WMSR — QT Chapter 158

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 158

By

siofra

Colin clearly maintained a pleasant relationship with that round-eyed omega. Upon seeing the other approach, a gentle smile surfaced on his features, though he shook his head in response to the inquiry.

Seeing Colin shake his head, Neal's eyes widened instantly, before a sudden realization sparked an exclamation: "No way! Are you planning to reject everyone again this year? You already did that last year—aren't you planning to choose properly this time?"

Neal's startled cry drew the curious glances of other omegas inside the lounge, immediately followed by a wave of hushed whispers.

Unbothered by the scrutinizing stares of the surrounding omegas, Colin replied calmly, "I don't have those plans yet."

"But... you only have three chances total! These three chances are reserved for an omega to fall back on if they fail to find a favored alpha, allowing them to defer their choice to the following year. If you pull the same stunt as last year—randomly picking a few candidates without even watching their videos, and then rejecting every single one of them after meeting face-to-face—you'll only have your final chance left next year! What will you do if you still don't see any alphas you like down the road? Are you really going to marry an alpha you despise?"

Neal clearly disapproved of his friend's reckless conduct, yet he also understood that while Colin appeared agreeable, once his mind was set, no one could persuade him otherwise. Unwilling to stand by and watch his friend stray down a misguided path, Neal hatched a plan: he stubbornly tagged along to Colin's residence that evening and spent hours chattering away while pulling him into endless conversations.

Colin cast a resigned glance at Neal's round, expressive eyes. The other's underlying motive—masking his matchmaking agenda beneath the guise of casual chatter to brief him on this season's participating alphas and repeatedly thrusting promotional videos before his face—was blindingly obvious. Yet, considering that Neal acted entirely out of pure goodwill, and that among omegas, a simple and uncontriving soul like Neal stood as his sole confidant, Colin patiently humored him for a while, though only he knew whether any of it actually registered.

In truth, Colin harbored zero interest in the empire's marriage matching. If anything, he maintained a latent aversion toward the entire institution—and not merely toward the matching process itself, as he frequently found himself reflecting critically upon his status and identity as an omega.

Were omegas' living conditions genuinely favorable? Was such an arrangement truly fair to them? Although the empire showered omegas with manifold privileges, the reality was that omegas forfeited far more in return. Compared to alphas and betas, omegas possessed the absolute fewest personal freedoms and enjoyed the least genuine rights belonging to true citizens. Beneath the empire's veneer of pampered privileges—which differed little from gilded captivity—he would infinitely have preferred to live as an ordinary, unprivileged beta. As he grew older, that suffocating sense of oppression only intensified. Regrettably, he observed little of that same stifling awareness among the omegas in his social circle; those peers had completely lost themselves in the superficial illusions bestowed by the empire. More absurdly still, those omegas treated one another as fierce rivals, perpetually locked in petty rivalries to outdo their peers—whether through the most dazzling attire, the latest luxury novelties, or visits to high-end resorts and elite tourist destinations. Whenever such trivialities crossed his mind, Colin found himself questioning whether he ought to grieve for his own existence as an omega, or weep for their demographic as a whole.

Having earnestly detailed numerous high-quality alphas participating in the current matching cycle, Neal realized his friend had been drifting off in deep abstraction the entire time, utterly deaf to his words. A wave of deflation washed over him, prompting him to abandon his efforts in sheer exasperation as he grumbled, "Fine, fine, have it your way! Tune me out if you want—me talking to you is a complete waste of breath."

Colin merely offered a faint, placid smile in response to Neal's dejected display.

Fortunately, Neal possessed an indefatigable constitution; his deflation vanished within seconds, fully restoring his vibrant energy. Having given up on preaching about elite alphas, his thoughts naturally drifted toward today's hottest gossip topic within the omega community—that uniquely baffling alpha who had drawn endless rounds of public ridicule.

Chapter 82: A02, Modified into a 0 (Continuation)

Guided by the principle of sharing viral gossip with his closest friend, Neal immediately pulled up another video clip. "Here, you probably haven't checked out this video yet today. I'm telling you, this guy is completely outrageous—submitting a video with such shocking perfunctoriness! I've never laid eyes on an alpha like him, especially when his resume actually looked quite decent on paper..."

Neal chattered away continuously, ruthlessly roasting the alpha who had already been lambasted ten thousand times over by the broader omega population, remaining entirely oblivious to the fact that his companion's gaze—previously locked onto the screen with casual indifference—had undergone a profound, arresting transformation.

In truth, the very instant the video initiated playback, Colin found himself instantly snared by that low, measured vocal timbre. The moment the visual materialized, his eyes became utterly glued to the screen, incapable of shifting his focus away from the alpha. To articulate the sensation through descriptive analogy, it felt precisely like being struck by a bolt of lightning.

In that singular heartbeat, he realized for the very first time that his heart was capable of accelerating to such a frantic rhythm, discovering concurrently that he could sit transfixed by an alpha to the point of holding his breath.

The brief five-minute video concluded swiftly, causing the man's projected image alongside his steady, monotonous vocal delivery—devoid of tonal inflection or background musical scoring—to vanish from view. At that exact instant, a sharp pang of lingering desolation gripped Colin's chest.

Colin swallowed hard, hearing his own voice emerge in a dry rasp: "Is this... also an alpha participating in the current matching cycle?"

"Yeah! You think he's outrageous too, right? Uploading such a sloppy, slapdash video without an ounce of genuine sincerity—I simply don't understand what goes through that alpha's mind. If he didn't want to participate in the matching program, why bother registering in the first place? If you enter, you ought to treat it with basic respect; this sort of behavior is utterly disrespectful, and absolutely no omega will ever choose him!" Neal continued rattling away without pause, completely failing to notice that his friend offered zero concurrence with his tirade.

Yet even though Colin inwardly rejected Neal's harsh assessment—and strongly yearned to offer a sharp rebuttal—he suppressed the impulse, driven by a sudden, innate instinct. It felt akin to a primordial self-preservation reflex: he instinctively wished to shield this alpha from attracting the roving attention of any other omega, even an innocent soul like Neal.

Feigning casual detachment, Colin promptly pivoted to an unrelated topic to distract Neal, lingering in light conversation until his friend bounced away to bid a cheerful farewell.

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