The pain and discomfort had never faded.
Carlos had just been lying on the ground pretending to be in agony—half genuine, half feigned.
He pressed his temples to make his breathing smoother and alleviate some of the pain. Having finally managed to lure the tiger away from the mountain, he now needed to act swiftly.
Carlos traced the door lock, his fingertips skillfully probing its mechanism.
The door was tightly shut, with two locks alone.
“Ball Ball, scan this door lock.”
The iron ball system responded immediately, floating into Carlos’s palm and emitting a glow.
【Host! Scan complete—it’s an electronic lock! I can hack and open it.】
The iron ball system hovered before the lock for just a moment, then with a click, the first lock opened.
【But the second one is a mechanical lock, I…】 I can’t open it.
Sweet Home had truly put great effort into imprisoning bugs. Even in the interstellar era, they employed dual electronic and mechanical safeguards. Even if the system was hacked, this retro mechanical lock was enough to trap bugs inside.
The meticulous and malicious intent was evident—ordinary bugs would never be able to escape.
“I’ll handle it.”
Before the system could finish speaking, Carlos pulled a wire from his sleeve.
While observing that bizarre cabinet earlier, he hadn’t been idle. This wire was extracted from one of the iron whips—not too thick, not too thin, just right.
Carlos gripped both ends of the wire and, with only a slight exertion, reshaped the twisted wire into the most suitable “key.”
His slender fingers deftly maneuvered as he inserted the wire into the lock hole. The mechanism of the lock emitted faint sounds, and Carlos pressed his ear against the lock to discern the subtle changes in its structure.
Click—
In just over ten seconds, the intricate door lock sprang open.
【My goodness! Host, how do you have this skill? That’s simply incredible.】
“You don’t know that the host you bound is a fraud?”
Carlos struggled to stand steady, leaning against the wall as he coughed. Coughing and coughing, he suddenly laughed.
Back on Blue Star, he had also worn a glamorous mask. Stepping onto the stage, he could disguise himself as a one-day boyfriend, dealing with all sorts of bizarre characters.
Wrapped in thick coats and masks, grabbing a camera, he could also become a jack-of-all-trades, catching adulterers and gathering intelligence door-to-door.
Everything had a first time. When he first ventured into these businesses, Carlos’s acting skills were unpolished, riddled with flaws and slip-ups. Being beaten into a swollen mess was inevitable sooner or later.
If he hadn’t learned to unlock doors, he would have been finished the day he was caught, with his legs broken.
As the saying goes, skills never burden you—that’s the truth.
“But now, it’s not the time to talk about this.”
Carlos didn’t rush out of the secret room but instead concealed himself behind the door. Fortunately, the two bugs who captured him were inexperienced and hadn’t blindfolded him, allowing him to recall the scenes he witnessed while being kidnapped.
He had once been blindfolded and bundled into a vehicle, ultimately escaping by relying on the sounds he remembered. Now, with rookie kidnappers’ lax security, he could recall even more details.
On the way here, aside from the elevator, I walked a total of 1,183 steps. This room is over 800 meters away from the arena. Although there weren’t many patrolling bugs along the way, there were a total of 13 surveillance cameras.
The only relief was that there were no cameras installed within about 100 meters of the secret room, perhaps because the boss disliked being disturbed while conducting his affairs.
Carlos no longer hesitated. He burst out of the door and ran swiftly, hiding behind cover just before reaching the first surveillance camera.
“Qiuqiu, can you temporarily disable the surveillance cameras now?”
[Host, my abilities are limited. I can only disable one camera for a maximum of five seconds.]
Carlos silently calculated the distances between the cameras and felt reassured.
“That’s enough.”
“From now on, no need to ask for permission. Follow the pattern of disabling each camera for five seconds, then pausing for ten seconds. Can you do that?”
[I guarantee I’ll complete the task!]
Carlos counted down the seconds in his mind, moving like a ghost from one camera to another.
Even though it felt as uncomfortable as performing a head-smashing stunt, his movements were precise to the second, as if a computer had been implanted in his brain, allowing him to coordinate perfectly with the system.
As time went on, it felt both infinitely stretched and fleeting. The two different types of pain from the electric shocks and the drugs had long since clashed violently within his body.
Only after Carlos escaped the surveillance area and removed his disguise could he finally stop to catch his breath.
One word lingered in Carlos’s mind: hot.
The discomfort in his body had only intensified after the intense and perilous exertion.
A fire, like a spark igniting a prairie, blazed through his internal organs, amplifying every sensation in his body to its extreme.
He rushed straight to the shower room. Cold water poured down from above, like icy rain falling on molten lava—utterly futile, like an egg trying to shatter a stone. It didn’t seem to help much.
Even though it was cold water, Carlos felt enveloped in steam, his face growing hazy. The cold water barely lowered his body temperature, but at least it cleared his mind a little.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host! The mission “Remove the Protagonist’s Insectification Ability” has been completed.]
The system’s voice suddenly rang out, broadcasting the mission success notification in Carlos’s mind as if it were malfunctioning.
“What did you say?”
[The protagonist’s insectification ability has been removed.]
“You know that’s not what I’m asking.”
Carlos pressed his throbbing head again, feeling as though all the absurd and unlucky events of the day had converged at once.
To remove a female insect’s insectification ability, one must inject a degeneration agent when they are at their weakest during a violent insectification episode. When Zelan was taken away earlier, his violent insectification clearly hadn’t ended. How could it have been removed?
What would happen if it were forcibly removed?
Moreover, as Zelan’s direct disciplinary officer, who else could have interfered in this matter?
Carlos didn’t even have time to dry himself off. He hastily changed into the disciplinary officer’s uniform, relying on his nimble fingers to avoid buttoning it incorrectly at such speed.
[Huh? Host, isn’t it something to celebrate when a mission is completed?] The system was puzzled, seeing Carlos frown.
Celebrate?
Destroying a military female insect trapped in dire straits, trampling them into the mud—how could that be worth celebrating at a time like this?
【You’re not fully recovered yet. Where are you going now?】
“Something’s happened.”
Carlos, unusually, didn’t want to engage with the system. Time was of the essence, and he only managed to squeeze out a few words from between his lips.
Something must have happened to Zelan.
Carlos rushed straight to Zelan’s cell, but cell 2757 was empty—not a single insect in sight.
Calm down, think carefully. Where would Zelan be now?
If the violent insect transformation hadn’t been resolved, the insect who took Zelan wouldn’t risk themselves. They would choose a place with absolutely no risk, somewhere completely safe.
That could only be…
The isolation zone.
The isolation zone of Sweet Home served a purpose strikingly similar to that of Blue Star Prison—commonly used to confine disobedient insects.
However, in the insect race, this place was specifically designed for highly dangerous female insects, presenting a starkly different atmosphere compared to the insect slave cells.
The isolation zone didn’t hold just one insect; on the contrary, it covered a large, extremely spacious area with several small rooms closely packed together.
But calling them “rooms” was actually an overstatement.
They were more like oversized boxes, with only a door-sized opening at the front, not much larger than a Blue Star phone booth. Confining an insect slave inside felt cramped.
These isolation chambers, built to explosion-proof standards, were enough to turn the insect slaves into trapped beasts within.
The door at the front was made of the same material as the cell’s viewing window—a two-way glass. The insect slaves inside couldn’t see outside, but for the overseers outside, every struggle of the insect slaves inside was laid bare.
He could never forget the horrific scenes he had witnessed before. Every insect slave in each compartment suffered in the isolation chambers, like livestock in a slaughterhouse awaiting the butcher’s blade, transported one by one to the gate via conveyor belts.
As soon as Carlos charged into the isolation zone, before he could find the insect he was looking for, a figure blocked his path.
“Well, well, you’re quite late.”
A dark-skinned female insect, who had been sitting on a chair beside an isolation chamber, leisurely crossed his legs. Seeing Carlos rush over in a hurry, he slowly rose to his feet.
This insect was none other than the overseer he had seen before—Heiga.
The moment Carlos saw Heiga, everything became clear.
Before the match, he had contacted the medical insect, Ethan, asking him to rush to treat the blue-haired, blue-eyed insect slave 1349. But later, Carlos received a message from Ethan saying that there wasn’t a single insect hair in the waiting room. Instead, on his way there, he saw his overseer taking 1349 away.
This dark-skinned overseer was also one of those ordered to harm Zelan, likely one of the insects monitoring him and Zelan in the arena earlier.
Heiga’s presence here now was a bit of a surprise even to himself.
He was supposed to take that male insect to the boss’s room, but the boss was in high spirits today and wanted to go to his “entertainment room” on his own.
Even though they, as subordinates, worried something might go wrong, they couldn’t say much. So, Heiga had come to the isolation zone first to “take care of” the insect slave with the code 2757.
The situation in the isolation chambers behind Heiga was completely blocked from view, but just the glimpse of that strand of white hair in his line of sight made everything clear to Carlos.
“2757 is the insect slave under my responsibility. You’ve overstepped.”
Carlos’s heart was burning with anxiety, but he knew that haste often led to mistakes. The more urgent the situation, the more likely things would go wrong. He was well aware of this.
Thus, he did not show much emotion on his face, only his complexion darkened a few shades. Even his clothes, which had not dried due to his haste, were now mostly dry from the run over, and unless one reached out to touch them, nothing unusual could be detected.
At this moment, Carlos appeared merely as a disciplinarian angered by the encroachment on his authority, with no obvious flaws to be seen.
“Your insect slave? Then why weren’t you, the disciplinarian, present at the arena? Is this how you take responsibility?”
Heiga sneered coldly.
“Besides, all insect slaves belong to Sweet Home. By bringing him here now, I’m merely fulfilling my duty as a disciplinarian. How is that overstepping?”
“After all, the insectification abilities of the slaves are bound to be removed sooner or later. Whether you do it or I do it, what difference does it make? In fact, you should probably thank me.”
After speaking, Heiga stepped aside as if showcasing his achievement, revealing the full view of the confinement cells behind him.
Zelan was trapped in one of the cubicles, a scene eerily similar to when Carlos first laid eyes on him.
Normally, insect slaves who had their insectification abilities removed would be left weak and utterly devoid of strength.
Zelan’s condition, however, was the complete opposite.
He curled up inside the confinement cell, his head slamming violently against the glass door. His wings, cramped in the small space, were forced to huddle together, their edges digging deeply into the walls on either side.
The transparent glass door was smeared with bloodstains.
Zelan, who had only just begun to recover, had now reverted to his initial state upon their first meeting, and his condition seemed even worse.
“Step aside. I’m taking 2757 with me.”
Carlos’s tone left no room for doubt, not yielding an inch.
“Who do you think you are! You—”
“Would you like to test whether you’re faster, or whether I can open the door faster?”
Carlos interrupted Heiga’s impending outburst.
Unnoticed by Heiga, Carlos’s hand had already settled on the control panel. With a single tap of his finger, he could open the door to Zelan’s confinement cell at any moment.
Insect Slave 2757 had now entered a state of indiscriminate aggression. Releasing him recklessly would place nearly every insect present within his attack range.
If things escalated to that point, the situation would spiral beyond anything Heiga could predict.
Heiga glared furiously, but the black-haired disciplinarian before him remained utterly calm, with only a flicker of mutual destruction dancing in his eyes. Enough to convince anyone that he was capable of such madness.
A lunatic!
This insect named Carlos was nothing short of a complete madman!
Though Heiga felt a twinge of apprehension deep down, his innate hot temper spurred his lips to move once more.
Before he could utter a word, a voice call notification popped up on his smart device.
Heiga glanced down at the message, his gaze shifting warily toward Carlos before he chose to dismiss it.
Just as he prepared to retort, a figure flew toward him like a blur, crashing into his line of sight and once again interrupting his rehearsed tirade.
The red-haired punk, rushing in a frantic hurry, had finally arrived, albeit belatedly.
“Boss! It’s bad, really bad! The male—” The male insect! He’s escaped!
Heiga, irritated by this big-mouthed fool who never knew the right time to speak, cut him off with a sharp rap on the head.
Red Hair then whispered a report into his ear, and as Black Heiga listened, his expression grew darker and darker. The originally dark-skinned insect visibly darkened several shades more.
“Let’s go!”
Before leaving, he didn’t forget to glare at Carlos.
The empty confinement area was once again left with only Carlos and Zelan.
Despite being in such excruciating pain and frenzy that it was nearly unbearable, the confinement area remained eerily silent. All the low growls and mournful cries were sealed behind that glass door.
Carlos gently pressed his hand against the door, his palm aligning with Zelan’s hand on the other side of the glass.
The distance between them was close—so close that only a single pane of glass separated them.
Yet the distance was also unimaginably vast. Between them lay a book, a dimension, and two hearts that knew nothing of each other.
After so many days here, what exactly was his relationship with this female insect named Zelan?
Reader and book character?
They weren’t even friends just strangers brought together by the system’s guidance. Perhaps, to the female insect, he was nothing more than a ruthless executioner.
By all logic and reason, he shouldn’t meddle any further.
Combining Zelan’s current condition with the information from the book, it wasn’t hard to understand.
Zelan was an S-class female insect. Among the insect race, an insect’s combat power was directly proportional to the suffering they endured.
This destined him to experience more frequent mental outbursts, greater lethality during insect transformation, and an even more troublesome situation during frenzied transformations.
Injecting the metamorphosis agent before Zelan’s frenzied transformation ended would only weaken his physical functions, but the unconscious madness would not cease.
If one had to ask when relief would come—
Death.
When the frenzied insect transformation drained every last drop of blood from the female insect, that would be the true end.
“Ball Ball, stop the surveillance camera above for five seconds. And lend me your help for a moment.”
[Alright]!?!? Huh?!
As soon as the iron ball system stopped the surveillance, its entire body felt lighter, and the world spun before its eyes.
[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!]
Carlos grabbed the iron ball system, aimed at the surveillance camera above, and threw it like an exceptional baseball pitcher.
Clang—
The sound of the shattered surveillance camera hitting the ground echoed loudly.
The insects monitoring the situation were likely already frantic over the “disappearing male insect,” probably too busy to notice what was happening on his end—as long as he acted quickly enough.
“Ball Ball, I’ll be counting on you in a moment. Guard the door outside. If any insects approach, notify me immediately.”
Carlos placed his hand on the control panel.
[Host, what are you planning to do!!?? It’s dangerous!]
It seemed he simply wanted to do it, though even Carlos himself couldn’t explain the reason.
“Doing what I want to do.”
A faint smile curled at the corner of Carlos’s lips, as calm and serene as a breeze passing through the woods on a certain afternoon.
The next second, the door to the confinement room was pushed open by Carlos. After his figure disappeared inside, it swiftly closed again.
“Ugh!”
The moment Carlos entered the confinement room, the female insect shoved him violently against the glass door.
The sharp pain in his back made Carlos’s vision go dark. It wasn’t quite like being hit by a car, but it felt similar to being struck head-on by an electric scooter at full speed.
Fortunately, the female insect’s five pairs of wing-like appendages were pinned against the wall, preventing Carlos from being riddled with holes right from the start.
Carlos had no time to catch his breath from the dull ache.
A sharp pain shot through his shoulder.
The female insect viciously bit down on Carlos, its sharp teeth instantly piercing through his shoulder.
He had heard that the bite force of a female insect after transformation was astonishing, but he never imagined it would hurt this much.
From Carlos’s collarbone all the way to his shoulder blade was the area clamped by the female insect’s bite, leaving him almost completely immobilized under Zelan’s jaws.
Gushing blood seeped uncontrollably outward, gradually flowing into the female insect’s mouth.
A numbing, tingling sensation from the flesh being sucked gradually spread from the wound, and Carlos could feel his blood slowly draining away.
For a female insect in the throes of a violent transformation, a male insect was the best antidote.
He had read in the data that a male insect’s pheromones could soothe a female insect and alleviate mental suffering.
But after spending so many days in the insect world, Carlos, a native of Blue Star, couldn’t sense this elusive thing at all neither smelling nor touching it. He wasn’t even sure if he possessed this ability, and at this moment, he didn’t dare take the risk.
Apart from pheromones, a male insect’s blood also had a soothing effect, though this fact wasn’t widely known among the insect race. To protect the lives of male insects, the Male Insect Protection Association had deliberately suppressed this information.
His blood flowed continuously into the female insect’s throat, while what wasn’t sucked up by her slid down along the wound.
Like a crimson bond, it tightly and intimately connected him to Zelan at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
Due to the blood loss, Carlos began to feel dizzy, and the female insect before him finally seemed to calm down a little, no longer displaying the indiscriminate aggression from earlier.
“Zelan, wake up.”
He softly called the female insect’s name, slowly wrapping his arms around her from the front to the back. However, his movements were tentative, merely a loose embrace, as he feared his actions might provoke her once more.
“Zelan.”
To Zelan, Carlos’s calling voice was completely detached from her consciousness.
It seemed someone was calling her.
After such a long time, a clear thought finally surfaced in Zelan’s mind.
She was trapped on an isolated island of consciousness, disconnected from everything outside. Her body had long become a killing machine in a state of chaos, completely beyond the control of her will.
Zelan stood at the center of the island, surrounded by desolation, with only an endless expanse of gray, still sea encircling her. The water was calm and motionless, tinged with a lifeless gray.
She could sense the vitality of her body gradually fading away; the struggles and bites were merely the last flickers before collapse. After the violent transformation ended, she didn’t know whether her consciousness would be submerged or drift elsewhere.
Looking up at the sky and down at the sea, all that enveloped her was the gray stillness of death. The salty, fishy sea breeze made it almost impossible for her to breathe.
Until the lemon blossoms drifted down from the sky, scattering and appearing, landing on her head and at her fingertips.
She smelled that familiar lemon fragrance again, at the tip of her nose and on her taste buds, more intense and overwhelming than ever before.
“Zelan, it’s alright.”
Amidst the chaos, Zelan couldn’t even distinguish another insect.
Yet that voice was so familiar.
Zelan cupped a lemon blossom in her palm, at a loss.
Gradually, Carlos felt the pressure on his shoulder lighten. The female insect had finally released her bite.
He was able to let out a long sigh of relief.
However, the female insect’s condition had not improved much.
The female insect’s frenzied state had only slightly eased, shifting from its previous outward, wild attacks to now turning inward, causing self-harm.
Curled up in a ball, the female insect wrapped its arms around its body, its ten fingertips digging into its own arms like steel needles, entirely relying on self-inflicted damage to vent its agony.
He had to find another way to soothe the female insect, allowing Zelan to release the excess energy pent up in its body.
If it weren’t for being at the end of his rope, Carlos wouldn’t have wanted to resort to this method.