The underground space was currently looking rather dire.
This was entirely the fault of the psychic potential tester provided by Clark. Whenever anything involved Zerg biotechnology, the scene tended to spiral out of control. This race’s technology hadn't necessarily taken a wrong turn, but their aesthetic sense certainly had.
Compared to the link bolt that had tried to escape a dozen times before being recaptured, the exterior of the psychic tester was even more "anti-human."
The silver-gray female Zerg had tactfully warned him that "this system occupies a significant amount of space." However, when Sati was alone underground, he hadn't expected that "significant space" meant the moment he unpacked it, the so-called instrument would act like a sponge soaking up water. It instantly expanded dozens of times its original size, its blood-vessel-like appendages rapidly crawling over every inch of the surrounding walls to find suitable anchor points.
It came with its own self-extracting installation program.
The weapon production line, which had originally conformed to human aesthetics, was instantly carpeted in a thin membrane of flesh. It felt like being back in the days of storming the High Star Realms and the Hive of the King—every step landing on living tissue, making one want to scream for help.
Such high-end technology; such an absurd appearance.
Spiral, vein-like protrusions covered the four walls of the steel fortress. At first glance, it looked as if tendons and roots had sprouted over ruined debris, echoing the forcibly restrained link bolts and creating a unified, if unnecessary, visual style.
While underground, Sati had scrambled to pull up protective barriers to stop these crawling things from spreading onto the semi-finished product he had been tinkering with for over a week. He had just finished applying the protective coating to the outer armor.
If a tentacle accidentally "kissed" it, it would feel like getting a scratch on a luxury flyer on the very first day of purchase—enough to make him wake up in the middle of the night and drink two extra glasses of water from the heartache.
He would not allow these ugly things to ruin a man’s romance. His legs could be crippled, his hands could be broken, but no one was allowed to scratch his beloved protective layer.
Had he known that the "new generation tester" Clark spoke of was of this scale, he would have dug a separate hole to house it immediately. But things had already reached this point; he couldn't move this massive pile of junk that had already anchored itself. He could only let it temporarily encroach on his territory, completely "renovating" the space's decor.
By the time the Core Species brought the male Zerg underground, those tangled tentacles had reached a stable level of ugliness.
The empty space in the middle was protected by the barriers and shrouds he had set up before leaving. Beneath the covers lay his half-finished "gift," surrounded by scattered parts and cables, while tentacles crawled all over the walls.
It was truly a tear-inducing scene, nothing like the touching gift-giving moment he had imagined. For a moment, Sati felt like he was standing in a junkyard presenting a present. Every cell in his body screamed in protest.
Gela was also taken aback. This was his first time in the underground space, but his shock was clearly on a different plane than Sati’s.
"You brought me here... to test my psychic potential now?" the male Zerg whispered.
Sati had mentioned it before, repeatedly stating that because of the gift's unique nature, he needed accurate data and told him not to be afraid. However, both of them were clutching their nearly-exposed secrets, worried that an accidental revelation would cause the other mental trauma.
"Let's test it," the Core Species said somberly.
Once the test was over, he would tear down this wall-to-wall "creeper vine," stuff it back into the compression box, and mail it straight back to Clark. Letting this thing exist on Ja for one more second was an insult to his personal aesthetics.
Zerg biotechnology was entirely different from human tech. To put it simply, it was extremely sanity-eroding.
Tiny, vessel-shaped connective tissues spread throughout the nest, synapses gripping the walls tightly as a mucous membrane encased the space. The tips of these "vessels" were riveted to the link bolt’s connection units, forming a closed circuit.
When the test subject was plugged into the system, the more synapses that entered an activated state, the higher the psychic potential level.
When he first unpacked it, Sati’s curiosity had been like a crow’s—whenever he saw something rare, he wanted to peck at it. While hand-welding the outer armor, he had personally experienced this Zerg biotech. The moment the information interface connected with the testing system, a violent wave of vertigo turned his brain upside down, nearly showing him the pearly gates.
The dense network of fine limbs and synapses that had been resting against the walls suddenly came to life. Centered on the testing system terminal, they swayed and spread out like ripples.
It was a terrifying sight, a veritable convention of tentacles.
While enduring nausea-inducing dizziness, he had watched the tiny blood vessels crawl everywhere. The experience was as hallucinogenic as playing a first-person holographic shooter on a neural link after taking a circuit accelerator, or perhaps eating a whole bowl of undercooked poisonous mushrooms washed down with a bucket of shochu.
Even his first synchronization with the Red Tai-Sui hadn't been this ridiculous; at most, his nose had bled for an hour. He wondered what kind of civilization the Zerg’s unpicky ancestors had devoured to produce such an absurd product.
At that time, with synapses fluttering across most of the room, the unbearable Core Species had disconnected the link and sat on the floor breathing deeply for half a minute. He suddenly understood why Gela had almost gagged at the sight of Kai’s face when they first landed on Ja. Sometimes, when the urge to vomit hit, it really made a bug feel helpless. He had felt much the same way the first time he crawled out of a zero-G training pod years ago.
Bringing the male Zerg underground this time, he had hesitated. The other’s small frame looked quite fragile; performing this test felt like a form of abuse.
As it turned out, Gela didn't resist. After receiving a definitive answer, he seemed to have a high tolerance for the psychic tester that looked like it disregarded human life. He stood there obediently, silently extending his arm to let Sati rivet the information interface connector.
"Tell me immediately if you feel uncomfortable. If it doesn't work, we'll find another way," the black Core Species couldn't help but remind him. Only after seeing the other nod earnestly did he click the final port into place.
He was fully prepared. If Gela showed any signs of being unable to endure it, he would grab him and sever the connection instantly.
However, the male Zerg only blinked his two pairs of eyes. Aside from a slight shake of his head—as if clearing fog from his mind—he showed no unusual reaction.
At the same time, those dormant vessels and synapses "came alive" once more.
With an extraordinary speed and centered on the male Zerg, they suddenly burst forth like spores blooming. Every tiny synapse unfurled under the influence of psychic power, and flower-like filaments peeked out, swaying in the air.
The scene instantly became chaotic, eerie, and absurd, as if the entire cavern had bloomed with flowers of flesh. The white insect sat quietly amidst this cluster of reddish-pink blossoms, while the extremely excited tentacles coiled around his wings and body, rustling as they joyfully embraced and wrapped the creation within their net.
Sati’s own test result had activated three zones of synapses. For a female Zerg, that result was considered formidable.
However, judging by the commotion the male Zerg was causing, the other was at least twice as strong—and that was only because he had hit the tester's upper limit. The entire underground space had come alive; vine-like soft tentacles coiled into spiral patterns, crowding and blooming against one another.
*Good grief.*
The Core Species was stunned. Without this test, he wouldn't have known that the other’s psychic growth had reached such an abnormal level.
He was just about to start clapping when he saw the male Zerg open his eyes, a trace of unease flickering in his gaze.
In truth, Gela was indeed very anxious. He felt as if he had been laid bare before the female Zerg, his previously hidden psychic power now having nowhere to hide. Unlike the Zerg, who were accustomed to mental links, most humans detested having their emotions perceived. He didn't know how the Core Species would react after seeing all this.
Then, in the next second, Sati reached out and patted his head.
"You really hit the jackpot, didn't you?" he heard the other mutter. Sati was staring at him with a complex expression—one that was... a bit strange. In human terms, it was the look a failing student gives a straight-A student.
"Is your hive's collective brain not working? How could they bear to throw away a hatchling like this... If you were put in the ***... those instructors would go mad fighting over you."
Though he didn't hear the middle part clearly, he felt the other was praising him, so the male Zerg smiled. His tail broke free from several lingering clusters of red vessels and coiled tightly around the Core Species.
Sati patted his head again. "Alright, I have a general idea of the situation. Disconnect the link."
He had been carefully recording the activated zones at first, but since the machine had maxed out, he could only signal the male Zerg to end the test and slowly pull out the information connector.
The moment the link was severed, all the blooming "flowers" withered instantly. The waving filaments retracted into the synapses, and the vibrant flesh shriveled at a visible rate, turning into dried-up vessels and membranes that hung once more upon the walls.
"Is... is this the gift?" Gela asked, looking a bit bewildered. "The psychic evaluation result?"
"No!" the black female Zerg answered decisively. "I would never give something so ugly as a gift!"
He put away the recorder on a nearby bench, thinking to himself that if all else failed, he would just have to tune the link bolt’s psychic sensitivity to the maximum; that should probably match the male Zerg’s rhythm. He had originally worried that his creation might cause the other too much mental redundancy pressure, but the male Zerg seemed completely unaffected.
It was a good thing, even if it was a bit terrifying. Such psychic power was quite absurd, but then again, considering how the former King could ensnare an entire race in a single net, it wasn't entirely incomprehensible.
Sighing, the Core Species waved his hand. The tightly sealed barriers and shrouds instantly dissolved and retracted.
As the semi-solid particles dissipated, all the lighting equipment flared to life, exposing the machine at the very center of the space. Cables meandered to its feet like rivers shimmering with a metallic glint.
It was an unfinished, semi-complete mecha.
It had a pure white shell, a thirteen-foot-tall frame that was slender and fluid, with steel wings trailing behind it. Unlike common mecha designs, this chassis—a fusion of human and Zerg technology—resembled a hovering insect, shaped like a dragonfly or a butterfly with its arms crossed.
The cockpit area was not yet fully sealed. The neural units of the fixed link bolt were like fine threads, spreading from the open cavity all the way to the chest plate, coiling to trace elegant patterns. Its sharp limbs displayed characteristics distinct from human light mecha, appearing far more aggressive.
The folded wings closely resembled the male Zerg’s mutated form, surrounding the chassis like petals that seemed ready to wither at any moment. Light flowed and dripped along the body, diffusing a soft white glow that stood in stark contrast to the dark, deep red veins and synapses in the background.
In this steel fortress overgrown with flesh and tentacles, the only pure white flower had bloomed.
The Core Species smiled, standing before his masterpiece with arms crossed. "This is my real gift."
"Time was a bit tight, so it’s not fully finished. Another small cycle should be enough. Working alone, there’s only so much I can do. More complex processes require a team of professional mechanics, so I could only manage a simplified, easy-to-operate prototype."
He looked at the dumbfounded male Zerg, his whip-like tail swaying gently behind him. When it came to weapons, he always possessed immense confidence in his own aesthetics.
He reached out and tapped the white chassis, producing a crisp metallic ring. It was a magical model, entirely different from any light mecha he had ever piloted. The psychic link bolt, which exhibited living characteristics, had taken root upon the steel body, perfectly adapting to the male Zerg who had a fragile body but immense psychic power.
A small line of characters was engraved near the mecha’s ribs. It was not the Zerg script, nor was it the human Common Tongue. It was a much older writing system—another language he had learned from the neighbors he lived with day and night back when he was in V217.
He had named it using that language.
"It belongs to you now."
Sati pulled the still-shocked, speechless male Zerg closer, lifting him up to the cockpit area and guiding his hand to touch the inscription.
"This is its name. It represents the brightest celestial body observable by the humans of the Old Earth at dawn—the star of love and beauty."
A smile touched his golden-brown eyes.
"I call it... Qiming."
***
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