Chapter 101

Chapter 101

Gelino's words struck Nevi like a thunderbolt, stunning him so thoroughly that he couldn't snap out of it for a long time.

He gaped at Gelino, his face completely blank, as if his core beliefs had been upended. He muttered under his breath, "This... how is this possible..."

Gelino shook his head and said flatly, "Nothing's impossible. When my female parent conceived me, he didn't know he was pregnant. The front was in dire straits, and the military called him up. I was born on the battlefield while my female parent was fighting. At that moment, a Star Beast horde happened to hit, comms went down, and all star routes were sealed off. My male parent... couldn't give me the spiritual soothing I needed."

Seeing Nevi look totally lost, Gelino wasn't surprised. He immediately explained, "Female insect eggs and male insect eggs below B-rank don't necessarily require the birth male parent's spiritual comfort. You can use commercial nutrient formulas and psychic crystal orbs that temporarily store male psychic energy to raise the eggs. But B-rank and above male eggs are a whole different story—they need their birth male parent's daily psychic soothing and presence to grow properly. Otherwise, the eggs will most likely die in the shell and never hatch. The rare few that manage to hatch will suffer major genetic downgrading.

A downgraded insect's genes won't affect the next generation once they grow up. Their kids are still determined by their original genetic sequence. Like, my current rank is D-, but my innate rank is A-, so my kid is A-rank. Your kid, Nevi, must be the same way." When he mentioned his kid, Gelino's whole demeanor visibly softened, but his focus stayed locked on Nevi.

Rank was already a touchy subject, and bringing up someone else's kid's rank out of nowhere was even more off-limits. So Gelino didn't just blurt it out—he eased into it by bringing up his own kid first. When he saw Nevi tense up a bit but not seem to reject it, Gelino relaxed a little and went on, "Since high-rank male eggs are basically cornered by the elite class, because of the information gap, regular folks have zero clue that B-rank and above male eggs need the male parent's psychic soothing. So even if a rare high-rank male egg shows up out there, it never gets incubated. Even if it hatches by some miracle, it's genetically downgraded and sickly for life.

Right now, only the capital planet's Academy of Sciences has the gear to measure a downgraded insect's true genetic potential. So even if they're downgraded, they just assume that's their born rank. They'll never learn their real innate rank their whole lives. Even if their kids' ranks don't match the genetic pattern, at best they might have some suspicions, but they won't dare dig deeper."

When he finished, Gelino seemed a bit wistful. The information gap was basically the elite's way of blocking ordinary folks from climbing the ladder, making sure high-rank males only get born in their own circles, keeping power and wealth locked in their own families and bloodlines.

Nevi could barely believe what he was hearing.

"So that's it, that's it! So that's how it was..." Nevi muttered in a daze.

No wonder those elites had been firing off marriage invites one after another like they'd all lost their damn minds, freely promising the female spouse slot and fat perks, even pressuring President Pegita to get what they wanted.

Back then, facing those invites, Nevi was scared and terrified, because he couldn't for the life of him figure out why these elites were acting like this.

Nevi knew his place. He had nothing going for him except his looks, which were a bit above average—but not enough to make those elites so damn eager. He'd heard plenty of stories at tea parties about elites toying with the affections of low-rank male insects.

Only profit could drive them to act this way. They must have had ulterior motives. But back then, Nevi hadn't been able to figure out what they were after—until he saw the rank test results for his children. Only then did he begin to vaguely suspect something, though he didn't dare think too deeply about it. He only grew more and more uneasy.

But now, Gelino's words were like parting the clouds to see the sky. In an instant, all those lingering doubts from before suddenly became clear.

Nevi finally understood.

So he was a genetically downgraded male insect.

Although he appeared to be an F-rank male insect, his innate genetic rank was above B-rank—and probably not low at all. This must be why those elites were flocking to him.

Having figured everything out, Nevi felt a chill run through his heart. His lips parted slightly as if he wanted to say something, but his throat seemed blocked, and no words would come out.

What could he say? That the elite class was too overbearing and tyrannical? That they treated lives like weeds, with no regard for law or insect rights? That such behavior was unfair to ordinary folks?

He couldn't say it.

Such words would seem too naive, too ridiculous.

The world itself was unfair. Having been born on a numbered star, he knew this all too well.

He only felt a deep sense of powerlessness and sorrow.

If not for Aesop's appearance, he probably wouldn't have been able to escape the elites' covetous designs in the end.

But even someone as powerful as Aesop had his memories arbitrarily altered by his female parent. If not for the twists and turns of fate, he didn't dare imagine what the future might have held.

This secret—Nevi guessed that not even all members of the elite class knew about it. He wasn't sure whether Aesop's family knew, but he could be certain that Aesop himself was completely unaware.

If even Aesop didn't know such a secret, then what could he—a powerless, ordinary F-rank male insect—say or do against the entire formidable elite class?

Without sufficient ability and power, one could only be at others' mercy.

Could Nevi not hate it?

Even with his mild temperament, he couldn't tolerate being schemed against and coveted multiple times.

He hated it deeply at this moment.

But the enormous gap made everything feel so powerless and ridiculous.

Unless—one day in the future, he could stand at the pinnacle of power and truly possess the qualification to speak with the elite class on equal footing. Otherwise, everything would be futile.

Blazing flames burned in Nevi's eyes. A seed called ambition quietly fell in Nevi's heart, beginning to take root and sprout.

But soon, Nevi forcibly suppressed the anger and hatred within him. His lashes trembled slightly as rationality returned. He pressed his lips together and ultimately said nothing.

Setting aside the future for now, all of this was merely wishful thinking. He was just an ordinary male insect with no abilities right now. He had finally reunited with Aesop, and all he wanted was to live peacefully with his female spouse and children without courting trouble.

As for the rank Gelino had mentioned—if he'd heard these words before Aesop returned, he would indeed have felt panicked, because he might not have been able to protect his children or himself.

But things were different now. He trusted that Aesop's abilities and family background wouldn't allow him to fall into a position of being coveted again.

"Thank you for telling me all this, but," Nevi paused, his expression calm yet carrying a faint hint of coldness and wariness, "what's your purpose? You went through all that trouble to shake off your guards and tell me this information out of nowhere—it can't just be out of kindness, right?"

Even though Gelino was also a downgraded male insect, even though he'd proactively mentioned his own child's rank to show sincerity.

Nevi still felt extremely offended.

Nevi wasn't clever, but he wasn't stupid either. All of this was merely Gelino's speculation, yet the tone he used was one of certainty.

Why was he so certain that Nevi was a downgraded male insect? He must have privately investigated Baibai and Meimei's ranks. But he pretended to be a fan to get close and cozy up—this hypocritical demeanor was no different from that ill-intentioned Wenoy.

What was this male insect scheming about now?

At this moment, Nevi's disgust toward the hypocritical faces of the elite class reached its peak.

Nevi closed his eyes, casting aside the unpleasant memories churning in his mind, and tried hard to control his emotions. His good upbringing ultimately prevented him from lashing out at the sickly male insect before him.

But Nevi no longer wanted to stay. Every second spent in the same space as this male insect was unbearable to him.

"Please do as you wish. My female spouse is still waiting for me. I'll take my leave now. Goodbye." Nevi coldly glanced at the black-haired male insect, spoke coldly, and turned to leave without hesitation.

Seeing Nevi's attitude change drastically and him about to leave, Gelino immediately panicked. He cursed inwardly—he'd overplayed his hand.

"I'm about to die."

Just as Nevi opened the door to the rest area and was about to leave, Gelino suddenly spoke.

Nevi froze abruptly, instinctively gripping the door handle in shock. He didn't turn around, but his footsteps stopped nonetheless.

"Nevi, please wait—can you hear me out for a moment longer? I'm sorry, Nevi, I need to confess that I investigated you without permission... and also Baibai and Meimei's ranks. But I swear on my family members that I harbor absolutely no ill intentions toward you or your children! I was too arrogant and too hypocritical. I'm sorry."

Gelino's slightly hoarse voice was full of pleading. Nevi turned around and saw Gelino's eyes rimmed with red. In the end, his heart softened, and he could sense that Gelino truly seemed to bear no ill will.

Nevi hesitated for a moment before finally speaking, "You... what's wrong with your body?"

Seeing Nevi's attitude soften somewhat, Gelino visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He said dejectedly, "It's a congenital genetic disease. Incurable."

Gelino paused, then gave a bitter smile. "Actually, I've already been lucky enough. At least I'm one of the rare few fortunate enough to be born. Even though I've been frail since birth, nearly dying multiple times, and even stopped breathing at one point, my female and male parents never gave up on me. They invested enormous energy and star coins into carefully caring for me, desperately searching for every possible way to sustain my life, allowing me to survive until now." As Gelino spoke, tears glistened in his eyes, and his voice grew increasingly choked and hoarse.

"But why wouldn't fate favor me just a little more?" Gelino's expression was pained, his tone unwilling. "In the past few years, my condition has continued to deteriorate. No matter what methods I or my family members tried, nothing worked. My body can't hold out much longer... I don't have many years left."

"I'm dying, but my little one has just started elementary school." Ge Linuo's tears fell like rain, his face hollow and near-dead with despair. "My kid is still so young, yet I won't live to see them grow up. I'll leave my parents to bury a child before their time, and my primary and secondary mates..."

Gelinuo sobbed uncontrollably. "I want to live, I just want to live—to watch my child grow up with my mates, to spend more time with my parents. But the congenital genetic disease caused by gene slippage currently has no cure. All these years, my family has traveled across countless star systems on my behalf, and all they've found are ways to slow it down... Over the years, I've already seen off many fellow sufferers, just like me, whose gene slippage was caused by accidents. And now, it's soon my turn."

Nevi's eyes widened. He realized what this meant, his heart pounding violently as unease spread through him.

"Nevi, even among the elite, few know this: every gene-slipped male bug who manages to be born alive suffers from severe congenital genetic diseases. Most don't even survive to adulthood. I truly count myself lucky."

With that, Gelinuo suddenly looked up at Nevi, like a drowning bug clinging to the only piece of driftwood, his eyes filled with desperate hope.

"But Nevi, you're different. You're healthy—from your physical condition, no one would ever guess you're a gene-slipped male bug! In all these years, you're the only exception I've ever seen!"

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