The hospital had practically become Su Cha’s respawn point.
Almost every week, he came for one reason or another—and always carried in on a stretcher.
This time was no exception. In fact, the attending doctor had even looked at the calendar before leaving home that morning, struck by an odd feeling: “Su Cha hasn’t been here in a while… Something’s off.”
“Please make way.”
Su Cha was placed on a stretcher, and the nurse was responsible for clearing out the people who had followed.
Whether it was the emperor or the Marshal of Fog Star, both knew when to draw the line and didn’t insist on barging in and causing trouble. Su Cha’s eyes cracked open just a sliver, and by chance locked with the attending doctor’s. Both were momentarily stunned.
“You’re here,” the doctor blurted out.
Su Cha’s chin moved slightly as he responded, “I’m here.”
Silence immediately followed.
The examination room door closed, but the machines didn’t start right away.
After his shallow awakening, Su Cha’s premature heartbeat symptoms had improved significantly, though he still occasionally ran a low fever. He sat up on his own from the stretcher and met the doctor’s gaze.
Eventually, Su Cha broke the silence: “Long time no see.”
Earlier, with just a glance, the doctor had seen the emperor and Fog Star personnel—definitely not a typical diplomatic scene. He guessed it had something to do with Su Cha. After all, every time Su Cha ended up in the hospital, it stirred up a storm.
The doctor asked with a touch of irony, “Do you need to fake amnesia?”
Su Cha nearly laughed. “Even pretending to have amnesia needs a reason.”
“Like a concussion from emotional trauma?”
“…”
This time both of them laughed. Su Cha played along, “My collapse pose was perfect.”
Someone had apparently stretched out an arm just in time to block his fall—he almost ended up with a crick in his neck.
Su Cha got off the examination table to get some air by the window. The moment he stood still, his expression changed abruptly. Outside was packed with reporters—from the outpatient clinic to the hospital entrance, there wasn’t even room to squeeze through.
Cameras were already focused, and a reporter held a mic as he narrated: “Just moments ago, His Majesty and the Fog Star delegation escorted Su Cha into the hospital. Prior to that, they had been dining together at a downtown restaurant.”
He spoke rapidly, and a rival station wasn’t to be outdone: “Forty minutes ago, the Fog Star delegation made a sudden request to visit the military academy. According to sources, Su Cha might be from Fog Star. Could the live experiments be operating on more than one planet? We at Yezitai will continue to report.”
“Both nations are showing extraordinary interest in Su Cha. With His Majesty and the Fog Star Marshal currently at the hospital, it seems diplomatic relations may soon be established.”
The reporters didn’t dare enter the hospital, but their broadcast was loud enough to be heard upstairs. Su Cha’s mouth twitched—“diplomatic relations may soon be established,” sure. His communicator was also blowing up with messages, mostly from classmates concerned about his health—“Why did you suddenly end up in the hospital?” There were missed calls from advertisers wanting to schedule his next endorsement, and even media contacts who somehow got hold of his number.
The doctor, fully aware of the circus outside, volunteered to work the night shift. Otherwise, she feared she’d be swarmed the moment she stepped out.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say the entire empire was watching the series of events unfold. Su Cha’s background had become the hot topic. Many students at school had already rushed to share the news with their families when Su Cha appeared with the emperor and the delegation.
That one word—“Your Highness”—had stunned countless people.
Live broadcasts were happening across the internet, with TV stations also giving emergency coverage. With something this big, Luan Zheng had naturally seen it too.
From the moment Shen Ningze was summoned to the palace that morning, Luan Zheng had been waiting for good news—only to be hit by a bolt from the blue.
Sitting in his swivel chair facing the window, as if he could see through to the reporter-sieged hospital, Luan Zheng rested one hand on his desk. The computer buzzed with nonstop coverage; every sentence seemed to mention Su Cha.
“Useless trash!” His fury could no longer be contained. The desk and computer shattered under the force of his spiritual power.
His subordinates, too preoccupied by their own growing sense of dread, barely flinched at the outburst.
“Has that failure come back yet?” Luan Zheng asked darkly.
The subordinate shook his head. “Reports from those stationed near the palace say they haven’t seen Young Master Ningze come out.”
Luan Zheng’s fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. He hadn’t lost control like this in ages. Who knew if that failure could even get past the Investigation Department? If he cracked and spilled everything, there’d be no time left to retreat.
“Where did it go wrong…” Luan Zheng leaned back into his chair in frustration. He didn’t understand what part of the seemingly flawless plan had been exposed.
Shen Ningze had spatial abilities and matched Fog Star appearance templates nearly perfectly. Plus, he’d had the backing of several officials. Nothing should have gone awry. Luan Zheng forced himself to review the news again—based on the timeline, the delegation had visited the school soon after Shen Ningze entered the palace. Which meant, he’d barely made contact before being seen through.
“Boss, should we arrange a retreat?” At this point, the subordinate had no choice but to ask, daring to bring up contingency planning.
Luan Zheng didn’t explode—meaning he was considering it too.
“The Empire’s security lines aren’t made of paper. There’s not enough time to evacuate properly.” Luan Zheng narrowed his eyes, expression turning resolute. “Find a way to kill Su Cha.”
The subordinate stared in shock—was he insane? Sending assassins from the group’s private army to the hospital was basically asking for trouble under the emperor’s nose.
“The more impossible it seems, the better the chance of success. No one would expect us to act now.”
This wasn’t about venting. If Su Cha died, Fog Star would surely explode in fury. With conflict between the nations, he would finally have time to prepare an escape.
Luan Zheng’s thoughts were clear—this war must be sparked. Diplomatic relations must not succeed. Otherwise, if the two powers combined forces to dig into the past, some buried things would inevitably surface.
“Go arrange it. No need for many people—just send the most powerful fighter.” His tone regained its calm. “At least inject him with three doses of presence-reducing agents. Only then might he escape His Majesty’s mental perception.”
Inside the hospital, Xie Rongjue had already dispatched the tightest security possible. But the original defense layout had been at the restaurant. Since Su Cha had suddenly collapsed, everything had to be redeployed. Turning a big hospital into a fortress at a moment’s notice was next to impossible.
…
Su Cha was still in the examination room.
The doctor had gone to prepare some forms for harmless routine tests.
“Tch…”
The Fog Star people had arrived far too suddenly. Just the day before, Su Cha had still been worrying about his non-citizen status being exposed, working hard to save for a spaceship. Now, in the blink of an eye, he’d made a huge leap in social class.
He took out his old planning list and crossed out two items: “Buy a spaceship” and “Complete the project of giving a flower promised to Li Huai.”
Only one thing remained—
The live experiment. Kill them all.
While mulling it over, Su Cha spoke: “Cuckoo V40, help me check recent news related to Fog Star.”
The mechanical glove responded simply: “At 10:30 this morning, the Chief of Foreign Affairs officially announced diplomatic ties with Fog Star.”
“Why did Fog Star suddenly come here?”
With only a few vague psychic connections between them, it shouldn’t have been enough for them to locate him.
“Apologies. No answer found for this query.”
Su Cha’s fingertips tapped lightly and irregularly on the examination table. Deep in thought, his hand suddenly froze mid-air.
The lights were off in the testing room, and it was dim. A corner of the curtain fluttered slightly.
He had closed both windows to avoid hearing the reporters’ broadcasts, and no one else was moving around inside. With no wind, how could the curtain have moved?
…Someone’s here.
Upon making that judgment, Su Cha lowered his gaze. One thing was clear—whoever was sharing the room with him now was up to no good. Most likely, they were here to take his life.
Spiritual energy could disrupt sound transmission, so shouting for help wasn’t a good idea. Su Cha calmly moved his hand toward his collar, ready to release the drug powder at any moment.
Rather than nervous, he actually felt a little relieved.
This assassin had come at just the right time. He could use them to ease tensions between Galan Star and Fog Star, shifting their attention onto each other. Plus, there weren’t many people with a motive to kill him, which saved him the trouble of bringing up the live experiment issue himself once he left.
Assassin, bless your timing.
Su Cha gathered the demonic power within him, waiting for the right moment to release the scent of the Overlord Flower at full force, hoping to slow the intruder down and block off any chance of escape or suicide.
Only one problem remained—locating this “ghost.”
As he focused all his attention on sensing every corner of the room, a flicker of light appeared ahead without warning. In the dim room, the glow looked eerie, like will-o’-the-wisps in a midnight forest.
That wasn’t the assassin’s doing.
Even the death soldier was briefly stunned by it. With no time to ponder where the ghostly light came from, the moment something changed, his first reaction was to complete the mission immediately. He drew a silver pistol from his waist, aimed at Su Cha, and raised a spirit energy wall around him to prevent escape.
The instant the spirit pressure bore down, Su Cha located his enemy’s position. He used his demonic energy to form a shield in front of him, vines lashed out toward the assassin, and at the same time, he activated the Overlord Flower’s scent.
But both the spirit energy and the scent were instantly suppressed. Nothing leaked out.
A blur of motion intercepted the death soldier before Su Cha could act. The ghostly light caught the bullet with its bare hand, then lifted a titanium-alloy leg and stabbed straight through the assassin’s abdomen, destroying the still-ticking bomb inside. The splattered blood was swept up by a particle storm, leaving nothing behind.
As the death soldier collapsed, the ghost light revealed its true form: a mechanical doll that Su Cha would recognize even if it were reduced to ashes.
“Long time no see.”
That was the doll’s first line—coincidentally mirroring the greeting Su Cha had just used with the doctor earlier.
“I came especially to see you.”
“Oh right, on the way here I saw countless warships hovering outside the border planets. Above them was a barrier made of lasers and infrared beams—probably anti-missile defense. What happened?”
Strangely enough, the broadcasts downstairs were still talking about cultural exchange.
Su Cha glanced at the thoroughly dead assassin, his expression unreadable. Word by word, he spat out: “You—d*mn—half—wit.”
It wasn’t here to help—it practically came to spark a world war.
He’d probably have to come up with an explanation for the assassin’s death soon.
Speak of the devil—footsteps echoed in the hallway.
The system had no emotional fluctuations. All the fighting and killing had been done swiftly and silently, leaving no trace for external psychic detection. The person approaching could only be the doctor.
The doll didn’t care. “Host, you haven’t answered me. What’s going on?”
“Shut it, half-wit,” Su Cha closed his eyes. “It’s a star war, alright?”
Ignoring the question, he opened the testing room door first—just a small crack, squeezing through sideways.
To divert the doctor’s attention, he casually shut the door and smiled at the test forms in the doctor’s hand. “What tests do I need to do?”
Doctor: “Weight first, then vision.”
There weren’t any major issues. Too many MRI scans wouldn’t be good, so only minor tests would be done.
“…Fine.”
When the doctor gestured for him to come over, Su Cha hesitated and said, “Give me a moment to collect myself. I need to think about how to face everyone once I step out.”
Putting himself in Su Cha’s shoes, the doctor could imagine how tough this was. Reporters were going wild, and both the Emperor and Fog Star’s delegation were in the waiting area. When the doctor had previously been called to check on the situation, she’d confirmed that relations between the two nations weren’t as good as the press was suggesting—something was definitely being hidden.
“Don’t take too long,” she said simply before walking away.
As she disappeared down the hallway, Su Cha finally let out a sigh of relief.
Back in the room, the system kept it short: “To fulfill your dream of having a thousand suitors, I overused energy and developed a critical fault. I just recovered and, when I located you, found out you weren’t on Fog Star.”
Although it didn’t have human expressions, every movement it made exuded arrogance.
“Don’t worry, I’m doing just fine,” Su Cha forced a smile. “Just bled a little fighting star pirates, sold melons in the desert, and rode a spirit form to fight monsters.”
He had nearly forgiven the system—until Fog Star’s arrival reminded him of something. Given how hard it was for a regression-bloodline heir to be born naturally, and how obsessed the system was with “legendary qualifications,” it was highly likely that its actions had indirectly led to him becoming a test subject.
The system stepped closer and tilted its head up: “Explain.”
“I’ve only been fully conscious for less than a year. Most of my previous time, I had no awareness,” Su Cha explained slowly. “I think some live experiment organization took me from Fog Star.”
The system pondered. “I see.”
It had overdrawn its energy to send Su Cha away and only had time to stash his soul into the gene bank—so gene theft wasn’t off the table.
Scanning through Galan Star data, it muttered: “Other than their childrearing beliefs, Galan and Fog Stars are pretty similar—brutish, warmongering species, basically synonymous with barbarism.”
“What a hassle.” It grumbled.
Su Cha looked at the corpse on the floor—this thing calling others violent? The irony.
He laid back down on the testing table and closed his eyes. “I’ll lie here for a bit. Clean up the body.”
The system obeyed without complaint, but still snapped back, “I warned you when you said you wanted everyone to love you. Not a good fit.”
Su Cha’s nature was something it knew best. Having been executed by his own kin, he had trouble trusting the world. His relationships were always based on equal exchange—no more, no less. He felt safest when everything was built on mutual benefit.
Too straightforward, too passionate expressions of emotion only brought him anxiety and fear of loss.
Su Cha pulled up his raincoat hood and covered his ears: “Not listening, not listening, turtle chanting scriptures.”
Seeing him act so childish again made the system soften slightly. “What’s the plan now?”
Su Cha: “Wait a couple of days to use the energy chamber for deep awakening, destroy the live experiment project, and enjoy life.”
“That’s it?”
Su Cha tilted his head: “What else? Be grateful there’s you, inherit a throne?”
The floor was already spotless. The system couldn’t be bothered to expose Su Cha’s tiny bit of pride.
“In the interstellar age, violence underpins all political maneuvering. I’m not going with you. You know I don’t like dealing with ungentlemanly types.”
While talking, it effortlessly hoisted the corpse, ready to dispose of it.
Su Cha hesitated: “Are you okay?”
For the system to take this long to repair itself, it must’ve paid a steep price—probably overdrawn heavily.
The system casually shook its head and, just before leaving, asked: “Anyone you want assassinated?”
“No.”
“Really? Just say the name.”
“…No.”
“Alright, ping me if you do. See ya.”
