Chapter 80: If He Likes You, Then Just Lay One: "That Lord... Likes Male Zerg Eggs."

An Ruo and Ulysses sat facing each other at opposite ends of the dining table.

Between them stood a naturally arranged bouquet, vibrant with life and full of color, reminding one of mountain fields and quiet countryside.

Yet no matter how lively the flowers were, they couldn't rescue the awkward atmosphere hanging over the table.

It was as though both of them had faithfully embraced the principle of "don't speak while eating."

The only sounds were the faint clinks of cutlery.

I should've put on some music...

An Ruo thought awkwardly.

He didn't even dare look up, keeping his eyes fixed on his own plate.

Several times he tried to start a conversation, only to swallow every word before it left his mouth.

In the end, it was Ulysses who spoke first.

"You seem to like insect eggs very much?"

An Ruo secretly let out a sigh of relief.

Although it was a little strange that Ulysses would ask such a question, anything was fine as long as it broke the suffocating silence.

"Mhm, I do. Big round white eggs are adorable."

As he spoke, a smile unconsciously curved the corners of An Ruo's lips.

It was the first time he had ever seen such enormous eggs in real life.

Although Heavenly Garuda eggs were somewhat smaller than Zerg eggs, they were still nearly the size of an ostrich egg.

To someone like An Ruo, who had only ever seen chicken and duck eggs in reality, they felt wonderfully novel.

Besides, there was actually a living being inside the egg.

It even interacted with him.

And it was the childhood form of his own protagonist.

It was unbearably cute, okay?

Understanding dawned on Ulysses.

So that was it.

He liked Male Zerg eggs.

Which meant...

That Female Zerg egg whose shell had once been covered in intricate patterns...

Had never been favored by God.

And so, the moment it hatched, it had been forced to separate from its female parent, sent away by its male parent, and eventually left in an orphanage.

The instant it broke free of its shell...

It had no family left.

Silence filled the room.

An Ruo: "?"

Can I really kill every conversation just by talking?

Once again he felt as though he were sitting on a bed of needles.

Ulysses could tell that the Lord desperately wanted this dinner to end as quickly as possible.

Even though they had only been seated for less than two minutes.

He quietly sighed to himself before asking,

"May I know what your plans for the future are? I don't mean to pry. It's simply that you've never once stepped outside the prison. I have no intention of keeping you confined."

At first, he hadn't released him because he had no idea what this "unknown being" capable of occupying a Male Zerg's body actually was, nor whether it posed any danger to other Male Zergs or to the Federation.

Had the other party not performed Psychic Soothing even more conscientiously than genuine Male Zergs...

The laboratory would have been his most appropriate destination.

But now...

There was no longer any need.

Yet this Lord seemed to have no intention of leaving.

It was as though he had already settled down and made a home here.

An Ruo listened in confusion.

First Ulysses had asked whether he liked insect eggs.

Now he was asking about his future plans.

If not for where they currently were...

This was practically the sort of conversation people had on a blind date.

Although it felt rather strange, An Ruo still thought seriously before answering.

"As for me... I don't really have any grand plans. I'll just keep doing Psychic Soothing every day, keep writing novels, then either finish serving my 999-year sentence... or save up enough Contribution Points to reduce my sentence and leave."

As he spoke, An Ruo quietly glanced toward Ulysses across the table.

After all...

This was someone who had repeatedly said,

"Anything except leaving prison."

Which meant...

He wasn't supposed to leave prison.

Whether the Contribution Points he'd earned could actually be used remained uncertain.

Perhaps he really would become permanent prison property...

Living here for 999 years until he died of old age.

Listening to him, Ulysses recalled how the Lord performed Psychic Soothing every day almost as though completing a daily quest, steadily accumulating Contribution Points.

He finally understood.

This was simply the Lord's way of playing the game.

Accumulate enough Contribution Points...

Then clear the level.

Leave prison.

He nodded.

"I understand."

An Ruo blinked in surprise.

"You don't object?"

So that meant...

As long as he gathered enough Contribution Points, he could really leave prison through the proper legal process?

Although...

It wasn't as though he desperately wanted to leave.

Life inside prison was quite comfortable.

Still...

People needed something to look forward to.

Of course Ulysses had no objections.

If a god wished to spend time on such a little game...

It brought nothing but benefits to the Federation.

Compared with hobbies like "destroying the world"...

This was an unimaginably gentle pastime.

As long as that Lord didn't endanger the Federation...

He would cooperate with every decision he made.

An Ruo smiled brightly.

If Ulysses was willing to let him leave prison this way...

Didn't that also mean he was willing to forgive his crimes?

—the crimes committed by the villain inside his own novel.

"That's wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Would you like some juice? Or maybe wine? Oh, I have wine."

The atmosphere around the table finally became light and pleasant.

From among the gifts patients had given him and stored inside his spatial button, An Ruo took out a bottle of wine that looked extremely expensive.

He didn't drink alcohol himself.

He had never opened any of them before.

But now they could be used to entertain his guest.

Ulysses couldn't understand where the god's ever-changing emotions came from.

Still...

He looked happy.

And that alone made it a good thing.

That Lord didn't drink any wine himself.

He poured every drop into Ulysses' glass.

For a high-ranking Female Zerg, this amount of alcohol was nothing.

At most, it was merely flavored water.

Far from enough to make anyone drunk.

Yet looking at the beautiful Male Zerg opposite him—

eyes smiling,

hair shimmering like moonlight—

Ulysses felt slightly intoxicated.

Otherwise...

He would never have asked such a direct question.

"How should I address you? May I know your name?"

he asked.

An Ruo froze.

Both of them understood perfectly well that "Annor" was not his name.

Nor had Ulysses ever called him by it.

It was the first time since arriving in this world...

That someone had asked his name.

After hesitating, An Ruo replied,

"Just call me... 'An.'"

"An?"

The black-haired, silver-eyed Female Zerg cautiously repeated it.

The same name as his pen name.

Whether it was his real name remained unknown.

Hundreds of millions of people already knew that name.

There was nothing unique about it.

But...

At least it was progress.

Ulysses thought.

A tiny, almost insignificant step forward.

Meanwhile, An Ruo was thinking:

Being called "An-shen" or "An" online had never felt strange.

But hearing someone say it privately, face-to-face...

It sounded a little too intimate.

So he added,

"An Ruo.

"My name."

Ulysses looked up in astonishment.

This time...

It was his real name.

He had shared his true name with him.

Perhaps...

He was the first person to hear it.

"An Ruo."

Ulysses softly repeated it.

The name rolled slowly across the tip of his tongue before finally leaving his lips.

An Ruo...

Felt his ears go slightly numb.

Normally, whenever the great villain spoke, his voice carried overwhelming authority.

It placed tremendous pressure on everyone around him.

In just a few sentences, he could strip away every one of An Ruo's disguises.

It had always been terrifying.

Only now did An Ruo realize...

His voice was actually so pleasant.

Deep and unbelievably attractive.

No wonder Ulysses usually spoke in such a cold, commanding tone.

If he used this voice during meetings instead...

Everyone would be too busy listening to his voice.

Who would still pay attention to what the Marshal was actually saying?

What had begun as an unbearably awkward dinner...

Ultimately ended with both host and guest thoroughly satisfied.

...

Ulysses bid the Lord farewell.

Then, on the way out, he went down to the underground level to visit his female parent.

Selerus was incubating the egg.

Seeing Ulysses enter, he paused.

A trace of confusion appeared in his crimson eyes.

He looked at the egg in his arms.

Then at the fully grown hatchling standing outside.

His not-particularly-clever brain pondered for a moment before quickly accepting reality.

He had two hatchlings.

One was the grown-up Ulysses.

The other was the little Ulysses egg.

The older Ulysses stopped before him.

"Female Parent."

At that, Selerus withdrew his original form, dragging his half-transformed body upright before putting on his clothes.

Holding the egg, he looked toward his grown hatchling.

He could smell a familiar scent lingering on him.

Some traces of that Male Zerg.

Not pheromones.

Just an extremely faint fragrance, nearly indistinguishable from ordinary air.

Like something the wind could scatter away at any moment.

"Didn't sleep with him?"

Selerus asked bluntly.

Ulysses froze.

It took him a moment to understand what his female parent actually meant.

"The Lord and I aren't... that kind of relationship."

"Oh, please."

Selerus' mind might have been damaged.

But he wasn't blind.

When a Female Zerg constantly appeared beside a Male Zerg, anyone could tell what he wanted.

Besides...

Selerus had once smelled Ulysses' pheromones on that Male Zerg.

It had been rather strange.

The Male Zerg himself had been perfectly clean.

There had been almost no scent on him.

One couldn't detect any Male Zerg pheromones whatsoever.

That day...

The only pheromones on him had belonged to Ulysses.

Which clearly meant that Ulysses hadn't managed to sleep with the Male Zerg that day either.

Instead, he'd left covered in his own pheromones.

Pathetically disheveled.

Selerus genuinely couldn't imagine how his hatchling had managed to make such a mess of his life.

He looked incredibly capable.

Capable enough to send his own Male Lord to prison.

Yet pitiful enough to seek intimacy while drenched in pheromones...

Only to be rejected.

...Though, considering he'd thrown his Male Lord into prison...

Being rejected was understandable.

It was simply impossible to make sense of.

He couldn't figure out what sort of drama they were acting out.

"What exactly happened?

"What are you two fighting about?"

Selerus asked.

Truthfully...

He didn't think that Male Zerg disliked Ulysses all that much.

He had already seen it when the two of them came together to his prison cell.

If a Male Zerg truly hated a Female Zerg...

There was absolutely no way he'd tolerate that Female Zerg standing so close.

He wouldn't even endure being in the same room.

Much less casually showing him whatever was on his light screen.

"There isn't any conflict."

Ulysses answered.

But Selerus clearly didn't believe him.

There were too many things he couldn't explain aloud.

So Ulysses chose only what he could say.

"That Lord...

"...likes Male Zerg eggs."

Selerus: "..."

I thought it was something serious.

"Then if he likes them, just lay one."

Ulysses looked up in astonishment.

He had never once considered such a solution.

Nor should he have.

That Lord wasn't a Male Zerg.

And considering that he performed Psychic Soothing only inside the treatment room and never had any physical contact with Female Zergs...

His sexual orientation probably didn't include Female Zergs.

Perhaps it didn't even include Zergs at all.

After all...

He wasn't even the same species.

Perhaps not even a being from the same dimension.

Talking about laying eggs...

Was going far too far.

It simply couldn't happen.

Clearly misunderstanding what he meant, Selerus continued analyzing the situation.

"If one try doesn't produce a Male Zerg egg, then have two.

"If two don't work, then three, four, five...

"Even if none of them end up being Male Zergs...

"You'll still have spent your entire lives together.

"You'll have a whole family of hatchlings.

"There won't be anything left to regret."

It was rare for Selerus to say so much at once.

The chances of producing a Male Zerg egg were indeed low.

But there was no reason to stubbornly quarrel with a Male Zerg over something like that.

After all...

It was the Male Zerg who wanted a Male Zerg egg.

Not Ulysses.

Even if the Male Zerg remained indifferent toward the hatchlings...

With Ulysses' ability and status, he could still protect any Female Zerg hatchlings and give them an excellent life.

As for finding a Male Zerg whose values and feelings perfectly matched one's own...

How could something like that possibly be easy?

Trying to force it would only make oneself miserable.

After talking for so long, Selerus noticed Ulysses had fallen into an oddly deep silence.

Realizing something, he hurriedly asked,

"Don't tell me he threw away the Female Zerg eggs?

"That's absolutely unacceptable!"

Ulysses: "..."

He threw me away...

...In a way, I suppose that's true.

Seeing Selerus beginning to panic, Ulysses realized exactly what his female parent had imagined.

He quickly reassured him,

"Nothing like that happened.

"He didn't throw them away."

Taking two steps forward, he closed the distance.

His hand rested gently on his female parent's shoulder.

Speaking softly, he said,

"They're right here."

Selerus stared blankly at him for a while.

Growing increasingly confused.

Perhaps...

He really wasn't very smart after all.

He gently stroked the little Ulysses egg in his arms.

Then looked up at the grown Ulysses.

"You're more capable than I ever was.

"Marshal of the Military.

"You have status.

"Power.

"A healthy mind.

"And the ability to pursue what you want.

"I just hope...

"...that you can live happily."

"If that Male Zerg truly is the one you want..."

"Then go take him."