Power

"Yes. The Overmind led the Swarm to unprecedented heights, even gaining the ability to open passages to other worlds. You were the one he found in another universe."

"..." That was a little too much information. The young man decided to take a moment to process it, then turned his attention back to the incoming attackers.

"You need not worry, my Overmind. Such inferior creatures cannot threaten you." Agatha's tone was utterly sincere.

A pair of glowing red eyes remained fixed on the distance.

"You can see it?"

"Yes."

Almost instinctively, the young man felt as though his consciousness had left his body and attached itself to Agatha, observing the world through her senses.

In an instant, everything around him changed color.

All living things were marked by different colors and glows according to their life forms. Flowers, grass, trees, insects hidden among the leaves, snakes, birds, even rats underground—all were plainly visible.

This was the world as perceived through Agatha's senses. She could distinguish the activities of different forms of life. It was not mere sight, but the result of multiple senses working together, combined with a degree of synesthesia.

Thus, the young man was able to see past layer upon layer of tree trunks and glimpse the enemy in the distance.

It was a massive bear with extraordinarily active biological signals. The young man could even make out its powerfully beating heart.

Worse still, that bear was not the only predator coming for them.

A nimble leopard moved between the treetops.

Behind it, more than a dozen ape-like animals were rapidly charging toward them.

Now even climbing a tree would not help.

Agatha continued her calm analysis beside him. "Zerg bodily fluids emit an irritating scent. My wounds must have drawn in the nearby predators."

Smaller animals could not produce such a strong bloody odor. It would itself signal the surrounding predators that a powerful but severely wounded individual had appeared in their territory.

That was why it had drawn in nearly all the apex predators nearby.

"Their Psionic Energy reactions are extremely weak, and their biological activity is relatively low. They cannot threaten you."

"They can't threaten me?" The young man looked unconvinced. That was a bear, and even crouching down, it was taller than him. It looked even larger than a polar bear. One bite would probably...

Wait. The young man suddenly remembered that "dream."

"Was I modified too?"

"Yes. Every one of your organs and tissues has reached the limits attainable by the Zerg."

By then, the massive bear was close enough. The upper carapace of Agatha's body opened, and a Spine shot forth with a thunderous roar.

Amid the booming blast, the Spine broke the sound barrier. After piercing through several trees, it entered through the bear's forehead and emerged from its tailbone, then punched through several more trees before finally stopping.

Sizzle... Blackish-purple pus flowed from the huge wound piercing the bear's body. Before long, more than half of its body had been corroded away...

Leaves shaken loose by the shockwave created when the Spine broke the sound barrier slowly drifted down.

Through Agatha's vision, the young man saw everything clearly.

An inexplicable emotion suddenly surged into his heart: destroy... devour... evolve...

What was that?

The young man shook his head and recalled his earlier question. "Is my body that powerful too?"

"In terms of muscular strength, your body should be far stronger than mine," Agatha answered seriously.

The young man suddenly raised his hand.

Bang.

He drove a fist into the tree trunk beside him.

An exceptionally conspicuous fist mark appeared in the rough bark.

Yet he did not feel even the slightest pain.

Looking down at his hand, even the scar from when his hand had been caught in a door as a child remained. Yet now, it felt so unfamiliar...

Just then, the Queen locked onto the leopard still darting through the treetops. Her carapace opened, ready to fire.

"How about I try?" The young man's tone was uncertain. He did not know where his current bloodlust had come from.

"Command received." Agatha promptly switched targets and turned her attention to the group of monkeys behind them... Or rather, baboons. Their muzzles were especially long, and their canine teeth exceptionally developed.

However, after the leopard made its way down from the trees, it did not rashly attack. Instead, it lay in wait atop the branches, staring intently at the young man and Agatha.

The young man also settled into a horse stance, ready for battle.

Yet even after Agatha finished picking off the baboons one by one, the leopard still showed no intention of attacking.

After all, it was not a bear. In terms of weight, it was about the same as a human. That meant that, at least in its judgment, both the young man and Agatha were prey capable of injuring it, so it naturally had to be cautious when attacking—if it had been able to see the supersonic Spines Agatha fired, or understand the muffled boom when they launched, it would have fled in terror long ago.

Slaughter... bite... corrode...

The inexplicable voice appeared again. The young man's thoughts sank, and he felt as though he saw a boundless road, densely packed with what seemed to be countless animals.

During that momentary lapse in concentration, the leopard abruptly sprang down from the treetops and lunged straight at the young man.

Yes, it did not choose Agatha, even though she was the one injured and bleeding. After all, the Queen, covered in carapace with sharp claws and glowing red eyes, looked much harder to deal with than a plump human.

The young man, whose attention had been drawn to that "road," did not react at all before the leopard knocked him to the ground and clamped its bloodstained jaws tightly around his neck.

Crunch—creak—

At its teeth, the outer layer of skin was unexpectedly tough. Seeing its target about to struggle, the leopard could not help using all its strength as it bit down harder.

Snap—

One of its canine teeth fell to the ground...

The young man finally came to his senses.

He wrapped his arms around the leopard's head and violently exerted force.

Crack—

The leopard's body went limp.

Holding the leopard's corpse in one hand, the young man stood up and finally began accepting that he had been modified.

Not because he had discovered how powerful his physique was. Rather, he realized that even when faced with those bloodstained jaws, he had not felt the slightest panic. Yes, he had not frozen in fear just now. He had merely been astonished by how calm his emotions were.

After a moment of silence, the young man suddenly shook the corpse in his hand and turned to Agatha. "I don't seem to be as powerful as you said?"

The Spine Agatha fired had pierced through more than a dozen trees in succession. The young man did not doubt that such absurd kinetic energy could easily blast a low-orbit satellite apart with a single strike from the Mariana Trench.

Yet he, who theoretically possessed greater muscular strength, already found a leopard as large as a human rather heavy to carry.

"Your situation is somewhat special," Agatha explained. "The more advanced Zerg organs require Psionic Energy to function. Since your Psionic Energy has not reached the threshold required to awaken those organs, most of your bodily functions remain dormant."

He understood. It was like building a brand-new twenty-first-century smart home for a primitive man.

Whether it was comfortable or not was another matter. Without 220-volt household AC power, he could not even get through the fingerprint-locked front door.

"But the toughness of your outer armor is still unmatched," Agatha said. "Even my Spines cannot pierce your armor."

That was easy to understand too. Whether the primitive man could use the appliances in the house or not, at least that security door was truly sturdy...