After the Zerg General Was Accidentally Marked - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: New Home

“How are your injuries?” Everett remembered clearly that Solas’s wings and shoulder were injured during the escape from the spaceship.

“They’ve been treated.” Sears tried to pull his hand away to continue holding the porridge, but found he couldn’t. He didn’t dare use force, as there was still a needle in the other’s hand.

“Hand’s cold,” the little high-rank insisted stubbornly.

“If you’re like this, how am I supposed to feed you the porridge?”

In the end, each insect contributed one hand, cooperating until Everett finished the porridge.

Throughout the process, the little high-rank’s eyes were bright, staring at him. And if staring wasn’t enough, he kept smiling.

Sears couldn’t take it anymore. “What are you looking at me for?”

“Because you look good.”

“My face is disfigured.”

“It still looks good.”

Sears understood: you can’t reason with a smitten little high-rank.

“Where are you staying?”

Before Sears could answer, Bigu beat him to it. “In a rented house!”

Everett glanced at the military female. “You have money?” Shouldn’t a female slave’s assets have been zeroed out?

“I have friends.”

“Who? Can I meet them?”

Sears wanted to refuse directly, but seeing the little high-rank’s pleading expression, the words changed at his lips: “If there’s an opportunity.”

The future Zerg Emperor, is he… acting spoiled?

“I expect to be discharged tomorrow. You can stay at a nearby hotel tonight,” Everett added. “I’ll pay.”

He preferred the military female to stay somewhere he knew.

Sears did not refuse. The little high-rank’s identity and assets were legal, unlike his own current status as an undocumented person. This way was actually safer.

Bigu had no concept of where to stay and, naturally, didn’t object.

Moreover, the little cub was quickly drawn to the fruit basket on the table, leaning in and swallowing saliva.

“Is this real fruit?” Poor military insects in the Fourteenth District rarely get to eat fresh fruit.

“Bigu wants to eat?” Everett asked.

The little cub nodded frantically.

“Then ask Solas. Everything of mine is up to his word.”

Sears shot him a deeply perplexed look. Was this shifting responsibility or fanning the flames? And that phrasing… was far too easy for an insect to misunderstand.

But Bigu didn’t care about the twists and turns between them, immediately tugging at Sears’s hem. “Female brother, can I eat?”

Sears nodded in permission, then snatched the apple away before Bigu could bite into it. “Wash it before eating.”

The little cub reluctantly carried the apple off to wash it.

Sears noticed that the little high-rank’s gaze was also glued to the remaining apples, so he asked: “Do you want to eat too?”

“I don’t eat the skin.”

…Quite the list of demands.

Sears extended mental power from his palm, condensing it into a fruit knife, and began peeling. His technique was excellent; from the first stroke to the last, the apple skin was even in thickness and never broke.

Just as he was about to throw the skin away, he was stopped by the little high-rank: “Wait a second!”

“Making a wish toward an unbroken apple skin is very effective!” Saying this, the little high-rank closed his eyes and made a wish devoutly toward the apple skin.

After wishing, Everett even asked: “Aren’t you going to make one?”

Sears: “I don’t believe in that.” Could one rely on wishing to become the Zerg Emperor?

“Then aren’t you going to ask what I wished for?”

“Not interested.”

But Everett went ahead and said it anyway: “It’s about the military female I like.”

“Mhm, Admiral Sears.”

This sentence directly blocked whatever Everett was going to say next. “Uh… actually, it’s not…”

“If one changes the insect they like in just a month, it only proves he is…”

“Fickle.”

“Dissolute.”

“Unfaithful.”

After a string of labels was pinned on him, Everett was completely dazed: “…”

Then he hurried to compensate: “I think… the affection for an idol is different from the liking for an insect by one’s side.”

“You want to sleep with him,” Sears reminded. “In the R-18 nest, you even wanted to use tentacles on him.”

Everett: …

How did past passion suddenly turn into a sharp arrow, looping back to pierce his chest?

“Solas…” Everett decided to be direct, but his mouth was suddenly stuffed by a lunged-forward apple. “Mmph…”

“Eat the apple.”

“Regarding Admiral Sears, do you know he defected?”

The little high-rank took a vicious bite of the apple. “I know.”

He also knew the military female said this on purpose.

“What do you think about it?”

The little high-rank ate the apple listlessly. “I don’t think he would defect.”

“If he really wanted to defect, why didn’t the Admiral do it when he was at the station? Why wait until he returned to the capital alone for a debriefing? Isn’t that seeking death?”

“It feels more like something went wrong, the Admiral went missing, so they used the excuse of an injury and coma to fool the public. Later they found him and used a mecha performance to tell everyone the Admiral is indeed here. Then they used the defection excuse to manipulate the Admiral’s subordinates, telling them, ‘The Admiral is in my hands, I can kill him anytime, don’t act rashly.'”

“The poor Admiral has become a victim of military and political struggle like this.”

Sears looked at the little high-rank with some shock. He had actually thought this much? In fact, he agreed with most of the guesses. His Majesty the Emperor was indeed using his life to threaten and control the First Legion.

Of course, the guess regarding the Admiral’s own whereabouts was completely wrong.

This wasn’t his fault. Almost every insect believed only Sears could 100% link and use his private combat mecha. But in fact, besides him, three other insects could. Two military females and one high-rank. At least it narrowed down the scope of suspicion.

He didn’t know how the Emperor had persuaded them to help.

“Is all this your own analysis?”

“Not entirely. I read the analysis posts on the Sears Fan Club forum and summarized them a bit.”

The power of the masses is great.

“Then what about you? You’ve guessed the Admiral is controlled by the Emperor and know his whereabouts. What do you plan to do?”

“What can I do? I’m just…” Everett suddenly remembered his recent order for low-priced merchandise. For some reason, he felt a bit guilty.

“You’re just?”

“I’ll first investigate the Kalatin reagent matter. After all, Bigu’s sub-female father died in…”

As he spoke, Bigu returned, and Everett immediately went silent.

But the little cub didn’t come back with a washed apple; he came back patting his bulging little belly. It looked like he had eaten all three apples, leaving not even the cores. Who knows if he even washed them.

“Can Gugu still eat?” the little cub asked again.

Sears expressionlessly put the fruit basket away. This was one of the common traits of the little cubs in the Fourteenth District: greed.

The little cub couldn’t sit still without food and was soon sent downstairs to play.

“By the way, these fruits—who sent them?”

“A military female named Walter came by just now. He sent them.”

Sears immediately realized Walter’s motive. “Better stay away from him.”

“Why?”

“He’s always looking for a high-rank master.”

Everett had noticed this too, but after learning he was F-grade, Walter had clearly lost interest.

He cared more about something else. “Are you jealous?”

“What?”

“I am your high-rank master. He approached me—are you unhappy?”

“He is an insect of the Maud family. You won’t want to get involved with that family.”

“You didn’t answer my question directly.”

Sears stood up. “I’ll go see what Bigu is doing.”

The little high-rank immediately reached out to grab the military female’s wrist, but was blocked by mental power and failed to catch it.

Everett: …

What a cunning military female!

The next day, Everett went to the Mental Power Research Institute for testing according to the referral from the hospital. When he saw the mental power tester, Everett was stunned. Isn’t this “Little Glasses”?

Little Glasses Perth pushed his glasses calmly: “Working two jobs, earning two salaries.”

Everett looked at the testing fee on the form, which was as high as 20,000 star coins, and seriously doubted if he was being scammed.

There were quite a few mental power testing items, totaling over a dozen. Some were simple direct inputs of mental power, while others involved using mental power to complete various game tasks, such as piercing, attacking, puzzles, and so on. Besides measuring the quantity of mental power, they also comprehensively examined the operation, perception, and usage of the mental power.

In other words, the “bucket theory” was only the foundation. It wasn’t enough to just have a lot of mental power to reach SS-grade. Admiral Sears was able to reach this standard because of extremely rigorous training.

Everett only let loose when measuring the quantity of mental power; he didn’t take the other task tests seriously. After all, none of them compared to the previous lock-picking test.

By the time the mental power test was over, half the day had passed. The results would be out tomorrow and would be sent directly to his optical-link account.

In the afternoon, Everett went house-hunting with the military female.

Since they were staying in Corvus, they naturally needed a new home.

Little Dummy had made appointments for several houses in advance, all exclusive to high-rank communities. The layout was similar to the one back on the Capital Star a two-story independent small villa with a little garden. The rent was about 15,000.

They had already selected one near the spaceport, but when Everett clicked his optical-link account to pay, he discovered a grim fact.

He was out of money.

Of course, the “F” account had plenty of money, but he couldn’t exactly open the Magic Lamp Company’s account in front of the military female!

“What’s wrong?” Sears looked at the little high-rank who had suddenly stalled while preparing to pay, glanced at the light screen interface, and fell silent upon seeing the balance of only 5,368.25 star coins.

It even had specific decimals.

“How can it be so little? I remember back on the Capital Star, when I used your permission to buy ingredients, the balance was over a hundred thousand.”

Sears tapped the light screen to check the bill.

Besides the 30,000 or so for medical expenses, the remaining 100,000+ star coins were all used to buy discounted merchandise of Admiral Sears.

Sears: …

“How about we stay in the one I rented…”

“It’s fine! Little Dummy can definitely find a cheaper house!” Everett quickly saved face. “Besides, I should receive the compensation from the cargo company soon. I’ll have money then!”

“Can’t the merchandise be returned?”

“It’s already shipped; it can’t be returned. And I spent a long time camping for those; it’s rare for someone to sell them.”

Ultimately, they moved into a studio apartment specially provided for low-grade high-ranks. A small two-bedroom, one-living room flat. It was only slightly larger than Sears’s safe house.

The two adults and one small insect had little luggage and could move in directly. He also bought a cheap second-hand robot body for Little Dummy, its face painted with clown makeup.

“Welcome home, Master!” When the three entered the new home, the clown-version Little Dummy played a cheering sound effect.

“Wow! is this our nest from now on?!”

Fortunately, Bigu found everything very novel and soon hung onto Little Dummy to play with it.

Meanwhile, Everett suddenly realized there were only two bedrooms. The little cub would definitely take one, which left the other…

Then he heard the military female say: “I’ll sleep in the living room.”

“Wait a second,” while the little cub ran into his own bedroom to have fun, Everett stopped the military female who had begun tidying the sofa bed. “Since we are going to continue living together, there are some things I feel are necessary to clear up.”

“For example, your name. Your true name… what exactly is it?”