Chapter 35: The CP I Ship Became Real! : The Novel He Wrote Seemed to Have... Become Reality Again?

Am I dreaming?

Lying in bed, An Ruo thought groggily.

Cosplay? Roleplaying? Same names?

I must have entered the app wrong.

An Ruo exited the topic, intending to enter it again.

#LordXiAnOfficialAnnouncement#

#XiAnClaire#

#TheCPIShipBecameReal!!!#

#NinthLegion#

#EntireInternetHeartbroken#

...

Facing the endless list of trending topics, An Ruo had no idea which one to click.

His finger hovered uncertainly for a long while before finally choosing the first.

The post at the top was the one he had just seen.

【Xi'an-A+】:

Thank you, everyone. We're together! @Claire.

An Ruo: "..."

He suddenly sat upright and slapped his cheeks awake before opening the post.

【Claire】[Top Comment]:

Thank you, everyone. I will take good care of my Male Lord.

[???]

[With that awful cooking of yours? @Claire, is your cooking really as terrible as it is in the novel?]

[His grades at military school have already been dug up. He barely passed cooking class and almost failed!]

[Wait, what? Can somebody explain this to me?]

An Ruo had exactly the same question.

[Simple. The CP you ship became reality. Second Lieutenant Xi'an of the Ninth Legion really married Colonel Claire!]

[Wait? The novel had prototypes? How come I never knew?]

[The military keeps information on active officers secret, but yes, there are prototypes. Everyone in the Ninth Military Region knows about it.]

[We didn't know! (crying loudly) We only knew that Lord Xi'an had taken marriage leave recently! Who would've guessed it was to marry Colonel Claire! Their relationship was terrible. Colonel Claire was an ice-cold officer who treated Lord Xi'an just as strictly as any military female. How could a Zerg like that possibly be loved by a male Zerg!?]

[Isn't that exactly the plot of the novel? The superior officer and male soldier who seem to dislike each other but secretly love one another.]

[The novel was real? Huh???]

[The novel entered reality!]

[The CP I ship is real!!!]

The Zergs of StarNet: [Huh???]

An Ruo in prison: Huh???

What did they mean, Second Lieutenant Xi'an of the Ninth Legion had really married Colonel Claire?

What did they mean by "the novel became reality"?

Remembering how he himself had transmigrated into his own story, An Ruo hurriedly clicked into the poster's profile.

The profile picture showed a red-haired male Zerg firing a gun. The name was Xi'an, and behind it was the certification badge of a male Zerg.

A genuine A+ male Zerg.

What was even crazier was the background image.

Their marriage certificate!

Under one side's "Female Lord" was written Claire.

Under the other side's "Male Lord" was written Xi'an.

The two practically wanted to carve each other onto their profile pages.

IP address: Ninth Military Region.

Scrolling through previous posts, An Ruo found ordinary daily updates.

Mostly things like what he'd eaten that day, complaints about how terrible the cafeteria food was, and screenshots of achievements from space warfare games.

Claire himself had never posted.

But his favorites list was visible.

It was filled with recipes.

Pregnancy preparation meals.

Nutritious meals for male Zergs.

The male Zerg's favorite dishes.

How to save your kitchen after blowing it up.

An Ruo: "..."

Nothing could be fake.

This wasn't roleplay.

It wasn't people with identical names.

The novel he wrote seemed to have...

Become reality again?

Clutching his blanket, An Ruo sat on the bed in a daze.

For an author, having the characters and world they created truly exist in another universe was undoubtedly the highest praise.

But normally that was only an exaggerated expression.

Something that existed only in imagination.

When it actually appeared before him...

After the initial surprise and joy faded, and reason returned, what arose was a horrifying chill that made his scalp crawl.

What he wrote became reality.

Fortunately, he only wrote romance novels.

What if he had written war novels?

One thought, and lives would be born.

One thought, and lives would die.

Countless lives reduced to a sentence.

A number.

Such heavy sins would crush a person.

Would he still dare to write?

No.

Maybe it wasn't that his novels became reality.

Perhaps all this was merely coincidence.

An Ruo tried to convince himself.

Xi'an was already over twenty years old.

Claire was even older.

Long before he had transmigrated into this world, long before he had written this novel, Xi'an and Claire already existed.

They had already been officer and soldier.

And he had only written this book for less than a month.

The persuasion worked.

Just not very much.

Because everything had already happened.

He couldn't prove whether Xi'an and Claire had existed before or not.

He couldn't use the result to reverse-engineer the cause.

Schrödinger's Xi'an and Claire.

Clutching his head, An Ruo shook it violently and threw away the chaotic thoughts.

Rather than scaring himself with wild speculation, it was better to conduct an experiment.

Taking a deep breath, he opened a document.

It was already late at night.

The prison lights had long been turned off, and only the corridor outside remained illuminated as always.

Wrapped in his blanket and sitting on the bed, An Ruo stared at the blank document illuminated by the screen.

Should he really write?

What should he write?

€€€€Ulysses decides to pardon me.

€€€€And gives me a sky fortress, a resource planet, and an army to protect me...

€€€€I become President of the Federation!

€€€€Does that position even exist? Never mind. I'll enjoy life while Ulysses handles military affairs, Cassian handles political affairs, and little Albino lives a long— no, a thousand years!

€€€€Uriel will bring me a midnight snack in ten minutes.

€€€€The food includes strawberry egg tarts, sweet vegetable juice, fragrant grilled meat, and spicy crayfish!

The earlier ones had too much impact.

They felt wonderful to imagine, but he didn't dare write them.

Besides, he actually liked prison and wasn't particularly eager to leave.

As for the latter...

Making Uriel run around in the middle of the night seemed rather rude.

After hesitating for a long time, An Ruo finally only wrote:

【Little Albino Aira stays healthy and lives a thousand years.】

【A mechanical Zerg will deliver me a midnight snack in five minutes.】

As for little Albino's health and lifespan, that was simply a beautiful wish.

Whether it would come true or not was impossible to know.

The real experiment was the mechanical Zerg arriving in five minutes.

An Ruo stared at the time in the lower right corner of the screen and waited.

One minute...

Nothing outside.

Two minutes.

Three minutes...

An Ruo switched to StarNet and browsed while glancing at the time.

Four minutes.

Five minutes...

The doorway remained empty.

An Ruo let out a long breath.

He still waited.

But even after ten minutes, nothing happened.

As expected!

What nonsense was this about words becoming reality?

Completely impossible!

An Ruo fell backward onto the bed, wrapped himself in his blanket, buried his face inside, and silently laughed.

He felt like an idiot.

At last, he could relax and browse StarNet without worries.

Throwing away all burdens, his thoughts now were the same as most Zergs'.

€€€€The CP I ship became real!

Regarding Xi'an and Claire, his feelings were especially complicated.

But no matter what, it was an incredibly novel experience.

His protagonists had truly appeared before him.

Even if only through social media.

Like Xi'an's post.

Like Claire's comment.

Like congratulations.

Like disbelief.

Like despair.

An Ruo became an emotionless machine that only pressed Like.

Suddenly, a golden notification appeared at the top of the screen, impossible to ignore.

In a daze, An Ruo saw a familiar name and clicked it.

【Ulysses】:

AN99901*******

【Ulysses】:

The temporary account I applied for you. The password is 31 + your psychic threshold.

31 plus psychic threshold.

An Ruo immediately understood what he meant and stiffened.

He had been so careful.

He'd used standard irregular numbers and even removed the prefix.

How had anyone noticed something like that?

An Ruo grabbed wildly at the blanket.

He thought that if Marshal Ulysses ever lost his job, he could always become a detective.

Today's meeting and these messages basically meant:

€€€€I know you're not that male Zerg.

€€€€I know your rank test was fake.

€€€€Here's your money back.

A moment later, another message arrived.

【Ulysses】:

If you need anything, tell me.

€€€€Anything except leaving prison.

€€€€Release? Not happening.

An Ruo: "..."

I'm tired.

Destroy the world.

Forget waiting for the original protagonist to appear.

I'm killing off the great villain right now.

Opening the document, although he knew it was impossible, An Ruo vented by writing:

【Ulysses trips while walking on flat ground.】

...

In the middle of the night, Uriel got up to deal with a hacking incident.

The military female on guard informed him that the kitchen mechanical Zergs had suddenly begun moving by themselves.

Suspecting hackers had seized control after invading the database, they had activated emergency security protocols and cut the machines' power.

Only then had they stopped.

Who would dare invade a military district database?

Did they have a death wish?

Such an act was equivalent to treason.

Uriel immediately led the security team in a thorough investigation.

After an entire night of work, however, they reached a conclusion.

No traces of hacking.

How was that possible?

The mechanical Zergs acting outside their programming was undeniable evidence.

If no traces existed, either the enemy's technology surpassed theirs—

Which was equally impossible. The Zerg civilization possessed the highest level of technology in the universe, and the military had access to the most advanced systems.

Or...

The answer wasn't technological.

A security officer proposed:

"Perhaps it was a male Zerg's psychic power."

Only a male Zerg's psychic power could produce something so abnormal.

"So you're saying a male Zerg lord hacked into the military database and controlled several kitchen mechanical Zergs?"

Even Uriel felt absurd saying it aloud.

Yet it was indeed the only possibility.

"Continue the investigation. Even if it's a male Zerg invading military databases, he still belongs in prison."

Male Zergs inside the prison all wore suppressors.

They couldn't do this.

So it had to be someone outside...

Actually, there was one exception...

Suddenly remembering something, Uriel turned toward the guard on duty.

"When those mechanical Zergs were discovered, what were they doing?"

"...Cooking? Preparing food?"

Even the military female sounded confused.

Uriel fell silent.

He pulled up last night's surveillance footage and discovered that a certain male Zerg lord had stayed up very late browsing StarNet.

Perhaps...

He should arrange midnight snacks for His Lordship in the future.

Turning around, he informed everyone present that there was no need to continue investigating.

The security personnel sighed in relief.

Psychic power had always been difficult to investigate.

Even if they found something, they would still need high-ranking male Zergs to intervene.

It was too troublesome.

Since there had been no losses, dropping the matter was best.

Besides, the male Zerg lord clearly meant no harm.

He had simply been curious and made the mechanical Zergs cook.

Just a little joke.

What an adorable male Zerg lord.

The next morning, after watching the mechanical Zergs deliver breakfast to the male Zergs, Uriel boarded his aircraft and headed to headquarters.

Following the Marshal's orders, he needed to explain the male Zerg's situation to the Generals of each military region.

Lending him out?

Impossible.

This was a male Zerg who refused to move from his nest.

At most, they'd increase the quotas and allow more female Zergs to come for psychic soothing.

Upon arriving at headquarters, Uriel unexpectedly found the Marshal looking unusually solemn.

Even the normally impeccable uniform had several subtle wrinkles around the sleeves.

"Marshal, did something happen?"

Uriel asked.

Ulysses glanced at him.

"Nothing."

...

Today, Speaker Cassian had unexpectedly taken leave.

His reason:

To stay home with his Male Lord.

The office clerks lamented the loss of juicy gossip.

"So is it true? Speaker Cassian's younger brother married Colonel Claire of the Ninth Legion? And Claire is the Female Lord?"

The sub-female clerks whispered among themselves.

"Of course it's true. The marriage certificate is public. You can verify it through the registration number."

"Unbelievable. It's exactly like a novel becoming reality."

"Do you think Lord Xi'an read that novel? Maybe that's why he decided to marry Colonel Claire?"

"Probably. Otherwise it doesn't make sense. Their family backgrounds are worlds apart. This is reality, not fiction. Which male Zerg ignores such things and marries a Female Lord? He must have read the novel and been influenced by it."

The novel was simply too beautiful.

It made people yearn for it.

Recently, far more male Zergs had begun marrying military females.

As the person involved, it wasn't strange that Lord Xi'an might have become interested in the novel's Claire.

"Because of this, lots of people want Author An to write custom novels."

"Do you think he'll accept?"

"Forget that. I just want Author An to hurry up and start a new book. How am I supposed to live without his books?"

Everyone sighed deeply.

Previously, they could read traditional tragic romances to kill time.

But after becoming accustomed to An's novels, they couldn't bear reading those anymore.

Nothing but suffering.

No romance.

"They don't even love each other!"

A reader pointed that out and received widespread agreement.

As a result, authors everywhere were desperately trying to understand what "love" actually was and how to put it into stories.

Meanwhile, An Ruo was being bombarded with messages urging him to start a new novel.

He wanted to crawl through the network cables and shake his readers by the collar.

€€€€I just finished one! Do you understand? I just finished it!

But when he actually had free time, he didn't know what to do.

After watching Zerg movies and videos for several days, An Ruo felt their values simply didn't align with his.

Movies from other alien races were interesting out of curiosity, but after watching too many, his head hurt.

Eventually, he buried himself in the virtual cabin and played games.

His first choice was naturally mecha space warfare.

Driving a beginner mecha, unaware that there was a male Zerg driving mode, he was brutally beaten by a Zerg child.

The defeat shattered his mentality.

The elementary school kid on the other side mocked him.

Saying his limbs weren't coordinated and that his female father should hurry and take him to the hospital for surgery while he was still young enough to be saved.

An Ruo replied:

I don't have a female father.

The child immediately fell silent.

After a while, the little guy awkwardly comforted him.

He said An Ruo could follow him from now on.

He'd protect him.

And he'd even carry him up the ranked ladder.

Originally, An Ruo had intended to reveal his age and refute him.

But after hearing that last part, he immediately shut up.

Obediently following behind the little guy's mecha.

There was nothing shameful about hugging a kid's thigh.

He happily played for half a month.

Then school started.

Even worse, Big Bro Kid had boosted him into ranks he didn't belong in.

He couldn't beat those opponents at all.

Climbing out of the virtual cabin, An Ruo sat at his desk and browsed StarNet comments while considering his new book.

Although he had proven that writing didn't make things become reality, that incident had still left lingering fears.

He didn't dare write recklessly.

That was why he had delayed starting for half a month.

But...

Not writing made his hands itch terribly.

Previously, games had distracted him.

Now that Big Bro Kid had gone back to school, games no longer worked.

Forget it.

Just write.

Something safe.

Military females?

Temporarily rejected.

What if it accidentally became reality and touched military secrets?

The consequences would be enormous.

Then what should he write?

Whenever An Ruo wrote Zerg stories, they always revolved around military females.

Without them, his mind became completely blank.

He flipped through StarNet comments in search of inspiration, wondering what Zerg readers liked.

Yet what emerged in his mind were titles like:

"One Pregnancy, 108 Babies."

"Genius Baby at Three and a Half."

...