Chapter 28: Escape
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
In the blink of an eye, a week had passed. November 15th marked the final registration day for the source weapon manufacturing competition. Yun Yingzhi clicked onto the official website to check the number of applicants. He was startled by the massive number. Honestly, he felt that trying to live off talent alone wasn’t easy.
The pressure was immense. Under such intense competition, could he really achieve a good result? Feeling the weight of it all, Yun Yingzhi opened his personal terminal.
Designing a new source weapon relied first on a fleeting spark of inspiration, second on accumulated knowledge, and—of course—most importantly, talent. It had been quite some time since Yun Yingzhi began designing a space-restriction source weapon. Because Ji Xiaobo and Jing Haomiao weren’t in a hurry for source weapons, he had devoted all his recent energy to studying the space-restriction imprint. It was a tedious and lengthy process.
Through repeated refinements and countless attempts, he had wasted a lot of money without ever producing a finished product. But he wasn’t in a rush—he had known from his first encounters with this field that creating a source weapon wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
Those were lessons of blood and tears. After all, because of his destructive abilities as a child, Yun Yinghui had almost been forced to sell himself to repay debts. After making yet another adjustment to his design, he decided to go to the Source Weapon Manufacturing Department’s workshop to put it into practice.
On the way, he spotted a familiar figure. It was Elvis. Lately, compared to his classmates calling him “Cute Little Battle Rabbit” at every opportunity, the thing that troubled Yun Yingzhi the most was Elvis. Elvis always came looking for him. Ever since hiding from Elvis in the library, Yun Yingzhi had gone to great lengths to avoid him.
For example, he had once mistakenly entered the women’s restroom in a panic. Luckily, no one was inside. He hadn’t seen anything he shouldn’t have, but it was still enough to make him feel mortified.
Or jumping straight down from the twelfth floor. Although his second form had strong jumping ability, leaping from such a height still scared him a little.
And then there were all the times he had transformed into his second form, squeezing through holes like a small animal. He had tried every possible method to avoid Elvis, but Elvis refused to take the hint, always finding a way to appear right in front of him.
From a short distance, Yun Yingzhi’s eyes met Elvis’s. He subconsciously stepped back and turned around, wanting to run away. But before he could start running, Elvis appeared in front of him through spatial movement, blocking his path.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyelids twitched. “I…I really need to go to the restroom.”
Actually, he had used this excuse more than three times recently. Academy students passing by shot them curious glances, and some whispered, “I want to see our battle rabbit’s second form.”
Yun Yingzhi’s face flushed bright red. Elvis placed his right hand on Yun Yingzhi’s shoulder. The pressure wasn’t light, and it made the fine hairs on Yun Yingzhi’s body stand on end. He felt restrained, as if he were bound by something invisible. Elvis said, “I’ll take you there.”
Yun Yingzhi, “…?” Where? In Yun Yingzhi’s confusion, Elvis added, “I’m worried you’ll enter the women’s restroom again.”
Yun Yingzhi thought of what had happened recently and felt a wave of panic. In the next moment, he noticed the scenery change. Elvis had taken him to an unfamiliar place. A… restroom stall. Somewhat familiar, it seemed to be a restroom on some unknown floor of the academy’s academic building. The voices of a few students chatting could still be heard.
“Why won’t the campus flower admit that the little battle rabbit is him?”
“To avoid admitting the Cute Little Battle Rabbit’s true identity, he even said the rabbit was an elementary school student. Our campus flower really goes all out.”
After a low chuckle, the same student said, “Later, I’m going to check out the battle resources of the Cute Little Battle Rabbit.”
“Let’s go together.”
Yun Yingzhi, “….”
Elvis’s lips curved slightly. Yun Yingzhi felt his cheeks heat up. Sweat beaded on his forehead. From outside the door, he could hear the sound of water flowing—likely the students flushing—followed by the gurgle of a faucet.
One of them said, “Hey, you two, don’t just leave. Come wash your hands properly.”
“You’re so particular.”
“Geez, I’m not dirty. It’s fine.”
“Seriously? Should I not wash my hands and then touch your faces?”
Sounds of washing hands followed. While talking, the three people shifted the conversation elsewhere, and left. From the sounds, Yun Yingzhi realized that now, the restroom only contained him and Elvis.
All of a sudden, Elvis asked, “Do you need my help?”
Yun Yingzhi froze. Help? Help with what? Did he really need Elvis’s help with anything? Yun Yingzhi wondered in confusion, and Elvis said, “Didn’t you say you needed to go to the restroom?”
Yun Yingzhi thought about it. In the past, whenever he tried to avoid Elvis, he had used that excuse. Or rather, whenever he encountered Elvis, he was either on his way to the restroom or jumping out a window.
No! When he went to the restroom, why would he need Elvis’s help? Yun Yingzhi’s pupils widened in shock. No… it couldn’t be what he thought, could it?
Before he could think further, Elvis’s hand suddenly touched Yun Yingzhi’s pants. Yun Yingzhi was too shocked and swayed slightly, but Elvis quickly steadied him. “How can you not know anything?” he said.
To prevent Elvis’s valuable hands from doing something inappropriate, Yun Yingzhi immediately grabbed hold of them. Elvis lowered his gaze slightly to look at his hands being held. He could hear Yun Yingzhi’s rapid heartbeat and sweaty palms. He guessed that Yun Yingzhi must be extremely nervous right now.
Yun Yingzhi stared at Elvis in panic. At first, he had thought that by the end of this month, Elvis would leave with the other academy’s geniuses, and he had counted the days, feeling victory within reach. But during this time, Elvis had been relentlessly keeping a close eye on him.
This time, Yun Yingzhi realized very clearly that this couldn’t continue. He had to find a way to end their complicated situation. In his mind, he considered: first, appeal to emotion; then persuade with reason; if that didn’t work, then…
Yun Yingzhi thought fiercely that he would threaten the prince, using the fact that, as a man, Elvis wasn’t very capable in that one area. Of course, that was a last resort. First, he had to apologize to His Highness.
Yun Yingzhi locked eyes with Elvis and sincerely said, “Your Highness, I’m sorry.” Feeling Elvis’s powerful presence, he quickly lowered his head.
Elvis tried to withdraw his hands but was surprised to find Yun Yingzhi’s grip was too strong. He couldn’t pull them away immediately. Not wanting to startle him, Elvis decided to let Yun Yingzhi continue holding his hands and responded with a soft, questioning, “Mm.”
He wondered why Yun Yingzhi had suddenly apologized. Yun Yingzhi’s expression was earnest. “Your Highness, I’m really sorry. I don’t know why that day… maybe I was possessed by lust and… slept with you.” He blushed, genuinely ashamed.
Even Elvis couldn’t maintain his expression. For a moment, he was shocked into silence.
Yun Yingzhi continued, “Your Highness, I know I shouldn’t have done that, but… but it truly wasn’t intentional. Please forgive me.”
Elvis’s lips parted slightly, and he didn’t know what to say, still stunned.
Yun Yingzhi sniffed and sincerely apologized again, “Your Highness… and also… that… that day, I shouldn’t have run off wearing your clothes. Please forgive me.” He cautiously glanced up at Elvis.
At this moment, Elvis finally stitched his cracked expression back into a neutral mask, revealing nothing externally. Seeing Elvis remain silent, Yun Yingzhi became even more nervous and lowered his head, afraid to speak. Footsteps echoed outside the door as other students entered the restroom. Yun Yingzhi and Elvis tacitly stayed silent. After the others left, Yun Yingzhi looked up anxiously at Elvis. Elvis asked, “What if I don’t forgive you?”
With that, he extended his hand and pinned Yun Yingzhi against the restroom stall.1 Yun Yingzhi’s heart pounded—not with excitement, but panic. Was Elvis going to punish him? Sweat dampened Yun Yingzhi’s forehead, making him seem especially vulnerable and helpless.
Elvis pinned him with one hand while raising the other slightly to wipe Yun Yingzhi’s sweat. Then… the next moment, Elvis saw Yun Yingzhi transform. His previous fragility vanished, replaced with a fierce, determined expression. “If… if you insist on being like that, I’ll announce your secret to the world!”
Elvis remained outwardly composed but inwardly startled. Reveal his secret? What secret? He didn’t even know he had one. The two stared at each other. Elvis asked, “Oh? And what secret would that be?”
Yun Yingzhi’s exposed skin flushed crimson, radiating shame. Elvis leaned closer, his warm breath brushing Yun Yingzhi’s cheeks. At that moment, the two were dangerously intimate.
If Elvis leaned a bit more, he could kiss Yun Yingzhi. He asked again, his magnetic voice low, “Zhizhi, tell me… what secret?”
Yun Yingzhi said, “Don’t try to dodge. I know, Your Highness… that part of you… doesn’t work well!”
No matter what, Elvis could never have anticipated that after the previous scandalous claim of “he was slept with,” there could be a rumor even harder to handle. Elvis’s expression cracked again.
Yun Yingzhi gathered his courage, staring boldly into Elvis’s eyes, and dauntlessly threatened, “Your Highness! If you insist on revealing that day’s events, then I’ll reveal that part of yours that doesn’t work well!”
Elvis’s eyelids twitched violently. Where on earth had Yun Yingzhi gotten that conclusion? Where didn’t it work? Before Elvis could even ask, Yun Yingzhi shoved him. The force was too much for the unprepared Elvis, who was pushed back and out of the stall. Yun Yingzhi then immediately transformed into his second form and, once again, nimbly jumped out the window.
Elvis stared at the window where the little rabbit had vanished and came to a conclusion. Recently, Yun Yingzhi might not be good at much else, but his strength has been growing daily. At the same time, he had learned all sorts of ways to jump out of windows.
After leaping from the academic building, Yun Yingzhi ran as fast as he could to the Source Weapon Manufacturing Department. Entering the workshop, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared at the raw material vending machine, trying to calm down. Every time he saw the dazzling array of materials, he felt like he could forget all his worries.
Elvis was terrifying. Even when looking at his beloved raw materials, his mind kept replaying his recent encounter with Elvis. His heart pounded loudly as he worried that Elvis might become embarrassed and angry. So annoying.
Thinking it over, Yun Yingzhi decided to make a source weapon to calm himself. To avoid overthinking, he focused all his attention on creating a Level-5 space-restriction imprint. Each imprint needed repeated refinement. He had already tried multiple times to create the space-restriction imprint for completely sealing the Zerg Emperor’s psychic barrier, but had always failed. However, this time he tried a new approach.
He started to go through the process again: buying raw materials from the vending machine, performing the imprint, failing, throwing the failed piece into the trash, and starting a new attempt. Over and over.
Then, suddenly, a spark of inspiration struck his mind. With the final stroke, the entire imprint shimmered with flowing light, signaling its completion.
Yun Yingzhi’s eyes lit up. It had gone faster than he imagined. From the moment inspiration struck, he had wanted to successfully perfect the Level-5 space-restriction imprint for Yun Yinghui. Of course, this was just the refinement of a single imprint.
If the imprint proved stable and effective enough, it could be deployed on the battlefield—but Yun Yingzhi would never hand such a half-finished source weapon to Yun Yinghui. He first tested the imprint’s stability with an instrument. The meter indicated 96% stability—very good. He thought for a moment and began inputting Source energy into the source weapon.
As enough energy flowed in, a transparent barrier formed. The more input energy, the wider the barrier’s range. In theory, the barrier’s coverage defined the space-restriction area. Within this area, all communication between the Zerg Emperor and the Zerg army could be completely blocked.
Just as Yun Yingzhi prepared to input more energy to see how far he could extend the barrier under his control, there was an alert on his personal terminal. It was a call from Ji Xiaobo. Once connected, Yun Yingzhi realized it was already evening—dinner time. Recently, he had been busy avoiding Elvis, with barely the courage to go to the cafeteria, so his three roommates took turns fetching meals for him.
What Yun Yingzhi didn’t know was that his roommates were thinking that his body wasn’t well recently—they wanted him to rest and walk as little as possible. Yun Yingzhi left the workshop, glancing left and right, for fear of seeing Elvis, and sneaked back to the dormitory.
The four of them ate in the room, occasionally talking about today’s interesting news. After dinner, Yun Yingzhi’s personal terminal pinged. It was a private message from Clear. Clear asked if he had rested enough and wanted to know if he wanted to go together to the Yaoming Battle Arena.
Yun Yingzhi thought for a moment, glancing at his three roommates before quickly looking away. Recently, his roommates kept treating him like a patient, completely preventing him from going to the Yaoming Battle Arena. Under their watchful eyes, he had no choice but to reluctantly refuse Clear.
Of course, another reason was… Many students at Fansa Academy were absolutely convinced he was the Cute Little Battle Rabbit of the Yaoming Battle Arena. He decided it was best to lay low for now.
What Yun Yingzhi didn’t know was that on the other side, Clear was secretly complaining to Vast. He said that if Yun Yingzhi wasn’t the Cute Little Battle Rabbit, they would have already kicked him off the team. But the rabbit was too adorable—and reportedly Fansa Academy’s #1 campus beauty—they had to tolerate him.
All of a sudden, Yu Feiwen exclaimed, “Ah!” Yun Yingzhi and the other two turned to look at him.
Under their gaze, Yu Feiwen said, “Remember? I had that source weapon… the one crafted by the source weapon maker that Yingzhi knows, sent to the Source Weapon Association for appraisal.”
Yun Yingzhi’s eyes gleamed. Sending a source weapon for appraisal required a substantial fee. The benefit was getting the certificate; the drawback was that the higher the level, the higher the fee. Appraising a source weapon required an esper capable of handling that level. High-level esper fighters were never cheap.
There were exceptions, though. Source weapons made by famous senior, master, or grandmaster-level makers were often in high demand for appraisal. Some esper soldiers even borrowed them through bribes. Previously, Yun Yingzhi’s source weapons hadn’t needed appraisal—sending them would have been a waste. He had never seen one appraised and was now filled with anticipation.
Yu Feiwen looked at Yun Yingzhi. “Here’s the thing—the schedule is out. Appraisal starts tonight at 10 p.m.”
Yun Yingzhi checked the time. It was 8:30 p.m., just an hour and a half away. His eyes curved with joy, little flowers practically blooming around him. He was ecstatic. Seeing Yun Yingzhi so obviously happy, the three roommates exchanged glances, feeling a little guilty.
They suspected the source weapon maker Yun Yingzhi knew was a fraud. The upcoming public appraisal was essentially a public execution. Yu Feiwen, seeing Yun Yingzhi’s joy, felt guilty and somewhat regretted sending the source weapon for appraisal in the first place. It was too late to change it now. On the bright side, Yun Yingzhi would soon learn the true capabilities of that friend.
Yu Feiwen said, “Yingzhi…”
Yun Yingzhi answered, “Mm!” His voice brimmed with excitement.
Yu Feiwen grew more guilty. “Here’s the thing—the Source Weapon Association contacted me. They asked if your manufacturer friend has a code name.”
Yun Yingzhi blinked.
“No need for a real name, just a code name so the association can record it,” Yu Feiwen added.
Yun Yingzhi thought about it—it was basically like a stage name. He suddenly remembered the repeated names in the Yaoming Battle Arena and asked, “This code name… can’t be a duplicate, right?”
Yu Feiwen nodded.
Yun Yingzhi thought carefully, his dark eyes fixed on the three of them. With a serious expression, he said, “Blazing Divine Rabbit.”
The three roommates immediately burst out laughing.
Yun Yingzhi scratched his head. Still, in this anonymous world, he liked such a high-class, impressive name. After all, no one would ever know his real identity. He pursed his lips and said, “Don’t make fun of it. That source weapon maker just likes it.”
Yu Feiwen, considering that Yun Yingzhi’s second form was a little rabbit, kept his expression neutral and said, “Well, that’s certainly a… unique taste.”
Yun Yingzhi felt a little insulted but not deeply hurt. Whatever. Let them laugh. In this anonymous world, any embarrassing nickname was allowed. Yun Yingzhi pondered for a moment and decided he really liked the nickname Blazing Divine Rabbit. He said firmly, “This is the one.”
Yu Feiwen thought to himself that the source weapon manufacturer was both a bit chūnibyou and probably fond of little rabbits, hence this choice of nickname. He said, “Alright, I’ll reply then.” Yun Yingzhi nodded, flowers practically blooming around him in his joy.
From 8:30 to 10:00 p.m., time dragged on painfully slowly. Finally, at 9:50 p.m., Yun Yingzhi’s anticipation reached its peak. He sat on his bed, maximizing his personal terminal, already stationed in the live-stream chatroom, waiting. Currently, the live stream was showing the appraisal of another Level 5 source weapon, already nearing the end.
The commentator’s clear and pleasant voice reached the four of them: “I must say, the current Level 5 source weapon on display is by far the highest-quality weapon among today’s live-streamed appraisals! Truly worthy of a high-level source weapon master’s craftsmanship.”
The chatroom scrolled with praise: “666,” “YYDS,” “I want it so badly…” and more.
Yun Yingzhi had loved receiving compliments since he was little. He thought, Just a little longer, and it will be my turn to be praised.
Time slowly passed. Finally, the moment Yun Yingzhi had been waiting for arrived—exactly 10:00 p.m. His spirits lifted, and his eyes sparkled as he stared at the live stream.
Yu Feiwen and his two friends glanced at Yun Yingzhi and then returned their attention to their own terminals. The live-stream camera switched to the commentator. She was a beautiful woman in her twenties.
She said, “The previous source weapon, made by the high-level master Yan Ming, amazed us all. Let’s hope that the next weapon to be appraised brings us just as much surprise.”
As the beautiful commentator spoke, a man dressed in the uniform of the Source Weapon Association approached, carrying a box.
The commentator continued, “Now, let’s take a look at the next source weapon.”
Opening the box, what appeared was a source weapon extremely similar to the standardized version. The commentator paused, then carefully took the source weapon from its black velvet box. She examined it closely and said, “This source weapon is very…” She chose a relatively polite phrase, “…plain and unassuming.”
Immediately, the chatroom lit up with messages:
“No way, is this just a standardized source weapon?
“Who the heck bought a standard source weapon and sent it in for appraisal?
Amidst the scrolling messages, the commentator continued, “But if you look closely, you can still see some differences from the standard source weapon. For example, here—a little white rabbit is engraved. Very cute, right?”
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