After a period of sustained, targeted "feeding."
Lynn finally brought about a qualitative change in that cold relationship gauge.
The affection displayed by the system finally rose above zero, becoming a tiny positive number.
Lynn could sense a subtle change in the attitude on the other end of the psychic link.
He opened the status displayed by the system. Sure enough, Rena no longer regarded him simply as "available biomass" or "a target requiring vigilance."
Instead, she placed him in a more complex category, something like "a special symbiotic unit with ongoing cooperative value, predictable behavioral logic,
and a high degree of alignment with current survival objectives."
In other words, the layer of murderous intent that might erupt at any moment had faded from the way Rena looked at him.
In its place was an attitude toward one of her own kind, or rather, a useful tool.
But for Lynn, this was still an enormous step forward.
"I really am a galgame master!" Lynn muttered happily to himself.
Meanwhile, the system interface also underwent some changes.
A pink-bordered [Romance Development System] was unlocked. After looking through it,
Lynn gained a general understanding of what this development system did.
Starting from zero affection, every ten affection points could be exchanged for one skill point.
Beneath Rena's panel, three clearly defined skill trees unfolded.
[Development Path]: focuses on biomass conversion efficiency, energy metabolism rate, and the hatching and regeneration capabilities of basic units. [Individual Path]: enhances individual combat power, as well as the generation and optimization of specialized biological organs. [Tactical Path]: improves the range and precision of command over swarm units, enhancing the target's ability to command mass combat.
The three paths corresponded to development, individual combat power, and command ability.
It was much like the hero units in the many strategy games Lynn had played in his previous life. Since he was just starting out,
he obviously had to choose development!
As it happened, breaking past zero had earned him an initial skill point from the system.
With almost no hesitation, Lynn spent it on the first node of the [Development Path].
Lighting up the skill tree for the first time directly unlocked [Devouring Enhancement].
Its effect was simple and direct: Rena's efficiency in devouring and absorbing biomass and energy increased by 50%.
An absolutely god-tier skill!
The effect was almost immediate.
The next time he fed Rena, Lynn clearly observed that,
with the same amount of biomass, she absorbed it faster, and both the sheen of her carapace and the slight increase in her size were more pronounced.
She was like a war machine that had received a more powerful engine core, its operating efficiency significantly improved.
The more important internal change was that, as her recognition of Lynn as a "cooperator" deepened,
the invisible bond between her and that vast, chaotic, all-devouring "Hive Mind" grew increasingly thin and tenuous.
The synchronization rate fell to [3.1%].
She was more like a node that had broken free of the web and could act independently, rather than a puppet on strings within it.
But Rena, who was about to sever herself completely from the hive network, used fragmented information obtained by devouring some Genestealers
to piece together a deadly warning.
[Deep primary spawning node activity has entered an accelerated cycle. Local cleansing operations (human units) have produced a disruptive effect and may stimulate the deep network to initiate emergency protocols. Extrapolating from the current information model, the probability window for the primary consciousness to focus a scan on this star region, accompanied by the arrival of a physical vanguard force... approximately 400 local day-night cycles. Meanwhile, anomalous individual (Rena) has been designated a "priority purge" target by the primary consciousness.]
Four hundred local day-night cycles, roughly a little over a year, and the Hive Fleet would arrive.
The joy of having just broken past zero affection was instantly diluted by the crisis.
Lynn leaned against the cold wall, digesting the information.
A Tyranid invasion of a planet generally proceeded in three stages.
First, Genestealers would arrive on the planet.
Then came an infiltration period lasting years to a century, preparing for the Hive Fleet's arrival.
Once everything was ready and the Hive Mind deemed the time right, the arrival phase would begin.
Then, the terrifying Hive Fleet would use Narvhals to manipulate gravitational fields, achieving faster-than-light travel and arriving above the planet.
Countless Tyranids would descend onto the planet's surface in spores, devouring every living thing they could see.
It would be a true catastrophe.
And the Tyranids' infiltration of this world, decades of preparation, was finally nearing its end.
When the shadow of the Tyranids truly blotted out this planet's sun, when the despairingly vast bodies of the Hive Fleet tore through the clouds,
what awaited him and Rena would no longer be the sluggishness of Imperial bureaucrats or pursuit by the Inquisition's hounds.
It would be pure annihilation from beyond the stars, directed at "anomalies" and "betrayal."
The Imperium could not be relied upon, the Tyranids were mortal enemies, and the Inquisition was a hunting blade at his back.
He and Rena were like two insects trapped between the jaws of a closing steel pincer.
He had to find a path for himself and Rena, a way out of this hellish cage.
A turning point, or rather another, deadlier source of pressure, appeared on a cycle-day without any warning.
The Hive City's alarms were not always loud and piercing.
For Lynn, mired in District Seven, the so-called "appeal for aid from above" and "outside response"
were initially nothing more than a cold, vaguely worded annotation in an internal briefing.
But over the following days, the barely concealed tension and a trace of... awe? on the faces of those normally arrogant senior Adeptus Arbites officials
made him realize the gravity of the situation.
Then that sound came.
It was not the familiar roar of the Hive City's lower-level furnaces or upper-level engines.
It was a deeper, more regular, low-frequency pulse that seemed capable of directly shaking his chest and bones.
It penetrated layer upon layer of metal decking and concrete partitions, slowly and inexorably filtering down from above.
Some enormous, precise, merciless creation of steel descended onto this filthy Hive World amid a furious roar.
Throughout District Seven, and even the filthy reaches of District Eight below it, countless ears numbed by the din involuntarily pricked up.
An instinctive wariness of a power far beyond comprehension spread through the polluted air.
Standing in his new office, which could now be considered "spacious," Lynn said quietly:
"They're here."
He murmured to himself, his fingers unconsciously tapping the cold windowsill.
Having learned some of the news in advance, he regarded these visitors' arrival with awe and found it troublesome.
The Hive City's structure was vertical, and so was its hierarchy.
District Seven, where Lynn lived, was already among the lowest levels barely covered by nominal "human order."
Below it lay District Eight and District Nine, "restricted zones" that existed in law,
but in reality had already been abandoned or become breeding grounds for mutant creatures and heretical cults.
Although, relying on Rena's "intelligence" and the Anvil Society's reach, he had achieved considerable "results" in suppressing Genestealer activity in District Seven and even on the fringes of District Eight,
in the other districts, especially the upper and older ones, Tyranid infiltration was already deeply entrenched. The situation was far beyond anything his little efforts could reverse.
The Planetary Governor and those lofty lords had evidently finally realized this.
Or rather, they could finally no longer keep pretending not to see that the abscess was about to burst.
A distress signal was sent out into the stars.
And those who answered were
the Sons of Medusa.