35: Chapter 35 Mass Production of Cerebral Worms and Optimization of Command Networks
Having bid farewell to the Flower God, whose thought process was so simple it bordered on laughable, Su Chen's figure merged into the flow of the Divine Kingdom's marketplace, then faded away at the next corner, returning to his own Divine Realm.
The moment the spatial displacement completed, the gentle smile on his face melted away like ice and snow.
Every muscle that had composed that expression relaxed, returning to a state of absolute stillness. The polite curve of his lips straightened, and the feigned casualness and curiosity in his eyes were replaced by a bottomless calm and indifference.
He was no longer the demigod Su Chen who joked with colleagues and evaluated flowers.
He was the Overmind.
"Time to work."
The low murmur echoed in the empty Divine Realm, devoid of any emotional inflection—a mere statement, an instruction to initiate a program.
He stepped forward. The Creep beneath his feet, sensing his will, writhed excitedly, emitting faint pulses. On the cavern walls around him, amethyst crystal clusters released a steady, dim light, outlining a path leading into the abyss.
This was the innermost core of the Hive.
Zaz's territory.
A massive Cerebrate floated at the center of the cavity. Countless thick nerve cords and blood vessels extended from its wrinkled surface, plunging deep into the surrounding flesh and tissue, forming an immense biological hub. The air was thick with the scent of psionic energy and pheromones. Any non-Zerg Swarm unit lingering here for even a second would be driven mad by the terrifying psychic pollution.
Su Chen's figure appeared beneath the Cerebrate.
Zaz's enormous, solitary eye slowly opened. It held no pupil, only a sea of psionic energy light reflecting the entire Zerg Swarm network.
"Overmind."
A grand psychic message sounded directly in Su Chen's mind.
Su Chen did not respond. His focus was on his own palm.
A card radiating with brilliant golden light materialized out of thin air. Time runes, visible to the naked eye, flowed along its edges, while its center depicted an abstract pattern of a cell frantically dividing and multiplying.
[Item]: Fifth Tier • Proliferation Acceleration Divine Card
[Effect]: Designate a biological unit to increase its incubation speed by 1000% and significantly raise its mutation probability.
If used on the production of ordinary cannon fodder, this card could expand a million-strong Zergling army into one of tens of millions within a single day.
But Su Chen's goal had never been mere numerical accumulation.
He did not waste this precious strategic-level divine card on hatching those cheap, expendable Zerglings.
His gaze shifted to the enormous, heart-like Spawning Pool pulsating beside the Hive core.
In the next moment, he upended the entire pouch that, in the Flower God's eyes, contained "high-grade feed."
Rustle—
Hundreds of soul crystals, shimmering with various colors of light, cascaded down like a waterfall, plunging into the viscous, warm primordial gene culture fluid.
Each of these soul crystals had once been a vibrant, highly intelligent life. Now, they were merely raw material for the Zerg Swarm's evolution.
Su Chen flicked the divine card lightly towards the center of the Spawning Pool.
The golden card transformed into a streak of light, sank into the pool, and instantly dissolved.
"Target: Lesser Overmind."
He issued the cold command.
"Begin modulation!"
Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz—
The entire Hive core area—no, the entire underground Divine Realm—began to tremble violently.
The gene culture fluid in the Spawning Pool seemed to boil, churning with enormous bubbles. Vast waves of psionic energy light erupted from the pool's depths, illuminating the entire underground cavity as bright as day. Amethyst light cast countless twisted, frenzied shadows onto the cavern walls.
The power of the divine card took effect.
Time within this small Spawning Pool was accelerated a thousandfold in a brutally unreasonable manner.
The complex processes of gestation, gene selection, and neural network construction, which originally required months or even longer, were compressed to the extreme.
Su Chen could "see" those high-intelligence soul crystals rapidly decomposing. Pure soul energy was extracted and brutally merged with the Zerg Swarm's genetic sequences.
Deformed embryos swiftly took shape in the culture fluid, only to collapse the next second due to genetic conflict, turning into nutrients absorbed by new embryos.
This was a frenzied, efficient, and utterly merciless evolutionary screening process.
Only the most perfect combinations could survive this accelerated feast.
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours later, the violent energy tide finally subsided.
On the surface of the Spawning Pool, the viscous fluid began to bulge into enormous pustules.
Squelch.
Squelch.
The first pustule ruptured. A damp creature crawled out, shook off the mucus covering its body, and slowly floated into the air, relying on anti-gravity organs.
Then came the second, the third...
Three hundred monsters, a full size smaller than Zaz, with brains completely exposed, covered in deep grooves, were born.
They had no mouths, no limbs—only a massive, constantly flickering psionic energy brain and countless delicate neural tendrils dangling below.
They were the Lesser Overminds.
The moment they were born, three hundred waves of fanatical, pure, unadulterated consciousness converged into a psychic tsunami, crashing into Su Chen's mind.
"For the Swarm..."
"For the Overmind..."
"We feel your will. We are born for your will!"
"Good."
Su Chen's consciousness swept over this freshly produced "batch."
Their intelligence level was far from comparable to Zaz, the Cerebrate, incapable of strategic planning on a civilizational scale.
However, their processing power was perfectly sufficient to serve as tactical commanders for localized battlefields.
It was enough.
"Zaz, assign tasks."
Su Chen's will transformed into a silent command.
"Yes, Overmind."
Zaz's response was instantaneous.
At the Overmind's command, three hundred streaks of psionic energy light instantly pierced the darkness of the Divine Realm.
They shot out in all directions.
The Royal Guard Corps.
The Air Force.
The Logistics and Harvesting Teams.
Every massive unit welcomed its dedicated "brain."
Simultaneously, Su Chen's will extended once more, touching every corner of the Zerg Swarm.
Several elite units that had survived the previous battle with the demigods of the Death Pantheon through instinct and completed multiple combat evolutions were locked onto by his will.
An elite Hydralisk whose carapace had evolved to be as hard as obsidian, with energy patterns covering its scythe-like forelimbs.
An elite Ultralisk of exceptionally massive size, which had learned to utilize terrain and teamwork during charges.
"Appointment: Royal Guard Corps Commander."
"Appointment: Heavy Assault Corps Commander."
Two promotion orders were directly imprinted into the depths of their genes.
In an instant.
The entire command structure of the Zerg Swarm underwent a revolutionary change.
Previously, Su Chen's orders needed to be parsed once by Zaz, who then directly issued commands to hundreds of millions of basic units. This process suffered from significant information delays and wasted processing power, appearing bloated and sluggish.
Now, this network had its meridians unblocked.
Su Chen only needed to issue a vague strategic directive.
For example, "Defend the left flank."
The Cerebrate Zaz would immediately break down this strategic objective into hundreds of specific tactical plans.
These plans would be distributed to the three hundred Lesser Overminds scattered across various war zones.
The Lesser Overminds would then further refine the tactical plans based on real-time conditions in their respective areas, ultimately achieving precise control over every Zergling's pounce and every Mutalisk's breath attack.
The entire chain, from the Overmind's strategic intent to the tactical execution of basic units, was drastically shortened and optimized.
Efficiency increased by more than tenfold!
Now, the Zerg Swarm had truly transcended the category of a "beast tide," transforming into a terrifyingly precise war machine composed of countless flesh-and-blood components.