The First Analyst of the Interstellar Era

Chapter 162 : Extra Chapter - Post-War

The news of Song Baining's return, together with the Star Alliance energy stabilization message, ignited the entire StarNet public opinion. The moment StarNet signals recovered, countless news articles and marketing account updates refreshed, with first-hand informants even obtaining video footage of Song Baining appearing in Zone Eleven.

But what made everyone in the Star Alliance aware of her return was the announcement from the Legislative Council in conjunction with Zone Eleven.

Song Baining's position was restored, and the highest Commander of Zone Eleven resumed her duties.

At the same time, besides the news of the Star Alliance energy riot, there were several matters that attracted the most attention.

Older people who had experienced the Song Baining era would carefully consider the implications behind this appointment announcement. Soon, people began asking: with Song Baining taking office, what would happen to Zhao Loulan, the former acting director of Zone Eleven?

Perhaps others didn't understand, but those who had experienced the council meeting after Song Baining's disappearance knew that Zhao Loulan's ability to suppress various major families and Star Ring representatives to secure the position of Zone Eleven's highest Commander wasn't solely due to Councilor Zhao and the Zhao family. The Gu family had also contributed significantly.

The Gu family knew that supporting someone on their side would inevitably encounter obstruction from the Xie family and Song family. However, the neutral Zhao family was completely different. Moreover, Zhao Loulan had exchanged numerous resources at that time, the most well-known being the ownership of the SSS-level energy field White Day Paradise.

Many insiders watched like spectators when someone proposed at the council meeting to restore Song Baining to her original position, their gazes sweeping over Zhao Loulan and the Gu family.

At the Gu family's seat, the old family patriarch's expression remained unmoved, showing no joy or anger. However, the two men standing behind him simultaneously looked up at him—none other than Gu Pingyang and Gu Haichuan.

Unexpectedly, when Zhao Loulan heard this proposal, she only paused briefly before looking with a smile toward the woman on the other side of the hall. Song Baining wore a neat Border Army uniform with deep creases. Even after being taken out of the closet and ironed many times, the marks were still visible.

That was what Zhao Loulan had found for her when she arrived.

"I have no objections. The handover of Zone Eleven affairs will take time and can be done after Military Committee matters. I will cooperate with Director Song's work."

She leaned close to her microphone, her voice steady, without a trace of dissatisfaction.

Seeing this, the Gu family patriarch lifted his eyes, the wrinkles at the corners layering over each other, his gaze sharp as he looked toward Zhao Loulan's position. Noticing the eye contact between Zhao Loulan and Song Baining, his expression grew dark.

Song Baining didn't decline. She nodded to Zhao Loulan from afar and naturally took over the topic.

The former director who had managed all affairs of Zone Eleven, despite being absent for ten years, quickly reintegrated into all current Star Alliance matters upon her return, showing no signs of discomfort.

After discussing the handover tasks, Song Baining briefly reported the casualties from this Star Alliance riot. This was the most somber part of the entire meeting; each number she mentioned plunged the attendees into complete silence.

The establishment of safe star regions and Border Army rescues had saved many people during this Star Alliance riot, but because the energy concentration had risen too rapidly, sweeping across the entire Star Alliance at an almost unexpected speed, the number of casualties was unimaginable. The casualty rate was almost higher than during the riot when the Star Alliance first discovered energy awakening.

"Besides this, after the energy calmed, the Border Army cleaned up various major energy fields and made an unexpected discovery."

"Around the main base station in Machine Tower energy field, we found several fragments," Song Baining displayed a light screen.

The moment Gu Pingyang saw the light screen image, his eye twitched. The Gu family patriarch's sharp gaze swept over, and he immediately lowered his head, his entire demeanor showing unease.

"Useless," Gu Haichuan cursed in a low voice.

Gu Pingyang's hands clenched tightly, his head lowering further.

After Song Baining confirmed everyone had seen the light screen clearly, she continued: "This is the artificial eye of a Zhu Jing Fu school team student. Among these remains, we reconstructed the artificial eye structure and discovered a monitoring chip hidden inside."

Lu Cuining, in the audience seats below the hall, immediately raised his head upon hearing this. Without even thinking, his gaze went directly toward the Gu family's position.

"I submit an appeal to the council and military court. This concerns the safety of military students' lives and has major implications."

Song Baining's tone was unhurried, seemingly suggesting to Councilor Zhao while her peripheral vision locked onto the Gu family patriarch's face.

Placing monitoring chips in the organs of league match military students could be considered intentional harm to military students' lives. In Star Alliance law, regulations concerning military students, especially participating competition students, were extremely strict.

Cold sweat poured down Gu Pingyang's forehead, but sensing numerous gazes fixated on him, he dared not show the slightest abnormality, forcing his body to remain steady, not allowing his trembling movements to attract attention.

Song Baining coldly looked back.

This was just the beginning. From now on, she would thoroughly suppress the old aristocratic families led by the Gu family, ensuring they would never rise again.

The council meeting was just the start. Since the end of the Star Alliance riot, meetings large and small had been continuously convened, with various families internally discussing and planning.

Although the riot had ended, the atmosphere of impending storms had not dissipated. Many hadn't had a moment's respite from the high-intensity tension caused by the riot before entering the political struggles of families and various forces.

But these matters were still far from the military students' lives.

A few days after Chen Sui's discharge from the hospital, Zhu Jing Fu also began their league match preparation training.

"I'm saying, your Zhu Jing Fu has points way ahead already, why are you still working so hard?"

Noya passed by the training room and happened to meet other Zhu Jing Fu members coming to the analyst training room to pick up Chen Sui after "class." He curiously glanced at Chen Sui's training time and couldn't help clicking his tongue.

"Didn't they say your mental domain was damaged? You still dare to push yourself like this?"

"This is nothing," Zhou Chen placed his arm around Noya's shoulder like close friends. Chen Sui's current training time wasn't long; Noya was clearly working harder. "Don't think I don't know. Some people train for 10 hours—Chi Buyu told me."

Noya's face faltered, and he quickly smiled: "I'm just concerned about Sister Chen Sui! How long has it been since she left the hospital!"

"By the way, how's your eye recovery going? Is there any progress on that matter?"

The explosion of Chen Sui's artificial eye was witnessed by all military students, and the recording of the Machine Tower that Song Baining had was given to her by Chen Sui.

"Outrageous."

Gu Qinxue displayed a contemptuous expression, her disgust exposed without any concealment.

Seeing her expression, Noya knew it was 99% certainly the Gu family.

"What happened? Let me have a bite of this gossip too!"

"The monitoring chip was monitoring my energy fluctuations. The Gu family suspected my identity," Chen Sui explained as they walked. "It was a very absurd incident."

"Just stupid," Gu Qinxue added, tugging at the corner of her lips.

Chen Sui smiled helplessly and nodded along with her words: "You could say that. The monitoring chip had a material replacement with some metal components. The Gu family didn't know about the replacement and directly used the monitoring chip, resulting in an explosion triggered by the energy field fluctuations."

It really was an absurd accident. The explosion wasn't the Gu family's intention. The manufacturer had temporarily replaced the material, and this chip wasn't primarily non-metallic. But because it was the industry of a Gu family ally, Gu Pingyang hadn't examined it closely during preparation.

Originally, they wanted to record Chen Sui's unusual fluctuations in the energy field to find an excuse to make her undergo awakening tests again, and during the tests, determine the condition of the energy crystal inside her mental domain, confirming her energy body parasitism. With this justification, they could control Chen Sui.

Without an analyst, Zhu Jing Fu would completely lose their advantage in the league matches.

But who could have anticipated the Star Alliance riot, which directly triggered the chip? Fortunately, Chen Sui's mental domain energy discovered the anomaly—the Wood-Born Flower, even at the last moment, had the protective action of digging out the artificial eye.

After hearing the whole story, Noya also found it difficult to evaluate.

The Gu family sometimes truly acted stupidly, he sneered inwardly.

The group walked out of the Zone Eleven training building and happened to encounter Xie You standing at the entrance.

Black Mamba had been there for an unknown time, squatting beside the flower bed at the bottom of the building, his head lowered as if looking at something.

Worth mentioning is that when Chen Sui resolved the Wood-Born Flower issue, due to the Wood-Born Flower absorbing surrounding energy through wood attribute mediums, plants throughout the Star Alliance experienced very intense energy traces. After the riot, plants grew wildly, with the biology department busy collecting samples and seeds everywhere.

The plants in the Zone Eleven flower beds had also grown very tall, vines hanging down and extending toward the distance.

"Commander Xie, what are you looking at?"

Noya saw him from a distance and greeted him cordially. Xie You raised his head at the sound, glanced at him, then immediately looked behind him.

The five Zhu Jing Fu members slowly strolled over, surrounding the analyst, all looking at him with identical gazes as if watching an animal performance, full of curiosity.

Xie You quickly looked down; a worm was slowly burrowing into the soil. He stood up, preparing to change the subject to prevent others from discovering that he, the esteemed Na Luo River Commander, a mature adult, had been watching a worm wiggle for half the day.

"You really have refined tastes, watching worms stretch? Commander Xie, are you planning to go fishing?"

Noya glanced at him, mercilessly exposing Xie You's cool exterior.

The tip of Black Mamba's visible ear reddened slightly, his cold gaze sweeping over Noya as he deliberately changed the subject: "Grandfather asked me to invite you to have dinner together."

Xie You said formally.

Xie Chunshi raised an eyebrow, his tone without much fluctuation: "Not going."

Chen Sui curiously looked at the two brothers. Xie You wasn't surprised by his answer, just nodded, then extended his hand: "Give me back my thing."

Xie Chunshi lowered his gaze to look at his palm, then turned to look at his side. The analyst's hair was somewhat frizzy, with plant vines at the ends gradually retracting. Now only small green sprouts remained, and the extended vines weren't noticeable. Therefore, she hadn't used plant hair accessories. Additionally, after continuous use of paralysis medication, her hair had been soaked puffy these days, looking like a large dandelion, appearing as if it would feel good to touch.

Xie Chunshi raised his hand and carefully patted Chen Sui's head twice, causing the analyst to look up, her green and pure white pupils looking over. "Mine?"

Xie Chunshi nodded, and Chen Sui immediately remembered, taking out a yellow charm from her pocket: "Oh, so it's yours."

Her tone rose, completely surprised.

Xie You took the lucky charm, first checking it, found no wear, then carefully put it away.

"What, can't it be mine?" He finished speaking and looked up at Chen Sui, appearing ready to argue. "I'm saying, this time doesn't it count as me helping you? How do you plan to thank me?"

Chen Sui saw him lift his chin proudly, which immediately angered her. She smiled at Black Mamba, her dimple on her cheek deepening, looking extremely harmless, but her words were quite aggressive: "Then next time in the competition, I'll kick you fewer times?"

Xie You was reminded by her words of being kicked around by Chen Sui in the energy field, his face immediately as black as charcoal. Knowing he couldn't match Chen Sui verbally, he could only glare fiercely at Xie Chunshi: "You said you're not going! I'm leaving!"

After speaking, he seemed about to leave, but as soon as he turned his head, he saw a figure leaning against the wall corner ahead. His steps stopped, and he looked back at Xie Chunshi: "It's Second Uncle."

Xie You's second uncle, that is--the Xie family's second son, Xie Liuyun.

Xie Chunshi's father.

Chen Sui couldn't control the "oh boy" that appeared in her mind, her gaze instantly looking toward Xie Chunshi. Her memory of Xie Liuyun wasn't deep, only knowing that he was sentenced to serve time in the Prison Tower under Star Alliance law for harming Xie Chunshi.

Beyond that, he was Song Baining's partner.

But, Chen Sui looked up toward the front. The man stood beneath the tall building, light coming from behind. He wore a black coat, his shoulders somewhat broad, though his figure wasn't robust, even somewhat thin. Seeing the group stop, he looked up at them, his almond eyes very beautiful, but his gaze like a walking scanner, extremely perceptive and intimidating.

"Xie Chunshi."

Chen Sui heard him speak, his tone very formal, not showing any warmth despite the person being a young military student, even his child.

"Let's talk?"

Xie Liuyun nodded to the others as a greeting, but pointed his chin toward the interior of the building where he was standing.