IHNMSL Chapter 17
by VolareChapter 17: Chapter 17: Proposal/Forced Matching
The large area of floating islands, linked and formed by anti-gravity thrusters, is hailed as the heart of the entire Central Star and is the location of the Bug Clan’s Central Mind Brain’s main nest. The police force in the sky area is usually dozens of times greater than in ordinary areas.
Even an ordinary patrol soldier could be a fierce, high-level Female Bug with rich combat experience, and encountering S-grade or even higher-level Bugs is commonplace.
As night fell, the agile Female Bug moved as if in an uninhabited place, avoiding guards and flashing past the densely packed, overlapping, and zero-blind-spot surveillance, leaving even the high-resolution motion detectors unable to capture a single afterimage.
Under the hood, Yao, holding onto the Female Bug’s shoulder, admired her immensely. “Chen Xing, you’re amazing!”
If such skills were used for evil deeds, she would definitely be the empire’s number one wanted criminal! The big villain in TV dramas… Yao thought nonsensically.
The small treehouse, surrounded by purple dew-flower vines, was a unique haven, with a delicate and soft open-air rattan bed adorned with crystal fruits that emitted natural light.
Yao, blindfolded, was placed on the swaying hammock. With a flick of the Female Bug’s fingertip, the black silk ribbon slid off.
A starry sky filled his vision, and he simply enjoyed the cool and pleasant evening breeze, the faint fragrance of flowers brushing past his nose.
“It’s so beautiful, Chen Xing!” Yao exclaimed, his eyes wide with wonder.
“As long as you like it.” Chen Xing’s attention was always on Yao, and seeing him happy made her happy too.
The little Male Bug turned over and rummaged in his pajama pocket for a long time before pulling out a pure white box.
“Hmm? What’s this?”
“A gift…”
Yao took a deep breath, mustered his courage, and opened the delicate petal-shaped box in front of the Female Bug. Inside was a small, plain-colored ring, pure white all over, without any patterns, and as lustrous as jade, enveloping gentle and healing spiritual threads.
Yao watched the Female Bug’s expression without blinking, afraid that his clumsy ring would offend Chen Xing’s eyes.
The making of the wedding ring had been full of twists and turns.
The jewelry store employee who had initially greeted him warmly was shocked to hear that he wanted to make a proposal ring with a spiritual entanglement effect. Not only did they refuse to make it for him, but after learning his age, they became worried and wanted to find his parents, fearing he had fallen victim to a marriage scam.
Helpless, Yao could only do it himself. The ring was made from a small piece of Wing-Cut Scale Armor Fragments, combined with eggshell powder from when he was born, which, compared to other materials, could maximize the containment of the wandering spiritual threads.
In ancient Bug Clan legends, couples with a Spiritual Ring could maintain stable feelings and love each other until old age.
Yao used to not believe in such legends. He remembered that his male parent had also made such a ring for his female parent, but in the end, not only did they not stay together until old age, but they ended up as if they were strangers.
Ultimately, the ring was just a symbol of good wishes. After having someone he liked, Yao felt that it wouldn’t hurt to believe in it occasionally.
“Does Yao Yao understand what it means to give a Female Bug this?”
“I know!” Yao replied firmly. Even though there was a cool evening breeze, his palms were sweating nervously. “I want to marry Chen Xing, I like… I like you…”
The ring was held in the palm of a fair hand, and the little Male Bug looked expectantly, waiting for the result, appearing extremely earnest.
Who could bear to reject such an innocent and lovely Male Bug? If she hesitated for even a second, she would have to repent and confess her sins.
“You agreed?” Yao grabbed the Female Bug’s hand, almost jumping for joy.
“After my guardianship period ends next week, we’ll secretly get married and give Male Parent and Female Parent a big surprise.” The two people on the rattan bed hugged each other, and Yao leaned against Chen Xing, whispering excitedly about the future.
Chen Xing looked at the little Male Bug with doting eyes, not daring to interrupt Yao’s excitement. She feared that there would be less surprise and more shock at that time…
Speaking of which, wasn’t it a bit immoral of her to secretly run away with someone else’s little Male Bug? Not a bit, but a lot.
Chen Xing had no doubt that she would be greeted not only with the cold faces of his parents but also with two large cleavers flying toward her.
But Yao Yao was too delicious, so immoral it was. At worst, she would visit and apologize to Yao’s parents later.
On the other side, there were no major obstacles to Yao’s request for Aikman to borrow the qualification review for his guardianship period in advance.
However, when Aikman scanned the file, he found a strange spot. Yao’s pheromone file was stamped with the research center’s review seal, and the data, especially regarding the affinity factor, was highlighted in red.
What’s going on?
Aikman was surprised. Affinity detection usually only has a small range of error, and such a large discrepancy could very likely alarm the Imperial Supreme Court.
Thinking of this, Aikman immediately contacted Yao’s male parent, Duke Will Klink.
As two rare pure-blood Male Bugs of similar age who were both the center of attention on Central Star, Aikman and Will were not very familiar.
The only connection was that shortly after Will and Chris divorced, the Duke was judged to be unsuitable for raising a Male Bug cub because he was revealed to have suicidal tendencies and depression.
While Chris was on expedition and receiving psychological treatment, Yao was briefly raised by Judge Aikman for half a year, and Aibei and Yao’s friendship began at that time.
The faint light of the optical brain reflected the Duke’s pale face. For a moment, Aikman wondered if Will’s mental illness had never fully recovered; otherwise, how could he have such a nearly neurotic desire for control over Yao?
“Why did you tamper with Yao’s affinity data?”
“Someone anonymously reported that you injected Yao with interfering hormones. Do you know the consequences of doing this?”
Faced with a series of questions, Will simply hugged his head in pain and said nothing.
“Lord Aikman, Master is having a headache. Can you direct your questions to me?”
Hevia stood in front of the Duke without changing her expression, “All of this has nothing to do with Will. I lowered Yao’s affinity value without permission, and I also injected him with interfering hormones.”
“As a stepfather, I was consumed by jealousy and feared that Yao’s potential would be discovered. I hoped to give birth to a more outstanding male to replace Yao and steal Will’s attention.”
“Heh! Who would believe such nonsense? It would only fool the uninformed public outside.”
Aikman was almost amused. Besides Will, there was no one else who had the authority to do this without anyone knowing.
“They will pretend to believe it even if they don’t.” Hevia said calmly. The Central Star government cares more about maintaining external authority and credibility and would not punish a high-level pure-blood Male Bug for such a thing.
Hevia’s initiative to take the blame would only be a relief to those old guys in Central Star.
“Since you’ve made up your mind, then I won’t say anything more.”
Aikman shook his head and sighed deeply. There was no other way now that things had come to this.
Hevia was no simple character to have reached her current position. She was now highly valued by the Central Mind Brain, and even if she took the blame, she had enough confidence to protect herself.
In the empty palace, the proud Duke was enveloped in sadness and helplessness, and Hevia wanted to comfort him but didn’t know where to start.
“Don’t you ask me why I did this? Hevia…” The Male Bug’s voice was hoarse, and the eyes that were once as radiant as rubies were now dim.
“Will naturally has his own intentions.” Hevia knelt down and hugged the distraught Duke, “My first duty is always to protect you.”
A Male Bug’s Spiritual Affinity is innate and difficult to obtain. Even among high-level Male Bugs, only a very few individuals can reach above 0.9.
The most important reason Will concealed Yao’s affinity value was that the Central Star Research Institute had a secret Reverting to Ancestry research project tacitly approved by the Supreme Mind Brain.
In the Bug Clan’s evolutionary history, it had experienced several extinction crises where the main nest was destroyed, and during the third reconstruction, it accidentally lost the 4-9 Subspecies, the most capable and strongest in combat.
When Chris first entered the military academy, her outstanding performance, far exceeding her own D-grade limit, had already attracted the attention of the main brain. She was the Female Bug with the most obvious genetic characteristics of the discovered 4-9 Subspecies.
A Male Bug with an affinity of 0.9 or higher had a significant effect on stimulating the Reverting to Ancestry transformation and level leap of 4-9 Subspecies gene carriers.
The combat power of the 4-9 Subspecies was always several times higher than that of ordinary Bugs of the same level. After marrying Will and successfully advancing to 3S, Chris was almost invincible and led an army that was almost always victorious.
The Empire had already tasted the sweetness from Chris, and the Reverting to Ancestry experiment on the 4-9 Subspecies had not stopped. Where there was one Chris, there would be a second and a third…
Will only hoped that Yao could grow up healthy and marry a Female Consort who would cherish him, instead of being like himself, a joke, paired with an ignorant subspecies gene carrier, becoming a complete laughingstock.
Who would be the second Chris? Would he really cherish Yao? Will was extremely panicked. Yao was still so young, he didn’t understand anything yet.