When the two parties met, as a royal family member, Yun Xunlan was not required to bow—he only needed to receive the salutes.
The others, however, exchanged greetings according to standard interstellar etiquette.
The captain of the Corona Empire’s transport ship responsible for delivering the 3S mech was named Kos Telo, an SSS-level male high-ranking alpha. He was tall and imposing, but his demeanor carried an indescribable slickness and cunning.
After saluting Yun Xunlan, Kos Telo’s brown eyes shifted and landed on Jian Wenxi, who stood half a step behind Yun Xunlan. Whether he intended to flatter or not was unclear—his gaze was direct and unrestrained, brimming with scrutiny that was both disrespectful and discomforting for the one being observed. Yet, he “praised” Jian Wenxi by saying: “This must be your adorable fiancée, Your Highness? Truly a rare beauty.”
But his words hit a sore spot, precisely triggering the nerves of at least three people present.
Yu Chen, of course, was one of them.
Currently in his susceptible period, his patience and temper were already at their lowest. Although he stood close to Yun Xunlan’s side, Jian Wenxi was positioned on the other side. From an outsider’s perspective, it looked as if Yun Xunlan had a “husband” on his right and a “wife” on his left. Kos Telo’s comment only added fuel to the fire.
Even Yun Xunlan—usually mild-tempered—had his voice turn cold as his lips curled into a faint smile: “Captain Kos Telo, Wenxi is my close friend, not my fiancée. The Galactic Empire’s royal family has issued multiple clarifications on this matter. Does your ship lack internet access? How else could you believe such baseless rumors?”
His long lashes lowered slightly as his golden eyes swept over Kos Telo’s epaulets with a faint glance: “As a major general, your rank isn’t low. You should have some judgment of your own.”
The hierarchy among alphas is extremely pronounced. Though Yun Xunlan refrained from releasing any pheromone pressure due to the presence of omegas in this public setting, his innate aura as a top-tier alpha and royal bloodline exuded an invisible sense of authority that gripped one’s heartstrings tightly.
Kos Telo’s body visibly stiffened.
He couldn’t afford to offend Yun Xunlan nor bear the consequences of sparking a diplomatic conflict. Yet Kos Telo couldn’t swallow this humiliation either. So he turned his attention to Jian Wenxi, who appeared timid and cowering behind Yun Xunlan: “Baseless rumors? Wasn’t it your Jian family that pushed for—”
Little did he know he’d picked the wrong target—Jian Wenxi might act meek in front of others, but he was also someone who dared to point at Second Prince Mu Xingyu’s nose and call him an idiot.
“Do I not have my own name? Or is it that with your intelligence, Captain Kos Telo, you simply can’t remember it? Let me be understanding toward you,” Jian Wenxi interrupted directly, his voice soft and delicate yet utterly merciless in tone. “But I’m curious—how did someone with such low intelligence manage to become a captain in your country? That’s something I truly don’t understand.”
Jian Wenxi’s sharp words left everyone stunned. Fu Yanxi, Gui Yan, and the other guards almost wanted to applaud him on the spot. Even Yu Chen couldn’t help but glance at him sideways before quickly reminding himself that he shouldn’t feel any admiration for a rival. He redirected his gaze back to Yun Xunlan’s silhouette.
“You…”
In the Corona Empire, alphas have always held the highest status. Kos Telo had likely never been called out like this by an omega before.
His face turned ugly in an instant. Fortunately, Beta Vice-Captain Lydon stepped forward calmly and rationally before Kos Telo could respond. He leaned in and whispered: “Captain, Young Master Jian is the future richest man in the galaxy. His uncle is currently the richest man. If you insult him today, tomorrow the Jian family’s lawyers could bankrupt you.”
Even without Jian Chexiao backing him up, Jian Wenxi’s personal wealth alone ranked third in the entire galaxy. With such overwhelming financial power at his disposal, dealing with a mere transport ship captain would be child’s play.
Kos Telo’s flushed mind finally regained some rationality. He forced a stiff smile, shifting the focus as he said, “The SSS mech is over here, Your Highness, Young Master Jian. Please—”
Ultimately, everyone had come to the Imperial Capital Star Port today for the SSS mech.
Yun Xunlan’s eyes still couldn’t handle prolonged exposure to bright light. With Kos Telo taking a step back, Jian Wenxi decided to retreat as well, dropping the argument for now and planning to deal with him privately later with a little money.
After Kos Telo spoke, he turned and walked toward the military weapons warehouse area of the port. It seemed as if having Yun Xunlan and the others walk behind him could somehow salvage his dignity.
When they reached the command tower platform, Kos Telo unlocked the storage and, in a tone that feigned generosity, raised his chin and said: “Your Highness, this is the gift from Duke Hurst to you.”
There it stood—a black mech forged meticulously by countless scientists and engineers, bathed in radiance.
It was colossal, like an unscalable mountain of rock. Even in its dormant state, it resembled a blade capable of cutting down stars, exuding a chilling sharpness that made one tremble and hold their breath.
Yun Xunlan tilted his face slightly upward, his golden eyes reflecting the mecha’s image as they shimmered with light. He murmured softly: “…A beautiful miracle.”
A mechanical beast freed from the limitations of fragile human flesh and blood, born solely for victory in war—who wouldn’t be moved by it?
“My dream lover has finally appeared…” Fu Yanxi stared in awe, unable to blink. “Too bad it belongs to the Third Highness.”
Gui Yan’s eyes were also teary: “The Third Highness’s wife is so stunning.”
Yu Chen clenched his hand tightly at his side, his deep gaze engraving every detail of the mech into his sapphire-like eyes. Yet beneath that gaze was a complex mix of emotions—longing, nostalgia, and sorrow—as if he were reminiscing about a painful past through the mech.
The surge of emotions in his chest made Yu Chen’s eyes sting. He gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles twitching. Just as he looked away from the mech to calm himself down, Kos Telo’s voice reached Yun Xunlan: “Ah, I forgot to ask earlier—”
“Your Highness, can you activate… no, can you pilot an SSS mecha?”
“Some functions of an SSS mech require a resonance level of at least 70% between the pilot and the mech to activate,” Kos Telo said arrogantly with his hands behind his back. His tone was condescending yet pretended to be considerate: “If you find it too difficult, I can assist you.”
Hearing this, Yun Xunlan withdrew his gaze from the mech and glanced sideways at the brown-eyed alpha who was half a head taller than him. He raised an eyebrow slightly: “It seems Captain Kos Telo has quite a high resonance level with SSS mechas?”
Kos Telo “humbly” replied: “Only 72%, not very high, but sufficient to verify all functions of this SSS mech on your behalf.”
“Damn it. The most annoying people are those who show off,” Lou Di snorted coldly. “I thought it was perfect resonance or something. What’s he showing off for with just 72%?”
“Wow,” Ji Bai exclaimed after realizing who had spoken. “I thought it was Yu Chen cursing—turns out it was Sister Lou Di.” He then agreed: “Exactly! What’s he showing off for? Even Brother Gui Yan can reach 20% resonance with an SSS mecha—and Brother Gui Yan isn’t even at his level; he’s just SS.”
Gui Yan quickly interjected: “Whoa! 20% is just enough to activate a mech. Don’t praise me too much!”
“We’re not overpraising you,” Lu You calmly analyzed. “If you can achieve 20% resonance at SS level now, once you reach SSS level, your resonance with a 3S mech will definitely surpass his 72%.”
What is “mech resonance”?
And what does “perfect resonance” mean?
To understand these terms, one must first understand the history of interstellar mechas.
The first mechas developed by humanity were officially called “Personal Combat Exoskeleton Armor.” As the name suggests, they were like an external skeleton covering the human body, designed to protect the flesh. These mechas were small, lightweight, and operated via control panels, joysticks, or the wearer’s physical movements.
However, such small-scale exoskeleton armor was insufficient to deal with the Servile Insectoid race. This led to the development of larger, more complex heavy super-giant mechas capable of carrying more ammunition and delivering devastating weaponry with far greater destructive power.
But correspondingly, these mechas became much harder to pilot and operate.
To address this challenge, scientists developed a new mech control system based on the principle that neural reflex arcs are faster than mechanical circuitry. This system abandoned complex control panels, joysticks, and buttons in favor of directly connecting the pilot’s limbs and spinal nerves to the mecha’s sensors.¹
In simpler terms, to activate and pilot a mecha, humans had to insert neural sensors into their limbs and spine, linking the mecha’s electronic circuitry with their own nervous system. This made piloting a mech as intuitive as controlling one’s own body.
However, this process not only caused immense pain but also inflicted physical damage on the pilot. As a result, nearly all mech pilots were alphas.
Alphas naturally possess robust physiques and exceptional self-healing abilities, enabling them to endure higher accelerations during mech operation and achieve superior combat performance.
For betas or omegas with lower tolerance levels, they would need to wear additional anti-gravity suits during mech operation to increase their body’s resistance to overload. Even after piloting, they would require significantly more medical resources than alphas to heal from physical injuries.
From the perspective of efficiently allocating wartime resources, it made more sense for betas and omegas to operate battleships or serve as strategic commanders, researchers, or medics.
Betas have no susceptible periods or heats and are unaffected by pheromones—making them ideal battleship commanders or mech engineers who can perfectly block out gender-related physiological influences. Meanwhile, omegas possess high mental strength, which allows them to be more focused and meticulous in their work and decision-making. Their high-level pheromones can also soothe alpha soldiers. For omegas not to become scientists or healers but instead pilot mechas would be a waste of their unique abilities.
That said, regardless of whether an alpha, beta, or omega pilots a mecha, they all inevitably face one critical issue: “resonance.”
In layman’s terms, resonance refers to the neural compatibility between the pilot and the mech.
The better the compatibility, the higher the resonance level; this results in smoother operation of the mech. Conversely, low compatibility causes delays—like watching a movie where the audio doesn’t sync with the visuals.
In reality, even when a person touches a hot object with their hand, it takes a few microseconds for their brain to register pain and signal them to let go. Some people are naturally slower in reaction time and less physically agile; if controlling their own body is difficult for them, how much harder would it be to connect via sensors and pilot a massive mech tens or even hundreds of meters tall?
This creates a general rule: It is extremely difficult for a soldier to achieve 100% resonance—what is known as “perfect resonance”—with a mech that matches their physical strength or mental level.
Typically, most S-class alpha soldiers piloting S-class mechas achieve only 70–80% resonance. To exceed 80%, they must undergo long-term high-intensity training.
This limitation becomes even more pronounced as the level of the mech increases.
For SSS-class mechas, achieving even 60% resonance is considered remarkable—let alone 100% perfect resonance. On the battlefield, if alpha soldiers cannot achieve at least 85% resonance with a same-level mecha, they often opt to pilot a lower-level one instead.
Yet there are always exceptional individuals in this world who can accomplish what others cannot.
Take, for example, the legendary Duke Manyuin Hurst—the first person in history to achieve perfect resonance with an SSS-class mech.
But legends are destined to be rare.
Looking at the entire Royal Guard, only Gui Yan among the nine guards could activate a 3S-class mecha, and even then, his resonance level barely crossed the threshold. The other guards had single-digit resonance levels with 3S-class mechas, not even enough to meet activation requirements.
This is why Gui Yan, despite his straightforward and somewhat dense personality, consistently ranked third in overall practical combat performance—he was gifted by the heavens. His mastery of heavy mechas was exceptional, and as a top-tier tank, he would never fall unless killed in battle.
It’s similar to how Yu Chen, despite his lack of refinement, became the First Guard: Yu Chen was unbeatable in combat, while Gui Yan was unbeatable in endurance.
“…Thanks,” Gui Yan accepted his colleagues’ praise somewhat bashfully but quickly grew anxious. “But it’s not me piloting the SSS-class mech right now! It’s the Third Highness.”
Judging by his pheromone pressure alone, Yun Xunlan was undoubtedly an SSS-level alpha.
Activating an SSS-class mech wouldn’t be an issue for him.
The question was: how high would his resonance level with the SSS-class mech be?
The physical demands of piloting a 3S-class mech are incredibly high. To be honest, no matter how much Fu Yanxi, Gui Yan, or the other guards admired Yun Xunlan through rose-tinted glasses, they couldn’t lie to themselves and claim that “the Third Highness will definitely achieve perfect resonance with a 3S-class mech.”
After all, Yun Xunlan’s tall and slender figure—using a phrase from their training camp—was “completely unmarked by training.”
—At least that’s how it looked without taking off his clothes.
Moreover, they’d never seen “training” listed as an item on Yun Xunlan’s daily schedule.
No matter how naturally gifted a top-tier alpha is in terms of physical strength, they still need relentless daily training to match their potential.
Kos Telo assumed that Yun Xunlan—barely out of adolescence and still wet behind the ears as a pampered royal prince—couldn’t possibly achieve a high resonance level with a 3S-class mech. That’s why he had the audacity to say something as arrogant as “If you find it too difficult, I can assist you.”
Yun Xunlan simply lowered his head and smiled faintly. His tone was slow and deliberate as he repeated Kos Telo’s resonance level: “72%… Captain Kos Telo, I think I understand how you became a major general.”
“I also deeply appreciate your kind offer.”
The silver-haired youth half-lowered his lashes and moved his fingers to his collar. He pinched the zipper and pulled it down, revealing the silver-gray Galactic Empire mech Pilot combat suit beneath his formal attire.
The suit fit snugly against his well-proportioned frame, outlining a slender curve at his waist and a graceful line at his hips. Yet no one dared to look at him with disrespectful eyes.
All present could only gaze silently at him as if worshipping a silver moon hanging high above.
Yun Xunlan lifted his golden eyes. Like a deity pitying ignorant ants, he curved his lips slightly and said: “But my Jian Xingchen is not something just anyone is worthy of touching.”
With that, the youth donned the gloves and oxygen mask handed to him by an attendant and turned toward the shadowy black mech that loomed like the night itself.
As he ascended the steps, the guiding lights beneath each step extinguished one by one like fading stars. His figure disappeared entirely into the cockpit as the black mech enveloped him completely—like divinity descending upon a miracle.
It was just like the name he had given his mecha—
When all stars fall, it marks the breaking of dawn.
The glowing blue light from the mecha’s core was like the radiant dawn brought by a giant star.
“20 percent…”
“80 percent…”
“100 percent…!”
The engineer accompanying the Corona Empire’s transport ship, tasked with assisting the Galactic Empire in inspecting the mecha, stared wide-eyed at the control panel in his hands. He watched as Yun Xunlan entered the cockpit, donned his helmet, and activated the mech within a second. In the next moment, Yun Xunlan effortlessly surpassed Captain Kos Telo’s 72% resonance level. By the third second, the resonance level locked in at a perfect three-digit value. The engineer was stunned and exclaimed: “…Perfect resonance!”
—Yun Xunlan was now officially the 15th alpha in galactic history to achieve perfect resonance with an SSS-class mech.
Among the heroes and martyrs who preceded him, he was neither the first nor the only one—but he was undeniably the youngest.
At just eighteen years old, his future potential was limitless.
“Perfect resonance…” Gui Yan’s jaw dropped so far it wouldn’t close. He turned to Fu Yanxi in bewilderment and asked, “Are we even qualified to serve as guards for His Highness?”
“Of course we are. We don’t pretend to be something we’re not; His Highness knows exactly what our capabilities are, yet he still chose us,” Fu Yanxi said pointedly, glancing at Kos Telo with a mocking undertone. “Unlike someone else here—so thick-skinned you’d think it’s swollen from being slapped.”
Kos Telo’s face indeed looked swollen from Yun Xunlan’s figurative slap—fluctuating between red and green hues like a chameleon’s scales.
Even Jian Wenxi, who usually avoided interacting with people, couldn’t help but stare at him with amusement.
Given that Jian Corporation’s business ventures spanned countless industries—including a galaxy-wide presence in healthcare—and that Jian Wenxi had more money than he could ever spend, he decided to use a little of it for charity. Feigning concern, he asked Kos Telo: “Captain Kos Telo, are you feeling unwell? Your complexion keeps changing. Perhaps when you return home, you should visit one of Jian Corporation’s hospitals? Be sure to mention my name—you’ll get an 80% discount on medical fees.”
“I’ve seen someone with similar symptoms before,” Yu Chen added coldly, glaring at Kos Telo. “The doctor dug out a dog hole for him to crawl into, and his illness was cured. But surely Captain Kos Telo doesn’t have this kind of illness? An alpha capable of achieving 72% resonance with a 3S-class mech couldn’t possibly have such a condition.”
“Exactly! 72% resonance—so impressive!” Fu Yanxi clapped enthusiastically right after Yu Chen. “Amazing! I’m so jealous!”
“Indeed, Captain Kos Telo,” Lu You chimed in for the first time with an unprecedented smile and an unusually talkative tone. He echoed Fu Yanxi: “In our guard team, Major Gui Yan—who has the most talent for piloting heavy mechas—can only achieve 20% resonance with a 3S-class mecha, just enough to activate it. You reached 72% resonance—could you teach us your techniques? Maybe we could activate a 3S-class mech too.”
Ni Chun cradled Yun Xunlan’s coat in his arms and waited until all the guards had taken turns “praising” Kos Telo before frowning and admonishing them: “You’re all so disrespectful! Captain Kos Telo isn’t feeling well, yet you keep pestering him like this. Hurry up and apologize to our great mech pilot who can achieve 72% resonance with a 3S-class mecha!”
The guards immediately stood at attention, puffed out their chests, and collectively saluted Kos Telo as an apology—making him tremble with rage to the point where it seemed he might faint from lack of air.
“You all…” He raised his hand to point at the guards.
Seeing this, Ni Chun turned to the rest of the Corona Empire fleet and instructed: “Quickly escort Captain Kos Telo to the lounge.”
Vice-Captain Lydon was also worried that Kos Telo might say something inappropriate that would escalate tensions further. He shot a meaningful look at Kos Telo’s adjutant, signaling him to intervene immediately.
“Ha, like master, like dog!” Kos Telo shook off his adjutant’s arm and swept his sinister brown eyes over Ni Chun, Jian Wenxi, and the guards. However, under Lydon’s repeated persuasion, he eventually left.
Gui Yan exclaimed: “Does this mean that when I reach 3S level, I might also achieve perfect resonance with a 3S-class mech like the Third Highness?”
“How does the Corona Empire let someone like him become a captain?” Song Tingxiao rolled his eyes and complained to his brother, “Lydon is miles ahead of him.”
“Because he’s an alpha,” Song Tingyan explained. “That’s just how it works in the Corona Empire—there’s no way around it.”
Zhu Shuiqin shared her observation: “I feel like Captain Lydon is probably the real leader of their fleet.”
“That’s obvious,” Ji Bai agreed. “Too bad he was born in the Corona Empire.”
If he had been born in the Nebula Federation or the Galactic Empire, he would undoubtedly have been a captain himself.
“Enough about him—what a buzzkill! Let’s focus on His Highness,” Fu Yanxi urged everyone to pay more attention to Yun Xunlan.
“The space here is too small,” Lou Di lamented regretfully. “His Highness can only check whether the mecha’s systems can activate smoothly; he can’t conduct any combat drills.”
Gui Yan said eagerly: “I really want to see His Highness perform a combat drill with the 3S-class mecha!”
“You will,” Ni Chun assured them. “His Highness has plans for it; the timing just hasn’t been decided yet.”
Everyone silently hoped that day would come soon.
Three hours later, Yun Xunlan finished inspecting the mech and had just stepped out of the cockpit when Jian Wenxi approached him and whispered softly: “Yun Xunlan, I’ve realized something—Yu Chen’s mouth is truly extraordinary.”
Yun Xunlan froze for a second and instinctively asked: “Did he curse someone?”
