Ten minutes of exercise, fifteen minutes of rest.
By the second round of training, Xia Weizhen was crying for mercy.
“I can’t… I can’t do it anymore,” he panted, thoroughly exhausted. “I don’t think we need… to hold ourselves to such high standards. As long as our future children… are healthy… that’s more than enough.”
Tao Xirui hurriedly chimed in, “Xingxing, me too! *Huff*… I agree with Weizhen!”
Tong Xiao groaned, “Do we really have to train for two hours? I’m at my absolute limit.”
Mu Chenxing, whose arms were already shaking from his own high-intensity trials on the equipment: “…”
The four roommates temporarily shelved their grand physical development plan. They dragged their exhausted bodies out of the gymnasium and hopped on the campus shuttle back to the dormitory.
Back in the room, Mu Chenxing stared at his pink bed canopy, which was dripping with flashy, glittery decorations. It was an absolute eyesore. He forced himself to look away, sat on his desk chair, and said, “We will continue tomorrow.”
Tong Xiao complained, “Other Omegas don’t work out at all, and they still raise perfectly healthy, sturdy Alphas.”
Xia Weizhen added, “Yeah, and what if I end up giving birth to an Omega or a Beta anyway?”
Tao Xirui nodded vigorously, looking at Mu Chenxing with a hopeful expression.
Mu Chenxing: “…”
*Little punks. I’ve seen every excuse in the book back when I was training raw recruits.*
He began to spin a convincing yarn. “That is because the truly high-quality Alphas do not just circulate freely on the open market.”
The three roommates stared at him, their attention captured.
Mu Chenxing continued, “Think about it. Top-tier Alphas possess superior physiques and incredible physical stamina. If they actually went into heat, do you think an average, unconditioned Omega could physically handle the strain?”
The three roommates flushed bright red right on cue.
Tong Xiao coughed lightly and looked away. “What is there to be scared of? There are always nutrient solutions and stamina supplements.”
Xia Weizhen covered his face with his hands. “Oh my, why did we suddenly jump to this topic?”
Tao Xirui’s face was completely red as he whispered weakly, “I… I think I’ll stick with the training.”
Mu Chenxing: “…”
*Damn. I was just making things up to motivate them. Is there actually a real physical issue here? Stamina supplements? Nutrient solutions? No way those pheromone-fueled episodes actually go on for days and nights, right?*
He was momentarily speechless, but he stubbornly doubled down. “That is exactly why you need to train your bodies. Otherwise, where is the fun in it?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he was met with three highly bizarre, silent glares from his roommates.
He blinked. “…What?”
The three of them then treated him like a completely clueless idiot, immediately launching into a detailed lecture on ABO biological traits and the mechanics of heat cycles.
Mu Chenxing: “…”
*These heat cycles are terrifying.*
It seemed that as an Omega, navigating this society without knowing these implicit biological rules was genuinely dangerous. While Tong Xiao and the others had fully adapted to these societal norms, Mu Chenxing was a different story. With his personality, sitting still and doing nothing would be a miracle. His strength training and combat conditioning were absolutely non-negotiable.
He stopped trying to convince them. “We’ll talk about this later. I’m covered in sweat, so I’m going to take a shower.”
He grabbed his pajamas, fetched some clean underwear from his wardrobe, and headed into the bathroom.
The high-tech facilities were very user-friendly. With a few simple taps on the console, he easily adjusted the water temperature and completed his shower.
Afterward, he joined his roommates. While they quietly worked on their assignments, he opened his wristband to study. Since searching for textbook definitions was getting him nowhere, he decided to look for a different approach. Observing Tong Xiao listening to class recordings through wireless earpieces, he searched his desk drawer and found a similar device. He looked up middle school specialized courses and began catching up on the basic curriculum from the very beginning.
To keep up appearances, he climbed into his pink canopy and closed the heavy drapes while he studied. He only shut off the lectures and went to sleep after his roommates had all turned in for the night.
***
The first day’s brief training session had successfully discouraged his roommates, and Mu Chenxing did not force them to return. The next day, after their classes and dinner, his roommates went to their usual spot in the Alpha basketball arena to do their homework. Mu Chenxing quietly slipped away to the empty Omega training hall to resume his solitary workout.
Old military habits died hard—for him, training meant pushing his physical limits to the absolute brink, as long as it did not kill him. Channeling the iron willpower from his military academy long-distance marches, he powered through the muscle soreness from the previous night. He worked out continuously for an hour, rested for ten minutes, and then began his second hour.
However, before he could finish the second round, the display on his machine suddenly flashed, and a shrill alarm blared through the quiet hall.
Startled, Mu Chenxing stopped, panting heavily as he looked at the console in confusion. The display did not indicate any physical failure or vital abnormalities, so his body was fine. Why was it sounding an alarm? He stared at the shrieking machine for a long time, unable to find an off switch.
Fortunately, the blaring finally ceased. Mu Chenxing let out a sigh of relief and slumped onto the floor in exhaustion.
Before he could even catch his breath, the doors to the training hall burst open. A group of people carrying medical cases and a folding stretcher rushed into the room.
Mu Chenxing: “?”
He watched blankly as the group hurried in, scanning the room. One of them spotted him and shouted, “Over there!”
Mu Chenxing’s brow furrowed. He gripped the frame of the machine and pushed himself up, immediately dropping into a defensive stance—
“Don’t move! Stay still!” the leader of the group barked, pinning his arm and swiftly slipping a tight band around it.
Mu Chenxing: “What are you—”
Before he could finish his sentence, the rest of the medical team swarmed him, pinning his limbs, securing blood-pressure-like bands around his arms and legs, and pushing him onto the stretcher. A holographic screen hovered near the head of the stretcher, emitting a rapid series of *beep-beep-beeps*.
Mu Chenxing: “…”
He carefully examined the group’s uniforms. Recognizing the school emblem he had become familiar with over the past two days, he slowly relaxed. “What is going on?” he asked.
A young medical staff member glanced at him, tapped the holographic screen, and turned to the others. “Prepare a suppressant injection.”
Someone immediately rummaged through a case and handed over a prepared syringe.
Mu Chenxing frowned. “An injection? I don’t need any medication!” He began to struggle against his restraints.
The medical leader pinned him down firmly, his voice cold. “Whether you need it or not isn’t up to you. I am the medical officer here!” He glared at Mu Chenxing. “You were administered a high-dosage suppressant only two days ago, and you dare to engage in high-intensity exercise? Do you want to be expelled from this academy?”
Mu Chenxing: “?”
Before he could ask for clarification, three figures appeared at the entrance of the training hall.
“Xingxing—”
“Xingxing, are you alright?!”
“The entire facility suddenly went on high alert—”
The three Omegas had barely stepped into the room when they let out synchronized gasps of terror, spun on their heels, and bolted back out the door.
Mu Chenxing: “?”
He reached out a hand. “Tong Xiao—*ow!*”
A sharp needle was driven into his arm.
The medical officer glared at him. “What are you shouting for? You are currently radiating a massive amount of Alpha pheromones; they wouldn’t dare get anywhere near you! If the facility’s emergency air purification system hadn’t activated immediately, they wouldn’t have even been able to step foot in this room.”
Mu Chenxing: “?”
He frowned and lifted his arm to sniff his sleeve. He could not smell anything out of the ordinary—just a faint scent of sweat mixed with the cool draft of the air conditioning.
*Wait. Was the training hall even air-conditioned?*
The officer finished the injection, withdrew the needle, and tossed it into a biohazard container. “The air purification in this hall is currently running at maximum capacity. Do not go anywhere. Stay right here for at least an hour before you leave.”
The staff member monitoring the holographic screen called out, “Dr. Zhang, it would be safer to make it at least two hours. His physiological readings are extremely high, and they’re still climbing.”
Dr. Zhang turned back and glared at Mu Chenxing. “Did you hear that?!”
Mu Chenxing: “…Understood.”
Dr. Zhang’s expression softened slightly, though his tone remained irritated. “What rank of officer marked you, anyway? Even a maximum-dosage suppressant is barely holding his pheromones at bay. This is incredibly troublesome.”
Mu Chenxing involuntarily recalled the towering figure who had easily restricted his movements in the alley. “I don’t know. I was unconscious at the time.” It was not entirely a lie.
“Fine,” Dr. Zhang sighed, looking around the room. “What were you doing in this facility in the first place? Do you not understand your own physical condition?”
Mu Chenxing chose his words carefully and asked politely, “I am genuinely unclear on the details, Dr. Zhang. Could you explain the precautions to me?”
Dr. Zhang stared at him, letting out a heavy sigh before explaining. “You still have residual pheromone inducer in your system, which is what triggered your initial pheromone surge. An Alpha officer used a temporary mark to suppress the surge, but his pheromones are exceptionally dominant. Even though we administered a high-dose suppressant, it only keeps the scent below the public danger threshold. It doesn’t actually purge the Alpha’s pheromones from your system.”
Mu Chenxing: “So right now…”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you,” Dr. Zhang interrupted. “Didn’t I instruct your roommates to monitor you and ensure you avoided physical exertion for at least a month?”
Xia Weizhen and the others had indeed mentioned something like that, but Mu Chenxing had not realized the biological consequences would be this severe.
Dr. Zhang shook his head. “What were you trying to achieve by coming to this empty gym?”
Mu Chenxing replied honestly, “…I was trying to build my physical strength.”
Dr. Zhang: “…”
He scanned the room, confirming that the equipment was strictly the low-resistance Omega variety, and frowned. “How long have you been working out? You’ve practically forced the dormant Alpha pheromones right out of your system.”
“Forced them out?” Mu Chenxing checked his wristband. “Two hours and twelve minutes.”
Dr. Zhang stared at him in disbelief. “Two hours? Are you preparing to fight an armored beast?”
*What is an armored beast?* Mu Chenxing suppressed the question and did not offer an explanation, simply asking, “I will be careful with my time this month. What is the absolute maximum duration I can train each session? Can the medical sensors calculate that?”
“Are you questioning my medical expertise?” Dr. Zhang scoffed. Then he paused, studying Mu Chenxing’s slender frame. “Why is an Omega so obsessed with high-intensity physical training anyway?”
Mu Chenxing smiled faintly. “Personal reasons.”
Dr. Zhang grunted, pulling up the data on the stretcher’s holographic display. After reviewing the numbers, he said, “One hour. That is your absolute limit.”
“…Understood.” One hour was better than nothing. “Can I increase the duration after a month?”
“Come to the medical building in a month,” Dr. Zhang replied grumpily. “We will run a full pheromone panel and determine if your levels have stabilized.”
“Okay.”
The medical team proceeded to wrap specialized sensors around his arms, legs, waist, and abdomen to record his physical metrics. They finished by taking a small blood sample from his finger before packing up their equipment to leave.
Before walking out, Dr. Zhang delivered a final warning: Mu Chenxing was strictly required to remain in the training hall for two full hours, after which a Beta campus security guard would escort him back to the dormitory.
Mu Chenxing looked at the four sturdy security officers waiting at the entrance and nodded.
Just as they were about to exit, Dr. Zhang stopped. “Has the police department contacted you yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“I see. They probably assume you are still recovering in the clinic,” Dr. Zhang muttered. “Keep an eye out for their call. When they do contact you, make sure to ask for the rank and exact biological classification of the officer who administered your temporary mark. We need that data to adjust your suppressant dosage properly.” He paused, murmuring to himself, “The pheromone profile feels strangely familiar, but… no, that’s impossible.”
Mu Chenxing pretended not to hear the last remark and nodded. “Understood.”
With that, Dr. Zhang and his team departed.
***
Mu Chenxing opened his wristband to send a reassuring message to his roommates, telling them to head back to the dorm without him. He then sat cross-legged on the floor of the training hall, turned down the volume of his audio receiver, and resumed his middle school lecture catch-up.
Once the two hours had passed, a campus security guard drove him back to the dormitory in a specialized vehicle.
Only then did he learn the full extent of the chaos he had caused. Because the residual Alpha pheromones in his system had leaked out during his workout, the entire gymnasium had been affected. Every Alpha and Omega in the building had been evacuated to the campus medical center to receive emergency suppressants.
His three roommates, who had rushed to the training hall out of concern and breathed in a concentrated dose of the pheromones, had been required to take double the standard dosage.
“We felt an incredibly oppressive Alpha pheromone,” Tong Xiao complained as soon as Mu Chenxing walked through the door. “We had no idea it was coming from you… If we had known, we would have run in the opposite direction.”
Xia Weizhen was still visibly shaken. “It was terrifying. The pressure felt like being stalked by a massive, predatory beast.”
Tao Xirui clutched his chest, nodding. “It’s the first time I’ve ever experienced the legendary indiscriminate Alpha pheromones—the kind that exert absolute, oppressive dominance over everyone in the vicinity.”
“Me too,” Tong Xiao agreed. “I’ve only read about it in textbooks. Supposedly, only Alphas of S-rank and above possess pheromones with that specific biological trait.”
The three of them turned to stare at Mu Chenxing in unison.
Mu Chenxing held up his hands. “…Don’t look at me. I have no idea who that officer was. I was completely unconscious during the entire encounter.”
His roommates looked disappointed but let the matter drop.
It was already midnight, so Mu Chenxing quickly showered and tidied up. By the time he emerged from the bathroom, his roommates had all turned in for the night.
He switched off the main lights, climbed into his pink canopy, drew the heavy drapes, and switched on a small, low-intensity reading lamp. Using the search techniques he had figured out over the past two days, he began looking up a registry of Alphas in the Alliance with pheromone levels rated S-rank or higher.
With a soft chime, the database populated:
*Pei Yao, 37 years old, Alliance General, Pheromone Rating: S+++ [Special classification]*
*Su Jianxin, 77 years old, Alliance General, Pheromone Rating: S+++*
*Gu Pingchuan, 82 years old, Alliance General, Pheromone Rating: S+++*
…
He scrolled down the page. The first several dozen pages of the registry consisted entirely of active military officers holding high ranks, with civilian elites only appearing on the final few pages.
Mu Chenxing copied the names of the officers associated with the local military district and police departments. He planned to search for their official photographs one by one to identify the man from the alleyway.
He was not going to let a minor pheromone complication derail his plans to rebuild his strength.
