Chapter 76: The Admiral, the Young Admiral, and the Secretary

Hundreds of years ago, the Aldor and Gelan families followed the Zhou family onto the battlefield, establishing an empire and ushering in a new era.

It was only that the patriarch of the Gelan family was cruel and greedy by nature, and always resorted to extreme measures in war regarding strategies and captives. After the establishment of the Empire, they went the wrong way and even tried to swallow up the other two dominant families, and plundered them repeatedly, so they were exiled by the Aldors.

After being exiled from the country, the Gelan family recruited soldiers and warships, becoming bullies in the interstellar world, and constantly used their own troops to try to take back the Empire.

This was the origin of the star pirates.

Therefore, the star pirates always thought that the capital that was robbed from them should return to their hands, and had been plundering and killing on the Empire’s territory for generations. Their goal had not changed from beginning to end — to take back the Empire.

And the Aldors had been the Empire’s shield for generations.

Every Aldor patriarch had gone to the battlefield to defend the Empire, with the family either serving in the army or engaging in trade.

And even in trade, the Aldor family didn’t make any big profits, with most of the income used to subsidize their own army, weapons manufacturing, and military operations. Which of those did not require money? In this way, even if something happened to the Empire, the military department would never fall, and it would always maintain strong operations.

Lucas’s father, the Marshal, had also been on the battlefield. But when he came back, he fell ill and had a strange and indifferent demeanor.

He wasn’t a good father, but he was a good soldier.

Due to this, Luo Ran was dumbfounded after hearing the recording on the communicator.

The snowy mountain was already freezing, but now Luo Ran was so cold that he couldn’t move his fingers.

Impossible.

No matter how bad he was, how jealous and resentful, it was impossible…..

This was the eldest son of the Aldor family.

Kleiman also looked at Luo Ran cautiously: “W-what is it?”

“I’m really sorry.” Luo Ran took a deep breath and said: “Can I leave first? I need…..to be alone for a while to calm down and think.”

“Right, right!” Kleiman stood up, saying: “Secretary Luo, don’t worry about me!”

The aircraft was right next to the tent. Luo Ran strode into it and then sat down as if exhausted.

After a while, he contacted the captain of the investigation team.

“Secretary Luo?”

Luo Ran took a deep breath to quickly calm down his mind: “Captain, between me and the Admiral, who do you listen to?”

“You.”

Luo Ran was taken aback for a moment, a little surprised. He had originally prepared some lines to persuade him.

The captain added: “I obey the Admiral, but the Admiral told us to listen to you before he left.”

After his initial surprise, Luo Ran said with a smile: “Good, then I want you to help me investigate the battle where Admiral Alton died in action. I need you to keep it secret for the time being and not let the Admiral know.”

Luo Ran said: “Of course, I won’t hide it from him forever. It’s just that the Admiral is still on the battlefield, and he shouldn’t be influenced by this. You can tell him the results of the investigation when he returns.”

“Yes!”

After explaining everything, Luo Ran took a deep breath and clicked on the content of the communicator again—

“Target is heading north, coordinates y8e6……”

Boom—

At this moment, there were dull bursts of sound outside, like thunder rolling in the sky.

Lu Cheng rushed in and said: “Secretary Luo! We need to evacuate. Avalanche!”

“Okay.” Luo Ran put the communicator in his pocket and got up, going to the main control room.

Kleiman also began to pack up. Luo Ran could already see the snow rolling down not far away, as if it was going to swallow everything.

But at this moment, the alarms of all the warships and aircraft in the team sounded sharply.

“Look out!”

“It’s an enemy attack!”

Luo Ran frowned slightly, and carefully observed the battleships that suddenly appeared outside and frantically focused fire on them.

There were no signals or formations, nor regular troops or ranks.

After observing for a moment, Luo Ran judged that these people were mercenaries.

They were underground killers who could be hired for the right price.

Luo Ran recalled what Kleiman had said about assassins, and understood why the man had insisted on asking him to come here to talk.

—Kleiman was worried that he would not be able to leave.

That was why he pulled Luo Ran over, intending to make use of Lucas’s military power to save his own life.

Luo Ran lightly tapped the main control panel with his fingers, and said to Lu Cheng: “Don’t try to continue fighting, protect His Highness Kleiman and retreat together.”

“Yes!”

Lu Cheng led the troops to protect Luo Ran’s aircraft at the front. The team was well-trained, and their formation was strong, and the battleships and mechas cooperated to repel the enemies one by one.

It was just that it was taking a bit more time to get away. The avalanche was almost upon them, and the ground began to shake violently, the sound becoming louder and louder.

Lu Cheng piloted his mecha and shouted: “Rear wing team, take Secretary Luo to retreat first!”

Boom—

Boom—

The avalanche caught up with the troops. This was not the same as an enemy that could be defeated with weapons, but a force of nature. There was no way to resist. They could only run away.

At the same time, Luo Ran felt his aircraft shake violently, and there was the sound of an explosion from the rear cabin.

With a guess in mind, he strode toward the back.

Sure enough, there was a big hole.

The rear cabin was blown apart, revealing a big gap. No matter how fast Luo Ran ran to catch up, he could only watch as a figure with a parachute leaped out.

The other people in the aircraft were also missing.

Luo Ran speculated that someone had blown up the aircraft from the inside, and then took down those other people. It was inevitable that after ruling each other out, that person’s identity was discovered, and he simply pushed the others down before escaping alone.

Luo Ran’s gaze froze slightly.

To be able to do such things, one must have the trust of the others in order to make a move silently and unexpectedly. It was not an external enemy, but an internal traitor.

But this aircraft was carefully selected by Lu Cheng, full of a small number of elites who had been by his side for a long time.

However, now was not the time to struggle over the identity of the undercover agent. Half of the aircraft had been blasted apart, and it had lost its ability to fly. At this moment, under the blizzard and avalanche, it gradually drifted off course.

Luo Ran had to firmly cling to the things next to him so as not to fall. Everything in the aircraft shook and fell, creating a mess.

The autopilot function was broken. Luo Ran stabilized himself and then returned to the main control room, manipulating the controls to steady the aircraft and prevent it from falling.

Bang—

The scene outside the window was suddenly covered in snow as the avalanche chasing after it covered the falling aircraft.

Luo Ran could see the troops trying their best to break through the enemy’s obstruction and catch up to him.

He thought to himself, they might have thought that the communicator was still with Kleiman, so the purpose of this operation was likely to capture Kleiman alive. And as for Luo Ran, it was natural to kill him.

Luo Ran sneered. He turned on the emergency function of the aircraft and made a direct spiritual connection.

Ordinary people may not be able to do so, but Luo Ran was a 3S Omega, and could quickly and easily connect to the complicated and damaged steering system in this critical situation.

The machine was broken and unable to fly, so Luo Ran could only try to use spiritual power to pilot it.

“Whoosh—” The aircraft suddenly turned 180 degrees from its original fall and then soared upwards.

Luo Ran concentrated on the controls, and drove the aircraft toward a cave marked on the map with the fastest speed and horsepower.

Finally, before the aircraft could be completely submerged in the falling snow, he successfully found the entrance in the mountain wall and crashed into the cave.

At the same time, snow completely covered the entrance.

The cave was now separated from the outside world by a thick layer of snow.

Luo Ran breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as he wasn’t buried in snow, his situation was not the worst, and he could wait for rescue here.

The team was so strong that they wouldn’t fail to deal with the enemy, nor would they be unable to dig through the snow outside.

With the aircraft landed in the cave, Luo Ran collapsed on the main control screen with cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

It was his first time connecting spiritually to the control system, so he was naturally uncomfortable.

What’s more, Luo Ran’s spiritual force had a big wound, and he indeed managed it with difficulty.

Luo Ran rested his head on his arms, panting slightly.

Pheromones……

He had never craved Lucas’s pheromones more than at this moment.

It was colder inside the cave than outside. Luo Ran tightened his clothing, took a deep breath to adjust his state, and looked around.

The cave was nothing special, all dark stone walls. Because of the cold, many icicles and ice slag had formed, but a lot of other caves had formed all around. They led to other places, and the sound of water came from several of them.

However, Luo Ran was not interested in exploring. He turned to the already dilapidated aircraft after ensuring that his surroundings were safe, and turned the dial up on the temperature control system.

Luo Ran looked at the data and saw that the temperature control system would only last for one day.

It was enough.

Luo Ran checked the communication system again.

“Beepbeep…..”

“Beep……”

“Secretary Luo? Secretary Luo!”

It was Lu Cheng’s voice. Although it was unclear and mixed with many noises, Luo Ran was relieved. He grasped the microphone and said: “En, I’m okay, no injuries.”

“Good! Good! Zii….Wait for us….ziiiziii….we’ve located your….ziii….come right away!”

“Okay.”

Luo Ran turned on the aircraft’s radio locator, making it easier for Lu Cheng and the others to find.

Boom—

After the locator was turned on, the ground suddenly shook again.

Luo Ran felt something rushing toward him, not like a physical thing, but like an air current.

The flow was aggressive.

Luo Ran grabbed his head, his mind almost torn apart by the impact of this messy external spiritual force.

In a daze, Luo Ran saw that the scene before him had changed.

The original dull stone wall in front of him was suddenly covered with dense silver stones. The stones were covered in red lines and emitted a strang light, illuminating the entire entrance of the cave.

It was stone from an ice mine, UNK.

This was a hallucination.

And the hallucination overlapped with Luo Ran’s memories.

“Oh my god…..ziii…..”

“Secretary Luo! Turn off the radio, shut off the electricity…..ziii…..”

“Shut…..ziziii……”

Luo Ran remembered.

. . . . . . .

“What?”

Lucas had just left the battlefield, and after returning to the main control room, Lu Cheng connected with him.

After hearing what Lu Cheng said, Lucas’s entire body felt cold, and the hot blood and hostility that had not dissipated from his body also overflowed.

“Admiral, don’t worry, we subdued all the assassins as quickly as possible and dug through the snow to rescue Secretary Luo,” Lu Cheng said. “Secretary Luo has no major problems other than the cold and a spiritual injury! He has now been transferred to the best hospital in the capital, and Dr. Xia is treating him.”

Shen Xiluo had followed Lucas to the battlefield, and Luo Ran was in a special situation. He couldn’t let others know his gender, lest they covet him, so Lu Cheng and the others specially invited Xia Zhi.

“Spiritual injury?” Lucas frowned, clutching the terminal tightly.

“Yes! This…..it’s a long story.” Lu Cheng paused, as if organizing his words.

After all, he had only just learned from Xia Zhi that Luo Ran was an Omega, and a 3S, so he was inevitably shocked.

“First of all, Secretary Luo was injured while establishing a connection with the aircraft, and his pheromones are a bit unstable. Then, in order to facilitate our locating of him, he turned on the aircraft’s radio waves.”

“Then…..something happened that made all of us almost think we were hallucinating. Our detectors discovered that there was a giant creature not far from the bottom of the cave where Secretary Luo was.”

Lucas was taken aback.

“What?”

“The cave is connected to the largest underground opening in the frontier. Perhaps it was attracted by the radio waves? It suddenly came over…..we don’t know what it was or what it looked like, and only using the thermal energy profile shown on the detector, it could be inferred to be a giant insect…..”

“The giant insect seemed to have terrifying spiritual power, and Secretary Luo was injured due to this attack. However, its speed of movement in the underground cave was very slow. The experts in the team speculated that it may have been because it was too large to pass through the small tunnels. So before it could move to the cave where Secretary Luo was, we brought him out.”

Lu Cheng still felt lingering fear as he said this.

The moment they discovered the giant creature, his blood ran cold, and he couldn’t speak clearly. It was a race against time.

“How is this possible?” Lucas snapped: “There are so many excavation and construction projects on the frontier. With all those thermal energy detectors, why didn’t they detect the existence of such a creature?”

Why did appear when Luo Ran fell into the cave?

“We don’t know…..perhaps we should wait for the experts in the capital to find out why.”

After hanging up the call, Lucas violently threw the terminal away.

Luo Ran’s spiritual force was injured, and he needed pheromones.

Lucas let out an angry breath and strode to the deck.

Faster.

He needed to be faster.

. . . . . . .

On the other side, Luo Ran had been transferred back to the best ward in the capital, but he had yet to wake up.

Luo Ran had a very long dream.

He remembered.

. . . . . . .

More than twenty years ago, there was a small city on the border of where Luobing and the Empire joined. 

This city was named Pure City, perhaps because it had nothing to do with the outside world. The people in the small city lived by a glacier and drank the purest water, and ate the cleanest natural food that they grew themselves. But the location was awkward and remote, and there was still a towering and precarious snowy mountain between it and the outside world, which made it difficult for even aircraft to find a suitable route to enter. Thus, their technology was not as advanced as that of the outside world, but the spiritual power of the people there was very high, all of them at S or A-level. The levels were so high that they were even comparable to the people of ancient earth, who had not been exposed to a large amount of radiation and Imperial technology.

The Imperial government intended to excavate these treasured talents, and repeatedly sent envoys to talk to them, asking them to move to the capital.

However, the Empire had their eyes on it, and the star parents naturally knew this too.

So the city was inevitably attacked and occupied by the star pirates.

The city was set alight, and little Luo Ran, who was less than ten years old, was protected by his family with their lives and crawled out a small hole in the city wall.

After crawling out, there was only endless ice and snow.

It was a vast expanse of white, with occasional gusts of snow. Luo Ran walked unconsciously, not knowing how long he walked and in what direction, and finally came to a cave.

It was too cold, so Luo Ran hid in the cave.

So pretty……

As soon as the boy walked in, he froze.

The stone walls were covered in gleaming stones, brightly illuminating the entire cave.

Luo Ran also saw an insect with red stripes on its back in the corner. The six-legged, square-headed insect was huge, stuck motionlessly to the stone wall as if in a deep sleep.

With the insect as the center, the stones near it had turned silver with red streaks. The ones farther away were gradually changing color, slowly transforming from ordinary stones to silver ones, as if they were evolving.

Luo Ran thought, this bug can do magic.

He felt so warm as soon as he came here, his whole body heating up.

Luo Ran was still young, so he naturally didn’t know that this was actually a sign of impending death. His body began to feel warm, and he felt very sleepy.

The child had no concept of death, and was not afraid of the insect, so he just curled up beside it and fell asleep.

But he didn’t die.

Luo Ran woke up again after sleeping for a day, and the tail ends of his hair had begun to turn silver.

Luo Ran was unaware of the change to his hair, and just counted which stones changed color, and how much they changed during the day.

He didn’t know how long he stayed in the cave. He only drank water from the underground river and survived without food.

Perhaps it was a month, or a year, but Luo Ran stayed there until he forgot how to speak, along with all his memories of the past.

The size of the insect increased day by day, and then it sank into the ground. Luo Ran didn’t know where it went. He was weak from not eating, so he could only lie down and not move much in order to conserve his energy.

Until one day, a little boy appeared at the mouth of the cave.

The snowstorms had stopped that day, and it was even a rare sunny day out.

The boy who stood there was clearly only a few years older than him, but his facial features were full of vigor and fierceness.

“Uncle, there’s someone here.”

This was the first face Luo Ran had seen since being isolated from the world.

But Luo Ran was mentally weak and couldn’t remember much.

A tall man walked in, frowning slightly. “A survivor of Pure City…..?”

The man was in disbelief. Looking at the sole survivor of the disaster in front of him, he thought to himself, how did this child survive in the cave by himself for so long?

“Wu……”

Luo Ran subconsciously reached out to the boy.

The boy stepped forward and held Luo Ran’s hand, comforting him somewhat bluntly: “Don’t be afraid, we’ll take you back to the capital.”

The man seemed to find this very interesting. He glanced at the boy who was carefully picking him up, and said with a smile: “Let’s go, Lucas. This patrol ends here, we’ll take him back to the capital first.”

“Okay.”

The boy carried Luo Ran, who was curled into a little ball, and followed in stride.