“You seem distracted.”
The silver-grey high-tier Zerg tapped the tabletop, scrutinizing the black Core Species sitting across from him.
The other man picked up a piece of refined energy stone, set it down, and then picked it up again a moment later.
In truth, ever since Clark had watched that “newly launched entertainment program,” his partner and the current de facto manager of the energy planet, Sa, had been in a state of total mental absence.
He didn't know where this audacious fellow had unearthed a batch of such lethally powerful living xeno-beasts, nor how he’d dragged in a thermal weapons squad to treat an exhibition match like a military training exercise. The earth-shattering noise and the kaleidoscopic combat effects were certainly a sight to behold.
Those mid-to-low-tier females, equipped with modified weapons that residents of the Core habitable zones would look down upon but were more than sufficient for Ja, had managed to create a ten-cent spectacle out of a one-cent budget.
And so, the two Zerg had sat in the highest-spec spectator stands—one impassively gauging Ja’s surface military strength, the other turning that poor energy stone over and over in his hands.
Until the match ended, this Core Species, who usually enjoyed a bit of sharp-tongued banter, remained silent, offering not a single extra word.
Even after they returned to the guest nest at the base of the Great Sacrificial Grounds, he remained lost in thought.
If the energy stone refining industry on Ja hadn't been yielding such unimaginably rich returns, Clark would have almost felt displeased.
Sa had indeed completed all his tasks perfectly, and every necessary arrangement was in place, but his eyes were vacant.
Clark felt compelled to speak, pulling Sa’s attention back from deep space.
“I recall it was you who invited me to see the development of your industry.”
“Don't make it sound like none of this belongs to you.”
Sakti’s mind was gone, but his mouth remained the most stubborn thing in the universe. His body reflexively triggered its parry mechanism, beginning to trade barbs with the other.
“Was the entertainment not to your liking?”
“Or is the refinement quality of the energy stones unsatisfactory?”
“That is the first time today you’ve said three sentences in one breath.”
The silver-grey female remained calm, sitting in a relaxed, expansive posture.
“Tell me. What happened?”
The black Core Species fell back into silence.
After a long while, he finally spoke.
“Just some personal matters. I’ll handle them quickly; it won't affect Ja’s production capacity.”
“I am interested in more than just Ja’s production capacity.”
Pale grey eyes looked across the table without emotion. “The production lines on the energy planet are already established. I could find any managerial Zerg from a Grey-wing tribe to take over. The reason I put you in this position is because your ambition is as great as theirs, but your ability is far superior.”
“Now, you are experiencing a personal issue.”
Sakti let out a sigh, carrying a rare hint of listlessness.
“Do you have a partner?” he finally asked.
Clark’s face remained expressionless, but his entire being radiated a sense of “???”
For a moment, the silver-grey female’s mouth tightened before he gave a curt reply: “No.”
And so, the two perpetual bachelors sat there, face to face.
Sakti spread his hands, wearing a look that said, *‘See, I knew you’d be useless.’* The lethality was low, but the insult was high. This contemptuous expression made the high-tier Zerg frown.
“It seems you and your little partner are having problems.”
Clark spoke in a low voice, his elegant tone dripping with sarcasm. In the art of passive-aggression, human nobles and Core Zerg were cut from the same cloth.
“It’s not exactly a problem.”
Surprisingly, the man opposite him didn't snap back. Instead, he lapsed into contemplation again. “I just... don't quite understand something.”
As that chaotic night drew to a close, he had been scared half to death by the weeping male.
At first, he thought his attitude had hurt Gra, so he had gently patted him to soothe him, saying he didn't hate the male’s mutated form and that those features were actually quite beautiful.
The result was that the male’s mental state grew even worse.
The male had been slumped in a state of intermittent, listless apology, his words jumbled and incoherent—mostly “I’m sorry” and “never again.”
However, one detail had caught Sakti’s attention.
Gra was speaking human Common Language.
Every single apology was in human Common Language.
Ever since the Core Species had mastered the Zerg Common Tongue, their daily interactions rarely involved human languages. Using a language that didn't fit one’s identity was an easy way to get caught; Clark had nearly exposed him once by seizing on just such a slip-up.
This made Sakti suddenly recall several anomalies he had previously overlooked.
Gra’s mental perception had always been incredibly strong. From the very first time he’d struck up a conversation, he had been adept at reading expressions and timing his interventions. The male’s precise grasp of personal emotions had reached a level of absolute mastery.
Back when the Core Species challenged Katla, he had been knocked to the ground due to a momentary loss of strength. As he faced death, he had been forcibly yanked from the ground by a sort of instinctual consciousness that didn't belong to him. That sensation, though diluted a thousand times over, was very similar to how he felt the night he’d lost his head and committed those absurd acts.
But the latter was gentler, more seductive—like a tattered net full of holes, allowing him to slip away whenever he wished.
When the battle ended and he lay on the high platform, unable to move, the white male had held him tight. Those agonizing pains that had nearly torn him apart miraculously vanished in an instant. During the subsequent coma, he had dreamed of the distant past. That was the first time since his rebirth that he had seen fragments of his former life.
“How much do you know about a male’s mental power?”
The black Core Species spoke suddenly, addressing the silver-grey winged high-tier Zerg directly.
“Or rather, how much do you know about the mental power of a King?”
He had some ideas now, but they were unconfirmed. He needed to check with a native who understood such things.
Clark showed no reaction to the sudden question. He merely pondered for a moment before choosing his words carefully. “There is great variation between individual males, but the general consensus is that their mental power is slightly higher than that of a female of the same rank.”
“Strangely, however, the first generation of males did not have higher mental power than females. Some were even quite dull-witted.”
Grey eyes watched the Core Species, who was leaning forward in rapt attention. “There is an interesting theory that once circulated within a small circle of the Core Gene tribes.”
“When the last King died, the star systems we relied on for survival, along with our race, were torn asunder.”
Clark tapped his pale fingers in the air. This Core Gene Zerg carried a top-tier information linker, a device worlds apart from the ancient junk circulating on Ja.
Countless tiny planets manifested in the room in a semi-solid form—the distribution map of the entire Zerg race.
“Simultaneously, we lost our place of return. No Zerg could ever again use the Queen Mother’s mental link to return their consciousness fragments to the Great Swarm after death.”
“Following past patterns, when an old King dies and a new King is born, the ruins of this collective consciousness should be inherited by the new King. Generation after generation of consciousness fragments accumulate, tracing our evolutionary path and lighting up every node of our advancement, eventually forming a massive ideology carried by living biological units.”
“It sounds much like the human Data Heaven—except humans use hardware and AI programs as carriers, while the Zerg establish the link within every living individual.”
“And the King was the connection point that opened and anchored that path.”
The planetary markers dissipated with a wave of his hand, transforming into a dense network of connections that looked like both a web of capillaries and a myriad of interlocking neurons.
“It seems that we direct descendants only inherited the King’s formidable reproductive capabilities in a fragmented way, yet not a single Zerg—or group of Zerg—evolved the mental power capable of sustaining the collective consciousness link again.”
“But the males born in the later periods began to show anomalies—the mental power of almost every male became slightly, or even significantly, higher than that of a female of the same rank.”
The grey eyes held a gentle expression. Those obscure words were spoken by the high-tier Zerg in a soft, rhythmic cadence.
Particle-like spots of light formed the shapes of two pupae, floating and nestled close to one another.
“It is as if... we were split.”
“The two special qualities of the King were divided in two by our race.”
The low voice faded into the guest nest.
“The females, who control reproductive capacity and formidable combat power, and... the males, who have embarked on a new evolutionary path.”
“The universe is a balance. All creatures will eventually reach a point of equilibrium; species that cannot will eventually perish on the road of evolution.”
Clark smiled and waved away the two pupae. The light particles scattered over him and Sakti like bits of popping candy.
“I am not referring to the so-called balance of equality found in human morality. Survival knows no morality or reason. But I have heard of some interesting things... for instance, certain ants will farm aphids. They protect the aphids and provide them with food so that the aphids will produce the honeydew the ants love. That, too, is a form of balance.”
Those eyes turned toward Sakti. For some reason, the silver-grey female’s expression carried a trace of something akin to pity.
“Life that can truly be saved is never weak in an absolute sense.”
He let out a nearly imperceptible sigh. “An absolutely weak species will eventually go extinct. You cannot build them a sterile glass nest and provide an endless, abundant supply of food. That is not something that happens under natural selection.”
“Even as frail and weak as the males are, they are walking their own path. It is a long and difficult road. They seek protection through their fragile appearance, but I wonder if you have ever checked the records—”
“In the early stages of our war with the humans, there were no more than a thousand males in the entire Zerg race, compared to the overwhelming number of females.”
“Now, the number of females is rapidly depleting due to the civil wars with humans and between various tribes, yet the number of males has seized the opportunity to grow rapidly, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total Zerg population.”
“I have said this before.”
Those soft emotions finally settled into a leaden grey. Clark looked at the Core Species before him.
“Since the era of the King, we have slaughtered one another. Plunder is our nature.”
“It is not necessarily slaughter in the sense of war. Competing for living space and population proportion through gentle means is also a form of it.”
“The victor will lead the race to the next node.”
“And you,” the high-tier Zerg softly delivered his previous verdict.
“Your thinking is unlike any Zerg. Your useless morality and sense of pity will, in the future, when you deal with other Zerg—”
“Cause you to suffer a great loss.”
***
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Sacre-D: Reborn as the Swarm's Apex | Chapter 36 | The Nature of Survival | Novela.app | Novela.app
