◎What’s Big and What’s Small◎
Sid had genuinely taken the business of selling diamonds seriously.
When he rushed up to me clutching a research report, face flushed with excitement, and demanded an emergency meeting, I was a little stunned. Since when did we have an emergency meeting system?
Only four of us attended: me, the Star Pirate Contestant, Sid, and Payne.
While waiting for the other two to arrive, Sid tried his best to calm himself down, but his excited soul still seemed to float somewhere outside his cool exterior, leaving him looking a little absent-minded.
He kept his eyes fixed on the Star Pirate Contestant as he spoke. “The diamond mine on this planet might have the ability to soothe mental confusion in Female Insects!”
Even Payne, ever the serious one, had his breathing thrown off. He hurriedly looked down at the report and data Sid had sent over. “Explain. In detail.”
Meanwhile, I couldn’t help glancing at the Star Pirate Contestant. Why did Sid keep staring at him while talking about this?
Was the Star Pirate Contestant’s mental confusion that serious?
Sid took a deep breath and began explaining the whole story from beginning to end. “It started a few days ago when one of my Female Insect workers suddenly suffered a mental breakdown while out transporting cargo. Our fleet always carries pheromone injections as standard equipment, so the situation stabilized quickly. But it made us realize something…”
“There are quite a few Female Insects living on this planet, and yet not a single case of mental confusion has ever occurred.”
With that, he looked toward the Star Pirate Contestant, who appeared to be thinking it over, then gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
“So we started investigating what makes this planet different.”
Sid placed a palm-sized, transparent diamond on the table. “Our attention landed on the diamonds, which are unique to this planet.”
“We don’t have any researchers on our team, so we could only run the simplest possible screening tests and experiments. Based on the comparisons so far, this mineral can indeed soothe a Female Insect’s mental confusion. As for why it works, or how effective it really is, we still have no idea.”
The Star Pirate Contestant drummed his fingers against the tabletop, producing a rhythmic tapping sound.
“According to Wagu and Liez, when they first approached this planet, their signal scans suddenly went haywire and their ship lost control, which is why they crash-landed here. It might be worth checking the diamonds’ wavelength.”
Wagu and Liez? Who?
Oh, right. Crooked Melon and Cracked Date.
“Although, I’m actually more interested in something else.” The Star Pirate Contestant turned to look at me.
I silently sat up straight. Could my original plotline be back? Out of nowhere, and without even knowing it myself, I became an SSS-Rank Male Insect, and my mere presence untangled everyone’s minds, sparing them all from suffering. Meanwhile, the most powerful SSS-Rank Female Insect in the entire Empire is being tormented by mental confusion. But he refuses to submit to those depraved, rotten Male Insects, enduring the pain alone and pressing forward, until the protagonist appears!
The Star Pirate Contestant said, “That mental power you mentioned before. What is it exactly?”
I mentioned mental power exactly ONCE in this whole novel!
You weren’t even in that scene!
Just Ordinary, were you the mole they planted all along!
Perhaps the accusation in my eyes was too obvious, because the Star Pirate Contestant rubbed his nose with a trace of guilt. “I came across similar research before, though it was only a preliminary hypothesis. The term ‘mental power’ that you came up with feels very fitting.”
Payne and Sid both turned to look at me. “Could you elaborate?”
Those blazing eyes. What crushing pressure.
Whose literature review is based on web novels?
Male Insects have mental power. Female Insects have a Mental Domain.
A Mental Domain can knot up. Mental power can untangle it.
Both mental power and the Mental Domain are divided into ranks.
After distilling the common threads from various Zerg novels, I gave them a simple explanation.
Payne asked, “How do you know all this?”
I said, “There are many things in this world you don’t know exist.” Like the sheer variety of Zerg novels out there.
Payne looked like he wanted to keep pressing, but the Star Pirate Contestant cut him off. “The priority right now is researching the diamond.”
Sid said, “The simplest and most effective method we’ve found so far is grinding the diamond into a powder and swallowing it.”
In that case, the Star Pirate Contestant wouldn’t have to worry about mental confusion anymore.
My plotline has been broken yet again!
But… whether it’s the Star Pirate Contestant or the protagonist who doesn’t exist, it’s better not to have to wait around for someone else to come save you.
Wait a second!
Grind WHAT into a powder and then do WHAT?
Sid said, “The powder is fully digestible. No side effects, and nothing lingers afterward.”
Female Insects are incredible.
I couldn’t help muttering, “The most cutting-edge researchers must all be in prison.”
If Sid, a complete layman, was this extreme, I didn’t even dare imagine what properly trained researchers would get up to.
Payne said, “True. As far as I know, quite a few researchers in the Empire have been locked up in Thebes Prison for attempting to harm Male Insects.”
By the end of the meeting, we’d agreed that no diamonds would be sold in bulk until every one of their properties had been thoroughly studied. A small portion would be sold cheaply, only to Female Insects in the Frontier Star Systems suffering severe mental confusion, the ones with neither the money nor the connections to buy Male Insect Pheromone.
After the meeting, the Star Pirate Contestant asked me, “Do you regret it? You could have sold it at a much higher price. Given how important this thing is to Female Insects, it might have made you the richest insect in the galaxy.”
“I have a different role in my script.”
I don’t want to be the richest insect. I just want to be the Kept Man Male Lord supporting the richest Female Insect’s career from behind the scenes.
The Star Pirate Contestant gave up trying to figure it out. “Could you tell me exactly what you’re thinking? This is no small amount of money, and I’m worried we’ve all misunderstood you.”
My actual thoughts, rather than the clever answer a smart insect is supposed to give?
“I didn’t give birth to the diamonds. I didn’t mine them. I didn’t transport them. I’m not the one selling them. So this money has nothing to do with me.”
With that, I looked calmly at the Star Pirate Contestant. He seemed a little surprised. “But this planet belongs to you.”
What kind of landlord thinking is that!
“It belongs to itself. We’re all just passersby.”
You’ll understand once you’ve been through an apocalypse.
Every living thing can be destroyed. Every relationship will fade. Every story belongs to yesterday.
Only the planet objectively exists.
The Star Pirate Contestant seemed to be struggling to grasp my values. “Then what do you consider yours?”
I pointed at myself, then pointed at the Star Pirate Contestant… at the brooch on his chest.
What I create is mine.
He absently pressed a hand to his chest. I was just about to tell him to relax, that I wasn’t going to demand the brooch back, when he spoke. “I thought I had overestimated you. Now I see you’re stronger and purer than anything I imagined at the start.”
When he said this, there was a look in his eyes I had never seen before.
Like a planet after a massive explosion, surrounded by dust that left any insect blind and unable to see the road ahead, yet it was a rebirth that had shattered its own shackles.
“I used to think I had lost so much. Now I see that what I lost was never mine to begin with.”
He looked at me the way one looks at the universe, more seriously than he ever had before.
That’s right. I am exactly this kind of Domineering Top!
This novel deserves the ‘power couple’ tag!
The Domineering Top imperiously decides to give his possession to the Star Pirate Contestant.
I pointed at the Phoenix Brooch on his chest. “It’s yours.”
As long as you never throw it away, it will always be yours.
He looked down at it instinctively, seeming a little embarrassed, his gaze darting back and forth like a sprint drill before he finally spoke. “Why did you make it look like a phoenix?”
I said, “Oh, that. The fanned-tail shape has the strongest signal.”
The Star Pirate Contestant choked, then let out a sigh of utter resignation. “I will never understand you in this lifetime.”
I said, aggrieved, “I’m just being me.”
The Star Pirate Contestant waved a dismissive hand at me, then hummed some inexplicably cheerful little tune while gazing at the brooch that belonged to him.
This is enough. Don’t put me on a pedestal.
Has anyone ever seen a top who lives in a shrine niche getting worshipped with three sticks of incense three times a day by his love interest?
Well, okay, horror novels can pull that off, but this is a Zerg novel!
It should be all about a domineering insect loving his partner fiercely!
