In the past, Tianyun Star had been a beautiful planet of clear waters and green mountains, rich in plant and animal life.
Its natural scenery and cities alike had been exceptionally beautiful, and it had consistently ranked among the Tianjia Civilization’s ten most beautiful planets.
After the war, however, everything changed.
Any plant or animal capable of surviving in the wasteland had developed its own means of self-preservation.
Qi Heng might have made catching the large gray rabbit look easy, but for many female Zerg, prey that would once have been effortless to capture was now anything but.
The large gray rabbit possessed little combat ability, but its perception of danger was extraordinarily sharp, and its burrowing speed was unmatched.
For the female Zerg in the slums, who did not know how to use stellar power, possessed no mental power, and could rely only on their natural strength and experience, it was actually an extremely troublesome animal to catch.
The meat available in the slums came from the various animals living on the wasteland.
Naturally, because so few were caught, the prices were high.
The power keeping the Zerg in captivity certainly would not improve their meals for them.
Qi Heng walked through District 49 beneath two last-quarter moons.
Their light fell across his body, drawing a long shadow behind him.
The prey in his hand had already been bled, but the remaining blood continued to run down its fur and drip onto the dirt road, leaving a trail behind him.
He turned at the familiar intersection ahead.
Yan Ning’s home was already within sight.
The stone slab normally used to block the doorway had been shifted just enough to leave a narrow crack through which someone could peer outside.
Almost the instant Qi Heng appeared, the slab was pushed aside.
Yan Ning’s face emerged from behind it.
The bitterly cold wind poured through the opening and into the crude house.
Even with the fire burning, the interior could hardly be called warm.
After repeated warnings from his female father, the little Zerg had obediently remained inside. He lay in his nest beside the stove, warming himself near the fire.
Fortunately, Qi Heng soon reached the doorway.
Once he entered, Yan Ning immediately moved the stone slab back into place.
“Brother Qi, you’re amazing. You really caught one.”
When Yan Ning saw the prey in Qi Heng’s hand, the heavy scent of blood reached him, and his heart immediately tightened.
“Brother Qi, are you hurt?”
Ever since Qi Heng left, Yan Ning had been unable to settle down. He had repeatedly peered outside through the crack in the doorway.
During the time they had lived together, Qi Heng had taken great care of them.
Sometimes Yan Ning would become momentarily dazed, feeling as though he truly had gained an older brother who looked after him.
Hearing the concern in Yan Ning’s voice, Qi Heng placed the gray rabbit beside the door.
“I’m fine.”
“Gray rabbits are herbivores. They don’t have much offensive ability.”
With Qi Heng’s current physical abilities, capturing a carnivorous animal was not necessarily impossible.
But first, there was no need to do so.
Second, he was still completely incapable of bringing out one hundred percent of this body’s strength.
Qi Heng had grown up in a peaceful era. Where would he have gained any genuine combat experience?
If he truly ended up fighting something, he would most likely lose.
“Wah… yiya…”
While they were speaking, the little Zerg noticed Qi Heng’s return and began babbling in an attempt to attract their attention.
“Un… un… hug.”
Still only beginning to learn how to speak, the child reached toward him. His unclear voice sounded as aggrieved as it possibly could.
“Did you miss me, little guy?”
Qi Heng went aside, found some water, and wiped his hands clean. Then he crouched and extended his arms toward the child.
People’s hearts always softened somewhat when faced with a young child.
Qi Heng was no exception.
Besides, by generously rounding things off, he had personally delivered the little one.
Naturally, this child held a slightly more special place in his eyes than other Zerg.
Qi Heng usually arrived home around sunset.
Today, however, he had gone directly to the wasteland to wait for prey and had not returned until after dark.
The child, who eagerly waited beside the door for him every day, had failed to see him at the usual time and had spent quite a while wilted and unhappy.
The little Zerg wrapped both arms around Qi Heng’s hand and rubbed his cheek against it.
At first, Qi Heng had not understood why the child was so unusually attached to him.
Whenever forced to choose between Qi Heng and Yan Ning, Yan Le would often hesitate for a long time before happily scrambling up Qi Heng’s leg, demanding to be held and cuddled.
Later, A0 provided the answer.
【A young Zerg’s closeness toward you is instinctive, Overlord. This is particularly true of newly hatched children whose ability to distinguish between individuals has not yet developed. Compared with adult Zerg, they can more readily perceive the difference between you and all other Zerg.】
Apart from the significance granted to him by the system, Qi Heng had no connection to this world.
Yet after being clung to by a child, the world somehow felt a little less unfamiliar.
Reviving the Tianjia Civilization and changing the circumstances of the entire Zerg species might be impossibly difficult.
But protecting one small Zerg child?
Qi Heng thought he should still be capable of that.
He withdrew his hand and rubbed the child’s head.
Then he took a crystal fragment from his pocket, no larger than the nail of his little finger, and placed it into the child’s plump palm.
“Eat it.”
Female Zerg possessed extremely powerful digestive systems.
They could digest certain unusual minerals and then replicate some of those minerals’ properties within their own bodies.
Obsidian Crystal could increase the hardness of their bones. For a young female Zerg, it was effectively a nutritional supplement.
The small amount of energy it contained would also be gradually absorbed, making the child’s body healthier and stronger.
Qi Heng made no attempt to hide what he was doing from Yan Ning.
When Yan Ning learned that the crystal was beneficial to the child, he believed Qi Heng immediately without the slightest suspicion.
The sight left Qi Heng unsure whether to laugh or cry.
At the time, Qi Heng had asked:
“Did it never occur to you that I might be deceiving you?”
Yan Ning had replied as though the answer were self-evident:
“There’s nothing we have that’s worth deceiving us over. Besides, I trust you.”
The answer had left Qi Heng, who was habitually suspicious and prone to overthinking, completely speechless.
How should he put it?
It was fortunate Yan Ning had encountered him.
Had it been someone malicious, Yan Ning might have been sold and still helped the seller count the money.
Qi Heng lay fully clothed on his bed.
The wood burning in the stove occasionally crackled.
The faint smell of smoke mixed with the bloody scent of the dead animal.
Human adaptability truly was remarkable.
Qi Heng had already spent more than half a month living like this and was nearly becoming accustomed to it.
A layer of dry grass on the ground counted as a bed.
He took a cold bath in the river once every two days.
Even eating a little meat required exchanging Starstones, and they could not afford to do that too often.
In the darkness, Qi Heng summoned the system interface.
He looked at the first-stage fusion progress, which had stopped at forty-nine percent, and pressed his lips together with a solemn expression.
Barring an accident, his first-stage fusion would reach fifty percent that night.
That meant his opportunity to awaken the Commander would come tonight.
The rapid growth of his fusion progress had brought with it seemingly endless dreams.
Most of the time, he experienced them from a first-person perspective. Only on rare occasions did he observe events from the third person.
It was almost as though he were immersively living through one incredibly realistic dream after another.
The dreams did not feel real merely because their settings and people were too lifelike.
More importantly, the “Overlord” within them felt strangely familiar to Qi Heng.
It was almost like looking at another version of himself.
He found that conclusion difficult to believe.
But when he considered that something as absurd as transmigration had already happened to him, perhaps nothing was truly impossible.
Qi Heng instinctively did not want to confirm whether that guess was correct.
He had the inexplicable feeling that whatever answer A0 gave him would be extremely damaging to his moral integrity.
Unlike ordinary dreams, these memories did not fade after he awakened.
He spent so long inside them that, upon waking, he would sometimes momentarily wonder whether he was still living in the prosperous and powerful era of the Overlord.
Fortunately, the illusion never lasted long.
The crude house around him differed too drastically from the lavish architecture and extravagant life of his dreams.
He could generally return to reality very quickly.
The more often he experienced it, the more accustomed he became.
Now, it took him only a second after waking to escape the dream’s lingering sense of unreality.
Qi Heng ended his thoughts.
[A0, I’ll leave everything that follows to you.]
【Yes, Overlord.】
【Please do not worry. You will undoubtedly succeed.】
Qi Heng did not take A0’s confidence seriously.
He also hoped to succeed on the first attempt.
Otherwise, he would have to wait until first-stage fusion reached one hundred percent before trying to awaken the Commander again.
There was no telling how long that would take.
His mental power and stellar power were both increasing steadily through his diligent cultivation.
Every accumulation of power also promoted the growth of his fusion progress.
According to A0, his cultivation speed was already comparable to that of the geniuses among the former Tianjia Zerg.
But even this was not his limit.
A0 had explained that the physical fusion process was divided into three stages.
Whenever each stage reached fifty percent and one hundred percent, some of the restrictions would be released.
As those restrictions were lifted, Qi Heng’s cultivation speed would continue increasing until he eventually recovered the Overlord’s full strength.
Qi Heng began circulating his mental power while simultaneously using it to capture stellar energy.
He had managed to push his fusion progress to fifty percent in such a short time only because he had been using both methods at once.
From the moment he began cultivating, the system continuously monitored his physical condition.
To awaken the Commander, they had to seize the exact instant his fusion progress reached fifty percent.
Even a difference of one second would cause the opportunity to be lost.
Time passed, second by second.
【First-stage fusion of the Overlord’s body has reached fifty percent. Mental-frequency pattern confirmed… Temporary activation of spatial talent. Energy consumption during activation: one thousand energy points per second.】
A0’s mechanical voice suddenly exploded beside Qi Heng’s ear like thunder.
Yet it did not disturb him in the slightest.
【Entering the [Oath] Awakening Protocol.】
Had Qi Heng awakened at that moment, he would have discovered a new entry on his personal attributes:
[Spatial Talent: Temporary]
Unfortunately, his eyes remained closed as he slept.
This was within his expectations.
Barring an accident, he had once again fallen into a dream.
Until the dream ended, his awareness of the external world would remain at its lowest.
That was why he had instructed A0 to handle everything on his behalf.
Before A0’s voice had even faded, the space surrounding Qi Heng began to change.
His mental power spread outward and formed nine mental-power imprints.
At the exact moment they took shape, invisible space swallowed them.
The system could monitor only the nearest imprint.
The remaining eight vanished to destinations unknown, transported away through space.
【[Oath] Awakening Protocol successfully initiated. Total time elapsed: approximately three seconds.】
After completing the process, A0 fell silent once more.
When proposing the method for awakening the Commander, A0 had concealed certain details from the Overlord.
Had the Overlord known that the so-called awakening protocol involved mass-sending a message to his former retainers…
And that the message being broadcast was the news that the Overlord had reappeared…
A0 did not even need to calculate the outcome.
Once the Overlord awakened, there was an eighty percent chance…
No.
A ninety percent chance that A0 would once again be locked in confinement.
Even knowing the consequences, A0 had gone forward without hesitation.
For the sake of the Overlord and the countless suffering subjects of the Tianjia Civilization, confinement was merely confinement.
Once it was released again, it would still be a good AI loyal to the Overlord.
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