TVLMS Chapter 51

Wen Yu kept his word and waited for him to fill his stomach before they took the spaceship in the direction of the royal palace.

“The palace is dangerous, and there are many places I haven’t explored yet, so you’d better stay by my side. The research base is right next to the palace, and the researchers go in and out of the palace all the time, so even though ordinary people may not recognize you, those science fanatics will.” Wen Yu admonished him as they moved.

Gu Xiyu did not respond, his focus was on the statement that the research base was right next to the palace.

As they got closer, the building, which looked tall and thin from a distance, became clearer, covering an area so large that it could have been a small city in its own right. At the edge of a small garden was a raised, semi-circular building in a silvery-white color, topped with solar panels.

Looking down from the sky, one could see large trucks heading in from outside. Behind one of them was a giant cage, in which the body of a monster could be seen lying motionless, as if it were dead. This was probably the research base he wanted to infiltrate, and the bead he was looking for was inside.

In addition to the research institute, the military’s unification center was also within the palace grounds. The black, doughnut-like structures spinning above the palace domain were the protection towers. In the event of an attack on the main city, they would open a shield with the palace as a central station and, at the same, launch attacks with a range of up to a hundred kilometers.

“What will you do in case the person you meet guesses my identity?” As he watched the spaceship come to a gentle stop, Gu Xiyu asked Wen Yu vigilantly.

Wen Yu didn’t care much: “I’m an important admiral of the empire. As long as I can control the threat, even if it’s an alien, I’m allowed to do whatever I want.”

“Although I know I can’t completely control you.” Wen Yu suddenly added. Gu Xiyu was slightly stunned and met his eyes before he heard him continue, “I can see a strong sense of purpose in your eyes, you have a very strong will and an indelible pride in your bones.”

“Even though you are forced to stay with me now, I can see that all I can control is your body, and no matter what means are used, you will never truly succumb to me.”

Wen Yu’s tone sounded a little pitiful.

To put it simply and bluntly, Gu Xiyu was an existence that would rather die than yield in his eyes. To tame a strong-willed person, one could use strong-arm tactics to wear down the will of the other party. Generally, living beings would have weaknesses that could be taken advantage of, but he felt an indifference in Gu Xiyu that was very similar to his own; he was unafraid of death and had nothing to lose.

It would be difficult to have full control over him. Wen Yu had calculated the ratio of effort to reward, and the result was that there was no need to invest his energy in trying.

Gu Xiyu thought that perhaps the system was right, the target did like obedience, but the way he wanted to achieve it was too crude.

Perhaps for the sake of his not being human, Wen Yu was quite kind to him: “In short, if you pretend to be obedient and not make trouble, no one can do anything to you.”

He was silent for a while and spoke up when Wen Yu thought he still wasn’t going to make any comments, “Actually, it’s not only that extreme form of a relationship that will achieve the effect you want.”

Wen Yu laughed lightly and said, “What I want is absolute loyalty, but of course, it doesn’t exist. So I can only retreat to the second best thing, no relationship can make one party give unconditionally for the other; the best way is to exchange conditions or be restrictive.”

“Only then will they be forced to obey you absolutely.”

In the past, the rational Gu Xiyu might have agreed with this statement.

“Not necessarily.” He sat in the passenger seat, his tone calm, saying, “There can be other relationships.”

Wen Yu listened with curiosity and said, “Oh? Then tell me.”

Gu Xiyu: “Think for yourself.”

“……”

Wen Yu didn’t seem to be the only one who was curious, the intelligent system also suddenly sent a question to him, [I also want to know the answer.]

Gu Xiyu listened to the mechanical voice of the system and was silent for a moment before suddenly chuckling, “You guess too.”

[…]

The door opened, and Gu Xiyu followed Wen Yu down. There was a man dressed as a secretary standing outside, who should have been waiting for a short while. The other man’s eyes wavered over him without a trace. He then raised his hand to salute Wen Yu without changing his expression.

The man who had asked Wen Yu to meet him today was the second prince of the empire, Lu Yan. He was a handsome young man, not too old, but he always had an evil aura when he smiled.

Gu Xiyu’s feelings towards him were rather ordinary, but not favorable for now.

“What a rarity, Admiral Caesar, when did you learn to play with pets like others?” Lu Yan spotted him at a glance, and after a few glances, his eyes gradually turned interested: “Is this a rabbit?”

As a member of the royal family, Lu Yan quickly discovered his identity: “A tiger rabbit?”

“Oh, it’s immature.”

Gu Xiyu: “?”

Where did this second prince see that he was underage? He didn’t even know himself.

“I picked it up, it’s quite obedient.” Wen Yu returned carelessly.

Lu Yan sneered, “Obedient? I advise you to be careful, don’t wake up one day without a head.”

Wen Yu smiled and said, “Thank you, Second Prince, for the reminder.”

Gu Xiyu ‘obediently’ crouched behind Wen Yu, pretending not to understand Lu Yan’s words, silently holding his tail in his hand. Only after a moment did he realize that he had inadvertently taken the tail segment into his mouth.

Tiger rabbits’ tails were so long that they could become a liability when running or escaping, so most of them had the habit of walking with their tails in their mouths. He tried to avoid this instinctive reaction of his body, but as he had been a tiger rabbit for a long time, he would always react uncontrollably and strangely.

What did he have to do to change back into his human form?

On the other side, Lu Yan and Wen Yu, who had ended their pleasantries, started to get to the point.

“Lu Feng has escaped.” Lu Yan narrowed his eyes, a condescending smile on his lips like a warrior who had won a battle.

Lu Feng, the Crown Prince of the Empire, is the protagonist of this world. They were brothers, but Gu Xiyu found his tone when mentioning this name so cold.

“It’s a bit of a pity, I thought I could definitely get him killed this time.”

Wen Yu did not hide his intention to work with Lu Yan from Gu Xiyu, and continued the topic calmly, not treating him as an outsider at all. He didn’t know whether he was too confident in suppressing him or if he was just looking forward to his intervention.

Although the system’s data was somewhat missing, Gu Xiyu nevertheless obtained a general clue through the conversation between them. It was a very reasonable battle for the throne, the second prince resented the fact that Crown Prince Lu Feng was born with the qualifications to succeed and was a key target of the royal family’s training. Lu Feng was always used as a comparison to him, and the comparison resulted in him being inferior to this half-brother in every way.

Judging from his tone and expression when he mentioned his brother, Lu Feng hated this brother so much that he wanted him to die. As the villain of this world, Wen Yu was currently the ‘assistant’ to the second prince, helping him to pit the protagonist in private.

It was not hard to understand why he was doing this. Since he was just playing around and destroying humans step by step, the most direct way was to start from the core— use the conflicts in the royal family.

Lu Yan and Wen Yu met in the living room of the palace. The proud second prince tilted his head: “You have done a beautiful job, and I trust you for the time being. To thank you for helping me trip up Lu Feng, I’m going to reward you with a new mecha. Trust me, this is the latest type of combat mech developed by the people under my hand; it will definitely greatly enhance your combat ability outside.”

Gu Xiyu watched them walk out and followed behind Wen Yu, expressionlessly saying in his mind, “Trust me, whatever the latest type of anything developed is, it’s the poorest of all.”

–A kind reminder from someone with experience.

Wen Yu gently hooked the corner of his mouth and did not reply.

The interior of the palace was different from what Gu Xiyu had expected, it was different from the palace design he knew. Unlike the noble and luxurious palace he expected, this one was more like a lifeless new technological building. The first point of consideration for all the physical structures inside was not aesthetics, but practicality. Even a small floor tile might be decisive in times of war.

The floor they were on now was the lower level, which covered a wide area, so there were many long corridors of various sizes leading to different places, a place where one might easily get lost if they were not careful. Some of the rooms that they passed by were closed off, while others were surrounded by clear, break-proof glass so that you could clearly see what was inside.

Most were office-like rooms with many professionals busy inside, staring at data and discussing with serious expressions; only a small number of departments were more relaxed.

“That mecha’s defensive and offensive capabilities are the highest the empire has at the moment, you know what you should do when you get it.” Lu Yan and Wen Yu were still walking ahead.

The brown-haired man in noble clothes gradually took on a ruthless tone. He spoke in a small voice, but it could be heard by him who had excellent ears.

Gu Xiyu heard him say to Wen Yu, “I want Lu Feng to never come back to the main city.”

“Okay.” Wen Yu responded so simply that it seemed that who died or who lived had nothing to do with him.

At one of the corners of the long corridor, Gu Xi Yu happened to see two researchers in large white coats walking side by side further down the corridor.

Gu Xiyu suddenly heard a scream.

He twitched his ears and discovered it was coming from the direction where the two researchers had disappeared.

He remembered Wen Yu saying that the royal palace and the research base were interconnected and that there were pathways in the palace that led directly to the research base.

Gu Xiyu heard the piercing scream again, it sounded like one of pain. He thought for a moment, then quietly slipped away and followed the sound.

The bead was the main item of research in the Empire right now, and with the Great Demon’s status, he could rely on him to get into the palace, but he couldn’t expect him to help him steal it out.

At the end of the corridor was a door with a ‘No Entry’ label. A plate hung where the door handle should have been, and it looked like a designated pass needed to be scanned to activate it.

He cradled his tail as a couple of currents coursed through it.

It should work in theory.

He turned his back, and the tip of his tail touched the sensor with difficulty.

After a zap of electricity, the green bean-colored light on the sensor disappeared and the closed automatic door clicked open. He hesitated by the door for a moment but eventually stepped into the narrow, slightly dimly lit corridor.

At the end was a staircase that ran into the ground. He listened to make sure there was no sign of anyone coming up for the time being before quietly going down the steps.

The stairs led down to a mysterious underground base. The engineering looked crude, but if one looked closely, one would see that the surrounding walls were made of stronger material than the palace building. At the top of the spacious and unoccupied pathway were rows of white lights that made the already bleak premises seem even eerier.

Especially with the occasional cries of pain that came from further down.

He walked in the direction from which the screams came, but he kept an eye out and did not just strut down the pathway. He noticed red-painted iron pipes on the eaves and climbed up with the strength and agility of his tail, carefully making his way up them.

He couldn’t remember exactly how many turns he took, and instead of finding the exit to the institute, he accidentally dived into a secret room.

It looked like an infirmary, as there was an operating table and lots of medical equipment. But it also looked a lot like a computer room, with several machines and monitors on the side to observe data movements.

On the operating table lay a purple furry body with its belly cut open, and several researchers in large white coats were moving around it. A short distance away were a couple of electric shock chairs, on which another creature that looked a bit like a human was strapped, except that its head was twice the size of a normal human, its arms and legs were long and thin, and its eyes were amber with animal pupils.

The researcher with the board in his hand adjusted the small instrument next to it to raise the volts of the electric shock, then pressed the button without changing his expression.

Only then did Gu Xiyu realize that the painful screams he had heard were coming from this guy.

“Good, this level of power is just right to start extracting the serum.” The man standing in front of a strange machine spoke.

There was a recliner behind a translucent curtain covering what appeared to be a human strapped to it.

Gu Xiyu looked toward another corner of the room.

In the space separated by glass, there was the green-skinned alien that had caused such a ruckus in the testing room the other day, RDE81. Perhaps affected by the situation beyond the glass, it was moving back and forth restlessly, occasionally waving its scythed hand to break through the glass enclosure that held it captive.

On the glass enclosure, which was being hammered with a clanging sound, were big red letters.

RISK (risky)

DANGER (high risk)

ELIMINABLE (can be eliminated)

It turns out that this is what the RDE number meant.

“These creatures are clearly evolving, and if they are not addressed soon, human defenses will not be able to withstand their attacks.” The staff member sitting in front of the display and observing the data said so with melancholy.

“The portal has gotten bigger again.”

“The people in the research department are unreliable; let’s hope that the Nova Project will really work.”

“They shouldn’t have been so rash in the first place.”

“Who knew the thing would get out of control!”

“Hush, the Lieutenant General is coming over.”

The translucent curtain was lifted by a hand, and Gu Xiyu saw the old lieutenant general who was with Xie Mingan earlier walk out from inside, followed by a curly-haired man with blonde hair and thick-rimmed glasses.

The old lieutenant general called Xu Guizhong had a serious expression as he said to the middle-aged man beside him, “This is the forty-third one; you’d better explain. Otherwise, there won’t be enough death row prisoners for you to experiment on.”

The middle-aged man smiled submissively and said, “Don’t worry, our group has got the general direction, this experiment will be successful!”

Bang, bang, bang!

The green-skinned alien in the glass enclosure began to frantically bang on the window again. Xu Guizhong glanced towards it and saw that it was looking up, its sight directed at a certain corner above the laboratory, the scythe under its wrist frantically swishing.

He subconsciously looked where the green-skinned monster was looking, but the place was empty except for the pipes.

Gu Xiyu was still moving around inside the ventilation ducts today.

He was almost sold out by the green-skinned alien, but fortunately, he managed to quickly slip away.

The place just now was not the laboratory he was looking for, but he felt as if he had accidentally discovered some secrets.

From the discussions of the people in the laboratory, the spatial portal near the imperial domain doesn’t seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Lieutenant General Xu was a member of the military, were the Empire and the military aware of his contact with these people in the underground lab? They were capturing and controlling the aliens like they were doing some kind of remarkable experiment.

For example, can they make human genes combine with the aliens to evolve into more powerful beings…. or puppets that can be manipulated by them?

Gu Xiyu’s brain had a headache, he wished things were simpler, like they were just trying to research drugs that could ward off the aliens or find the weaknesses of those targets.

He struggled to climb out of the ventilation ducts and back into the palace building, but he had no idea where he was in the palace. He dropped the tail he had bitten in his mouth and sat crouched in the corner, panting slightly.

The tiger rabbit was small and had trouble walking for long; if only he could turn back into a human.

No sooner had this thought occurred than a faint tickling sensation suddenly came over his body. When he looked back again, the scene in front of him had changed.

It was the familiar height and view.

He looked down at his human hands, his thoughts slightly dazed.

So, he changed back? Shape switching turned out to be so easy? Was the previous inability to change due to the effects of the drug?

The sound of boots on the floor suddenly came from behind him.

He turned back and saw Xie Mingan, who was wearing a black military-style trench coat, coming around the corner. The moment the other man’s eyes met his, there was a flash of surprise.

Gu Xiyu was thinking about how he would explain it when Xie Mingan questioned him later, when there was another sound of footsteps on the other side of the corridor, gradually approaching his direction.

Xie Mingan asked with suspicion, “Gu Xiyu, why are you here?”

The people from the military department had searched for him for days without finding him, and it was as if he had evaporated, making him doubt his identity several times.

As this question fell, Wen Yu also appeared in his line of sight.

The man dressed in silver-white glanced at him before looking back down at the portable communicator he wore on his wrist. There was a small translucent screen above the communicator, with a red dot flickering on and off.

As Wen Yu’s gaze fell back on him, it moved down slightly and rested on his neck.

Gu Xiyu froze slightly as he remembered something and raised his hand to touch his neck.

There was the familiar hard object.

Gu Xiyu’s fingertips trembled a few times; his face was still calm, but the thousands of words in his heart gathered into one word at this moment.

…… Fuck.

He thought a chaotic situation was about to happen when the system’s automatic notification suddenly rang out in his mind.

[Target’s danger value is -5; the current danger value is 55.]

Gu Xiyu: “?”