Ever since his superpower awakened, Evenheiler had possessed the fastest individual movement speed in this starry sky, and consequently, his speed of thought had to be trained to be incredibly swift.
After all, if his mind couldn't keep up with his body, he truly might have crashed into some bizarre place the moment he started moving, never to return.
Thus, even though he was growing weaker and more sluggish by the day due to the damage to his "Sky Eye" and mental strength—even though he could no longer keep his rational side far above his emotional side like a normal high-order esper, and was now entering a terrifyingly rapid period of decline with premature graying hair—Evenheiler was still able to accurately seize upon the wrongness of the man before him in such a close-range conversation!
As stated, he was the person who understood Lei Ting best in the entire universe; how could he be so easily fooled?
"You are putting on a facade of gradually losing control..." The blonde man grabbed Lei Ting’s arm with one hand, while with the other, he removed the optical computer headset from his ear—it had long been physically shut down, leaving only the communication channel for 'Tianhe.' "...And the enemy you want to deceive is here, isn't it?"
"..."
*Tsk.*
Lei Ting’s expression remained unchanged, his gaze fixed forward as he tried to pry Evenheiler’s fingers away. "Mr. Starstream, please conduct yourself with dignity."
"Interesting. A man who put a collar on me is asking me to conduct myself with dignity..." Evenheiler laughed out of sheer anger. "This collar... I remember the last time we met, you had a type of alloy weapon. What was it called?"
"...'Sun Alloy.'" Lei Ting turned his head slightly. He had to admit, Evenheiler looked truly beautiful wearing it.
"'Sun Alloy'... that’s the name of this golden metal, then." Evenheiler smiled at the subtle sentiment hidden in the name. "Then what about the black one? Let me guess... it wouldn't happen to be called 'Star'?"
Lei Ting’s accelerated attempt to pry his fingers away earned him a triumphant look.
"See, you clearly could have made it hurt more." Evenheiler moved in front of the younger man, spreading his hands with fearless confidence as he looked at the black metal structure that had appeared on Lei Ting's face at some unknown point. "But you never do. That is the greatest flaw in your disguise..."
The eyes are the windows to the soul, and most people cannot look directly at the sun.
Regardless, unless one's abilities entered a state of complete dormancy, the outward-projecting nature of an esper’s mental power would naturally leak a few echoes of their soul through their eyes.
Currently, Lei Ting’s power was still in a period of increasingly rapid growth, having not yet reached its peak. But even so, he was already worlds apart from five years ago—or even half a year ago at the Ring World.
If meeting his gaze back then would only have caused an S-class esper severe discomfort, his gaze now could directly inflict the extreme agony of a scorched superficial psyche.
And Evenheiler was in a state of diametrically opposite, rapid decline.
Like a cynical coincidence, their lives were flowing in opposite directions—one upward, one downward. They had crossed paths unexpectedly in the middle, becoming entangled ever since, yet it seemed neither could turn back.
An esper of the galaxy was essentially like a precision biotechnological machine fitted with necessary power components.
...No, it should be said that the human body itself was a precision instrument. A high-tech instrument that humans could not fully understand the working principles of every component, even though they had long been capable of gene editing.
Anyone with relevant knowledge knew that machines were specifically designed with necessary redundancy before being put into use. From a safety perspective, this accounted for interference and data overload, ensuring the equipment could work as normally as possible even under abnormal conditions.
So, if both the software and hardware of a machine showed obvious signs of malfunction, it meant the redundancy had already been breached; it required effective overhaul or direct replacement of parts.
The silver hairs hidden beneath Evenheiler’s blonde locks were each a testament to the stars that he had exhausted all his biological redundancy. He was burning his own life, sliding down a slope toward death.
As for Lei Ting... in their previous conversation, his words had been half-truths, but one sentence was indeed true: he was going to force it.
Regardless of whether Evenheiler’s life was destined to end on some day in the next few years, he intended to do everything in his power to pull all of it back to his side while the man was still alive, ensuring he suffered as little harm as possible.
Perhaps this was a form of selfishness.
But in his life, which had not yet reached thirty years... he wanted to be selfish at least this once.
And before that future arrived—the one belonging to the so-called 'original plot' that was essentially just a remnant of his past life—he would arrange everything...
He certainly would.
"You won't look at me because you are protecting me."
Evenheiler spoke slowly, his blinking rhythm sluggish. The fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and beneath his lids were tinged with a weak, dark bruise-like hue. "So, tell me... what is hidden in this collar?"
"..." Lei Ting tilted his head, offering no answer.
"Don't play dumb," Evenheiler said, reaching out to take his hand again. "You know that if you don't tell me, I will find a way to remove it. Even if you seal my superpowers, I will try to contact my comrades..."
"You cannot contact them," Lei Ting said calmly.
He withdrew his hand from Evenheiler’s grasp.
"You guessed correctly; it is indeed more than just an ornament. It contains a suppressor and an extract of my pheromones.
"But 'Sun Alloy' itself is an extremely dangerous bomb. Only I and the casing of 'Star Alloy' can restrain it, Mr. Starstream. If you violently destroy this alloy or sever its connection with me, it will vanish into ash, taking a quarter of a conventional planet with it. I suggest you do not do that."
He made no mention of the fact that there were several tracking monitors inside as well, but the rare softness on Evenheiler’s face suddenly froze. He stared blankly at Lei Ting, slowly raising a hand to touch the ring around his neck.
This was a weapon of near-extinction-level danger?
And Lei Ting had personally placed it here?
"Your guess was correct; I do indeed still cherish you," Lei Ting said, looking down with a slight smile. "But love must have its methods... My past self chose to let things take their course, but now is entirely different. Allowing a landslide to happen is never love for a mountain, and the same applies to people."
In truth, even now, he was still concealing and misleading. He called it Sun Alloy, but at the time he had fashioned that apple, Sun Alloy didn't even exist; it was merely a piece of gold-plated copper.
Back then, he had been sitting in the living room of this house in a daze. Having nothing to do, he started crafting, but he didn't know what to make. The small ornaments, tools, and various components he knew how to create already exceeded forty thousand types, yet at that moment, his mind was a blank.
By the time he came to his senses, he had used several pieces of copper he carried with him to mold one finger-sized Evenheiler after another: eating, reading, working, slacking off, playing games with total concentration...
Fortunately, there were none of him in bed, otherwise it would have been a bit too much of an invasion of privacy.
In the end, he destroyed the statues whose poses belonged to the 'disguise' part of the man. The remaining ones were fused by him into that apple with a bite taken out of it.
...Then, thinking the color wasn't bright enough, he had stubbornly covered it with a layer of gold, resulting in that vivid, beautiful golden apple.
Recalling it now, Lei Ting still felt his past self was quite naive yet remarkably patient... if his current self were to go back to that time, there would be no long separation. He would have chased the man down that very day to demand an explanation!
But the shuttle-like years had already passed.
And the current world had thrust too many Pandora's boxes into his hands that could not be seen by others.
"You should sleep, Mr. Starstream," Lei Ting said softly. "The Medical Department will be here soon to give you a physical examination—or would you rather not see them? If so, I will have a sub-program of 'Tianhe' check you."
"..."
Evenheiler closed his eyes, turning his head away wearily.
Back when Lei Ting was not yet 1.8 meters tall, Evenheiler used to tilt his head back when sighing to prevent the boy from seeing the expression on his face. Now that this fellow was 2.1 meters tall, he had begun to silently lower his head.
But both knew that the gesture did not hide submission, but an eternal unyielding spirit. And the concern he had just shown was not purely because of Lei Ting’s cherishing of him.
Thus, the scene seemed to have returned to the very beginning.
They had cast off their masks, yet each retained a disguise. Though the two stood inches apart, their hearts seemed separated by ten thousand miles of war-smoke.
"You say I am presenting a facade, but please also consider whether I have always been this way, and now, I am simply revealing more of my true self."
Lei Ting smiled, leaning down to whisper into Evenheiler’s ear: "Give up those fantasies. Stay here quietly; you cannot escape.
"Verbal induction and erosion have no effect on me, 'Uncle.' Keep your precious emotional soul; a version of you like this will stay by my side forever, whether you like it or not, whether you need it or not..."
"...Believe me, you will." As he spoke, while monitoring the stars in the distant sky, he said almost as if possessed: "Until one of us... returns to that glorious 'Exemplar'."
During the time they were talking, the 'Waterdrop Garden' apartment building and the surrounding eight blocks had almost all been replaced with the Human Union's own personnel.
This was not difficult, because in the past few years, the area around this apartment where Lei Ting frequently stayed had already been purged several times by the Human Union authorities.
The current Evenheiler, as long as Lei Ting maintained the spatial anchor lock on him, was truly unable to escape even with wings.
As for Evenheiler—
*Give up the fantasies.* He thought, sitting down weakly on the bed, asking his final question: "Is the old 'Lei Ting' still there?"
"He is," Lei Ting replied.
Simultaneously, his expression turned cold, and he withdrew the smile that was at least seventy percent calculated pretense.
"Don't lie to yourself," he said. "That 'Lei Ting' did not die. He has simply changed."
***
In the days that followed, the Federation's reforms proceeded in an orderly fashion.
After all, those who were clueless about the current situation and continued their old ways were truly sent directly into the 'Radiant Exemplar' by a force cast from the void.
Danger was surging within the former territories of the Human Union; internal correction was urgent.
Lei Ting, whose mind had been running near overload, began to squander his patience less. He had too much to do; every day, hundreds or thousands of orders were issued from him, each concerning the livelihoods and futures of hundreds of billions of people.
He was so busy that he only spared a few extra glances at Evenheiler’s medical reports, feeling glad for his respect and decision not to truly do anything that day. Forget being a 'Double S'; although the man's physical strength was still technically functional, his health status was such that even compared to an ordinary person, one could only say the 'Radiant Exemplar' would have to reserve a seat for him upon sight.
Thus, he quickly arranged a full course of treatment for the other man. And this 'Mr. Starstream,' coerced by the lifeblood of an entire planet, chose to cooperate with the treatment reluctantly after some hesitation.
To this, Lei Ting might have felt a moment of sorrow that the other truly believed the threat—perhaps.
Because he knew very well that facing a man like himself, no one would dare to gamble on that possibility.
Aside from that, on many matters, the current Lei Ting would not even distract himself to listen to the excuses some people made for themselves.
As long as they met the two criteria of 'still violating rules to harm others even now' and 'being caught by him,' he would directly terminate their life processes physically—shoot first and ask questions later, dealing with the person who caused the problem before addressing the problem itself.
As for the things he did himself...
...
Spring, 4007 AD, Human Union Council Chamber.
A meeting regarding the reorganization of the Military Oversight Department had concluded. Lei Ting, fully armed and wearing a black steel visor and armor, sat in the Speaker's seat, watching the back of every councilor as they departed.
After a long while, he closed his eyes wearily. In the distant sky, a drone fleet silently glided through the eternal darkness of the universe.
Wherever there was a network, there was an enemy.
And he was prepared for everything...
...All that remained was to sever the enemy's hands, and, with a man-made disaster, crush the stars he had once cherished with impartial love.
***
