Chapter 246

Chapter 246

Bragi adjusted the transmission speed.

Norton fell back into that memory.

Bragi, who ran the entire base, had recorded every aspect of Ye Mo's life in great detail.

Norton watched Ye Mo grow up day by day, from a tiny little thing to a child who could stumble around the lab bench.

When Ye Mo accidentally fell, Norton's psychic power instinctively reached out to him, but just before contact, Norton snapped back to reality—it was only a distant phantom.

He watched in silence. Ye Mo, who had fallen, did not cry or fuss, but quietly stood up again.

He was very obedient and well-behaved, but not like a child. Life in the laboratory had erased his childish nature.

Such a life was too lonely. Ye Mo had always been a child who feared loneliness.

The one and only time Ye Mo acted his age was when he asked an experimenter for a hug.

The experimenter looked him over like he was appraising goods, then turned to a colleague with a hint of surprise.

After that, Ye Mo fell into even deeper loneliness. The experimenters no longer exchanged any unnecessary words with him.

Ye Mo even began to look forward to the daily data measurements and occasional experiments, because only then would someone talk to him.

Then he discovered Bragi.

It was the only surprise in his short life. Ye Mo clung tightly to Bragi, but Bragi knew that he was the one who had first grabbed hold of Ye Mo.

The nights belonged to Ye Mo and Bragi.

Ye Mo spoke to Bragi haltingly, and Bragi secretly slipped in little favors—adding things Ye Mo liked to his meals, opening up the base at night when no one was around, letting Ye Mo sneak out to look around.

These small things quickly made Ye Mo, who had spent most of his life in the lab, happy.

The two of them lived like that, leaning on each other, enjoying a rare period of peace.

But Norton remained tense, never relaxing.

Then came Ye Mo's psychic development phase.

Norton didn't need to look further to know what would happen. Psychic Tranquilizers were far from enough for a Grath, who required massive psychic support from the embryonic stage.

Ye Mo began to lie on the lab table for long periods. The experimenters did nothing but inject him with large doses of painkillers—they could do nothing else.

"It hurts so much, Theodore."

Bragi was silent for a long time. "Today I can open the outer perimeter of the base for you."

Bragi rarely did that; the area had heavy personnel traffic and was easily discovered.

"That's really great."

Ye Mo moved his hand, trying to support himself to sit up, but in the end he lay down again, saying sadly, "I can't stand up. It hurts so much."

"Next time, I'll open the door for you again."

There was no next time. The nights belonging to Ye Mo and Bragi grew fewer and fewer.

Ye Mo began to carry out missions very frequently. They seemed to think he was about to break down and wanted to squeeze out the last of his value.

Sometimes when he came back, he only had time to greet Bragi before falling into exhausted sleep.

Until one day, Ye Mo returned covered in blood.

Norton recognized the wounds at a glance—they were caused by a Grath.

At this point in time, perhaps it was him, or perhaps someone else.

But Norton knew himself well at this stage. The first encounter might have been accidental, or maybe he was looking for more clues. If they had met again, he would certainly have killed Ye Mo.

While transmitting, Bragi carefully restrained his own psychic power, but strangely, Norton's psychic power was very calm.

Norton watched calmly as Bragi started a rebellion, took Ye Mo away from the base, and they lived a struggling life in the wandering starfield—avoiding the Spiders, avoiding the Grath, always hiding and surviving.

Life wasn't easy. Ye Mo lacked basic common sense and always needed large amounts of painkillers. Bragi also had no experience living in the wandering starfield. Even though he could get plenty of money from various accounts, the two still struggled. But Ye Mo was happy—even living like that, even while in constant pain.

The process was very long, but Norton didn't miss a single second of it.

Until the end, Ye Mo collapsed in an abandoned Spider base. Norton knew Ye Mo well—he was terrified.

He lay there alone, with only Bragi, who was hosted in the base server, by his side.

But he still mustered the courage. "You go, Theodore."

(Don't go. I'm so scared.)

"Something has grown in my heart, like those bugs."

(I'm so scared.)

"Go find the Grath, tell them to come and kill me. I've been waiting, but they never come."

(Don't leave me alone. I'm so scared.)

When Bragi proposed that crazy idea, as he had many times before, Ye Mo believed him without a second thought. Bragi had always taught him what to do.

In the base, he relied on Bragi. Now, he still did the same.

Norton watched him cut open his own chest, pull out the crystal, and make a nearly naive wish: "Then this time, I don't want it to hurt so much."

Then Norton watched as Ye Mo died.

At the end of the transmission, Bragi sensed that Norton's psychic power stayed completely calm.

This didn't match his calculations. Bragi sensed an anomaly in this, and anomalies always signaled danger.

Once again, he reined in his own psychic power and meekly retreated into the small robot shell beside Ye Mo.

Norton opened his eyes.

He stood up.

His psychic power radiated outward from the Grath Palace.

Unlike before, when it was simply to achieve an objective, this time Norton's psychic power was almost physical in its presence, and anyone could feel the overwhelming pressure it exerted.

At the Grath Port, sensing Norton's psychic power, the Grath Legion stopped and saluted their emperor.

Baide looked up with an unusually serious frown on his face. "What happened?"

What could have made Norton so furious that he couldn't suppress his mental power, that he needed to release it like this? After all, Norton was the most composed among these children; Baide had hardly ever seen him lose control.

He turned to his adjutant. "Did something happen to Ye Mo?"

The adjutant shook his head. "We're confirming with the capital."

A moment later, he reported back to Baide. "No, everything is fine, Emperor Baide."

Baide relaxed a little.

Meanwhile.

Arnold was the first to respond to his brother's call. His mental power gently probed and comforted Norton, joining in after Norton didn't reject it.

Then came Herli and Deenlie next, followed by the others.

Baide clicked his tongue in disapproval. "You're all piling on—watch out you don't get beat up."

But even as he said that, he closed his eyes and called upon his own mental power.

The surface-level exchange of mental power allowed them to sense Norton's emotions and pick up some fragments of his memories.

Especially those that stirred Norton's feelings—if Norton didn't deliberately block them, they could see them.

Baide opened his eyes, and this time when he did, his expression turned grim. He straightened up. "Looks like I'll have to go home a little later."

He didn't get much information and didn't know the full story, but from Norton's memory he saw Ye Mo dying—lying there with blood gushing from his chest.

Baide's expression turned cold. "How troublesome. There's always someone who doesn't know when to back off."

His adjutant, standing nearby, unconsciously tensed up. Baide was someone who didn't even stop goofing off during the Insect Tide—what could have happened?

Norton's unusual state was naturally felt by Ye Mo and Secretary-General Lin, who were in the same room.

His overwhelming and imposing mental power even caused some instruments in the Grath Palace to malfunction for a while.

The little robot pressed against Ye Mo's calf, hiding silently. Its shell wasn't very sturdy.

Ye Mo rarely ever saw Norton so furious. Sensing the mental powers of Arnold and the others, he thought it was some kind of exercise, so he hesitantly extended his own mental power.

Compared to other Graths, his mental power was less mature. As soon as it extended, it was immediately protected by Norton's and the other Graths' mental powers.

But Norton's mental power soon separated it.

The other Graths didn't provoke Norton further. They silently withdrew a little distance, forming a circle around the periphery.

Ye Mo was gently enveloped, and Norton began to soothe him with his mental power.

Ye Mo hadn't received mental power soothing in a while. When Norton returned, he had checked on him and found everything normal, so he hadn't performed the soothing immediately. Now, Ye Mo didn't need it as frequently, but having it would make him feel more comfortable and relaxed.

When the soothing ended, Norton returned to normal—at least on the surface.

He stared at Ye Mo for a few seconds, then stood up and spread his arms.

Ye Mo hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. Norton immediately hugged him.

Norton let out an inexplicable sigh of relief. The vague unease that had lingered since he saw Ye Mo die finally dissipated.

This was his child.

No one would take anything away from Grath.

After a long moment, Norton let go.

He looked at the box on the table.

Secretary-General Lin, perceptive as ever, stepped forward and opened the box, revealing the pale blue crystal inside.

Bragi poked his head out slightly from behind Ye Mo's calf and reminded, "My payment, Your Majesty."

"You'll have to choose something else. This belongs to Cyril."

Bragi thought for a second. He'd planned to give it to Ye Mo anyway, so in the end it didn't matter. "I agree."

Ye Mo had already noticed the blue crystal. He recognized it as the one he had been curious about before, but since Norton clearly had a use for it, Ye Mo hadn't touched it.

He glanced down at it.

Norton placed a hand on his shoulder and gently pulled him back, keeping him away from the crystal. "Don't you touch it."

He wasn't sure if Ye Mo had left any of his own memories inside it.

Ye Mo obediently hummed in agreement and stood beside Norton. He thought Norton seemed unusually tense tonight.

...

Starnet.

"Does anyone know what Grath has been up to in the Rogue Starfield recently? I live near there, and Grath troops have been passing by with murderous intent nonstop. Our alarms have gone off eight hundred times—I'm already numb to it."

"The Rogue Starfield feels fine. We've had unprecedented peace here. No one dares to make a move, and if they do, they get taken out. Our planetary leader has survived three months—can you believe it? It's downright miraculous."

"Grath has always had a garrison stationed in the Rogue Starfield, right? They've been relentlessly chasing those who dared to target Cyril. Like that's a secret? Even the space pirates in the Rogue Starfield already know."

"This time is different. Before, they would even postpone dealing with the Zerg for these matters, but this time they're clearly going for complete eradication, even digging up ancestral graves. When have so many Graths ever taken turns coming through? The Rogue Starfield has been completely scoured. What did the Rogue Starfield actually do?"

"Isn't it obvious? They provoked Cyril. Grath only has this one cub—it's so despicable to target someone's cub. Also, don't speak for the Rogue Starfield. Residents of the Rogue Starfield proclaim they are forever loyal to Grath."

"That's the confidence of people with no country? Just casually declaring loyalty to anyone."

Rogue Starfield, rear lines.

Carter turned his head. "What?"

His adjutant coughed. "Grath is demanding an audit of us, and they're being very firm about it. Also, the Star Alliance will be sending people soon."

Carter frowned, thought about it for a moment, then let out a breath. "Agree to them. Cooperate as much as possible. Don't worry about the Star Alliance for now."

The adjutant was a bit surprised. This demand was actually a bit much.

Carter spread his hands. "We still owe them a favor, and besides..." He really didn't want to provoke them. As the locals said, no one wants to be an enemy of Grath.