DDT - Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Interstellar ABO (18)

No one knew that Chi Junluo had returned to the Main Star with Yi Shuhan, aside from the heads of the Yi family. Not even Yi Jun's most capable and trusted subordinates had received the slightest hint of news.

For now, Chi Junluo could only stay in Yi Shuhan's private research institute. The rest area in the institute was enormous, with a soft, large bed that could easily sleep four people. Therefore, Yi Shuhan wasn't worried about Chi Chi's current living situation. She was personally responsible for her food and lodging; how could she possibly let Chi Chi go hungry or cold?

Chi Junluo also knew it wasn't the right time to show her face. This clever and resourceful Omega girl had already analyzed their next steps with her.

Yi Shuhan's most urgent task was to thoroughly inspect and study the wreckage of Chi Junluo's destroyed mecha to find out what went wrong. Chi Junluo's job was to rest and recuperate peacefully in Yi Shuhan's private institute, striving to restore her devastated mental power to a normal level as soon as possible. Her currently weakened constitution also required quiet recovery.

Almost no one ever set foot in Yi Shuhan's personal research lab. All the research personnel who assisted with auxiliary studies worked in the outer labs or research areas. As long as Chi Junluo didn't leave the room, no one would know she was there.

As for her original residence, it had been secured by the military. Although the military had publicly announced that Admiral Chi had perished, sacrificed at the hands of the Yi Family and the Zerg, Alliance law stipulated otherwise. According to the regulations protecting the rights of active-duty military personnel, the property of a soldier who went missing during a war with the Zerg could not be touched by anyone for three years. The personal property of a soldier who died in battle would have a three-month protection period, during which their heirs had the right to handle a portion of the assets in advance until the period ended. Although the military had already declared Admiral Chi deceased, her personal property was temporarily protected due to strong public demand from the people of the Alliance.

The incident had caused a massive impact, sparking public outrage. Especially after the military's press conference, the people's anger was now focused on attacking the Yi Family. Almost everyone was demanding an explanation, and more radical citizens even began attacking members of the Yi Family.

This was exactly what the major families wanted to see. With their collective tacit approval, protests and demonstrations had already broken out on some planets—a situation the Alliance hadn't seen in several hundred years.

Compared to the radical anger of the Alliance citizens, the Yi Family remained relatively calm. After several family members were attacked or verbally abused in public, the entire family simply stopped going out. The Yi Family's estate was vast. Whether it was the main family or the various branches, ordinary people with no military power couldn't break into their territories. The tall gates and fortress-like outer walls were equipped with various advanced defensive weapons, some of which ordinary citizens couldn't even name. After someone was injured attempting to ram the gates, people stopped trying to force their way in. However, the garbage piled up at their doorstep was almost mountain-high.

Some streamers, eager to chase clout, even live-streamed themselves throwing trash at the Yi Family's gates or writing various insulting slogans on the ground nearby. In the eyes of the Alliance citizens, the Yi Family's current behavior was like that of a giant turtle hiding in its shell. It was because they had no evidence to prove their innocence—or rather, the mountain of ironclad evidence presented by the military had left them speechless. So, the guilty party, the Yi Family, whose misdeeds had been exposed, didn't even dare to leave their homes now. They were feeling guilty, scared, weren't they?

Inside the Yi Family estate, however, it was a picture of harmony. At the previous family meeting, the patriarch had already reassured everyone. The Yi Family, with its vast enterprise and millennia of heritage, disdained such acts of stabbing their compatriots in the back. This incident was clearly a joint effort by several major families, and it seemed they had been preparing for a long time. After calming the family's emotions, Yi Jun announced an important decision: this thorny issue would be handed over entirely to the sole heir of the main family, his only precious Omega daughter, Yi Shuhan. Although many years had passed and the voices of opposition had gradually quieted, most clan members were still resentful. The Yi Family had so many outstanding Alpha heirs, yet they were to be trampled under the feet of a mere Omega. The family head, Yi Jun, always boasted in the family about how outstanding Yi Shuhan was, but in the past twenty-odd years, all they knew was that she had her own research institute. They weren't clear on what she researched, nor were they clear on what achievements she had made. The outside world didn't even know that the heir to the main Yi Family was an Omega. The Yi family members themselves found this embarrassing and naturally wouldn't spread it. Yi Jun also never mentioned his child, so apart from a few top-tier families, almost no one knew of the Omega Yi Shuhan's existence.

Therefore, upon hearing Patriarch Yi Jun's decision, the entire grand meeting hall erupted in an uproar. Except for a few family elders who had been given a heads-up, almost every Yi family member present at the meeting expressed their disapproval. They felt that given the current situation, if everyone from all sectors of the Yi Family worked together, they should be able to suppress the matter first, buying the family more time to come up with a perfect solution.

For a time, the meeting hall was filled with constant debate. Yi Jun's face remained expressionless. After about ten minutes, the clan members, who had been arguing heatedly, noticed that the several highly respected and elderly elders in the family were sitting silently in the front row, not even exchanging a word. Only then did they realize they might have overreacted. Hearing the voices in the hall gradually quiet down, Yi Jun nodded slightly in satisfaction. As Shuhan's Alpha father, he was perfectly clear about her intelligence. His daughter was naturally different from others. As her father, he trusted from the bottom of his heart that Yi Shuhan could handle everything perfectly. Although he was still in the prime of his life and had plenty of time to continue sitting securely in the position of the Yi Family patriarch, there would eventually come a day when he would have to hand over the position to his daughter. He wouldn't feel at ease with anyone but himself in that seat. He understood the current situation in the Alliance very well. As an Omega with exceptionally outstanding mental power, Yi Shuhan was incredibly sought-after and valuable in the eyes of the entire Alliance. In this era, Omegas were often treated as little more than breeding machines. Having held the position of patriarch of a super-family like the Yi Family for so many years, Yi Jun had seen plenty of filth. Although the Alliance repeatedly emphasized human rights and the equality of the three genders, it was ultimately empty talk. In top-tier families, to put it nicely, the family's Omegas were tools for marriage alliances. The more outstanding, the better their genes, and the better their fertility, the greater the benefits an Omega could bring to the family. Many Omegas from top-tier families were tagged with a price from birth. As they grew older, they would undergo comprehensive check-ups annually, sometimes even monthly. Even their food, clothing, and studies were tailor-made by the family. The bodies of those Omegas had to be maintained at the most perfect standard, with optimal fertility. They learned almost exclusively how to be submissive and how to become the most excellent mating partner for an Alpha. Each one was like a family puppet, their final fate being to become an excellent breeding partner, constantly giving birth to outstanding offspring until their physical constitution was ruthlessly depleted.

Families with a bit of compassion would, after dissolving the marriage relationship under Alliance law, keep the physically weak Omega spouse, who had lost their reproductive value, in a small courtyard with a few servants to live out their days in solitude. Inhumane families would either dissolve the marriage and throw the infertile Omega out to fend for themselves, or even more cruelly, directly dispose of the person, burying them in an unknown place without even a tombstone. In the end, no one would remember that such an Omega had ever existed.

And these pathetic Omegas were indoctrinated from a young age with so-called love or the idea of dedicating themselves to benefiting humanity. They were so naive they had no idea how tragic their fate would be. This was what the top-tier families did. Slightly lesser families would even send Omegas who had lost their fertility to underground nightclubs or put them up for sale on the Star Network's dark web with a clear price tag. In the end, some poor Omegas would be completely reduced to playthings, dying amidst endless markings.

Yi Jun had received the strictest and most ancient education of the main Yi Family since childhood. He couldn't stand these inhumane, dark aspects of society. Therefore, he would absolutely not allow even the slightest possibility of his most precious daughter ending up in such a state. He could protect his daughter now, but what about the future? Who could say for sure? What he needed to do was push his daughter, Yi Shuhan, onto the path of the strong. If Shuhan was powerful enough, she could protect herself.

As for Admiral Chi, who had no background and had previously proposed marriage, he had never placed his hopes of protecting his daughter on an outsider.

Yi Jun had been waiting for an opportunity to properly temper his daughter. Although this opportunity was indeed a bit distressing, it was also an excellent one. Since his daughter had already found Admiral Chi, it would be best to let the person involved resolve this incident. If things went smoothly, even the identity of the Yi Family heir could be brought to light openly. If the matter was resolved well, the voices of opposition within the family would also subside, right?

As the head of the family, Yi Jun didn't need to explain these decisions in detail to all the younger members. As for the family elders, he had already analyzed the pros and cons with them. The heir of the Yi Family naturally needed to learn how to handle major family affairs. Yi Shuhan had been obsessed with mechas for so many years, and she had been allowed to do what she loved for so long. It was time for her to start shouldering the family's burdens, especially since this incident was so closely related to her.

Besides announcing his decision, Yi Jun also made arrangements for the series of challenges the Yi Family would face. Although some hot-blooded younger members were still dissatisfied, they ultimately suppressed their anger, deciding to wait and see what kind of results the heir, so highly regarded by the outstanding family patriarch, could achieve this time.

As time dragged on, public opinion simmered and boiled. Although they could never directly confront the Yi Family, the emotions of people communicating on the Star Network and offline grew more and more intense.

The Star Network accounts of many Yi Family members were dug up and lambasted. The Yi Family simply activated account protection for everyone. Some clan members even disconnected their homes from the Star Network, finding that out of sight was out of mind.

Yi Jun also stayed home every day, drinking tea with his wife, watching idol dramas on the Star Network, and reminiscing about their love-filled past. His subordinates had all gone home to their families. During this special period, all they needed to do was stay home and relax.

He wasn't too anxious to ask about Yi Shuhan's progress. He still had faith in his daughter's abilities; it was just a matter of time. At worst, if Yi Shuhan couldn't solve it and the situation became too severe, his Yi Family still had a backup plan. Those other families were truly foolish. Families without a deep cultural foundation were like that—a little money and power, and they become arrogant and conceited, thinking everything is under their control. Ignorant and foolish.

From the first day she returned to the institute, Yi Shuhan couldn't wait to order the robots to clean the lab. Then, she took out the wreckage of Chi Chi's mecha from her space storage device. She ignored the still-to-be-perfected storage device; the most important thing now was to quickly find out what was wrong with Chi Junluo's mecha.

The new Quick Space Jump technology she had installed on Chi Junluo's mecha was a one-time, life-saving escape technique. The powerful tearing force generated by the instantaneous spatial jump would wreck the mecha, but there was absolutely no self-destruct program in it. In the early days when mechas were first produced, they did indeed have self-destruct programs installed. At that time, the Alliance knew little about the Zerg and was filled with fear for those disgusting, powerful life forms. Furthermore, there were old video files passed down from the long-ago Blue Star—whether real or fake, no one knew—that showed alien life forms very similar to the Zerg that could parasitize human bodies and control them to do terrible things. So, in those early years, once a mecha was damaged to a certain extent, the self-destruct program would activate. This was to prevent warriors fighting the Zerg from bringing back any Zerg that might parasitize humans to their hard-won homes, and to avoid the inevitable extinction of all humanity.

It wasn't until later, when a special team captured a disabled, weak Zerg and brought it back to the Alliance for research, that they discovered these Zerg had no parasitic abilities. Only then did the Alliance Military order the removal of all self-destruct devices. Of course, only the high-ranking military officials and the Yi Family, who manufactured the mechas, knew about this. Such information could never be revealed to ordinary Alliance citizens, as it would cause unnecessary panic and anger.

Hundreds of years had passed since then. Yi Shuhan had been in contact with the Yi Family's military-industrial complex that produced mechas. She knew very well that modern mechas had no self-destruct devices or programs. Yet, Chi Chi had told her earlier that when she first woke up, she heard the sound of some self-destruct program. She found it strange at the time and immediately realized that Chi Chi's mecha had definitely been tampered with.

Therefore, as soon as the lab was cleaned, she immediately began to study the scrapped mecha. She was arguably the top mecha manufacturer of this era. She would never allow her proudest creation to be used by villains who loved using conspiracies and tricks to frame the person she liked. Chi Chi was so important to her, but perhaps it was her negligence that gave someone an opportunity! Although Chi Chi was no longer in mortal danger, she had suffered such severe injuries. If she had made the mecha more perfect, with a more complete protection system, maybe her Chi Chi wouldn't have had to go through all this?

Yi Shuhan berated herself inwardly while speeding up her work.

The once unique silver-white mecha had been ravaged by various attacks, then torn apart by the powerful forces of the Quick Space Jump, and finally burned to a mess by the self-destruct program. Its former grandeur was long gone. Yi Shuhan's heart was bleeding. If a mecha from her hands was destroyed in a battle against the Zerg, even if it was reduced to a pile of slag, that would be its proper end, a worthy death. But the thought that this was all orchestrated by fellow humans, compatriots of the Alliance, made her furious. She had to find out who was behind framing her Chi Chi, and who had defiled her sacred mecha!

Because the mecha was severely damaged and almost all of its system components were burned out, finding the tampered parts was incredibly difficult. The atmosphere in the lab became extremely tense.

Chi Junluo sat alone in the rest area. On the table, there was fast food and Nutrient Solution that Yi Shuhan had a robot deliver, along with some refrigerated juice-like drinks. Yi Shuhan spent years in the research institute and rarely ate such food, subsisting on either convenient fast food or the absolutely convenient Nutrient Solution. She had brought Chi Chi back in a hurry, so of course, she hadn't prepared normal meals. Moreover, Admiral Chi's existence was a top-secret matter. She couldn't even trust her long-time subordinates with the knowledge of Chi Chi's presence, so she couldn't ask them to prepare food and daily necessities. She could only ask her Chi Chi to bear with it for now. Fearing Chi Chi would be bored alone, she had specially left the light screen for her to pass the time, which also allowed Chi Chi to look up information and see what she wanted to see.

Chi Junluo wasn't particularly interested in the Nutrient Solution she had tasted before, so she chose to eat the fast food and then started exploring the Star Network.

As the night grew later, Chi Junluo pulled her attention back from the Star Network to reality. Unconsciously, it was already late at night. She stood up, washed up in the rest area's bathroom, and changed into the pajamas the Omega girl had prepared for her. Fortunately, Yi Shuhan usually liked loose-fitting pajamas; otherwise, the taller Alpha Chi Chi wouldn't have been able to fit into them.

The silver-white mask had long been taken off by Chi Junluo and placed on the bedside table. When she looked in the mirror earlier, she saw the scars on this body's face. She discovered that the scars had started to fade. Originally, her entire left eye area was covered in burns. In the mirror just now, half of the area around her left eye had returned to normal. Her left eyeball, which had been freed from the burn scars by the doctors in the hospital and had become somewhat cloudy, had also regained its luster. She hadn't felt any blurriness in her left eye since waking up from that absurd incident two days ago. It seemed it had recovered back then.

Chi Junluo obediently lay down on the bed. The bed was very large, and she deliberately lay on one side, feeling a little apprehensive. They hadn't slept in the same bed since that day. But the situation was complicated now, and she could only stay in the Omega girl's research lab. It was obvious that usually only the girl was here; everything was for a single person. Even her toiletries were retrieved from the warehouse by a robot.

Shaking her head, Chi Junluo was still thinking about the heroine of this world whom she had never met. She wondered when the Heavenly Dao would appear. If the Heavenly Dao returned, perhaps there would be a solution...

The person in the rest area, due to her injuries, drifted off to sleep on the soft, spacious bed while lost in thought.

Yi Shuhan dismantled and studied the mecha until the early hours of the morning. Only then did she manage to repair the recoverable parts from the nearly burnt-out components and finally found the implanted program in the restored system.

The self-destruct program was disguised as an accessory disk for the space jump and was cleverly linked to both the space jump program and the mecha's micro self-check program. Yi Shuhan opened the program's compilation package and examined it carefully, making another discovery. In the middle-to-latter part of the self-destruct program's code, she found a new program link. This new link was also connected to the mecha's micro self-check program. The difference was that this program's command was to divert a large amount of the mecha's reserve energy into the self-checker's detection port. The consequence of such a command was that a massive wave of energy would directly impact the brain of the person undergoing the mecha's check through the detection port!

Only then did Yi Shuhan understand why Chi Chi's brain, protected by such high-intensity mental power, had been damaged so severely!

Getting up from the control screen, Yi Shuhan stretched her somewhat stiff body. The lights in the rest area were already off. On the large bed, one side of the quilt was slightly raised. Yi Shuhan walked over to Chi Junluo, using the faint light coming from the lab. After her eyes adjusted to the dimness, Yi Shuhan looked at the soundly sleeping Chi Chi, her calm face devoid of any extra expression. She wanted to reach out and gently touch Chi Chi's cheek, but in the end, she withdrew her hand. It was better not to disturb Chi Chi's recovery. She decided to investigate this matter overnight. Who was the mastermind behind this?!

She walked out of the rest area, and the door closed softly and automatically behind her.

They had provoked someone she cared about so much and stirred up trouble on the Yi Family's turf. She would make those arrogant, ignorant wastes of space pay the ultimate price. Whether it was for her only friend from before, or for this future lover whose feelings she had belatedly come to understand, she would not let Chi Chi suffer such great harm for nothing!

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