Twisted Soul

The exploration of the Goblin territory went surprisingly smoothly.

On the second day after the Overmind sent out the birds, an Arrow Gull found the Goblin camp.

Just four hours later, over a hundred Bait Birds were circling above the Goblin camp.

After two days of cautious observation, the Overmind confirmed that there were no high-level psionic units among these little green creatures.

Nor did they possess any meaningful social division of labor. There were no sentries, leaders, warriors, hunters, or anything of the sort in the camp...

The Goblins did not work. They enjoyed fighting, killing, and destruction, yet possessed an unreasonable rate of reproduction and digestion—perhaps it could no longer be called digestion alone. Through an Arrow Gull's perspective, the Overmind personally watched a newborn Goblin, without taking even a sip of milk, rapidly grow amid the beating of its surrounding elders. In just one night, it became a standard adult Goblin.

That growth rate was comparable to the Zerg.

Yet the Goblin population had not spiraled completely out of control. It seemed that population size and camp scale limited their reproduction.

Having confirmed that the Goblin camp had no combat strength worth mentioning, the Overmind simply dispatched three large infected birds.

They had been infected from large wetland storks or cranes. Their degree of infection had not reached the level of Mutated Combat Forms; only their size had been enlarged. This shortened the stability of their genes, and when allowed to move freely, they would live only a few months.

In return, however, their carrying capacity had increased greatly, allowing them to carry over a hundred kilograms across long distances.

The Overmind controlled them to capture two Goblins.

Though he could observe these little green creatures through the senses of Arrow Gulls and Bait Birds, deeper study of their genes and extraordinary powers still required assistance from high-level units or building units.

Not long after they were tossed into the Venom Devourer's storage bladders, the examination of their entire bodies was complete. Agatha immediately reported, "Their brains are exceptionally developed."

The Overmind froze. This thing didn't look particularly intelligent, did it?

Agatha continued, "Their brains contain dedicated regions for numerical and geometric problems."

Mammalian brains were divided by function, with each region handling a different type of information. The parietal lobe, for instance, was responsible for bodily perception. Agatha had removed part of this region from a Dragon Lion's brain, causing it to lose sensation in its back.

Compared to other animals, humans possessed not only highly developed frontal lobes responsible for thought and logic, but also an additional center specifically for understanding language. This was the foundation that allowed humanity to build civilization.

Yet even humans had no dedicated center for processing numbers. The reason was simple: humans had possessed language for tens of thousands of years, while mathematics was a relatively new invention that had emerged only in the past few thousand years.

The Goblins' mathematical center meant they should have grasped the concept of mathematics very early, then undergone selection for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years within a stable social environment.

"You mean they're actually intelligent? They only seem like beasts because their civilization was lost?" the Overmind asked incredulously.

Calling them beasts was already giving them too much credit. Even beasts knew to avoid harm and seek benefit, while these creatures were madmen through and through.

"It should not merely be a problem of civilization being passed down," Agatha denied. "Their brains are intelligent, but show no signs of having been used."

"..." If he did not know Agatha's personality, the Overmind would have thought she was telling a joke.

"The power within them that you named the 'soul' differs markedly from that of normal organisms. It bypasses the neural center and directly controls the body, leaving most of their brain structures spinning idly."

"Oh? Let me take a look." The Overmind finally became interested and connected to Agatha's senses.

Sure enough, compared with the exquisite and complex souls of normal beasts, a Goblin's soul felt like a pile of scattered building blocks—simple and chaotic in structure, yet especially stable. Once it had fallen apart into a pile, there was no way for it to be unstable.

This peculiar structure gave the Overmind a familiar feeling—the Root Vine Monster.

Of course, there were still differences. A Goblin's soul could not transform into that green, life-filled energy, instead acting directly upon the flesh.

Thus, Goblins did not display the Root Vine Monsters' near-immortal regeneration speed. It merely allowed them to defy common sense by growing rapidly without eating. At most, it stimulated their bodies, producing some mutated individuals as burly as bears.

Speaking of which, the Overmind had always been puzzled. The essence of psionic power was void energy from beyond this world, drawn into reality through the will of living creatures. But where did the energy brought by souls come from?

Both Root Vine Monsters and Goblins could reproduce while ignoring the law of conservation of energy. Even the Dragon Lion could output far more kinetic energy than it obtained from food. This was especially true of its fire-breathing ability; the heat in one blast of dragon flame was equivalent to hundreds of jin of meat.

If he could unravel that secret, the Zerg's expansion speed could rise another level...

"Are they worth infecting?" the Overmind suddenly asked.

A normal organism's soul, brain, and bloodline were closely intertwined, which was why the Zerg could control their behavior by influencing their flesh and blood.

But what controlled a Goblin's behavior was, in essence, its twisted, mutated soul that had become detached from the flesh. It was a kind of "spirit," not a "form," and difficult to control through infection. The power and protection granted by Zergification might even increase their combat strength.

Agatha had clearly not considered this question. After pausing for two seconds, she replied, "That is indeed a problem. Even if we strengthen the link between their central nervous systems and limbs, the abnormal 'souls' will still interfere with their movements."

"Either way, let's try it first." The Overmind made the decision.

As the command was issued, subtle changes appeared across the Creep. The Hyper-Evolutionary Virus surged in, while tendrils extended from the Creep and entered the Goblins' blood vessels, providing additional nutrition to the Zergified tissues and suppressing the hosts' immune functions.

Zerg traits appeared across the Goblins' bodies at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, the Overmind intervened personally, modifying the Goblins' nervous systems and strengthening their central nervous systems' control over every part of their bodies.

But the results were poor.

The Goblins' souls could not only regulate their flesh through the nervous system, but also directly affect their muscles, bones, endocrine systems, and many other aspects. Even when the Overmind modified the Goblins until their veins bulged all over, he could not completely overpower their souls' influence upon their bodies.

This meant the Overmind could only guide Goblin infected units, not fully control them. They could not coordinate with other infected units, would attack one another in dense formations, and were difficult to force into dormancy... Their only advantages were rapid reproduction and not needing to eat.

But once the Hatchery was built, the Zerg's reproduction speed would already be extremely fast. And because Zerg naturally entered dormancy when idle, they consumed little. Overall, infecting this bunch would be rather useless.

He would see whether the Hive Mind could suppress their souls. If not, he might as well kill them all.

With that thought, the Overmind pulled the Goblin's chaotic consciousness into the Hive Mind, completely transforming it into a Zerg unit.

Yet just as the Goblin's eyes began to glow with the distinctive red of Zerg psionic power, it suddenly let out a miserable howl.

"Its soul is fluctuating violently!" Agatha's warning came immediately.

The Overmind's consciousness instantly entered the Hive Mind as he tried to suppress the Goblin's sense of self.

But before the Overmind could mobilize its psionic energy, the changes in the goblin had already ended. The ferocity between its brows rapidly faded, and its pupils gradually cleared from their former cloudiness. The entire creature changed from its previous brutal, twisted state and became "normal."

Yet just as a pile of scattered building blocks could not reassemble itself, its soul had ultimately failed to return to the delicate, complex state of a normal creature. It merely fell silent and decayed, becoming so faint that it was almost indistinguishable.

The Overmind frowned. This did not seem to be the effect of psionic energy. He had merely drawn the goblin's consciousness into the hive; he had not even exerted any force yet.

It seemed that the very act of pulling the goblin into the Hive Mind had catalyzed something.

"Its soul has fallen silent," Agatha reported. "Its condition is close to that of an infected host that has lost its neural center."

During the recent annexation of Dragon Lion Territory, some infected hosts had their heads shattered by high-level Root Vine Monsters, yet their bodies remained active under the nourishment of the Creep.

While studying the extraordinary power known as the "soul," the Overmind had also examined these headless infected hosts. After losing their neural centers, their souls still existed, but had become silent, weak, and simple. Even if a new head was attached, their souls could not return to their original state. However, these remaining scraps of soul still retained the ability to work with the body's reproductive system to give birth to new, complete souls.

Perhaps this goblin, whose soul was reduced to scraps, also retained the ability to produce "normal" goblins...

Perhaps he could try creating a normal goblin. Though there was little practical value in it. No matter how developed a goblin's brain was, without the unique brain structure of the Zerg, it could not draw knowledge and experience from the Hive Mind. That meant its growth would be slow.

If only he had a system. Collecting a "healthy" goblin might even unlock some kind of "achievement."

"Looks like these monsters have little research value," the Overmind said. "Have the Bait Birds fly over every inch of Goblin Forest. Once safety is confirmed, spread the Creep. Agatha, leave it to you."

Goblins had short average lifespans and chaotic minds, so their memories had little reference value. But the fact that such weak, troublesome creatures unafraid of death could spread across an entire region also suggested that there were not many formidable creatures nearby.

"How should I deal with them?" Agatha asked the Overmind after severing her connection to the goblin.

"Prioritize infection. Don't force it if it proves difficult. Oh, and induce a few 'normal' goblins. They might be useful someday."

Agatha nodded. "As you will."

As for the Overmind, he needed to spend some time on the Swarm's genes and prepare for the establishment of the Hatchery.

Adjust the structure of the Creep: make it differentiate advanced transport tissues in advance to facilitate the gathering of materials; meanwhile, stockpile large quantities of nutrients in designated locations and synthesize certain key proteins ahead of time, reducing the time needed to establish the Hatchery to the absolute minimum.

The Overmind did not want some unfortunate situation where, at a critical moment, he had to fight an enemy to the death while guarding a developing sac, only for someone to ambush him just before the Hatchery finished developing, causing all his efforts to come to nothing...