After finishing the day’s courses, Li Shu returned to the Li family. It wasn’t because he wanted to go back to this family, but because the original owner lived here. On Empire Star, land was worth its weight in gold. The original owner had been looking for an opportunity to move out, but as a student, he didn’t have much money, especially for a house on the most prosperous star. Additionally, Li Luo and his mother didn’t want him to break free from their control, so the original owner had never found a chance to leave.
The curriculum at Omega Academy was quite relaxed, especially in the major the original owner was in, which was designed for noble children to earn a degree without much academic pressure. If you wanted, you didn’t even need to attend classes.
After packing up his things, Li Shu boarded the hover car sent by the Li family specifically to pick up the original owner. It wasn’t without reason that people at school believed the original owner bullied Li Luo, the legitimate child. Li Luo’s mother was excellent at maintaining appearances, and everything Li Shu received was the same as Li Luo. However, one was coldly fulfilling a task, while the other had genuine warmth in it. The difference was quite big.
To outsiders, it appeared that Li Shu and Li Luo were treated equally, and sometimes Li Shu even seemed to be treated better, making it look like the original owner was bullying Li Luo. Li Luo and his mother were happy to create such an impression.
“Young master.”
Everywhere he went, the servants greeted him respectfully. Li Shu responded with a cold smile. It had always been like this. Since childhood, whether there were outsiders around or not, Li Luo’s mother insisted that the Li family treat the original owner with respect. Over time, several people truly believed the original owner was treated well in the Li family.
Some ladies even felt indignant for Li Luo’s mother. They thought only someone as kind as her could tolerate the existence of the child Li Shu, who had been born right after she married the Li family head, and even raise him without any resentment.
In terms of living supplies and educational resources, what Li Shu received was no less than her own child’s. However, Li Shu didn’t live up to expectations, failing to make the most of such good resources, and instead doing some disgraceful things.
“Xiao Shu is back?”
“Brother is back?”
Whenever there were people around, this mother and son treated the original owner so well that there was nothing to complain about. At first, the original owner even naively believed this mother and son truly cared about him, until they suddenly bared their sharp fangs.
“Mm,” Li Shu responded coldly.
Li Luo and his mother didn’t care about his attitude. To them, achieving their goals was enough, and they didn’t bother with how Li Shu felt.
Li Shu returned to his room, which was just as he had imagined. The location wasn’t bad, and the interior was quite luxurious. All of this had been arranged with just a wave of a hand.
Throwing himself onto the bed, Li Shu finally had time to sort out the plot of this world.
In the last apocalyptic world, he had completed his mission right after the infected were eradicated. It was the fastest time he’d ever completed a mission. In the end, because he altered the course of the world, the world’s consciousness rewarded him with a little extra, which specifically manifested as—
A dazzling white light flashed, and a small furry white fox appeared in the room. It sat cross-legged, its eyes slightly closed. The little fox on the bed wagged its tail and wobbled to its feet.
Its bright eyes blinked, shimmering with a human-like intelligence.
After returning to the long-lost fox body, Li Shu moved his limbs to get used to it. He was originally a fox, so he didn’t need much time to adapt and could easily control this body.
After being nourished by five different worlds, the injuries on his body had mostly healed. Fortunately, the power limit of this world was quite high. By suppressing some of his strength, along with the rewards from the last world, he could descend into this world in his true form.
However, the restrictions on bringing his true form into small worlds were too great, so he could only appear as a miniature fox and couldn’t do much. But it had been so long since he’d used his real body that he occasionally wanted to move around in it.
The white fox circled the bed a few times as if inspecting its territory. After another flash of white light, the fox disappeared. At the same time, the only human in the room opened his eyes, silver light flickering within them.
It seemed the system hadn’t deceived him. He didn’t feel anything that shouldn’t be in his true form, and his cultivation level even seemed to show a faint sign of improvement.
After cultivating nine tails, each advancement in cultivation was more than twice as difficult as before, so Li Shu was pleasantly surprised.
He lay on the bed and began to review the mission in this world.
The protagonist of this world had the same name as the protagonist of the last world—Gu Lin. He was the current Marshal of the Empire and also the most powerful Alpha in the empire. Both his mental power and physique had reached the rare SSS level. He joined the army at the age of twenty and, in just fifteen years, rose from a small soldier in a remote star system with no background to the Empire’s top marshal. His rise to power was legendary in the eyes of the empire’s people.
No one had ever achieved what he had and his contributions were big. Even before becoming a marshal, he had dared to charge into the heart of the Zerg alone, giving the army a chance to turn the tide. That was his most famous battle and also the starting point of his life’s glory.
Li Shu flipped through the information. It was almost entirely about the marshal’s military achievements. Later, he even overthrew the empire’s corrupt regime, wiped out the Zerg, and went down in history.
After reading all the information, Li Shu couldn’t find anything wrong with the male protagonist. If the life experience of the male protagonist in this world was placed on a certain platform, it could totally become a cool novel about the male protagonist’s upgrade.
[1314, are you sure we’re in the right world?]
Li Shu was already quite amazed by the appearance of six genders in this world. His current body was the weakest one, Omega—the type that could bear children.
[Please don’t doubt the system’s professionalism, host. The target of this mission is indeed Gu Lin.] 1314 was serious. Even if the host was a big boss, he shouldn’t question its professionalism.
Li Shu: [So what’s the mission this time? Help the protagonist overthrow the current emperor?]
1314: [Uh… as long as the host raises the protagonist’s happiness value above the passing line, it will be fine.]
Li Shu was incredulous: [He’s already reached such a high position, and his happiness value isn’t even on the passing line? Look at how much his happiness value was in the original plot.]
1314 rummaged through various pieces of information for a while and returned with a dazed look. [It’s -100.]
This was the lowest happiness value it had ever seen. 1314 seriously suspected that if the minimum value weren’t capped at negative one hundred, the number could be even lower.
[How can it be that low?] Li Shu was puzzled.
1314 shared the same confusion. It couldn’t understand why either. Based on the feedback from the world, the protagonist’s happiness value shouldn’t be that low.
Since they hadn’t even met the protagonist yet, it was too early to speculate. In the original plot, the male protagonist wasn’t in Empire Star right now; he wouldn’t return until the end of the year. Li Shu figured it was best to wait until he came back.
With a happiness value that low, there was definitely something wrong with the male protagonist. Otherwise, someone in such a powerful position couldn’t possibly have such an abysmally low happiness value.
For now, the most pressing matter was dealing with the issues related to the original owner. He wasn’t going to bear the burden of those fabricated accusations.
While attending school, Li Shu would also search for a place to move into. He was not the original owner and would not let the Li family control him.
In this interstellar era, the level of technology was much higher than in Li Shu’s previous world. Many of the technological products were quite novel to him. Although he had the original owner’s memories and was familiar with these things, seeing them in person felt different from “seeing” them through memory.
Take mechas, for example.
The Empire already had a very mature mecha production line, and mechas had been deployed in the military more than a hundred years ago. Since the introduction of mechas, the mortality rate in battles against the Zerg had been decreasing year by year. As the mecha technology became more advanced and powerful, the Zerg were no longer a terrifying existence.
The existence of mechas was not a secret. There was plenty of information about mechas available online. Mechas were divided into civilian and military models. Li Shu browsed through the mecha information online and became deeply interested in those massive machines.
From the original owner’s memories, Li Shu found that Empire Star University had a mecha major, but due to physical limitations, most students in the mecha major were Alphas, with a few Betas, and almost no Omegas.
The mecha major was different from other fields; it had high requirements for both physical strength and mental power. To pilot a mecha, one’s mental power had to be at least B level, and their physical strength had to meet a minimum standard as well. Some Omegas had exceptional mental power, but their physical condition was far below the required level.
There was another reason that wasn’t openly discussed: Omegas had a heat period. Once an Omega entered their heat, all the Alphas within a few kilometers would go mad. Because of this, Omegas could not serve as soldiers on the battlefield.
Li Shu had no idea how to feel after being bombarded with all this ABO knowledge from 1314.
What annoyed him even more was that Omegas had to go through heat. He never imagined that after cultivating nine tails, he would have to endure this. After watching a few educational videos about Omega heats, Li Shu didn’t feel good at all.
With his worldview refreshed, Li Shu attended classes in a daze for a day and was once again blocked on the road by the blonde Omega.
Li Shu was already in a bad mood. He didn’t want to pay any attention to these people and was ready to walk straight past them.
“Wait, Li Shu.”
Li Shu stopped, didn’t turn around, and asked in a rather unpleasant tone, “What? Are you here to stand up for your good friend again?”
“No,” the blonde Omega seemed a bit embarrassed. “I actually came to apologize. I didn’t know…”
“Is that all?” Li Shu interrupted.
“Uh… yes.”
Li Shu: “Okay. Can I leave now?”
Without waiting for the blonde Omega to respond, Li Shu left. He had only asked him to look into the matter to avoid trouble, not because he wanted an apology.
“Is Marshal Gu really coming back? For real?”
Just as Li Shu was about to leave, he paused and turned toward the voice. It was an Omega. The original owner had this person in his memory. He was from the next class and had a good relationship with Li Luo.
He seemed to be on a call with someone, his voice paused for a moment before continuing, “I heard the royal family is looking for someone to arrange a marriage with him. I don’t want to miss such a great opportunity…”
Li Shu didn’t bother listening to the rest. His mind was full of one thought: Gu Lin is coming back to Empire Star early?