Before landing, Sakdi organized all the supplies on the ship and, with Gela’s assistance, compiled a manifest.
Between the two of them—one person and one bug—they couldn't even scrape together a single set of information connectors. The linking devices Sakdi had yanked from the previous crew members' necks had been snapped by his brute force. Consequently, this pathetic manifest was written on a palm-sized information screen, currently tucked into Gela’s pocket.
Having just endured a battle, Sakdi’s exoskeleton was half-shattered due to his morphological transformation, leaving him feeling quite "drafty" all over.
At the moment, they only possessed one complete set of clothes—the outfit Sakdi had crudely cobbled together for the male bug, which was so ugly it was barely recognizable as a garment.
The white male bug looked as if he had been drinking bootleg liquor, walking beside the Core-species female with stumbling, uneven steps. He tottered along, clutching Sakdi’s arm, terrified of straying too far.
However, Sakdi’s feat of crushing four low-to-mid-tier bugs and wounding another the moment he landed at the starport had made him famous in a single stroke. Not a single low-level worker bug dared to approach them on their way.
The "Chosen Free Worker Bug No. 2," responsible for leading the way, walked ahead obediently, having retracted all its mutated features. Sakdi’s scaled tail swayed slightly, occasionally letting out a faint *clack-clack* sound, like a cat teaser toy with a bell attached.
To the defeated bug’s auditory system, this sound was nothing short of a death knell, scaring it so badly that its own tail was tucked tightly between its legs.
It quickly led the menacing black female bug to the trading nest nearest the starport. Much like Gela a few days prior, it had instinctively grasped the virtue that "a good bug should be as quiet as if it were dead."
The nests near the starport were built above ground; further in the distance stood towering head-shaped monoliths and somber, brooding mountains.
The orderly nests resembled honeycomb cells, arranged in a regular circular pattern. Familiar spiral patterns connected the different nests; at a glance, they looked like exposed blood vessels and connective tissue. The sky, the earth, and these gaping "nests" formed an oppressive whole.
As the distance increased, the scale of the nests grew progressively larger. The structures near the mountains could no longer be simply called "nests"—they were more like grotesque palaces, rising from the earth in a posture that was both twisted and orderly. They hung massively against the silent black mountain range, looking like giant tumors growing out of the peaks, their weight bowing the mountains' ridges.
Massive, lead-black pipes, resembling severed tracheae and marked with spiral corrosive patterns, emerged from the mountains to connect the Great Nests.
The owner of the nearest trading nest was a mid-tier worker bug.
The space inside the nest wasn't particularly large. Once three new members squeezed in, it felt cramped. Sakdi’s perfectly developed physique, far taller than the low-to-mid-tier bugs, gave him the illusion that his head would hit the ceiling if he stood up straight.
This place didn't look like a legitimate trading post by any stretch of the imagination, but then again, it was hard to explain the origins of a ship's worth of looted cargo anyway.
The "Chosen Worker Bug," bruised and swollen, stood like a silent statue. Having completed its task as a guide, it stood by the door without a word, acting as a background prop. It didn't dare move, nor did it dare flee in the presence of a Core-species.
Sakdi signaled Gela to hand over the light-screen manifest.
The white male bug pulled the device out and placed it on a surface that looked like a counter, pushing it toward the master of the exchange.
The trader first spent a spine-chilling moment sizing Gela up, as if meticulously discerning something, before picking up the screen and scanning it quickly.
It possessed a pair of compound eyes, every hexagonal facet shifting back and forth.
In a mere heartbeat, its gaze returned to the sellers, flickering between Sakdi and Gela. For the majority of the time, the trader continued to stare at Gela with an unsettling expression. Its mimicry was stiff, as if it were wearing a layer of human skin.
Sakdi’s scaled tail began to lash back and forth from an itch. His professional instincts were twitching.
When the trader finally spoke, several small tentacles poked out from its mouth. Accompanied by the buzzing of its abdomen, those tentacles swayed in the air.
"Junk," it hissed in the emotional language, tossing the screen back to Sakdi without hesitation. A long, thin tongue slid out of its mouth, making a greedy licking motion as if sensing the male bug’s pheromones in the air through its scent glands.
"But I can buy him."
The second sentence was in the Universal Language. Its long, hook-like finger pointed at the white male bug clinging to the Core-species female.
The compound eyes, containing countless pupils, tracked Gela’s every movement.
"Ah, a disabled Core-species male who has lost his family." It slowly peeled back its lips into a semblance of a smile, the grotesque expression melting across its face. "The energy mines would be willing to acquire such a beautiful... little entertainment tool."
"He is worth many, many energy stones."
Sakdi felt the male bug’s fingers tighten around his arm instantly.
Gela’s teeth chattered, and he was shaking so violently that his short, stunted scaled tail failed several times to wrap around Sakdi’s powerful black tail. When the tall Core-species looked down at him, Gela tried several times to force a smile that might appeal to the other, but failed every time.
The look of terror and supplication was almost tangible, overflowing from his pale eyes. The male bug couldn't even maintain his usual clever, human-mimicking expression used to win the Core-species' tolerance; he just shook his head frantically as Sakdi looked over.
On the pirate ship, the tall worker bug had promised not to treat him as trade goods.
However, the male bug didn't dare trust a verbal promise.
The keen spiritual sensitivity of a Core-species male allowed him to perceive the genuine joy the other felt while slaughtering the crew, as well as the faint, flickering flashes of dislike the other felt toward all bugs—including Gela himself.
He had felt a brief sense of security because the other had never forced him to mate, but now that security had turned into massive panic. It meant he held no attraction or value to the Core-species before him.
Sakdi watched the scrawny male bug look as if he were about to die of fright.
By now, Sakdi had mastered a wealth of methods for "pinning down a cat." He pulled his arm out from the bug's fingers, and before the male could become even more terrified, he reached out and gave that fluffy white head a firm rub.
"It—He is not for sale."
Sakdi said, his expression neutral as he rubbed Gela’s head again, as if perfunctorily petting a cat. His scaled tail pulled the male bug behind him, blocking the trader’s inquisitive gaze.
"Pull your eyes back. I don't deal in sub-adults."
The oppressive aura of a Core-species flooded the cramped nest. The pheromones of a high-ranking female made the opposing bug shrink back warily.
Moving even faster was the "Chosen Worker Bug No. 2" standing by the door. The moment the black female bug released his pheromones, it bolted out of the nest with the speed of someone whose tail was on fire and who was racing against death.
With a half-smile, Sakdi tapped his finger on the counter.
"Scare the larva again, and I will... remove your wings entirely."
He had originally wanted to say "pluck them off," but his crash-course in the Bug Universal Language was unreliable; he faltered at the critical moment, which significantly dampened the intimidation factor of his threat.
The next second, he felt the little male bug slam against his back.
Like a cat death-gripping a doorframe, a pair of arms wrapped tightly around his waist.
The other pressed his forehead against Sakdi’s back, his soft, thin scaled tail winding around Sakdi’s black whip-like tail, letting out a faint, sobbing buzz of relief.
***
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Sacre-D: Reborn as the Swarm's Apex | Chapter 8 | Not For Sale | Novela.app | Novela.app
