Chapter 85: “But he shouldn't have kept his eyes on Azul.”

The division of labor was clear, and the distinguished POV characters began to do their own things.

Chu Zu still continued to search for a nebula for the Mother Bug.

After all, he had only given the Mother Bug a few instructions and hadn't laid everything out.

If he really said directly, "Mom, I'm planning to ignite the sun. You pay attention, remember to eat well and drink well, and when it's almost time, run away," Chu Zu suspected that his mom would directly slap him twice and drag him by the tail to tell him not to be so rebellious.

Searching for a nebula would also put his mom at ease.

Lu Anji was much busier.

Besides still having to command the battle and keep an eye on Azul to prevent him from running away, Lu Anji now also had to maintain contact with the pro-Zerg faction and, at the same time, submit the plan to ignite the sun to the UIF high command.

The matter was both simple and difficult.

It was true that the UIF needed a victory, but its core purpose was not to destroy the Zerg.

They needed the war itself to gain a voice that was impossible to have in peacetime.

Now that there was a plan that seemed to restore human order to normal, it would be strange if the UIF directly agreed.

“The questions raised by the UIF are basically ‘how to collect solar data,’ ‘who can guarantee that the Zerg Queen will definitely die on the sun,’ and ‘Lu Anji is just a commander and should not interfere with the strategic policy against the Zerg’.”

The system finished reading the current progress:

“Host… little Lu is at most just a useful gun in the hands of the UIF. It seems that he really may not be able to get this done as soon as possible.”

Whether it was before or after the revision, Lu Anji had indeed become a symbolic figure on the front lines.

But that was only in the eyes of the public.

The ones who made the decisions were never the public, but the foolish higher-ups who fanned the flames.

After finally understanding what the host meant by "I choose my mom," the little yellow chicken quietly changed the background music of the sea of consciousness from "Only Mother is Good in the World" to "Mother."

And it sang along in a toneless shota voice: I will always be by your side, wiping your cheeks.

Azul, good.

Mother Bug, good.

UIF, pfft pfft pfft.

“If he can’t handle it, I’ll handle it for him.”

Chu Zu sorted out the information on the nebula and was packing up, planning to take it to his mom next time.

Just as he was about to leave the bridge, Chu Zu received a contact reminder.

He had opened another line on the battleship’s communication, using Lu Anji’s back door, on the condition that all communication content would be synchronized to Lu Anji’s side.

Chu Zu’s evaluation: purely looking for trouble.

He would only contact Lin Xingyu, and after contacting her, he wouldn’t always talk about serious matters all the serious matters had been handed over to little Lu in the form of empty promises.

Azul and Lin Xingyu were just chatting.

Lin Xingyu’s position had gradually become clear.

She could not become a main POV character.

Being on the sidelines was just right.

Lin Xingyu did not need to participate in the main events, but only did some things that any supporting character could do without any difference.

Then she would live her own life.

Ensemble novels seemed to have a special tolerance for their characters.

Because the character’s own development was not the main focus, and the POV only provided the perspective of the story, as long as it did not upstage the story itself in the space of other POVs, it was not a big problem to be on the sidelines.

Chu Zu had asked the system what the readers’ evaluation of Lin Xingyu was like.

System: “They said they saw the shadow of an old friend.”

“Perhaps it’s because that ‘old friend’s’ style was very wild. Lin Xingyu first beat up Lu Anji, and then beat up the leader of the pro-Zerg faction. They didn’t find it unreasonable either.”

“But most readers don’t pay much attention to her. Lu Anji didn’t mention her much in his eighty-thousand-word essay, he was just busy cursing you.”

“On your side, Lin Xingyu’s name appears more frequently, but it’s always with little Lu.”

The little yellow chicken said, “Your and little Lu’s presence is too strong, and the last POV happened to be synchronized with Lei Jingan sending the coordinates. The readers are still howling, saying…”

It suddenly shut up, its beady eyes blinking.

After a strange pause, the little yellow chicken continued, “Saying that they can also be the Mother Bug, and it’s no problem to raise an Azul.”

The old friend should be Lin Qiuyi.

Chu Zu said coldly: “To be precise, I’m almost fifty years old. Who can be my mom?”

System: “Someone on the forum also mentioned that age is not important. As long as you look like a child, you are a child. Strictly speaking, Lin Qiuyi is also over fifty, but that doesn’t stop her from being a free and unrestrained little girl. Oh, they said gender is also not important, a man can also be a mom.”

Chu Zu: “...”

Lin Xingyu sent Azul a compressed file this time.

The memory was very large, and she didn’t say anything else.

The contact ended quickly.

Chu Zu downloaded it and planned to decompress and read it later when he got back to his rest room.

He wasn’t staying in Lu Anji’s high-spec rest room now.

He had only gone there before because the system had reminded him that there were some key lines to be said.

In the original work, Azul would have to be a green tea to the crew several times, and then the matter would be brought to Lu Anji.

According to the original character design, after this whole mess, Azul would firmly sit on the green tea throne.

Now that the character design had been changed, in the eyes of the crew, he was a damn connected person, but the readers gave a completely opposite evaluation.

“It’s all Lu Anji’s fault!”

The little yellow chicken agreed with the forum’s point of view with both hands and both feet.

This brat was like a ghost from the universe, haunting him.

The host accepted it well, but the system’s little chicken feet were about to cramp up!

It still didn’t quite understand.

They were both male ghosts.

The host had complained about Luciano many times before, but he had no problem with Lu Anji.

At most, he would just sigh a couple of times, that this person was really hateful.

The system couldn’t keep a secret.

It was already very difficult for it not to spoil things.

It simply asked the host directly.

Chu Zu was planning to go and find Lu Anji to ask about the progress.

He was not given a good look all the way on the ship.

The ship would switch to a combat state at any time.

Life was boring and tedious.

There were no entertainment facilities here.

The only two things that could be considered a pastime were:

Sleeping, and gossiping.

Just like how the old people on the medical ship would give "advice" to the new recruits, the old people on the cruiser would also stammer and remind the new officers who had just come on board: stay away from Azul.

The situation was more direct than on the medical ship.

Chu Zu kept his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, walking his own way, and casually answered: “I really have no problem with him. Once you reveal your hatred to others, it’s the same as giving up the chance to take revenge. You see, he’s quite honest with me.”

“Giving up the chance to take revenge… how did you come to that conclusion…?”

“It’s not my conclusion.”

Chu Zu said, “Seneca said it, in Medea.”

Lu Anji was in the combat room.

After the new navigation officer raised his head and saw Chu Zu at the door, he immediately packed his things, greeted the captain, and left without looking at him, as if being near Azul would make him uncomfortable all over.

Lu Anji also raised his head and looked at him.

When Chu Zu walked into the combat room, Lu Anji lowered his head again and continued to deduce on the military sandbox with his hand.

His brain worked fast, and he often skipped the steps in between.

There were very few people on the ship who could keep up with him.

Chu Zu waited for a while and suddenly heard him speak: “Have Lin Xingyu talk directly to the UIF high command.”

Chu Zu: “What?”

Lu Anji: “It’s useless to talk to the UIF high command about the pros and cons. Find a sufficiently idealistic fool to disgust them. Keep an eye out and make the conversation completely public.”

Chu Zu didn’t answer immediately.

He was thinking about whether Lin Xingyu could play a role at this time.

Would her plot proportion increase?

Whose POV would it occupy?

What feedback would the readers give?

Would it affect the author’s attitude?

“Doesn’t the UIF listen to you?”

Chu Zu asked.

Lu Anji gave him a cool look, “Azul.”

Chu Zu: “I just contacted Linlin.”

“I know.”

“She looks better than before.”

“You’re planning everyone’s death with me, and now you’re talking to me about what?”

“Those are two different things.”

Chu Zu said, “She’s fine now. If she offers to help, I’ll support her, but you don’t use her.”

Lu Anji: “Can I only use you?”

Chu Zu: “...”

“He’s trying to shift the blame!”

The system was on full alert, always on guard against Lu Anji.

“Although you wanted to use him to achieve your goal, he doesn’t know that.”

The little yellow chicken didn’t think its double standards were too much and said fiercely.

“So these were originally his tasks, and they’re not too difficult for him. He can still do them if he works hard to overcome the difficulties he’s trying to get you to do his work again!”

Chu Zu: “He’s not shifting the blame. He’s throwing a tantrum.”

System: “...”

System: “?”

“It’s really not good for the progress to be stuck here. I’m not sure how long I can hide it from my mom. I have to solve it as soon as possible.”

Without getting an answer, Lu Anji continued to deduce on the sandbox on his own.

Smelling the cold war, Chu Zu took the information he had downloaded from Lin Xingyu and silently returned to his rest room.

The unzipped files contained dozens of video files, but they were not the videos of the Zerg slaughtering humans that Lin Xingyu had mentioned before.

Chu Zu watched them one by one.

Lin Xingyu had sent him many clips from nature documentaries about Earth.

That azure Earth.

The humans of this era had almost never seen Earth in its normal environment.

The sudden rise in temperature had led to global warming and the melting of glaciers.

The monsoon patterns had become unpredictable.

Some regions suffered from prolonged droughts, while others faced floods due to heavy rains.

Villages were submerged by rainwater, and rice paddies turned into mud pits.

When the sun became a white dwarf, the rising water levels re-froze into ice sheets.

The Sahara Desert was covered in a layer of snow.

The cities and the natural environment became solemn and dead under the onslaught of the cold.

The Earth in the documentary was full of life.

The morning light gently sprinkled on the African savanna, and the golden light filled the undulating waves of grass.

The camera turned to the Amazon rainforest, where the dense canopy spread out like a green ocean.

Even on moonless nights, the Earth would not be completely silent.

Fireflies were like a flowing river of stars, and the low hooting of owls broke the black silence.

“What a healthy little girl.”

Chu Zu said softly, “She knows I’ve never been to Earth, and I won’t be able to see these things after the war… To life, the universe is indeed too empty.”

The little yellow chicken sniffled and wanted to make another comparison.

People are so annoying.

Chu Zu closed the video: “Lin Xingyu gave me an idea.”

The system was still marveling at nature and didn’t react: “What?”

Chu Zu: “I have to show little Lu Earth too.”

System: “...He probably doesn’t have the talent to appreciate nature.”

“I won’t show him these.”

Chu Zu said, “When I was on vacation before, didn’t I often simulate natural environments in the sea of consciousness? Show him that, and if he asks, just say Linlin gave it to me. He won’t go to Lin Xingyu to verify it anyway.”

The system was stunned.

During his vacation, the host did indeed simulate many natural environments in the sea of consciousness, but they were all extreme environments, often earth-shattering.

“In order to find the feeling of Azul, I immersed myself a few times. It was very effective. Anyone with eyes can see it. Little Lu is more human than me, so the effect will be even better.”

“...In what way is it effective?”

Chu Zu didn’t answer.

He personally showed the little yellow chicken “in what way it was effective.”

During the rest time on the battleship, Chu Zu decisively pulled Lu Anji into the shared sea of consciousness.

Before Lu Anji could say anything, Azul had already grabbed his hand and was running wildly forward without a care.

“I want to show you these too!”

His tone was unprecedentedly cheerful.

A strange brightness, a strange temperature.

The sunlight, which only existed in recorded videos, shone on his body.

In front of them, as they ran wildly, a huge dust storm was surging on the horizon.

The orange-red cloud walls were churning, like a waterfall of sand, slowly swallowing the horizon and dyeing the entire sky a deep brown.

Azul had no sense of danger at all.

Everything in the sea of consciousness was harmless, allowing him to rush into the gust of wind carrying sand particles.

Under the sunlight, the fine sand reflected a delicate light on his face, like stardust spinning and flying in mid-air.

Azul laughed heartily.

After passing through the dust storm, the environment of the sea of consciousness changed drastically.

In the distance, the glacier let out a faint low hum in the cold wind.

The ice blocks squeezed against each other, and the cold wind of the polar regions, mixed with ice fragments, brushed past, bringing a bone-chilling clarity.

Azul no longer pulled Lu Anji along to run.

He stood barefoot on the ice and looked up at the green light band in the sky.

The green light spread out in the starry sky like a silk ribbon, sometimes contracting rapidly, sometimes flowing gently.

“This seems to be the aurora.”

Azul said.

Lu Anji didn’t know what he wanted to do.

When the wind blew through the frozen pine forest, the broken ice crystals fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

Azul turned his head to look at him: “It’s too quiet.”

So he started running again.

This time, Azul took Lu Anji to the seaside.

The sea breeze, with its salty and humid air, caressed the beach.

The mercury-colored sea surface reflected the crimson sunset.

Azul was still running wildly.

He always ran in front of Lu Anji, but he couldn't catch up with the sunset.

The world was still shrouded in an endless deep blue.

He ran into the sea.

Lu Anji didn't want to go crazy with him anymore.

He forcefully pulled him back, but his hand was swatted away by his tail.

The waves swept away Azul’s figure.

Lu Anji’s heart suddenly felt empty.

He had no thoughts and plunged headfirst into the water.

Because nature had been destroyed, humans no longer revered nature, and no one experienced the wild side of Earth anymore.

The black clouds hung low, and the seawater slapped his face fiercely.

The rising and falling waves would sometimes push Lu Anji to the surface.

In his blurred vision, he could only see the shattered moonlight.

There was no sense of direction in the vast sea, no sign of Azul, only his heart pounding in his chest.

There were no humans who could decide the fate of a star, only a lonely and small soul.

The black clouds finally brought a downpour, but the water surface was calmer than before.

Lu Anji floated on the water.

He had no strength to continue struggling.

Even the fittest warrior would be helpless and could only passively accept all of this.

What on earth did Azul want to do?

Lu Anji couldn't figure it out.

Behavior reflects thoughts.

Before, all of Azul’s behavior had been very simple.

He would come to find him just because he wanted to take Lu Anji back to the sun, and he would shake his tail and release an ominous signal because he didn’t like the attitude of others.

But when he started to think…

For example, when he copied Lu Anji’s small movements and lied at the academy inquiry, Lu Anji could no longer understand his heart.

What Lu Anji could be sure of was that Azul was a very lonely creature.

The Mother Bug should not have taught him human knowledge.

All knowledge was based on human perception, subtly creating complex concepts, and that was when they met.

This monster was ecstatic.

Lu Anji was very jealous, and then he hated.

The hatred continued to this day.

When he was in this sea of consciousness where he could not perceive any human society, the moment Azul’s figure disappeared, he suddenly realized something.

There were so many things and people in this world for him to hate.

He could destroy the UIF, or climb to a higher position and take revenge on the Zerg, but he always only looked at the Azul who was closest to him.

This would be very easy.

Compared to other time-consuming and energy-consuming delayed gratification, Azul’s small movements when he was injured could always relieve the malice in his heart.

But he shouldn't have kept his eyes on Azul.

He had been staring for too long, and it had become a habit that was deeply ingrained in his bones.

So much so that the moment the creature he couldn't understand disappeared from his sight, he couldn't touch, couldn't perceive, and all the thoughts and emotions in his mind were gone.

This was consciousness, the place where they had the closest contact, but now he couldn't see Azul.

He was on Earth, in the universe, but he was always alone.

Lu Anji suddenly remembered that when he was very young, before his parents sold him to the laboratory, he would also clench his fists at the UIF propaganda film and say to his parents in a childish voice, I also want to go to the universe to protect humanity.

He didn't know how long had passed, but Lu Anji heard a voice in his ear.

“Are you crying?”

Azul pounced on him, but did not push him into the seawater.

The sea surface had turned into a soft snowdrift.

Azul’s tail was wrapped around his waist, and they rolled far away in the snowdrift together.

Finally, they hit a tree trunk and were buried by the falling snow.

Azul propped himself up, broke through the snowdrift, shook off the snowflakes on his head, and was about to get up when he was pulled back by the person below him.

Lu Anji held his shoulders tightly, then let go, and then held him even tighter.

In such a vast universe, without anyone’s consent, they had somehow connected.

They shouldn’t have connected.

Lu Anji would have been a useful weapon for the UIF.

He could show everyone the appearance they wanted.

The UIF would not end this war they needed.

Lu Anji would always be their tool, and he would find his own peace in the death of the Zerg and humans.

Why give him an object to vent his hatred?

This monster was being held by him, not resisting at all.

The tail wrapped around his waist tightened slightly.

“I like Earth.”

Azul said, “Not as much as the sun, but this is also a very good place.”

Lu Anji: “You don’t have a chance to go to Earth.”

“Mhm.”

Azul said, “It doesn’t matter. Everything is about to end.”

Lu Anji trembled.

“It’s been a long time in the real world.”

The system reminded, “Lu Anji has been in a coma all this time, and so have you. But no one cares about your life or death. The medical ship has already sent many people to investigate Lu Anji’s situation.”

“I know. No hurry.”

Chu Zu said, “The UIF doesn’t take little Lu seriously, because he’s too cooperative. Now let them see what it’s like to have no available soldiers under their command.”

Lu Anji would not really disobey the UIF’s orders.

All of his current privileges were given by the higher-ups.

A little rebellion was fine, but it couldn’t change the decision to end the war completely.

He had to let the UIF know what it would be like without Lu Anji.

Only then would this group of people give in.

The little yellow chicken hesitated for a moment: “I think I understand why you simulated the sea of consciousness like this in the first place, but…”

But this was too uncomfortable.

It was as if he was connected to everything, and it was as if the world was only left with himself.

Just looking at it might be shocking, but the longer you stayed, the excitement and thrill would gradually fade.

In its place was an infinite emptiness after the accumulation of emotions.

It was very tiring, and also very lonely.

These would gradually swallow everything.

“Don’t worry.”

Chu Zu smiled and said, “I still have you. You’ve been with me all this time. I remember you would chirp for a long time every time you came back from class.”

“I will always be chirping.”

The little yellow chicken rubbed against the back of the host’s hand, “Even if I change jobs, I will be with you!”

“But little Lu’s reaction seems to be particularly strong…”

Chu Zu casually scratched the system’s chin.

“A person who uses a friend as a tool to fight loneliness will never learn to be alone, and will never be able to get rid of loneliness.”

“I’ve been with Lu Anji for too long, but neither of us can get the result we want. It’s just like lighting a match to keep warm.”

Chu Zu said, “He’s always been unwilling to face it, to accept that he’s like me. He thinks it’s a weakness.”

“But he has to see it clearly. Only after seeing it clearly will he think about whether to make another choice.”

The system was stunned: “What choice?”

Chu Zu stroked the little yellow chicken’s head and smoothed out its messy little yellow feathers:

“The choice that will allow us to start the ending.”

“My mom will never want to kill me. The only person she will want to deal with is Lu Anji, who is by my side.”

“Under what circumstances would I disregard the imminent future of the Zerg, tell my mom Lu Anji’s location, and let her fire that shot?”

The system answered with deliberation: “When… Lu Anji poses a threat to the Mother Bug’s survival?”

“More specifically?”

The little yellow chicken blinked its eyes:

“I can’t deduce it. There are too many possibilities.”

“For example, Lu Anji didn’t change any data. He just wanted to burn all the Zerg and ignite the sun. Those fuels are not enough for my mom to leave the solar system, and Earth’s resources no longer support me doing it a second time.”

Chu Zu said, “I won’t need him anymore.”

System: “Why would he do that?”

Chu Zu said softly, “Because he believes that as long as the sun still exists and the war is still going on, I will be his only friend.”

He said, “Apart from Azul, Lu Anji actually has nothing.”

“He’s scared.”

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