Chapter 6 - Lilith is Aggrieved (NEW)

By the third day, Livy no longer felt dizzy.

He even managed to jump on his bed, twice!

After the second jump, however, Livy collapsed back onto his bed and stared nervously at the ceiling. He wondered if he would still find it out of focus, but he was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was finally in sync with the Earth’s rotation.

While Livy was basking in the fact that his senses had returned to normal, Lilith, his AI system, suddenly awakened and reminded him of his schedule that day, “If your body has returned to normal, please report to Zone Z’s training center.”

For a whole two seconds, Livy just laid motionless on his bed before he suddenly sprung out of it. He groaned and spat angrily at Lilith, “I swear, one day, I’m going to uninstall you! My room doesn’t need an intelligence system! I can make instant coffee myself. I don’t need you to brew coffee! I can go days without changing my clothes, and I don’t need you wasting water washing them every day! I certainly don’t need you to wake me up every morning! Because. I. Do. Not. Like getting up early!”

After Livy finished ranting, he grudgingly put on his military camo and reported to Zone Z.

※※※

When he passed by the research rooms, Livy took note of the fact that no one looked up to stare at him anymore. Instead, he found everyone immersed in their respective works.

While raising his eyebrows at the slightly odd situation, Livy wondered if they thought he was no longer fit to pilot Pure-Hued Lady. Since he threw up so much during his first simulated flight, he was sure they would have lost faith in him. Now that they had seen the contents of his stomach, perhaps the once busy bodies no longer had any interest in him.

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Livy sighed as he arrived at the place. When he slid past the central doors of the training room, he was taken aback by the sight of various apparatus and machinery sprawled in the room. Livy discovered that the number of instruments inside had almost doubled since his last visit.

“…You guys aren’t planning to dissect me, right?”

“What we want to dissect is your results.” Major Miller told Livy as he walked past the latter. The former didn’t stop nor turn his head to look at Livy until he was about five paces away.

Then, Major Miller furrowed his brows at Livy and commented, “Why can’t you ever wear your uniform properly?”

Livy immediately looked down at his uniform. He discovered that he had wrongly buttoned up his shirt again.

“I really don’t want to keep seeing you, so you better pray your training results today will be better than your first!”

While tugging at his collar, Livy muttered, “Why are you being so serious this early in the morning; are you always like this?”

From a distance, Livy could see Claude was standing next to the Pure-Hued Lady.

The major general seemed to be studying some data as well as running some tests.

There was something mesmerizing in the way Claude conducted himself. He was focused on his work with a look of quiet concentration in his eyes as he observed the progress they were making. Livy had no choice but to admit to himself that Claude looked quite elegant; it was clear that he was in his element.

Livy’s ears picked up on Claude’s occasional explanation to his subordinates as he gave out commands; this gave off the impression that he was not only self-assured but also quite methodical.

Livy smiled to himself.

The more Livy observed Claude, the more it dawned on him why he disliked the older gentleman. It was because being around Claude hurt his male ego.

Claude was excellent in the way he carried himself, and his work ethic was also good. Therefore, it was hard not to feel jealous around guys like him. Livy was, after all, just human; though he acted quite confident in himself, even he couldn’t help but compare himself to and feel insecure around people like Claude.

“There you are.”

Claude casually gestured for Livy to come closer, “Starting from today, you will be studying all of the Pure-Hued Lady’s systems.”

“But, I hate studying the most!”

Livy groaned and tilted his head in a way that was reminiscent of bad students.

“Your ‘so-called studying’ is just a way to bind me with senseless rules.”

Livy complained, but Claude dismissed his concerns promptly.

“Wrong. You seem to have confused us with the Air Force Academy; that is not our way. Here, I will only teach you the functions of each system, including the effects produced when different systems work together. As for how to use these systems, that’s completely your prerogative. We won’t tell you what to do. It’s just that if you don’t use them well, we’ll have to replace you.”

The corners of Livy’s mouth pulled into a sharp smile. Opening the door of the cockpit, he sat inside and threw an easy grin at Claude: “You’ll never be able to replace me, because you won’t find a person more suitable than me.” He told him as he sat down.

Claude closed his eyes and shook his head helplessly at Livy’s words.

The first stage of training was for Livy to master the Pure-Hued Lady’s directional system. In simpler terms, he was to learn how to fly as he pleased. It sounded easy, but life was often deceptive like that. In the beginning, Livy was screaming and cursing while he was maneuvering the aircraft.

“What kind of sh*tty system is this?! D*mn it — I want vertical flight! Not a curved one, definitely not a curved one!”

For the next few minutes, the simulation room was filled with Livy screams of “Oh no, not like this…” and “Why isn’t it a helix, this sick system…” .

Major Miller, who was sitting at his station, immediately took his headset off, “He’s making too much noise for me to work.”

Unlike Miller, Claude was full of zest; it was like it was Christmas day, and he had just unwrapped a new toy.

Claude leaned into the microphone and spoke to Livy, “You must remember that you are now in space. Unlike the Pure-Hued Lady, your old fighter was incapable of achieving multiple directions of control. Convince your mind to abandon your old understanding. Feel the trajectory of the Pure-Hued Lady’s movement with your heart!”

<b>“I don’t want to feel anything! Just let me crash!”</b>

Livy wasn’t sure he could take any more of it. Why did they have to make such a complicated system? They were supposed to be geniuses! With all the advanced technology and knowledge at their disposal to create such a sophisticated aircraft, why didn’t they also think of including ‘easy to navigate’ as one of its features? He wanted to get off of it.

Major Miller was still tapping away on his keyboard, when he turned to say to Claude in an icy tone, “His trajectory is messy.”

Claude didn’t seem to think this point a big deal.

“Isn’t messy a good thing? Let those alien invaders guess what he is going to do next; they’ll think he is unpredictable.”

Miller gave him a strange look and then shook his head, “You’re really coddling him.”

After more than half an hour of Livy screaming profanities, his trajectory finally became smoother and smoother. He was now able to perform vertical ascents and helical spirals, and he now even made a few difficult sharp turns albeit a little amateurishly. He had also started to mellow down, and the researchers could see him slowly becoming enthralled in learning the complicated systems of the Pure-Hued Lady.

Claude and Miller had also become extremely quiet as they stared at the data floating in front of the computer screen in deep concentration.

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Before they knew it, the morning had faded away.

※※※

Miller took off his glasses to massage his eyelids. Claude then raised his hand to look at his wristwatch, “It’s twenty past twelve.”

“What? It’s already been that long?” Miller gave him an incredulous look.

Claude merely chuckled and pointed at their monitor screen, “Looks like he’s having a good time.”

Claude then reached out and pressed the termination button.

As expected, Livy shouted into his in-ear monitor.

“What the h*ll — why did it stop?!”

Claude replied with amusement, “Even if you’re not hungry, everyone else is.”

It was only then that Livy realized it was already past his lunch time.

Livy opened the hatch, but he just remained there motionless.

From his in-ear came Claude’s teasing voice, “You might not have felt it while you were piloting, but now, you’re feeling a little lightheaded, aren’t you? But, you’re enduring it well because you don’t want to throw up your breakfast in front of all of us again.”

“You guessed wrong this time; I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get dizzy. Plus, how can I throw up my breakfast if I didn’t eat it?” Livy laughed heartily; however, his laughter was cut short when he was met with Claude’s icy stare.

“Then, I hope you won’t make a habit of it. Skipping breakfast is something I don’t want happening again in the future.”

Claude had a serious look on his face, so Livy swallowed back the sarcastic remark sitting at the tip of his tongue and settled for giving a simple reply, “Got it.”

Livy followed Claude out of the simulation room and into the lounge area where everyone was sitting around and eating quietly.

Livy finally felt the effect of that morning’s simulation exercises. The whole ordeal had made him incredibly tense. Now that his nerves finally relaxed, a wave of sleepiness suddenly overwhelmed his senses.

Livy only managed to get in two bites of his lunch before unexpectedly fell asleep while still holding his fork.

He also did a nosedive into a bowl of zhajiangmian ¹ Zhajiangmian is thick wheat noodles topped with Zhajiang sauce (made by simmering stir-fired meat dices or ground pork/beef with salty fermented soybean paste) and sliced vegetables such as cucumber, radish, and edamame. .

He seemed to be completely unconscious. Miller, who was sitting across from Livy, sighed and whispered under his breath, “I thought he had nerves of steel, but now he looks like a puppet whose strings were just cut off.”

One of their colleagues who had also been observing Livy all morning turned to Miller and said, “The average person who used to come here for training could only last two to three hours a day, but he didn’t even say he wanted to stop even after more than four hours had passed…”

A lieutenant colonel who was sitting beside them also sighed before adding, “I even suspect that if Major General Sien hadn’t told him to stop, that young man might have still been in the hatchet. He looked as if he could still hold on for a few more hours.”

“Using the term ‘hold on’ might not necessarily be correct.” Claude’s voice broke into their conversation as he pulled out a seat and sat beside Livy. He then gently pulled the young sergeant’s face out of the bowl and wiped away the meat sauce on his cheeks. Then, he slowly leaned over to Livy’s side and swung the latter’s arm over his shoulder. He stood up while supporting the latter on his feet.

“Today’s training ends here. All of you can do functional debugging as well as data analysis after your lunch break.”

Claude told them this before he carried Livy out of Zone Z to his quarters. The latter slept like a baby. Upon reaching his bed, Claude carefully laid him down onto his mattress and removed his socks. After which, he tucked Livy under his covers.

Claude then sat on Livy’s bed and leaned in closer to stare at the latter’s eyebrows. He noticed that the young sergeant looked quite serene now that he was sleeping. He then pinched Livy’s nose very hard; this caused the latter to frown and turn over to the other side of his bed with a grimace. Claude found him amusing and let out a low laugh.

Suddenly, the AI system of Livy’s room activated, and Lilith appeared before Claude.

“Major General, my master said that he would uninstall me.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

Claude asked Lilith as he settled more comfortably on the bed. He used one of his arms to support Livy’s head while he casually brushed the hair off the latter’s forehead. He was in a surprisingly good mood.

“The master said he can make instant coffee himself and that he doesn’t need me to brew him coffee. He also says that he can go days without changing his clothes, and he doesn’t need Lilith wasting water every day. Lastly, he said that he doesn’t need Lilith to wake him up every morning because he doesn’t want to get up early anyway.”

Claude’s fingertips caressed the top of Livy’s brow as he spoke, “He may not need you, but I need you. Without Lilith, who’s going to brew my coffee every time I come here? Who will make sure I don’t have to smell Livy’s stinky socks? Who will make sure this naughty child gets up on time?”

“So, Lilith is a must. Lilith is important?”

“Yes, Lilith is important.”

As Claude said this, he suddenly had a strange thought as he looked at Livy and let out a sigh, “Lilith, do you know why it seems like some people are destined to be noticed by others from the moment they are born?”

“I don’t understand the question; the data system cannot answer that.”

“Some people will ruthlessly capture your eyes, latch onto your nerves, disrupt your pace, and make you not look like yourself anymore.”

“I don’t understand the question; the data system cannot answer that.”

“Those types of people will be in the spotlight, and they’ll be alright. But what about the people watching them? What becomes of them?”

“I don’t understand the question; the data system cannot answer that.”

Claude got up abruptly and left Livy’s room.

After he slammed the doors shut behind him, Claude quickened his steps; it was as if he was running away from the unfamiliar feelings that lingered inside of him. He was running away from the words he left hanging behind in Livy’s room.

※※※

About three or four hours later, Livy woke up when he rolled off the bed. Luckily for him, his head didn’t hit the bedside table.

Livy quickly sat up and groggily opened his eyes, “Why am I here?”

At the sound of his consciousness, Lilith perked up and replied, “Since Master fainted, Major General Sien sent you back here.”

“Oh, was the training canceled?” Livy asked while his stomach rumbled. He hadn’t really eaten lunch, so he was starting to grow hungry.

“Major General Sien said that because of the intensity of the simulation training, you just need to be there for three hours a day.”

“What about the rest of my work hours?”

“He advises you to just rest.”

“Rest?” Livy’s eyes lit up at what Lilith just said.

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“So, that means I’ll have a lot of free time every day! Aha, it really is better here than at the Air Force Academy! But, what should I do with all this time?”

Livy cradled his head in slight distress as he thought about the things that he wanted to do.

“I know; I’ll go swimming!” It had been a long time since Livy had been in the water.

Ever since he was a child, Livy had loved fantasizing about being at the sea. His fascination with it started with his grandfather.

Livy’s grandfather would often recount to him stories from the time when he was still a young boy, years before the Earth was invaded. He’d tell him about how it used to feel when the sea was still within their reach. He always spoke with fondness as he described to Livy the feeling of stepping onto a surfboard and rushing head on into the waters. He’d tell Livy that it was the best feeling in the world.

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Livy was born in a fortress city, so everything he learned about the sea was sourced from books and TV. Yet, the sea he yearned for was the sea painted by his grandfather’s words. He wasn’t content to just see it; he wanted to experience it for himself. Therefore, Livy grew up being quite fond of swimming.

Finally making up his mind, Livy headed for the swimming pool.

Livy came at a time when there weren’t many people on the premises. Because he was mostly all alone, the pool looked like spilled azure paint that spread endlessly into the horizon.

Livy donned his waterproof goggles and began stretching. He then jumped into the water and began doing laps. After his exercise, Livy pulled himself up and sat on the pool’s bench. He grabbed a towel and started wiping away the water stains on his face.

While looking around, Livy suddenly felt regretful that he came that day.

After all, it was a rare opportunity for him to come to the pool, but he only saw a couple of parents who had brought their children to swim, an old man whose stomach was so big it was about to hang down into the water, two elementary school students who were too young for him to hit on, and a person who looked quite familiar…

Livy swam over to Miller’s side and slapped a hand onto the other person’s back in greeting, “Four-eyed frog? Is that you? I didn’t expect to see you here!”

Miller, who was in the middle of his second lap, was so surprised by Livy that he began choking on water. He emerged from the waters in a coughing fit. When he finally finished grappling with his bearings, he turned to glare at Livy.

“What do you mean by that? Are you saying that I can’t be here? After analyzing your data today, my work was finished. Naturally, I can enjoy my own free time too.”

“Well, aren’t people like you usually just sitting in front of computers all day, every day? Aren’t you buried in work, and besides eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet, you’re only seeing your research? Furthermore, isn’t the only kind of swimming you do the swimming in data all day long? Due to your lifestyle and irregular diet, you’ll lose muscle mass, have a big belly, and…”

“….wait, what are these beautiful muscles doing on your body?”

Livy wasn’t able to continue with his sarcastic jabs when he realized that the latter’s back was harder than he expected. He looked at his companion’s body with an expression of incredulity. For someone he expected to just be sitting around, Miller looked rather fit and muscular.

“I’m sorry for not meeting your expectations of people like me. I know how to balance work and a healthy lifestyle.” Miller had no intention of prolonging a conversation with Livy and was just about to dive back into the water when Livy suddenly grabbed his arms and tugged him back up.

Due to the sudden force, Miller’s body turned around so that he was now facing Livy. The latter then stepped closer to the former. Miller tried to pull his hand back, but Livy’s strong grip kept him in place.

“That’s not the only thing that surprises me,” Livy spoke to him in a low voice. He suddenly reached out to yank off Miller’s waterproof glasses.

“What are you doing?!” The cantankerous mathematician yelled out.

Miller’s surprised voice echoed inside the pool area. However, it wasn’t only Miller who was in shock; even Livy was dumbfounded upon finding out that the pompous major was actually quite handsome.

**Special Note: Image by Wise Fool from Pixabay

To access the unedited version of Chapter 6, please click here .

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Zhajiangmian is thick wheat noodles topped with Zhajiang sauce (made by simmering stir-fired meat dices or ground pork/beef with salty fermented soybean paste) and sliced vegetables such as cucumber, radish, and edamame.