Chapter 137: Holy—They’re Cheating!: A Three-Zerg Game, Male Zerg Piloting Mode

An Ruo gave Ulysses another session of Psychic Soothing before they started gaming.

With the foundation laid during the previous session, this one went much more smoothly. The tense atmosphere from before was gone.

The only problem was...

The Marshal seemed to be planning to settle down on his bed.

"Does it feel good?"

An Ruo gave him a few extra strokes of Psychic Soothing, quietly brushing a hand through his hair while he was at it.

His mental state had already reached the maximum score. Continuing any further was technically meaningless.

But a male Zerg's psychic power passing through a female Zerg's Psychic Domain was, by itself, an intensely pleasant experience.

"...Mm."

Ulysses replied in a low voice with his eyes half-closed.

The satisfied little tail in his voice sounded incredibly attractive.

He looked as though he'd never truly relaxed like this before.

Like a huge feline sprawled lazily across a sunlit grassland.

A lion?

A black panther?

The kind that could smash a starship in half with one swipe.

An Ruo quietly ran his fingers through Ulysses' ebony-black hair.

Then, inside Ulysses' mental landscape, he secretly created another candy planet.

"Want to sleep a little longer?"

Ulysses had been on the verge of falling asleep. Hearing that, he shook his head, propped himself up, and sat up.

"No. I've already slept long enough today."

But...

It was still daytime.

An Ruo couldn't help wondering.

Surely he wasn't referring to that nap that hadn't even lasted fifteen minutes?

Then...

Did he even sleep at night?

Judging from Ulysses' appearance...

An Ruo seriously doubted it.

Now he finally understood why someone from a species that already required very little sleep had actually fallen asleep here.

Because...

Ulysses normally didn't sleep at all.

He worked himself like a machine.

An Ruo wanted very badly to push him back onto the bed.

Unfortunately, Ulysses had already gotten up. His eyes were perfectly clear.

"I'm very sorry, but I may need to change my clothes first. Please allow me to accompany you for the game afterward."

Ulysses inclined his head slightly before taking his leave.

Change clothes?

An Ruo froze for a moment.

Only then did he realize Ulysses smelled wonderful.

His pheromones.

Female Zergs always carried a faint trace of pheromones after receiving Psychic Soothing. That was completely normal.

An Ruo had seen it countless times.

But...

This wasn't a treatment room.

It was his bedroom.

A far more private space.

And...

He liked the scent.

His face instantly grew warm.

He hurriedly waved a hand to hide his embarrassment.

"Go ahead. There's no rush on my side. We can play whenever."

"Very well."

Just as Ulysses was about to leave, he seemed to remember something. Looking at the bedding, he asked,

"Shall I replace all of this as well?"

The moment An Ruo heard that, he lunged onto the bed protectively and hugged it.

"N-No! I'll do it myself!"

He couldn't lose another bed!

If the Marshal visited once and he lost one bed every time...

There was no way he could explain that.

Seeing how determined he was, Ulysses said nothing more and quietly departed.

...

After he left, An Ruo stared stiffly at the bed, now carrying that tranquil, cool fragrance.

How exactly was he supposed to deal with this?

First things first...

Take the sheets off.

Blushing furiously, An Ruo stripped off the bedsheets and duvet cover.

The bedding still carried that pleasant scent.

There weren't any unusual marks.

An Ruo mourned his previous bed for exactly one second.

He still felt it hadn't deserved to die.

Carrying the removed sheets and duvet cover into the bathroom, he tossed them into the washer-dryer.

The capable little machine bug had already replaced all the bedding on its own.

Everything.

Even the pillow hadn't been spared.

An Ruo noticed the scent had faded considerably.

He lingered beside the bed for a while before giving up on thinking about it.

After all...

He couldn't exactly tell the machine bug,

"I really like this smell. Could you leave a little of it behind instead of replacing everything so thoroughly?"

Pheromones were something deeply private.

They weren't like perfume that could be casually shared or preserved.

...

Ulysses returned quickly.

This time, he brought a brand-new holographic pod with him.

After asking An Ruo what game they would be playing, he logged in ahead of time to prepare.

Ulysses had never played this type of game before.

Naturally, his freshly created account couldn't be matched with An Ruo's rank.

Fortunately...

The Zergs had their own ranking system.

Ulysses found a player whose score matched An Ruo's and sent a challenge request.

After several rejections...

The other player angrily accepted.

And then...

There was no "then."

It was an utterly one-sided battle.

Even though Ulysses was piloting nothing more than a beginner's starter mech...

While his opponent was using one of the newest top-ranked models...

The battle ended in less than a single exchange.

Three seconds.

The opponent never even had the chance to attack.

Ulysses glanced at the final completion time.

This was probably the worst result he'd ever achieved.

The mech's specifications were simply too terrible.

It was practically an antique from several centuries ago.

Then again...

Even the most advanced mech available in the game couldn't catch his eye.

None of them could compare to his personal machine.

They were all merely usable.

Thinking of that...

He had no desire whatsoever to change mechs.

After winning the challenge, Ulysses directly inherited the other player's score and ranking.

Now he and the male Zerg had identical ratings.

They could queue together.

He added the male Zerg as a friend and formed a party.

"Wait."

An Ruo suddenly paused.

"I'm going to invite one more pers—"

He coughed.

"—One more Zerg!"

Ulysses: "?"

One more... what?

Instantly, he became alert.

"I-Is that alright?"

Remembering he ought to ask his teammate's opinion first, An Ruo explained,

"He's my friend too. He's really good. He used to carry me all the time."

Really good.

In front of him...

Someone was being described as really good?

Ulysses narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Of course."

An Ruo invited Little Iso, who happened to be online during his holiday.

"Whoa! Little Gibberish—"

He coughed.

"—An! You finally asked me to play... Huh? Who's this?"

The moment Isidore joined, he enthusiastically switched on voice chat.

Only afterward did he realize there was another Zerg in the party.

"H-He is..."

An Ruo had no idea how to introduce him.

Should he just say...

The Marshal?

That would scare the poor kid to death.

"I'm An's friend."

Ulysses answered first.

"Ohhh."

Since everyone was already inside their mechs and nobody had enabled video, Isidore couldn't see what he looked like.

The voice simply sounded strangely familiar.

An adult female Zerg.

Male Zergs were always surrounded by female Zergs.

A tiny hint of discomfort surfaced inside Isidore.

Still...

He quickly accepted the situation.

Playing with three people...

Really was a bit too much pressure.

Inside his cockpit, An Ruo quietly wiped away cold sweat.

His social skills clearly weren't good enough to keep both sides engaged in conversation.

He was terrified of awkward silences.

So every now and then, he forced himself to chatter about random little things.

"If nobody has any objections...

"I'll start matchmaking now.

"Haha...

"We're definitely going to win this time."

Staring at the countdown, An Ruo had never before felt time pass so slowly.

Only after the match officially loaded did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Isidore's mech shot forward first.

Over the team channel, he instructed An Ruo,

"Just stay behind me.

"I'll clear out a safe zone.

"As long as I'm here, no enemy mech will be able to touch you."

Now that was what having someone carry you felt like.

Completely reassuring.

An Ruo happily followed behind him, collecting battlefield resources and scavenging whatever he could find.

He loved picking up junk.

Watching his inventory gradually fill up gave him an incredible sense of accomplishment.

Knowing the Marshal was new and unfamiliar with the game, An Ruo even patiently taught him how to identify the various battlefield resources.

Halfway through the explanation...

An Ruo suddenly realized something was terribly wrong.

This was the Marshal of the Federation.

A God of War who had fought his way through real battlefields.

And he was teaching him how to identify battlefield supplies?

Even then...

The Marshal never exposed his embarrassment.

He quietly followed beside him, accompanying him while he happily scavenged junk.

An Ruo froze.

He had never felt this embarrassed in his entire life.

He could practically dig out an underground fortress with his toes.

Watching An Ruo's mech movements, Ulysses suddenly asked,

"Have you always been using Female Zerg Piloting Mode?"

"...Huh?"

An Ruo blinked.

"There are separate male and female modes?"

Ulysses explained,

"Since you possess psychic linkage, you can switch modes. The option is at the very bottom of the basic control panel."

The moment he said that, Isidore suddenly remembered too.

"Oh, right!

"You're a male Zerg."

He'd always treated An Ruo like a little female hatchling.

From the very beginning, he'd assumed An Ruo was simply physically uncoordinated.

Over time...

He'd completely gotten used to it.

Only now did he realize...

They'd been using the wrong piloting mode from the start.

Female Zergs possessed much faster physical reaction speeds.

Their bodies often reacted before their minds did.

Even in virtual games, they naturally preferred manual controls.

Male Zergs were the complete opposite.

Physical reactions had never been their strength.

Psychic power was.

The mechs built for male Zergs in reality all came equipped with psychic linkage.

In a virtual game...

Switching was as easy as pressing a single button.

After playing for several months...

An Ruo finally discovered he'd been playing the game the wrong way.

Following Ulysses' instructions, he found the psychic linkage option and switched it on.

Something gently guided him as his psychic power spread outward...

Connecting with the mech.

Instantly...

The machine felt like an extension of his own body.

He could control it effortlessly.

Even more naturally than his own hands and feet.

An Ruo had just discovered an entirely new world.

Delighted, he ran, jumped, and experimented nonstop.

He had never realized a mech could perform so many movements.

Or move with such freedom.

It felt as though...

Anywhere his thoughts could reach...

His mech could reach as well.

Still...

Something was missing.

The mech's performance wasn't good enough.

It couldn't quite keep up with his consciousness.

Suddenly, An Ruo sensed something.

Turning toward one direction, he said,

"An enemy mech is approaching."

He knew where every mech on the battlefield was.

He could clearly perceive the terrain.

The resources.

Everything.

The range of his perception even exceeded the mech's own detection systems.

It felt...

As though he had unlocked a god's-eye view.

Isidore was still wondering where this supposed enemy mech even was.

Ulysses calmly said,

"You could try attacking it with a long-range weapon."

"I won't hit it..."

An Ruo replied instinctively.

His aim was terrible.

Whether long-range attacks landed or not was entirely up to fate.

It depended more on whether the enemy happened to walk into them.

But...

After saying that...

He suddenly thought...

Maybe...

In this state...

It was worth trying.

He equipped a long-range weapon.

He aimed toward the enemy mech for quite a while.

In the end...

He gave up relying on luck.

Instead, he locked onto the target with his psychic power...

And pressed Fire.

A brilliant beam streaked across the night sky.

Boom!

A dazzling explosion bloomed.

"Holy—!

"They're cheating!"

A certain female Zerg who had just been forcibly ejected after being "killed" stared blankly at the battlefield.

All that remained of his mech...

Was wreckage.