Chapter 36: Zerg Admiral Bottom x True Crown Prince Top

“Then I must be a male insect, right? Looks like this is a world perfect for living the kept man life,” Jing Chi sighed, a hint of excitement in his tone.

The System hesitated, clearly reluctant to dampen his enthusiasm, but it steeled itself and said, “Host, you are a male insect, but…”

“Stop. I don’t want to hear it.” Jing Chi frowned and made a cutting gesture with his hand.

The moment the System said “but,” he knew it wasn’t good news.

This time, the System hadn’t even given him any buffer before dumping him straight into this thrilling, bizarre new world. Not that he really needed much of a buffer, though.

Still, he couldn’t help feeling exasperated by some of the System’s weird quirks.

The System was afraid Jing Chi might drag it out and give it a beating, but it rushed to finish anyway. “Here’s the thing, Host. You may be a male insect, but you’re currently on Desolate Star, the poorest planet in the entire interstellar expanse. And here, male insects are just… a kind of resource.”

Jing Chi felt choked, like something was stuck in his throat. He asked dubiously, “What do you mean by ‘resource’?”

The System sounded a bit sheepish as it explained, “It’s because this place is so dirt poor. High-grade male insects all leave once they come of age. That leaves behind only the low-grade ones, who have no money, no subsidies, and no way to survive. So they make a living by selling their mental power… and, well, that other thing.

“There are way more female insects here than male ones, which leads to a lot of snatching incidents. Plus, it’s so remote that the bugs from the Male Insect Protection Association can’t do much about it. You get the idea.”

The System’s tone was loaded with implication.

Jing Chi had seen it all in his time. After hearing this, his face darkened—he felt like a slab of meat on the chopping block, waiting to be carved up. He said helplessly, “I don’t want to get it, but why didn’t the original host just leave?”

The System chuckled awkwardly before replying, “Because the original host was broke, of course.”

Jing Chi: …

“But Host, there’s some good news here too!” The System hurried on, terrified that Jing Chi might yank it out for a thrashing at any moment. “The original host had a tall, handsome build that could rival the local female insects. To survive, he lived disguised as one.”

Jing Chi felt a wave of relief—at least his virtue was intact. But the System’s habit of pausing for dramatic effect made his teeth grind. He warned through clenched jaws, “Next time, say it all at once. Give me the original host’s memories. I’m done with your rambling.”

The System promptly shut up and transmitted everything about the original host to Jing Chi.

The original host, Jing Chi, was a male insect born and raised on a remote planet. He’d been abandoned as a larva for unknown reasons, but luckily, a kind-hearted old female insect had picked him up.

That old female insect saw how outstandingly handsome he was even as a tiny larva—a clearly extraordinary bug, and a male one at that.

He knew that without family protection or any means of self-defense, a male insect like this couldn’t survive to adulthood here. So from a young age, the old female insect had the original host disguise himself as a female insect.

Fortunately, on this planet, the only ways to tell male and female insects apart were the insect marks on the inside of the nape and their general build and looks. The nape was a spot only close companions would see. And since the old female insect had used special drugs to create fake insect marks on his nape when he was little, the original host had managed to live relatively safely all these years.

The turning point came when the original host tried to leave the star system. His lifelong dream had been to save up enough for a starship ticket to Main Star by age twenty.

But the original host died without ever reaching the Main Star he’d longed for.

This was where the original story’s setup came in. It was a scum bug rebirth tale.

In his previous life, Lantis Victor—the male insect Crown Prince of the Empire—was brutal and tyrannical, treating the female insects around him with savage cruelty. He beat and berated them constantly.

With his A-Rank mental power and his status as Crown Prince, even the bugs who resented him didn’t dare rebel.

After all, in this Empire, male insects symbolized nobility, and a high-mental-power male insect prince represented supreme privilege.

But Lantis Victor’s decadent, chaotic life came crashing down one day.

That day, Empire General Pei Rui brought back a youth from Desolate Star who appeared to be a female insect but was actually a male one.

This male insect had extraordinarily high mental power, and at the Insect Clan Grand Ceremony, he awakened the mental imprint of the Royal Clan—something the Crown Prince Lantis couldn’t do.

Only then did everyone realize that the current Crown Prince wasn’t true royal blood after all. The real Crown Prince was that youth.

And that youth was Jing Chi.

With the arrival of the true Empire Crown Prince, Lantis Victor immediately lost the backing of the Royal Clan. He had offended far too many insects in the past, and in the end, all the cruel methods he had once inflicted on female insects were turned back on him. He was tortured to death.

But that was only the beginning of the story. Soon after, Lantis Victor was reborn. The very first thing he did was track down some insects and have them kill the original Jing Chi.

That was how the original host—this clueless male insect—ended up dying on Desolate Star.

Lantis Victor quickly turned his attention to his next target: General Pei Rui, the one who had brought the true Crown Prince back in his previous life.

This was also Jing Chi’s objective for his current mission.

Pei Rui was the Empire’s Supreme General and Chief Commander of the First Legion. He had repelled countless alien beast tides for the Empire, earning a fearsome reputation for his cold, iron-fisted command.

The biggest rumor surrounding him was that General Pei Rui had once publicly declared the thing he hated most in the world was male insects.

That statement drew cold mockery and sneers from countless male insects at the time. After all, everyone knew no insect could endure the agony of a mental power outburst.

Not even the Empire’s Supreme General.

Yet Pei Rui had relied on his extraordinary self-control to tough it out all the way to age twenty-six.

Every insect knew that after reaching adulthood, they faced a mental power outburst once a year. That was why female insects hurried to undergo matching as soon as they came of age. If there were no mishaps after matching, the pair would form a bond.

Pei Rui had endured it for a full eight years. His mental fortitude earned the admiration of countless female insects, but every year, male insects eagerly awaited his downfall.

The turning point came in the year he turned twenty-six. Pei Rui was forced to undergo matching, and to everyone’s shock, his match turned out to be Lantis Victor. Their mental power matching degree was an astonishing eighty-nine percent, sending shockwaves across the stars.

Everyone assumed Pei Rui would choose Lantis as his male lord—after all, this insect was the Empire Crown Prince. But Pei Rui resolutely refused. He would rather lead his troops into battle against an alien beast tide than bond with the Empire Crown Prince.

This was a blatant slap in Lantis Victor’s face. Combined with grudges from his previous life, new and old hatreds boiled over.

This time, Lantis didn’t just want Pei Rui disgraced and ruined. He wanted to pin him down, watch that disdainful face from his past life twist in obsession. That would bring him true satisfaction.

And so, he began methodically clipping Pei Rui’s wings.

First, he seduced the military females around Pei Rui with gentle temptation. Once one of them was utterly devoted to him, Lantis had that military female sabotage things during a beast tide battle. Pei Rui suffered a crushing defeat—out of twenty thousand troops, only two thousand returned. The entire interstellar realm was plunged into panic.

The insects’ respect for Pei Rui had always stemmed from his victories. This failure only fueled the male insects’ mockery, louder than ever.

At the same time, Pei Rui’s consort father began pressuring him to enter a political marriage and produce exceptional offspring.

The best candidate, of course, was the Crown Prince Lantis Victor, with their record-high matching degree.

Lantis Victor put on an air of superiority, offering to deign to marry Pei Rui as if it were an act of charity.

He never expected Pei Rui to refuse even under those circumstances. Furious, Lantis turned his attention to Pei Rui’s younger brother—born of the same consort father—and married him instead. Then, right in front of Pei Rui, he had the brother whipped.

That finally pushed Pei Rui over the edge.

Meanwhile, the military female who had sabotaged the battle couldn’t bear the weight of his conscience any longer and confessed that the Crown Prince had ordered him to do it.

Everything—the defeats, the betrayals—turned Pei Rui thoroughly dark. He never imagined the insect he had loyally served would sacrifice so many innocent lives just for personal grudges.

He couldn’t allow such a creature to sit on that throne.

Finally, one dark night after a brutal battle, Pei Rui led his insects in abducting Lantis Victor. He forced a mind-shattering drug down that insect’s throat, reducing him to a feral beast until he died.

With the protagonist’s downfall, the world itself began to collapse.

Jing Chi went from curiosity at the start, to speechlessness, and finally couldn’t hold back his rant.

“What kind of messed-up world is this? Can’t you give me something with normal morals? This isn’t a villain—that’s the hero! And that so-called protagonist? He’s the real big bad!”

“Host, that’s not important,” the System replied cheerily. “Our only task is to keep the protagonist alive.”

“Got it.” Jing Chi waved it off. “So, when do we head to Main Star to meet the villain?”

Just mentioning the villain made Jing Chi’s eyes light up.

He could hardly wait, even though not much time had passed since the previous life.

“Um, Host,” the System reminded him, “you don’t have enough money right now to buy a starship ticket to Main Star.”

Jing Chi glanced around the bare, empty room and dug out the original host’s piggy bank. He soon realized just how broke they really were.

After scrimping for years, there was barely enough for half a starship ticket.

The System explained, “According to the plot’s progression, the villain will crash-land here injured in the next few days. So just wait around to pick up the bug, Host.”

Jing Chi grudgingly accepted the explanation, but a sudden question struck him. “Has that scum bug already been reborn?”

“Yes, Host,” the System confirmed with a nod.

“So not only do I have to dodge pursuers, I also have to pick up a person—no, a bug?”

Jing Chi voiced the question echoing from the depths of his soul.

“That’s right, Host. You got this!” The System spoke cautiously. “Rest assured, Host. The moment any unfamiliar bug sets foot here, I’ll alert you. Your safety is guaranteed.”

Jing Chi let out a cold snort and ignored the System.

Guided by the original host’s memories, he found the nutrient liquid stashed under the bed.

In the interstellar era, no insect bothered cooking. They all got by on nutrient liquid.

Jing Chi sucked down the tasteless stuff, letting his imagination fill in the flavors of fine cuisine.

He had to admit, for all its lack of taste, it quickly chased away his hunger.

A tube of this cheap nutrient liquid cost just ten star coins, while a ticket to the Main Star ran a hundred thousand.

No wonder the original host had never managed to save enough.

Jing Chi sighed, staring out the window and wondering when his wife would drop from the sky.

This nutrient liquid was awful. Soft rice tasted so much better.

And as a “fragile” male insect, he desperately needed someone to protect him.

【Congratulations, Host. You have successfully loaded into the world of the Insect Clan novel.】

Time hurtled forward in ceaseless flux, rendering all things trivial in its relentless current.

The universe transformed moment by moment, and every lifeform within it evolved without pause.

It all began with that first cataclysmic fall—a meteor hurtling from the void, laden with potent radiation that triggered a massive genetic shift in humanity.

Through eons of evolution, a new race supplanted humankind: the Insect Clan.

They boasted powerful physiques and nimble minds, their forms indistinguishable from humans on the surface, yet they were beings of far superior intellect.

Generations turned, empires rose and fell, the strong devoured the weak, and in the end, only the Insect Clan endured across the cosmos. Humanity faded into oblivion.

The Insect Clan dubbed that year Interstellar Year One.

Jing Chi closed the copy of Insect Clan Origin in his hands and voiced his doubt. “So I’ve ended up in a place with no humans at all?”

The System gave an awkward chuckle before launching into its pitch. “Actually, Host, you can just think of bugs as people. They look about the same.”

It then provided a detailed rundown.

In this world, insects fell into three categories: male insects, sub-females, and female insects. All of them had male human appearances.

Male insects were rare while female insects abounded, granting male insects elevated social status. They didn’t have to lift a finger to enjoy every privilege the world offered, wielding far greater influence.

Female insects handled procreation here—but that was hardly their only role. With their formidable physiques, they fought the wars, earned the income, and supported their families. All their wealth belonged to their male lord, and they owed him absolute obedience.

Sub-females counted as a subtype of female insect, but they had softer bodies and more striking looks. They could bear young too.

Compared to regular female insects, sub-females clearly enjoyed greater favor from male lords, though their strength left much to be desired.

Female insects here experienced a mental power surge at a certain age—that was why they married young. They required their male lord’s mental power to weather it. Those without a male lord inevitably shattered under the mental power outburst, reduced to mindless vermin.