EROS [Zerg]

"What do you mean by a terrible experiment?" Footsteps came from outside the door.

The tall, blonde, blue-eyed female insect leaned against the door and knocked heavily twice. Then she walked to Locke's side, lifted his scale-covered claws, and gently kissed them.

"If female insects can gain powerful abilities when they transform into insects, why can't male insects do the same?"

"Why can the Insect God bestow powerful destructive force upon his female offspring, but not the ability to protect himself upon his male offspring?"

“If the Male Insect Protection Association finds out what you’ve done, they’ll take you to Prison Planet!” Brandt said.

"They would have arrested him already if they could have." Kowe shrugged dismissively, lowered the lord's claws, and slowly walked to Brandt's side: "I recently started a new project that I think will be very interesting. Would you like to cooperate with me?"

“Who wants to cooperate with you?!” Brandt glared at Coway. “I’ve come to you to ask you about Eros.”

“Ah…that little bug…” Kowe paused, “Haha, that little bug is indeed quite interesting.”

Brandt frowned, and suddenly he noticed Kowe's strange way of addressing him.

"Insect larvae?"

“Yes, little bug.” Kowe revealed the smug smile that Brandt hated most.

"A little guy whose identity has been stolen for many years."

“My Evita Laboratory never opens its doors to any insect other than myself, but Brandt, you now have the chance to go in and take a look. You’ll find the answers you’re looking for.”

"As long as you agree to cooperate with me, I guarantee you won't regret it."

Brandt didn't even look up: "I won't cooperate with you!"

"Your bloody experiments are only fit to make me vomit!"

"Is that so?" Kowe chuckled softly. "What if I told you that Evanson is inside?"

Brandt gasped: "Lieutenant General Evanson is dead, isn't he? His body should be in the Imperial Cemetery...!!"

"Yes, but...aren't you curious about what interesting things I might do to that motionless insect body?"

"You are his mother!" Brandt's moral compass was once again shattered by Kowe: "How could you desecrate his remains?!"

"Whether you come or not is up to you."

"I will tell His Majesty the Insect King!"

"Hehehe... Do you think you can report me faster than strong acid can destroy evidence?" Kove pursed his lips and walked around Brandt with a smile: "That female insect that stole your male insect, Lian Zhen, remember him? I want him to be my test subject."

"If you cooperate with me, I can take you on a tour of my Evita Laboratory."

Brandt's pupils dilated when he heard the name "Lian Zhen": "What are you going to do now?!"

Why do you think I would help you?

Kowe looked confident and shook his claw: "You are the best insect candidate I can think of. Only you can get him to voluntarily become a test subject."

"I prefer complete experimental samples. If the samples are damaged due to non-compliance, the accuracy of my experiments will be affected."

“You should know that I broke off all contact with Lian Zhen the year I entered the Imperial Academy of Science and Technology.” Brandt angrily pointed at Kowe: “Don’t even think about bothering me with him.”

"You unilaterally severed ties?" Kowe shamelessly projected the information he found on his terminal onto Brandt, "18 communications in one month, 17 of which were rejected?"

"You investigated me?!"

"Of course not, I just looked up some information about Lian Zhen and made an unexpected discovery." Kowe raised the corner of his mouth: "It seems that your genius senior has developed some mental problems."

“His lord not only failed to provide him with spiritual comfort, but also frequently humiliated him.”

Brandt pursed his lips, his expression impatient: "He brought this on himself. It's no use telling me this. I'd rather he suffer even more."

"Actually, the purpose of this experiment I'm preparing to conduct is to try and remove the markings that the higher-level males have placed on the females," Kowe said, ignoring Brandt.

"With the technology we have now, we can only remove the marks that low-level males have placed on high-level females, and the female must be at least two levels higher than the male to meet the requirements for the surgery."

"The experiments we conducted with the female slaves sent by those high-level male insects proved that this hypothesis was feasible, but those female slaves were very uncooperative and committed suicide a few days after their marks were removed."

“Suicide?” Brandt didn’t believe Kove’s nonsense. He snorted and said, “As expected of a nobleman, even his excuses for covering up his crimes are so high-sounding. It must have been self-harm caused by stress.”

When a female insect is forcibly stripped of its deep markings by a male, its body experiences a prolonged, transient stress response. Once this stress response occurs, the female insect develops a self-harming impulse, at which point the mortality rate can reach as high as 93%.

“Removing the mark from the same male insect results in a lower self-mutilation rate and a higher survival rate for Grade A females compared to Grade B females.” Seeing that Brandt wasn't falling for it, Kowe cut to the chase:

“I want to find out the reason. The female insects used in the experiments were all C and B grade female insects. I need higher grade test subjects.”

"Hmph, if you really want to do research, just have Grand Duke Dona of Eastland have a few female insects. Why are you always focusing on other female insects?" Brandt retorted coldly.

"Anyway, it's not uncommon for female insects to be tortured and killed by male insects, so there's no need to worry about your disgusting behavior being discovered, right, Lord Locke?"

The male insect did not speak.

“Hahaha, Brandt, I’m surprised.” Kove blocked Locke’s way, his expression mocking: “Don’t those female insects’ lives matter? It seems you’re being changed by this society too.”

"But you should also give me some confidence. I can do better than you can think of anything."

"I don't lack high-level female insects as test subjects, what I lack are volunteers, um... high-level female insects who are willing to participate in the entire experiment."

“There won’t be such a female insect. Lian Zhen couldn’t be that stupid. Even if she was abused by a male insect, it would only be abuse. But if she were used as a test subject for you, the only outcome would be a death that would be ten or a hundred times more painful than being abused.” Brandt scoffed dismissively. “I’ve never heard of a female insect surviving your experiments.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you,” Kove said. “Lian Zhen came to me himself; he volunteered to be my test subject.”

"But he has one request."

"Has he gone mad?" Brandt's eyes widened in horror. "What did he ask for?!"

“He wants you to go see him, to go to Feng Qiya’s mansion to see him.” Kove narrowed his eyes: “Back then, the male insect of the Feng Qiya family pursued you. Maybe he wants to use you to win back his male master.”

“He’s dreaming!” Brandt frowned, interrupting Kowe. “That kind of female insect who gets dizzy at the sight of a male insect, does he think he’s worthy of my attention? Doesn’t he even know who he is now?! From the moment he chose to marry that male insect, we were no longer insects from the same world. A nobody female insect wants to see me? He’s dreaming!”

“And you,” Brandt said, glaring at Kowe, enunciating each word clearly, “I will never be your accomplice, absolutely not!”

Brandt couldn't remember exactly when it started, but his originally calm personality became increasingly irritable and harsh.

He stormed out of Locke's reception room and happened to see Eros coming out of the room with Cardian. "Eros, don't stay here any longer, let's leave right away."

"Has Teacher already met with Dean Kowe? Are you leaving now?" Eros was taken aback. He could see the displeasure on Brandt's face, so he handed the little insect cub, Xiao Ai, back to Cardian. "Teacher, what happened? You look very unwell."

When Eros reminded Brandt, he turned his head and saw his furrowed brows and terrible expression reflected in a glass panel next to him.

The worst expression a sub-female could make is probably like this right now.

Brandt pinched the bridge of his nose with his paw, and turned to Eros, trying to soften his tone, saying, "It's getting late, let's go back now, I have something important to do."