Insectoids: The Job of the Males

Chapter 56.1

Some Pitiable Grade S

Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil

What’s He Huaijian actually working on? Perhaps one will have to ask him. Oh, and also Bai Jun, who’s apparently involved now. When they’re free, they’re usually found in their workshop, working on something.

Xiao Ji does not understand or care about what project that is. It’s like the days back on the landfill planet; He Huaijian always loved to work on his weird stuff alone there.

It’s business as usual, this is.

What no one could have expected, is that He Huaijian is actually working on a mecha. Not just any mecha, but a male-adapted mecha. Yes, made exclusively for male use. Highly optimised to reduce physical strength requirements, and to use advanced, energy-efficient weaponry. With Bai Jun, the genius inventor, helping him along, the product ends up actually terrifyingly good.

There are no mechas for male use on the market, mostly because no males are interested. Unlike the usual insectoid-setting novels Cheng Zhaoci has read, there are no performance ratings for the mechas. Instead, there is just a general physical aptitude requirement of the equivalent of grade C for shemales.

Beyond that is up to the pilot’s capabilities. The fighting power of the mecha scales to the money dumped into its creation.

With Bai Jun having had a say in its weaponry, the mecha He Huaijian created would certainly be among the top performers.

One week before Cheng Zhaoci’s 18th birthday, He Huaijian took him to see the mecha. Cheng Zhaoci is wholly astonished by the surprise.

Not by the cool sleek form of the mecha, mind you, but by its bright pink colour scheme and the giant ‘Cheng’ character painted on the mecha’ chest.

Cheng Zhaoci thinks bleach is about to start pouring out of his eyes.

“I started working on this a long time ago. I missed your last birthday, and you’ll be an adult next week. That’s when I had the idea to design a mecha for you,” then He Huaijian pauses, before saying, “you told me you were doing really well in the virtual mecha fights.”

So Cheng Zhaoci can’t help but feel a little guilty right now looking at He Huaijian. It was his first time playing, and he didn’t know he was playing the AI. On easy mode. He thought he was so clever for figuring out the usual strategies the shemales employ.

Wei Zhuo didn’t tell him the truth either, for the sake of his feelings. Cheng Zhaoci really thought he was poised to become a mecha pilot. He shared it on the phone with Xiao Ji and He Huaijian the next day.

“I believed in you, and started working. Xiao Ji took you to play later, and he told me you were unbelievably dense. I felt almost betrayed, but I’ve worked too far on this to give up,” He Huaijian sighs, “so just do with it what you want.”

Although he doesn’t know either what a male could do with a mecha. Especially a male as exceptional at piloting mechas as Cheng Zhaoci.

Though Cheng Zhaoci, a rookie who is now certified as a rookie, is ecstatic. He’s a man! Uh, he means, he’s a male! He sure would get excited over the prospect of owning his very own giant robot!

In his past life, he grew up forever doomed to watch Gundam without being able to afford any figurines. Now, getting to own a real, weaponised, and top-of-the-line mecha? Even if it can only gather dust at home is a dream come true for Cheng Zhaoci.

That said… “Huaijian-ge, can you paint this black instead?”

He’s having trouble accepting the vibrant colour scheme.

“You don’t think it really suits you?” He Huaijian doesn’t seem to think his aesthetics are wanting. In fact, he would have added a heart in bright red right under the ‘Cheng’ character if it didn’t feel like it’d cheapen the whole mecha.

That’s cute, you know.

Of course, this is simply a problem of He Huaijian having rose-tinted glasses thick enough to beat someone to death with. Strangers see Cheng Zhaoci more as distant and possibly aloof with his slightly gloomy aura and unfriendly appearance, rather than ‘cute.’

“I don’t,” suits him how? The way a paranoid antagonist rides a pink merry-go-round in an amusement park?

“Alright then,” He Huaijian doesn’t seem too obsessed with the appearance of the mecha, thankfully, and a paint job can be done in a day. He simply finds it a shame the mecha didn’t end up as pink.

That’s how Cheng Zhaoci ends up having a mecha to call his own, which makes the Zhou brothers quite properly jelly indeed. The mecha is stored at the underground storage of the Grand Marshal’s mansion for the time being.

Zhou Luoluo is walking all around and taking photographs when he comes over, sending them over to Zhou Xiaobao.

With the black painting in place, its coolness factor has gone over the roof. Zhou Luoluo isn’t interested in mechas, but that doesn’t preclude him from getting excited.

It’s like, if back on Earth, a girl might not be interested in weapons and such, but if she learned a good sis of hers suddenly got a tank to her name, that she could actually drive, she would also find it amazing and cool.
It’s not whether the object in question is to their liking anymore. No, it is cool because it completely blows expectations out of the water!

“Can you pilot it?” Asks the excited Zhou Luoluo.

“I don’t know how,” replies Cheng Zhaoci in all honesty. He’s piloted ones virtually, but not any real ones. With how dangerous it is outside, if he sauntered out the door and trips himself over onto the ground, he might just get taken away right then and there by some malicious insectoid.

When Zhou Luoluo gets visibly discouraged, Cheng Zhaoci sighs, saying, “if you don’t value your life much, I could try to walk a few steps with you inside.”

“It’s fine. It’s better to keep this here as a trophy,” Zhou Luoluo refuses, but then adds, “and it’s not going to be useless either. Maybe your ‘time turnaround’ comic can feature some mecha action in space? This is free material right here.”

He says so, because the contention that arose from Cheng Zhaoci’s third story in that comic is still fresh in his mind. It’s a story told from the perspective of an AI robot.

The AI is an elder care system, which accompanied its old, ailing shemale owner in his final days. Not all shemales are lucky enough to find a xiongzhu; the AI’s owner is one of them.

He died peacefully, with only his AI care robot by his side. While the story is drawn with a bright style and warm colours, the slice-of-life depicted definitely carries a poignant undertone.

The poignancy was successfully conveyed to the readers, who are deeply affected. There is still an ongoing debate about whether this AI has become sentient. One side asserts that it must be sentient, and feels longing for the owner, because why else would it keep pleading with the comic’s protagonist to let it go back in time?
The other side asserts it is not sentient. It is simply executing its programming perfectly – with accompanying its owner as the topmost priority.
The highest rated comment of the whole thread asserts a third possibility. The AI does not satisfy the definition for both sentience and non-sentience. If it were sentient, it would not have acted entirely the same in its care of the owner after going back in time. It is not non-sentient, i.e. entirely without an emotion known as ‘impulse,’ either. Its programming would have rejected ‘going back in time’ to serve its owner once more on the basis that this is not a feasible option if it did not have an insectoidal impulse. All in all, the fact that the protagonist has approached him to make the offer, means the AI robot has such a desire and is likely to accept the offer. An AI that has its own goals and pursuits – is it really still a simple tool?