Alai

The moment the forty minutes were up, Tuantuan woke Gu Ting from the connector.

Every visit to the StarNet went more or less the same way. Once Gu Ting appeared in the lobby, Prisoner would come fetch him and bring him to their secret base, and then there would be some casual chatting. Sometimes it was just everyday small talk; sometimes it was opinions on current events, along with the occasional complaint from the female insects.

Through all of it, Sage always spoke gently and profoundly, while Prisoner preferred to silently study whatever mechanical components he had in his hands, only rarely offering an opinion. As for Cupid, none of this interested him in the slightest. He was too busy getting his fix of Little Jewel to bother listening to whatever deep, lofty principles Sage was going on about.

It was a pity Tyrant hadn't been there today. Then again, even when he was, that female insect didn't say much. Most of the time he just sat silently in the seat of honor.

After saying goodbye to his other group chat friends, Gu Ting logged off the StarNet. Tuantuan strictly controlled his online time: forty minutes of leisure a day, not a minute more, not a minute less.

The little male insect sat in his study and opened the insect-race laws that Tuantuan had printed out for him.

The laws the insect race currently enforced had been drawn up roughly three hundred years ago, after the Empire was unified. Their full title was Imperial Law. The average insect lifespan was three hundred years.

Some of the drafters were still alive even now, though they already had one foot in the grave. Far more insects had simply grown used to Imperial Law. Even when they "saw" the injustice in it, none were willing to be the insect who stood up and said, "This is wrong."

Gu Ting let out a small sigh. He didn't know what exactly Tyrant and the others were planning, nor did he know whether the draft revision of Imperial Law, which had already been two years in the making, would actually make any difference. All he could do was sit in his study and help Sage review his revisions.

Come to think of it, it had been Tyrant's idea to bring Gu Ting into the revision of Imperial Law in the first place—

Back then he had only just met the others. Because their views happened to align in certain ways, he had been brought into the Ubis Alliance, and by that point Sage had long since begun his work revising the laws.

But Sage's drafts were far too extreme. On the surface he was refined and courteous, rational and self-assured, yet in his legal drafts that side of him turned into extremism—into a different kind of sickness, one that favored female insects entirely.

That wasn't the outcome Tyrant wanted, which was why he had asked Gu Ting to join in.

Of course, at first Sage hadn't accepted Gu Ting. But he couldn't hold out against Tyrant's formidable authority, and Little Jewel also had a natural knack for winning insects over.

As his thoughts suddenly drifted to his first meeting with the others, Gu Ting couldn't help but think of that female major general's tragedy as well.

"Tuantuan, could you help me find the case of the female insect Alai from two years ago?"

Tuantuan, who had already been taking care of Gu Ting for several years, immediately came over swinging its mechanical arms. Before long, a string of files appeared on the light screen in front of the little male insect.

Gu Ting pressed his lips together and pulled up once more the files he had already read no fewer than ten times over these two years—

Two years ago, when Gu Ting had just turned thirteen, he had happened upon the verdict sentencing a female insect during one of his StarNet logins.

The female insect Alai was a major general in the Imperial Military. His insect form was the emperor dragonfly. Female insects of this type took great pride in their black wings with their iridescent sheen. The wings weren't merely a symbol of combat strength; they also made for a rare original form that was full of beauty.

Moreover, among all the female insects, the butterfly and dragonfly types were always the most popular. They were widely acknowledged to be the more slender female insects, with far more striking looks.

But being that outstanding could also bring about one's death.

—Just like Alai.

Two years ago, he had already reached the rank of major general, high enough to invite a male insect on a date. The male he was dating was none other than Klein, vice president of the Male Insect Association.

According to StarNet reports, Alai had apparently gone berserk in the middle of the date and lost control. Not only had he unfurled his insect wings, he had even snapped the insect bones beneath them, and he had used the chaos to wound the male insect Klein. For that, he was sentenced to exile on a barren planet—Alai's insect wings were cut off, and landing on a barren planet meant nothing but certain death. It was an even crueler fate than being executed outright.

In this "accident," there had also been a sub-female named Sanan who was present at the time and was sentenced to death afterward. According to the Male Insect Association, it was Sanan who had stirred up the conflict between the male and the female insect, which led to Klein being injured.

In this affair, the one who was hurt was a male insect, so it was blown out of all proportion, and one Alai wasn't nearly enough to extinguish the male insects' fury. As for Sanan, he was the very sub-female Gu Ting had seen at Klein's side when he first arrived in this world.

But this was only part of the truth—or perhaps it was more accurate to say that much of it was a false front covering up what had really happened.

At the time, Gu Ting, wearing the shell of a sub-female, had stood among a crowd of insects watching the virtual projection—

The major general, covered in wounds, was deathly pale, his smooth golden hair a tangled mess. The injuries on his back were especially gruesome. The insect wings that extended from his shoulder blades hung limp from the middle, as though they had been brutally broken by some heavy object, and they were drenched in blood.

The male insect hadn't been seriously hurt—he had merely scraped his forehead—and yet two insects had to pay for it with their lives. In that moment, Gu Ting realized once again that this was no longer Earth.

There were no humans here. There were only insects in human shape.

"What a warped society..."

He murmured it under his breath, but the female insect squeezed in beside him happened to hear it.

And that female insect was none other than Cupid, who would bring Gu Ting into the Ubis Alliance.

Only later did Gu Ting learn the truth from Tyrant and the others—the male insect Klein had taken a fancy to Alai's insect wings and wanted to strip them off to make a shawl, and it was Sanan who had egged him on.

To a female insect, his insect wings were like a second heart. A female insect who lost his wings was no different from a useless insect, and it could even trigger a psionic riot prematurely.

While Klein was in the middle of drugging Alai and taking his wings, Alai, driven by the excruciating pain and an uncontrollable frenzy, sent Klein flying. Only then was he wounded and hauled away by the female guard corps who rushed to the scene.

That was the truth. But male insects were so precious—what insect could bear to make them take responsibility?

Especially since Klein's male father was the president of the Male Insect Association. No matter how kindly President Novi Wardens treated other insects, no matter that he was that rarest of things among male insects, a philanthropist, in the end he was still partial to his own. And so came the verdict of the Imperial Court.

Alai was exiled to a barren planet, Sanan was sentenced to death, and Klein, the one who had started it all, not only escaped punishment but also received all of the female insect Alai's decorations and property.

—After all, he was an A-grade male insect.

For the ever-growing number of female insects on the verge of frenzy, an A-grade male insect could be called a lifeline. So the female insects at the top who held power could not—and did not dare—punish a male insect for the sake of a single female major general. Especially not a rare A-grade male insect, a gift the Insect God had bestowed upon the insect race!

This was insect society. Female insects were clearly more capable than male insects and had far more control over the bigger picture, yet they were powerless to resist the distortions written into the rules and laws. How could a system like this be anything but sick?

"Sigh..."

The young little male insect sighed like a little old man. He was grateful that he had been educated under the red flag. Even though he couldn't remember anything from his previous life, he could still tell right from wrong.

His body was an insect's, but Gu Ting still hoped he could hold on to his humanity—there weren't many things from Earth that he had left to keep.

In this era, Earth had become history from tens of millions of years ago; it had long since been reduced to ash amid the activity of the universe.

Gu Ting spread out the pages printed with the Imperial laws once more. Pushing down the stray thoughts in his heart, he began to go over them line by line.

In the evening, Gu Ting found a moment to glance at the group chat messages—

Gu Ting still tended to follow certain habits carved into his bones from his previous life as a human. There didn't seem to be much need for a fifteen-year-old kid to bring a phone to school, so Gu Ting had simply set Tuantuan to pick him up on time. As for the communicator, which had replaced the phone in the interstellar age, he always left it at home.

In no time at all, the messages in the communicator had hit 99+, and the one who had said the most was, once again, Cupid.

[Cupid]: So boooored! I want to squish Little Jewel!

[Cupid]: The boss is taking out the trash again. I just don't get it—how is there always so much trash?

[Cupid]: @Sapphire, Little Jewel, what are you up to? I'm so empty and lonely and cold, and only your soft, squishy body can satisfy me!

...

[Sage]: @Cupid, can you give it a rest? I just want to read some papers in peace and quiet!

[Cupid]: You can mute me!

[Prisoner]: You're going to annoy Little Jewel to death!

[Cupid]: Ahhhh, I challenge you to a duel!

[Tyrant]: @Sapphire, good night. I got it right this time, didn't I?

Gu Ting pressed his lips together and smiled. Although he had grown used to being alone and friendless in the Bird of Paradise community, he had to admit that the few he had met on the StarNet were pretty great.

He slowly began typing a message:

[Sapphire]: That's right, it's nighttime here.

[Sapphire]: Good night, everyone.

[Cupid]: Good night! Little Jewel, you'd better dream of me!

[Prisoner]: Good night. See you tomorrow.

[Sage]: Good night.

Only after reading each of his group chat friends' good-nights did Gu Ting start washing up to get ready for bed.

The little apartment was warm, and Gu Ting padded across the floor in nothing but his knitted socks. Tuantuan followed behind him like a little tail, and only after supervising the little male insect as he climbed into bed did it open an insect-race storybook. "Baby, it's time for your bedtime story."

"Okay." Gu Ting tucked in all four little corners of his blanket himself, burying himself in the very middle of the bed, and only then turned slightly onto his side to look at Tuantuan.

Tuantuan: "A long, long time ago, so long ago that the Empire had not yet been born, there was a supreme deity among the insect race. It was the Insect God, whom everyone believed in and followed..."

Although on the inside he should already have been an adult, the limitations of his body made Gu Ting feel as though he had become young and childish all over again. He listened to his ten-minute bedtime story every day with great relish.

Late at night, the Bird of Paradise community fell completely silent.

Closer to the center stood the residences of the high-grade male insects. Compared with the little apartment of a few dozen square meters where Gu Ting lived, the homes here were as lavish as palaces and castles, steeped in extravagance.

Surrounded like the moon among the stars, Klein lay on a chair in the middle of the great hall, dressed in a robe of sheer white gauze. All around him were many beautiful sub-females, or female insects of slighter build.

According to the rules of the Bird of Paradise community, female insects weren't allowed into the inner district. But as vice president of the Male Insect Association and an A-grade male insect, Klein always had more privileges than anyone could imagine.

In the lively hall, however, there was one spot that was badly out of place—

Locked inside an enormous cage was a long-haired sub-female covered in bloody welts. His features were hidden behind his hair. His whole body was curled up and shaking, as if he dreaded pain he could not bear.

Klein rose from the lounge chair, two young, beautiful sub-females supporting him by the arms. On his exposed skin were flushed red kiss marks.

He walked slowly to the cage and looked down at the one inside. "Sanan, you ought to thank me."

The sub-female in the cage—that is, Sanan, who should have been executed in the Alai case—said, "Th-thank you..."

"Sigh. The only reason I saved you back then was that I hadn't finished playing with you yet... If it weren't for you, I never would have been hurt by that worthless female bitch..."

Klein narrowed his eyes and smiled. "So you ought to atone for your sins. After all, it was because of you that a noble male insect got hurt. Isn't that right?"

"Y-yes. It was all my fault."

Sanan was as lowly as dust. Kneeling at Klein's feet, he did nothing but beg for mercy over and over. Yet the face beneath his hair was strikingly exquisite, like a doll in a shop window.

The male insect high above him smiled and said contemptuously, "In that case, let's play a game—"

"I'll give you ten minutes. Run as much as you like. If you can escape, I'll let you go."

"If you can't, then I'll just have to give you back the death sentence you're two years late for!"

The male insect smiled as he watched Sanan tremble and crawl out of the cage:

"And so—let the game begin!"