The fatigue period for a male can last from three to seven days, but the military only granted three days of leave. Chu Ci was deeply worried, concerned that Nuo Wei might not recover even after the leave was over.
When he pulled Nuo Wei out of bed on the fourth morning and looked into his dazed eyes, he knew something was wrong.
Chu Ci checked his temperature. The fatigue period often caused a fever in males, and although Nuo Wei wasn’t as hot as on the first day, he still felt slightly warm.
Chu Ci asked him, “Do you have to go? I can help you ask for a few more days off.”
Nuo Wei struggled to get out of bed and nodded. “I really have to go. The expedition is starting soon.”
Chu Ci didn’t understand what their expedition was for, but it was very important to the entire Zerg race. He hesitated for a moment but didn’t press the matter further. “Just take care of yourself.”
Normally, Nuo Wei would make their breakfast, but now he was too tired and languid, so the robot butler took over the task. Chu Ci went downstairs first to buy some food. Nuo Wei was upstairs for a long while before he suddenly called out to Chu Ci, “My Lord.”
Chu Ci responded, “Hmm?”
“…Can I wear your shirt?”
Chu Ci was taken aback.
After no finding a shirt at the last interview, he had bulk-ordered a stack of plain, regular-style ones from the Star Network, discarding the pile of brightly colored ones from his wardrobe. Now his clothes were all neat and appropriate, suitable even for the military, and since he and Nuo Wei had similar builds, they could indeed share them.
But why was Nuo Wei asking this?
Chu Ci raised an eyebrow. “Why do you want to wear my shirt?”
“…I want your pheromones,” Nuo Wei admitted, leaning against the railing with a hint of unease. “It’ll make my emotions calmer.”
Chu Ci couldn’t help but chuckle.
The aftereffects of the first comfort seemed to exceed Nuo Wei’s expectations. After the turbulent mental sea was calmed, the hormones in the female’s body would fluctuate like a rollercoaster, sometimes out of control and then quickly regretting, feeling frustrated enough to hit the wall.
For these past few days, Nuo Wei had wanted to kneel in front of Chu Ci several times, but their restricted activities in the bedroom made it easy for Chu Ci to just pull him back onto the bed. Then Chu Ci would pat Nuo Wei’s back and say, “It’s okay, I think it’s cute.”
Nuo Wei didn’t want to speak.
Chu Ci quickly ascended the stairs, digging out a shirt from his wardrobe. He handed it to Nuo Wei. “Is this okay?”
The shirt had been freshly washed and aired, with a clean scent of laundry detergent. The pheromones of the male leaked out faintly, soothing the sensitive nerves of the female in the fatigue period.
Nuo Wei clutched the shirt tightly, like a dragon guarding treasure. “Yes, it’s fine.”
He changed into Chu Ci’s shirt and made his way into the military base.
The First Army was leading the logistical arrangements for the Ninth Expedition, coordinating with multiple military groups. Everyone was frantic with meetings after meetings these past few days, and Lin En sported large black circles under his eyes. Seeing Nuo Wei was like seeing a savior.
He shoved a stack of files into Nuo Wei’s hands and handed him a pen. “Finally back, quick—look at these files.”
Nuo Wei took the pen and started signing, his eyes catching on a particular line. “We have so few starships available this time?”
He continued to scan through, his brow furrowing deeper. “And this ‘Saipans’ starship—is a third-generation warship from last century. It should have been retired this year. Why is it still listed as part of the main force?”
“Oh.” Lin En sighed, pointing to the sky. “You know, Admiral and that top political advisor have some bad blood.”
“This year’s military budget has been squeezed to the bone; even the dispensed calming agents have been reduced significantly. Managing to gather this much equipment is squeezing it out from our teeth.”
Nuo Wei nodded. “The Ninth Expedition is no joke. Such risks are likely to increase.”
Lin En shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do about it. The games played from above aren’t something we can easily get involved with.”
They discussed some more military affairs, and then Lin En suddenly sniffed deeply and let out a big sneeze.
“Nuo Wei, what’s that smell on you? It’s kind of attractive.” He said, leaning in to sniff at Nuo Wei’s collar. “Did you change laundry detergent? It doesn’t smell like the usual at all.”
Nuo Wei expressionlessly pushed Lin En away. “Go away.”
Lin En grabbed his sleeve. “No, just let me smell it…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Nuo Wei executed a small grab move, pinning Lin En to the ground. Lin En let out a loud yelp, about to protest, but his eyes fell on Nuo Wei’s lower belly, and suddenly his gaze just froze.
The two struggled for a moment, and Nuo Wei’s shirt got partly ripped open, revealing the white and gold fabric underneath. In Lin En’s blurry vision, he saw the zerg pattern.
But whose zerg pattern grows on their lower abdomen?
He eyed Nuo Wei suspiciously. “What did you do these three days for the zerg pattern to spread here? The shape is kind of nice, like a little peach heart.”
Nuo Wei suddenly realized where Lin En was looking and quickly pulled his coat together. “It’s not a zerg pattern.”
Lin En asked, “Then what is it?”
Before he could finish, Nuo Wei shoved him with his knee, pushing him straight out of the office and then slamming the office door shut with a bang.
Lin En was puzzled, grumbling to himself, “So stingy.” And then he walked away.
Just a wall away, Nuo Wei turned on the water faucet to its fullest, starting to scrub the mark. He pressed hard with his fingertips, rubbing until the skin turned red, matching the redness of his ears, but the mark stubbornly remained in place.
It wasn’t a zerg pattern; it was a temporary tattoo bought by his male master.
At that time, Chu Ci had been whimsically insistent on trying out a female identity for an interview. After buying the temporary tattoos and finding they weren’t convincing enough to pass for real, they had been left gathering dust in a drawer. But Nuo Wei never expected these temporary tattoos to end up on him.
… This was thanks to some doctor’s advice.
“Ten days, once a day, along with the medication, into the reproductive cavity, understand?”
So, inexperienced Chu Ci adopted a serious demeanor, approaching the task with the diligence of a student tackling the most challenging exam questions. He fumbled for a long time on that small patch of skin, insisting that Nuo Wei show him exactly where this “cavity” was. He even worried he might not place it correctly and insisted on marking it with a temporary tattoo.
After choosing from a bunch of intricate designs that weren’t regular zerg patterns, he picked a flashy, whimsical little heart shape and pressed it onto the female’s lower abdomen with all seriousness.
Nuo Wei’s entire body seemed to catch fire.
He tensed the muscles of his lower abdomen, biting his lip and watching Chu Ci gesture on his stomach, surprised at how waterproof these temporary tattoos were—they didn’t come off for three full days.
The military side was in a state of chaos, overwhelmed and flustered, and Chu Ci wasn’t faring any better. His new game had just been launched for testing when the server crashed.
Despite being a fresh and innovative placement game, its scale wasn’t large, and the limited number of testers shouldn’t have overloaded the server. But the problem was, this was the first round of testing. Neither Chu Ci nor his team had considered the zerg”whales”—the wealthy players who came rushing in. The concurrency processes on the payment interface were a mess, and before they knew it, a horde of high-rollers stormed in with thousands of requests per second, instantly blowing up the little server.
Chu Ci sent a sweat-dropping emoji: “Damn, why did this have to happen now? It’s the time when the female zergs are at work!”
Most female zergs still needed to earn a living. Unless summoned by their male masters, they wouldn’t leisurely play games during working hours.
His colleague also sent back a sweat-dropping emoji: “Maybe you should look at our first-round data analysis report?”
The colleague sent over a statistical chart. Chu Ci was surprised to see that males occupied a larger proportion of players—65%.
Zerg games had always been the domain of female zergs, with males generally showing no interest, preferring to shop and spend money.
The colleague continued with another sweat-dropping message: “What’s even crazier is that do you know where they’re spending money?”
When Chu Ci looked again, it was a minor, fringe feature allowing the players to dress up their virtual pets—things like different hairstyles, eye colors, clothing, and shoes.
Such features were basics in human society—every martial arts game had a character creation option. Chu Ci’s game offered basic outfits, but to get the more advanced eye colors and clothing required spending extra money. Of course, the game was still a rough, incomplete product with not much to offer at the advanced level.
But it was oddly spot-on for the male zergs.
Chu Ci paused, then quickly realized: the male zergs were treating the pet placement game like a real-life fashion game, Miracle Nikki!
They were trying to please the female zergs, getting them to “raise” their zerg offspring or young male zergs, but the dressing-up minor feature hit the spot with the males. Male zergs had money to burn and no concept of spending—it didn’t matter if it was the first or second round of testing; if they liked something, they would spend money without hesitation, which quickly overloaded the server.
As a seasoned gamer who had tried every kind of game, Chu Ci keenly sensed an opportunity: “This hitting the right spot with the males is a pleasant surprise. We need to focus on developing this part of the game further, especially enhancing the fashion and dressing-up features. We should also bring in a fashion consultant.”
“Definitely.” The colleague’s messages pinged continuously: “And one more thing, just now, Stellar Group added an investment.”
Chu Ci blinked. “Stellar Group?”
He vaguely remembered hearing that name but couldn’t recall exactly what they did.
“You don’t even know this? How did you grow up?” the colleague responded exasperatedly. “Just wait, Chu Ci. Your male master will probably end up buying things from their brand sooner or later. You’ll probably spend thousands of star coins on their offerings—they have the best fashion resources in the main star, including clothing designs, jewelry, watches, and a series of luxury products. No male zerg can escape.”
Chu Ci’s art team was used to designing spaceships for Star Wars, barely managing to put together a missile-firing plane, but when it came to designing clothes and accessories, they would choke. Now, with the biggest fashion group providing investment, it was like the perfect pillow falling into his lap when he had just woken up.
Chu Ci said, “Well, that’s good then. Quickly agree to it.”
But he was momentarily confused.
High-level discussions regarding investments were usually wrapped up with signatures. Why would they need to notify him, a mere game planner?
His colleague continued typing furiously: “Do you know about Yi Xi, the head of Stellar Group, the wealthiest female zerg in the Empire, and famously known as the ‘Empire’s Golden Lily’?”
Chu Ci replied, “I know.”
The top figure on the Empire’s wealth rankings—Chu Ci had indeed heard of Yi Xi.
“Here’s the thing, Chu Ci: Yi Xi is willing to make an additional investment, but he specifically requested to meet the lead planner of the game—you.”
“The meeting is set for tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM, at the Golden Feather Flower Hotel on Cross Street in the main star capital. Chu Ci, you absolutely must show up!”
Chu Ci: “…”
He touched the back of his smooth, unmarked neck, devoid of any zerg markings, and remained silent for a moment.
……………………………
Author’s Note:
…Actually, this story has a career plot, surprising, isn’t it?
This is just the big boss from the ‘soft rice’ family.
