"Are you in a bad mood?"
As Sakti and Gela lay in their nest, the white male Zerg studied him for a moment before finally emitting a soft buzz.
Their nest had become incredibly cramped.
With a wave of his hand, Clark had ordered his armed squad to deliver enough honey dew to fill half a nest, packing the already small space to the brim. This scene had left the male Zerg feeling uneasy for quite some time.
Since their return, the black female Zerg had been lost in thought.
By "lost in thought," it meant he was going through the motions—assigning tasks step-by-step and naturally helping the male Zerg crack open the foreclaws of exotic beasts during their meal—but his mind was clearly elsewhere.
"No."
Sakti reached out to stroke Gela’s small wings, his golden-brown eyes still fixed on the ceiling of the nest.
"I’m thinking about Clark."
Gela: "..."
"He seems to have come specifically to sound a warning bell for me."
With a faint smile, Sakti’s whip-tail brushed against Gela’s in a familiar gesture.
"That high-tier Core Gene Zerg has a strange attitude. He isn't exactly friendly, but he could grudgingly be called a mentor."
"I was rushing a bit too fast."
With a soft sigh, his fingers traced the patterns on Gela's wings.
"And I did indeed let my guard down for a moment. I was too eager for success, possessed by a presumptive desire for control over how things developed. But I forgot that I don't have the Red... I don't have enough armed force as a backing right now."
The silver-gray female Zerg had said he was projecting contempt and resistance; he wasn't wrong.
Sakti was often trapped in his past memories, viewing the races around him through the lens of his previous life. As the leader of the Red Tai Sui, he could afford to ignore a single Core Gene Zerg. Behind him had been five great legions, the pinnacle of human technological achievement. But as Satha of the resource planet, he hadn't been cautious enough.
And that lack of caution was lethal. Just as Clark said, if the one who descended upon Ja today had been a high-tier Zerg with a brutal temperament like Katra, he and his small swarm would have faced an unimaginable disaster.
There were too many messes waiting to be cleaned up, and all of it depended on the other party giving the green light.
He needed mechs. He needed to train his own combat mech squads and mechanics. He needed to participate in the management of the star-core energy mines and track the destination of every single shipment of ore that left the planet.
"I think Clark is very... unique," Gela said, pressing close to him as he also fell into thought. "Even though his presence was terrifying, I didn't sense any signs of genuine anger from him."
"I think I’ve heard of him somewhere."
Sakti turned his head. He had almost forgotten that the one beside him was a genuine Zerg native, a walking encyclopedia.
Although Gela wasn't well-regarded by his own kin, he had spent a long time among the high-tier tribes. He was, to some extent, more familiar with the power distributions across the star sectors than an average wanderer.
"It’s normal for you to know him, considering he could call out your name and knew about your kin."
Gela’s four eyes blinked with a touch of daze as he searched his memory.
"Clark... the silver-winged Clark, the Butcher of the Northern Battlefield..."
Sakti nearly choked.
He truly couldn't associate that composed, elegant female Zerg with such a description.
"My kin mentioned him once."
Gela’s pale pupils drifted aimlessly as he stared at the female Zerg beside him, entering a semi-trance-like state.
"When the direct descendants were partitioning their habitat sectors, a long war of annexation broke out. The name Clark was very prominent. So prominent that they would still mention it long after the fact."
"Just how old is he?" the black Core Gene Zerg, listening intently to the story, finally couldn't help but ask.
The silver-gray female Zerg looked mature and elegant, clearly in the prime of his life, which made Sakti curious about his age.
"During the Star Sector Annexation War, he should have already entered adulthood? He was likely a direct descendant of one of the King Worms."
Gela was somewhat uncertain, looking a bit bashful because he couldn't provide a precise answer. "I'm not entirely sure of the specifics."
This meant the other party had been an adult for at least thirteen or fourteen years.
The lifespan of the Zerg was long, and their period of peak power was equally enduring. Clark was currently at the very height of his combat prowess, and barring any accidents, he would remain at that peak for a long time.
"So, what’s the deal with that title?"
Sakti had studied Zerg history, but it was only surface-level knowledge. He was dying to know the details of these unknown events.
"He doesn't look like a murderous maniac at all."
"I'm not sure if it's the same one..." Gela hesitated, his expression uncertain. "But during the Annexation War, there was indeed a female Zerg by that name. He was terrifying... even my kin feared him."
He reached out a hand, tracing light patterns in the black Core Gene Zerg’s palm. "After the last King Worm perished, the remaining twenty direct descendants divided the swarm, and we fell into chaos for a time. Especially since these descendants didn't all come from the same King—after all, the succession rate was too fast in the later periods. High-tier gene strains from different lineages were forced together, making contradictions and conflicts intense."
Sakti: "..."
Right, that was his doing.
"In the end, only fifteen survived. The Hard-wing tribes initially occupied almost all habitable planets in the Third Quadrant, starting from the King’s Nest, driving out all the Short-wings, Pincer-types, and Grey-wings."
Zerg social structure was much like a beehive. Below the King were workers and drones, with workers further divided into specialized roles like nurses, builders, and foragers.
Every swarm was basically divided by different genetic traits and functions.
"However, the Grey-wings turned back and fought their way in. They recalled all their fleets that were raiding outside, and the habitable planets of the Third Quadrant were turned into a sea of blood. The planets near the fringe zones were very cold. The silver-winged Core Gene female Zerg drove the Hard-wing tribes to the fringe planets. The losers retreated to the mountains of the far north, where he hunted down every last one of them. The mountain peaks were dyed pink."
Sakti was in a state where he wanted to laugh but felt it would be inappropriate, so he forced out two coughs to suppress it.
The topic they were discussing was very bloody, but Zerg blood was generally lighter in color than human blood. Compared to "the peaks were dyed crimson," the concept of "the peaks were dyed pink" made the scene feel... indescribable. It had a ridiculous sense of a hyper-masculine warrior wearing a flower.
But he immediately adjusted his mindset; this wasn't something to joke about lightly.
"I was too young then, and my kin wouldn't talk to me, so I don't know the details," the male Zerg said softly.
"The Grey-wings nearly annihilated the entire Hard-wing tribe; that’s how the title 'Butcher of the North' began to spread. The Annexation War continued for a long time after that, but no battle was as tragic as the one in the fringe sectors. Of the five direct descendants who died, two fell in the battle against the Grey-wings."
"The victors used the ruins of the old King as a starting point to carve out their own habitat planets, restructuring new 'nests' and differentiating their own Sub-King Worms."
"Is Clark that Sub-King Worm?"
The average lifespan of a Core Gene Zerg was around 170 Great Cycles, roughly 180 Old Earth years.
Direct descendants, Sub-Kings, and King Worms lived even longer, reaching 180 to 200 Great Cycles.
If, as Gela suggested, the silver-gray female Zerg they met was the Sub-King governing the entire Grey-wing tribe, it wasn't exactly good news for humanity.
However, Gela simply shook his head.
"I'm not sure. I don't know many rumors about the Grey-wing tribe," he replied.
Without external factors, an average Zerg could outlive 1.5 humans, and their reproduction rate was far faster.
While humans were still endlessly debating the legality of artificial embryos and genetic optimization, the Zerg could produce a clutch of over a dozen eggs with a survival rate near 100%.
It took nearly twenty years for a human to grow from an infant to an adult, but the Zerg only needed a very short time to leave their larval stage and start a killing spree. The maturation period for a King Worm was even shorter; like a nesting queen bee, only rapid growth and reproduction could ensure the prosperity of the swarm and a sufficient supply of combat power.
Someone had once proposed a theory: assuming higher organisms would have a lower desire to procreate than lower organisms because their fear of nature decreased, offspring survival rates were high, and individual lifespans were longer, there was no need to rely on mass-reproduction to ensure the survival of the lineage.
However, this theory crashed and burned when applied to the Zerg.
These neighbors not only could breed and loved to breed, but they could also hit the ground running the moment they were born.
This made the black Core Gene Zerg unable to resist glancing at the white male Zerg beside him, alarm bells ringing in his head.
After passing the larval stage, the sub-adult period generally lasted five to ten years. Then, regardless of whether they underwent a second pupation, they were defaulted into full adulthood.
In the past, the Federation had set the human age of adulthood at sixteen for various reasons, but Sakti had personally moved it back to eighteen. He had seen too many smuggling trades on slum planets or black-market planets, and he had seen young girls die for various reasons—the largest percentage being from complications of underage childbirth.
Humans and Zerg had fought for nearly thirty years, and he had spent those thirty years cracking down on black-market trade. Even after the ceasefire, internal human strife persisted.
Just as the direct descendants had split the Zerg race, the remnants of the Federation, smuggling ships, corporate oligarchs, and countless impoverished planets in need of reconstruction... every single issue was enough to grind a person down.
History was like a cycle; everything happening today had surely happened yesterday, the day before, and countless days before that.
"When did you enter your sub-adult period?"
He poked Gela, even pulling his tail back.
"Eight... eight or nine Great Cycles ago?"
The male Zerg looked bewildered, not understanding why the conversation had suddenly taken this turn, looking somewhat distressed.
"I might not undergo a second pupation..." His voice was tiny. "Most Core Gene Zerg don't take this long. Maybe genetically defective ones can't undergo a second pupation."
A very good answer; he had reached the human age of adulthood. Sakti finally didn't have to worry about being sent to prison for taking a minor to watch a bloody sacrificial match.
His lingering human mindset couldn't ignore those moral standards, even if they didn't actually apply to the Zerg.
"So, are the Grey-wings very aggressive?"
Sakti poked the other's wing again, steering away from the topic that made Gela feel depressed.
When those direct descendants were still clustered around the King Worm, humans could distinguish them, but when all the Zerg were swarming in a massive crowd, each basically having the standard wings and tail-whip, the traits weren't nearly as distinct as they were between the various tribes now.
"I... suppose so?"
The white male Zerg didn't sound very confident. "Short-wings are very gentle; they mostly only handle the nurturing of eggs and larvae and aren't strong in combat. Pincer-types are good at construction and often rebuild entire nest planets. But the Grey-wings and Hard-wings were responsible for guarding the King; they are very brutal toward intruders."
Understood. They had moved beyond the category of worker bees and were more like third-generation adult giant hornets—strong territorial sense, heavy hitters, beautiful yet venomous, and prone to swarming at the slightest provocation.
Because the Zerg had mixed their genes too haphazardly in the early years, stuffing any old thing into their bodies, they had ended up with a bunch of bizarre, low-tier species with pathetic-looking mimics.
But the true high-tier Core Gene Zerg were the opposite; those jumbled genes had achieved perfect fusion within them.
He fully understood the necessity of the King Worm laying enough eggs to fill half a planet every time. Only with such numbers could the optimal choices be screened out as evolutionary templates, preserving the mutations most beneficial to the swarm.
"No wonder." With a low sigh, Sakti rolled over. "The Zerg with perfect appearances are all good fighters."
And they were eerie.
They were the venomous sea anemones, Portuguese man-o'-wars, and blue dragons of the Zerg world.
In this species, power was directly proportional to beauty; the more powerful they were, the more they conformed to biological structural ideals, and simultaneously, the more troublesome they became.
Gela looked at him with an indescribable expression of shock.
"Do you... like that type?" he asked slowly.
Sakti: "???"
For a moment, he felt three question marks slowly floating above his head.
"I do not!"
The black Core Gene Zerg’s answer was categorical.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 灰翅种 | Grey-wing tribe/species | A Zerg caste known for combat and guarding the King. |
| 硬翅种 | Hard-wing tribe/species | A Zerg caste that competed for dominance in the Third Quadrant. |
| 短翅种 | Short-wing tribe/species | A gentle Zerg caste responsible for nurturing young. |
| 鳌种 | Pincer-type/species | A Zerg caste specialized in construction and engineering. |
| 北地屠夫 | Butcher of the North | Clark's historical title from the Annexation War. |
| 星域吞并战 | Star Sector Annexation War | A historical conflict among Zerg descendants after the King's death. |
| 亚王虫 | Sub-King Worm | A high-ranking Zerg leader, one step below a King Worm. |
| 大循环 | Great Cycle | A unit of time in the Zerg calendar, roughly equivalent to a year. |
| 二次蛹化 | Second Pupation | A biological stage of maturation for high-tier Zerg. |
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