It was an unfamiliar sky.
The first thing that came to mind was the fact that I had been attacked by someone unknown and lost consciousness.
If I’d been taken to a hospital, shouldn’t I be seeing a pure white ceiling? Instead, what filled my vision was a vast expanse of sky.
And it wasn’t an ordinary sky, either. If the Korean Peninsula didn’t have seasonal winds to block out the yellow dust, maybe the sky would look like this.
Judging by the insane sandstorm raging around me, the people in this region must wear gas masks instead of regular masks.
With that thought, I tried to raise my body, and then I “felt” my own form.
What the hell is this shape?
No arms, no legs—just a single wriggling cocoon.
A slime? Honestly, having that kind of cute appearance might have been a mercy. I had no idea how I could see myself, but the sight of unidentified blood vessels running along my exterior made me look like nothing but some bizarre alien life-form.
Strangely, I felt no particular emotion about the fact that a perfectly healthy human body had changed into this.
Did my brain turn into a space monster along with my body?
The way it wriggled according to my will felt disgusting, yet familiar.
Setting aside my impressions of my bodily transformation, just as my thoughts were growing confused, memories belonging to this body’s original owner—the cocoon—began to surface.
The star system I was currently in. A monstrous race that had flourished on the planet Rushaka in the Tyrant Star System, advanced into space, and rapidly expanded its power.
A predatory race with endless hunger, incapable of communication, that devoured other life-forms, absorbed their traits, and created new monsters.
A race inspired by ZerX, TyXranids, and AraXhnids, one that waged war against the entire universe—it was definitely the race I had been playing in the game just moments ago.
And I had inhabited the body of the Overmind, the leader who commanded that entire race.
Overwhelming aggression, a monster baring its fangs at the entire galaxy, with diplomacy itself impossible—that had been the concept I had in mind while playing this race, but…
This was something I needed to reconsider. Why should I fight the entire galaxy? Humans on Earth, and countless races in all kinds of media, don’t do diplomacy because they’re stupid.
This situation wasn’t a game, so I was supposed to stake my destiny on slugging it out with every other race? I don’t know if it’s luck or not, but now that I’ve become the leader of this race, that future won’t come to pass.
Maybe because my memories of being human were still too vivid, most of my thoughts leaned pro-human, but wasn’t that something I could think through gradually?
However, contrary to my wishes, this race’s situation didn’t seem like it would be all that smooth.
As befitting a race that waged war against an entire universe it couldn’t communicate with, I had already swallowed several races whole while playing.
If monsters who had indiscriminately devoured their people came along and said,
“From now on, let’s live peacefully~ Hoho.”
Would there be any race that replied,
“Of course, let’s do that. Hahaha.”
Making peace with a race you were at war with and making peace with a race that had been eating you were probably different stories, weren’t they?
Seriously, why did the world suddenly turn me into a monster like this and make me worry about these things?
In the end, what I had to do was clear. My race, which objectively had a repulsive appearance and an overwhelming record of past offenses, had to survive in this galaxy.
Let’s act with that as the goal.
◈
I am a hive mind. Every living creature under me is ultimately “me,” and by allocating my mind to them, I can use them as though they were my own body.
In other words, if I wanted to, I had become a life-form that could go on living without ever speaking to anyone.
But could a race that didn’t converse conduct diplomatic negotiations with other races? At the very least, shouldn’t I make sure I didn’t forget how to speak?
With that in mind, I made one.
“Jarvis, report.”
“Yes, my queen.”
Perhaps because this race had been modeled after one with outstanding biotechnology, evolving by devouring organisms and using their genes, I was able to create new life-forms based on the genes my race currently possessed.
As for the method, if I instinctively kneaded something that seemed to be genetic information inside the cocoon that was my body, it would gradually be shaped into the form I wanted.
No particularly special idea came to mind, so I made it resemble a human.
It seemed to instinctively call me queen. Well, if you’re talking about the ruler of a hive species like ants or bees, queen is really the only option. Hm.
“A warning has arrived from a faction claiming to be the Deneb International Union.”
Huh?
[The aggressive fleet movements currently detected at the borders of our United States of Deneb are considered a clear provocation.
We intend to hold your race accountable for the inhumane invasion committed against the Solar Star System. If your side has the will to reflect upon this tragedy and seek a peaceful resolution, we demand that you immediately withdraw your fleets from the border and provide an explanation at once.
If there is no satisfactory response or action within fifteen galactic standard days, we will determine that further dialogue is meaningless, designate you as hostile life-forms, and enter a state of hostility with the United States of Deneb.]
“So it says, my queen. Shall I assemble the fleets?”
“Calm down, Jarvis.”
What was bound to come had finally arrived. And at such an early point, too.
Before I reincarnated, this hive must have devoured everything within reach and acted with an extremely aggressive disposition.
It was only to be expected that some race feeling threatened by that—especially a race sharing a border with us—would take the lead.
The problem was that not much time had passed since I reincarnated, so I didn’t even know much about my own race, let alone the situation in this galaxy, and I had no real sense of how to react to such a sudden incident.
But surely, my capable secretary whom I had personally created would have a good countermeasure?
“The Deneb Star System is right on our doorstep, my queen. If you only give the order, I will send the legion immediately. If we devour their capital planet in an instant, it will be as good as our victory.”
“Ah~ I see.”
As expected of a secretary whose first suggestion was to assemble the fleets, she offered a very belligerent plan.
Maybe Jarvis was right. We could seize the Deneb Star System in an instant, force their surrender, devour countless organisms, and grow once more.
If this were a game, I would have done that too. After all, you had to snowball as much as possible from the early game. In the first place, there was a high chance I wouldn’t even have read the warning from the United States of Deneb. I’d just vaguely understand that it was a warning, click confirm, and close the window.
Then I would drag my fleets over to the border.
But now, this was vivid reality. Even if I tore the United States of Deneb apart, what came next? Nations friendly with the United States of Deneb would react.
And even if I ate those nations too, what came next? Even if I wiped out the next ones after that, what then?
If I kept waging war endlessly like that and eventually slipped up, I’d die. There was no way the galaxy would leave a hive that had devoured countless races until now alone.
In other words, either the entire galaxy died by my hand, or I had to keep running without rest until I died.
I don’t want to live like that.
I want to live lazily, decadently, and hedonistically.
I’ll plant my main body, which can’t even move, on this dump of a planet, make a HyXralisk-like avatar, and travel all over the galaxy.
Just how much entertainment would there be in a spacefaring age? In the game, I looked down at the galactic map spread out from a god’s-eye view, so of course I had no idea about the cultural lives created by hundreds of billions of people. Nor did I care.
But now I’m one of those hundreds of billions? On top of that, I rule an entire race, so I can do everything I want.
Destroy all that culture? Tsk, tsk. That can only be called shortsighted.
Besides, now that I thought about it, the phrasing in the warning from the United States of Deneb—“your side.” These guys still didn’t know I was a hive mind.
An entire race being a single living creature was naturally bound to be ostracized, and even in the game, there had been a diplomatic penalty. On top of that, a race that devoured other races had its friendliness drop to the lowest point, making diplomacy itself impossible.
And yet they sent such a polite warning?
These guys didn’t know I was a hive mind, nor did they know we were a race that devoured others. In other words, as long as we stayed quiet, no one would know.
It also meant that if I conducted myself properly from now on, we could blend in like a normal race.
A life where I wouldn’t be threatened and could do whatever I wanted. No, there was a good enough chance I could live a monster life like that.
“Jarvis! Prepare an envoy.”
“Yes, my queen.”
To live such a happy life, I needed to get off to a good start.
I hope I can communicate well with my Deneb friends.