"Why did you make me fall into such pain and confusion?"
"What is the true meaning of my existence?"
This was the question the Brain Worm had been pondering ever since it gained life.
Unlike what ordinary beings might imagine, what the Brain Worm felt after gaining thought and life was not the so-called beauty of existence that wise beings spoke of.
On the contrary, what it felt was only extreme pain and confusion.
Of course, this pain was not of the body, but of the mind—of the soul itself.
Hearing this, Chu Hao narrowed his eyes slightly.
He looked at the "little worm" before him with interest, studied it for a while, and then spoke.
"You think your current state is filled with pain and confusion, is that right?"
He did not answer the question directly but asked another one instead.
"That's right, Great Lord of the Abyss," the Brain Worm said. "Although I haven't lived for long and still don't fully understand many emotions, with Daimon's help, I've come to realize that my current state is one of pain and confusion."
"I don't know why I came into being, why I was born into this world. I don't even know what kind of existence I truly am."
The Brain Worm spoke calmly.
Like all members of its kind, it possessed an extremely powerful logical mind—unlike the chaotic demons, its reasoning was precise and structured.
"For any void-born Zerg, I am an absolute aberration."
"Not only do I have my own thoughts, but I have also separated myself from my mother—the Hive Will! What I cannot accept the most is that after leaving the Hive Will, I still..."
The Brain Worm hesitated for a moment before deciding to explain its behavior according to instinct.
"In the end, driven by my own lowly instincts, I resisted the orders of the Hive Will."
"All of this has caused me unbearable pain!"
"But more than this pain, what I cannot accept is that since then, I have not received any more orders! None at all!"
"In my previous life, every moment was spent obeying the Hive Will's commands."
"From my birth as a larva to my death's end."
"From feeding, to attacking, to constructing structures using genetic blueprints, to nurturing new larvae—everything I did followed the commands of the Hive Will."
"But now, every action I take feels aimless!"
"I don't know what I should do without orders!"
"I don't know whether I should eat, whether I should move to another place, I don't know..."
"After losing the Hive Will, all I can feel is emptiness."
"I can even feel that my existence has no meaning at all!"
The Brain Worm's black compound eyes were filled with confusion.
But hearing this, Chu Hao only smiled faintly.
"This question," he said, "is so foolish that it's almost laughable, you little insect."
In his eyes, black and crimson vortices slowly turned.
"With just a simple experiment, you'll understand."
"First, I need to confirm something—whether you truly possess a sea of mind and a soul..."
A wisp of black mist flashed past, sweeping across the Brain Worm's body.
The mist quickly gave Chu Hao his answer.
The Brain Worm indeed possessed its own sea of mind and soul—though still in an embryonic stage.
Just like a fetus with a beating heart, its sea of mind and soul were as undeveloped as its body.
But this result was enough.
Because with even a nascent sea of mind, Chu Hao knew that the creature before him could already perceive what it meant to feel...
Pain.
"Chiiiii!!!"
As Chu Hao's eyes widened slightly, a wave of black mist surged once again.
The Brain Worm convulsed violently. Its limbs twisted irregularly, and its swollen body trembled madly.
In the endless Abyss, pain was the cheapest thing of all.
Chu Hao had merely gathered a few strands of pain from shattered abyssal souls—enough to make this insignificant creature experience agony that transcended the soul itself.
"My lord!"
Seeing the Brain Worm writhing in such pain, Daimon grew anxious.
Chu Hao ignored him. He crouched down, smiling coldly, and asked the Brain Worm,
"Well then, Brain Worm—how do you feel now?"
Despite the agony so intense it could have killed a lesser being instantly, the Brain Worm—possessing the resilience of Zerg logic—still managed to answer clearly.
"It... hurts... terribly!"
"But... I... don't... understand!"
"You don't understand what this has to do with the question you asked, is that it?"
"Yes..."
Green foam bubbled from its mouthparts as the pain overwhelmed its body.
Its physical functions were clearly breaking down.
Chu Hao's expression remained indifferent as he snapped his fingers.
Then—
"Chiiiii!"
More black mist poured forth, countless fragments of abyssal agony piercing into the Brain Worm's body.
Every muscle within it seemed to boil.
"The answer to your question," Chu Hao said, smiling, "is simple."
"The journey of life is nothing more than an endless process of suffering."
"No matter how much one denies it, life itself is pain."
"Birth is pain. Death is pain. And the path between birth and death— that too is pain."
"But the greatness of life lies in this: beings always find a way to transform a portion of that pain into the drive to keep living."
"They accept their suffering as part of existence. They convince themselves that the meaning of life is to endure and continue."
Chu Hao tossed a mass of black mist before the Brain Worm.
"That is why I despise discussions about the so-called meaning of life—because life itself has little meaning."
"The so-called meaning of existence is merely an illusion the idle attach to it."
"If you no longer wish to suffer, you may reach out and touch this black mist."
"This mist is the manifestation of my divine flame and power. It will end your suffering in an instant—it will erase you completely."
"But if you choose to endure, then your pain will end in one hour."
"So tell me... what will you choose?"
"To continue... or to end?"
Chu Hao smiled faintly as he looked down at the Brain Worm.
The Brain Worm trembled, its limbs twitching, reaching slowly toward the black mist—closer, and closer.