Chapter 40 Part 1

007: 【Do you confirm the separation of emotions from the previous world, processing them only visually? Since 007 has detached from the Space-Time Administration Bureau, this function is unstable. Please choose carefully, Host—】

One person and one system’s consciousness finally detached from everything. Under the Heavenly Dao’s near-mad pursuit, they crossed countless surging, ferocious torrents and arrived in this endless, flickering space-time rift.

Shen Yu stretched out his finger. The tip touched the void as cosmic winds lifted his black hair. His long, fan-shaped eyelashes drooped like overhanging crow feathers, and the light spilling from his eyes was clear and serene.

His tall, slender figure stood amid the inverted, endlessly brilliant starry expanse. Ripples of qi waves spread from his extended finger. Shen Yu transferred the portion of luck he had obtained through his finger to 007.

Upon realizing what Shen Yu was doing, 007 blinked its eyes: 【Host!】

After receiving the luck, it finally gained sufficient energy. It transformed into a snowball-like White Dumpling and materialized from the invisible air, floating in the deep blue, water-like cosmic stars like a plump hamster with dazed eyes.

“So this is what your physical form looks like?”

Shen Yu’s gaze passed through 007’s body. A curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. Without turning back, he looked ahead.

Endless blue spread to the horizon in his vision. At the edge of the universe, a door made of light material opened. Countless photon butterflies surged out from the door—that was the rift to the next space-time.

Before 007 could answer, Shen Yu continued the previous topic: “What exactly do you mean by unstable?”

Having a physical form again, 007 couldn’t suppress its excitement and spun several circles in the air. It usually adopted a very serious tone when issuing mission-related announcements, but upon hearing Shen Yu’s question, it wanted to respond properly—yet the words that came out couldn’t hide the little thrill in its mood.

“Ahem, the memory visualization function is designed to help executors in various worlds better complete their missions. After the mission ends, the host can choose to restore the missing emotions based on different circumstances.”

“But since 007 has lost support from the main system, there might be cases after the mission ends where restoration is impossible. Does the Host really confirm activation?”

Shen Yu stretched lazily and strode straight toward the door, drawling lazily: “Confirmed.”

His memories and emotions could not accommodate so many irrelevant matters.

007 asked in confusion: “By the way, Host, why did you transfer part of your luck to 007?”

Shen Yu replied matter-of-factly: “I have enough. Isn’t that fine?”

“It was because of you that I got another chance. We’re partners—sharing with you is only natural, right?”

007 was clearly stunned and didn’t follow immediately. The round White Dumpling looked up at Shen Yu.

The photon butterflies flying out from the space-time rift shuttled through the deep blue stars like a river, carrying dazzling light spots that flickered endlessly before finally dancing through the young man’s body.

Hearing no footsteps catching up, Shen Yu paused slightly. He turned his head and saw 007 lost in thought.

A smile floated in his spilling gaze. When he looked over, his lips curved faintly:

“007, come on.”

…

Imperial Capital Star System, East Zhao District, Female Slave Exchange.

The Female Slave Exchange was vast. Female slaves were confined to the underground levels, while the ground level was the trading area. It was a cloudy day, and the non-glaring sunlight passed through the massive transparent polygonal dome overhead, casting somewhat prismatic light. Hidden, compact refraction devices were installed on both sides, precisely calculating every inch of the moving sunlight.

The calculations were just right—ensuring it never fell into the dark female slave area.

Female slaves were a general term for female insects and sub-female insects who had been stripped of their insect rights. The imperial government had always been stingy. Sunlight, air, water—these natural resources were not freely available to female slaves.

They needed to provide corresponding services to gain sunlight usage rights.

The service objects and types were diverse and all-encompassing, often paired with pheromone simulation sprays.

Even alien species, which the insect race generally despised, could purchase a service through consumption. They might even coincidentally get a military female insect who had once trampled them ruthlessly. Because taxes had to be collected, the prices were high, and this portion counted as a major chunk of the empire’s fiscal revenue.

“What do you mean? My authority is insufficient?”

Fingers in white gloves curled slightly and tapped the display screen. The captivating voice carried obvious displeasure.

Even with the gloves, one could not ignore the beauty of those fingers—slender, with bones slightly bulging under silk-like snow-white fabric. Due to the tapping motion, the knuckles protruded, producing a faint clacking sound, like petals knocking on a heart.

The military female insect in charge of reception had only started the job a few days ago and was spacing out while fiddling with the machine. He lifted his head and froze.

The male insect had an excessively beautiful face—too beautiful to simply call “beautiful.”

He was not the type of male insect fitting the insect race’s mainstream aesthetic of extreme fragility. On the contrary, this male insect’s beauty was aggressively striking. His height was above average even among male insects.

Beautiful silver hair like snow reached his waist. Under long, curly, fan-shaped silver eyelashes, his eyes were narrow and long, with slightly curved corners that tilted upward at the ends. His pupils were ice-blue, devoid of warmth.

The male insect’s skin was extremely pale, exuding a doll-like chill, yet the color beneath his high nose bridge was strikingly vivid—plump lips with clearly defined lip lines, like a still-blooming red rose.

Receiving no reply, the silver-haired male insect’s expression quickly cooled. His icy gaze slid over the stars and bars on the female insect’s shoulder insignia before him—two thick chevrons and one thin chevron: a Level 4 Sergeant, an ordinary female insect officer.

The male insect’s beautiful red lips immediately curled with lofty malice and mockery: “Has the Military Department become this useless? Even mutes can get in now?”

The military female insect shot to attention with a whoosh. His face flushed red at the words, and he immediately shook his head: “No, I’m not a mute.”

Shen Yu snorted impatiently, holding back his temper as he repeated: “Good, you’re not. Then answer my question. Why can’t I access No. 4007?”

No. 4007 was the code assigned to Sainka after he became a female slave.

After a 48-hour protest march by the Imperial Capital residents, the Imperial Military Department yielded once more under pressure from the Male Insect Protection Association and Star Net media, sentencing the empire’s promising S-rank female insect lieutenant colonel Sainka to life imprisonment and stripping him of his insect citizenship, reducing him to a female slave.

Three days ago, the trial was held.

One day ago, Sainka was sent by the oversight committee to the Female Slave Exchange to serve his sentence.

Of course, for Sainka, this was nothing short of a baseless disaster. While striking rebel forces in the outer domains under Military Department orders, he had unexpectedly collided with the Red Blood Star Pirate Group, which terrified the entire star domain.

The Red Blood starship was as eerie as a black ghost crawling out of hell, its glaring Morse Lights flashing nonstop. When Sainka and the military female insects clearly saw the starship’s movements through binoculars, their scalps exploded—

Blood congealed and flowed.

Atop the starship’s main mast hung a male insect that had been drained of blood!

For the insect race, a male insect Your Excellency was exceedingly precious. They had to rescue this male insect—even if it was just the corpse, it had to be brought back!

Ignoring the vast disparity in strength, Sainka and the entire squad made a snap decision and immediately formulated a detailed rescue plan.

Sainka’s special forces team’s combat style was famous for blitzes and raids. They used the advantage of their small, stealthy ship to successfully circle behind the starship. However, just as they were about to board, an icy Ripper Gun pressed against their foreheads in an instant.

Only then did they realize that the previous smoothness had been nothing but the Red Blood’s whimsical prank!

In the end, the entire squad was wiped out except for Sainka.

If faults had to be assigned, Sainka, as captain, would at most be guilty of wartime command error, warranting no more than three years’ imprisonment. But someone had released this footage to Star Net. Countless female insects, sub-female insects, and male insects witnessed firsthand on Star Net the scene of a male insect being bled to death alive.

Public outrage erupted in an instant. The imperial citizens were furious, launching a massive backlash and accusing the Military Department of inaction. The Red Blood had rampaged for years, yet the Military Department had failed to eradicate them, allowing them to roam free—who knew how much male insect blood had splattered their decks!

This fury ultimately targeted Sainka for failing to successfully rescue the male insect Your Excellency.

Public wrath was hard to defy. Almost the moment Sainka escaped life-threatening danger, the sentence was issued simultaneously.

This was a typical insect race redemption romance. The gentle protagonist gong unexpectedly transmigrated into the insect world, transforming into the scarce noble male insect Demian.

He was unaccustomed to the insect race’s social system. When Sainka was sentenced to life imprisonment, Demian pitied his former glory and used his status to aid him. After twists and turns, the two achieved a happy ending.

Shen Yu’s identity was the protagonist gong’s childhood friend and foil: Vidonien, the youngest son of the Sadro Family. Due to childhood trauma, he developed a cruel hobby of tormenting female insects.

When nature granted a race the immense power to conquer the universe, it naturally exacted a price elsewhere. For the entire insect race, that price was reproduction. Some extreme male insect biologists had even published claims like “female insects stole male insects’ power and lives,” sparking massive controversy on Star Net.

Because male insect survival rates were extremely low, and given the severe gender imbalance, the empire enacted numerous male insect protection laws, granting male insects in each star system many rights and clearly stipulating the obligations female insects must fulfill.

This misalignment of rights and duties naturally gave birth to male insect privileges.

Relying on this distorted yet unexpectedly stable social system, the insect race overcame fertility issues and proliferated.

Of course, in such a repressive and warped societal form, there weren’t many normal male insects. In the Imperial Capital Star System, male insects who enjoyed tormenting female insects were everywhere.

So why was Vidonien singled out as the protagonist’s foil?

Shen Yu: 【Because I’m handsome?】

【…】

007: 【Because you’re a pervert.】

Shen Yu couldn’t refute it.

Indeed, Vidonien was no ordinary male insect. He was a psychopathic anti-insect male insect.

After coming of age, when Vidonien moved from the Sadro Main House to Azure Sparrow Hill Community, he extensively renovated the basement, turning it into an artist’s secret garden for dismembering and sculpting female insects.

Sainka was an S-rank female insect with unlimited potential. Insect race ranks ranged from F to S and beyond—the higher the female insect rank, the stronger the ability. A single S-rank female insect could destroy a city barehanded after full insectization.

Thus, Vidonien quickly targeted Sainka.

Of course, as the foil, he naturally failed.

In the end, Vidonien angered the protagonist by attempting to kidnap and dissect Sainka. Demian used the special status of his suitor, Major General Fred, to expose his perverse deeds. Vidonien was successfully sent to military court for violating the imperial constitution.

Shen Yu: “…”

It seemed he not only had to meddle between the protagonist gong and shou, getting trampled by the protagonist group from time to time, but also maintain his persona and hone his knife skills.

As for Shen Yu’s capture target, it was the Red Blood Star Pirate Group’s boss who had defected from the Military Department—a super male-hating figure who hung male insects from masts for display—