The nest wasn't particularly large.
The male ran his hand along the wall, his touch filled with a sense of novelty and emotions he couldn't quite fathom. He looked back to find the black core-species sitting on the ground with an expression of utter exhaustion, tossing the bag of energy stones into a corner.
The black scales had gradually receded from the surface of that body, and the slits beneath the eyes had vanished; the female had returned to a standard human mimicry form.
Scars of varying depths covered his body, but he seemed not to care at all. His entire being radiated a single desire: *I want to sleep.*
But a second later, when the male pressed close like a little shadow, Sakti scrambled up. He rummaged through the nest’s bedding, pulled out a piece of soft fabric, and wrapped it around himself, his face full of wariness.
"What are you doing?"
The behavior of a core-species in its alienated form was quite different from its behavior in mimicry.
The female, having just finished the sacrificial match, had leaped nimbly down from the high platform and departed through the passage. His deeply alienated appearance had been so oppressive that Gera had felt a suffocating fear when he drew near.
Many of the other Zerg present had also noticed the white male shrinking in the corner, letting out excited buzzes.
The black, alienated female had circled Gera once, leaning in as if to sniff him.
Emotionless golden beast-pupils locked onto him, resembling the countless beasts Gera had seen who were blinded by the urge to slaughter—reason was gone, leaving only the instinct for plunder and destruction.
The mental power the male took such pride in failed him at that moment. When those black claws reached for him, he instinctively tried to shrink back and flee.
No one knew what a crazed female might do.
Being pinned against a wall for an immediate mating session would have been considered a mercy; he was more afraid that the other would rip out his heart like prey or tear him completely to shreds.
When he was seized by those arms, the male let out a sob-like buzzing whimper. He instinctively softened his body to cooperate with the female’s demands, praying to minimize the harm.
The next moment, the black core-species hoisted the male up, carrying him like a trophy on his shoulders.
Gera heard the other let out a lazy, hissing chuckle as the golden eyes looked up at him.
Gera: "???"
He couldn't yet truly understand the human emotions he usually imitated, but at that moment, the male felt a surge of indignation that made him want to cry.
His white scaled tail slapped against the black claw gripping his calf with a sharp *thwack*. It carried a fierce momentum, but in reality, it lacked any real strength because of his own lack of confidence.
Sakti acted as if he’d been scratched by a kitten, giving a perfunctory grunt. He paraded the male around the plaza exit once before finally leaving.
It was a warning.
A warning to all the females present that this male was the property of the black core-species. Anyone bold enough to reach out a covetous hand was destined for a fight to the death.
Gera felt somewhat wronged and sad, mixed with an indescribable complexity of heart.
He didn't quite understand where this mindset came from.
The treatment he received from his kin and brothers might have been much worse, and his experiences on the raider ship had cast a shadow of death over him for a long time.
However, Sakti’s temperament was too stable; he didn't fly into a rage over trifles, which made the male want to slightly test the other’s bottom line.
"Could you please not scare me so fiercely?"
The male spoke in a small voice. He was perched on the black alienated female's back, and when the other returned to a standing posture, he threw his arms around the female's neck.
Because the fight had just ended, the female’s body temperature was higher than usual, and the scent of his pheromones made Gera’s tail curl again.
"I was very scared just now. Very, very scared."
This contradictory emotion persisted until they saw the new nest.
The elderly manager led them to a brand-new nest with a complex expression. Although the core-species had said the first match was free, the manager still dropped a bag of energy stones before turning to leave.
Gera immediately ducked into the nest.
It was a tiny nest, much smaller than any core-species nest he had ever seen. Yet, he felt an incomprehensible sense of happiness.
*I'm not sad anymore,* the male thought.
There was only one bed in the nest, clean and tidy.
Like a curious hatchling, he touched everything—from the spiral patterns on the walls to the fairly spacious bed near the wall, which was covered in soft fabrics that looked light and fluffy.
The black female stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the male run back and forth, his little tail wagging like a happy young beast.
Relinquishing the deep alienation state took more time. The black scales seemed reluctant to leave, receding inch by inch beneath the skin.
Once he stepped out of the state of extreme excitement and the hormones dilating his blood vessels returned to normal levels, exhaustion surged up.
Sakti watched the happy male, not speaking to disturb him.
He was no longer human.
This brutal struggle had made Sakti realize this with unprecedented clarity.
There was no such thing as "a human soul stuffed into the body of a beast"; personality was inherently dependent on the physical form. Even though Red Tai Sui had once suggested uploading his personality to the Data Firmament, he didn't believe that a version of himself using the Galactic Inner-Ring Network as a vessel would still be the original him.
The Sakti Saliban who belonged to humanity could only live within the limited time he existed as a human.
When consciousness is fractured, rebirth and immortality in a superstitious sense lose their meaning.
Red Tai Sui should have responded to its master's call the moment he woke up.
But it hadn't appeared.
Not even once.
Having experienced too many "it is what it is" situations, he accepted the reality calmly.
Whether it was the new identity or the new body, neither was easy to embrace—it was as difficult as many decisions he had made in the past.
This didn't mean he needed to give up on finding his partner. Red Tai Sui was his primary choice for cooperation; it had to return to his side.
Choosing a random spot to sit, Sakti closed his eyes to rest. He needed more time to think, both about the Zerg and about himself.
Too many mysteries were tangled like a messy ball of yarn.
He also had to view the race he currently belonged to through a different lens; he could no longer simply categorize the creatures around him as "enemies."
Anger was the most useless thing in this universe—commonplace and worthless.
A cruel reality was that it is very difficult for a person to "kill themselves." The struggle for survival is the instinct of every life. No matter how bad the hand you're dealt at the start, you can only hold your nose and finish the game.
If he interacted with this race using his old methods, he would eventually drive himself into a dead end.
Humans would not accept a Zerg female, and whether the Zerg could get along with him was another matter entirely. Anyone who has been attacked from both sides knows how that feels.
It was a conclusion that sounded inconsistent with his personal moral code, but the universe was a giant, clumsy farce. Even two hostile neighbors who had torn at each other for decades and nearly pushed each other to the brink of extinction could shake hands with fake smiles and establish a brief cooperation after a ceasefire.
The adult world has no black and white.
That was no joke.
Since he couldn't go back to the human side, he had to find a way to take root among the bugs and seize everything he could get his hands on.
The change in identity meant this wasn't a short-term exile; it was quite possible he would be like this for the rest of his life.
Continuing to mindlessly make too many enemies for himself was not a wise move.
In essence, Sakti Saliban was an existence that actively affirmed and accepted reality to an abnormal degree.
His experiences left him no time to waste on self-torture or pondering philosophical questions.
The even more ridiculous fact was that, at this moment, the only one who could barely be considered his companion was a male with a genetic defect.
Fate loved to slap people twice when they least expected it.
Sakti’s response to this was to immediately raise his hand and slap back.
He had to completely overturn his initial plan.
Both regarding his attitude toward other bugs and his attitude toward Gera.
The exhaustion from the match and his cluttered thoughts filled his head, causing him to revise his plans for the future over and over again.
But the next moment, his train of thought was interrupted by the male nudging closer. As soon as he approached, Sakti sat up and quickly grabbed a blanket-like fabric, wrapping his bare self up tight.
"You're hurt," Gera said softly, looking a bit sad.
The first battle against a high-ranking female had consumed a large portion of Sakti's energy.
A female's healing ability didn't come from nothing. Even for the resilient Zerg, the capacity for wound regeneration had its limits. While the largest penetrating wounds had been barely healed, various smaller wounds remained open.
The male tried to push him into the bed, but the core-species' heavy body wouldn't budge. Gera could only pull at him while making buzzing breaths.
"Move a little," he said, not stopping until Sakti, annoyed by the pestering, finally sat down in the bed.
Gera leaned over the edge of the bed and lowered his head to lick a wound on the other's arm.
The action was so natural that the core-species, busy thinking, only reacted after a moment, grabbing the male and pinning him firmly beside him.
"Don't touch things randomly!"
"I'm not touching things randomly." Gera's expression was serious. "You need treatment."
Sakti wanted to ask what kind of amateur treatment this was—like a little boy licking a wound to trick himself into thinking it didn't hurt anymore.
But he soon discovered that the wound really was gradually healing, replaced by a slight numbing sensation.
"I am a core-species too," Gera said, his little white scaled tail standing up behind him, giving Sakti an itch to reach out and yank it.
"Core-species males are very useful. Although my... my wings are underdeveloped, my pheromones are fine."
At the mention of his genetic defect, the male's tail quickly drooped again, and he instinctively tried to hide his crippled wings and less-than-beautiful scaled tail behind him.
"I'm very capable."
His voice was tiny.
Sakti watched him for a while, then finally lay back in the bed with a crude posture, completely giving in to the situation.
"Fine, fine, heal me then. You know where not to touch."
Gera immediately let out a buzz. He happily found a comfortable position beside the female, drenching Sakti in pheromones so sweet they made his teeth ache.
A slender tongue extended from his mouthparts, licking the wound on the other's shoulder blade bit by bit.
Core-species males had extremely strong mental soothing abilities and indeed possessed a unique healing effect that promoted recovery in females.
The pheromones remaining in the black core-species' blood made Gera whimper a few times, his white scaled tail once again unconsciously coiling around the dark tail-whip. The licked scars gradually faded and scabbed over, no longer in a bloody state.
They were like two beasts curled up in a cave, pressed together in their most primitive state without a shred of shame.
"Have you ever eaten a human?" Sakti asked suddenly.
The largest tear on his shoulder had finally closed, and Gera was happily inspecting his handiwork. The female hadn't brushed him away the entire time, seemingly lost in some private contemplation, his mind wandering elsewhere.
The male was startled by the sudden question.
He pressed against the other anxiously, lifting his body slightly away from the slowly healing scars.
"I haven't," he said softly, his wings rubbing together uneasily. Both instinct and mental power were screaming warnings—warnings that this answer might be more important than he imagined, and that he must tell the truth.
"We've been at peace with humans for a long time. High-gene ethnic groups even build Time Rivers with humans," he added, sounding a bit embarrassed. "We hunt exotic beasts, but I don't always get a share. My brothers are stronger; they often snatch all the prey away."
The black female fell silent again.
Gera stayed pressed against him for a long time, but the other didn't speak again, as if the previous question had just been a casual inquiry. Just a second before he was about to fall asleep, he felt the core-species beside him speak once more.
"There is one thing I should ask you."
The deep voice sounded, pulling the drowsy Gera back to reality.
Half of his soft, pale scaled tail rested on the other, sweeping back and forth occasionally. He responded gently, "Mm."
Sakti’s golden-brown eyes looked at the ceiling of the nest, his thoughts unreadable, his expression devoid of emotion.
The male sensed that the female wasn't angry at this moment, but he wasn't happy either; it was as if he had made a decision after a long period of reflection.
He heard the other speak in a calm tone, as if asking "what should we eat today" or "let's go get some energy stones."
"What is your name?" Sakti asked, turning his head to let his gaze fall upon him.
Under the light of the luminous minerals, his pupils looked like calm, deep golden lakes.
"Your true, original name."
***
Glossary:
