Chapter 22: The Teachers Are Shipping, Too

Perhaps because he had experienced Zoe Pierce’s soothing ability, Miles Sherman noticed that Erin Xavier had calmed down a lot.

He was no longer clamoring with accusations, questioning whether Nathan Lockwood and Zoe Pierce were hiding something from them. He had genuinely settled down.

’This is good, too.’ Miles Sherman thought back to what Nathan Lockwood had just told him and began to consider it seriously.

Nathan Lockwood wanted to officially bring Zoe Pierce into their squad as their exclusive Omega. She would no longer be matched with other groups, and she would stick with them for all future practical exercises and beyond.

The weight of Nathan Lockwood’s words was heavy.

They all understood the weight of the future. As S-Class Alphas from good families, their paths through the military academy and their careers had long been laid out for them.

Every single one of them was marching in lockstep along their designated path, and he was no exception.

From the moment their squad was formed, it represented an alliance of interests, meaning they would support one another on their future paths and serve as each other’s strongest backup.

But now, Nathan Lockwood was trying to tear open a space just for Zoe Pierce, wanting to keep her with them.

Miles Sherman didn’t agree right away.

After all, it was too soon. Even if Zoe Pierce’s abilities were strong, they knew far too little about her personality.

He needed to observe her more to determine if she was worthy.

Not even with Nathan Lockwood’s endorsement.

Nathan Lockwood also knew Miles Sherman’s calm and serious personality. He was the type of person who never agreed to anything lightly, but once he did, he would absolutely see it through.

So, he tacitly agreed to this observation period. The result of their negotiation was that Zoe Pierce would be brought along with them.

She needed more contact with them, and that wouldn’t happen if they were still split into two squads.

Before, they had left her behind to avoid trouble, but now that Nathan Lockwood had spoken up, Miles Sherman couldn’t possibly leave her to stand guard again.

Could four S-Class Alphas not protect a single Omega?

That would be a sick joke.

The five-person squad headed toward the forest. After entering the second phase and advancing a certain distance, their Intelligent Brains would sound an alarm upon encountering other squads.

It wasn’t a specific piece of information, but a large, circular area of detection that allowed the Alphas to prepare in advance.

Zoe Pierce, walking in the middle, noticed Nathan Lockwood’s spiritual power spreading out again, as if he were scanning for something.

She didn’t understand why, but seeing Erin Xavier and the others just ahead, she didn’t dare to openly probe with her own power.

Once Nathan Lockwood was sure nothing had been missed, he fell into step beside Zoe Pierce.

Around the campsite, in a spot Zoe Pierce hadn’t noticed, a bee-sized mechanical eye was buried deep in the dirt.

「In the monitoring room.」

The teachers watching over the hundreds of display screens noticed, not surprisingly, that dozens of monitors were dark.

"These brats, breaking the mechanical eyes again." A tall male teacher stared at the blackened screen, completely unfazed. To monitor the students’ data, there were, of course, other devices besides their Intelligent Brains.

The mechanical eye was one such device. Bee-sized and extremely inconspicuous.

Each squad was followed by two or three of them.

These purely mechanical bees were small and didn’t get too close, so they usually went undetected.

Only some of the more sensitive Alphas could perceive them. Those who didn’t want to be monitored would directly destroy the mechanical eyes with their spiritual power, while others didn’t care and let them watch all they wanted.

Of course, there was another scenario: the mechanical eye would malfunction on its own, unable to withstand the oppressive interference of too much spiritual power.

"Who was the first one to break it?" a teacher drinking tea nearby asked with a smile. There was a batch of students like this every year, so they weren’t too surprised.

The dispatcher checking the surveillance logs compared the times. "It was Nathan Lockwood. He destroyed that mechanical eye right after getting out of the vehicle."

He then checked the surveillance for the other squad members. "The other devices following them also broke last night, unable to withstand the pressure from their spiritual power."

The last mechanical eye to be destroyed revealed one final image.

The teacher who had been drinking tea suddenly choked and started coughing.

"*Cough, cough...*"

The other teachers present fell silent as they watched. No one thought the coughing teacher’s reaction was out of place.

They never expected that the surveillance from a mechanical eye near Nathan Lockwood’s team would show Chase Shaw hugging an Omega in his sleep, while Nathan himself was reaching a hand toward her.

"Uh... this was the mechanical eye following Erin Xavier..." the dispatcher said hesitantly.

It was visible for just a moment before the mechanical eye, subjected to a level of spiritual power pressure it couldn’t handle, crashed to the ground.

After that, there was no more footage of Miles Sherman’s squad.

’So what’s the situation now?’

The teachers weren’t gossips by nature, but now they couldn’t help themselves.

After all, anyone who saw that scene would let their imagination run wild.

"What was that Omega’s name again?" Naturally, there was a teacher who didn’t recognize Zoe Pierce.

A teacher who did know her quickly replied, "That’s Zoe Pierce. She was matched with Miles Sherman’s squad this time."

"Isn’t she the one whose Comfort Level went from C to A?"

"Yes. Her soothing ability improved, which is why she could be matched with Miles Sherman’s squad." Otherwise, if the gap in their Spiritual Power Levels was too large, an Omega forcing a soothing would only harm themselves.

It was common knowledge that Miles Sherman’s squad was dissatisfied with the Omega matching system.

After all, there were plenty of anecdotes about their squad and Omegas.

The teachers knew even more than the students; they were even the ones who had to clean up some of the messes the Omegas had caused.

But they’d never seen a scene like this before.

Never. Chase Shaw was holding someone, Nathan Lockwood was leaning over to take the Omega’s hand, and the surveillance feed was from Erin Xavier’s perspective.

He had leaped down from a high place, and then the feed instantly disintegrated.

The scene was just too impactful.

It made everyone itch to know what happened next.

It felt like a scene from a drama where three men fight over one woman.

’Have I been watching too many melodramas lately to have such a vivid imagination?’ one of the teachers couldn’t help but wonder.

"Let’s wait and see. Divert a nearby mechanical eye over to them." One responsible teacher first checked the pheromone readings from their Intelligent Brains. The data was very stable. Only Chase Shaw’s pheromones showed a slight fluctuation, but it was still within a controllable range and hadn’t reached the level of a pheromonal outburst.

When he saw Zoe Pierce’s pheromone levels, he was taken aback.

The data was public. Zoe Pierce’s pheromones were completely flat, without the slightest change.

A stable 8.

Compared to the scene from earlier, she seemed practically frigid.

’Ah, this...’

The teacher who watched too many melodramas couldn’t help but think.

’Oh no, I’m hooked. How is this even more interesting now? What in the world is going on with these kids? How can they be so calm after something like that happened?’

"Looks like nothing’s wrong," the teachers concluded after observing the monitoring data for a while.

But in their hearts, none of them could forget that image. The boys were tall and handsome, the girl was beautiful and delicate. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like ’nothing’ was wrong at all.