Buzz!
At the same time,
countless fragments of information suddenly surged into Chu Fan's mind.
An intense shock and stabbing pain followed, nearly making him unable to keep his footing.
He closed his eyes,
leaned against the door,
clenched his fists,
and grit his teeth as he endured it!
The volume of information flooding into his mind was enormous, mixed with countless fragmented images.
In those images,
there were endless swarms of insects, like a vast ocean, surging and rolling endlessly across the land.
There were countless flying bugs whistling through the sky, densely packed, blotting out the sun.
There were even super-giant insects, so massive that their ends could not be seen, traveling in groups through the depths of outer space at will…
Only after a long time did Chu Fan gradually digest all the information.
When he opened his eyes, they were filled with shock.
His expression was also suffused with deep astonishment at the inherited knowledge and those overwhelming scenes.
Before he could fully recover, a faint, indescribable sense of connection suddenly reached him.
Following that sense,
the corner of Chu Fan's eye twitched violently.
Not far away, an object several meters tall stood upright on the ground.
It occupied more than ten square meters, shaped like a tower. Its entire body was blood-red, covered everywhere in sticky mucus. Its surface was studded with tumor-like bulges that gently writhed nonstop.
At its edges, four thick, bone-like spikes stood inverted like giant curved blades.
And at the base between those bone spikes, three tubular cavities extended outward.
Zerg Main Hive
"Is this the Zerg's biological main hive?"
Chu Fan calmed himself and looked it over.
In his heart, there was only a slight instinctive discomfort that came from being human.
But perhaps because of the inherited Zerg information and the bond that had been established, he felt not the slightest nausea or fear.
On the contrary, there was an inexplicable sense of familiarity and affinity.
He stepped forward.
Just as Chu Fan approached the main hive, the entire structure—along with the four external bone spikes—began to tremble violently.
It seemed excited,
as if welcoming him,
and even that faint sense of connection carried a clear trace of excitement and joy.
Since it was a biological main hive, it naturally possessed life—it was not a dead object.
"Gulu~"
While Chu Fan was observing it,
the three tubular cavities extending from the main hive suddenly contracted and trembled, emitting a gurgling sound.
A few seconds later, three worms as thick as thighs were expelled from the cavities, mixed with streams of sticky mucus.
Or rather, they only looked like worms—strictly speaking, they had nothing to do with real worms at all.
Their entire bodies were wrapped in dark red carapace. Their mouths were filled with sharp fangs, and several tentacle-like appendages, resembling those of an octopus, grew from their tails.
As soon as they emerged, they crawled over along the pitch-black ground that spread out from the main hive, like a carpet of fungal mycelium.
Larvae
"Zerg larvae?"
"Creep?"
Chu Fan squatted down,
first looking at the three larvae wriggling around his feet,
then at the black fungal threads beneath them, swaying like living creatures.
According to the inherited Zerg knowledge, larvae could, under the Overmind's commands, hatch into more advanced combat units.
Creep, on the other hand, was a symbiotic organism of Zerg biological nests. It could nourish all Zerg units on it, providing the nutrients required for survival. The microbial spores it released could also heal Zerg injuries, and through the rapid writhing of its mycelium, it could increase the movement speed of units traveling across it.
After observing for a moment, just as Chu Fan stood up, a virtual screen suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Swarm Race: Zerg]
[Evolution Stage: Initial]
[Nest Construction: Primitive Biological Main Hive]
[Swarm Leaders: 0]
[Swarm Count: 3 (Larvae)]
[Nest Energy: 1000 (Energy Chamber Storage Limit: 10,000)]
This was probably the auxiliary function the system mentioned—presenting the swarm's information in a more intuitive way.
According to the inherited knowledge, the biological main hive could continuously evolve, adding all kinds of biological breeding chambers.
And for most Zerg units, the first one hatched would automatically be cultivated into a leader, possessing intelligence and capable of independently leading its kind into battle under the Overmind's will.
Nest energy was essentially nourishment.
The system likely analyzed and calculated an intuitive numerical value based on the reserves within the nest's chambers.
Its uses were extremely broad. Whether evolving the hive or breeding various Zerg units, all required the consumption of energy nutrients.
"System, how much energy is required to evolve the main hive's Spawning Pool? And how long will it take?"
Looking at the system interface before him and combining it with the Zerg inheritance in his mind, Chu Fan asked.
The Spawning Pool was a mandatory breeding chamber for hatching Zerglings, the most basic combat unit of the swarm.
[According to system calculations, it requires 500 energy and 8 hours.]
The system immediately returned the result.
If energy was insufficient, the evolution would fail, and all energy consumed would be wasted.
But with the system's precise calculations and analysis, there would be no such waste.
After receiving a definitive answer, Chu Fan did not hesitate any longer and immediately issued the command for the main hive to evolve the Spawning Pool.
He did not speak aloud, nor did he make a sound—he simply transmitted his will through his mind.
Upon receiving the command, the main hive immediately extended a tentacle from its base, thick like a python.
It slithered several meters away and stopped. Streams of energy nutrients then rapidly flowed through the tentacle's internal channels, bulging section by section as the tentacle's tip began to split.
The splitting accelerated,
countless thin tentacles intertwining with one another, forming a spherical mass of tentacles in just a moment.
And it continued to writhe, expand, and grow larger…
Next, there was only waiting.
Waiting for the Spawning Pool evolution to complete after 8 hours.
He returned to the security room.
When he came out again, Chu Fan was holding a steel rebar spear and a sheet-metal shield. He walked over and sat on the hood of an abandoned car not far from the main hive, silently standing guard.
Just as the system had warned earlier, the primitive biological main hive was extremely fragile and had no defensive measures whatsoever.
If a monster arrived during this time, it could easily destroy and kill it.
As time passed quickly,
fortunately, nothing happened.
This place was originally a shelter carefully chosen by the siblings—its location was hidden, the entrance narrow, only half a person high, and protected by cover. Even if discovered by monsters, it would be difficult for them to crawl inside.
Moreover, unless monsters were chasing someone here, with food as a greater attraction, they would not bother struggling against the pile of debris blocking the entrance.
Still, Chu Fan did not relax his vigilance.
In the dark, silent environment, his sharp eyes were locked tightly on the direction of the entrance.
Until eight hours later—
"Puchi~"
A soft sound rang out.
The massive tentacle mass, which had expanded to several meters in size, stopped writhing. The tentacles rapidly retracted, gradually revealing an oval cavity that looked like a pool.
Like the main hive, the bottom and upper edges around the pool were lined with rows of ferocious, curved, blade-like bone spikes.
Around it were thick, dark red pipes connecting it to the main hive.
The ground was likewise covered with patches of black creep.
This substance was a symbiotic organism of the main hive—wherever evolved breeding chambers extended, it would spread along with them.
Inside the pool, deep green, poison-like viscous liquid filled it, bubbles rising from time to time.
Spawning Pool
Standing before the Spawning Pool,
after examining it a few times to be sure of the details, Chu Fan asked:
"System, what are the energy costs and time requirements for hatching a Zergling leader and ordinary Zerglings respectively?"
[According to system analysis, a Zergling leader incorporates intelligence genes and therefore requires greater energy consumption—100 energy. The time required varies and cannot be calculated.]
[Ordinary Zerglings have very simple genetic coding and body structures. Each larva can split and hatch into two Zerglings, requiring only 10 energy. Estimated hatching time is one hour.]
"After evolving the Spawning Pool, there are 500 energy left."
"Subtract the 100 energy needed to cultivate a leader, that leaves 400."
"One larva splits into two Zerglings, consuming 10 energy…"
"In other words, with 400 energy, I can hatch 80 of them?"
After doing the math,
Chu Fan immediately transmitted another will-based command:
"Main Hive,"
"breed Zerglings at full capacity!"