"Don't be nervous. I mean you no harm. I merely reside within your body."
Seemingly sensing its host's despair, the Collector offered reassurance.
"Please, could you leave my body?" the parasitized Bofu person begged the Collector.
"Cooperate with us, and once this is over, I'll leave your body."
"Cooperate? What do you Amoebas want me to do?"
The parasitized new host became wary. Rather than agreeing immediately, he questioned it.
The Collector did not intend to hide anything and explained directly.
"Help us find more hosts."
Just as the new host was about to refuse, the Collector added,
"Don't be afraid. We merely reside within their bodies. Beyond that, we will do nothing, and we certainly will not use you as breeding beds."
"Why should I believe you?"
Subjectively, the new host wanted very much to believe the Collector, because that would allow him to survive.
Not everyone could sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their species. Among the Bofu hegemons, selfish people were far more common.
"Let me show you something."
The Collector transmitted the effects of the star harvesting matter onto the new host's retina, allowing him to truly "see" the harvesting of stellar matter.
At the same time, the Collector explained,
"This is how we acquire matter. We directly mine and absorb matter from main-sequence stars. Even if you gathered every one of your people into a ball, their total mass would not amount to even one ten-thousandth of the scale of this extraction..."
"You probably do not understand it put that way, so let me put it differently. All of you combined are nowhere near enough to provide even a tiny fraction of the resources needed for us to proliferate. Using you as breeding beds would simply be a waste of time."
Even so, that