Then he said to Levy, "Let's talk about serious matters."
“Alright.” Levy nodded. “Is it time to extract value from me?”
"Don't interrupt." Qin Chu glanced at him, then asked, "What's your relationship with the mainframe?"
Levi laughed: "It's kind of you to hold this question in for so long. I thought you were going to bring it up from the start."
He gave Qin Chu a pitiful look: "What could I possibly have to do with that thing? I'm definitely a victim of kidnapping!"
"Which victim has that much authority over you?" Qin Chu didn't believe it at all. He continued, "Are you cooperating with it?"
Levi winked at Qin Chu: "Want to know? Well..."
Before he could finish speaking, Qin Chu interrupted him: "No kissing. If you don't want to say it, then get lost."
Levy chuckled twice, his head bowed. "Alright, I'm scared. It's not exactly cooperation, but you're right, if I don't agree, they can't force me into it."
"So?" Qin Chu asked.
He felt a little strange.
The atmosphere in the car was relaxed, and their conversation wasn't particularly serious.
But this is a serious issue concerning their respective positions.
Even though this person had opposed him in so many worlds, Qin Chu strangely didn't want to hear Levy admit that he was in cahoots with the mastermind.
If he helped the mastermind imprison so many people...
Levi stared at Qin Chu with his blue eyes: "What would you do if I cooperated with it?"
"I'll put you in jail." Qin Chu's answer was without the slightest hesitation.
"How cruel," Levy sighed.
Qin Chu tilted his head slightly and looked out the window.
“I did work with it,” Levy suddenly said.
Qin Chu's fingers tightened suddenly, and he turned to stare at Levi.
Levy, looking very distressed, propped his head up with his hands: "Sigh, everyone makes mistakes sometimes. I just had a moment of dizziness... and didn't refuse it pulling me in."
Qin Chu: "..."
"Hey, stop kicking me! We're talking business!" Levi laughed as he stopped the kicking leg. "I'm not kidding you. The reason I say 'cooperation' is because I negotiated with them before I was brought in."
"The timing should be when the first batch of consciousnesses had already been imprisoned, the management discovered the clues, and they were hesitating about whether to shut down the StarNet. The mainframe approached me and wanted to negotiate terms with me."
“I also ran into some trouble at the time, and the cabinet came to me. I wasn’t interested in what the AI was saying, but I was very interested in the fact that it could cause trouble for the cabinet, so I came in and treated it as a trip.”
"That simple?" Qin Chu frowned. "After the mainframe pulled you in, it will probably try to restrict you."
“That’s right.” Levy nodded. “But I recorded the coordinates of several imprisoned human consciousnesses and transmitted the information.”
"Spread it out?" Qin Chu found it somewhat unbelievable.
Levi pointed to his head: "The structure is different from yours. When I'm asleep, part of my brain is active. It can only maintain basic life activities, but it can still exchange information."
Qin Chu understood; this was a basic maneuver employed by star beasts. These creatures typically used this method to maintain constant vigilance.
“So he can’t imprison me either; I can wake up in reality anytime I want,” Levy said.
Qin Chu stared at him without saying a word.
"Don't look at me like that... If I woke up on my own, why would I be waiting for you?" Levi smiled at him.
Qin Chu was quite moved, so what kind of mission did he actually take on? This guy didn't need to be saved at all.
"But staying in the virtual world for too long will always have some effects. To avoid this effect, my main consciousness is dormant and disguised in a data body. This way, I can avoid the main brain's scan and reduce energy consumption."
At this point, Levy sighed deeply: "Who knew someone would wake me up?"
"...You still have the nerve to talk back?" Qin Chu said.
Levy stopped laughing and asked Qin Chu, "Do you believe what I'm saying?"
Qin Chu remained silent for two seconds.
Levy thought he would coldly say "I don't believe it" or "I'll decide for myself whether I believe it or not."
Qin Chu nodded in response: "I believe you."
Levy's eyebrows twitched slightly, somewhat surprised.
Qin Chu added, "Don't overthink it. It's not because I believe in your character."
“…If it weren’t for the fact that I like you, I would have been angry already,” Levi said.
Qin Chu ignored his confession: "I believe you because I know you have no interest in the rest of the Empire; they don't even exist in your world. You're very arrogant; if you wanted to deal with the Cabinet, you wouldn't stoop to such methods."
Levi stared intently at Qin Chu, his blue eyes suddenly turning lighter.
Being stared at by eyes with irises that are almost the same color as the whites is rather eerie.
Qin Chu raised an eyebrow, about to say something, when he saw Levi leaning closer to him.
"...What are you doing?" Qin Chu reached out and grabbed his hair.
“I’ll kiss you,” Levy said.
He was very close to Qin Chu's cheek, his lips almost touching hers.
"...Are you sick?! We're talking about serious matters." Qin Chu squinted.
Levi blinked his beautiful yet eerie eyes twice more: "Do you think I could stand it after you said those things to me?"
"Do you need me to help you calm down?" Qin Chu raised an eyebrow.
"Um?"
Levi had barely uttered a syllable when Qin Chu slapped him on the head with a loud "smack."
The world is quiet.
As they got off the bus, Qin Chu walked ahead, expressionlessly flexing his wrists.
Levi was behind him, rubbing his head and combing his hair with his hands.
"You've given me a concussion."
Qin Chu ignored him and looked at the military academy gate in front of him.
The military academy's style is clearly modeled after the real-world Imperial First Military Academy, and it is very minimalist, with buildings in a black and gray color scheme.
The main road of the school was bustling with activity, with military academy students from different majors setting up various stalls on both sides, trying to attract visitors in the most impressive and eye-catching way.
Qin Chu, the nominal dean, had been away from the military academy for a long time, but he was still extremely familiar with this scene.
In recent years, the military has been facing increasing difficulties, even in recruiting students. Therefore, every time the school celebrates its anniversary, the academy issues a task to ensure that the school's unique features are showcased and to attract students of the appropriate age.
Furthermore, each major has been given a quota, and those majors that fail to meet the quota for the following year's freshman enrollment will be punished by having to run laps with weights on the playground.
As a result, during each school anniversary celebration, some booths fail to impress visitors and resort to physical fights in an attempt to attract more visitors.
Qin Chu was also forced to work at a stall when he was in school.
However, he didn't need to do anything; the only senior student in his major specifically asked him to act as a human-shaped standee in front of the booth.
The number of applicants for their major skyrocketed the following year. Due to the large number of applicants, the transfer program also helped other less popular majors.
In the following years, Qin Chu stopped setting up a stall, but every year during the school's anniversary celebration, his department would print out a life-size poster of him and place it in front of the stall.
The photo was reportedly printed on flyers.
His posters didn't disappear from the school's anniversary celebrations until Qin Chu graduated, making a significant contribution to military academy recruitment.
The Omegas who got off the bus around them were very excited, chattering and pulling people towards the military academy gate.
Just before entering the main gate, one had to go through a security checkpoint, which calmed the excited crowd down a bit.
Levi and Qin Chu fell behind the crowd.
Despite being slapped mercilessly, Levy was clearly quite pleased.
After the two entered the military academy, he suddenly grabbed Qin Chu and asked, "You asked me so many questions, shouldn't I ask some back?"
Qin Chu subconsciously turned his head to look around.
“Don’t be nervous. The more human consciousness there is in a world, the harder it is for the main brain to monitor through the eyes of the data entities,” Levy said.
"What do you want to ask?" Qin Chu asked.
“It’s simple, who are you, and what’s your name?” Levy said.
Unexpectedly, after he asked the question, Qin Chu's eyebrows twitched slightly: "You asked me what my name is?"
He sent his real name directly last time, but this guy didn't take it seriously at all.
Is Qin Chu such a common name that it was simply ignored?
"...Can't I ask?" Levy felt like he had asked a potentially fatal question.
"Sure," Qin Chu said coolly, looking at him. "You guess first."
Author's Note:
Levy: SOS
The reason why Levy didn't take it seriously will be explained in the next chapter.
Chapter 101, Fifth Story (20)
Visitors frequently walked by.
Qin Chu and Le Wei stood there staring at each other.
Levi used the phrase "guess what" to tease Qin Chu all day long, never expecting that one day he would also fall into this guessing game himself.
And clearly, his situation is much worse.
When he asked Qin Chu to guess, Qin Chu probably thought he'd beat him up if he guessed wrong. Now that Qin Chu is asking him to guess, and he can't guess right, Qin Chu might beat him up again.
"Do you really want to guess?" Levy asked in a low voice.