Feng Zhixi carefully observed the transformed Star Bug in the holographic projection. He had dismantled more than half of the creature, and every particle drifting within the experimental chamber pulsed with immense energy. As the fission parameters of the curvature chamber increased, the energy readings monitored by the main computer began to shift.
The particles he had disassembled seemed to maintain a faint, ethereal connection to the Star Bug’s main body. It was a peculiar energy fluctuation—a sense of déjà vu that made Feng Zhixi let out a soft "oh?" Almost instinctively, he began rummaging through his "little toolbox."
This specific set of energy fluctuation data looked incredibly familiar. It bore a striking resemblance to the frequency data of a specialized energy weapon he had been halfway through researching before his rebirth.
Locating the prototype weapon from his past life, Feng Zhixi didn't hesitate. He embedded a piece of Xi Ore into the weapon’s energy core and initiated the sequence.
The moment he activated the weapon, a red light flashed across the Xi Ore. This crimson beam then ignored everything else in the laboratory, streaking with singular purpose toward the Star Bug trapped within the curvature fission chamber.
Sensing the approaching danger, the Star Bug—already confined and broken—began to tremble violently. When it saw the ominous red light slowly drawing near, a shudder from the depths of its soul, both familiar and terrifying, caused it to struggle with renewed desperation.
As if witnessing a horrific vision, the Star Bug suddenly fell into a frenzy. The black particles scattered throughout the chamber blurred into double images, and the entire space began to vibrate wildly.
Watching the red halo close in, the cornered Star Bug erupted with a massive surge of energy, momentarily shattering the restraints of the energy string cage.
The bug tried to flee the moment it broke free, but it was too late. In the next heartbeat, it was engulfed by the red halo.
The crimson ring descended weightlessly, enveloping the Star Bug. A split second later, a piercing shriek rang out through the lab—a desperate, soul-tearing scream. This creature, which had remained stubbornly silent until now, finally found its voice, and it was one of utter agony.
The ominous red glow seemed to possess a mystical power. Under its light, the Star Bug’s pitch-black exterior began to fade, turning translucent. As the black bug mutated, the dark particles filling the chamber began to melt away, as if being devoured by an unseen force.
This creature—the one the little light ball had called the most greedy and cruel of beings, the one that would rather die than submit—was now screaming at the top of its lungs. The sound was so tragic and filled with despair that even the observing light ball couldn't help but shake.
Watching the Star Bug dissolve bit by bit and hearing its wretched cries, the little light ball shivered. This was a scene of horror that didn't even exist in the memories of its predecessors.
The... the little cub is so... so brutal, so terrifying! ┭┮﹏┭┮~
Now, the little light ball finally believed that the cub’s interrogation would yield results.
Just as the light ball suspected, before it could be completely consumed by the red light, the "unyielding" Star Bug lost its spine and surrendered.
Inside the curvature fission chamber, only a translucent speck the size of a grain of rice remained of the Star Bug within the red glow. The dying creature projected its voice through the layers of containment into the laboratory.
Hearing the Star Bug’s shrill, pleading voice, Feng Zhixi deactivated the specialized energy weapon. Finally, he heard the truth.
***
The Star Bug he had captured was an Original Star Bug—or rather, it was an Original Star Bug from thirty years in the future, a time when its race had already proliferated into a massive swarm within the Manster Empire.
"The Manster Empire?" The answer caught Feng Zhixi off guard. He and Ji Yeran exchanged a look, seeing the same confusion in each other's eyes. Where was this unknown empire?
The Star Bug quickly answered their unspoken question. It was another human polity located across the infinitely vast reaches of the galaxy, far from the Interstellar Federation. Unlike the Federation’s systems, that distant and ancient empire remained a highly centralized autocracy. There, Alphas held supreme power, enjoying absolute and unbridled dominance over Omegas.
This Original Star Bug had happened to parasitize the monarch of that empire. When a Mother Bug parasitizes the absolute ruler of a centralized state, the entire Star Bug swarm multiplies and expands at an unimaginable speed.
It had quickly devoured the entire empire, turning the humans of the Manster Empire into mere vessels for their race’s reproduction.
However, humans parasitized and consumed by Star Bugs could no longer truly be called human. They were puppets, biological vessels providing nutrients. This meant these humans could no longer reproduce. Since the Star Bugs required a constant supply of fresh biological vessels to multiply, they were forced to expand outward.
By chance, they discovered a Star Gate. On the other side of that gate lay another massive human population, infinitely far from the Manster Empire: the Interstellar Federation. It was a hunting ground larger and more populous than the Manster Empire—a new base for their "blood-food."
Ecstatic, the Original Star Bug led its massive swarm through the Star Gate toward the Interstellar Federation. What it hadn't expected was that this feeding ground, which it assumed would be as fragile as the Manster Empire, possessed terrifying weapons capable of fighting them. And the creator of those terrifying weapons was none other than Feng Zhixi.
The Original Star Bug, arriving in triumph with its swarm, had crashed headlong into the inescapable net laid by the Weapon Master, Feng Zhixi. Of the entire race, it was the only one that managed to escape.
In its panicked flight back through the Star Gate, it encountered spacetime turbulence. The chaotic currents dragged it thirty years into the past.
It arrived in the Federation of thirty years ago. Just as it was on the verge of death, its energy source nearly depleted, it encountered a blonde, blue-eyed Omega. Parasitism allowed it to survive.
It used the scientific research that the future Feng Zhixi had personally simplified and released to the public as a lure, turning that social-climbing host into a willing puppet.
It never imagined that by returning thirty years into the past, it would encounter a Feng Zhixi even more terrifying than the one in the future.
