Chapter 1: Blow It Up, Break Away, and Cross Paths

BOOM!

With a deafening explosion, the impenetrable iron walls of the prestigious century-old Imperial O’dell Academy crumbled into a heap of twisted metal.

Through the billowing clouds of smoke and ash, a tall figure emerged with unhurried, deliberate steps.

Shao Ye didn’t hesitate. He reached up to rip the name tag from his chest, tossing it aside like it was a piece of trash. The faint imprint of the O’dell Academy crest and the name “Shao Ye” burned in his memory for a fleeting moment before it was consumed by flames. He didn’t look back as he strode away, his steps measured, his resolve unshaken.

Stripping off the restrictive academy uniform jacket, he melted seamlessly into the chaos of the fleeing crowd. His sharp eyes scanned the scene, zeroing in on the academy’s exclusive black sedan parked just outside the gates.

The car operated on manual driving controls. For someone like him—well-versed in programming and mechanics—it was child’s play to commandeer it. His lips curled into the barest hint of a smirk. The sleek vehicle was his golden ticket out of the Imperial Capital.

In minutes, Shao Ye had hacked the system, overriding the locks and inputting an intricate escape route into the onboard navigation. The path he chose was unregistered, remote, and meticulously calculated to lead him straight to the Dustfolk district—a place where neither O’dell’s influence nor its enforcers could reach him.

As the car roared to life and sped down the predetermined path, Shao Ye leaned back against the seat and exhaled for what felt like the first time in years. Relief washed over him. Three long years of suffocating hell were finally over. No more oppressive rules. No more arranged marriage to that infamous predator, Lu Zhanxing.

But just as his mind dared to toy with the idea of freedom, a faint noise from the car’s rear compartment shattered his fleeting sense of calm.

He froze, his instincts immediately on high alert. For a moment, dizziness surged through him like an unwelcome wave, and his hand instinctively reached for the back of his neck. It was warm. Almost uncomfortably so.

Shrugging off the unease, he stumbled toward the rear cabin. Swinging the door open, he stopped cold.

A man dressed in black lay sprawled across the floor, surrounded by shattered glass and scattered vials. His face, pale and glistening with sweat, twisted in visible pain.

At first, Shao Ye felt the urge to ignore him. The guy was tall—at least six foot two—and broad-shouldered. He looked nothing like the delicate, frail male Omegas Shao Ye had been forced to endure at O’dell. If anything, this guy screamed Alpha or Beta. Definitely not Shao Ye’s problem.

But then his eyes caught something glinting in the stranger’s hand—a sleek black-gold access card embossed with the O’dell crest.

“What the hell?” Shao Ye muttered under his breath. Could this guy really be an Omega?

A wry thought crossed his mind: if someone like him—at six feet tall and leanly built—could be classified as an Omega, maybe the academy’s standards were even more twisted than he thought.

Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck, where the heat hadn’t subsided. Compassion, or maybe just morbid curiosity, won out. With no small amount of effort, he hauled the unconscious man into the front seat.

It wasn’t until Shao Ye stood to stretch that his eyes landed on a stray syringe at his feet. A label caught his eye: “Alpha Suppressant: Emergency Use Only.”

He froze.

The man beside him stirred. Black hair, disheveled and damp with sweat, framed a face that was infuriatingly perfect despite the pained grimace. His tightly shut eyes and furrowed brow betrayed whatever battle he was fighting inside.

Shao Ye reached out hesitantly, pressing the back of his hand to the stranger’s forehead. Scorching hot.

“Crap,” he muttered, realization dawning. “Is this guy... in heat?”

His gut twisted. The academy’s biology lectures had been a blur of useless facts, but one thing he remembered with startling clarity: a heat cycle was bad news. Really bad.

For Omegas, the answer was simple—suppressants or a temporary Alpha mark to alleviate symptoms. But for an Alpha like this guy? He was a walking hazard. The kind of hazard that spelled chaos for anyone caught in his orbit.

“Sorry, man,” Shao Ye muttered, adjusting the driver’s seat. “I can’t take you back. My freedom’s on the line here.”

But the decision wasn’t his to make.

Suddenly, the man’s eyes flew open. They glinted like molten gold, blazing with unbridled aggression. Shao Ye barely had time to register the shift before he was slammed into the seat, pinned under the man’s weight.

“What the—!” Shao Ye’s protest died in his throat as the stranger’s nose pressed against the curve of his neck, inhaling deeply.

A low growl rumbled from the man’s chest. Before Shao Ye could retaliate, sharp teeth sank into the tender flesh of his neck.

“Get off me, you psycho!” Shao Ye snarled, writhing against the man’s iron grip. But the stranger didn’t stop. Hands yanked at his shirt, nails scraping across his skin with a raw, primal desperation.

The air in the cabin thickened with the unmistakable charge of Alpha pheromones, suffocating and intoxicating all at once.

“Hell no!” Adrenaline surged through Shao Ye, and his fist shot up, catching the man square in the jaw.

The impact sent the stranger sprawling, unconscious once more.

Shao Ye kicked him off with a grunt, his hand shooting to his neck, where blood trickled from the bite wound.

Panting, he glared down at the crumpled figure sprawled across the floor. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill you, you damn mutt,” he hissed.

For a fleeting second, he stared at the man, wrestling with the urge to toss him out onto the road. But something about the Alpha’s vulnerable form—curled up and feverish—stayed his hand.

“Damn it all,” he muttered, slamming the driver’s door shut.

He glanced down at the shredded remains of his shirt. His chest lay bare, exposed in all its unkempt glory, a testament to some unspeakable ordeal. Disheveled and pathetic, it was a far cry from the polished image he might have wanted to project.

In stark contrast, the unconscious man lying nearby exuded perfection. Clad in a tailored black trench coat, cinched at the waist with a leather belt that framed his lean, athletic build, the man's appearance was meticulous, almost infuriatingly so.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Shao Ye ripped the coat off the man and threw it over his own shoulders. The fit wasn’t perfect—too broad in the shoulders, sleeves hanging a bit too long—but the craftsmanship was undeniable. The fabric and cut radiated understated luxury, the kind that screamed wealth without ever tipping into vulgarity.

Shao Ye’s eyes lingered on the man’s unconscious form. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, sculpted muscles, a chest so solid it looked chiseled from stone—and, damn it all, an eight-pack that Shao Ye had dreamed of achieving but never could. A pang of envy hit him hard.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Now this is what a man’s body is supposed to look like.”

Once upon a time, he’d had a physique like that.

Now?

He looked down at his own body, firm in some places, frustratingly lacking in others. No matter how hard he trained, the elusive six-pack remained just out of reach, let alone an eight-pack.

“It’s not because I’m an Omega,” he told himself, almost defiantly. “I just haven’t worked hard enough. That’s all.”

After snapping himself out of his self-pitying trance, Shao Ye took a more practical approach. The last thing he needed was for the man to wake up and go berserk. He found some rope and secured the unconscious figure to a chair before returning to the driver’s seat to adjust his route.

Life at O’Der Academy, for someone like Shao Ye, wasn’t much better than prison. While noble Omegas could enjoy weekly visits home, Shao Ye, a commoner, had no such privilege.

When this stranger appeared near the academy, riding in one of its private vehicles, Shao Ye didn’t bother questioning his identity too much. After all, he knew the kind of Omegas bred in this place—delicate creatures, all bark and no bite.

This guy?

Sure, he had the abs of a demigod, but they didn’t stop him from dropping like a sack of potatoes after one punch. Feeling oddly victorious, Shao Ye let himself recline in his seat, exhaustion washing over him.

The tension of the journey caught up fast. A wave of drowsiness hit him like a freight train, leaving his limbs heavy and his thoughts muddled. Before he knew it, he was out cold.

In his sleep, he felt something soft and warm nuzzling against his cheek—a sensation at once foreign and familiar. Half-asleep, his hands reflexively encircled the fluffy figure, mumbling, “Xiao Bai, cut it out… let me sleep a little longer.”

His dreams carried him back to his past life, to Xiao Bai, the stray dog who had been his only solace during his loneliest, darkest days. When Shao Ye’s original life came to its abrupt, tragic end, it was Xiao Bai’s desperate barking and frantic attempts to lick his wounds that stayed etched in his mind.

Shao Ye was certain this time would be the end. When he shut his eyes, he fully believed he'd never open them again. What he didn't expect—what no one could have prepared him for—was to wake up in some bizarre, alien world, inhabiting the body of a kid who, of all things, shared his name.

But the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the body of a battered teenage boy in a filthy graveyard, a dirt-smudged little girl shaking him awake and calling him “brother.”

The girl led him back to what she called “home”—a structure so decrepit it could barely be classified as a pigsty. The original owner of his new body was her sole protector, a minor working himself to death in an illegal factory, only to be beaten to death over unpaid wages. The boy’s death had been quick and merciless, his body discarded like trash.

This was the Dust District of Imperial Star City—a cesspool where poverty and crime thrived unchecked. Here, desperation festered, and survival meant clawing your way through filth and hopelessness.

The wider empire wasn’t much better. Beneath its polished surface, society was divided into rigid hierarchies, with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a few ruling families. And then there was the second gender system, a bizarre and oppressive twist of biology: Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

Omegas, the rarest and most biologically coveted, lived under a crushing system of control. Their reproductive value made them prime targets, whether for legal breeding programs or illegal exploitation. For a lone, unprotected Omega in the Dust District, life was a nightmare of constant threats—rape, abduction, or worse.

The empire’s laws are brutally skewed against Omegas, stripping them of basic autonomy. They aren’t even allowed to step outside alone, and if an Omega is assaulted in public, the system doesn’t protect them—instead, it brands them as morally corrupt. The justification? That their victimization somehow threatens the fragile fabric of society.

If an Omega dares to remain unmarried by a certain age, the state doesn’t just nudge—it shoves. They’re forced into marriage like cattle in a transaction.

Refuse?

Divorce?

The punishment is draconian: they’re hauled off to a centralized birthing center, where their existence is reduced to a single, grim function. A breeding machine, stripped of dignity, agency, and the right to be human.

To Shao Ye, a straight man to his very core, the cruelest twist of fate was his second-life transformation. Not only had he split into the Omega category, but he was also the most tantalizing kind: a top-tier genetic match, dripping in irresistible pheromones.

To ensure the continuation of the aristocracy's so-called "pure bloodline," the Empire decrees a yearly, nationwide hunt for unmarried Omegas. These individuals are rounded up like cattle, graded by their genetic worth, and sorted into ranks.

The cream of the crop—the high-grade Omegas—are shipped off to Omega Colleges in various cities. There, they're drilled into becoming ideal wives and mothers, dutifully primed to serve their future husbands and raise their offspring. Their ultimate fate is sealed with a pheromone compatibility test: if their scent aligns with that of a noble Alpha, they're forced into marriage, no questions asked.

This oppressive system has consequences, of course. In Dust Town, the gender imbalance has spiraled out of control. Too many Alphas, too few Omegas. Desperation festers. Alphas without mates to soothe them during their vulnerable periods are left high and dry, leading to a sharp spike in violence and crime. The streets are restless, seething with unmet need and rising chaos.

When Shao Ye first laid eyes on a pregnant male Omega, his shock was almost visceral. The sight didn’t just disturb him—it lodged itself deep in his mind, a grotesque vision of what this world truly demanded. But back then, he was still a child, not yet differentiated, still clinging to the faint hope that fate wouldn’t throw him under its grinding wheels again.

He had suffered enough in two lifetimes—surely, even the heavens wouldn't be so cruel?

The universe must have a personal grudge against Shao Ye. On his way to a factory job, minding his own business, he was stopped dead in his tracks by the Alliance soldiers. No pleasantries, no explanations—they dragged him aside, drew his blood, and ran a mandatory DNA test.

The verdict?

He was a rare, top-tier Omega. Before he could even process the bombshell, they shoved him into an airtight armored vehicle and carted him off to the Alliance's elite Omega academy: Imperial Omega Institute, better known as O'Dell Academy.

He barely had time to worry about his kid sister—barely a teenager—left alone at home.

Without him, how the hell would she survive?

Worse yet, what if she also turned out to be an Omega during the years he’d been locked up in this gilded cage?

The thought clawed at his gut; he didn’t even want to imagine the kind of hell she'd face.

And now, three long, miserable years later, the Academy dropped another bomb on him: a 99.9% pheromone match had been found. His destined Alpha wasn’t just anyone, either—it was Lu Zhanxing, the Empire’s untouchable big shot, the highest-ranking commander of the Alliance military.

Sure, an Alpha like that should’ve had Omegas lining up to throw themselves at his feet. But his pheromones were notoriously overpowering, making him a walking death trap for most.

Word was that any Omega daring enough to get close during his heat period didn’t live to tell the tale. The rumor mill claimed he’d already racked up a body count in the double digits, and the rest of the so-called “prestigious Omega society” gave him a wide berth.

But of course, Shao Ye’s damn pheromones just had to be compatible. Not just compatible—perfect. A 99.9% match that sent the Academy into a frenzy. They couldn’t wait to offload their most troublesome, chaos-loving student onto the Lu family.

Good riddance to bad trash, right?

Shao Ye wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly what they were doing. To them, he was nothing more than a sacrificial pawn, another expendable victim to feed the beast. If he didn’t act fast, he’d be dead meat before he even had a chance to spit in their faces. He needed to escape O'Dell Academy, get back to the Dust District, and find his sister—before it was too late.

———TN: • 狼叔 (láng shū): "The Wolf"—a rugged, commanding figure who radiates raw, untamed dominance. He’s the kind of man whose very presence demands attention, an apex predator in a world full of sheep. Charisma and power ooze from every step he takes, and his sharp instincts make him as dangerous as he is irresistible.

• 极品美O (jí pǐn měi Ō): "The Ultimate Omega"—a masterpiece of beauty and sensuality, crafted to perfection. This Omega isn’t just attractive; they’re a walking fantasy, effortlessly exuding an allure that turns heads and weakens knees. They’re the kind of person you don’t just desire—you crave, with a hunger that refuses to be sated.

• 星际通缉犯 (xīng jì tōng jī fàn): This means an interstellar fugitive or criminal. A renegade who laughs in the face of galactic law, slipping through the cracks of the universe with calculated precision.

Based on this, I made decision that the English title that best captures the raw intensity and primal allure of the Chinese original is The Alpha's Outlaw Omega—a name that demands attention, radiates forbidden power, and leaves no room for doubt about the heat and chaos it promises.