The atmosphere between the Emperor and his minister returned to its usual state, as if they had completely moved past the unpleasantness during their remote communication. Only the System, holding onto Heidrich’s drastically plummeting Hatred Points panel, sighed quietly in Nero’s mind.
The System consoled itself: [Host just likes to exploit bugs for profit, let him be… as long as the Hatred Points meets the requirement at the final plot point…]
Nero and Heidrich discussed post-war reconstruction for a while, but Nero, worried about the condition of an elderly Wolf Knight, wrapped up the conversation hastily and prepared to leave.
Heidrich noticed the Emperor’s hand moving away.
This farewell meant the Emperor would return to the Capital, while Heidrich would continue deep into his territory to fight. Who knew when they would meet again?
So, he discreetly tightened his grip on the boy’s fingertips.
“…The Heka Star System has no mineral resources. If we are to establish the fourth war zone’s Anchor Point there,” he tried to keep Nero engaged with the topic, “we’ll first need to set up a sufficiently large transport fleet to—”
At that moment, a head covered in engine oil suddenly popped out from the maintenance hatch in the command room.
“Sir! The engine is fine; we can depart anytime. Oh, sorry for interrupting, I’ll be going now.”
The adjutant’s appearance and disappearance were equally abrupt, his forehead covered in the daggers Heidrich was shooting at him with his eyes.
Caught off guard by being seen giving an ice pack to a subordinate, Nero’s face turned slightly red. Trying to cover up his embarrassment, he scoffed and tossed the ice pack into Heidrich’s lap, standing back with his hands behind his back, resuming his previous cold and determined demeanor.
“Hand over the accounting matters to me and the Wolf Knights. Depart for the battlefield immediately to avoid missing any opportunities.
“Your Emperor will be waiting in the Capital, hoping for your swift victory.”
The warmth of fingers on his waist and the rose-scented cold fragrance of the undifferentiated Alpha Emperor all left Heidrich at that moment.
Heidrich’s eyes darkened, but he showed nothing on his face. He merely bowed respectfully to the emperor: “I shall follow Your Majesty’s orders.”
…
In this operation on the barren planet, Nero and the support fleet rescued over 3,000 gladiators and 280 Omega slaves from the Star Pirates, all of whom were wearing modified Asimov Collars.
The medics from the Northern Fleet were individually examining their health.
Since Omegas’ appearance and reproductive capabilities determined their sale value, Star Pirates kept them in relatively good physical condition. However, due to their fragile constitution and severe trauma, many exhibited symptoms like convulsions, vomiting, and fainting.
The gladiators, who risked their lives to earn money for the Star Pirates, were in much worse condition.
Nero walked towards the medical ship dedicated to transporting the wounded.
Here, the lighting was bright, the walls white, with sterile glass dividing the space into four-square-meter compartments, each containing a medical pod, IV equipment, and large diagnostic devices.
Most of the gladiators, sedated, were quietly sleeping in the medical pods; a few, still being assessed for anesthetic tolerance, sat outside the pods with numb expressions.
As Nero walked and looked, cold fury burned deep in his red eyes.
He suddenly stopped, and the Wolf Knights following him also halted.
In a clean glass compartment, an elderly Wolf Knight was sitting beside a medical pod.
Under the bright light, the numerous scars on his body were even more striking, though the area around the silver leaf rose tattoo on his chest had relatively fewer scars. Perhaps he had fought desperately to protect it during life-and-death struggles.
Without the master’s orders, he sat blankly on the floor, ignoring the chair beside him.
Nero squatted in front of him to be at eye level.
Then, he asked in the gentlest tone, “Do you remember me? I’m Nero, the youngest and most unworthy prince of the Kaises Family.”
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.
The old Wolf Knight did not respond, his eyes vacant as he looked at him.
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Only when this name was spoken did the old Wolf Knight’s eyes show a faint ripple.
…He was father’s Wolf Knight.
Nero’s fingers clenched and then relaxed.
He could slaughter on the battlefield and had hanged traitors to bleed at the gates of the Solar Palace, but he was not good at dealing with people and events from his past.
To him, life seemed split into two parts.
One part was like a soft, dreamy rose color; the other was leaden gray, as cold and heavy as iron, stained with blood and tears.
He had lingered too long in the leaden part.
So much so that he sometimes truly believed that the rosy times were just a dream, a delusion he gave himself.
So, when a living person walked out of that dream, he felt as helpless as a child.
Nero awkwardly said, “It’s okay now. I will take you back to the Empire and ensure you recover.”
The ship’s doctor, patrolling the corridor outside the single rooms, happened to see the Emperor speaking softly to a gladiator. He intended to quickly salute and leave, but hesitated upon hearing the young man’s gentle voice, cautiously approaching the group of intimidating Wolf Knights.
He whispered, “Your Majesty, the brain analysis results for this patient are out. Would you like to see them?”
Seeing an outsider approach, the Emperor became cold again. “Yes.”
A holographic screen appeared in front of him, displaying a rotating semi-transparent brain with densely packed nerve distributions.
Nero could clearly see a nanoscopic foreign nerve bundle extending from the lower part of the brainstem, branching out microscopically into the various functional areas of the brain.
The doctor opened a reference brain map of a healthy person.
By comparison, many functional areas in the old Wolf Knight’s brain had begun to atrophy, appearing as withered gray under the probe. The hippocampus, responsible for memory storage, was entirely shrouded in a haze.
“This nerve bundle is where the Asimov Collar connects to the back of the brain.”
The doctor pointed to the screen and explained, “The darkened areas result from the extensive use of stimulants and hallucinogens, causing widespread brain function atrophy.
“Most of the patients on this medical ship have similar issues… What I mean is, irreversible permanent damage.”
Nero listened calmly, pointing to the nerve bundle penetrating the brainstem, and said, “I heard that once an Asimov Collar is worn, it cannot be removed.”
Medic: “Indeed, Your Majesty. The Asimov Collar was designed with no possibility of removal. It was created by your great-great-great-grandfather, the illustrious Hiram Kaises, to completely eradicate the rampant Tarka Grass drug traffickers—”
Nero knew this history.
In the Imperial year 784, Tarka Grass was first discovered and collected from the Enkriel Planet. It induced strong sensations of comfort and euphoria, and due to its direct effect on mental power, it was undetectable by any means available at the time, becoming the king of new drugs, quickly sweeping across the Empire.
The Emperor at that time was the infamous ‘Slaughter Emperor’ Hiram.
He despised the Empire’s situation eroded by Tarka Grass, but as the nobility had begun to secretly balance the royal power, and the trade of Tarka Grass brought enormous profits, the Emperor’s repeated bans had little effect. The poisoning trend grew, and the Empire’s law and order were in chaos.
—So Emperor Hiram adopted the harshest measures, personally punishing unrepentant criminals.
He subjected drug traffickers to unprecedented torture, making their lives worse than death; and put Asimov Collars on all the Star Pirates who mocked the firing squad at the execution grounds.
The severe criminals were used as unaccounted-for construction tools, some even given as rewards to the families and enemies of victims when Emperor Hiram was in a good mood.
The collar command authority was fully delegated to these haters, and under the Imperial Law at the time, no matter how cruel the private punishment on the collar wearers was, it was considered legal and reasonable.
The Asimov Collar directly acted on the brain nerves, easily breaking the will of the most ferocious criminals, and could retrieve addicts from the illusion of Tarka Grass.
They became Emperor Hiram’s most special suicide squads. With their collars designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, they could even serve the Empire by infiltrating drug dens and bringing back extensive intelligence on Tarka Grass.
As they were originally severe criminals, Emperor Hiram did not need to consider the costs and the price of life when using them.
This is a history that had been widely criticized and caused controversy in later generations.
But at least at the time, the Asimov Collar played an immensely powerful historical role: this was the period of the highest level of security in the Galactic Empire and the lowest activity of Star Pirates’ groups. Additionally, through the efforts of two generations of Kaises monarchs, the wild Tarka Grass, which almost eroded the Empire, was completely eradicated from the galaxy.
Today, the Tarka Grass circulating in the black market and borderlands is an artificially cultivated variety with greatly reduced harmfulness, no longer directly affecting mental power.
But while eradicating the poison, the collar that could control human will also began to show its negative effects.
The manufacturing technology and usage rights of the Asimov Collar were initially controlled only by the Kaises Royal Family. However, the loyal producers and researchers at the time came from various noble groups within the Empire. While using the collar to control severe criminals, the nobility gradually began to use it to satisfy their private desires:
For example, weakening political opponents, seizing Omegas, and even circulating the manufacturing technology to Star Pirates, leading to the current situation a hundred years later, where the Asimov Collar has lost its original purpose and is widely used to control Omegas and slaves.
Nero: “Still no cases of successful removal?”
The medic shook his head: “Not a single one, Your Majesty.”
Nero looked at the old Wolf Knight in the glass room, who blankly stared back at him.
He knew the old wolf Knight wasn’t looking at him, just at the point where his gaze happened to fall.
“Perhaps the Imperial Science Bureau can find a way.”
He rasped, “Even if the collar can’t be removed for now, we could clear its commands, making it just a piece of scrap metal. At least this way, his personality and freedom could be released.”
Nero stood up, softly instructing the medic to take care of the old Wolf Knight, then walked to check on Asaga’s condition.
Asaga’s ward was at the other end of the medical ship. Thick double metal doors with multiple heavy locks bore down, with only the light screen displaying the monitor’s view of the ward.
The dark-skinned man had his hands shackled behind him, barely fitting into a single-person medical pod.
His eyes were tightly closed, but his breathing was rapid, and the intricate dark golden patterns on his muscles bulged like veins.
He had been in the medical pod for a short time, but the wound at his joint, pierced by a beam gun, had already left just a shallow pit on the surface of his skin.
Nero opened his brain scan and saw what he expected.
Compared to the old Wolf Knight’s distressing brain image, Asaga’s brain function zones remained largely intact, despite being under the control of Star Pirates for over a decade.
Under the highest magnification microscope, each of Asaga’s cells was regenerating and repairing vigorously;
In the brain area occupied by the Asimov Collar’s nerve bundle, each original nerve synapse was fiercely resisting.
Whenever a neuron was replaced by the Asimov Collar, another identical neuron would regenerate in a very short time, stubbornly reclaiming its synapse.
He recalled Asaga instinctively pushing himself away when about to crash into the protective shield in the gladiator arena.
Even under the collar’s constraints, Asaga still retained his human conscience—no, even a conscience surpassing that of most humans.
No wonder Asaga could bite to death several masters even with the Asimov Collar on.
“Your Majesty, I’ve never seen such terrifying regeneration ability.”
The chief medic on the medical ship bowed and greeted him, then said with a frightened look.
“I didn’t even dare open the medical pod. I feared he might mutate into some monster under the treatment beam…”
Nero was taken aback and looked up at the light screen again.
Sure enough, the medical pod containing Asaga was dark.
…So, Asaga had healed most of his gunshot wound at the joint just with his Zerg blood alone.
Asaga was only half-human, half-insect.
Then what about a true Zerg…
The Emperor squinted his eyes.
At this time, the transfer work on the desolate star had basically ended. All the starship broadcasts simultaneously sounded the signal for departure.
“I need his blood samples, live tissue samples, biomolecular samples, and pathological samples—all the detection equipment available on this medical ship should be used.”
Before returning to the Emperor’s flagship, Nero didn’t forget to instruct the chief medic.
“Submit all examination samples to the Imperial Science Bureau and the Royal Medical Academy after we return to the Capital.”
“As you command, Your Majesty.”
The chief medic complied, but still seemed somewhat anxious. He asked nervously: “Please forgive my ignorance, Your Majesty. To what extent should we study him? Should we treat him as a dangerous alien species?
“What I mean is…if the most detailed examination results are required, besides harmless cell slices and blood sampling, there are more detection methods available, but relatively speaking, those methods are more suitable for animal subjects…”
Nero stood at the cabin door, pondering for a while.
Due to the Empire’s urgent need to confront the Zerg, conducting live experiments on Asaga was the most cost-effective and efficient way to maximize benefits and acquire results quickly.
He had personally witnessed Asaga’s incredible regenerative abilities. Even if Asaga’s limbs and head were entirely dismembered, he could still remain ‘alive’ with just an artificial heart maintaining blood supply.
But for some reason.
Nero remembered the man’s golden eyes lowering, gently nudging a mouse out of the gladiator arena.
He remained silent for a moment and only said: “You should treat him as a human being.”
With his silver hair fluttering, the Emperor turned and left the medical ship.
That’s for the best :’)) also the zerg must be so op?? I wonder what they’re weakness is 🤔 or if they brute strength them later on?
You better! Look at this boy doing his best in this environment.