Chapter 248: Female Disguised as Male x Despairing Straight Female (8): He Told Him He Liked Him—a Female Zerg Telling Someone of the Same Sex He Liked Him

[There isn’t even one extra sleeping bag? Not even one? (horrified) They just happen to pair off perfectly?]

[There definitely is one. It’s just that Lucas is a Major General and needs to be fair and impartial, so he can’t exactly assign Felix a sleeping bag all to himself. If he singled Felix out like that, then in the eyes of the other military females who don’t know the truth, it would either look like preferential treatment or like he was deliberately excluding Felix.]

[So is the Major General really going to sacrifice himself and share a sleeping bag with Felix? (horrified) (curious) (expectant)]

[??? What are you getting so excited about?!]

The readers following the novel were getting stranger and stranger. At first, they had been full of resistance toward a story about homosexual Female Zergs, yet now their attitudes had actually changed, and quite a few Zergs were sticking around simply to enjoy the spectacle.

[No, no, no. I still believe the Major General can preserve his chastity. This is a campsite, after all. Even if the Major General has his own tent, tents have limited soundproofing, and military females all have sharp ears and eyes. They can’t make too much of a commotion. At most, the Major General will get groped a few times. They’re both the same sex, so it’s not like the Major General loses anything.]

[Be specific. Groped where? (panicking)]

[That actually has another meaning?! Is the Major General, as a Female Zerg, about to lose his front? (covers face in horror)]

[No, no, he won’t. The Major General just needs to sleep with his back to Felix! Felix wouldn’t do anything too outrageous.]

[But I feel like something’s wrong with Felix after eating those mushrooms. He can turn himself red just by soaking in a hot spring, and now he can make himself blush just by eating a mushroom. His constitution seriously makes me question how strong he is, yet he has so many genuine military achievements and even said he earned them as a scout. It’s really baffling.]

[Earlier, it also said Felix “saw” the mycelium underground. What does that mean? Was that an exaggeration? Or was the mycelium actually visible right on the surface?]

[Maybe both. Some mycelium really can be seen directly. (Image—a dense network of black mycelium covering a tree trunk.)]

[Hey! You Female Zergs can discuss things all you want, but don’t suddenly post sanity-draining pictures like that! Looking at it has made this entire Zerg feel unwell.]

[Sorry, Male Zerg Lord QAQ. I’ve read too many traditional novels and got used to an environment where only Female Zergs follow stories and everyone posts whatever pictures they want. I’ll delete it right away (wipes sweat).]

Back when Female Zergs followed novels among themselves, they would post all kinds of bloody and gruesome pictures. Even images of mangled bodies from battlefields could be posted without hesitation. After all, everyone following those novels was a Female Zerg, and most had served in the military. They had seen everything and could even calmly evaluate the techniques shown in a picture while looking at it.

Now that they had suddenly shifted into an environment where Male Zergs also followed novels, some Female Zergs still hadn’t managed to get used to it even after nearly a year.

The Tianjia had originally wanted to make a few snide comments about how fragile Male Zergs were, but then they remembered that their own males were also following the novel and silently shut their mouths, deciding that pictures like that really were better deleted.

Male Zergs were all domineering little devils. There was nothing wrong with frightening them a little; they would recover quickly anyway. But their own poor, delicate males couldn’t handle being frightened.

Without saying a word, the Zergs and Tianjia reached an unspoken consensus: Male Zergs/males must not be frightened, disturbing pictures could not be posted casually, and the comment-section environment needed to be properly managed.

And both sides agreed that Felix, whose face had become hot merely from walking through an environment filled with parasitic mycelium and spores and eating a little of the parasitic fungus’s fruiting bodies, was far too fragile.

Of course, the standards applied to Male Zergs and Female Zergs were completely different.

They were just that hypocritical.

...

[Faced with Felix already tucked into the sleeping bag and looking at him expectantly, Lucas gave an unnatural dry cough. Under pressure that made his scalp tingle, he said that he was on night watch tonight and told Felix to rest first.

The moment Felix heard that, his spirits plummeted, and his face fell in grievance.

He could understand the Major General’s sense of responsibility, but he really couldn’t bear to miss such a wonderful opportunity.

“Major General, the unit has military females specifically assigned to stand watch, and they work in shifts. All the veterans were personally trained by you, and they’re already very familiar with this. Surely you don’t still distrust them?

“And this is my first time here. I’m scared being alone in unfamiliar wilderness. Could you stay with me?”

As Felix spoke, he looked pitifully at Lucas with his bright eyes, blinking repeatedly as he tried his hardest to maximize the power of his face, which appealed equally to males and females.

Lucas knew there was an element of deliberately acting pitiful in his words. What military female would be afraid to spend a night alone?

Besides, Felix’s previous records included plenty of wilderness-survival experience. For a scout, this was practically routine.

Yet Felix’s face was flushed a beautiful wine-red, and beneath the tent’s nightlight, his eyes looked hazy and unfocused. Somehow, he really did look a little pitiful.

For some inexplicable reason, Lucas couldn’t make his feet move.

In the end, he actually turned back.

He chose to stay and spend the night with Felix.

As Lucas lay down on one side of the sleeping bag, he thought he must have lost his mind.

He clearly shouldn’t have softened, but he simply kept thinking... what if? What if Felix actually needed him?

At first, Lucas lay rigidly flat on his back, but the gaze coming from beside him put enormous pressure on him. Felix couldn’t hide his smile and looked extremely happy.

Under pressure that made his scalp tingle, Lucas turned onto his side, putting his back toward Felix.

He quickly discovered that this had been a terrible decision, because Felix immediately wrapped himself around him. Their bodies pressed tightly together, Felix’s arm circling his waist before his hand settled on Lucas’s broad chest with remarkable familiarity.

Lucas’s entire body stiffened. Even his facial expression froze.

Afraid that the Zergs outside would hear, he could only grit his teeth and warn Felix in a low, breathy voice not to mess around.

Felix didn’t understand.

“Major General, what are you saying? I really like you, Major General.”

As he spoke, he buried his face against Lucas’s back and nuzzled affectionately against him, letting out a soft laugh of obvious delight.

Lucas abruptly realized that staying had been the biggest mistake he could have made.

Felix had actually said outright that he “liked” him.

A Female Zerg telling someone of the same sex that he liked him.

Lucas had thought that as long as he never brought it up and Felix never said anything himself, they could peacefully spend the next several years, perhaps even more than a decade, or possibly even longer like this—until Felix eventually lost interest in him and chose to marry a Male Zerg.

But now, with that one sentence, Felix had placed everything directly in front of him, leaving Lucas no way to avoid it any longer.

And yet Felix behaved as though he had merely said something completely ordinary, his attitude as relaxed as though he were simply expressing loyalty to his superior. If not for his extraordinarily intimate behavior, Lucas might have thought Felix had merely greeted him or pledged his allegiance, that he had simply misheard the supposed “like.”

But there was clearly nothing wrong with his hearing.

Felix’s hand wasn’t behaving itself either. It didn’t seem to move much, but there were subtle little squeezing and pressing motions.

Coming from an ordinary Female Zerg of the same sex, this could only be described as curiosity about a strong warrior’s muscles. But coming from a Female Zerg who liked the same sex, it carried an entirely different meaning.

The pressure was so intense that Lucas wanted to flee.

But Felix was holding him tightly.

Something was wrong.

Something was definitely wrong.

Lucas forced himself to calm down and think.

Although Felix’s feelings for him had never exactly been subtle before, he had absolutely never been this direct or blatant.

At the very least, Felix had always observed basic etiquette—or rather, he had been exceptionally careful about propriety. He wouldn’t even bathe together with Lucas and had never deliberately exploited the advantage of being the same sex to initiate physical contact.

Compared to before, the Felix right now was clearly abnormal.

Surely the darkness and privacy of the tent couldn’t have simply magnified Felix’s feelings and desires this much.

The breath falling against Lucas’s back was burning hot, and Felix’s breathing behind him was unsteady.

His concern for Felix overwhelmed everything else.

Lucas forgot about struggling free or moving away. He caught Felix’s hand where it rested against his chest, stopping it from wandering, and frowned slightly as he tried to turn around.

“Felix? What’s wrong? Something’s off with you.”

Lucas’s voice was grave.

Something was off with him?

Felix checked how he felt.

He did feel rather hot.

Because Lucas was in his arms.

Within the dreamlike, hazy atmosphere, he saw Lucas smiling softly at him, gently holding his hand and pressing it against his chest so Felix could feel his heartbeat and the warmth of his flesh.

Felix almost got a nosebleed.

God, how could Major General Lucas be so €€?

The Major General actually had a side like this.

He was about to get hard.

Lucas stiffened. The corners of his mouth froze completely, and his attempt to turn around stopped halfway.

He felt it.

His eyes widened in horror, his heart filled with disbelief.

Rather than emotions such as avoidance or resistance, what he felt most strongly was confusion and astonishment.

There weren’t even any Male Zerg pheromones.

How could Felix possibly...?

Was he simply extraordinarily gifted?

Or had his feelings for Lucas already become that intense?

Intense enough that a Female Zerg could experience extreme pleasure and enjoyment even without Male Zerg pheromones.

It was unbelievable.

Lucas forgot that he should avoid Felix or move away. When Felix rubbed against the shallow indentation through the fabric, electricity raced up Lucas’s spine and left half his body numb.

From behind, Felix gently bit Lucas’s shoulder. Calling it a bite wasn’t quite accurate. His teeth merely settled against Lucas’s skin and gently pressed and rubbed against it, like an adorable little animal acting spoiled.

Lucas’s breathing grew heavier.

His mind was in complete chaos, reduced to a muddled mess. His eyes stared blankly into the air ahead, but his gaze had already lost focus.

He forgot what he was supposed to do and had no idea how he should react in this situation.

Through the tent, he could faintly hear birds calling outside, the €€€€€€€€ sound of small animals crawling through blades of grass, the quiet crackling of firewood in the campfire, and the hushed conversations of the military females standing watch.

Lucas bit his lip, suppressing his overly heavy breathing in the stillness of the night.

He indulged Felix for the entire night and only got up to clean everything in the early morning.

Felix was still asleep, his sleeping expression peaceful and serene, completely relaxed.

Only Lucas had no idea what to do with his pants.

Felix’s condition last night had clearly been abnormal. After getting some release, he seemed to have recovered, and even his breathing had stabilized.

Lucas could faintly smell a pleasant fragrance.

It was somewhat similar to Male Zerg pheromones, yet clearly wasn’t. Male Zerg pheromones wouldn’t smell this faint.

The scent seemed to be connected to Felix.

Lucas looked at the sleeping Felix and found it unbelievable.

Surely he couldn’t actually find another Female Zerg’s pheromones pleasant?

Female Zergs only rejected the pheromones of others of the same sex. The stronger their rank, the greater the pressure and intimidation their pheromones produced, and the more strongly other Female Zergs resisted them.

Although Lucas himself had also uncontrollably experienced some reactions last night, that wasn’t right.

Faced with what Felix had left on his clothes, Lucas inexplicably felt his face heat up. He hurriedly cleaned everything up and hid what needed hiding inside his spatial button.

Suppressing his embarrassment and discomfort, he cleaned Felix up as well.

They hadn’t actually done anything. The fabric of their clothes had served as an effective barrier, but even so, this had still gone somewhat too far.

For a while, Lucas had no idea how he was supposed to face Felix.

Fortunately, Felix still hadn’t woken up. Lucas didn’t have to face him immediately and still had some time to sort through his chaotic thoughts.

...]