Addictive effects

Thank you KoshkaHP for the donation! It’s late because I didn’t get the notification, sorry :blobsweats:

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At ten o’clock sharp, Bai Ling woke up with great willpower and he quickly got dressed and ready.

North failed to talk him out of it and, in the end, could only grab plenty of hot water and inhibitor sticks and accompany him to the lecture.

After they left, silence fell over the dorm. Not long after, the tightly closed capsule door slowly slid open. Someone agilely and silently hopped down, lazily rubbing his wheat-colored hair. As his tank top lifted, it revealed the lean, tight serratus muscles of his torax.

“…What’s this?”

His sharp, orange-red eyes glanced over, picked up the piece of beef jerky, and held it up to the light, examining its texture.

“This is high-quality stuff,” he mused. This wasn’t a quality a commoner could get.

Sava muttered to himself, intrigued. He was developing an interest in his new roommate’s origins.

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The Omega Virtue class was divided into two parts: ideological education and skills training.

Today’s large lecture was titled “The Construction of an Omega’s Moral Worldview.” It was a mixed class for the little birds and the little seafolk. A single glance showed that the large, tiered classroom was mostly full of all kinds of omegas.

Bai Ling and North sat in the back row.

It was -10°C outside, and the heating in the classroom was weak. Before long, his blood circulation slowed, and a wave of drowsiness washed over him.

The instructor saw the omegas’ heads bobbing and slapped the blackboard in displeasure. “Did you take notes on what I just said? What was I talking about?”

A few scattered answers came from below. “Talking about… the flaws of the Guardian System?”

The instructor’s expression eased slightly. He said sternly, “Correct. The [Guardian System] established by that evil former emperor is pseudoscience, a feudal relic, and a wicked practice that encourages male-on-male competition among alphas. As an omega with a sense of morality, we must learn to say ‘no’ to the temptations of that competition. We must maintain our purity, and watch fewer videos of alphas showing off their chests and abs. Only then can we produce eggs with yolks that don’t break, and strive to be egg-laying pioneers.”

North nudged Bai Ling with his elbow and asked curiously, “Fledgling, what color are your eggs? I heard that in the bird world, you can even have blue or purple eggs.”

Bai Ling, who was busy drawing a middle finger in his textbook, replied, “I’ve never laid any.”

“Why? You shouldn’t be short on suitors.”

“Not interested. And no time for egg-laying.”

North was speechless. “…You’re really something. Such a direct reason.”

He looked left and right, confused. “Hey, how come that new concubine from our dorm isn’t here?”

The words had just left his mouth when a loud BANG echoed from the front of the room.

The little seafolk’ tentacles went rigid and the little sparrows’ feathers puffed out in alarm.

The classroom door slammed against the wall, leaving a cement mark, and then swung back, in a groan. The lawless door-kicker scanned the entire room with his agate-orange eagle eyes, slung his bag over his shoulder, and raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Nice variety here. Which one should I eat first?”

The room: “……”

Orange eyes, two upright ear-tufts, a tall and athletic build far beyond a normal omega’s, and that handsome, deep-set face that screamed “superior genes.”

The entire class froze for three seconds, and then a terrified, primal scream erupted. The grim reaper of the night… an EAGLE OWL!!

Holy hell, who let a predatory owl in here! Wait, has he had breakfast yet? The Strigiformes order eats everything from the sky to the sea! We’re all on his menu! Aaaah, forget it, just run—!

“What are you running for?” Sava blocked the only exit with one long leg. He said lazily, “It’s just a joke.”

The crowd was furious but didn’t dare speak.

A joke is what weak people tell. When someone who could turn them into a full menu of roast duck, roast chicken, steamed sea urchin, and an assorted platter said it, it wasn’t a joke. It was a threat!

The instructor was also furious. What kind of people are the Chamberlain recruiting? How is each new batch worse than the last? He already had one white-haired kid in class with no omega virtue, and now he had another troublemaker.

The instructor angrily told him to sit down. Sava scanned the room before his gaze landed on the back row. He walked right over and sat down next to Bai Ling.

The seat was narrow. Sava crossed his arms, leaned back, and took up one and a half spots.

Bai Ling: “Move your ass.”

Sava: “What, are you jealous?”

Bai Ling: “……”

Sava II.

The grandson of the old Marshal Duke Sava. The most outstanding raptor mecha pilot from the Imperial Military Command University in fifty years. A pure-blood, blue-blood, aristocratic young master.

He was also Bai Ling’s greatest rival from his past life, the most difficult stumbling block on his revolutionary path. He was the annoying bandit neighbor who used to fight him with bayonets and steal his territory in the outer sectors every day.

To run into him here… all he could say was—

What a small world.

If he didn’t have to keep a low profile, Bai Ling really would have tied this arrogant bastard up and beaten him until he was black and blue.

Sava looked at those gaunt, bony hands and raised an eyebrow. “From these hands, you’re a raptor, too, right? A white-haired raptor… Black-winged kite? Or a Saker falcon? No, that’s not right…”

Sava, using his height advantage, looked at the top of Bai Ling’s head. Among the silky white hair was an inconspicuous small clip. Faintly visible beneath it was a single, pinned-down, deep gray-blue feather.

It was a crest feather, a special characteristic of Avian hybrids, just like the hidden gills on a Marine species’ jaw. It could be used to identify bloodlines.

But some hybrids, whose bloodlines were mixed or whose feather color was unhealthy, didn’t want to be recognized and would hide them with a barrette.

Sava quickly filtered through his mental list of raptors, finally landing on one unlikely option.

“A Peregrine Falcon. Are you a Peregrine with albinism? Strange. I’ve never seen you in the falcon families. Even though peregrines are solitary, there’s no way your clan wouldn’t step in if you lost a leg… unless you had a falling out with them…”

Sava’s thoughts raced. “Could it be you’re a restorationist—OW!”

He suddenly howled and shot to his feet.

That damn bird! He stomped on my foot.

The instructor looked over suspiciously. Sava shot Bai Ling a death glare, pushed through the pain, and bluffed, “I want to answer the question.”

The instructor looked at him, surprised. A teachable child after all. Maybe there’s hope for this one.

“Very well. Then, please, tell the class: what should the mate-selection criteria be for an outstanding omega?”

Sava: “He’s gotta have a pretty face, be multi-functional, have a long battery life, and sharp eyes. And he’d better not be a bitch when I’m in a bad mood.”

A textbook-perfect example of a wrong answer.

The instructor’s face turned red. He finally choked out seven words: “Get out and stand in the hall!”

Sava shrugged, grabbed his bag, and headed out. Before he left, he shot Bai Ling a vicious, mouthed threat:

Don’t. Sleep. Too. Soundly. Tonight. Heh.

Bai Ling raised a stiff middle finger and watched him go.

This feud was officially on.

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After a meatless lunch in the cafeteria, Bai Ling was sweating and feeling faint. He went to the washroom to splash his face.

He must have been cursed when it came to alpha pheromone supplements. Every time he took them, he had a bad reaction.

This broken body, with its D-grade fertility and ruined reproductive cavity, was also a picky bastard. It despised the artificial, broad-spectrum pheromones, making his stomach churn, trying to vomit the pill back up, and demanding he go out and ‘hunt’ for the real thing.

Bai Ling was frustrated. He splashed cold water on his neck and face, fighting fire with fire, using the chill to suppress his body’s instincts.

He had never been this “delicate” before.

Wanting comfort the moment he felt bad… this is not acceptable!

He had to get it under control. Stop thinking about that nonsense…

His mind was warning him, but his fingers unconsciously reached into his pocket. Inside was his key card, a small piece of beef jerky, and one long, golden hair…

“Hey! Hand over your beef jerky! I saw you have it in your pocket!”

A blue-haired omega suddenly blocked his path, commanding him arrogantly.

Bai Ling glanced at him. “Why should I?”

The Azure-winged Magpie puffed out his chest. “Haven’t you heard of our ‘Sparrow Gang’? This bathroom is our territory. You have to pay a protection fee.”

Bai Ling was already in a foul mood and hated bullies like this. He dragged the Magpie straight into a stall, gave him a “lesson,” and reverse-mugged him, taking the pile of snacks the Magpie had collected from others.

He tossed a bread roll up and down in his hand, sneering, “Protection fee, right? I’ll take it.”

“You… you just wait!” The Magpie ran off, fuming.

Less than a minute later, the bathroom door was kicked open again.

Bai Ling tilted his eyes, watching in the mirror as five or six people swarmed in. His gaze landed on a familiar face. He hooked his lip, flicked the water from his fingers, and said casually, “What’s this? So many people here to pay me protection money?”

The Magpie instantly jumped, his crest feathers flaring. He tugged on the big guy next to him. “Raven boss! That’s him! He’s the one who’s looking down on our Sparrow Gang! Get him!”

The omega in the lead was tall and lean. His black hair was as glossy as a raven’s wing. He was clearly the king of the corvids—a Raven.

The Raven had a cafeteria toothpick dangling from his lips. His dark eyes sized Bai Ling up and down, and his lips split into a grin. “So you’re the kid who’s running his mouth, telling our Sparrow Gang to pay you?”

Bai Ling glanced at the Magpie, knowing the guy must have gone back and exaggerated things. But he wasn’t about to deny it. Instead, he added fuel to the fire. “Are there only six of you? Don’t waste my time. Just come at me together.”

That was an outrageously arrogant claim.

Not only was the Sparrow Gang stunned, but Sava, still in the stall, was also taken aback.

Corvids and raptors had always been in fierce territorial competition. Falcons living in the city, in particular, were a thorn in the ravens’ side. Although corvids as a whole were a step down from a peregrine in combat, they were extremely unified. If a lone peregrine wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t get off easy.

Let alone a disabled, one-legged falcon.

In Sava’s eyes, this brawl was just a bunch of weaklings pecking at each other. But he watched through the crack in the door for a while, and Bai Ling was surprisingly skilled. His attacks and retreats were fluid and clean. It was safe to say he was holding his own, one against six, without falling behind at all.

Seeing the situation tilt wildly in Bai Ling’s favor, the Sparrow Gang got desperate.

Someone had a dirty idea. He lifted the heavy, ceramic toilet tank lid, raised it high, and was about to smash it down on the back of Bai Ling’s unsuspecting head.

A blow like that would, at best, leave him a vegetable, if not dead.

Bai Ling saw the movement in the mirror’s reflection. His heart went cold. He forcibly shifted ten centimeters to the side, bracing himself to take the hit. Better his shoulder be shattered than his head.

“Hey! That’s going too far,” a grim voice suddenly cut in.

Sava kicked the attacker from behind and sent him flying.

Bai Ling retreated two steps, unharmed. He looked up, watching him plant a size-46 sneaker on the man’s neck.

Sava crossed his arms and jutted his chin at the Sparrow Gang. “We’re competing to see who’s worse, right? I happen to be bored out of my mind. Why don’t you try me?”

With another raptor suddenly in the mix, even the Sparrow Gang, with their superior numbers, didn’t dare make another move.

“Let’s go!” The Raven spat his toothpick into the trash can, waved his hand, and retreated, his heart full of resentment.

Only after they left did Sava turn his head. He said, grudgingly, “Don’t think I wanted to help you. I just did it for the sake of that beef jerky. I didn’t want you to die too miserably.”

Die too miserably.

Bai Ling silently repeated those three words.

The arrogant, overbearing guy in front of him gradually overlapped with the old rival from his past life.

The Sava from back then had once been the strongest and most influential leader in the revolutionary sectors. When Bai Ling’s career was just starting, this guy had already dared to lead his team in a head-on fight against the Central Legion.

But later, Bai Ling had watched him get betrayed and thrown in prison. Then, he’d been knocked up and returned with his tail broken.

In the end, the once-flamboyant Young Master Sava, in an attempt to save his beta lover, had been shot to pieces by hundreds of machine guns, his guts spilling onto the ground.

His corpse had lain there, ignored by all.

It had been Bai Ling, feeling a sense of shared sorrow, who had personally gone to collect his body in a burlap sack.

Thinking of this, Bai Ling couldn’t help but reply, “You should just worry about yourself.”

This guy really doesn’t know what’s good for him! Sava complained internally. He wanted to say that he never would have taken this long in a one-on-six fight. “The Aerial Scalpel Peregrine. Not so great after all—”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when Bai Ling suddenly swayed. He tightly gripped the edge of the sink to keep from falling.

Sava stopped. He flipped on the main lights in the washroom.

The cold-toned light flooded down. Bai Ling’s gray pupils had contracted into vertical slits, and the tremors running through his arms and shoulders were exposed.

This didn’t look good. And the symptoms looked a lot like…

Sava remembered seeing the man take medicine in the dorm this morning. He raised an eyebrow and asked suspiciously, “Don’t tell me you’re addicted to an alpha?”

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Author has something to say:

→New appearance this chapter: Strigiformes (commonly known as owls) — The Eurasian Eagle-Owl, the largest owl species in the world.

[Little bit of science]: In general, raptors are divided into Strigiformes (kings of night vision), Accipitriformes (strong, sharp talons), and Falconiformes (supersonic, fast fighters, which is the little bird’s species).

There are many more interesting little hawks and eagles that will appear one by one.