The Crybaby Alpha is Actually Really Cool - Chapter 2
If it were a normal person facing this situation, they would have long since started to panic, but Ruan Qingyao’s face stiffened for a moment before recovering his innocent, clueless little demeanor, showing surprise and worry: “Oh dear, isn’t this my voice? Haihuang Restaurant is so excessive, they can’t even guarantee the privacy of their private room guests. Dad, you must be careful when you discuss things outside in the future, and you need to remind Third Brother, Fourth Brother…”
When awkwardness descends, grasping at loopholes, taking the moral high ground, and fiercely attacking to divert attention is the most suitable strategy. Ruan Qingyao ticked off the names of relatives and friends on his fingers, like an ultra-considerate little darling worrying about their privacy and safety.
Mo Buyu found it quite amusing, leaning back on the sofa with his legs crossed like a spectator watching a play. After Ruan Qingyao finished his performance, he released his ultimate move, attempting a fatal blow.
He took out a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, placed it on the table, and pushed it towards Ruan Qingyao.
Ruan Qingyao stubbornly maintained his pure smile, reading the “Investigation Order” in his hand one word at a time.
In summary, the Military Tower had expressed distrust in the application for military service exemption he submitted, and had specifically sent people for a detailed investigation, which was not limited to various minor investigative methods like wiretapping and surveillance.
Mo Buyu smiled without smiling, looking extremely terrifying: “Little Young Master doesn’t need to worry too much. Not everyone is worthy of a military-grade bug.”
Ruan Qingyao blinked his long eyelashes, utterly calm, “Then have you investigated clearly? I’ve been frail and sickly since childhood, I really am not suitable for the battlefield.”
That’s right, if he couldn’t divert attention, he would just deny it to the death. The law didn’t say he couldn’t play a joke with his little sisters. His body was his to command; Ruan Qingyao had long since mastered the daily routine of a heart patient. He could “act up” and even doctors couldn’t tell the difference between a real and a fake illness.
He had specially consulted with the Grand Slam movie emperors and empresses, after all.
Mo Buyu hadn’t expected Ruan Qingyao to still be unwilling to give in even at this point. This was a bit inconsistent with the obedient, timid, and tearful little darling persona shown in his files. Such strong mental fortitude was so suitable for the battlefield.
He got straight to the point: “Whether you’re sick or not, you and I know it perfectly well. If you still want to struggle, I’ve also brought the physician from the First Military Medical University. According to Imperial law, you now have two choices.”
“One is to obediently go to the Military Tower for five years, and the other is to go to Meiya Lai Prison and squat in a big cell.”
Hearing this, Ruan Mama’s eyebrows furrowed. Across Ruan Qingyao, she pinched Ruan Papa’s back, urging him to find a solution. Ruan Papa was also worried.
In their circle, there were quite a few people who spoiled their children and didn’t want to send them to the Military Tower. Who wasn’t able to smoothly get through it by spending a little money? Why did it have to be so difficult for his Yaoyao, even attracting the Tower Lord of the Military Tower?
Meanwhile, Ruan Qingyao opened his optical brain and searched for Meiya Lai Prison. He saw that the prisoners inside all lived in single rooms, with three free meals a day, and they didn’t even have to work. Aside from the slightly small range of activity, there were no other problems.
This was so much better than the Military Tower’s eight-person rooms, the ‘007’ schedule, and the constant possibility of losing one’s life!
Ruan Qingyao obediently made his choice: “I choose to go to Meiya Lai!”
Mo Buyu’s lips twitched. The young man behind him, lacking sufficient self-control, asked in surprise, “You don’t know what kind of place Meiya Lai is? The prisoners inside are all vicious and evil, only going in and never coming out!”
Ruan Qingyao showed an innocent and pitiful expression, opening his optical brain permissions to show him a picture: “But it’s a single room, with a private bathroom, balcony, and air conditioning.”
A prison having a better environment than the Military Tower, was this reasonable?!
The young man: …
He forcefully tried to save face: “We aren’t bad either! It’s not eight-person rooms anymore. Although six-person rooms aren’t very spacious, they can foster brotherhood! The public bathhouse isn’t much worse than a private bathroom, and a balcony isn’t very useful… ha…”
He couldn’t continue and looked at Mo Buyu.
Mo Buyu, as his name implied (Mo Buyu means ‘no speaking’), remained silent for a long time.
In the bedroom, Ruan Qingyao looked utterly dejected, his eyes red and almost crying. He hugged his bunny plushie and leaned against the headboard, listening to his mother rambling about what things to take to the Military Tower.
That’s right, he wasn’t going to Meiya Lai Prison to enjoy the joy of a single room, but to the Military Tower to live a life of misery.
Who could have thought that the dignified Tower Lord of the Military Tower, an Imperial General, would go back on his word? If he didn’t go to the Military Tower, everyone involved in his evasion of military service would be arrested, sentenced, and jailed. Ruan Qingyao couldn’t possibly affect his loving family and friends for his own sake.
The most hateful thing was that he wasn’t even given time to say goodbye; he had to set off for the Military Tower tomorrow morning.
Ruan Mama felt extremely heartbroken for Ruan Qingyao. As she packed, she wished she could move the entire house.
“I heard there’s nothing there. My poor darling Yaoyao, fortunately your little box has a large storage space, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to take all this.”
As she spoke, she placed the tidied items into the luxurious treasure box on the table. It looked only about the size of a basketball, but things kept fitting inside.
When people in the interstellar world differentiate, they can summon their own exclusive spiritual weapon. Ruan Qingyao’s spiritual weapon was this exquisite and luxurious treasure box. Its external size could be freely controlled by his will, and its internal storage space was particularly large, belonging to the space-type spiritual weapon.
Fortunately, he didn’t summon a combat-type spiritual weapon like other Alphas, otherwise Ruan Qingyao would have no joy left at all.
After the things at home were packed and placed into the treasure box, Ruan Mama also took Ruan Qingyao on a late-night shopping trip to the mall. Fortunately, the mall had their family’s shares, otherwise they wouldn’t have anywhere to buy things.
The next morning, Ruan Qingyao woke up with teary eyes. For the first time, he didn’t look in the mirror after getting up. After washing up, he clung to his mother, reluctant to part.
From the bedroom to the dining table and then to the doorway, Mo Buyu watched the mother and son crying with red, tear-filled eyes, feeling like a heinous villain.
He said coldly, “Hurry up and get on!”
Ruan Qingyao glared at him with a whimper, lifted his foot to step onto the airship, but then immediately shrank back, hugging Ruan Mama and wailing, “Wuwuwu, the General’s vehicle is so simple and crude.”
Mo Buyu, who had just changed to a new vehicle and was feeling proud: …
Ruan Mama leaned forward to look, her eyebrows tightly furrowed, “Please wait a moment, General Mo. Allow us to make some preparations for a pleasant journey.”
The next moment, at Ruan Mama’s command, the family’s servants rushed out and quickly modified the interior soft furnishings of Mo Buyu’s airship, successfully transforming it from a military hard-man style into a pink princess style.
Mo Buyu and his subordinate were squeezed to the outermost edge, watching powerlessly.
When they actually sat down, oh wow, it was truly comfortable.
When it came to enjoyment, these nobles really knew how to live.
Mo Buyu glanced at Ruan Qingyao, who was resting with his eyes closed in the back seat. If he weren’t an S-class Alpha, Mo Buyu wouldn’t even accept such a delicate young master being forced upon him.
S-class! Out of the Empire’s tens of billions of people, there were only two digits of S-class Alphas in total. This was the reason Mo Buyu had personally come to ‘invite’ him.
The levels here refer to pheromone levels, which are divided into seven grades: S, A, B, C, D, E, F. S-class is the highest, and F-class is the lowest. The higher the grade, the better the reserve and quality of the pheromones.
Pheromones can be converted into the spiritual energy that supports a spiritual weapon in battle. Without pheromones, one cannot fight. This is also why the military has more Alphas and fewer Betas. Although Betas have scent glands and pheromones, their scent glands are negligibly small, and their pheromones are extremely scarce.
Although Ruan Qingyao looked down on the soft furnishings of Mo Buyu’s airship, as a military airship, its speed was superb. After three days and three nights, they arrived at the location of the First Military Tower – the Eastern Border of the Empire.
The spiritual weapon of the founding emperor of the Wuyou Empire was a tower. Initially, their group lived and trained inside the tower, using the tower as a military base to start their campaign for world domination. Thus, the tower became their symbol.
That tower still stands on the border of the Empire today, and the military corps established around it is the First Military Corps. Nowadays, every military corps has a spiritual tower, or rather, a new military corps can only be established with a tower. Internationally, the Wuyou Empire is known as the Tower Nation.
Ruan Qingyao never expected that he would take a three-day and three-night interstellar journey on an airship. He thought he would transfer to a spaceship or starship. Sitting there for such a long time, unable to shower or change clothes, Ruan Qingyao was going crazy and felt like he already smelled bad.
As soon as the airship landed, he rushed out and asked Mo Buyu to take him to a place where he could bathe.
Mo Buyu looked at Ruan Qingyao, who was in a frantic hurry to wash and change clothes, then turned his head to look at the tower that reached straight into the clouds. He recalled how he was utterly shaken and speechless by the Military Tower the first time he set foot on this land, and once again felt that Ruan Qingyao’s mental fortitude was very strong.
“You should go and join the other recruits now and wait to be assigned to teams and dormitories. You can only shower when you get to the dormitory.”
Ruan Qingyao wiped a tear of grievance, knowing that this was not his home but the man-eating Military Tower, so he couldn’t have his own way. He reluctantly said thank you and turned to look for the main group.
There was a massive crowd of people on the open ground not far away. Most people were sitting on the ground, a few were standing, and a handful were talking. Most seemed listless, and the atmosphere looked somewhat subdued.
Ruan Qingyao hesitated for a while before finally stepping towards them. As he walked, his pace became slower and slower because everyone was looking at him. Being stared at by so many eyes, especially with their unfriendly gazes, made Ruan Qingyao feel extremely uncomfortable, and he felt the hairs on his body stand up.
The instructor’s voice broke the eerie atmosphere: “Now that everyone is here, let’s proceed to the next item.”
Ruan Qingyao understood. He was the one who hadn’t arrived, making everyone wait. Thinking of this, Ruan Qingyao’s eyes grew sore. Wuwuwu, so the Military Tower was certain he would come and had no intention of letting him go.
He was truly too miserable.
Everyone’s original optical brain was collected and sealed, and would not be returned until a year later when they left the ranks of new recruits. During this year, they could only use the standardized optical brain that was issued to them now.
The standardized optical brain was uniformly gray-black, like an old-fashioned sports watch, a small rectangular screen with round straps extending from both ends. It was indescribably ugly.
Ruan Qingyao wrapped the optical brain in a handkerchief, and only after a thorough cleaning did he attempt to gently touch it with his fingertip. The bumpy texture felt like sandpaper, and the workmanship was truly terrible!
The delicate little young master couldn’t stand this grievance.
Ruan Qingyao was about to complain to the instructor when he saw that the people around him had already put the optical brain on their wrists and logged into their accounts.
Hmm… if he approached the instructor about the optical brain, he would surely delay everyone’s time. He decided against it for now and would wait until after the dormitories were assigned.
Alas, life is not easy; Yaoyao sighs.
As instructed by the instructor, Ruan Qingyao registered and logged in to the Military Tower’s official website, where there was an intention form to fill out. The content was simple, including spiritual weapon, specialties, and intended role within the team.
For the spiritual weapon section, he only needed to upload a picture and a functional description. Ruan Qingyao thought about it and only filled in ‘Space-type Storage’ as a function. Under the specialties column, he wrote a long list, including but not limited to piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, singing, cooking, embroidery, gardening, and a series of things that only little Omegas and little Betas liked.
The team roles had five major categories: Main DPS, Sub DPS, Support, Healer, and Logistics. Ruan Qingyao decisively chose Logistics, as only Logistics didn’t require combat!
Even Healers needed to fight, as they had to convert the damage dealt to enemies into healing power.
Since he had no choice but to come, Ruan Qingyao planned to quietly pass these five years, and as soon as the five years were up, he would leave immediately.