Parasitic Intelligence Gathering

Living creatures needed rest, because not every organism could, like the Collectors, control the repair and regulation of their own brain cells.

Of course, if a creature had no brain, then never resting was also possible. Plants, for example, could keep going indefinitely as long as they had light, inorganic matter, water, and photosynthesis.

An intelligent creature slept soundly inside the room. It was the Collectors' target after infiltrating the place.

The room was small. Perhaps to save space, the rooms provided for intelligent creatures resting within the fortress were only six square meters. Things such as wardrobes and storage boxes were built into the walls, while the room's table had a fold-up design that allowed it to stand flat against the wall when not in use.

It could be said that, without modifying biological bodies, the limited technology had made maximum use of the available space.

This intelligent creature did not sleep lying flat like a human. Instead, it hung upside down from the ceiling, resting in a vertical position. Its "bed" occupied only one square meter.

That was right. This room, barely six square meters in size, was still a shared dormitory. Judging by the number of "beds," four intelligent creatures lived here.

The other three had not yet returned, and the Collectors decided to seize the opportunity.

Perhaps to save space, the room's ceiling was not very high. With the intelligent creature hanging upside down, its head was only a meter from the floor, saving the Collectors the trouble of climbing the wall.

The Collectors evolved their body, extending a tentacle as thin as a strand of hair toward the intelligent creature's head.

The tentacle's tip reached the single-molecule scale. After piercing the intelligent creature's shallow scalp, the Collectors gained a basic understanding of its neural perception.