Hah.. It's still quite breathtaking to see a completely high tech city, even though I 'lived' here for 15 years.

Having both familiarity and excitement, I went to the base outpost to report.

"Good morning."

"Ah, its you, Lugh. Morning."

Amanda, the receptionist, greeted me. She's the one responsible for taking the attendances along with some high-tech machinery that my memory doesn't know.

"I'll be going then."

"Good luck!"

"Thanks."

Its that fast. Going in for a minute and going out to the walls. Though, some would intentionally go slower so that they can flirt with her.

As I saw the wall, I greeted my team captain, an old man at his 60's. Though he's that old, it wouldn't remove that certain 'sharpness' of his that was developed from years of zerg battles.

"Good morning captain."

Greeting while saluting.. Obviously, I am in the military, that's why we do that here.

"Morning. We'll be outside the walls for this week. The usual gathering place."

"Understood."

I am now headed to the gates that lead to the outside perimeter. As soon as I passed through it, my sight was greeted by wasteland-ish environment.

Even an outer-innermost planet isn't safe against zerg attacks, it seems. 

Since this planet had been a zerg battlefield 30 years ago, its inevitable that some eggs will still remain due to the fact that they lay down so many eggs; so much that the higher ups basically gave up and just let it be.

Though, it seemed like the higher ups did a sweep before and killed off the High Rank zergs and the select dangerous eggs such as the Brain Worms. No one can fathom the consequences of an adult Brain Worm, a zerg that can control zergs on a planet-level range.

That's why the rest that we fend off are zergs who are of A+ Rank and below. No zergs above S Rank had remained after the sweep. 

Anyways, I hated outside patrol before due to how dangerous it is, but not now. I can finally freely kill some exp bags!

Putting on my armor and grasping the mechanical sword on my waist, I left the box on the storage room and went to the spot where we will gather.

After 10 minutes of walking, I regrouped with my squad. As a 6 month old soldier, they all treat me like a "rookie", thus:

"You know what's the weakness of a stone bug? It's not the eyes, but the gap between its legs."

"Remember, ABSOLUTELY do NOT get hit by the Acid of the Poison Shooters. It won't heal unless you have a S Rank Elixir."

"You can actually see if there's some zergs lately by examining the soil on the ground. If you see a footprint, plus a yellowish or greenish fluid, its a red flag."

Every day, I have to listen to their "life lessons". Even though its quite annoying sometimes, I am thankful. 

As we talked, we patrolled ¼ of the city's outside perimeter. Thanks to our captain being a B Rank war veteran and our reliable vice-captain being a B- Rank, we're more at ease compared to other teams.

"Stop."

Suddenly, our captain commanded us to be stop. It didn't take long to know why.

A group of zerg—10 D+ Rank Stone bugs, 3 C Rank Predatory Mantises, 6 C+ Rank Soil Worm, and their leader, a B- Rank Infant Brain Worm.

What we should be on guard is the B- Infant Brain Worm. Just like its name its an Infant of an adult brain worm, approximately on S+ Rank.

Seeing this worm equates to an adult Brain worm being born in this planet, as only their eggs can hatch it.

Though, there might be some cases whereas there's not adult brain worm, its better to be safe.

Shit. A "Sweep"?! Is this what they called a "Sweep"?! Why the heck is one here?! Shouldn't there be only cannon fodders here?!

"An infant—Fuck. Why is one born here?!"

"This means that.. an S+ Rank Brain Worm might be born! We need to report it!"

"Calm down, everyone."

With our captain's words, we calmed down. 

"Did anyone bring a Miniature Psionic Bomb here?"

"I have one, for emergency purposes."

Unexpectedly, our vice captain has one.

"Good. Then we will kill it here."

Our captain, being so decisive, decided to kill it here. 

The reason for doing so is that, they're all horrible enemies. Their signature trait, [Mind Control], can be used to control enemies, AoE stun, command zergs more efficiently, and so on.

That's why most captains follow a protocol whereas we kill these infants on sight.

Just as the vice captain is about to give the psionic bomb, five of our team members stabbed another five in the back using their melee weapons; vice captain included.

Though it may also be his experience, the vice captain narrowly avoided it. Its like having an eye in the back.

"What?!"

"They're controlled!"

"Captain!"

"On it!"

Because of these mind controls, the Alliance developed a certain way to counter them, that is, to give the captain the authority to freeze the armor of his squad members. The system has to detect an abnormality before this authority can be unlocked, thus it is seen as effective.

Because he's the captain, his armor has a single chance to block an adult Brain Worm's mind control, thus allowing the system to detect the abnormality and freeze this authority. Other than that, he has an immunity towards mind control of below A rank.

What should I do? Readying my sword just in case, I waited for our captain to do the job.

As I thought, the armors were frozen. But its OUR armors.

"Captain?!"

"Fuck!"

"Wh-"

Shit. First day of travel and I have to experience this? Before I lost concousness due to its mental attack, I opened the Panel of the Infant Brain Worm that is now within my sight.

[Infant Brain Worm(Mutated)]

Rank: B

Latent Potential: S-

Strength: B-

Agility: B-

Stamina: C+

Vessel: B

Wisdom: A-

Traits:

[Mind Control (LV5)]

[Mental Suggestions (LV6)]

This bastard, it's mutated!