Chapter Four: A Tingling Scalp

On a dimly lit hall aboard the aircraft carrier Leviathan in the South Sea of Blue Star, a middle-aged officer in military uniform and a blonde woman dressed in burgundy military attire stared in utter shock and disbelief at the man before them clad in a black suit.

Had they not heard it with their own ears, they would never have believed such a bizarre tale.

“This is what the men below just reported,” the man in the black suit, Jess, replied with a strained nod to Ducharme and Lianfeng.

“Around ten o’clock tonight, Liu Chuang harassed a girl on Highland Street, and by chance, Ge Xiaolun, who was passing nearby, intervened.”

“Afterwards, Ge Xiaolun, Liu Chuang, and the others were taken to the police station. Though Ge Xiaolun was blameless, I thought it best to curb his aggression early to lay groundwork for future recruitment.”

“But unexpectedly, Ge Xiaolun took flight right before everyone’s eyes.”

Jess furrowed his brow tightly.

Tracking and overseeing these divine seeds had always been his responsibility.

Yet, even now, he could hardly believe what had just happened.

Ge Xiaolun—he actually flew?

Amazing, wasn’t it?

Absurd!

“How is that possible?” Ducharme, clad in green fatigues, frowned deeply, racking his brain but unable to make sense of it.

“Lianfeng, pull up the surveillance footage.”

He gestured for Lianfeng to retrieve the relevant recordings.

The blonde Lianfeng sat before a computer and quickly brought up the footage.

On the screen, beyond the scene of Ge Xiaolun disciplining Liu Chuang in the alley and the police officers surrounding Ge Xiaolun at the station suddenly collapsing in unison, the final moment showed Ge Xiaolun launching himself into the air from the police station’s entrance—no wings, no flight apparatus, yet he soared away cleanly and decisively.

“This…”

Ducharme and Lianfeng exchanged glances, each seeing the same unsettled disbelief reflected in the other's eyes.

At this moment, they paid no heed to Ge Xiaolun’s act of bravery or the scuffle with the police.

Only three words flashed relentlessly in their minds:

Galactic Force, no wings, can fly!

What.

Did that mean?!

“Wait… what are you all making such a fuss over? Isn’t he just a flying super soldier? Why the shock?”

Nearby, a red-haired woman in green combat gear watched their strange reactions and finally spoke out.

Duchang Wei’s presence here was no coincidence; after all, she had served aboard the Leviathan for some time.

She had simply stumbled upon this incident.

Watching Ge Xiaolun’s flight on screen, though a hint of envy flickered in her eyes, she found nothing extraordinary.

Though still young in the super soldier ranks and lacking deep understanding, she knew their powers were wildly diverse; flight was just one ability among many—neither the rarest nor the most mundane.

So she truly couldn’t grasp why Old Du and the others were so stunned.

But after exchanging a look, Lianfeng turned to Duchang Wei, her beautiful face clouded with complexity.

“Qiáng, you don’t understand…

Ge Xiaolun’s genes do indeed carry flight ability, but it’s dormant, undeveloped. Even with our current technology, we can’t activate it.

By all logic, having just awakened his genes two days ago, there’s no way Ge Xiaolun should be able to fly.”

As the chief engineer of the Black Wall project, having studied and refined the Galactic Force for a millennium, she grasped the basics, even if many core technologies eluded her.

Duchang Wei was surprised, now realizing the gravity of what this meant.

“Lianfeng, quickly check the backend data of the Galactic Force,” Ducharme said after a brief silence, not bothering to hide anything from Duchang Wei, his brow furrowed.

Lianfeng immediately began typing at the computer.

Duchang Wei raised an eyebrow, sensing she was about to witness a different facet of super soldiers.

She knew well that the super gene engine system was, at its core, a computer system.

And engineers like Lianfeng had certain privileges to access data on super soldiers—health status, energy levels, operation logs, weapon systems, location data, and so forth.

Not just for others—Duchang Wei herself was subject to the same.

This wasn’t malicious spying; though ordinary minds might balk, it was the reality of the information age.

Moreover, in civilizations like Shenhe and Deno, which respected basic ethics, the ultimate control of the super gene engine system belonged to the super soldier themselves, without extreme monitoring or manipulation.

Besides, such surveillance wasn’t foolproof; interference or distance could sever it.

Duchang Wei recalled once getting lost, during which time Ducharme and the others lost all tracking of her.

And if a super soldier had sufficient knowledge and skill, and wasn’t technologically outclassed, they could block such monitoring.

Of course, novices like Ge Xiaolun, likely ignorant of all this, were at the mercy of surveillance.

Lianfeng opened the initial access page of the Galactic Force backend.

Duchang Wei immediately saw the male figure and some basic data.

It simply showed Ge Xiaolun’s health and energy status, but no operation records of the Galactic Force.

Not surprised, Lianfeng switched to the operation log page.

In the next second, Duchang Wei’s eyes widened in shock.

Ducharme and Lianfeng also stared in disbelief.

“This…”

The screen displayed no data—only an emoji giving the middle finger, accompanied by a phrase:

“Look! Look at your daddy!”

Ducharme and Lianfeng gasped, their scalps tingling.

The emoji was brazenly mocking.

Then, two seconds later, the screen flickered and went blank.

In that instant, Ducharme and Lianfeng felt their scalps erupt as if their heads were about to explode.