Chapter 40: The SN701 Star Region
Felix said nothing, quietly meeting Jin Chi’an’s eyes. Somewhat awkwardly, he folded his ears into airplane ears, revealing the golden brand totem behind his ear.
Faced with this appearance, Jin Chi’an sighed helplessly and released his mental body, Puff, from his consciousness sea.
The moment the two felines met each other’s eyes, Puff pounced into Felix’s arms without the slightest hesitation and very proactively began grooming the white tiger.
Looking at the golden brand on the Maine Coon’s back, Felix somewhat awkwardly accepted the other party’s invitation to groom him. Uncontrollably, he helped smooth the fur on the kitten’s neck to relieve the itch.
As Puff immersed himself in enjoyment, Jin Chi’an, lying on the stone bed, uncomfortably flushed red to the tips of his ears and looked at Felix’s slightly abnormal expression.
Because the two-way brand between them had connected their shared senses, Jin Chi’an immediately understood the thoughts in the other party’s mind. He chuckled and rubbed Felix’s white tiger ears.
“It’s my mental body. What it expresses is what I mean. Although you bit him before, he still likes you very much now.”
Receiving Jin Chi’an’s answer that settled his mind, Felix transformed into human form and held the kitten hanging on him even tighter, receiving the commands transmitted from Puff’s consciousness cloud through his own consciousness cloud.
Scratch the chin. Can’t reach the chin.
Felix, who received the command in his consciousness cloud, instantly understood what it meant and carefully provided service to the Maine Coon in his arms.
Seeing the two felines, who had been incompatible as fire and water in Felix’s memory fragments, getting along so harmoniously, Jin Chi’an finally relaxed. He had been afraid that Felix would be unable to accept his mental body because of the differences between their two species.
But clearly, his worry had been unnecessary. As early as yesterday, when the two of them formed a two-way brand, Felix had already sensed Puff, whose mental power was identical to Jin Chi’an’s, inside his mental consciousness sea.
After two days of spending time alone together, Felix had long since regarded Puff, who carried the same mental aura as Jin Chi’an, as his own possession.
At this moment, Felix was wrapping his own mental power around Puff’s entire body, preventing Jin Chi’an from snatching him back into his consciousness sea.
“Felix, let Puff come back. We should return.”
Hearing this, the Maine Coon was the first to express dissatisfaction. He clung even more tightly to Felix’s paws, as if protesting the request to return to the consciousness sea.
Seeing Puff like this, the always silent Felix finally could not bear it and opened his mouth to persuade him.
“You can’t always keep it in your consciousness sea. Maine Coons naturally need a certain amount of exercise.”
Thinking of how double-standard Felix was compared to before, Jin Chi’an sat up and raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh? Looks like you like him very much.”
Felix made no attempt to hide it as he inhaled Puff’s scent. He stared directly at Jin Chi’an and affirmed, “Mm. His scent is the same as yours. When I touch him, you’ll be happy too.”
Jin Chi’an froze slightly as he looked at Felix, who was speaking nonsense with a completely serious face. His heart was faintly touched, but he was also somewhat annoyed. The other party had actually found the shared-sense bug between humans and their mental bodies.
Immediately afterward, Felix lifted Puff and buried his face in the kitten’s belly, taking a deep breath.
For a moment, Jin Chi’an, who was sharing senses with Puff, felt something strange in his body. His ears turned completely red as he glared fiercely at Felix.
“You…”
“Let’s go back.”
Felix interrupted his scolding, turned, transformed into beast form, and prepared to walk out of the cave.
Seeing this, Jin Chi’an angrily refused the white tiger’s invitation to crouch down for him.
“No need for you to carry me. I drove an aircraft here.”
“Mm. Then I’ll carry it.”
As he spoke, Felix licked the spot where Puff’s brand was and nudged him onto his back.
Very soon, Jin Chi’an saw a Maine Coon standing proudly on the white tiger’s back, looking especially arrogant and triumphant.
As if the emotions he had hidden deep in his heart had been completely exposed, Jin Chi’an lowered his head in embarrassment and slowly stood up, walking toward the aircraft.
But perhaps because the painkiller had worn off, Jin Chi’an’s legs weakened, and he fell straight toward the ground.
The expected pain did not come. The white tiger, who had leaped in front of him, caught him steadily.
Afterward, he noticed the white tiger’s guilty gaze.
Thinking of what had happened yesterday, Jin Chi’an’s temper instantly flared. Following the white tiger’s expression of admitting his mistake, he raised his hand and slapped him on the forehead.
“It’s all your fault.”
However, because of the two-way brand, his mental body, Puff, did not hide his true feelings at all. Puff leaped over Jin Chi’an’s arm and heartachingly licked the white tiger’s head where he had been hit.
Felix, who learned Jin Chi’an’s true thoughts, curved his lips, got up, and helped the other party change into a more comfortable position.
“Mm. Blame me.”
Realizing that his inner thoughts were being completely eavesdropped on, Jin Chi’an reluctantly sat up straight and said to the white tiger beneath him, “Hurry up and go back.”
Receiving the command, Felix sensed the aura outside his territory and walked toward the area where the Iskan army was stationed.
…
During the day Jin Chi’an had disappeared, the Iskan troops who had come with him had already fallen into complete chaos.
The captain in charge irritably rubbed his temples while listening to reports from his subordinates.
“Report! A large number of aliens have appeared in the southwest region. The soldiers sent to investigate have lost optical-brain contact with the central unit.”
“…”
As one emergency report after another was transmitted into his optical brain, the final report sounded again. A bird beastman circled several times in the air before landing steadily, transforming into human form, and standing directly in front of the captain.
“The energy detector has shown abnormalities. I detected a large amount of energy released by the Quetzal divine tree’s heartwood in the southwest area.”
“Tch.”
The captain impatiently ground his back teeth and turned to ask the adjutant beside him, “Is there still no news from the marshal and sir?”
“Report. According to the final scan this morning, a large amount of the marshal’s mental power remains in the forest region ahead. It seems he does not want us to approach.”
The soldier looked awkwardly at the monitoring data in his optical brain and reported to the captain.
Just as he waited for the captain to explode into curses, a lazy voice, as if the speaker had only just woken up, came over.
Lin Chuan picked at his ear and said in a slightly hoarse waking voice, “Wait. They should be about done and will probably be back soon. If you’re really worried, we can connect to your marshal’s wife.”
Hearing this, the captain seemed to have found a backbone. He saluted Lin Chuan.
“Then I’ll have to trouble Guide Lin.”
“Tch. Troublesome.”
Lin Chuan impatiently connected to Jin Chi’an’s optical-brain video call.
Before long, Jin Chi’an’s face appeared in the optical-brain video.
He was lying on the white tiger’s back, moving at high speed, and even the forest behind him had turned into blurred afterimages.
However, Lin Chuan acted as if he deliberately could not see it and teased him.
“What’s going on, Jin Chi’an? Are the two of you planning to do it for three days and three nights? Why haven’t you come back yet?”
Lin Chuan’s crude and direct words entered Jin Chi’an’s ears, making him instinctively look at the tiger in front of him. He folded the tiger’s ears down and pressed them flat.
But when he remembered that only he could hear the optical-brain communication, Jin Chi’an pretended nothing had happened and released his hand, saying to Lin Chuan, “We’re on our way back. Felix says the army should prepare to withdraw. After we reach the unit, we need to leave this star region immediately.”
“Leave immediately?”
Lin Chuan listened to this answer in disbelief.
“Don’t tell me he doesn’t know there are aliens here…”
Before Lin Chuan could finish speaking, Jin Chi’an hung up the communication and directed Felix beneath him toward the area where the army was stationed.
When the two arrived, the captain walked toward Jin Chi’an on the white tiger’s back without the slightest abnormal reaction and saluted the two.
“Marshal. Sir.”
Seeing this, Felix lowered his body and let Jin Chi’an down. Then he transformed into human form and once again became the stern beastman marshal he had always been.
“Notify all soldiers. Immediately terminate the investigation of the aliens in the southwest. In half an hour, the entire unit will evacuate this planet.”
The captain who received the order saluted Felix again.
“Understood!”
After the person in front of them left, Jin Chi’an, who had been standing beside Felix, squeezed Felix’s palm. From their shared emotions, he sensed the other party’s anxiety. He then extended his mental tendrils and comforted Felix’s consciousness cloud.
“What is it, Felix?”
Feeling his partner’s mental power in his consciousness cloud, Felix held Jin Chi’an’s hand back and calmly explained, “Our current military equipment is temporarily insufficient to handle the situation on this planet. I need to report to Father first.”
“All right. Then let’s go back first.”
Jin Chi’an smiled at Felix and pulled him into the aircraft cabin.
The moment the two crossed the hatch, Lin Chuan’s voice stopped them.
“Jin Chi’an, the two of you are already an old married couple, yet you cling together every day. Hurry up, routine examination.”
Faced with Lin Chuan’s impatient attitude, Jin Chi’an helplessly squeezed Felix’s fingers, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, “Go report the situation first. I’ll come find you later.”
“All right.”
Letting go of Felix’s somewhat reluctant fingers, Jin Chi’an walked toward the medical instrument where Lin Chuan was.
Catching sight of the two acting so clingy, Lin Chuan extended his mental tendrils with slight disdain and mercilessly invaded Jin Chi’an’s consciousness cloud, examining the changes in him over the past day.
“People who didn’t know better would think you two were conjoined twins. Even your consciousness cloud is full of a feline beastman’s mental power.”
As Lin Chuan complained, the tendril probing into Jin Chi’an’s consciousness cloud suddenly paused for a moment. Then he said to Jin Chi’an, “I think I found your mental-bond pathway.”
“What?”
Jin Chi’an looked at Lin Chuan suspiciously.
“But I didn’t notice anything abnormal.”
“Of course you wouldn’t notice it. This pathway has been there since you came back from your internship. It’s just that Felix’s aura is stronger now.”
“And because he transferred mental power to you, your originally damaged consciousness-cloud pathways have almost completely recovered.”
Lin Chuan tugged at the corner of his mouth, making a strange expression as he complained, “This is really fucking… a medical miracle.”
…
At the same time, Felix, who had arrived in the aircraft command room, connected to the Iskan royal family.
The instant the video call connected, the palace study appeared on the screen.
Bai Ye, pale-faced, was connected to the newest scientific consciousness-cloud instrument. He weakly leaned against the sofa in the study, with no interest in teasing the bird in the cage beside him.
Aphrodite sat beside him, holding a bowl of medicinal food. Only when the connection went through did he shift his attention from Bai Ye to Felix.
“Father.”
“Felix? I thought it would take him a little more effort to find you.”
Aphrodite could not hide the joy in his tone. The look he gave Felix softened a little.
But before he could express the worry he had felt over these past few days, Felix spoke first with a serious expression.
“When the zerg starship entered the SN701 star region, I saw Charlemagne VII.”
