Chapter 39: Alpha vs Landis

Sure enough, Landis took a day off for a date with Xiao Sa during the weekend.

Before going out, Landis instinctively put on a black military uniform, which Xiao Sa immediately took off. After spending a long time selecting in the closet, Xiao Sa personally picked out a camel-colored fitted single-breasted casual coat and a light gray shirt for him.

Landis had never paid attention to his clothing before. His clothes were custom-made by the butler and organized in the closet. Except for the military dress uniforms required for special occasions, almost every set looked quite similar, perfectly matching Landis' monotonous and stiff aesthetic.

Ever since Xiao Sa came to live, the closet was stocked with all kinds of casual and sportswear. The two were of similar builds, so they could easily wear each other's clothes.

Landis rarely wore light-colored coats and was going to refuse, but when Xiao Sa stuffed the clothes into his arms, he smelled a familiar scent of pheromones and silently put them on.

With a classic inverted triangle figure, Landis' narrow waist and toned abs were elegantly outlined by the well-fitted coat, complemented by his iconic blond hair and deep blue eyes. The cold and intimidating aura he usually exuded in military uniform immediately softened, making him look like a model from a fashion poster.

Xiao Sa's eyes lit up as he looked at him, whistling. "Very handsome, Landis. If you had dressed like this sooner, you wouldn't have scared away so many blind date prospects."

Landis, buttoning his cufflinks, replied indifferently, "If they were scared off just because of flashy clothes, it's better to scare them away sooner."

Xiao Sa: "..." He truly deserved to be single his whole life!

The two went out like an ordinary couple, shopping, eating, and watching a movie.

Xiao Sa frowned as he sifted through the movie posters in the cinema, eventually choosing a horror-thriller war film over the sappy romantic movies.

When selecting seats, Xiao Sa specifically chose the back row with private compartments for couples.

Xiao Sa leaned back into the soft velvet sofa, his posture relaxed, and casually stretched out an arm from behind Landis to wrap around his shoulders.

Before he could pull Landis into his arms to cuddle and indulge in a bit of "big spoon-little spoon" happiness, the movie started. From the very first war scene, Landis' occupational hazard kicked in. With a strong critical spirit, he began dissecting everything from the protagonist team's equipment, actions, and tactics, to the logic, plot, and visuals.

With a blank expression, he commented, "It's a good thing this is just a movie and not a documentary, or the empire would have already perished. The entire empire should be thankful that the director and production team didn't choose the wrong profession, and took the opportunity to educate the viewers on what not to do."

He then pulled out his optical brain, swiftly and mercilessly leaving a negative review.

Xiao Sa looked at him speechlessly. "Landis, we're here to watch a movie, not to listen to your tactical lecture."

Indeed, he had been too superficial. Even if Landis wore more handsome and friendly attire, there would still be no one willing to date him.

He cast a sympathetic glance at Landis, who, despite being handsome and rich with formidable strength, had a way with words that ruined his image.

Thinking of this, Xiao Sa couldn't help but smile wryly. Apart from him, who could tolerate Landis? He might as well reluctantly put up with him, lest he wreak havoc on others outside.

Landis turned his head and looked at him, utterly confused. "What's wrong?"

Xiao Sa said seriously, "Nothing. I just think that I'm a real saint for accompanying you to watch this kind of movie."

Landis: "?"

Xiao Sa looked at the brutal and bloody scenes on the big screen, then suddenly reached out and covered his own eyes with his hand, pressing the back of his head, pulling him into his arms, and whispered, "If you're scared, just hold onto me."

His expression soured instantly. He slapped Landis' hand away, then forcibly wrapped his arm around Landis’ neck, pressing the other man's head onto his shoulder without meeting any resistance.

Only then did Xiao Sa feel satisfied. He smirked. "I prefer this position."

Landis felt quite uncomfortable. They struggled for a while over some inexplicable competition of pride, and finally, one had to hug the neck while the other held the waist, barely reaching a compromise.

After the movie, Landis waited for Xiao Sa by the side of the road. They didn't have a driver to pick them up today; instead, Landis was driving himself.

A custom dual land-air luxury car was parked by the road. The sleek design, eye-catching appearance, and the tall, handsome figure of Landis standing by the door immediately attracted the curious gazes of countless passersby.

Landis stood with one hand in his pocket, his gaze fixed on the direction of the cinema's exit, his face expressionless as usual. Most people who wanted to approach him were deterred by the "keep away" aura he exuded.

Occasionally, a bold and fearless person would approach. "Mr., did you come to watch a movie alone? I know a good one. Would you like some company?"

Landis, who towered a full head above the other person, looked down at them coldly, with a slight frown. "No, I'm waiting for my partner."

The person seemed disappointed but still didn't give up, throwing a suggestive wink at Landis. "I wouldn't mind the company of three."

His brows furrowed instantly. He had little patience for unrelated strangers he didn't care about.

He coldly said, "You talk too much. You have three seconds to leave my sight, or I'll force you to leave."

"Uh, okay..." The person trembled in fear, stammered nervously for a moment, and then left, keeping looked back.

Xiao Sa emerged from the cinema just in time to witness this scene, with a subtle expression as he smiled and raised an eyebrow.

He got into the passenger seat of the sports car and buckled up, giving Landis a half-smile, "I didn't expect you big iceberg to be quite popular."

Landis looked at him belatedly, "What are you talking about?"

Xiao Sa was about to mock his lack of romantic sense when an idea suddenly struck him.

This guy always ate random jealousy, using it as an excuse to restrict Xiao Sa from doing this and that. Now the tables had turned, and finally, Xiao Sa had the chance to "educate" Landis.

Xiao Sa cleared his throat, deliberately put on a stern face, and looked askance at him, "Landis, that person just now was so close to you, their eyes were practically glued to you. Were they trying to hit on you? Didn't you tell him you're already married? As a married man, you can't entertain solicitations from strangers."

Landis was taken aback, slowly blinking as he gazed at Xiao Sa with confusion.

Amused, Xiao Sa felt his lecture wasn't hitting hard enough and decided to push further.

He continued, "Just going out for a movie and you encounter admirers showing interest in you. What about when you spend entire days at the military base surrounded by those single soldiers who admire you? Are you sure nothing is going on behind my back?"

Xiao Sa wagged a finger at Landis, imitating his tone with a solemn expression, "Landis, a married man must uphold virtue. If not, you should just stay home and manage the household. You can listen to operas and hold tea parties. I can earn money to take care of you."

After a brief moment of astonishment, Landis had an indescribable expression and fell into a long silence.

For some reason, he felt like a boomerang had come back to hit him metaphorically.

With the sudden realization of blame, Landis realized Xiao Sa was deliberately starting a quarrel.

Though unsure where Xiao Sa's sudden mischievous streak came from, Landis's icy blue eyes narrowed slightly as he watched him for a moment before saying, "Wait a moment."

He reached out and opened the control panel in the car, replaying the surveillance footage to the earlier recording outside the car.

"Look," he said.

Xiao Sa was silenced, his lecture plan collapsed before it even began.

He raised his eyebrow at Landis, wondering why this guy never followed the script.

Shouldn't he have fiercely accused him of not trusting him and not giving him personal space? That way, Xiao Sa could have fired back and made Landis reflect on how distrustful he had been.

Instead, Landis presented irrefutable facts to prove that Xiao Sa was simply making an unjustified fuss.

Well, although he was indeed deliberately making an issue out of it.

But instead of blaming him, Landis looked at him with a tolerant, even pleased expression, and leaned in to kiss Xiao Sa's ear.

Landis said with a faint smile, "I know what you're worried about. Don't worry, Xiao Sa, I will love only you for the rest of my life. It makes me happy that you're so concerned about me."

It turned out that Xiao Sa was so insecure that even when Landis went to work at the military headquarters, he would feel anxious and worried. It seemed that Landis hadn't provided him with enough security.

However, his "reflection" was in a direction far from what Xiao Sa had expected.

Xiao Sa was left speechless, a question mark slowly forming in his mind: "?"

He was trying to use Landis' usual tactics against him, but instead received a direct confession of love from the other party.

Where had it all gone wrong? Xiao Sa couldn't understand.

It had to be said, Landis' emotional intelligence in love was sometimes terribly low, but at other times, it was impeccably high.

Just a moment ago, Xiao Sa had been complaining about Landis' sarcastic remarks, thinking he deserved to be single, but now he felt that Landis was like a natural-born romantic, with simple yet sincere sweet words.

Even after being married to Landis and sharing the same bed for so long, Xiao Sa still couldn't understand the mysterious workings of Landis' mind. He probably had something in common to discuss with Landis' adjutant, Caro, about this matter.

Caro had just sent Landis a few meeting notifications. After Landis postponed them, Caro asked eagerly, "Sir, how is the date going?"

Landis was about to ignore it but suddenly decided to reply, sending, "How to calm down a jealous spouse?"

Caro was dumbfounded upon receiving the message. This couldn't be correct, could it? Xiao Sa didn't seem like someone who would be petty.

Soon after, another message from Landis came through on the optical brain, "Xiao Sa cares so much about me that he doesn't want me to go to work. How should I reassure him?"

"..." Caro was at a loss for words. He could see that this was definitely the boss showing off his unjustified pride!

Seriously, couldn't he spare a thought for the feelings of his unmarried subordinates?

Caro stiffly replied, "I don't know either, because I'm not married yet."

Landis quickly responded, "Hmm, that's true."

Caro: "..." Argh, this is infuriating!

※※※

In the evening, when he returned home, Landis went to handle the backlogged military affairs.

Xiao Sa once again entered the virtual pod and opened the virtual arena, which he hadn't accessed in a long time.

He now had a junior mech pilot certificate issued by the Capital Mech Academy, which allowed him to unlock the long-awaited ranked matches.

The rules of the ranked matches were different from the selection tournament. In ranked matches, all equipment was not supplied by the arena but had to be self-provided by the players. This reduced the fairness that allowed underdogs from the lower ranks to emerge, making it more connected to reality, as financial power was also part of one's strength.

Xiao Sa looked at the ranked match standings and saw that Landis, piloting an S-class mech, was at the top, far ahead of everyone else.

The top 20 were almost all S-class elites, with 3A and double A ranks appearing further down. Mechs in the 3B class were already hundreds of ranks lower, and those below B-class didn't even have the qualification to appear on the list.

If Xiao Sa wanted to enter the ranked matches with the C-class mech from the academy, it would be difficult to challenge Landis, let alone other S-class or 3A elites.

Those who managed to rank in the top 20 were all truly experienced veterans, far from being comparable to the still-green mech pilot cadets at the Mech Academy.

Participants either scanned their existing mechs or needed to purchase new ones. Mechs bought from the virtual store could be directly delivered offline.

Xiao Sa browsed the store and found the prices of mechs to be exorbitantly high, ranging from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions. Most of the mechs available on the market were civilian versions with some features cut, and professional military mechs were rarely sold directly on the market.

Haino whispered in Xiao Sa's ear, "Doesn't General Landis's collection include many mechs? And they're all high-end limited editions."

Xiao Sa lazily replied, "Wouldn't that be too obvious? I can't explain my identity to him. Besides, those mechs in his collection are more compatible with Landis and not very suitable for me."

Haino searched and immediately recommended a top-performance S-class mech, with a beautiful silver-white exterior, streamlined design, and high efficiency in psychic energy conversion. Most importantly, it could accommodate both the pilot's physical techniques and psychic energy, making it the most suitable mech for Xiao Sa.

The price was also quite steep, reaching fifty million. Xiao Sa fell silent when he saw the price; the money he had earned from selling pheromones wasn't even enough to cover a tiny fraction of the cost.

However, he still had a credit card given to him by Landis, with unlimited spending.

Ever since they signed the marriage agreement, Xiao Sa had been entitled to half the dividends of some of Landis's properties, though Xiao Sa had never used it.

Xiao Sa thought for a second and decisively pulled out the gold card that Landis had obtained for him.

Haino's projection next to Xiao Sa gave a sidelong glance and tutted twice, "Xiao Sa, didn't you say you wouldn't live off others?"

Xiao Sa remained completely calm, "This is called financial turnover, how can it be called living off someone else? In a few months, when I win the huge championship prize, I can pay Landis back, exactly five million."

Haino chuckled, "Your human bottom line is really flexible. What I admire most is your thick skin."

Xiao Sa let the comment pass through one ear and out the other, pretending he didn't hear it. He happily purchased the S-grade mech that had caught his eye.

Even a perfect Alpha wouldn't lose any respect for eating a bit of soft food.

After buying the mech with the gold card account, Xiao Sa immediately sent it as a gift to his Black Knight Alpha account.

If it were cash rewards, the platform would take a 50% cut, so he had to send gifts directly. His account's live stream room had also received many gifts from wealthy fans, amounting to roughly one million in total value.

This fifty-million S-grade mech gift instantly made his gold card account the top gifter for the Black Knight, pushing the previous number one, Bayer, to second place.

Xiao Sa's operation of rewarding himself with a secondary account made his Black Knight account transform overnight from a poor account, relying on the system to provide weapons and equipment, into a rich account that seemed to own a mine.

Even the nameplate above his head had turned into a golden VIP.

Looking at his suddenly wealthy Black Knight account, Xiao Sa suddenly thought that he resembled a kept man who was secretly rewarding streamers behind his spouse's back.

Maybe next time he should send a gift to Landis to comfort him.

Xiao Sa silently scolded himself in his mind, then happily climbed the leaderboard ranks with his new mech.

A thoughtful system prompt sounded, "Detecting that your historical psychic energy test level does not match the requirements of the mech, would you like to retest and update your psychic energy level?"

Thinking for a moment, Xiao Sa realized that since no one knew who his secondary account was, it wouldn't be realistic to aim for the championship with just a C grade. So he decisively selected Yes.

He closed his eyes, and a faint lustrous glow flowed through the neural link chip at his temples to the virtual pod. After a moment, the system tablet's electronic voice spoke again:

"Psychic energy assessment level, S-grade. You have the right to challenge players within your ranking and accept challenges from others."

Xiao Sa's eyes gleamed brightly. He had been waiting for this day for a long time—to challenge Landis, who was ranked number one in the leaderboard, as a true powerful player.

In reality, when he sparred with Landis, both had to hold back, which was never satisfying. But online matches required no such restraint, and besides, Landis had no idea who the Black Knight Alpha was.

"Do you want to initiate a challenge against the top-ranked player, Landis Wencer? The challenge request will only be active for 24 hours, and the opponent has the right to refuse."

"Yes."

Xiao Sa supported his cheek with one hand, now pondering how to subtly entice Landis into accepting the challenge from his alternate account.

In Landis's study.

Landis had just finished handling the paperwork that needed his signature after a military affairs meeting. He was reviewing the quarterly accounts of the family businesses managed by his uncle, Claire, as well as the expense reports of family members.

Originally, these accounts didn’t need the head of the family’s attention, given his military duties, but this time his uncle Claire had personally delivered them over.

Ever since Xiao Sa had gained half ownership, family members like Claire inevitably caused friction with Landis, both openly and behind his back.

Initially, they doubted whether Xiao Sa would interfere with the business operations and cause losses. After Xiao Sa ruthlessly dealt with Lady Rona, the excuse shifted to saying he was overworked and they needed to share the load.

Landis was fully aware of their schemes. But even if Xiao Sa spent money recklessly, it wouldn’t be an issue. If Xiao Sa’s interests were focused on extravagant consumption rather than venturing into outer space to join the Exploration Legion for adventures, Landis would be even happier.

Coincidentally, Landis happened to notice a large expenditure by Xiao Sa: a 50 million credit gift in the virtual arena.

Landis: “?”

He didn’t pay much attention at first, only slightly puzzled that Xiao Sa had such a hobby. He casually checked the details.

[Gifted an S-grade mech "Moonmark" to account Alpha.]

Landis: “……”

He furrowed his eyebrows. He had a lingering impression of this mysterious Black Horse Alpha. Last time, Xiao Sa had even watched his match and created a highlight reel for him, something called "Cyber Godfather Highlight Reel."

Thinking of this, Landis felt displeased.

Why did Xiao Sa like this Alpha so much? Making a video was one thing; however, gifting a mech—what made this Alpha superior to him?

Just then, his terminal displayed a virtual arena ranked match challenge request.

"An S-grade player Alpha has initiated a ranked match challenge against you. You have the option to accept or refuse. The request will remain active for 24 hours."

Landis narrowed his eyes and clicked on the opponent’s profile. The top donor was a garbled account, followed by a gift amount of exactly 50 million.

"Good." Landis sneered, his icy blue pupils burning with fierce jealousy and battle intent.

"Cyber father? Heh. He would show Xiao Sa who the true strong one was!

"Do you choose to accept the challenge from player Alpha? Select yes to enter the virtual arena within one hour."

Without any hesitation, Landis pressed the confirm button.

On the other side.

Just as Xiao Sa was thinking about how to convince Landis to accept the challenge without raising suspicion, Haino was chattering beside him:

"A person like Landis, who's ranked number one, probably gets tons of harassment challenge requests every month. He might just directly delete them as spam."

Haino offered a bad idea to Xiao Sa. "Should I flood him with pop-ups until he accepts?"

Xiao Sa shook his head. "More likely I'd just get blacklisted by him."

He didn’t know yet that the matter of his secret account's extravagant gift had unfortunately been discovered by Landis, who had interpreted it differently, and was now burning with overwhelming jealousy, ready to fight the "cyber rival."

Suddenly, the system notification sounded: "The rank challenge against S-rank player Landis Wencer that you initiated has been confirmed by the opponent. Please enter the competitive challenge room within fifteen minutes."

Xiao Sa: "!!! He accepted so quickly?"

The account of General Landis, who hadn't logged in for years, suddenly lit up. Within minutes, innumerable followers in his live stream room noticed this astonishing event, and after a wave of frenzied shock spam, they collectively began to spread the news.

#TheEmpire'sSwordGeneralLandisAcceptsChallengeFromBlackHorseAlpha# landed at the top of the trending list on the Stellar Network.