Ch.2222. Tetra, and the Hive Queen

It had already been a week since I developed and began producing Hive Starlights for continuous energy consumption.

During that time, while focusing on producing Hive Starlights, I was simultaneously preparing to transfer my main body—and now, after a week, the preparations were complete.

Initially, I had considered simply cutting off my main body entirely, but there was a risk that the connections to my tentacles extending in all directions might be severed in the process.

Therefore, the method I chose was to gradually transport the internal substances that make up my main body through a prepared tube.

Although this meant temporarily having two bodies and risking death if the tube were to break, relocating my main body was absolutely necessary for the future.

‘……Shall I try it?’

The meaning was clear—the risk was worth taking.

※ ※ ※

The first thing I started was creating a place to settle.

Until now, I had been forcibly expanding a cave where a giant primate (Burning Self-Charcoal) once lived as my base, but it had many inconveniences.

The passages were narrow, and since my location was in a cliff cave, deploying forces toward the cliff was difficult, and expansion in that direction was impossible.

That’s why I chose a location deep underground in the Taebaek Mountains, slightly north of northern Gangwon Province.

Conveniently, there was a fairly large forest nearby, providing ample space to create passages for monsters to come and go.

Considering the average tree height exceeds 20 meters, the Hive Fortress could move while remaining well-hidden.

Additionally, the distance to the sea wasn’t too far, making it a potential location to obtain genes or physical structures from sea-adapted monsters.

Anyway, now that I had decided on the location, all that remained was to actually move. Of course, I planned to leave the shell of my current body in this cave and use it as a secondary base.

As mentioned earlier, the method of relocation involved transporting the core organs through a specially made tube.

At the end of the connected tube was another Hive Factory, but in reality, it was just an empty shell without any core organs or a Hive Mind.

And simultaneously, it would become the shell of my new body.

‘Oh, it’s moving.’

Meanwhile, as I was thinking, the preparations seemed complete as the tube began to writhe and transport the internal organs.

Gene storage organs, psychic repositories, bio-cores, and computational auxiliary brains—all organs used for functions except those necessary for production began to be transported.

Though the distance was comparable to 100 kilometers, it would take only about 10 minutes to transport everything from start to finish.

This was because… frankly speaking, an incredibly complex and high-dimensional method was used that I couldn’t explain with my limited vocabulary.

Anyway, thanks to this, all my organs arrived at the new body within 30 minutes, and all that remained was to transfer the Hive Mind’s consciousness…

For the Hive Mind, this was essentially as simple as standing up from one chair and sitting in another, so I completed the entire process in about 7 seconds.

In other words, I had moved my main body and headquarters to North Korean territory, and at the same time, I was finally ready to evolve into a Grade 1 Hive Mind—a Hive Queen.

…Though I was slightly short on energy for evolution, so I needed a bit more time.

Therefore, while waiting for energy to accumulate, I used the time to implant a monster called “Tetra” into my former body to operate the production facilities there.

Tetra, a monster with an independent self like Theresia, was precisely designed to replace the major organs I had moved and operate the production facilities according to my instructions.

As such, Tetra had only the organs necessary for producing monsters according to commands and computational auxiliary brains, with no other organs whatsoever.

It didn’t even have life-sustaining organs, requiring energy, antibiotics, or other hormones from me, and naturally, its psychic ability was at a mere Grade 10 level.

This structure of Tetra, designed to prevent rebellion from a personality created solely as a tool, might seem cruel, but it was necessary for me.

‘Tetra.’

Anyway, after completing Tetra by injecting a personality formed from a part of the Hive Mind, I called its name, and its communication began to transmit to my mind.

[Yes, Mother.]

‘Mo—… Right, never mind.’

It felt strange to be called “Mother” by something I created as a tool, but the reason for this behavior was that I had designed it to recognize me as a parent from the beginning.

So, I brushed aside my discomfort and continued speaking to Tetra, who had the voice of a gender-neutral child.

‘From now on, you will act as my proxy in the area where my main body was located. If any problems arise, contact me immediately, no matter how trivial, and basically follow the manual I’ve sent you. Understand?’

[Understood. I will absolutely carry out Mother’s orders.]

Though the response seemed blunt, I could tell through the connected Hive Mind that Tetra was extremely happy.

It was a complex mix of emotions similar to the satisfaction and primal joy a good child feels when fulfilling a parent’s request, along with pleasure.

‘…Good luck then.’

[Understood.]

Of course, this joy in following my orders was also a type of control mechanism I had implanted to keep it in check.

※ ※ ※

Meanwhile, as I was conversing with Tetra, I finally accumulated enough energy to evolve.

[Would you like to evolve into a Hive Queen (Grade 1)?] (Y/N)

‘Of course, YES.’

Upon affirming to the status window that seemed like I hadn’t seen it in a long time, the status window appeared, and I began to change.

[Hive Factory (Grade 4) is evolving into Hive Queen (Grade 1)!]

The first thing to change was, naturally, the Rafflesia-like exterior of the Hive Factory.

Like a fruit forming from a fertilized flower, the part that could be called the ovary of the Hive Factory expanded—and from there, body parts began to grow one by one.

First, arms formed, followed by the torso taking shape. What ultimately appeared resembled the upper body of a thin woman, but its essence was completely different in the details.

The skin had a pale gray, rubber-like texture, and the arms were abnormally long compared to the torso size, ending in hands that looked like they were made of dozens of twisted tough fiber strands.

These hands had black nails, which were, of course, top-tier bio-weapons.

On the head part, the flower of the Hive Factory grew like the head from when I was a Grade 4 Hive Mind in the game.

As the finishing touch, on my back was a vermilion energy storage connected with energy transfer tubes like in my Hive Core days, and my lower body, which had been rooted like a plant until now, now had multiple centipede-like legs that could move.

Of course, due to the size of the legs, they couldn’t show intense movement.

‘…Status window?’

Anyway, after checking my appearance, I opened my status window for the first time in a while—and couldn’t hide my surprise at the result.

Name :: ???

Race :: Hive Queen

Grade :: 1

Level :: 79

Stats

Strength :: 250

Agility :: 65

Vitality :: 750

Intelligence :: 5600

Resistance :: 5600

Energy :: 10500

Command :: 10500

Traits (89/???)

Monster Gene(EX), Predator(A), Imperturbability(A), Hive Mind(A), Versatile Psychic User(A), Subjugated Species Domination(A), Bio Core(A)

*Expand

Skills (794/???)

*Expand

Bio-weapons

Psychic Claw(A), Psychic Computational Auxiliary Brain(A)

‘1, 10,000?!!!’

With Energy and Command exceeding 10,000, the other stats were by no means inferior.

Strength comparable to a player’s stat limit of 255, Vitality at the level of a Grade 3 boss monster. There were even stats exceeding 5,000, typically seen only in top-tier monsters.

No joke, with my current state, I could probably move mountains.

※ ※ ※

Gangwon Province, South Korea, Government Monster Situation Detection Base.

At this facility, which existed to analyze the appearance of high-grade monsters in North Korean territory, they had just detected a new psychic wave in northern Gangwon Province and were frantically analyzing it.

The detection room chief, aware of the recent increase in high-grade monster appearances, was anxiously awaiting the results when a researcher finally spoke.

“…Psychic wave analysis complete!”

“What type of entity?”

“Code H! That is, it’s a Hive Mind type!”

As the researcher said this, sighs of dismay erupted throughout the detection base. The appearance of a Hive Mind near the former DMZ meant that Hive Mind monsters would now appear in the Gangwon area as well.

And through Gangwon’s monster forest area, which was too vast and had low-quality defense facilities and garrison troops due to the low level of monsters there.

“Contact the government immediately!”

“Yes, senior!”

So they began reporting through the direct line used for highest emergency situations, connected directly to the government.

They included concerns that, in the worst case, a second Pyongyang Hive Mind zone could emerge in the Gangwon area.