The children gathered when the instructor beckoned them over.
Lakely also went over. He stood at the back as he was taller. The small insect was coiled inside, its fine white sets of saw-like teeth inside its mouthpiece glistening in the air.
[Go back! I don’t want to see this!!]
[I know you want to go to the washroom, Lakely. Hurry up and raise your hand.jpg.]
The instructor pointed at the insect’s head. Instead of rearing back, the little creature latched on and began tearing into and slamming against the glass madly.
Dull thumps echoed in the enormous classroom.
“It’s trying to open an channel with its mouthpiece and bite me. If the glass wasn’t here, it would open a small hole in me and gouge out a cylindrical piece of flesh by the bone.”
The instructor pulled up a holographic screen and tapped on it. A divider rose inside of the box, which seemed to enrage the insect even more. Its shrieks intensified as it attacked in vain.
The other instructor brought over a suitcase. He set it aside and handed a flat stone inside to his colleague.
The instructor placed the stone into the newly created partition before removing the divider. The insect pounced on the stone as soon as it could slip through.
Like a machine, it cut into the stone and crushed it to smithereens.
[This is my first time watching insects eat rocks from this close.]
[They can even eat rocks??]
“Even newly hatched individuals have razor sharp mouthpieces. Don’t underestimate them. They won’t be this small under normal circumstances.”
The instructor’s tone brokered no argument. “If you don’t want to lose chunks of flesh, you must treat them with caution.”
The children nodded emphatically along.
The instructor continued, “They will eat anything that moves. Their strong digestive systems can extract nutrients from anything, including all kinds of ores. Some ores can even be used to arm themselves.”
“However, this stone slab has been processed to remove any energy or nutritonal value. Sometimes, insects eat not to obtain energy, but as a way to vent and intimidate. You could say that eating is a form of attack for them.”
[The Alliance has records of this insect variant. Some of them have colourful exoskeletons due to varying mineral content in the regions they’re active. The specimens are particularly expensive.]
[I’ve changed my mind! I still want one, but can Grantz process it into a specimen for me? Also, please stand a bit further back, Lakely. Thanks.]
[You guys must think you’re so smart. Stand back some more, Lakely.]
Lakely had no time to waste on them, but he did scoot back a bit. He stepped on Derek’s foot by accident and took two steps forward out of embarassment. “Sorry.”
While they were speaking, the instructor gestured for the students to step back.
Lakely was caught up. Before he could untangle himself from the children.
The instructor opened the box and reached inside, grasping the little insect so that only its head was visible.
“Just like I said yesterday, avoid the mouthpiece and use enough force to collect its limbs. Its exoskeleton may already be hard, but the edges aren’t sharp. You wouldn’t be able to grab it so freely in a day or two.”
He said, removing the insect. “They aren’t king insects, so their weakpoints are similar and will be revealed when they try to bite.”
He showed the students the area below the insect’s mouthpiece. The insect was still screeching, its mouthpiece open wide in anger.
[Ahhhh! Fall back, Lakely!]
[I’m zoning out. The lesson is very detailed, but the info isn’t relevant to me.]
The other instructor handed over a scalpel, which was swiftly plunged into the aforementioned area.
The insect quickly grew still.
“Remember that these insects have been weakened in the lab. Normal ones will not be so weak. Don’t let your guard down after landing an attack.”
Weak?
Lakely glanced at the half-eaten stone inside the box.
“Got it!” The children chimed in unison.
The instructor rose. “Alright, try it for yourselves. Don’t open the boxes.”
“Not that you’d be able to.” He muttered under his breath.
Leclerc watched as the students returned to their spots.
Like the instructor had demonstrated, they used water to hasten the hatching of the eggs. A set of mech controls then appeared in front of each child, meant to control the robotic arms that had appeared in the enclosure. They had even be outfitted with a mini set of common mech weapons, a sword in particular.
This was a mech simulation system. Lakely breathed a sigh of relief.
Mecha these days were controlled via psychic power, which did not lower the difficulty threshold. It was actually much harder than using normal controls.
Each mech was equipped with these controls. Aspiring pilots would learn to use these first and use psychic power once they were familiar with them. Many people even thought physical controls were superiror to psychic power input. The latter method was far more involved and placed a greater strain on the pilot’s body.
Nontheless, physical controls were never used on the highest level battlefields.
[Why does Lakely look alright with this? Is he used to it by now?]
Lakely walked over to his own box. He’s played mecha games in the Alliance for a long time and was used to the controls. However, the ferociousness of the insect gave him a bit of trouble initially.
The box was only so big. After a few tries, he was able to successfully pierce its weakpoint. However, this insect continued to thrash around afterwards several times.
Lakely frantically stabbed it a second time before it grew still.
[I almost died from fright. This is nothing like the ingame experience.]
[It’s a real insect after all. Games, no matter how sophisticated, can’t completely replicate their reactions. Besides, knowing you’re in a game takes all the fright out of it, even if you get surrounded.]
[Seems like Lakely’s the fourth to finish. Well done. Can you back up now?]
Lakely let out a long sigh.
Derek had moved to his side at some point. “You’re skilled with the controls. If you didn’t pause when it lunged, you would’ve finished sooner.”
Lakely looked like his heart was still racing. “I got scared, that’s why. As for the controls, I’m used to them since they’re almost the same as the ones used in the Alliance. I play a lot of games.”
Derek chuckled. “This is a new teaching method that just started this year. Back in my day, we were still using scalpels. Mecha are also popular in the military. We’ve brought a number of models back from the Alliance as well, purchased on the Central Planet.”
Lakely wiped the sweat off his forehead and sincerely stated, “Thank goodness I came over this year then.”
[No wonder these controls are exactly the same. Speaking off, Grantz sure moves quick. There’s barely been any time since they made the purchase at the Central Planet to ship it back and they’re already incoporating them into lessons.]
[Mech manufacturer here. It’s because their use case is very ideal and they decisively bought in bulk on the spot. They knew exactly what they were looking for. Even some of my older clients just buy a random assortment of everything on a whim. The fact that Grantz was able to incorporate mecha into their classrooms speaks volumes of how close the military and the education board are intwined.]
[I have the feeling I know which country that’s rich and randomly buys things you’re talking about.]
[It has to be them, right? It’s not fair for a minor country’s to monopolize so many needed natural resources within their territory. At least I can take solace in their subpar performance in the tournament. They’re the only ones who spend so much with so little to show for it.]
The other children was also finishing up. The instructors were circulating to provide feedback.
It took Lakely a while to recover. He said half-jokingly, “I’ll respect every senior elementary student I see from now on. After all, they’ve all killed at least one insect.”
Derek sobered up. “These things have been weakened in the lab. You can’t really refer to them as insects.”
As soon as those words fell, the instructor at the head of the room clapped his hands.
Lakely and Derek also quieted down and looked over.
“Everyone did well. Next, we’re going to go see a real insect.”
The other instructor opened the door to a spacious exhibition hall.
The exhibition hall was mimicking a cave. Lifelike insect specimens were placed around the hall, their heads almost touching the ceiling. their size was obvious even from a distance.
Even the steadfast student were impressed. They huddled closer to the instructors.
Lakely wordlessly huddled closer to Derek.
The instructors led them inside. “This is a replica of a real insect hive of the same species.”
When they reached a sufficient distance, the instructor gestured for them to look at the hatchery in a side tunnel. Every surface was densely covered with white eggs at least one adult human tall.
“This is the normal size of their eggs.”
[What little confidence I managed to gather is gone, just like that.]
……
The ship channel construction was temporarily halted to prepare for returning to Grantz. All that was left to do was decide on a date.
The Grantz were very idle these days. The only thing they could do in between leisure activities was bug Secretary-General Lin about when they could go home.
Ye Muo was ecstatic that the Grantz had an opportunity to gather together for once, although they couldn’t go home for now. He also felt sorry for Secretary-General Lin. The few times Ye Muo ran into him in the hallways, he felt like the man was just accumulating more dark circles under his eyes.
After lunch, the Grantz gathered as usual beneath the shade in the garden to spend some time.
Bert picked a fight with Helene, and then they both dragged the other into it. By the end, everyone was chasing each other around the lawn.
Adlet and Theodore went to retrieve Ye Muo’s blanket and some sweets. Theodore insisted on getting Ye Muo’s blanket himself. He was stubborn sometimes like that.
Ye Muo had a feeling Mumu might be the cause. Mumu would usually do these things, but Theodore was working hard to replace it.
Ye Muo gave up on thinking after a while. He lay back on Pangzhua’s belly and patted the soft, bouncy skin. He and Theodore had just given Pangzhua a bath so its fur was especially soft. His eyes gradually drifted closed.
Pangzhua curled up around Ye Muo, sniffing him all over and giving him some air licks. Even it understood that others didn’t like to be licked. Ye Muo still indulged it, however, so it did lick him when it was particularly excited.
Today though, it was on its best behaviour because Norton was right there. Pangzhua even made sure its tail wasn’t wagging to avoid disturbing the man.
Ye Muo yawned and rolled to the side. He felt a hand gently ruffling his hair, but he didn’t open his eyes since it was Norton. Father’s touch was always light, as if Ye Muo was something fragile. Ye Muo pondered about that as he drifted off to sleep.
Norton withdrew his hand and looked down at Ye Muo, who was curled up by his side. A slight breeze blew past, causing the shadows of the branches above to sway gently.
This was his child. Even now, the realization was sometimes surreal for Norton. Even if his psychic power was constantly monitoring Ye Muo, he was occasionally tempted to check if Ye Muo was still breathing.
Norton watched over Ye Muo attentively. It was a long time before his gaze drifted off into the distance.
Ye Muo lay right beside him, so close that Norton could hear his heart beat and feel him breathing.
The sunlight was warm, the leaves overheard rustling quietly whenever the breeze blew. All was well.
The lion who had been vigilant since he had a cub of his own was finally able to relax for once and let down his guard.
