Swallowed Star: The Zerg Overlord

Chapter 14: Awakening

The moment the Nest hatched successfully, Qin Mu felt a strong warm current flowing through his body. As it passed through his brain, it seemed to stimulate something. A sudden and intense headache struck without warning, causing Qin Mu to cry out in pain.

"What's happening?" Qin Mu's long spear slipped from his grasp as he clutched his head tightly, screaming in agony.

"It hurts, it hurts so much!" The piercing pain made Qin Mu wish he could bang his head against the surrounding trees.

"Ah!—"

Qin Mu's eyes rolled back, and he actually fainted from the pain. In the last moment before his consciousness faded, Qin Mu used his soul link to command the Nest to hatch worker bugs at full capacity to protect himself and the Nest's safety.

As Qin Mu lay unconscious, his heart pounded violently, and his blood flowed rapidly, turning his skin a deep red. Blood seeped from every pore of his skin. A strong warm current circulated within him—this was the feedback from the successful hatching of the Mother Nest.

Under the continuous operation of this force, every part of Qin Mu's body—from his skin to his internal organs, blood, bones, and every cell—underwent a drastic transformation. His body was evolving rapidly.

This was a leap in the essence of life.

As Qin Mu lay on the fungus carpet, convulsing all over, five newly hatched larvae next to the Nest received Qin Mu's command before he fainted and quickly began to mutate. Like inflating balloons, they transformed into cocoons that pulsated like hearts.

Five minutes later, five new larvae were hatched and quickly mutated into cocoons.

This process repeated.

Fifteen minutes later, five hideous worker bugs emerged from their eggs and began patrolling around the Nest on their own, protecting the Nest and Qin Mu's safety.

Twenty minutes later, another five worker bugs successfully hatched. New larvae continued to be hatched and then mutated into worker bugs. Until all the energy accumulated in the Nest was consumed, there were already fifty worker bugs hatched around the Nest.

These worker bugs began to collect resources around them. First, they dealt with the Tiger Mastiff that Qin Mu had killed. A worker bug wielded its large claws, grabbed the Tiger Mastiff, lifted it, and transported it to the Nest's side.

The worker bug found an opening on the Nest and threw the Tiger Mastiff's corpse directly inside. Its body was instantly devoured and digested, converting into the energy needed by the Zerg swarm.

Next were the surrounding plants, trees, and anything else that contained rich energy. As the most basic and arguably the most important unit of the bug race, worker bugs could find all the resources suitable for the Nest to digest and convert into energy.

The Nest's digestive ability was extremely strong, capable of digesting almost all resources. Flesh, plants, and all organic matter, even inorganic matter—without restrictions, an entire planet could be devoured in a short time.

This was one of the reasons why the Zerg were considered a calamity and feared across countless universes.

Time passed minute by minute. Lying on the ground, Qin Mu's fingers twitched slightly. In a daze, Qin Mu sat up. Surrounded by darkness, the sky was filled with stars, and a bright moon cast its light, allowing Qin Mu to see that he was in a dense forest.

In the jungle, one could vaguely see shadows resembling giant ants patrolling and guarding the Nest.

"What's happening to me?"

Qin Mu's consciousness finally cleared, and everything he looked at was clear, even in the dark. Qin Mu could see the appearance of the worker bugs in the distance.

The rustling of leaves in the wind, the chirping of insects and birds, were all crystal clear, as if the entire world had been wiped clean of haze, or like a severely nearsighted person suddenly wearing glasses, everything became extraordinarily clear.

Qin Mu got up and instinctively grabbed a nearby tree for support.

"Crack—"

The tree was actually dented by Qin Mu's grip, leaving a deep palm print on its trunk.

"My strength has increased so much!"

Qin Mu clearly felt that his vision, hearing, sense of smell, and overall physical fitness had improved dramatically.

Qin Mu stared at the tree he had inadvertently marked, and an idea struck him. An invisible force erupted from his mind, spreading outwards, causing all the surrounding plants and fallen leaves to levitate. The long spear that had fallen to the ground automatically flew up and returned to Qin Mu's hand.

"Have I awakened the power of a spirit master?" Qin Mu was ecstatic. As a transmigrator, how could he not know about spirit masters.

This was a rare and powerful ability that could only be awakened through one's own talent. On Earth, once a spirit master was awakened, they could easily defeat fighters of the same level and were sought after by major powers.

"It's the feedback from hatching the Nest. That's right, the Zerg race's talent in the soul aspect is one of the peaks in the universe. Any Zerg queen is a master of the soul. Since I possess a Zerg race clone, I am essentially the ruler of the swarm, naturally inheriting such talent."

Qin Mu sensed the exceptionally robust soul light in his mind and dozens of weaker ones.

He discovered that he could easily manipulate them to perform precise actions simultaneously without feeling the slightest discomfort. This was far beyond multitasking; it was multitasking on a scale of dozens.

Not only had his strength increased, but Qin Mu also felt that his comprehension and talent had improved significantly. His brain's processing speed was many times faster than before, like upgrading from a regular computer to a supercomputer.

"This feeling is too powerful!"

Qin Mu effortlessly controlled over a dozen worker bugs to walk in front of him, performing various actions in unison, which made Qin Mu smile.

"Go!"

The long spear beside him levitated and then shot out fiercely, piercing through several trees in succession.

"This power, this destructive force, is far beyond that of a high-level fighter."

"My physical fitness has at least tripled or quadrupled, reaching the level of a high-level fighter. My spirit power has also reached the limit of my body."

After awakening as a spirit master, Qin Mu's past memories became clearer. Many things he had forgotten could now be recalled.

"I remember Luo Feng awakened and reached the level of a mid-level fighter. A spirit master's power can be two levels higher than their fighter rank, which is the level of a primary warlord.

My strength should have reached the high-level fighter, meaning my spirit strength is at the mid-level warloed."

A flash of light shone in Qin Mu's eyes. Was this improvement terrifying? Of course, it was terrifying.

Yet, it was also normal, because this was the feedback from a Nest that consumed a full 500 energy points to hatch, along with dozens of worker bugs. As the ruler of the swarm, it would be abnormal to be too weak.

After testing his strength for a while, Qin Mu shifted his attention to the swarm. When Qin Mu's consciousness transferred to the Nest, something astonishing happened.

Qin Mu had thought that his body's transformation had made his computational abilities strong enough, but compared to the Nest, it was still insignificant.

Countless data and information flashed by, with dozens of worker bugs constantly feeding back various information, whether it was collecting resources or patrolling the surroundings.

The fungus carpet centered on the Nest was spreading, devouring all the insects and plants it encountered and collecting their genetic information to store in the gene bank.

Vast amounts of data and information were flowing every moment, yet the Nest's consciousness could handle it with ease.

Not only was there information processing, but Qin Mu also discovered more abilities and information about the Nest.

Firstly, the first-level Nest could hatch larvae, with five larvae hatching every five minutes, which could then mutate into other Zerg units. Of course, for now, there was only the option of worker bugs.

Secondly, the first-level Nest's feedback to Qin Mu's strength was not infinitely stackable; there was an upper limit. The upper limit for a first-level Nest was the high-level fighter.

To increase the upper limit, it was necessary to upgrade the Nest's level. The method to upgrade the Nest's level was simple: just meet two conditions—one was to consume 5,000 energy points, and the other was to analyze enough monster genes to a certain degree.

The Nest itself did not possess intelligence, but it had strong computational abilities, similar to an AI supercomputer in mechanical life forms. It not only had a certain gene analysis capability but could also help Qin Mu manage the daily affairs of the swarm.

To analyze genes faster, there was another method: to hatch another type of Zerg race building. There was only one other Zerg race building in the gene bank besides the Nest—the Evolution Chamber. The Evolution Chamber was the military research center for the Zerg race. It could collect the genes of other powerful creatures, study, analyze, create, or mutate new bug units, and also strengthen existing units of the swarm.

It was the testing ground for the swarm's continuous evolution and the core of its strength.