Cannon Fodder Chapter 30: Phoenix Awakened 30: End

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Sulo

 

Long Yuan looked at the person walking towards him and his lazy expression suddenly disappeared. His eyes were fixated on him.

Yu Ze, dressed in a straight military uniform, with disciplinary buttons neatly fastened to the top, stepped on his leather military boots and strode towards Long Yuan. Sensing Long Yuan’s line of sight, he took a step and looked up. 

When he saw Long Yuan, he subconsciously curved the corners of his mouth and his phoenix eyes softened their curvature, and the coldness brought about by his looks immediately dissipated.

“Wow, big beauty!”

The team members whispered at once.

Long Yuan’s feet had been resting on the wall with his knees bent on the ground. He stood up straight with a sweep of his eyes and gently shouted, “Come on, meet the vice team captain.”

“Young Master Yuan, didn’t you say you want to test their skills first?” One of the team members teased him.

They had gotten to know Long Yuan well, and usually spoke casually.

“Yeah, you didn’t get soft because you saw that he was good looking, did you? You have another one at home!”

Yu Ze’s blood was so special that in order to protect Yu Ze, Watt forbade any media or private person to publish Yu Ze’s photo. As a result, few people knew what Yu Ze looked like, except for the students at the military academy.

Yu Ze was quite a distance away from them, but with his ears, he could hear all these words clearly. He continued to walk forward, stopped in front of Long Yuan and gave a military salute, with a smile in his eyes, “Captain, want to test my skills?”

Long Yuan hadn’t seen him for a week, and now that he was in front of him, he still looked like a forbidden fruit. The first thing that came to mind was the thought of some unseemly scenes. He cleared his throat, “No.”

He knew the ability of his little phoenix, which could make him die. He raised his hand to hold Yu Ze and looked at the team, “He is the one at home. Everyone roll over to meet the vice captain. From now on, stop joking and pay attention to me.”

The team members stood up straight, “Good day, vice captain.”

Yu Ze smiled, “How are you guys?”

Long Yuan said, “You guys keep training, I’ll take the vice captain to get acquainted.”

He took Yu Ze away and introduced him as he walked, “When you don’t have a mission, you train on the training field. Behind the training field is the canteen, the mechanics will take advantage of the break to overhaul the equipment.” He looked down, “Did you and Dad hide this from me on purpose?”

The corners of Yu Ze’s eyes curled up, “I wanted to surprise you and told Dad not to tell you, surprised?”

Long Yuan rubbed the top of his head, “Surprised.”

At dinner time, Long Yuan received a sudden mission and the whole team went out, and Yu Ze was no exception. A group of zombie beasts appeared in a town on the border of District 6, and there were mid-level zombie beasts leading the group that the border guards could not resist.

Their mission — to support the guards, remove the zombie beasts and protect the residents.

This was Yu Ze’s first actual large-scale battle. Even though he had had simulated training, he still did not feel very good. The low-level zombies were terrifying in appearance, and the rotten smell on their bodies was unbearable for the Phoenix’s cleanliness fetish.

The low-level zombie beasts around him quickly fell down by headshots. When he turned his head to look, Long Yuan raised his eyebrows at him and smiled.

He smiled back and then concentrated on the fight.

As he was fighting, he inclined his head, brushed his wings and took to the air, then swooped towards the left rear of the zombie group. When he was about to land, his palms bestialized and grabbed at the mid-level zombie beast hiding in the middle of the command.

“Ga!!!” The sharp and irritable scream pierced Yu Ze’s brow. His hand was fast and fierce, and in less than a minute, the zombie beast was declining.

Yu Ze’s body was boiling with blood, and he felt the increase in strength.

He fought with the zombie beast. Without the control of the high-level zombie beast, the low-level zombie beast scattered like sand, quickly killed by the other team members.

Yu Ze was smoked by the unpleasant smell in the air and was in an unusually irritable mood, spitting out two scorching flames one after another. Taking advantage of the zombie beast to dodge, his body drew up and stepped on the back of the zombie beast from above. His wings flapped and swooped down quickly, trampling the zombie beast to the ground.

He shot the particle gun directly towards the beast’s head.

After one shot, he quickly retreated and the zombie beast could no longer move.

During the whole process, he showed the speed of the flying class Awakened person to the fullest, and the rest of the people looked frozen.

“Wow! The vice captain is so handsome!”

“Bullock!”

Long Yuan’s eyes darkened slightly as his eyes moved from Yu Ze’s fiery red wings to his expressionless face. He rarely saw this expression on Yu Ze’s face. Yu Ze’s skin was cold and white, and his eyes were long and narrow. He looked extraordinarily cold, as if he didn’t give a damn about anyone.

His eyes darkened even more, and a strong urge to see Yu Ze’s expression out of control for him sprang up deep in his heart.

Yu Ze glanced over the area and saw the zombie beasts were almost cleared. He retracted his wings, and smoothly killed the zombie beasts not far away.

It didn’t take long for the battle to end.

The head of the guard army praised the first team and kept thanking them. Long Yuan coped with two sentences and left with the first team.

They had just finished their mission, so they didn’t need to standby anymore, and when they returned, some continued to eat, while others went back to their dormitories.

Yu Ze did not hesitate to go back to his dormitory, and Long Yuan followed him.

After entering the room, Long Yuan held Yu Ze’s shoulder and pressed him behind the door, lifting his hand to take off his military cap, “Not feeling well?”

Yu Ze frowned, the corners of his mouth turned down, “It smells bad.”

His voice was a little soft, sounding petulant.

Long Yuan casually put the cap on top of the shoe cabinet, then gently put his fingers on Yu Ze’s collar, leaned in and whispered, “You smell good.”

Yu Ze was very sensitive to the change in his voice and his heart fluttered, “You…” He gently pushed, “Your sense of smell is not working! I need to take a shower.”

“I’ll help you.” Long Yuan didn’t hesitate and picked him up and went into the bathroom.

When Yu Ze came out again, he was still being held by Long Yuan. His military uniform was changed and he was wearing black cross-collar pajamas, and there were a lot of red marks on the skin exposed by the collar.

Long Yuan put him on the sofa, “Are you hungry? I’ll have someone bring some food?”

Yu Ze sat against him and nodded, “Okay,” he wrinkled his nose, “I won’t eat meat.”

Long Yuan thought of the first time Yu Ze was teased by him to eat meat out of his own accord, and let out a low laugh, “Okay.”

Yu Ze soon got used to military life. He still hated the unpleasant smell when fighting, which made him fast and fierce, and his combat power spread; together with Long Yuan, they were called the Dragon and Phoenix Duo.

Yu Ze straight up laughed when he heard about it, and felt sweet. The feeling of being side by side with his beloved, was very good.

A month later, the good news came from Father Long. There had been progress on the homemade zombie beast antidote and they were expected to make the finished product soon.

This month, the military department increased the military strength at the border, and with Long Yuan and Yu Ze, two senior Awakened, the zombie beast attack did not succeed once. Instead, eight senior zombie beasts were killed.

The last few days, the zombie beast attacks had become more and more massive, and the pressure on the military department was getting bigger and bigger. Long Yuan and Yu Ze therefore had to separate their teams, after all, in the face of senior zombie beasts, only senior Awakened had the power to fight.

The front line team had to take turns. If the two acted together, the Advanced Awakened were completely inadequate for distribution. And many times, more than one place needed support.

Both became very busy, and happily, the number of zombie beasts plummeted as a result. After all, the zombie beasts could only spread by infection and they could not reproduce. The military department was so heavily defended that the number of newborn zombie beasts was extremely small and the number of reductions was large.

After several large-scale zombie beast attacks, the zombie beasts suddenly quieted down, and Yu Ze and Long Yuan had two days of leisure. However, Yu Ze couldn’t be happy, the countdown in his consciousness only had six hours left.

At seven o’clock tonight, it would be exactly 100 days since he came to this world.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been distracted for the past two days?” Long Yuan stroked him behind the ear and asked.

Yu Ze looked at him intently, and his heart ached at the thought that he might never see him again. He didn’t care that there were others nearby, he reached out and wrapped his arms around Long Yuan’s waist. He rested his forehead on Long Yuan’s shoulder and casually found an excuse, “Maybe I was too busy a while ago and I’m not used to being free all of a sudden, so I feel like I’ve forgotten something.”

Long Yuan understood what he said and said with a low smile, “Free? We can find something to do.”

Yu Ze punched him on the waist, “I’m on duty this afternoon.”

Long Yuan said, “I’m on night shift today, or I’ll go with you this afternoon?”

If it were normal, Yu Ze would have let Long Yuan rest, but his afternoon shift didn’t end until 11 p.m., and his countdown ended at 7 p.m.

“Okay.” He said.

Long Yuan raised his eyebrows, and there was a smile in his tone, “So sad to see me go?” He knew Yu Ze’s character very well; while his mouth was teasing, his heart couldn’t help but worry. He rubbed the top of Yu Ze’s hair, “Are you uncomfortable?”

Yu Ze shook his head, “No.”

At three o’clock, Yu Ze took the team to pick up the shift. Seeing Long Yuan beside him, the team members expressed their envy of their relationship and were overjoyed at the same time. The day’s task would be much easier with the two senior Awakened around.

The afternoon was very quiet until six o’clock, when alarms sounded frequently and hordes of zombie beasts of varying sizes appeared everywhere. It didn’t take long for Yu Ze to receive the mission, a strong senior zombie beast appeared in one place and there was a need for support.

When he arrived, he immediately felt a strong and powerful pressure, and the air was filled with the smell of rotting and blood of low-level zombie beasts. He looked at the source of the intimidating pressure with an awe-inspiring expression.

Above the back of the zombie beast, a zombie beast with golden hair and a pair of huge feathered wings on its back looked towards him instantly.

The two were far apart, but they saw each other’s expressions clearly.

The zombie beast showed a strange smile, “You’re here.”

Yu Ze’s heart tightened as Long Yuan said in a deep voice, “One of the earliest known advanced zombie beasts in the military department, probably the zombie king, I’ll go deal with it.”

As soon as Long Yuan’s voice fell, he transformed into a green dragon and rushed straight back.

Low-level zombie beasts without high-level control would have much weaker combat power, so in battle, their primary consideration was to kill the zombie beast that led the group. Two seconds later, two zombie beasts flew up from the zombie group to intercept Long Yuan. At the same time, the blonde zombie beast, that directly bestialized into a griffin, flew towards Yu Ze.

Yu Ze instantly bestialized and met it in mid-air.

He needed to get closer to the other side, the other side’s strong pressure was heavier. Yu Ze’s eyes were alert, dodging the other side’s griffin claws, and a mouthful of fire sprayed over.

The griffin zombie beast was huge, but the action was very sensitive, side dodge, and then from the attack again. Yu Ze’s wings flapped up and dodged, and the two scorched each other.

But soon, Yu Ze found out that it was not good. He was resisting the opponent’s pressure, using too much mental exhaustion, dodged the attack, and his physical strength was declining.

But the other side was much more comfortable than him, and he knew very well that the other side was stronger than him. He was not injured thanks to his Phoenix’s sensitive body and the fire attack that caught him unawares.

Two intermediate players were watching him and Long Yuan at all times. Seeing that he was losing ground and almost getting hit, one of them quickly flew over to help.

Yu Ze gave a warning whistle, but it was too late as his teammate was slapped down by the griffin’s wings. Yu Ze thus dodged a blow and quickly swooped down, grabbing his teammate’s clothes to slow his teammate’s descent.

“Look out!” Another teammate shouted.

Yu Ze heard his voice and knew he was also an intermediate Awakened, and reassured himself by releasing his claws as his teammate fell and was caught. Yu Ze let go of the man and immediately flew towards the side to avoid the griffin’s frontal attack, but his wings were hit squarely by the opponent’s wings.

Yu Ze screamed out in pain, and the tip of his right wing was bent downwards abnormally, and the bone there was broken. His wings were out of balance and his body fell.

The griffin was in hot pursuit, and a loud dragon roar came from heaven and earth, and its body lurched.

Yu Ze panicked for a moment and then steadied himself, taking the opportunity to turn around and spray a mouthful of fire on it. The griffin’s neck was set on fire, and the fire instantly reached its wings, and it roared in anger and pounced on Yu Ze.

Yu Ze was so close that his ears were rattled and his head was dizzy. He was injured in the wing and his reaction was even slower. At that moment, the green dragon arrived and smacked the griffin with its tail, which flipped twice in the air.

The dragon hung in the middle of Yu Ze and the griffin, staring at the griffin with big golden eyes that were vaguely red. Yu Ze saw at once the wound on the back of the green dragon; palm-sized, scales gone, revealing red and black flesh.

His eyes were red, and just looking at it, he could imagine how much it hurt. The dragon and the griffin instantly fought, Yu Ze did not venture up, he knew very well, his wing injury affected his speed, and getting close to the griffin was very dangerous.

He was not far away watching, ready to find an opportunity to strike.

The flames on the griffin soon swept through its body, its roar continued, its eyes were red, and finally it flew towards Yu Ze in total disregard of the green dragon’s attack.

Yu Ze saw its intention and flew directly into the distance, pulling away.

Long Yuan was equivalent to a target. Although the griffin beast was covered with fire, he was not afraid of phoenix fire, so the attack would not affect him at all. When the griffin had slowed down significantly, Long Yuan gave it three shots in a row, and the griffin fell straight from the sky.

When Yu Ze landed in human form, his tailbone hurt so much that he almost fell to the ground when his feet went weak.

Long Yuan ordered in a cold voice, “Clean up the battlefield, send the injured to the hospital, and report the infected.”

After he finished, he gently picked up Yu Ze and went straight into the fighter jet, sitting in the driver’s seat himself and letting Yu Ze lie across his lap.

Yu Ze’s forehead was sweating from the pain, but he couldn’t put his mind to rest. He bestialized his right hand, scratched his fingers on his left hand, propped himself up, and raised his hand to put his fingers in Long Yuan’s mouth.

Long Yuan’s eyebrows tightened and he looked down, his eyes fell on his whitened face, “You rest.”

Yu Ze’s fingers stubbornly pressed against him, “You’re hurt.”

Long Yuan complied with his wishes and licked his fingers clean, Yu Ze couldn’t help but worry, “Is it too little?”

Long Yuan grabbed his hand, “That’s enough, you’re hurt badly, rest.”

Yu Ze wanted to say something else, but a familiar mechanical voice suddenly flashed in his head, and he could not feel the external information.

In Long Yuan’s eyes, he fell straight into a coma.

Long Yuan’s face tightened, “ZeZe?”

Yu Ze did not respond, his consciousness was communicating with the system.

System, “Congratulations, your own survival of one hundred days mission completed! Asking the taskmaster to choose: immediately challenge the next task or automatically challenge the next task after death in this world.”

Yu Ze was surprised, “I can stay in this world?”

“Yes, you can stay until the mission identity dies. Friendly reminder, the system does not mind staying, but the longer the time, the more likely to have emotional entanglement, which is not conducive to the next mission.”

Yu Ze, “I want to stay,” he paused and inquired, “will it have an impact on the real world?”

System, “No, are you sure you want to stay?”

Yu Ze dropped his heart, “Yes. I have a question for you, is this mission just a one star?”

System, “Yes.”

Yu Ze, “But the difficulty is not low ah, if I did not know the Long’s… The mission world’s powerful family, the original’s death would hardly be escaped. Not to mention the blood’s special effects were exposed, making it more dangerous.”

System, “There are many ways to challenge the mission, holding a leg is also one of them, congratulations, you used the right method.”

Yu Ze, “The mission world has things happening faster than the original world, doesn’t that make it more difficult?”

“Yes,” the system, “because the mission identity is special. Becoming a senior Phoenix Awakened helped challenge the difficulty, so by accelerating the event we were able to strengthen the difficulty.”

Yu Ze, “Really?”

System, “There is no error in the system data, you can try it yourself.”

Yu Ze: Better forget it, he doesn’t want to look for death.

System, “Any more questions?”

Yu Ze, “No more, thank you.”

System, “002 at your service, please give a positive feedback on the return screen, see you on the next mission.”

The system disappeared and a rating option appeared in front of Yu Ze: Did 002 work responsibly during the first challenge mission?

1. Responsible

2. Very responsible

3. Very, very responsible.

Yu Ze, “…” He suspected 002 had a screw loose. He thought about it, he had to do tasks to do later, offending the system was not a good choice, so he decisively chose very responsible.

The scoring system exploded with gorgeous fireworks, the special effects disappeared, his consciousness returned, and Long Yuan’s anxious voice was in his ear.

“Alright? If he’s alright, how come he’s still not awake?! You guys check again!”

Yu Ze opened his eyes, “A’Yuan.”

Long Yuan quickly grabbed his hand, “How are you?”

Yu Ze smiled happily, “Very well.”

Long Yuan touched his forehead, “You are still so happy to be injured?”

Yu Ze, “Mn,” his eyes were bright, “I want to get married early.”

Long Yuan froze and then asked, “Really?” After the question, he said firmly, “If you say so, don’t back out, I’ll prepare the wedding right away!”

 

The news of their marriage hit the headlines again, and the wedding was talked about until they were old. The love story of Planet Watt’s first emperor and first lady after reunification was told on Watt for a long time.

 

Yu Ze’s hand was held tightly with Long Yuan when he was dying of old age, and his eyes were closed with inner peace.

In this life, there were no regrets.

 

“Mission world loading…”

The next moment, the system beep sounded in Yu Ze’s head.