In an environment where he couldn't utilize even a sliver of his own power, Lei Ting had to exhaust every ounce of his lifelong discipline to suppress his reflexive combat instincts. He did this for no other reason than to avoid accidentally harming the maintainer of this illusion...
Or rather, the "developer" of this game demo.
Lei Ting took a deep breath, silently watching the blonde youth crouching on the ground before him, struggling to stifle his laughter. Simultaneously, an ID box popped up over the boy's head: **[Essengard Kang]**.
Below it was a brief introduction: **[Appears quiet and steady, but is actually mischievous to the core. In front of Evenheiler, even the 'quiet' part disappears.]**
For a moment, Lei Ting’s mind went blank. He instinctively thought of the present-day Essengard he had met, struck by the profound realization that humans can never truly predict what they will be like at different stages of their lives.
Looking at this blonde youth who might seem "quiet" to others, could he have ever imagined that his future self would become such a stern and serious figure?
Of course, Lei Ting also knew that the current Essengard wasn't actually that "proper" either. When the two of them had sat together previously, the man's emotional fluctuations had been more intense than an ordinary person could imagine.
【...Sat together?】 Evenheiler’s voice turned alert.
Had Lei Ting dealt with Essengard directly, or even privately?
...This was bad. Essengard knew about his "Valen" identity and had certainly investigated that identity's social circles. Knowing his brother, the man had likely realized that the relationship between Lei Ting and himself was anything but ordinary...
...Forget it. What’s done is done.
Evenheiler gave up on damage control. Recalling his own reaction when this event had actually happened years ago, he casually issued a new quest: **[In the name of maintaining physical health, give Essengard a beating in the training grounds.]**
Lei Ting: "..."
Lei Ting: "???"
Lei Ting was utterly aghast. So, while other people grew up with "daddy issues," Essengard grew up with "brotherly beatings"? Given how intense the man's emotions had been back then, could he have been reminiscing about the days his younger brother used to pummel him?
【Ahem...】
A certain anonymous game developer coughed awkwardly and canceled the quest, sending a different one instead: **[Complete Daily Goal: Single-Handed Blade Combat Simulation.]**
Lei Ting also cleared his throat and walked into the training grounds ahead to the sound of "Essengard’s" laughter. *Good grief,* he thought, *talk about "fraternal harmony." Another mysterious layer of "loving family dynamics" added to the list!*
………………
…………
……
……
In the distant reaches of deep space, at the location of the "Devourer," beneath a goddess statue embedded with dead-black eyes rimmed with red, a mass of flesh writhed and slowly expanded.
After a long time, the flesh ruptured, and a...
...dog's face suddenly poked out!
"Holy sh*t!" Another figure beneath the corrupted statue jumped several steps back in fright. "A dog!"
"Stop screaming, it's me..." The Aberrant Ebon, currently fused with the "Red Giant," slowly squeezed out of the mass of flesh. "Sss... that hurts."
The figure who had jumped away shuffled back tentatively, crouching down to look at Ebon, who had barely managed to grow an upper body. "Who could possibly beat you into this state?" she marveled.
"You're so sure I was beaten?"
"You're smart; you wouldn't just go to places that might result in you needing... an iteration," the other said. "So, who was it? 'Imperial Blade'? 'Firewine'? Or the 'Architect'?"
"How could those guys show up within Human Federation territory?" Ebon’s partially formed face twisted into a strange expression. "It was 'Yang Xing'."
"..."
The other person processed this, tucking her snow-white hair behind her ear before offering a sincere opinion: "I take it back. You're actually not that smart."
Ebon also sincerely lamented the fact that he was currently in a limb-regeneration phase and couldn't crawl out to punch this person.
"It's hard to explain the situation... anyway, don't go to the Federation in your true form lately," Ebon said. "Unless you're feeling a bit cold..."
"...Were you literally scorched to death by the 'Sun'?" The other was stunned.
"Close enough. Can you imagine it? Being trapped in a hellhole the size of a building with a miniature nuclear bomb exploding in your face, while you're not only powerless but have nowhere to run." As Ebon spoke, a weirdly sentimental look appeared on his half-human, half-canine face. "Though the situations aren't identical... it’s a truly nostalgic feeling."
The other person had been feeling a bit sympathetic, but at those words, her face darkened. "Nostalgic? Nostalgic for what?"
"Nostalgic for when Father still had the heart to train us, of course." Ebon’s expression grew even stranger.
"That look on your face doesn't look like 'nostalgia' at all..." she whispered. "So, what kind of person is the 'Emperor' exactly? I'm curious. You know, before the 'Devourer' completely lost her sanity, she kept calling out for 'Father'... As a strain grown from her body, I really want to know..."
"Ah, I understand," Ebon said, propping himself up with his werewolf-like arms. The part where his body met the mass of flesh emitted a bone-chilling grinding sound.
He sighed like a human and looked up at the face beneath the other's white hair—a face highly similar to the former "Atlin Heather."
The same white hair, the same features; except for a more slender build and irises that were a lightless, pale void, this Chemist offshoot was identical to "her."
【He was a good father...】
...Evenheiler said.
【Once.】
"'Once'?" Lei Ting, who had just completed a series of interconnected quests, stood on the roof of the Kang Pharmaceuticals building. He looked down at the protesting crowds below, catching the keyword through the wind.
He had just experienced Evenheiler’s past daily routines: training, classes, social interactions, combat drills, being flattered by others... a whole series of events. Now, the simulation had jumped forward a month and a half, to the point in time after a massive quality control issue had struck their new nutritional supplement line.
Of course, even with such a major disaster, there were still plenty of people swarming around Evenheiler. Some of them were flattering him with the same old rhetoric that made Lei Ting scowl just hearing it: talk of his power, his genius, his wisdom. It wasn't that Evenheiler wasn't those things, but the flattery was just too cringeworthy.
In the outside world, Evenheiler sat in an empty roadside café, silently pressing a hand to his forehead.
This was surreal... Was Lei Ting looking at him through some kind of, uh... extreme filter?
But he still had to provide the "narration," so he tried his best not to let his current mood show, whispering: 【After that catastrophic quality control accident, he changed. He went from the refined man who was a good listener to a...
【...demon.】
Lei Ting’s expression turned solemn. Evenheiler was not one to exaggerate lightly.
【In truth, I always knew my father, Katrien Kang, was not a good man.】
The scene shifted quietly. The primary perspective was clearly that of a young Evenheiler. He was standing behind a white pillar, looking down into a semi-open living room where several figures with blurred faces were exchanging pleasantries.
Among them stood a tall, handsome middle-aged man. He wore white clothes, his brilliant golden hair tied back and cascading down. His features, similar yet distinct from Evenheiler’s, possessed a beauty that made it hard to look away.
But then, the people he was talking to were labeled one by one with their names and backgrounds.
To put it simply, not one of them was a decent person. A few were even white-collar criminals who had been executed just two years ago.
【My father was not a good man; I always understood that. I wondered about it for a long time—why did he do it? But what made me even more confused was...】
A new image appeared. This time, Evenheiler and Essengard were sitting at a game table, laughing and talking. The former had a bright smile while the latter looked shy. Katrien sat opposite them, also smiling warmly, listening intently to their conversation.
On the game table between them, a holographic chessboard was projected. Various 3D pieces were battling each other, and in the end, a knight regiment under Evenheiler’s command emerged victorious.
【...Why did he do those things,】 Evenheiler sighed softly, 【and yet, in private, raise me—the one always considered the heir—to be someone completely different from himself?】
*Indeed... why?*
Lei Ting frowned slightly, also finding it difficult to understand. While he was grateful to Katrien and the other parent of unknown gender for bringing Evenheiler into the world, the fact that a clearly lawless businessman had raised his child to be a righteous youth with a heavy sense of responsibility was truly baffling.
As for this question—【Later, I figured it out,】 Evenheiler said. 【From the very beginning, the designated heir was Essengard. I was merely a glittering facade. That was the meaning of 'Evenheiler Kang’s' existence from the start, and it was the underlying tone of this person's entire life:
【Seemingly glorious, but in reality, holding nothing in his hands.】
*Snap.*
In the outside world, the fingers of the seemingly sleeping Lei Ting twitched, nearly crushing the structural lines of the spaceship's hull beneath his hand.
Evenheiler was startled: 【Lei Ting? You don't need to be this angry. It's all in the past...】
"It's fine, don't worry. It's nothing. Keep going," Lei Ting said with a soothing smile within the illusion. "Don't mind this thing; it might look like a spaceship, but it's actually a hand-grip dynamometer."
【...】 Evenheiler didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
He walked out of the café, looking up at the ships floating in the sky like a mottled dark curtain, and the beams of light falling between them.
He knew why Lei Ting was angry—it was for the unfair treatment he had suffered. Therefore, although he personally felt he wasn't cut out for business and there was nothing to be sad about, he couldn't help but smile, closing his eyes under the warm light.
A moment later, he continued: 【Before the quality control incident, Father seemed to have a series of follow-up business plans. But after that, everything fell through...
【The massive blow didn't make him lose heart, but despite having no real competitors, he became obsessed with developing more new products and patents. From then on, I never saw him in the game room again, and I rarely dealt with him on a daily basis, which left my impression of him frozen in the past.
【Until the day I awakened my super-ability and underwent six-gender differentiation at seventeen... In the chaotic and hypersensitive state of the awakening period, I heard him with my own ears, hundreds of meters away, telling someone to prepare a gender reassignment surgery for me and to brainwash me so that I would forget I was an Omega.】
***
**Glossary**
