Awakening

The instant the Mother Nest finished hatching, Qin Mu felt a powerful warm current flowing through his body. As it passed through his brain, it seemed to stimulate something.

A violent headache struck without warning, making Qin Mu cry out in pain.

"What's going on?"

The spear slipped from Qin Mu's hand. He clutched his head tightly and screamed frantically.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

The piercing pain made Qin Mu want to smash his head against the surrounding trees.

"Ah—!"

Qin Mu's eyes rolled back, and he actually passed out from the pain. In the final moment before his consciousness faded, Qin Mu used the soul link to order the Mother Nest to hatch Worker Bugs at full capacity and protect both him and the Mother Nest!

Qin Mu's heart suddenly convulsed as he lay unconscious. Blood surged rapidly through his body, his skin turned red, and blood seeped from every pore.

A powerful warm current circulated within his body. This was the feedback from the successful hatching of the Mother Nest!

As that power continued to circulate, every part of Qin Mu's body—from his skin to his organs, blood, bones, and even every cell—underwent dramatic changes. His body was evolving rapidly!

This was a leap in the essence of life!

As Qin Mu lay on the Fungal Carpet, his entire body constantly twitching—

Five larvae that had just hatched beside the Mother Nest received Qin Mu's command from before he passed out and rapidly began to mutate.

As though inflated with air, they transformed into pupae that pulsed like beating hearts.

Five minutes later, another five larvae hatched, then swiftly mutated into pupae.

The cycle continued.

Fifteen minutes later, five ferocious-looking Worker Bugs burst from their cocoons and began patrolling around the Mother Nest of their own accord, guarding both it and Qin Mu.

Twenty minutes later, another five Worker Bugs finished hatching.

New larvae continued to hatch and then mutate into Worker Bugs.

By the time all the energy stored within the Mother Nest had been depleted, a full fifty Worker Bugs had hatched around it.

These Worker Bugs began gathering nearby resources on their own. The first was the Tiger Hound Qin Mu had killed. One Worker Bug waved its Pincers, seized the Tiger Hound, lifted it up, and carried it beside the Mother Nest.

The Worker Bug found an opening in the Mother Nest and tossed the Tiger Hound's corpse inside. Its body was instantly devoured and digested, converted into the energy the Swarm required.

Then came the surrounding flowers, grass, trees, and every other object rich in energy.

As the most basic—and arguably most important—unit of the Zerg, Worker Bugs could locate every resource suitable for the Mother Nest to digest and convert into energy.

The Mother Nest's digestive capacity was extraordinarily powerful. It could digest nearly all resources.

Flesh, plants, all organic matter, and even inorganic matter—without restraints, an entire planet could be devoured clean in a very short time!

This was one of the reasons the Swarm was so terrifying and why it was known as a natural disaster throughout countless universes.

Second by second, time passed. Qin Mu's fingers twitched slightly as he sat up in a daze.

The surroundings were pitch-black. Stars filled the sky, and pale moonlight spilled down, allowing Qin Mu to see that he was in a dense forest.

Within the woods, shadowy figures resembling giant ants could vaguely be seen patrolling and guarding the Mother Nest.

"What happened to me?"

Qin Mu finally regained full awareness. Everything his gaze passed over was crystal clear. Even in the darkness, he could see the appearance of the distant Worker Bugs.

The rustling of leaves in the wind, the chirping of insects and birds in the forest—all of it was incomparably clear. It was as if the haze had been wiped from the entire world, like someone with severe nearsightedness suddenly putting on glasses.

Qin Mu climbed to his feet and instinctively braced himself against a nearby tree.

Crack—

The tree was actually crushed beneath Qin Mu's grip, leaving a deep handprint in its trunk.

"My strength has increased so much!"

Qin Mu could clearly feel that his vision, hearing, sense of smell, and even his overall physical condition had improved to an astonishing degree.

Qin Mu stared at the tree he had inadvertently left a mark on. With a thought, an invisible force erupted and spread from his mind. The surrounding flowers, grass, and fallen leaves all floated into the air.

The spear lying on the ground also rose on its own and flew back into Qin Mu's palm.

"I've awakened the power of a Mental Master?"

Qin Mu was overjoyed. As a transmigrator, how could he not know about Mental Masters?

It was a rare and powerful ability that could only be awakened through one's own talent.

On Earth, once someone awakened as a Mental Master, they could easily defeat warriors of the same rank and would be eagerly recruited by every major faction.

"This was the feedback from hatching the Mother Nest. That's right, the Zerg's talent in matters of the soul is among the pinnacle races of the universe. Every Zerg Mother Queen is a master of soul-based abilities. I possess a Zerg Clone and can be said to be the Overlord of the Swarm, so naturally I possess such talent as well."

After sensing the particularly robust point of soul light in his mind, along with dozens of weaker points—

Qin Mu discovered that he could easily control all of them simultaneously and make precise movements without feeling the slightest discomfort. This was far more than merely multitasking. He could focus on dozens of things at once!

It was not merely an increase in strength. Qin Mu even felt that his comprehension and talent had improved tremendously.

The speed of his brain had increased by an unknown number of times. It was like replacing an ordinary computer with a supercomputer.

"This feeling is too powerful!"

Qin Mu easily controlled more than ten Worker Bugs, making them walk up before him and perform various movements in perfect unison. He could not help but smile.

"Go!"

The spear beside him rose into the air, then shot forward with explosive force, piercing through several trees in succession.

"This power, this destructive force, is far beyond that of an Advanced Warrior level!"

"My physical condition is at least three or four times stronger than before. I should have barely reached the Advanced Warrior level, and my Mental Power has also reached the limit of my body."

After awakening as a Mental Master, his past memories became clearer. Many things he had once forgotten could now be recalled.

"I remember that after Luo Feng awakened, his strength reached the Intermediate Warrior level. His Mental Power could be at most two ranks higher than his warrior level, which meant the beginner Warlord-level.

"My warrior strength should already be at the Advanced Warrior level, which means my strength as a Mental Master is at the intermediate Warlord-level!"

A glint flashed through Qin Mu's eyes. Was this improvement terrifying?

Of course it was terrifying!

But it was also perfectly normal, because this was the enhancement granted by a Mother Nest hatched at the cost of a full 500 energy points, along with dozens of Worker Bugs!

As the Overlord of the Swarm, it would be abnormal for him to be too weak!

After testing his strength for a while, Qin Mu turned his attention to the Swarm.

When Qin Mu shifted his consciousness into the Mother Nest, something that shocked him happened.

Qin Mu had originally believed that after his body transformed, his computational ability was already powerful enough. Yet compared to the Mother Nest, it was still utterly insignificant!

Countless streams of data and information flashed past. Dozens of Worker Bugs continuously fed back all kinds of information, whether they were gathering resources or patrolling the surroundings.

The Fungal Carpet centered on the Mother Nest spread outward, devouring every insect, flower, and plant it encountered while collecting their genetic information and preserving it in the Gene Bank.

Enormous amounts of data flowed through it every moment, yet the Mother Nest's consciousness could process it all with ease.

It was not merely information processing. Qin Mu also discovered more abilities and information about the Mother Nest.

First, the Mother Nest transformed from a Worker Bug was a First-level Hive capable of hatching larvae. It could hatch five larvae every five minutes, and the larvae could mutate into other Zerg Units.

Of course, there was currently only one option: Worker Bugs.

Second, the power a First-level Hive could feed back to Qin Mu did not stack infinitely. There was an upper limit.

The limit of a First-level Hive was the Advanced Warrior level.

To raise that limit, he had to increase the Mother Nest's level.

The method for upgrading the Mother Nest was simple. It only required meeting two conditions: first, consuming 5,000 energy points; second, analyzing enough Monster Genes and raising the Gene Analysis Level to a certain degree.

Although the Mother Nest itself lacked intelligence, it possessed formidable computational abilities, similar to an Intelligent Optical Computer among mechanical lifeforms.

Not only did it possess a certain ability to analyze genes, but it could also help Qin Mu manage the Swarm's daily affairs.

There was another way to analyze genes more quickly: hatch another type of Zerg structure.

Aside from the Mother Nest, this was currently the only other type of Zerg structure in the Gene Bank—the Evolutionary Cavity!

The Evolutionary Cavity was the Zerg military research center. By collecting the genes of other powerful lifeforms, it could research, analyze, create, or mutate new Zerg Units. It could also strengthen the Swarm's existing units.

It was the testing ground through which the Swarm continuously evolved, as well as the core of the Swarm's power.

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