“Aside from all that, I have a private job I need you to handle.”
The high-tier species did not press the previous matter further, shifting the topic instead.
“This is also why I came here. I want you to leave Ja for a while to escort a shipment of top-grade star-core energy to one of my clients.”
Sarkdi gave him a look that clearly said *are you kidding me?* He almost suspected the other man had water on the brain.
“Do you think that’s appropriate? I’m the temporary administrator of Ja, and you want me to abandon an entire planet to play delivery boy for you?”
He couldn't quite grasp the other’s intent for a moment. Various conspiracy theories flashed through his mind, including but not limited to “this order is definitely a trap” or “is Clark trying to kick me out of the game?”
“You have such a massive Grey-wing tribe under you. You could grab any random bug to do this job.”
“I will not easily assign this task to my subordinates.”
His grey eyes fixed on Sarkdi. The high-tier female sat there, devoid of any outward emotion. “I need a Zerg who does not belong to the Grey-wing tribe and is powerful enough to shoulder this responsibility. That was the original reason I kept you around.”
“Normally, I would handle the escort personally, but the Grey-wing tribe has been experiencing internal unrest lately. I cannot leave the star sector where our core nest is located for an extended period.”
“The delivery point is far. Without using the River of Time, it will take seven small cycles for a round trip. I cannot open the River of Time for this matter.”
The amount of information revealed was significant.
As Clark said, this appeared to be an entirely private affair. If it were made public, it might even draw criticism from other members of the Grey-wing tribe, which was why he had crossed galaxies to find Sarkdi.
Rather than the cause of the Grey-wing tribe’s unrest, the black Core-type was more concerned with this specific cargo. Tracking the flow of star-core energy had always been one of his objectives.
After a moment of reflection, he asked the question that concerned him most.
“Where are you sending this star-core energy?”
“The Kamran Star Sector.”
Clark gave an answer that was completely outside Sarkdi’s expectations.
After being ravaged by the Xenogeneic Tides, the entire Kamran Star Sector had become a ghost realm. Theoretically, however, it still fell under human jurisdiction.
Those grey eyes remained calm.
“The official human military has not set foot in the wasteland bordering the Kamran and Little Rose Star Sectors for hundreds of large cycles. Most tribes fear xenogeneic and star-core contamination and are unwilling to approach those ruins, but there are always exceptions.”
Sarkdi clicked his tongue.
He understood that this involved Clark’s secrets. This wasn't a situation where he could just pat his thighs and walk away.
The fact that the request had been made meant he had to accept it in its entirety.
“In fact, even today, small remnants of the Xenogeneic Tides still pour out from the collapsed Akashic Rifts.”
Clark looked at him, his silver-grey wings draped behind his powerful frame.
“But many humans don't know. They don't know that the tidal pollution still exists, nor do they know that a small number of irregular private garrisons still remain in the abandoned planetary belts.”
An intuitive sense of crisis washed over Sarkdi, making him focus intently on the high-tier species.
The man was dangerous—so dangerous that if Sarkdi refused, the other might take his head in the next second just to bury the secret.
The Kamran Star Sector was indeed not on the official priority list.
It was like land soaked in nuclear radiation; no matter how much one tilled it, the barren soil would never yield healthy plants.
When the Mapuz Academy of Sciences backstabbed the Fifth Army, the star-swallowing weapon, *The Empyrean*, was activated for the second time. The entire Golden Crow fleet, with the exception of Captain Ron Su, perished in the line of duty.
Three Akashic Rifts were stacked and torn apart, triggering intense aftershocks that lasted a year, before completely collapsing the following year.
The star sector, already saturated with star-core energy, was then eroded by the Xenogeneic Tides, becoming a forbidden zone that humans refused to approach.
It wasn't until the White Emperor, who had completed personality restructuring during his slumber, woke once more and the starship *Fahna* descended to seal all the rift pathways that the spreading Xenogeneic Tides were finally halted.
Uprooting such pollution required an unimaginable price. There were too many habitable planetary belts in the galaxy; there was no need to cling to a piece of abandoned wreckage.
It was a massive graveyard, a piece of history left behind.
That was why Gera, who had once been stranded in the Kamran Star Sector, had spent such a long time alone on a strange planet.
And now, the ruler of a Core-gene tribe was telling him that there were still humans living in Kamran.
It was an occurrence too bizarre and unimaginable.
He heard Clark speak again, his deep voice echoing in the nest’s hall.
“I want you to escort it personally and deliver this batch of star-core energy into human hands.”
The high-tier species said, “To a human named—Arthur Simmons.”
***
By the time the normal conversation ended and Sarkdi returned to the nest, it was already midnight.
This encounter with Clark had been an explosion of information. They had discussed the specific details for a long time afterward. Sarkdi had taken the opportunity to "rob the house while it was on fire," using the excuse that "increased workload requires a raise" to squeeze many much-needed resources out of the other man.
Sarkdi needed a lot of time to process the details of their talk and to make arrangements for the coming days to ensure everything on Ja would continue to run smoothly during his absence.
The silver-grey female had seemed incredibly busy; he left the energy planet overnight immediately after the talk, not staying a minute longer. This made Sarkdi wonder if the Grey-wing tribe really was facing a major crisis.
He could ask Gera; the male managed the Information Nest and all the news he received was first-hand.
Thinking of this made his head start to throb.
Lately, he hadn't slowed down his work progress at all, and the ridiculous thing was that Gera hadn't either. The male had silently buried himself in the affairs of the Information Nest, "grinding" with a state of mind that put other Zerg to shame.
However, they hadn't had a proper conversation in a long time.
Mainly, the male seemed to have fallen into a mental dead end, becoming unsure of how to handle their relationship. Most of their time together was spent in silence.
If Sarkdi initiated a conversation, the other would respond gently and speak clearly about work. But... he just wouldn't cling to the female and nuzzle him like before.
Sarkdi had asked many times, and the other would earnestly state that nothing was wrong, explaining that he wasn't upset by the Core-type’s sudden departure that night. He would even turn around to comfort Sarkdi and apologize.
It seemed true that he wasn't sad about the xenogeneic form.
But this only left the "straight man" who had been single for two lifetimes even more bewildered.
After talking with Clark, a new idea surfaced in Sarkdi’s mind.
He decided to test it.
Thus, when he pushed open the door to the nest and saw the white male sitting there eating the fore-claw of a xenogeneic beast, he threw out his first opening line.
“I’ve asked Clark to send over a set of mental power detection and appraisal equipment. It should arrive in about one small cycle.”
The beast claw fell from Gera’s hand.
For the first time in a long while, Sarkdi saw a flash of panic on the other’s face that he couldn't hide in time.
Without giving the male a chance to feign composure, he dropped the second bomb.
“After that, I’ll be leaving Ja alone for a while to handle some private work.”
This time, Gera’s expression shifted from panic to a familiar despair.
Just like that night—lifeless.
“Oh, is it... work-related?” The white male pinched the beast claw twice without picking it up. Sarkdi saw his hands trembling, yet he continued the conversation in a casual tone. “What did Clark say? Does he know?”
“He’ll probably send Zerg from the Core-gene tribe to manage production on Ja? The Grey-wing tribe is very familiar with the refinement process. He can find a suitable Zerg to take over temporarily. Energy stones are easy... energy stones aren't that hard...”
Before the other could utter any more incoherent words, the black Core-type had already walked up to him. He took the sharp, serrated claw from the male’s hand, tossed it back onto the plate, and then picked the white Zerg up entirely.
They hadn't been physically close like this for a while.
When the black tail-whip went to coil around that half-length of white scaled tail, the other reverted to the state of a cat refusing a bath, his tail dodging left and right.
Sarkdi almost laughed out of sheer frustration.
He held the other firmly, sitting down in their small nest with the male in his arms. His tail-whip tightly entwined the other’s soft little tail to prevent this "cat" from bolting from his embrace.
“Let’s talk.”
He said, and before the male could reflexively open his mouth to apologize, he pinched Gera’s jaw shut. “Regarding what happened that night—every time I explain that I don't hate your xenogeneic form, you deny being upset. I thought about it for a long time and couldn't figure out why you were sad, so I finally asked for outside help.”
“You can feel it.”
It should have been a question, but the other’s reaction was too much of a confirmation. The female with golden-brown eyes confined the other in his arms, watching him gently.
“You weren't sad because I rushed out.”
“You were sad because my subsequent emotions hurt you, right?”
Gera froze.
The white male became as still as a statue.
“Your perception of emotions is far more sensitive than other Zerg. I suspect that as long as the distance is close enough, you can feel those emotional fluctuations.”
During the mental power test at the Synchro-Tower Ship, he had learned about such things. But the Zerg were truly formidable; they could turn this passive link into an active probe.
Sarkdi sighed and stroked the other’s small wings.
“When I was outside catching the breeze, my mental state was jumping all over the place. I guess you felt all of it.”
“They stung you.”
“It’s not like that.”
After a moment of silence, the male spoke in a raspy voice. His insect wings drooped completely.
“I...” Gera opened his mouth, and finally, he looked up, gazing at the female.
“I did something wrong.”
“I made you do something you didn't like. I made you blame yourself, made you feel miserable.”
He spoke softly, his slender white scaled tail instinctively curling and uncurling, as if suppressing some emotion.
“I clearly knew what you disliked, yet I still did the wrong thing.”
The Core-type could accept defeated tribes, provide a haven for weak Zerg who struggled to survive, and even challenge terrifying opponents for the sake of unrelated victims—but all of this was built on the foundation of hardship and the fragmentation of self-awareness.
After the female had lost his tribe, his name, and everything else, Gera had almost shattered the only thing the other had left—the thing he wanted to preserve—and he had done it in a quite terrible way.
The female’s act of rushing out had startled Gera. He had instinctively extended his mental filaments to seek and investigate.
And he had sensed a familiar mental fluctuation not far from the nest.
The black female hadn't left; he was standing motionless in the night.
When his "tongue" licked against that persistent sense of self-negation and understood that he was the cause and creator of this emotion, the predatory and competitive nature in his genes retreated for the first time due to pain.
He felt an abnormal emotion called "regret."
“I’m sorry...”
The male’s hands clenched behind his back.
“It will never happen again.”
“...”
Sarkdi was speechless for a moment.
The answer to the mystery that had baffled him for days was far too absurd.
If he hadn't forced the other’s mouth open, he probably would have been guessing until his next life.
So that was why the male kept apologizing, kept saying he was sorry.
It wasn't because he was hurt by Sarkdi’s emotions, but rather because he felt he had harmed Sarkdi, causing him to fall into a state where he couldn't express himself normally, not even daring to nuzzle up to him.
He sighed, wanting to rub his forehead, suddenly unsure what the chaos of the past few days had been for.
“I’m fine. Do I look like a little girl—cough, a little grub—who would hide and cry just because I got a fright?”
Previously, the Core-type had thought his behavior had made the male experience a massive courtship failure, leaving him with an indelible psychological shadow.
“You have to realize I don't have mental perception as powerful as yours. If you don't say it directly, I have to kill myself trying to guess your thoughts.”
“I wasn't angry because of that. At most, I was a bit surprised.”
“But you *should* have been angry.”
However, the male caught the hand that was trying to pat his head. He didn't look away, and tears fell from his pale eyes.
“When faced with an offense, feeling anger is normal. Yet you suppressed your anger to comfort me, the perpetrator.”
“You don't like any Zerg, yet you still helped us, helped the Short-wing tribe, helped Shaw and all the males.”
“This is not normal.”
Gera pressed his cheek against the other’s palm, hiding his expression.
“If every time, you choose the things you resist, choose to swallow the parts that are hard to accept alone—”
His voice was very soft.
“Then your consciousness, your... personality, your own joys and sorrows—where will they go?”
The male was like a leaking bucket; Sarkdi felt the dampness between his fingers.
He felt it was ridiculous, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel his heart soften. He held the "little water bucket" in his arms, rocking him slowly in a comforting manner.
The entire nest fell silent. Only the sound of wings rubbing and the rustle of tails coiling could be heard.
For a time, neither of them spoke.
“Sigh.”
After a long silence, Sarkdi finally let out a sigh.
His hand pressed against the other’s back, pulling the slightly trembling white Zerg into his embrace.
***
**Glossary**
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 卡姆兰星域 | Kamran Star Sector | A ghost-like region devastated by Xenogeneic Tides. |
| 小玫瑰星域 | Little Rose Star Sector | A star sector adjacent to Kamran. |
| 亚瑟·西蒙斯 | Arthur Simmons | A human recipient of the star-core energy. |
| 天之琼 | The Empyrean | A star-swallowing weapon (吞星级武器). |
| 朗·苏 | Ron Su | Captain of the Golden Crow fleet. |
| 金乌舰队 | Golden Crow Fleet | A human fleet that perished in Kamran. |
| 法赫纳 | Fahna | A legendary starship associated with the White Emperor. |
| 异种潮汐 | Xenogeneic Tide | A dangerous phenomenon of alien energy/creatures. |
| 阿卡夏裂隙 | Akashic Rift | Spatial tears that allow Xenogeneic Tides to enter. |
| 马普兹科学院 | Mapuz Academy of Sciences | A human scientific institution. |
