I Married A Degraded Alpha
Chapter 40: Hot Pursuit and the Trap

Chapter 40: Hot Pursuit and the Trap

The word about Yuri and Tuss showing up at the transfer station got out. Folks figured out their end goal from the path they were traveling—Planet Alpha.

It was pretty easy to put together. Planet Alpha was home base for Yuri and Tuss. It was where their friends and teachers were. It was the only place they’d head to.

Now, everyone who was interested in the starstone was getting ready to fight, planning to either stop Yuri and Tuss before they made it to Planet Alpha, or grab them as soon as they landed.

"We’ll make it to Planet Alpha by tomorrow," Tuss said out of the blue.

"I’ve picked up on that. The amount of spaceships and mechas we’ve seen in the past few hours has really gone up," Yuri replied, while examining some rocks. "Should I crack these open now?"

"If you feel like it. If there are gems inside, you can use them to make jewelry," Tuss answered.

Yuri shook her head. "We’ll see. I might not be into the gems inside."

Tuss looked at her, confused. Shouldn’t she be excited or happy? Why is she being so choosy? Tuss made a mental note to check out more romance books and love advice columns when he got back to Planet Alpha so as to better guess Yuri’s thoughts.

With the help of Enova, Yuri sliced through the rocks as easy as cutting cheese. In under thirty minutes, all eleven rocks had been neatly split.

Six out of the eleven rocks had gems inside. The gems were all different sizes, with the biggest around the size of Yuri’s fist, and the tiniest about as big as a lychee seed.

The colors were different too—pink, red, green, blue, purple, and yellow—each one bright and eye-catching.

Tuss turned around to see Yuri holding the six gems on her lap, checking them out with wide eyes.

"All of them out?" he asked.

"Right here," Yuri answered, showing each gem to Tuss. "These gems are so big, so pure, and so bright, they almost look fake."

Tuss cracked a smile, "A treasure of a lifetime ends up looking phony in your eyes, huh..."

Yuri rolled her eyes, "A treasure of a lifetime? I’ve got six right here."

Tuss was stumped. He was just using a figure of speech.

"How much could we sell these for?" Yuri asked.

"You could auction them off for millions, maybe even tens of millions," Tuss answered nonchalantly.

Yuri’s eyes got even bigger, "That much?"

"They’re top quality. You don’t find gems like this every day. Average gems would only go for ten thousand to a hundred thousand credits." Coming from the rich Hiro family, Tuss had a good idea about how much these jewels were worth.

Just like he said, Yuri started looking for gems online.

A few minutes later, she murmured, "We sure are lucky, finding such nice gems on our first try."

Tuss responded, "I thought you figured out we were lucky when we found the starstone."

Yuri went quiet.

As they got closer to Planet Alpha, even Yuri, who had been calm at first, started to feel jumpy.

"This spaceship seems to be tailing us," Yuri pointed out, gesturing to the slowly shrinking spaceship icon on the screen.

"It’s not just that one. There’s this one, and this, and this, and those," Tuss said, zooming in on the screen to show all the spaceships and mechas that were closing in. "They’ve been following us for two hours now."

Yuri jumped, "Have we been spotted?"

"Not necessarily. They might just be keeping an eye on us." Tuss looked serious.

Beep-beep-beep—

"Somebody’s trying to get in touch," Yuri glanced at the red light flashing on the control panel of the mecha, her heart pounding.

"Ignore it," Tuss said.

Yuri thought to herself, ignoring it won’t make it disappear. The more they ignored it, the more suspicious they looked. But right now, they didn’t have any other choices.

Above Planet Alpha, a spaceship had been hovering for a whole day and night. A beautiful woman was setting up her fancy recording gear while talking into a microphone, "Look, guys, isn’t the starry sky gorgeous?"

Comments on the screen were scrolling fast.

"I don’t want to see stars; I want to see the starstone."

"Where’s the starstone? Are you messing with us?"

"Yeah, where’s the starstone? I’ve been waiting for hours and haven’t seen anything."

The live stream audience was getting restless.

The woman laughed, "Don’t rush. According to trustworthy sources, the starstone will make it to Planet Alpha within the next hour. There’s going to be a face-off here. Do you see the military? There are four groups here, all waiting for the starstone. Let’s see who gets it."

Like her, there were hundreds of other people live streaming the arrival of the starstone on Planet Alpha. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of cameras floating above Planet Alpha.

Meanwhile, countless people were sitting in front of their screens, eagerly waiting for the starstone to arrive.

Back at the military school, students who had just finished their exams were logging onto the internet using their computers.

"Tuss is in hot water this time."

"I agree. He shouldn’t have walked right into the trap."

"It’s riskier outside. Coming back means only losing the starstone; not coming back could cost him his life."

"That’s right, you see the situation clearly. Besides, both he and Yuri are neither alphas nor betas. The starstone is useless to them."

From what Edgar and others at Military Academy No. 2 were saying, they knew about Tuss’s missing consciousness, shrinking gland, and him turning into an omega.

"Should we help Tuss?" someone proposed.

"I’m in. Tuss saved my life once; I owe him that."

"Tuss saved me too. I’m going."

"Me too."

"But how? Who here has a spaceship or a mecha?"

"I have a spaceship."

"I have a mecha."

"I can borrow one."

A whole group of school students stormed out the gate.

Half an hour later, a bunch of mechas and spaceships appeared at Planet Alpha’s port.

Seeing the mechas and spaceships show up on the screen, the viewers outside were taken aback.

"What’s going on? Why are they sending out so many mechas and spaceships? Are they going to fight?"

"Is Planet Alpha in chaos?"

"Because of the starstone?"

The people online were filled with guesses.

"Don’t worry, everyone. I’ll connect with them and ask," the female streamer offered, sending a communication request to the closest mecha.

When the request connected, Ender’s good-looking face popped up on the screen.

The streamer gave a graceful wave at Ender and said, "Hello."

"Hello," Ender responded, his tone chilly.

Caught off guard by his cold attitude, the streamer dropped her professional act and asked directly, "Do you know why so many mechas and spaceships have suddenly shown up at the port?"

"Yes." Ender kept his answer short.

With a sweet smile, the streamer asked again, "Could you tell us why?"

"We’re here to pick up a classmate," Ender replied.

The streamer’s eyes lit up. "Which classmate is important enough for you to send out so many mechas and spaceships to greet them?"

"His name is Tuss Hiro. He’s saved over a thousand of us. We should be here for him," Ender explained, before ending the communication.

The moment Tuss’s name was mentioned, the streaming channel audience were shocked.

"They came for Tuss Hiro?"

"Is Tuss Hiro really that great? He saved over a thousand people?"

"So many classmates backing him up, it must be true."

"Is there going to be a fight? There’s definitely going to be a fight."

"Hey, you better live stream the battle."

The streamer put on a sad face, saying pitifully, "Aren’t you worried about me if there’s going to be a fight?"

"Don’t worry, sunshine. You’re not the starstone, nobody will want to snatch you."

"Yeah, you can just watch from the sidelines. You won’t get hurt in the fight."

"Fine," the streamer laughed and shrugged.

Meanwhile, as the mechas and spaceships got nearer, Yuri’s palms started to sweat.

"I’ll pilot the mecha," Yuri offered.

"Do you think you can handle it?" Tuss asked, his eyes questioning.

"We’re not shooting, just running. I should be able to handle it," Yuri reassured him.

"Okay." Tuss surrendered his seat to her.

Yuri’s mental threads took over the whole mecha. She commanded in a cold tone, "Hold on tight."

In the next moment, Tuss felt his world turn upside down and his insides lurch. He, who had four years of mecha piloting experience, was surprisingly getting motion sickness.

To the public, a red and green mecha was seen rolling like a ball in the starry sky, changing direction and leaping with a speed and angle that normal mechas couldn’t match.

"It’s almost like teleportation."

"If we didn’t slow down the footage, it would be teleportation."

"Wow, a bunch of mechas and spaceships tried to corner and intercept, but it managed to escape."

"That has to be Tuss. I heard he always came first in mecha classes at Military Academy No. 1."

"Worthy of being the former first chair at Military Academy No. 1."

"Stop talking and start chasing."

Above Planet Alpha, a mecha was drawing near, trailed by countless mechas and spaceships.

"That mecha definitely has the starstone, everyone stop it."

Various groups started to move, the once spacious starry sky was now packed.

Meanwhile, the academy students were shocked.

"Is it really Tuss piloting the mecha so showily?"

"Showily, good word.?"

"But it doesn’t seem like Tuss’s style, right?"

"Highly skilled, even if it’s not Tuss, it’s someone on his level."

"Maybe it’s a diversion by Tuss. To distract everyone’s attention."

"Then let’s help him make this diversion bigger."

"Whoever it is, guys, let’s get there first."

"Go, go, go!"