EROS [Zerg]

Eros landed back on the ground and began to assemble the parts he had taken apart one by one in the open space.

He has developed muscle memory for assembling each part. Although Eros is currently lagging behind, his catching-up speed is visibly fast.

His speed and proficiency in assembling parts far surpassed those of the candidates next to him. This terrifying speed made the surrounding candidates feel a strong sense of pressure.

In less than three stars, Eros had already assembled most of the power engine unit.

But an unexpected event occurred just when everything seemed to be going well. As Eros began assembling the last piece, he discovered that there was a matching part that he couldn't find anywhere.

Eros clearly remembered that when he was transporting the parts downwards, he always arranged them in groups and placed them together.

Looking around, Eros found no parts he needed on the ground. He didn't want to dwell on why the parts were missing, as he didn't have much time left and continuing to worry about it would only be a waste of time.

Eros went straight to the warehouse, found a piece of metal of the same material, and began to find tools to polish the parts.

Fortunately, what was lost was not a high-tech core component, and Eros managed to grind out the missing part in less than half a star.

After assembling the entire power engine unit, Eros checked its performance again. After confirming that there were no problems, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The work at hand was too exhausting, but the repaired device hadn't been installed yet, and Eros's exam wasn't over.

Now, difficulties have arisen again before him.

How is he supposed to reinstall the repaired power engine into the mech that's hundreds of meters tall?

We can't just disassemble it and put it back together, can we?

Just as Eros was worrying, a voice called out to him from above.

"Hey, if I lay the mech down, can you fit it inside?"

Eros looked up and saw a female insect with silver hair speaking to him.

"You mean to lay the mech down?" Eros's eyes lit up. If he could lay the mech down, he could use a small crane to reinstall the power engine on the mech.

“Yes, we all agree. This way, it will also be convenient to test our repair results,” the silver-haired female insect said, pointing to the four female insects beside her.

“If only it could be like that,” Eros said.

"That's great! We now have six bugs agreeing to take down the mech, which means we've outnumbered the ones who opposed it."

"This is unfair! The parts we operate are right behind the mechs. What you're doing will affect our exam!" The silver-haired female insect had barely finished speaking when the other female insects protested.

You Bai glanced down, his upturned eyes curving into a beautiful arc, and a smile that made Chong Wu shudder: "The minority shall obey the majority, or I will beat you up and none of you will be able to continue the exam."

This threat was completely unexpected for Eros, but he did not feel the urge to oppose this unfair practice. If Yuubai's proposal succeeded, it would also benefit Eros himself.

It only harmed the interests of the four female insect examinees.

However, Eros's conscience was far from overflowing with compassion.

"What do you think about this?" one of the examiners, sitting in the proctoring position, asked his colleagues as the conflict erupted between the female insects.

"Won't this compromise the fairness of the exam?" one examiner worried.

"Brandt, what do you think?"

Brandt shook his head: "From the moment it was decided that they would draw the exam questions and take the exam on the same mech, it was determined that there would be no absolute fairness in this exam."

"Some insects get relatively easy questions, while others get difficult ones. Each insect has different physical abilities, so the difficulty of completing the exam questions also varies."

"No matter what methods they use, whether it's stealing other people's exam parts or bullying the weak and demanding that the opponent's interests be sacrificed, we only need to observe whether they have violated the exam rules."

"After all, only a few female insects will ultimately stand out."

"If parts are stolen, try to find them back or rebuild them. If you are bullied, try to fight back."

"There are plenty of unfair things out there. You either submit or you resist. If you can't solve them yourself, why should you always expect others to find justice for you?"

Brandt's words left the other examiners speechless for a moment. Most of them had gone through the same process back then.

This makes sense, at least it makes a lot of sense in the Zerg community.

There are no free lunches in life. Prestige, resources, power, and war are all things that can only be obtained through struggle.

Although the Zerg Empire's territory is widely spread across dozens of star systems, its resources remain extremely limited. Therefore, the Zerg must constantly expand their territory and acquire resources through war. It is an undeniable fact that female Zerg who are not selfish and do not compete will soon be eliminated by the society.

Eros's gaze had already darted between the two sides of the insectoid race several times. From the perspective of immediate interests, Eros should stand on Youbai's side, but Eros did not want to be used as a pawn by the insectoid race so easily.

He understood that You Bai's current approach was to accelerate the elimination of his opponents.

With only one or two weeks left to finish the exam, this stunt disrupts the exam rhythm of other candidates, yet they use the excuse of testing their own results to justify it, giving this practice a veneer of "reasonableness."

This turns actions that would normally violate exam rules into actions that are reasonable yet unreasonable during the exam.

Now that it has already happened, Eros can't avoid getting involved in this mess, but he can't let it go unnoticed.

Eros didn't believe that Youbai only wanted to eliminate the opponent's four female insects, after all, he had just noticed that his performance in quickly assembling parts had been watched by several female insects.

You Bai's threat to use violence was the very first thing he said.

Eros was very aware of his weaknesses; if Yuuhaku were to use violence against him, he would have absolutely no way to resist.

Threatened by You Bai, the four female insects retorted, "Don't go too far. What good will this do you?"

The four female insects behind You Bai stood up: "Heh, we have more insects than you. The minority must obey the majority. If you disagree, you are harming our interests. What's wrong with us fighting for our own interests?"

"you!!"

Just as the threatened female was about to give in, feeling both angry and helpless, Eros, who had been silent all along, suddenly "turned against her":

“I disagree with this unfair approach. I am not on your side, so you are not the majority.”