avoid any unexpected situations.
Clearly, this is the kind of "accident" that has happened.
With this notarized document, even if the Alliance really wants to keep "Star River" and proposes some compensation terms, as the legal heir of "Star River," if he asks to pilot the mecha again, the Alliance will not refuse, given its consistent style.
That being said, Ren Yi really didn't want to make this statement public unless there were special circumstances, because the notarization of this inheritance was very likely to frame the alternate account.
Although Ren Yi intended for the two accounts to have some contact and establish a connection.
However, Xiaohao was simply too busy, constantly running around on the battlefield against the aliens, spinning like a top. The Alliance military did offer holidays, but when it came to Xiaohao's specific duties, it wasn't a matter of holidays anymore—the alien invasions didn't pick their time. Over time, Xiaohao accumulated enough holidays to extend his retirement age by a whole year.
Even if Ren Yi made time for it, the two accounts only had contact during the occasional rest time of the smaller account. This brief meeting was obviously not enough to convince people that he was an "admired junior." The larger account hadn't even had time to enter military school at the time, so saying that he had "potential" was a stretch. To say that he was a "promising successor" was even more absurd.
Under these circumstances, the only reason Ren Yi could think of for inheritance was kinship.
However, considering the age difference between the two accounts and the marital status of the smaller account, this relationship becomes less easy to explain to outsiders.
—A child born out of wedlock when he was just over ten years old.
He essentially threw a huge smear on himself.
Ren Yi took a deep breath and felt that it was okay, not a big problem.
As long as he doesn't admit it, the blame for the small-sized phone will remain Schrödinger's problem.
And they have no evidence!
All their alternate accounts have vaporized in space; even if they wanted to do a kinship test, they wouldn't have anywhere to go.
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