QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

24 hours later, the limp body on the bed slowly showed signs of consciousness. After tossing and turning for a while, Yang Xue finally opened his eyes. His initial reaction was to lift a hand and press it to the side of his head. He had a really strong headache and he was feeling quite feverish.

The moment he closed his eyes to relieve a little bit of the pain, memories of the past months came crashing down. The very next second, Yang Xue opened his eyes in shock and let out a soft gasp.

The last thing he remembered was plunging a metal through his head to kill himself. And then... and then he'd appeared in a strange place and then two unfamiliar misters had offered to help him in exchange for some of his soul energy!

His eyes went straight to his legs and a soft whimper left his throat. The space beneath his right knee wasn't empty. Right there was a prosthetic limb. His prosthetic limb. He slowly rose from the bed and walked around the room.

After a couple of steps, Yang Xue returned to the bed breathlessly. He still had the headache and a little fever so the movement was not helping but... He trembled... He clearly remembered how he'd spent the last of his days.

Disabled, sad and hopeless.

As he dwelled on the memories in his head, he received one shock after another. From what happened to his family to General Ding to getting his own Division and finally, to Jin Qi. After sorting through everything, his eyes finally landed on his bracelet. Beads of tears rolled down his cheeks and a bittersweet smile formed on his lips.

The date...

This was the exact day Ding Weimin's and Jin Qi's wedding date had been announced in his past life. This was the very day he'd killed himself.

Ha. He chuckled through his tears.

His mind flashed to the two misters he'd met and a gentle smile formed on his lips. They had really done what they had promised... and more. How nice.

KNOCK!

KNOCK!

"Sergeant Major Yang?"

Yang Xue froze at the adress before looking to the door of his tiny quarters, "En?" His voice was a little hoarse so he cleared his throat and tried again. "Yes?"

The soldier on the other end continued, "You haven't clocked in at your office for the past 24 hours, Sir. The first batch of mandron recruits s have arrived on Crest."

Yang Xue blinked. The trecruits were here. He felt a little nervous but also very excited when he answered, "Ten minutes."

"Yes, Sir." Came the reply before silence settled in the room once more.

Yang Xue excitedly stood up and moved to the adjoing bathroom to clean up.

Thirty minutes later, a properly dressed Yang Xue was standing on the training field with his hands clasped behind his back. Opposite him were the recruits.. five mandrons to be exact. In the entire Twelve-army Coalition, just five mandrons had applied. It was pitifully small but....

Yang Xue's eyes shone with unconcealed excitement. He'd been the only mandron when he first applied to the Third army so seeing five other mandrons who shared the same dream as him... He couldn't help but be excited.

"First bugle call, 4 am....." He directly began dishing out the rules and instructions. He was going to use the training pattern that he'd worked on himself during the years to get the best results.

Four days later, it was time for the allocation of merits. The hall was full of all the soldiers of the different Platoons that had descended on Aer for exploration. As soon as Yang Xue stepped into the hall all eyes turned to him.

After the Marshal Court Hearing and Trial, every single soldier had come to view the mandron in a different light. Those that felt he'd gotten his position due to his genes had shut up and those that felt that he didn't deserve his position because he was a mandron -and thereby weaker than other species- had also shut up.

There were still quite a few soldiers who still did not favour the mandron but who cared about them?

"Sergeant Major Yang!"

The call came from Second Lieutenant Bo. The soldier was seated in one of the spots closer to the podium and was currently waving at Yang Xue with a smile on his face.

Yang Xue offered a weak smile in return and was about to get a seat in one of the back rows when he noticed Second Lieutenant Bo patting the seat by his side and whisper shouting, 'I saved a seat for you.'

Some soldiers around eyed Second Lieutenant Bo in amusement whilst Yang Xue hesitated for a moment before walking over. He couldn't reject Second Lieutenant Bo's offer as the soldier was his superior and besides, he didn't see the need to. The seat close to the podium was much better than the seat at the back so why should he reject it?

Bo Yun watched as Sergeant Major Yang walked over with steady steps and he was a little taken aback. The mandron usually walked lightly, with a hint of nonchalance around him but today... Today he appeared much stricter. With a straight posture and a serious air around him.

He chuckled. He knew what it felt like to train recruits. If your bearing was a little weak those brats would take you for granted. He had no idea if it was the same for mandrons though.

As soon as Yang Xue sat down, Bo Yun turned to him and excitedly gave him a heavy pat on his shoulder. "Sergeant Major Yang?"

Yang Xue flexed his shoulder a bit with a slight frown. That slap had hurt. "Sir?"

"I think you'd do great with the mandron recruits." Bo Yun said with an encouraging smile

Meanwhile, Yang Xue nodded. "Me too. I compiled a multitude of different instances and from the current stats gotten from their preliminary examinations. Chances of success are around 75 to 85 percent."

Bo Yun's smile froze. He had just been trying to offer encouragement. He shook his head with an amused chuckle. Mandrons were known for not processing compliments well. His mind trailed to when Sergeant Major Yang had complimented him in return in front of Major General Serra's office.

So that wasn't a compliment but the mandron was saying his true thoughts? How nice.

The merit allocation ceremony began soon after and each soldier was given recognition for their efforts as for Yang Xue, Bo Yun and a few other soldiers, they all received a promotion of one rank in addition to the resources given.

After that day, things settled into a comfortable rhythym for Yang Xue. The Twelve-army Coalition usually received new recruits once a year but since the mandron Division was in it's initial stages, mandron recruits were accepted every month.

When the censored version of the recording was released, mandrons who had been interested in the army but too unsure of themselves, resolutely decided to apply and with each passing month, the number of applicants increased.

Yang Xue received other missions alongside training the mandron recruits and more soldiers came to appreciate his approaches during missions. This was why when the first batch of mandron recruits graduated six months later, the other Eleven armies sent in demands to have them incorporated into their armies.

All in all, Yang Xue's life had really picked up after the day he returned and he was thankful for the two misters in that strange room. Although by the fourth month after his return, all memories of the contract space and the misters he'd met had slowly wiped out from his brain.

Same with the memories of his past life.

-----------------------------

On the twelve month, Ding Weimin was finally released from detention.

"Min'er!" Xia Yueyu rushed forward to grab her son. He looked much paler and thinner than ever and the scars that he'd gotten from the magnetic energy attack was still visible on his face and arms but in all, he looked okay. Relief washed over her.

The detention centre would not offer the best treatment so of course her son would still have scars. Things would become much better after getting checked by the family doctors.

Ding Weimin looked around and noticed only his mother had come for him. He frowned slightly. He was aware that his grandfather had been released over seven months ago and as for his father...?? "Where's father and grandfather?"

Xia Yueyu's smile froze. The Ding family had received a heavy blow after the sentence of Ding Weimin and her father-in-law. A lot had been spent to pay up the fines and although the Ding family still had a sizable amount of assets left, it was nothing like before and had steadily dwindled.

In each month that oassed, the stocks of their company, -which was managed by her husband- hit repeatedly lower limits. At the moment, the Ding company stocks were sitting prettily at rock bottom.

When her father-in-law was released months ago, he'd tried to get together with his allies and arrange a path for Ding Weimin but he realized too late that he'd been played. The Ding family had lost all their influence so no one wanted to offer help. Angrily, the former Third Marshal had let go of everything and moved to one of the Ding family properties in a remote area to live out the rest of his life.

Ding Wang had gotten increasingly distant when he faced set backs upon setbacks in the Ding company and now all he did was drown himself in alcohol and blame her for rasing their son in a way that led him down the wrong path and bring doom to the entire family.

That had angered Xia Yueyu to no end. The Ding family was clearly the problem here. Afterall, she did not raise her father-in-law and he had gone to prison too. When she pointed that out that the problem was the Ding family's genes, Ding Wang had stopped talking to her altogether.

After receiving a quick rundown of events from his mother, Ding Wemin sighed. "It's alright. I'm back now."

Xia Yueyu smiled happily and then she remembered something as they walked over to her hover car. Her eyes widened. "Min'er. That Jin girl is a horrible person! She had immediately dumped you, claiming that she couldn't be with someone who had taken another person's merits but then she had gone ahead and tried to commit murder!"

Ding Weimin froze and blinked in shock. "What?"

Xia Yueyu was quick to tell him all about Jin Qi's matter. The woman was currently serving her sentence in a high security prison. What angered her the most was that the fact that the Jin family did not suffer as much as the Dings even when Jin Qi's crimes were clearly bigger!

This was because Jin Yusheng had been quick to sell off the Jin Conglomerate shares before the Marshal Court Hearing back then and had gotten himself shares in different big companies. Even if people had wanted to boycott him because of Jin Qi, how could they do it when there was nothing to boycott?

So the Jin family's finance did not suffer at all! If only Ding Wang was half as smart as that boy but no... All that husband of hers did was blame everybody else but himself!

Ding Weimin followed his mother into the hover car lost in thought. Jin Qi had tried to kill Yang Xue? He wanted to ask about the mandron but looking at his mother's agitated state, he didn't dare. He wondered how the mandron was doing now.

After Ding Weimin's return to the Ding home, his father barely paid him a glance and only told him that he would acknowledge him when he fixed the mess he'd created. As for his grandfather, the former Third Marshal had only sent him a message telling him this,

"Weimin. Forget the army. Get a career change or something. There's no place for you there anymore."

How could Ding Weimin stand this? The army was his life! So he'd gone ahead to reapply.

The day he received his posting, Ding Weimin was full of excitement. Until he realized that he'd been posted to one of the regular armies in a remote planet. Not the Twelve-army Coalition.

How could he stand this? He'd reapplied repeatedly but nothing changed and so he'd resigned himself to his fate.

On a fateful day, Yang Xue had received a mission to a remote Planet to investigate a major crime. He was coincidentally partnered up with Bo Yun and three other soldiers. These past months, he'd gotten along very well with First Lieutenant Bo Yun so he had accepted the mission without hesitation.

As soon as the Spaceship landed on the dock, First Lieutenant Bo Yun stretched out his arms and turned to Yang Xue. "Hey Yang Xue. This Planet might be remote but I heard it has a multitude of coloured hot springs everywhere. Hot springs in different colours! It's the only reason people still visit despite it's remote location."

Yang Xue side eyed his colleague with a confused expression. "What does that have to do with us?"

The other soldiers on the Spaceship watched as Bo Yun's expression froze and burst into laughter. This was a popular occurrence in the Third Army. Bo Yun excitedly pointing out the things that he thought were fun and Yang Xue being confused as to why those things were considered fun in the first place.

They all alighted the Spaceship soon after and walked towards the entrance of the dock. A few meters from the entrance, Yang Xue suddenly froze.

Bo Yun followed Yang Xue's line of sight and his eyes widened slightly. "Ge-" He paused. "Ding Weimin?"

Ding Weimin was not in a much better state as he stared at Yang Xue. He'd heard all about Yang Xue by now and had seen him tons of times in the news. After all, the mandron had gathered some notable achievements these past months and had quickly risen up to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

A major contribution to his fast rise was the efficiency of his mandron Division. More and more armies all over the Plexar Federation had seen the potential of mandrons through him and constantly sent in requests to take in mandrons from his Division.

Yang Xue himself had been involved in the execution of major missions and had been doing great overall.

Ding Weimin gulped shakily. He knew all this but seeing the mandron now.... He was too shocked to speak. Yang Xue looked even better than he remembered.

The mandron didn't appear as nonchalant as the last time they'd seen face to face but his bearing... He had the seasoned air of an experienced soldier though and through.

After a couple of seconds Yang Xue composed himself and resumed walking. He was a little surprised to see Ding Weimin here. It seemed he was part of the soldiers assigned to guard the Spaceship dock due to the unrest caused by the major crime.

Well good for him.

Before Yang Xue could walk past him, Ding Weimin quickly called out before he could stop himself, "Yang Xue."

Yang Xue didn't look back. For some reason, he felt a deep aversion to Ding Weimin from the very depths of his heart. Besides, that was the same man who had promised him the world only to crush his heart and discard him in the end.

Not to mention the fact that Ding Weimin had also stolen his merit and told him at the hospital to forget about it. Tsk. He did not like the man at all!

Bo Yun shook his head before following after Yang Xue. He had been one of the people who had idolized Ding Weimin but after finding out the man's true colours. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Ding Weimin watched with clenched fists as Yang Xue resolutely entered his hover car with the other soldiers and drove away. His eyes reddened and a self deprecating smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

When he didn't see Yang Xue, he'd been able to brainwash himself that he was okay but now... the full realization of his mistakes came crashing down. Why had he ever despised Yang Xue? Why had he ever been ashamed of the mandron? Why had he selfishly claimed Yang Xue's merits?

He'd made a lot of mistakes in his life but the one he now deeply regretted was destroying the heart of the cheery mandron boy who had once idolized him and fearlessly rushed into the room that had held a magnetic energy infected him without fearing death.

He would live the rest of his life with the mocking knowledge that he had messed up terribly.