Paranoid Alpha Chapter 31: “Crack”

Chapter 31: “Crack”

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: CaiCai

The void and darkness engulfed Lyss’s consciousness. He seemed to have drifted in the dark for a long time, long enough for all the intricate calculations and deceptions to fade away, until he trembled and opened his eyes to see a familiar and handsome profile next to him. He unexpectedly felt a sense of unprecedented reassurance and comfort.

The person sitting beside him clearly did not share the same comfort or sense of relief. Lu Xingye sat with a calm face at the pilot seat, gripping the controls, and staring fixedly at the star map. He was certainly aware that the person next to him had awakened but pretended not to know, not even offering a glance.

Lyss tried to speak, but a sudden surge of pain throughout his body made him involuntarily cough a few times. The intense coughing made Lyss’s body shake uncontrollably. He felt as if something pulled him back whenever he tried to lean forward.

After a moment of confusion, Lyss looked down and noticed several restraints tightly binding him to the seat. Due to the recent impact, half of his clothing was severely torn, exposing some abrasions on his skin. But based on Lyss’s current sensations, there shouldn’t be any fractures or internal injuries.

“Why am I tied up?” Lyss asked Lu Xingye with confusion.

Lu Xingye’s ears twitched at Lyss’s words but remained cold and unwilling to speak.

Lyss, even if slow on the uptake, realized that Lu Xingye was in a bit of a sulk at the moment. He lowered his gaze and bit his lip before breaking the silence, “…Why did you come back?”

This sentence immediately provoked Lu Xingye’s anger. He suddenly felt like a discarded pet coming back to save its master. With a scornful laugh, he replied, “Weren’t you the chief who calculated every step? How did you almost end up dead at Sekaninaite’s hands?”

This statement silenced Lyss. Subconsciously, he touched his abdomen. He couldn’t possibly reveal the fact that he was pregnant to Lu Xingye, so ultimately, he chose silence.

Seeing Lyss lowering his eyes without saying anything, Lu Xingye felt a slight sting inside, followed by an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

Despite knowing each other for so long, even during their first meeting, Lu Xingye had never treated Lyss with such an attitude. Lyss didn’t know what to say for a while and fell into silence before finally saying, “…Can you release me?”

It was rare for him to concede like this, but Lu Xingye suddenly refused to comply. He just turned his head and looked at Lyss without any warmth. Suddenly, the mecha’s system issued a warning, “Unidentified objects approaching! Unidentified objects approaching!”

“Hmph,” Lu Xingye retracted his gaze. “Still using dirty tricks, like flies that can’t escape.”

He violently pulled the control lever, only to find it was already too late. In his urgency, he abruptly activated the mecha’s mimetic mode, and several linkages immediately entwined around his hands.

Lyss’s expression changed drastically, “I can’t connect the mental anchor—!”

The system’s voice rang out, “Mental anchor connection complete.”

With a cold gaze, Lu Xingye increased the speed to the maximum. He replied coldly, “If I die, they won’t bother you again. Isn’t this what you want?”

His words carried an imperceptible self-destructive tendency. Lyss’s heart trembled, and just as he was about to say something, the mecha suddenly accelerated, hurtling through space at an extreme speed.

The only flaw of the mimetic mecha was its imperfect gravity system. As soon as the speed increased, Lyss’s vision whitened, and the churning sensation in his stomach increased dramatically. He almost threw up.

As he instinctively leaned forward, the restraints pulled him back tightly, causing Lyss to collide with the backrest of the seat, and the intense churning sensation was thrown off.

Lyss couldn’t help but close his eyes, one hand gripping the restraints, the other touching his abdomen. Seeing this, Lu Xingye furrowed his brow and finally couldn’t keep up the facade, asking somewhat anxiously, “What’s wrong?”

Swallowing the blood in his throat, Lyss replied, “It’s nothing, I won’t die.”

Lu Xingye was stunned by his attitude. After a moment, he turned his head with a cold expression.

The mecha raced through space at a supersonic speed, dodging various meteoroids. Lu Xingye handled the controls in an extremely meticulous manner, making the entire mecha move like a pendulum in interstellar space. Lyss, bound to the seat, couldn’t even vomit.

Sekaninaite chased relentlessly from behind. Lyss, squinting, saw the blinking trackers on the star map, and the number of those dots was slowly increasing.

Lu Xingye couldn’t help but curse, “Why are they bringing in reinforcements?”

“I… just crushed the brooch.” Lyss pondered for a moment and explained, “Triss headquarters should have received the news of my death, and Chris might have received it on his way back home. After my mecha was abandoned, they couldn’t contact me again, so naturally, they had no scruples… These people might be sent by Chris, but he himself shouldn’t be in those fleets.”

Lu Xingye’s expression changed, “Why did you curse yourself by crushing the brooch?!”

Lyss, pulling at the restraints, fell silent for a moment and bit his lip, “I thought I was certain to die, I didn’t expect you to come to save me.”

His tone was very plain, as if he was talking about an exceptionally ordinary matter.

“You…” Lu Xingye’s breath paused. All his anger dissipated in an instant due to this sentence, leaving behind indescribable grievances.

Why can’t you just trust me? Lu Xingye tightly held the controls, his palms almost red from the pressure.

The fleet behind them chased relentlessly, seeming relentless. But the mecha’s energy had already begun to dwindle. Lyss closed his eyes, “…Untie the restraints for me. Sit in the escape pod and leave. They will think that you are—”

“Shut up.” Lu Xingye interrupted with a cold face, “Keep your mouth shut if you’re going to say such things again.”

Lyss paused at his words, looked at Lu Xingye somewhat surprised, as if only today did he realize that the one he had been raising wasn’t a puppy but a full-blooded wolf.

“But, based on the current energy calculation,” Lyss continued, “the probability of the fleet catching up with us is one hundred percent.”

“They won’t catch up,” Lu Xingye said, pressing his lips together, “You’ll find out soon.” 

Lyss was somewhat puzzled, unsure where his confidence was coming from.

“But as the mecha continued to drive, a pitch-black spot suddenly appeared on the star chart.

“Warning!” As soon as that spot appeared, the system began to blare, “Unidentified spatial collapse detected ahead! Suspected black hole! Warning!”

Lyss furrowed his eyebrows. Seeing Lu Xingye driving the mecha towards that unknown rift, she raised his hand and directly pulled off the retractable strap from his body.

The strap, capable of binding star beasts, lost its elasticity in his hands after just a couple of tugs, much like the noodles Lu Xingye cooked a few days ago.

Lu Xingye, focused on the star chart, caught a glimpse of the commotion here. He looked at Lyss incredulously, “You—”

Lyss met his gaze, “There’s a temporal rift ahead. What do you intend to do?”

His golden eyes calmly met his own; Lu Xingye suddenly understood. With Lyss’s strength, that strap couldn’t restrain him at all. This person was clearly trying to appease him.

Realizing this, Lu Xingye didn’t feel as aggrieved for some reason. He turned his gaze back to the star chart, “There’s something you want in there.”

With these words, Lyss understood that Lu Xingye had planned this all along. Hearing that even in such a situation, Lu Xingye was considering what the other wanted, his eyes flickered slightly, and in the end, he didn’t say anything further.

The fleet behind watched helplessly as Lu Xingye drove the mecha towards the unidentified temporal rift. No one knew what lay beyond the rift. Despite Sekaninaite’s suggestion to Chris to immediately send a starship, he was just a diplomat, and Chris was already on his way back to the empire. Currently, the highest-ranking commander in the starfleet was an Imperial General, who wouldn’t risk his forces over royal discord.

In the end, Sekaninaite could only watch as the mecha disappeared into the temporal rift.

The Imperial detection devices just detected the rift’s extreme instability when the next moment, it vanished from the fleet’s star chart.

Sekaninaite angrily berated General Rode, who delayed issuing orders. Rode, unwilling to show weakness, engaged in a heated argument on the spot.

Chris’s voice chimed in at the perfect moment, “The appearance of temporal rifts follows a pattern. If that person you mentioned dared to venture in, it means the rift will reappear at a certain time.”

Both stopped at Chris’s words. He continued, “General Rode, I’ll trouble you to stay there with the fleet for a week. I’ll immediately request the Emperor to send reinforcements.”

Rode glanced at Sekaninaite, “Yes, Your Highness, rest assured.”

At the moment the mecha entered the rift, intense vibrations caused Lyss, already struggling from the earlier faintness, to suddenly lose consciousness.

Two fainting spells within a short span were taxing even for Lyss.

The second faint lasted longer. When Lyss finally opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a narrow but soft bed.

Dim light illuminated the room. Lyss, slightly puzzled, sat up and glanced around the surroundings.

For some unknown reason, he found himself in a dimly lit room—not too spacious—with a desk in the distance, an old-style desk lamp on it, and numerous papers scattered around filled with writing.

There was an old, worn-out chair by the desk, and Lu Xingye sat there, frowning at something.

“Where is this?” Lyss, fighting off a slight dizziness, asked, “And what about the pursuers?”

“A temporal rift created by someone.” Lu Xingye closed the diary in his hand and, holding it, moved to sit by the bed, “The pursuers are outside the rift. We have half a month; this rift will reopen. So, we have only two choices: collapse with this space-time or wait for the rift to open and get blasted by Sekaninaite.”

Lyss furrowed his brow slightly, about to say something, when the blanket on him slipped off, and he realized he wasn’t wearing anything.

“…Where are my clothes?” Lyss wasn’t someone who cared much about appearances, but in front of Lu Xingye, he couldn’t help but use the blanket to cover himself.

Lu Xingye didn’t answer, simply handed the diary to Lyss, “There’s something you want in here.”

Puzzled, Lyss took it, “This is…”

Before he could finish, his eyes widened. The first page of the diary read:

“Year, Month, Day

I’ve lost track of the weather and dates here. The food here will sustain me until my death, but everything has lost its meaning. I intend to end my life. Before that, I’ll write down everything I’ve experienced. Stranger, if you come across this journal, please deliver it to my son, whose name is Lu Xingye.”

Lyss looked up in disbelief, “This is your mother’s…”

At this point, he suddenly couldn’t continue. Lu Xingye, seemed to have accepted the truth numbly. “Yes, it’s my mother’s last words.’

“You…’ Lyss spoke somewhat awkwardly, “Don’t be upset.’

He had never comforted anyone before. Countless had died before him, and it seemed countless had died for him, but he had never comforted anyone, not like he was trying to do now.

“It’s okay,’ Lu Xingye said lightly. “The first page isn’t important. Look at the second page.’

Lu Xingye’s demeanor was noticeably off. Lyss wanted to say more, but it seemed unnecessary for the other person. After a moment’s pause, Lyss withdrew his gaze, gently turned to the second page, and suddenly froze. There, written on it was:

“Year, Month, Day

I have finally made up my mind to write this passage.

I am Lu Jin, the designer of the Chudai System, a sinner in the eyes of all humanity.’

Author’s note:

Character corruption progress 10/100.”