Chapter 43 Part 1

【…Am I really not going to be dismembered into eight pieces by the villain?】

007: 【No problem. By then, 007 will run ads to revive the host.】

【…】

Shen Yu’s footsteps pounded rapidly. He turned the corner and hurried upstairs. He even forgot to eat the breakfast that Number Two had made. When he returned to his room, he collapsed heavily onto the rattan flower chair by the windowsill. Number Two had placed a new rattan chair cushion on it. When his butt sank into it, it felt like he was floating on a cloud.

The sturdy woven frame of the rattan flower chair bore his weight perfectly. The chair swayed and dipped slightly. A schedule reminder popped up on the terminal.

Lily’s gentle voice rang out.

“Dear Sadro, you have a schedule reminder—

Date: Fasser Calendar Year 1110, September 17th

Time: 11:00-14:00

Location: No. 12, Street 474, Zephyr Alley

Commute time: Roads in East Zhao District today were clear. Estimated travel time was thirty minutes.

Weather at Azure Sparrow Hill was overcast. There was a slight chance of snowfall in Zephyr Alley recently. Please bring warm clothing.

Dear Sadro, your most loyal cloud companion, Lily, wishes you a pleasant trip.”

Right.

After Vidonien came of age and moved out of the main family home, he did two things first.

The first was a major renovation of the villa’s basement. He privately purchased a large amount of banned medical equipment from black market channels. The second was to frequently accept dating invitations from Female Insects on his terminal and scout for suitable test subjects.

Shen Yu had a bad feeling. He straightened up from the rattan flower chair. The terminal screen, which was visible only to him personally, unfolded from a single blue line into a virtual rectangular screen. Shen Yu swiped his finger downward. A dense row of scheduled dates nearly filled the entire itinerary.

“…”

Shen Yu rubbed his forehead. “Lily, can you cancel them?”

“Dear Sadro, once a Male Insect accepts a dating application, the Imperial Main Brain automatically archives the information into the Fertility Office’s records. To improve the empire’s overall birth rate, the Fertility Office does not encourage canceling dates.”

“If you need to cancel a date, you must fill out an application form, state the reason truthfully, and submit it to the Fertility Office for verification. After verification, the Fertility Office will notify the Female Insect and cancel the date.”

Shen Yu said, “Fine, download an application form for me.”

“Command received.”

While waiting, Shen Yu shifted his gaze to the long-stemmed flower lying on the windowsill. The short stem connecting the stalk and the flower supported the yellow blossom. The side of the flower facing upward was blown by the window breeze. A few petals detached from the flower base and fell onto the windowsill.

Shen Yu looked at it for a while, then stood up. He couldn’t find a vase, so he filled a tall glass bottle with water, added nutrient solution, inserted the long-stemmed flower into it, and placed it by the windowsill.

The gauze screen fluttered. He felt the wind from Virasen Avenue blowing toward Azure Sparrow Hill, carrying the scent of earth. It was perfect for burying a body.

Lily’s gentle voice interrupted his thoughts at the right moment.

“The application form has been downloaded for you.”

Shen Yu nodded and opened the file. He fell silent.

No wonder downloading the file took so long. When he saw the dense content on the application form, Shen Yu sank into silence. Why did filling out an application form require all sorts of random information?

Why did he have to fill in his Male Father’s and Female Father’s information just to cancel a date? Was his Male Father going to pop out of a tattoo and go clubbing during their date?

What kind of bizarre compliance test was this?

Shen Yu frowned, sat back down on the rattan flower chair, and filled out the application form patiently. Midway through, Number Two noticed he hadn’t eaten breakfast and huffily brought it up, supervising him until he finished.

Shen Yu drank the cream of mushroom soup while racking his brains in a fierce battle with the application form. The most infuriating part was that due to the tattoo records and permission restrictions, he couldn’t copy or paste any information on the forms.

He had to fill them out repeatedly, one by one.

Moreover, the application reasons had to be different for each Female Insect?

Damn it!

By the third form, Shen Yu finally couldn’t take it anymore and threw in the towel.

The Male Insect’s finger drew a heavy stroke across the screen, leaving a winding trail of black liquid. With a wooden expression, he asked, “How many of these stupid application forms do I still have to fill out?”

“Dear Sadro, you have accepted dating invitations from a total of one SS-rank Female Zerg, twenty S-rank Female Zerg, fifty-eight A+ Rank Female Zerg, and sixty-nine A- Rank Female Zerg, for a total of one hundred and forty-eight Female Insects. Subtracting the two forms you just filled out—”

“There are still one hundred and forty-six left.”

Ha, ha, ha.

Just one hundred and forty-six more. That’s all.

Ha, ha, ha.

Shen Yu stood up expressionlessly. While taking off his sleep robe, he strode into the walk-in closet. The Male Insect reached out and pulled a pair of casual pants and a sweater from the closet. After putting on the pants, he began pulling the sweater over his head.

His distinctively jointed fingers grasped the long hair at his nape, tugged it upward slightly, then released it. The silver hair slid down along the sweater caught on his shoulder and neck, draping beautifully over the muscles on his back.

Shen Yu lowered his eyelashes. His fingers pushed the sweater downward. He wasn’t skinny. His straight collarbone and shoulders propped up the sweater’s neckline and shoulders into a nice curve. The hem of the black chunky knit sweater, which had been rolled up, was smoothed down inch by inch by his fingers, covering his waist and abdomen.

After getting dressed, Shen Yu checked the time on his terminal: 10:40. Because of filling out those two forms, there were twenty minutes left until the appointed time. He gave Lily an order.

“Lily, book a hovercar to Zephyr Alley for me. I’m going to today’s date.”

Just a mere one hundred and forty-six dates.

A mere one hundred and forty-six!

Whoever wanted to fill out that stupid application form could go ahead!

Lily’s voice remained charming. “Command received. Your itinerary has been planned.”

Shen Yu tidied up and went downstairs. Ludwig’s head was against the wall, his hair a messy tangle. He lifted his chin, stretching out his toned muscles as he leaned against the wall, exuding a carefree rogue vibe and roguish air, as if the man who had lost all face earlier was just an illusion.

Shen Yu paused.

The Female Insect looked up at him. Upon clearly seeing the Male Insect’s appearance, he lightly raised an eyebrow. Was he going out?

Their gazes quickly clashed. Neither backed down.

Shen Yu walked over. His gaze fell on Ludwig’s abdomen wrapped in gauze. He had instructed Number Two midway to change the bandages for him. Not much time had passed, but blood was seeping through the gauze again.

That gaze lingered long. Just as Ludwig thought the Male Insect in front of him had come up with some new way to torment him, Shen Yu wrinkled his nose in disgust, averted his gaze, and strode out the door.

Before leaving, he suddenly remembered something. His silver hair tips flicked in the air as he paused and warned without looking back:

“Hey, don’t even think about escaping.”

For several days in a row, the Male Insect spent a little time each morning giving him basic treatment, but the process wasn’t pleasant at all. It could even be called cruel.

Every time, Ludwig felt like his entire brain was being sliced apart alive.

The sensation was utterly terrifying, like his brain had been submerged in ice water, and an even colder hand reached in to manipulate it, probing his mental nerve endings and critiquing his brain.

Ludwig quickly realized that the Male Insect in front of him had received mental attack training.

Even the most prominent noble Male Insects born into imperial families wouldn’t receive attack training, because the empire explicitly prohibited teaching such courses. First, Female Insects were the main combatants, while Male Insects were auxiliaries. Society’s education for Male Insects focused on soothing and healing.

Second, and most importantly.

Male Insects were innately not gifted in mental power attacks. Unlike Female Insects, who possessed vast, constantly replenishing and regenerating spirit seas, Male Insects had their unique mental tentacles. These could enter a Female Insect’s spirit sea for repairs and, during sex, bring world-shattering pleasure to Female Insects.

Ha, it seemed this Male Insect wasn’t simple.

At first, Ludwig thought that if this damned Male Insect dared to try attacking his spirit sea, he would bite him to death no matter the cost. He didn’t care about exposure. Worst case, he’d go back to the Imperial Prison—he was a regular there anyway.

But which layer would it be this time?

Ludwig narrowed his eyes and calculated. Oh, just right—the nineteenth layer, the final layer of White Prison. If he remembered correctly, under the empire’s sentencing model, he would be sentenced to the “Death Row Stroll.” His will and body would be specially processed and separated, then his body would be further divided into brain and flesh.

The body would be cut open and placed in amniotic fluid, completely reduced to a breeding sac to nourish offspring.

As the empire’s one and only SSS-rank Female Zerg, he would endlessly produce high-quality Male Insect and Female Insect offspring for the empire. His will would be smashed into glass—one half connected to the brain, the other drifting into the endless dark cosmos as an observation medium, providing the empire with pinpoint cosmic intelligence at any time to hunt down other races hiding in the universe.

Tch.

Ludwig narrowed his eyes.

Thinking back, he realized that Shen Yu’s neck didn’t have to be bitten. The Imperial Prison wasn’t a must-visit either.

The current situation was better than becoming a mindless breeding machine. However, Ludwig soon discovered that the mental power attack was exactly as the Male Insect said—a method of treatment.

How could a Male Insect use attack methods for treatment?

Where were those unique mental tentacles that the idiot Female Insects coveted so much?

Something unclear—whether mental power or pheromone—mimicked the slicing frequency of a knife, dulling inch by inch into the dense cloudy spirit sea. Under the intense pain, it accelerated the spirit sea’s recovery.

Ludwig wouldn’t let this temporary pleasant surprise cloud his judgment. The Male Insect’s attitude was clear: repairing the spirit sea had some ulterior motive. But the Male Insect had clearly underestimated his rank, treating him like an ordinary Female Insect.