IRCDM Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Disorder – You Haven’t Even Touched It

Originally, Li Yao felt a chill on his skin and thought his finger had been chopped off. He stared at the lightning ring for half a second, feeling both annoyed and amused. “What kind of broken thing is this?”

Liang Huan seized the opportunity to pull him up: “Why does this place smell so awful? Like rotting corpses.”

“It’s a rotten corpse pit. I specifically looked for it.” Li Yao turned on the light on Liang Huan’s protective suit. “I don’t bring just anyone here.”

“…” Liang Huan looked around. The pit was very deep, about half the size of a soccer field at the bottom. The corpses of heteromorphs were densely packed, filling the entire pit. No matter how large and ferocious they were in life, they had rotted into grayish-black dregs after death. Stepping on them felt like stepping on a pool of soft mud. Every step forward squeezed out black-greenjuicewater, emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

“Even after heteromorphs die, their bodies can still retain mental power for more than ten years. They mostly rely on mental power and smell to search for prey. We’re very safe hiding here.” Li Yao barely breathed. “Besides being disgusting—”

Liang Huan couldn’t help but look at him. Li Yao couldn’t stand the smell. His lips were pale, and cold sweat was dripping from his forehead. It didn’t seem like disgust, but more like fear. However, there was no fear in his eyes, more like some kind of physiological aversion.

“The transparent type shouldn’t have gone far. Let’s wait here for half an hour before going out.” Li Yao found a corner with fewer corpses and beckoned Liang Huan over. “Just now, the mental link—what are you doing? Going to the bathroom?”

Liang Huan was lowering his head to undo the belt of his protective suit. Hearing this, he simply took off the protective suit, revealing the black vest inside. Li Yao’s gaze paused slightly.

From a purely male perspective, Liang Huan’s figure was indeed good: broad shoulders, narrow waist, and a beautiful collarbone shape. The muscle lines on his arms were tight and smooth. Perhaps because the protective suit was stuffy and they had run too quickly, the black vest was soaked through, and the outline of his abs was faintly visible as he handed it over. His cold, pale skin formed too stark a contrast with the dark, rotten background. He suddenly leaned in, and the warmth and breath of his body actually made Li Yao feel a hint of danger.

He frowned and looked up unhappily.

Liang Huan looked at him with a solemn expression.

Li Yao knew that he loved to smile and was usually amiable to everyone. Now, with his smile gone, his usual affability vanished, replaced by a stern coldness. The way he looked down at people was imposing, even though his face was clearly too striking, it still made people feel unapproachable… This kind of dominance and oppression made Li Yao very uncomfortable, probably due to the innate competitive nature between males—

“Li Yao?” Liang Huan called several times without getting a response. He simply draped the protective suit over Li Yao and grabbed the respirator inside, fastening it to Li Yao’s face.

Li Yao suddenly came back to his senses, wanting to take the thing off, but Liang Huan grabbed his hand.

“Are you feeling better?” Liang Huan patted his face.

His scattered consciousness gradually returned. Only then did Li Yao realize that he was leaning in the other’s arms. He straightened up abruptly, but his waist suddenly tightened, and he was pulled back again.

He was shocked into silence for two seconds.

His 3S physical fitness was actually pulled back by someone with one hand?!

“Your eyes were open just now, but you didn’t respond no matter how much I called. I guessed that the mental link had been going on for too long, so I simply cut it off.” Liang Huan raised his hand and waved it in front of his eyes. “Li Yao, can you hear me?”

Li Yao slapped his hand away, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper. “Why are you wearing my clothes?”

Liang Huan said frankly, “I had Deng Meng buy a few, but none of them are as comfortable as yours. What’s wrong?”

“Heh.” Li Yao sneered. “Not that great.”

Liang Huan was stunned for a moment, then said uncertainly, “Li Yao, are you really okay?”

“Fine, I’m doing great.” Li Yao pinched his arm, disdainfully saying, “Such a big man, covering himself up so white. How do you get by at school like this? Let’s both strip and compare.”

He directly lifted Liang Huan’s vest, stared at his abs for a few seconds, touched them, and raised his eyebrows in a very irritating way. “Tsk.”

Liang Huan grabbed his hand and put the clothes down. “Don’t be presumptuous.”

Wearing just a vest was already exposed enough for him. Li Yao’s actions were no different from indecent assault. Fortunately, he was generous and didn’t bother with Li Yao.

“Then you touch mine.” Li Yao placed his hand on his own abs, arrogantly saying, “This is what you call strength.”

The warmth and sensation of his palm were overly clear. Liang Huan lowered his eyes, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, and said in a deep voice, “I know.”

He withdrew his hand and wrapped the protective suit tightly around Li Yao. There were too many heteromorph corpses around, and the mental pollution value was too high. He and Li Yao had been maintaining the link all along. No matter how strong Li Yao was, his mental power was only C-grade. He was clearly in some kind of disordered state.

Li Yao seemed particularly interested in his body, touching him up and down, placing his claws on his thigh and squeezing it, wondering, “Then why can’t I fly?”

“You don’t have internal force, so naturally you can’t.” Liang Huan sighed, suddenly understanding the sense of powerlessness that Li Yao felt when facing the “Liang Huan” who claimed to be an emperor.

Mental disorder was indeed terrifying.

Li Yao was eager to try. “I’ll try.”

Liang Huan quickly grabbed him, preventing him from jumping directly into the corpse mud. Li Yao suddenly turned to him and smiled, openly and unrestrainedly. “I have a way. Come with me.”

After saying that, he jumped directly onto the almost vertical pit wall. The protective suit was a bit of a hindrance to him. He simply took off the upper half and tied it around his waist, leaving only the respirator. It seemed that even with mental disorder, he still found the smell disgusting.

He climbed too fast. Liang Huan stood on the spot with his hands behind his back, looking up. He only saw the beautiful muscles on his shoulders and back. The black dragon lay on his back, its head resting on his shoulder, majestic and imposing. Liang Huan watched for a moment, suspecting that he was also mentally polluted. He directly used his internal force, stepping on the protruding rocks and lightly pausing a few times, landing on the ground first and reaching out his hand to Li Yao.

Li Yao impatiently slapped his hand away and jumped up himself.

Liang Huan said, “Why don’t you get some sleep first?”

“I’m not sleepy, I’m full of energy.” Li Yao looked around, rubbing his aching temples in confusion. “What’s going on? Where’s my mental power?”

This bit of mental power is useless.

“We just dodged a transparent special-grade heteromorph.” Liang Huan said, “Let’s leave first.”

“A transparent special-grade heteromorph?” Li Yao immediately became interested. “Interesting. Let’s go catch it.”

“It’s very dangerous.” Liang Huan reminded him.

“Just special-grade. I can take it down without a mecha.” Li Yao arrogantly tapped his temples. “It’s especially beautiful when a heteromorph’s mental source explodes. I’ll take you to see.”

Since meeting Li Yao, Liang Huan had never seen him smile like this. For a moment, he seemed to see the young, infinitely promising military officer from the newspaper at seventeen.

“Next time,” Liang Huan said, following his words. “The school wants us to leave first.”

“Alright.” Li Yao was unusually amenable. He turned on the detector he had been fiddling with and placed it on the ground. He also pulled out a wire from the protective suit and wrapped it around the chip inside, closing his eyes and listening carefully.

“What are you doing?” Liang Huan asked.

“Shh.” Li Yao raised his hand to his lips. “It’s coming.”

Liang Huan heard a faint whistling sound, and then his mental power began to fluctuate. The detector emitted a buzzing vibration. The smile on Li Yao’s face slowly widened. He grabbed his wrist and ran towards the cliff in front of them. “I’ll count to three. Jump together!”

Liang Huan was dragged forward by him, frowning. “Li Yao, wait a moment—”

“Three!” Li Yao leaped into the air with him.

The feeling of weightlessness made Liang Huan want to activate his internal force, but the next moment, the two of them stepped on something solid. A huge flying heteromorph rose from the cliff and glided close to the ground. Li Yao hooked his feet onto the hard scales on its wings and, before it could open its mouth, bent down to grab the detector on the ground. Then, with a flip, he jumped back onto its back. He lowered his head slightly, skillfully fiddling with the complex instrument he had partially disassembled, using electromagnetic waves to lure the heteromorph, which flapped its huge wings straight into the sky.

The wind howled, causing the protective suit to flutter. He spread his arms and cheered joyfully, showing Liang Huan a bright smile under the gray-blue sky. “See, I can fly too.”

Liang Huan grabbed the heteromorph’s hard spine, meeting his enthusiastic gaze, and smiled gently. “Amazing.”

“I’ll take you to play something even more interesting in the future.” Li Yao accepted his praise as a matter of course. “Although the school doesn’t allow it, who cares.”

The high-frequency mental fluctuations made Liang Huan feel a bit dizzy, but he didn’t let Li Yao stop. Instead, he sat on the back of the flying heteromorph. Li Yao blew in the wind for a while and came over to sit next to him. “Why do I feel like something’s wrong with my body?”

“Where do you feel uncomfortable?” Liang Huan took his pulse.

“Too little mental power. My body aches, and my movements aren’t smooth.” Li Yao turned his stiff neck. “I originally planned to jump down and grab the detector just now, but I felt like I couldn’t do it. Strange… What are you doing?”

“It’s nothing.” Liang Huan retracted his hand. “Maybe you’re just too tired.”

“I am really tired. It’s the first time I’ve felt this tired.” Li Yao stared at the black dragon tattooed on his wrist, wondering, “What is this?”

“If you’re tired, get some sleep.” Liang Huan gripped his wrist, clutching the black dragon in his palm. “Can you make it stop?”

“Of course.” Li Yao glanced at his hand gripping his wrist. “But bro, isn’t this a little too ambiguous?”

Liang Huan raised his eyebrows.

Li Yao bumped his shoulder. “Don’t be discouraged. Although I don’t like guys, I know some. Should I introduce you?”

The heteromorph slowly landed on the ground. Liang Huan smiled slightly. “No need, thank you.”

Li Yao felt a pain in the back of his neck and instantly lost consciousness.

—

When he woke up again, the first thing he smelled was a pungent bloody smell. He opened his eyes abruptly and subconsciously pulled out his gun.

“It’s dead.” Liang Huan walked over, covered in blood, looking at him cautiously. “Li Yao, are you awake?”

Li Yao turned his head and looked at the surrounding environment. His memory only stopped at the scene in the corpse pit when he called Liang Huan over. He immediately felt uneasy. “Was I mentally disordered before?”

Liang Huan breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes.”

“What happened?” Li Yao frowned at Liang Huan, who was covered in blood, and pulled him over to examine him. “Are you injured?”

“No, I just killed a low-level flying heteromorph.” Liang Huan’s expression wasn’t good. Although his mental power was high, it was inconvenient to use because of hisFunctional. He had a hard time killing it with physical attacks alone. What bothered him most was that the heteromorph’s blood seemed to have some kind of adhesiveness, and it couldn’t be washed off his skin no matter what.

“Flying heteromorph?” Li Yao found it inexplicable. “Flying heteromorphs in this kind of primeval forest aren’t common. Why did you provoke it?”

Liang Huan stared at him blankly.

Li Yao: “…Me?”

“First, find a way to wash off the blood.” Liang Huan had already killed many zombies that had been attracted by the smell. Those things were endless, and even someone as good-tempered as him was getting irritated.

Li Yao skillfully took out a can of liquid fuel from his backpack. After searching for a long time but not finding a piece of cloth, he simply took off his vest and soaked it, starting to wipe the blood off Liang Huan’s body.

“Let me do it myself.” Liang Huan saw him wandering around in front of him with his upper body bare and reached out to take the cloth.

“Tsk, sit still.” Li Yao brushed his hand away, his movements rough but skilled. “This stuff is especially hard to wipe off once it gets on your skin. Even a little smell can attract zombies. Why did you take off your protective suit for no reason?”

Liang Huan said coldly, “I felt like it.”

“Yo.” Li Yao pressed his hand on his hair, bending down to look at him curiously. “It’s the first time I’ve seen Your Majesty so unhappy. Did I do something heinous while I was mentally disordered? Did I think I was a zombie or a spaceship?”

He hadn’t cared at first, but Liang Huan’s reaction made him a little interested.

“You thought you were the Grand Eunuch next to me, insisting on competing with Jinbao for favor.” Liang Huan said faintly.

Li Yao was a little disappointed. “That’s too boring. At least dream of being the Empress… Hurry up and take off this broken clothes. If I wipe you down, I have to trace the edges. We’re both big men, what’s wrong with touching each other a couple of times?”

Liang Huan’s back stiffened, thinking he was really going to touch him. But Li Yao pulled off his vest and whistled teasingly after taking a quick look. “Nice body.”

Liang Huan got up and took the cloth from his hand. “I’ll do it myself.”

Li Yao simply folded his arms and leaned against the tree, watching him.

Liang Huan walked directly behind the tree.

Li Yao laughed loudly. “Your Majesty, don’t be shy. It’s a pity not to show such a good body to people. I’ll create a holographic image and put it in the chip as a background picture for you—”

Liang Huan came out wearing his protective suit, even the collar was buttoned up tightly. He glanced at Li Yao with some annoyance. “Let’s go.”

That was the bad thing about modern people. They had none of the proper etiquette and restraint. Even though Li Yao was a man, he was a bit too unrestrained.

Li Yao skillfully put his arm around his shoulder, even patting his abs hard. “Still a little worse than me.”

“Stronger than you.” Liang Huan said.

“You haven’t even touched it, you’re just talking.” Li Yao laughed.

Liang Huan: “…”

He really didn’t want to continue discussing this topic with Li Yao and said seriously, “Where are you taking me?”

“Of course, I’m taking you to pilot a mecha.” Li Yao met his gaze. “Dare to go?”

Liang Huan said calmly, “Why wouldn’t I dare?”

“That’s good.” Li Yao wanted to continue putting his arm around him, but he was dodged without a trace. He looked at his dodged hand in confusion.

What’s wrong with him?