Chapter 69: Listening to the Sound of Someone’s Mental Defenses Breaking: Apparently, He Was a Character the Author Never Particularly Liked

Ulysses' gaze shifted away from the wall and settled on the male Zerg.

Then it drifted back to the holographic projections.

Then to the male again.

Back and forth several times.

An Ruo: "..."

I'm done for.

A guest had caught him with posters of his favorite characters plastered all over his room.

An Ruo stiffly stood where he was.

They were only the protagonists and supporting characters from his novel.

It wasn't as if he'd put up his picture.

Surely they couldn't deny him even that tiny bit of freedom?

Fortunately, the Marshal ultimately said nothing.

Although, with all those lingering glances, he'd already "said" more than enough.

So embarrassed that his scalp tingled, An Ruo couldn't help speaking first.

"Marshal, your mental condition is excellent. You don't need any Psychic Soothing. And... there's no need to apologize. I understand why you made your choice. Once you've finished your visit... you can... go."

At first, when his bed disappeared, he'd been confused.

And furious.

But after calming down, An Ruo had more or less figured out why Ulysses had taken it away.

That level of deep Psychic Soothing had a rather strong stimulating effect on female Zergs.

The entire room had been filled with pheromones afterward.

Clearly, pheromones weren't expressed only through scent.

Even if the Marshal hadn't carried away his bed...

He probably would have spent the whole night washing the sheets.

That might have been even more embarrassing.

As for the choking...

An Ruo chalked it up to the Marshal simply being overly sensitive.

This Marshal clearly hadn't trusted him.

Entering his psychic landscape had probably been completely unexpected, which was why he'd reacted so violently.

An Ruo could understand that.

If Ulysses tripped and fell flat on the ground once every day for an entire year...

He could forgive him too.

The male's gaze wandered uncertainly.

Ulysses silently took in every tiny expression.

His condition really was excellent.

The previous Psychic Soothing session had been an overwhelming success.

He had no need for another.

Yet hearing the male say those words inevitably reminded him of the novels...

Claire received Xi'an's Psychic Soothing every single day.

Even Isidore, a hatchling who barely required Psychic Soothing at all, was soothed ten times a week.

Even Iso, whose own Psychic Soothing had never been mentioned, still bore a male Zerg's psychic imprint.

The author showed unprecedented favoritism toward his protagonists.

Even Cyril, a supporting character who barely appeared, had earned enough attention to appear on the wall of his room.

The only bug who had been cropped out...

Was the one never mentioned at all.

When "favored" and "unfavored" were placed side by side...

The contrast became painfully obvious.

Ulysses lowered his eyes.

His expression softened even further.

"I must apologize for my offense yesterday. Perhaps... you'd be willing to look at my apology gift first."

An Ruo was about to refuse.

Then he watched Ulysses take out a thick document from his spatial button.

Hm?

Documents?

They even looked like contracts.

Whenever the great villain pulled out contracts...

It always reminded him of domineering CEOs in novels producing divorce agreements.

But...

Weren't they already divorced?

The moment the court reached its verdict, his marriage with the original Annor had automatically dissolved.

The author who had written that very plot—

An Ruo—

Had somehow transmigrated into the story.

Straight into prison.

Meanwhile...

Ulysses had been promoted, gained wealth...

And his husband had died.

An Ruo cautiously accepted the documents.

Compared to something unreasonable like another divorce agreement...

He found it far more likely that these were asset transfer contracts.

Maybe a huge sum of money.

Or some valuable property.

Honestly...

An Ruo didn't really need those things.

Staring at the thick stack of paper contracts, he wasn't particularly interested.

He lived quite comfortably inside Military Region Prison.

He lacked nothing...

Nothing...

Nothing...

Publication Licensing Agreement

Film Adaptation Licensing Agreement

His eyes widened instantly.

He kept reading.

Project Title: The Instructor

Produced by: Federal Military Publicity Department & Federal Film Group

Starring:

Xi'an as Xi'an

Claire as Claire

An Ruo sucked in a sharp breath.

His head suddenly felt dizzy.

He might actually be suffering from oxygen deprivation.

Who...

Was playing...

Who?

And there were many more contracts just like that.

Each covering a different type of licensing.

Animation.

Audio dramas.

Game development.

Merchandise.

Home furnishings.

Public transportation.

Digital virtual licensing.

Marketing rights.

Immersive experience licensing...

There were so many that his vision blurred.

It took An Ruo a long while to recover from the shock.

This apology gift had completely exceeded every expectation.

No creator could possibly reject such an offer.

Especially that film adaptation where...

The protagonists would literally play themselves.

Any creator would lose their mind.

The great villain's ability to understand people's hearts was terrifying.

Last night, An Ruo had insisted he wanted nothing.

So today...

He'd brought the one thing An Ruo absolutely couldn't refuse.

The great villain—

No.

How could he address him so disrespectfully?

An Ruo rubbed his face.

Then smiled brightly.

"Mr. Investor, you... Ah, no... Father Investor... no, that's wrong... Mother Investor... Please, this way. Please sit."

He hurriedly pushed over the room's only chair.

He even patted away imaginary dust from the floating chair before respectfully inviting the dazzling golden benefactor to take a seat.

The female Zerg, however, remained standing.

"I'm not your female parent."

Ulysses reminded him gravely.

His expression was distinctly unpleasant.

This unidentified lifeform clearly knew nothing about Zerg family relationships.

Apparently...

He had equated "the female Zerg who visited him and brought him what he wanted" with "female parent."

Ulysses had absolutely no intention of acquiring such a "hatchling."

An Ruo hurriedly explained.

"It's just a figure of speech. It means you've shown me the kind of care a female parent would..."

Seeing the Marshal's face grow even darker, An Ruo immediately remembered how seriously Zergs regarded blood relations and wisely stopped himself.

"Right. I'll use another expression."

"So... Marshal... please have a seat?"

Standing beside the floating chair, An Ruo gestured invitingly.

Ulysses looked around the room.

There was only one chair.

Clearly...

The male had never intended to receive visitors here.

Nor had he planned to entertain anyone.

His own previous visit had been an exception.

There was no world in which a female Zerg sat while a male remained standing.

The two fell into an awkward stalemate.

"No need. I'll be leaving shortly."

Ulysses reluctantly broke {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} the silence.

"You may continue reviewing the licensing agreements. If you're satisfied, sign them. You decide the price."

Remembering that this male seemingly had no concept whatsoever of Zerg currency—

To the point of transferring all his manuscript fees to him—

He added,

"If you aren't sure how to price them, I'll have them pay the highest available rate."

"Oh... alright."

As An Ruo flipped through the contracts, he suddenly remembered something and looked up.

"Were Xi'an and the others willing?"

Ulysses: "..."

He certainly cared about them.

"The film is jointly produced by the military and the film industry. It's essentially a military recruitment campaign. They volunteered."

As military personnel...

Cooperating with military publicity was simply their duty.

His voice remained calm.

Entirely convincing.

Trusting that the Marshal wouldn't deceive him, An Ruo happily signed his name.

Ulysses quietly watched.

His silver eyes grew deeper.

The male's signature flowed with practiced ease.

As though he'd signed his name countless times before.

Yet every time he finished writing An...

His pen unconsciously continued moving.

As if he intended to write additional characters.

Only...

He always stopped midway.

Leaving behind nothing but a tiny dot.

Ulysses narrowed his eyes.

He realized even more.

The novels themselves displayed remarkable maturity.

The writing style was completely unique.

The Instructor absolutely wasn't his first work.

Judging from that unconscious movement while signing...

"An" wasn't his first pen name either.

There had once been additional characters after it.

He had written other novels.

Published under another pseudonym.

But...

Published where?

His writing style was far too distinctive.

Among all the military novels and tragic romances of Zerg literature...

It stood out immediately.

If he'd ever published elsewhere...

Readers would have uncovered it instantly.

Unless...

He hadn't published within Zerg civilization at all.

The Garuda?

Impossible.

Some other interstellar civilization?

Didn't seem likely either.

He understood Zerg society far too naturally.

Every detail flowed effortlessly.

StarNet users had speculated that Author An might be a female Zerg.

A sub-female.

Or a male Zerg.

No one had ever suspected...

That he wasn't even a Zerg.

He had absolutely written novels set in Zerg society before.

So where were they?

If some other civilization had produced works like these...

The Zerg Federation couldn't possibly remain completely unaware.

Unless...

That civilization had never connected to the wider interstellar network at all.

Which made everything even stranger.

...

Then there was...

That immense psychic power.

Boundless as the universe itself.

Nothing among the known races matched it.

Ulysses couldn't help wondering—

Did a race with psychic power this overwhelming truly exist?

SSS-rank represented the absolute upper limit of the universal energy classification system.

Ulysses himself was the only Zerg in history to ever reach it.

Yet...

This unidentified lifeform standing before him seemed to exist entirely outside that system.

As though he had come from...

Another dimension.

Still deep in thought, Ulysses' gaze drifted to the decorative restraint bracelet around the male's wrist.

It really was only a decoration.

There was only one reason this male remained inside prison.

€€€€Because he wanted to stay.

Nothing else could possibly imprison him.

There was one more thing...

Something Ulysses had found especially striking.

This unidentified lifeform carried an inexplicable sense of guilt toward him.

Every meeting had made it obvious.

The first visitation.

The male's very first reaction upon seeing him had been guilt.

And fear.

It could be explained as fear that his identity—not being the original Annor, not even truly a male Zerg—would be exposed.

But...

Perhaps there was another, deeper reason.

The second visitation.

The moment the male realized Ulysses was inside the room, his first instinct had been to flee.

To avoid him.

Yet...

He had still walked in.

Even after the conversation ended unpleasantly...

He had still given him Psychic Soothing.

Then there had been that distant glance in the courtroom.

The instant the male saw him...

He stopped resisting altogether.

Allowing the military female guards to escort him away.

He had remained in prison ever since.

Wearing nothing more than a decorative restraint bracelet.

Then there was today's visitation request.

Ulysses had only applied three times.

The male had already agreed.

Originally...

He'd been fully prepared for a prolonged campaign.

Yet the male yielded far sooner than expected.

After all...

Even Xi'an and Claire's visitation requests had been left pending for an entire month before finally being approved on the very last day.

Every one of those incidents reflected the male's inexplicable guilt toward him.

Was it because of that male Zerg?

Even if he'd chosen to shoulder responsibility because he inhabited the same body...

There was no reason to inherit those emotions as well.

Besides...

By now Ulysses could barely find any trace of the former Annor in him.

The image in his memories had long since blurred.

Was it because...

He'd never truly tried remembering him?

Or...

Something else?

...

In that brief instant...

Ulysses connected countless fragments.

Author An's mature writing.

His profound love for storytelling.

Xi'an and Claire marrying almost simultaneously with the novel's publication.

Isidore crossing time itself.

That vast psychic power rivaling the universe.

Power that resembled a god's.

And...

That mysterious guilt.

Piece by piece...

The fog surrounding the male grew thinner.

The truth beneath became clearer.

Perhaps...

One more step...

And he would reach the answer.

But perhaps...

That truth would overturn everything.

Perhaps it would be something no one could bear.

Ulysses watched the male continue browsing the contracts.

He didn't sign every agreement.

He paused frequently to think.

Whenever he encountered an unfamiliar category, he opened StarNet to research it first.

"You've written other novels."

"...Mm."

An Ruo answered instinctively.

Only afterward did he realize what had just been said.

His head snapped around.

He stared at the female Zerg behind him in alarm.

Even that reaction...

Confirmed something.

"They were about me?"

Ulysses asked.

"..."

An Ruo genuinely couldn't understand how the conversation had ended up here.

He'd only been signing licensing agreements.

What had happened?

Why did the world suddenly feel completely unfamiliar?

What exactly was the great villain asking?

How did he know?

Why would he even suspect something like this?

Huh???

Oddly enough...

What An Ruo felt wasn't fear.

Nor tension.

It was...

Utter bewilderment.

He was completely confused.

Ulysses quietly confirmed the answer.

"You did."

An Ruo, who had neither spoken nor done anything:

"...Huh?"

Were they even participating in the same conversation?

"W-Wait... me? You? Hold on... what? Huh?"

Clutching his head, An Ruo looked utterly lost.

How did he figure that out?

For one terrifying moment, An Ruo almost suspected the great villain was secretly a male Zerg who had read his memories with psychic power.

...Alright.

He knew that was impossible.

Or perhaps...

Some kind of hypnotic technology?

Zerg technology couldn't be underestimated.

Or...

Had he talked in his sleep?

Damn it!

That was actually possible!

This guy checked surveillance footage!

An Ruo's mind went blank.

During the great villain's very first visit...

He had already stripped away his "male Zerg" disguise and discovered he wasn't the original owner.

And now...

His identity as the original author was hanging by a thread.

Not being the original owner wasn't actually a huge problem.

As long as his psychic power remained useful...

The great villain wouldn't touch him.

But...

Being the author of the original novel—

That was his greatest secret.

If Ulysses discovered he had written the novel...

That Ulysses himself was the villain...

And that he'd personally written his death...

The consequences would be unimaginable.

...

This...

Wasn't how the male treated the characters from his stories.

Ulysses' silver eyes shifted slightly.

He had once watched the surveillance recordings of the male interacting with Xi'an and Claire.

Back then...

The male had been completely relaxed.

Joy and emotion had filled his expression.

He loved them.

His favoritism had been unmistakable.

Whereas...

He himself...

Was clearly a character the author had never particularly liked.

"My ending wasn't a happy one."

Ulysses spoke quietly.

"...Was it?"

An Ruo's eyes flew open.

Pure terror filled them.

"Or perhaps..."

Ulysses continued,

"The journey wasn't pleasant either."

An Ruo...

An Ruo felt as though he'd already died.

"I got it right."

Silence filled the room.

An Ruo had completely given up.

"...Are you going to kill me?"

The same question again.

The first time they'd met...

The male had asked something very similar.

Back then, Ulysses had assumed it stemmed from the original Annor.

Now...

He realized it was something else.

The male had written him.

And it had been a tragic story.

Considering that everything the male wrote somehow corresponded with reality...

Ulysses could imagine what his own fate must have been.

He desperately wanted to ask...

Why?

But the male looked even closer to breaking down than he did.

"I won't kill you."

"You truly don't need to think of yourself as so fragile."

Ulysses let out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry for my presumptuous visit yesterday."

"And thank you for the Psychic Soothing."

"The gift has been delivered."

"I still have military duties to attend to."

"I'll be leaving now."

"You can hand the signed agreements to Uriel later."

With that...

He turned and left.

Only An Ruo remained in the room.

His thoughts were in complete chaos.

The licensing agreements that had thrilled him only moments ago...

He couldn't focus on them anymore.

Restlessly, he ran a hand through his hair.

Platinum strands slipped between his fingers like flowing moonlight.

Silver radiance shimmered beautifully across them.

At last...

An Ruo abandoned all attempts to think.

He collapsed face-first onto the bed.

Emptied his mind.

And quietly shut himself away in despair.

...

Ulysses completely forgot he possessed the ability to travel through space instantly.

Instead...

He walked.

All the way out of the prison.

Only after reaching the prison gates did he suddenly stop.

Night had already fallen.

The military female guards stood silently on either side.

Moonlight reflected from the silver insignia on their shoulders.

Standing within the prison's pitch-black shadow...

Ulysses slowly raised his head.

Outside...

The full moon hung high overhead.

Its pure light poured across the earth.

Everything within sight was bathed in soft silver brilliance.

Only...

The ground beneath his feet remained swallowed by darkness.

The road ahead held no light.

Nor did the one behind him.

The fog had finally lifted.

Everything that had troubled him until now...

Had found its answer.

An answer...

He desperately wished were false.

Ulysses quietly gazed up at the silver moon.

So this was it...

The bright moon hangs high above...

Yet its light never falls upon me alone.