36: Chapter 36 Resource Anxiety and the Search for New Hunting Grounds
The extreme sense of control brought about by the optimization of the command system flowed like a mellow warmth deep within his consciousness.
Every thought could reach the nerve endings of the Zerg Swarm in a fraction of a second.
The claws of every Zergling, the breath of every Mutalisk, became extensions of his will.
This unprecedented power, this absolute control over countless lives held at his fingertips, was enough to intoxicate any deity.
However, this intoxication did not last long.
When Su Chen's will sank into the core of the divine realm and retrieved the torrent of data concerning the lifeblood of the entire swarm, the gentle light in his consciousness space was instantly frozen by cold reality.
A crimson warning exploded in his consciousness in the most brutal and direct manner.
[Warning! Resource consumption rate spiking!]
Following closely was a string of cold, heavy, emotionless numbers.
They transformed into a waterfall of data, washing over Su Chen's perception.
[Daily Consumption]: 300,000 Power Of Faith.
Each character of this line seemed forged from heavy dark iron, weighing heavily on his heart.
It was followed by dense annotations.
(Maintaining high-intensity parallel computation for three hundred Lesser Overminds...)
(Maintaining basal metabolism and biological armor activity for the Ultralisk Corps...)
(Maintaining biomass conversion and energy supply for the main hive, sub-hives, and spawning pools...)
...
Finally, came the most fatal summary.
[Current Reserves]: Less than 5 million Power Of Faith remaining.
Su Chen's consciousness form trembled slightly in the dark void of the divine realm.
A sense of absurdity welled up within him.
He seemed to hear the deafening clatter of countless gold coins colliding before being cast into a bottomless furnace.
"Is this the sound of gold coins flowing like water with every roar of the cannon?"
He instinctively raised a hand to rub his temples, though in his consciousness form, the gesture was meaningless.
It was a habit rooted in human instinct, an attempt to alleviate pressure.
With the mass deployment of Lesser Overminds and the Ultralisk Corps, the combat power of the Zerg Swarm had achieved exponential growth.
But accompanying it was an equally terrifying logistical pressure.
These newly born "high-tech military units" were not mere flesh-and-blood creatures.
They were black holes that devoured resources.
They were bottomless furnaces that burned Power Of Faith.
The three hundred Lesser Overminds—every tactical optimization they simulated, every piece of battlefield information they analyzed and processed—burned Power Of Faith with insane ferocity.
Those massive Ultralisks—every breath they took, every muscle contraction—required enormous amounts of biomass to sustain. Their nearly indestructible carapaces needed continuous energy infusion to remain active.
If he did not wage war, if he did not plunder...
If he merely kept this newly formed elite army "docked in port"...
Half a month.
At most, in half a month, all his reserves would be completely depleted.
By then, he would be utterly bankrupt.
A deity who had exhausted all strategic reserves, a Swarm Overlord who could no longer spawn any new units—their fate was singular.
Torn to shreds by the hyenas that caught the scent of blood.
"Farm?"
This thought flashed through his mind, only to be extinguished by his own will.
"Farming is impossible."
Su Chen's will was cold and resolute.
Stable development? Peaceful accumulation?
Those were terms that belonged to other races.
In the depths of his genes, in the bloodline instincts passed down through the Zerg Swarm for eons, those four words simply did not exist.
The destiny of the Zerg Swarm was expansion, consumption, evolution.
Stagnation was synonymous with death.
To feed this war machine that had already begun to roar, to satisfy its ever-increasing, terrifying appetite, there was only one path—
Sustain war through war!
Forge the cornerstone of our swarm's prosperity from the flesh and blood of our enemies!
Fuel our swarm's endless evolution with the resources of our enemies!
In an instant, Su Chen's entire aura underwent a transformative change.
If moments before, he was the deity sitting high upon the divine throne, gazing down upon all living beings with compassion and majesty...
Then now, he was the predator awakened from endless hunger.
He stood up.
The darkness of the divine realm seemed to deepen and grow more oppressive with the shift in his will.
His icy gaze pierced through the boundaries of the divine realm, projecting onto the vast, unknown lands beyond.
There were mountains, rivers, and forests out there.
And also... prey.
"Sarah!"
"Zaz!"
Two commands imbued with supreme will, like bolts of psychic lightning, instantly pierced through the entire consciousness network of the Zerg Swarm.
"Your servant is here!"
Kerrigan's response, filled with fanaticism and battle intent, and Zaz's calm, efficient reply echoed almost simultaneously.
"Deploy all Overseers."
"Deploy all Lurkers."
Su Chen's voice reverberated within their consciousness, each word carrying a metallic quality, exuding a chilling, soul-trembling aura of slaughter.
"Conduct a carpet search of the five-hundred-kilometer radius centered on the divine realm!"
The moment the command was issued, on the Creep spread across every corner of the divine realm, countless newly hatched Overseers—their massive compound eyes suddenly lit up with an eerie glow.
These spherical reconnaissance units, relying on anti-gravity organs, rose silently into the air, transforming into patches of shadow that drifted away in all directions.
Simultaneously, deep underground, Lurkers extended their sharp digging claws, silently burrowing into the earth, infiltrating the periphery like ghosts.
In the sky and beneath the earth, an invisible web of reconnaissance was rapidly spreading outward, centered on the divine realm.
Su Chen's will, like the coldest blade, pointed this vast net toward its targets.
"Be it owned tribes or wild monsters without a master..."
His voice held not the slightest emotional fluctuation, only pure, absolute will.
"If there are resources, even a rock with an energy signature, mark it and bring it back!"
On the last four words, his will suddenly intensified, transforming into a psychic storm that swept through the entire Zerg Swarm.
"The Zerg Swarm is hungry."