Chapter 235: In Awe of Ulysses: A characteristic of Zerg devices is that they prioritize serving Male Zergs. A Male Zerg’s psychic power can control almost everyth

“I only came to take a look at your home and stay for one night. You’re the master here... the master Zerg.”

An Ruo was very troubled.

Ulysses was taking him far too seriously.

Somehow, An Ruo felt as though he had inexplicably become a tyrant who had occupied someone else’s home and driven its actual owner off to sleep in the study.

Although he knew Ulysses could not possibly be so utterly incapable of resisting or so lacking in self-awareness, if An Ruo refused to let him into the bedroom, he probably really would make do with sleeping in the study.

What Ulysses was thinking, however, was: how could he possibly stay for only “one night”?

Since he had made so many preparations, of course he had to coax the Male Zerg into staying for as long as possible.

“Do you not like it here?” Ulysses asked.

Of course An Ruo liked it.

Ulysses saw through his thoughts and said, “Then stay a little longer.”

He also knew what An Ruo was worried about.

“You don’t need to worry about the soothing work at the Military Region Prison. If you need to go there, I can take you there every day and bring you back afterward. You know my ability makes that very convenient.”

Besides, the Male Zerg would not be able to keep doing this “job” for much longer anyway.

He was about to become unemployed.

Thanks to the god’s extraordinarily efficient soothing, almost all the military females whose psychic conditions had been classified as “Extremely Dangerous” had already been treated. The remaining ones were not in such terrible condition and could be treated gradually.

The psychic soothing device being developed by the military had also made major progress after Soothing Specialist Eugene joined the project. Soon, it would be ready for large-scale trials within the Military Regions, after which it could be rolled out across the entire Federation. It was expected to lower the mental safety threshold for Female Zergs to 70, or even 65.

Previously, only Female Zergs with psychic evaluation scores above 80 could recuperate and recover on their own. In the future, those between 65 and 80 could recover with the help of psychic soothing devices, while those below 65 would still need to rely on Male Zergs.

It certainly would not be as comfortable or efficient as psychic soothing performed by a Male Zerg, but this was something that could save lives. No one had the luxury of being picky.

Every additional point of their psychic condition that Female Zergs could control themselves meant another chance at survival.

Apart from that, under Federation law, after serving one year in prison, an inmate could apply for a sentence reduction based on good behavior.

Calculating the time, that point was almost here.

The god valued rules. He wanted to complete his sentence and was unwilling to leave prison, but reducing a sentence through Contribution Points was also completely legal and compliant with regulations. It fell entirely within the rules.

Ulysses was confident he could use that to persuade the god.

The greatest problem now was getting An to willingly step outside, helping him accept the world beyond the prison. There needed to be a new “nest” that he could like and accept before he would willingly “move nests.”

Ulysses had gone to such great lengths to renovate the Marshal’s residence precisely because he hoped An Ruo would accept this place, allowing it to replace the prison in his heart and become his home—their shared home.

In the end, after Ulysses persuaded him, An Ruo agreed to stay for a few more days.

But Ulysses’s proposal to give him an entire floor—no, three entire floors—while Ulysses himself slept in the study was still far too ridiculous!

“You can just stay on this floor. There are plenty of rooms. You can also... um, sleep with me. Once I leave, this place will still be yours, so you won’t have to go through the trouble of moving around. I won’t be staying for long anyway,” An Ruo said.

Not staying for long? That would not do.

Ulysses verbally agreed, delighted that the Male Zerg was willing to let him into the bedroom to sleep together, while inwardly he was still thinking about how to make the Male Zerg stay—and stay for much longer.

At most, he would let the Male Zerg return to the prison for another month or two, revisit his old home, pack his belongings, and make his final farewell.

After that, it would be time for his sentence to be reduced and for him to leave prison.

Ulysses gave him a brief tour of a small portion of the Marshal’s residence before taking him to rest.

The Male Zerg displayed astonishing stamina when it came to psychic soothing, but in everyday life he was a person with very little energy. If he encountered too many things at once, he would quickly become tired, weary, and irritated.

Ulysses had noticed this long ago, and every time, he meticulously planned their schedule so that the Male Zerg could remain happy throughout the entire time they spent together, without experiencing any negative emotions whatsoever.

This was Zerg-style dating.

Every aspect of a Male Zerg’s experience was meticulously arranged by the Female Zerg.

Ulysses led An Ruo to the library, where he comfortably drank tea and ate snacks. The room was filled with physical books, and merely being surrounded by them made him feel peaceful and at ease.

There were many of his own books among them. Ulysses had collected every edition, and his collection was even more complete than An Ruo’s own.

There were also many books written by Zergs and other interstellar species. There were relatively few books about relationships; most were educational or popular science books. An Ruo liked them very much and quickly became absorbed in reading.

If no one disturbed him, he could sit here reading for an entire day.

While he read, Ulysses handled some official business nearby without disturbing him.

Only when he calculated that it was almost time for dinner did he pull the Male Zerg, who had immersed himself in a sea of books, back into the real world.

Dinner was served on the observation deck on the top floor. The scenery beneath the night sky was beautiful, offering a panoramic view of the entire Marshal’s residence.

Thanks to the weather control Ulysses had specially arranged, the sky above Capital Star was filled with stars. The air was crystal clear, visibility exceptionally high, creating the illusion that one could reach out and pluck a star from the sky.

The starry canopy stretched across the entirety of Capital Star, drawing many Male Zergs outside. Naturally, Female Zergs accompanied them, and the lights of aircraft flickered faintly in the distance, echoing the starlight.

As An Ruo ate, he felt that the entire day had been exceptionally wonderful.

“Is there anything else planned for tonight?” he asked Ulysses.

Sitting opposite him, Ulysses looked at him in surprise, his face illuminated by candlelight.

He had thought that given the Male Zerg’s low energy when dealing with real-world activities, he should no longer have the energy to go out and have fun tonight.

Had he miscalculated?

Had he arranged too little?

Ulysses considered the matter cautiously before offering several options:

“There will be a fireworks festival in Capital Star’s Eastern District tonight. It should be very lively. There is a gourmet tasting festival on the western shore that has attracted many Male Zergs. There is also a newly released Zerg movie that we could watch together in the screening room. Or perhaps...”

Ulysses looked deeply at the Male Zerg and did not continue.

Yet An Ruo suddenly felt as though the temperature around him had risen.

Was it the heat from the candles?

Under the candlelight, Ulysses’s gaze was scorching.

An Ruo hesitated and stumbled over his words before finally saying, “Then... let’s stay home.”

He really did not have the energy to go out late at night and participate in some lively event.

“Stay home... and watch a movie?” Ulysses asked, seeking a more precise answer.

An Ruo remained silent. Only after a while did he say, “We can watch the movie tomorrow.”

What they would do tonight was therefore quite obvious.

Ulysses lifted the red wine beside him and took a sip, then set the glass down. Unhurriedly, he wiped the corners of his mouth and his fingertips with his napkin before requesting permission:

“Allow me to excuse myself and make preparations.”

Prepare what?

An Ruo vaguely realized something and felt it would be better not to ask.

After returning to the room, An Ruo briefly washed up as well. Finally, he lay on the bed hugging his plush toy, tossing and turning nervously.

Yes, he was afraid he would not sleep well in an unfamiliar environment, so he had brought his Ulysses plush toy along.

Only after hugging it in his arms did he realize that he had done something stupid.

The real Ulysses was right here in the residence and would even come over to sleep later. Bringing a plush version of him seemed completely unnecessary.

But putting the plush toy back into his spatial button now also seemed unnecessary.

Wouldn’t the plush toy get lonely staying inside the spatial button all by itself?

An Ruo stroked the plush toy’s head thoughtfully, then found a place for it beside his pillow at the head of the bed and set it there.

It was still the version with the tail.

There was no helping it. The plush toy had torn, and An Ruo did not know how to sew. He could hardly leave it split open forever.

Remembering something, An Ruo sat up, poured himself a glass of water, and took his medicine.

Not long afterward, An Ruo heard a knock on the door. He hurriedly put down the glass and called, “Come in.”

Ulysses entered wearing a black silk robe. He first glanced unobtrusively at the glass of water on the bedside table before walking toward him.

Ulysses leaned down and wrapped his arms around An Ruo, pressing him onto the bed. He buried his face beside An Ruo’s neck, brushing lightly against him as he murmured:

“I prepared an entire floor as an entertainment area. It’s right upstairs. Let’s take a look tomorrow. There are lots of toys.”

An Ruo immediately imagined all sorts of adorable plush toys, books, merchandise, and collectibles.

Then his hand touched something fluffy.

He lowered his head and saw a section of fluffy tail protruding from beneath the hem of Ulysses’s robe.

An Ruo froze.

Wait.

First things first—exactly what kind of toys were they talking about?

Seeing that the Male Zerg had noticed, Ulysses’s face warmed slightly. Somewhat unnaturally, he explained, “You said before that the next time we met, we would use the tail.”

An Ruo had indeed said that, but he had already put those tails away in the bedside cabinet of his bedroom at the Military Region Prison.

When he left this time, he had also intentionally—or perhaps unintentionally—forgotten them and had not brought them along.

Who could have imagined that Ulysses had backups?!

An Ruo stared at him in stunned disbelief.

Ulysses, on the other hand, regardless of what he might actually be thinking inside, appeared perfectly composed on the surface.

He openly took the Male Zerg’s hand and guided him into touching the tail, saying:

“Your voice can control it. You can give it commands, or you can directly control it with your psychic power.”

This was a characteristic of Zerg toys: they prioritized serving Male Zergs. A Male Zerg’s psychic power could control almost everything.

An Ruo was stunned by Ulysses’s high-end tail.

The basic little tails on the plush toys he had bought were nowhere near this intelligent. They could not recognize commands at all. Whenever they heard any sound, they wagged—even if An Ruo merely coughed, yawned, or set a glass down on the table with a noise.

Even more despairingly, they could not be turned off.

An Ruo had tried everything he could think of to make his plush toy’s tail stop. In the end, his only option had been to read it bedtime stories for half a month until its battery finally ran out.

If he had not exhausted its battery, An Ruo would never have dared bring the plush toy outside.

If the plush toy’s tail started wagging in front of Ulysses, there would be absolutely no way to explain himself. Ulysses would think he was a pervert.

Although, judging by the current situation, there probably was not much of his reputation left to save anyway...

An Ruo stroked Ulysses’s wonderfully soft, fluffy snow leopard tail and inwardly wanted to cry.

Ulysses was even telling him to give it commands or connect to the tail with his psychic power and control it directly.

There was absolutely no way An Ruo could bring himself to say the commands aloud, but he could not bear to disappoint Ulysses either. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and connect his psychic power to the tail.

The instant the psychic connection was successfully established, An Ruo shuddered all over. His eyes immediately widened as he looked at Ulysses in panic and disbelief.

It felt as though it were his—his own tail—connected to Ulysses.

Was this the terrifying power of Zerg technology?

An Ruo bit his lower lip, suppressing his voice, filled with awe toward both Ulysses and the Zerg technology he had brought with him.

Seeing that An Ruo had established the psychic connection, Ulysses naturally became even more determined to perform to the best of his ability, striving to do everything perfectly so that the Male Zerg would be left with a good impression and a pleasant experience.

From the Male Zerg’s mouth, he once again tasted the bitterness of medicine, but it was quickly overwhelmed by the sweetness of pheromones.

The Male Zerg had said that he did not intend to have a hatchling while he was in prison.

If it was after he left prison... then perhaps it would be possible?

When that time came, would his Male Zerg—his god—be willing to give him an egg?