Parasitic genes

The moment the long-haired ape stepped off his spaceship, a little bug crept onto him and bit him hard.

Seeing the terror on his face, Zhang Fan quickly said in the Moon Ape Language, "It's all right. My little friend likes you and wants to be friends."

The long-haired ape scrutinized Zhang Fan, who had two legs, four arms, and a body covered in carapace. "You... how do you know the Moon Ape Language?"

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Zhang Fan, Overlord of the Insect Race, searching the universe for powerful strength."

The long-haired ape glanced around. Only after deciding Zhang Fan seemed to mean him no harm did he say, "I'm Yuan Jun, a wanderer. I just ran into some bandits, so..."

Zhang Fan suddenly asked, "What was that explosion just now?"

Yuan Jun grew evasive at the question. "Explosion? I don't know!"

Zhang Fan smiled faintly. Clearly, Yuan Jun couldn't lie to save his life. An explosion that had shaken even Rebecca-how could his fly-sized spaceship not have felt it?

"Who was chasing you just now?"

"They... they were just a bunch of space pirates."

Yuan Jun seemed unwilling to answer any more of Zhang Fan's questions. Looking rather flustered, he said, "Thank you for saving me, but can I leave now?"

Zhang Fan made no attempt to stop him and smiled. "Of course! Safe travels."

Watching Yuan Jun shrink into a point of light in the distance, Nona asked, "Overlord, why not have a Zombie Bug control him directly? He's clearly hiding a lot from us."

"Hahaha, it's our first meeting, and you expect him to tell us everything? It's fine. The little bug is with him anyway. Let's observe him first. After all, he's the carbon-based life-form I've been searching for all this time."

Through the little bug, Zhang Fan had absorbed Yuan Jun's gene chain and discovered that he was actually a carbon-based life-form. After searching the vast universe for hundreds of years, Zhang Fan had almost come to believe that humans were its only carbon-based life-forms.

Yuan Jun's existence proved that there was one planet nearby, perhaps even several, that might be suitable for human habitation. Before finding Earth, Zhang Fan could begin experiments to revive humanity on these planets.

Thus, letting Yuan Jun go had merely been a way to make him lead the way. Sure enough, Yuan Jun didn't disappoint. Following the little bug's pheromones, Rebecca soon reached the planet where he had landed.

The planet was beautiful, like an emerald. Its forests seemed to cover as much of its surface as Earth's oceans did.

Rebecca quietly came to a stop behind a planet, while three Venom Bees carried large quantities of insect eggs toward this emerald world.

Zhang Fan observed the planet through the Venom Bees. Just as he had expected, forests covered almost all of it. There were only a few artificial structures across the entire planet, and none occupied much space-just a few dozen square kilometers each, like small towns.

The materials used in these structures were also unlike anything Zhang Fan had seen. They had a metallic texture, yet bore the growth rings of wood. He had the Venom Bees test them with their stingers, which contained highly corrosive fluid, but they couldn't penetrate them. At most, they left palm-sized pits less than a centimeter deep.

Noya exclaimed in amazement, "There are actually things in the universe that can withstand the Venom Bees' corrosive fluid!"

Zhang Fan laughed. "You little thing, the universe holds infinite possibilities. Creatures stronger and more advanced than us are everywhere. There's no need to make such a fuss."

"Yes, Overlord. Shall we begin plundering now?"

Zhang Fan looked Noya up and down, taking in her spike-like hands, six tentacles serving as legs, and the sharp teeth on her abdomen. He smiled. "You little thing, why are you so aggressive?"

"I was born to invade. Isn't that your will, Overlord?"

Zhang Fan suddenly seemed to remember. A hundred years had passed, and he had almost forgotten that, in his pursuit of greater power and faster, more efficient gene collection, he had deliberately hatched Noya and the other Matriarchs.

These Matriarchs were highly aggressive, and their overall strength surpassed that of Likafeier and Yata.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Fan said, "First, collect the genes of the other creatures here and build an army."

It took Zhang Fan only a day to collect genes from the tens of millions of species on this emerald world. After discarding most of the genes that were of little use or that he already possessed, he discovered a powerful parasitic gene!

This gene had been extracted from the planet's plants. It allowed a parasite to absorb its host's energy from within, growing and reproducing rapidly.

Zhang Fan incorporated Parasitism into the little bugs' genes, then had bugs carrying the parasitic gene infest a frog-like creature native to the planet.

In less than a day, hundreds of bug-frogs bearing traits of both the frog and the little bugs burst out of the host's desiccated corpse.

However, these bug-frogs had lost their ability to parasitize hosts and showed no aggression whatsoever. In Zhang Fan's eyes, they weren't even good enough to be pets.

Still, with the bug-frogs' success, Zhang Fan began frantically hatching little bugs carrying the parasitic gene.

Noya suddenly reported, "After Yuan Jun contacted his own kind, they began evacuating the planet. According to the little bug's report, they intend to destroy it."

"What?" Zhang Fan immediately roared, "I just found something good! No way-stop them!"

Thousands of Venom Bees suddenly appeared in front of Yuan Jun's spaceship, blocking their line of attack on the emerald world.

"The Insect Race? Why are they here?" Yuan Jun asked in terror.

A white-haired ape beside him asked, "You know these strange creatures?"

"They saved me when the Free Alliance was hunting me down. I thought they'd already left."

"You... how could you be so careless? Are they trying to stop us from destroying Natawa?"

"I don't know. Maybe he doesn't know how dangerous Natawa is. I think I can try talking to them."

Zhang Fan's voice suddenly rang out in Yuan Jun's mind. "If you have something to say, just say it."

"You... you can actually... what exactly are you?"

"Aren't I the one who saved your life? Is that how you speak to your savior?"

Only after calming himself a little did Yuan Jun say, "Overlord Zhang Fan, what do you mean by having your Insect Race block our path?"

"I'm stopping you from destroying this beautiful planet, of course."

Yuan Jun hurriedly said, "Overlord, you don't know how dangerous this planet is. Its plants spread like an infectious disease. Several of our planets have already been contaminated."

Zhang Fan laughed heartily. "All the better. I'm rather fond of them. You still have time to leave. Wait any longer, and I can't promise what will happen once my little friends get hungry."

Yuan Jun's gaze sharpened, and he said with slight anger, "If you insist on doing this, Overlord, don't blame us for showing no mercy."

"What a strange creature you are. Turning on me so quickly? Then let's see how you plan to show me no mercy."

Zhang Fan smiled at Noya beside him. "I'll leave this to you. It'll give me a chance to see what you can do."