Chapter 212: Ulysses and An in His Cutest Stage [End]: Every Zerg in the Prison Will Know That I Am Being Punished by You

Before they parted, An Ruo gave Ulysses a great many reminders.

Don't be too reckless on the battlefield. Safety is the most important thing. Balance training with rest and make sure to take care of yourself. A Zerg's life is long, and there is plenty of time. No matter what you want to do, you can plan it slowly. There's no need to rush.

Especially when choosing a Male Zerg, you must give yourself plenty of time to feel things out and make your judgment. Don't come to conclusions too easily.

If a Male Zerg bullies you or physically hurts you, absolutely don't submit and endure it. Protect yourself and always put yourself first...

An Ruo rambled on for a long time. The subject had wandered completely off course, and he didn't even know whether Ulysses had taken any of it in.

Ulysses gazed deeply at him, as though looking through him toward the future.

Seeing him distracted, An Ruo unhappily poked him in the waist. "Did you hear everything I just said?"

"I heard you." Ulysses answered sullenly, taking the Director's hand and reluctant to let go.

"Then what do you do if a Male Zerg bullies you?" An Ruo quizzed him.

Ulysses lowered his gaze to the Director's fingers, which were still very close to his waist, then glanced at the spot where he had just been poked. After thinking for a moment, he answered, "Let him poke me?"

An Ruo nearly died of anger.

So everything he'd just said had been for nothing?

"You fight back! You protect yourself!"

An Ruo wished he could hammer those words straight into his head.

He wanted to grab Ulysses's hand and make him bare his claws at Male Zergs.

If that really didn't work, couldn't he at least spread his wings and use them as a shield?

And if he couldn't even do that, surely he knew how to run?

Ulysses remained silent, thinking that the Director looked especially adorable when he was angrily baring his teeth and brandishing his claws like this.

If it was the Director, he could scratch Ulysses however he wanted. Anything was fine.

Ulysses knew the Director would never truly hurt him.

Female Zerg hatchlings were all lively and active. When he was young, Ulysses had also gotten into conflicts with the other hatchlings at the welfare home.

The Director was the only Male Zerg in the welfare home, and he treated everyone very well, so naturally everyone liked him.

As for Ulysses, who was always following the Director around and received more of his attention and affection than anyone else, the other hatchlings had more complicated feelings.

Some chose to win him over and were relatively friendly toward him. Others privately warned him that he wasn't allowed to cling to the Director all the time. Naturally, Ulysses refused to listen and even got into a fight with hatchlings several years older than him.

In the end, the matter reached the Director.

It was the first time Ulysses had ever seen the Director so angry. His complexion alternated unpredictably between red and white.

Since the matter involved all the hatchlings in the welfare home, the Director naturally couldn't play favorites, and Ulysses was punished too.

The Director raised that thin wooden strip high into the air, then gently "placed" it against his palm.

The Director "placed" the wooden strip against his palm several times like that, then sternly ordered him back to his room to reflect on what he'd done.

Every hatchling who had fought was "punished" the same way.

That night, the Director even secretly came to apply ointment for him, looking so distressed that he could hardly bear it.

Ulysses didn't even consider that a punishment. The wooden strip was so thin that even if it snapped in half, it couldn't possibly hurt a tough-skinned Female Zerg hatchling in the slightest.

Yet the Director thought he had punished him terribly harshly and felt extremely guilty about it. He brought Ulysses delicious food, applied medicine to his completely unharmed hand, then held him in his arms and comforted him.

Ulysses knew exactly how softhearted the Director was.

If the Director wanted to hit him or punish him, Ulysses absolutely wouldn't dodge. He wouldn't even blink. He would accept every bit of it.

An Ruo was infuriated by his expression that clearly said, "I heard you, but I'm still not going to listen or do what you said."

He grabbed Ulysses and refused to let him leave, forcing him to promise that he would protect himself, that he wouldn't let himself die on the battlefield, that he wouldn't let a Male Zerg ruin him, and that he wouldn't allow any Male Zerg to physically hurt him. Only then did An Ruo reluctantly let him go.

Before leaving, Ulysses still seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

For a Female Zerg, even saying "Wait for me to come back" to a Male Zerg was inappropriate.

No Male Zerg would wait for a Female Zerg.

Nor did any Female Zerg have the right to ask a Male Zerg to wait.

Male Zergs could marry many Female Zergs. Perhaps by the time he returned, the Director would already be married.

Ulysses didn't think the Director would marry that quickly.

The Director was very picky. He had so many pursuers, yet he hadn't taken a liking to a single one.

But there were no guarantees in life, and Ulysses had absolutely no confidence when it came to this.

All he could do was seize every moment and speed up his progress.

Ulysses left.

An Ruo watched him go.

And then, it was time for him to leave too.

This had been a long and beautiful dream, but he couldn't remain immersed in it forever.

He still had to get up, wash, eat, and prepare for today's Psychic Soothing sessions. He couldn't sleep in and laze around in bed just because the dream was beautiful.

"Goodbye, Ulysses."

Standing in the empty courtyard of the welfare home, he softly bid farewell to the Ulysses in his dream.

Ulysses had grown up wonderfully, outstanding and confident, powerful and steadfast.

From now on, he would live well too.

White light spread outward, filling his entire field of vision...

On the spaceship departing for the front lines, Ulysses suddenly sensed something. He whipped his head around and looked toward a certain direction that stirred a strange palpitation in his chest.

His heart inexplicably missed a beat. Something seemed to have suddenly become empty, bringing with it an ominous sense of unease.

Abruptly, he threw down his luggage and ran back, forcing his way through the crowded Zergs. Just before the spaceship departed, he jumped out of the cabin and, ignoring everyone trying to stop him, raced toward the welfare home.

When he rushed into the welfare home and pushed open the Director's door, all he saw was an empty room.

Everything remained exactly as it had been when he left. There was still an open book on the desk, a manuscript only half [N O V E L I G H T] written, and even the faint lingering presence of the person who had lived there.

But something was gone.

"Director?"

Ulysses called out in a trembling voice.

There was no answer.

Wind blew in through the window, lifting the pages with a rustling sound.

The sounds of hatchlings playing could still be heard from the side courtyard, drifting hazily through the heat-warped air as though coming from somewhere impossibly far away. Yet this room was terrifyingly empty and silent, just like his heart, which had abruptly turned cold while still boiling with emotion.

Icy darkness crept over his ankles and swallowed everything.

......

An Ruo woke from his sleep, still somewhat dazed.

The dream had been too long and too real. Even after waking, he could vividly remember everything that had happened in it—every little incident, every greeting, every smile.

While he was still lost in a daze, An Ruo suddenly sensed an intense spatial fluctuation.

Right beside his bed.

An Ruo's eyes widened in shock.

He didn't even use the door anymore? He was just appearing directly beside his bed now? Was this really appropriate?

Before An Ruo could react, a spatial passage opened. A black shadow flashed past, his vision was immediately covered, and a weight pressed down on him as he was pulled into a crushing embrace.

Ulysses held him tightly, his rapid breaths falling against An Ruo's neck. An Ruo could feel his body trembling.

An Ruo froze for a moment, then wrapped his arms around him and gently patted his shoulder and back to soothe him. He noticed that Ulysses was still wearing nothing but a thin sleeping robe.

After a slight pause, he asked softly, "Did you have a nightmare?"

It wasn't a nightmare, but it had... almost become one.

Ulysses clenched his teeth, restraining himself even as his arms tightened, desperately feeling the presence of the male in his embrace.

"It was only a dream. Everything's fine now. I'm here with you..."

An Ruo comforted him softly, gently patting his back.

But Ulysses suddenly turned his head and began kissing him, first on the neck, then his jaw, and finally his lips.

An Ruo stared blankly with his eyes open, unable to react for a moment.

He had only just awakened from the dream. The Ulysses in that dream had been a little hatchling he had personally raised, and their relationship had never gone beyond familial affection.

Although rationally he knew it had only been a dream and that he and the real Ulysses shared an unusual and special relationship, suddenly being kissed like this still made him stiffen.

But realizing that the Female Zerg on top of him was emotionally unstable and in a very bad state, he quickly came back to his senses. He parted his lips slightly, giving Ulysses permission to enter and desperately seek reassurance from him.

He responded to Ulysses while gently stroking his back to comfort him, but it wasn't enough to calm Ulysses down.

It was nowhere near enough.

For one moment, An Ruo felt as though Ulysses was going to devour him.

Just before he was about to run out of oxygen, An Ruo finally got a breath of fresh air. He gulped it down, savoring the hard-won oxygen.

Meanwhile, Ulysses's lips wandered around his lips and cheeks, touching him in fleeting, intimate kisses as he softly called him "Director."

An Ruo's eyes suddenly widened. "You?"

He stared at Ulysses in astonishment, trying to find something in his expression.

Ulysses barely managed to organize his chaotic thoughts. His head felt as though it were splitting apart.

"I'm very sorry. I had a dream. I dreamed about you... Or perhaps it wasn't merely a dream."

Everything had been too real.

Even the lingering emotions were unbearably real.

Every time he remembered that final emptiness and loss, he needed to feel the male in his arms even more closely before his turbulent, restless heart could find the slightest comfort, somewhere it could temporarily settle.

"Our dreams... connected again?" An Ruo asked in surprise.

Ulysses immediately turned his gaze toward him, staring intently and unwilling to miss a single detail.

Although he had already suspected it, actually hearing the god explicitly confirm it was still different.

An Ruo frowned in thought.

Once could be a coincidence, but what about twice? Three times?

Was there some kind of psychic connection between him and Ulysses?

While he was still wondering about it, Ulysses kissed him again.

Ulysses's touches landed on his lips and cheeks, overflowing with passion.

His hands wandered over An Ruo's body with an urgent, pleading quality and a torrent of barely restrained emotions.

At some point, the blanket that had separated them was gone.

No matter how slow An Ruo was, Ulysses's movements and urgent psychic fluctuations made it obvious that Ulysses intended to devour him.

He desperately needed more physical contact to confirm something, to finally settle his heart.

By Zerg standards, this probably counted as a Female Zerg voluntarily offering himself.

Without receiving any promises from the Male Zerg, he was offering himself first.

It wasn't a particularly clever thing to do, but the Female Zerg wouldn't exactly lose out either.

But for An Ruo, this was still pushing things too far.

"Calm down." An Ruo tried to hold Ulysses down, yet couldn't bear to stop him either and had no idea what he should do.

"I missed you so much. You suddenly disappeared, and no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find you. I was worried. I was scared... scared that I'd never see you again."

Ulysses spoke softly as he guided An Ruo's hand inside his sleeping robe.

At that moment, he truly had been afraid.

Only after gaining something did one become even more afraid of losing it.

An Ruo could only stroke him soothingly. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

The male's promise was very effective.

But it still wasn't enough.

Ulysses needed something more, a deeper connection.

He hooked his arms around the male and pulled him down, their breaths mingling together.

"Wait, wait." An Ruo's head was spinning, but at the very last moment, he still slammed on the brakes and hurriedly called for a stop.

At this point, it wasn't that he was refusing to do it. It was just...

An Ruo nervously glanced around before looking down at Ulysses beneath him and asking quietly, "Do you have, um... a raincoat?"

Ulysses's expression instantly became extremely ugly.

Among Zergs, only when a Male Zerg was punishing a Female Zerg would he use a raincoat that blocked pheromones.

An Ruo shrank back slightly beneath his stare. Raising the terminal on his wrist, he tentatively suggested in a tiny voice, "Should I buy a set on StarNet?"

Ulysses stared at him silently. Then, as though he had stopped caring about anything at all, he slowly said in a hoarse voice,

"Fine. Have a military Female Zerg deliver it. Every Zerg in the prison will know that I am being punished by you."