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| The Beloved Little Mother Insect (LITTLE MOTHER) |
Deep in the desert, the wind-scoured bones of colossal creatures rose like mountains amidst the yellow sand, a skeletal palace in a world at its end.
A massive Starcloud Hound—a mutant beast symbiotic with fungal mycelium—paused mid-step.
It tilted its head, nostrils twitching as it caught a whiff of something sweet.
The wolf-like creature followed the scent to a withered tree, where it found a pure-white youngling curled up in the dirt.
A malformed thing—frail limbs, hairless body and wrapped in tattered rags. Only the long, pale fur on its head cascaded halfway down its frame, half-buried in the sand like a bleached river.
He smelled divine.
The Starcloud Hound’s nostrils flared. Its obsidian energy armor, scaled like a dragon’s hide, shielded it from lesser predators foolish enough to challenge it.
As it drew closer, it lowered its head and dragged the white-furred child out with its jaws.
The beast was enormous.
Its skull alone was a third the length of the youngling’s body. The mycelium-infused fur shimmered like nebulous mist, pulsing with life—beautiful yet undeniably grotesque, the mark of the desert’s apex predator.
So sweet.
How could anything smell this good?
The intoxicating aroma stoked the beast’s hunger. The fungal threads embedded in its stomach writhed and saliva pooling in its maw as its eyes gleamed with ravenous desire—sinister even under the desert sun.
Eat. Eat. Eat eat eat!
Driven by instinct, the Starcloud Hound bared its fangs and lowering them inch by inch until they hovered a mere centimeter from the child’s throat.
Then—
A pale finger twitched beneath the sand.
Just as the beast’s teeth grazed the youngling’s neck, Pearl’s artificial heart—cheaply made and flawed—jolted back to life.
I’m… not dead?
Pearl remembered being returned for the seventh time, then handed over by the auction house owner to the disposal factory.
"You’re defective," the man had sneered. "Worthless. No one wants you."
Memories flooded back, a cacophony of pain ringing in his skull as Pearl opened his eyes—eyes that saw nothing but darkness.
The sensation against his throat startled him. He jerked back as his toes curling against the sand, even his sightless pupils contracting in fear.
For half a second, he froze, breath shallow.
In his sightless world, every touch was a mystery and every sensation a source of dread.
As for the beast—startled by its prey’s sudden movement—it cocked its head, its pitch-black eyes reflecting the pale child’s image.
The scent… it’s even stronger now?
The creature licked its lips, hot breath puffing out as it opened its maw again, chasing after this sweet, trembling morsel.
Meanwhile, the blind little artificial human lifted a tentative hand, groping for clues about his surroundings.
By sheer coincidence, the beast’s damp nose brushed against Pearl’s outstretched fingers.
Both froze.
The Starcloud Hound’s dark eyes flickered with something unreadable. Pearl, meanwhile, yanked his hand back, his fingers tinged pink from the beast’s warm breath.
Warm. Soft.
It didn’t hurt. Just… tickled.
Bewildered, the little artificial human blinked and lips parting in confusion. This was entirely new to him.
"Wh-what… is it?"
His voice was featherlight, like a stray kitten’s timid mewl—afraid that even the slightest noise might draw disdain.
But no one answered.
As Pearl waited, the ravenous beast sniffed again and jaws parting once more to reveal glistening fangs.
It had no intention of sparing this prey.
The shadow of its teeth loomed closer, promising carnage.
At the critical moment, the clueless little artificial human mustered his courage and reached out again—this time grasping one of the beast’s sharp fangs.
His fingertip even absentmindedly stroked the tooth’s surface.
The Starcloud Hound: ?
The sensation of soft skin against its fang roots made the beast’s tongue flicker instinctively, lapping at Pearl’s finger.
Sweet! So sweet!
The mycelium inside the creature trembled, its breath hitching.
Pearl, meanwhile, curled his fingers.
Warm. Soft.
It felt nice. Having known so little comfort in his short life, the little artificial human felt a flicker of longing.
He bit his lip, gathering his courage before whispering, "C-can I… touch you?"
The beast, of course, didn’t answer—it was too busy contemplating whether to bite the offending hand off.
But Pearl’s hand shifted, slipping past the half-closed jaws to rest against the creature’s chin.
That weak, powerless hand somehow bypassed the Starcloud Hound’s energy armor entirely, sinking into the nebulous, mycelium-soft fur beneath.
???
The StarCloud Hound, capable of strangling small prey with its energy armor, was stunned.
It even forgot to close its mouth, leaving it agape as a pair of slender, pale hands cupped its head, with the fingers daringly burrowing into its fur.
The Artificial Human's fingers were slender and elegant, as beautiful as works of art, tinged with a faint pink at the tips. The nails were rounded, and a subtle warmth emanated from the skin, enticing the StarCloud Hound to swallow. Its dark eyes gradually deepened, warming with desire.
...It wanted to lick.
Wow!
Pearl let out a small, internal gasp.
He thought this felt even more comfortable than his little blanket when he slept. Wouldn't it be blissful to sleep on such a bed?
The little Artificial Human, amused by his own imagination, secretly pursed his lips into a smile.
His vacant blue eyes were like glacial meltwater—clear yet devoid of any spark, like dusty jewels—but the dimples gracing his face were strikingly vivid.
The sensation under his palm was so soft and plush that he couldn't resist stroking along the direction of the fur growth.
As if petting a dog.
The dark-eyed Beast silently closed its mouth.
Perhaps the caress on its chin was too soothing, making it temporarily abandon the hunt. It merely narrowed its eyes and rested its massive head on the Artificial Human's lap as he knelt, bringing a solid warmth to Pearl's low-temperature body.
Such a weak prey could be eaten anytime—there was no rush.
Soft Mycelium curled and brushed against the little Artificial Human's skin, fuzzy and warm.
Back when his eyes weren't completely blind—
There was a stray dog curled up at the back door of an auction house, its eyes and nose injured by cruel children, its fur dirty and matted in clumps, dragging a broken leg as it clung to life in a corner.
It was dying.
Passersby on the street called it a stray mad dog, a bad dog, untamably wild and fiercely aggressive, biting anyone it saw, covered in wounds and pus, hideously ugly, and likely to be discarded as trash at the processing plant soon.
Everyone despised that ugly dog.
But Pearl liked it and even gave the dog a meat pie he had secretly saved.
Later, Pearl and the dog became friends.
Pearl felt the people on the street were wrong.
This dog wasn't fierce or bad—it was a good dog, protecting him when children ran over to pull his hair and call him a monster.
But later, his dog disappeared.
The desert winds made the listless little Artificial Human start coughing, his thin chest trembling as if on the verge of shattering.
The Beast let out a disdainful snort.
It wouldn't shield such a weak creature from the wind.
Then, the StarCloud Hound, symbiotic with the Mycelial Carpet, raised its body and blocked the wind and sand.
It was just stretching.
With the wind gone, the coughing stopped. Pearl pressed his lips together and shifted closer to the source of warmth.
The Beast licked its nose as a deep rumble echoing in its throat, while its long tail that were trailing behind, actively wrapped around the Artificial Human's calf exposed below his clothes.
Silent and filled with a beast-like possessiveness, it rubbed against the youth's skin, sending shivers like electric currents shooting up to Pearl's thigh.
So sensitive that the little Artificial Human trembled and gasped softly.
Meanwhile, a kilometer away in the desert—
A metal sphere hovered mid-air before slowly descending.
[Beast Trial Ground No. 8 Observation Sphere officially deployed]
[Deployment Planet: Radiation Barren Star - Northern Zone]
[Capturing life signs...]
[Drip. Successfully locked onto <Mycelial Carpet Symbiotic Species - StarCloud Hound>. Initiating tracking mode.]
The cold mechanical voice dissipated across the uninhabited desert. A silver-white sphere extended metallic wings from both sides and swiftly pursued the target's coordinates.
Simultaneously, throughout the militarized Narga Empire, floating light screens in various military districts abruptly lit up. Divided into multiple split screens, they displayed live feeds from different Observation Spheres within the irradiated wasteland planet.
Live commentary bulletins popped up—
[From once every five years to once every three years, the Beast Proving Grounds are opening way too frequently!]
[What can we do? High-level Narga go berserk with such destructive power—who else but Beasts can withstand it?]
[If only the Mother Insect were here…]
[Stop dreaming! The Insect Nest material dried up ages ago. The Mother Insect? I'll probably never see one in my lifetime!]
[Enough about that baseless speculation! I wonder who'll be the first to break free from berserker rage this year?]
[It must be Chief Ega! Ega! Ega!]
[Shut up, you maggot! Damned repeater, Lord Xagai is number one!]
[Vulgar mad dog, Olovikin will prevail!]
[Disagree. According to data calculations, Lord Hui's chances aren't small.]
[Why is no one mentioning Aslan? He's a major figure in the textbooks too.]
[...Are you offline? Aslan's been missing for years. I suspect he's already had a psychic self-detonation.]
...
The bulletins refreshed in real time as Observation Sphere No. 8 approached its target.
Suddenly, an outlier bulletin drifted across:
[Wait, what's that new species of Beast?!]
The "new species" was a somewhat fluffy pure white ball curled up within a cluster of nebula-like Mycelial Carpet. Its limbs were delicate and was so white they reflected the desert's blazing sun. When magnified on the screen, only an arm half-buried in the StarCloud Hound's fur was clearly visible.
But that wasn't ordinary fur—it was life-snatching Mycelium.
The Mycelial Carpet symbiotic StarCloud Hound had a danger rating above A. Even for the constantly evolving, iron-armored Narga, military academies didn't recommend cadets below intermediate level to engage with such Beasts.
Yet now, the dangerous Beast was docilely nuzzling against the "new species," and black Mycelium blending with white fur until they seemed almost fused.
The Observation Sphere hovering in the distance caught the StarCloud Hound's attention.
The powerful, eerie Beast slowly turned its head, dark and lightless eyes revealing cruelty and brutality.
The slender arm buried against the Beast's neck shifted—
The "new species" tilted its scruffy head slightly, revealing snow-white skin from behind the Mycelium, followed by a vacant, lifeless blue eye.
The bulletins fell silent for a moment.
Against the StarCloud Hound's massive, monstrous form, the "new species" appeared petite and pitiful, beautiful like some rare porcelain imported from outer star systems.
Fragile, delicate, slender.
This was completely alien to the militarized, might-makes-right Narga!
Though powerful Beasts could shapeshift into human forms, they'd never taken such lovely appearances! This was like a living doll!!
The empty screen instantly flooded with bulletins—
[What new species of Beast is this? Being this adorable should be illegal?!]
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