Chapter 8 The Counselor’s Eighth Day I feel Teacher Cheng could…

Chapter 8: Counselor’s 8th Day on the Job — Teacher Cheng Could Punch Each of Us into Pancakes...

“Cheng Jingnian!!!”

Mou Lin had never known ten minutes to drag on so endlessly. When Cheng Jingnian finally set him down, his legs were like jelly, and he collapsed onto the ground. Even an interstellar beta’s physique seemed enhanced compared to an Earthling’s. Had he been in his original, overworked Earth body, he’d likely be vomiting by now. As it was, Mou Lin merely felt dizzy.

Cheng Jingnian had already swiftly retrieved the parachute, folded it neatly, and laid it across a thick tree root. He walked over to Mou Lin, intending to help him up.

“...!” Mou Lin, holding his breath, tried to pull Cheng Jingnian down with him. Unfortunately, the other man stood firm, completely unmoved. Embarrassed, Mou Lin had no choice but to yield to Cheng Jingnian’s strength and sit back down on the parachute, now serving as a makeshift cushion.

“Sorry,” Cheng Jingnian said, crouching on one knee before him. “I deliberately skipped ‘two’ and went straight to ‘three.’ I tricked you—my apologies.”

Mou Lin lowered his head, picking at the moss clinging to the bark. “It’s not entirely your fault. I know if you’d counted slowly, I would’ve shouted ‘wait’ again, and we’d have been delayed…”

“That wouldn’t have happened.”

Mou Lin: “?”

The white-clad Drill Instructor had already risen. “Because even if you asked me to wait, I would still have jumped.”

“Cheng Jingnian!!!!!!”

…

“Cheng Jingnian!”

In another corner of the rainforest, another group was also calling out Cheng Jingnian’s name.

“Cheng Jingnian?! Our class’s Teacher Cheng?!” Zhao Yao stared in disbelief, restarting his terminal, but the same name reappeared. “Could it be a coincidence… a namesake…”

His voice trailed off.

Because Cong Xieying, who had quickly clicked the hyperlink next to the name, had already pulled up the photo of their so-called “mission assistance teacher”—the familiar silver hair, the familiar deep green eyes, the familiar cold yet striking face.

“What’s wrong with Teacher Cheng? His bionic limb coverage should be the highest among the three school Drill Instructors…” Xia Fengchi frowned. Everyone knew Drill Instructors were soldiers who retired early due to injuries. The greater the area covered by their bionic exoskeletons (Yijia), the more severe their original injuries. Though ethically questionable, this also implied the Drill Instructor’s combat capability was relatively weaker.

“Yeah, Teacher Cheng’s AI duplication rate is 6.7%, but his AI is different from others’,” Cong Xieying said, dragging the last parachute into place.

Xia Fengchi grew even more confused. “AI duplication rate?”

Cong Xieying: “It refers to the proportion of bionic exoskeleton (Yijia) coverage. But that’s not the point! The real issue is, all other Drill Instructors use Sigma Model exoskeletons. Only Teacher Cheng has a Theta Model!”

The beta students from Medical and Logistics departments were still slightly puzzled, but Xia Fengchi from Command widened his eyes.

While both were exoskeletons, if the Sigma Model was designed to allow severely injured soldiers to live normally, the Theta Model was built for continued combat. It placed a much heavier burden on the human body, but in return, delivered terrifying enhancements. In other words, while the others’ exoskeletons were handicaps—a drag—Cheng Jingnian’s was a miniature, form-fitting mech! A massive advantage!

The team reached a silent consensus to ignore Cong Xieying’s wordplay. After Xia Fengchi’s brief explanation, even the beta students from Medical and Logistics opened their eyes wide.

They turned to Zhao Yao, the only alpha in the group. Though the young man looked sturdy, recalling Teacher Cheng’s sharp, blade-like presence made them hesitate.

“Feels like Teacher Cheng could punch each of us into pancakes…”

An eerie silence fell over the group.

“Beep beep.”

A sudden alert from their terminals broke the silence. Almost in unison, they opened their devices to check the notification.

【You are members of the Federal Colonization Team “To Be Determined” Vanguard. During your colonization mission, you made an emergency landing on this unnamed planet due to mechanical failure. In your initial exploration, you discovered signs of intelligent life on this planet, which should have remained untouched by humanity…】

【Colonization Phase One has begun—】

【Please follow system prompts, collect resources, and exchange points for necessary items. Points exceeding the approval threshold will receive a 1.5x multiplier.】

【The Colonization [Ghost Gate II] Support System is at your service.】

“Why is the team name still ‘To Be Determined’? Hahaha… Wait a second.”

“Zhao Yao,” Cong Xieying’s expression turned grim, “don’t tell me this is one of your ‘Zhao’ (meaning ‘to mess up’) moments.”

“I definitely didn’t forget! I remember needing to fill out the team name,” Zhao Yao strained to recall, growing so nervous that pheromones began leaking out, “I definitely sent the form to the group chat, and then—”

Xia Fengchi had already pulled up the message history: “And right after that, the announcement about the on-site mission assistance teacher came out, and everyone started discussing that instead.”

Another wave of silence settled.

The Logistics beta tried to stay optimistic: “Maybe Teacher Cheng will laugh so hard at our name that he’ll underperform…”

“That’s impossible, no matter how you look at it,” the Medical beta shot back.

The lingering scent of fire and sunlight around Zhao Yao made the already muggy, humid rainforest even more oppressive. Cong Xieying smacked Zhao Yao hard, telling him to control his pheromones. “Regardless, let’s move! The Drill Instructors land last. Let’s grab as many 1.5x multiplier points as possible before Teacher Cheng starts collecting.”

“As long as we get first place, our team name won’t be a failure—it’ll be an artistic statement!”

“Double rhyme!”

“Hurry up and go find resources!”

…

“Aren’t we supposed to collect resources? Wouldn’t going easy on us be too obvious?” The list of exchangeable items was long. Mou Lin’s finger hovered over 【50 points - Portable Temperature Regulator (Cooling Device)】, his desire evident.

Right after landing, dizziness had overwhelmed everything. Once his body recovered slightly, Mou Lin realized this rainforest, whose name meant “Humid Heart,” truly lived up to its name. The air was thick and suffocating, making one feel as if inside a giant heart, with rushing rivers serving as pulsing blood vessels.

Cheng Jingnian sat beside him now, both sheltered beneath a canopy made of parachute fabric and large leaves. He pressed the back of his right hand against Mou Lin’s forehead—the metal of the exoskeleton (Yijia) surprisingly cool. “It’s going to rain soon. Let them enjoy themselves for a while.”

The scent of crushed mosquito-repelling plants filled the air. Mou Lin picked up the coconut-like fruit he’d brought earlier and took a sip. “Fine, but exactly how are resources defined? Don’t water sources and shelter materials count?”

“Because they don’t contain Millet Jade (Jiyu).”

“Millet Jade (Jiyu)?”

Just as Cheng Jingnian predicted, rain began to fall, pattering heavily on the shelter roof. Not far away, certain plants with unusually large leaves collected rainwater, then tipped over periodically, like a Japanese garden’s *shishi-odoshi*—a bamboo device that clacks as it empties. The air temperature gradually dropped, becoming pleasantly cool.

Mou Lin drew his legs in, avoiding the splashing mist. He had tied his slightly long hair into a bun on the transport ship for convenience, but the high humidity now made his naturally curly black hair puffier than ever.

Cheng Jingnian’s white clothes still emitted a faint glow in the dim light—clean, snow-white, spotless. He lowered his gaze and pulled up a picture on his terminal: a powerful stag, its antlers transparent like crystal, with chains of bead-like droplets hanging from the tips like a curtain of rain.

“So beautiful,” Mou Lin couldn’t help but whisper.

Cheng Jingnian zoomed in, filling the screen with those clear, sparkling bead chains. Then Mou Lin realized something strange—these “bead chains” weren’t added effects; they were natural growths on the antlers themselves.

Swipe to the next photo: the stag stood among a group of others. Compared to their plain brown antlers, it looked like a relic from a mythical age.

“This is the effect of Millet Jade (Jiyu),” Cheng Jingnian said, lightly tapping the screen. More fantastical creatures appeared. “Organisms containing Millet Jade (Jiyu) undergo physical transformations. They become stronger, smarter, and have reduced reproductive drives.”

“The effects of Millet Jade (Jiyu) weaken up the food chain, so they’re most pronounced at lower levels.”

The screen displayed a plant, its leaves shimmering with rainbow iridescence, the blades themselves appearing as if forged from gold.

"But in us humans, it can no longer cause obvious physical transformations."

Cheng Jingnian continued flipping through the images, pausing on an official group photo of high-ranking military officials. Mou Lin looked directly at the extraordinary hair and eye colors of the people in the photo for the first time, no longer merely dismissing it with the excuse that "anything is possible in a fictional world."

"Have you ever wondered why alphas and omegas can manipulate pheromones as an external manifestation of spirit, using them to express intimidation, repel, and connection—and even betas, who lack pheromones, can sense them?"

His heart pounded wildly. The overwhelming downpour had blotted out everything; the slightly distant areas were shrouded in a curtain of rain like fog, making them indistinct. The rainwater at the edge of the shelter's "eaves" had already formed continuous waterfalls, as if between heaven and earth there remained only him and Cheng Jingnian, and they were about to share the deep secrets of this world on this isolated island—

Cheng Jingnian, with a swoosh, pulled up a research report: "For us humans, long-term consumption of food containing Millet Jade can condense pheromones, making them easier to control. At the same time, Millet Jade also has the effect of enhancing appearance, though this improvement is mostly limited to better skin and more vibrant hair."

"Why does something like fish oil have such an elevated name, and why haven’t most people heard of it?!" Mou Lin slammed the table and stood up, nearly knocking over the half-finished interstellar coconut in his hand.

A small white object emerged through the rain and mist, drifting out of the pea-green haze. It circled the shelter twice before stopping in front of Mou Lin.

"That’s a camera lens," Cheng Jingnian settled Mou Lin back into his seat. "If you’re uncomfortable, just wave your hand, and it’ll leave."

Mou Lin took a big gulp of the interstellar coconut: "Can we keep talking?"

"It’s probably just here to film some leisurely shots of the instructor first. It’ll fly off to film the students in a bit." As if to confirm Cheng Jingnian’s words, the small white camera drone bobbed in a nodding motion, greeted them, then flew a short distance away, stopping just far enough that lip-reading would be impossible.

"Let’s continue about Millet Jade. It’s named after its discoverer, Dr. Jun Nan, who was... obsessed with cultivation novels at the time." Cheng Jingnian paused briefly. "The reason the Federation hasn’t publicized it is that Millet Jade must be accompanied by extensive pheromone training to be effective. Outside the military, almost no one can meet that condition."

"So betas can’t consume it?" Mou Lin set down the empty shell and shifted it slightly, positioning its opening under the stream of water flowing from the eaves.

"They can. Betas actually do have pheromones; they just can’t express them, so it’s generally overlooked," Cheng Jingnian explained. "That’s also why it’s impossible to distinguish late-differentiating alphas/omegas from betas through pheromone detection."

"Hmm..." Mou Lin fell into thought but quickly shifted his focus. "It doesn’t look like this rain will let up anytime soon. We should probably plan what to exchange for first."

So Cheng Jingnian also opened the points exchange list, and the two of them huddled together, whispering in the dry, rain-sheltered refuge.

The small white camera drone had captured enough of this cozy scene and turned to fly back into the rain.

【Command detected: Mark location [238, 37]. Team "Name Pending" engaged in a rain-soaked encounter. Proceeding to film.】

Author's Note:

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Dr. Jun Nan: What's this? A novel, let me take a look. What's this? A novel, let me take a look.

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