Chapter 97

Principal's Office.

On the light screen is a simulation of twelve scenarios, eleven of which have a survival rate of zero, and the only one with a survival rate of ten percent is titled "Bait and Switch".

Next to the decoy plan is a line in small red letters: reported to the War Office, adopted!

The old eyes are bloodshot, the principal's hand under the table is clenched into a fist, he seems to be saying to Mr. Zheng, but it seems to be talking to himself, "This is a helpless move that can not be helped, but we have to make a trade-off."

After hanging up the communication, the corners of this old man's mouth twitched slightly, and he pursed his lips tightly, suppressing these slight outbursts.

After a long silence, he wearily opened a file containing analyses of viruses, including one from Tang Rong:

"Mr. Tang Rong believes that the virus most likely came from the Empire, and that this accident is the Empire's hunting program against the Federation's newest talent, and that the Federation's existing bioinformatic infection technology is lagging behind the Empire's ......"

"His Excellency Tang Rong also believes that there is no need to take special care of Tang Bai, that there is no nobility in life, that since he (Tang Bai) has chosen this path, he is ready to sacrifice, and that the Tang family understands and obeys all the arrangements made by the military and the school."

*

Tang Bai was looking at the voyage route of the Exploration ship released by the system, and he also had a copy of the course route of the ship Qiu Yan and the others would be going to in his hand, the two routes were so far away from each other that it could be said that they were the opposite of what they were supposed to be.

Why so far away?

With two airships departing from the same starting point, the system should intelligently assign a route for the fastest arrival.

A faint sense of dissonance loomed.

"What's on your mind?" Xie Ruhang walked to Tang Bai's side, and saw Tang Bai's brow was tightly locked, the marks on his brow looked like the folds of a milk rind being gently pushed out by his fingers.

"I have a not-so-good suspicion in my heart." Tang Bai paused, worried, "But I don't really want to say it out loud."

"The Einstein Rosen Bridge thing before was also like this, I had that little bit of discomfort at that time, rationally thinking that it was impossible to discover the temporal turbulence, but in my heart I had a vague foreboding." Tang Bai said morosely, "It turned out to be true when I said it, do you think I'm a crow's foot--"

Seeing Tang Bai getting more and more depressed, Xie Ruhang reached out and covered Tang Bai's mouth.

With alpha's wide palms and Tang Bai's small face, at first glance there is a visual effect of most of his face being covered.

Tang Bai: "Well ...... What the hell!"

Xie Ruhang pinched Tang Bai's soft face in this position, "Verify that it's not a raven's tongue."

Then he said seriously, "No."

Tang Bai slapped Xie Ruhang's hand away, extremely suspicious that Xie Ruhang was using the opportunity to take revenge, but by Xie Ruhang's interruption, Tang Bai's original melancholy mood was pinched away.

"You're too casual with this appraisal." Tang Bai stretched out his hand to hold up his cheeks and rubbed them.

"If you were a crow's mouth, Gu Tunan would really like me." Xie Ruhang gave an example to prove his judgment.

"Doesn't he like you?" Tang Bai was inexplicable, and after half a day's thought, all he could say was, "He's moved on?"

Xie Ruhang : "......"

Tang Bai stared roundly, "No way, where is he going to find another independent and self-reliant new age omega that meets his criteria?"

Xie Ruhang nodded Tang Bai's forehead, "Isn't there one right here?"

"It's silly though."

Tang Bai was dumbfounded for a moment, not counting the "stupid" comment, he said incredulously, "You mean Gu Tunan likes me?"

The Gu Tunan who is late for every blind date, who purposely keeps him waiting, who secretly snitches on his teachers and parents, who doesn't eat his bento, who doesn't care about his style of dress, who uses him as a blind date shield, and who taunts him for being a pampered vase, likes him?

"How is this possible? He hated me before ......"

"You also said it was before, are you now exactly the same as Gu Tunan's ideal type?" Xie Ruhang followed his advice.

Tang Bai : "...... Oh, yeah?"

Now he seems to be the standard independent new age omega oh.

"Actually, Gu Tunan changed his mind about you during the military training entrance ceremony, that time Gu Tunan challenged me for you, have you forgotten?" Xie Ruhang stretched out his left hand, thumb bent ninety degrees, index finger up, and the remaining three fingers closed.

Tang Bai subconsciously extended his hand as well, "Quill?"

Xie Ruhang was silent for a while, looking at the challenge gesture they put together, which actually did look like a love heart, he cried a little and said, "What are you usually thinking about, didn't you know that Gu Tunan and I fought over you at that time?"

The main character attacker used to fight over me?

Weren't you guys in love with each other at the time?

Tang Bai's brain froze.

Xie Ruhang looked at Tang Bai's dumbfounded expression, and with mixed emotions he realized that he seemed to be able to guess Tang Bai's thoughts ......

It's true that stupidity is contagious.

[The amount of information is too much, I'm going to hear my brain die too, God Xie means Tang Bai doesn't know Gu Tunan likes him?

Although I doubt that this is Tang Bai's whitewashing tactic, but by analyzing the micro-expressions through freeze-frames, I found that both Tang Bai and God Xie are actually showing their true feelings ......]

[Tang Lao division green tea persona is going to collapse? Master Green Knot!

[Gu Tunan: I hate that you're a piece of wood]

Tang Bai wouldn't think that Gu Tunan and Xie Ruhang are just having a friendly sparring session, would he?

"Gu Tunan looked at you with such deep affection just now, and you didn't even feel anything?" Xie Ruhang's helpless tone of voice flooded with a faintly sour flavor.

Although Tang Bai is slow to recognize other people's emotions, Tang Bai's emotional radar evolved and upgraded when it came to Xie Ruhang's piece, shooing to keenly detect the sour taste, he immediately exclaimed, "Because I can only see the deep love in your eyes!"

[I don't know if it's tea or not, but it's true that you can tease a man.]

[God Xie looks at Tang Bai with such a gentle look.]

That pair of phoenix eyes under normal circumstances is exceptionally harsh, but when looking at Tang Bai, all the coldness was turned into tenderness.

It looked like it was obviously in a good mood.

Tang Bai continued to coax, "I just fit Gu Tunan's criteria, and when I don't look like his ideal type, he'll never look at me like that again."

Xie Ruhang's lips held a smile, his voice low and soft, "I don't think I've ever told you that you were my ideal type to begin with."

In the beginning?

Tang Bai was puzzled, "What about now?"

Xie Ruhang looked at him, his line of sight flowed around his face, looking very slowly and meticulously, as if there was an invisible hand meticulously touching Tang Bai's five senses all over again, making Tang Bai's scalp a little numb.

Tang Bai suddenly panicked as he thought of Xie Ruhang calling him a "little fool" and "little devil" today.

Xie Ruhang Shouldn't you be talking about falling in love and feeling like your ideal type filter is shattered?

It's true that he's been acting a little stupid lately, but it's Magic Silver's fault, and since I've heard that falling in love makes you less intelligent, Xie Ruhang has to take the blame for that as well!

Tang Bai quickly found himself a crooked reason, he cleared his throat ready to start his long speech, "I ......"

"Right now my ideal type is you." Xie Ruhang interrupted.

The ideal type is you.

So every single one of your looks, I love.

The pheromone floating in the air is a light tea flavor with a hint of sweetness.

Tang Bai's eyes widened slightly as he saw his current appearance in Xie Ruhang's dark phoenix eyes.

Dumb and dumber does seem a bit stupid.

He's just a little bit taken by this Xie Ruhang confession ......

Surprised?

Tang Bai watched in awe as Xie Ruhang reached down and turned off their live stream, whenever Xie Ruhang turned off the stream it was to do something juvenile.

The pair of phoenix eyes are deep and gentle, the gaze is so hot that Tang Bai does not dare to look at it, originally Tang Bai still a little doubt that Xie Ruhang was just talking about love.

But Xie Ruhang trying to kiss him when he's so stupid suddenly proves the credibility of those words!

But he'd already kissed several times today, and in class the teacher had said that you couldn't pamper an alpha too much, or it was the omega himself who would suffer after raising the other into a demanding character.

Ah ...... This ......

Tang Bai's eyelashes trembled slightly, he looked at Xie Ruhang's face that was getting closer and closer, but he still couldn't hold himself back and slowly closed his eyes.

Then ......

He was jerked around by Xie Ruhang with a handful of dorky hair.

The action is the same as petting a dog's head.

"What are you doing with your eyes closed?" Xie Ruhang's low laugh came from overhead.

Tang Bai: "?" You're not right.

"I want to discuss business with you." Xie Ruhang whispered, "Next time we'll get our business together."

Tang Bai: "????" Did you just tease me?

Tang Bai opened his eyes in shame and annoyance, expecting to see Xie Ruhang's teasing eyes, but unexpectedly Xie Ruhang's expression was very serious at this moment.

"There's really something serious, I won't tease you anymore." Xie Ruhang stroked Tang Bai's little head, "Did you notice something wrong with the pop-up screen."

Tang Bai's attention is instantly diverted at the mention of pop-ups, and he nods.

"I suspect that the school has set up keyword blocking on the pop-ups to block the news of the Dream's wreck." Though he said he suspected, Xie Ruhang's tone was sure.

Tang Bai followed into analysis, "I think so."

Xie Ruhang continued, "I just went to look at the players on top of Qiu Yan's and their spaceships and realized that they have one thing in common."

Tang Bai looks to Xie Ruhang and hears a direction of distinction he hadn't considered, "They're both civilian students."

Xie Ruhang's base of competition for chief rests on these civilian students, all of whom he knows a bit about and even remembers who voted for him.

"The only Noble Student on that ship went to our ship, and now the Explorer is full of Noble Students except for Rong Yao and me. And Rong Yao and I have excellent grades in our respective majors."

"You call that a coincidence?"

Xie Ruhang didn't say the next words, but Tang Bai understood what Xie Ruhang meant, "We need to gather more information on the ship."

......

Tang Bai and Xie Ruhang walked out of the lounge and saw Gu Tunan, Mo Zheng, and Bai Li surrounding the NPCs in the hall like evil forces, but the two NPCs were not afraid at all, and Lu En even said "get lost" impatiently to Gu Tunan.

The atmosphere between the two sides was one of saber-rattling.

After seeing Tang Bai come out, Rong Yao hurriedly explained to Tang Bai as if he had seen a savior, "Didn't the Adventure ship come to pick up Qiu Yan Lu Lv and You Xiang? The Adventure also gave us a lot of energy, but it gave us too much, and the NPCs on the Adventure seemed to get angry."

"The two NPCs on the Adventure were particularly strong in combat, they tied up all the players on the ship, and now they've re-run to our ship to get the energy crystals back from us."

"Turns out they didn't know what to say to the npc's on our ship, Lu En, and they want to return too!"

Tang Bai slowly typed out a question mark.

A similar situation occurred on various ships, especially some of the NPCs on the ships that had their energy stolen by players, who instantly blew up when they found out -

I worked hard to save up this much energy, but you losers are so good that you give it all away for nothing!

No more sailing! Go home!!!

What's worse is that the powerful players on the airship were all transferred by the system, the players on the airship were all average in strength, and were easily cleaned up by the rampaging NPCs, the players were weak, pathetic and helpless, without the slightest right to speak, and watched as the NPCs returned to their flights in a rage.

As for the players' bitter claims that the Energy Star is really at that coordinate, the npc's response is invariably: I'll believe the hell out of you!

The attitude of the npc's on the Quest is more moderate, or more accurately, the npc's attitude towards Tang Bai is good.

Lu En walks up to Tang Bai, his thin lips biting on a cigarette, he says to Tang Bai with the strong smell of tobacco, "The Captain and I have some desire to go back."

His tone was not one of notice, but rather a hint of consultation.

So Tang Bai advised, "Our mission is to find the Energy Star."

The rising white mist shrouded his face, the look on his sharp features unreadable, and Lu En narrowed his eyes slightly, not looking at Tang Bai, but at the bright starry sky outside the window.

He clutched his cigarette and took a hard drag, "There's not much energy left on the ship, and if we encounter a few more meteorite swarms, the rate of energy depletion will quickly reach the alert line, and we won't be able to go back even if we want to at that time."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Tang Bai's firm reply rang out, "It won't."

Lu En turned his head and looked at Tang Bai dismally.

The shimmering light from the stars outside the window fell on Tang Bai's eyes like glittering jewels.

That's energizing.

Lu En thought listlessly.

"We'll find the Energy Star, we'll fulfill the mission the Federation has given us, we'll be heroes of the Federation and go home in style in the limelight ......"

Lu En's vision began to fade again, and he inclined his head as if looking out over the cosmic landscape, more like simply letting go.

Tang Bai looked at the silent Lu En as he suddenly said, "Elder Lu En wants to go back so badly, there should be something he wants to say to someone."

Lu En, who was in the middle of his journey, froze for a moment, and he slowly turned his head, looking straight at Tang Bai.

"Senpai must be very sorry that he can't be with that person."

It's been a long time since anyone has mentioned the existence of that person.

It's been so long that Lu En has forgotten about him.

But every time he thought he was going to forget, as soon as he triggered any tiny reminiscence, countless bits and pieces of their time together came tumbling out like a flood.

He could vividly remember every sweetness of the memories, and the heart-breaking resignation of the separation.

A pain that not even tobacco can numb.

Lu En put down the cigarette in his mouth, he was much taller than Tang Bai, without the shroud of smoke, the sharp sense of this face suddenly flowed out, the tightly pursed thin lips slightly opened, he coldly said, "Kang Pengze and you said that?"

Tang Bai shook his head.

He just suddenly remembered that when Rong Yao told the story of BO's love earlier, Lu En shook his head and raised his teacup to drink it all in one gulp, he looked a lot like Gu Tunan.

"If seniors discovered the Energy Star, they would surely be able to receive a commendation from the Federation, and even more so, they would be able to appear in front of that person with a brand new look and speak to him the words buried in their hearts."

Lu En condescendingly looks down at Tang Bai, "What do you know."

Tang Bai unashamedly locked eyes with him and said earnestly, "All I know is that there are some things you don't say that you'll regret for the rest of your life."

The fingers holding the cigarette twitched imperceptibly for an instant.

"The Energy Star's coordinates are in Y-System 367-37-245." Tang Bai's tone and demeanor were sincere, so sincere that it was impossible to question them.

"Elder, I can't explain why I know the coordinates of the Energy Star, but please believe me, the Energy Star is really there."

"And, he's there, too, and he's waiting for his predecessor to arrive."

Motionless Lu En heard these last words, his heart suddenly throbbed again, Lu En closed his eyes, in the countless days and nights paralyzed by tobacco, he often felt that his life was just wasting away in his unchanging life.

Like a dead fish floating in stagnant water.

Set in stone.

People who were originally of any class are destined to be of such a class in this life, nay, perhaps to become worse.

Upon embarking on the Discovery, the captain asked him why he was entering the Discovery, whether it was for the future of mankind or the material rewards of the Federation.

Neither, he said.

It's for someone.

Trying to seize the opportunity for upward mobility, he was worn down bit by bit by bit of hope in disappointment after disappointment.

It seems easier and a bit more practical to flow downward.

"Seniors?"

Lu En opened his eyes, the cigarette clutched in his fingers had burned out and seemed to signal the end of those self-paralyzing days.

Looking into Tang Bai's bright eyes, Lu En felt as if he were seeing himself as a newcomer to the Discovery.

"Did you learn this coordinate from the God of the Universe?"

Looking at the bewildered Tang Bai, Lu En laughed softly.

Once upon a time he thought the newcomers were crazy.

But now, he suddenly wanted to go crazy with these people too.

Lu En threw away the cigarette in his hand as he looked out the window at the starry sky, his eyes, which had always been devoid of spirit, glowing like never before.

"Okay." He spoke with a jocular diffidence, yet somehow serious: "Just go to the place you said."

"Ding - npc Lu En's favorability towards you is +3," the system beep sounded in Tang Bai's brain.

[666666, this is the first time I've seen an NPC that can be persuaded not to return with a mouthpiece]

[Other groups are fighting NPCs to the death, I'm going to tell them about this peaceful solution!

Tang Bai breathed a long sigh of relief when he suddenly heard another mission announcing tone, "New mission: persuade Lu En!"

"The npc Lu En has a high favorability rating towards you! Your words have some influence on him! The npc on the Adventure wants to return, please persuade Lu En to pilot the Adventure to the Energy Star!"

Tang Bai reads the mission breakdown, then he makes a cheering gesture at Lu En and turns away, surprising the mission publisher.

Totally didn't try to convince Lu En while the iron was hot!

"Ding--Please pay attention to the quest statute of limitations, this quest needs to be completed before the Adventure returns! After the statute of limitations the quest will not be completed!" The mission publisher was in a hurry.

Tang Bai walks to the lounge with his ears turned off, he closes the door and turns off the live feed as well, then he mumbles to himself into the air, "You should be able to hear me."

"Don't you think your plan is already going to fail? Besides Lu En, there are many NPCs planning to return, and trying to stop them will require you to waste a lot of time and energy."

"Is there any point in going ahead with such a plan?"

The lounge was quiet, except for Tang Bai's confident and calm voice: "In that case, why don't you listen to my plan."

After a while, a system beep sounded in Tang Bai's brain, "What's your plan?"

Sure enough you can communicate with outside leaders!

Tang Bai puffed up his small chest, "Then we have to exchange information first."

Half an hour later, Tang Bai walks out of the lounge with his hands in his pockets, he finds Xie Ruhang, pulls him to a secluded corner, and both he and Xie Ruhang turn off the broadcast.

They do this kind of thing all the time, and the pop-ups are not surprising.

Xie Ruhang, also thinking as Tang Bai did last time, was about to do something above the neck when he suddenly heard Tang Bai softly say, "Look, our Baby."

Xie Ruhang : "????" Can you get pregnant even if you kiss in a game?

Tang Bai showed Xie Ruhang a mecha pet egg in his pocket, a pitch-black metal egg the size of an adult's fist, identical to the mechanical Teng Man egg Xie Ruhang had hatched for a long time.

"How did it end up in the game? And turned into a mecha egg?" Xie Ruhang was shocked.

"Good question!" Tang Bai patted Xie Ruhang's shoulder, "Thanks to you bringing the egg with you all the time, after this game was contaminated by the virus, once it started it was impossible to add more variables, it could only utilize the existing conditions. But after you brought the mecha egg with you, the egg was also scanned in by the system!"

"The principle of importation is the same as that bug virus appeared, both of them can be datamined, after being scanned in they both need energy to feed in order to hatch, without energy they are just egg shaped, that virus eats everything, our egg is more picky, the next thing you can only do is to give it energy crystals in order to make it grow."

Tang Bai explained, "The appearance of that bug virus is most likely a product of the Empire's bioinformatic infectology, the Federation's research in this area is weaker than the Empire's, before Grandpa also fretted about this matter, then he had a new inspiration when he was researching on the mecha pet eggs with me."

"Instead of working on bioinformatic infections, we're going to light up a technology much like but different from bioinformatic infections on our original tech tree, bioinformatics and mechanization."

"The virus released by the Empire infected the entire game system, our current technology cannot overcome this technical problem, and after the game system is infected, forcibly terminating the game may infect all the students, so we might as well try to fight fire with fire."

"We can put a bug in there too." Tang Bai touched the sleeping mechanical Teng Man : "After you hatch this guy, have it drag that bug into the black hole."

Tang Bai patted this mecha egg, the tone of gentle in a cool strict father whip: "This is also counted as its contribution to the Federation, when it ate the Cheng family's batch of energy crystals, and now it should come out and work hard!"