Chapter 275: Two Identities: 'Let’s hold a banquet and invite everyone we know.'

An Ruo hadn’t expected his low-key release from prison to cause such an enormous commotion afterward. It was completely beyond his expectations.

Ulysses hadn’t mentioned it to him, presumably because he believed everything was still under his and the Federation’s control and didn’t want An Ruo worrying about it.

But An Ruo still felt that he had caused everyone a great deal of trouble.

That had never been his intention.

If possible, he would have preferred for this identity to quietly fade away into the swarm and gradually be forgotten.

Even when it came to his identity as an author, he would rather everyone pay attention to his books than to him personally.

For someone with social anxiety, too much attention was pressure in itself.

But this wasn’t something he could accomplish simply by wishing people wouldn’t pay attention to him.

An Ruo desperately wanted to bury his head and run away from the problem, but he also knew he couldn’t dump all the pressure onto Ulysses and the others cleaning up after him.

For the sake of public order in the Federation and his own future peace and quiet, he had to find some way to persuade the Zergs to go back.

After calming down, An Ruo remembered something he had received upon his release from prison: some of the original body’s personal belongings.

There actually wasn’t much. His account contained only the wages converted from the Contribution Points he himself had earned, while his spatial button contained nothing but a few identification documents.

An Ruo didn’t know whether everything else had been confiscated or what had happened to it. In any case, he had no intention of keeping the original owner’s possessions, so he didn’t care.

There was, however, one thing he could use right now.

An account that had been unsealed upon his release.

An Ruo opened his terminal and logged into the original owner’s social media account.

It was completely empty as well, without a single contact.

An Ruo vaguely remembered that after “he” was imprisoned, the original owner’s friends and relatives had eagerly tried to distance themselves from “him,” severing their relationships with “him” through every possible means.

That was a good thing.

An Ruo opened the public personal profile and was surprised to discover that an extraordinary number of Zergs were following the account, with the number increasing every moment.

Presumably, ever since the account had been unsealed, Zergs had continuously found and followed it through various means.

That also meant a great many Zergs were watching for news about him and keeping an eye on his account.

An Ruo thought for a moment and posted an update.

It was also the only post on the entire account.

[Annor]: Out of prison. Vacationing and recuperating. Do not disturb.

He sent it with a single tap. Looking at the post that appeared on his profile, An Ruo propped his chin on his hand and wondered whether that sounded a little too cold and stern.

Should he edit it?

While he was still thinking, he saw the number beside the comment icon skyrocketing before his very eyes.

When An Ruo tapped it, the page even froze for several seconds. After waiting for a while, the comments finally refreshed.

[Y-Y-Y-Y-Your Excellency?!!]

[Is it really you? Your Excellency, sob sob sob sob, we finally got a message from you.]

[I’m so touched. His Excellency is talking to me. He said a whole ten words.]

[You’re not even counting the punctuation? How extravagant can you get? Unlike me, I treasure every single character His Excellency types. Lick lick lick.]

An Ruo, who had just been worried that his tone was too stiff and cold: “...”

Good.

He had worried for nothing.

The Zerg race’s tolerance toward Male Zergs knew no bounds. They adapted perfectly well to this sort of tone. If he were too tolerant and polite instead, they might actually find it uncomfortable.

As he continued scrolling, after the initial uncontrollable excitement at seeing the Male Zerg’s message had passed, discussions containing actual substance finally began appearing in the comments.

[So His Excellency went on vacation? In other words, he isn’t on Capital Star?]

[Vacation is good! His Excellency spent an entire year in the closed environment of the Military Region Prison. He must have been bored to death. He really needs to go out, clear his head, and relax.]

[Exactly, exactly. Ideally, he should find a few Female Zergs to keep him company while he’s at it, go on a few blind dates, have a few dates, and get married a few times.]

[Why don’t you just say he should have a few hatchlings while you’re at it?]

[Yes, yes, yes! Who wouldn’t want hatchlings with His Excellency?]

[Don’t rush him. His Excellency definitely needs to focus on recuperating right now. As for Zergs keeping him company... forget Female Zergs. His Excellency treated so many military Female Zergs that he must be sick of looking at them by now. In a situation like this, sub-females are much more considerate.]

[It took me 0.1 seconds to guess the sex of the commenter above.]

[Not even that long! If you sub-females have any guts, stop using little tricks and compete fairly! (cracks knuckles)]

[Fair competition (×), extermination of your fellow Zergs (√).]

[And thus begins a completely meaningless competition. His Excellency hasn’t said anything at all. The only thing he said was “Do not disturb.” What exactly are you competing over? Whether you win or lose, His Excellency won’t even look at you.]

[This is called eliminating potential competitors. Fine, competition temporarily suspended. Does anyone know where His Excellency is vacationing and recuperating?]

[Maybe don’t investigate that? His Excellency specifically said “Do not disturb,” which means he doesn’t want anyone knowing where he is.]

[But I’m really curious. We won’t disturb His Excellency. We just want to know where he is. We absolutely won’t run up in front of him. We just want some peace of mind.]

[I don’t believe for a second that you could learn His Excellency’s location and resist going. Even if you could, there would always be other Zergs who couldn’t. Then one would go just to look at him from a distance, another would want to breathe the same air as His Excellency, and before half a day had passed, the area around His Excellency would be packed so tightly that not even water could get through.]

[Exactly. Besides, His Excellency has already made it clear that he doesn’t want to be disturbed. If you still go, His Excellency might hate you.]

That thought stopped many Zergs in their tracks.

Most of this Excellency’s die-hard supporters were military Female Zergs who had personally received his treatment. As military Female Zergs, they naturally cared more about rules and discipline and were better accustomed to obeying orders.

After His Excellency expressed his desire not to be disturbed, many military Female Zergs turned around and headed back after a brief internal struggle. Even those who still decided to travel to Capital Star abandoned the idea of investigating His Excellency’s whereabouts.

But the Federation had far too many Zergs, so inevitably there were some who still refused to give up.

Some Zergs chose a roundabout strategy.

His Excellency had said he was vacationing and recuperating.

And so, every major tourist destination and vacation resort immediately became completely packed.

The Female Zergs’ reasoning was simple: since they didn’t know where His Excellency was vacationing, they would just visit all the popular tourist destinations and try their luck. Maybe they would happen to run into him!

And if they just happened to “coincidentally encounter” him, then they hadn’t deliberately searched for His Excellency or disturbed him.

That would simply be the pull of fate and destiny.

Another group of Zergs secretly resorted to less-than-honorable methods and began privately investigating His Excellency’s movements.

But they quickly discovered something else...

[Huh? All of His Excellency’s identity records have been classified as S-level secrets.]

Apart from this public account, every other piece of information about His Excellency had been classified and concealed by the Federation authorities.

In other words, they couldn’t investigate which tourist destination had received His Excellency, nor could they look up his flight itinerary. Unless some passerby who happened to encounter him leaked the information, there was simply no way to locate him.

And if they continued investigating under these circumstances, they might even receive a visit from the Federal Investigation Bureau.

That was enough to make even the last stubborn holdouts abandon the idea.

The number of comments beneath the post continued rising, while news of Female Zergs turning around and tourist destinations being overwhelmed began appearing all over StarNet.

Watching all this, An Ruo quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Things should be under control for now, right?

As for what came afterward... he could only take things one step at a time.

An Ruo also understood that the identity of “Annor” couldn’t remain hidden from the public forever.

According to his plan, he would attend one or two events every year or two in his capacity as a Psychic Soothing specialist, show his face to the public, and then disappear from the public eye for the rest of the time.

As for excuses for disappearing, those were easy enough to find. He could either say he was resting, living in seclusion, or traveling, or claim he had shut himself away to conduct research on Psychic Power. In any case, there was absolutely no way he could maintain a constant public presence.

That would be the death of someone with social anxiety.

For the sake of his grand plan to live in seclusion, An Ruo also decided to prepare a residence for this identity.

A residence separate from the Marshal’s residence and completely unconnected to Ulysses.

If he was going to put on an act, he might as well make it convincing.

An Ruo searched for residences that were highly private and isolated from the general population.

In the end, he arrived at two possibilities.

First, a floating island.

Second, a mechanical planet.

Having an entire planet all to himself was a little too extravagant, wasn’t it? Even if it was artificially constructed, with its size customizable according to one’s budget.

An Ruo genuinely couldn’t imagine indulging in such extravagance. In the end, he decided to be conservative and purchase a floating island instead.

Under the guidance of his terminal’s AI, An Ruo quickly selected coordinates for the floating island and completed the transaction.

An Ruo didn’t touch any of his income from royalties. The money used to purchase the floating island came from the star coins converted from his Contribution Points upon his release.

In terms of ownership, those star coins belonged to “Annor.” Even if someone traced the source all the way back, they would only find the identity of “Annor,” keeping it separate from the author “An” once again.

An Ruo handled the purchase of the floating island discreetly, but Ulysses still learned about it that very day.

“Are you planning to move out?”

After dinner, Ulysses cautiously asked him.

He had been worrying about it all afternoon.

He couldn’t understand it. At noon, the male had clearly been so intimate with him, entering him deeper than ever before. So why had he turned around and purchased a floating island elsewhere? He had even bought a complete set of furniture, as though he were preparing to move away.

The floating island was also located exceptionally far from the Marshal’s residence. Although it was still on Capital Star, it was almost directly opposite the Marshal’s residence on the other side of the planet, practically the farthest possible location. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Even though such a distance meant nothing to Ulysses with his spatial abilities, the implication behind it still made him deeply uneasy.

An Ruo caught sight of the poorly concealed emotion between his brows and realized Ulysses had misunderstood something. He immediately took Ulysses’ hand and carefully explained.

“I’m not moving out, and I’m not going to move out. We’ve only just started living together. You haven’t argued with me or tried to break up with me, so how could I possibly leave? The floating island is for the identity of ‘Annor.’ Since I want to keep my two identities separate, I need to separate them more thoroughly. If I’m going to put on an act, I might as well do it properly.”

Hearing that, Ulysses breathed a sigh of relief. But when he heard the male mention “arguing and breaking up” with him, his heart immediately tightened again, and he hurried to promise,

“I won’t argue with you, and I definitely won’t break up with you.”

Although Ulysses wasn’t entirely sure what “breaking up” meant—among Zergs, it was generally the Male Zerg who abandoned or discarded the Female Zerg—he still instinctively tightened his grip on the male’s hand, expressing that he would absolutely never let go.

“I know, I know.” An Ruo smiled and reassured him.

Ulysses appeared forceful, but whenever their opinions differed, Ulysses would immediately change whatever he had been about to say and prioritize An Ruo’s wishes instead. He would never fight him over anything.

An Ruo himself also had a mild and refined temperament. He rarely argued with humans or Zergs, so he genuinely couldn’t imagine what it would be like for him and Ulysses to have a fight.

As for breaking up...

An Ruo could tell that Ulysses wasn’t as confident in their relationship as he had assumed.

Perhaps he should do something more.

An Ruo remembered the time the Marshal had posted that picture to publicly announce their relationship. It was one of the rare occasions when the Marshal had made their private affairs public, almost as though he had been desperate to declare to the outside world that An Ruo belonged to him.

An Ruo thought for a moment, then said,

“Let’s hold a banquet and invite everyone we know.”