Neural Thorn

From a slightly elevated spot in Death Forest, Chloe rode a Zergling and gazed out over the entire forest. Death Forest, with all its dangers, now felt as simple and relaxing as her own back garden.

The Swarm network bustled with activity. Hunts were underway on at least three battlefields at once, and the Earth Bear was merely one of the less important ones.

Although Chloe had studied military command systematically, she was not good at it. Fortunately, the Zerglings themselves had an exceptional talent for combat and would offer suggestions of their own.

All Chloe had to do was choose between the options. The blow that had severely wounded the Earth Bear had been proposed by the Zergling that died delivering it.

Influenced by the Zerglings' thinking, Chloe gradually adapted to the Swarm's fighting style. The Swarm did not care about their own lives. They cared only whether their deaths had meaning.

And as long as they died following the Overmind's orders, their deaths were certain to have meaning. Chloe was a commander authorized by Zhang Han, so dying under her orders was equivalent to dying under the Overmind's orders.

The Zerglings' casualties had bought the deaths of large numbers of powerful magical beasts, and this influx of biomass could make up for the losses.

Moreover, the Zerg had another extraordinary ability: biomass recycling technology. This was the Zerg's most efficient means of using energy and matter. Hatching new Zerg was not without cost, but this technology could greatly improve the efficiency of biomass recycling.

For example, if hatching a Zergling cost 10 energy points, then if that Zergling did nothing before being recycled by the Hatchery, 8 energy points could be recovered.

Only 20% of the energy was consumed in the process. If the body of every Zerg that died in battle was effectively recycled, the Swarm's combat losses would become extremely low thanks to its highly efficient biomass recycling technology.

This was why the Swarm's enemies felt that it was endless in wars of attrition. From the perspective of energy expenditure, it truly was endless.

The bodies of the 12 Zerglings lost in the recent battle were carried onto the Creep. Soon, the Creep secreted digestive substances that reduced the Zerglings' bodies to the most easily absorbed liquid. Once those fluids had been fully absorbed, 9 brand-new Zerglings would hatch.

With the bodies of the hunted magical beasts added in, Zerglings could be hatched without end. Chloe had received professional military instruction; her father had hired a private tutor specifically to educate her.

He was a courteous nobleman from the most renowned military academy in the human nations, the War Military Academy. This nobleman possessed not only extensive theoretical knowledge but also considerable practical combat experience.

In his lessons, Chloe had learned that war was an extremely risky undertaking. The daily expenditure of recruits, equipment, food, and other resources was enormous.

A prolonged war was enough to leave a wealthy treasury overrun with starving, scrawny rats. Thus, victory or defeat on the battlefield was only one aspect of war; the other was the contest of national strength beyond the battlefield.

That was why the gains and losses a war would bring had to be carefully considered before starting one.

But this common knowledge about war had been completely overturned. If the acquisition of biomass energy was treated as gold and wealth, then the Swarm made money by waging war, and the more it fought, the more it earned.

The returns from the hunts of just a hundred Zerglings could hatch a thousand Zerglings, and that was in less than a day. Of course, as the hunts continued, prey in Death Forest would grow scarcer, and future returns would not be so high.

Even so, the Swarm's development remained rapid. Chloe had already rated the Swarm's power highly, but now it seemed that her estimate had still been conservative.

A new batch of Zerglings hatched, another hundred of them. The excitement and joy in the Swarm network entered Chloe's consciousness again, and she happily connected to these newborn Zerglings.

Something warm flowed from Chloe's nose. She touched it with her fair right hand and found her own nosebleed.

The mental burden pressed down on her consciousness. She had connected to too many of the Swarm, and her consciousness could not bear the strain.

"Damn it, I can't even command a mere two hundred Zerglings? Are my body and mind really this weak?"

Looking at the blood on her hand, Chloe spoke to herself.

The scarlet blood stood in stark contrast to her fair skin. Those two glaring colors seemed to mock her for overestimating herself.

Bearing the mental strain of those excessive connections, Chloe searched through the knowledge the Overmind had left in her mind. The Zerg could connect vast numbers of the Swarm and coordinate them as one, so there had to be a corresponding solution.

She found a unit: the Overlord.

The Overlord was a mentally specialized unit that could act as a psychic node, helping amplify the Overmind's mental power to command the entire Swarm. A high-level Overlord could connect to tens of millions of Zerg units.

However, at the Basic Hatchery's current level, hatching that kind of Overlord was impossible. It could not even hatch the most basic Overlord.

But that did not mean there was no solution. In fact, the solution was very simple: create a degraded version of an Overlord's organ and transplant it into other Zerg.

The Basic Hatchery called this degraded organ a Neural Thorn. It looked like a segmented length of thorny vine, and it was simple to produce and very easy to transplant.

A single Neural Thorn could connect to an additional thousand Zerg units.

The Basic Hatchery suggested that Chloe replace all her hair with these thorns. That would solve her connection problems with the Swarm network once and for all.

Women all loved beauty, and Chloe could not bear to part with her beautiful silver hair. So she chose to have only one shorter Neural Thorn transplanted, allowing her to hide it among her silver hair.

Chloe was still a little afraid when it came time for the transplant. After all, the Neural Thorn looked rather creepy, and holding it in her hand, it seemed even more like the jointed limb of some insect.

Even holding it was frightening, let alone having it transplanted into her head and connected to her brain. When the Basic Hatchery instructed her to lie down in the green pool inside the Hatchery, her fear reached its peak.

The green glow from the spawning pool shone on Chloe's clear, flawless face. Hesitant and uncertain, she recalled her past. She thought of the guards who had died before her eyes and of her elder brothers, whose eyes had been filled with murderous intent as they looked at her.

She had endured humiliation and borne her burdens for so long. Now, to gain power, she had risked venturing deep into Death Forest. So many people had died for her; even her mother, the queen, had become part of the price.

"Executor, are you hesitating?" The Basic Hatchery possessed basic communication abilities. "Please rest assured. Compared with the risks of major evolution, this is only minor surgery. There will be no lasting side effects."

"If evolution carries risks, why does the Swarm still pursue it when it's already so powerful?" Chloe asked.

"Why? The Swarm never asks why. Faced with the vast sea of stars, the Swarm chose its own path. Either expand into the depths of the sea of stars, or be destroyed by enemies from it." The Basic Hatchery stated this as a matter of course.

Sensing the Swarm's resolve, Chloe hesitated no longer. She stripped off all her clothes and stepped into the spawning pool.