Chapter 4 – A Special Queen (4)
The lifestyle of the Black Rot Insects, one type of Demon Realm bugs, is always the same.
The workers zealously toil for the prosperity of the nest, the males mate fervently, and the queen, well-tended, sits quietly in a corner of the nest and lays eggs assiduously.
This is their unchanging instinct and way of behavior over long periods.
So far, no colony has ever defied this rule.
They were no different. Clumped together, they were fairly strong; but that only counted when they had enough food to grow the colony to a massive size.
At best, the Black Rot Insects living here were mere scavengers at the bottom of the ecosystem, collecting abandoned resources or dead bodies to eat, akin to cleaning crews.
However, at this very moment, that ‘rule’ began to waver.
The first to witness this change was a single worker. Setting off from the nest as usual in search of food, the worker diligently used its antennae to trace the source of sustenance.
Then, they caught sight of the others.
A group of their own kind, numbering in the dozens, advanced proudly as if marching into battle.
The queen, seeing this through the eyes of the dispatched worker, couldn’t understand their behavior.
Moving in such large numbers for food collection was highly inefficient, and furthermore, these interlopers were blatantly invading her territory.
“—!”
The queen sent out a worker to protest. With front legs raised, it swaggered, signaling that this was her territory.
“…”
However, these intruders did not retreat despite her warning. They simply ignored it and continued their silent march forward without hesitation.
It was then that the queen sensed something was amiss.
The approaching members of her kind appeared strange in some way — they were significantly larger, approximately 1.5 times bigger than her own workers, with a darker coloration on their exoskeletons.
“—?”
The queen noticed an entity riding atop what appeared to be an unusually large male.
Despite its size, this entity looked entirely different from the others of her kind, possessing a black exoskeleton and wrapped in leather, with flowing silver hair.
“Kill.”
Then, an unbelievable event occurred.
The moment this entity, seated upon the male, flicked a finger with glowing red eyes, the leading workers surged forward and instantly tore apart her worker who was trying to send a warning.
“???”
As the connection with her worker was severed, the queen, resting in the nest, was greatly confused.
Never in her life had she encountered such a declaration of war between her own kind.
“—!”
An emergency alert fell upon the Black Rot Insect nest, which had previously enjoyed a peaceful existence of food collecting and leisure. An invader was approaching their nest.
However, this intruder was not one of their common predators.
“Is it so surprising that one attacks its own kind? For insects, they’re surprisingly gentle.”
She, who was originally human and could mercilessly slaughter each other if necessary, couldn’t fathom the Black Rot Insects’ tendency to avoid combat amongst their kind.
Even the ants, the very model for these Black Rot Insects on Earth, occasionally fight amongst themselves. Some ants wage wars solely against different ant species, while others enslave their rivals.
“Destroy them all.”
Decisively issuing her command, she launched an attack on the nest where her kin were gathered for defense.
The goal was the complete annihilation of the nest – not leaving even a single organism alive, consuming them all as food.
Though of the same kind, Black Rot Insects cannot simultaneously be loyal to two queens. Their unwavering loyalty towards their queen is ingrained into their genetics from the moment of their birth.
Thus, there was no need for prisoners or slaves.
It was far more beneficial to slay them, dismember them, and turn them into nutrients rather than waste efforts in that direction.
“—!”
The swarms of Black Rot Insects clashed with each other, but from the very outset, the battle results were one-sided.
Just as she believed, her subordinates, who had already molted multiple times to grow larger and stronger, mercilessly overpowered their kin and could crush their exoskeletons with ease using their powerful jaws.
Black Rot Insects undergo complete metamorphosis.
Once they reach adulthood, they stop growing. They were originally not even capable of molting, yet she had managed to alter even that concept.
“You lot need to block their retreat. Hey! Our back is open!”
Moreover, she, perched atop the male’s back, observed the battlefield and provided real-time instructions to her subordinates.
Despite the chaos of mutual entanglement, where formations meant little, her troops were able to operate more efficiently and effectively than the opposition, simply through her guidance.
‘Breached’
Finally, at that moment, the entrance to their nest that they were desperately trying to defend was breached.
Her subordinates, taking advantage of this gap, poured into the nest’s interior.
“—…”
Once resistance crumbled, all that remained was brutal slaughter. Workers, males, eggs, and larvae—all trampled and shredded by her subordinates.
Bound by eggs that nearly filled her swollen abdomen, the Black Rot Queen could neither flee nor move an inch. She could only helplessly watch, unable to take action, as she felt her connected subordinates disappear one by one.
“—!”
Finally, the last worker guarding the queen’s chamber was viciously dismembered.
The queen faced the ferocious kin that had stormed into her chamber.
Had she the intelligence and ability to speak, she might have cried out desperately, asking why such an act was necessary.
“Sorry, but it couldn’t be helped.”
However, the she, stepping down from the body of the male and slowly approaching, could partly grasp the emotions of the queen.
Though a sudden mutant, she was still, at the present moment, one of the Black Rot Insects and a queen just like her.
Therefore, her face was more troubled than triumphant.
“I’m… I’m also a victim. I didn’t want this kind of game either.”
Then, gritting her teeth, she transformed her arm into a sharp spike.
When she lifted her previously drooped head, her fangs were exposed, and her blood-red eyes flickered with rage.
“This world is about competition. You must do whatever it takes to survive.”
She then dashed forward and plunged the spike directly into the other queen’s heart.
Without an exoskeleton, the queen’s soft heart was easily penetrated by the spike and exploded.
It was only at this moment that the queen realized the diminutive creature lunging at her was indeed another Black Rot Queen like herself, trembling in fear.
Although their appearances were vastly different and their actions incomprehensible, she understood.
A queen capable of leading an army to slaughter her own kind would naturally surpass common sense and rules.
For an ordinary queen whose only duty was genetically imprinted to lay eggs and propagate her race, the idea of personally going on the hunt to kill another queen was unimaginable.
*
[Achievement unlocked: Fellow Racemate Slaughter (1). Reward: 1 Attribute Point]
[Achievement unlocked: Queenly Dignity (1). Reward: 1 Attribute Point]
[Achievement unlocked: Fellow Racemate Slaughter (2). Reward: 2 Attribute Points]
“This is quite a bit. So even killing my own kind directly counts as an achievement?”
Upon killing the queen, consecutive notifications of achievements unlocked were received.
Though it’s natural to feel good with victory and rewards, my heart was unusually calm.
Even considering this my first real combat, it remained so.
Perhaps my path was set the moment I annihilated the ‘kin’ Black Rot Insect nest just now.
“War cannot be stopped.”
Several endings existed to witness within the game, as the faction grew.
Such as Conquest Victory, where all civilizations were conquered and subdued, Technology Victory with the most advanced technology dominating the world, or Economic Victory where the richest economy ruled.
[Conquest Victory route recommended.]
As per the current system message, it seemed that there was only one possible ending while leading a group of Black Rot Insects.
“There’s no need to worry about that yet. Let’s hurry and gather the war spoils.”
Shaking my head to clear those distant thoughts, I gave orders to my subordinates to gather spoils.
Everything around them was war spoils, from the bodies of their kin, eggs, larvae, to the food they had diligently stored in their reserves.
Carrying all of that, we returned to our nest, and I instructed to feed it all into the artificial digestive organs that I had pre-prepared.
‘This is all resources.’
The nutrients digested by the artificial digestive organs were supplied to my body through tentacles.
I could feel the abundant nutrients filling my entire body.
Each cell of my body felt as if it was dancing in ways I had never felt when I was human.
It must not have been an illusion.
「Attribute Page」
And since I had obtained the rewards, it was time to evolve us to the next level.
Opening the attribute page, I seriously pondered what attribute to enhance next.
