Push Forward

After easily slaughtering more than a dozen Iron-Haired Wild Boars, Qin Mu ordered some of the Worker Bugs to carry their corpses back to the Mother Nest while the rest continued onward under his lead.

"Unfortunately, I only have one spearhead. With my Mental Power, I could easily control more weapons."

Qin Mu shook his head regretfully. At the instant the Worker Bugs collided with the Iron-Haired Wild Boars, one Worker Bug had been struck head-on and trampled to death on the spot, while several others were seriously injured.

These casualties had been unnecessary.

Although Worker Bugs were powerful, they were not combat units after all. With such a huge difference in size, it was only natural that they could not win in a frontal clash.

"Although my Mental Power is strong, my control is still lacking. I aimed for that Iron-Haired Wild Boar's eye, but I hit its skull instead."

After the battle ended, Qin Mu looked at the spearhead floating beside him and summed up the experience gained from this fight.

It was his first time using telekinesis in combat, so there were indeed quite a few problems. The solution was simple: more training and more real combat.

"Next, I'll use you lot for some practice."

Surrounded by the Worker Bugs, Qin Mu continued advancing toward the Villa District.

Inside the Villa District.

A Tiger Hound cautiously moved through the ruins, searching for prey.

Suddenly, it stopped. It sniffed the air, seemingly having detected danger.

The next moment, before it could react, a spearhead flashing with cold light pierced through its skull.

The Tiger Hound, which Qin Mu would originally have needed a difficult battle to defeat, now appeared utterly vulnerable.

A massive rat over half a meter long and covered in grayish-black fur was caught by a Worker Bug's Pincer, its body sliced to pieces.

This rat did not even count as a monster. It was merely a somewhat stronger ordinary beast.

A Shadow Cat hiding amid the rubble was discovered by the Worker Bugs, and its body suddenly sprang up.

"Whoosh—"

The Shadow Cat shot out of the shadows and slipped into a ruined room, intending to use the villa's complex environment to escape.

But the next moment, a spearhead pierced through its body and tore open a gaping hole.

Its prideful speed was meaningless before the floating spearhead.

"There are probably more than three hundred monsters in this Villa District. Before most of them can react, I need to slaughter them all."

A trace of killing intent and coldness appeared on Qin Mu's face.

Yes, this was not a battle at all. It was a massacre!

Under Qin Mu's lead, all the Worker Bugs pushed straight through. Whenever they encountered an opponent the Worker Bugs could not defeat, a spearhead would whistle past the next moment and kill it.

Before Qin Mu, a Mental Master with the strength of a Mid Warlord, even the strongest of these monsters, which were no more than Mid Monsters, were killed in a single strike without any ability to resist.

Perhaps influenced by the previous owner of this body, he felt no pity whatsoever for these monsters. Instead, he felt incomparably exhilarated.

Monster corpses were carried back to the Mother Nest one after another, and the Mother Nest's digestive organs began operating frantically, digesting all kinds of Monster meat within it.

As the cleanup continued, some monsters noticed that something was wrong and charged toward Qin Mu with howls, only to become corpses even faster.

With the Worker Bugs intercepting them, not a single monster could approach within twenty meters of Qin Mu.

They were easily killed from afar by the spearhead under Qin Mu's control.

Some smarter monsters saw that the situation was unfavorable and immediately fled.

Unfortunately, even if they ran, where could they possibly go? They were merely extending the time until their deaths by a little.

In just one hour, most of the monsters in the Villa District had become corpses, and the dozens of Worker Bugs could not even transport them all back in time.

Only after confirming that the monsters in the Villa District no longer posed much of a threat did Qin Mu return near the Mother Nest and have the Worker Bugs clean up the remaining stragglers.

Monster corpses were thrown into the holes of the Mother Nest one after another. Its digestive capacity ran at full power, digesting the flesh and blood as quickly as possible and converting it into energy.

After returning to the Mother Nest, Qin Mu discovered several Worker Bugs that had been accidentally injured lying on the Fungal Carpet around it.

Thread-like tentacles grew from the Fungal Carpet and wrapped around them, transmitting streams of energy into their bodies through the threads.

With the energy replenishment, the Worker Bugs' wounds healed at a visible rate.

The Zerg possessed powerful vitality and recovery abilities. As long as they had not died on the spot, they could recover after returning to the Fungal Carpet and consuming a certain amount of energy.

One of the Worker Bugs had even lost a limb, yet it was still regrowing at a visible speed.

For the Zerg, regenerating severed limbs was an extremely simple matter.

"It actually has such powerful recovery abilities!"

Qin Mu's expression held both surprise and delight.

"I wonder whether it can heal human injuries? If it can, wouldn't Uncle Qing's arm have a chance of recovering?"

The instant Qin Mu saw this scene, he instinctively thought of Uncle Qing.

This ability was not only important to Uncle Qing. It was equally important to Qin Mu himself.

Because if this ability could work on him, would he no longer need to fear being injured in battle?

He linked his consciousness to the Mother Nest and conveyed this idea. The information it sent back filled Qin Mu with delight.

The answer was yes!

Ordinary injuries could be healed directly. Injuries such as regenerating severed limbs required first analyzing the target's genetic information, after which recovery could be carried out specifically.

"It only needs genetic information to be analyzed? That's too simple!

Uncle Qing's arm could be restored too. It would not be difficult to analyze Uncle Qing's genetic information; collecting some hair, nails, and the like would be enough.

But would he have to bring Uncle Qing into the wilderness and have him recover inside the Mother Nest?

That was not very realistic. It still needed to be considered carefully."

Although there were some difficulties, Qin Mu was still very happy.

Because the larval Gene Bank had lost many inheritances, Qin Mu knew little about much of the Zerg's knowledge and even common sense. He could only explore it gradually.

However, the Zerg's ability to heal injuries and regenerate severed arms was an unquestionable surprise!

"It's time to hatch an Evolutionary Cavity! Having only one auxiliary Worker Bug type cannot support the Swarm's expansion. The Zerg need a true combat unit."

Qin Mu's thoughts returned to the Swarm's development, and he considered it carefully.

"In the Villa District, I hunted more than two hundred monsters. Once all of them are digested, I should gain at least 3,000 to 4,000 points of energy.

Different monsters yield different amounts of converted energy because of factors such as size, bodily structure, and strength.

Take Primary Beast Soldier-level monsters as an example. The Iron-Haired Wild Boar, the largest among them, weighed more than 1,000 jin even at its leanest as an adult, and generally converted into more than 20 points of energy.

Monsters like Tiger Hounds generally converted into around 10 points of energy.

Shadow Cats were too small, so converting one generally only yielded around 6 points of energy.

There would be some variation depending on their strength."

"Currently, the Mother Nest has the genes of four Beast Soldier-level monsters available for analysis.

They are the Tiger Hound, Iron-Haired Wild Boar, Shadow Cat, and Black Ring Snake."

Many people understood the Zerg as nothing more than all kinds of enormous insects.

But that was not actually the case. As long as there was a need, the Zerg could take any form. It was simply that insectoid appearances often possessed greater combat power.

Qin Mu clearly had no conditions to engineer Zerg Units, so he could only make do with the monster genes he had collected.

Among them, the Tiger Hound was a relatively suitable species to serve as the Swarm's basic combat unit.

Tiger Hounds were quite capable in all aspects. Their strength and speed were both powerful, with no obvious weaknesses. As canine monsters, they had keen senses of smell and were skilled at coordinated combat.

Not only that, Tiger Hounds also had considerable potential. Although most Tiger Hounds in the Villa District were at the Primary Beast Soldier level, with a small number reaching the Mid Beast Soldier level.

In reality, this widely distributed monster species could reach the Warlord-level, and Qin Mu had even seen rumors of Lord-level Tiger Hounds on the HR Alliance Platform.

As for Iron-Haired Wild Boars, although they were powerful in terms of strength and defense, they lacked agility, were too large, and were rather stupid.

Compared with Tiger Hounds, they were inferior in every aspect.

Of course, they were still good as tank units. A small number could be hatched, and they would have remarkable effects against some massive monsters.

As for Black Ring Snakes, they specialized in venom and were unsuitable for large-scale combat.

Shadow Cats, meanwhile, were small, quick to react, and extremely fast. They were clearly excellent candidates for scouting units.

After carefully analyzing everything, Qin Mu decisively gave the order.

"Hatch an Evolutionary Cavity. Prioritize researching Tiger Mastiffs."