I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

Although the Kobolds that occupied the largest territory among those existing on the Korean Peninsula have disappeared by my hand, that doesn’t mean they left nothing behind.

There were vast underground tunnels that were the Kobolds’ nests and habitats, ore chunks mixed with rare metals—the Kobolds’ corpses, and various underground monsters they had tamed.

Especially among the underground monsters they had tamed, there was an individual that had evolved slightly differently from the existing Worms, and by referring to this creature’s body structure in the design, I was able to create a new species of Wyrm.

Silent Wyrm
Grade :: 6
Level :: 76
Abilities
Strength :: 105
Agility :: 98
Vitality :: 151
Intelligence :: 65
Resistance :: 35
Energy :: 55
Leadership :: 0
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (C), Hive Mind (C), Subjugation (EX), Bio Core (C), Infinite Stamina (C), Stealth-type Psychic User (D), Underground Adaptation (D), Mineral Digestion (D), Psychic Detection Interference (D)
Skills
Rapid Excavation (C), Psychic Stealth (D), Psychic Blocking (D)
Biological Weapons
Biological Drill (C)

This Wyrm, equipped with the abilities of a stealth-type psychic assassin monster that was particularly annoying in the game, is simply a monster created for covert infiltration.

It will be used to defend against detection from the outside, replacing the Wyrms used for excavation until now, but more than that, I expect it to be useful in future full-scale wars.

After boring underground passages leading to the enemy’s main base, we can deploy troops through these underground passages, ignoring enemy lines. They’ll probably come up with countermeasures after a few uses, but that means we can use it sufficiently until then at least.

Additionally, Kobolds themselves had quite a good body structure, and thanks to this, I could also create more efficient small excavation monsters by injecting Kobold genes (traits/skills) into the Hive Infantry base.

Hive Elder Miner
Grade :: 7
Level :: 76
Abilities
Strength :: 25
Agility :: 12
Vitality :: 25
Intelligence :: 10
Resistance :: 10
Energy :: 5
Leadership :: 0
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (E), Hive Mind (E), Subjugation (EX), Tireless Stamina (D), Underground Adaptation (D), Mineral Digestion (E)
Skills
Mining (D), Sound Wave Detection (E)
Biological Weapons
Kobold Excavation Claw (D)

I named this monster the Hive Elder Miner, and it was a Hive Mind version of Kobold created to excavate quickly by mimicking the Kobolds’ body structure.

Its most important role is precise excavation, which was difficult for other excavation monsters that are relatively medium to large in size, and in case of emergency, it can also buy time using its rocky body.

※ ※ ※

Around the time when the aftermath of the Kobold subjugation operation was nearing its end, I felt that the amount of energy gathering to me was not only increasing greatly over time but even the rate of increase was rising.

This was, in a way, inevitable, given that I was eroding more than 5% of the underground of the Korean Peninsula and sucking out energy.

I was gradually becoming strong enough that my energy storage capacity couldn’t keep up with the supply rate, and enough energy had gathered that I could evolve into a high-grade—that is, a grade 1 monster at any time, but here lies the problem.

If I, or another Hive Mind, evolve from grade 4 to grade 1 monster, during that process, vast and easily detectable unique psychic waves are wildly emitted in all directions.

If these psychic waves are detected outside the ceasefire line, humans would just record it but leave it alone, but the problem is that my main body is currently located in the southern part of Gangwon-do—that is, inside the ceasefire line.

With a grade 1 Hive Mind firmly established within the national territory, South Korea would fall into panic and try to eliminate me by all possible means, whether with anti-psychic bombs or missiles.

Of course, I had devised various methods for relocating the main body in anticipation of such a situation, but still, several more preparations were needed for the relocation and it was expected to take quite some time.

Therefore, what I chose was to develop new monsters to quickly consume the vast amount of energy remaining after subtracting the energy consumed for relocating the main body.

Among the rook, knight, and bishop of chess, I mean small, highly mobile monsters likened to the knight.

This monster, commonly considered a knight type, is often questioned about its usefulness at first glance.

Although fast, it’s so small that it’s at most 3 meters in size, limiting the long-range weapons it can carry, so its main armament is close-range weapons… but close-range weapons can’t be that efficient.

Against infantry, monsters equipped with large long-range biological weapons are more efficient, and against large bipedal war machines, it’s more efficient to send out even larger giant monsters.

Moreover, knight-type monsters are very inefficient in the development and production process.

It’s essentially no different from compressing a medium-grade monster the size of a house to human size, requiring technological innovation in a completely different way from existing production, and even the bio core, which is almost the size of a small vehicle, needs to be compressed to the size of a human heart.

Output reduction is inevitable, and yet it requires all sorts of rare metals for production, making it twice as expensive as other types of monsters of the same grade.

Thus, knight-type monsters have many characteristics that seem inefficient, but this is strictly from the monster’s perspective, and even then, it’s nothing more than a malicious evaluation.

First, from a human standpoint, a medium-grade knight-type monster is no different from a human-sized fighter jet that’s annoyingly fast to deal with and tough to boot.

The energy-to-size ratio is several times that of other monsters because it’s smaller than the reduced output of the bio core, and thanks to this, it can fly around at tremendous speeds surrounded by a force field dozens of times thicker than ordinary monsters.

Moreover, if you look closely, it’s not that they can’t handle large weapons like tanks or Giant Armors at all, and in situations where such large weapons can’t be operated, knight-type monsters can’t be stopped by conventional methods.

Except for one exception: Hunters.

Although there are exceptions depending on the type, most Hunters can be seen as the knights of the human formation.

This tendency is even stronger in the sense that they are ‘small individuals that are incredibly strong for their size and difficult to deal with using conventional weapons’, and in the first place, Hunters started as enhanced humans to deal with knight-type monsters.

Therefore, I must create knight-type monsters someday, and that is now.

Now, when energy is overflowing, is the perfect timing to develop and produce knight-type monsters, which are said to be inefficient.

Moreover, I have conditions that don’t require me to start from scratch.

Not only did I obtain various knight-type monster body structures from Seonggwang Guild through the youngest daughter of our Seonggwang Group chairman, but the youngest daughter herself is also a somewhat important resource.

To put it more bluntly, the knight I’m producing now is based on her. Since I happen to have data that thoroughly analyzed her from head to toe, I used that data in its entirety.

Hive Starlight
Grade :: 5
Level :: 76
Abilities
Strength :: 85
Agility :: 205
Vitality :: 147
Intelligence :: 104
Resistance :: 155
Energy :: 96
Leadership :: 0
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (C), Hive Mind (C), Subjugation (EX), Bio Core (C), Close Combat Expert (C), High-speed Maneuver (C), Psychic Resistance (D), Enhancement-type Psychic User (D), Super Regeneration (D)
Skills
Advanced Weapon Technique (C), Body Enhancement (C), Sensory Enhancement (C), Special Enhancement (D)
Biological Weapons
Energy Sword (C), Short-type Laser Blaster (D)

And the result is this grade 5 monster, Hive Starlight.

On the outside, it has a face that looks like an alien commonly seen in science fiction, with reverse-jointed legs and a body integrated with an exoskeleton that looks like a bodysuit.

But the part I put the most effort into is separate. That is, when the exoskeleton is removed, not only does a body resembling a human body emerge, but it actually utilizes some human genes.

What I aim for through this is to make humans analyzing the structure of Hive Starlight in future wars have the illusion that it was made by modifying humans.

Whether they’re terrified, shocked, or conflicted, there’s no problem.

If we deliberately kidnap civilians and children of high-ranking officials and then produce Hive Starlights again with their genes, the side effect of causing confusion would really work properly.

Families would be reluctant to attack Hive Starlights that appear to be their modified relatives, and in addition to this, as a finishing touch, I designed Hive Starlights to show ‘human-like’ reactions just before death.

It was to make it look as if the modified human had come to their senses just before dying.

My actions might seem evil, but I think I’ve maintained my manners as a former human in that I don’t actually intend to kidnap and modify real humans.

…Of course, this would only apply to Korea, where I still have some lingering emotions.