Chapter 63: No One’s Coming to Save Me

After a quick regroup, Lu Zhanxing led the Alliance troops back on the trail of Shao Ye, chasing faint clues like a wolf with blood on its tongue.

Guessing at Shao Lan's logic, they hurtled toward the Fifth Star System—a dusty, godforsaken backwater no one with sense would venture into unless dragged or desperate.

Alliance Special Forces mechs moved like shadows through the interstellar lanes, engines humming low, guns primed.

Inside his command mech, Lu Zhanxing’s eyes drilled into the data scrolling across his screen. His jaw tightened, emotions colliding. Fear gnawed at his gut, but so did a relentless hunger to find Shao Ye. Every mile closer dangled hope, but without coordinates or a signal, finding that damned escape pod in a void like this felt like digging for a diamond in a pit of ash.

It took a grueling week, but finally, something surfaced.

"Boss, search-and-rescue just spotted the pod!" Lai Xueluan’s voice crackled through comms, excitement sharp enough to cut glass.

Without missing a beat, they rushed to the coordinates, the tension so thick you could choke on it. But when they pried the pod open, they found jack squat. Empty. Not a single trace of Shao Ye.

“What the hell is this?!” Yu Mo spat, frustration boiling over. “Could Shao Lan have sent out a decoy just to mess with us?”

Lu Zhanxing didn’t flinch, his focus razor-sharp as he scoured the pod. The medical bay was intact—well, mostly. The med capsule bore the marks of a forced entry. Someone had cracked it open like a tin can.

“The med pod’s been breached,” Zhanxing said coldly. “Shao Ye’s been taken. Someone yanked him out after the pod landed.”

“Taken? By who? Don’t tell me Shao Lan planted her people here ahead of time,” Yu Mo said, voice dripping with unease.

If Shao Lan had the clout to plant agents this deep inside Alliance territory, the implications were as terrifying as they were infuriating. The sheer nerve of her.

But Lu Zhanxing shot that theory down fast. “Not her people. If it were, they wouldn’t need to bash their way in. They’d know the pod’s access codes. This was random. Pure chance.”

His tone left no room for argument. He barked orders to comb the surrounding area, prioritize anyone who’d been near the landing zone in the past week.

The lead came fast.

The pod had landed in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in a penal mining zone under the Fifth Star System’s jurisdiction. Within the last week, a handful of vehicles had passed through—mostly convict transport trucks, including a heavily armed escort from the system's local enforcement.

Whoever took Shao Ye had walked straight out of hell’s backyard.

The elite special ops squad tracked down every vehicle involved, grilling anyone they could find about Shao Ye’s whereabouts. Finally, a lead surfaced from the team responsible for an Omega transport mission.

*

Interrogation room.

The soldiers who had escorted a batch of Omegas to the Fifth Star System's infamous breeding facility sat stiffly in their chairs, faces pale. They couldn’t wrap their heads around why, as enlisted Alliance troops, they’d been hauled into a room that reeked of criminal judgment.

Lu Zhanxing stormed in with his squad, radiating barely restrained fury. His sharp gaze swept the room as the guard at the door confirmed that the transport vehicles matching their description had been in the area five days prior. No time to waste—he got straight to the point.

“You. I’m Commander Lu Zhanxing of the Alliance Army.”

The soldiers flinched so hard they almost toppled over, scrambling to their feet in a nervous mess. Lu cut their panic short with a glare. “Relax. Sit down. I’m not here to hang you—yet. I just need answers.”

“Sir, yes, sir! Whatever you need! We’ll cooperate fully!” one of them stammered, practically groveling.

Lu Zhanxing didn’t bother softening the blow. “Five days ago, in sector E001, did you encounter an unregistered escape vessel?”

The group exchanged quick glances before nodding. “Yes, sir. There was an unmarked ship in E001.”

Lu Zhanxing leaned forward, his voice dropping to a dangerous pitch. “And the passengers? Was it him?” He slapped a photo of Shao Ye onto the table, his fingers pressing into the edges as if the image might shatter under his grip.

The soldiers huddled over the photo, their expressions tightening. Finally, one spoke up, voice trembling. “It’s him. That’s the sickly guy we found inside.”

The room seemed to freeze, Lu’s breath caught in his throat. “Sickly?”

The soldier nodded hastily. “Yes, sir. The ship was clearly rebel-issued. We forced entry and found him alone in a medical pod, unconscious. We opened it up, and that’s when we noticed... the C-section scars. That’s how we knew he was an Omega.”

Lu Zhanxing ’s heart twisted like someone had plunged a blade in and was twisting it cruelly. His voice cracked as he demanded, “And then? Where is he now?”

The soldiers visibly paled, sensing the storm brewing in Lu’s eyes. One hesitated before answering, his voice barely above a whisper. “We... we sent him to the breeding facility. Standard protocol for unidentified Omegas.”

The words hit Lu Zhanxing like a freight train, his vision narrowing to a pinpoint as rage and horror overtook him. “Breeding facility?!” he echoed, the words tasting like poison.

His second-in-command, Lai Xueluan, grabbed his arm, trying to steady him. “Boss, calm down. We’ll get Shao Ye back. He’s strong—he’ll survive this. We’ll fix it.”

But they all knew the truth. A breeding facility wasn’t just a prison; it was a nightmare made flesh, a place where Omegas were stripped of their humanity and treated as nothing more than tools. For someone like Shao Ye—fragile, terrified of Alphas, freshly torn apart from the pain of surgery—it was a fate worse than death.

Lu Zhanxing’s hands curled into fists, his nails biting into his palms. A freezing numbness crawled up his spine as his mind painted grotesque images of what Shao Ye might be enduring. Then, in an explosive burst of fury, he lunged forward, seizing the nearest soldier by the collar and yanking him clean off the ground.

“Which. Facility.” he snarled, spitting every word like a curse.

The soldier choked on his terror, his face draining of color. “E—E sector! Number 45! I swear, that’s where we took him!”

Lu Zhanxing released him with a shove, spinning on his heel and storming out without another word. His squad scrambled to follow, adrenaline pumping as they raced toward E sector.

Time wasn’t just running out. It was their enemy.

Five days earlier.

Fifth Star System, Sector E.

Facility No. 45 – Breeding Center.

Shao Ye woke slowly, his mind clawing its way out of a haze only to be slapped by a searing ache in his gut. A pain so sharp it felt like someone had taken a scalpel to his very soul. His brows furrowed as his senses came rushing back.

Somewhere in the background, voices rang out—a chaotic mess of excitement and urgency.

“Director! Director! The blood test results are in. He’s an extremely rare Omega!”

Omega? What the hell was that?

Shao Ye’s head felt like it was weighed down by concrete, and as he tried to sit up, the truth hit him like a truck: his wrists and ankles were strapped down tight to a cold, sterile bed. His body was immobilized, caged.

“Where am I?” he croaked, his voice hoarse as his gaze dropped to his abdomen, wrapped tightly in bandages. The pain radiating from his stomach twisted and clawed at him. Panic set in.

His brain went wild with scenarios. Organ trafficking. Had he been abducted and dragged off to some black-market hellhole in northern Myanmar? Was his kidney already gone?

Cold sweat poured down his face as fear settled in, raw and biting.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew times were tough, knew he was desperate for cash, but he’d never imagined himself gullible enough to fall for a scam like this. And yet, here he was—trapped, helpless, terrified.

Before he could spiral further, a voice broke through his thoughts.

“Ah, look at that, he’s awake!”

The owner of the voice? A greasy, balding middle-aged creep whose combover looked like it was fleeing his scalp in shame. Yellowed teeth peeked out from under his smarmy grin, and his beer gut strained against a lab coat that barely fit. This man reeked of bad intentions and cheap cologne.

“Where am I? Who the hell are you people?” Shao Ye demanded, voice sharp and trembling with rage.

The man sauntered closer, eyes gleaming with perverse amusement. “Relax, sweetheart. You’re at the Central Breeding Facility. I’m the director here.”

Breeding Facility?

The words slammed into Shao Ye like a freight train. His stomach turned, bile rising as the man reached out, his pudgy hand trailing up Shao Ye’s leg, inching higher with every second.

Instinct took over. Shao Ye’s body tensed, his skin crawling with disgust as he realized where this was headed.

Breeding Facility?

Was this some kind of underground surrogacy operation? What the hell did they want with him?

The greasy bastard kept coming closer, his tone dripping with mock affection. “A gem like you—an Omega this rare? Oh, I’ve never had the pleasure. Bet you’ll be unforgettable. I’m so looking forward to it.”

Shao Ye’s pupils shrank, pure, undiluted fury flooding his veins. His stomach screamed in pain, but it was drowned out by the nausea and rage that bubbled up inside him.

He spat. Hard. The glob of spit hit the man’s sweaty face dead-on.

“You filthy piece of shit,” Shao Ye snarled, his voice razor-sharp, every syllable laced with venom. “Get your hands off me, or I swear, I’ll gut you myself.”

Shao Ye didn’t get a single word of that "Omega" nonsense. He figured it was just some freaky kink this psycho was into, so he let it slide—until the bastard snapped.

The boss’s slap cracked across Shao Ye's face, a sharp sting igniting like fire. His vision blurred with bright flashes as the taste of hot, metallic blood filled his mouth. Disgusting. The sick tang churned his stomach, but he spat it out, defiant.

The boss wasn’t done. He yanked Shao Ye’s hair, dragging his head back viciously. “You little bitch,” he growled, his voice low and venomous. “You land in the breeding center and still think you’re too good to please me? You’re stuck here for life, so you’d better learn your place. I’ll make you beg.”

Shao Ye glared at him with the fire of a man who refused to kneel. Even in this hellhole, he wasn’t about to back down. “Fuck you. I’m a man. I’d rather die than bend over for another dude.” His voice was raw, his defiance seething through every word.

The boss sneered, his eyes gleaming with twisted pleasure. “Man? Don’t make me laugh. You’re an Omega—born to take it.” His free hand slammed down on Shao Ye's bandaged stomach, pressing hard, digging cruelly into the wound.

“Ah—fuck!” Shao Ye's scream ripped through the room, a raw, broken sound that echoed off the cold walls. Pain shot through him like a wave, his strength draining with every second. Sweat dripped from his brow, mingling with the blood soaking through the thin bandages now dripping crimson onto the filthy floor.

The boss’s grin twisted into something monstrous. He was enjoying this, savoring every second of Shao Ye’s suffering. His hands worked the wound harder, pushing, grinding, tearing, the sadistic delight on his face making Shao Ye’s stomach churn.

Blood pooled faster now, the sickening drip drip drip mixing with the echoes of Shao Ye’s strained breathing and the occasional sharp gasp of agony. His body trembled, on the edge of collapse, but his spirit burned too bright to break.

“Beg me,” the boss purred, his tone dark and mocking. “Make me happy, and maybe—just maybe—your time here won’t be a living hell.”

Shao Ye clenched his teeth so hard he thought they’d crack, sweat streaking down his face as his chest heaved. He refused to give this monster the satisfaction. After what felt like an eternity, he hissed through gritted teeth, his voice a deadly whisper: “In your dreams.”

The boss’s face darkened, and his fingers twisted deeper into the wound, a merciless punishment for Shao Ye’s insolence. Pain shot through his body, and he bit down on his lip so hard he tasted blood, his face going pale, lips trembling.

Somewhere deep inside, desperation flickered. Shaoye’s voice cracked, hoarse and broken as his strength faded, his plea barely more than a whisper: “Somebody… save me…”

———TN: Every ounce of your agony, every silent scream trapped in your chest. But screw giving up now.