Chapter 3
So hungry...
Curled up inside the egg, the male Zerg cub experienced this sensation for the first time.
More than twenty days passed in the blink of an eye. Whenever the male Zerg cub woke up, he would use his mental power to explore the surrounding area. When he became tired, he would sleep.
The only Zerg who came to the room every day like clockwork was the teenage male Zerg who called himself his older brother; this older brother of his would spend time lecturing him about all sorts of lofty principles.
Why was this male Zerg able to enter his room whenever he wanted, even without his permission?
The male Zerg cub pondered about this. Even before hatching, he had already developed a sense of territory.
At first, he couldn't quite understand what his older brother was trying to say, but he gradually came to comprehend a bit of it. The content of his brother's speeches generally fell into the following categories:
Category #1 - his brother bragging about his own glorious life experiences (i.e. how his live-streamed cooking had made a significant impact on Zerg lifestyle, or how many lost teenage females abandoned by male Zerg he had saved, giving them a second chance at life)
Category #2 - using those glorious experiences, everything his brother therefore said was supposed to be correct and true (i.e. how his brother would never hurt him, how his brother is the Zerg who loves him the most, and therefore he must absolutely listen to what his brother tells him to do)
Category #3 - other brainwashing content (i.e. asserting that the male Zerg, female Zerg, and sub-females are all equal; that you can only marry one person when you wed, or else you are a scumbag. Furthermore, after you are born, you must become a Zerg who contributes to society. You cannot be selfish, you must show filial piety to your father and mother, show care for other female consort elders, and especially remember how good his brother was to him)
The male Zerg cub was no ignorant fool. While exploring the world with his psychic power, he had already witnessed all kinds of social phenomena: males were few while the females were many, male Zergs held supreme status, and the strong were revered. This was completely different from the equality among all Zerg that his brother preached about. As a male Zerg who was naturally selfish by instinct, how could he possibly accept the concepts his brother had just talked about?
My brother has a problem with his brain.
The male Zerg cub inside the egg concluded. However, his brother was stronger than him, and he had no way to kick the Zerg out. The Zerg instinct was to love combat and submit to the strong. Before he could rebel against his brother, he had no choice but to pretend every single time: Yes, yes. I listened very carefully.
Fortunately, his idiot brother didn't notice his superficiality, coming in every day to blabber about nonsense for a bit before leaving. The Zerg cub had already decided to become a powerhouse in the future to suppress his brother, making him never dare speak annoying words to him again.
Right now, what he needed to do was break the shell. Due to his frequent use of psychic power, the egg fluid had been completely absorbed by the little cub already, and he was feeling hungry.
The male Zerg cub raised his elbow and casually struck a spot inside the shell. He thought he would have to repeat it a few times to break it, but to his surprise...
Crack.
The shell, having lost all the egg fluid, was exceptionally fragile. It broke open a hole immediately, letting light enter the egg.
The male Zerg cub didn't rush to come out. Not having his father or mother by his side made him a bit more cautious. He observed the external environment through the cracked opening. There were no enemy Zerg; it was temporarily safe.
Hunger drove him to use his hands to break off a piece of the eggshell from the crack, popping it into his mouth to crunch on.
Milk-flavored tasty biscuits.
When he had previously extended his psychic power toward the kitchen, a sub-female in the house had prepared this kind of food. The taste sensed by his psychic power was similar to the eggshell.
While eating, the male Zerg cub curiously scouted the bedroom. He was still in his mother's room, which was no different from what he had previously investigated with his psychic power.
By the time the male Zerg cub was full, not a single piece of eggshell was left. He sat on the bed and skillfully released his psychic power. Sensing that his father was home, he transmitted a message to him: “Father, I have hatched.”
It was still the same living room, the same white leather sectional sofa, and the same father who was holding a lover in each arm while simultaneously using his terminal to contact another lover.
The father, Henry, froze for a moment when he received the psychic power message from the little Zerg cub. He checked the date on his terminal. There were still 5 days left before the hatching preparation alarm he had set. Why did it hatch early?
Unhurriedly, Henry said goodbye to the new lover on his terminal: "Baby, I have some business to attend to. Let's meet tomorrow night instead."
Closing the video screen, he said, "Ether, Jacquelin, Tully, follow me."
Henry took three secondary female consorts with him to his other female consort's room. The identity verification succeeded, and the door opened. In contrast to the imagined scene of a male Zerg cub struggling painfully inside an eggshell with egg fluid splattered all over the floor, it was completely different.
The male Zerg cub was sitting obediently on the bed with his knees pulled to his chest. There was no eggshell and no egg fluid around him. His light blue hair was extremely short, fuzzily sticking to his scalp. If it weren't for his slightly thin build, one would probably think he had been born for several days.
"Looks just like a little monkey," Henry tossed out the comment casually.
The male Zerg cub stared straight at his father, observing the other party's appearance and trying to estimate his psychic powers. After evaluating, the male Zerg cub felt he couldn't compete with the other party for the time being. Showing weakness when encountering a powerhouse to lower one's presence was a biological instinct. Therefore, he flashed a smile at his father: "Hello."
"Hi."
Henry felt it was a bit strange. This kind of greeting scenario didn't seem like something that should happen during the first meeting between a male Zerg cub and his father. Henry recalled the scene when his first male child, Jasper, hatched.
It was a snowy day, and he had watched his first male child Jasper hatch. Jasper clumsily broke the eggshell, opened his arms to him, and said, "Mapa, hug, hungry." (Like a clumsy mixture of 'papa' and 'mama')
Just as he was about to give a hug, he didn't expect the male Zerg cub to go hug his mother first, gripping the fabric at her chest without letting go.
At that time, Henry smiled helplessly. To mask his awkwardness, he looked out the window at the snow, which was twinkling and sparkling like countless diamonds. Thus, he named his first male child Jasper, meaning guardian of treasures.
Looking back at this male Zerg cub who clearly had a sense of estrangement from him, Henry directed all his resentment toward the mother who hadn't returned home. If it weren't for her not coming back, how could the male Zerg cub not be close to him?
Yet, Henry didn't think about the fact that when the male Zerg cub first extended his psychic power to show goodwill, he had told the little cub to go play on his own because his daddy was busy making contributions to the Zerg race's reproduction!
Just as Henry was reminiscing about his first male child Jasper, Jasper also came home from school.
"Little brother has hatched! Father, give little brother a name."
"Tom? Mike? No, I seem to have a female child who already has this name."
Henry opened his terminal and flipped through his contact list of nearly a thousand Zerg, trying to find a good-sounding name. Suddenly, Henry noticed something. "I know three people named Joanna. I should invite them over to hang out sometime."
He scrolled down further and noticed that in his contact list of nearly a thousand Zerg, names starting with the letter X were very rare—there were only a few. He decided to give his little male Zerg cub a name starting with X.
Henry opened an online naming website, entered the criteria for a name starting with X, and the website randomly generated a name: Xavier.
"Your name is Xavier."
The male Zerg cub softly repeated it once.
"Xavier."
Henry said with satisfaction, "Not bad. Jacquelin, go give Xavier a bath. Ether, go make some food little Zerg cubs like to eat. Tully, move the toy gift package I ordered earlier into the bedroom."
"Let me help wash my little brother," Jasper suggested.
"Sure," Henry agreed." I still have things to do, so you all can get busy."
He was off to contact the three Joannas to coordinate which day they would go on their "date."
Jasper carried his little brother Xavier toward the bathroom.
"Xavier, big brother is taking you to have a bath-bath and will wash you squeaky clean."
Can you talk like a normal person?
Xavier, who still couldn't walk, belittled his brother in his heart. Because he couldn't beat him, he had no choice but to play it low-key and agree.
Jasper pressed the switch and filled the bathtub halfway with water.
"This is hot water. It feels very comfortable to soak in. Is little brother scared?"
"No." What is there to be scared of with hot water?
"This is soap. Making bubbles can help you wash and become squeaky clean. You have to remember, if you ever take a bath with other kids, you must absolutely never pick up the soap if it falls on the floor," Jasper said as he rubbed the lather onto his younger brother.
"Oh."
He got it; his brother was acting weird again.
"You must rinse off all the bubbles, otherwise it will be slippery and you'll fall on the floor."
"Oh."
"All clean! What a good Zerg cub, be this good in the future too! Does Xavier have anything he wants to ask his brother?"
"Next time, I want to bathe myself," Xavier genuinely replied.
Jasper frowned, his eyes filled with incomprehension.
"I know you appreciate your brother's bathing skills, but doing it by yourself is very dangerous."
Xavier's psychic powers sensed a trace of the other's negative emotion. Steadying himself, he spoke up, "If you're not busy, you can come help me wash."
He decided to ask his father's secondary female consorts for help while his brother was at school.
After the bath, Jasper wrapped his brother in a towel and returned to the bedroom. Inside the bedroom stood several stacks of unopened toy boxes, and on the table was a freshly brewed cup of hot milk.
Jasper asked, "Which one does my little brother want to unbox first?"
Xavier used his psychic power to explore all the newly added items in the room. After a moment of thought, he pointed his finger.
"The third column by the window, the second one."
"A Barbie doll?" Jasper helped unbox the packaging and handed the doll over.
Xavier stripped the clothes off the Barbie doll. He felt his brother looking at him with a meaningful gaze.
"I also want the hot milk."
Jasper held the cup with the milk and brought it to the Zerg cub's mouth, with no intention of letting him hold it himself. Xavier tested the temperature of the milk with his psychic power and smiled at Jasper.
Suddenly, grasping the Barbie doll by its feet, he plunged it headfirst into the milk cup. A few drops of milk splashed onto the hands of the Zerg cub and the teenage Zerg. It scalded the Zerg cub's hand red.
Jasper's hand was also scalded; his strength suddenly gave out, and he lost his grip on the cup.
Smash.
The glass cup fell to the floor and shattered.
Xavier looked straight into his brother's eyes. "Brother, when you said bathing is dangerous, did you mean this kind of danger?"
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Hello hello, not a lot of notes today. One funny thing is that when translating, I changed some of the names to make it more suitable. The "female names" that appeared in this chapter were originally John, Ethan, Turan, and Jacob lol. I changed it to sound more girly and to avoid confusion.
Still deciding on whether to keep some male / female descriptors in the text. It feels so weird and tiring to keep adding it. Maybe in the future, I'll drop the 'male Zerg cub' and just put Zerg cub. After all, I think we know which one we're referring to anyway.
As alwayssss feedback and comments are welcome <3
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