EROS [Zerg]

In the pitch-black room, a 97-year-old male insect nestled on a small animal sofa, watching some low-rated comedies playing on an old-fashioned television that had been running all night. He yawned deeply, and a tear, heavy with sleepiness, squeezed from the corner of his eye, but was quickly wiped away by his claws and spread evenly on the skin around his eye.

The male insect lazily propped one leg up on the soft, animal-shaped sofa, doing what he felt most comfortable—a stretching exercise. If any Earthlings were present, they might think this male insect's movements resembled the way their fat pet cats stretch at home.

The indoor temperature was just right. The male insect was wearing an ill-fitting t-shirt and shorts, his toes pointed upwards, sprawled on the sofa in a hopeless posture.

He spent his days like this, munching on the wealth he had created in the past, ignoring the occasional marriage pressure from the Male Insect Protection Association, living alone in this dark little nest that gave him peace of mind, leading a decadent life undisturbed by other insects and isolated from the world.

Maybe today is the perfect day to have some fries...

The male insect glanced at a can of cola that had been opened and left overnight on the low table next to the sofa.

"Some more potato chips, please..."

After placing his order on the terminal, he switched to a different TV channel and waited quietly for his food delivery to arrive.

"Ding-dong!" The doorbell rang at just the right moment.

"So fast..." The male insect opened his sleepy eyes, yawned, and slowly sat up from the sofa.

The male insect opened the door a crack, not intending to face the delivery insect directly: "Just pass it in through the door."

The delivery wasn't being served yet, which annoyed the male insect. He slowly poked half his head out, only to find that it wasn't the delivery insect he was looking for.

"Excuse me, is Ms. Jessica home?"

The male insect blinked its beady black eyes, staring blankly at the female insect standing in the shadows outside the door.

The beauty bomb blasted his insect core into a blank.

The male insect marveled to itself, feeling as if a god of insects had descended to earth.

Could they be matchmaking bugs sent by the Male Bug Protection Association? When did the Male Bug Protection Association of the Fourth Star System have female bugs of such high quality?

The male insect, somewhat socially awkward, gently braced himself against the door with his claws, peeking out cautiously: "What do you want with him?"

The female insect outside seemed somewhat surprised that it was a male insect who opened the door: "Your Excellency, male insect?"

"Mr. Male Insect, do you know an insect named Jessica? Someone introduced me to Mr. Jessica to discuss toy design."

Eros arrived at the address given to him by Aso to visit his friend Jessica, but when he knocked on the door, he was surprised to find that it was a male insect who answered.

Upon seeing the male insect, Eros, though smiling, couldn't help but feel a bit wary.

Although the possibility is slim.

But he had also heard of male insects with a perverse sense of humor who would kidnap female insects to commit crimes.

Moreover... looking through the crack in the door, it was pitch black inside.

Unlike the places that normal male insects prefer to live in.

"I must have gone to the wrong place..." Eros took two steps back, preparing to leave.

"I am Jessica." The male insect tugged at his ill-fitting shirt to cover the "spare tire" on his abdomen, revealing half of his body as he sized up the beautiful female insect at the door.

Jessica didn't like female insects, but the one standing at the door was so beautiful that she decided to take a few more glances to feast her eyes and didn't close the door.

Eros couldn't hide his surprise; he had thought that Mr. Jessica, whom Aso had mentioned, who had once led the toy design industry in the Fourth Galaxy, would be a female insect.

“This is truly astonishing.” Eros didn’t completely believe that the male insect in front of him was the excellent insect that Aso had described. It wasn’t that he had a deep prejudice against male insects; after all, he had seen excellent male insects like the male Pomi.

The male insect in front of me looked so unkempt. His white t-shirt couldn't cover his bulging belly, there were stains on his shorts that looked like juice, and his small eyes were glazed over as if he hadn't woken up yet. It was obvious that he hadn't washed his face.

"Who sent you to find me? What's your relationship with him?" Jessica had no intention of letting Eros in. In fact, her house hadn't been entered by a second insect for over a decade.

Eros explained to the male insect why they had come here, and Jessica suddenly realized, "You mean Aso?"

“I don’t know him well. He was just a blind date recommended to me by the male insect protection association. We only met for about ten minutes.”

"..." Eros really didn't expect that the relationship between the male insect and the sub-female Aso was like this. Standing outside the door, he was immediately a little embarrassed and his expression became unnatural.

Just as Eros was so embarrassed he was practically crawling on the ground, Jessica yawned and stepped aside to make way for him: "Are you still coming in? But I only ordered one takeout order, you'll have to order your own if you want to eat."

Eros entered Jessica's dark little house.

When the lights were turned on, Eros was almost shocked by what he saw.

He had never seen such a crowded and messy room. Although it wasn't piled with garbage or had any strange smells, the whole room was just unusually crowded and cluttered.

Eros didn't feel stuffy, probably because the room had ventilation vents. He noticed that the windows were covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that they weren't opened often.

"Please sit here."

Jessica crumpled the small blanket on the sofa into a ball and tossed it behind her, thus clearing a place for her to sit.

"I didn't boil any water, so you can drink this instead."

The male insect took a can of steaming soda from the refrigerator and placed it on the table in front of Eros.

"Thank you." Eros took the soda with both paws and instinctively opened it, handing it to the male insect.

"Oh, I'll drink this." Jessica came back after washing her face, holding a towel as she took a swig of her Coke that had been sitting on the table overnight, and glanced sideways at Eros: "You got a cold shoulder, didn't you?"

“Ah, yes.” Eros said somewhat dryly. In fact, he didn’t feel embarrassed, but this awkwardness seemed to be a talent of his, making him appear very obedient and easily causing the insects to lower their guard.

“Those insects are unhappy with their own lives, so they like to tease honest insects.” Jessica stretched out her paw in front of Eros: “Show me your work.”

“Okay, okay.” Eros took his manuscript out of his backpack: “This is my idea.”

“A paper manuscript? I haven’t seen one like this in years.” Jessica chuckled as she flipped through a few pages of the manuscript, then glanced at Eros. “You used to be a female soldier?”

"Few toy designers would associate weapons with toys."

“Not a female soldier yet.” Eros sighed and used his left claw to lift the empty sleeve of his right arm. “I used to be a military mechanic, but something happened.”

Upon hearing Eros mention that he had once worked as a military mechanic, Jessica glanced at Eros's youthful face with surprise: "Impressive."

“I never expected that you would be an elite who once led the toy design industry in the Fourth Star System,” Eros complimented.

"Hmph, did Aso tell you this?" Jessica leaned back lazily on the sofa, flipping through Eros's manuscript while sneering, "Did he tell you that these are nicknames given to me by my colleagues?"

"Of course, if you know this and still say things to me like that, I'll kick you out and send you to the male insect protection association."