An Outlandish Tech Tree

After securing his position as the top student in his grade with several outstanding scores, Aburame Tetsumaru began letting himself go, skipping class every few days.

However, he did not leave the school. Instead, he spent most of his time in the school library, roughly reading through all the books there.

There were indeed no powerful ninjutsu scrolls in the library, much less Forbidden Technique-level ninjutsu. But there were still plenty of scattered treasures. Aburame Tetsumaru found and copied down over seventy kinds of ninjutsu, covering all five elemental Release styles.

He also found much valuable information in various miscellanies and travel journals, all worth recording and organizing one by one. He was sure he could uncover even more information that way.

What drove him crazy was that when the school closed for winter break, it arranged for the library to be renovated, adding many new bookshelves and books.

Aburame Tetsumaru was thrilled when he heard about it. When school resumed in spring, he eagerly began reading the new books, only to nearly be driven mad.

Those valuable manuscripts, notebooks, and ninjutsu scrolls were all gone. In their place were countless inexplicable new books, things like Founding Konoha, Will of Fire and the First, and Life of the Second Hokage. What kind of made-up bullshit was this? Even the most basic logic did not hold together.

Reality was always more fantastical than fiction. Aburame Tetsumaru naturally understood that, but the pursuit of interests in reality was an iron law that could not be defied.

Perhaps individuals could act against their own interests, but the leaders of powerful forces would never betray their interests. Otherwise, they would not be leaders.

Even if the Shinobi World was a supernatural world where great power rested with individuals, no matter how powerful one became, one could not betray one's own interests. Otherwise, one would become a demon king like Uchiha Madara.

Unwilling to accept it, Aburame Tetsumaru spent a week turning the newly renovated library upside down, ultimately confirming that the place was ruined.

He had even wanted to apply for a part-time job as a librarian and fulfill one of his little dreams. What a shame.

Librarians, a stable but low-paying profession, were always full of hidden talents. Who knew how many Big Bosses had once worked as librarians?

With his dream shattered and the library no longer a place to go, Aburame Tetsumaru attended class properly for a few days instead, greatly surprising Domoto Daigo.

After reaching middle age in his previous life, he had dreamed countless times of returning to childhood and reliving his student days.

But now that he was truly back in school, he found it unbearably boring. He did not even have a suitable place to skip class to, which made it even more frustrating.

Aburame Tetsumaru lay sprawled over his desk during yet another newly added Will of Fire education class. Bored out of his mind, he directed a swarm of Kikaichū and a Tiger-striped Rhinoceros Beetle in a war game to pass the time.

Thanks to his Chakra reserves gradually approaching those of the Sandaime, along with his family's wealth and abundant resources, his Kikaichū ate until they were full every day. He was therefore indisputably the strongest among his peers. The only reason his Insect Manipulation Secret Technique was not powerful was because his control talent was simply terrible.

However, the strength of a secret technique was determined by the weakest link among its many components. No matter how strong the Kikaichū were, poor control made them useless. This was especially true for Kikaichū techniques, which placed the greatest emphasis on control.

In his previous life, Aburame Tetsumaru had played StarCraft against real experts. They were truly formidable. Even when everyone had the same technology and full population-cap armies, they could crush three ordinary players through sheer control alone.

The fact that had driven him to despair was that control depended first on talent, and only then on diligent practice.

Had Aburame Tetsumaru not trained diligently? Of course he had. He had indeed improved after training hard, but the question was, compared to whom?

Over the past two years, Aburame Tetsumaru had insisted on training four hours every day, yet the gap between him and Aburame Shibi had only grown wider.

Aburame Shibi also deeply admired this branch-family cousin. Tetsumaru's Chakra was strong, and his Kikaichū were absurdly powerful. During sparring matches, Shibi had to focus completely and use several times as much control to offset the disadvantage, leaving him exhausted every time.

Of course, that only applied to stationary sparring. In actual combat, Aburame Tetsumaru's advantages could be fully brought into play, and the gap between Aburame Shibi and him became far too great.

Among the Aburame ninja of this generation, Aburame Tetsumaru was firmly ranked second. Only the eldest, Aburame Shikuroo, could defeat Tetsumaru. All the other children were guaranteed to lose.

Aburame Tetsumaru's defeated opponents even included Aburame Puwan, a Genin four years older than him who had already graduated from the Ninja Academy.

Without strength so far beyond his peers, would the clan Elders have viewed Tetsumaru differently? Would they have tolerated him practicing the Aburame Secret Technique so badly?

The Shinobi World was, after all, a world where strength reigned supreme. Secret techniques, ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Kekkei Genkai were all merely means. Being able to win was the only hard truth.

But being powerful today did not mean he would remain powerful in the future.

No matter how large his Chakra reserves were, they had to be converted into tangible power through ninjutsu. With the changes to the Ninja Academy library, Aburame Tetsumaru had completely lost his channel for learning ninjutsu. This was what worried him most.

It would be great if one of the Sannin could take me as a disciple, just like Namikaze Minato.

The Kikaichū and rhinoceros beetle fought back and forth on the desktop, but the beetle had the upper hand, charging through the Kikaichū swarm as it pleased.

Only after Aburame Tetsumaru released more than a hundred Kikaichū did he have enough strength to trap the beetle. Even then, it took a long time to flip it over.

Aburame Tetsumaru's eyes lit up. Right! Why did I hate the Zerg and prefer the Protoss when I played StarCraft? Wasn't it because their individual units were strong enough to suit my control?

I can engineer massive Ninja Insects, Giant Insects equivalent to hundreds of Kikaichū each, then use those Giant Insects in place of Kikaichū for battle.

Mm, perfect!

Aburame Tetsumaru had finally found a reliable direction. He could not wait to consider the prospects of this path.

First, he would find combat insects to replace the Kikaichū. Then he would continue creating larger insects, ultimately establishing a combat system of gigantic and super-gigantic insects.

If he needed a system to use as a reference, then the Zerg were undoubtedly the most suitable. Their system was the most complete and their functions the clearest. The Tyranids were too powerful and chaotic, while the Arachnids were too weak. Still, some Arachnid units could serve as references. At the very least, the Laser Bug, fifty-five meters long and capable of striking warships in low orbit, was unbelievably cool.

Ah, how he missed those Zerglings, Spit, Mutalisks, and Ultralisks.

When he was fantasizing about the future, time always passed quickly.

After school, Aburame Tetsumaru went home, ate, washed up, and got into bed, yet his thoughts about the Zerg never stopped. The more he thought, the more excited he became, until he had no sleepiness at all.

If I can unlock every key technology and create a Zerg species of my own...

Wouldn't that mean creating an entire biological tech tree? That tech tree would be the staircase to fulfilling my dream.

That distant, unreachable dream: eternal youth and immortality.

He simply got up, turned on the light, sat at his desk, and began planning the technology needed to create the Zerg. He would start with creating Zerglings.

First came incubation and production. He definitely could not let them reproduce on their own. Either they would produce only a few in a year, or they would become an insect plague that destroyed the world. Neither was acceptable.

The first technology was controlled incubation. How could he accomplish that?

Zerglings were Giant Insects. After incubation, the first issue would be the survival of such massive insects:

The biggest problem limiting insect size was the low efficiency of breathing through spiracles. Therefore, the second technology was efficient respiration. This... this... an internal artificial lung? But he knew nothing about artificial lungs.

A giant insect would certainly be heavy. The exoskeleton supporting its body would have to withstand even greater pressure, but the sturdier the exoskeleton, the more troublesome molting would become.

These problems could be consolidated into the third technology: lightweight exoskeletons. Aluminum alloy? No. Titanium alloy? Damn it, his field was biology, not metallurgy.

Driving such an enormous body required tremendous strength. The fourth technology was robust muscles. Another century-old problem.

Great strength meant massive consumption. The body had to store sufficient energy, making the fifth technology efficient storage. He had no idea where to begin.

The sixth technology was long-range signals, to solve command and control. This should still be frontier technology at the conceptual stage.

The seventh technology was basic intelligence: the ability to receive orders and commands, then fight independently.

He was not familiar with AI either. Besides, this was the Shinobi World. To develop AI, he would have to start with the underlying logic, and he understood that even less.

Aburame Tetsumaru stopped writing. Unlocking these seven technologies would let him create Zerglings, but there was a small problem.

Seven technologies? No, far more than that. Including prerequisite technologies, he could not even begin with something as basic as enlarging insects. He had no clue at all.

How was he supposed to do this?

Damn it, had I made the problem sound too simple? Is this really work I can accomplish?

Sigh. He had been thinking too far ahead. Far too far ahead.

No rush. He should begin with the most practical thing first.

He needed to find insects capable of replacing Kikaichū in battle. What requirements should such insects have?

First, they had to be able to fly. Without flight, their speed and mobility would not be enough.

Then, they had to be durable—hard enough to withstand a round of Fire Release ninjutsu without dying.

Finally, they had to reproduce. Their numbers could not be too low.

Aburame Tetsumaru thought for a long time, but there were none. No suitable insects.

Still unwilling to give up, he found Aburame Tetsumaru's Insect Compendium, which he had compiled himself. It recorded the insects he had discovered in Aburame Forest, and the total number of documented species had already exceeded eleven thousand six hundred.

He found every insect marked as capable of flight and examined them one by one. Only at dawn did he finally confirm that there truly were no suitable insects.

This was awkward. He had finally found a bright path, yet he could not even take the first step.

Ultimately, it was still because he lacked sufficient accumulation. The knowledge and technology he possessed were not enough.

There was hope, of course. Many insects remained undiscovered in Aburame Forest, and his cheat ability improved every day.

More importantly, there was the future Nagato. Among the Summoning Animals summoned by his Animal Path were enlarged insects. That proved that giant insects existed and that this path was not a dead end.

That was good. That was enough. As long as the road was open, if he persevered and continued working hard, he would eventually reach the end.

He revised his plans. Next, he would continue collecting insects, focusing on screening them according to the requirements for replacing Kikaichū.

After thinking it over, Aburame Tetsumaru felt that was not quite safe enough, because his current circumstances were rather good: his family was wealthy, he was the top student in his grade, he was powerful, and he was steadily improving.

People in their comfort zones could easily lose the motivation to change without realizing it. They were also more likely to grow tired of repetitive work and lose faith in success that seemed endlessly far away.

If I grow tired or lose confidence, I might slack off. Unlike my previous life, I don't have a great motherland behind me, nor do I have the loveliest people carrying the burden for me.

Without any safety net, if he truly slacked off in a comfortable environment, it would amount to handing his life over to the so-called Child of Destiny. Then there would be no hope. He would be completely finished.

Therefore, he had to establish a lofty ideal. With a goal ahead to draw him onward, he would have greater motivation to avoid becoming complacent.

Aburame Tetsumaru looked at the rising sun. Fine, first he had to go to school.

As the top student of the first grade, skipping class was no problem. The teachers would not seriously pursue it. But outright absenteeism was not possible yet. Once he had firmly held first place for two or three years, it would be fine. By then, even if he skipped school for a week, no one would hold him accountable. The teachers would find excuses for him themselves.

Over the next few days, Aburame Tetsumaru set his ultimate objective: Aburame Tetsumaru's Insect Swarm Project.

As the direct expression of a lofty ideal, the first page of the proposal clearly stated its final goal: eternal youth and immortality, ascension beyond mortality.

Creating a plan that could be considered entry into a Level Three civilization with absolutely no practical foundation made even Aburame Tetsumaru feel that it was wildly fanciful.

But when one was young, one ought to be bold. His new life had only just begun, and setting his ideals high was better than making them easily achievable.

Not only had Aburame Tetsumaru set such an outrageous final goal, he also outlined several stages for the plan.

The first stage would establish the prototype of the Insect Swarm within ten years, engineering five Zerg unit types. Most importantly, it would achieve mass production.

The second stage would begin thirty years later, in Konoha Year 47: the Shinobi World Surface Control Project would be launched, and atmospheric exploration satellites would be sent into orbit.

The third stage...