Because, I Am

"What should I do?"

Agatha brought her two claws together, her eyes reflecting an eerie red glow. "Use Psionic Energy to connect to it."

"I don't even know what Psionic Energy is..." Before he finished speaking, the young man's Psionic Energy followed the shift in his attention and connected to the callused tissue in his hand.

Just as before with Agatha, the young man now felt that he could grasp everything about this piece of callused tissue. Apparently, this so-called Psionic Energy connection had already become an instinctive response for him.

"That was pretty simple."

As the young man focused even further, he felt himself stretch and broaden like a strand of noodles, eventually becoming an astonishingly wide, boundless "road."

The road bustled with activity, packed with endless Swarm units. From Zerglings the size of wolves to Leviathans that blotted out the sky, every Zerg unit was among them.

Yet nearly all the creatures were silent and dim. Only half of a Queen's body was highlighted and active.

This was what he was now: both the young man's consciousness and a collective formed from every existing and formerly existing Zerg biological unit. It also stored all the Swarm's knowledge and experiences.

He gazed toward the beginning of the "road."

In a daze, the young man felt as though he had crossed countless ages and arrived in an ancient era. Within the primal broth of the Spawning Pool, the first Larva was born.

Driven by parasitism, devouring, slaughter, and the incomprehensible beings from beyond the heavens, the scattered Swarm gathered together, forming an orderly and tightly knit species. The Zerg's minds formed an individual as towering as a mountain—the Overmind was born.

From then on, under one Overmind after another, the Swarm rapidly expanded... until the last Overmind, for the Swarm's development, ignored the backlash of the entire universe, shattered the barrier, and chose itself...

The young man also understood the true nature of his "road"—the Hive Mind.

Though the Swarm under his command currently had only Agatha as a single unit, his presence had already been branded into the Swarm's history, merging into every Zerg unit...

Because, I am...

With a shudder, the Overmind came back to his senses.

"Overmind?" Agatha looked puzzled. "Did something happen?"

The Overmind turned to look at Agatha. His consciousness entered the Hive Mind once more and descended into Agatha's body.

Agatha's movements slowed. The red glow in her eyes flickered twice, like a human blink, before she began examining her three-fingered claws. The carapace on her upper body opened, and her Spines thrust outward before retracting.

She suddenly swiped a claw through the air, producing a sharp crack like a whip's tip. Even a flick of her fingers made a soft rushing sound.

This was the strength a high-level Zerg unit should possess.

The red glow in Agatha's eyes became steady and blazing once more.

The Overmind's consciousness returned to his own body. He focused once again on the callused tissue in his hand.

He delved deeper into the "road." This time, however, he did not linger. Instead, he continued onward. Under the combined effects of Psionic Energy and consciousness, the Overmind soon found himself before an incomparably complex network.

These were... The Swarm's genes?

The Zerg's genetic arrangement was far messier than the young man had imagined.

Because the organs of different units shared common components, it was not a long gene chain where one segment belonged to a Zergling and another to a Hydralisk. Instead, everything was tangled together.

The genes for constructing an Overlord's inflated shell might be connected to the genes for a Roach's digging feet; beside the genes for a Broodling's wings could be the genes controlling an Ultralisk's monomolecular giant scythes... It also contained genetic fragments absorbed by the Swarm from all kinds of creatures, along with multicopy genes that had emerged through repeated use...

Furthermore, the various genes affected one another in overlapping ways.

For example, a gene segment that promoted egg-laying might also affect muscle development, while genes that increased metabolism could simultaneously control gastric acid secretion...

Such a complicated, chaotic gene bank was like a massive "mountain of shit." The stable existence of any Zerg unit relied on tens of thousands of genes mutually restraining and influencing one another to maintain a balance... Fortunately, as the Overmind, he was innately sensitive to the Swarm's genes, and in his eyes, everything seemed to come with annotations.

Besides, Creep's genes were extremely simple.

It did not take long for the Overmind to awaken a small half of the genes within the callused tissue that belonged to Creep.

This small piece of flesh, originally part of Agatha, visibly proliferated and swelled, eventually dropping from the Overmind's hand like sticky petroleum.

Plop—

It landed on the grass beside the Overmind's feet and began slowly devouring the blades of grass.

At present, this drop of Creep tissue operated at roughly ten percent the efficiency of the most basic Zerg Creep.

"That is already enough," Agatha said. "After splitting for more than a dozen generations, the Creep will activate all its genes on its own."

Since it had been transformed from callused tissue, the Creep could even retain some special functions.

"When can a Hatchery be established?"

"According to the program set within its genes, a Hatchery will develop only once the Creep has covered a sufficiently large area. With your current level of Psionic Energy, even if you intervene directly, you can only adjust the time at which the Hatchery is established. It will be difficult to completely overturn this program..."

Under normal circumstances, expansion was Creep's foremost priority. With the Hyper-Evolutionary Virus assimilating native organisms, developing a Hatchery too early offered little benefit beyond adding a fatal weakness.

Of course, that was also because the young man was currently too weak. The more powerful an Overmind was, the less constrained it would be by the Zerg's primal instincts. As the Creep expanded and the Zerg's biological mass increased, the young man, as the Hive Mind, would gradually grow stronger as well.

"Calculate an estimate based on your experience," the Overmind said directly.

Agatha calculated for a moment. "Once the Creep covers approximately fourteen thousand square kilometers, a Hatchery can develop under your command."

"Fourteen thousand square kilometers..."

What kind of concept was that? To put it another way, the capital covered sixteen thousand square kilometers.

The size of a prefecture-level city... He could only pray this world was uninhabited.

Creep split continuously. For humans, more than a dozen generations would take at least a hundred and fifty years. For Creep, however, it took only a few minutes.

While they were speaking, the Creep had already completed the correction of its own gene chains and begun rapidly expanding outward.

Almost visibly, blades of grass touched by the Creep rapidly shriveled and decayed, their nutrients quickly converted into new Creep.

Tall trees fared even worse. Their fibrous conducting tissues became natural culture media for Mycelium, and corrosion from within would make a tree collapse with a crash in just a few hours.

A lush rainforest was an ocean of organic matter to Creep. As all things withered, Creep expanded at a terrifying rate, spreading outward at nearly one meter per minute.

At that speed, covering fourteen thousand square kilometers would take only two and a half months. Naturally, that was without any intervention from the Overmind. Inducing Creep Tumors, sowing Creep in multiple locations, unlocking more efficient Creep genes... would take even less time. According to the information obtained from the Hive Mind, the highest-grade Creep could infect an entire planet within days.

Although it was not a primary source of organic matter, Creep could photosynthesize. Its efficiency was also far greater than that of green plants. One only had to look at its nearly black color to know that it could absorb almost every wavelength of light.

The Swarm was always known for adapting to its environment, but its ability to reshape the environment was just as formidable.

Through planting, animal husbandry, fermentation, and other methods, humans could make all the energy within a small artificial ecosystem ultimately flow toward humanity.

But the Zerg could go a step further. As a single race, they encompassed every function of producers, consumers, and decomposers. One species built an entire ecosystem...