Editor: Decembery
The moment he saw Wen Zhiyi, Qiu Yu was stunned.
The original body’s fragmentary memories and intense emotions suddenly overwhelmed his senses and thoughts. It wasn’t until he reacted and suppressed those clamouring feelings that he found out his arm was already in the grasp of the other.
The Alpha’s palm exerted so much strength that he was almost dragged over.
However, in that short period of time, another pull from behind him forcibly interfered and prevented Qiu Yu from being dragged into Wen Zhiyi’s arms.
Borrowing Mu Feibai’s strength, Qiu Yu used a technique to break away from Wen Zhiyi’s grasp.
As it was already June and the temperature in Yan City had begun to rise, Qiu Yu was only wearing a short sleeved-t-shirt. His arms were exposed and after ripping his arm out of the other’s hand, his skin immediately flushed red.
Wen Zhiyi’s gaze fell onto that patch of crimson. His brows creased before he asked, “Why are you dressed like this outside? You didn’t even wear your neck guard and you’re also hanging out with—”
As he spoke, his eyes swept around. Upon seeing Mu Feibai and Du Chen, his face darkened even more, “—hanging out with so many Alphas, it’s unbecoming of you.”
Mu Feibai ignored his words and asked Qiu Yu, “You know him?”
Qiu Yu nodded.
At least, he knew him in some sense of the word.
Qiu Yu had long known from the memory fragments that the original body had a beloved childhood friend which was the man in front of him right now.
Wen Zhiyi, Alpha, a coach for deep-space extreme sports.
Their mothers were best friends and their fathers were also partners at work, so the original body and Wen Zhiyi had grown up together. Their parents had, more than once, joked about their children’s medical reports, saying that if the kids would really be differentiated into Omega and Alpha in the future, they could get married.
The joke continued until the two children turned thirteen when both of their parents encountered an accident on the way to a business conference and unfortunately lost their lives. The original body and Wen Zhiyi were then taken away and raised by their respective relatives and had been separated from each other since.
That lasted until they turned eighteen and graduated.
After five years, Wen Zhiyi had grown from that mischievous teenager into an upright and reliable youth. Moreover, he had differentiated into the Alpha secondary gender. When the original body’s entire inheritance was about to be swallowed by his blood-sucking relatives and himself forced to marry a rich old man, Wen Zhiyi reached out a helping hand and rescued him from the darkness.
Since then, the original body fell deeper and deeper in love with Wen Zhiyi.
Even if Wen Zhiyi never confessed to him, even if Wen Zhi never promised anything, even if Wen Zhiyi left him alone to go to the third star region to develop business soon afterwards, the original body firmly believed that the other would come back to marry him and so stupidly, he waited for so many years.
However, what awaited him was a personally sent wedding invitation.
Qiu Yu didn’t really understand what love is supposed to be like.
But just by his instincts, he believed that love shouldn’t be what it was like in the memory fragments—Wen Zhiyi discarded the original body, left him to live by himself, and only contacted him once or twice a month. When the original body met with trouble and asked for help, Wen Zhiyi would lend a helping hand. The original body would also occasionally be scolded when he did something that made Wen Zhiyi unhappy.
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.
Also, the two had never been physically intimate with each other in the memories.
Po la gfjiis kjr ibnf, tbk mbeiv atfs gfrlra cba ufaalcu mibrf ab fjmt batfg jcv yflcu lcalwjaf?
Hle Te gfmjiifv atf qjlgr bo “ibnfgr” tf rjk lc atf jqbmjisqalm kbgiv—ktlmt bcf bo atfw vlvc’a erf fnfgs rlcuif mtjcmf atfs tjv ab tbiv fjmt batfg jcv aewyif jgbecv?
But if it wasn’t love… then Wen Zhiyi’s past ambiguous words and signals, to the point of showing jealousy when the original body made friends online, seemed to be laced with some strange intentions.
It was as though Wen Zhiyi knew of the original body’s affections, but didn’t want to take responsibility nor did he wish to lose a backup option.
Right, a backup option.
Thinking to this point, Qiu Yu finally realised—so Wen Zhiyi had always thought of the original owner as a safety net. If he couldn’t find a suitably excellent Omega for marriage, there would at least be the original body waiting for him to turn back.
Hence, Wen Zhiyi never broke off relations and even strung the original owner along as though nothing was the matter, keeping his hopes alive such that he wouldn’t go to the civil affairs bureau for a match.
What species of scum was this?
This new world was too complicated, the apocalypse was much more straightforward—if you liked someone, you slept with them, and if you don’t like sleeping with them anymore then you kicked them out—where in that world would you find these kinds of disgusting and twisted mentalities?
Qiu Yu’s recollection and analysis of Wen Zhiyi’s intentions didn’t actually last that long, only a few seconds. He raised his eyes and looked at the man in front of him, his gaze devoid of joy or sadness, without a shred of the affection the original body once held.
Seeing Qiu Yu’s expression, Wen Zhiyi was taken aback.
Then he spoke in a low voice, “Come with me.”
Considering he had just looked through the original body’s memory fragments, Qiu Yu still retained a bit of his embarrassment and stubbornness, making him feel a little restless. He didn’t want to keep the original body’s emotions bottled up in his place, so he thought he may as well vent them instead. “You’ve just gotten married and you’re here bothering me in the First Star District. Wouldn’t your family’s Omega yell at you?”
Mu Feibai suddenly looked towards Qiu Yu. His lips moved as though he was about to say something, but he stopped himself. Next, he cast his gaze upon the Alpha in front of them who seemed more sinister by the minute.
Wen Zhiyi was frozen in shock after Qiu Yu’s outburst.
He looked disbelievingly at him, “Xiao Qiu! Watch your tone!”
Qiu Yu shot back, “What do you care about my tone? Who are you to me?”
Wen Zhiyi was almost angered to death. Uncaring of the audience, he gritted his teeth and spoke in anger, “You’re asking me who I am to you? You don’t know why I came to the First Star District? Do you know how nervous I was when I couldn’t contact you and you weren’t in the apartment? Do you know how worried I was when I saw online that you came to this sort of place to play games? There’s so many Alphas here, you wouldn’t even be able to resist if they wished to do something to you!”
“Hey, hey, hey, that’s going over the top!” Zhou Shu couldn’t stand it anymore, “Even if you were Qiu ge‘s, umm, someone, you can’t smear the Alphas on our team, right?”
Unexpectedly, Qiu Yu’s words were even more shocking. “Even if they slept with me, what does it have to do with you?”
Mu Feibai: ……
Zhou Shu: ???
As always, Qiu ge is the fiercest. His earlier flattery was inadequate.
Wen Zhiyi’s complexion paled in a flash.
Immediately after, his face sank. “Xiao Qiu! Get over here, let’s have a talk!”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
After venting out the emotions suffocating his chest, Qiu Yu turned and walked towards the club’s garden area.
“Xiao Qiu!” Wen Zhiyi raised his voice.
“Don’t keep calling Xiao Qiu,” Qiu Yu looked back and smirked, “Your Xiao Qiu is already dead. Please go back.”
Seeing the slight curve of Qiu Yu’s lips, Wen Zhiyi suddenly felt a chill on his back, like a snake climbing up his vertebrae—it made his scalp go numb.
Seeing Qiu Yu about to step into the garden, he rushed up in two or three strides to block him. “Xiao Qiu, don’t get angry at me, you… don’t be like this, don’t throw a tantrum and let’s have a chat, alright?”
“Wen Zhiyi.” Qiu Yu stared into the other’s eyes, “Have a happy marriage.”
His voice was apathetic as though it had nothing to do with him, “You don’t need a safety net anymore.”
Wen Zhiyi’s entire being froze.
Qiu Yu didn’t spare him another glance and walked around him into the club under Mu Feibai’s escort.
……
The opponent of tonight’s training match was one of the Spring competition season’s quarterfinalists, the Jue Ran battle team.
For some reason, the Eagle Riders played extremely fiercely today. Qiu Yu and Mu Feibai were both on the lineup in the first round and took down the enemy team in less than twenty minutes. Qiu Yu went to the infirmary for a massage as usual in the second round, and Lu Cun was on-field. Lu Cun gave it his all and performed exceptionally well, so the Eagle Riders just barely won another round.
After winning both rounds, smiles finally appeared on Coach He and the team members’ faces. The atmosphere also wasn’t as heavy as it was when they just returned from dinner, and Zhou Shu and Mu Feibai also bickered loudly for a while.
Seeing the team members finally relax, Coach He asked with a smile, “What happened to you guys today that you came back with such a serious face after hotpot? Did Feibai force some poisonous chicken soup down your throats?”
Coach He wasn’t to blame for guessing along these lines because Mu Feibai’s big mouth really liked to talk about anything in a serious way, and there was a precedent for him pouring poisonous chicken soup down team members’ throats.
However this time he really did wrongly accuse Mu Feibai.
Under Zhou Shu’s laughter, Mu Feibai looked speechlessly at He Jingxing, wronged. “Coach, am I really so undeserving of your trust?”
“Then why did all of you come back with a terrible expression?” Coach He asked, “ What happened?”
When this subject was brought up, Zhou Shu got so annoyed he couldn’t keep it in. “We met a scummy psycho.”
Without any context, He Jingxing was confused. “What?”
Du Chen added, “We met Qiu Yu’s… ex-boyfriend.”
Although Qiu Yu didn’t say it, everyone at the scene knew in their hearts after inferring from their dialogue and actions.
“Does he even count as a boyfriend?” Zhou Shu grumbled, “What kind of business does an already-married Alpha have in telling Qiu ge what kind of clothes to wear and who he hangs out with? He himself married some other person.”
He Jingxing suddenly felt his head hurt. “You, stop talking for a minute.”
He looked towards Mu Feibai, “Tell me the details of what happened.”
This team was full of energetic boys around twenty and sometimes they’d let their emotions go to their head and accidentally start something, so he had to stay alert.
Mu Feibai glanced at the door of the training room. It seems that Qiu Yu would stay for a while longer in the infirmary, so he briefly recounted what happened on the way back and thrice guaranteed there were no physical altercations.
He Jingxing didn’t talk about this further but rather sent a message to Doctor Qi, asking him to send Qiu Yu back to the dorms to rest after the massage session.
He didn’t forget to ask: [Are there any abnormalities in his emotional state?]
Qi Zhefeng quickly replied: [No.]
He Jingxing couldn’t help asking further: [I remember that his cognitive results in the last examination weren’t too bad?]
“Century’s Finale” was a full-dive game after all and given its dominant theme of battle, it may affect a player’s cognition. As professional players spend a lot of time training and competing in the virtual world, it is more likely for them to experience cognitive issues. There have been past cases where professional players killed people in reality.
Because of this, each of the current full-dive professional leagues stipulated that professional players must conduct regular cognitive tests to ensure that there is no deviation in their perception of the virtual world and reality. It is only if their test results would they be allowed to register for the competition.
In the infirmary, Qi Zhefeng looked Qiu Yu who had just emerged from the bathroom, dressed sloppily while towelling his hair, and replied: [The results of his cognition test are good and there seem to be no issues with the virtual world interfering with reality for him. He also has no violent tendencies in reality.]
Fingers pausing, he continued: [However, there is a slight observer shift, though it wouldn’t affect his training and competitions.]
The “observer shift” refers to when someone cuts themselves off from deeper emotional connections and places themselves on the sidelines with a tendency to regard people and events from an apathetic perspective.
To put it simply, they have no sense of belonging to the world around them.
The author has something to say:
Mu Feibai: Don’t talk about sleeping or not sleeping to someone else’s face (blushes)
Editor’s note: Qiu Yu: I’m sorry, but the old Qiu Yu can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Cause he’s dead
Yes, kick the old scum away!
+1 Appearing out of nowhere and ‘laying down the law’? Really! Kick him away!
Original +2
Habitba +1 Yeah! Although I know he would’ve probably injured himself and possibly disqualified himself or the team, I wanted him to give the scum one hit or kick! 😤
Thanks for the chapter!
So satisfying when he told him off!! 😈😈
Okay the scum is much worse than I thought /waves baseball bat 😑
Wow, that Wen guy was a real scumbag. But the original Qiu Yu was also a bit of an idiot… No, considering how he wanted to die because he couldn’t get with that trash, he was a big idiot. Man, most people try so freaking hard to live, and yet there are morons like this -_- Haizz…
If the body is hardware and the soul is software, then I gotta say; the new software is a BIG upgrade.
Not an idiot, he was too young and in a horrible situation. Scumbags choose their prey carefully. He was 1- teenager 2 – orphan 3 – betrayed by his remaining family 4 – about to be forced into a marriage that he didn’t want 5 – without any experience when it comes to love and healthy relationships. That’s why he was chosen as a victim, and that’s why it worked. It has nothing to do with being smart or stupid. Our world is too quick to judge victims and that just makes it easier for scumbags to get away with it.
Never said he wasn’t a victim. Just that suicide ain’t the answer. That’s what I called stupid; his decision to kill himself.
Just because the decision is stupid when looking from god’s perspective, that doesn’t mean it was caused by stupidity.
I seriously don’t know what you’re even arguing about, or why you felt the need to start, but I don’t want to talk with someone who condones suicide, so please stop talking to me.
I’m late to this thread but you contradicted yourself. In your first comment, you clearly called the original an idiot, not his actions thus basically victim blaming. It was indeed stupid for him to end it but he did it bc he was taken advantage of while in a vulnerable state by his childhood friend, not because hes an idiot. I really wish hed had someone who was able to get it across to him that he was being used but I’m sure his omega friend tried and failed bc he was too in love.
Condoning suicide? OK, yeah, I don’t want to talk to you either. Sorry I thought you were a rational conversation partner, I guess. Bye.
No they seemed pretty contradictory in nature but I’m with you in the decision being stupid not the person.
Where the hell did you even get the idea that the person responding to you condoned suicide? You literally called OG Qiu Yu idiotic for committing suicide in your first comment and they pointed out that his decision came from a place of desperation and looks stupid from an outside perspective, but in no way makes the actual person stupid. Nothing about that says “agrees with suicide.” Please develop some reading comprehension/critical thinking skills before accusing ppl next time.
For one, you have to understand that people who commit suicide are usually mentally ill. Very mentally ill, to a point where they don’t believe life is worth living. This is NOT something they can control. It’s a either a condition they are born with (a chronic condition, including but not limited to depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, OCD, etc.) or the result of extreme trauma (like PTSD), extreme grief, or a combination of all three. When people commit suicide, they are not thinking logically, as you, an observer, can. Their perception of the world is warped by their mental disorder(s) and experience(s). They either completely believe that there isn’t anyone who actually loves them, or are in so much pain that they don’t even consider the consequences – feeling as though death is a necessary reprieve; suicide, ultimately, is the result of an illness. Why do you think there are so many institutions specifically designed to aid people with suicidal thoughts, and how do they do it? By diagnosing the the underlying mental illness to provide specific/ targeted therapy and medicinal treatment for the patient (there is of course more that goes into these rehabilitation institutions). Again, I repeat, someone does not CHOSE to have a chronic mental illness. They do not CHOSE to be stricken by grief or trauma.
Suicide may be a choice, but not one that people are making with a sound mind. Stigma surrounding suicide, saying that it is ‘selfish’ or ‘stupid,’ only increases the likelihood that someone won’t open up about their suicidal thoughts. They think that their family and friends will reject and demean them because of their mental illness. Because of this, they may not seek the help they need in time – something that could actually SAVE their lives. As you can see, the perspective that people with suicidal thoughts are ‘selfish’ or ‘stupid’ is actually quite counterintuitive. People who are suicidal don’t need to be told they are stupid. They simply need someone to listen, and someone to care.
Thank you so much for translating! <3
Qiu Yu didn’t even use any force, but still managed to scare the sh!t out of that scum. As expected of our King, power Omega for the win! 乁( •_• )ㄏ
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
No but like the old qiu yu is literally dead dead mr trashy scum man, like kiddo literally killed himself dude
So it was a scumbag! 😡
Honestly, ick. No wonder the poor o!Qiu Yu felt so despondant.
The sound I made when I read the reference in the editor’s note. 😆
Me too! 😂
Such a shameless scum ಠ益ಠ
Ooh, look what you made me do
Look what you made me do
Look what you just made me do
Look what you just made me do
Feel for the original…
It sounds like “observer shift” is disassociation – which often happens as a result of trauma.
This guy is seriously getting on my nerves, if I ever get in there I will friggin’ pull your hair off like a piece of crusty wig! You annoying nobody!!!
Look what you made me do~