AGTCTCC Chapter 7
by VolareChapter 7 Energy Measurement Day
Sang Quan Shi Li came out and saw Chu Qi alone.
“Where’s the peacock?”
Chu Qi looked up, gesturing for Sang Quan Shi Li to look over.
Noticing the change in Chu Qi’s expression, Sang Quan Shi Li also looked over: “…”
In the cold white beam of the explosion-proof lamp, the young man was like an upside-down night bat, clinging to the mech’s outer shell. His drooping bangs floated gently in the air, revealing faint blue veins at his brow bone.
Surprisingly, gravity seemed especially kind to him. Under his porcelain-white skin, there was no sign of blood congestion. On the contrary, the inverted perspective revealed a kind of inhuman sharpness, like a thinned knife’s spine, ready to cut through the solidified air at any moment.
Asleep…asleep?
Sang Quan turned his head, his eyes dark as he looked at Chu Qi.
You’re not letting the kid sleep?
Chu Qi was silent, avoiding his gaze.
…
The Main Star has an Energy Measurement Day every year. On this day, instructors from various bases come to pick out good prospects.
Unlike Chu Qi’s magnetic force test that day, this one would classify Spiritual Power more precisely by grade and domain.
Most importantly, there were no restrictions on who could register.
Chu Qi wanted Xiang Li to enter military academy. To get in, he had to ensure his abilities met the standard before the Energy Measurement Day a month later.
Chu Qi created a daily schedule for Xiang Li. Xiang Li had good talent, but combat couldn’t rely on talent alone.
But he didn’t expect the person in question to have any intention of refuting him, after all, the schedule he made was quite packed.
As Chu Qi applied the calibrator to the back of Xiang Li’s sweaty neck, the electronic light screen popped up with the 17th simulated test data.
The young man’s back under his Combat Suit was as taut as a fully drawn bow, and fluorescent blue neural feedback lines crawled across his skin.
Chu Qi tapped the floating screen with his finger, and the holographic projection modeled the wound on Xiang Li’s left arm, torn by a virtual Polluted Entity, in meticulous detail.
Xiang Li tilted his head back and poured down the third Energy Mixture, the bobbing of his Adam’s apple tugging at the unhealed burn on his collarbone.
Xiang Li bared his teeth: “Hiss…”
That was a souvenir from being grazed by a photon cannon in the simulation pod three days ago.
Although it was an old wound, Chu Qi stared at it, feeling that Xiang Li’s self-healing ability was a little too good.
Chu Qi said in a deep voice: “Don’t you want to ask why I set the pain simulation to 80%?”
Chu Qi deliberately applied the repair gel heavily.
The muscles in Xiang Li’s lower back twitched violently, and sweat rolled down his spine into the elastic waistband of his Combat Pants.
The young man buried his face in his arms and laughed, a muffled vibration coming from his chest.
“Chu Officer even controls how many times I go to the bathroom every day, does this kind of question need an answer?”
Xiang Li acted like a damsel in distress, asking for praise: “Am I training hard enough?”
Chu Qi also suddenly realized at this moment that since implanting that schedule, accurate to the minute, into the other’s holographic system,
This guy, who initially always liked to bite his Combat Gloves between his teeth, seemed to have never let the training room’s alarm sound again.
Even the time his bone fractured, it was him who told him about it, acting like a damsel in distress.
Chu Qi softened his hand applying the medicine, remaining silent, his mind wandering again.
The day before Energy Measurement Day.
Xiang Li knocked on Chu Qi’s door, holding a nebula velvet pillow.
“Officer, may I come in?” Xiang Li opened a crack in the door, poked his head in, and tilted his head to look at Chu Qi.
Chu Qi rubbed his temples, closing the light panel in front of him. He had mentioned to Xiang Li several times whether he wanted to change his title, but Xiang Li refused every time.
“Officer, do you want to develop a relationship with me that goes beyond superior and subordinate?”
Whenever he heard this, Chu Qi would silently add in his heart: Isn’t that what I want?
Chu Qi looked over. The person at the door lowered his eyes, looking preoccupied, and a few strands of black hair hung down, covering the person’s delicate eyebrows and eyes.
An unhappy beautiful child.
“The Energy Measurement Day is tomorrow. What’s the matter that you aren’t resting but came to find me?” Chu Qi glanced at the time and asked.
Xiang Li entered, closing the door. Just as Chu Qi thought he was going to say something like “Chu Officer, I’m too nervous to sleep, can I sleep with you tonight,” preparing himself for another restless night,
But today, Xiang Li just stood at the door, pursing his lips, and asked him.
“Chu Officer.”
Chu Qi nodded, signaling for the other to continue.
“Can I sleep outside tonight?”
“Huh?”
Unexpectedly, Chu Qi frowned in confusion.
Xiang Li lied without changing his expression: “I don’t want others to find out that I’m with you tomorrow, I’m afraid they’ll say I’m using connections.”
Chu Qi tilted his head slightly, a moment of confusion in his eyes.
What was there to say about this? The number of recruits accepted each year depended on how much those old guys managed to snatch, the quota wasn’t fixed.
So every year, the few old guys who recruited would train in advance in the days leading up to the Energy Measurement Day, striving to win if they couldn’t snatch recruits.
The person in front of him lowered his eyes, his dark eyelashes covering half of his eyes, and softened his voice: “It’s fine if they say I’m using connections, but how can they gossip about Chu Officer? That would damage your reputation.”
“So I should sleep outside tonight, I’ll go by myself tomorrow.”
Chu Qi asked, “Where will you stay?”
The beautiful child walked over, squatted down, looked up, his entire face exposed in front of Chu Qi, smiling brightly.
“I have a place to stay, I just came to tell you, hee hee.”
Chu Qi was silent for a moment, then, looking at the face in front of him, he compromised and took out a gray-black metal bracelet from the side drawer.
Chu Qi: “For you.”
Xiang Li was a little surprised: “A communicator?”
“Yes, Sang Quan just finished making it today and sent it over. Originally, I thought it was too late today, so I was going to give it to you as a reward when you joined the army tomorrow.”
Xiang Li caught the key point: “What if I don’t get in?”
“As a consolation prize.”
Chu Qi put the metal bracelet on Xiang Li’s wrist. The black bracelet was quietly manipulated by someone, firmly encircling Xiang Li’s wrist. It flickered faintly under the light, sparkling, barely noticeable if you didn’t look closely.
“Be careful.” Chu Qi said carefully.
Xiang Li stood on the side of the road. He raised one hand upward, the communicator on his wrist still flashing a faint light, rhythmically blinking as if merging with its owner’s breathing.
“Xiang Li.”
Someone suddenly put a hand on his shoulder. Xiang Li looked up. An uncle was standing next to him, greeting him, bringing the cigarette in his fingertips to his mouth.
The man had a beard, his features hidden under his hat were blurred, and his figure wasn’t thin, but at first glance, he made people feel that he was very weak, like a seriously ill patient.
“Old Yan.” Xiang Li said.
Yan Zhou Ping nodded calmly, turned around and left. Xiang Li also put his hands in his pockets, quietly following behind Old Yan.
The two came to a house. There was no one here, which was convenient for Old Yan to research some medicines at ordinary times.
Yan Zhou Ping swiped his palm on the scanner on the door, and took the opportunity to ask: “You’re following Chu Qi, is there a problem?”
“Old Yan.”
Xiang Li put his hands in his pockets, seemingly smiling intriguingly because Chu Qi was mentioned.
“Chu Qi was basically raised by me. I taught him all his little tricks. Rest assured.”
Yan Zhou Ping stepped aside to let Xiang Li in first, closed the door and poured a cup of tea for Xiang Li.
“At first, you said you wanted to use Chu Qi to enter the army, I didn’t care, but why go through the Energy Measurement?”
He got straight to the point.
“You saved Chu Qi, it shouldn’t be difficult to get a direct recommendation based on the kindness of saving his life, right?”
Xiang Li took the teacup, held the cup with both hands. The tea was calm and steady, reflecting Xiang Li’s expressionless face.
Hearing this, he raised his head and spread his hands helplessly.
“Chu Qi won’t waste a spot on me, he says nice things, but they’re all jokes.”
“He can’t really ‘commit himself to me’ just because I saved his life. Chu Qi just sees me as a kid, a kid who might have some talent.”
Xiang Li said it himself helplessly, he didn’t expect Chu Qi to be so difficult to seduce.
At the same time, he sighed inwardly, Chu Qi was still the same as when he was a child, he still couldn’t learn to read minds after so many years.
“Xiang Li, Chu Qi’s father saved you, and you saved Chu Qi now, you’re even.” Yan Zhou Ping lit a cigarette and said.
The air fell silent because of Yan Zhou Ping’s words, and finally Xiang Li opened his mouth to change the topic.
“The reason I came to you today is to ask you not to stir things up tomorrow. I have a way to get past the Energy Measurement Stone.”
“Oh?” Yan Zhou Ping exhaled a puff of smoke, the mist blurring the figure in front of him. “Tell me about it first.”
“The day I first came to the Beta Zone base, I had a Spiritual Power measurement done.”
Yan Zhou Ping’s hand holding the cigarette trembled.
“Chu Qi’s blood can suppress my Spiritual Power riot. I haven’t been idle this month either. There’s still a bottle of Chu Qi’s Spiritual Power extract left. There won’t be any problems with tomorrow’s measurement.”
They weren’t human, in other words, they were before.
More than 600 years ago, Xiang Li was ten years old, and the pollution virus hadn’t broken out yet.
He was captured by people from the laboratory to be a test subject. As Chu Qi said, his talent was really good. Among so many test subjects, only Xiang Li lasted until the end.
The powerful Spiritual Power contained in his blood neutralized the Zerg blood, so the laboratory personnel drew his blood again and again.
They injected Xiang Li’s blood into other test subjects, trying to obtain more “Xiang Li’s”.
But the results were not ideal, so Xiang Li was injected with vials of reagents.
They said Xiang Li was a white mouse.
Xiang Li grew to be nineteen years old in the laboratory’s experiments.
The year he was nineteen, a test subject exploded, and the Zerg blood virus was exposed to the air – the virus broke out.
Perhaps because he had been injected with Zerg blood before, these viruses had no effect on them.
In other words, they were just more advanced “Polluted Entities”!
Everyone on Planet C079, full of “companion” Polluted Entities, gradually realized over the years that they would not age and would not die.
But at the same time, accompanied by immortality were various side effects, possibly the periodic rotting that was destined every year, or the constantly devoured body, or the pain of the body being torn apart.
Hearing that the Main Star had researched an antidote for the Polluted Entities, Yan Zhou Ping came, but no one knew the antidote formula in the laboratory. They had tried many times, but had not succeeded once.
To stay on the Main Star and get the antidote, they first had to pretend to be a [normal person].
They didn’t dare to let others discover their existence, so they acted cautiously every time.
Like rats in the sun, trying to disguise themselves as cats.
If their identity was discovered, even if they didn’t die or age, they were outnumbered, and in the eyes of “humans”, they were ready-made antidote samples, unable to escape the fate of being researched.
Yan Zhou Ping and the others were fine, they could mix some of other people’s Spiritual Power at will to pass the Spiritual Power test, but Xiang Li couldn’t.
His Spiritual Power was too strong, few people could suppress his Spiritual Power, but the day he met Chu Qi, he noticed that Chu Qi’s Spiritual Power was great.
As expected, it could only be said that Chu Qi was worthy of being a child he personally taught.
Xiang Li’s eyes were fixed on Yan Zhou Ping.
The main reason he came today was that he was afraid that Old Yan would be noticed after going over tomorrow. Yan Zhou Ping’s face had been exposed before, so it would inevitably be recognized.
Yan Zhou Ping put out the cigarette in his hand.
“Got it, got it, if you have a way to solve it, I won’t go looking for trouble.”
“Okay.” Xiang Li didn’t have anything else to say, turned his head to look around, and asked, “Where do I sleep?”
“Sleep on the sofa.” Yan Zhou Ping said without hesitation.
He glanced at Xiang Li: “There’s only one bed in my house, and you’re not used to sleeping with someone else, where else would you sleep if not on the sofa.”
Then he muttered in a low voice: “I don’t know where you got these bad habits, you’ve slept with everything in the lab back then.”
Xiang Li: “…” Tsk, I knew I should have told Chu Qi to go out for supper.
Early the next morning.
As soon as Chu Qi went out, he saw Xiang Li waiting at the door. The gray mist shrouded the entire Main Star in the morning, and the dew was so heavy that Xiang Li’s hair was still covered with small water droplets.
“Why are you waiting here?” Chu Qi frowned and asked.
He looked Xiang Li up and down at the clothes he was wearing. The morning on the Main Star was still very cold, not to mention Xiang Li, a child, had poor resistance.
Xiang Li’s clothes were not the ones from yesterday. Realizing this, Chu Qi’s eyes darkened.
Xiang Li looked up. Chu Qi stood in the center of his vision, his dark eyelashes trembling, blinking away the water dew on his eyes. He said, “I don’t care what they say.”
Chu Qi brought up Xiang Li’s words from yesterday: “You don’t care what they say about you, what if they scold me?”
Xiang Li paused at Chu Qi’s change of attitude, but immediately changed his tone: “Chu Officer, as my guardian, it’s okay for you to get scolded a little, right?”
Hearing this, Chu Qi’s eyebrows twitched slightly, and the atmosphere around him warmed at Xiang Li’s “guardian”.
In Xiang Li’s eyes, this was tacit consent, and he happily followed Chu Qi onto the car.
The alloy dome of the Energy Measurement Day Square reflected sunlight, and the floating screen circulated the test images of previous talents.
Although there were no restrictions on who could register, generally speaking, they were all students from the academy. After all, the academy would uniformly recruit and cultivate people with some talent.
“Energy field calibrated.”
The electronic sound echoed in the circular corridor, and Xiang Li was pushed by the guide beam through seven encrypted doors, and the titanium silver walls flowed with data waterfalls.
“Number 9.” The staff member looked up and confirmed Xiang Li’s number plate.
“Go measure your Spiritual Power.”
The quantum door of the Ninth Test Room opened silently, and the magnetic Source Stone slab suspended in the center shone with a faint blue cold light.
When Xiang Li pressed his palm on the groove, the monitoring system suddenly emitted a beep.
The gray mist-like Spiritual Power escaping between his fingers was like a living thing. The moment it touched the Energy Measurement Stone, star-like flocculent patterns exploded inside the crystal.
Xiang Li’s dark eyes slowly moved, and his peripheral vision caught the red dot above the room.
Inside the monitoring room, the holographic projection clearly presented the tremor of the teenager’s eyelashes.
Chu Qi loosened his military uniform collar, and the smart light screen was unfolding three-dimensional modeling data layer by layer.
Several people next to him were sitting in a row, and the reduced light panels in each person’s hand automatically displayed Xiang Li’s information.
“Address…Chu Qi, is that your home?”
Someone questioned after seeing Xiang Li’s information.
“Yes.” Chu Qi nodded.
“Tsk.”
The others were dissatisfied.
“I was wondering why you came to see this year, are you showing off that your military academy has another excellent talent?”
Xiang Li’s talent and Spiritual Power data have now been completely transmitted to everyone’s light panels.
The military representative suddenly laughed, tapping a certain spot on the floating screen with his tactical glove: “Look at the energy fluctuation curve. The last time this kind of quantum entanglement state appeared was on the day Chu Officer awakened.”
Someone next to him was still fantasizing. “Do you think he might be willing to come to our medical base?”
Chu Qi looked at the light panel. The person next to him handed it to him so he could see it more clearly, and by the way, rebutted the instructor who had just spoken.
“Chu Qi is already here, how can it be your turn? He’s definitely from our military academy!”
【Xiang Li, Spiritual Power talent Double S, Spiritual Power field expansion, rating: Double S, already developed.】
“Already developed?” Chu Qi raised his eyebrows when he saw this.
“Huh?” The old guys in charge of recruiting at the military academy were busy choking the other old guys from other bases, asking very quickly.
“Is there a problem?”
Chu Qi’s fingertips hovered on the light panel for a moment.
In the picture, the young man suddenly raised his eyes, his dark pupils seeming to penetrate layers of alloy walls, meeting his gaze.
The Energy Measurement Stone storing the chaotic Spiritual Power was restless inside the protective cover, and silver was looming in the gray fog.
Chu Qi returned the light panel. “It’s nothing.”
He fixed his gaze on the person on the screen, gently stroking his fingertips.
The person on the screen didn’t know how his talent was yet, and he could leave after the test.
The Energy Measurement Stone storing Xiang Li’s Spiritual Power flickered twice, and the Spiritual Power contained inside was instantly locked.
The staff took back the Energy Measurement Stone and put another one on again. The empire would uniformly recycle and backup all tested Spiritual Power.
Xiang Li glanced at the Energy Measurement Stone storing his Spiritual Power, pursed his lips, the bones on the side of his face moved slightly, and turned to leave.
In the waiting room, Xiang Li sat in the corner, the Spiritual Power at his fingertips being gently pinched and reassembled by the owner of the hand, and the intense black Spiritual Power was embellished with tiny bits of glittering silver.
“Student, which academy are you from?”