Pei Liang felt that something about this was off. Wasn’t this world supposed to have six genders?
Why was there prejudice against Alphas alone? Betas and Omegas could be male or female too, and they had their own boundaries and taboos. Why was it simply assumed that Alphas would never harbor ill intentions toward Alphas of the opposite sex?
Even with the original host’s memories integrated into her mind, Pei Liang still couldn’t understand it.
What she didn’t know was that, in this world, Alphas were naturally drawn to Omegas. It was an instinct etched into their DNA. An Alpha getting involved with another Alpha was something only a mentally twisted pervert would do.
That was why the existence of gay men among the Alpha class was so utterly baffling that it lay beyond the imagination of someone as accepting of different sexual orientations as Pei Liang.
Still, although she couldn’t understand it, Pei Liang got up from Teresa, who was on the verge of exploding.
After she made that astonishing remark, the way the Teresa siblings looked at her went beyond seeing her as a lecherous beast. They regarded her as a downright shocking pervert.
However, Alisha’s condition was not looking good. The aphrodisiac incense had triggered an upheaval in her pheromones and forced her into heat ahead of schedule.
If it wasn’t dealt with properly, it could even cause irreversible damage to her body.
This was no time for Teresa to argue with a pervert. He scooped his sister into his arms and shot Pei Liang a cold glare.
“This isn’t over.”
With that, he carried Alisha out of the room.
Pei Liang was still a little worried that, once they left, the beautiful young woman’s pheromones would spread and cause a commotion, creating trouble for them both.
Fortunately, most of the staff here were Betas, and Teresa seemed to have brought a disposable Omega protective mask that prevented pheromones from dispersing. As far as Pei Liang knew, the two of them left without incident.
Pei Liang’s own situation, however, was somewhat strange.
More than half an hour had passed since she confirmed that the siblings had left, yet she still hadn’t received the plot.
She asked the system, “What’s going on? The last world had no memories, and this world has no plot?”
The system sounded rather sheepish. “The new boss arranged it this way. Big Sis, I really did protest on your behalf, but…”
Pei Liang understood. It seemed this was special treatment from the new boss.
“It’s fine. I don’t dislike this kind of challenge.” Judging from the hints embedded in the previous world’s mission, the new boss seemed to have something planned for her.
Pei Liang didn’t object to this kind of openly increased difficulty and gradual buildup toward the mission.
Then again, the new boss should have known all about her history of clearing worlds without a plot.
Someone like her, who had never relied much on the advantages provided by the storyline, didn’t need the plot all that badly. If the goal was to raise the difficulty, this obstacle might not even be as challenging as the previous world.
So why take this approach? The reason was easy enough to guess.
The greatest crisis facing this character was probably right around the corner. The moment she obtained the plot, she would also obtain a way to avoid it, which was why the system had withheld it.
But this crude and obvious first obstacle clearly wasn’t very difficult. Pei Liang therefore guessed that the trial in this instance wouldn’t be limited to this alone.
As she pondered, the physical reactions brought on by the Omega pheromones subsided as well.
Pei Liang stood, grabbed the coat from the sofa, slipped it on, and left the private club.
The club was located in the most expensive part of the imperial capital. The moment she stepped outside, she was greeted by the astonishingly advanced and prosperous future world.
It was a grandeur and a sense of reality that even the most dazzling special effects could never fully recreate.
Towering skyscrapers rose two or three hundred floors into the sky, their exteriors shimmering with multicolored light and strikingly modern designs. The tracks of hovering cars crisscrossed in the air, while aircraft threaded their way through the urban forest.
As soon as Pei Liang came outside, her hovering car sensed its owner and drove over automatically.
She got in, programmed a self-driving sightseeing route, and activated the vehicle’s sightseeing mode. The interior opened up to provide a completely unobstructed, 360-degree view of the scenery around her.
Aside from being unfriendly to anyone afraid of heights, it was unbelievably cool.
Pei Liang sat in the car, watching the future world with great interest.
This world was, of course, far from perfect. In some ways, it was even warped. But the brilliance of its technological achievements alone was enough to stir the heart.
Compared with the previous world, this was a realm Pei Liang had never touched before. It was like a max-level boss finally unlocking a brand-new map.
The city center looked like this, but certain areas were an entirely different story.
When Pei Liang’s sightseeing car entered one such area, the intelligent AI issued a warning:
“Entering B-1-031 slum district. Do you wish to confirm and continue?”
Pei Liang straightened slightly.
There was one matter from the original host’s memories that still lingered in her mind.
According to the common knowledge contained in those memories, the slums of this world were extremely chaotic. Robbery, murder, black-market transactions, and the flesh trade were all rampant here. Compared with the clean prosperity of the central district, this place was the dark side of the future world.
People from the slums were even forbidden from entering the central district without a visa. It was rather absurd—in a single city, people actually needed visas to travel between different areas.
Residents of the central district, however, faced no such restriction when entering the slums. But the moment they did, they were deemed to have accepted a waiver of liability. Whatever happened inside, they were responsible for themselves. As a result, ordinary residents generally avoided setting foot in such a lawless place.
Pei Liang confirmed her decision, and the hovering car crossed the boundary into the skies above B-1-031.
This place was pure cyberpunk. Even before landing, she could smell the air of chaos and hedonistic escapism.
The largest building in the district had a massive screen that played highly explicit advertisements on a loop. Only a few minutes earlier, Pei Liang had seen an advertisement for the same company’s high-end products in the central district, where the content had been much more proper and serious.
In these neon-lit, alcohol-soaked streets, the most obvious landmarks were the names of the various bars and clubs. The two best-selling products were enhanced D-ma and full-immersion game helmets.
Molecular cuisine technology had long since been perfected. Cheap nutrient powder could be transformed into any kind of food inside a multifunctional cooking machine.
One had to admit that, although the class divisions were severe and the channels for people at the bottom to climb upward had essentially been sealed off, there was still a reason the world had managed to function in this state for so long.
There was abundant food, D-ma to let people lose themselves in intoxication, and full-immersion games that offered an escape from reality.
The people at the bottom were effectively kept like livestock by the upper classes, trapped in a state of chaos that made it difficult for them to unite, fulfilling their purpose as tools to be exploited.
When Pei Liang’s car landed, it attracted the attention of everyone nearby.
There were hardly any hovering cars in the slums to begin with, let alone one like hers—a limited-edition model expensive enough to make people’s eyes pop out.
The moment Pei Liang stepped out, she clearly felt the various gazes directed at her: hatred, envy, ill intent, and more.
She paid them no attention. The instant she appeared, most of those eyes quickly turned away.
She had only just been stimulated by an Omega’s pheromones, and the pheromones lingering on her were still unusually strong.
There was no need to mention the Betas. Even the handful of Alphas instantly felt the intense pressure of rank and naturally didn’t dare provoke her lightly.
After Pei Liang got out, the hovercar automatically activated its anti-theft mode. A few people who had secretly planned to steal it while the Alpha wasn’t paying attention clicked their tongues when they saw this. It was the newest model, equipped with technology that hadn’t yet been cracked.
Looks like they wouldn’t be able to steal it.
Pei Liang had come here for no other reason than to clean up the original owner’s mess.
The original owner had been scheduled to come here tomorrow as well. She had discovered an Omega’s secret and was using it to blackmail them.
Pei Liang simply couldn’t understand it. With only a single weekend at her disposal, was that woman really planning to take down two Omegas?
However, unlike the little beauty Alisha, this Omega living in the slums seemed very likely, in Pei Liang’s eyes, to be one of the protagonists of this world.
After all, an Omega born in the slums, impersonating someone else and disguising herself as a Beta to enter the Imperial Military Academy, only to be targeted and harassed by a doomed cannon-fodder character—that was obviously the opening premise of a million-word web novel.
But since this was an ABO world, Pei Liang had already learned exactly what the setting had originally been designed to facilitate.
She suddenly asked the system, “Don’t tell me a third of the original novel in this world was just sex scenes?”
The system chuckled. “Of course not. How could a third of it be sex scenes?”
Pei Liang nodded, thinking that made sense. In these days of strict censorship, what ABO novel with a third of its content devoted to sex scenes could possibly survive?
Then the system added, “It was two-thirds.”
Pei Liang fell silent.
After a long while, she asked, “Was this world chosen by Ruo Shou?”
The system replied, “How did you know, Sis? Ruo Shou is the supervisor of the monitoring department, so his recommendations carry a certain amount of weight. The boss thought it sounded good and adopted it.”
Without waiting for Pei Liang to ask, the system immediately chattered on, explaining the whole story. “Actually, our game was recently assigned several more worlds, and quite a few of them used to belong to the adults-only game Ruo Shou supervised.”
“Those worlds haven’t had any players enter them for a long time because the game was reported and taken down. They’ve accumulated quite a lot of resources, too.”
“Supervisor Ruo Shou was very grateful for the help you gave him back then, so he thought of you when something good came along. The moment the world was unsealed, he let you in first.”
Pei Liang said, “…I’m truly grateful.”
“Hehe! He guessed you’d be polite, so he asked me to tell you that there was no need to thank him.”
Pei Liang’s face went completely expressionless. She really shouldn’t have overestimated these people.
While chatting with the system, Pei Liang arrived in front of a building that looked as if it might collapse at any moment.
The entire first floor was a repair shop. Several mechanics were either squatting or leaning against the wall, smoking and chatting.
When they saw Pei Liang, their faces grew wary.
She was a stranger, dressed smartly, and every piece of clothing she wore was a luxury item whose threads would never be seen anywhere in the slums.
One of them, a blue-haired, pierced Alpha with an attractive face and a well-built body, walked over.
With a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips, he narrowed his eyes and asked Pei Liang, “What business does someone from the central district have here?”
“I’m looking for Chu Xingyu,” Pei Liang replied.
The blue-haired young man looked confused at first. Then his expression changed. “Chu Xingyu?”
“That’s right. Him.”
“Oh?” The young man’s voice took on a significant edge. A surge of murderous intent flickered in his eyes, though he quickly concealed it.
He even put on a friendly smile. “A classmate from the military academy? Come in and have a seat.”
Then he instructed someone nearby, “Go call Xingyu down.”
Pei Liang followed him into the repair shop. It was crammed with messy tools and spare parts, with a freshly assembled motorcycle displayed in the middle.
Its shape somewhat resembled the motorcycle Catwoman rode in Batman, though its exterior was far more flamboyant. It was currently half-started, a ring of blue light glowing around the edges of its tires and giving it an intensely futuristic appearance.
Pei Liang wasn’t an outsider when it came to things like this. After all, she had single-handedly launched two industrial revolutions, so in theory, she could be considered half an expert. Even though there was a technological gap between eras, future technology was ultimately based on modern technology. Besides, the physics prodigy from the apocalypse instance had once shown her plenty of blueprints for designs that had been impossible to develop in that era and would require more time.
Therefore, Pei Liang could tell at a glance that this motorcycle had some real substance to it.
She ran her hand over its body and smiled at the blue-haired young man. “Not bad. You’ve got some skill.”
The blue-haired young man didn’t look pleased. Instead, he clenched his fists, as though his beloved possession had been insulted and he had no choice but to endure it.
Pei Liang found it even more interesting.
As he poured her a glass of water, he asked, “Xingyu never mentioned having a school friend coming to see him. You suddenly came here from the central district—does anyone know?”
“No,” Pei Liang replied. “I have something to give him. I happened to be nearby, so I stopped in.”
The blue-haired young man smiled. “I see.”
As they spoke, a young man with an East Asian appearance came downstairs. Pei Liang looked over and found that his gaze was far from friendly.
His disgust and wariness were completely undisguised. The moment he saw Pei Liang, he said directly, “Come with me.”
Pei Liang smiled at the blue-haired young man, set down her glass, and followed him upstairs. She didn’t see the murderous intent that appeared on the blue-haired young man’s face when he turned away.
But not seeing it didn’t mean she couldn’t sense it.
After climbing two flights of narrow, dimly lit stairs and passing through a corridor, Pei Liang followed the young man, Chu Xingyu, into a room.
There was no point expecting decent living conditions in the slums. The room was cramped and damp, and the air was saturated with the smell of mildew.
Yet Chu Xingyu’s room had been kept as clean and orderly as possible. His Imperial Military Academy uniform had been neatly ironed and hung on the wall, while all the awards he had received at the academy were arranged on the desk.
It was clear that he was an outstanding student at the academy.
Chu Xingyu turned around and looked at Pei Liang expressionlessly. Then he gestured toward the bed. “Don’t touch the walls, desk, or chairs. I don’t want any extra cleaning to do after you leave apart from washing the sheets.”
Pei Liang was stunned. Somehow, she obediently sat down on the bed.
Only then did she have time to look him over properly. The world no longer had distinct nationalities, and most people had mixed, Western-leaning features. People with purely East Asian appearances, like Pei Liang and Chu Xingyu, were relatively rare.
Judging from the blue-haired young man’s reaction just now, the name Chu Xingyu clearly didn’t belong to him, which made Pei Liang curious.
“The Imperial Military Academy is pretty strict about identity checks. How exactly did you manage to get in?”
But Chu Xingyu clearly had no intention of discussing that with her.
He said, “The condition you proposed before was that you wouldn’t expose my true gender as long as I slept with you.”
“Go ahead.”
He took off his jacket, followed by his black shirt, revealing a body with well-defined muscles and exquisitely sculpted contours.
The shameless horndog in Pei Liang’s heart let out an appreciative whistle. She had to admit, if the original owner hadn’t possessed concrete evidence, it really would have been impossible to tell from his appearance alone that he was an Omega.
Chu Xingyu had none of the fragility, sensitivity, shyness, or reserve typical of an Omega. The overall impression he gave was cold and unapproachable, and in every respect, his traits were barely distinguishable from those of a Beta.
If he hadn’t been unlucky enough to have his gender discovered by the original owner, his grades would have given him a bright future. After graduation, leaving the slums would have been easy.
But Pei Liang had more or less guessed what would happen next. No wonder this world hadn’t provided her with a plot script.
In the original storyline, she was probably supposed to die within the next two days. Most likely, the entire story was meant to begin with her death.
Still, Pei Liang wasn’t worried. After admiring the handsome man’s physique for a while, she finally spoke.
“I came early today because I wanted to tell you something.”
“The deal we discussed before is off—”
Before she could finish, Chu Xingyu’s expression changed. Suppressing his anger, he said in a low voice, “Don’t push your luck.”
“Other than my body, I have nothing to give you. My military academy record is very important to me. I’ll get it even if I have to die.”
“If you’re trying to force me into giving in further, you can just say so.”
As he spoke, he walked up to Pei Liang, spread her legs, and was just about to use his teeth to bite down on her zipper.
Pei Liang felt that although she had lived for several centuries, she had still seen too few situations like this. Who would have thought there was actually someone who could carry out such an act with the utterly expressionless look of a person conducting an experiment?
For a moment, she began to question her own judgment. Chu Xingyu’s setup clearly followed the route of the protagonist Omega.
But how had someone like him managed to complete that explosive “two-thirds-of-a-car” scene in the original story? Could it be that this Omega had two completely different personalities when he went into heat?
Although Pei Liang did enjoy making tough, resolute men cry, she couldn’t bring herself to force someone in a vulnerable position.
She hurriedly caught him by the chin, stopping him from going any further, and declared with absolute seriousness, “What I mean is that I suddenly realized I don’t like Omegas anymore. Sorry, but compared to an Omega, an Alpha’s body is much more appealing to me.”
“Since I don’t want to sleep with you anymore, your secret is meaningless to me. I’ll delete the video of you injecting yourself with the inhibitor later. That’s the only reason I came here today.”
Chu Xingyu clearly didn’t believe her. But, just like the Teresa siblings, he was visibly shaken by Pei Liang’s outrageous declaration of her preference for men.
And it wasn’t just him. Two sharp gasps came from the cabinet and from beneath the bed.
Pei Liang: “…”
She had known there were other people in the room, but if they were going to gang up on her and kill her, couldn’t they at least be more professional?
Wasn’t this just like an old man telling his wife a joke, neither of them laughing, while the person hiding in the cabinet burst out laughing instead?
Out of courtesy, Pei Liang really wanted to pretend she hadn’t noticed.
After all, if it had been her friend who was being blackmailed into selling his body, she would have wanted to kill the blackmailer too.
Unfortunately, the wardrobe was old and rickety. Perhaps the person inside had instinctively covered his mouth after making a noise, causing the door to slowly swing open.
The blue-haired young man who had still been standing in the same place when Pei Liang left the shop was now standing inside the wardrobe with a gun in his hand.
Their eyes met.
The silence was suffocatingly awkward.
Especially after recalling what Pei Liang had just said about being interested in Alpha bodies, the blue-haired hunk stiffened from head to toe.
Pei Liang was also incapable of keeping her mouth shut. Seeing the disbelief on Chu Xingyu’s face, she added, “If you’re really worried that I won’t let go until I’ve taken advantage of you…”
“Your friend can take your place.”
“Shut up!” The blue-haired young man immediately aimed his gun at Pei Liang.
Pei Liang teased him, “It’s not as if I’m offering you nothing. How about I give you the car outside?”
Chu Xingyu’s face turned livid, as though he had been humiliated. “People like you—people from your background—are all the same—”
But halfway through his sentence, he suddenly noticed that his friend’s face held a trace of hesitation and longing.
“Hill, you—”
Hill hurriedly schooled his expression, ashamed of the momentary temptation he had felt. He assured Chu Xingyu, “Don’t worry. I won’t let her tempt me.”
Then he turned coldly to Pei Liang. “Delete his video.”
“Fine.”
Pei Liang tapped the terminal embedded in her skin without hesitation, and a screen was projected before her eyes.
Following her memory, she located the video and selected the option to erase it permanently. Her decisiveness left them no time to react.
Then Pei Liang stood up. “There. The only reason I came today was to do that.”
“Classmate Chu Xingyu, your talent is beyond question. Given enough time, you’ll certainly become one of the indispensable talents of the Empire.”
“Let’s pretend we never met. Focus on your studies from now on.”
Without wasting any more time, she turned and prepared to leave the room.
Chu Xingyu watched her back. It was hard to believe that this was the same person who had threatened him with such viciousness earlier.
She wasn’t a good person. Chu Xingyu still hadn’t lowered his guard, even now.
But aside from his body, he truly had nothing she could want. Although deleting the video wasn’t enough to completely conceal his secret, her actions had nonetheless been convincing enough.
Chu Xingyu’s expression grew complicated, but at the same time, he felt relieved.
However, just as Pei Liang was about to step through the door, a bullet struck the spot where she had been standing.
Chu Xingyu seemed to see blood spraying from her wound as she was shot and fell to the ground. In that instant, he instinctively assumed Hill had fired.
But Hill’s expression was equally shocked. He immediately reacted and aimed his gun toward the window.
“Get down!” Hill shouted.
Sure enough, several more bursts of gunfire tore into the room. Yet Pei Liang’s figure had vanished from where she had been standing.
Hill was calculating the shooter’s position based on the trajectory of the bullets, preparing to return fire.
Then he suddenly sensed another presence beside him, along with a powerful wave of Alpha pheromones that made his legs go weak.
It was the suppression produced by the superior genes carefully selected among the nobility.
The heat of her breath brushed against his ear as she said, “Ten o’clock direction, one hundred and fifteen degrees. Fire.”
Hill instinctively aimed in that direction, adjusted his arm to the angle she gave him, and pulled the trigger. He could clearly feel that the shot had hit its mark.
The intensity of the incoming fire immediately dropped by half.
Pei Liang continued, “Eleven o’clock direction, one hundred and thirty degrees.”
Hill swiftly adjusted his aim and fired again. Sure enough, the other side fell silent.
But no one knew whether there were only two assassins. All three of them—including the person hiding beneath the bed—quickly left the room.
Chu Xingyu looked at Pei Liang. “This has nothing to do with us.”
Pei Liang smiled. “They’re obviously here for me.”
She was self-aware enough to know that since the assassins had come for her, she shouldn’t remain there and drag them into the trouble.
“Let’s go. Be careful.”
She had barely taken two steps after turning around when Hill called out to her.
“You’re unfamiliar with the area. It’ll be easy for you to get cornered. I can take you out of here. You pay me. How does that sound?”
Pei Liang liked young people with principles who were easy to buy off. She smiled.
“We’ll see how good your service is.”
