Insectoids: The Job of the Males

Cheng Zhaoci is now living in the frontline command centre.

Very few insectoids know who is inside this spaceship; after the initial round of curious discussions, the insectoids have moved on from the topic.

The war is also ramping up in intensity. Wei Zhuo has to push himself to spend any time with Cheng Zhaoci at all.

Cheng Zhaoci can also see how the war is going, so stops Wei Zhuo from making meals for him in person. He is already busy; it is important he can have a good rest.

As for the Awakening, he doesn’t really feel anything yet. Unlike how the comics with this element like to depict it in his past life, he can’t feel any sign of it to come.

He has basically just changed the workplace for drawing comics. He’s still updating weekly, while responding to messages every so often.

Though being unable to leave the vessel at all has also become taxing. He is a shut-in, but he also can’t handle being isolated from the outside world entirely. Even in his past life, when he did not have family or good friends, and in theory, could survive off of delivery for months, still left his house every day to throw away trash.

In this life, he has become slightly more restless when shutting himself in. Of course, compared to the more socially active majority of males, he’s still quite reclusive, but he knows he’s not as able to handle living alone as his past life.

Thankfully, taxing as it is, it has not been too mentally difficult, even after a whole month has passed, quite possibly thanks to Wei Zhuo. Whenever he’s back, exhausted, he still takes the time to ask him how he’s been, if there’s anything he needs.

The exhaustion is obvious, but Wei Zhuo still takes Cheng Zhaoci’s need over all else. Honestly, it feels really good to be loved, to be on the top of the list of things in another’s mind.

He can feel how he is needed, how important he is to him. So this, it turns out, is the power of love.

A shame, then, that he has no one else to share this joy with; he has written extensive recounts on his experience and happiness, sending it out to his family and friends, but he receives not a single reply.

He knows some of them are definitely not busy, so Cheng Zhaoci is suspecting they are simply refusing to reply.

And he would be correct.

They refuse to reply; not just that, but when seeing Cheng Zhaoci’s message, they would read the first few lines to find it is a flattering description of Wei Zhuo, they would skip the rest, not even humouring it a full perusal.

“I thought grade S males are recorded to have their awakenings about a week after they reach adulthood. It’s almost been a month, why isn’t there any news yet?” The President is worriedly sighing on his chair, “is it delayed because he did not have nutritional plentitude? Because he lived on a landfill planet for the first 17 years of his life?”

It seems reasonable to assume landfill planets would not have any food that can satisfy the requirements of a growing male body.

And a delayed awakening is dangerous for males as well. The later they awaken, the more pent-up strength and danger there would be when they finally do.

The awakening is like a valve being opened to let the pressure out; the later this happens, the more terrifying the ‘gas explosion’ becomes.

“There’s nothing we can do here either. He won’t Awaken sooner just from your musings. Wait patiently,” the Chairman of Chief Command props himself up from his official duties. Then, seeing Bai Jiawen pawing his way for the mini-fridge on his desk, he yells, “stop! Your body can’t handle those food right now!”

His xiongzhu not just loves junk food, but also wants to keep up appearances. This makes him tell everyone else that this is for the Chairman, making them misunderstand that the Chairman is a gap moe who enjoys sweets while having a tough guy appearance.

The President quietly retracts his hand, “I wasn’t thinking. Safe, safe.”

Whether it was simple idle motion or a deliberate attempt is something only the President knows. As the one who has lived a century with him, the Chairman simply knows not to trust him on these.

“So when are you planning to reveal to the public the true composition of the political class and top scientific teams?”

“Not yet, be patient. I still need to find the right time of approach,” the President rubs the area between his eyebrows, annoyed, “at least until after Mr Cheng Zhaoci Awakens.”
“There is still a clear rift between the males and shemales. This is not the right time for reveals; it will only bring us trouble.”

They need an approach that will allow them to get in touch with the emotions of the public.

The President wonders, “say, should we talk to Mr Cheng Zhaoci and try to convince him to let us reveal his true identity as the comic artist at the right time?”

Cheng Zhaoci was the artist behind ‘In a Tiny Flicker,’ a comic centrally themed around the shemale condition, as told from a male protagonist. It is also one of the most ‘solid’ piece of evidence that Cheng Zhaoci is a shemale in his fans’ eyes.