Chapter 104 | Swarm: I Became a Cataclysmic Disaster

【Elise has created a completely new egg-laying individual.】

What on earth is she trying to do? Did she obtain a revolutionary, system-altering ability just by eating a single planarian?

While the Second Queen, Kerrigan, had transformed herself into a combat queen, the heavy responsibility of creating new individuals for the colony and driving their evolution had always been borne by Elise alone.

Lin Miao stared tensely at the screen, watching to see what would happen next.

Before this, the colony's reproduction system worked like this: Elise would transmit the designed genetic information through the hive mind to the egg-laying queens, who would then lay the eggs. The hatched larvae would be fed specific foods, eventually growing into different mutated species.

But this time, Elise clearly intended to completely revolutionize this system.

Elise's body writhed violently before she opened her mouth and spat out a mass of black matter.

【The new egg-laying individual has begun to grow on its own. Elise is highly satisfied with the capabilities of this new individual, in which she invested a massive amount of resources.】

The black, rotten-flesh-like mass began to squirm disgustingly, expanding at an astonishing rate.

Staring at this absurd scene, Lin Miao was struck speechless.

The mass slowly took shape, turning into a massive, caterpillar-like unknown creature that wriggled its body incessantly.

From the moment Elise spat out the clump of cells to its growth into a massive creature roughly the same size as her, less than a single day had passed—it had only taken a few hours.

Under normal circumstances, this was absolutely impossible.

Without a doubt, a massive amount of magic power and special energy had been poured into this process.

【Universal Cells LV1: The power of the hive mind can now act at the cellular level.】

This newly born entity was not a simple mutated species.

It was yet another fruitful result of their racial trait to acquire abilities through devouring and continuously evolve.

【The servants have begun feeding the new egg-laying individual a massive amount of food. Elise judges that the resource consumption of this ability is too immense; unless used for rapid proliferation, its efficiency is extremely low.】

“Phew...”

Most of this new egg-laying individual's body seemed to consist of digestive organs.

It began to ravenously devour the mountain of food brought by the worker ants. Before long, its posterior began to produce black cell clumps similar to the one Elise had just spat out.

The worker ants immediately carried these cell clumps to other chambers.

These rapidly expanding cell clumps quickly transformed into massive cocoons.

Looking at the size and shape of these cocoons, Lin Miao could roughly guess what kind of mutated species would hatch from them.

There was everything from the smallest ordinary worker ants to the massive heavy-armored ants.

It seemed Elise had produced every type of individual all at once for testing purposes.

Furthermore, those that hatched from the cocoons were already fully formed adults ready for immediate combat. They had completely bypassed the egg and larval stages.

“This way, the Great Devourers will only grow more numerous and stronger. Under the divine protection of the Great One...”

Staring at all of this, Celia was deeply shaken. She slumped to the ground, muttering blankly to herself.

“But for now, this is the only way left.”

Before long, however, she closed her eyes and stood back up.

Celia now had no choice but to pray that the colony would grow even faster.

Only then could she save one more innocent soul.

【Elise demands that Celia hand over the power she possesses.】

Elise walked up behind Celia and gently tapped her with her antennae, presenting her demand.

“N-Not yet. I need more time to study it, Your Majesty.”

Startled, Celia quickly shook her head and replied.

I think I understand what Elise wants.

Lin Miao also guessed what Elise was asking of Celia, and he understood why Celia was so flustered.

Elise wanted magic.

To be precise, she wanted the methods of utilizing special energies like magic power and holy power—which meant "completely new technologies," including magic.

These had always been the biggest headaches for the colony.

The battle aura of the beastkin, the magic of the humans, the holy power of the Church, and so on.

Furthermore, the colony had currently hit a physical bottleneck.

The resources obtained through hunting and cultivation were limited.

And the methods to efficiently utilize these resources had already been optimized to their absolute limits, leaving very little room for improvement.

The only way to break through this bottleneck was to master new technologies.

Just as humans on Earth had achieved explosive population growth only after inventing artificial fertilizers and discovering new energy sources.

“I... I will try to research it.”

Under Elise's demanding gaze, Celia placed her hand over her heart and promised to find a way.

And this was precisely what Lin Miao expected of her.

If Celia could truly find a way, Lin Miao would spare no effort to support her, just as he did when providing food for the colony.

While Elise and Celia were both working hard in their respective roles,

【Connecting to the Divine Net forum】

Maybe I can find a way as well.

Lin Miao didn't want to just sit around and wait, so he decided to take action.

Fortunately, even for an amateur like him who knew nothing, there was an ocean of information available.

Lin Miao connected once again to the Divine Net forum, where countless deities from all over the universe constantly conversed. He began to study diligently, pouring over the information and data that he could barely comprehend.