Chapter 77: It doesn’t hurt when Lu Yao steps on you.
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Fire raged among the stars. The fleets sailed between the dark gray spheres of New Pluto and New Neptune, tiny as drifting sparks on tangled threads of light against the backdrop of massive planets.
The first round of emergency combat exercises had concluded. The joint simulated beast assault, staged by the three great Exploration Legions, had been successfully repelled by the Silver Halberd Fleet, the Achilles’ Shield Fleet, and the Kuafu Fleet.
Countless interstellar torpedoes, shells, and mecha had been blasted into fragments and ashes—some dispersing in the vacuum of space, others pulled into planetary gravity wells, trailing bright fiery tails through thin atmospheres until they dissolved entirely into smoke.
In the cold silence of the void, leaking fuel and combustible gases from shattered craft floated and burned. Logistics teams worked to clear the battlefield—extinguishing fires, collecting space debris, and scrubbing away traces left by warp jumps. Some broken weapon fragments had drifted into the shattered-ring belt, mingling with countless rocky asteroids, making recovery nearly impossible.
A pale red glow pierced the floating fortress’s glass windows, illuminating the faces of the Federation’s senior commanders gathered in the conference chamber. The post-exercise meeting was underway. Marshal Chen Qiuyuan stood at the front, briefing the generals on strategic developments. The atmosphere remained relatively harmonious.
Three hours later, the meeting adjourned. The generals prepared to return to their flagships and hold their own debriefings with their soldiers. After a few days of rest, the fleets would enjoy a brief period of leave.
Zhou Yunchen left under the half-hidden gazes of his peers. Just as his boots were about to step into the shuttle bay of the floating fortress, hurried footsteps approached. “General Zhou! Please, wait.” Zhou Yunchen turned, his brow still carrying the sharp edge of battle. “General Li, what is it?”
At his side, Zhao Minghe’s eyes flicked between the two men. During the recent exercises, the Silver Halberd Fleet had smashed five brand-new mecha belonging to the Azure Dragon Exploration Legion. Surely General Li wasn’t here to collect a debt?
But with military compensation guaranteed for exercise losses, Li Qingshan had no such intention. Instead, he asked, “General Zhou, my eldest son, Li Mo, left New Blue Star five days ago. The last outsider he spoke with was you. I want to know if he told you what he planned to do.”
Li Mo, having drifted for years among distant stars, should never have had much connection with Federation General Zhou Yunchen. Li Qingshan could not guess what they had spoken about that would drive his son to depart so resolutely and without farewell.
“What did you want him to stay for, General Li?” Zhou Yunchen asked coolly.
“He is my son. After wandering for so many years, I don’t ask him to build a career—I only hope he can settle down and live a good life,” Li Qingshan said. “But now he has left again. My wife and younger son had no quarrel with him. I don’t understand why he went.”
“He has his own goals to pursue.”
“Did he tell you what they are?” Li Qingshan asked, a hint of urgency in his voice.
“Whether I know or not, you cannot stop him,” Zhou Yunchen replied after a pause. Then he added, “He has not gone into crime, nor does he intend to destroy or exile himself.”
Li Qingshan caught the meaning. He no longer wished to press the matter. A bitter smile tugged at his lips. “It seems I have been absent from my child’s life for too long. The warmth and memories of home have already faded for him. I can no longer hold him back.”
“Time can make people forget,” Zhou Yunchen said, “or it can etch things into their bones.”
Leaving those final words, Zhou Yunchen turned with his aide and departed, heading back to the Ares, which floated at the other end of the fleet.
Through the porthole, New Blue Star glimmered faintly millions of miles away, a star casting a pale light. Zhou Yunchen let his gaze linger on it for a few seconds before pulling his thoughts back to duty. He ordered Zhao Minghe to arrange the day’s internal debriefing.
With a rare moment of respite, he returned to his quarters. He stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. For so long, when he had been the snow leopard, he had avoided water. The great cat hated it. Quick-clean modes had sufficed, and it felt almost like another century since he had stood quietly beneath flowing water.
The stream ran down his strong brow and nose, over shoulders and back, across the ridges of muscle at his waist. The starship’s AI, Wonderland, began reading the Federation news aloud.
“Since the joint announcement of the beast tide on October 15th by the military and the Federation Academy of Sciences, the stock and futures markets on New Blue Star have experienced massive tremors…”
“Interstellar energy prices are rising. Experts indicate…”
“Recently, the military has been conducting exercises in the shattered-ring belt. Martial law is in effect, and entry is forbidden. Citizens are advised to avoid the area…”
“This station reports the emergency defense drill concluded successfully. General Zhou Yunchen led the Silver Halberd Fleet in a decisive response…”
“Our reporter is at Federation Central Square where two crowds are facing off. Some fear the beast tide’s impact and demand immediate war, while others call for disarmament, warning against military overreach…”
“The first round of the Hephaestus Mecha Design Contest has reached a fever pitch. Contestants’ model uploads are nearly complete, and final evaluations will begin soon…”
Amid the barrage of war reports, the contest slipped in—or perhaps it too was simply another piece of war news.
He shut off the shower with one hand. The water crashed to silence, droplets streaming down his shoulders, back, and the sculpted lines of his body. Wiping his face, he waved away the scrolling reports of beast tides and military drills, opening instead the replay of the Hephaestus Contest.
The first round’s winners had already been announced. As expected, Lu Yao’s name was among them. Someone online had compiled clips of individual contestants. Zhou Yunchen found Lu Yao’s section and watched in silence.
Silver light reflected from New Pluto spilled into the room. Before leaving to preside over the fleet meeting, Zhou Yunchen logged into his personal account and left a comment.
The forum immediately pinned the post.
#DW is online again!!!
Comment 1: DW really was DW. Just when we were still screaming over how stunning Chief Engineer Lu was, he had already taken things to a whole new level of imagination!
Comment 2: Wait, what? I didn’t see any new post from DW.
Comment 3: Not in the posts. It was a live comment during the replay of Chief Engineer Lu’s contest. He dropped it during the “God’s Right Foot” segment.
Comment 4: Let me guess—did he say, “Step on me, Chief Engineer Lu”?
Comment 5: Please. DW would never be that shallow… that straightforward.
What he actually wrote was: “It doesn’t hurt when Lu Yao steps on you.”
Comment 6: !!! That’s way too bold! Did Chief Engineer Lu actually step on him?!
Comment 7: Think about it. Of course he did—in DW’s dreams.
Comment 8: Exactly. In my dreams, Chief Engineer Lu doesn’t just step on me…
After the first round of competition ended, Lu Yao didn’t immediately assign new tasks to his team. They weren’t on vacation, but things had quieted down considerably. Mo Feng arrived with a stack of reports and found Lu Yao in his energy lab, repairing something.
Lu Yao bent over his workbench, adjusting parts. With the snow leopard absent, Torque could sprawl freely across his shoulder, head and paws tucked as he purred in deep sleep. Mo Feng couldn’t resist reaching out to rub the little ball of fur a few times. The kitten was far cuter than that aloof snow leopard, purring happily under his palm.
“What’s the matter?” Lu Yao asked without looking up.
“Oh…” Mo Feng blinked back to the present and set the reports on the bench. “I was reviewing recent financial feedback, and I noticed an unexpected record—deployment of unmanned monitoring ships to the Oklo Sector. That wasn’t in NTL’s research plan. At first I thought someone had hacked into the system, but when I checked, the authorizing signature was yours. What happened out there?”
Lu Yao paused his work. “I sent three unmanned ships to investigate the gravitational anomalies in that sector.”
“The Oklo Sector is nothing but postwar ruins. What’s the point of probing there?”
“There may be special gravitational zones suitable as natural testing grounds,” Lu Yao replied, omitting the matter of the temporal undercurrents. “I just wanted to see the situation firsthand.”
“Aren’t we broke?”
“Too broke for large-scale experiments, yes. But we can still afford to cover travel costs for the monitoring ships.”
Lu Yao flipped open the monitoring reports Mo Feng had brought. As his eyes scanned the numbers, his brows drew tight.
“Find something?” Mo Feng asked. “Can that place really serve as a testing ground?”
“Maybe…” Lu Yao said noncommittally. His gaze shifted to the current readings on the bench display, the two sets of values overlapping in subtle resonance. The disassembled cat-shaped mini-mecha’s energy core glimmered softly under his hands.
“It looks like we need to push our new energy research forward,” he murmured. “We must secure funding from the Hephaestus Contest.”
Mo Feng didn’t understand why Lu Yao suddenly brought that up, but ambition was a good sign. He nodded quickly. “Yes, yes, absolutely.”
Lu Yao’s new energy research was tied to gravitational studies. The preparation of raw materials was extremely difficult; so far he had only managed to produce a tiny sample, intended for installation into the little cat mecha as a test.
His mention of a “testing ground” had been casual, but now it seemed the gravity environment near the undercurrents really did match his experimental values. It could genuinely serve for field experiments.
Mo Feng saw the sudden spark of light in Lu Yao’s eyes as he buried himself back in work, clearly unwilling to be disturbed. He sighed helplessly. “No matter how inspired you are, you still need to eat. Even if you don’t, Torque does. The cafeteria stops serving fresh meat after seven. That’s only half an hour away. If nothing else, at least let me take Torque to dinner.”
“Half an hour? It’s already past six?” Lu Yao exclaimed.
“Yes, just past six.”
Lu Yao shot to his feet, scooped up the white cat from his shoulders, and shoved him into Mo Feng’s arms. “I have an appointment! You take Torque to eat!”
Mo Feng stared at his retreating figure, baffled. “With whom?”
“Zhou Yunchen. He’s returned.” And then Lu Yao’s figure vanished around the stairwell corner like a sudden gust of wind.
Mo Feng stood there dumbfounded, Torque blinking back at him. The last time Lu Yao had run off like that was when he’d forgotten to shut down the particle accelerator—and if he hadn’t dashed to stop it, the whole base would have blown sky-high. What on earth did Zhou Yunchen have that warranted this kind of urgency?
“Meow?”
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