Ch16 - Gege

Editor: Decembery

This morning was individual training, so each member had different training plans. Team training was allocated to the afternoon, mostly consisting of small groups practising teamwork and physical combat in Co-op vs Ai mode. 

According to the settings in “Century’s Finale”, the larger special mutant beasts in the jungle cannot be killed by long-distance weapons. Only “enchanted” melee weapons such as special daggers and high-frequency blades could damage them.

In addition, when playing the point-capture mode with defensive and offensive requirements, long-distance weapons and ammunition all had to be bought and replenished at the base. Because of this, there were many occasions when a player’s stealth and physical combat skills could make a key difference between victory or defeat. 

Hence, melee combat skills had become a must-have for professional league players.

Taking into consideration Qiu Yu’s physique as an Omega and morning training which had put quite some pressure on him, He Jingxing placed him and Lu Cun in the same training group. Lu Cun had just been promoted from the youth training camp, so his training program could still be considered light, which would help Qiu Yu to adapt. 

However, not even two minutes after training began, Lu Cun was K.O.-ed five times in a row by Qiu Yu, beaten so badly that even he himself was still confused. 

Lu Cun spoke with a trembling voice, his face pale as a sheet, “Ma- master…”

Qiu Yu sighed and reached out to pull him up from the ground. “Don’t go easy on me, this is physical combat training, what are you hesitating for?”

Lu Cun stammered for a while, his voice as quiet as a mosquito, “I’m worried that you… would get injured in the game… and it’ll be painful again…”

Exasperated, Qiu Yu’s smile disappeared. “You think you can injure me?”

Lu Cun was momentarily stunned. 

After waiting for half a day and still not receiving Lu Cun’s attacks, Qiu Yu fell silent for a moment before he raised his hand, “Coach, I’d like to request a match with the captain.”

Since the child was still skeptical about his physical combat abilities, Qiu Yu wouldn’t mind showing him his true abilities. 

Only by knowing yourself and knowing your opponent can you live through a hundred battles. But on the battlefield, you must not only “know yourself” and your own abilities, but you also have to understand your teammates’ strengths and weaknesses in order to make an accurate judgement of the battle situation. 

Mu Feibai had just warded off a set of Du Chen’s combo attacks when they both heard Qiu Yu’s request and simultaneously stopped, looking towards the nearby training ground.  

As Qiu Yu’s avatar was newly created, it was still wearing the default black vest and camo shorts. Large patches of skin were exposed, his petite figure making him seem infinitely fragile, as though he would shatter with a single touch. 

He Jingxing glanced at Mu Feibai and then took measure of Qiu Yu before he nodded, “Sure, have a try.”

Mu Feibai quickly took a deep breath and jogged to the training platform Qiu Yu was on. He directed a toothy grin towards Qiu Yu, “I won’t give up and let you win in the game, so watch out!”

Qiu Yu was in no way afraid and even beckoned tauntingly towards Mu Feibai in response.  

Mu Feibai began his attack without hesitation.

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 avatar of Qiu Yu’s competition account was identical to his present body, which had short limbs and was only 1.71m tall. Because of this, when Mu Feibai was advancing, he could almost wrap Qiu Yu’s entire figure within his arms. 

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Moreover, the avatars in the game all had the same strength and stamina data, so melee combat placed even more emphasis on skills and strategies. Although Mu Feibai’s physical combat skills had been honed by the competitions, his skills were still inferior to Qiu Yu, who had lived through years of fighting on a real battlefield.  

The two fought back and forth for several rounds, and Qiu Yu had basically figured out Mu Feibai’s movements. He faked a flaw to lure Mu Feibai into attacking, and then performed a beautiful counter-kill, drawing the curtains to the battle.

On the sidelines, Coach He and the surrounding teammates were all slack-jawed in shock. 

Zhou Peng widened his eyes, his face full of incredulity, “Oh fuck! Qiu Yu, how did you do that?!”

Lin Jinxi stared at Qiu Yu with sparkling eyes and leaned towards Du Chen to confirm, “I seem to remember Liu ge saying that since the captain joined the team from the youth camp, he had never lost a single melee combat match! This is the first time, right?’ 

Mu Chen pursed his lips and moved his gaze away from Qiu Yu. He nodded slightly, yet he never spoke a word in response.

After Mu Feibai’s avatar was killed, it turned into bits of light and scattered before solidifying again outside the training platform. 

He looked towards the person standing at the centre of the stage, the corners of his lips curving upwards. He jumped onto the stage once again and copied Qiu Yu’s earlier beckoning movement, “Come again.”

Qiu Yu didn’t dally and chose to launch an attack. 

Mu Feibai was full of excitement, his shining eyes staring closely at every one of Qiu Yu’s movements, trying to figure out his next move. 

However, he didn’t even last two more minutes than last time before Qiu Yu once again found a chink in his defenses and killed him.

Scattered light recondensed outside the platform. Although he had just lost two matches, Mu Feibai’s smile became increasingly happy and eager to fight. “Want to try a round using knives?”

Qiu Yu liked soldiers with fighting spirit, so he didn’t think much before nodding, “Sure. Come on!” 

However he was interrupted by Coach He, “That’s enough, don’t get too intense when fighting with Mu Feibai, your physical body can’t stand it.”

Qiu Yu didn’t agree, yet Mu Feibai seemed to suddenly realise something, and the smile on his lips faded a little. He gave a light cough, “That’s true, then next time… wait until you’ve gotten used to the gaming cabin, I’ll fight you again then.”

Qiu Yu didn’t really care and nodded towards him before walking off the training stage.

Lu Cun was standing there, staring unblinkingly at Qiu Yu with admiration in his eyes. If not for the game being unable to emulate blushing, his face would probably have turned into a red apple. 

Qiu Yu thought this kid’s expression was pretty funny and habitually rubbed Lu Cun’s hair, “Come, we can continue.”

Seeing this scene, Mu Feibai frowned and tsked lightly.

Then he raised a hand to his own head and asked Du Chen, “…Did I grow too tall?”

Du Chen was confused by this question. “What?” 

Mu Feibai continued, “It’s better to be a Beta, as a height of 180 is enough. I can’t be considered tall among Alphas, but I still seem to be a little too tall…”

At this moment Zhou Peng leaned over and laughed mischievously, “What do you know, wanna learn about size difference?”

Mu Feibai speechlessly stared at him.

Zhou Peng shot him a glance that said “all men would know”, and spoke, “Isn’t it great to be tall? Only tall and strong Alphas can lift up their Omegas to…” 

“Captain!” Du Chen interrupted their dialogue, “Let’s start training.”

Mu Feibai lightly coughed and gave Zhou Peng’s butt a kick, “Have a little propriety when you speak!”

As he spoke, Mu Feibai guiltily glanced in Qiu Yu’s direction, worried he had overheard that crude joke earlier.

Zhou Peng also reacted and cowed his head. He gave his own mouth a couple of slaps before he turned and slipped away. 

Qiu Yu had not overheard the two’s conversation.

Though even if he had, he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable or offended either—he had gotten used to hanging out with the macho guys in the squad. He was also someone who could crack crude jokes at the drop of a hat, but he had to change that habit of not having a filter between his mind and words when he started to train new recruits, as he had to keep up the image of a superior when facing those kids. 

Perhaps, after coming to this world, he had been affected by the original body’s memories and became more gentle and mild. Otherwise he would seem like too much of an oddity. 

However, even if he had become more gentle and mild, he still stood out like a sore thumb among the Omegas of this world, for instance— 

Qiu Yu once again pushed Lu Cun down, straddled his waist and pressed his face into the floor. One of his arms was hooked around the other’s neck, another pinned down the other’s elbow, almost folding Lu Cun in half backwards.

In this painful situation, he still leaned towards the kid and asked, “Did you remember it this time?”

Lu Cun swallowed tremblingly, nearing tears, “…no, no I didn’t see it clearly.”

Qiu Yu: …… 

Okay, this was definitely the worst soldier he had ever trained.

But then again, this world was not the ravaged apocalyptic wasteland, where all those who lived till ten were warriors who had experienced the cruelty of life and death. Although Lu Cun was selected from an elite training camp, a game was a game, and so he didn’t have a desire to survive. Without that desperation, it was understandable that his learning process would be slow.

Qiu Yu let him go, and patiently said, “Stand up, I’ll teach it to you again.”

This afternoon, Qiu Yu “taught” Lu Cun a dozen fighting skills again and again, until he successfully abused him into tears—not because of the pain, but rather that the child’s self-esteem was damaged after being continuously beaten down more than ten times by an Omega, so he cried tears of frustration. 

The game couldn’t emulate tears, so Lu Cun chokingly climbed up and hoarsely insisted, “Continue!”

Qiu Yu didn’t feel bad for him but Coach He couldn’t watch on anymore, worried that Lu Cun’s self-esteem would be completely destroyed by Qiu Yu right after he was promoted from the youth training camp. Hurriedly, Coach He called for a stop, “That’s enough, Qiu Yu should also be getting tired, let’s change the groups. Lu Cun, go partner with Lin Jinxi, and Zhou Peng, you go pair up with Du Chen.”

Afterwards, he turned towards Mu Feibai, “Captain, take Qiu Yu to the infirmary and let him rest for a while.”

Mu Feibai exited his cabin and quickly put on his jacket and pants before running over to Qiu Yu. He carefully helped Qiu Yu out of the gaming cabin and reached towards the bend of his knees.  

However Qiu Yu avoided him and hissed in pain, “…don’t hold me, carry me on your back.”

He had had enough of being held in a princess carry at noon. That posture had no sense of security, it was much better to be carried on someone’s back. 

Mu Feibai quietly chuckled and didn’t refuse. He half knelt in front of Qiu Yu, and steadily carried him.

Qiu Yu placed his arms on Mu Feibai’s shoulders, his chin lightly resting on his arm. Half-lidded, he tried his best to steady his breathing.  

This time, the tip of his nose was closer to Mu Feibai’s skin and he once again caught a light whiff of a slightly spicy scent. There wasn’t the pressure brought by pheromones this time, and the scent was clearer, so he was finally able to identify the smell of ginger.

The slightly spicy, warm scent brought back memories of the warmest bowl of ginger tea during winter in the apocalypse.

In the apocalypse, grains and fruits were considered extremely precious, such that no one would waste any food to make alcohol. Medical alcohol was even more precious and would only be used for saving lives, so even the most greedy people wouldn’t drink alcohol to drive away the cold. 

Hence, a sip of spicy ginger tea became something all soldiers looked towards during the harsh winters.  

Qiu Yu lightly breathed in the ginger scent from Mu Feibai, as if he could feel the ginger tea in his mouth, flowing down his throat before entering his stomach and bringing waves of warmth that calmed the pain, allowing him to slowly relax,

“Does it hurt a lot?” Mu Feibai suddenly asked.

“…Huh?” Qiu Yu didn’t understand what he was talking about.

“I heard you breathing in a lot.” Mu Feibai said, “If it hurts too much, maybe it would be better not to rank later at night.” 

Hearing him, Qiu yu smiled.

“That won’t do,” He spoke under his breath, “I at least have to persevere through today’s training. I’m still waiting for you to call me ‘ge’ ne.”

Mu Feibai was speechless and didn’t speak for a long time.

As they approached the door of the infirmary, Mu Feibai suddenly chuckled and turned his head slightly, calling out, “Gege.” 

Qiu Yu raised his eyebrows.

Mu Feibai grinned, “Since you’re my gege, you’ve got to be responsible for me now and teach me archery and combat. Also, no going back on your words later ah~”

The author has something to day:

Mu Feibai: Xiao Lu got a chance to call “master” first, as for the chance to call “gege”, I have to get it even if it means pulling out a flag early!