“Very interesting.”
Gera lightly tapped the light screen. He was currently recording data with Xiao, allowing the fragments that had previously been diverted into the small information nests to slowly flow back.
“The speeds are different.”
After discovering those strange human records, he had been trying to figure out where they came from, only to unexpectedly discover another characteristic of the Great Information Nest.
“There is a significant difference between the speed of inflow and outflow.”
If this characteristic could be extrapolated to all models based on the Fahna blueprint, it would be another fascinating development.
In the beginning, humans had argued incessantly over the name of the Time River until it was finally settled, yet many derivative hypotheses remained. The fundamental argument was that the Time River possessed two vital characteristics: much like the rivers of Old Earth served as transport routes, it opened up deep-space transmission unrestricted by distance or space, gradually replacing the old system of jump points to become the new port network of the space age.
Secondly, using the Data Canopy as a foundation, it could record consciousness fragments and bridge the human Galactic Inner Ring Network, reconstructing the halls of consciousness that had vanished into the past on a spiritual level.
However, the characteristics presented by the current model gave the male a more apt understanding: it was exactly like a river itself, possessing a distinction between flowing downstream and upstream.
The upload speed was far slower than the outflow speed.
Had the Time River existed during the early stages of the encounter between humans and the Zerg, it would have been a war without suspense. The Red Calamity, tearing through space and activating port passages to descend above the old King Bug’s nest, had already proven this point.
Humans would not have needed to undergo ultra-long-distance raids. As long as their energy supply was sufficient to support the connection between the Inner Ring Network and the ports, they could have simply opened two connection gates directly from the Capital Star and used a Star-Devourer class weapon to incinerate the Zerg’s royal nests point-to-point.
Yet, the reality was tragic.
At that time, energy stone purification technology was sub-standard, as was energy field segmentation technology. Things that were theoretically possible were impossible to implement in reality. Even now, it wasn't that humans had independently broken through this bottleneck; rather, after the armistice, the Core Gene Zerg had exchanged relevant technological keys, and everyone held their noses to get rich together.
The technologies of the two sides belonged to two completely different systems, making widespread implementation difficult. By the time Sakti himself passed away, this collaborative project had only just formed a prototype.
Not to mention that sometimes even the bugs would suffer mishaps when using their own technology.
When first connecting to the Great Information Nest, the tidal wave of data had caused Gera to bleed on the spot, and the second link had nearly burned out the entire connection plug. Fortunately, with his successful eclosion, the male's mental strength had reached a brand-new level. He could now control the link depth more precisely, limiting the flow of those swarming fragments.
The activated synapses on the first layer of the nest were somewhat like a psychometer—densely packed, crushing and entwining, flickering steadily to indicate that this was an attempt within a safe range.
It had to be said that Xiao’s arrival was a huge help.
Gera, lacking social experience, did not yet know there was a type of exhaustion called "training new hires." Just as one finished teaching a wave of new employees, they would be transferred from a branch to the headquarters, only to find the headquarters also recruiting a massive batch of interns, leading to a repeat of the past.
The conscripted Armed Species partners were all very hardworking, but the males, who had never touched such work before, were indeed utterly clueless. Moreover, not every bug possessed exceptional, almost heretical mental strength like the white male; most were only slightly better than females of the same rank.
Gera was quite patient when teaching those males how to use the information nest by hand. Kata had taught him how to link, retrieve, and establish his own data base, and he trained his companions in the same way.
Now, Xiao had diverted more than half of this pressure. Gera was able to maintain a steady pace in beginning the comprehensive analysis of the Great Information Nest, even finding a little time to study human-related knowledge.
Compared to him, the black female was much more unstable, no longer able to guarantee a timely return to the nest.
The difference between external warfare and a war of secession was stark. Every time they met, the scent of blood on the other's scales seemed to have layered once more.
During Sakti Shalyban’s own reign, a frequent negative evaluation he received was that he was "militaristic." However, during that special period of Federation fragmentation and Zerg invasions, humans instinctively sought a strong-willed leader over a muddling fool, so those voices were not prominent.
Fortunately, the man had muzzled himself, stopping just in time before completely hollowing out an entire empire to avoid the recurrence of civil war. In a sense, it was a dark comedy. The war expert, having finished his work, died opportunistically early, handing the empire over to a more stable successor skilled in management and preservation—what could be more tactful or timely?
It was a performance that would make even the Three Fates applaud.
As it turned out, upon waking as a bug, the muzzle remained, and he even had to tighten the tether. Unlike humans, this species, with slaughter written into its genes, was too fierce. If not restrained, the Core Gene species suspected every battlefield would turn into a sea of blood.
During the previous war of secession, the Grey-wing tribe had fought amongst themselves, and whether they won or lost, it was a stifling affair. But when devouring foreign enemies, they... they completely unleashed their true nature.
Having seen the habitat sectors of the Broad-wing species, Sakti thoroughly understood how beautiful the residential areas under Clark’s jurisdiction were, and how relatively affluent the living conditions of those males and larvae were. He thought Gera and Xiao’s experiences were unlucky enough, but the bestiality and barbarism of the Zerg always managed to refresh his understanding at the right moments.
The phrase "as those above do, so do those below" was once again vividly illustrated. The silver-grey female’s subtle tolerance toward males and larvae had become the final safety lock for all the old, weak, sick, and disabled within his jurisdiction.
Having spent too much time with a High-ranking species who emphasized spiritual civilization and was overly familiar with human culture, Sakti often had the illusion that he was dealing with a human.
However, the Broad-wing and Pedipalp species did not care for such things. What they displayed was the most essential, primitive form of this species.
Thus, in the early stages of clearing maps, the Core Gene species often saw eggs half-eaten and the remains of males piled in some nests while sweeping newly acquired planets. Even within their own tribe, they would devour their own or each other's offspring.
The lower the grade of the planet, the more this was true. The swarms with incomplete mimicry were like beasts, their pedipalps crawling everywhere, manifesting their non-human nature to the fullest.
Some less-picky females, when unable to find suitable males as consumables, would follow the old habit of parthenogenesis and lay their eggs inside living exotic beasts. After absorbing the genes of other species, the new breeds that crawled out bore no resemblance to humans whatsoever.
The strong were kept, the weak were strangled; through continuous mass reproduction, they screened for offspring templates with stronger adaptability. Bugs were the true pioneers of hybridization.
Sakti had thought that after a few years, these old neighbors would have entered a relatively civilized stage of society, but facts proved he had overestimated them. It was still the same old recipe, the same old taste.
The ones who didn't follow common logic were actually the Grey-wing tribe.
Even the usually cold-faced Kleiman showed unbearable disgust upon seeing those piles of beast hybrids. These new breeds were grotesque, low in intelligence, and naturally frenzied, often possessing only the instincts to attack and feed, yet their physical performance was exceptionally powerful.
The Core Gene species suspected that these direct subordinates close to Clark had more or less been infected with a sort of mental fastidiousness. They could suppress it when facing their own kind, but when it came to other Core Gene tribes, their true nature exploded.
“Madmen.”
The Armed Species leader stood with Sakti after clearing a newly acquired outpost planet, holding a low-level male. It was a Broad-wing male, looking as if he were at death's door.
Kleiman, having finished the slaughter, was still in a state of alienation, his body covered in dark grey scales, his slender tongue and scent glands sensing the blood in the air.
“They even eat their own tribe’s proper... members.”
The Core Gene species guessed he had originally wanted to say "property" but forced himself to change it at the last second.
After the main enemy fortress was leveled from space, the cleanup troops descended to the ground. They were then swarmed by oddly-shaped bugs emerging from the crisscrossing nest tunnels, mixed with a few mid-level Broad-wing females. The beast hybrids wanted to take a bite out of everything; these things were dull-witted and knew nothing of fear.
By the end of the fight, the Armed Species were all in full alienation, entering "mowing mode." Sakti rarely stopped them. Although it sounded cold-blooded, he also judged that these hybrid breeds could not be incorporated—these failures, left only with instinct, could hardly maintain coherent thought, and their excessive aggression flared up constantly.
The process wasn't long. The Grey-wing tribe had shouldered the task of guarding the King Bug since the era of the Broodmother; their combat power was peerless, especially for Armed Species who inherited high-level direct genes.
But the subsequent inventory moment proved difficult for all the slaughter-crazed Grey-wings. They pulled several males from the depths of the nest who had been gnawed on but not completely eaten.
Especially the one in Kleiman’s hand; he was in the stage of incubating eggs. Due to his low genetic rank, his mimicry was abysmal—thin, weak limbs, a solitary head, and a neck so scrawny it seemed it would snap if bent, barely supporting his skull. His entire body was covered in wounds.
The Armed Species leader, still in his alienated state, had been dangling the male by one hand, but nearly choked him to death, so he had to switch to cradling him.
Sakti saw the dark grey tail-swinger’s scales bristling row by row and remembered that this guy seemed to have a persistent case of male-contact phobia. Kleiman looked as if he were about to throw the egg-bearing bug in his hands like a bomb.
“Send him to the medical pod,” Sakti briefly notified, making a "finish cleanup" gesture.
On the way back to the warship, he saw the Armed Species leader, having completed his mission, find a large tub of scrubbing salts and roll around frantically inside, rubbing off layers of blood and grime until he had polished his entire body.
It was very much like a large dog shaking off water.
One could only say that bugs really didn't care about being naked, just as Sakti’s clothes used to go flying during his matches in Angon. Kleiman, still bearing his scales, naturally flicked his tail in greeting upon seeing the Core Gene species.
“Bathing at a time like this?”
Sometimes Sakti truly couldn't understand the other's habits. He suspected this number-one fan of Clark’s might have even inherited the leader's habit of liking to keep his body clean.
“The smell of those hybrids is unbearable.”
His tone dripped with revulsion as Kleiman let out a rare hiss. “They smell like wild beasts.”
This was something of a dark joke. From a human perspective, they were all pretty much non-human wild beasts now.
“Their behavior is also like beasts.”
This was the first time Sakti had seen such obvious disdain from the other. The deep grey wings and the tail covered in grey-black scales rubbed repeatedly in the scrubbing salts, digging out one pit after another.
“Treating tribe members and egg-incubating males as food, with piles of empty eggshells in the storage caves as high as a mountain... Do they really think these things are a new direction for evolution?”
“When I sent that... male for treatment, he was dying.”
To make the usually cold and taciturn fellow say so much at once meant he likely felt true loathing.
Sakti raised an eyebrow and sat down against the wall.
“I don't like this sort of thing, so I plan to speed things up a bit,” the Core Gene species said.
Many times, similar scenes made him feel as if he were also becoming one of the beasts.
However, he was not.
***
