He had no parents, his adoptive father hadn't taught him how to have a partner, and the military academy offered no such courses. As a result, Qin Chu was completely at a loss as to how to handle his relationship with Levi.
He felt an urgent need to prevent Levy from doing this.
“Levy,” Qin Chu said.
Separated by a wall, Levi, who was pressing his forehead with his head down, suddenly looked up.
Then he heard Qin Chu say, "You can leave now."
Levy paused, not expecting to hear such a sentence.
He found it somewhat amusing; he hadn't expected that after struggling for so long, he would ultimately end up with this result.
A slight smile crept across his lips, and he sighed, "Maybe not."
Qin Chu jumped to his feet, took two steps forward, and leaned against the door, looking at him with a very grim expression: "Your connection with the outside world has been cut off?"
Levy nodded.
He saw Qin Chu frozen in the doorway.
After a while, Qin Chu started to move. He didn't ask him about the specific situation or even speak to him. As if he was deliberately trying to find something to distract himself, he began to look at his surroundings.
He walked to his desk, looked at the timer and documents on it, and said in a calm and rigid tone, "This scene took place thirty years ago, the year my parents passed away."
He then tapped on the screen on the control panel to check the personnel distribution across the entire starship: "Right now, there is no one on the warship except for us."
Then he opened the drawer, took out the roster of officers and soldiers on the starship at that point in time, and stood by the table, flipping through it page by page.
Levi watched as Qin Chu seemingly reviewed the various matters in an organized manner, yet he couldn't even open the paper roster in his hand.
After twisting the list several times, Qin Chu, as if venting his anger, slammed the list in his hand heavily onto the ground.
Qin Chu's emotions were always cold and restrained, and this was the first time Levi had seen Qin Chu so helpless and childlike in his temper.
The moment he saw this scene, Levi felt as if he had been punched in the heart from afar, and the pain was excruciating.
He cursed himself and walked towards Qin Chu.
He reached out to touch Qin Chu, but then hesitated and put his hand down.
Qin Chu covered his forehead and eyes with one hand, noticing Levi's approach, and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't pay attention to me, don't... look at me."
Levi's Adam's apple bobbed painfully. He looked up at the ceiling, exhaled softly, and then said in a low voice, "The injuries from the last scene will carry over. You've been in the virtual world for too long and you're already very tired. Go and get some sleep first."
Qin Chu nodded twice without saying a word.
Levy glanced at him, walked out of the office, and quietly closed the partition door leading to the cockpit.
Qin Chu breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in the chair beside him.
He knew Levy was telling the truth; he needed rest.
In the virtual world, every injury he suffers is reflected back to his consciousness. In the previous world, his consciousness had already been impacted by the collapse of the world.
There are almost no opportunities to rest in this world, and he suffered such serious injuries in the laboratory.
Now that he has learned that Levi's consciousness has not only malfunctioned, but he is also believed to have severed his connection with the outside world and is unable to leave the virtual world on his own, he is under even more mental pressure.
He needs rest to maintain his rationality and composure.
Qin Chu understood all of this, but this was the first time he had encountered a situation where his mind was in turmoil and he couldn't fall asleep.
Unable to force himself to sleep with his eyes closed, Qin Chu gritted his teeth and reached out to knock himself unconscious.
After his breathing had completely calmed down, the door between the cockpit and the office was gently opened.
Levy pushed open the door and walked in.
He moved very carefully, making sure Qin Chu was sound asleep and wouldn't be woken up, before quietly walking in.
Qin Chu didn't go to the break room next door. Instead, he lay back in his office chair. Although his eyes were closed, he was sleeping restlessly with his brows furrowed. He was clearly troubled even in his sleep.
Levi gently crouched down, looking at Qin Chu's sleeping face.
He looked at her for a while, then reached out and touched Qin Chu's cheek, sighing softly, "What exactly do you think I did wrong?"
The person in the chair was asleep and, of course, did not answer.
Levi reached out and touched Qin Chu's furrowed brows again. His gaze was somewhat blank: "Whether we break up or not, it's fine as long as you make me feel bad, but why... do you have to make this face?"
"Yes or no……"
Levi didn't say what he was going to say, but a faint glimmer of hope appeared in his tired and frustrated blue eyes.
After waking up from a nap, Qin Chu finally regained some composure.
He remained lying in the chair without moving. After letting out a soft sigh, he stood up, pushed open the door, and went out.
He needs to contact Noah and find a way to get Levy out.
Furthermore, resolving the tasks in this world and returning to a safe state is the most urgent task.
That's what I was thinking, but when I opened the door and saw Levi carefully examining the mission roster he had thrown on the floor, a wave of nausea washed over me.
It wasn't that he disliked Levy interfering in his mission, but rather that he disliked Levy caring too much about his mission, to the point of making sacrifices for it.
Qin Chu knew this was a psychological reaction to the injury to Levi's consciousness. He took a deep breath, suppressed his emotions with reason, and approached Levi to ask, "Is there a problem with the roster?"
Levi looked up at him and smiled. "I really couldn't tell. I've forgotten everything I learned before. But I did find a mission record that matches the time you mentioned. The reason there's no one on this warship right now is because everyone's gone on a mission. This mission is to deal with the leak of experimental materials from the planetary laboratory."
As he spoke, Levy switched the control panel to real-view mode, zoomed in on a planet in the image, and pointed to it, saying, "This is the place where I was born."
"Okay." Qin Chu nodded, trying not to look Levi in the eye, and reached out to take the roster.
Levy, however, was secretly observing him.
When Qin Chu took the roster, he flipped through the last page. Levi glanced at it and said, "Hey, I actually found something. Aren't the number of people on missions usually even?"
"Yes, what's wrong?" Qin Chu asked.
Levy pointed to the end of the roster: "The numbers here are even, but the names are arranged incorrectly."
Qin Chu turned to the last page of the roster. As the captain of the first warship who frequently reviewed the roster, Qin Chu immediately noticed something was wrong.
The names of soldiers from each squad are listed together on the roster. The roster looks fine at first glance, but on the last page, one line is shorter than the last.
Qin Chu scanned the names one by one, and sure enough, one name was missing from this team.
This person's name is quite unusual.
But this must be a roster from thirty years ago, and Qin Chu wasn't sure if it was a mistake by the staff at the time.
Qin Chu frowned as he examined the rest of the roster.
Levi remained silent, his blue eyes quietly observing Qin Chu.
The hope that had arisen when Qin Chu was asleep resurfaced, but Levy was afraid that he was overthinking it.
Just as he was about to look away, Qin Chu happened to raise his eyes, and the two unexpectedly met eyes again.
There was no emotion in Qin Chu's eyes.
He didn't even look away quickly, but simply lowered his eyes calmly.
After taking a nap, Qin Chu seemed to have returned to his previous robot-like state, which made Levi's heart sink again.
After putting down the roster, Qin Chu turned to the control panel to check other things.
Levi sat to the side watching him, wanting to help, but found that Qin Chu had done everything, seemingly not wanting him to get involved.
Levy was left at a loss for a moment by being excluded from the mission, and that heavy sense of suffocation returned, accompanied by a chilling feeling.
Qin Chu... didn't want him to interfere with his mission.
Levy leaned back in his chair, idly pondering his relationship with Qin Chu.
Is this their worst situation yet?
More or less.
No, there's an even more terrifying possibility: becoming complete strangers.
Just thinking about this state made Levi's fingers tighten involuntarily.
He turned to look at Qin Chu and said, "The mainframe... should be quite happy to see us like this, right?"
He then added in a low voice, "Maybe that's its purpose."
Qin Chu paused, but without turning around, he said coldly, "It would be very happy to see your consciousness in this damaged state."
“I’ve stopped,” Levy said, “although the side effects will last for a while longer.”
Qin Chu didn't speak, and continued to adjust the commands on the control panel.
He quickly saw a backup message in the warship's system, and his brows furrowed instantly.
"What's wrong?" Levi instinctively wanted to go over, but then stopped himself when he remembered Qin Chu's rejection of him.
Qin Chu stared at the message on the screen without saying a word, his expression not very pleasant.
Levy hesitated for two seconds, but still walked over.
The screen displays a backup message for a military order, sent from the Joint Military-Cabinet Conference Center.
Levi remembered very clearly the task concerning Qin Chu's parents.
In the present world, the files Qin Chu consulted recorded that the cause of his parents' death was actually a violation of military orders. However, in the relevant files Qin Chu found in the previous world, it was said that a superior officer had issued an incorrect military order.
Now, Levy felt as if he had seen this erroneous military order.
Because this military order was extremely serious, it stated that all soldiers and related personnel of the First Army Corps involved in the mission should self-destruct according to procedure.
Self-destruction—this military order was something Levy had encountered in military school; to put it bluntly, it required everyone to commit suicide and die in the line of duty.
Such military orders are too extreme and are generally not issued more than once every few decades.
Each time such a document is issued, the purpose is often to block information.
Unexpectedly, the deaths of Qin Chu's parents were not due to dereliction of duty, but rather stemmed from a military order.
Qin Chu's adoptive father had clearly not told him about this military order.
Qin Chu's emotions did not fluctuate much.
It seemed that the previous argument had exhausted all his emotions. After seeing the military order, he only frowned and then continued to look at other things.
After confirming that there would be no results, he stepped back from the control panel, sat down to the side, and sorted out the information.