“Your term of service is complete. Thank you for your years of dedication.”
The mechanical doll, less than a meter tall, stood opposite Su Cha. Its eyes were large, and its titanium alloy legs gleamed with a cold, eerie light.
Was it really over?
For a moment, Su Cha felt dazed.
“For your years of hard work, you will be granted the highest quality of treatment.”
It was so polite and proper, but as its longtime partner, no one understood this thing’s behavior better than Su Cha. The mechanical doll had many nicknames. It called itself “System,” but because of how stingy it was, Su Cha privately referred to it as “Vampire.” Yet at this moment, this cold-blooded work machine was acting completely out of character—educating him on how to enjoy life.
“What is your ideal living environment?”
“No more eating in the wind or sleeping rough. I want to sleep soundly.”
“No vision,” the mechanical doll criticized. “In the future, you will wake up on a bed several hundred square meters large, with a personal butler attending to your daily needs.”
“But I have hands and feet…”
“The house has too many wardrobes. Just browsing them all would take a full day.”
Su Cha reluctantly accepted that reasoning, then added, “When I eat, I don’t want anyone poisoning me. And I don’t want to farm my own food eYise.”
“No ambition,” the mechanical doll shook its head. “Your family is so wealthy, poisoning is out of the question.”
“Treachery within one’s own walls is a human norm, why would—”
“Because your new identity is that of a cub. In an empire where the birthrate is extremely low, you are an unmatched treasure, everyone will protect.”
“Then right now I am…”
“Please, feel free to imagine. Compared to the life that awaits you, anything you can envision now is pitifully barren.”
“Once again, thank you for your years of service. Now, goodbye.”
Water.
Water surrounded him.
It felt like he was being immersed in some kind of fluid tank. The intense dizziness disoriented all his senses, yet the system’s final words still echoed clearly—
“I’ve carefully chosen a place for you. The species there are known for their brutality, but the birthrate for cubs is extremely low. Every single cub is a treasure they would risk their lives to protect.”
“Your new identity is a rare cub.”
“You possess legendary aptitude.”
“Enjoy life to the fullest, little brat.”
…Was that last line an insult?
Su Cha suddenly remembered that a long time ago, he had told the system he really wanted to see what it looked like when this most etiquette-obsessed vampire finally swore.
The system had granted his wish—just that the person it cursed was Su Cha himself.
The teleportation process seemed to stretch on endlessly. At one point, he vaguely heard a violent crashing sound, as if the entire world were spinning upside down. He had no idea how much time passed. Su Cha’s eyelids twitched slightly—consciousness was finally returning.
His body ached from the hard surface. He frowned a little—this massive, multi-hundred-square-meter bed wasn’t all that comfortable to lie on.
The world came back into focus. The sickening dizziness gradually faded. Su Cha opened his eyes. The sky was a piercing, clear blue—cold and crystalline. In the distance were wild grasses and a forest.
“A natural eco-park-themed house setup?”
One second. Two seconds… As he muttered to himself, his awareness fully returned.
There was no eco-park. He was lying in the middle of a ruin.
Where was the bed? The butler? The countless wardrobes?!
“That d*mned vampire…” Judging by the look of things, the notoriously stingy system had probably skimped on energy during teleportation and failed to send him to the right place.
Su Cha stood and dusted himself off, falling into thought. Had the teleportation really failed?
Even up until the end, the system hadn’t mentioned what role he was assigned. Could it be some kind of lost-cub roleplay? A rare cub falling from the sky, shaking the entire empire to its core—countless imperial citizens heartbroken over how much suffering he must have endured, vowing to shower him with double the love to make up for it.
That kind of over-the-top scenario really seemed like the system’s style.
Taking a deep breath, Su Cha began surveying the surroundings.
On one nearby stone slab, faded bloodstains could be seen. The slab itself was largely intact, but massive sections of it had fractured. The original material must have been incredibly durable—whatever weapon had shattered it must have had terrifying destructive power.
A little further ahead, there was a lake.
There was a thick growth of weeds by the lakeside. Su Cha walked over and parted the waist-high grass with some effort.
Feeling a faint trace of demonic energy still within him, he let out a breath of relief.
The system had promised to preserve his powers. Unfortunately, though he was a flower demon, he’d been severely wounded and on the brink of death before the system recruited him for missions. Less than a tenth of his strength remained, and recovery would likely take a long time.
The lake was dead, giving off a strange odor. Through the murky water, Su Cha could barely make out his current appearance.
A strange flower-shaped mark appeared briefly on his forehead before disappearing again. His amber eyes gave him an unreal look, and the dark green robes were tailored just right—wide sleeves hanging loosely, exuding a lazy elegance.
As with every mission before, it was still his own face. The only difference this time was that he had returned to his juvenile form, and his hair, once a light tea color, had turned silver-white.
“As long as I run into a living person, the rest isn’t my problem.”
The system had mentioned that on Fog Star, child trafficking or other such heinous crimes didn’t exist.
Suddenly, the world brightened.
The clouds in the sky seemed to be struck apart by something, mist scattering and unable to recondense.
Su Cha instinctively took a step back. Using his flower demon senses, his pupils locked onto a certain direction. As something descended through the air, its form finally came into view. The strong gusts kicked up dirt and stones, forcing Su Cha to lift a sleeve to shield half his face as he squinted to look.
It was a new type of battleship used exclusively by the military on Galan Star—fierce in its bombardment, adaptable across terrains, and even capable of transforming into a small warship once submerged.
There were about ten such ships. Several fist-sized blue exhaust ports at the rear were especially eye-catching—they were weapon launchers. Fog Star’s monarch maintained absolute control over the planet, and with no internal opposition, such a formidable armed force flying in a tight formation was almost certainly the military.
Military patrol.
This was his chance!
The wild weeds growing around masked his weak body well, and with his dark green outfit, he blended into the surroundings. Seeing the ships about to land, afraid of being overlooked, Su Cha began walking out.
His worry was unnecessary.
The ships had already locked onto his presence from ten thousand meters up.
This area was unique. A large-scale battle had once taken place here, disrupting the energy field. Civilians usually avoided the place. Detecting a lifeform here had prompted the descent.
While Su Cha was still thinking of how to draw attention, one ship had already landed on a relatively open patch. As the hatch opened and the ramp extended, the first thing to appear was a pair of combat boots. The man who descended was tall and lean. The moment he raised his head, his gaze was cold and sharp.
His arms hung naturally at his sides, followed by two others behind him. With just a clench of his fist, Su Cha could have been executed on the spot.
Su Cha didn’t pay much attention to their looks—his eyes were fixed on the man’s outfit.
The combat boots had thick lining, possibly to hide blades. A gun rested at his waist, and there was what looked like a hidden button on his belt clasp. That was just a rough glance—who knew how many more weapons were concealed on him?
At that moment, a mechanical butterfly flew out from the man’s glove, hovered midair, and aimed its antennae at Su Cha.
The butterfly’s eyes did not turn red, and no sharp alarms rang out. That meant Su Cha wasn’t carrying any powerful weapons.
The man’s face betrayed no emotion, but the two people behind him were clearly on high alert. Even some aristocrats couldn’t meet this general’s eyes without instinctively looking away. Yet this child showed no fear—instead, there was a faint trace of expectation in his gaze.
Something wasn’t right.
A wild wind swept across the wasteland, bringing with it the bloody scent of past interstellar battles. As the distance closed between them, the iron tang in the air grew stronger.
Yet very soon, the sharp scent of blood was overpowered.
The man suddenly paused mid-step, his narrow eyes narrowing, and the two behind him froze as well.
A delicate fragrance wafted through the air—light and refreshing, like a breath of cool air in the scorching summer.
Mistaking their dazed expressions for joy, Su Cha even gave a few strategic shivers in the breeze, playing the part.
It’s cold. Hurry up and take me home.
As a flower demon, no one knew how to shiver pitifully better than him. Su Cha’s performance was the very definition of frail charm, the kind that screamed: What a lonely little white blossom!
The wind blew fiercely. Reflected in the man’s icy pupils was a small, fragile figure, and what he smelled was an unfamiliar floral scent.
He quickly pressed the scanner on his suit.
[Scanning—
Result: Floral fragrance, suspected to be lotus magnolia.
Radiation level: 0
Non-toxic.]
“Floral scent…”
Galan Star people were born without a sense of smell—cold-blooded and warlike, they despised weakness. Their sense of taste faded quickly and nearly disappeared after reaching adulthood.
But on this day, they experienced the scent of flowers for the first time in ages.
