Chapter 328: Male Zerg Celebrity × Arms Dealer (15): Because He Likes Him Too Much, Even the Contract Has Become an Obstacle

[He’s really retiring? He’s really retiring! Nooo, baby, come back! We’ll tie Ravens to your bed for you.]

[Don’t go, Shair! We’ll never oppose you being with Ravens again. Come back and keep acting! If Ravens dares blacklist you or dares find someone new, we’ll help you assassinate him! Even an arms tycoon can’t withstand this many Zergs watching him day and night. Sooner or later, we’ll get our chance.]

[Rank isn’t a problem. No matter what rank you are, we’ll still follow you. We like you, not some rank assessment.]

The fans wailed and cried, desperately trying to make Shamir stay.

The readers, meanwhile, thought Ravens wasn’t trying hard enough. They complained that he was useless—he had worked at it for an entire month and still couldn’t make Shamir stay.

[Why couldn’t even the pets make Shamir stay? Does that mean raising pets is useless?]

Previously, they had thought Ravens’s pet strategy was brilliant. Quite a few Zergs had even started raising pets themselves, or planned to raise pets after they got a Male Zerg.

But now, seeing this, they were completely dumbfounded.

Wasn’t the Male Zerg supposed to stay because he couldn’t bear to part with the pets? Why had Shamir left without the slightest hesitation?

The pets... hadn’t worked at all!

A whole group of Female Zergs stared at the notes they had previously taken, thoroughly confused and unsure whether they should still believe them.

[I hereby declare Ravens the least reliable protagonist of them all. His experience guide is the most useless.]

[Ravens can be ranked below One Star Coin now! (angry)]

[What are you talking about? Comparing him to One Star Coin is an insult to One Star Coin. Major General Iso ate incredibly well back then. He had a Male Zerg and a hatchling, and that high-born Male Zerg didn’t care at all that he was poor. He was willing to follow him all the way to the Underground District, felt sorry for him, spent money hiring him as a model, and even fed him after finishing the painting... Jokingly calling him “One Star Coin” is one thing, but in reality, how many Zergs have it better than Iso? Even in novels, there aren’t many who can compare to Iso.]

[I don’t think it’s that bad. This experience isn’t completely useless. His Excellency the Male Zerg obviously likes the pets very much and is reluctant to leave them. Ravens said he would bring the pets to visit him, and he was very happy about that €€€€ This point can still be written down. With pets acting as a connection, even after separating, there’s still an excuse to visit the Male Zerg and have a second chance at contact with him.

Also, I think the most important point is this: Shamir never ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) felt Ravens trying to make him stay. Ravens’s attempt wasn’t explicit enough.

If Ravens had clearly said that he wanted Shamir to stay and wanted to renew the contract with him, Shamir might have been willing to accept and remain. But Ravens didn’t do that. He never once mentioned renewing the contract. He’s actually taking the initiative to end it.]

Ravens was taking the initiative to end the contract!??

That argument left countless Female Zerg readers stunned and utterly baffled.

Why would Ravens want to terminate the contract?

The contract was the foundation of his relationship with Shamir. It had given him ten full years of Psychic Soothing and services from the Male Zerg, keeping Shamir by his side for ten years.

From an outsider’s perspective, they thought what Ravens had done was excessive, but more than anything, they were envious and jealous.

Anyone could see just how advantageous this contract was for Ravens.

With such an excellent contract, why would Ravens want to end it?

Didn’t he like Shamir?

That was obviously impossible.

Ravens liked Shamir.

He liked him enough to change his principles and allow Shamir to leave pheromones inside his body, taking on the risk of being affected by a Male Zerg’s marking.

He liked him enough to watch every one of Shamir’s movies, adapt and play the theme songs from Shamir’s films, and raise pets so Shamir would have something tying him there and making him reluctant to leave.

If he could lay eggs, what Ravens probably truly wanted to raise was an egg belonging to him and Shamir.

It was just that the difference in their ranks was too great, making pregnancy difficult, and Shamir had also been taking contraceptives the entire time...

Ravens still didn’t know about that.

Who knew how heartbroken he would be if he found out?

[He likes Shamir. Precisely because he likes him too much and cares about him too much, even the contract has become an obstacle.]

More and more Zergs began to realize what Ravens was thinking.

[He thinks the contract is an obstacle between him and Shamir. He’s waiting for the contract to end. He can’t ask Shamir to stay at a time like this, because he can’t let their contractual relationship continue in such a muddled way. Only after the contract completely ends can they start over. Truly start over.]

Ordinary straight Female Zergs with one-track minds: They didn’t understand it, but they were deeply shaken.

Then they looked at the notes they had written earlier.

After hesitating for a long while, they ultimately decided to keep the notes for now and wait to see what happened before deciding whether to move them into their “mistake notebook.”

[Ravens, I’ll trust you one more time! If you can’t win the Male Zerg back, you’re getting ranked dead last among all the protagonists!]

The dull Female Zergs were still agonizing over whether the notes were useful and where the protagonists should rank.

The clever Female Zergs had already started searching for Shamir’s family farm, preparing to wait at the next plot location.

[Where is Shamir’s farm? I’m not asking about the one in the game. I mean the real farm!]

[I heard Shamir’s family farm also has a hotel, and you can go there for vacation, tourism, and farm-life experiences. Is that true? I want to go! Please let me pay to experience it! I’m willing to pay to work, pay to pick fruit, pay to feed Milk-Jar Beasts, pay to plow fields! I’ll definitely do a better job than Ravens!]

[Holy crap! You people are too cunning! You’re actually trying to use this method to get close to His Excellency Shamir!]

[Whether we have to pay to work or not is a small matter. If there’s a chance to see His Excellency Shamir in person, who cares about a little money? And maybe we’ll even get to see Ravens and Shamir together up close. That would basically be like watching a live broadcast and witnessing the story with our own eyes!]

[There can’t possibly be that much after-sales content, right? Isn’t it all scripted? The livestream is already over. How could Shamir possibly keep acting with Ravens?]

[I believe in An-shen’s after-sales service! You can doubt other things, but An-shen’s stories are definitely real!

How many years have Iso and Lord Hill already been together? Xi’an and Claire got married too, settled down together in the Ninth Military Region, and are very close. The Zergs of the Ninth Legion see them every single day. Even something as seemingly impossible as the Tianjia Emperor and His Excellency the Male Zerg... the Tianjia Emperor laid eggs! Twin eggs!]

They could doubt other books.

They could even believe news reports might be fake.

But they believed An-shen’s stories.

An-shen said Shamir would retire from the entertainment industry, and hadn’t Shamir’s studio really released a related statement?

Filled with the excitement of personally witnessing a story unfold, the readers flooded online to search for Shamir’s family farm.

In the interstellar age, many things weren’t secrets.

Especially for a massive celebrity like Shamir, a public figure, information about his past and hometown had long since spread all over StarNet.

There had been plenty of reports about him.

As long as someone looked, it didn’t take long to identify the target.

However, when the netizens found the page for Shamir’s farm, they discovered that it was already completely booked.

Reservations were filled for an entire year.

The Female Zergs who had thought they were quick and clever were all dumbfounded.

[Didn’t Shamir say his family farm had a huge visitor capacity? Where are the slots? Where are the openings? Why can’t I reserve anything at all???]

[Reservations are booked out for a year... The only other time I’ve ever seen a scene like this was when making an appointment for that lord’s Psychic Soothing.]

[That lord works fast! He can soothe a lot of Zergs at once. It might look like appointments are booked years ahead, but your turn actually comes up pretty quickly. Now His Excellency has even finished his mission and left prison, and he directly raised the Zerg race’s overall psychic values by several percentage points. Who could see that and not admire him? The farm is genuinely booked for forever. You can’t compare the two.]

The pure readers had acted too late and couldn’t get reservations at all, leaving them full of resentment.

Among Shamir’s fans, however, some were delighted while others were miserable.

They were Shamir’s fans to begin with.

Hardcore fans knew where Shamir’s hometown was and knew about the farm.

It had always been one of the places they absolutely had to visit.

Many fans had already been there before.

Others had already made reservations and planned to visit soon.

Then Shamir’s retirement announcement happened.

The fan groups were thrown into complete upheaval.

Some begged Shamir not to leave.

Some were so upset they could barely function.

Some cursed the studio.

Some cursed Ravens.

Some camped under the novel updates.

It was complete chaos.

And there were also fans who quietly made reservations at Shamir’s family farm during this period.

Originally, they hadn’t expected to run into Shamir.

They mainly wanted to visit their idol’s hometown around the time of his retirement, reminisce about the past, and indulge in nostalgia.

Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, their reservation had become a hot commodity.

Extremely hot.

As fragrant as Male Zerg pheromones.

The Zergs who had reserved in advance stared at the booking confirmation on their screens in a daze, hardly able to believe it.

It felt as though they had suddenly won the grand prize.

There were already Zergs on StarNet offering enormous sums to buy farm tickets.

The prices climbed higher and higher, tempting countless Zergs.

But most of them were only tempted for a moment and had no intention of selling.

A chance to see a Male Zerg was priceless.

Sure, they weren’t certain they would actually get to see the Male Zerg.

But what if they did?

Wasn’t this exactly what Female Zergs worked themselves half to death earning money for?

[I’m a Male Zerg. Sell me your ticket and I’ll give you one date.]

[???!! Despicable!]

[I’ll sell! I’ll sell! Your Excellency the Male Zerg, look at me!]

Compared with an uncertain chance of meeting Shamir, an actual date with a Male Zerg was obviously more important.

Quite a few Female Zergs with tickets began wavering.

[Fake! If he were really His Excellency the Male Zerg, he’d just tell you to give him the ticket. Why would he pay money for it?!]

[But his profile has verified Male Zerg identity €€.]

[Then the account was stolen!]

Whether it was true or fake, this still gave a lot of Zergs inspiration.

Before long, StarNet was filled with posts saying things like:

[I’m a Male Zerg. Who has tickets?]

[I have a Male Zerg younger brother who’s reached marriageable age. I can introduce you.]

And there were even those who took a more unconventional approach:

[I’m a Tianjia male. I can call you Female Lord.]

StarNet descended into complete chaos.

Even Tianjia households became wary, spontaneously organizing anti-fraud squads.

Shamir knew nothing about any of this.

As a peculiar individual who frequently disconnected from the network of his own accord and didn’t act like an interstellar Zerg at all, Shamir had already shut off his terminal, blocked out everything happening outside, and returned home.

......

[Shamir’s hometown was an ordinary third-class planet with a sparse population and relatively underdeveloped infrastructure.

In Shamir’s memory, what this planet had most of was land and plants.

Land that had not been covered by reinforced concrete or all kinds of new construction materials.

Natural soil.

All sorts of crops grew across it.

His hometown was one of the Federation’s agricultural planets, but it was not one of the main food-producing planets, so it was not particularly famous.

But when Shamir returned again, the changes were so dramatic that he almost couldn’t recognize the place.

Complete aerial routes for flying vehicles had been constructed in the sky, and free public transportation was now available.

Looking down from high above, he could see broad, brand-new roads linking every populated settlement together.

Mint Starlight Trees had been planted along the roadsides, covered in tiny blossoms that resembled stars.

Even the houses were brightly colored, neatly arranged, and extremely beautiful.

The family farm had also been completely transformed.

It had expanded significantly, and there was now an especially beautiful entrance gate.

Vines intertwined and climbed across it, blooming with flowers in pink, white, cyan, and green.

Several cartoon Shamir dolls even stood on top of the arch, visible from far away.

Shamir froze awkwardly.

He hadn’t returned home for years.

His Female Older Brothers had been handling the family affairs all this time, and he only knew about things in general terms.

For example, he knew the family had built a hotel and added several farm-experience projects.

That had originally even been his suggestion on a whim, meant to keep up with the times and explore new business models.

But wasn’t this a bit excessive?

Was this supposed to be a “farm-life experience zone” or a “Shamir-Themed Farm Amusement Park”?

He couldn’t imagine what Mr. Ravens would think of him if he ever came here one day and saw this scene.

He would probably think Shamir was...

Extremely narcissistic.

...]

The readers reached this point in the new chapter and said:

[No. He’d die of happiness.]

Who wouldn’t love an amusement park filled with dolls of the Male Zerg they liked?

That sounded far too wonderful and far too blissful!

There were also readers who had failed to get tickets and spoke with deep resentment:

[Don’t worry. He won’t be able to get a ticket.]

They couldn’t get tickets.

How could Ravens possibly get one?

Ravens, who had no ticket, was destined never to see such a wonderful place.

They, the vast masses of reader-fans, would kindly endure this suffering on Ravens’s behalf.

Once someone said that, other Zergs immediately became worried.

[But he’s the chairman of Ravens Group. He has the power of money! He can buy tickets from other Zergs.]

That made sense.

Very soon, a Zerg stood up and issued a proposal:

[Can we all unite and refuse to sell Ravens a ticket? Great.]

Ravens, who was currently online trying to buy a ticket: “......”

This was indeed his mistake.

He hadn’t considered the popularity of the book Shamir had authorized.

Then again, it was only normal for it to be this popular.

After all, it was a book written by that lord.

He had simply acted too late.

He hadn’t expected Shamir’s fans to all flood toward the farm after his retirement from the entertainment industry, causing every ticket to sell out.

Now he could only resort to some unconventional methods.