Chapter 6

And apparently, she was somehow even aware of what I was doing. Could she watch through my eyes? The thought was unsettling. If that was the case, my situation was even worse than I had initially thought.

You’re quite smart for somebody who was born just a few minutes ago, the Queen said in my mind. Yes, I can see through your eyes when I want to, so I’m aware of everything you’re doing.

So much for putting distance between myself and the nest. All my efforts were in vain.

But on the other hand, it shouldn’t have been all that surprising that she could still mentally reach me. After all, while I had put what felt like a considerable distance between me and the nest, it was only from the perspective of my tiny new body. But to the Queen, who was enormous, hundreds of times larger than me, the same distance was negligible. I never really left her mental reach.

Yes, no matter how far you get from me, I will always have full control over you, the Queen said, as if in reply to my musings. And there’s nothing you can do about it, so the sooner you reconcile yourself to it, the better.

She was replying to my personal thoughts. So apparently, she could not only “talk” to me in my mind but even read thoughts that I hadn’t intended for her to hear.

This was creepy. And concerning. It meant that no matter what I thought or planned, she would learn it immediately. There didn’t seem to be any way to hide anything from her.

That’s right, her voice immediately sounded in my head. I know everything you’re thinking. You can’t hide anything from me. You belong to me, whether you like it or not.

What the hell did she even want from me? Why couldn’t she just let me go?

Isn’t it obvious? she replied. You all belong to me. You were all born for one purpose: to serve me and carry out my will.

I couldn’t believe that all her creations willingly served her. Then I realized that they likely didn’t have consciousness like me. They were just mindless drones, nothing more, lacking self-awareness altogether.

You are right. I don’t know why, but you differ from the others of my breed. In my race, only the Queen is intelligent. As for the rest, they are just mindless drones. While you are different from them, I can already tell that you are not destined to become the next Queen. You are not my replacement. I can’t fathom why you differ from my regular creations, but I can see that you are so much better than any of them. Sure, you don’t count for much right now, but there’s a huge future before you. I have so many hopes for you. I have a feeling you’ll become my finest servant ever.

I fumed inwardly. I had always valued my freedom and also had a natural distrust of authority. Following orders was not for me. Which was why the thought of escaping the Queen appealed to me so much. However, I didn’t want her to know that I was already trying to come up with a way to free myself from her, so I changed the subject.

I wondered where we were now and what this place was.

This is a space station, though I don’t know if you are even familiar with such a concept, she replied. If you don’t know what a space station is, I’m not going to waste both my time and yours explaining it to you.

A space station, huh? It was interesting. I then wondered who their attackers were. Were they humans? Or were they actually elves?

The Queen replied, Those are humans. They belong to the Alderrian race. Alderrians are generally quite tall and slender, with long pointed ears, light hair, and fair skin. There are different kinds of human races. Drakhars, for instance, are quite different from Alderrians. Unlike them, Drakhars are dark-skinned, broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, with jutting lower fangs and a fierce, menacing appearance. Besides the human races, there are others. There is a saurian race and a race of intelligent insectoids. There are many different races in the universe.

I found it all fascinating. This world had to be populated with all kinds of different creatures, and I had already caught myself wondering what kind of genetic fragments I could harvest from them.

While I was still learning the ropes of the system, I could already tell that I would obviously be able to harvest genetic fragments from various creatures and incorporate them into myself, acquiring various useful traits.

But of course, I was aware that before I could go after any kind of larger beings, there was a long road ahead of me. Being mouse-sized, I needed to concentrate for now on hunting smaller creatures, like those roaches.

And this station is Alderrian, the Queen concluded. So naturally, the majority of its inhabitants are Alderrians.

I wanted to know more about the universe I had found myself in, but I understood that now was not the right time for that. I knew I had to keep going, to keep gaining experience and leveling up so I could eventually evolve into the next form. But there was one question I still wanted to ask right away.

I wondered how come she was in this space station. It obviously couldn’t be her natural habitat. And the Alderrians clearly didn’t want her in their space station. They clearly didn’t appreciate an infestation of giant alien bugs spreading through the place.

Our kind can exist anywhere, she explained. As long as there are living beings around, we follow and take root. We can use all kinds of living beings to thrive, spread, and multiply. We use living beings both as sustenance and as substance, feeding ourselves on living flesh and shaping our nests from it, expanding endlessly.

It was no wonder the Alderrians called the Queen’s nest an infestation. That was exactly what it was. While they were huge and terrifying, they were still just bothersome bugs. They were vermin driven by the instinct to consume, reproduce, and overrun. I had a feeling that if left unchecked, they could devour entire planets, bringing nothing but suffering. No wonder the Alderrians were so keen on clearing out the nest.

And I was now part of it. I knew that to the humans, I would always be just another nasty bug that could start another infestation. I knew there would be no sympathy for me from humans, and I was ready to do anything in order to survive.

My human past was over. Being a bug was my new reality, and I knew I had to accept it. But that didn’t mean I was eager to side with the Queen. I had no intention of devoting myself to her nest. I wanted to go my own way. Especially considering that to the Queen, I was nothing more than a minion whose entire purpose was to serve and protect her and her nest.

So, thanks, but no thanks. I wanted nothing to do with her. Even though I was one of her kind, I wasn’t on her side. Whatever species I belonged to now, I was still on my own side.

The Queen’s voice entered my mind once more.

I know what you’re thinking, but there’s no time for it right now, she said. I actually reached out to tell you that our nest was successfully defended. The attackers retreated. For now. But they’ll be back. Since they found the nest, they now know where it is, but they also just learned the hard way that they can’t eliminate it easily. So they’ll regroup, resupply, and try again when they’re ready. We need to be ready to fight them off again. So I need you to hunt, evolve, and get stronger. You need to be stronger by the time you return.

She continued before I could respond.

Besides the nest, I have several hunting groups of combat units, each group containing at least a dozen predatory creatures. These groups prowl the space station, ambushing the humans, bringing some of them back to the nest, and generally giving them a hard time. So the humans have other things to worry about besides raiding my nest.

This station is pretty small. There is only a limited amount of human manpower here, and it’s not a military installation, so their firepower is lacking. Because of my prowling groups of predatory minions, it could be a while before the Alderrians manage to regroup, resupply, and make another attempt to raid my nest. But you still need to use this time wisely.

Then the tone of her voice shifted, sounding almost dismissive.

So I’m willing to let you go for now, but when the Alderrians get back, I’ll summon you to defend the nest. Make sure you are much stronger and much more useful by that point. Go now, minion. Good hunting. Serve me well.

Only I had no desire to return to the nest and protect the Queen. I knew I needed to evolve and get stronger, but returning to do the Queen’s bidding was not in my plans. I knew I had to find a way to sever the mental bond with the Queen somehow. I didn’t know how to do it, but I was determined to figure it out no matter what.

I’ll summon you when I need you, the Queen spoke in my mind again. I know you want to go rogue, but you won’t be able to. You are mine. Nothing more than my servant and obedient protector. So whether you like it or not, you’ll be back. You won’t be able to resist my call.

We’ll see about that, I thought. The Queen most likely heard me, but this time, she didn’t respond.

For the next several minutes, I continued to explore the air vent system. The Queen was silent now. So far, I had encountered no more roaches, and nothing of note had occurred during that time.

As I reached another four-way junction, I slowed as I entered the center of the intersection. Sure enough, the right-hand tunnel led to another air vent cover, beyond which lay a corridor used by humans. I saw no reason to enter that passage and approach the air vent cover.

I was about to move on, but the sharp crackle of energy weapons being fired suddenly reached my ears. A fight was taking place outside. Curious, I decided to take a quick look. So I turned and entered the right-hand passage, and a few seconds later, was peering through the slats into the corridor beyond.

Sure enough, just as I had thought, I saw several space elves firing at a group of insectoid creatures. So just like the Queen had told me, her minions freely roamed the space station, attacking its residents.

For a moment, I simply watched the battle unfold, interested to see which side would emerge victorious. The creatures in the corridor were the size of German shepherds, and each looked like a mix of a spider and a scorpion, with eight legs and a gnarled tail ending in a stinger.

The humans’ shooting skills left much to be desired. They definitely weren’t performing well. Nearly half their shots missed completely. Panic was clearly affecting them, and whatever training they had, it wasn’t enough to hold them together under pressure.

Still, under the heavy fire of the space elves, who were actually considered a human race called the Alderrians in this universe, one of the creatures went down, its body peppered with scorched holes.

Then one of the spider-scorpions crawled up the wall and jumped on one of the Alderrians from above, knocking the person to the ground and landing on top of them. In the next moment, the creature plunged its stinger into its prey. This threw some of the humans into a state of panic. They broke into a run, fleeing from the attacking creatures.

Yeah, they obviously weren’t military. They had no discipline, no special training, no combat experience, and their shooting skills were also severely lacking. Encouraged by the reduced volume of fire directed at them, the creatures rushed forward toward the remaining humans.

The defenders would have been doomed, but luckily for them, right at that moment, another person armed with a flamethrower rushed in from a connecting side corridor. The person immediately began to pour liquid fire onto the group of insectoid monsters.

The corridor the newcomer had just emerged from was directly across from the air vent cover behind which I stood, so the stream of fire poured right in my direction. It wasn’t long enough to reach me, but the mere sight of the jet of fire immediately triggered [Fear of Fire], sending me into a state of panic.

The debuff instantly took control of my body. Unable to control my own actions anymore, I felt my body spin on its own volition and rush away from the air vent entrance, back into the depths of the air vent system. Upon reaching the four-way intersection, my body continued onward without turning in the direction I had originally been heading.

I hated it. I absolutely hated losing control over my own body. I definitely needed to find a way to get rid of this stupid trait as soon as possible. It was not useful at all. It was quite the opposite, in fact. When moving on its own volition, my body could easily run into some kind of trap or straight into the middle of enemies.

Luckily, nothing of the sort happened at that point, and after a few minutes of frantic running through one vent duct after another, the debuff finally wore off, relinquishing control of my body back to me. I quickly looked around, trying to orient myself in the unfamiliar space.

Over the past several minutes, my body had been taking completely random turns at junctions, and while I had tried to memorize the chaotic route it had taken, it was hard to keep track. Ultimately, at some point, I had completely lost my sense of direction. It seemed that while affected by [Fear of Fire], I had also had trouble thinking straight. So now I had no idea where I was in relation to the position of the nest or the four-way junction where I had been before the debuff took control.

At that moment, I was in the middle of a tunnel leading into darkness. However, I remembered that before reaching this point, I had recently passed an intersection, so I decided to return there and pick a direction from that point.

It didn’t take me long to get there. I stopped in the middle of a four-way intersection, looking around. Each of the tunnels stretching in four different directions led into darkness. I had no idea where any of them led, so I had no choice but to pick one at random and press on.

After about a dozen feet, or perhaps inches would be a more accurate term, considering the size of my body, I suddenly felt a pang of pain that felt strangely like hunger. But I knew it couldn’t be actual hunger. I had already figured out that I didn’t actually need to eat, at least not in the usual sense of the word.

I had one hundred points of biomatter stored inside my stomach, but it wasn’t being ingested. It wasn’t food. At least not for me. I had already figured out that my body operated solely on mana. So I checked my MP and saw that it had dropped below 30, standing at a meager 11 now.

All that frantic, aimless running around because of [Fear of Fire] had taken a heavy toll on my inner mana reserves. Just as I checked my MP, it dropped from 11 to 10 right before my eyes. It was bad. It was really bad. I had to solve this issue ASAP.

I continued to wander through the air vent system, trying to figure out how to replenish my inner mana reserves, but no answer came to me. My MP gradually went down, point by point. Was it dropping even faster than before? Was that really the case or did it simply seem so because of my panicked state of mind? The sensation of hunger never left me, intensifying with every point of mana I lost.

It wasn’t long before I had only 5 MP left, but I had yet to solve the problem. I even tried mentally reaching out to the Queen, hoping she would help me out, but this time her voice failed to appear in my head.

Where was she when I actually needed her? For once, I would have been happy to hear from her. But she remained silent. Perhaps the space elves had finally dealt with her? If so, I was doomed.

MP: 0 / 100

My mana was now at zero. Surprisingly, I didn’t die right away, which was a good thing. But I suddenly felt as though I were suffocating, which I knew wasn’t possible, considering I didn’t need to breathe to begin with. The reason for the sensation was clear: it was simply letting me know that I was dying.

And sure enough, when I checked my HP, I saw that it was going down, and at a much faster rate than I had been losing mana. I was losing approximately one HP per second, which meant that unless I found a way to replenish my mana reserves, I would die in just about two minutes.