In a luxury residence in Daquan District, Wang Luan lined up five mecha from the warehouse in a single row, in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
Within these three days, she had repaired five mecha. Some had minor problems like broken neural link lines, others had major issues with the core boards. She dismantled them while pondering, flipping through the materials she had collected in the past whenever she encountered something unclear, and resolved all the problems one by one.
She moved her slightly stiff neck, thinking that now that the work was done, it was time to enjoy the luxurious hot springs, and then prepare to head back……
“Boom!”
A loud crash of something heavy hitting the ground came from outside the warehouse. It was too close; even the ground shook.
After a moment, a young man hurried in. “Liu Luan, come take a look quickly. My ‘Purple Wing’ mecha—I just flew it around the edge of the forest a few times and it fell down. It completely lost control. I barely managed to move it back.”
This sunny, cheerful-looking male alpha was the employer this time, Qi Liao, a nouveau riche second-generation who seemed to have a collecting habit.
His aptitude level had just reached the minimum standard required to pilot a mecha. He loved mecha, bought seven of them and displayed them at home. When others went out using hovercars, he used energy-guzzling mecha, leading the new Daquan District trend of flaunting wealth.
Unfortunately, this man’s mecha piloting skills were terrible, yet he loved to play. The result of being bad yet addicted was that his mecha often broke down in strange places.
Wang Luan directed the mobile frame to move the purple-series mecha from outside into the warehouse and secure it. Qi Liao stood beside her, scratching his head. “Sigh, why did it break again? Could it be that those unscrupulous merchants sold me nothing but flashy junk?”
Why don’t you look for the reason in your abysmal piloting skills? Wang Luan thought expressionlessly.
In this world, mecha fever was like luxury car fever in her previous world. People like Qi Liao liked buying mecha but never considered the characteristics and structure of each type. He often did foolish things like using a highly agile mecha to go up against someone else’s gravity-type mecha. Wouldn’t the mecha break especially fast?
Just when everything seemed finished, new work arrived—like a new task right before getting off work. Wang Luan resigned herself to checking it.
Qi Liao didn’t get angry at being ignored. Seeing that the five mecha beside them had already been dismantled from the repair frames, he went over and tried them one by one. Soon he shouted excitedly, “Amazing, Liu Luan! You really fixed them all? The green-shelled bug I accidentally crashed yesterday, and even this orange blossom—this one’s been scrapped for half a year!”
He laughed loudly and walked over to Wang Luan, making the suggestion for the second time. “Why don’t you just stay here and be my exclusive mecha technician? You name the salary!”
It was far more sincere than the first time he brought it up.
After his original mecha technician left, he hadn’t been able to find a satisfactory replacement. Now, seeing Wang Luan so young yet so capable, he was deeply tempted and couldn’t help but try enthusiastically to keep her. “Really, if you’re willing, you can just live here. If not, I can gift you a house over here.”
“I don’t have plans to relocate for now.” Wang Luan twisted off the turbine fan blades on the back of the Purple Wing mecha.
Qi Liao was disappointed, admiring her violent dismantling movements, thinking this brother was extremely cool, and became even more attentive toward her. “Why? Isn’t our Daquan District prosperous enough? This place is famous for its clusters of entertainment venues. The Empire’s Twelfth Army occasionally stations nearby, so ordinary star bandits don’t dare come over. It’s safe too.”
That was precisely the problem. Daquan District lay at the boundary between the Empire-controlled region and the chaotic, ungoverned region. If she stayed here too long, there was a risk her identity might be exposed. Hadn’t she kept the dust mask on her face ever since arriving here, never taking it off?
She didn’t believe the Wang family had already forgotten her, nor did she believe that spending a year in the chaotic region without disturbance meant it was already safe.
Holding the dismantled parts, she jumped down from the mecha. Qi Liao walked over to her again, familiarly slinging an arm over her shoulder like close brothers, curling his finger to tap the dust mask covering most of her face below the nose. “You’re not some wanted criminal, are you, so you don’t want to live over here?”
Wang Luan lifted her elbow and shifted her shoulder, directly pushing him away entirely. Qi Liao shook out his arm. “Even if you really are, it doesn’t matter. My family has hired wanted criminals before. Quite a few of my bodyguards used to be star pirates.”
“Our side is a quarry zone. Quarry zones have always had a lot of dust. Many people are used to wearing dust masks.”
That was true. Many people living in chaotic regions liked to cover themselves up, whether they had committed crimes or not.
Qi Liao felt that her answer was inevitably a bit dull; it would have been more interesting if she really had been a star bandit before.
Wang Luan stayed there until evening and finally finished repairing the Purple Wing mecha. She immediately took a generous repair fee from Qi Liao without ceremony and, ignoring his repeated attempts to keep her, headed straight to the luxurious hot spring hotel she had booked earlier to enjoy a relaxing soak.
The next day, Qi Liao drove his colorful mecha over to find her.
Wang Luan was sitting in the rooftop garden eating breakfast. As soon as she saw him, she asked, “What, did the mecha break again?”
“Not that fast. These few mecha are enough for me to drive for another two months. I’m here to hang out with you. How about it, I’ll take you out for a stroll?” Qi Liao was dressed flamboyantly; if he weren’t missing flowers in his hand, he would really look like a dandy second-generation rich kid preparing to pick up girls.
Having been confessed to too many times recently and left with a bit of a shadow, Wang Luan carefully observed his expression and concluded that he seemed not to have given up on the idea of keeping her here as a mecha repair technician, rather than asking her out on a date.
That made sense. Male alpha and female alpha were both alpha—able to get others pregnant but unable to get pregnant themselves—so they were the same sex; public restrooms and bathhouses were all places they could enter together.
This terrible sense of gender identity made her instinctively not guard against female betas, yet subconsciously guard against male alphas who posed no threat. If one really had to put it that way, she was practically a transgender cognizer in this world.
“If you like hot springs, the ones at this hotel aren’t authentic. Brother here will take you to soak in a real hot spring! A body-strengthening spring—haven’t heard of it, right?”
Qi Liao imagined the two of them soaking in the hot spring together, chatting about beautiful omegas, drawing closer. Once they were brothers, was there any worry she wouldn’t be willing to stay here as a mecha technician?
However, the problem he hadn’t anticipated was……
“We’ll choose separate springs, not together.”
“No, why are you looking at me with such a guarded expression? Brother here doesn’t have any perverted thoughts. Aren’t we both alpha!”
“I know. I don’t like being with others.”
“Fine, fine, do whatever you like. But later I’m taking you to a good place to broaden your horizons—you can’t refuse to go!”
This so-called authentic hot spring was indeed much more comfortable than the hotel’s. The title “body-strengthening” wasn’t empty either; after soaking, the whole body felt light, and one felt refreshed.
Wang Luan was in rare good spirits and took the initiative to ask, “Where did you say we’re going?”
“Heh heh, where else would we go? To look at pretty omegas!” Qi Liao revealed a tacit smile; it was probably not a very proper place.
Wang Luan thought she was trying to avoid such things as it was—how could she possibly deliver herself to be ogled? She flatly refused. “Then I’m heading back.”
It would be better to go browse the local parts market.
Seeing her lack of interest, Qi Liao hurriedly said, “It’s not what you’re thinking. It’s just song and dance—our local specialty performances. Plenty of tourists come specifically for these large-scale song-and-dance shows. If you don’t watch them, it’ll be like you came here for nothing!”
Wang Luan was a vulgar person; this was specifically reflected in how, when traveling, she was easily drawn in by promotions like “come to xx place and if you don’t see xx, you came for nothing.”
So in the end, she still went with Qi Liao to watch that so-called song-and-dance performance.
The performance took place in a massive city-within-a-city. This city was built underground, forever maintaining the appearance of brilliant lights in eternal night. It itself was a huge stage, with dances starting beside you at any time. Those dancing weren’t only omegas, but also betas and alphas. Tourists wandered through the resplendent city, with countless dancers performing beside them or fluttering overhead.
Walking to the center of the city, there were many dancers and tourists underfoot as well; it was quite novel.
“Look there—those dancing up there are all omegas.” Qi Liao was clearly a regular, his eyes fixed on the omega dancers high above, out of reach of others.
Wang Luan, however, wasn’t very interested. After watching the dazzling dances for a while, she began to grow more interested in the faint aroma of snacks she could smell.
So before long, Wang Luan realized she and Qi Liao had gotten separated. Looking around and failing to find him, she immediately decided not to bother with her temporary companion and employer and went to find something to eat first.
She followed the scent to look for a snack stall, passing by a relatively quiet small path. By chance, she saw two people fighting there—and most importantly, she recognized the one being pinned against the wall and beaten.
“Miss Zhu Xing?” Wang Luan called out while standing at the intersection.
Zhu Xing hadn’t expected to run into her here either. The moment she heard the voice, she recognized Liu Luan. She instinctively loosened her grip on the hair she had been yanking, revealing an innocent smile. “Ah, what a coincidence. What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to have fun.” Wang Luan asked briefly, “Do you need help?”
After all, they were acquaintances. Seeing that this place was secluded, and that behind the person fighting with Zhu Xing there were several tall, burly alphas standing there with predatory gazes, she asked an extra question.
“It’s nothing, I was just fooling around with a friend!” Zhu Xing shot a glare at You Yue, who had just been arguing with her, signaling him not to say anything. She walked to the intersection herself, the genuine smile returning to her face. “You’re here to have fun? Perfect timing, I’m pretty familiar with this place—I’ll show you around.”
At this point, Wang Luan saw clearly the other person who had been fighting with Zhu Xing. He was probably a male omega, wearing dance attire and stage makeup, looking like one of the performers here, with several silent, hulking men standing behind him.
You Yue smoothed his hair that had been messed up from being grabbed, his gaze probing as he stared at Wang Luan. Just as he was about to say something, he saw the look Zhu Xing turned on him, filled with unmistakable warning and dismissal.
As a childhood playmate and friend, although he had just fought with her over certain matters, You Yue wouldn’t stay here now to be an eyesore. He made a gesture and hurriedly left.
Seeing Wang Luan glance once more at You Yue’s outfit, Zhu Xing ground her teeth and suddenly said, “Ah, he’s my friend, dancing here. Don’t be fooled by how decent he looks—he actually has a problem. His feet really stink!”
Wang Luan: “…………” That’s really unnecessary. Truly unnecessary. She honestly didn’t mean anything by it—she just thought her friend’s skirt was quite nice and kind of wanted one herself.
Seeing this sister showing signs of digging herself deeper, Wang Luan didn’t dare get entangled with her any further. She led her to a more crowded area, told her to watch her own safety, didn’t give her any more time to talk, and quickly left.
After running into this, she no longer wanted to watch any dance performances and left the area, detouring to browse the parts market instead.
“So that’s the alpha you mentioned?” You Yue, who hadn’t gone far, emerged with a swaying posture from the shadows to Zhu Xing’s side. “She doesn’t seem all that special.”
“She’s not interested in omegas, won’t be affected by my pheromones, and just now she didn’t even look at your face for long. Isn’t that special enough?” As Zhu Xing said this, she glared at him again. “If you’re walking, then walk properly. What were you swaying around for in front of her just now? Were you trying to seduce her?”
You Yue was speechless. “Are you sick? If your mental power is flaring up and you can’t control your temper, go to the CON base and get medicine from the godmother. Don’t make trouble for me here.”
At the mention of the CON base, Zhu Xing’s expression grew even worse. She nervously bit her finger. “Yan Qiongyu is also at the CON base now. He threatened me—he knows about me liking an alpha. Do you think he’ll do something?”
You Yue was silent for a moment, then said in a complicated tone, “You too, and Qin Ling as well—why do you all reject Yan Qiongyu so much? At the very least, he’s the godmother’s child. Now that he’s returned to her side, he counts as one of our companions. Can’t you get along with him properly?”
Zhu Xing said bitterly, “You’re really naive. Once he gains the godmother’s trust, everything in Utopia will belong to him, and it’ll have nothing to do with us anymore!”
“I’ve said what I needed to say. I don’t want to fight with you again either. Think it through yourself.” You Yue left in disappointment.
Failing to get the answer she wanted from the other party, the two parted on bad terms. Zhu Xing boarded her spacecraft. A waiting servant stepped forward and asked, “Miss, are we returning now?”
“No.” Zhu Xing replied. “Stay here a couple more days. I’m going to take someone back.”
She had decided. The person she liked had to be kept within her grasp—and this was also to protect Liu Luan from being harmed. Liu Luan was so good; she would surely understand.
