176: Chapter 176 Surviving, the Swarm is Born a Traitor!

Pfft!!!

Xu Xuan hadn't expected the Swarm Queen to shout it out without the slightest hesitation.

Dignity?

What was dignity?

Insects were ultimate pragmatists.

If it meant getting food, she would call him 'Father' or even 'Ancestor' if needed.

It was just a word; what did she have to lose?

Everything served the purpose of devouring. As long as they could eat and expand the swarm, insects didn't care about anything else.

Would an ant understand concepts like loyalty, filial piety, integrity, or shame?

Of course not.

The Swarm Queen was the same. At her core, she was merely a machine bred by the Zerg Swarm.

The mature-looking woman before him sat on the ground and called out to Xu Xuan, "Papa."

This scene...

Neither Su Daji nor Shen Gongbao could hold back their reactions.

"This insect... truly is just an insect." Shen Gongbao stroked his goatee with a pinched gesture, laughing darkly.

Su Daji covered her mouth and giggled, "Congratulations, Great King, on gaining a daughter from another race."

Xu Xuan tossed the second piece of meat to the Swarm Queen, and she ate it with pure delight.

The wound on her chest began to heal at a visible rate, new white skin growing over it.

Following that, a hard shell began to grow over her skin, covering the area of her heart.

It seemed the 'clothes' she wore were actually her insect carapace, a part of her body.

Xu Xuan immediately fed her a third piece of meat, which she also enjoyed immensely.

However, when Xu Xuan tried to gently pat her head, she flashed a wary expression, as if afraid he would snatch her meat away.

She had never eaten primary food before; she had always eaten pre-digested, secondary food regurgitated for her by the Army Ants.

That kind of food was like toothpaste—tasteless, though it provided energy.

This was the first time since her birth that she had tasted something so delicious.

To her, raw meat was an absolute delicacy.

The Swarm Queen's behavior was like both a child and a puppy.

Xu Xuan picked up a fourth slice of meat. "Come, shake hands."

"Mm-hmm!"

The Swarm Queen immediately reached out her hand, though her eyes remained glued to the meat in Xu Xuan's hand.

Xu Xuan asked with a beaming smile, "Come, be my dog. I'll give you endless meat. What do you say?"

Though this mature woman had a tall and sultry figure, transparent saliva was currently dripping from her mouth.

"Want... want... eat."

Xu Xuan looked like a suspicious man trying to kidnap a child.

He pulled out a Master-Servant Agreement.

"Come, sign this agreement and join me, and I'll give you food."

At that moment, the longing in the Swarm Queen's eyes vanished, replaced by a look of sharp vigilance.

She shook her head like a rattle. "Nuh-uh!"

Xu Xuan leaned in close to her, his gaze extremely aggressive.

"Think about it. You no longer belong to the Zerg. What can you even do now?"

"If you become my dog, you can eat an entire wild boar every day!"

Hearing this, the Swarm Queen shook her head, her mature voice sounding dim-witted: "1 animal, not enough. 10 animals!"

Eh?

Xu Xuan had thought the recruitment failed, but it turned out she just wanted ten of them?

That was easy.

If he could deal with the Zerg, let alone ten pigs a day, he'd give her a hundred!

"Very well. Sign this contract, and I will satisfy whatever you want to eat."

The Swarm Queen reached out and pressed her hand onto the master-servant contract. Immediately after, a flash of excitement crossed her eyes.

The contract was a success!

In that instant, Xu Xuan noticed something.

He felt something was off. The look in the Swarm Queen's eyes just now didn't seem like that of a fool.

"Wait a minute."

The more Xu Xuan thought about it, the more suspicious he became. He immediately used the power of the master-servant contract's laws to command her.

"Tell me, what were you thinking just now? You must not hide anything!"

Xu Xuan used the power of the law to force an answer.

The Zerg woman's mind froze, and her body began to respond uncontrollably.

"I am happy because signing the master-servant contract means I can survive."

As soon as she said this, Xu Xuan understood. Had this woman been playing dumb this whole time?

"Why did you play dumb to deceive me?"

Xu Xuan continued his interrogation.

Due to the compulsory nature of the master-servant contract, she couldn't help but reveal her true thoughts.

"Because I have been completely reduced to a waste with no use. If I can be your dog, there is at least hope for me to live."

The Swarm Queen's body was stiff to the extreme; she seemed to be in some pain.

Although she wanted to hide it, Xu Xuan had caught that fleeting expression of secret joy.

Xu Xuan raised an eyebrow. "No use? Tell me your reasoning."

"I have been abandoned by the Swarm. I am no longer the Swarm Queen. Even if you possess me, you cannot control the Swarm."

"I am already trash. Aside from death, I have no other options left."

"But! Who wants to die? Every intelligent individual, even a little insect like me, wants to scramble for a way to survive."

Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. Now that she had bared her heart, she feared she wouldn't live long.

Even though the Swarm was cold and heartless, abandoning whoever it chose to abandon...

...when it came to her own turn, she didn't want to die just like that.

Like an ant fallen into human hands—a human could crush it on a whim, but even at the very end of its life, the ant would still struggle desperately.

She truly did not want to die.

Xu Xuan was curious now. "Isn't your Swarm absolutely loyal? What, you're willing to betray your own race just to stay alive?"

The pale-faced Swarm Queen thought for a moment.

"In truth, the Swarm is not what you outsiders see. The essence of the Swarm is division."

"In our world, every swarm expands and splits into countless small sub-groups."

"When food is plentiful, everyone coexists in peace."

"But if food is scarce, the new Queen will fight the old Queen, and both sides will view each other as food."

"The old Queen will desperately suppress her offspring, while the new Queen will do everything possible to hunt and kill her mother."

Hearing this, Xu Xuan became even more intrigued.

"Then I have a question."

"Since you would kill the old Queen, why doesn't she just devour you the moment you're born?"

The Swarm Queen explained very calmly.

"From the moment of our birth, we must disguise ourselves as ordinary insects and slowly absorb nutrients within the hive."

"During this process, many of my sisters are discovered by the Queen and become a delicacy in our mother's mouth."

"Only those who can maintain the disguise until the end can, after accumulating enough power, transform from larvae into cocoons and then into adults, flying away from the hive to establish their own new kingdom."

After hearing her words, Xu Xuan finally understood.

The Zerg Swarm was truly twisted.

They were traitors from start to finish. As long as they could survive and escape the Swarm's control, they would defect without hesitation.

Hmm...

Xu Xuan pondered for a moment and asked one last question.

"So, can you produce little insects now?"

"No."

The Swarm Queen shook her head and pointed to her back.

"My Brood Chamber has been cut away. I can no longer give birth to new larvae. I am merely a key component within the entire swarm."

Hearing this, Xu Xuan was a bit disappointed.

He had thought he could use the Swarm Queen to breed new insects—using magic to defeat magic, using insects to defeat insects!

If this Queen couldn't breed, then she wasn't of much use.

But then, the Swarm Queen's next sentence gave Xu Xuan a way to crack the problem.

The Swarm Queen said, "I have been isolated from the swarm network; I cannot command the Swarm."

At those words, Xu Xuan immediately countered with a question.

"Shen Gongbao, Su Daji, can you two help her infiltrate the swarm network?"