A is in StarCraft, just disembarked from the Zerg Prince spaceship.

************

……

Orion.

Lu Jianan sat cross-legged in the cage.

Sigh, since I'm just killing time anyway, I'll just put on a show of locking myself in an iron cage.

If that doesn't work, try doing yoga.

One cannot simply let boredom kill them.

Lu Jianan placed the soles of her feet together, pressed down on her waist, and stretched.

Damn it, I haven't been getting any exercise these past two days, and my bones are cracking.

He's been locked up here for two or three days now, and even the bugs haven't come to see him. They only come briefly every day, occasionally to visit or bring him a nutrient solution.

He was very scared at first, but now he feels completely used to it.

It doesn't seem like they're keeping him for food. What's going on? Are they keeping him as a pet?

can't read.

Lu Jianan sat up straight.

I'm so bored.

Put a person in an empty room, where they cannot move or use a terminal, and have them sit there for three days.

I don't even know what I'm afraid of anymore; I'm just really bored right now.

The lower deck was dimly lit, with only a faint glow from the circuit board's light. In that dim light, Lu Jianan leaned against the iron cage, listlessly counting the water droplets condensing on the horizontal bars before flicking them away.

One drop, two drops, three drops, four drops...

As the thirty-seventh drop of water hit the ground, the sound of shells striking metal came from outside the hatch, followed by the click of the keypad hatch opening.

What? More bugs?

Lu Jianan sat up expectantly.

I don't know if they came to see him again or brought him some nutrient solution.

Anyone, even an insect, would suffocate if he didn't speak.

The sound of the heavy hatch opening and scraping against the ground caused the iron cage to tremble slightly.

The half-insect's head squeezed into the doorway first. Its purplish-black chitinous shell was covered with scars, and it had two pairs of reticulated wings, black eyes, a long needle-like mouthpart, and hands covered with hard black carapaces.

One...one cicada species.

Its compound eyes glowed yellow in the dim light, and the mucus secreted by its mouthparts was about to drip onto its needle-like mouthparts.

Sigh, these bugs are just so disgusting to look at, but actually they're not that bad...

Lu Jianan suddenly stepped back because he realized that this insect seemed a bit strange this time.

Because the insect started laughing.

It, or rather, it was neurotic, laughing out a sound like cicadas chirping.

The vocalization frequency of cicadas is 4-6 kilohertz per second, a frequency that can be fully detected by the human ear.

"Male." His wings vibrated rapidly, and his abdominal membrane vibrated, producing a sound like laughter. "Let me see your tender flesh that won't molt..."

Lu Jianan retreated to the corner of the iron cage, her back pressed against the cold alloy bars.

What's going on? Have the insects gone crazy, or has a new batch of insects arrived?

Although he couldn't understand it, he was certain that the cicada was speaking a language and that it had ill intentions.

Lu Jianan retreated frantically, but he was trapped in a small cage with nowhere to escape. He could only shrink tightly into a corner of the cage in the opposite direction of the cicada-like creature.

"Stop! Get away! Don't come any closer!"

But the cicada wouldn't listen to him at all.

When the cicada-like creature's carapace-like arms reached into the iron cage, Lu Jianan suddenly smelled a strong pheromone scent, like rotting tree sap, sweet yet with a strange woody aroma.

—omega.

Lu Jianan's nerves, which were already stretched taut by fear, finally snapped again.

He screamed hysterically, clutching his head and shrinking tightly into the corner of the cage.

Why? Why would a half-human, half-insect monster have omega pheromones?

Was he originally an omega?!

Could it be...could it be human experimentation?!

Were these terrifying monsters created by the Human Federation itself?!

The monster held a modified collector in its right forelimb. Suddenly, a probe popped out, grazing the back of Lu Jianan's neck and embedding itself in a gap in the railing, the tip of the probe gleaming with a sharp light.

"What are you afraid of?" The male insect was right in front of him, its web-like wings fully spread, revealing the soft, ringed folds of its abdomen. It smiled, "Be good, I won't hurt you. I'm just taking a little of your pheromones. I've heard that just one drop of your pheromones is enough for such advanced males..."

As the cicada-man pressed down on the back of Lu Jianan's neck, the emergency lights on the roof suddenly turned on.

The lights were blazing, illuminating everything in the basement.

In the piercingly bright light, the female insectoid turned around so fast that her arthropods scraped sparks off the ground.

The pirate captain stood in the shadows of the hatch, the sound of the solar gun's safety being released and chambered was as crisp as someone's heartbeat.

"Sasha, I told you to tell everyone not to approach my goods. Did you do that?" A holographic screen floated next to the white-winged moth, clearly in the middle of a communication. He asked his adjutant on the other end of the screen, "Let me check if I wronged him."

"We've already notified them," a cruel voice came from the holographic screen.

The cicada-man's wings snapped straight: "Boss, I just want some pheromones..." He was still holding the collection device in his hand, and the needle in his other hand was almost stuck into Lu Jianan's neck gland, with a little blood seeping out.

The gunshot shattered the silence of the cargo hold.

The cicada-man's compound eyes exploded, and green fluid splattered onto the top of the cabin.

His mouthparts were still opening and closing, but he had already fallen down, and the half of his shattered wing was still trembling.

"Idiot." The pirate captain stepped on the female insectoid's convulsing abdomen and fired a second shot. The second shot ripped open his skull.

Chitinous fragments of the insect shell were scattered all over the ground.

The white-winged moth walked to the iron cage and grabbed Lu Jianan's face.

Lu Jianan's eyes were empty; he had lost all reaction due to the excessive stimulation.

The screen emitted a voice: "How's it going, boss?"

"Thankfully, there's no physical damage." Orion pinched his chin and turned to look at him. "The glands are fine too."

Orion patted his face again: "Feed? Hey? Can you hear me, little male?"

"Boss," the voice on the screen turned serious, "male insects are mentally fragile; excessive stimulation may lead to their death."

"That's troublesome." Orion withdrew his hand, rubbing it together. "It's all over, all over, all over! My seventy starships. Prepare medical bays immediately."

"The medical pod is useless," the deputy on the other side of the screen said. "In this situation, we should put the male insect into the hibernation pod and force him into hibernation."

"Alright, hibernation pods it is, anything goes, get them ready!" Orion jumped up and down: "My seventy starships!"

The sound of transporting hibernation pods came from outside the hatch, and then Lu Jianan was pulled out of the cage and stuffed inside.

The hibernation pod lid closed, filled with sedative gas, and Lu Jianan blinked a few times before closing it.

Rust mixed with undried blood seeped into the water droplets that had condensed on the empty cage, sliding down the bars like a winding red snake.

……

*

……

Outside the Hive Stargate, the stealthy Blade warships.

The warship's communication devices, which had been silent, suddenly received an encrypted signal.

Special communication signal requests connection.

Bishen held a tactical board that gleamed coldly. He raised the camera and pointed it at his pupils, the encrypted channel authentication scanning his retina multiple times.

The moment the communication was established, he adjusted the gravitational waves of the warship's communication to ensure that the encrypted channel would not be captured by other gravitational waves.

"Orion's Orion is nearing its destination." The undercover agent's voice, processed through three channels, was very soft, like a muffled whisper in the night: "The cargo hold gravity valve data is abnormal, exceeding the standard value by 22%. Besides the male insect, he also brought something else, perhaps armed machinery."