One simple sentence from Norton was enough to gradually settle Ye Muo.
The emotions that originally threatening to boil over in his chest also eased up
A weight seemed to lift from his chest. Ye Muo took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Norton covered them with one hand, blocking out the blinding white lights of the arena.
When he looked up and stared into the camera of the official livestream.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the screen and into the hearts of every viewer.
The entire arena was silent.
Lakely stood at the edge of the leader’s platform, watching Ye Muo and Norton from a distance. Behind them, the Grantz soldiers stood pencil straight.
Lakely couldn’t help but mull over Norton’s words from earlier, “Change will come…”
He took a step back and raised his head to look up at the sky. Lakely recalled the Keller Federation and all of the resource tournaments it had taken part in since joining the Alliance. How it painstakingly crawled up from the very bottom and the ever-shifting team roster…
Lakely never felt like anything was wrong with the system until now. Yes, he felt sorry for the team members who gave their lives for the cause, but these sacrifices were supposedly necessary.
For the sake of resources, for the sake of the country, for the sake of reducing conflicts, and for the sake of preserving strength to defend the existing habitable territories of humanity.
Finally, Lakely recalled the look Ye Muo’s eyes when he looked at Aize. Despite being surrounded by insects, they raised their sword at each other instead.
This was far from an uncommon occurrence in resource tournaments. The insects were also a part of the system.
Lakely looked back at Ye Muo, at his hand resting on Norton’s knee. Both of Ye Muo’s hands were covered in darkened blood. Parts of his uniform were splattered with the odd-colour bodily fluids of insects, but the most obvious stain came from another human.
Lakely realized for the first time.
That this whole affair had gone way too far.
……
The resource tournament came to an abrupt halt.
The Alliance issued a warning regarding insect activity before locking down the affected sectors.
The Central Planet was temporarily shut down as well. Any persons unrelated to the resource tournament were prohibited from entering or leaving. All audience members had been evacuated from the Central Planet and temporarily relocated to nearby planets.
The galactic network became even more lively than before.
[Is there anyone on the Central Planet right now? How are things over there? I can’t believe they put the tournament on hold. Aren’t they afraid all the countries involved will cause a commotion since rankings are at stake?]
[Not sure. It seems to be serious since they locked down entire sectors.],
[The Central Planet is the same as before, with contestants from various countries and Alliance staff members. I’m currently on a tourist planet nearby. Only planned on staying for a few days at first, but they arranged some free accommodations for me due to the lockdown. I’m certainly not going to complain about that, but the situation with the insects seems to be bad. I don’t know when they’ll lift the lockdown.]
[Bad is too light of a descriptor. Almost every part of the galactic boundary has been overrun. Insects had already made it deep into habitable territories by the time the tournament was called off. Those planets have already been evacuated.]
[Although it wasn’t explicitly stated, you’ll notice upon closer inspection that the only part of the boundary to hold was the region assigned to Grantz. They stood their ground until the tournament was suspended and gained a lot of fans for it the last couple of days.]
[The Alliance really is too focused on commercializing the tournament. They should have more procedures in place to ensure the safety of participants. It was alright at first, but in recent years it’s more of a bloodsport than anything. Have you guys seen the mortality rate statistics? It goes up sharply every year.]
[Isn’t that because technology is always advancing? The improvement in equipment quality isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. Still, I agree that more should be done to keep contestants safe. I never understood those people that used the legitimacy of the organization to promote legal violence and bloodshed.]
[Not everyone has access to the latest and greatest technology. Take Kernan for example. Only their captain has anything resembling adequate equipment each year. The ongoing trend of developing more weaponry specialized for use against other humans instead of insects is worrisome.]
……
Lakely hasn’t been in the best mood as of late. He hasn’t been editing any video or updating his channel.
Many problems keep troubling him. Should new regulations be introduced in the resource tournament? Where exactly were changes needed…
Lakely logged off from the holographic world and left the VR pod. Feeling a bit thirsty after getting a good night’s rest, he happened to notice a photo frame that was turned towards the wall as he got out of bed.
He saw a young couple when he turned it around. They had their arms around each other as they smiled at the camera.
These people were his parents, who sacrificed themselves in the war against the insects.
Lakely’s interest in the tournament stemmed from his belief that the participants were the individual best suited to spearhead humanity’s resistance against insect invasion.
But he never imagined that one day they would raise their guns at each other.
This shouldn’t be.
Lakely impatiently set his cup down on the table before logging back into the holographic world. The signal from the Central Planet was still normal, but the lockdown could change that at a moment’s notice. He wondered what would happen from here.
Lakely generated a new instance. Before he even realized it, he had already teleported to Ye Muo’s coordinates.
Ye Muo lying on Pangzhua’s belly in the first floor living room.
Adlet rarely allowed Pangzhua into the house, much less onto the carpet. Of course, he did make Pangzhua take a bath first.
Pangzhua was curled up around Ye Muo, engulfing him with its long, fluffy fur.
Lakely’s bad mood eased up at the sight of Xavier. It might be kind of rude, but to be honest, it was no different than watching cute cat videos for him. He was about to get closer when the signal abruptly cut off. When he materialized again, it was outside of the Grantz base.
Stumped, Lakely circled around the base but couldn’t get inside again. “Is the signal bad?”
He sighed. “Today just isn’t my day.”
Theodore returned to base triumphant after kicking Lakely out. It had a lot of leeway as of late thanks to the choppy network.
Aside from the areas it allowed to be broadcasted at certain times to keep up the ruse, there were very few eyes on the Grantz base as of late.
Lakely just happened to slip through the net on accident.
Ye Muo rolled over but didn’t open his eyes. “Theodore?”
Theodore gave a sound of acknowledgement.
“Not being able to see you is inconvenient, ah.”
[That shouldn’t be an issue for much longer.]
As soon as those words fell.
Ano excitedly rushed into the room with light steps. Pangzhua still heard him. It lazily flicked its tail without even looking up.
Ano crouched down and nudged Ye Muo, who Pangzhua was curled around. Ye Muo opened his eyes and looked up at Ano.
Ano spoke first, “Your subordinate’s fine. He can already walk.”
Ye Muo blinked before sitting up.
Ano circled around to his front again and poked him in the forehead. “Now cheer up, alright?”
Ye Muo’s head leaned back a bit. “I’m already fine.”
Ano huffed but dropped the subject. He extended a hand to Ye Muo. “Why not go outside for a walk. There’s nothing to do lately anyway. Everyone’s been going on excursions. I noticed Ye He brought you a ton of presents. Almost an entire roomful. Let’s go on a shopping trip of our own with Bert…”
Ye Muo explained as he was pulled to his feet, “Big Brother didn’t buy all of them.”
“In any case, I want to buy you more.”
Ano led him outside. Pangzhua quickly got up and trailed behind Ye Muo.
Helene waved at them from nearby. Bert was leaning against the wall, while Jacob squatted on a flowerbed.
Ano quickened his pace a bit. “Dylan and the others are working for Big Brother right now. Let’s go quickly before we get caught.”
He didn’t forget to drop Pangzhua off with Adlet as he passed by before running off with Ye Muo.
Rushing past Bert and the others.
Helene chased after them. “Let me tag along too, Ano!”
Bert exchanged a glance with Jacob. Jacob spoke first, “How childish.”
The two of them followed at a leisurely pace.
Bert spread his hand and said, “Unfortunately, none of my children are particularly smart.”
Jacob shot him a look but decided it wasn’t worth it to speak up. Arguments with Bert were tiring and difficult to win.
Lakely, who had been guarding the entrance the entire time, was pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. He tagged along with glee but didn’t start streaming. “How nice, ah.”
The streets were not crowded.
Only national leaders and participants in the battle scenario were left now. The total number of people wasn’t small, but there was plenty of room to go around. Many people have come out to explore everything the Central Planet had to offer with the impromptu break these past couple of days. Even so, there were no crowds or lineups anywhere.
“Let’s take a look at the map and decide where to go from there. Secretary-General Lin told be after a shopping trip that—”
Ano’s voice cut off as he turned to the side. His gaze became fixed on a certain direction.
Puzzled, Lakely looked up as well. The small smile playing on his lips disappeared subconsciously.
In the crowd just a distance away was Aize and his Xiboen teammates. Ano recognized him even in casual clothing.
Ye Muo also looked over, but Aize turned away and pressed the brim of his hat lower.
Bert walked over after they just stood there for a bit. His hand fell on Xavier’s shoulder. “Need any help?”
Ye Muo turned to Bert, who made a slashing gesture across his neck before whispering, “It’ll be quick.”
It took Lakely a moment to realize what Bert meant. He took his hand out of his pocket in shock.
Ye Muo shook his head.
Ano took the initiative to ask, “Are you afraid of getting into trouble? Then I’ll help you next time.”
Ye Muo shook his head at Ano. “Lives shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
He didn’t want to become that kind of person.
Ye Muo tugged on Ano’s arm. “Let’s go have fun somewhere else. We can pick out presents for Father and the others. There’s still a long time until dinner.”
Ano looked at Ye Muo. He gave Aize one last lingering glance before leaving with Ye Muo. He was brimming with nervous energy like a first-time father.
He bowed his head to Ye Muo and admitted, “Xavier, I’m still worried you’ll get hurt or tire yourself out, but I’m also glad you’ve learned to think for yourself instead of blindly going with the flow.”
Bert stretched lazily on the side. “But only the strong have the leisure to do such things. do. You’d best become stronger, Xavier.”
“There’s no need to worry about me, Ano and Bert. I will.”
“Eh, it’s probably not a big deal.” Bert thought. “I have so many capable children to put to work already.”
