2: Chapter 2 The Most Terrifying Creature in the Entire Galaxy, Starting with a Worker Bee

Three hours after the battle ended.

The corpses on the creep had been completely decomposed. Thirty-seven Chaos Hounds and nine Zerglings had all been converted into nutrient slurry, flowing through the mycelial network into the embryonic hatchery deep within the planet's crust. The air was thick with an scent unique to the Zerg—the burnt smell of chitin mixed with the acrid tang of creep digestive fluids; the characteristic aroma of The Swarm's growth.

The Overmind's consciousness swept across the hatchery.

This living organ, buried deep underground, was expanding at a rate visible to the naked eye. After absorbing a massive amount of biomass, its inner walls began to differentiate into more complex structures: larva incubation chambers, genetic analysis sacs, and nutrient storage rooms. Although it was far from reaching the scale of a full hatchery, it was already a qualitative leap compared to the lump of flesh that could barely produce larvae three days ago.

The first batch of larvae had already formed in the incubation chambers.

Twenty-four in total.

The Overmind injected genetic templates into the larvae's consciousness—not Zerglings, but another fundamental Zerg unit.

Drones.

Zerglings are consumables, the blades used for slaughter. But Drones are the foundation, the hands that build the hive. Without enough Drones to gather resources, expand the creep, and construct buildings, the expansion speed of The Swarm would be severely hindered.

Furthermore, the Overmind had a hypothesis that needed verification.

The surface of this planet had almost no normal ecosystem; traces of Chaos corruption were everywhere. But what about deep within the crust? In those rock layers where Chaos energy found it difficult to penetrate, did uncorrupted primitive biomass still remain?

It needed to see with its own eyes.

The larvae burst through the fleshy walls of the incubation chambers, crawling out of the hatchery one by one. They were much smaller than Zerglings and lacked bone blades for combat, possessing only two pairs of appendages for digging and cutting. On their backs was a pair of membrane-like gliders, allowing them to perform short-distance glides on the planet's surface.

Twelve Drones burrowed to the surface and scattered in all directions.

The remaining larvae stayed within the hatchery, awaiting the next round of transformation.

The first batch of genetic samples was sent back three hours later.

A Drone discovered a colony of uncorrupted lichen in a ground fissure seven kilometers away from the hatchery. Those tiny, grey-green plants grew tightly against the rock walls, surviving on geothermal heat and moisture seeping from the stones. Because they were located deep underground where Chaos energy could not penetrate, they managed to maintain their primitive genetic forms.

The lichen's genetic samples were transmitted to the Overmind's consciousness through the creep network.

Simple. Primitive. But clean.

No traces of Chaos corruption, no frenzied genetic mutations. This was the original life form of this planet—what it looked like before being polluted by Chaos.

The Overmind compared the lichen's genetic sequence with the Chaos Hound samples.

The difference was massive.

The lichen's genes showed a clear evolutionary path: from single-celled to multi-celled, from simple to complex, with every mutation traceable as an adaptation to environmental pressure. In contrast, the Chaos Hound's genes looked like they had been haphazardly cobbled together with scissors and glue—fragments from different species forcibly stitched together using Chaos energy as an adhesive.

This was not evolution.

This was pollution.

The Overmind made a decision: the core gene pool of The Swarm would be constructed based on this planet's native genes. From the Chaos Hound's genetic fragments, it would only extract usable functional modules—muscle fiber density, pain-suppression neural structures, and Chaos-energy-tolerant proteins—integrating them only after purification treatment.

It would never directly devour Chaos genes.

That was not evolution; it was suicide.

The sixth day.

The creep had already covered an area with a thirty-kilometer radius around the hatchery.

The second batch of Drones discovered more uncorrupted native organisms: a type of burrowing crustacean arthropod, similar in size to an Earth crab, which fed on lichen and minerals. Their genes were also clean, and they possessed a chitin synthesis pathway that The Swarm could learn from.

The Overmind began constructing The Swarm's first 'Warhammer Universe Exclusive' evolutionary branch.

The Zerglings' chitinous carapaces had performed poorly against the Chaos Hounds—they were bitten through multiple times. The problem lay in the molecular structure of the chitin: the Zerg Swarm's chitin template was designed for carbon-based lifeforms in the Koprulu Sector and had almost zero defensive capability against Chaos energy.

Now, there was a solution.

In the chitin of those native crustaceans, there was a trace element capable of repelling Chaos energy—not through active repulsion, but because the electron cloud density of this element formed a natural 'energy barrier' that Chaos energy would naturally bypass when approaching.

The Overmind named this trace element 'Chaos Repulsion Factor-001.'

Drones began to harvest these crustaceans in large numbers.

The genetic information was integrated into the template for the next batch of Zerglings. The Chaos Repulsion Factor was added to the new chitin synthesis pathway, changing the carapace color from deep purple to a darker purplish-black, with an extremely fine lattice structure appearing on the surface.

The first batch of 'Warhammer-Adapted' Zerglings emerged from their cocoons.

There were only six.

But the Overmind could sense their difference. The new carapaces had a natural repulsion toward Chaos energy—when the energy fluctuations of a Chaos Hound drew near, the lattice structure on the carapace surface would produce a faint resonance, deflecting the energy away.

The cost was a 40% increase in the growth cycle.

The synthesis of the Chaos Repulsion Factor required additional trace elements, and Drones needed to mine deeper veins to obtain enough raw materials.

But on this planet surrounded by Chaos, this price had to be paid.

The eighth day.

The Chaos Hounds appeared again.

This time, it wasn't thirty or fifty.

It was over two hundred.

They surged from the northern barrens like a dark red tide. Leading them was a behemoth three times the size of an ordinary Chaos Hound; twisted bone spikes grew from its back, their tips burning with pinkish-purple flames.

The Overmind's consciousness swept over the pack.

It wasn't just Chaos Hounds.

Behind the pack were a dozen or so hunched humanoid creatures. Their skin was a sickly grayish-white, their eye sockets sunken, and the same pinkish-purple flames as the Chaos Hounds burned within their eyes. They wore tattered robes of indistinguishable original color and held crude weapons made of bone and scrap metal.

Chaos Cultists.

Humans.

This was the first time the Overmind had seen humans in this universe—even if they were corrupted by Chaos to the point of being almost unrecognizable as human.

The Chaos Cultists let out ear-piercing shrieks, as if performing some ritual. Following their screams, the pack of Chaos Hounds became even more frenzied and began charging toward the area covered by the creep.

Over two hundred Chaos Hounds.

Twelve Chaos Cultists.

Six Warhammer-Adapted Zerglings.

Ten ordinary Zerglings.

The Overmind calculated the disparity in strength. It was lopsided.

But it could not retreat.

The hatchery beneath the creep was the foundation of the entire Swarm. If it were destroyed, the Overmind would lose its physical vessel once again. Moreover, that group of Chaos Cultists sparked a new interest in the Overmind—

Human genes.

Even if corrupted, their genetic sequences still retained the complete template of humanity. Homo sapiens, carbon-based intelligent life, possessing brain structures and nervous systems The Swarm had never encountered before.

This was worth paying a price for.

"All units. Defensive formation."

The Overmind's command spread through the Hive Mind.

Sixteen Zerglings lined up in an arc at the edge of the creep, with the six new-type Zerglings in the center as the main force against the Chaos Hounds. All Drones retreated underground, accelerating the secretion of creep digestive fluids.

Inside the hatchery, larvae were frantically devouring nutrient slurry.

The Overmind issued a third command:

"Accelerate incubation. Fully matured Zerglings are not required. As long as they can fight, burst from the cocoons now."

The first batch of force-matured Zerglings rushed out of the ground thirty seconds later.

Their carapaces hadn't fully hardened, appearing a translucent purplish-red. The edges of their bone blades weren't sharp enough, and some individuals' hind limbs hadn't fully developed, causing them to limp as they ran.

But they could fight.

The Swarm knew nothing of 'training' or 'preparation.' The Swarm only knew: those who survive are qualified genetic templates; those who die are biomass.

The wave of Chaos Hounds slammed into The Swarm's defensive line.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere.

This was a scene the Overmind had experienced countless times in the Koprulu Sector, but in the Warhammer 40K universe, the frenzy of the Chaos Hounds added a different texture to the combat.

Ordinary Zerglings were at a clear disadvantage against the Chaos Hounds. Their bone blades could slice through the Hounds' flesh, but the enemy simply didn't care. One Chaos Hound continued to bite madly even after its throat was slit, only collapsing once its blood ran dry. Conversely, as soon as a Zergling was bitten, Chaos energy would seep through the wound and begin corrupting the surrounding tissue.

But the new-type Zerglings were different.

The Chaos Repulsion Factor formed an invisible barrier on the carapace surface. When a Chaos Hound's bite landed on a new-type Zergling's carapace, the Chaos energy on its teeth would be deflected, leaving only pure physical bite force to cause damage. Furthermore, the Chaos Repulsion Factor was also added to the new-type Zerglings' bone blades—when the blades sliced into the Hounds' flesh, the repulsion factor would dispel local Chaos energy, preventing the wounds from healing as rapidly as usual.

Each of the six new-type Zerglings had to face the siege of over a dozen Chaos Hounds.

But they held their ground.

One new-type Zergling's carapace was bitten repeatedly until the lattice structure finally shattered, allowing Chaos energy to flood its body. Before the corruption could spread to its brain, this Zergling made one final move—

It lunged toward the Chaos Cultists.

Not to attack, but to turn itself into a genetic information collector.

It fell among the Chaos Cultists, its body hacked to pieces. But before dying, its senses transmitted all collected information back to the Hive Mind—

The human genetic sequence.

The transmission path of Chaos corruption.

And the energy fluctuation patterns produced on the cultists' bodies during their ritual.

The Overmind received all the information.

It was worth it.

The life of one Zergling in exchange for a complete template of human genes and the first direct observation of a Chaos ritual.

This was a very profitable trade.

The battle continued to the edge of the creep.

The corpses of Chaos Hounds piled up into a low wall. The sixteen Zerglings were completely wiped out, and the force-matured batch died almost as soon as they emerged. But The Swarm's defensive line did not collapse—for every Zergling that fell, a new one rushed out from underground.

The production efficiency of the hatchery had been pushed to the limit.

Larvae cocooning, transforming, and rushing to the surface—the entire process was compressed to a tenth of its original time. The cost was that these force-matured Zerglings had a lifespan of less than three days, carapaces only sixty percent as hard as normal, and bone blades that would shatter after a dozen strikes.

But it was enough.

When the last Chaos Hound fell onto the creep, The Swarm still had three Zerglings standing. All three were force-matured individuals; their carapaces were shattered beyond recognition, one had a completely severed left forelimb, and its bone blade was reduced to a stump.

But they were alive.

And the Chaos Hounds were all dead.

The twelve Chaos Cultists began to flee after the pack was annihilated. They had lost their will to fight—or rather, the Chaos power driving them would temporarily recede when the hosts fell into terror.

The three Zerglings wanted to pursue.

The Overmind stopped them.

There was no need for pursuit.

The Chaos Cultists would leave energy trails as they fled. Those trails would lead to their lair. And—

The Overmind's consciousness turned toward the dismembered remains of the Zergling in the center of the battlefield.

It had fulfilled its mission.

The complete human genetic sequence was flowing bit by bit through the mycelial network into the Overmind's consciousness.

This was the first genetic sample of intelligent life The Swarm had obtained in this universe.

The Overmind began to analyze it.

The human brain structure was more complex than the Overmind had expected. The neocortex, hippocampus, amygdala... the combination of these organs produced the capacity for 'self-awareness' and 'abstract thinking.' And the mechanism of Chaos corruption targeted exactly this—corruption began at the amygdala, twisting fear and desire, then spreading to the neocortex to completely rewrite the personality.

But The Swarm had no amygdala.

The Swarm had no individual fear.

The Swarm had only one consciousness—the Overmind.

Chaos could find no 'individual' to corrupt.

This conclusion produced an emotion akin to 'satisfaction' in the Overmind. In this universe where Chaos ran rampant, The Swarm's unified will structure was naturally the nemesis of Chaos.

It wasn't immunity.

It was—Chaos simply couldn't find a target to attack.

Like a punch landing on thin air.

In the distance, in the direction the Chaos Cultists had fled, a faint ripple of Warp energy was spreading. That was the trace of some summoning ritual. They would not stop here. Next time, it wouldn't just be Chaos Hounds and cultists.

The Overmind drove the hatchery to begin producing new larvae.

The creep spread toward the direction the Chaos Cultists had fled.

The three surviving Zerglings did not rest. They patrolled slowly along the edge of the creep, the edges of their broken carapaces already beginning to secrete chitin for slow regeneration.

On the other side of the planet, Drones discovered a new geothermal rift. The temperature there was higher and minerals were more abundant—suitable for building a second hatchery.

The Overmind's consciousness extended in that direction.

"Expand."

The command echoed through the entire Hive Mind.

The Swarm never rests.

Hey everyone, the new book is out! Click 'Add to Library' in the top right corner so you don't miss out and can get updates early~