OVPBM 7
by MochiChapter 7 – “Learn to Enjoy Hatred.”
After indulging in a blissful moment of chuunibyou1“中二病” (chūnibyō) literally means “second-year middle school syndrome.”A Japanese term for adolescents (or adults acting like them) who indulge in exaggerated delusions of grandeur, believing they have secret powers, a hidden true identity, or a tragic/destined fate, often expressed through dramatic speech, made-up terminology, and treating everyday life like an epic dark fantasy story., Lu Yunwan promptly forgot every line he had just improvised the second he closed his mouth. He had completely underestimated the influence of the Regent.
Even after leaving the Capital Planet for the new star system, Chu Xuanzhou kept replaying Lu Yunwan’s words in his mind, along with that final moment of inexplicable heart-pounding.
The youth stood before the porthole, lowering his gaze to his palm.
A thin vine of poppy flowers had left a faint red mark in the center of his hand, looking rather glaring.
…This was the proof that power had existed there.
“Your Highness.” Lu Yunwan suddenly approached, cutting off Chu Xuanzhou’s thoughts.
Chu Xuanzhou paused before bowing to him.
“We’re about to reach the Elmer Star System. Would Your Highness like to accompany me somewhere?” Lu Yunwan placed his hand on the porthole, brushing against the smoky pink nebula millions of light-years away.
A flash of resistance passed through Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes. “I…”
Before he could finish, the scenery outside abruptly shifted.
The pink nebula vanished. The starship veered off its original course and sped toward another direction.
Clearly, Lu Yunwan had only asked out of formality. He had never cared about Chu Xuanzhou’s opinion.
“Where are you going, Your Excellency the Regent?” Chu Xuanzhou turned to look at him.
His attitude was still extremely distant.
Whenever the two had met before, either Lu Yunwan had been standing on elevated steps or Chu Xuanzhou had been lying on the experiment table. Only now did Lu Yunwan belatedly realize… the protagonist was actually this tall?!
The original host had been 1.84 meters tall. If Lu Yunwan’s estimate was correct… this still-youthful Chu Xuanzhou was already half a head taller than him?
His silver-white, slightly curled long hair draped down his back. Chu Xuanzhou’s features were almost excessively exquisite, carrying a beauty that transcended gender.
The moment he lowered his eyes to look at Lu Yunwan, a beam of strong light shone through the porthole.
The merman’s pupils contracted like a cat’s into a thin needle. For an instant, Lu Yunwan felt as though he was being sized up by a wild beast.
Never lose in momentum!
Lu Yunwan’s damned competitiveness flared up again.
He tapped the light-screen, and the starship instantly surged forward.
A few seconds later, an enormous spherical cube appeared before Chu Xuanzhou’s eyes.
It was a star wrapped within a metallic shell.
Under its body, hundreds of times larger than a sun, even a starship capable of carrying tens of thousands looked like a speck of dust.
“This is a Dyson Sphere…” Lu Yunwan’s gaze shimmered with obsession. “It created this era.”
Dyson Spheres were tools for extracting stellar energy. They were what pushed mankind into the depths of the universe.
Chu Xuanzhou knew their significance, though he had never seen one in person.
Why had Lu Yunwan brought him here?
As if sensing his thoughts, Lu Yunwan guided the starship closer.
“Warning! Warning! Non-navigational zone! Please leave immediately!”
Lu Yunwan acted as though he hadn’t heard a thing, continuing forward until several minutes later, when he finally stopped.
Darkness spread before them.
“Look, Your Highness. The Dyson Sphere blocks all the star’s light, like trapping a firefly inside a box.”
Chu Xuanzhou nodded lightly.
“But without light and heat, all planets around this star would lose daylight, life would die out, and everything would sink into eternal cold,” Lu Yunwan said, pronouncing each word carefully as he met Chu Xuanzhou’s gaze. “In the past, we were not allowed to extract energy from habitable star systems.”
Though Lu Yunwan spoke with a smile, what Chu Xuanzhou heard beneath it was a deep, heavy sorrow.
“Until ten years ago, when the Heming Accords lifted that restriction. Do you know what happened afterward?”
“For money, many lower-class star systems sold their own stars to be mined. Trillions have lived in darkness and freezing cold ever since, never seeing daylight again.” Chu Xuanzhou answered truthfully.
Yet upon hearing this, Lu Yunwan shook his head.
The Regent suddenly laughed, even bending forward a little. Chu Xuanzhou had never seen him laugh with such abandon, like vast clusters of poppies blooming across the wildlands.
Beautiful and blinding.
No one knew how long it lasted before Lu Yunwan finally patted Chu Xuanzhou’s shoulder. Shaking his head, he said, “No, Your Highness. You’re wrong.”
Standing before a star that had lost all its light, Lu Yunwan’s eyes appeared incomparably dark, dark enough to swallow every emotion.
He suddenly leaned in, bringing his lips close to Chu Xuanzhou’s ear as he whispered, “From then on, I controlled the entire interstellar world.”
He patted the youth’s shoulder again, laughing as though mocking Chu Xuanzhou’s naivety.
Hearing Lu Yunwan’s voice so close, Chu Xuanzhou felt as if he had been lightly flicked by a poisonous serpent’s tongue…
For more than a decade, survival had been the only thing that mattered to Chu Xuanzhou.
But now, for the first time, he felt curiosity bloom toward another person. What was Lu Yunwan thinking? What kind of man was he?
Lu Yunwan tapped the optical-brain again, and the starship finally began withdrawing from the magnificent artificial structure, alarms blaring as it retreated.
At the moment of departure, Lu Yunwan couldn’t resist turning back for one last look.
His eyes were full of longing, like a painter admiring his most beloved masterpiece.
“I was the one who pacified the rebel army and signed the accords.” The Dyson Sphere finally vanished from sight, and the dreamy, smoky pink nebula reappeared at the far end of the route. Lu Yunwan slowly withdrew his smile.
His voice gradually sank, his tone turning solemn. “The vast chain of interests behind the Heming Accords is all tied to me. That is why someone like me, a human, could ascend to the throne of the Regent.”
Everything Lu Yunwan had said today, whether the scale of information or something else, had exceeded the limits of Chu Xuanzhou’s imagination.
“Your Excellency, why are you telling me all this?”
“Did you forget? I want to teach you how to kill Lu Yunwan.”
For an instant, Chu Xuanzhou couldn’t help but feel that the other truly meant it.
But a heartbeat later, he found it absurd.
Everyone in the interstellar realm knew that Lu Yunwan had clawed his way here through countless hardships, even nearly dying inside a mech several times.
Why would he abandon everything he had worked so hard to obtain?
“Destination reached: Elmer Star System.”
The notification from the starship system pulled both their minds back.
Lu Yunwan knew that with Chu Xuanzhou’s suspicious nature, it was impossible for him to believe his nonsense so quickly.
But as the starship crossed the asteroid belt and entered the Elmer Star System, he still murmured, “This is my foundation. Your Highness, if you want to kill Lu Yunwan, you must uproot the foundation of his power.”
“Make him abandoned by all.”
Chu Xuanzhou slowly curled his fingers into his palm.
Lu Yunwan stepped back half a pace, narrowing his eyes as he gazed out the porthole.
Perfect! My acting is absolutely amazing!
Everything he had just said was pieced together after reading through the classified files in the original host’s optical-brain.
Besides maintaining the persona, he genuinely wanted the protagonist to destroy that accord.
Those lower-class star systems that sold their stars were mostly inhabited by humans.
And after he faked his death in the future, he was definitely planning to live on a human planet.
If that accord wasn’t abolished, what would he do if he also lost sunlight one day?
Lu Yunwan felt he had to pass this mission to the protagonist with utmost seriousness.
“Destination reached: Planet Kaixi.”
With the notification sound, the massive starship descended steadily onto the ground.
Lu Yunwan turned toward the corridor, but before he had taken two steps, a burst of static buzzed in his ear…
“Lu Yunwan is really here?”
“How does he have the face to come to the human star system? And he expects us to welcome him…”
“Traitor…”
And so on.
Lu Yunwan belatedly remembered that he had switched the starship to autopilot earlier while visiting the Dyson Sphere.
In that mode, this high-authority starship could receive signals from every surrounding aircraft.
…These curses were coming from Planet Kaixi’s mecha squad.
Not only Lu Yunwan, but every person aboard the starship had heard them.
“Your Excellency,” the guard stationed in the corridor gritted his teeth as he stepped forward, “I will deal with them immediately.”
There was no need to guess. By “deal with,” his subordinate definitely meant killing them.
“Wait!” Lu Yunwan quickly stopped him. “Ignore them.”
The “Lu Yunwan” of this world had indeed killed countless people, but that didn’t mean he would allow his subordinates to kill at will!
Seeing this, the guard lifted his eyes in confusion.
Not only him. Even Chu Xuanzhou looked over, faint bewilderment in his gaze.
Only then did Lu Yunwan finally realize something was wrong… The original host hadn’t spoken like this when he arrested Song Feiyan.
What should he do now?!
“Your Excellency intends to spare them?”
Seeing his silence, his hopeless subordinate immediately brought up the very thing they shouldn’t have.
Absolutely cannot break character!
Lu Yunwan lowered his eyes to glance at his poppy cane, then lifted his head with a smile toward Chu Xuanzhou.
“Your Highness, do not worry.” Lu Yunwan stepped back to the sofa, slowly sat down, and closed his eyes as if savoring every word spoken outside.
“A man like him deserves to die without a grave.”
“You think a human becoming the Regent was because of his face?”
“Hahaha… Who knows? Maybe.”
“Maybe he’s the plaything of a merfolk behind the scenes…”
“Or maybe more than one…”
The insults from Planet Kaixi’s mecha squad didn’t stop. In fact, they grew worse and worse.
They moved from stating facts into pure curses and malicious speculation, their words growing increasingly vile.
The vulgar insults echoed again and again within the massive starship.
Not only the Regent’s loyal guards, but even Chu Xuanzhou also furrowed his brows at this point.
“Your Excellency…” he couldn’t help calling out.
Lu Yunwan still did not open his eyes. He lightly pressed a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence.
The starship was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, making the insults even sharper against the silence.
After a long while, Lu Yunwan finally laughed amid the curses. He opened his eyes slowly and said to Chu Xuanzhou, “Your Highness, this is the second lesson I am teaching you.”
“Learn to enjoy hatred.”
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