Chapter 147: The Inheritance

Chapter 147 Legacy

Author’s Note: [Content warning] Can't be placed at the top. The uke's gland was injected with a purified extract of the seme brother's pheromones using scientific methods, like a blood transfusion. No sexual behavior involved. Please avoid if this makes you uncomfortable.

66 hovered nervously outside the Central Management Bureau, lingering for a long time but never venturing inside.

Its little screen drooped, and it finally slid down against the wall, motionless.

Although Jiang Xun did okay in the first half, he totally lost it in the latter half. Tallying on its digital fingers, 66 realized a score of 70 was hopeless.

66: "QAQ"

The Mainframe will definitely be disappointed!

It was given such simple tasks, yet it kept messing up again and again!

And... this was already the fifth task!

The Central Management Bureau grouped tasks in sets of five. For new systems like 66, an evaluation would follow after five tasks. If the score was too low, there could mean penalties.

And 66's performance in all five tasks had been a trainwreck. Barring any miracles, it was officially the worst system under the Mainframe's command.

The little system crouched in the corner, a storm cloud over its head, the atmosphere thick enough to cut.

Behind the door, a soft sigh echoed from inside the hall.

The Mainframe sighed helplessly, "66, what are you doing out there? Come in."

As it spoke, it parted the doors.

66 slunk in like a kicked puppy through the gap.

It stood before the Mainframe and mumbled, "Mainframe..."

The scolding the Mainframe had prepared faded, and its tone softened. "You did better than every attempt before. That's something."

66 then looked up and saw the Mainframe's display screen.

—69 points.

66: "QAQ"

It was indeed better than before, but still pretty bad!

"Well, with five tasks completed, we must now tally the results," the Mainframe input all of 66's scores and sighed again. "It's pretty bad. There might be penalties."

66 hung its head in defeat. "Yes, I know."

The Mainframe: "I've reviewed the score breakdown. This host scored highly at first, but then suddenly crashed hard. 66, what happened?"

66, of course, knew the reason—it all went downhill after the Chenglu Palace fire.

That was when 66 went soft.

The little system lowered its screen. "Look... I'd do it again."

A guy like Jiang Xun shouldn't have died in the Chenglu Palace fire.

The Mainframe: "Not saying you were wrong... Alright, let's pick your next mission."

He spoke as he transmitted a string of text to 66: "This story has a unique setting. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the basic premise first."

66 imported the text, and the first thing that caught its eye were three letters—"ABO."

The title of the article was *The Inherited Legacy*.

Given 66's vast reading experience, this was clearly a soapy, over-the-top story from *that* kind of site.

It continued reading.

Further down was a lengthy introduction.

"A deep mark cannot be erased, and if an ALPHA/OMEGA cannot receive the soothing pheromones of their partner, their glands may deteriorate, endangering their life.

Therefore, according to Article 175 of the Federal Government's Equal Rights Act, if either party in a deeply marked ALPHA/OMEGA relationship dies, siblings whose pheromones resemble the deceased ALPHA/OMEGA's are obligated to provide regulated doses of pheromones to the widowed ALPHA/OMEGA. These pheromones are purified and prepared by hospitals before being delivered to the ALPHA/OMEGA in need."

66 was familiar with the basic ABO premise—for instance, when it listened to audio dramas with Jiang Xun, it had encountered works of this genre. At the time, Jiang Xun had looked around awkwardly but still managed to explain it clearly to 66. However, this particular law was something 66 had never heard of before.

66: "But what kind of setup is this? I've never seen it before."

The Mainframe explained, "You know, in the ABO universe, an Omega can only be marked by one Alpha and requires the Alpha to accompany them through their long ruts/heats. Otherwise, they may go into distress—ranging from physical breakdowns to fatal complications."

66: "Yes."

The Mainframe: "Then have you ever thought about what would happen if an Alpha deeply marked an Omega, but the Alpha died? What would become of the one left behind?"

66's screen glitched, mimicking confusion.

Most of the stories it had read ended with the protagonists confessing their feelings and riding off into the sunset. 66 had never really considered what would happen if one partner passed away—how the other would cope.

The Mainframe: "Although everyone's pheromones are unique, government studies found that some people share similar pheromones, which can serve as substitutes."

"And compared to searching for strangers with matching pheromones like finding a needle in a haystack, blood relatives generally have higher pheromonal similarity. In emergencies, doctors extract blood from relatives, isolate and purify the effective pheromones, and create injections to administer into the scent glands. This can provide about 60-70% of the substitute effect."

66 nodded and continued reading.

Unlike conventional modern or historical settings, ABO was a rather unique world. The tragic protagonist, Liang Xu, was an Omega who had married early, and his Alpha had long since died.

The Mainframe: "Liang Xu's situation was special. He was an orphan raised in an orphanage. During university, he was chosen by the local business dynasty, the Ye family, to marry their only son, Ye Xuan."

The patriarch of the Ye family, Elder Ye, had only one son—Ye Xuan—but unfortunately, he was sickly, suffering from glandular disease at a young age and bedridden for years. Elder Ye selected Liang Xu because he was book-smart and polished and had no family ties—an orphan, making him the ideal broodmare for the next clan heir. Thus, under the Ye family's thumb, Liang Xu was forced into marriage with Ye Xuan.

The specifics of how this was arranged weren't detailed in the original text, only that the dynasty held immense power locally and was rumored to have underworld connections.

Elder Ye had been a ruthless figure in his youth, engaging in back-alley brawls that carved a scar running from his collarbone to his navel and cost him an eye. Now, though older and graying, all grandfatherly smiles on the outside, he remained cunning and cruel. Under such pressure, the young Liang Xu had no choice but to comply and marry Ye Xuan.

On the wedding day, an injection containing purified pheromones extracted from Ye Xuan was injected into the scent glands of Liang Xu, completing the deep mark.

The Mainframe added, "Under the backdrop of equal rights, few couples opt for deep marking—usually, temporary marks suffice. Situations like Liang Xu’s—where the power gap is downright oppressive and the Ye family's control is absolute—are exceptions."

66 half-understood: "Like branding an object as one's property?"

The Mainframe: "Exactly."

Liang Xu was the vessel Elder Ye had chosen to bear the next clan heir—of course, he needed to be branded as Ye property.

This mark should have been made by Ye Xuan himself, but Ye Xuan was too frail, unable to even attend the wedding ceremony before dying from glandular complications. They had to extract a synthetic substitute instead. Meanwhile, Elder Ye, having damaged his own reproductive capabilities in his violent youth, could no longer father children. Thus, the sprawling Ye empire was left heirless.

Elder Ye, having lost his son, aged twenty years in a day. With rivals circling like vultures, it was then that Liang Xu, still inside the Ye mansion, unexpectedly proved a business prodigy.

He was skilled at playing the game, swallowing all the disgust and humiliation, putting on an act of humble diligence while serving Elder Ye. After several years of this, he actually managed to grab a piece of the pie.

For Elder Ye, with his only son dead, he didn't care who took over the company. So he let Liang Xu take the reins. Gradually, this Omega climbed to a high position. By his late twenties, he had ditched his poor-boy image, now clad in suits, ties, and silver-framed glasses, frequenting high-end venues as a legit big-shot.

66 skeptically flipped through the pages. "Where's the tragedy here?"

Sure, the first half was rough, but the latter part wasn’t so bad, was it?

Mainframe: "Keep reading."

If it ended here, it’d be pretty tame for a soap opera.

Easy come, easy go.

Mainframe: "If the story stopped here, it’d be decent. Unfortunately, Ye Xuan wasn’t Elder Ye’s only son. Elder Ye had a low sperm count, but with a one-in-a-million shot, he fathered an illegitimate child."

"Though no one knew of his existence at the start, the Ye family would eventually discover him and bring him back to claim his birthright."

With a biological son in the picture, what use was Liang Xu anymore?

Thus, years of hard work went up in smoke. Power and wealth became nothing more than someone else's windfall. The once-glorified executive of the conglomerate was now merely part of the estate, handed down to the next in line. Liang Xu’s fate, along with the vast fortune of the Ye family, was handed over to someone else’s control.

And this person had a smell damn near identical to the one that had marked him—able to make him lose his cool or humiliate him at will.

By the story’s end, Liang Xu could no longer endure the degradation. He cut out his own gland and fled the country.

Removing the gland disrupted his hormones. Combined with the hardships of his early years and the prolonged lack of his alpha's pheromones after Ye Xuan’s death, his health deteriorated irreparably. By the time he escaped the Ye family, his body was too far gone, leaving him with only three years to live.

In those three years, he accomplished much—high-stakes deals, power plays. With death at his doorstep, he finally gained the standing to face the Ye family head-on.

On the very day Liang Xu died in his sickbed, Elder Ye bought it in a hospital screw-up, and the illegitimate son croaked in a horrific car wreck.

The details weren’t spelled out, but 66 got the creepy picture.

It silently closed the text.

The Mainframe highlighted one name in red: "This is the NPC you’ll be playing in this round."

—Shi Lv.

Shi Lv, Elder Ye’s illegitimate son, Liang Xu’s direct junior, and the one who would control Liang Xu’s fate.

66 shut the original text and nodded solemnly.

It raised a nonexistent cybernetic finger, swearing to the Mainframe, "This time, I won’t repeat my mistakes. I’ll be ruthless, focusing solely on completing the mission—"

"66," the Mainframe interrupted, sighing. "You’ll have to be ruthless whether you want to or not."

"As punishment for the last five failures, your communication with Su Zhu will be restricted this time. Aside from issuing tasks, you’ll be muted. And Su Zhu won’t be selectable—he’ll be assigned by the system."

66: "QAQ"

It slumped dejectedly. "Understood, Boss Mainframe."

The Mainframe was a system that upheld justice strictly. Once punishment was programmed, it would be enforced. 66 knew this was the lightest penalty possible.

At the same time, it perked up.

Last time, the mission failed because it went soft again and again. Now, with communication cut off and no room for idle chatter, it could focus entirely on the task at hand!

66 set off with its game face on.