Forbidden Zone of the Human Race

“Are you… joking? You all must be joking!” A reporter looked at the vice commander suspiciously, pointing at him. “You’re hiding the truth!”

“That’s right, you’re hiding the truth!”

Xiang Ning had been a teenage hero just a second ago, but now he was being called a traitor! It was such an explosive piece of news, how could they explain it away by calling it simulation training? Xiang Ning wasn’t even part of the military! There were so many holes in that alibi!

The two guards looked confused as ever, frozen in bewilderment as they stared at the vice-commander. As he looked at them, he considered transferring them somewhere else. They clearly weren’t very intelligent, since they didn’t understand what he meant. This was a military base, yet they didn’t even know how to manage a crowd appropriately.

“We didn’t inform anyone of this drill to test the alertness and attitude of the soldiers. Everything was done secretly.”

“Don’t you lie to us! Xiang Ning isn’t even in the military, how’s it possible that he’s involved in your drills?!”

The vice-commander narrowed his eyes. Do you know how he got to where he was? Intelligence! Just you wait, I’ll defeat you puny reporters! “Hehe, to prevent further misunderstandings, please allow me to explain. I’m sure you all know of the special training where the trainees are talents that the Federation Government and military have taken note of. Do you think we aren’t paying attention to a prodigy like him?”

“That still doesn’t explain the sudden drill. This is Fortress Three, you all block out beasts on a daily basis, is there even a need for drills like that?” The reporter pushed his glasses up his nose, knowing that his question was a piercing one.

But he had fallen into the vice commander’s trap. “You’re right. It’s precisely because we’re a fortress focusing on defending the people that we had a sudden drill.”

The vice commander looked so confident that the mischievous reporters suddenly had a bad feeling. Had they overlooked something?

Before they could think of anything, the vice commander continued, “Everyone must know how precious a beast core is. The recent stampedes have been minor, and most of them haven’t been able to come within a kilometer of the fortress. What does that mean? We’re prone to dropping our guards when the pressure is gone. This drill targeted that specific problem and, well, the results are obvious.” He then looked at the two soldiers with clear dissatisfaction in his eyes.

While the reporters felt like there was still something wrong, the vice-commander did make sense.

Seeing their indignant looks fade, he smirked. “Right, some of you here are suspected of stealing confidential military information. The leaked footage is considered a military secret, so… hehe, I guess I don’t have to explain what this entails.”

The particularly arrogant reporter’s chest tightened and he turned pale as a sheet, immediately collapsing to the ground in hopelessness. The other reporters looked sympathetic, but took a step back to distance themselves from him. They didn’t want the crime to be placed on their heads, too.

“You’re a reporter from Tomorrow News, right? Call your chief editor now. See if they can stop the footage from being published, you can still save yourself,” another reporter kindly advised.

The arrogant reporter hurriedly fished his phone out, but it was already too late. The article had gone viral on the internet. It wouldn’t have attracted as much attention, if it weren’t for the drama surrounding Xiang Ning. Within five minutes of publication, it had already been shared a hundred thousand times.

“OMG, this has to be fake! How could he do such a thing?”

“Tsk, tsk, you really don’t know people these days. I can’t believe he did something like that.”

“Hehe, you won’t believe what I found about him on the internet. The punk has a stained record in Marsh City too. Apparently, he refused to rescue a fellow participant during the wilderness activity, then returned to school and beat some students up. We were almost fooled!”

Due to the sudden interest in Xiang Ning, all of his past records had been dug up once again. Even the things he had already cleared himself of were dragged back out. The internet relentlessly badmouthed him.

There were still many people who were on Xiang Ning’s side, which was decently effective. However, that was until the news piece was deleted and replaced with an article clarifying that it was all just a drill.

The internet exploded.

“Wow, Tomorrow News! Have you guys been threatened? Blink twice for yes.”

“Hehe, either the government or the military is behind this.”

“Of course they have to do something. Such an important place was so easily broken into, they were basically useless! I seriously doubt the ability of these fortresses to keep the beasts out!”

“Hehe, check out this update from the reporter who first reported about Xiang Ning, Wang Han! He’s starting to clear Xiang Ning’s name!”

“Hahaha, they’re really trying to clear his name! They should just tell us which big boss’ bastard son that Xiang Ning is!”

“I was just wondering how an orphan could be so powerful. Look at how young he is and he’s already in tier three. Not to mention his battle armor and flying knives. How could an orphan afford those?”

Conversations about Xiang Ning turned dark. More and more people who didn’t know anything about him were joining the conversation. However, nothing in the outside world was relevant to him at that moment. Time slowly passed, and Alia’s face turned paler by the minute.

At one in the morning, she collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. Her beautiful eyes were bloodshot; she had overexerted herself. She had no choice. Anyone would be exhausted after more than five hours of intense work.

Xiang Ning hurried over and stuffed a few pills into her mouth.

“Wait… wait, can’t you be gentler?”

Seeing Alia’s irritated glare, he grinned. “I’m just worried about you. Thank you so much for this.” He looked at the bioweapon they had forged. It was blue and gray, and he could see a pulsing piece of flesh in the attachment between the blade and hilt. It was an intimidating weapon.

The sword reached Xiang Ning’s chin when resting vertically on the ground. It was about 1.7 meters long and had a ten-centimeter-wide blade. It was a top-tier military weapon weighing a hundred kilograms. If Xiang Ning wanted to casually pick it up, he had to use two hands. And it didn’t matter what others thought—all he felt was… love at first sight.

“Alright, alright, seal it properly. You still need to go search for Fang Rou.” When Alia saw Xiang Ning’s love for the weapon compared to his indifference for her—a very pretty lady—she felt very odd.

Xiang Ning chuckled and got up to work at the console, so the weapon was placed into a metal tube. Anyone else would think it was just a regular metal pipe.

Doge & Chacha's Thoughts

yayy they got a new shiny weapon! also, don't post misinformation on social media, kids. --doge

The vice commander is a fucking giga mind.

Also MC be stuffing pills down Alia like: