Chapter 96[8.1]

Jing Yang was in such pain that he felt like his entire body was going to fall apart, even breathing was extremely difficult. He opened his eyes, and under the faint light, everything was out of focus, the blurs as if under a layer of thick fog.

It seemed that this body's physical injury was quite severe, even if he activated the system, it would be impossible to immediately fix the injury. Even though his eyesight was blurry, he could still sense that he was now in some sort of very confined space. In order to determine whether there was any way to first leave this place, Jing Yang could only consult the short memory closest to this point in time and according to the scene inside that memory, press a certain button.

The light suddenly brightened, and Jing Yang was blinded by this glaring light. He closed his eyes to adapt to it, and after a long time, finally slowly opened his eyes again.

Right now he couldn't move his body, and could only turn his head slightly. His eyesight was also slowly clearing up. He looked down and saw that he was lying in a broken mecha, surrounded by a barren area. Nothing except for rocks and sand, not even a single tree.

His skull was stinging as if it were going to shatter, and he could feel some already dried blood on his face. In this situation where he could not move his body at all, if no one came to rescue him, he might not be able to save himself.

Jing Yang was just thinking about what he could do when he suddenly saw a few small black dots in the sky. He thought that there was some problem with his eyes, but as the black dots slowly grew larger, he could clearly see that they were mechas quickly descending.

Jing Yang was suddenly somewhat anxious because he still didn't know whether they were enemies or allies. If they were enemies, he was afraid that he would be tortured, and it wouldn't be certain if he could even be able to live.

Why did he have to be reborn at this time? If it were a little sooner or a little later, it still wouldn't be as bad as now, when he was helpless to fight back at all.

Looking at those mechas that had already landed and were walking toward him, Jing Yang suddenly gave birth to a sort of reckless courage. Who cares, if he died then so be it! At worst he would just change worlds.

After those mechas approached him, they looked down on him from up high, not moving for a long time. Jing Yang knew that they must be discussing something, and seeing this, the chances of these people being allies were very low.

Jing Yang felt that at this moment he was like a piece of meat on a chopping board, under the gazes of some nitpicking observers. He smiled to himself self-deprecatingly.

The mecha in the middle was the one that looked the most powerful and dominating. The mecha door suddenly opened, and someone jumped out from inside.

When that person walked over to his mecha door and looked down at him, the moment the two met gazes, Jing Yang felt like everything spun around him. His already unsteady breathing became even more difficult as his heartbeat quickened. The man in front of him had deep features, a sharp silhouette, a tall physique and dominating presence. Standing there with his back to the light, it was like the arrival of a martial god.

Jing Yang had seen a lot of handsome men, but this was the first time that when he first met someone his heart would start racing. Could it have come from the original owner's feelings?

Denanfry was originally just patrolling in space when he found that there was a living being on this planet. He had felt that it was strange, so he landed to check it out. After landing, he saw that there was a heavily injured human lying in a broken mecha, and after identifying that he was not one of their people, he originally had no intention of doing anything. But after he saw that person smiling in self-ridicule, he felt an inexplicable ache in his heart, and in that instant, he had a feeling that if he abandoned the man, he would definitely regret it.

Denanfry crouched down, carefully looking at the man's face. The wound on his forehead was very severe, his face covered in blood and bruises. But he could still tell that his skin was very pale, like a broken delicate doll. Besides his features looking good, he couldn't see anything special about him.

Jing Yang used the system to quickly search for this person's identity, and after determining that even though he wasn't an ally, he also wasn't his enemy, he weakly opened his mouth and said, "Save me."

Jing Yang wasn't sure whether or not he would save himself, but he had a hunch that this man was the only life-saving straw he could seize at this moment.

That pain in his heart reappeared. Looking at that pair of eyes from so close, Denanfry really felt like there was something in those eyes that seemed to touch his soul. He involuntarily reached out his hands and carefully held up this person.

Denanfry placed Jing Yang behind his seat and flew his mecha back up, opening the contact channel with the ship. "I have an injured person with me, let the medical bay prepare for first aid."

"Received. We will immediately begin preparations."

The mecha flew in through one of the ship's entrances, and after gliding for a while, it stopped in the mecha bay.

Denanfry exited the mecha holding Jing Yang. There were already doctors and paramedics waiting below. He placed Jing Yang on the stretcher and watched him being pushed away, before turning and leaving in a different direction.

"General, this person's identity is unknown. Bringing him so hastily onto the ship like this, will there be any problems?" Dyles was Denanfry's deputy general. Right now was a critical period, and bringing back a completely unknown person, he was a little worried.

"He's so badly hurt that he won't be able to do anything bad for the time being. When he recovers slightly, I will ask him myself about his identity." Denanfry's footsteps paused. "Before then, send people to watch him closely. If there is anything wrong with him, immediately report to me."

"Yes, General." Dyles replied.

His eyes half-closed, Jing Yang saw himself being pushed into an emergency room, and immediately after a doctor injected him with a tube of medicine, he fell unconscious.

When he woke up again, Jing Yang looked around to see his surroundings. This should be the ship's single-person medical room. Less than a minute after he woke up, the automatic door opened, and a doctor and two paramedics walked in.

"How do you feel?" The doctor asked.

"For the time being, there is no pain, I just feel no energy at all." Jing Yang truthfully answered.

"Your injury was very serious and will take a long time to heal. We gave you some medicine so you will temporarily not feel any pain, but using too much pain medication is bad for your body. In two days we will stop using painkillers, so you will need to prepare yourself." The doctor said.

"I see, thank you doctor." Jing Yang said.

"Your body has multiple broken bones, especially in your feet. Those will take a long time to recover, or it's very possible that they will never recover. We have given you surgery, and these days will be a critical period for bone growth, so you must restrain yourself and not move at all. If you can't help it, you must let us know and we will help you secure your body. But securing your body like that for a long time would not be good for you, and there is a possibility of muscle necrosis." The doctor's words were very exacting, with no trace of emotion.

"I can control myself, if I can't do it anymore, I will let you know." Jing Yang used the system to scan his body's injuries. The result was that with the system's help, his legs could still recover. It was just that the injury was too severe, so it wouldn't be fast. As long as he could recover and wouldn't be crippled for the rest of his life, he was satisfied. Fortunately this was a medically more developed interstellar world. If it were in a normal modern world, he might already have been amputated.

After the doctor and nurses recorded the values on the medical instrument next to him separately into a handheld computer, they left Jing Yang alone.

Jing Yang glanced at the glass wall to his left and knew that there must be people watching him outside. But it didn't matter, he couldn't even move right now, he couldn't do anything even if he wanted to.

He closed his eyes and began to read about this world, and the information relevant to this body.

This was an interstellar space-time that could be said to have just begun developing. In this time period, every country was competing for planets, developing their own power in this universe.

There were many unknown and unoccupied planets in this universe, and whichever country could preemptively seize a planet and then could hold on to it, would essentially own that planet. In the early days, in order to compete for planets, the countries had already gone through centuries of war, and the human casualties were quite tragic. Coupled with insect invasions and various cosmic disasters, human beings were likely to be in danger of extinction if they continued to kill each other in this way.

Therefore, several countries took the lead in establishing a peace agreement that would unite against other nations competing for planets and minerals, and divide the resources according to the terms of the agreement. The united countries would naturally be stronger than those countries fighting alone. Seeing their power growing stronger and stronger, the other countries were envious, and each asked to join. So it had turned into a cosmic federation.

The person Jing Yang had transmigrated into this time was called Skien Kossa, who was born in the Fetani Empire, a member of the Cosmic Federation.

Skien's grandfather was the left prime minister of the Fetani Empire, and his father was the commander of the third fleet, so he could be said to have been born with a golden spoon, his identity only slightly lower than that of the royal family.

In his situation, even if he was a fool, he could still smoothly live his entire life. Let alone that he not only had a good appearance, but was always very smart from a young age. His elder brother, as the oldest son, was the most valued, and Skien was the most loved. He was already engaged to the financial minister's son Tony Bilus before he came of age. The two people were not only a perfect match, but were also childhood sweethearts, having good feelings since they were young.

But fate this thing was always so unpredictable and uncontrollable. When fate wanted you to live well, it would be hard for you to live badly, and when fate wanted you to live badly, you didn't even have room to fight back.

The third fleet that Skien's father commanded was badly damaged in a battle in which his father was killed.

The death of his eldest son greatly affected Skien's grandfather. He instantly aged a lot and lay ill in bed for a long time. He decided to slowly retreat from his position as the left prime minister.

Originally, since their family had a left prime minister and a fleet commander, their power had already been too much. In order to not worry the emperor, and in order to avoid conspiracies against them, Skien's grandfather had let his several uncles live idle, without real power. When Skien's father died and his grandfather retreated from his position, some took the opportunity to push the family to their deaths. And the main reason was because of Skien's engagement to Tony.

In this age, whichever country could control more advanced mechanical technology could become a great power in the universe. Thus, good mechanics were the most valued talents in every country.

Ever since he was ten years old, Skien started studying in the Mechanical Department of the Imperial Military Academy, where he studied and specialized in the development of mechas and various machinery. When he was fifteen, their department made an exception and accepted a mechanical genius named Avery Dottley.

Avery's talent in making mechas was particularly prominent, and even attracted the attention of the royal family. He had a brother named John, who just so happened to be a soldier in the Third Fleet. Because of his relationship with his outstanding brother, he also rose in position.

This originally had nothing to do with Skien and his family. Even though John was one of his father's subordinates, his father had never treated him unfairly, and had even given him a lot of support.

In school, Avery would always be hostile to Skien, but because of his grandfather and father's identity, he was afraid doing anything to him on the surface.

The reason Avery hated Skien was because he fell in love with Skien's fiancé Tony, and was jealous of him.

This Avery was actually not simple. In his body, was a soul from the future.

The real Avery had died from an accident, and at that time it was Tony who had saved him. When he woke up, in his body was no longer the previous soul. At that time he pretended to have amnesia, saying that he couldn't remember his family, but it was actually because he didn't know the real Avery's original life. Tony brought him back home to take care of him for a few days out of kindness, and he who had a 20 year old soul had fallen in love with Tony, who was only seventeen at the time but was already tall and handsome.

When the reborn Avery discovered that Tony was already engaged, and that his engagement partner's family was superior, not only aristocratic but his grandfather and father were both in extremely powerful positions, he felt a sense of crisis. When his businessmen parents found him and he understood the importance of class identity, he even felt somewhat desperate.

Avery's family was very rich, but no matter how much money they had, it couldn't make up the gap between his and Tony's identities. But he gradually discovered the difference between this space-time and his original space-time, that is, the level of mecha and other mechanical technology was a lot worse. Before he was reborn, he happened to be a student in the Mecha Academy. Even though his results were very average, in this space-time, he could use the things that he knew, and shine.

Avery thought that as long as he tried to change his destiny and close the gap between him and Tony, they could be together without any obstacles. But he slowly discovered that the biggest obstacle between him and Tony was actually not their identities, but Tony's genuine love for Skien. It was actually not a forced engagement by his parents, like he had originally thought.

After understanding everything, Avery was extremely jealous of Skien. He felt that since God had allowed him to be reborn, and he had been reborn to hundreds of years ago, then he should be the son of fate. He believed that these initial adversities were just a test for him, and he could use his own efforts to let fate go his way. He would not only get supreme glory, respected status, but also Tony's love.

Using the knowledge he had learned from before his rebirth, Avery achieved amazing results over and over again, and succeeded in drawing attention.

He created a mecha much more advanced than the current models, and also added some special settings. He only told the method to activate the mecha to his elder brother, and then said that only his elder brother would be able to drive this mecha. The two brothers, one in the development of mechas, and the other in driving mechas, were considered to have special talents.

The real cause of Skien's father's death actually had to do with Avery. With the reason of wanting to thank him for promoting his brother, Avery mentioned helping Skien's father remodel his mecha, and then made some underhanded adjustments. With his brother John's assistance, they let the fleet commander himself go check a planet, and then he was ambushed by cosmic pirates. During the battle, Skien's father's mecha suddenly malfunctioned. He hadn't had time to notify the ship when he was attacked by the cosmic pirates, and with the disintegrating mecha, fell into space.

And those cosmic pirates who ambushed them were in fact bought by John to ambush Skien's father.

John was a very ambitious man, and at the same time, he was a bro-con. For whatever his brother Avery wanted, he would do his best to help him get them, even if he had to rob it.

Under the two brothers' planning, John's position grew higher and he became more powerful. But even if John was already in control of the military, and the left prime minister had already completely left the scene, they would still not be able to get Skien and Tony to break up their engagement. Because even though the left prime minister had already given up his power, his influence still had not completely disappeared. Even the emperor could not make such an unreasonable demand of him.

John had seized power into his hands, and his ambition was growing, not to mention he also wanted to help his brother get his loved one. In order to climb to the peak of power, for his brother's love, he chose an unconventional method.

The emperor fell ill, and even the best medicine could not keep him alive. The throne was supposed to have been succeeded by the eldest prince, but the brothers created another accident, killing the eldest prince, and supported the illegitimate son of the emperor's mistress, a child only a few years old, to sit on the throne, and be controlled by them.

Even the emperor was under their control, and they finally took control of the highest power. Even if it wasn't on the surface, it was so in the dark. Even though those ministers who were baffled by them slowly realized what was going on, everything was too late.

They finally started to move against Skien's family, first going for Skien's uncles. They forcefully added several severe charges onto them, and then killed them in prison. It was a little difficult to convict Skien's grandfather and father, and required the other ministers' help. What made Skien's hatred explode in his despair was when he found that Tony's family was also involved in vilifying his grandfather and father.

Skien's grandfather was ill in bed, and the matter of several of his sons dying was originally concealed from him. But John brought men to charge into their home, told him everything himself, and even announced the charges against him and his eldest son. Skien's grandfather knew that his sons had all died, and heard those fictional crimes. Thinking that even when he was dying he would have to die in this kind of situation, he fainted from anger, and died in this way.

Skien just watched his own grandfather die from anger like this, he hated his own incompetence, hated John's cruelty, and hated those who had helped John deal with their family. But besides hate, he could do nothing. That kind of despair and pain, those who had never experienced it before, would never be able to understand.

Soon Skien received the engagement termination document from Tony's family. He ran to ask Tony if it was his own decision or his parents' decision.

Tony said that it was his parents who decided to terminate their engagement, he didn't want to, but he also couldn't control it.

Skien asked him if he was willing to leave the country with him, and escape far away.

Tony said that he couldn't abandon his parents, so even if his heart was in pain, he couldn't leave with him.

Skien was very disappointed in his heart, but he couldn't blame him. He knew, as he had said, that this was all beyond his control.

But then Avery appeared. He intimately held Tony's hand, proudly telling Skien that he was getting engaged to Tony. He told Skien to not bother Tony again, and even said that Tony had actually fallen in love with him a long time ago, but because of his grandfather, he hadn't mentioned it, or else he would long have broken off their engagement.

Skien didn't believe what he said. He looked at Tony and hoped that he could deny it, but he not only didn't deny it, but even nodded to confirm Avery's words, and said that he had really fallen in love with Avery a long time ago.

Ever since Avery had been saved by Tony, he had always been looking for opportunities to get close to him. After many intersections, the two of them had become ambiguous. Tony had also struggled in his heart, he felt that he loved Skien, but also could not bear to reject Avery. Under his indulgence, Avery became increasingly bold in expressing his love for him, and after one time when they were drunk, the two of them ended up having a relationship.

Tony had originally been struggling with how to face Skien, but after Skien's family had problems, he actually felt a sense of relief. He felt that this way he could have both Skien and Avery. With Skien's family's situation, it was no longer as noble as it was before, and he should not mind being his lover. And Avery had always been gentle and considerate, never quarreling with him, so he should not care that he was raising a lover outside.

Skien's mood at that time was difficult to describe in words. He didn't cry and didn't argue, his heart was already numb, and he left with a sad smile.

In order to show off to Skien and attack him, Avery told him the truth, and mocked him for being an abandoned mountain bird, even if he knew everything, he still couldn't go against him.

Skien's cousins were all assassinated, and only Skien and his elder brother were luckily able to escape. When Skien was about to flee with his elder brother, they were attacked by people sent by John. John wanted to completely get rid of any threats to his younger brother, and would let Skien and his big brother disappear completely from this world.

When they were running, Skien's elder brother got two mechas from who knows where. He let Skien escape first, and he himself went to confront the people chasing them.

Skien was originally unwilling to run away alone, but with his brothers' insistence and persuasion, he could only leave in pain.

Although his older brother bought him some time, as he was about to escape the scope of the Fetani Empire, the men chasing him caught up. After he was hit, he fell into space with his mecha. The men chasing him thought he was dead and tried to bring his body back, but just happened to encounter the patrol ship of the Wilkesa Empire.

When they were chasing Skien, they were already about to enter the Wilkesa Empire's scope. In order to not cause any unnecessary conflict, they quickly retreated.

Translator Notes:

[1] everything was out of focus – 眼前视线叠影重重, I think this is saying that there's a lot of afterimages, like when your eyes are out of focus, rough translation

[2] reckless courage – 豁出去的豪情, 豁出去 means to throw caution to the wind, 豪 is like grand or heroic

[3] Denanfry – 德南弗烈, pinyin de nan fu lie, probably most helpless name I've seen yet, I'm just going with the MTL for this name. if anyone has any less esoteric translations for this, I welcome them

[4] Dyles – 迪莱斯, pinyin di la si

[5] exacting – 一板一眼, idiom, means following a prescribed pattern to the letter, scrupulous attention to detail

[6] Skien Kossa – 希恩柯萨, pinyin xi en ke sa, MTL translates to Sheen but I feel like it doesn't quite fit. Skien showed up upon googling 希恩 so we're going with that. The MC and ML will have equally strange names.

[7] Fetani – 斐塔尼, pinyin fei ta ni

[8] fleet – 舰, so this translates to warship, but later is referred to as 舰队, which translates to fleet. It also sounds kind of small to just be a captain of a warship. I decided to just translate to fleet.

[9] Tony Bilus – 托尼比鲁斯, pinyin tuo ni bi lu si

[10] a perfect match – 门当户对, idiom, means the families are well-matched in terms of social status

[11] childhood sweethearts – 青梅竹马, idiom, means a couple who grew up as childhood friends

[12] Avery Dottley – 艾克里多特利, pinyin ai ke li duo te li

[13] disintegrating – 四分五裂, idiom, means falling to pieces

[14] unconventional method – 剑走偏锋, apparently a modern idiom? means unexpected winning move

[15] faint from anger – 怒急攻心, sudden strong emotions attacked the heart, leading to faints

[16] cruelty – 狼心狗肺, idiom, literally means heart of wolf and lungs of dog, means cruel and unscrupulous

[17] abandoned mountain bird – 落魄的山鸟, literal translation, I'm assuming that mountain bird used to be high up and strong but now he's abandoned

[18] Wilkesa – 威尔克沙, pinyin wei er ke sha

Random Notes:

Over two hours: 10:30 am – 12:45 pm, for 6.4k characters to 4.3k words.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the eighth arc. My apologies for leaving for so long, much longer than planned. There were a combination of factors that led to this: interviews, traveling, finals, and a lack of motivation to translate for some reason. But during my break I have re-gathered my enthusiasm for reading novels and will be continuing to translate, hopefully building up a backlog so my releases can be consistent at one chapter a week on Saturdays. This chapter was so long, over 6k characters. Definitely took a while, especially since it's the first chapter in an arc. Hope everyone enjoys this arc! Happy holidays!