Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Faster, run faster..."

On a desolate path under the cover of night, a staggering figure ran forward with everything they had.

Breathless, they bit their lower lip, their swollen, reddened eyes filled with despair and helplessness.

They were nearly out of strength, but the scattered, chaotic footsteps and vulgar curses of the female insects chasing them with torches were drawing closer and closer. "Nevi! Stop right there!" "What's wrong with being an F-rank male insect and living large with Mr. Zell? You really don't know when you're well off! Mr. Zell has money and power—he doesn't take a liking to just any bug!" "Stop! Nevi! You know what the director does when he's angry!"

......

In the pitch-black silence of the dead of night, the female insects' shouts were especially shrill and grating, yet the ramshackle shantytown around them stayed completely silent.

It wasn't that they had no complaints—it was that they didn't dare speak up even if they did.

Most of those living in this area were low-ranked female insects who survived by scavenging. They didn't dare provoke the insects from the orphanage, let alone the Mr. Zell those females kept talking about.

No one knew where he came from. By the time he made a name for himself, he'd already become one of the biggest local powers in the area. And it had all happened in just one year.

What did that even mean?

Their planet wasn't quite a lawless junk world or an abandoned one, but it was remote, with no tourist spots and no valuable resources to mine.

It was so ordinary it didn't even have a name—just a number the Empire had assigned it. The Empire had countless planets like this.

The Empire didn't even bother sending officials to govern it, just letting the planet run itself as long as taxes were paid on time and no big trouble broke out.

So local government jobs were basically hereditary, with officials and criminals in bed together, generation after generation.

For an off-worlder to make it big was about as hard as finding a decent male master. Let alone doing it in a single year—that sounded like some ridiculous joke.

Yet Zell, a "plain" C-rank female insect, had pulled it off.

Funny enough, during that same year, "accidents" among local crime bosses and officials spiked dramatically.

But those big shots vanishing was like drops of water hitting a lake—not a single ripple.

*

Nevi heard those female insects, of course. He flinched instinctively, tears silently spilling from the corners of his eyes.

Not long ago, right after he turned nineteen, he'd met the seemingly kind and gracious Mr. Zell at the orphanage's yearly "Aid Day."

For as long as he could remember, every year on this day, "philanthropists" like Mr. Zell would take a few pleased young insects away and leave behind a pile of supplies for the orphanage.

On "Aid Day," the stingy, fat orphanage director would always be grinning with greasy satisfaction, like a greedy merchant, dressing up the male and female hatchlings in clean, decent new clothes and eagerly hawking his "goods" to the philanthropists.

Nevi, with his striking looks, was the director's special favorite. Ever since he was little, the director would use the Male Insect Association's brochure, with His Excellency on the cover, as a model, spending a fortune on fancy knockoff noble outfits to dress Nevi up all pretty and refined.

As the orphanage's showpiece, Nevi was always trotted out proudly by the director for visiting insects to see.

At first glance, Nevi really did look like one of those high-and-mighty, elegant male insects.

But fake was fake, after all.

Whenever those philanthropists were blown away by Nevi's gorgeous, refined looks, their admiration turned to shock the moment they learned his rank. Those pitying, contemptuous, or mocking looks would always stab straight through Nevi. Not a word was spoken, but everything was said.

A few females who felt tricked would even vent right in front of Nevi, tearing him down with the cruelest, most contemptuous words, flat-out telling the director Nevi wasn't worth the price. Those sharp words sliced through Nevi's fancy-looking but cheap knockoff clothes like knives, leaving him cut to the bone.

Every time this happened, young Nevi would stay silent, eyes red, tears falling without a sound, his fingertips hidden in his sleeves pinched white.

It wasn't just because of those words—a big part of it was the director, a snake hiding behind a Buddha's smile.

After being humiliated in public, the director naturally wouldn't punish Nevi openly, but in the days after, he'd always find some excuse to lock young Nevi in that pitch-black, sealed "Little Black" room.

In that quiet, damp, cramped little space, even with food provided, Nevi never got used to it no matter how many times he was locked up. In fact, the older he got, the more he hated and dreaded it.

But Nevi could only cry—he couldn't fight back.

Nevi was just an F-rank male insect—the lowest of the low.

Insects in the Oster Empire were sorted into ranks S through F at birth based on their bloodline.

For females, rank showed in physical strength, potential, looks, and brains. The higher the rank, the better the physical condition. But the flip side was that higher-ranked females were more prone to mental sea turbulence. If it wasn't managed properly, it could range from crippling headaches that wrecked daily life to full-on madness, insectification, or even devolving into mindless insect beasts.

Unlike females, a male's rank wasn't just about looks, smarts, or physical ability—it was mostly about mental strength.

This was one of the key distinctions between male and female insects.

A male's mental strength could calm a female's mental sea turbulence.

The higher the rank, the stronger the male's mental power, and the higher-ranked the females he could soothe.

In the Oster Empire, high-ranked males were almost entirely hogged by noble families in the capital star system, and the few others mostly came from powerful local families elsewhere.

The natural hierarchy meant insects naturally chased after higher-ranked beings, male or female.

But since there were way fewer males than females, males inherently got better treatment and way more adoration from females. Even a mid-to-low-ranked male from a regular family would still live pretty well.

But that didn't apply to F-rank males.

Bad genes were hard to pass on.

D-E rank females were already scraping the bottom of society. They were average at best, only got the most basic schooling, and couldn't get into any higher insect academies, which meant they could only do the lowest kinds of work.

Except for the lucky few who caught a male's eye, you could see their whole lives at a glance. Working hard most of their lives, saving up credits and contribution points to apply for an artificially inseminated kid from the gene bank to raise for comfort—that was basically their life's goal.

If D-E rank females already had it that hard, then F-rank "waste bugs" didn't need explaining—they probably couldn't even land the most menial job.

In a way, they were even rarer than A-rank insects.

Males naturally got way better treatment than females, but F-rank males still had it rough, especially on backwater planets like this one where even the Male Insect Protection Association hadn't set up shop.

Adopting an E-rank male from the orphanage cost twenty thousand star coins.

But adopting Nevi cost a hundred thousand star coins!

For reference, the average insect on this planet made just a thousand star coins a month.

Sure, most philanthropists who came to the orphanage could afford it—the question was whether it was worth it. A hundred thousand star coins could snag several top-tier A-rank young females from the orphanage to raise instead.

So no wonder those females mocked the director for dreaming.

But mad as the director was, he never lowered his price. With sharp foresight, he'd seen something special in Nevi since he was little.

By insect genetic standards, an F-rank like Nevi shouldn't have looked like much—if not ugly, then at least plain and ordinary.

But Nevi had been exceptionally good-looking since childhood, and it only became more obvious as he grew up.

Vibrant white hair that practically gleamed under the sunlight. Clear amber eyes, bright and translucent. Features so exquisite they looked like a perfect masterpiece carved by the goddess of beauty herself. Fair skin, a tall, graceful frame—just standing there, he was so stunning that insects couldn't look away.

Nevi, on the verge of adulthood, was so striking that even the director, who had watched him grow up since childhood, would occasionally find himself momentarily stunned. Such looks completely eclipsed even the B-class male His Excellency he had once glimpsed from afar in his distant memories.

In recent years, there had been no shortage of females interested in Nevi who tried to use his low rank to haggle with the director, but not only did the director refuse to budge, he even doubled Nevi's "adoption fee"!

This only made more females curse and back away, yet the director remained steadfast in his conviction that Nevi was worth the price.

Nevi had assumed he could enjoy a few more years of relative peace, at least until he turned twenty and reached adulthood, still staying at the orphanage.

But on the "Support Day" of his nineteenth year, he was sold.

The philanthropist Mr. Zell was benevolent and magnanimous, having not only "adopted" Nevi but also several young female insects.

When Nevi overheard the conversation between the director and Mr. Zell, his mind went completely blank. He stared fixedly at Mr. Zell, surrounded by bodyguards in the distance, his hands and feet turning cold.

As if sensing something, Mr. Zell suddenly looked up and met Nevi's gaze directly, offering a gentle smile that deepened his wrinkles.

Mr. Zell truly appeared to be nothing more than a kindly old female neighbor, yet his eyes were filled with unconcealed lust and greed.

Nevi hastily averted his gaze in panic, but that chilling gaze was so intense and bare that he couldn't ignore it.

Clenching his palms tightly, his stomach churned violently, a strong wave of nausea surging up.

Growing up in the orphanage, Nevi had never been able to choose his birth, nor could he decide his own future.

He knew he would be sold; he disliked it and didn't want it, but what could he do?

He could only repeat to himself over and over, telling himself to accept his fate, brainwashing himself with the thought that all the males and females in the orphanage went through this. Besides, maybe he'd get lucky and end up with a gentle female who would treat him well, and later they'd have children, and his life would pass by just like that.

But when the moment truly approached, seeing that old female's lecherous, disgusting gaze, Nevi finally felt the full weight of sorrow and absurdity.

What gentle, kind females would come to buy males? And if such a female existed, why would they choose a method that was "adoption" in name but purchase in reality?

It was all just his own self-pitying and self-deceiving delusion.

He didn't want to serve that old female who was many times his age. He didn't want to!

He had to escape! He must escape!

*

Crash!

With wave after wave of thunder and lightning, large raindrops fell rapidly, the raucous curses mingling with the faint smell of damp soil.

Nevi didn't stop, even as his legs were heavy and swollen beyond measure. His drenched white hair stuck to his face, mixed with tears, rain, and specks of mud and grime, leaving him in a state of unprecedented disarray—yet he smiled in surprise.

Even without looking back, he knew the mottled firelight behind him had been entirely extinguished.

This heavy rain came just in time, able to mask his scent and tracks as much as possible, giving him more time to flee.

Since yesterday afternoon, when the guards at the orphanage's "Support Day" had been somewhat negligent, Nevi had taken the opportunity to slip away, relying on his years of cultivating a well-behaved image.

Aside from the drab, inconspicuous clothes he wore, he carried nothing, yet his heart felt unprecedentedly free.

He realized only later that in the orphanage where he had grown up, there was no one and nothing he would miss.

Nevi knew little of the world beyond the orphanage. Over the years, aside from being taken by the director to attend government-organized "charity" events as a display piece, he had never left.

After a moment of bewilderment, Nevi barely hesitated before resolutely heading toward the "Adventure Forest" he had once heard about.

The depths of the Adventure Forest were said to harbor many dangerous beasts, but also rare treasures and exotic fruits, where danger and opportunity coexisted, attracting many females to venture in.

Some returned with abundant gains, while others disappeared without a trace.

For the Adventure Forest, Nevi had once felt more fear than curiosity, but now, he would rather die in the Adventure Forest than be captured and tortured to death by that old female.

However, the orphanage quickly discovered Nevi's disappearance and dispatched many insects to capture him.

Despite Nevi's careful movements and desperate flight, his trail was still discovered late at night.

Having not eaten for most of the day, Nevi was already numb from hunger. The relentless, desperate running had pushed his stamina to its absolute limit, and he was barely holding on through sheer determination.

After what felt like an eternity, Nevi finally reached the outskirts of the Adventure Forest, where the dilapidated shantytowns gave way to low, dense bushes.

But Nevi's condition was visibly worsening—his eyes were vacant, his lips pale, his legs moved mechanically.

Suddenly, Nevi tripped over a protruding bump on the ground and fell hard to the ground without any warning.

He didn't even have the strength to cry out.

Pain, dizziness, fatigue, and hunger... all surged over him like a tidal wave in that instant.

Nevi twitched his fingers and tried several times to push himself up on his elbows, but couldn't. Meanwhile, a delayed, sharp, and dull pain in his ankle grew increasingly pronounced.

Through the pale moonlight, Nevi finally saw that his ankle was already swollen and red over a large area. His knees, elbows, and palms were also severely scraped, oozing bright red blood.

But worse, he heard that nightmare-like clamor of voices approaching from afar: "Over here, quick, look, these footprints are fresh! He should be nearby!" "Damn, this guy can really run." "When we catch him, we'll teach him a lesson! Disobedient brat!"

A deep sense of despair slowly washed over Nevi.

......

He whimpered in pain, struggling in vain to get back on his feet.

But the result was another heavy fall to the ground.

The commotion had already caught the attention of the females behind him, and Nevi could hear their voices growing closer and closer.

Finally, tears burst forth in a torrent, and Nevi broke down sobbing.

Why? Why?!

He had tried so hard, yet he still couldn't escape. Was this his predetermined fate?

Nevi cried so sorrowfully and so intently that he failed to notice the strange silence that had fallen over the previously noisy sounds.

"You... why are you crying?"

A low, pleasant voice suddenly broke through.

Nevi looked up with a sniffle, and through his tear-blurred vision, he saw that a figure had appeared silently before him.

A tall figure whose face he couldn't make out should have been imposing and intimidating.

But Nevi surprisingly didn't feel afraid or unsettled. He simply tilted his head up, staring blankly at the figure before him.

When the newcomer saw he wasn't answering, he didn't seem annoyed, merely extending his hand slowly.

"Don't cry. Will you come with me?"

Nevi looked at the long, clean hand extended toward him, and his heart, which had nearly gone still, began to beat again.

At that moment, Nevi seemed bewitched, or like a drowning insect clinging to a lifeline. Without hesitation, he gently lifted his cold, numb hand and slowly, tentatively placed it into the warm hand of the other insect.

The barely-there warmth spread from Nevi's palm throughout his entire body, sending a shiver through him.

In a daze, Nevi seemed to hear the other insect murmuring softly.

"Pretty male... picked up, so... mine now..."

*

Author's note:

--

Story's starting~