The next day, Bai Muxing spent a long time browsing the trading website.
With a few days left until his subsidy came down, he hadn’t given up hope yet and wanted to see if there were any overlooked opportunities.
Bai Muxing clicked on one listing, carefully reviewed the information, and then opened the seller’s dialogue box.
Bai Muxing: [Hello, can the price of the agricultural and ranching star you posted on the trading website be negotiated?]
The seller replied after a few hours: [It’s already very low! When I bought it, it cost four hundred million interstellar credits; now I’m selling it for one hundred and thirty million!]
Bai Muxing: [Can you do eighty million? I can pay in full.]
Seller: […???]
Seller: [??? How did the fingertips of a carbon-based lifeform type out such cold and unreasonable words?!]
The other side sent an emoticon “Fine, fine, fine, you’re a primary schooler; I’ll give it to you for free and even pay for the postage.jpg” angrily.
Then, with a “click,” the dialogue box was cut off, unilaterally ending the communication.
Before Bai Muxing could send another message, a reminder popped up on the interface.
[Sorry, you have been blocked by the other party and cannot initiate communication!]
Bai Muxing: “…”
Unsurprisingly, this negotiation also ended in failure.
Actually, the other party’s asking price was quite reasonable; one hundred and thirty million was a price that had a high probability of selling on the trading website after being listed for a while.
He cut off nearly half of it right from the start, so it was no wonder the other party got so angry and blocked him directly.
Lately, Bai Muxing had been bargaining with various sellers, and he was getting numb to being rejected.
Encountering sellers with bad tempers would even get him scolded.
He put down the light brain and massaged his temples a few times, suppressing the faint soreness in his head.
To make that accident look more convincing, the blood he shed was all real, and he did suffer quite a bit.
His body was noticeably weaker now; just spending a long time on the StarNet felt draining.
He closed his eyes and rested for a while.
Just as Bai Muxing regained his spirits, ready to start tormenting the next seller, he switched to the message page and suddenly found a notification in the background.
The system reminded him of a private message from a stranger on the forum.
Bai Muxing opened it and saw a message asking about the shelf life of moonshadow grass seeds—a very basic question, obviously from someone even newer than him.
Bai Muxing has been immersed in studying farming knowledge these days, leaving comments on many posts. This person might have come to ask based on those comments.
He wasn’t interested in doing voluntary education for beginners, so he glanced at the message and was about to close it when he caught sight of the person’s forum ID.
His movement halted.
[Black Emperor].
Black Emperor—
This title, even for those who were far from the war and resided in the capital system, would not feel unfamiliar.
Bai Muxing’s gaze on the light brain screen slightly drifted, sinking into a short moment of recollection.
It was back when he had just started his service.
The universe was vast, with various races besides humans, and not only humans, who walked upright and considered themselves superior beings, possessed civilization and wisdom.
Bai Muxing had fought alongside the army and had seen many different races that were vastly different from humans.
Among them, there was a kind, a kind referred to by humans as “Yijia”, an exotic creature. It was said that their bodies were so robust that they could withstand the pressure of cosmic rays and vacuum, making them one of the very few organisms capable of freely traversing the cosmos, relying solely on their physical bodies.
They seemed to be solitary creatures, spending most of their time alone navigating the cosmos. Some speculated that some of them could traverse through space and time. However, because the recorded states of these creatures were chaotic and unable to communicate, such speculations remained one-sided conjecture and imagination, and had not been confirmed.
In any case, they roamed aimlessly in the dark universe, seemingly spending their entire lives searching for something elusive.
When their lives reached their end, they would instinctively venture into the chaotic turbulence of the galaxy, their bodies crushed into stardust by magnetic fields, eventually becoming part of the core of a newly born planet after long evolution.
Such a unique and magnificent life process perhaps contained rules that humanity wouldn’t touch even after millions of years of further evolution.
These descriptions were somewhat exaggerated and absurd. When he first heard about it, Bai Muxing always thought there must be an intentional or unintentional exaggeration by the recorders. He just took it as a myth to listen to.
Until that day, when he had just arrived with the legion on the warship and participated in his first battle, he saw a living Yijia on the battlefield with his own eyes.
Bai Muxing would never forget that day when he glimpsed through the ship’s remote sensing viewer and saw a corner of the body that seemed to have been condensed from the most fierce particle storm. The enormous shadow was like an insurmountable mountain, appearing near the border line.
By the time the army discovered it, the owner of the body was almost crossing the empire’s border.
The crystallization of human pride in technology could only peer at a small part of it. The steel-like hair and the dark, cold scales could be vaguely seen. The dark silver flow glided over it, colder and more enduring than all the starlight within the range of vision.
Just this small part of the body that could be glimpsed plunged the Imperial army, equipped with thousands of people, into a deathly silence.
It seemed truly to be the creature of chaos, as the rumors said, always in a state of irrational madness.
The body, without discernible boundaries, continuously disintegrated and reorganized, spreading a kind of madness and bloody oppression that even permeated the vacuum of space, extending over the crowd.
The cold, dim silver flowed over its body, as if some cruel and meaningless gaze was shrouding the humans below, tiny like ants.
Even if the opponent was alone, nobody would think they could defeat it after witnessing such a form with their own eyes.
The Imperial army had to prepare for total annihilation, causing enormous panic when news reached the capital planet.
However, after several hours of stalemate, the Yijia inexplicably left.
Its departure was as abrupt as its arrival. The war never escalated, leaving only some vague, pitch-black images barely captured by monitors, lingering in the headlines of the StarNet for a long time.
People named the exotic creature that accidentally breached the Imperial border “Black Emperor.”
This name served to commemorate the dark cloud that overshadowed the country during the few hours of its presence on the Imperial border.
After detailed research and tracing the origins of the Yijia race, some of the images presented by the entity matched the characteristics of the “royal bloodline” within the Yijia.
In other words, the Yijia that appeared on the Imperial border might have indeed been a leader of its tribe.
The name “Black Emperor,” carrying the colors of human fantasy, surprisingly hit the mark.
The silver light flowing over its body was actually its blood. Only the blood of the royal Yijias was silver, undoubtedly indicating that the Yijia was severely injured at the time.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lbkfnfg, ktja xlcv bo fzlrafcmf mbeiv mjerf tjgw ab remt j afggloslcu yflcu?
Ktf eclnfgrf lr njra, jcv tewjclas lr pera j nfgs rwjii qjga bo la, klat wjcs defralbcr ralii ecjcrkfgfv.
Lbkfnfg, ab atlr vjs, gfwfwyfglcu atf lwjuf bo atf rlinfg iluta oibklcu bnfg atf mgfjaegf’r ybvs, Djl Zezlcu’r tfjga kbeiv ralii rxlq j yfja obg j wbwfca.
Not because of anything else, but—
That Yijia really resembled a giant silver star.
The kind that existed in Bai Muxing’s initial fantasies—that eternal, silvery, cold misty starlight.
Bai Muxing had always been aloof since childhood, hardly experiencing any intense emotional fluctuations, making it hard to say what he truly loved.
But he had an abnormal interest in the stars, a pursuit of the unknown, distant, and dangerous, which formed his earliest desire for the world before he even learned to speak.
But as Bai Muxing grew older, he was disappointed. He learned that most of the shining stars in the sky were only reflecting the light of the stars. Once approached, they would extinguish.
And the remaining stars, serving as sources of light, were too hot to bear; those burning planets consumed all tangible life that attempted to approach them.
But that Yijia was different. It emitted light, yet remained silent and cold, not burning people.
The silver light pouring out of its disintegrating and reorganizing body resembled a star bleeding.
Being so close, it seemed like he could truly reach out and touch the silver star.
Bai Muxing seldom found anything beautiful.
But he felt that the star he saw that day was truly beautiful.
…
Because he had witnessed such an existence that transcended human imagination on his first battlefield, his mind remained unaffected by even the most terrifying enemies encountered in subsequent wars.
From this perspective, he should be grateful to the entity.
Bai Muxing snapped out of his reverie.
His gaze returned to the person who had sent the inquiry on the forum.
He thought that someone with the forum ID “Black Emperor” must be quite young, perhaps going through a phase of adolescent grandiosity, to choose such a name.
Seeking attention from the crowd.
Bai Muxing tapped the light brain screen.
Normally, he wouldn’t answer questions from strangers.
However, his gaze lingered on the ID filled with adolescent vibes for a moment, and in the end, he didn’t close the message.
Oh well, if it could evoke such a memory for himself, it wasn’t too bad.
After a brief thought, he edited an answer and sent it to “Black Emperor.”
Black Emperor: [Thank you, thank you! You’re so amazing!]
The person on the other side replied instantly.
Even though the message had been sent hours ago, almost the next second after Bai Muxing’s reply was sent, the response from the other party popped up, as if they were sitting in front of the light brain doing nothing but waiting specifically for Bai Muxing’s reply.
Black Emperor jubilantly continued: [Thank you so much! Can I add you as a friend?]
The other person enthusiastically thanked Bai Muxing, then swiftly sent a friend request.
Bai Muxing: “…”
Was it still possible for him to retract the message now?
This strong middle schooler vibe gave him a somewhat uneasy feeling.
***
Black Emperor: [Link 1, link 2. These are suitable agricultural and ranching stars on FY57! Take a look!]
Black Emperor: [Picture 1, this one is good, the scenery and temperature are suitable for humans, and there aren’t many high-risk species, it’s very good!]
Black Emperor: [Picture 2, picture 3. And these ones…]
Bai Muxing, seeing over a dozen unread messages in the message list: “…”
Actually, the day Black Emperor sent the friend request, Bai Muxing simply ignored it, swiftly closing the dialogue box to pretend he hadn’t seen the subsequent messages.
Answering the person’s question was just a momentary impulse; he really wasn’t interested in socializing with strangers on the internet.
Bai Muxing decided not to reply.
A normal person would likely understand the subtle rejection after being brushed off like this.
When someone was given such a cold response, most people would likely have understood the implied rejection.
But this elementary school netizen clearly lacked the emotional intelligence, even more so than Bai Muxing, in reading people’s expressions.
He was trying too hard, Bai Muxing thought. As he finished browsing and returned to his messages, the other party had already sent a dozen messages, all centered around “how happy he was” and “how amazing Bai Muxing was,” as if completely oblivious to his indifference.
Bai Muxing: “…”
Who knows, he only answered a very basic question for the guy, the kind that one could easily find the answer to by searching for keywords on the forum, not like he had solved some profound mystery. He wondered why this elementary schooler was licking his boots so enthusiastically.
Maybe it was because the other guy seemed so clueless that he didn’t pose any threat?
Anyway, when he came to his senses, he had already accidentally accepted the friend request from the other party and added their light brain communication number.
Since he had already added him, Bai Muxing felt embarrassed to delete him.
Even though his emotional intelligence wasn’t high, he knew that would be a bit too much.
[Black Emperor] thus became the only online friend in his contact list.
Bai Muxing clicked on the link and went through the content the other party had sent. Some of it he had seen before, but there were also some he hadn’t found.
After carefully reviewing everything and filling in the gaps, Bai Muxing replied.
White: [Thank you. You don’t need to help me find it anymore. Don’t you need to go to school?]
Ever since that day he casually mentioned looking for a suitable agricultural and ranching planet, the Black Emperor seemed to have found something important to do. Every day, he eagerly sent various pieces of information about suitable planets and analyzed their various conditions.
It seemed quite genuine.
Although his communication still displayed a certain clumsiness and lacked some common sense, it was evident that he had done his homework in earnest regarding the information Bai Muxing needed.
This online friend, whom Bai Muxing had only met on the forum due to a simple question, seemed genuinely eager to help him.
Despite the obvious goodwill and friendly gestures, Bai Muxing couldn’t help but notice.
Though this goodwill seemed somewhat unwarranted, he should technically be cautious.
But the other party… Perhaps he really was just an immature kid without much sense of boundaries?
This kind of clumsy yet straightforward display of goodwill, compared to the manipulative nature of people he had experienced in his past life, didn’t elicit any repulsion from him.
Despite its slight foolishness, it made him wonder if he was indeed chatting with an elementry-schooler, but it wasn’t off-putting.
After accidentally accepting the friend request from the other party, Bai Muxing’s initial headache of dealing with a child seemed to have subsided. He didn’t feel as strong a sense of regret as before.
Of course, it would be better if the other party could reduce the frequency of their messages.
Bai Muxing drifted off for a moment and realized that the other party hadn’t replied yet.
—This was somewhat unusual, considering the other party always replied to his messages instantly.
He glanced at his last message and noticed that after he asked about going to school, the other person strangely fell silent.
Clearly, this was a topic the “Black Emperor” was reluctant to discuss.
Huh? There are times when the other person ignores him?
Was it because his grades were bad and he didn’t want to talk about it?
Even though Bai Muxing had been held back by the reading comprehension project , he, who had never ranked outside the top three of his grade since he started school, couldn’t help but glance sideways.
White: [What level are you in? College?]
There was still no response from the other side.
White: [Intermediate Preparatory College?]
The person on the other end remained silent as if they had disconnected, but the online indicator light was still on.
White: [Or elementary school?]
Could it really be an elementary school student?
The Black Emperor finally spoke up: [Picture. This one is also good; it’s a water husbandry characteristic planet capable of producing several kinds of relatively rare specialties.]
Just—
A very abrupt change of topic.
It was rare to have moments when the other person didn’t want to talk.
He probably has really bad grades.
Bai Muxing hadn’t considered the possibility that the other person might not have gone to school.
Imperial regulations stipulated that only individual light brains could connect to the stellar network. Although light brains weren’t particularly expensive, they weren’t something everyone could afford. Anyone who could afford a light brain wouldn’t have trouble affording an education, right?
Although the other person’s response was interesting, Bai Muxing wasn’t very curious by nature.
Just being able to ask a few questions actively was quite rare for him.
He changed the subject.
White: [No need to help me find it, I can’t afford the land in these star regions.]
As soon as they stopped talking about school matters, the Black Emperor immediately stopped playing dead and replied promptly.
Black Emperor: [Not enough? How much is your budget?]
White: [Kids shouldn’t ask about these things.]
Black Emperor: […QAQ]
Black Emperor: [I’m not a kid! I’m almost an adult!]
Oh, still not an adult; indeed, still a kid.
Bai Muxing thought that he didn’t even need to pry, this silly kid on the other end would probably spill all his secrets in no time.
Seeing no response from him, Black Emperor persisted: [How short are you?]
Bai Muxing didn’t know why the kid was so persistent in asking these questions, where did his unplaced curiosity come from?
But he still replied earnestly.
White: [Forty to fifty million interstellar credits.]
The other person remained silent again, but Bai Muxing didn’t pay much attention. He picked up the cup placed beside him and took a sip of water.
As soon as he put down the cup, his light brain made a “ding” sound, indicating a notification: [You have a large transfer; please check it!]
Bai Muxing clicked to check and found out that the Black Emperor had transferred fifty million interstellar credits to him.
Bai Muxing: ?
His back, leaning against the soft pillow, straightened slightly in surprise.
He looked at it for a while, confirming that it was indeed a real transfer, not some scam.
Fifty million interstellar credits had been deposited into his account, ready to be withdrawn at any time.
Bai Muxing fell into thought.
This elementary school student was actually so wealthy? He transferred fifty million interstellar credits to a stranger just like that.
For a normal family, this would be an unimaginable sum of money!
Even novels wouldn’t dare to write such absurd plots.
However, the Empire’s territory was so vast, and there were countless wealthy people. It seemed like it wasn’t so bizarre for someone to casually transfer tens of millions of interstellar credits to a netizen.
So, after a moment of surprise, Bai Muxing calmed down. He felt that the world was full of wonders, and he happened to bump into one of them.
Compared to reincarnation, encountering a wealthy elementary school student online was nothing.
After a brief astonishment, Bai Muxing immediately transferred the money back.
It was indeed a very tempting sum of money, but he wouldn’t take money from a minor. That would be crossing a line.
Bai Muxing: [Thank you. But I don’t need it.]
The next second, the Black Emperor transferred it back to him. Bai Muxing transferred it back again, but the Black Emperor stubbornly sent it back… They went back and forth several times, as if the fifty million interstellar credits were not a huge sum of money but rather a hot potato.
Even the system prompted him if there was any amount dispute and if he needed help.
Bai Muxing typed quickly: [Stop transferring. If you transfer again, I’ll delete you.]
This threat worked effectively, and the other party finally stopped the relentless transfer of money to Bai Muxing.
Bai Muxing said sternly: [Don’t casually transfer money to strangers.]
Black Emperor: [But don’t you need money?]
He looked perfectly dumb and dazed.
Bai Muxing: “…”
He didn’t know what expression to make for a moment.
Bai Muxing couldn’t be bothered to respond to such a silly question and sent a few posts about preventing new era StarNet scams.
Bai Muxing: [Read them.]
The Black Emperor was very obedient: [Okay!]
Then he didn’t say anything else and probably went to read the posts.
Bai Muxing, after giving the minor an anti-fraud education, went about his own business until he received a new message from the other party in the evening.
Black Emperor: [I’ve read them.]
Black Emperor: [Screenshots.]
Black Emperor: [This one says that online dating scams are the most common StarNet scams. Are we dating online?]
Bai Muxing: …?
From what angle did this miraculous conclusion come?
No, the key point was “are we”? This person completely misunderstood the central theme of the article.
Where did this fool come from?
***
On the other end.
In front of the light brain sat a tall figure… probably a humanoid man.
Its appendages… or what could barely be called hands, were holding a book.
The title of the book was “How to Melt His Heart with Enthusiasm: 100 Clever Tips for Interpersonal Communication!”
It flipped through a couple of pages from time to time.
However, it seemed like it wasn’t very skilled at being a person, with parts of its body falling off here and there.
It was being grabbed back by black appendages protruding from who knows where and reattached, making for quite a bizarre sight.
The two S-class senior alpha officers next to him, seeing this scene, completely lost control of their facial expressions, their facial muscles twitching, looking like they wanted to burst open on the spot.
If anyone familiar with the military and political circles saw their faces, they would probably be extremely surprised.
Because one of them was the renowned General Sith, hailed as the Empire’s sharpest blade, while the other had just completed his promotion and leaped to become the second in command in the military, General Mirif.
These two generals, if seen by the public, would undoubtedly present an image of dignity and an awe-inspiring presence.
But now they completely lacked the calm and steady demeanor they usually displayed on the holonet, instead sitting with straight backs, tense expressions, visible nervousness, and vigilance.
The two S-class officers were deeply troubled, not knowing what sin they had committed to be assigned to provide special guidance for integrating this alien creature into Imperial life.
Although they were the Empire’s top warriors, the monstrous being before them was beyond the capabilities of the human power structure to measure.
Just the unintentional display of its power made them feel a pressure akin to facing death, more terrifying than surviving on the battlefield.
And this was even in a situation where the alien race showed no intention of attacking.
If the creature harbored hostility toward them, they had no doubt that, the moment they made eye contact, they would be crushed into a puddle of flesh.
These few days had been nothing short of the most realistic nightmare they had ever experienced.
But even so, they could not retreat.
As S-class alphas, they enjoyed the highest level of resources and had grown into the top combat force in the country. When facing such dangerous tasks that were critical to the safety of the entire Empire, it was certainly their duty.
Moreover, considering the immense power possessed by the other party—enough to crush half of the Empire—and to avoid causing panic, the secrecy level of this mission was extremely high. Only a few high-ranking officials in political and military circles, not exceeding single digits, knew the details of the mission, and the selection process was extremely stringent.
But this task was really hard to handle!
The threat of the power gap was just one aspect. What made them particularly distressed was the mysterious mindset of this alien race, which often left people at a loss.
For example, their first request was to learn about the Empire’s agriculture and animal husbandry!
For advanced military officers who had been carrying out dangerous missions for years and knew nothing about farming, this was simply baffling.
Their expertise was completely mismatched!
Faced with this, they were at a loss and had to urgently seek external assistance.
Ignoring their colleagues’ teasing and questioning about suddenly taking an interest in farming, they gathered detailed information overnight to satisfy the demands of this alien race.
Then there were some questions that they couldn’t think deeply about, like “How to be a charming person” or “Contemporary popular internet slang”—in short, none of them were normal.
Now, the humanoid figure, after pondering for a while in front of the intelligent light brain, slowly spoke again.
Whether it was an illusion of the officers, it seemed like there was confusion and plaintiveness in the dark, low voice: “How can I engage in online romance with people?”
S-class officers: “…”
It’s not that they couldn’t understand, but rather, it left them feeling dumbfounded!
Was this alien race sick? What kind of bizarre questions were these?!
…They might as well go back to executing those high-risk tasks on the battlefield!
Thank you for the chapter 😍 ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
This is so adorable
Agreed!! I love the name of the book he’s(?) reading, too – though the poor guy needs better reference material 🤣 I wonder why he said he’s “almost an adult”
Thank you for translating this! It started as a very sweet novel. I hope it continues this way.
Thank you for the chapter!! I can’t wait for more! 😆
Kinda curious if this alien came to the empire in the past life too..
The alien having elementary school kid thought process is so fitting 😂😂 jiayou, mr alien! Here’s to successfully wooing mr bai~
This is pretty funny
pfft- “Even novels won’t have this absurd plot” The author did not xD Also hubby is just trying to learn so he can pursue his wife better 😔❤️ I’m guessing he fell in love at first sight after seeing that one message or he saw him on the spaceship years ago and fell in love or sum and continued to monitor him, and not adult yet… god it’ll be terrifying when he becomes an adult then 😰
Hmm I wonder if he caused the reincarnation and followed along based on that one meeting