Chapter 207: Ulysses and An in His Cutest Stage: [An]: Your female parent entrusted you to me to incubate!

An Ruo got so absorbed in watching videos that by the time he checked the time, it was already evening. He hurried to make his rounds before dinner.

After several months of Psychic Soothing and recuperation, the mental states of the imprisoned military females had become much more stable.

Although they still could not leave their prison cells due to various factors such as their history of Psychic Riot and uncertainty about their safety, their treatment had improved in every respect. They could even connect online and play games with their fellow inmates.

Most of these military female prisoners had never committed any real crimes. The main reason they had been imprisoned was Psychic Riot. Even the more serious cases had only damaged public property during a Psychic Riot or injured law enforcement officers while being arrested and restrained.

The Military Region Prison now resembled a massive sanatorium more than anything else.

The only true “convict” was An Ruo, and even he was not the original one.

As usual, he began his rounds with Cell No. 1.

Selerus was playing an online game with several other military female prisoners.

An Ruo glanced at the screen. It was a relatively old-fashioned mech fighting game, played through a terminal light screen and a virtual control console.

The controls did not feel quite as good this way, but if they were given actual gaming consoles, these high-ranking female Zergs would inevitably get carried away while playing and smash them to pieces with a couple of bangs from their palms. It would hardly be reasonable for the prison °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° to report damaged gaming consoles every single day, so they had uniformly switched everything over to virtual projections.

Selerus’ eyes remained on the screen, but he had noticed An Ruo’s arrival long ago.

There was no need to turn around and confirm it. Only their attending doctor, the one and only Psychic Soothing specialist, would come by at this time.

At the same time, he also smelled the female Zerg pheromones lingering around him.

Selerus could not help glancing sideways.

Ulysses’ scent.

But once again, there were only female Zerg pheromones and no male Zerg pheromones.

Something was very wrong.

Either a long, thorough wash should remove everything, or traces of both should remain. How was it that there were always only female Zerg pheromones?

An Ruo’s attention was entirely focused on the egg beside him.

The Ulysses egg was wearing a knitted outfit.

So cute.

It was a red knitted outfit patterned with maple leaves, looking particularly festive. It fit perfectly as well, wrapping the entire Ulysses egg and revealing only glimpses of the eggshell through the uneven gaps in the knitting.

From the rather unrefined craftsmanship, it was obvious that a female Zerg had knitted it by hand. It was full of love.

Seeing him staring constantly at the egg, Selerus suddenly picked it up, stuffed it into his arms, and said,

“I feel like it’s about to hatch. Incubate it for me for a couple of days.”

An Ruo: “?”

Selerus looked serious. “Zerg eggs need male Zerg pheromones to develop. You’re the only one who can give them to him.”

An Ruo was stunned.

Pheromones were one thing, but what did he mean, it was about to hatch?

This was a fake egg!

Selerus had given him this simulated egg. How was An Ruo supposed to incubate a Ulysses out of it?

Hello, would you like the adult version? The super-sized kind.

An Ruo held the egg in both hands as though he were holding a bomb, utterly frozen and unsure how to react.

Selerus looked at the egg in his hands, then seemed to gaze through it at something else entirely. Deep affection and self-reproach filled his lowered eyes.

“As soon as he was born, he was taken away from me. That male Zerg never treated him properly either. He even sent him to a welfare home. The moment he hatched, he had no one in the world...”

Selerus looked at An Ruo and pleaded softly, “He only acknowledges you. Treat him well.”

An Ruo: “...”

After hearing that, he really could not bring himself to return the egg.

What else could he do?

He would incubate it for now.

Ulysses had grown up in a welfare home.

His book had only mentioned that briefly and had never explored it in depth.

An Ruo stroked the simulated egg representing Ulysses in his arms and sighed inwardly.

There were far too many things he had failed to be there for.

Since he had accepted Ulysses as his responsibility, he needed to take it more seriously.

An Ruo walked out of Selerus’ cell carrying an egg identical to the one Enzo incubated every day and received complicated looks from the military female guards outside.

They all knew this egg was fake and had been given to General Selerus to stabilize his mental state. It was one thing for the General to incubate it, but why had the Lord started incubating an egg too? Could it be that General Enzo carrying a male egg around the prison every day had made the Lord want an egg of his own?

An Ruo quickly finished his rounds and returned to his room.

He placed the Ulysses egg on his bed beside the plushie. The two looked incredibly cute together, so he took a picture before going off to do other things.

After eating and washing up, he changed into pajamas and returned to bed. Faced with the two adorable things by his pillow, he chose the egg and hugged it tightly, leaving the plushie beside his pillow.

If it were a real egg, he definitely would not dare sleep while holding it for fear of crushing it. Since it was fake, he could safely hug it to sleep.

He placed the egg in front of himself, wrapped one arm halfway around it, pulled up the covers, then took another picture. On a sudden whim, he sent it to Ulysses.

An: Look, it’s you. Your female parent entrusted you to me to incubate!

Ulysses had noticed long ago that the male had brought back something new. It was roughly the same size as his plushie and had even been placed beside it.

Then bedtime arrived, and the thing beside the plushie was picked up and embraced, while he himself was left outside, never receiving that familiar embrace.

Ulysses realized that his position as the bedtime plushie had been stolen.

His expression was just turning gloomy when he received a message from the male.

A picture.

Ulysses first noticed the male’s fair arm in the picture, and only afterward saw what he was holding...

An egg?

An egg wrapped in some strange knitted pouch.

The knitted item looked somewhat familiar. He seemed to have seen his female parent working on it before it was finished.

Ulysses enlarged the picture to examine it, and a new message popped up at exactly that moment, confirming his guess.

...His female parent had given his simulated egg to... the male to incubate?

Ulysses’ mind went blank for several seconds. He could not understand what was happening.

[Ulysses]: Has this caused you any trouble? You can simply put it aside and ignore it. I’ll speak with my female parent afterward.

[An Ruo]: It’s no trouble. It’s really cute!

Cute?

[Ulysses]: Do you mean this... knitted item? Or the female egg? The simulated egg.

[An Ruo]: They’re all cute!

Ulysses is the cutest.

Everything connected to him seems cute too.

An Ruo secretly added in his heart.

Ulysses’ expression softened.

The male did not seem to dislike hatchlings. At the very least, he did not dislike eggs.

Whether it was the protagonist’s pure white male egg or this patterned simulated female egg.

It made Ulysses want to have an egg with him, and he could not help imagining what their hatchling might look like.

A hatchling who resembled both the male and himself...

Hatchlings usually inherited the hair and eye colors of the opposite-sex parent. Given the Zerg sex ratio, a female egg would be more likely... which meant it would probably be an adorable little female with platinum-blond hair and emerald eyes. Once he grew up, the contours of his features would resemble Ulysses more closely, but the genes inherited from the male’s beauty might make his features more delicate.

There was also a small chance they might have a little male with black hair and silver eyes, as beautiful and delicate as the male.

Or perhaps they might encounter the rarer combination of his and the male’s hair and eye colors: black hair with emerald eyes, or blond hair with silver eyes.

Whichever it was, the hatchling would be adorable.

He seemed to be thinking too far ahead.

Not installing a nursery did not mean anything.

After all, very few male Zergs ever considered raising hatchlings in advance. That was perfectly normal.

Not thinking about such things did not mean the male had no intention of ever having hatchlings. If they really had one someday, they could simply install a nursery then. There were plenty of empty rooms anyway.

Even if the male did not intend to give the hatchling a room, Ulysses could raise him by his side and frequently bring him to see his male parent. As long as the male did not dislike hatchlings, living close by or far away did not make much difference. What mattered most was that their hearts were close.

Besides, perhaps by then the male would already have left prison, in which case whether the prison had a nursery would matter even less.

Countless thoughts flashed through Ulysses’ mind in an instant.

Staring at the message frozen on his light screen, he almost wanted to ask the male to give him an egg.

But something like that would probably be more effective if he asked face-to-face and accompanied the request with action.

For now, he suppressed the longing in his heart and looked forward to their next meeting.

An Ruo had no idea that the Marshal on the other end had already begun considering how many eggs they should have.

He liked this egg purely because it was Ulysses’ egg. Even if it was only simulated, it still represented Ulysses.

After all, it was not as though he could hold the real egg-version of Ulysses, right?

He told the Marshal “Good night,” and after receiving the same reply, he peacefully turned off his terminal and fell asleep holding the simulated egg.

Before falling asleep, he remembered what Selerus had said.

Ulysses, all alone in the welfare home with no one in the world...

He restlessly turned over, then pulled the Ulysses plushie into his arms as well, hugging it together with the egg.

...

His body felt weightless, as though he were flying through a dream.

He passed through layer upon layer of mist, and suddenly, everything before him brightened.

The dazzling white light faded. An Ruo opened his eyes and discovered himself standing before the fence of a small courtyard. On the building beside it were the words “Capital Star Hatchling Welfare Home.”

Hmm?

A dream?

The street was completely empty. There was not a single person in sight—or, naturally, a single Zerg. The scorching sunlight poured down onto the buildings, giving everything an almost distorted appearance, very much like the surreal scenery of a dream.

An Ruo walked to the entrance of the welfare home and peered inside.

A sub-female who had been dozing in the shade of the courtyard suddenly woke with a start. Seeing the beautiful male Zerg standing at the entrance, he almost thought he was dreaming. He blinked hard several times, and only after confirming that the male was still there did he hurriedly come over.

“Hello. Have you come to visit the hatchlings?”

Even as he spoke, the sub-female still looked somewhat dazed.

The welfare home had existed for a long time. Female Zergs and sub-females from society often came here to volunteer, show some love, and get their fill of adorable hatchlings while they were at it, but male Zergs were still extremely rare.

“No, I...”

An Ruo stopped halfway through his sentence.

He felt something inside attracting him.

Ulysses.

He had neither seen nor heard anything, yet somehow, he was absolutely certain that this sensation belonged to Ulysses.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

Could this be the welfare home where Ulysses had once lived?

And what year was it on the timeline now?

Since he had dreamed himself into this place, the timeline had to be during the period when Ulysses was living at the welfare home.

An Ruo changed his answer. “Yes, I’m here to...”

Visit the hatchlings?

No.

That was not enough.

If Ulysses was here, then what An Ruo wanted was...

“I’m here to become the director,” An Ruo said.

As for how exactly he had become the director, the dream would naturally come up with a logical explanation for him. He did not need to worry about it.

The sub-female looked confused at first, then abruptly showed an expression of realization.

“Oh, oh, oh! You’re the... new director who was supposed to arrive today! Heavens, they really managed to hire a male Zerg as the director... This is wonderful! That means the newly arrived Zerg egg can receive pheromones, and the hatchlings in the welfare home can receive Psychic Soothing too...”

An Ruo listened and immediately caught the key phrase.

“Newly arrived Zerg egg?” An Ruo asked.

For some reason, his heart gave a sudden thump when he heard those words.

“Yes!” the sub-female answered. Quickly understanding the Lord’s meaning, he proactively asked, “Would you like to see it? I’ll take you there right away.”

An Ruo nodded and followed the sub-female all the way into the incubation room.

There were three Zerg eggs in the incubation room, all so quiet they seemed almost lifeless.

Compared to male eggs, which always had active psychic threads swirling around them, female eggs tended to be much quieter.

And in a place like a welfare home, they seemed even lonelier and more deathly still.

The sub-female explained that of the three eggs, two had already been incubating for quite some time and were close to hatching. They were orphans sent back from the front lines. As for the other one, the newborn egg that had arrived only a few days ago... it was more or less an orphan too.

An Ruo walked over and followed the pull he felt in his heart until he stopped in front of one particular egg.

Beautiful, intricate Zerg patterns covered the eggshell. The patterns were gold and silver, scattered and intertwined like a star chart, breathtakingly beautiful.

The psychic fluctuations within the egg felt somewhat familiar, but extraordinarily young and immature.

And beneath them lurked faint anxiety and agitation.

The hatchling inside seemed desperate to break out of his shell.

An Ruo glanced at the time displayed on the incubator.

Incubation duration: 3 days.

Trying to hatch after only three days was far too impatient.

Ordinarily, hatchlings needed six months inside their eggs to develop and accumulate enough energy.

An Ruo knew that Ulysses had only just been taken away from his female parent. He must have been extremely frightened. Perhaps his desperation to hatch was because he wanted to go find his female parent.

But hatching prematurely could cause tremendous damage to his body. In severe cases, it could even endanger his life.

An Ruo asked the sub-female caregiver beside him, “Can I take him out?”

“Yes, but this egg isn’t in very good condition... Of course, if he could receive your pheromones and Psychic Force to soothe him, perhaps he would calm down.”

As the sub-female spoke, he opened the incubator for him.

An Ruo took the Ulysses egg into his arms, embraced it, and gently stroked its surface.

The psychic fluctuations inside the egg quieted slightly, but they still carried tension and unease, along with a newly emerging trace of confusion.

An Ruo thought for a moment. Imagining the knitted cover on the simulated egg Selerus had given him, he took it out of his spatial button and slipped it over the Ulysses egg.

The Zerg egg seemed to sense the lingering traces of Selerus’ scent on the knitted cover. It became even more bewildered and confused, but its anxiety diminished, replaced by a little closeness and attachment.

“Good egg, good egg. Good little Uly.”

An Ruo stroked him and said, “Your female parent asked me to bring you this protective cover. You have to grow up nice and steadily. You can’t be impatient.”

Absolutely do not even think about hatching early. That was far too dangerous!

An Ruo did not know whether Ulysses had actually hatched prematurely in reality.

Judging by the fact that he ultimately became SSS-rank, even if he had hatched prematurely, whatever damage he suffered in childhood must have been repaired as his rank increased. But the hardships and suffering involved went without saying.

An Ruo did not want Ulysses to do that.

A single hatchling could not change anything. Hatching early would only hurt himself.

As for Selerus...

Since An Ruo was here, he would help him find a way.

Perhaps his soothing really had worked. The psychic fluctuations within the egg completely quieted and stabilized, as though...

He had exhausted himself and fallen asleep.

Poor Ulysses.

An Ruo stroked him sympathetically and asked the sub-female caregiver, “Can I take him to my room to incubate him?”

Seeing how peacefully the Zerg egg rested in his arms, the sub-female looked somewhat surprised before nodding. “Of course. Receiving your soothing and pheromones will benefit the Zerg egg’s development.”

And so An Ruo carried the Ulysses egg outside. Halfway out, he turned back to look at the two remaining eggs in the incubation room.

After hesitating, he asked, “Do they need pheromones?”

“No, they’re already close to hatching.” The sub-female caregiver smiled and explained, “A kind Zerg previously donated several tubes of pheromones to the welfare home. They happened to last until their final month. We had just run out and were worrying about what to do with the new egg when you arrived.”

The sub-female was extremely grateful and finally added,

“These eggs don’t need pheromones. If you’re willing, though, you could provide Psychic Soothing for them and the other hatchlings in the welfare home. It would make them very happy.”

An Ruo said that was no problem.

It was only Psychic Soothing.

He was very good at that.

An Ruo first carried Ulysses to the director’s room that the welfare home had arranged for him.

The incubator was brought along as well and placed on the bedside table.

He still did not dare sleep while holding a real egg, even if this was only a “dream.”

He planned to incubate Ulysses himself during the day. He could make a small cloth sling, put the egg inside it, and carry him around everywhere.

At night, when it was time to sleep, he would put the Ulysses egg inside the incubator beside his bed, where he would be able to see him the instant he opened his eyes after waking.

An Ruo stroked the egg in his arms, extremely pleased.

He finally got to incubate the Ulysses egg too.

He wondered what kind of little hatchling would come out.

Ulysses in his never-before-seen cutest stage.

He could hardly wait!