1: Chapter 1: Transcending the World of Gods and the Birth of the Zerg Overlord
Endless void, on the edge of the Divine Domain.
The dim, yellowish sky was lifeless, like a piece of dust-covered amber, imprisoning everything below in eternal twilight.
As far as the eye could see, there was only an endless expanse of yellow sand.
This was a wasteland of death, a ruin where order had collapsed. There was not a shred of greenery, nor could a single trace of moisture be found. Gale-force winds whipped up billions of sand grains, scouring the cracked earth over and over, emitting a shrill screech like grinding metal, as if trying to scrape away the very last skeletons remaining on this land.
"Rustle... rustle..."
The sound was faint, yet it carried a stubborn resilience.
On a sand dune eroded until only its jagged outline remained, a team of tiny black shadows was crawling.
They were only the size of a thumb, pitch black, and their carapaces reflected no light under the dim sky, presenting a malnourished, dull, and brittle appearance. These were Black Armored Ants, zero-tier creatures that didn't even qualify as cannon fodder, located at the very bottom of the food chain in this vast world of gods.
At this moment, this group of the lowliest creatures was using their trembling six legs to drag a carcass that could be considered a "colossus" compared to their size, struggling to move forward.
The sand grains were scorching, almost burning through their fragile limbs. Several worker ants responsible for the main dragging were already convulsing uncontrollably, each step sinking half an inch into the sand, as if they would be completely swallowed by this barren land in the next second.
Above the firmament, a weak flame the size of a fist was hovering.
The flame flickered unsteadily, its golden core almost obscured by the thin white light on the outer layer, ready to be extinguished by the cold winds of the void at any moment.
This was Su Chen.
Or rather, it was Su Chen's current divine form—a wisp of weak divine fire.
His will blanketed the Divine Domain below, which was less than ten square kilometers, feeling the movement of every grain of sand and the struggle of every single one of his kin. This sea of deathly sand was all he had.
Overlooking his subjects struggling to survive below, a sense of anxiety, like a tangible flame, scorched his divine soul.
"It has already been three days since I came to this world..."
Su Chen's thoughts echoed in the void, carrying a trace of lingering bitterness.
Three days ago, he was still an ordinary person on Blue Star hustling for a living, but upon waking up, he discovered he had become a newly ascended god, possessing the supreme possibility of opening a Divine Domain, cultivating kin, and igniting divine fire.
This was a great era where everyone could become a god.
But it was also a cruel era, where the law of the jungle was magnified to the extreme.
"One month... If I don't pass the Divine Domain assessment in a month, my Divine Domain will be stripped away, and my divine fire will be forcibly extinguished."
Su Chen's consciousness fluctuated, and a translucent panel that only he could see appeared before his eyes.
[Divine Interface]
[God]: Su Chen
[Divine Name]: None (You have not yet condensed a divine name and cannot draw power from the void)
[divine portfolio]: None (You have not mastered any authority)
[Divine Rank]: Weak Divine Power (Quasi-Demigod)
[Faith Points]: 12
[Kin]: Black Armored Ants (Unranked / Tier 0)
[Number of Believers]: 320 (General Believers)
...
The data was suffocatingly bleak.
Su Chen's divine fire dimmed even further.
Too weak.
Weak to the point of despair.
In this world, every newly ascended god would receive a random initial kin in the "Sea of Creation."
Others started with elegant and powerful elves, dwarves skilled in forging, or even sub-dragons naturally possessing Tier 3 combat power. For those favored children of heaven, the faith points harvested from a single routine hunt by their kin would be enough to make him struggle for years.
And he, Su Chen, drew Black Armored Ants.
This creature was so fragile that a strong gust of wind could scatter their formation, and the barren land made even filling their stomachs a luxury. Their only advantage—rapid reproduction—became a curse that accelerated their demise in this desert where not even moss could grow.
More ant mouths meant more intense resource consumption.
"If this continues, I won't even last until the assessment..."
Su Chen's will revealed a bone-chilling coldness.
"This desert alone is enough to kill them all off."
By then, having lost all his believers, even these 12 faith points would vanish into thin air.
Just at this moment, a rapid and dense scratching sound interrupted Su Chen's thoughts.
His gaze refocused below.
Those dozen or so worker ants, pushed to their limits, finally dragged their spoils to the center of the Divine Domain.
There, stood a crude altar haphazardly piled together from gravel.
On the altar lay a two-meter-long yellow sand worm carcass. For the thumb-sized Black Armored Ants, the oppressive feeling of this worm was no less than a human facing a prehistoric giant whale.
Although this was the weakest of the Tier 1 creatures and had already been severely injured when discovered by the ant colony, Su Chen's colony had sacrificed the lives of fifty soldier ants to hunt it down.
This was a pyrrhic victory built on sheer numbers.
"Click... click... click..."
The ant colony did not have complex intelligence; they did not know how to chant hymns, nor did they know how to kneel and pray.
They simply gathered around the altar, rubbing their mandibles in unison, using this most primitive and instinctual way to offer their highest respect and their harvest to their only master.
That monotonous and dense crisp sound gathered into a weak but pure torrent of faith.
The worker ants used their last bit of strength to push the worm's carcass to the top of the altar together.
[Notification: Your kin has sacrificed the prey "Tier 1 Desert Worm" to you, and you have gained 1 faith point.]
The cold system notification sounded in Su Chen's mind.
1 point.
The lives of fifty soldier ants were traded for a mere 1 faith point.
Su Chen's divine fire flickered helplessly, and bitterness spread.
He was just preparing to follow convention and bestow a trace of insignificant divine power as a response to his kin, in order to maintain this fragile cycle of faith.
However, just at the moment his will was about to touch the altar.
A sudden change occurred!
Su Chen's gaze, or rather his perception as a god, shuddered violently the moment it landed on the worm's carcass!
The anticipated decomposition of the carcass into pure energy did not occur.
In his "vision," above the worm's carcass, a fist-sized orb of light emitting a dim, dark glow was slowly floating upward.
That orb of light was not stationary.
It was squirming, contracting, like a beating heart.
An indescribable, terrifying aura, mixed with ancient, greedy, and voracious desires, permeated from that orb of light, even causing the surrounding light to warp.
What is this?!
Su Chen's consciousness tightened instantly.
Before he could react, a grand, cold, and emotionless mechanical voice exploded directly in the deepest part of his divine soul without any warning!
"Ding!"
"High-energy biological sample detected..."
"Infinite Gene Evolution system activated!"
"Extractable gene entry discovered: [Ancient Devour Gene (Rare)]"
"Extract?"
Boom!
It was as if a thunderclap of creation had split open the chaos.
Su Chen's divine soul trembled violently, and that weak divine fire erupted with unprecedented brilliance in an instant, illuminating the dim firmament for a moment.
All the despair, anxiety, and unwillingness that had been entrenched in his heart were completely shattered by this voice at this moment, and then solidified.
Replacing them was a burst of ecstasy and ambition, gushing from the source of his soul, almost setting his entire divine soul ablaze!
System?!
Golden finger?!
This essential artifact for a transmigrator to turn the tables had arrived at his most desperate moment!
"Infinite Gene... Extract entry..."
Su Chen's will locked onto the dark orb on the altar; he could even "see" the tangled, chain-like gene sequences inside the orb.
As a transmigrator, he knew better than anyone what these six words meant.
In this world of gods where background, bloodline, and resources were everything, for a race like the Black Armored Ants, which were worse than dust, to get ahead was nothing but a pipe dream.
But now, a path to the heavens lay before him.
Evolution!
Transcend the shackles of bloodline, break the limits of species!
This was his only chance!
"Extract!"
Su Chen did not hesitate in the slightest, roaring resolutely in his heart.
This was no longer just a cheat.
This was his only ticket to escape the fate of enslavement and ascend to the supreme throne of gods!