Chapter 166: Ulysses in the Dream: Why Would a Male... Spank Him There?

When An Ruo withdrew from the Psychic Domain, he had already prepared himself for Ulysses to say, "One more time."

This time, however, Ulysses said nothing of the sort.

The female Zerg wore an unreadable expression, seemingly lost in thought. There was a trace of emotion flickering in his silver eyes.

Seeing An Ruo looking at him, Ulysses raised his gaze to meet his and said softly,

"Thank you for your favor. How may I repay you?"

Repay...

For a moment, An Ruo misheard it as "hug back."

Then he realized it was "repay."

He knew the Zerg customs well enough by now. Whether it was sleeping with a Male Zerg or receiving Psychic Soothing from one, repayment was always expected.

The vulgar simply paid money.

The more refined offered priceless gifts.

In short, anything involving a Male Zerg required spending money.

Knowing Ulysses' personality, even if An Ruo insisted it had been free, he would never accept that. He would still insist on giving something in return.

An Ruo almost wanted to change the word "repay" into "hug back."

A hug would be so much easier.

Following the Zerg way of thinking, he said,

"There's no need. You've already paid me. The virtual game—you put so much effort into assembling the team and developing it for me. Everything you've done is more than enough as advance payment."

"Those were things I should have done."

Ulysses frowned slightly.

To him, accepting that as payment felt like taking advantage of the Male Zerg.

He had arrived too hastily and hadn't prepared a proper gift beforehand. Now he had cornered himself.

After a moment of thought, he asked,

"I could build an entire mechanical planet, recreate your virtual planet at a one-to-one scale, and just as Roy obtained a mechanical body, transfer every insect's data from the game into mechanical bodies so they can live there. I would present that planet to you as my gift. Would that be acceptable?"

It took An Ruo quite a while to understand what he meant.

Ulysses intended to move his game world into reality.

What kind of Zerg even came up with an idea this insane?

Recreating an entire planet...

An Ruo drew in a sharp breath just imagining it.

Compared to Ulysses, his own imagination was still far too limited.

He had also greatly underestimated the Zergs' technology and resources.

"No."

An Ruo refused.

"A game should remain a game. They're two completely different worlds with their own rules. There's no need to drag one into reality and forcibly merge them."

The consequences would be enormous.

It could even deal a catastrophic blow to the game's very foundation.

Roy coming into reality was fine.

He was only a single individual.

He couldn't create too great an impact.

The effects were limited to himself, and at most Morris.

The scope remained limited.

The consequences remained controllable.

But bringing out an entire planet...

That would spiral completely out of control.

It was like how An Ruo himself could transmigrate into the Zerg world.

But he couldn't bring Blue Star into the Zerg universe.

Not even a virtual Blue Star.

The reverse was equally impossible.

Hearing his refusal, Ulysses immediately understood.

"I understand. I'll prepare another gift instead."

As he spoke, countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

The Male Zerg had rejected the proposal.

Which also meant he disliked the idea of different worlds breaking through the barrier between dimensions and merging together.

As for the virtual Male Zerg Roy...

He was special.

He was the protagonist.

He held extraordinary meaning.

Ulysses had examined the records of the virtual planet.

When the Male Zerg first created that world, the very first insect he had sculpted was Roy.

If that world possessed legends of a god creating the universe...

Roy would be the archangel beneath God's throne.

Naturally, he alone received God's favor.

He fell in love with Morris, relying on overwhelming Psychic Power and the bond of their psychic mark to travel between the two worlds.

As for Ulysses...

Within his mental landscape, roses bloomed across the barren planet.

The candy planet revolved around the central star.

It was the unique satellite God had bestowed upon him.

Ulysses did not envy Roy.

He had his own anchor.

Though it wasn't as powerful as a psychic mark, it allowed him to sense and locate his God.

That was enough.

As for another gift...

Ulysses thought of the ocean planet from the Male Zerg's novel.

That ocean world, together with its underwater hotel suite, had already become one of the hottest dating destinations among Zerg couples.

Perhaps the Male Zerg was interested in those marine creatures.

Perhaps he would be willing to leave prison for a while and visit it.

Facing Ulysses' stubbornness, An Ruo repeated himself.

"No gifts. You've already given me enough."

"If you absolutely insist on repaying me..."

He slowly spread his arms toward Ulysses.

"...then give me a hug."

It was the posture of someone waiting to be embraced.

Ulysses froze.

Could that really count as a gift?

Shouldn't it be the Male Zerg giving him a gift instead?

He couldn't possibly refuse.

Standing up, Ulysses stepped forward and wrapped the Male Zerg in his arms, gently pulling him into his embrace.

This hug was actually beyond An Ruo's expectations.

He had thought Ulysses would do what he always did—remain seated and bury his face against An Ruo's chest.

Instead...

He was the one being held.

An Ruo was fairly tall, but Ulysses still stood a little taller.

It became especially obvious when they stood together.

Somewhere along the way, An Ruo had subconsciously included Ulysses within the range of people he felt responsible for protecting.

He had forgotten...

This was also the greatest weapon among the Zergs.

An SSS-class female Zerg.

The strongest war machine among a race already comparable to living weapons.

After a brief pause, An Ruo finally raised his arms and hugged him back.

...

Ulysses left.

He also took the sofa chair with him.

Even though there had been absolutely nothing on it!

An Ruo couldn't exactly ask him to leave the chair behind.

The great villain remained true to his looting habits.

The first time, he stole the bed.

The second time, An Ruo threw himself over it and successfully protected it.

The third time...

He failed to save the chair.

Although, to be fair, the chair had originally been prepared specifically for Ulysses.

The great villain had said that next time he'd bring his own chair.

Well...

That worked too.

This session of Psychic Soothing had taken much longer than An Ruo expected.

Night had already fallen.

After dinner and washing up, he sat at his desk intending to write a little more.

Instead, overwhelming drowsiness washed over him.

His eyelids kept drooping.

He forced himself to continue for a while, but only became sleepier and sleepier until the words in front of him began blurring together.

Unable to hold on any longer, he drifted over to the bed, collapsed onto it, and with his final bit of consciousness pulled the blanket over himself.

...

An Ruo returned to his original world.

His home on Blue Star.

It took him three full days before he finally accepted that he had truly returned from the Zerg world...

And could never go back.

After the daze passed, life still had to continue.

An Ruo sat before his computer, opened his document, and returned to his real profession.

Writing novels.

His previous novel had gone without updates for several days.

Only several days in this world.

But in An Ruo's memories, it felt like an unimaginably distant past.

He had forgotten more than half the plot progression and had no choice but to reread everything from earlier chapters.

Yet for some reason...

The contents of the document seemed hopelessly chaotic.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

His comprehension also seemed to have deteriorated.

No matter how he read it, he couldn't understand what he himself had written.

Every sentence felt painfully difficult to process.

Just as panic began setting in—

A chill suddenly ran down his back.

A freezing wind roared in from behind him, carrying the cold emptiness of deep space.

An Ruo turned around.

A spatial rift slowly opened.

Ulysses tore through space and stepped out.

Before An Ruo even had the chance to greet him happily...

He was frightened by the expression on Ulysses' face.

For the first time, he saw such terrifying seriousness.

Such icy madness.

At that moment...

He looked exactly like the great villain An Ruo had feared when they first met.

Instinct screamed that something was terribly wrong.

An Ruo turned to flee.

In the blink of an eye, the great villain teleported directly in front of him, forcibly lifted him from the chair, and dragged him over.

Just as he was about to crash into Ulysses' cold, handsome face—

An Ruo jolted awake.

His eyes snapped open.

He lay stiffly in the darkness, his gaze slowly moving around.

His heart pounded violently beneath his chest.

Only after seeing the glowing butterfly preserved flower on the bedside table did he finally confirm where he was.

He was still inside his prison room in the Military Region Prison.

Everything just now...

Had only been a dream.

An Ruo finally let out a long breath.

One hand pressed against his chest as he gradually calmed his racing heartbeat and relaxed.

There had been no return to Blue Star.

Nor had the great villain Ulysses chased after him.

Thank goodness.

It had only been a dream.

As the lingering palpitations gradually subsided and his body returned to normal, An Ruo replayed the dream in his mind.

Then he became annoyed.

What kind of attitude was Dream Ulysses supposed to be!?

He had been way too fierce!

He wanted to go back into the dream...

And get revenge.

Thinking that, An Ruo closed his eyes again, allowing sleep to pull him under once more, hoping to continue where the dream had ended.

...

Summer.

Night.

Wild grass.

The chorus of insects.

An Ruo discovered that he had returned to his childhood.

A full moon hung high in the sky like a silver disc, bathing the earth in pale light.

Even without lamps, everything was perfectly visible.

His younger self crouched on a narrow path beside the forest.

The nearby grass sparkled with countless tiny lights.

Fireflies drifted lazily through the air, blinking on and off like stars.

Such peaceful tranquility was incredibly rare.

The sky overflowed with stars.

The Milky Way stretched across it in perfect clarity.

The earth held stars as well.

Tiny fireflies shimmered everywhere.

An Ruo had originally come to catch fireflies.

But now...

He no longer wanted to.

He simply sat on the ground, gazing at the star-filled sky and the glowing insects, quietly enjoying this rare moment of beauty.

Then...

The sky split open.

Ulysses was here.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Stepping out through a spatial passage, Ulysses slowly descended to the ground, startling the fireflies hidden in the grass.

Countless tiny green lights rose into the air.

Perhaps because this was a dream...

An Ruo could somehow sense fragments of Ulysses' thoughts.

He had come here specifically to beat up the fireflies!

An Ruo: Huh?

Why would he beat up fireflies?

Ulysses first noticed him sitting on the ground.

His gaze paused.

There was obvious surprise in his eyes.

As though he had never expected him to be so tiny.

So young.

An Ruo remained seated, tilting his head at him.

Under his gaze, Ulysses quietly looked away and surveyed the surroundings.

Then he saw the glowing fireflies.

At first he looked confused.

His eyes followed the tiny lights drifting through the air.

Then realization suddenly struck him.

His expression froze in shock.

These...

Were fireflies?!

An Ruo almost felt as though he had heard his thoughts.

It amused him.

The enormous Zerg...

Had never seen such tiny insects.

Cupping both hands together, An Ruo caught one of the passing fireflies and held it out for Ulysses to see.

Ulysses stared silently at the tiny insect glowing from the tip of its abdomen inside An Ruo's palms.

"..."

An insect...

That wasn't trying to court anyone.

An Ruo turned his hands over with a gentle shake and released it back into the night.

Ulysses lowered his eyes toward him.

Then slowly crouched down until they were at eye level.

He quietly watched him.

The young God.

Once again An Ruo heard his thoughts.

Which only confused him.

What was he talking about?

God?

Who?

Where?

Young?

Was he referring to... him?

An Ruo looked back at Ulysses in bewilderment.

Under the starlit sky...

Bathed in silver moonlight...

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly.

He and Ulysses.

A summer night in a tiny mountain village.

Surrounded by countless fireflies.

It looked like a scene from a dream long forgotten.

Yet whenever he tried to remember...

Nothing came back.

When An Ruo awoke again, it was already morning.

Sunlight filtered through the curtains covering the floor-to-ceiling windows.

A light, soft blanket rested over him.

Everything felt wonderfully comfortable.

It had been a beautiful dream.

Even after waking, he felt strangely reluctant to let it go.

Then An Ruo suddenly remembered—

He had never managed to continue the first dream.

The Ulysses in that dream had bullied him!

He was still angry!

Going back to sleep now just to continue dreaming clearly wasn't realistic.

Picking up the Ulysses plush sitting beside him, An Ruo placed it on his lap.

Smack! Smack!

He gave its butt two firm spanks.

Only then did he feel slightly better.

Putting the plush back where it belonged, he got up to wash and prepare breakfast before beginning today's Psychic Soothing.

...

Meanwhile, at the Marshal's residence.

Ulysses had only just sat up in bed when his movements suddenly froze.

He looked downward in astonishment.

Why...

Had the Male...

Spanked him there?

A little roughness from a Male Zerg in bed could certainly count as flirting.

But...

It had never happened before.

More importantly...

Those two swats had very obviously carried the meaning of a reprimand.

Could it be...

That God had learned of those blasphemous thoughts?

Those two dreams.

Perhaps because he had received God's Psychic Soothing and his anchor...

Thinking about someone during the day led to dreaming of them at night.

Last night...

He had dreamed of God.

Twice.

Two dreams.

In the first dream...

Without any warning, God left this world behind.

Leaving him alone.

He searched everywhere.

Unable to find him.

Despair consumed him.

When all hope was gone, he followed the faint psychic connection, tearing open space in pursuit.

He searched for who knew how long.

Eventually...

He found him.

God looked genuinely surprised by his arrival.

He sat behind a desk writing his newest novel.

The wall before the desk was covered with protagonists.

Every single one was a brand-new, unfamiliar protagonist.

None of them were him.

Ulysses instantly appeared before him, lifted God straight out of the chair, and was just about to pin him against the desk and kiss him—

When the dream ended abruptly.

Perhaps...

Such irreverent blasphemy against God simply wasn't permitted to exist.

In the second dream...

He remembered the fireflies God had once {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} described.

Those shameless female insects flashing their lights toward God in reckless courtship.

Empowered by the dream itself, he tore open space and traveled into God's past.

He intended to teach those shameless females a lesson.

Instead...

He found the young God.

He had never imagined God would also possess a childhood form.

He was...

Exceptionally adorable.

He also saw the glowing insects God had mentioned.

Tiny creatures.

No bigger than grains of sand.

So these were fireflies?

For a moment, Ulysses genuinely didn't know what to do.

He certainly couldn't beat them up anymore.

That would simply be bullying the weak.

So the insects God described as courting him...

Were actually creatures like these.

They didn't even exist on the same level.

The difference was as vast as heaven and earth.

Ulysses couldn't help wondering...

When God looked at him...

Did he see him the same way he saw those tiny insects?

Hopelessly delusional.

Completely overestimating himself.

...

"Ah-choo! Ah-choo!"

An Ruo sneezed twice in succession and rubbed his nose in confusion.

Was he catching a cold?

Didn't seem like it.

Could it be...

"Who's talking behind my back?"