Seize the Throne

Chapter 45: Subsequent Insecticides 

Kou Sen had another important reason for not disclosing his true age: he knew that Bian Yi was very regretful for missing out on his growth. So, with the tacit understanding of Kou Li, Bian Yi was unaware that his Xiao Shu was also reborn.

Of course, they wouldn’t keep it a secret forever. When Kou Sen grew up a bit more, he would tell Bian Yi himself.

But for now, he was just a seven-year-old kid who should be going to elementary school.

Kou Sen wouldn’t go to school; even if he did, he wouldn’t learn anything useful. He had already discussed this with Kou Li, who gave him a separate laboratory right next to their house.

The reason they didn’t put it elsewhere was that he was still too young and it would be too far away. Neither of his two dads would be at ease.

Over the past few years, Bian Yi and Kou Li had taken him to many places, all of which were marked in a small notebook from when they were in love until they got married.

Those were their unfinished quests.

It was a little regretful since Bian Yi had planned to explore those places, but because Kou Sen was too young, they just went there for fun.

But that didn’t matter, he would have his chance to grow up someday.

Now Kou Sen was alone in the lab, with his N1101 and the still-living bug.

Kou Sen was playing his new game, a holographic game he and Kou Li had created. The world boss in the game was a giant bug with dozens of tentacles.

The game hadn’t been officially released yet; it was still in the beta testing phase. Kou Sen’s main task in the beta testing phase was to test for any bugs, while he tested the sensitivity of the bug’s pain receptors.

Perhaps it was because Kou Li’s condition was getting better, and he was feeling better. In the past few years, the father and son had already made several interesting toys.

Among them, there was a device that could extract energy from the system, and although it was small, it contained a lot of energy. The most interesting thing about this energy extraction device was that it could make the bug feel the pain of being drained of blood and marrow like a human.

When it howled, it really sounded like a person.

Oh, by the way, according to Jian Yi’s words, this bug might have been a human before. Kou Sen believed that it should be grateful to them; if it weren’t for them, it might have forgotten what it feels like to be in pain.

But don’t rush to call him cruel, because he has even more cruel and vicious plans in store.

Like the game he was playing right now.

This was his new toy, and what was so brilliant about it?

It was that the game world boss was connected to the bug’s consciousness.

Players could freely adjust the sensitivity of the five senses, from 0 to 70%, while the world boss was set to a dry 100%, ensuring that it could experience what it feels like to die repeatedly.

“What’s the point of killing it? Sucking dry the blood it has taken from countless people, and avenging the lives it has devoured requires killing it countless times.”

“You, don’t get too excited!” The system resurrected in the game. Although it did not have any lines, this was still the testing phase, and Kou Sen gave it the freedom to speak.

“Do you think you’ve won?” Due to the size of the BOSS, it looked quite imposing as it spoke. Unfortunately, its trembling tentacles exposed its fear.

“I haven’t completed my mission yet, so there will naturally be…”

“There will be more bugs coming,” Kou Sen stood in front of it. The difference in size made him look pitifully small. “I know. Bugs, how could there be only one? They are always densely packed and have strong reproductive abilities.”

“Haha, you know it!” Although the system said so, it could not laugh. It had a premonition that this little brat had been waiting for its peers to arrive.

Sure enough, it heard him say the next sentence:

“However, to deal with these densely packed things, just one bottle of insecticide is enough.”

“…” The system was about to sweat. It wanted to say “impossible”, but it looked at all the terrifying things in the laboratory and could not say those three words.

This person in front of it had already created too many impossibilities.

What was even scarier was that he was still so young. The system could not imagine how terrifying he would become in the future.

As for humans, just a few years, a dozen years, or twenty years are enough to “grow up.”

Its mission was based on the lifespan of a human. It wanted to wait for its peers to come and save it, which would take at least six or seven years. That was the most optimistic scenario. The worst-case scenario was waiting for hundreds of years without any other systems coming to save it.

Moreover…

The system looked at itself. Its energy was sucked dry, leaving only a few drops to barely sustain it. The rest was used by this unscrupulous father and son for who knows what. Its consciousness was also played with at will by them. Did it have any value to be saved?

As a system, it was most clear about how its kind regarded “value.”

For a moment, the system’s heart turned to ashes.

But when it looked up, it saw that devil with the innocent face of a seven-year-old boy smiling at it.

Whether it was saved or not didn’t matter anymore! It just hoped that a higher-level peer could come and take this devil away! It wanted him dead! And it wanted his consciousness to be put on this world BOSS, to be killed repeatedly by people!

“N1101, the test is okay. Disable its language function. We will release the beta version in a few days.” Kou Sen pressed the internal key of the game compartment and sat up to talk to his AI.

“Okay, master.”

N1101 still used the youthful voice of Kou Sen when he was eighteen. Kou Sen hadn’t thought much of it before, but now that he had grown a few years older, he felt a sense of embarrassment when he heard it today. “Um…I’ll get you a new sound card another day.”

“Why? Master, I like my voice.”

“Uh…” Kou Sen scratched his head, not knowing how to explain it to an AI.

Speaking of AIs, Kou Sen looked at the bug behind him. The master who created this bug was indeed too lazy to put in any effort. Letting the AI develop consciousness was a long process that didn’t happen immediately upon creation. Most of them simply followed their programs, and even if they had emotions, they were only simulating them. This straightforward approach might not work for its cunning deceiving methods.

So, the person behind it came up with a cheap solution. It brainwashed certain people or other creatures in some worlds, making them think they were just a machine under its command and trying their best to execute its orders. Those systems were not aware that they had once been human or other creatures. They might still be praised by the master for having their emotions and thoughts because they were super AIs, super-intelligent life forms.

It was foolish and poisonous.

Unfortunately, human life was too short, and he might never have the chance to meet the real master behind the system.

Kou Sen left the laboratory, returned home to share his test results with Bian Yi Kou Li, had dinner together, said goodnight, and soon rested.

Then, unexpectedly, a bird came to find him at night, just when he was regretting not having the chance to meet the master of the bug during the day.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say it was just a bird, but rather a bird person. Its feathers were magnificent and glowed in the night, definitely much more attractive than a certain bug.

Anyway, Kou Sen had never seen this type of bird in their world’s data.

“Mr. Kou Sen, hello, we are the Life Tree Maintenance Organization,” the bird introduced itself to Kou Sen.

At first, Kou Sen made sure he wasn’t dreaming before continuing to listen to the bird.

The bird person’s attitude was moderate. “We’ve come to invite you to join us. As you might expect, our mission is to ‘exterminate bugs’.”

What a coincidence? Kou Sen raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Please allow me to explain what the Life Tree is and why our organization exists…”

The Birdman left a token for Kou Sen.

The Birdman did come to invite him, and his position was very different from the threat and temptation of the previous bug. It was easy to distinguish.

However, Kou Sen would not easily believe his one-sided words.

Therefore, he did not give a definite answer, nor did he refuse. Instead, he said he would consider it after he had finished his life.

The bird seemed to have expected this and left a token for him before leaving. After that, he never appeared again in Kou Sen’s life.

It was like a dream a child had about a character in a fairy tale.

Later on, Kou Sen attended Jian Yi and Jiang Shi’s wedding, accompanied Bian Yi and Kou Li to live out their lives, and after the invading system bug disappeared without a trace, he gradually became bored.

Speaking of the bug, on Kou Sen’s tenth birthday, he caught one.

This one was more sober than the previous ones. She knew that she had once been human and was even clever enough to be Kou Sen’s host in the past. But after that, she became one of its kind and steadily rose in rank. When she came to this world, she was already an A-level system.

However, even though her story was so fascinating, Kou Sen had no desire to listen. She even died without leaving any remains, directly drained of her energy.

The system witnessed the death of its peers and fell into despair and seclusion ever since, dying and coming back to life repeatedly.

It eventually understood one word: it could not survive, and it could not die.

Since then, Kou Sen and Kou Li have been able to catch bugs almost every time, and they all became nutrients for technology.

The last bug Kou Sen caught told him that the level of their world had grown to A, and it was about to bear fruit.

At that time, Kou Sen didn’t understand what the bug meant by “bear fruit” until later when he called the bird, and the bird took him out of his original world. He understood that the fruit was the planet he lived on, and it had matured completely, becoming an independent world where no more bugs could invade and feast on it.

He also saw what the Tree of Life looked like from the bird’s perspective.

Only after joining the maintenance organization did Kou Sen realize that these bird people were actually very similar to him, but some of them were even more unfortunate. Their worlds had all been eaten by bugs, leaving them with nothing but hatred.

He finally figured out a question he had been thinking about for a long time.

Why did his two dads and he have to be reborn?

Because their world was also saving itself. It couldn’t catch bugs as accurately as the bird people did, so it gave his family a chance.

Kou Sen was very fortunate to have this opportunity.

In the future, he would carry this luck with him and enter one small world after another that was being eaten by bugs, using his Kou Sen-brand insecticide to exterminate them.

This chapter was not sponsored Kou Sen-Insecticide.

Anyways that is the end! I quite like that Bian Yi and Kou Li went back to having a casual married life. Although a short story with not much romance, I like the twists and different perspective on transmigration.

Thank you to everyone for reading, and those that left comments – they were fun to read. Till next time