System, are you messing with me? - Chapter 27: Chapter 27

After the elders finally dismissed the third army, Shu Ning dragged his heavy body up to his own room and fell into bed fully clothed. He had no energy left to care for his dirty shoes messing up his bed or the uncomfortable feeling of his tight pants and shirt rubbing his skin raw.
Shu Ning felt like he could sleep for days with how exhausting and stressful things have been lately and in a matter of seconds his breathing slowed down as he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
System: "Host..... Host..... HOST!"
Shu Ning turned around in his bed and squinted his eyes against the glaring rays of the sun shining right into his face. He felt like he only got one hour of sleep maximum and was in an accordingly bad mood. But instead of forcing himself completely awake just to yell at the system, the temptation of closing his eyes again and ignoring everything around him was way bigger, so with a grumbled 'shut up, Shu Ning pulled the blancket over his face and started drifting of to sleep again.
System: "Host. Don't fall asleep again. There is news at the side of the Protagonist ●﹏●."
Instead of waiting for the human to react to anything Alpha had said, a static noise roared to life inside of the others head, causing him to flinch awake as a huge headache pounded against his temples.
A satisfied smile spread across the System's face at his win. Well it would, if the glowing ball had a face. For outsiders, the only noticable change in the System's emotion was the slight bluish colour his body took on.
"Honey. This is taking way too long. I'm getting impatient. We need to do something."
The voice of Zhou Feng resonated inside of Shu Ning's mind and blew away even the last haze of sleep fogging his thoughts. With a jerk of his torso, he sat upright in his bed and rubbed his hand through the nest on his head in defeat. A few strands of hair fell in front of his eyes while the rest of it stuck up like the needles of a porcupine but this ruffeled appearance didn't bother Shu Ning one bit. There was no one to see him like this at the moment anyway and there were more important things to take care of right now than his looks. The Protagonist for example.
His System seemed to have connected their conciousness together, so that he could listen in to the Lead's conversation himself now. That Alpha was capable of doing that now was new though. It was probably one of the perks of updating him.
(Wu Kang): "I know. But what did you expect? You are already moving way faster than anyone else would. Most people don't rise a single rank in their entire life and those that do, take at least five years to do that. You only took four. Just be patient and work hard. The elders will pay attention to you now."
(Zhou Feng): "But darling. I'm afraid Yang Quan will get into my way. You know how he is. He won't take it lightly now that I became a Sergeant. He wanted that honor after all. You weren't there but when I was on stage to receive the golden star, Yang Quan looked at me with so much jealousy and loathing that I feared for my life. And the guy wrapped the General around his little finger. I will never be able to go against the General. What should I do now?"
(Wu Kang): "It will be alright my sweet angel. We will think of something to do. No threat to your safety is alowed to exist after all."
(Zhou Feng): "Will you help me? I'm really scared. With the backing of the General, Yang Quan can harm me in anyway he wants to. I need to get stronger and rise even higher in rank to be able to touch him. I need to at least become the vice captain."
(Wu Kang): "Vice captain? You would have the best chances to take up that position but the Vice captain of the third army doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon."
(Zhou Feng): "No, maybe not. But does that matter? He just needs to dissapear. An accident for example or an enemy attack or something like that."
(Wu Kang): "You want to kill him? You just became a Sergeant, so that would be a bad idea. You could never win a fight against him and if you are seen, they would execute you. You don't have any backing yourself after all. I at least have the Wu family name behind me. So leave everything to me. Just don't worry your pretty little head about this."
(Zhou Feng): "You will kill him for me? Thank you darling. Then I don't need to fear for my life anymore as soon as I took the position of Vice captain. And then I will be closer to the General as well. Staying close to him will help deepening his impression of me as well."
(Wu Kang): "What do you want to do with him? You already belong to me, don't forgett that."
(Zhou Feng): "Are you jealous my man? Jealousy doesn't suit you. You don't have anything to worry about. How abou this. As thank you for your help, you are alowed to do whatever you want with my body tonight. But by tomorrow I want the job done, ok?"
The rest of what happened inside of that Female's room didn't interesst Shu Ning, so he disconected himself from the System's conciousness with the cutting of a mental rope. It was a surprize that that method actually worked, but he didn't care about the 'how' anymore after hearing the slurping and moaning noises inside of his head abruptly stop.
System: "What now, Host?"
Shu Ning: "Now, my dear Alpha, we catch the culprit in the act."
Shu Ning swung his feet over the edge of the bed and stood up on slightly aching legs. The exhaustion from the day before was still present in every muscle of his body, but at least the little bit of sleep he actually managed to get helped alleviate most of the pain and stiffness.
A brief glance towards the clock on his bedside table showed that it was only four o clock in the morning and most soldiers, especially those of the third army, were still cuddled deep into their soft bedding to catch up on their well deserved sleep. It would at least give Shu Ning enough time to shower and get dressed before he needed to handle the new developement. The Protagonist just never seemed to tire at all. Probably because she didn't actually do much work the last few months at all.
Shu Ning didn't want to think about the woman so early in the morning though and quickly turned his attention towards the complicated way his unifom was fastened on his body. Thanks to the many times he had to take off and put on the clothes, It only took some quick and practiced movements of his fingers for the many buttons and straps of the army dress to come undone and for Shu Ning to carelessly throw the filthy clothes onto the ground. They would need to get washed together with his bedding later on, but for the moment they could stay there.
So without caring much for the mess they now made on the wooden floor, Shu Ning crossed the rest of the room to enter the adjacent bathroom and start a hot shower. The warm spray from the water over his head ran pleasantly down his sore muscles and warmed his body through to the core. It was a comfortable moment that he could spend just basking in the refreshing sensation of soothing his pain. Unfortunately there was a restriction of the amount of hot water each soldier can use per day, so that after a few minutes of relaxing in the shower, the water slowly turned colder and colder.
Shu Ning continued to hang his head under the chilling water for a moment longer, but before the temperature could completely freeze the blood in his veins, he reluctantly turned off the faucet and stepped onto the soft carpet on the floor. Drops of water were sliding down his wet hair and followed the lines of his body, collecting in places like his colarbone or bellybutton. A slight shiver rippled down his spine from the drop of temperature, so he grabbed the towel lying on the ground beside him and hastily wrapped it around his trembling body.
Shu Ning: "Use my terminal to send a message to the General. Write something like 'Meet me at the vice captain's room. It's urgent'."
System: "Alright. Done."
There was a pile of clothes lying on the lid of the toilet that Shu Ning picket up after drying of the rest of his body. Because there wouldn't be any training or mission for the day, he decided to just wear a simple white shirt and a blue jeans. Luckily the original Host had the forsight to actually store normal clothing inside of his wardrobe as well and not just his heavy uniform. It would make walking around today way more comfortable.
Finally, after tidying himself up enough, Shu Ning left his sleeping quaters to search for the vice captains room. He didn't know exactly in which building Liu Chen resided, so instead of wandering around and getting lost, like he did before, he let Alpha lead him through the maze of corridors. The System seemed to posess an internal map of the entire base and took only a few minues to guide him towards their goal.
When Shu Ning rounded the corner into the corridor leading to Liu Chen's room, the General was already standing next to the closed door. The Man leaned his back against the white wall with his arms crossed over his chest while he waited. He had a free day today as well and appeared to have had the same idea as Shu Ning, because his own uniform was exchanged for a more cosy outfit as well.
Instead of the army green jacket the man wore a dark blue vest that hung open to show the black shirt underneeth and the brown pants was replaced by some black jeans. Around his neck dangled a small silver chain with a small pendant that Shu Ning unfortunately couldn't see from the distance they still had between them.
It was a bit strange to see the General standing in front of him in such casual clothes. It gave the man a less cold strict appearance and instead gave him a more aproachable and freeing air.
"General. Thank you for meeting me here. There is new information about Zhou Feng that I wanted to tell you about. It involves Liu Chen as well. I hope he is already awake."
"hm. He will. If not, then we will just wake him up."
The General pushed himself off of the wall when Shu Ning stopped walking towards him. They stood now only a few more steps away from each other and stared into the others eyes for a moment. Shu Ning stayed unmoving like that for a moment longer, just watching the Man in front of him as if he was waiting for something to happen. What that something was, he didn't quite know himself but it probably had something to do with the strange and familiar feeling he sometimes got when he stared at the others black eyes. Nothing like that happened this time though.
"Let's do this then."
The wooden door in front of them opened on the second knock and the hagared face of Liu Chen appeared in the entrance. A tired smile graced his face while the dark and swollen circles underneath his eyes almost forced the eyelids to close again. The soldier looked even more exhausted than he looked yesterday, as if he didn't get even a second of rest.
"Morning. Captain. Soldier."
Liu Chen looked from the General to Shu Ning and then back again before stepping away from the door and letting the two of them push in to the room past him.
"I don't want to beat around the bush Vice Captain. There are some things you need to know and that can't wait."
"Yes. Yes. Go on. I am awake enough to listen to you."
The General sat on the edge of the brown couch that stood on the far wall of the room and motioned for Shu Ning to take the seat beside him. Across from them Liu Chen grabbed himself a chair and sat down as well to listen more comfortably. Only some tea and biscuits were missing now to make it a more homely meeting.
"You did notice that Zhou An took away all the achievement of my own, did you not?"
"Yes. I think everyone of out team knows that. Such a disgusting thing to do."
"That's true but it doesn't matter right now. You just need to know, that Zhou An is black hearted and cruel. He already killed his own younger brother to get where he is today. And now, he plans on taking your own life as well. He is getting impatient and wants to rise in rank faster than he is capable of doing and for that he needs your death."
"That's quite the acusation. Do you know what it would mean if you can't back up your claim. We are a team. We can't afford to mistrust each other."
"I understand that, but I am not saying this without reason. The General has seen Zhou An's true face already on multiple ocasions and knows as much of the truth as I know. If you don't believe me, then at least believe him. I couldn't tell him about what I heard Zhou An say this morning just yet but we know what the guy is capable of."
"Captain?"
"Yang Quan is right. You can trust him, he wouldn't lie about anything concerning Zhou An."
"Is that true then? Does he really want my death?"
"I'm afraid so. He planned on sending his lap dog by tonight to have the job done."
"What lap dog?"
"Wu Kang. Wu Kang will come here tonight to finish you off and I'm here to warn you. We need to catch him in the middle of assassinating you, so that we have enough reason to lock him away. What do you say?"
"You want to set up a trap, don't you? And I will be the bait."
"Yes. That will be the only way to stop them. At least for now. Will you do it?"
"Alright. If the Captain says you can be trusted, then I will do so. We will prepare for this Wu Kang to appear tonight then. He won't get away with this."
Shu Ning smiled brightly at Liu Chen and stood up in exitement. After tonight, Wu Kang will at least be taken care of for a while. All that will be missing would be Zhou Feng. Having the General's trust really made the entire mission way more easy than being completely alone. No matter what kind of deja vu feeling he sometimes got with their proximity, all that doesn't matter in the end. As long as the missions could be completed.
"Good. Then listen closely you two. I already have some ideas...."