Chapter 257 | Swarm: I Became a Cataclysmic Disaster

“War is cruel.”

Lin Miao watched the unfolding battle, putting himself in the shoes of the Goddess of Light, Hestia, and thinking from her perspective.

For a moment, he fell silent.

This was indeed an incredibly difficult choice.

Countless living beings in the world regarded the Goddess Hestia as their savior and deity, eagerly anticipating her teachings and guidance.

But the reality was vastly different from what they imagined. The resources Hestia controlled were inherently limited. She had to make trade-offs, and sacrifice had already become an inevitable outcome.

On the other hand, Lin Miao himself was a self-made god who had started halfway. Facing such a situation, he was completely clueless.

This was a dilemma rooted at the very source. Even to this day, many deities were still trying to find ways to study and crack it.

One only had to log into the Divine Net forum to see a dizzying array of coping methods constantly emerging.

Some gods utilized top-tier artificial intelligence for overall planning, while others attempted to use magic to erase the self-awareness, emotions, and desires of their vassals.

From this, it was clear that trying to protect every single living being in the world was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Such an obvious truth was clear not only to seasoned politicians well-versed in power play, but even to Lin Miao, who had only ever served as a group leader in his youth.

Yet, regarding the meaning of a god's existence and his own definition and role, these questions that should have been scrutinized deeply had never crossed Lin Miao's mind in the slightest before.

And all of this was thanks to the vassals under his command.

Now, the number of vassals under his command had reached hundreds of millions, scattered across various worlds, and this massive figure was still continuously rising.

However, the vast majority of these individuals were just tiny parts of a massive colony, lacking complete and independent self-awareness.

Such individuals could not provide Lin Miao with holy power, but in his eyes, this drawback was far outweighed by the benefits hidden within them.

From the moment of their birth, the Great Devourer lived only for the entire colony. In times of crisis, they would not hesitate to sacrifice their own lives for the survival of the colony.

The Great Devourer had always loathed inefficient and useless ways of doing things. If sacrificing 9,999 individuals could yield 10,000-fold returns, they would make that trade-off without a moment's hesitation.

【Elise has finished the calculations and deductions. Based on the final estimated results, this operation can yield about a fifty percent additional return.】

Elise watched coldly, feeling not a shred of pity for the massive forces constantly marching toward the high-tier territories, falling one after another as if thrown into a meat grinder.

In her eyes, all sacrifices were for the sake of the entire colony, and thus entirely natural.

Within the high-tier territories that the Goddess of Light, Hestia, was fighting with all her might to defend, the Great Devourer died in battle one after another.

At the same time, in the other seventeen Pioneering Zones, the Great Devourer was also continuously harvesting the lives of ordinary citizens.

In the end, Lin Miao's side and Hestia's side had made similar decisions. Sacrifice was always unavoidable, but the price paid by each side was worlds apart.

The massive deaths of ordinary, low-level individuals would not shake Lin Miao's Divine Status as a god at all.

Of course, if the number of casualties reached tens or hundreds of millions, causing the scale of his vassals to shrink drastically, his Divine Status would naturally fall as well.

But this was like night and day compared to Hestia, who relied on faith to maintain her power.

Relying on faith could easily win people's hearts and buy loyalty, but once that faith collapsed, this stable loyalty would vanish in an instant.

In the end, the path Lin Miao walked was naturally the bane of faith-based deities like Hestia.

“To be able to drive such a massive colony with extremely low self-awareness and gather such majestic power, in the end, it is all thanks to you guys,” Lin Miao murmured to himself.

If not for core leaders with outstanding intellect like Elise, the colony under his command would only degenerate into a pack of mindless monsters that knew nothing but hunting and plundering, acting without any organization or tactics, and often running amok against his wishes, completely impossible to control or deploy.

As Lin Miao murmured softly, he carefully reached his finger into the terrarium, gently stroking the top of Elise's head as she leaned in close.

Since Elise had completely shed her yearning for a human appearance and transformed fully into a human form, an indescribable, wondrous feeling had bloomed in Lin Miao's heart. When he looked at her, it was as if he were gazing at a lifelike, exquisite doll.

Whenever he witnessed deities like the Goddess Hestia exhausting their minds and running themselves ragged, a sliver of doubt would arise in Lin Miao's heart. Was it truly reasonable for him to sit back and enjoy the fruits of others' labor so peacefully?

The vast majority of gods in the world, in order to gain the absolute loyalty and unreserved devotion of their vassals, used all kinds of means, doing everything in their power to bestow power, authority, wealth, and other favorable conditions upon them.

Yet Lin Miao had never given Elise much of anything. Even if he wanted to bestow a gift, he had no idea where to start.

He had lived most of his life as an ordinary human, and his time as a god was still short. Even now, he remained in an awkward, in-between state.

He quietly pondered in his heart what precious thing he could actually give to Elise, and by extension, all of his vassals.

Lin Miao reached out with his fingertip, gently cupping Elise's chin, gesturing for her to look up at the sky.

Elise was submissive and obedient, cooperatively raising her eyes to look up in accordance with his movement. Her face, close at hand, was clearly reflected in Lin Miao's eyes, far more real and moving than viewing her through the Divine Net screen.

He had no utilitarian motives; he simply wanted to give her a token of his appreciation and see her show a happy smile.

He knew that no matter what kind of object he sent, Elise would accept it with a heart full of joy. Still, like other deities, he wanted to send a gift that was both decent and of practical value.

This sentiment was not just for Elise; it also belonged to Kerrigan, and even Gaia, who had only recently awakened her self-awareness, was no exception.

All the Queens were born because of him and grew alongside him. In Lin Miao's heart, they were like his own daughters.

He most easily thought of bestowing the blood flowing within him, or the physical origin that carried his Divine Status—the incredibly precious divine blood spoken of by the gods of the heavens.

Even for the Great Devourer race, who were naturally capable of devouring and plundering the power and genes of others, divine blood was an undisputed top-tier treasure among various factions and civilizations.

Once an ordinary vassal absorbed the power of divine blood, they would undergo an essential transformation, transcending their original limitations to become a demigod and the god's most trusted confidant.

For this very reason, deities throughout the generations had always been extremely cautious when parting with their own origin to bestow divine blood.

Transcending the mortal realm to join the ranks of the gods was inherently a supreme opportunity exclusive to the chosen ones.

Actively bestowing divine blood to artificially help one's vassals elevate their Divine Status was undoubtedly akin to giving up this exclusive opportunity with one's own hands. With a slight lapse in caution, one might nurture an existence on par with one's own Divine Status, only to ultimately have their territory and subordinates snatched away, ending up in a miserable state.

Many experienced, veteran deities within the Divine Net frequently warned newly ascended gods that bestowing divine blood was an extremely perilous matter.

In the past, quite a few gods had arbitrarily divided their own Divine Status, causing their vassals' strength to skyrocket and backfire on their masters, ultimately resulting in the loss of all territory, the transfer of their vassals' allegiance, and their own complete demise.

Lin Miao looked down at the terrarium before him, contemplating in his mind.

Even if Elise were to develop rebellious thoughts in the future, he had more than enough confidence to intervene, keep her in check, and mete out punishment.

Furthermore, Elise and the Great Devourers possessed an essential difference from the vassals of other deities.

Lin Miao had searched through the entire Divine Net forum, yet he had never found a creator god in the truest sense.

Most of the gods of the heavens could only reproduce their original vassals, expanding their influence by pioneering territories, engaging in factional rivalries, subduing masterless vassals, or educating and plundering otherworld races.

Being able to personally create a race and possess absolute control over all living creatures under one's command, completely free from any external interference, was an exclusive authority unique to Outer Gods.

Yet Lin Miao could both propagate and grow his own race's numbers on his own, and under strict control and domestication, absorb and subdue captives and otherworld races into his fold, seemingly possessing the dual traits of both orthodox gods and Outer Gods.

However, at this juncture, giving away divine blood would be a bit of a waste.

Gifts were always like this; the more rare and valuable items one received, the higher the threshold of expectation in one's heart would become.

He had already bestowed exclusive titles upon the Queens; he ought to deliver a token of appreciation whose value far exceeded those titles.

A supreme treasure that touched upon one's very origin, like divine blood, was not yet ready to be given away.

He had also pondered selecting some highly practical treasures to gift to the Queens and the massive colony, but upon closer thought, it was still difficult to choose.

Today, the Great Devourer race had long since traversed the cosmos, opening up countless Stargate territories, conquering and annexing numerous worlds, and expanding their domain ever wider.