Zerg World

"Come on, let's go out for drinks and have some fun!"

After Xia Fan dragged Lu Zhiyu to dinner with her group of friends, she dragged him off to karaoke as well. They mixed beer and baijiu and drank a whole lot. Lu Zhiyu had originally felt awkward hanging out with a bunch of students, but once he got there, he discovered that there were high school students, college students, and quite a few adults. Men and women were paired off in couples, leaving Lu Zhiyu deeply impressed. High school students these days were far more open than those of his generation.

One sweet-looking young beauty said she was going to the restroom, then vanished completely. The others were equally uninhibited, especially Xia Fan. When she sang, she howled like ghosts and wolves, leaving Lu Zhiyu at a loss.

Lu Zhiyu supported the swaying Xia Fan as they walked down the street. He kept feeling that passersby were looking at him strangely. He had not abducted a young girl, nor did he intend to pick up a drunk girl, but although Lu Zhiyu felt perfectly justified, he still guiltily stopped when he spotted traffic police at the intersection. He waited for a taxi on a distant uphill slope.

After enduring another round of scrutiny and condemnation from the driver's eyes, Lu Zhiyu finally returned to the intersection near home. He nudged Xia Fan. "All right, wake up. Wake up!"

Xia Fan opened her eyes. "What is it?"

Xia Fan lived in a residential complex not far to the left of Lu Zhiyu's home. He still remembered that. "We're home. I'll take you back!"

Xia Fan immediately grabbed Lu Zhiyu by the collar. "No, I can't go back. If I go home like this, I'll get scolded to death!"

Lu Zhiyu immediately said, "Won't your parents worry even more if you don't go back?"

Xia Fan immediately replied, "It's fine. I live at school, though I go home every few days. My parents don't even know I'm not staying in the school dorm tonight. Isn't your house pretty big?"

"..."

Xia Fan immediately gave Lu Zhiyu a bleary-eyed look. "You don't have bad intentions, do you? Planning something improper with your first love's younger sister?"

Lu Zhiyu grabbed Xia Fan's face and pulled hard to both sides. "What nonsense. Someone like you hasn't even developed—"

Lu Zhiyu looked at Xia Fan's fiery figure. She was wearing a short skirt, stockings, and a pure-white camisole. The outfit was as bold as could be.

Xia Fan seemed to notice his gaze and immediately straightened up, squeezing her slender arms inward. "Well?"

"..."

There were two bathrooms upstairs and downstairs in Lu Zhiyu's house, so they did not need to bathe separately. After Lu Zhiyu finished washing up, he took out a clean quilt and prepared a room, but Xia Fan was still lingering in the bathroom.

"Hey? Say something. Don't tell me you fell into the toilet?"

Only then did Xia Fan come out wrapped in a bath towel. "Ah! Having a bathtub to soak in feels so good!"

Lu Zhiyu shook his head. "I'm not used to using that."

He led Xia Fan toward the prepared room. "You'll sleep here tonight. The quilt and sheets are all..."

Early the next morning, Lu Zhiyu carefully got up and saw Xia Fan walk out of the room. Xia Fan ruffled her hair. "Morning!"

Xia Fan took a clean set of clothes from her backpack, put them on, washed up, and went to school. Before leaving, she said, "Thanks!"

Lu Zhiyu blankly watched Xia Fan push open the courtyard gate. She even looked back and smiled at him, and he did not come back to his senses for a long while.

Lu Zhiyu returned to the study and unfolded the stored Universe Scroll, revealing the scene within. Winter had arrived inside the scroll, with heavy snow filling the sky and the sea frozen over. Beneath the sea were all kinds of strange creatures.

This was a world made entirely of insects. Countless different insect species could be found in the sky, the forests, underground, and the sea. Their presence was everywhere.

Ant queens were truly wondrous beings. Through the pheromones they secreted, they could alter the genes of their descendants and thereby control the entire ant colony. They could use pheromones to control the kinds of offspring they produced. To an ant colony, they were practically gods.

As the colonies grew increasingly numerous while the space remained limited, competition for resources and living environments became fierce. Wars constantly broke out between these ant colonies. Every day, colonies were wiped out and ant queens were dragged out and killed.

But today was different. Lu Zhiyu discovered that atop a hill within the Painting Space, an insect swarm was constantly pouring out of a strange nest. There were all kinds of insects: some that flew through the sky, some that could enter the sea, and some that could burrow underground.

They had not been born from an ant queen. They had been created through that nest. Lu Zhiyu had a strange feeling. How should he put it? It was as if this insect swarm had begun to evolve, gained higher intelligence, and started controlling the direction of its own evolution.

Lu Zhiyu felt that this was highly unusual and immediately began looking up information on his computer. A similar race came into view: "The Zerg Race from StarCraft!"

Lu Zhiyu looked toward the Painting Space. "Have they really evolved? Whose intelligence was born? Who is controlling the entire swarm? Is it the Insect Queen? Or has every individual evolved intelligence?"

Lu Zhiyu immediately activated his authority. The silver symbol in his mind flashed into existence, and his consciousness entered the Painting Space. He began focusing with all his strength on this unusual Zerg Race. Lu Zhiyu felt as though his consciousness had been separated from his body. A whole day passed within his consciousness, while only a few seconds passed outside!

Lu Zhiyu saw a slender Insect Queen with an enormous head, long limbs, and a lengthy tail dragging behind her. Black armor covered her entire body. This Insect Queen had completely broken free from being a breeding machine and possessed intelligence of her own.

Under the authority, through his godlike perspective, Lu Zhiyu saw the Insect Queen continuously send out waves of consciousness. Every message was transmitted to the combat units within the swarm, directing them to constantly attack other swarms, produce, plunder, fight, and support her.

"The world is ours!"

Lu Zhiyu sensed the Insect Queen's towering ambition. But what astonished him even more was that she could sense and control every swarm under her command. What kind of ability was this? Spiritual power? Telekinesis?

Lu Zhiyu carefully observed the Insect Queen. Before long, he saw silver light emanating from within her head, then saw that her consciousness was actually connected to a special space!

Lu Zhiyu immediately probed into it and felt his consciousness leave the Painting Space. It was instantly compressed into a line. Following the end of that line, Lu Zhiyu felt his consciousness continuously drift onward. At last, it brushed past an endless source of information and entered a world filled with light.

Lu Zhiyu felt as though he was about to be assimilated in an instant. His entire consciousness was eroded by that silver light and took on its color. Lu Zhiyu felt that if he remained any longer, his consciousness would melt into it. He struggled with all his strength and broke free from that strange place, as though crossing an unknowable distance before instantly returning to his body.

Then Lu Zhiyu felt mentally exhausted to the extreme and fell asleep at once.