In the dimly lit palace.
“Good evening,” Duke Heinel said, holding a teacup. “Mr. Roy, it is a great honor to meet you.”
“You certainly are honored,” Roy said, hugging a coffee bottle and gulping it down.
“As you know, I am a special contributor to the Imperial tabloid. I very much hope to record the story of you and my brother, Linnia.”
“Linnia said you just want to hear gossip.” Roy elegantly finished wiping his mouth, tossing the napkin onto the table. The back of that soft piece of paper was densely covered with formulas and calculation drafts, and Heinel didn’t even remember when he had written them.
Not bad. True to form, he could actually keep up a back-and-forth conversation with that lunatic Linnia.
“Then I’ll begin,” Roy propped his chin with one hand. “Does Your Highness need to take notes?”
“No, please go ahead.”
“Three months ago, Linnia and I met in a cafe in the East City slums.”
Two hands simultaneously grabbed a single napkin, both skillfully preventing the napkin from tearing.
“Hello, I saw it first,” said a tall male Zerg wearing a hat and a mask. “Brother, swap for another one, won’t you?”
“Hello, brother. This is the slums; within a ten-meter radius, there isn’t another napkin. Also, I grabbed it first.” The handsome man fighting him for the napkin had bright eyes and clear teeth, wore a T-shirt and shorts, and sported a blue sapphire stud in his left ear. He spoke rigidly, like a long-neglected robot.
The hat-wearing male Zerg looked at the stain on the handsome man’s hand that was almost too faint to see, then looked at his own body where syrup was still streaming down in large, thick sheets, utterly failing to understand how the other man had the nerve to snatch the paper.
The midday sunlight pierced through the cheap, translucent curtains and shone onto him, making the syrup feel increasingly sticky. He finally lost his temper: “I am a male Zerg, just humor me a bit, won’t you?”
“I am mentally handicapped, give it to me.” The handsome man said expressionlessly.
The hat-wearing male Zerg took a deep breath, lowered his hand, took off his own clothes, and threw them away. He yanked off the tablecloth, draped it over himself, tied it into a knot, and turned to leave.
“You know that a napkin can be torn apart and still used, right?”
The unhurried voice of the handsome man came from behind him. Good breeding prompted him to turn around and look at the handsome man, whose conscience had apparently been pricked, only to see that the other person had already wiped away the stains, while the dirty napkin slowly drifted down onto the table.
“I’m just letting you know,” the handsome man said calmly, “I have no intention of sharing it with you. Yesterday, two major gangs in these few blocks served each other declarations of war. In another minute, it’s going to be a hail of bullets outside. Male Zergs don’t have wings, do you plan on going out right now?”
“I was wondering why there are hardly any living Zergs in this area. Knowing there was going to be a gang turf war, why on earth did you come here?”
“Homeless. The boss said as long as I dared to watch the shop here today, he would let me stay here for free for the next week.”
“You certainly don’t look like it.” The hat-wearing male Zerg carefully sized up the handsome man. “Are you a female Zerg, a male Zerg, or a sub-female?”
“I am a biological organism, a primate male, scientific name: human.”
“Quite pathetic, buddy,” the male Zerg’s gaze was full of pity. “Turned out to be genuinely brain-damaged.”
“You don’t look like a slum Zerg from your outfit, either. Don’t tell me you were human-trafficked. Once this Highness gets back alive, I’ll definitely help you find your way home.” He threw an arm around the “brain-damaged” handsome man, speaking with complete disregard for boundaries.
Roy looked up at him, just about to deliver a sarcastic remark, when he watched him remove his mask. A breathtakingly gorgeous face came into view—bright eyes and white teeth, a countenance like the moon, elegant as bamboo in the forest, and pure as snow on the mountains.
“You’re somewhat good-looking,” he said honestly.
“Thank you,” the handsome male Zerg smiled dazzlingly. “Since childhood, this Highness has been blessed with beauty. Let me tell you a secret.”
“Bang!” A bullet pierced through the window and struck the counter, sending shards of glass and wood splashing everywhere. He instantly quieted down.
“I dug a hole beneath this shop yesterday. Shall we go hide together?” Roy looked at the male Zerg’s face and decided to be charitable for once.
“Alright.” The male Zerg bounced along after Roy toward the utility room, looking remarkably easy to gull.
Standing by the entrance of the hole, Roy lifted the debris covering it, causing the male Zerg’s voice to shift tones: “A mud hole? You dug this with a shovel?”
“Yeah,” Roy thought he was making a fuss over nothing. “The shovel was a gift from the old beggar grandfather next door. Otherwise, we’d have absolutely nothing right now.”
“When the two of us go down in a moment, I’ll bring the shovel down too, just in case.”
“Very well, child.” The male Zerg seemed to pity him even more. With that, he leaped straight down.
Roy followed him down, bringing his treasured shovel along. As he jumped, he pulled on a cord, which moved a stick that triggered a lid made of weeds and broken wooden strips, covering the entrance with a loud clatter.
The hole wasn’t large, as it had originally been dug for Roy alone—about 2.2 meters high and 1 meter wide. Standing together inside, they were pressed tightly against one another.
“If the two of us die here, this will practically be a joint burial coffin,” a flippant voice echoed in the darkness.
“What?” Roy asked in disbelief.
“What’s wrong? This Highness is the empire’s most gorgeous male Zerg, the first-in-line successor to the Zerg throne, and the top genius in the Imperial Military Academy’s Department of Literature. Do you know how many Zergs would dream of going to the yellow springs together with this Highness?”
“Oh.” He hated the Department of Literature; they always spoke in ways that made no sense.
“Have you ever seen such a peerlessly magnificent existence like this Highness before?”
“Be quiet, will you?” Roy found him somewhat annoying, then remembered something. “Are male Zergs very expensive?”
“What?” Now it was the male Zerg’s turn to be in disbelief.
“I notice there aren’t many male Zergs in the slums. You guys must either be very rich or very expensive.” Roy was quite curious.
“Male Zergs are scarce. For the reproduction of the Zerg race, our social status is extremely high, and the empire issues stipends the moment we reach adulthood. We wouldn’t be poor enough to live in the slums.”
“That’s wonderful. Are female Zergs’ lives cheap, then?” Roy asked.
“What on earth are you trying to ask? Were you thrown into the slums just because you are a female Zerg?” For the first time, the male Zerg’s voice turned serious, sounding somewhat gentle.
“It’s nothing, that’s not it.” Roy could tell his tone was off, though he didn’t know what he had said wrong.
He harbored no malicious intent. Before crossing over, he was an orphan. Until he accelerated through university and began working as an actuary, he had always been poor. Whatever others dared not eat or use, he picked up to consume and utilize.
A teacher once asked him if he wasn’t afraid of getting sick from eating those things. He didn’t speak, thinking to himself that right now he had no money, power, or influence; the reality that his life was cheap was a social fact he couldn’t change, as long as the person himself wasn’t cheap. Once his competence reached the required level and his luck turned, there would be plenty of time to discuss health and wellness.
At twenty-one, he truly achieved it, earning a million a year and living like a young master.
“Do humans also have the concept of expensive lives and cheap lives?” the male Zerg asked softly.
“What?” Roy was stunned. “Didn’t you say I was mentally ill?”
“I once saw the word ‘human’ in a forbidden book deep within the imperial palace’s forbidden grounds. It was said that a certain Zerg Emperor once claimed to be a ‘human’ from Blue Star before crossing over,” the male Zerg replied. “When I asked my Father and Mother, they both said it was just the rambling whispers of that陛下 before death, not to be taken seriously as fact, so I cast it out of my mind.”
“What else was recorded in it?” Roy asked.
“Come back to the palace with me, you have nowhere to go anyway,” the male Zerg coaxed. “Once we’re back, I’ll find that forbidden book for you to read.”
“If I go back with you, what if you dissect me?” If content shouldn’t be taken as fact, how could it even be called a forbidden book? Who was he trying to fool?
“Hey…” The male Zerg wanted to say more, but footsteps sounded overhead, and he immediately clamped his mouth shut.
Roy gripped his shovel tightly; he had a somewhat ominous premonition.
The footsteps grew clearer, slowly approaching the edge of the hole’s cover. A foot stepped directly onto the lid.
Roy climbed up the muddy walls of the hole, shifting upward slowly and softly. The lid sagged more and more. The moment the final wooden strip was about to snap, Roy sprang upward like a coiled spring, thrusting his shovel straight into the female Zerg’s mouth. After leaping onto the surface, he forcefully shoved the shovel, tearing the female Zerg’s face wide open from the mouth up. Before the other could react, he snatched the gun from the female Zerg’s hand, dragged the male Zerg who was still climbing out of the hole, and broke into a run, pulling him along.
“You’re quite fierce,” the male Zerg had good stamina and kept right on his heels. “What if he was just coming in to take a look? It’s a gang turf war, and we aren’t even gang members.”
Roy was too exhausted to reply. They had already bolted out of the cafe, and stray bullets from unknown origins whizzed through the air from time to time. They needed to find cover, but the surrounding structures were already battered and ruined, and the few large objects left standing were riddled with holes.
He didn’t dare stop, nor did he know where to run. Panic gripped him; if they kept running around like headless flies, there was no telling which stray bullet would end them.
Suddenly, he spotted several piled-up corpses beneath a battered, uneven corner to his front left, with no living Zergs in the vicinity. Roy hurriedly dragged the male Zerg over there. He tossed aside the corpses, piled them up into a makeshift fortress, and pulled the male Zerg inside to hide.
“I’m not being excessive,” Roy panted amidst the scent of sulfur and blood, soothing his aching ribs. “I’ve lived in real slums. You wouldn’t understand.”
The male Zerg gently patted his back, remaining relatively calm. He apologized, saying he hadn’t meant it that way, only that he found him very strong.
“Do you know how to use a gun?” Roy caught his breath.
“I do. Do you dare hand the gun over to me?” he asked.
Without wasting extra words, Roy directly handed the captured gun over to him, signaling him to follow closely behind in a moment.
“Do you know the way out of the slums?” the male Zerg asked.
“I do. I’ve been here for three days; even by scavenging, I managed to pick up a light communicator that still barely works.”
“The detailed maps of the paths outside require paying money to download. The city outside is much more advanced than this; by comparison, this place feels like the previous epoch. With only the general map gifted by a standard light communicator, you might get lost. After we reach the exit here, let me take the lead instead, shall we?” The male Zerg spoke cautiously.
“I really won’t dissect you, you just saved me after all,” he added.
“Whatever works, but we are not taking the main gate.” Roy’s brain was spinning at high speed. “This place is too close to the slum exit. If they dared to start a turf war right here, they might have already bribed the exit guards. These gangs always operate on the principle of executing the innocent rather than letting anyone slip through. Taking the main gate isn’t safe.”
Aside from himself and this male Highness, the only people left in this area today were the elderly or the disabled; they didn’t care whether or not they died from stray bullets fired by strangers. If two strapping young youths suddenly appeared out of thin air among those people, the gang members would undoubtedly spray a round of bullets just to be safe.
“We didn’t see their shadows just now, only flying stray bullets,” the male Zerg said.
“Yes, they must have moved on to the surrounding blocks. If we’re lucky, right now this immediate area only has corpses and Zergs who can’t move,” Roy said. “We’re leaving. Stay close.”
He turned left and right, darting into narrow, cramped alleyways.
The wind brushed past his nose, carrying the scent of blood. Roy carefully traced the source of the bloody odor. They bypassed half-withered trees, twisted and distorted awnings, and lifeless female Zergs. The path grew narrower and longer.
Finally, they stopped in front of an old beggar covered in patches, behind whom was a wall overgrown with withered yellow vines. Roy squatted down and asked, “Old grandfather, is the path behind you open for business today?”
The old beggar half-opened his eyes, saying nothing.
Roy pointed at himself and said, “Old grandfather, I’m the female Zerg who came to chat with you a few days ago. My name is Roy. Do you remember? The favor you cared about—asking around for you after I got out—do you still care about it?”
The old beggar’s numb face seemed to twitch. He slowly shuffled his body aside, revealing the hole behind him.
“What is this for?” The male Zerg was slightly bewildered.
“Grandpa Hai is letting us through,” Roy gently nudged the male Zerg. “On the other side are the descendants of Grandpa Hai’s old comrades, handling free documentation for the outside. They only let one female Zerg out every few months, so hurry up and get out.”
“What about you?”
“Naturally, I’m coming right behind you. Did you think I’d engage in self-sacrifice for the sake of another Zerg?”
The male Zerg smiled awkwardly and crawled out, his posture awkward yet elegant.
Seeing him safely exit, Roy thanked Grandpa Hai and drilled through the hole as well, not casting a single look back at the slums that had borne witness to his three days of toil, hardship, and suffering.
“We made it out alive!” The male Zerg blinked frantically with excitement, misusing his facial features entirely. Combined with his peerless beauty, it possessed a distinct kind of manic charm that left the nearby receiving female Zerg completely dumbfounded.
“You really are a genius too!” The male Zerg grasped Roy’s hands tightly. “Be my bosom friend! Let’s look down with disdain upon the mediocre and mundane of this world together!”
Roy pulled his hand back, failed to extract it, and put on a blank expression: “As far as I know, I do not belong to the category of true geniuses. Thinking I’m smart only proves you’ve reached the absolute limits of stupidity.”
“You… Are you His Highness the First Prince?” A female Zerg widened her eyes, pointing at the male Zerg as if she had seen a ghost.
“Linnia Acadely, truly yours.” The male Zerg recovered his poise with lightning speed, showing not a trace of his previous madness.
“Why are you here?!”
“It’s a long story. Please lead the way, sir; this Highness has some things to discuss with my bosom friend. Pardon the trouble.” Linnia firmly gripped Roy with one hand, pressing close to his ear and whispering eagerly: “Actually, I came here to find inspiration. As a writer, you see, you can never create truly epoch-making masterpieces by staying sequestered in the lofty halls of power. Because of that, I deliberately dismissed my attendants and chased away the dark guards this morning.”
“Amazing.” A lunatic.
“Once we reach the city, come back to the palace with me.”
“No. Once we reach the city, everyone goes their separate ways. Stop annoying me.” Roy had already given up struggling, hoping only that upon reaching the city, this Highness would voluntarily fuck off.
“What you promised Grandpa Hai… I might actually have a way,” Linnia murmured, looking like a demon dropping its disguise. “His name is Haidel, right? Thirty years ago, he was a genuine Zerg God of War.”
Roy froze, anger flaring up in his chest. He turned his head to glare at the male Zerg he had just fished out. Beneath a mess of disheveled black hair, a pair of eyes were profoundly sharp and laced with hostility.
“How gorgeous, like a little hedgehog,” Linnia sighed appreciatively.