Little Pink Starfish

#Says no with the mouth but yes with the body#

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That pretty much described Gu Bai right now.

As the terrifying, twisted final boss that Gu Bai feared the most, Qiguan Rui had merely said he wanted to sit next to him, and Gu Bai—what room did he have to refuse?

Sure enough, even though Gu Bai kept glaring and glaring and glaring as Qiguan Rui walked closer and closer, in the end, he could only watch as the guy sat down on his right.

Gu Bai forcibly kept his cool.
Damn it, if I mess up even a little I’m finished! This psycho could just suddenly feel like it and snap me in half, you know! Why the hell did this kind of situation end up happening to me! I’ve never even dreamed of this before, okay!

Qiguan Rui leisurely enjoyed the fluctuations of his gege’s aura.
Will gege run away or not?
He mentally plucked flower petals.

Run, not run, run, not run… oh my, he’s going to run.
Run, not run, run, not run… oh my, he’s still going to run.
Anyway, since the petals were in his heart, no matter how he counted—gege would always run.

Qiguan Rui was in an excellent mood.
Reliving old love—wasn’t that a perfect honeymoon moment too?
If gege had his attention on someone else, he’d be so jealous. But if gege’s attention was all focused on him, then even if he was trembling like this, Qiguan Rui still thought… this is amazing.
He wanted to monopolize all of gege’s emotions.

—And also because, by now, Qiguan Rui had a deep sense of security when it came to his beloved.
If this had been their first meeting, there was no way he would be so patient—he’d have already dragged him straight to a dark room.
If the first world after shattering the void had left him conflicted, and the second world left him worried, by this third world, he had calmed down a lot.

No matter what gege became, no matter how many memories he lost, in the end, he would still belong to him.
He was completely certain of this now.
No one could have a deeper bond with gege than he did.

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Even for a pervert, such “normal” emotions were hard-won.

And Gu Bai had no idea that the twisted character he’d written, had already been partially healed over the long years (though only when it came to him).
But with memory loss, he had no bargaining chips, no confidence—he could only let himself be toyed with.

Right now, his best idea was to go back to the zombie horde… sure it was brutal, but at least there was the zombie huang, one of this world’s ultimate bosses, right?

——Wait.
Gu Bai froze.
Suddenly, he remembered.

That zombie huang had been snapped by this same pervert right in front of his eyes!

How could he have forgotten something so crucial?!

And so, his path to defecting to the zombies…

Was cut off.

Gu Bai quietly lay flat on the ground.
What do I do now… really want to run away sob sob sob…

Real men don’t cry—unless they’re truly heartbroken.
Right now, he was really, really heartbroken.

·

The banquet, in fact, proceeded quite smoothly.

Everyone knew that this outdoor feast, though officially about thanking their mutant beast brothers for their great friendship, was really about drawing them in—getting them to settle in the base, become comrades in arms, defend the base together, and form a true alliance through the apocalypse.

Originally, dancing with beasts seemed too absurd for most people—but hey, didn’t they now have an ice-type beauty who’d won the beast huang’s favor?

Granted, it was kind of a pity for Commander Zhang…

But hadn’t he gotten along with the beast huang quite well before? They were both humanoid—no need to fuss over technicalities! The beast huang pampered Commander Zhang to the heavens, lowered himself as royalty to please him, obeyed his every whim. Anyone could see that after all that pursuit, Zhang had already softened. This was just a lover’s quarrel, right?

Lovers were rare. You couldn’t just give up on such great love because of species differences!
Love!

Love is the most beautiful emotion in the world.
Love can overcome all obstacles.
Love is sacred.
Love is… so inspiring.

How could you just give up because your seme turned into a snake?!

As open-minded Four-Good Youths living in the apocalypse, speciesism was absolutely unacceptable!

That’s what everyone thought.

Speciesism? Unacceptable.

In fact, in the current base, no one was prejudiced at all.
People were excited to welcome beast comrades.
Commander Zhang, please don’t be shy!

Everyone was getting along so well.
Some of the bolder ones had already gone to call the beastfolk “brother.”
And for those who couldn’t speak human language, there were beast-tamers with communication abilities acting as translators.
Here, species really wasn’t a problem.

When ability users discovered that most of the incoming mutant beasts could at least manage a few lines of standard speech, they were thrilled.
Drinking and feasting, making friends—follow the bros, and you’ll have everything!

It was all super friendly.

High up, the leaders hosting Qiguan Rui also nodded to themselves.
Very good.
We humans really are so welcoming!

This is our strength—keep it up, comrades! This is a golden opportunity we must not miss!

After the banquet, Qiguan Rui graciously signed a formal alliance agreement with the base leaders. He stated that his elite mutant beast army could fully integrate into the base, and that he had tens of millions more beasts stationed at their original location—ready to reinforce at any time.

The leaders’ hearts nearly burst.

The survivors’ expressions were… complicated.

Oh my god, tens of millions?!
Good thing the queen is in our base, huh?

Then Qiguan Rui added, people were free to seek partnership with his elite beasts—but they had to negotiate themselves. Especially with the four beast kings, there could be no force involved. If you tried something shady and got eaten—don’t blame them.

The leaders were thrilled. They had no objections.

Qiguan Rui’s tone remained even, though no matter how calm he sounded, people still found him scary to the bone:

“But if a human forms a partnership with a mutant beast, the beast’s food will be their responsibility. If you don’t mind, I’d also like to allow interspecies marriage between humans and mutant beasts.”

The leaders: “……”

So it wasn’t enough to mix with one’s own beast… now he wanted to set the whole world on the beast-human path??

But hey—he was the beast huang and had fallen for a human. This request wasn’t that strange. It’s not like they could preach human morals to a beast, right?

The leaders were internally torn.

Partnerships? Absolutely great.

Marriage? Uh… a little heavy on the kink…

But what else could they do at this point?

The general slammed a decision: “Agree to it!”

Survival was the top priority!
Mutant beast support was too important!

The leaders glanced at each other. Though they all looked conflicted, not a single one voiced opposition.

After a deep breath, the leader nodded with difficulty: “…Alright.”

Well, what was the harm in agreeing to human-beast pairings?
How many people would actually do it?
Most were physically incompatible, okay!
And if the beasts could shapeshift like the huang, then what’s the difference between a beast-man and a man?

So that awkward decision was… finalized.

From now on, anyone who wanted a mutant beast partner could have one.
Anyone who wanted a beast lover could have one too.

And honestly, in the apocalypse, it even felt kinda safe?

This was a classic win-win.

Only Gu Bai was on the side, overwhelmed by weirdness… and an eerie, familiar sense.

Why did he feel like, if things kept going this way…

The whole world might change?

…Wasn’t this starting to feel like an unhinged wild stallion with a prolapsed rectum?

If things kept galloping along like this…

It was heading somewhere bad.

Mystery terror.
This world was becoming a freak show—Mama!

At this point, Gu Bai didn’t realize that the sense of familiarity came from the deepest parts of his mind.
Within those memories were countless bizarre worlds… and a dignity so shattered it couldn’t be put back together…

Yes, even subconsciously, it was already making him numb.

As for Qiguan Rui—he smiled gently.

All his elite mutant beasts could already take on human form.

And in the apocalypse, though women were strong survivors, only the very strongest, most ruthless survived. As their numbers dropped and strength increased, what would happen to this world?

A world’s will wouldn’t allow its population to dwindle.
Each generation took immense energy to create.

When Qiguan Rui arrived in this world, the world will had dared treat him and his gege like that. So he vowed—he would give it a surprise.

Now, he understood the reason behind the apocalypse.
Too many lives burdened the world’s will. It had to eliminate the weak, retain the strong, and reabsorb power for itself.

Various races evolved, gained power, and unleashed it.

But now, as a world master from another realm, Qiguan Rui had granted the mutant beasts a new ability—accelerating their evolution, directing its course.

Eventually, humans and mutant beasts would become inseparable, forming a new race.

The world’s will would have to burn more power to support their fusion—or abandon them both.

But… could it bear to let go of such a vibrant, thriving new species?

Qiguan Rui was sure—it could not.