Darren had just left when a black and gold mech landed outside the white spider webs' boarder. Osborne opened the cockpit and jumped from a height of dozens of meters.
The starship he was originally riding in was somehow tampered with, making the energy converter break halfway through the journey. In order to ensure Cecil and the other candidates' safety, he abandoned the starship and crew members and rushed over alone with his mech. He saw the whole process of Cecil's fight from the cockpit.
The way he waved his sword was so dazzling, like a gust of wind, and also like a bolt of lightning, turning bloody killings into beautiful art. When all the dust had settled, he stood on the spider's back with a calm smile, this scene was like a bullet that penetrated through Osborne's heart. His breathing quickened, his heartbeat was in disorder, and he gazed at the teenager on the screen with an obsessive expression that even he didn't notice.
He walked to the edge of the spider's web and hoarsely asked, "Cecil, are you okay? Is anybody hurt?"
"We're good, now the goal is to quickly melt these spider webs, so we can get out." Zhou Yun Sheng sat cross-legged on the spider's back and casually waved.
"Wait a while longer, the rescue team will arrive soon, they should have the dissolving agent." Osborne stood still, his gaze never leaving the boy's body. In fact, he had a few barrels of dissolving agent in his cockpit, but he would never take them out. He wanted to stay with Cecil for a while longer.
He turned away and came back a few minutes later carrying a huge plank of wood, he pushed it across the white spider web and reached out, "Cecil, come out first."
"Nah, it's nice here." Zhou Yun Sheng waved. Although the phantom spider was disgusting, the flexible fur that covered its body was very soft, just like sitting on a carpet.
Osborne hopped onto the plank and walked over to him. A phantom spider was as big as a car, enough to sit the two of them. Zhou Yun Sheng moved aside to welcome Osborne's arrival, but he couldn't help but mockingly say, "The rescue team always seems to come after everything is done."
"Our starship was tampered with. I'll definitely thoroughly investigated it when I go back."
Osborne sat next to the boy, his expression serious, but his heart was beating wildly. He felt nervous, and his palms began to sweat. He couldn't help thinking of their last unpleasant conversation and said in a low voice, "Cecil, I said some inappropriate things before, I'm very sorry. Please believe that no matter what you want to do, I'll unconditionally support you." But that doesn't include you showing off your half-naked body.
Of course, he didn't dare speak the last sentence.
Zhou Yun Sheng glanced at him and waved away his concerns, "It was just a small tiff, I've already forgotten about it."
Osborne finally regained his composure after ten days of uneasiness. He wiped the sweat on his palms on the spider's fur, then lowered his head to hide his smile. He was too fond of Cecil's brightness and open-mindedness, and he liked how he lost the ability to speak when in front of him.
He feared that he would anger him like the last time. If Cecil was not happy, his mood would be very nervous.
The two men sat in silence for a moment. The other candidates were firmly stuck, some couldn't even open their mouth and eyes, the only one who kept his five senses was the Alpha. He was a fan of Osborne, he spoke hoarsely, "General Matthew, is that your exclusive mech?"
"Yes." Osborne nodded.
Zhou Yun Sheng also noticed the quiet, luxurious looking black and gold sleek mech, he couldn't help but glance at it some more. Osborne's heart was moved, he asked, "Do you want to go in and take a look?"
Zhou Yun Sheng was about to agree when the Alpha asked in surprise, "Cough, isn't this ultra-mech something that only people with 3S level spiritual power and physique can enter? Otherwise, the massive pressure of the nine groups of energy stones starting up together will crush the people inside?"
Average mech only used one group of energy stones, after starting up, the pressure was enough to kill B-level people and below on the spot. So Chelman Military Academy had very high requirements for the students' physique for this reason. The more energy stones built into the mech, the more powerful its performance, but its spiritual and physical power requirements were also more stringent.
Only five mech were loaded with nine sets of energy stones in the galaxy, it's not because of its very high precision manufacturing and technology requirements, but because very few people could control them. If the driver didn't have 3S level spiritual and physical power, as long as they crossed into the cockpit, they would be crushed into minced meat by a pressure hundreds of times greater than Empire Star's gravity.
Therefore, the ultra-mech were equivalent to legends in the galaxy, currently only three people could drive them in all the stars, and the Lennon Empire had only one, Osborne. Osborne was the youngest and most powerful of the three, he'd once single-handedly wiped out a whole minor planet of Zerg, his 'Strongest in Empire Star' title was not groundless.
Zhou Yun Sheng was fascinated by the black gold mech, he jumped along the giant plank of wood to get out of the spider web, then cherishingly touched its cold metal shell.
Osborne immediately followed and said in a tense tone, "Want to go into my cockpit and take a look?" This was his private territory, no one was allowed to enter (of course, they couldn't enter even if they wanted to), but he was happy to let Cecil invade every single inch of his private territory.
"How do you know I can go in?" Zhou Yun Sheng blinked his peach blossom eyes at him.
Every hair on Osborne's body stood erect. He liked it when the boy was focused on his body, it felt like a thread was pulling out from his heart, tightly winding around his body, slowly, until even breathing became difficult. He took a deep breath and said, "I can feel the strength in you, intuition tells me that you and I are the same."
Zhou Yun Sheng smiled, his toes lightly touched along the mech's surface as he jumped up, arriving at the cockpit's entrance in three jumps, then, under the attention of everyone in the stars, he gracefully stepped in.
A smile quickly flashed across Osborne's eyes, then he also jumped in.
"What the fuck, he really went in!" The Alpha still stuck in the spider web couldn't help but explode in foul language. He'd had no previous contact with Cecil, he didn't understand his strength, although he'd watched him solo a dozen phantom spiders, he'd relied on superb swordsmanship, accurate judgment and agility, from his appearance, he didn't expect such a slender person would have 3S level spiritual power and physique.
Such people were able to abandon protective clothing and travel across the universe in their fleshy bodies at their leisure, an abnormal group, there was no more than ten of them in the galaxy. If he was not mistaken, wasn't Cecil an Omega? Since when did Omega defy the natural order this much?
The Alpha was completely in a trance. The audience on the Star Network were also speechless with astonishment. They had also guessed at Cecil's strength before, but many believed that his spiritual strength and physique should be S-class, they wouldn't ever guess he was 3S.
"Oy, is this a scam?"
"Scamming a ghost ah? If you knew you were gonna die, would you go in and look?"
"Cecil is definitely not an Omega, he must be an Alpha. Old Bernard concealed his sex in order to keep him as a trump card. These political schemes go too deep!" Conspiracy theories were coming out.
But in any case, Lennon Empire now had another 3S level player, which was a good thing. The major forces would be focused on the Bernard family, because they knew that the rise of the Bernard family was unstoppable, unless Cecil was killed pre-maturely.
Old Bernard felt the cloud of gloom accompanying the Bernard family's rise back to glory. Even if Cecil could become a powerful force to defend the Empire, there would always be selfish people who wanted to kill him, maybe the hostile Freedom Federation and Ballou Republic forces would collab to eradicate Cecil.
He had to make his grandson stronger as quickly as possible. He began calling the personal terminals of old contacts, and the results were very satisfying, they had seen the value in Cecil and offered their sincerity.
In Chelman Military Academy's cafeteria, all the students were staring at the big screen with dull expressions. They would've never imagined that Cecil had a 3S level spiritual power and physique, even in the eyes of some of the most excellent Alpha, this was an abnormal existence.
Kyle smiled in delight and said, "He really is the most special."
Joshua didn't make his mood obvious, but his hands, which were holding a knife and fork, were trembling. He'd thought that Cecil had S or 2S-level spiritual force, B + or A-level physique, but now he found that he had underestimated Cecil because of subconscious jealousy.
His character was bright and open, he was knowledgeable, interesting to converse with, brave, strong, independent, with indomitable determination and boldness. And these were the qualities Osborne admired most, no, admiration was treating them lightly, he loved them. He could see that Osborne's attitude towards Cecil was becoming more and more gentle, they had the same potential, sooner or later, they would stand at the same height, the genuine article of standing shoulder to shoulder.
And he, once praised to be a lover that could most match with Osborne, now looked like a joke. There were now people on the Star Network ridiculing Osborne for having no eyes, if they weren't dating in secret, he would've long been attacked along with him. Joshua's face was pale with anxiety. He tried to tell himself that Osborne was not a fickle person, and this temporarily made him feel better.
[Fickle-見異思遷- jian yi si qian – never satisfied with what one has/ to change at once on seeing something different]
He stared at the screen and tried to guess what the two were doing inside the mech.
Zhou Yun Sheng was from an era with the same level of advanced technology, he was proficient in a variety of electronic machinery, so he was no stranger to the internal structure of the mech. While touring the cockpit, he was designing his own armor in his mind.
Osborne quietly followed him, showing him a variety of gadgets, laying out all his knowledge without the slightest reservations.
He tried to restrain his desire to get closer to the boy, he was prepared to raise his guard, but he also tried to think of a few jokes, just as he was about to speak, Darren's figure appeared on the 360-degree observation screen, he and his companions were quickly running with a few big bundles of herbs.
"I should go down, thank you for your generosity. When I have my own ultra-mech, I'll also invite you in for a visit." Zhou Yun Sheng waved and jumped straight out of the more than 10-meter high exit.
Osborne glanced at his cousin on the screen with gloomy eyes, then followed him down.