The Insect Army

Two hours later.

The Overmind opened his eyes.

The Creep had expanded to cover roughly the area of two football fields.

Viewed from above, that patch of blackish-purple amid the forest was already beginning to stand out.

Agatha had already infected a sizable force, something the Overmind could see clearly through the "paths."

One snake, two squirrels, five small lizards, nine rats, a pile of bird eggs, and tens of thousands of insects of various kinds—mostly ants and termites.

For the time being, there was only one large animal: the Leopard the Overmind had strangled. The virus had repaired the damage to its spine, but at the cost of growing a huge tumor on its neck. And because it had been dead for too long, part of its neural tissue had become inactive. It moved like it had suffered three years of cerebral thrombosis and could not even climb trees anymore.

The Overmind focused mainly on that pile of bird eggs.

With Agatha around, the more pressing issue, rather than insufficient defensive strength, was their complete ignorance of the surrounding environment.

He desperately needed to know what this world was like, whether humans existed, and if they did, what their technological level was. He also needed to know whether there were any troublesome enemies within fourteen thousand square kilometers. A flock of infected birds was perfectly suited for reconnaissance.

Unfortunately, adult birds were too cautious. As soon as the Creep spread halfway up the tree trunks, they flew away. None had been caught alive.

The Overmind placed a hand on the Creep and established a link with Psionic Energy.

This section of Creep immediately began dividing and multiplying at high speed, while the surrounding Creep wriggled toward his hand. The Creep thickened, then gradually became loose and porous, swelling like rising dough. Before long, a hive-style incubator had taken shape.

The Overmind picked up one of the collected bird eggs.

With Psionic Energy linked into the egg, the Overmind found the infected chick embryo. As he searched the Hive Mind for relevant experience, he began modifying it for comparison.

The Hyper-Evolutionary Virus infected its targets by inserting Zerg genes into the infected animal's DNA.

However, the basic virus without any mutations would not cause deep Zergification in the infected. Aside from making their skin tougher and rougher and sprouting keratinous spikes of varying sizes, it merely altered certain functional proteins in their bodies—more efficient myosin, respiratory proteins with greater oxygen-carrying capacity... A few might grow extra organs, but the deformity rate would be extremely high.

Because the nervous system was eroded, their movements would become sluggish and stiff. Combined with the excessive burden on their gene chains, the cancerization that followed brought all manner of proliferating tentacles and tumors. It was difficult to say whether assimilated creatures had become stronger or weaker.

But if infection began from the fertilized egg stage, none of those problems would occur.

The Creep would take the dominant role from the very beginning, rather than devouring the infected host in its struggle for nutrients and inducing tumors. The virus could also function to its fullest extent. Some units could even use specific commands to make targeted modifications to infected units.

Whether it was the effect of Psionic Energy or some organ in his modified body that had not fully gone dormant, the Overmind could predict, to a certain extent, what the bird would look like after it developed when he modified the egg's genes.

Still, this was only the first generation. Without the support of Zerg organs, the Hyper-Evolutionary Virus had its limits, and there was not much the Overmind could modify.

But as generations accumulated, the infected could continuously deepen their Zergification and use that process to cultivate more specialized and efficient Hyper-Evolutionary Viruses... until the unit was finally added to the Swarm and could be hatched directly from Hatchery Larvae.

Yet this assimilation route, beginning with a virus, had not been used much in the Swarm's history.

Most of the time, the Swarm simply tossed a species it fancied into the Spawning Pool, uploaded its genes to the Hatchery and Evolution Chamber—and assimilation was complete.

After finishing the modifications on one bird egg, the Overmind inserted it into the swollen Creep, then picked up the second egg.

Before he could link to it, he noticed the "troops" standing guard around him.

The Overmind simply gave Agatha an order, telling her to direct the little creatures to do something useful:

The snake, squirrels, and lizards were to search the trees for bird nests and move the eggs out of them.

The rats were to dig tunnels.

The Creep's ability to become either hard or soft made it extremely suitable for serving as the "lid" of a pit trap. With the forces currently at hand insufficient, this could strengthen their defenses.

As for the insects... they were to assist the Creep in expanding underground, striving to reach the subterranean coal seam as soon as possible.

Who knew how much time had passed? After stuffing the last bird egg into the swollen bird nest, the Overmind let out a long breath and leaned back against the chair.

Yes, a chair. The moment the Overmind sat down, the Creep beneath him had begun to multiply and gather. By the time he had modified more than ten bird eggs, a sofa-like structure was supporting his body, constantly adjusting itself according to his posture and skeletal structure until it formed a perfect ergonomic seat.

The Overmind rose to his feet, turned around, and patted the seat twice. Ripples spread across the Creep sofa like water, making it look remarkably springy.

Once again, he marveled at how Zerg black technology this stuff was—material that could change however he wanted.

He had no idea what time it was.

The Overmind instinctively looked up, only to discover that the sky was already filled with stars, with a full moon hanging high overhead. It was clearly deep into the night.

Yet everything around him remained as bright as day in the Overmind's eyes.

Low-Light Vision.

As a race that traveled through the Nydus Network year-round, the Zerg possessed extraordinary dark adaptation.

Even though his body was still in a deep dormant state, the optical structure of his eyes alone allowed him to see at night.

The Creep's expansion, troop infections, and genetic modifications had taken up most of his attention. The Overmind had not even noticed night falling.

Only...

"Why don't I feel hungry?" the Overmind asked aloud before realizing something. He turned to Agatha. "Wait. How often do I need to eat?"

Because of the excessive neural burden, Agatha lagged slightly before answering, "Under normal circumstances, your Psionic Energy is sufficient to sustain your body's energy consumption. Therefore, your body did not account for the ability to eat. Of course, you may order the Creep to develop specialized organs that can synthesize exclusive nutrients and inject them into your body."

The essence of Psionic Energy was Void Energy drawn into reality by the Hive Mind, then filtered and converted. It came from beyond the world. In a sense, the Overmind's physical body was being sustained by the entire Swarm, which did not violate the conservation of energy.

There was only so much space in the human chest and abdominal cavities. For an individual like a Zerg Overmind, who did not pursue personal survival capability, filling that space with digestive organs like a stomach and intestines was simply too wasteful. It was better to separate the function of eating and let the Creep handle it, leaving room for other organs.

"Many Zerg units do not have digestive systems." Agatha's two claws met before her face. She herself was a fine example. A Queen did not merely lack a digestive system—it did not even have a mouth.

"Seems like I still have a mouth."

"Yes. You can analyze what you consume and extract the essence of biological tissue," Agatha said. "It also has a certain nutrient absorption function, but this alone cannot provide enough types of nutrients. Completely digesting the residue would instead consume even more energy."

"Completely digest it? Then my... Wait! I don't want to know. Whatever you do, don't tell me!"

Just as their conversation was drifting further and further off course, Agatha suddenly grew stern and issued a warning. "An abnormal Psionic Energy fluctuation has been detected. Overmind, please prepare for battle."

As soon as she spoke, the Overmind noticed several unnaturally large bulges rising from the Creep nearby.

The bulges grew larger and larger. The Overmind could even see unnatural light surging beneath the Creep tissue, which had been stretched nearly paper-thin...