The Dimensional Gate beneath the shattered Hive did not feel like magic.
It felt like industry.
Rust clung to its frame like a disease, metal warped and scarred as if reality itself had been drilled through by brute force and bad decisions. Unlike the clean blue radiance of Marvel portals or the violent spatial tears of cultivation worlds, this gate hummed with something far uglier—desperation weaponized into science.
A tunnel punched through existence.
On the bridge of the Black Dragon Fortress, silence settled like pressure before a storm.
Babata's holographic form flickered to life, neon-red hair casting sharp highlights across the tactical displays.
"Atmospheric analysis complete," she reported. "Target world contains ninety-five percent carbon dioxide. Average surface temperature fluctuates between minus one hundred forty and twenty degrees Celsius. Gravity measured at zero point three eight Gs."
"Mars," Saya Takagi murmured, adjusting her glasses as she scanned the star charts. "But not our Mars."
Her fingers paused.
"…This timeline shows large-scale terraforming. Then collapse."
Su Chen sat back on his command throne, fingers tapping once against the armrest.
"It's the Terra Formars timeline," he said evenly. "Five hundred years ago, humans seeded Mars with moss and cockroaches to warm the planet. The moss failed. The cockroaches didn't."
He rose.
The moment he stood, his Star Traveler aura bled outward, a faint magnetic field rippling through the bridge. Loose data slates trembled. His coat didn't flutter—it simply refused to acknowledge the ship's artificial airflow.
"We're going there for surgery."
"Surgery?" Shizuka Marikawa blinked, hand unconsciously adjusting her coat. "I mean—I do have a medical license, but I'm pretty sure alien cockroaches aren't covered under—"
"Not you," Su Chen said, eyes fixed on the gate. "The Roaches."
He turned, gaze sharp.
"They possess a technology called the Mosaic Organ Operation. A biological grafting system that allows foreign organs and abilities to be integrated without rejection. Insects. Fish. Birds."
A pause.
"I want it."
Esdeath's lips curved into a thin smile. Saeko rolled her shoulders, blood already singing. Albedo's wings twitched with restrained disdain.
"Suit up," Su Chen ordered. "These enemies are fast. Faster than anything you fought in the Zombie World."
He looked toward Xiao Yi Xian.
"Prepare the Wisteria Neurotoxin. Cockroaches are resilient—but they still have nervous systems."
"Babata," he finished. "Engage the Dimension Drive."
The Fortress surged forward.
The gate swallowed it whole.
The Red Desolation
Transition was instant.
One heartbeat—dense mana jungles and volcanic skies.
The next—emptiness.
Mars stretched beneath them, a vast red corpse of a planet. Rust-colored dust rolled endlessly across canyons that cut the surface like old scars. The sky hung pale and sickly pink, thin and hostile.
But it wasn't dead.
"Lifeforms detected," Lin Xiya reported, her psychic radar spiking wildly. "Millions. Humanoid. But… their minds are almost empty. Just aggression."
"Bring us down," Su Chen said. "Target the structure near the equator."
The Fortress descended.
As the dust cleared, they saw them.
Terra Formars.
Two meters tall. Dense, overbuilt humanoid bodies. Dark, hardened skin stretched over muscle engineered for violence. Insectoid cerci crowned their skulls like obscene antennae. Their eyes—large, black, vacant—reflected no curiosity.
Only intent.
Thousands gathered around a massive pyramid constructed from human bones and shattered spacecraft debris.
"They're ugly," Albedo said flatly. "Like filth that learned to walk."
"They are filth," Su Chen replied. "But useful filth."
He opened the comm channel.
"Release the Void Stalkers."
The ship's belly opened.
For the second time, Su Chen unleashed his swarm.
One hundred thousand Void Stalkers dropped—but Mars' low gravity changed everything. They didn't crash. They landed, adapting mid-descent, Tyrant genes recalibrating instantly.
They hissed as one.
Dragon-scale armor gleamed under the weak Martian sun.
A Roach looked up.
"Johj?"
Then the world exploded.
The Apex Predator Test
Su Chen descended slowly, hovering a hundred meters above the battlefield. He wasn't here to fight yet.
He was here to observe.
A Void Stalker lunged.
The Roach reacted in a microsecond.
Its stone club swung—
BAM.
The Void Stalker was sent flying, chitin cracking as it skidded across red dust.
"Fast," Su Chen noted calmly. "Muscle twitch fibers exceeding three hundred kilometers per hour from a dead stop."
But the Stalker didn't stay down.
Void regeneration surged. Cracks sealed. Bones realigned.
It roared, tackled the Roach, and acid blood sprayed across its face.
The Roach screamed as its features melted.
The Stalker bit its head clean off.
[Biomass Acquired.]
[Void Stalker Evolution Triggered: Enhanced Reflexes.]
Across the battlefield, the pattern repeated.
Initial struggle.
Then dominance.
Every Roach devoured made the Stalkers faster, sharper. Within minutes, sensory cerci began forming on their skulls—adaptation in real time.
"Good," Su Chen murmured. "Working as intended."
His gaze lifted.
Atop the pyramid stood something different.
Robes.
A staff.
Dragonfly wings.
[Evolved Terra Formar — Leader Class.]
"That's the surgeon," Su Chen said. "Or the king."
He vanished.
The Surgery of Violence
Su Chen reappeared atop the pyramid.
The Leader Roach didn't panic.
It analyzed.
Then struck.
No weapon—just a punch.
[Mantis Shrimp Impact.]
The fist moved so fast it created a vacuum bubble. The shockwave split the pyramid beneath them.
The blow landed squarely on Su Chen's chest.
Nothing happened.
His Gold Body flared.
The Roach's arm shattered on impact.
"Johj?" it croaked, staring at its broken limb.
"Good punch," Su Chen said, dusting his coat. "You broke the sound barrier."
He grabbed it.
"Now show me your lab."
They crashed downward.
The Genetic Harvest
The interior was obscene.
Stolen human technology wired into biological terminals. Dissected bodies. Younger Roaches strapped to stone slabs. And at the center—
The Mosaic Organ Surgery Station.
"Download everything," Su Chen ordered.
Babata gagged. "Their coding language is pheromone-based chemical logic. Disgusting. Translating."
Guards emerged.
They died.
Saeko and Esdeath carved efficiency into the room.
Then—
Copy complete.
Su Chen absorbed it all.
He didn't need the machine anymore.
He turned to the Leader.
"You stole humanity's future," he said softly. "I'm taking it back."
[TGOALID — Grasp Heart.]
The Roach died instantly.
The New Gods Are Built
Back aboard the Fortress, upgrades began.
Lin Que received vision and stealth.
Jiang Rou gained speed and strength.
Saya Takagi evolved her mind.
No blood.
No scars.
Just power.
The Birth of a Queen
In the Bio-Lab, a cocoon cracked.
A new figure knelt.
"Father."
Su Chen smiled.
"Rise, Zagara."
He now possessed:
Elites
Undead
Swarm
Commander
And a planet.
Mars folded into his Inner World like a coin into a pocket.
A door appeared aboard the ship:
TRAINING GROUNDS: THE RED PLANET
Su Chen had just pocketed a world.
And he wasn't done.