There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 785

Chapter 785: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 66

While his twin was experiencing a scolding back in Lucre, Asa was in lockdown.

Well, a lockdown he imposed upon himself, to be exact. The project he started together with the girl he pursued, which was to increase the efficiency of a core component for the ship’s energy reactor, developed into something bigger. They had been working for almost four years on it and the deadline for the report was coming closer, so he shut himself inside the lab with the girl.

Not the kind of ’locked-together-in-a-room’ he wanted, but his childhood dream was still more important than his romantic pursuit.

Perhaps that was why Bassena felt even more saddened when Kar did not come home immediately; Asa had been cutting all communication for the past week.

He merely set his communication filter to emergency, ignoring everything else--including the juicy gossip that Lucy and Nari sent his way. He even heard about Kar from his research assistant. Not even from the news.

"Deputy Chief, isn’t your twin out of the Deathzone already? You don’t want to go and see him?"

"He’s alive, isn’t he?" Asa shrugged. "Then that’s enough."

If something bad happened, his emergency warning would already triggered anyway. As Kar’s guide and twin, his other half, Asa would always instinctively know if Kar was in a perilous situation.

The chief of the project, the girl Asa had been pursuing, shook her head. "I don’t know if you trust him or just cold."

"What do you think?" Asa smirked, but immediately corrected himself when the girl narrowed her eyes. "Just kidding--the Saintess told my father last month that he was alright."

"Whoa...sometimes I forgot you know those great people," the assistants clapped their hands quietly. The amazement was real, though.

"My parents know them, not me," Asa shrugged. "For me, the people in this building are more important."

The assistants clutched their chests, looking at Asa with sparkling eyes. "Deputy Chief..."

"That only if you can arrange this sequence without any error," Asa continued with a smirk.

"Oh, come on!"

Asa laughed and merely ushered the research assistants to return to their task, drowning in more calculations. The Chief, however, glanced at Asa curiously. She knew very well how worried he was during the past years since he couldn’t communicate with his twin.

So what is this behavior, now?

"Still, he’s your twin," she muttered beside him. "Are you not going to see him even once?"

"Hmm..." Asa glanced at her, leaning down to whisper with a smile on his face. "Are you worried about me, Chief?"

The answer he received was nothing but glare. Asa laughed, but he had already told her why; he already received confirmation that Kar was alright and there was no emergency call. He trusted his instinct, and he trusted his twin. Besides...

"He’ll prefer spending time with his boyfriend anyway," Asa scoffed. Rather than worry, maybe he was actually feeling a bit jealous. "There’ll be plenty of time to see him after we’re done with this."

"Hmm...sacrificing everything for science," she nodded in approval. "I can see you’ve become a true researcher."

"Is that a compliment?" Asa arched his brow.

The girl pressed her lips and turned her face away while grumbling. "Think what you want."

Asa laughed from the nice, added boost of mood that would help him go through this hellish deadline. While he had finally crossed the wall and successfully got on a few dates--that felt like a real date instead of just a meal with a colleague--they hadn’t done anything more with how focused they were on this project.

So, he would take whatever he could.

But, well...it wasn’t like he was hopeless. That reddish hue on the tip of her ears was enough proof.

As always, however, Asa had no leeway to lose himself in happiness. It had been fourteen years since the spaceship program was first established, and the investors wanted a real result soon. Not just the fuselage or the engine, but the whole spaceship in its entirety, ready to be launched for a test flight.

They were planning for it during the tenth year, but the large energy consumption hindered the launch; because the ship would burn the fuel before it even breached the atmosphere.

How could they reach the star if they couldn’t even leave the Earth?

That was why, for the past four years, all research had been focused on solving this problem. From increasing the engine performance to perfecting the regulator system, and what their team had been doing: decreasing the energy usage.

"Alright; I’m done inputting the sequence," Han Shin took a deep breath. "Let’s see if we get it right this time."

They had been successful in the simulation, but things could be different in the real test. Hiding behind the tall deputy chief, the assistants clasped their hands in prayer and chanted repeatedly.

"Come on come on come on..."

Asa also felt anxious, but the chief also held his arm tightly, staring at the core engine on the other side of the glass window nervously. Oh...not bad. With a soft chuckle, he pressed the button that would turn the engine system normally--without their developed sequence.

"Activate booster sequence," Asa spoke to the recording and pressed another button.

The core engine let out a soft whirring that sounded different from before, and the researchers stared at the fuel usage gauge on the screen. Before using the sequence, the gauge needle always pointed at the red area; they had managed to lower it to yellow before, but it wouldn’t be enough for long exploration.

Holding their breath, they didn’t even dare to blink as they stared at the gauge needle moving from red to yellow and then, finally, touching the middle of the green area.

Even then, they waited for a few more seconds, and only after the needle stayed there without moving over again did Asa smack the table in front of him.

"Yes!"

"Aaah! We did it! We did it!"

Papers were thrown in the air, and the room was filled with clapping sounds. They jumped and hugged anyone near them--even the chief loosened up for a second and hugged the man beside her.

Of course, she quickly let go after realizing who it was and cleared her throat in embarrassment.

Oblivious to their deputy and chief’s slightly reddened cheeks, the poor sleep-deprived assistants ran around the room like kids in amusement parks. "Whooo! We can finally go hooome!"

Asa laughed and waved his hand. "Go home, then."

"Eeh--just like that, Sir? What about the after-party?"

Asa scoffed and rolled his eyes. "What after party? We should show this to the other departments first."

"Aww..."

"But you can eat and drink all you want for now," he fished out his card and threw it to the excited puppies.

"Woohoo!"

"Do it moderately," the Chief warned them. "You need to look fresh for the executive test."