Chapter 215 | Swarm: I Became a Cataclysmic Disaster

“The colony's hive mind connection was cut off? Is that true?”

After receiving the emergency communication, Bai Zhantang and Ye Yunshang quietly waited for Lin Miao, their faces filled with panic and shock.

Meanwhile, Lin Miao's mind was also in a state of turmoil.

For a long time, Lin Miao had been quietly observing the behavioral patterns of the Great Devourers. In his understanding, the hive mind connection would never be easily severed. Even if an individual's life ebbed away and its body perished, this connection would persist until the very last moment, only disappearing upon total annihilation.

Even with the exclusive magic Celia had spent years researching, let alone forcibly severing the hive mind, the caster's own consciousness would instead be drawn in by it, becoming a part of the hive mind.

Calming himself down slightly, Lin Miao quickly composed his thoughts and rapidly analyzed the key points.

He suddenly realized that the hive mind connection currently transplanted into the human colony was, in essence, merely a derivative trait registered within the Awakened system. It was not the complete, pure, and original power of the hive mind held by Elise.

The hive mind connection possessed by the human colony was a half-baked ability that Lin Miao had copied from Elise's original power. It remained subject to the world's Awakened system and could not break free from its rules.

Once it encountered a registered, more powerful, and higher-tier ability or divine power, it was not entirely inexplicable for the connection to be forcibly blocked and severed.

“At the last moment, based on the memories shared by Lin Qiye, I did indeed see a person's face clearly,” Ye Yunshang said, breaking the silence. She admitted she wasn't completely without clues, and then informed Lin Miao of the suspected mastermind behind the scenes whom she had deduced through her investigation.

Lin Miao immediately looked through the Awakened database on his phone. The information clearly pointed to a local enterprise named "Iron Raven".

The answer was now clear.

Even today, the various deities were still actively competing in the shadows. As long as they caught a sliver of opportunity, they would spare no expense to eliminate their rivals and expand their own territory.

Anger surged within Lin Miao. He couldn't help but grit his teeth, silently cursing the mastermind behind the scenes.

But he forcibly suppressed his agitation, knowing very well that he could not act rashly at this moment.

If the other party had already built up a massive faction far exceeding their own, or had formed alliances with top-tier organizations, a rash public provocation on their part would only lead them into a dead end.

Unlike the Great Devourers, who existed purely to fight, devour, and evolve, the human colony had countless things they needed to protect. A peaceful daily life, an ordinary existence, and precious family members were all their weaknesses and concerns.

Unlike those who mistakenly believed that the Great Devourer was chaos itself, the human colony had to learn to navigate and compete within the established order, leveraging the rules and balancing the various factions rather than acting purely on impulse.

The immediate priority was to thoroughly uncover the background and true face behind Iron Raven.

Lin Miao did not immediately reply to Bai Zhantang and Ye Yunshang. Instead, he quietly opened the Divine Net forum and began to search for relevant information in secret.

Within the Divine Net, some, like Lin Miao, used the forum minimally and kept a low profile. However, many deities and factions were incredibly boastful, flaunting their achievements, socializing actively, exchanging intelligence, and forming contracts—every action thoroughly driven by self-interest.

A moment later, Lin Miao searched the Divine Net forum and found the alias of the deity bound to Iron Raven. When he saw that familiar name, his pupils contracted, and his eyes widened in surprise.

This alias was an old acquaintance he had already encountered back during the war on Terra.

Lin Miao then explained to those around him, “I'm afraid we cannot confront them head-on like we did when we absorbed the Penguin Company. The other party is highly likely waiting for us to initiate hostilities so we fall into their trap.”

“H-has it really come to this point?” Bai Zhantang said, his face filled with shock and his voice laced with disbelief.

“According to the intelligence, they have already formed a deep bond with the domestic giant, the Byte Group, through secret deals.”

Lin Miao let out a soft sigh and briefly informed the two of the secrets behind it.

Behind Iron Raven was none other than the Goddess of Light.

After the war on Terra concluded, the Holy Kingdom established by this goddess had been completely destroyed by the Great Devourers. She had then taken the opportunity to come to Earth, investing a massive amount of resources to set up her operations, with Iron Raven being one of the factions under her control.

Perhaps because of her solid foundation, the factions she acquired and established were far from limited to just this one.

Several Awakened enterprises across the world had already come under the goddess's ownership.

Furthermore, the goddess was actively cooperating with existing powerful deities, establishing contract-like relationships akin to alliances.

Lin Miao pondered to himself. Could the other party's relentless targeting of him be due to lingering grudges from the war on Terra, harboring resentment against him?

He did not share this thought with the dumbfounded Bai Zhantang and Ye Yunshang.

Back when he recruited Ye Yunshang, Lin Miao had already competed head-on with this Goddess of Light, sowing seeds of discord.

Looking at all the various factions, the fact that she was specifically targeting him—who had yet to completely reach the summit—and his colony, revenge for old grudges was undoubtedly the most logical reason.

“Proxy, then what do you mean...” Ye Yunshang asked hesitantly.

“I'll consider it further. With our current combat power, we indeed cannot contend with them for the time being.”

Lin Miao's brow furrowed. Briefly bidding them farewell, he left alone.

Along the way, watching the Great Devourers grow from preying on the weak and struggling to survive, to fighting and expanding their colony step by step, Lin Miao felt a unique sentiment in his heart.

It turned out that for the weak struggling to rise from the bottom, the journey was indeed so fraught with difficulties.

At one point, the thought of directly revealing his identity as a deity to personally crush his opponent had crossed his mind, but he quickly discarded this shallow and impulsive idea.

Having already awakened his Divine Status, in terms of individual combat power, he was practically unrivaled on Earth.

However, his awakening was too anomalous. Currently, he only controlled the foundation of a single planet, making it impossible to spread his divine power across the entire world.

If he rashly exposed his full strength, it was highly likely that the collective deities would label him as an Outer God and public enemy disrupting the order of the Divine Net.

At that time, those deities would use this as an excuse to freely encroach upon his territory, slaughter his human servants, and destroy his foundation on Earth. The current him would be completely powerless to stop them on all fronts.

Just as Lin Miao was deep in thought and weighing his options, a bold idea suddenly surfaced. He quietly stared at Elise's figure on the screen, a flash of determination passing through his eyes.

The rules of the deities' game were inherently brutal. Destroying an opponent's servants and encroaching upon their territory could weaken their Divine Status, suppress their power, and ultimately allow one to devour and plunder them.

Since the other party could do this to him, he could naturally retaliate in the same manner.

As it happened, the outside world had already regarded him as an unscrupulous Outer God who ignored all order anyway, so there was no need to deliberately disguise himself.

And the continuously evolving Great Devourers also happened to need a steady stream of resources and prey for nourishment.

What was even more coincidental was that this Goddess of Light, with whom he had shared an ill-fated relationship for years, had actively come to provoke him and was pushing him step by step, having already torn away all pretense of civility.

Since she had openly declared war, he would naturally play along to the end.

However, the battlefield for this competition would definitely not be Earth, but a completely new, unmonitored territory beyond their domain.

Two days after his member was kidnapped, the Goddess of Light's private message arrived as expected.

Lin Miao had long anticipated that she would harbor a grudge against him due to their past history on Terra, but when her nakedly provocative message was laid out before his eyes, he still found it absurd and laughable.

[Goddess of Light: Your servant is sleeping very soundly right now. You can rest assured that I haven't harmed him. After all, he will become my loyal believer in the future.]

This message from the goddess was extremely direct, as if she wanted to vent all the frustration she had suffered on Terra.

Though her tone was elegant, the content was so blatant that the image of the seductive and beautiful goddess in Lin Miao's mind was gradually turning into an arrogant brat.

[Supreme Will of the All-Devouring Hive: Are you deliberately targeting me because of Ye Yunshang?]

Lin Miao vaguely remembered that back near the end of the war on Terra, this goddess had sent private messages like crazy after losing her bet.

At that time, he did not have the authority to receive messages from the Divine Net, so she had arbitrarily assumed he was an Outer God existing outside the Divine Net system, flying into a rage because of it.

Back then, he was no different from an Outer God to her, but this time, he actively accepted her private message, calmly facing the provocation.

She already knew that he was deeply bound to Earth's Awakened system.

Seeing Lin Miao actively reply, the Goddess of Light became even more arrogant, and her provocative words followed one after another without pause.

[Goddess of Light: Any Evil God who dares to provoke this goddess will only meet with this one end.]

[Goddess of Light: Face reality and surrender. Before long, all of your servants will be completely absorbed by me, and you will eventually be kicked out of Earth entirely.]

Looking at the aggressive text on the screen, Lin Miao felt no ripples in his heart.

He had already witnessed with his own eyes this Goddess of Light's crushing defeat at the hands of the Great Devourers on the Terra battlefield, and he had also seen her complaining and harboring resentment on the Divine Net forum after her loss.

[Supreme Will of the All-Devouring Hive: If you are willing to tell me all the intelligence about her, I can give you corresponding compensation.]

Lin Miao turned to contact another existence.

This party had actively approached him because they were both outlier Evil Gods. The two of them maintained transactions over the years, sustaining a subtle cooperative relationship, and this person was also Lin Miao's only contact within the Divine Net.

[Devouring End: Sure. Though, that name sounds a bit familiar. She seems to be the type who talks a lot on the Divine Net forum, which doesn't really match her status. You're welcome to ask anytime; this is what being an Evil God is all about, after all.]

The other party clearly knew a lot about the goddess. Perhaps finding this game of deities quite amusing, they did not hide anything and disclosed a massive amount of key intelligence to Lin Miao.

This intelligence happened to precisely make up for Lin Miao's shortcomings, including core information about a brand-new outer domain territory that the Goddess of Light had recently been focusing on developing.

Lin Miao finally uncovered the truth: after losing the Terra battlefield, Hestia did not stop. She continued to roam the universe, seeking opportunities and developing brand-new worlds other than Terra.

These territories were not competitive zones publicized by the Divine Net, but private domains she had discovered on her own and secretly developed using her own resources.

This high-tier deity, who already possessed multiple world territories, never ceased her ambitions. She still frantically craved more servants and wider territories, endlessly expanding her own power.

And this time, the outer world she was newly developing happened to be the most perfect hunting target.

An idea sprouted in Lin Miao's mind: if he dispatched the Great Devourers to launch a surprise attack on that hidden pioneering zone, plundering all of Hestia's resources, destroying her plans, and taking everything from her, the situation would completely reverse.

But he also knew that this was by no means an easy task.

Two major concerns forced him to consider the matter carefully.

First, Hestia had a deep foundation and immense strength. Even if that pioneering zone was remote, it would certainly be heavily guarded. His side could only deploy a small amount of combat power for a surprise attack, and a single slip-up could result in a total defeat and severe backlash.

Second, his deliberately disguised identity as a regular Evil God might be exposed due to this surprise attack, drawing suspicion from all sides.

Yet, after careful consideration, Lin Miao found that this matter was still feasible.

If their colony wanted to expand outward and break through their current limitations, they would sooner or later have to face stronger opponents and participate in more brutal competitions.

This remote pioneering zone, which was far from her core territories and where she could not deploy her main forces, was precisely the most stable and safest trial hunting ground.

As for the risk of exposing his identity, it was actually a groundless worry.

The Goddess of Light had a flamboyant personality and countless enemies, leaving her deeply entangled in grudges within the Divine Net.

Moreover, Outer Gods launching secret raids and plundering a deity's remote pioneering zone was the most common tactic in cosmic competitions, and no one would delve deep to trace its origin.