Chapter 29
Shi Nuo was carried into a cave, the roar of thunder echoing around him, his heart pounding, drowning out all other sounds.
The cave was large and spacious, the entrance partially concealed by hanging vines. The thunder reverberated within the cave, making his ears ache.
The white wolf, carrying the bewildered Omega, didn’t stop, running deeper into the cave.
Despite its massive size, three meters tall at the shoulder, it moved easily through the passage.
As they ran, Shi Nuo realized the cave sloped downwards, the path winding. The white wolf seemed familiar with the route, twisting and turning until they reached a spacious area lit by a faint white glow.
They were deep underground now, the sound of thunder muffled, a distant rumble.
When Shi Nuo’s feet touched the ground, he felt a sense of unreality. One moment he had been picking berries outside, and the next, he was here.
The white wolf stared at the dark passage leading outside, its breathing heavy, pacing restlessly.
Its ears twitched, its senses heightened.
After five minutes, to Shi Nuo’s growing unease, it finally looked away, the white flames around its body receding.
“What’s wrong?” Shi Nuo asked. The wolf hadn’t seemed this tense even during the previous thunderstorm.
“Tidal storm,” the white wolf replied, then, seeing the Omega’s pale face, nuzzled his cheek reassuringly. “Probably a level seven. It’s strong, but it won’t fully penetrate the atmosphere. It’s just causing the lightning. It’ll pass.”
A level seven tidal storm.
Shi Nuo looked down and activated his optical brain. As expected, the signal was weak, the virtual screen flickering and distorted, the text garbled.
Tidal storms were a common phenomenon in space, frequently occurring on planets located at the edges of star systems. They caused magnetic field instability, weakening or even disrupting communication signals. Currently, there was no way to prevent them, only to build protective force fields around planets to ensure a certain number of communication channels remained functional. But this planet, seemingly forgotten, wasn’t deemed worthy of such an expensive investment.
Like the previous storm, all they could do was wait for this super tidal storm to pass. As for its impact, they had no way of knowing, lacking any monitoring equipment.
Level seven was considered severe and could potentially alter the planet’s magnetic field for a while.
But that was irrelevant to them. They were the only two here, with no ships or aircraft, trapped regardless of the magnetic field’s fluctuations.
Shi Nuo pondered this, the silence of the vast cave broken only by the faint glow of the exposed crystals on the cave walls.
The white wolf looked up, staring into the void. Such a strong tidal storm could destroy many artificial satellites.
Perhaps…an opportunity.
Shi Nuo, coming back to his senses, asked, “Will it be like last time?”
It was autumn now. Another destructive storm like the last one could wipe out the plants and his food supply.
“No. This one is only affecting the sky. There will be some thunder, that’s all,” the white wolf said confidently.
This reassured Shi Nuo somewhat. He thought of the buckets he had left behind, filled with berries. It was a shame. He would see if he could retrieve them after the storm passed.
With nothing more to say, the silence in the cave deepened.
The white wolf surveyed the area, noting no other animals or insects. It chose a clean, slightly elevated spot, released a burst of white flames to sterilize it, and then said, “Come here. We’ll probably be stuck here for an hour or two.”
Seeing Shi Nuo approach and sit down, it lay down, its massive body curling around the small Omega, protectively encircling him.
Shi Nuo’s back was against the warm fur, his front blocked by the wolf’s thick, powerful tail, only his upper body and face exposed.
The fluffy white tail was so close.
He tried not to look at it. The last time he had tentatively touched it, Hugh had been offended and angry.
With nothing to do, Shi Nuo was about to let his mind wander when the powerful tail nudged him, pushing him down.
He landed in the white wolf’s embrace, his body half-resting on the wolf’s relatively soft belly, his head pillowed on its thick foreleg.
The cave was cool, but nestled against the wolf’s warm fur, he felt cozy, the rocky ground beneath him no longer cold.
Hugh Elvis didn’t speak but seemed content, lazily flicking his tail. His expression was indifferent, but he lowered his head and licked the Omega’s face, a natural, almost unconscious gesture.
The fragrant Omega, smelling of tea olive blossoms, was like a beautiful doll, delicate and precious.
After a while, Shi Nuo shifted his position, leaning back against the white wolf, stretching out his legs. He couldn’t sleep and began to think about his priorities, which, for him, was storing food.
When he had recorded the information about the rice-like fruit, he had asked Hugh about it, learning that the tree only bore fruit in summer and autumn, shedding its leaves in winter and flowering again in spring.
This meant there was an eight-month gap when he wouldn’t be able to harvest the fruit. He needed to gather another eighty pounds of rice before winter arrived, enough to last through winter and spring.
This was just for him, not including Hugh, who only occasionally ate rice porridge or steamed rice, showing little interest in grains.
“Mr. Elvis,” he whispered, “should I prepare your share of food for the winter? In case hunting is difficult in the snow?”
The white wolf, seemingly relaxed, didn’t get angry this time. “No. I can always find prey, even in heavy snow.”
“Okay,” Shi Nuo replied.
Food.
The white wolf, which had closed its eyes, opened them again and asked, “When they sent you here, didn’t the Elvis family say they would send supplies?”
Unlike him, the Omega lacked the ability to hunt and survive in the wild. The first time he had seen Shi Nuo, the Omega had been digging up grass to eat. He had been irritated at the time and, having lived alone for so long, hadn’t paid much attention. Later, after they started living together, he had instinctively provided for his Omega, hunting and gathering food, not considering this aspect.
Caring for a fragile Omega was a family’s responsibility.
The white wolf frowned, suddenly realizing the cruelty behind this neglect.
Remembering his own anticipation, then the despair when all hope had vanished, Shi Nuo fell silent, his voice low, “They said they would send supplies every three months. They said the first delivery would arrive after a month, but it never did.”
Even with the poor communication signal, with the Elvis family’s technology, a supply drop shouldn’t have missed its target by much.
The white wolf’s frown deepened, unpleasant memories and faces he loathed surfacing in his mind.
He understood now. The people responsible for Shi Nuo’s supplies had done it on purpose.
An Omega sent here was no different from being exiled, deemed worthless, especially an Omega sent to him.
If Shi Nuo had been unlucky enough to starve to death or be killed by wild animals, it wouldn’t even be considered a significant event to those people.
He was no longer the Elvis family’s heir, but he was still a threat to those two vipers, who wanted to see him stripped of everything, reduced to a beast. They were so malicious and spiteful that they wouldn’t even spare an innocent Omega.
“They didn’t give you any weapons?” the white wolf asked.
Shi Nuo’s voice was muffled. “No. Everything was so rushed when I arrived.”
Before Hugh appeared, he had also thought about this. He was alone on this planet, surrounded by animals. Herbivores were fine, but the presence of predators filled him with dread. Having a weapon would have made him feel much safer.
The white wolf’s disgust for those people intensified, but this wasn’t the time to let his emotions control him.
Sensing Shi Nuo’s dejection, he pulled the Omega closer, licking his face and neck.
His large, fluffy white tail was pressed against Shi Nuo, within easy reach.
Shi Nuo’s attention shifted. He felt as if the tail had been deliberately placed there for him to hold. The soft, warm fur against his face and body was surprisingly comforting, despite the tail’s underlying strength.
It seemed very huggable.
Holding it would probably be very comforting.
The tail was so close, and he was almost tempted to touch it. As the wolf licked his eyes, he instinctively closed them, then quickly pulled himself back to reality.
“My rut is in a month,” the white wolf suddenly said.
Shi Nuo’s eyes snapped open.
Like Omegas, Alphas also had a three-day period each year. Whether it was called a “heat cycle” or a “rut,” the experience was the same, a period of intense sexual desire.
During his last heat, Hugh’s abilities…
Shi Nuo didn’t dare think about how intense the Alpha’s desires and strength would be during his rut.
Sensing the Omega’s fear, the white wolf hesitated, unsure of himself. He hadn’t fully shed his beastly instincts.
Both man and wolf were lost in their own anxieties. Finally, the white wolf broke the silence. “It’ll be alright.”
His deep voice held a note of reassurance, like a promise.
Shi Nuo met the wolf’s deep blue eyes and, after a moment, nodded, his worries easing slightly.
Over an hour later, Shi Nuo, riding on the white wolf’s back, emerged from the long, dark cave.
The sky was clear now, a brilliant blue without a single cloud, as if nothing had happened.
The tidal storm had come and gone swiftly.
The land and the forest were mostly unscathed, only a few tall trees struck by lightning, their extensive root systems keeping them standing even in death.
Hugh Elvis carried Shi Nuo back to the raspberry patch. The two buckets were still there. After checking them for any residual electrical charge, he allowed Shi Nuo to approach.
Shi Nuo gathered the remaining orange berries and continued picking.
The white wolf stood guard. The tidal storm had just passed, and there might still be some residual effects. But there was something else on his mind.
He looked up at the sky, his deep blue eyes gleaming, as if searching for something.
The two buckets, filled with colorful berries, brought a smile to Shi Nuo’s face, his earlier anxieties forgotten.
The white wolf seemed to be in a hurry, running at full speed, crossing the river in a single, powerful leap, instead of its usual two jumps.
Shi Nuo clung to the wolf’s back. This leap was higher than usual. He had noticed Hugh’s restlessness earlier, his preoccupation with something unknown.
Back at the house, he hesitated, wondering if he should ask, but before he could dismount, the white wolf shook off the buckets and vine, its form shifting and transforming in a flash of white light.
He felt a momentary dizziness as he was lifted into the air, then caught by the tall, white-haired man.
Hugh Elvis, holding him, activated the intelligent system’s control panel, his long fingers moving quickly across the surface. Shi Nuo recognized this as a hidden, internal system, requiring a complex password to access.
The new screen that appeared displayed a stream of data, constantly updating and refreshing, which he couldn’t understand.
Hugh’s expression remained unchanged, but he seemed to have confirmed something. He closed the panel and carried Shi Nuo to the basement.
As they descended the stairs, Shi Nuo couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Hugh carried him to the left wall of the basement. “Wait. I want to show you something.”
He opened a hidden compartment in the wall and retrieved a silver necklace. The chain itself was ordinary, but it held a rhombus-shaped pendant, a dark, shimmering crystal.
Shi Nuo had seen many gemstones before but didn’t recognize this material.
Hugh clutched the pendant and chain in his hand and carried Shi Nuo back outside.
He was placed on the ground, and as he stood there, his vision blurred, a massive shadow looming over him.
A dark gray mecha, about a hundred meters tall, stood before them, its cold, metallic presence intimidating, a faint gleam reflecting off its surface.
