A total of eight Masters were invited to this charity competition.

Among the eight people, there were males and females, alphas, betas, and omegas.

In the interstellar era, alphas, omegas, and betas were all the same. Alphas and omegas might become much more fragment darning their heat period, emitting pheromones for courtship, but basically it wouldn’t affect their daily life even without medication. A good dose of medication was, however, able to completely control the pheromones without disturbing other people.

Eight might not sound like many people, but this was the entire S-class Masters of the Federation. Not even one of them was absent.

In the past, the Federation’s Master rating was only up to A-class. Then, twenty years ago, the National Institute of Science and Technology decided to create an S-class mecha. They built twin models of a close and long-range warfare mecha.

There were actually four pairs of partners. Individually, there were four Close Combat Master Sergeants, and four Long-Range Combat Master Sergeants.

In addition to Yan Xueshan and Arthur, the remaining people were the three other pairs.

One pair was married even before they entered the service. The husband was called Gan Hui and was a Sniper Master Sergeant. He was also a male omega, while his wife, a Melee Master Sergeant, was called Ulysses and was a female alpha. The two of them were childhood sweethearts; the husband was a former researcher who turned into a mecha driver.

There was also a brother and sister pair, Lan Zephyr and Lan Sha. Both of them were alphas. The brother was a Melee Sergeant, while the sister was a sniper. The brother and sister seemed to be having a good time. Lan Zephyr was one of the people who told him, when he heard that Yan Xueshan was planning to get married, that he would break up with all his lovers, if Yan Xueshan would just consider him.

There was also another pair like Yan Xueshan and Arthur, that advanced from the Federation’s list of A-level masters. A Melee Master Sergeant named Zhi Shu, and the sniper called Klitsch. They were both males and alphas.

The scientific research institute came up with the idea of pairing.

For the sake of the high rate of synchronization, the first thing the research institute did was to find a brother and sister to be paired, followed by actual partners and then strangers.

To qualify, you still needed to be an A-level Master Sergeant.

Yet, A-class Master Sergeants were originally one in a million, so how easy would it be to find the right partners?

It was more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.

It was like finding a grain of dust in the universe.

Theoretically, as biological brother and sister, Lan Zephyr and Lan Sha should have the highest rating, especially since they were also twins. However, from what Yan Xueshan heard, their first test had a coherency rate of 88%. Although the first test might not have been ideal, their highest rating was 93% and never improved further.

Yan Xueshan thought that it might be because those siblings didn’t get along well with each other.

Just like now.

Lan Zephyr slumped in front of Arthur while his sister, Lan Sha, gloated. 

Smiling, she poked at him while saying, “Yan Xueshan, don’t trust him. After you rejected him, he immediately turned around and went back to his little lovers. As a result, he was slapped by several people. Ouch! I laughed so hard and even secretly recorded it. Do you want to watch it?”

Yan Xueshan: “Uh.”

Arthur: “That’s right, he isn’t a good guy.”

The two siblings were twins after all, and actually had similar preferences so Lan Zephyr asked, “Weren’t you also very tempted to sign up for a blind date?”

Lan Sha spread her hands. “I’m just saying. Besides, I’m not the same as you, fool. I know Yan Xueshan and Arthur are a pair. Or they would become one sooner or later, so there was no chance for me.”

Arthur: “That’s very nice of you to say.”

Yan Xueshan just wanted to say goodbye.

As for the Gan Hui and Ulysses couple, their cohesion rate was about 85% and their highest was also 93%, which was the second lowest among them. However, their advantage was that their stability was relatively high.

Gan Hui was a sensitive and gentle male omega. He grew up in a military family and received military training since he was a child. Even so, he was too soft, so he chose to do mecha research. After his wife joined the army as a Melee Division Sergeant, he could no longer stand at the back of the line in fear and said that if they died, they would die together. He could also not bear his wife having any other partner, so he switched occupations halfway to learn sniper mecha piloting.

His wife, Ulysses, was a brave Melee Fighter and an alpha female who was often wounded in the battlefield.

It was said that off the battlefield, Gan Hui was a crybaby. It was only on the battlefield that he was extra calm. Whether he won or lost, he would cry for a while after getting off the mecha.

He looked close to crying even now.

He had blue eyes, a cornflower blue that were always a bit watery.

He wiped his tears and said, “We didn’t know where you went after you retired so I was very worried about you. I didn’t know if you were doing well.

“Later, Ulysses told me that you are going to marry Arthur, and I am happy for you from the bottom of my heart and wish you happiness.”

Probably because Yan Xueshan knew he meant well, although he couldn’t empathize with his tears, he still politely said, “Thank you.”

Arthur: “Thank you, thank you.”

Ulysses was a beauty with ginger-red hair, comforted him gently. “Stop crying, don’t you see he is doing well?”

He wiped his tears and said in a whimpering voice, “I’m touched by their hard-won happiness, Ulysses just like we were back then.”

Yan Xueshan thought about it. This pair was probably the most exemplary loving couple he had ever seen, if he and Arthur could always respect each other like they did, it would be quite a good companionship.

Arthur immediately said, “Thank you for your blessings. Yan Xueshan and I will definitely love each other.”

Lan Zephyr stood aside in a daze, folded his arms across his chest, and sneered. “Do you think I don’t know? You’re only Yan Xueshan’s partner due to the best combination of objective conditions. So he chose you, what’s there to be proud of?”

Arthur put a hand to his ear. “What are you talking about? I can’t hear clearly. I only hear a sour dog barking.”

Lan Sha: “Hahahahahaha.”

The twins were always like this, like sparks falling into a barrel of dynamite, flying up to quarrel.

“If I were Yan Xueshan’s mecha partner, he would’ve chosen me.”

 “Don’t dream, it is impossible for him to choose you. Even if he was your partner, Yan Xueshan wouldn’t like you as a man who messes around. I’m different, I keep my body for Yan Xueshan.”

While they were talking, the last participant, Klitsch, arrived.

Once he arrived in the room, he saw his partner Zhi Shu in the corner and looked at him with a disgusted expression — of course, Zhi Shu also didn’t have a good expression either as he looked away and walked proudly to Yan Xueshan to greet him. “Long time no see Yan Xueshan.”

As mentioned earlier, there were also Divisional Sergeants that had a very poor relationship in private. In fact, they didn’t like each other, and sometimes in private they argued so much that they wanted to shoot each other. Yet, due to their high cohesion rate and good fighting cooperation they didn’t go their separate ways and continued their partnership.

Yan Xueshan has a small friendship with the sniper, Klitsch. The two of them would exchange ideas so they could be considered compassionate to each other.

Yan Xueshan nodded. “Hello.”

Klitsch also had a very rare appearance, with silver-white shoulder length hair tied at the back of his head, violet eyes, and vampire-like pale skin.

His family background was also relatively complicated. His mother was a noble lady from the Old Empire, and she also seemed to be from a noble lineage from Ancient Earth history.

 She came to the alliance for her own ideals. Of course, after immigrating to the alliance, she lost her noble status and became just an ordinary commoner.

Yan Xueshan vaguely heard that Klitsch had no father, and was a child created by his mother’s egg with bought sperm, and was born in an artificial womb. From the age of three he underwent an elite education that helped raise him to a top Sniper Sergeant.

Before joining the army, Klitsch won the All Federation Sniper Competition three years in a row and was directly recruited by the army.

Yan Xueshan also thought about participating, but his adoptive father told him to just focus on his studies.

Before Yan Xueshan rose to prominence, the military unanimously determined that Klitsch would become the Number One Sniper Sergeant.

When deciding the pilot of Artemis, both Yan Xueshan and Klitsch were candidates. In the end, because his partnership with Arthur had a better record, he became an S-class sniper first.

Klitsch and his partner Zhi Shu also had the lowest cohesion rate among all S-class Masters. Their rate hovered around 70% all year round and fell below the 60% mark when it was low. The maximum they reached was 92% but it was just once.

Even so, these two were so outstanding in their individual abilities that they have a very good record.

They were sniper and melee fighters only second to Yan Xueshan and Arthur.

Because he really didn’t get along with his partner, Klitsch once hoped to form a double sniper partnership with Yan Xueshan, but Yan Xueshan politely refused.

Klitsch didn’t give up and insisted on it, even writing an essay to the Federation to submit an application. Unfortunately, before he submitted it, he was stopped by his partner. He didn’t know what they talked about but Klitsch was coaxed back.

These two partners have been working together for more than three years. For as long as Yan Xueshan knew them, they had been arguing for a change of partners, but until the end of war it was never approved. Even now they are still partnered.

All this gossip Yan Xueshan heard from Arthur. He didn’t hear anything himself. It was usually half an hour before he went to bed every day that Arthur insisted on chatting with him.

Since he had a good memory he would remember it after hearing it.

In terms of strength, Yan Xueshan couldn’t  guarantee that he would win completely. After all, fighting depended also on a person’s state. Part of the reason why he was rated as the Number One Sniper Master Sergeant was because his mental state was particularly stable and had the highest limit of combat power.

On the side, Arthur and Lan Zephyr, who were already love rivals, quarreled with each other. Particularly because Arthur was so pleased with himself that it made Lan Zephyr mad.

Klitsch glanced at them, then no longer cared as he spoke to Yan Xueshan. “I saw the news of your re-emergence. You haven’t piloted a mecha for a while, how is your mental state?”

This guy was really a carrier freak. Yan Xueshan thought he felt that he wasn’t suitable for further studies in mechas. It might be influenced by Klitsch, who loved sniping and mechas and regarded them as the meaning of life.

Yan Xueshan said, “It’s okay.”

Klitsch then asked, “Has your rate dropped?”

Yan Xueshan: “It’s still around 99%.”

Klitsch frowned and couldn’t help but say, “If I don’t fight with that guy every few days, our coherence rate will drop.”

Yan Xueshan was puzzled. “The war is over.”

Klitsch replied, “There is no end to learning and improving.”

In fact, it wasn’t easy to find a partner with a high match, otherwise Klitsch would have replaced his partner a long time ago.

The Academy of Science has studied Yan Xueshan’s pathological state and concluded that it may be because he had a brain injury that some functions were blocked in some areas. Which was a blessing in disguise that allowed him to have a higher rate of cohesion with his partner.

It also didn’t allow them to work out any specific plan, since they couldn’t cut open his head to see which nerve was broken and perform this kind of surgery on their soldiers – which was also not humanitarian.

Yan Xueshan looked at Klitsch who seemed as if he was annoyed, and asked, “Are you okay lately?”

Klitsch nodded. “It’s nothing. As long as that guy doesn’t make me angry, everything will be fine for me.”

Good is all about comparison.

Compared with this, Yan Xueshan felt that he was really lucky to have Arthur as his partner, it was very worry-free. He was also very cooperative in training.

At that moment, he heard Klitsch ask depressingly, “How on earth do you guys improve and maintain your cohesion rate?”

Yan Xueshan was a person who didn’t hide even his secrets.

In fact, no matter who dared to come to him for technical advice, he would teach them everything. He was more than happy to help others improve their skills.

This time was also no exception.

Especially since he recently found a good way to do it.

In the background you could hear Arthur bickering with others.

Yan Xueshan said gracefully and calmly, “I recently discovered a very effective method, maybe you can try it?”

Klitsch asked with interest: “What?”

Yan Xueshan said in a serious and convincing voice, “I found out that when I make love to my partner and then drive the mecha, the coherence rate will increase.”

Klitsch: “?”

“!”

He was so shocked that he glanced at Arthur standing far behind Yan Xueshan. He still didn’t notice the situation.

Damn.

At first it sounded outrageous, but when you think about it, it seems to make a little sense?

Sure enough, Yan Xueshan had an affair with Arthur during his military service, right?

 

Edited by: Antiope1

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