Chapter 5

The senior Zerg officer called Hill shrugged and replied casually, "I really appreciate your concern for my work, sir, but all the cleanup here has already been completed..."

"Hmm, is that so?"

Carlos suddenly interrupted Hill.

Then he abruptly spread his wings and swooped straight toward a squad of soldiers on the field.

No one saw how he struck, but by the time Carlos resumed his humanoid form and landed, the soldiers were sprawled on the ground. As a result, something they had been sneakily hiding among the rubble was now in plain sight.

It was a badly deformed alloy storage container.

Carlos's antennae quivered, and he casually twisted the container free of the rubble.

"What fine cleanup work."

He looked coldly at Hill and spoke pointedly. Under the Zerg system, all supplies collected during battlefield cleanup were supposed to be reported to the administrator, but this squad of soldiers clearly intended to keep their spoils for themselves.

"Tsk, Black Thorn..."

Hill's expression changed slightly, and his gaze turned cold as he looked at the soldiers.

These Zerg soldiers were not members of Hill's tribe, but belonged to another tribe, Black Thorn. Black Thorn was a wild tribe that had only submitted not long ago, and before they were incorporated into his forces, Hill had never imagined that these insects could be so undisciplined, greedy, and stupid.

Carlos paid little attention to the intense killing intent now emanating from Hill. He had only wanted to change the subject rather than discuss "that one" in depth with Hill, but his casual mood changed when he got a clear look at the shattered storage container, which was barely holding together.

"What's this?"

Carlos raised his hand.

The container, which had not shattered under the attack of a heavy turbo electron cannon, crumbled beneath his fingertips like cardboard softened by water.

A mass of dark red gel containing a hazy humanoid figure tumbled straight out of the container.

When Carlos saw clearly what it was, he couldn't help but freeze.

It was a... larva?

Every Zerg individual went through several stages in its lifetime: egg, cocoon, larva, nymph, adult... During this time, their appearance also changed greatly.

Of these, the two most common forms were a humanoid mimicry and a fearsome, powerful true insect form.

In human mimicry, Zerg usually became gentler and calmer in temperament, and were better able to suppress the unavoidable fighting instinct in their genes. In their true form, their strength and savagery were unleashed at the most fundamental level, but in exchange, their self-control weakened and their reason faded.

Generally speaking, the more powerful a Zerg was, the more perfect its humanoid mimicry would be, while weaker Zerg usually found it difficult to conceal their Zerg traits in mimicry. In Zerg society, judging an individual's strength often required neither sensing their aura nor feeling their pressure; a glance at their appearance was enough. But this rule did not hold true during the larval stage-

Because every Zerg looked perfectly human in the larval stage.

But this was not because they were strong. It was because they were weak-too weak even to grow wings, armor, or antennae.

Of course, this stage was very, very brief in a Zerg's lifetime. As larvae grew and accumulated strength, they gradually transformed into the fearsome Zerg some humans knew, then, through the metamorphosis of the emergence stage, regained control of their bodies and began to switch freely between the two forms.

Carlos's antennae began to tremble a little faster than before.

The frail young man curled up before him was undoubtedly a Zerg. His lack of wings and other features showed that he was still in the larval stage, but judging by his current humanoid appearance, he had remained in that stage far too long. In the Zerg world, this was the most obvious characteristic of an inferior Zerg.

He was too weak to transform into insect form.

Probably because of some strange human concoction, the pheromones of the young man lying at Carlos's feet smelled somewhat strange as well.

Although Carlos was certain it really was the scent of a Zerg, the pheromones the young man gave off were a little too cloyingly sweet. Mixed with the bloody smell that covered the larva, that sweetness inexplicably made Carlos somewhat uncomfortable.

According to the intelligence they had gathered earlier, this human research institute had long been engaged in the illegal trafficking of Zerg. Not long ago, it had just received a shipment: a group of inferior Zerg who had been directly expelled by their tribes because their grades were too low and they were insufficiently developed.

And "that one" had been misleading Carlos and the others, making them believe that "that one" intended to hide among this batch of "goods" and escape into human territory.

That was why Carlos had risked attacking a human planet.

Now it seemed that "that one" had clearly fooled them again, but the information he had given them was indeed true.

While clearing the battlefield, Carlos's squad had recovered quite a few Zerg test subjects abandoned by the human researchers, but because of the attack, only sticky remains were left of those Zerg by the time they were dug out.

This larva seemed to have been fairly lucky...

Carlos observed the larva dispassionately. At least the latter was still alive.

Though, in Carlos's judgment, this larva was not far from death either: his injuries were simply too severe.

A dying inferior Zerg did not attract much of Carlos's attention. After a glance, Carlos turned away indifferently, intending to leave. He never expected that, at that very moment, he would feel something hook around his ankle.