Little Pink Starfish

“Young master! Young master… wake up, young master, today you have to go…”

Gu Bai had been sleeping deeply, but there was always someone buzzing near his ear—“buzz buzz buzz buzz, buzz—buzz buzz buzz”—it was just too noisy.
It was just sleeping, was there really a need to call his soul back like this? Was that guy Wei Liang here to cause trouble again?

No choice, Gu Bai had to groggily open his eyes, and immediately, a big face appeared in front of him.
Eh, who is this little brother?
And even though his features were delicate, he had an expression like he wanted to say something but hesitated, looking like he was about to cry—it was seriously giving people chills, okay?

However, Gu Bai was, after all, a hardcore shut-in.
And when a shut-in finds himself lying on a spacious bed with unfamiliar furnishings around him, he can immediately react—he has transmigrated again.
…Wait, why did he say “again”?
Forget it, that wasn’t a big issue.

Gu Bai glanced at the little brother, got up from bed, and walked to a large mirror on the wall.

The person in the mirror had a tall, slender build, pale skin, and above-average facial features—about thirty percent similar to his original shut-in appearance.
This was good—it wouldn’t be too hard to adjust.

Beside him, the delicate little brother rushed over, eyes filled with tears, timidly and softly saying, “Young master, y-you have to attend the stone gambling competition today, and it’s almost time… I heard that Young Master Nois from the Iman family and many outstanding orcs will be there, as well as many excellent stone gambling masters. Haven’t you been looking forward to it? Your talent is stronger than many females—you will definitely win!”

Orcs, females, stone gambling, stone gambling competition.
And that Nois from the Iman family…
So familiar.

Gu Bai thought for a moment.
Ah! He remembered.

Although he didn’t recall when he read it, he definitely remembered a book like this in his mind.
The name seemed to be… Orc Rebirth: Revenge and Hatred?
It had quite a lively mix of elements—there were orcs, rebirth, revenge, and stone gambling…

The plot was crystal clear to Gu Bai—it was roughly like this:

Once upon a time, there was a sub-orc named Zhu Ning. He was smart and pure, innocent and kind-hearted. He wholeheartedly loved the orc warrior Triane, whom he had grown up with. He was skilled at stone gambling, selflessly devoted, and scrimped and saved, depleting his own essence, just to help Triane reach the rank of a Level 7 warrior. And then, Triane fell in love with a white lotus.

The reason? The white lotus was pitiful!
The reason? The white lotus was a female and could give birth!
The reason? The white lotus had a powerful family background and could provide greater benefits!

Later, under the instigation of the white lotus, Triane became increasingly annoyed with Zhu Ning! He disregarded their relationship, thinking Zhu Ning was a burden! And then, Triane came up with a plan—hinting to his subordinates to get rid of Zhu Ning!

And so, the story began after Zhu Ning was reborn.
He obtained a body with better qualifications, started anew in cultivation and stone gambling, encountered numerous fortuitous opportunities, and had cheat-like abilities. A loyal dog helped pave the way, a devoted second male lead protected him, and admirers who owed him favors lined up behind him—one, two, three, four—ensuring he became a winner in both career and love!
The scumbag regretfully repented, the white lotus suffered setbacks everywhere, and neither of them had a good ending!

After recalling the plot, Gu Bai looked at the mirror again.
Now, here’s the question.
Wasn’t this just transmigration? Why did his face freeze up as if he had facial paralysis?

And the even bigger problem was…
His current identity was actually a sub-orc!
A sub-orc!

Yes, this was a fantastical world! Everyone was classified as male orcs, female orcs, and sub-orcs!
As the name suggests, males were male, females were female, and sub-orcs could give birth but had low fertility—wasn’t this just a half-male, half-female interdimensional version of a eunuch?

Gu Bai mentally screamed: Why did I turn into a eunuch?! Why why why! Even though this is slightly better than being female, I—! From inside out, I am a 24K pure gold man, okay! Pure! Not even slightly diluted!
This must be because I transmigrated incorrectly, dammit!

Covering his stiff face in grief, Gu Bai took a deep breath.
Alright, since he had already become a eunuch, he would at least be a modern, unconventional eunuch. At least, from his appearance, he still looked like a man, right?
Perhaps the only consolation was that in this world, regardless of being male, female, or half-female half-male, everyone looked like a man—the only difference was whether they could transform into beasts. Since he wasn’t a beast, this part could be ignored.

Now, Gu Bai finally realized his identity.
He: “…”
Dammit, this was such a scam—of all things, he had to transmigrate into the devoted side character’s devoted side character.

Yes, that wasn’t a mistake. The setup was roughly as follows:
The main gong (mutual affection) → the protagonist shou ← devoted second male lead ← Gu Bai’s shell.

In the original novel, as deeply as the devoted second male lead loved the protagonist shou, the original owner of Gu Bai’s body loved that second male lead just as deeply. Whatever the second male lead sacrificed for the protagonist shou, the original owner did the same for the second male lead.
You could say that whenever the second male lead had to sacrifice for the protagonist shou, the original owner, despite his heartache, would help him do so, making all their sacrifices converge on the protagonist shou. In the end, the original owner died for the second male lead, and the second male lead died for the protagonist shou—tragic and sorrowful, no doubt.

Alright, so now, as the devoted side character’s devoted side character, the deeply tragic cannon fodder of the story, Gu Bai resolutely decided to abandon this entire plotline.
Who cared if the novel’s storyline was complete or not? That wasn’t his problem. As a straight shut-in, wasn’t it enough to just enjoy life? Why would he chase after someone who didn’t even care about him? Was he crazy?
Let those males, females, and half-males love each other as they pleased—he wasn’t going to serve them!

But for now, Gu Bai still had to follow the original owner’s plans; otherwise, it would be too out of character.
That so-called stone gambling competition—he had to attend it no matter what.

Gu Bai turned around, expressionlessly looking at his… attendant.
Even though this was also a half-orc who cried too easily, that was just his personality. In reality, he belonged to the iron-fist category.
Apparently, this attendant looked exactly like his deceased Amu (→ the one who gave birth to him), and their personalities were also very similar. However, his A’fu (→ his dad) was a beastman from the King Kong clan.

Before he was born, everyone thought that since he was so lively, he would surely be a beastman. Unfortunately, when he was born, he had inborn divine strength but zero mental power… a half-orc.
Because his Amu died early, and his A’fu passed away not long after, he ended up wandering the streets before being taken in by the original owner’s family and assigned to serve him, becoming his loyal personal bodyguard.

Gu Bai felt conflicted.
Didn’t this setup seem a little familiar?
No, what was really familiar was the look in this little brother’s eyes!
—Anyway, even if Ya’an looked weak and frail, he was definitely a top-tier loyal attendant!

Ya’an wiped his tears: “Ying ying, if we don’t go now, we’ll be late, ying ying…”

Gu Bai’s dead fish eyes: “Let’s go.”

Ya’an shivered: “Yes, sir! Ying ying ying…”

---

The setting of this world was quite common. Male orcs could transform between human and beast forms and had a power called “magic.” This magic ability could be upgraded or its advancement pain eased by absorbing energy from exotic stones. Female orcs, however, could only remain in human form and possessed pure mental power, which allowed them to detect exotic stones hidden within raw stones. Depending on their mental power level, they could even determine the amount of energy contained inside, making them valuable as stone gambling masters. As for half-orcs, they had both magic power and mental power. That sounded great, but unfortunately, neither was pure, so even if they focused on one ability, their levels remained low. In addition, their fertility rate was much lower than that of females, making their status lower than even the females, and in some cases, even lower than the more numerous male orcs.

Gu Bai’s mouth twitched.
Damn, this was really embarrassing!
Where did this seemingly logical yet completely absurd setting even come from?!
Both females and sub-orcs couldn’t transform and could have children, with identical male appearances—so why were they split into two separate species?!
They deliberately created a sub-species that didn’t fit in anywhere—was this just to generate conflict?!

Fine, maybe it was because the protagonist was a sub-orc.

As Gu Bai walked, he experimented with manipulating his so-called mental power.
One minute later…
His brow felt swollen, and it seemed like there was a flow of energy gathering between his fingertips…

Maybe he was a genius? Gu Bai willed his mental power to disappear and gave himself a hundred mental thumbs-ups.
He was definitely a genius—he figured it out just by thinking about it.

---

Since almost all females could gamble on stones, stone gambling masters were a very common profession in this world. Naturally, there were special organizations in charge of stone gambling competitions—the Stone Gambling Masters’ Guild.
This particular competition was an official annual event held across various regions. The city where the original owner, Warren, resided—Robby City—was a relatively large city, so the competition here was of a fairly high standard.

And of course, in the original novel, the loyal, main gong, Nois Iman, who came from a prestigious imperial family, happened to be passing through and decided to attend the event.
At the same time, in this very competition, the protagonist Zhu Ning and the devoted second male lead, Cecil, had their very first encounter.

Gu Bai sighed.
He absolutely had to memorise these love-struck idiots’ faces and stay at least three hundred feet away from them!