“Don’t be afraid. Like we agreed, I want to try.”
The white male Zerg spoke softly to soothe his trembling companion. Xiao’s tail tucked between his legs before loosening again, his movements betraying his uncertainty.
“If I show any signs of something going wrong, please disconnect me immediately.”
“I understand.” Despite his unease, the light-brown male Zerg gave his word, trying his best to appear reliable. “Leave it to me.”
Gera intended to perform a complete retrieval from the Great Information Nest. If all went well, he could locate all the information regarding the Broad-winged species’ core habitat sectors—including their fortifications and defensive deployments—and package it all for his partner.
But deep in his heart, a faint, blurry voice kept warning him to be wary of such a deep connection.
The living fragments of consciousness were like a pool of molten oil paint, diffusing into a distorted, vivid, and writhing spectacle. It was as if they were extending an invitation to every lost Zerg.
However, shrinking back out of fear did not suit the male’s usual style. In truth, Gera was quite headstrong by nature. Once he set his sights on something, he would follow the path to the end and give it a brave try. Whether it was pursuing a partner or handling work, he wouldn't stop just because things were difficult.
But being headstrong was different from being reckless. Thus, he enlisted the help of Xiao and the other males to mitigate the risks, ensuring they could pull him back at a critical moment.
“If my mental activity exceeds the threshold, please cut the connection as well,” he added at the last moment, considering his partner’s temperament.
Gera did not want Sarkdi, who was currently fighting deep in the Fourth Quadrant, to receive any bad news about him and come rushing back in a panic. Everything he did was to lighten the other’s load, not to add to it.
Seated within the connection bolt, the male took one last deep breath and initiated the retrieval.
Those soft, vascular tendrils wrapped around the central core with a sense of joy. Since the extinction of the King Zerg, it had been a long time since a Zerg with enough mental strength to support an entire Great Information Nest had appeared. Every inch of the living synapses whispered the "Nest's" delight.
The hanging veins seemed to pull the pure-white gene-defective Zerg into an embrace, weaving a deep crimson womb to provide a safe, sealed sanctuary.
Having entered the connection state, the male began sorting through information fragments at an incredible speed. His mental strength was incomparable to what it once was; a massive stream of data filtered through his mental net, leaving behind the useful parts. Combined with the Nest’s efficiency, the process was shortened to a staggering degree.
Every tribe had its own small information hub. These small nests converged like roots, just as rivers eventually run to the sea. Gera picked out the content related to the Limb-species and the Broad-winged species, then reverse-transmitted it to the Grey-winged tribe’s own terminal.
Perhaps because he had prepared himself mentally, when he found himself lost once more within the inner network of the Great Information Nest, the male even felt a sense of "as expected." He was no longer as panicked as he had been the first time; instead, he had more energy to observe his surroundings.
Now, he could finally be certain: the "Nest" itself was trying to pull him in, guiding him toward a predetermined direction.
The familiar scene remained as it had been, but the pure data and information streams had vanished. A red river surged toward the distance. But looking closely, every splash of water composed of data remained frozen in a state of stillness.
It was still a place of silence, devoid of direction or time.
The King Zerg had vanished from the universe, yet the Great Information Nest still followed its instincts, attempting to capture individuals who met its criteria.
The world turned upside down. The grotesque skull he had once glimpsed from afar now faced the intruder. The veins and fleshy membranes formed by consciousness stretched and spread like a drop of pigment diffusing in water.
The scene that had previously drifted away like dust seemed to be a mere illusion. Those fragments that had scattered into grit had gathered once more, forming the giant pillars that propped up this entire broken space.
Gaudy "flowers" climbed upward. Every cluster of blooming petals represented a shattered consciousness. They were like bioluminescent fungi growing densely upon the King Zerg’s skull, their mycelia extending endlessly deep into the ground, embracing thousands of kilometers of earth to draw nutrients from the remains of decaying organisms.
Dead consciousnesses slept within this velvet-woven net, dreaming dreams of either malice or tenderness. They swayed in the stillness, whispering soft, consoling words to the newcomer.
*“Come closer to us...”*
The fragments spoke in a language that neither humans, Zerg, nor any living being could understand. The newer fragments were not yet fully shriveled, carrying a sense of intense lethargy, boiling malice, and a pity that made one want to recoil.
*“Look at us...”*
Thousands of voices pleaded for him to stay, making the colors of the "flowers" even more vivid. Reflections of the past were beckoning. Fine debris wriggled, competing to bloom amidst the crushing and devouring. Ten thousand eyes gazed tenderly and passionately at all young living souls.
This was the true nature of the consciousness ruins.
To step into this shadow-shrouded kingdom was neither to live nor to truly die; it was merely to "exist" in the form of fragments.
This was why every generation of King Zerg remained silent about it. They comforted their dying comrades, telling them that the path ahead was not the end, that the death of the flesh did not mean the disappearance of consciousness. As long as the head was brought back to the Nest, they could return to the Great Swarm together. Simultaneously, they collected countless fragments, layering new ones over the old like an adhesive. Every new King Zerg who took the throne was determined to make this connection even tighter.
The radiation of the collective consciousness affected every Zerg, forming a mental community that unconditionally obeyed the will of the Zerg Mother.
It was an ominous scene. The living fragments were like parasitic plants, or batteries that still had to be drained after death. A corner of the Land of Nowhere was torn open, transforming into a malicious reflection named immortality.
The male Zerg, who had read a vast amount of human literature, gazed at it all from afar.
*This is like Pandora’s box,* he thought.
The two neighboring races were like two reference points moving in opposite directions.
Calamity had descended upon humans in an obvious way—fragmented territories and alien contamination that remained difficult to uproot even after a century. In contrast, the curse borne by the Zerg was more subtle. All Zerg were born for the King Zerg and would never find peace even after death. After all, dead Zerg couldn't crawl back up to complain; their consciousness fragments could only wriggle and entwine, staring longingly at their living kin with a mixture of malice and tender joy.
Gera wasn't sure how much Clark had glimpsed. As a direct descendant of the King Zerg who held the core keys, Clark inevitably possessed more information—or perhaps intuition—than other Zerg.
He recalled the conversation they had when they first arrived at the Grey-winged tribe’s habitat. Clark had once bluntly mocked Krish: *"He wants to dig out the core remaining in Camlan to complete the Great Information Nest and restart the King Zerg ruins." "He actually thinks that's a good thing." "Its nature is far too similar to Akasha."*
At this moment, the male had never more thoroughly understood the necessity of closing the collective consciousness ruins and severing the path to the Great Swarm.
The Zerg’s collective consciousness ruins were more like a primitive version of Akasha, far inferior to the humans' improved "Data Canopy"—at least the Data Canopy wouldn't record consciousness fragments in an active state, nor would it continue to exploit laborers after they had died.
This wretched tradition was better off discarded. Not everything was worth preserving.
Without even realizing that his way of thinking had been influenced by his partner—developing toward a decisive, "cut the Gordian knot" approach—the male made his decision almost instantly.
He did not wish to see this scene again, nor did he want to see any new flowers blooming upon those shattered skulls.
Gera turned his back on that endlessly extending, vast space. He refused to listen to the tender whispers filling the air, and he did not look at the writhing fragments calling him closer.
He wanted every Zerg, including himself, to break away from the Great Swarm forever.
He wanted to live as an individual.
***
“It’s a fortification map of the Broad-winged species’ core sector.”
Upon receiving the information, the armored-species leader immediately alerted Sarkdi, who was buried in other research. It was an incredibly detailed set of data, encompassing all orbital defense distributions and architectural structures.
“Gera sent this?”
Sarkdi looked up, his two pairs of golden eyes sweeping over the leader. Before this, he had been repeatedly checking the remaining energy reserves to judge how much further he could push the front line, so he hadn't seen his partner’s message.
Prompted, the core-species Zerg quickly reviewed the content and found it was the previous version of the fortification maps. Since the Grey-winged tribe had fallen into a civil war, the data collection of the Great Information Nest had become intermittent, so it hadn't been updated to the latest version yet.
However, in terms of utility, the copy in his hands was more than enough.
The male hadn't asked when he would return to the nest. He had only added a small note at the end: *"Don't get hurt,"* accompanied by a tiny heart that one might miss if they didn't look closely.
This almost made Sarkdi laugh out loud.
Gera had been reading a lot of human-related materials lately and had stockpiled a lot of strange knowledge, such as how to use a heart symbol.
*“Humans are truly amazing!”*
That was the exclamation the other had murmured while they were lying in their nest, his hands actively gesturing.
*“They... you have so many... romance novels.”*
*“But if they like someone, why don't humans just say it? They could just directly court the person they like.”*
That little white tail had wagged, happily coiling around the core-species Zerg.
*“Don't they follow the principles of courting, mating, and building a small family nest?”*
*“Why do they keep avoiding their instinct to love?”*
*“Can human males hatch eggs too?”*
There were too many questions. At the time, Sarkdi felt his vision go dark repeatedly; it would have been easier to answer questions about legislative amendments or the history of the Federation’s collapse.
He had casually flipped through the novel his partner was reading, only to find it was a "crematorium-style" story about running away with a child. It had no logical support and focused entirely on the nonsensical "I love you but you don't love me; I don't love you anymore but now you love me" trope.
Based on his experience, this was definitely the type of thing Evelyn would enjoy.
Really not wanting to ask where Gera had found such a thing, he had painstakingly reminded him: “Don’t put too much trust in human literary works. Many of them contain false and exaggerated elements.”
And he had firmly added: “Human males cannot hatch eggs. Don’t believe it.”
“Oh.”
The male had responded in a small voice, hugging him tighter. For some reason, Sarkdi had detected a hint of regret in his tone.
Pulling himself out of his memories, Sarkdi realized he wanted to return to his partner’s side as soon as possible. They hadn't seen each other for only half a small cycle, but he desperately wanted to hold that soft, fragrant white cat-bug. Especially now, after seeing so many unpleasant things, this need felt entirely reasonable.
And the package of information Gera had sent allowed him to make adjustments to his original plan.
“Can you still fight?”
The black female Zerg asked the armored-species leader beside him. Although he remained in his xenomorphic state, Kleiman could tell the other was smiling.
“I can.”
The armored-species Zerg gave a concise answer, straightening his body to await further orders.
“Call all your subordinates over. We’re having a meeting.”
Sarkdi was also the type who disliked wasting words. When talking business, he was just as crisp and decisive as Kleiman.
“I plan to speed things up. No mid-way returns or resupplies. We’re pushing through the rest in one go.”
“After the meeting, we’re going to refresh the map.”
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 链接栓 | Connection bolt | A device used to interface with the Great Information Nest. |
| 基因缺陷种 | Gene-defective species | Refers to Gera's unique status as a white male Zerg. |
| 第四象限 | Fourth Quadrant | A specific sector or combat zone in space. |
| 无何有之乡 | Land of Nowhere | A philosophical/literary term (from Zhuangzi) referring to a place of non-existence or a void. |
| 火葬场带球跑文学 | Crematorium-style "running away with the child" literature | A specific Chinese web novel trope involving heavy angst/regret (crematorium) and a pregnant protagonist fleeing. |
| 猫猫虫 | Cat-bug | A cute, colloquial term for a Zerg, often used for the smaller or more endearing ones. |
| 小循环 | Small cycle | A unit of time used by the Zerg. |
