episode_0638
by admin
A location in a research facility far from the control room.
The place, immersed in pitch-black darkness, was enveloped in silence, except for the occasional sound of a monster’s breathing.
Krrr…
The heavy, malevolent breathing sound, like boiling, sticky liquid like tar, is none other than the queen of the bug colony.
The queen was deep in the nest, asleep, guarding her eggs.
The research facility here on the planet Novaris had the bare minimum of resources to feed and survive, but they weren’t enough.
Self-sufficiency was not entirely impossible.
The facility also had a system in place to supply food.
The Valkyrian and Serapian families built this facility.
Among them, the Serapian family was a force unrivaled in the universe in matters of religion, medicine, and food.
Of course, their cutting-edge Biodome Agricultural System (BAS) is installed here, so if managed well, they can produce enough food inside without any contact with the outside world for hundreds of years.
But the ones occupying the facility now are not humans, but bugs.
There was no way they could properly operate the advanced facilities of the Serapian family.
The food in BAS had already been eaten, including the seeds, a long time ago.
Due to the nature of the facility, it would be impossible to maintain the facility without externally supplied resources.
However, the research facility was closed off from the inside and was now virtually forgotten by the humans who had built it. They had no reason to send supplies for the bugs.
It was for this reason that the Queen settled in the organic compound synthesis area.
To occupy the only facility capable of producing the resources necessary to sustain their survival, and to stockpile power.
It was a way to somehow utilize the remaining resources in the facility by improving genes while minimizing activity.
Simply put, the Queen was trying to convert herself and all other bug entities present here from carbon-based life forms to what people commonly imagine as silicon-based life forms.
The Queen did not possess the sophisticated bioengineering knowledge required for this; her hunger simply drove her in that direction.
Evolutions such as strengthening the shell by using metal elements and the like were common among bugs, but using inorganic substances as biofuel was by no means easy for them.
It was a method that was impossible to estimate how long it would take, but it was the only way they had.
They planned to evolve here for countless hours, biding their time, then gnawing away at the closed moon shells and spreading out to new planets.
A plan that, if successful, could create a new type of bug that would pose a great threat to the human empire.
But even that plan was now impossible.
Krrr…!
The moment when Minho amplified the power of the central system and Maria completely usurped administrator authority in the control room.
The synthetic facility, which had been spitting out organic compounds little by little according to the last command entered, stopped operating.
The system that was in Maria’s hands no longer worked for the Queen.
And the Queen noticed the change too.
It is impossible not to know that the food that was entering your mouth has suddenly stopped.
The Queen of Bugs wasn’t completely unconscious, even though she was asleep.
As part of a hive of thousands of consciousnesses that follow only the Queen’s orders, the Queen monitors the interior and exterior of the nest through bug scouts spread throughout the facility.
The pheromones of the scouts moving around on the outskirts of the nest brushed past the queen’s antennae.
The information they consistently sent was of the appearance of the intruders and their gruesome end.
It’s not that there weren’t any scouts who died in the facility so far, but they were all either starving to death or having accidents caused by accidentally touching dangerous equipment.
It was the first time that information about an ‘intruder’ had been relayed.
Krrr!
The Queen’s breathing began to become ragged.
The presence of intruders means that a closed facility has been reopened.
The Queen’s intelligence, which was more advanced than that of other bug entities, realized that the current situation with the intruders was her last chance to escape the facility.
There was still no chance of the Queen escaping since Maria had administrative privileges, but the Queen did not know that.
As her consciousness began to rapidly rise into reality, the entire nest began to fill with tension and excitement.
Kyaaah!
Keuggeuggeuk!
The bugs that filled the nest also woke up from their sleep and screamed.
They received the Queen’s feelings from the closest ones.
Most of them were failures that failed to evolve and couldn’t even control their bodies properly, but that didn’t matter.
There were plenty of ways to recycle them.
Kwajik!
The Queen’s head, now fully conscious, slammed into the nearby floppy disk.
Ugh! Ugh!
The Queen chewed up the failure head first. It would take a huge amount of calories to drive out the intruder and get out of here. There was nothing to waste.
The bug entities that could move normally moved their legs and delivered the failed items in front of the Queen’s mouth.
Even though she was a queen who had devoured the failures in an instant, time was still running out.
The amount of pheromone transmitted from the scout was rapidly increasing.
Even as the Queen came to her senses, the intruders were already approaching the nest at a very fast speed.
The numerous bugs that filled the nests and passageways were momentarily confused by the pheromones from the scouts.
The queen quickly concentrated and analyzed the situation. The scouts were already in a state of near-annihilation, and the soldier bug entities that had just regained consciousness were fighting the intruders.
It was impossible to intercept the intruders.
We already had a small force due to limited resources, and we couldn’t spread them out across this large facility.
Kyaaah!
Finally, the queen gave orders to her soldiers.
Soon, they, with their skins noticeably thicker than those of the other individuals, began to gather at the main entrance of the nest. Once inside the nest, they formed a tight defensive net surrounding the queen.
It was decided to lure the intruders into the nest and deal with them.
The Queen’s judgment was based on the very small number of invaders reported by the scouts.
The plan was to drive out a handful of intruders all at once, just like when they took over the facility.
The Queen’s only experience fighting humans was slaughtering researchers and some guards, which was her limitation.
thud…
At that moment, the Queen sensed the intruder’s movements.
Deep inside the nest, in the darkness where the air was heavy and murky, a low, strong vibration rippled beyond the walls.
A being was rushing towards the inside, breaking through the outskirts of the nest at lightning speed.
The speed was much faster than the Queen had expected.
Pheromones full of pain and anger were detected much later than sound.
The Queen gave orders to stop the intruders, and infused the swarm with murderous intent. They were filled with the will to destroy the intruders at her command, no matter what.
But the intruder was closer than the queen had thought.
They invaded the nest before the pheromones could be transmitted from the last remaining forces outside the nest.
———!
In an instant, the thick wall shattered with a loud noise.
The cracks spread like spiderwebs, then an explosion occurred, sending huge fragments flying in all directions, sending up a cloud of dirt and dust.
A small human shadow appeared among the scattered debris.
The Queen felt her whole body tremble beneath her thick shell. Now, if she could just kill them, they would escape from this prison and spread throughout the universe.
There was only one last word left in the Queen’s consciousness.
Kill him.
.
.
.
“Ugh… It’s disgusting.”
I muttered as I felt the vast number of bugs and queens beyond the dust through my senses.
The queen bug specimen was even more hideous in appearance than I had expected.
A huge belly like that of a queen ant and as many legs as a civet.
The upper body, which looked like a combination of a locust’s forelegs and an ant’s head, made it difficult to even turn one’s head in that direction.
The last time I dealt with a small bug nest, I blew the whole nest away so I didn’t get to see what the queen looked like.
But when I look at that disgusting little thing, I wish I had never known about it.
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