Chapter 289: Ulysses Can’t Wait: The Back of His Neck Felt Chilly, and Ulysses’s Tone Was Just as Chilly

The Zerg were extremely efficient. From discussing the details, communicating back and forth, producing the design, cutting and crafting everything on-site, to finally delivering the finished product, the entire process took only two star-hours.

An Ruo soon received the rings. Just as he had envisioned, one was black and the other silver. They could be separated into two individual rings, but thanks to an ingenious design, they could also fit seamlessly together as one.

The gemstones set into the rings were made from a special kind of psychic source crystal. Not only could they nourish a Male Zerg's psyche, they could also contain a Male Zerg's Psychic Power in return.

An Ruo infused his Psychic Power into them, weaving a sea of psychic flowers inside. He even placed the villa and garden he had constructed with Psychic Power into it. These would be exclusive rings belonging to him and Ulysses, unique in the entire world.

If Ulysses wore this ring, the Psychic Power An Ruo had left within it would subtly and continuously nourish Ulysses's Psychic Domain. Even if they were separated for a long time and were very far apart, Ulysses wouldn't suffer any psychic problems.

Normally, this function wouldn't really be necessary. During their everyday life together, An Ruo would take good care of Ulysses's Psychic Domain. He had practically gotten into the habit of soothing it once every day. Even though there was absolutely no need to do it so frequently, it could still give Ulysses a pleasant, comfortable feeling and help him sleep well.

So its main purpose was for when Ulysses went on military campaigns and traveled far away from Zerg territory.

Although An Ruo didn't like being separated for too long, Ulysses was the Marshal, and he was exactly the sort of leader who particularly enjoyed expanding their territory. Things like this would inevitably happen, so An Ruo needed to prepare himself mentally in advance.

Fortunately, he trusted Ulysses's abilities. As an existence practically at the ceiling of the universe, a God of War who had never once been defeated, Ulysses would certainly return victorious.

Besides that, the pair of rings had also been fitted with expanded space and could be used as spatial storage devices. The internal space was large enough to hold a massive mech along with plenty of personal belongings.

An Ruo thought this feature was extremely useful. Even from a purely practical standpoint, it would encourage someone to keep wearing the ring for longer. It was a tiny bit of scheming on his part.

An Ruo chose a nice-looking ring box and left with the custom-made matching rings.

On the way, he even encountered a group of Female Zergs who mustered up the courage to approach him and ask what he thought about female-female relationships, and whether he would mind developing a female-female relationship himself.

An Ruo was completely baffled.

His understanding of Zerg gender distinctions was still vague. If words like "Female Zerg," "sub-female," or "Male Zerg" were explicitly written out, he could immediately understand them. But once he entered the real world and faced a group of Zergs who all looked male to him, his brain simply stopped working.

Thus, a human whose awareness of gender was already fuzzy and a group of Female Zergs and sub-females whose genders he hadn't even figured out ended up talking completely past each other while having a friendly discussion about female-female romance. The conversation finally ended when An Ruo said that he already had a Female Zerg with whom he intended to spend the rest of his life and wouldn't accept anyone else.

After saying that, An Ruo hurriedly fled, leaving behind a group of heartbroken Female Zergs and sub-females who had just concluded that they were gay, only to immediately fall out of love.

<I Met an Incredibly Beautiful Female Zerg and Felt My Heart Flutter for the First Time, but He Already Has a Female Zerg He Likes. What Should I Do?>

A post appeared on the StarNet forum, causing a crowd of Female Zergs who didn't know the truth to furiously spam question marks.

[Beautiful Female Zerg? How beautiful could he possibly be? Pics or it didn't happen. Wait... he has a Female Zerg he likes? Huh? Who likes who? A Female Zerg and another Female Zerg??? HUH???!]

[Clicked into the OP's profile. OP's gender is Female Zerg too... Why do I somehow feel like this was exactly what I expected? (facepalm) I'm not surprised at all.]

[Treacherous lesbian Female Zerg! (angry)]

[That Felix and Lucas book seriously flushed out so many lesbian Female Zergs. The lesbian concentration on StarNet has been way over the limit lately.]

[You should say that An-shen's riddle-like writing in the early chapters bent a whole bunch of Female Zergs.]

[Fortunately, there are Psychic Soothing devices. If you're bent, you're bent. Just keep an eye on your psychic condition and nothing should happen. It's not like Male Zergs are the ones turning gay, so it won't have much effect on the birth rate anyway.]

[Actually, a lot of Female Zergs might not really be gay. Zerg society worships strength to an extreme degree, so admiration toward powerful members of the same sex can sometimes be mistaken for romantic attraction. Powerful Female Zergs also tend to be extremely good-looking, which makes it even harder to tell. In cases like this, one tube of Male Zerg pheromones can cure it. If even pheromones can't cure you, then congratulations, you're unquestionably a genuine lesbian Female Zerg. Of course, some Female Zergs usually like Female Zergs, but start liking Male Zergs when exposed to Male Zerg pheromones. This is known as the wave-particle duality of being gay and straight. (talking nonsense)]

[What a magnificent gay-straight duality! So that's what you're using duality for now?!]

[Am I the only one who wants to know exactly how beautiful the Female Zerg mentioned by OP is? Any pictures? How does he compare to General Cyril?]

[He's as beautiful as that Psychic Soothing Lord!]

[Holy shit!]

[Shit! There's a Female Zerg who's gone insane over here!]

[You actually think a Female Zerg is prettier than that Lord??? It's over! Genuine lesbian confirmed beyond all doubt!]

[Maybe you should take some pheromones to regulate yourself... Ah, wait, if it's already this serious, I'm afraid regulating yourself won't help. And you even fell for a Female Zerg who already has a Female Zerg he likes... My condolences.]

[Only an ophthalmologist can save you now! I know a top ophthalmologist (contact information ****). Hurry up and get your eyes checked!]

...

An Ruo knew nothing about the commotion raging on StarNet. Right now, he was taking an aircraft back home.

Although he hadn't lived there for very many days yet, it seemed that he had already subconsciously started thinking of the Marshal's residence as home.

When he got off the aircraft and walked into the courtyard, he discovered that Selerus had returned as well and was saying something to Ulysses. An Ruo vaguely caught keywords like "Cyril" and "egg."

After that dream, An Ruo had almost lost track of time. Only after hearing those words did he remember that Cyril had gone into labor at the banquet last night, so he quickly moved closer to listen.

"You're back."

The moment An Ruo appeared, Ulysses's gaze followed his every movement. Selerus also stopped talking and nodded to him in greeting.

An Ruo smiled at them as well, then habitually walked toward Ulysses and stopped beside him.

Ulysses's eyes remained fixed on him. His slightly lowered brows and eyes carried an unusually gentle smile, like warm sunshine, or a pool of spring water.

An Ruo blinked in surprise.

He could tell that Ulysses was in a good mood.

A very good mood.

That surprised him greatly.

Was it because Cyril had laid his egg? Were the two of them actually that close?

While An Ruo was thinking about this, he felt something touch his hand. Ulysses naturally took his hand with his own lowered hand, his fingers rubbing over the base of An Ruo's fingers as though searching for something—or perhaps it was simply an instinctive gesture of intimacy.

An Ruo became even more surprised.

Ulysses was still quite conservative about certain things. He rarely showed physical affection toward An Ruo in front of other Zergs, much less in front of his own female parent.

Was this really because of Cyril's egg?

An Ruo looked questioningly at Selerus and asked about Cyril giving birth.

Pretending not to notice the interaction between his son and the Male Zerg, Selerus smiled slightly and told the story again.

"Cyril delivered safely. That little one was in such a hurry to come out that he nearly hatched right there on the aircraft heading to the hospital. Ha, it's probably for the best. Cyril didn't suffer much. He was just completely stunned. Even after giving birth, he held the egg for quite a while before he could process what had happened... It's a Female Zerg egg, with pink-and-gold insect markings. The patterns resemble flower petals and plant veins. It's a very rare type of insect marking. According to the examination, he has S-rank potential."

"Wow!" An Ruo exclaimed cooperatively.

He wasn't sure whether he should be more surprised that an egg could actually have pink, petal-shaped insect markings, or that the Zerg had gained yet another Female Zerg with S-rank potential.

Then again, General Cyril himself was already S-rank, and Philor's rank was also very high. It wasn't particularly surprising for their hatchling to possess S-rank potential, and it really was something worth celebrating.

S-rank potential meant that as long as the hatchling grew up safely, put in a little effort, and wasn't too lazy, there was a very high probability that he would eventually break through to S-rank.

It wasn't 100%, but considering how naturally competitive and hardworking ordinary Female Zergs were, it was practically guaranteed.

An egg with S-rank potential was extraordinarily precious and represented a powerful future fighting force for the Zerg.

No wonder Ulysses was so happy.

But why was Ulysses still rubbing his fingers?

There wasn't anything dirty on them, was there?

An Ruo lowered his head and looked at his hand in confusion, becoming even more puzzled.

Selerus sent An Ruo several photos of the Female Zerg egg with its pink-and-gold insect markings.

While sending him the pictures, Selerus glanced at Ulysses beside him, carefully watching and paying attention to his mood and thoughts.

Ulysses's expression remained unchanged. Even when faced with the Female Zerg egg displayed in the holographic photos, he remained perfectly calm and confident.

The deity had already promised him five eggs.

He would lay them one by one. Sooner or later, he would have them.

More than Cyril.

"It really is beautiful!"

An Ruo praised the egg in the photograph, his eyes shining with curiosity and admiration.

Compared with Male Zerg eggs, which were uniformly pure white, Female Zerg eggs clearly had far more possibilities in terms of appearance. Their patterns varied, and every egg was different. Just as no two snowflakes in the world were exactly identical, there were no two Zerg eggs with identical insect markings.

It was incredibly novel.

It also reminded An Ruo of all sorts of beautifully decorated Easter eggs.

This was so interesting.

Ulysses's originally confident expression shifted slightly at An Ruo's praise. For the first time, he seriously looked at the egg and examined its appearance.

Pink-and-gold, petal-shaped insect markings...

His insect markings weren't this color or shape. And the deity wasn't actually a Zerg, so it was impossible to know whether he even possessed genes that could influence a hatchling's insect markings...

The deity liked this kind.

What if Ulysses couldn't lay an egg like this when the time came?

Buy a paint pen and draw them on afterward?

At that thought, Ulysses's gaze became slightly unfocused.

Surely no Zerg had ever thought of falsifying an egg's markings before?

And it would be extremely embarrassing if he were exposed.

Ulysses finally understood the importance of egg covers.

He could knit several covers with different patterns and change them every day. Then his male probably wouldn't have enough time to pay attention to the egg's actual insect markings.

As Ulysses thought about this, he unconsciously rubbed the bare base of his male's finger again.

...

An Ruo noticed that Ulysses seemed to have something he wanted to say throughout the entire day.

His gaze constantly followed An Ruo, carrying some ambiguous hint that An Ruo couldn't quite understand, as though he were waiting expectantly for something.

An Ruo silently glanced at the sky.

This...

It wasn't even dark yet.

Even at the dinner table, Ulysses was still looking at him like that.

An Ruo concealed his embarrassment by taking a sip of fruit juice.

His father-in-law was still here.

He didn't dare say a single word.

Fortunately, the sky finally grew dark.

An Ruo quietly breathed a sigh of relief, his face feeling slightly hot.

After dinner, they returned to the bedroom, and An Ruo consciously went to shower first.

But Ulysses followed right behind him step for step and nearly entered the bathroom with him.

An Ruo paused while closing the door.

Only then did he finally realize that something wasn't quite right.

Wasn't he being a little too impatient?

Ulysses normally wasn't like this. At the very least, he wasn't usually so impatient that he couldn't even wait for An Ruo to finish showering and absolutely had to go in with him.

An Ruo asked in confusion, "Is there something you want to say?"

Ulysses froze slightly and looked back at him in puzzlement.

First, he looked at An Ruo's face.

Then at his fingers.

Finally, his gaze shifted to the spatial button clipped to An Ruo's pocket.

When he saw that An Ruo showed absolutely no intention of touching it, Ulysses seemed to realize something, and his expression instantly became extraordinarily complicated and colorful.

An Ruo inexplicably sensed a hint of danger.

The back of his neck felt chilly.

Ulysses's tone was equally chilly.

"Wasn't it supposed to be for me..."