Chapter 1: The Awakening of the Cosmic Devourer

In an exceedingly remote corner of the cosmos, a faint lifeform ceaselessly expanded its vital energy. As this entity grew, tendrils of black matter steadily encroached upon the small planet where it resided.

Over tens of millions of years, these tendrils eventually engulfed the entire planet. From an external perspective, the planet transformed from its former earthy yellow hue to an absolute black.

As eons passed, another tens of millions of years elapsed. The surface of the black planet gradually developed fine cracks.

Over several centuries, these fissures widened. Finally, a sharp claw pierced through from within the planet.

From its interior, a continuous, gnawing sound, akin to chewing, reverberated.

As the cracks on the planet’s surface grew ever larger, the star at the center of the galaxy trembled at the faint aura emanating from within the black sphere.

A full millennium later, the planet’s surface had become utterly fragmented. What had been concealed beneath the black matter was finally exposed to the star’s radiant light.

It was a colossal insect!

A monstrous insect, the size of a planet!

This creature appeared to be newly born, its consciousness still hazy. Had anyone discovered this enormous insect at that moment, there might have been a chance to slay or even tame it.

Alas, in this desolate corner of the universe, no life existed within tens of thousands of light-years.

The colossal insect thus lay freely in the cosmos, constantly devouring other planets, consuming them into its belly. It ate its fill, then slept, then ate again, for an unknown span of time.

Eventually, all the large planets in this galaxy had been consumed, leaving only the central star quivering ceaselessly.

The colossal insect grew curious. What would this luminous, seemingly enormous planet taste like?

And so, the insect’s sharp claw finally reached out toward the star.

“Xlfr One! Full speed ahead! There’s an asteroid field on the star chart that we can use to shake off our pursuers. Follow me, maximum velocity!”

On the edge of a cosmic wasteland, several small silver lights darted swiftly into the desolation. Behind them, hundreds of identical lights gave chase, hot on their heels.

The leading silver lights advanced rapidly, circling the edge of the wasteland as if searching for a hidden refuge.

“Damn it, you’re not lying to me, are you?! Where’s this damned asteroid field!?”

“Impossible! This was once an ancient battlefield, where countless planets shattered. Logically, it should be filled with post-war debris and broken planets! And what cosmic space would be this clean!?”

The sender of that voice stared in horror at the dark matter radar beside their cockpit. The information scanned and transmitted back unequivocally told the pilot that the surrounding area was utterly empty.

It was as if a cleanup robot around a space station had swept away all asteroids and flying debris, leaving this section of space with a zero material presence.

“You listen here, you bastard. You screwed me over this time, but I’ll get you back next time.”

The others gritted their teeth, adjusting their cockpits and setting all weapon systems to emergency status.

“Come on, you damned space pirates! Today, you’ll witness your father’s might!”

“Don’t be rash!”

The leader’s voice rang out in the channel, filled with alarm. However, this did not deter the man’s actions. With a flash of light, one of the light points charged directly toward the massive fleet of warships pursuing them.

Amidst a dazzling burst of light, the brave light point ultimately fell silent in the vacuum of space.

“Damn it, we can’t let his sacrifice be in vain! Retreat, quickly!”

“But Captain, where do we go!?”

“Forward! Forward!”

Having spoken, the captain slammed the thrust lever all the way down, instantly transforming into a streak of light that plunged into the depths of the wasteland. Seeing their captain’s decisive action, the other team members immediately followed suit.

The other pirates hesitated for a moment, then obeyed the orders from their main ship and continued their pursuit into the depths.

Meanwhile, at the heart of this wasteland, an unimaginably colossal entity slowly unfurled its body, as if sensing something.

“Captain, they’re catching up!”

“Keep going, don’t stop!”

“Yes!”

The captain nervously watched the energy bar beneath the thrust lever. It had already turned from green to yellow and was on the verge of entering the dangerous red zone.

If they continued at this speed in the red zone, the thrusters could be permanently damaged, leaving them utterly helpless.

“Damn it, why is this place so clean!”

The captain cursed vehemently, then glanced at the dark matter radar again.

On the radar, a colossal sphere suddenly appeared in the previously empty cosmic space. The captain’s heart instantly surged with joy, and they immediately pulled up a visual map of that direction.

In the visually discernible image, a super-planet, truly magnificent in scale, appeared before their eyes. The captain couldn’t help but gasp sharply.

‘What is this…’

Due to the planet’s immense size, the captain could distinctly feel their ship being continuously drawn toward it.

“Attention, all units, attention! Our landing target is the giant star ahead. Prepare your body armor for heavy gravity! We’re landing!”

After the captain spoke, the light points rapidly descended onto the enormous planet. The pirate ships behind them followed without hesitation.

“Phew… Landing successful. All personnel, please respond. All personnel, safe landing, please respond.”

“OK, no problem.”

“Equipment is good, landing normal.”

“Zzz… crackle… Captain… help me… I… I’ve been impaled by a ground spike…”

A voice, intermittent and riddled with static, appeared in the channel.

“Damn it, don’t move!”

The captain cursed, then leaped from the cockpit, kneeling on the ground first to quickly adjust their armor’s gravity-bearing capacity. Only then did they steadily rush toward the location of the incident.

“Evan?”

Just as the captain was about to arrive, the light point on their armor’s internal map, representing their teammate, vanished instantly. When the captain reached the scene, there was only a patch of ground spikes.

The area was utterly empty; no ship or wreckage was visible.

“Evan…?”

The captain softly called out in the channel, but received no response. Not only Evan, but the channels of the other teammates were also eerily silent.

“Goddammit, what the hell…”

The captain stood dumbfounded, cursing under their breath. Suddenly, the once solid and flat ground beneath their feet split open, revealing a bottomless chasm.

Before the captain even had time to react, a powerful suction force instantly dragged them into the depths of the洞穴.

“My lads, prepare to land! You search for those fat pigs on the ground, and I’ll watch over you from above.”

“Oh oh oh!!”

The space pirate squad leader watched as his subordinates landed on the colossal planet and scattered to search. He himself was not idle, piloting his ship and activating the ground-sweeping system to continuously scan the terrain.

He also intended to scout for any rare minerals that might exist on this super-planet.

“Hmm?”

The squad leader glanced at his detector. No minerals were found, but it seemed one of his subordinates had gone missing.

“Attention all, attention! Sector B28, someone’s down there. Those pigs are probably hiding there, ambushing us. Flank them!”

“…”

Instead of the usual replies, a dead silence filled the voice channel. Looking back at the detector display, the ground was now barren; all his subordinates had vanished!

“Cao!”

The squad leader instinctively pulled the thrust lever, intending to ascend. Suddenly, the ground opened into a massive maw and unleashed a powerful suction, instantly robbing the ship of its power and drawing it directly into the newly opened mouth in the ground.

Subsequently, this section of the cosmos returned to its former tranquil state.

Not long after, this colossal “planet” began to stir. Its spherical form gradually unfurled, revealing large and small scythe-like limbs to the universe.

The colossal insect had awakened.

Just moments before, while in its slumber, it had sensed several small creatures with unique scents approaching its maw. Following nearly a hundred million years of habit, it naturally opened its mouth and consumed them.

However, these little creatures tasted different from the rocks it usually ate. At least, the flavor was entirely distinct, and more importantly, after consuming them, strange things began to appear in its mind.

Life, love, family, money, war, power, weapons, glory, plunder, slaughter.

What were these?

The colossal insect’s immense brain began to operate, trillions upon trillions of mental cells ceaselessly analyzing the composition of these concepts.

But these fragments were far too few; to thoroughly analyze them, merely these few were insufficient. Fortunately, among some of the ingested sustenance, information indicated that a large nest of similar food existed not far away.

Thus, the colossal insect joyfully scuttled its tendrils, moving at an incredibly abnormal speed toward that direction.

The Space Pirate Main Ship

“Boss, the squad we sent out has lost contact.”

“Quantum interference?”

“No, information transmission is clear. It seems they’ve been wiped out.”

“…Quickly, leave! It’s likely some damned cosmic creature has grown in this wasteland…”

It must be said that the pirate boss possessed exceptional intuition and decisiveness. They had pursued those several ‘fat sheep’ for a full six months. Given such an abnormal situation now, his order to abandon half a year’s effort and retreat immediately was remarkably prudent.

But alas, it was ultimately too late.

Just as they activated the channel to initiate quantum migration, a gigantic tendril slowly extended and directly destroyed the entrance to the quantum channel!

The pirate boss frantically ordered all energy to be poured into the propulsion system, executing an incredibly elegant aerial drift that successfully dodged the tendril’s casual strike.

“What is that thing!!”

The pirate boss stared in terror at the overall image scanned by the dark matter radar. The entity’s volume was so immense that his warship was no more than one of its small tendrils!

“You bastard, don’t think I’ll just surrender like this!! All hands, prepare! All hands, prepare to launch all missiles, a one-time clear-out!”

Hearing the boss’s furious roar, all the pirates scrambled to operate their weapons, quickly loading them with the most powerful ammunition. As the exterior of the pirate main ship slowly transformed, all its weapons emerged from the hull!

Evidently, this was a modified merchant vessel, but with the augmentation of these weapons, its firepower during a full volley was even more terrifying than that of a regular warship!

Innumerable streaks of light, interspersed with solid projectiles, slammed into the insect’s colossal body. The colossal insect hesitated slightly, for the memories of the creatures it had just consumed told it that these things caused harm; they would hurt.

The colossal insect did not know what ‘pain’ was, but by analyzing the memories of these individuals, it could roughly deduce that it was a highly uncomfortable sensation.

Thus, the colossal insect chose to defend itself. It twitched its tendrils, which instantly hardened and spread out to form a shield, intercepting all the attacks within its tendril.

The warship struck the colossal insect, but the colossal insect felt nothing. The colossal insect chose to retaliate.

Enveloping the weapon energy it had just intercepted, the colossal insect merely flicked a tendril. The warship, which had been firing with all its might moments before, was instantly shattered into countless pieces.

Upon seeing this, the colossal insect promptly began to absorb the debris scattered throughout cosmic space.

Subsequently, the colossal insect joyfully swayed its two frontal tendrils, then began to analyze the food it had just swallowed, one by one.

Finally, within the colossal insect’s mind, a vast world gradually unfolded before its eyes.

In this world, everyone had a family, and most lived happy lives. Some children were born without parents, but even they would find an object of worship to serve as their spiritual support.

For in this world, those without parents or spiritual support were truly pitiable!

The colossal insect floated blankly in the cosmos. If it were to follow their memories, it had no relatives and no friends. Did that make it especially pitiable?

For some reason, after existing alone for hundreds of millions of years, it suddenly felt so isolated and desolate at this moment.

It, too, yearned for family and love.

And to achieve these, there was another way, according to their memories.

That was reproduction.

The colossal insect understood this word, for it was a legacy etched into its very bloodline. However, the colossal insect had always deemed it unnecessary, until now.

Now, the colossal insect finally comprehended why such a legacy existed within its bloodline.

‘Zergs are born solitary, yet they yearn for human-like warmth. Thus, they self-evolved, gaining abilities bestowed by the gods…’

‘I am the Swarm!’

As the colossal insect grasped this truth, its body began to undergo wondrous changes. Its originally slender and enormous form became more bloated at the extremities, and within this swollen bulge, countless life forces were brewing.

From that moment on, the colossal insect departed from the cosmic wasteland. Guided by the memories of those previous creatures, it began its journey toward the bustling heart of the universe.