SZAR Chapter 107

Qu Xia’s schedule had always been… unconventional. Even in the midst of a crisis, he showed not a shred of urgency, lounging in bed until eight or nine o’clock, with no sign of waking up.

Erwen had no choice but to shake him awake.

The Admiral held his light-brain, displaying the satellite feed. The encirclement was slowly shrinking; small patrol squads flitted through the forest, glimpsed briefly before disappearing among the trees.

Erwen estimated their distance: at most four more hours, and they would find this mine.

Qu Xia, rubbing his sleepy eyes, clutched one of Erwen’s arms. He glanced at the light-brain and pouted. “Plenty of time. We can sleep a bit longer.”

Erwen took a deep breath but said nothing.

Taking care of a child was physically demanding; Qu Xia had cured Erwen’s longstanding low blood pressure.

Erwen said, “If you don’t have a workable plan, I have no choice but to leave.”

The admiral’s stamina had recovered slightly overnight. He could walk without staggering, but he was still far from peak form. If he went out now, he would be caught by a patrol within two steps.

Yet if he stayed, Qu Xia’s presence would be discovered, and the male could end up implicated for no reason.

Qu Xia had no choice but to leap out of bed.

He helped Erwen to the center of the D767 lab and showed him a silver machine with a sliding hatch and a single occupant slot in the middle.

“This is the lab’s leftover stasis pod,” Qu Xia said, nudging Erwen’s shoulder. “Get in.”

Erwen lay down as instructed, confused, and watched as Qu Xia slid the hatch closed. He couldn’t help but warn him: “Qu Xia… they’re going to test this stasis pod.”

If this is Qu Xia’s plan, Erwen had to leave now.

Outside the stasis pod, there was a constant clatter. Qu Xia seemed to be tapping on something. Five minutes later, he stood up, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Of course, it can’t be that simple. I have a plan… oh, right.”

He paused strangely, then glanced left and right, up and down, eyes darting nervously. “Um, Admiral, you don’t mind… becoming an egg, do you?”

Erwen: “?”

The confusion above his head was solidifying into something tangible.

Qu Xia hurriedly explained, “I’ve studied your files. Usually, searches use a mental-wave detector. If we transfer your consciousness into the egg, there won’t be any mental fluctuations in the stasis pod. I’ll cover it with a bunch of miscellaneous items, they won’t look closely.”

Building a link between the egg and the individual to transfer consciousness was one of the Sylph research team’s projects. They had already run experiments but hadn’t published the data yet. The database had no records of this technique, and military searches were handled by military females who knew nothing about these studies.

When they scanned the mine and saw two lifeforms, Qu Xia could just carry out the egg, they would never suspect it contained Erwen.

Qu Xia thought: Perfect!

Erwen: “…”

He fell into a weird, silent stupor.

But at this point, there was no better solution. Qu Xia closed the chamber door and powered it on; the temperature dropped sharply inside. He then placed a prepared egg on the control panel, focusing on analyzing the mental-wave spectrum inside the chamber.

Half an hour later, the transfer was complete.

Qu Xia lifted the egg from the panel, pressed a headset to it, a communicator that could translate mental waves into text, and attached a small metal patch to the egg’s surface. Then he tapped the shell. “Admiral?”

Erwen: “…”

He really didn’t want to speak.

Qu Xia held the egg high, touching and rubbing it, practically vibrating with excitement.

Although the technique was theoretically sound, it had always faced ethical issues. They couldn’t just take any zerg and store its consciousness in an egg, so it had remained in the theoretical stage for a long time. Now, having completed the final step with his own hands, Qu Xia’s joy was unmistakable. His tone lifted: “Admiral, I specially picked a big, white egg for you!”

Erwen: “…”

—Thanks, I guess.

The communicator accurately transmitted his speechless mood.

Erwen didn’t care whether the egg was big and white.

Qu Xia received no response, but he didn’t get annoyed. He wrapped the egg in a soft, furry cloth, cradling it like a prized jewel.

Zerg eggs were warm and smooth to the touch, with a glazed surface that shimmered like jade. Qu Xia stroked and rubbed it, unable to let go. After a moment, his headset crackled, and Erwen’s restrained, controlled voice came through: “…Stop playing with it.”

Even as an egg, he wasn’t entirely ignorant of the outside world. Touching the shell felt like contacting the spirit itself, stunningly hot.

“Oh.” Qu Xia obediently removed his hands and carefully held the egg in his arms.

He piled a bunch of discarded cardboard over the stasis pod, then closed the lab door, brushed away the coal dust, and sat in the employee area of the mine, holding the egg while checking the light-brain.

Several red dots appeared on the display, rapidly moving toward them.

 ………………

Above the dense forest, the five members of 32nd Survey Team spread their wings, gliding along the treetops.

Each held a round-handled device, the tip of which emitted invisible waves that rippled ahead as they moved.

Soon, the devices shook violently, followed by a single “beep.”

The team exchanged glances, folded their wings, and landed. They saw two red dots appear in the middle of the device. The shortest member, with red hair, exclaimed, “Hundreds of kilometers of uninhabited land, and there’s actually a sign of life?”

The team leader stared at the screen without blinking: “Still two.”

Another team member scratched his head: “Could it be Erwen? This place is hundreds of kilometers from where his aircraft went down. His mental state should have already been unstable back then. There’s no way he could have made it this far, right?”

The red-haired member chuckled: “Unless some male just fell from the sky and comforted him, and not just any male, it has to be a super high-ranking one.”

Several of the other members laughed heartily.

They all knew the red-haired guy was talking nonsense. Out here in the wilderness, where could there possibly be any high-rank males? Another member sneered: “That chance is smaller than me stepping in bug poop with one foot.”

“Enough,” the captain cut off their teasing. “We need to first confirm who they are, whether they’re ordinary residents.”

With that, the group spread their wings and maneuvered down to just before the mine entrance.

The red-haired member kicked the door roughly: “Hey! You two inside! The military is searching for traitors. Come out!”

After a moment, the iron door creaked, and a small, thin female peeked out. His clothes were tattered, His face smeared with black soot, looking like he had fled some disaster, and he was holding an egg.

It was Qu Xia.

He had set himself up as a tragic figure, abandoned by the male lord, homeless, forced to take refuge in an abandoned mine with an egg. As a male, his frame was slightly smaller than usual, and to fit the role, he had deliberately torn his clothes and smeared coal dust over his face and body, looking thoroughly beaten by life.

Qu Xia’s acting wasn’t perfect; he didn’t dare meet the eyes of the military females. He shrank slightly, looking like a quail: “Um… is there something you need?”

The red-haired member grabbed the female’s arm to pull him out, but the captain stopped him, bowing slightly: “Sir, I detected two life forms here. What about the other one?”

Qu Xia revealed the egg in his arms, gently stroking its shell, a loving expression on his face: “This one. It’s already a six-month-old baby.”

Zerg eggs have mental energy from birth, and at six months, it’s enough for machines to detect.

The egg squirmed uneasily.

The captain scanned the thin, weak female and then the egg he was holding. Qu Xia looked utterly pitiful now. He softened his voice: “This is a deserted area. How did you end up living here with such a small egg?”

Qu Xia bowed his head even lower, struggling to keep his expression in check, and read from his prepared script in a pitiful tone: “Because I’m not liked by the male lord.”

“I’m ugly, short, plain, weak, and useless. I wasn’t liked by the male lord. Just when I had this egg, I was driven out.”

Erwen: “……”

Qu Xia hadn’t coordinated his acting with Erwen while writing the lines, but now as he read them, the egg in his arms was utterly still, as if dead.

The captain’s face softened with sympathy.

Qu Xia continued reading from his script: “I’m a low-ranking female. The male lord doesn’t like me. After being driven out, I had nowhere to go. In the end, I had to come to the forest edge. Luckily, I found this mine, otherwise, the baby and I would have had to sleep on the streets.”

As he spoke, he blinked, forcing two tears out.

The little researcher had a natural talent for crying: if he wanted to cry, he could, whether from a bad night’s sleep, unhappy meals, or feeling wronged. Now, without any props, tears simply rolled down his face.

Even the hot-tempered red-haired female couldn’t shout at him anymore.

Erwen: “……”

The tears slid down Qu Xia’s chin, pattering onto the zerg egg, leaving wet marks that felt cold to the touch.

Erwen hadn’t expected him to cry like this. Remembering Qu Xia’s previous two instances of tears and his own overly tense reactions, he once again fell into strange silence.

The captain glanced at the screen again, confirming there were only two life forms present. He extended a hand toward Qu Xia: “I’m sorry, Sir, may I take a look at your egg?”

Qu Xia hesitated for a moment, then obediently nodded and handed over the egg.

The captain applied slight pressure with his fingers, watching Qu Xia’s expression.

Qu Xia furrowed his brow, showing genuine concern.

It didn’t look fake.

The captain and his team exchanged a glance, nodded, and returned the egg: “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Qu Xia quickly clutched the egg to his chest, nodding silently, shrinking into himself as if afraid to speak.

With no further doubts, the team unfolded their wings and departed.

Three to five hundred meters away, the captain still frowned slightly, but then his expression suddenly stiffened, and he froze.

This place was three to five hundred kilometers from the nearest residential area. How had this pregnant female managed to make it here all alone?

The captain glanced back, but saw Qu Xia seemingly sensing something. Suddenly, he picked up the egg.

He carefully wiped the part that had just been touched by the captain, then cradled the egg and pressed a gentle kiss onto its shell, as if soothing the frightened little life inside.

The captain turned his head away again.

A female zerg’s egg wasn’t anything precious. Such care, such tenderness, this was just a pitiful, inexperienced low-ranking female, nothing more.

He couldn’t possibly have any connection with Admiral Erwen.

With a flap of their wings, they disappeared completely into the sky.

No one saw what happened next: the egg began to tremble violently. Its pearly shell took on a faint pink hue, as if being steamed.

The spirit inside the egg, Erwen’s consciousness, surged rapidly, and he couldn’t hide his shock, seemingly unable to comprehend what had just occurred.

Qu Xia held the egg again, and it felt soft and warm, with a faint minty scent.

Did the male… just kissed the egg?