EROS [Zerg]

Brandt watched with great interest the live stream of insects emitting sounds in the virtual training arena.

It's quite audacious of someone to dare steal [Evanson Eastland]'s account.

There were many female insects live-streaming the "thief" being brutally abused.

It's estimated that this "thief" will not only get this beating, but may also face a military court-martial when he returns to reality.

Of all the accounts to steal, why steal Evanson Eastland's, and with such terrible skills at that?

Seeing that [Evanson Eastland]'s once unattainable ranking had seemingly suffered a Waterloo and plummeted to the bottom.

That round cockpit has been crushed into a pancake by countless feet.

"Tsk tsk." Brandt looked at the flattened discus, somewhat gloating.

I bet this "thief" will have a phobia of mechs from now on.

Serves you right...

...?!

Brandt was halfway through gloating when he suddenly thought of Eros, who was practicing mechs in the egg-shaped pod behind him, and his heart skipped a beat.

The thought of Eros's face, which was almost a carbon copy of Evanson's, gave him a bad feeling: Could the female insect being crushed into a pancake in the video be Eros sitting in the egg chamber now?

When Eros was forcibly pulled out of the egg chamber by Brandt, the entire insect was in a state of utter despair.

The pain experienced in the virtual training pod is positively correlated with the pain experienced in reality at a ratio of 1:1.

So he just experienced firsthand what it felt like to be crushed into a meat patty several times.

His fragile exoskeleton was crushed into pieces that pierced his shattered internal organs, and then repeatedly trampled on, making him consciously feel his entire worm being ground into a red, viscous liquid.

Brandt looked at Eros, who was sitting in a daze in his chair, with a complicated expression: "How could it be you?"

Eros, recalling the pain he had just experienced, darkened further: "I also want to know why it had to be me..."

While Eros's mental strength appears to be relatively normal, the possibility of a transient stress reaction cannot be ruled out.

While testing Eros's mental state with a simple instrument, Brandt took out a medical mental sedative from the drawer and injected it into Eros.

After doing all this, Brandt pulled up a stool and sat opposite Eros, his expression grave.

"How did you get into Lieutenant General Evanson's account?"

After a while, Eros recounted the whole story to Brandt.

Brandt never expected this to happen. The virtual training pod account is logged in using genetic information, so even two insects hatched from the same egg can be distinguished. There is no reason why two different insects would use the same account.

Unless it's the same insect.

Brandt looked at Eros's youthful face. Eros looked very similar to Evanson, but not to the point of being indistinguishable.

Brandt remembered that when he was still a young female, the first time he saw that decorated lieutenant general, he was immediately captivated by him from afar.

As for Eros, apart from his face, he was just an ordinary female insect. His exoskeleton was soft and fragile, making him look like an underdeveloped insect.

Even with the exact same face, Brandt would have had a hard time connecting the two.

He opened his terminal and connected to the StarNet, only to find that the situation in the virtual training field was more serious than he had imagined.

Brandt's thin eyebrows furrowed tightly as he looked seriously at the little female insect sitting opposite him:

“Eros, remember not to tell anyone about this today. I will handle the rest. You don’t need to worry about it. Remember, from now on, this matter has nothing to do with you. If you tell any of the other insects, you will be in serious trouble.”

Eros hadn't realized what was happening yet. Seeing Brandt's serious expression, he knew what was going on and obediently nodded, "I understand."

"There's something else I need to tell you. Although your face looks a lot like Lieutenant General Evanson, I advise you not to try to use that face to gain any advantage for yourself. The waters behind him run deep. Even though he's dead, it's a quagmire you can't escape once you're in. It's not something a little female insect like you can control."

Eros was secretly surprised by Brandt's serious attitude, but he had never wanted to use his resemblance to Lieutenant General Evanson to gain anything for himself. So, although he appreciated Brandt's concern, Eros thought it was unnecessary.

Seeing that Eros had taken his words to heart, Brandt urged him to go back and study the theoretical knowledge carefully, and not to let today's events affect his state of mind.

After kicking Eros out of the office, Brandt carefully replaced the mind-transmitting probe in the egg pod and put it away carefully.

Only after all preparations were completed did he report the matter to Principal Joseph. He concealed the truth and changed the story of Eros accidentally logging into the Evanson account to his desire to access the Evanson account to obtain previous training data for improvement, creating the new version of the mech "Corona".

For a military mechanic, this is perfectly normal.

I thought that as long as I posted an announcement on the StarNet to clarify the matter, this matter would be put behind me.

The situation clearly developed beyond his expectations.

The next day, Brandt quickly received a message from the palace of Sepulchre. Ina, the insect queen, took this matter very seriously and wanted to meet Brandt at Sepulchre.

When Eros returned to his dorm, he found that Alai, who usually stayed there, was not there, but he didn't think much of it. Everyone has their own things to do.

Holding the thick book of theoretical knowledge in his hands, Eros felt a headache coming on and resignedly turned to the pages.

The knowledge inside was dry and boring, but not difficult to understand. After memorizing dozens of pages, Eros felt that finishing the book in half a month was not as difficult as he had imagined.

A beeping sound came from the terminal. Eros turned his head and saw that the person who sent the message was none other than Commander Enl.

Eros quickly connected with Commander Enl's communication.

Ener first inquired about Eros's recent studies and life, and after receiving confirmation that everything was fine, he asked Eros if he knew what had happened on the StarNet.

Eros had never logged into the StarNet, so he was completely unaware of what was happening on it.

Ener on the other end seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and asked a few more questions about Kam before hanging up.

Eros really wanted to tell Enel about what happened in the virtual training pod, but remembering Brandt's instructions, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

We should act as if this never happened.

Eros silently recited this in his mind, just then his terminal rang with a communication ringtone again.