Chapter 24: The Elusive Prey

The massive insect, despite possessing advanced quantum technology, could only lead her children along, trudging forward in the most primitive and arduous manner.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered simply using the Quantum Channel’s random endpoints to pluck out a lucky child and devour them.

However, the risks involved were far too great. Her previous method had only led her to a human transportation hub, but with this new idea, who knew if she might suddenly be transported to the Universal Empire, the most formidable human power?

As the massive insect glided slowly through the cosmos with her children, she pondered this very question.

Then, in an instant, the massive insect sensed a vast wave of high-energy reactions appearing behind her. Among them were several familiar fluctuations, undoubtedly from the very star system’s alliance whose ship she had previously devoured.

It seemed her destruction of that star system had drawn the attention of the entire alliance, prompting them to dispatch a massive army to hunt her down.

From the souls of the humans she had consumed earlier, the massive insect had already extracted information about herself from their perspective. Humans, or rather, all intelligent species in the universe, referred to her kind as the ‘Zerg’.

They considered the Zerg their lifelong adversaries, believing that only through complete annihilation could they find peace. Yet, judging from their subtle descriptions, her species once seemed barbaric, knowing nothing but slaughter and preferring direct confrontation in all matters.

However, the massive insect felt she was not as foolish as her former kin. Perhaps the records of these intelligent species were inherently biased.

The massive insect could guarantee that if her previous kin had possessed her strength and devoured as many intelligent souls as she had, their intelligence would have rivaled any so-called super-thinker among the intelligent species.

Indeed, with the wisdom of countless souls supporting them, they could have formed a collective intelligence akin to a supercomputer in technology. Logically, from an intellectual standpoint, no intelligent species should have been her match.

After all, her brain was simply larger than theirs.

Alternatively, it was possible this impression was merely a ruse deliberately fabricated by the Zerg to mislead those intelligent species, thereby achieving unexpected attack effects.

Regardless of the stratagem, the Zerg ultimately met their complete demise. In the memories of these humans, their impression of the Zerg had blurred into a purely conceptual level.

It was likely that any remaining records of the species, and any Zerg-related information frequently appearing in public discourse, were now confined to wildly fantastical science fiction novels.

For instance, among the people she had recently consumed, there was a science fiction author. Despite confirming from other scientists’ souls that this world currently possessed only one universe, and that all rumors of channels leading to other universes had been debunked as false, this author had vividly imagined multiple universes, all interconnected.

Their storylines were both humorous and absurd.

Yet, such works still garnered sustained attention from over a billion people. It seemed these humans preferred to believe in illusions rather than confront harsh realities.

With utter indifference, the massive insect swayed her tentacles, continuing to glide forward. Why humans could track her was easily deduced with a moment’s thought: it was undoubtedly due to the high-energy heat constantly radiating from her body after devouring a star.

This heat compressed the dark matter in the universe, forming a distinct, regular trail. Humans possessed extremely precise detection instruments, so following this trail to find her was no difficult feat.

Moreover, her current flight speed was not fast. If human battleships traveled towards her at maximum acceleration, catching up to her would only be a matter of time.

Upon realizing this, the massive insect halted. Her current position on the star map was a very central distance: precisely at the boundary between the destroyed star system and the next.

Continuing forward risked entering another star system, exposing her to a pincer attack from both sides. While she could effortlessly sweep away these battleships, her children might not withstand such concentrated assaults.

Crucially, her scans detected a single, exceptionally powerful energy signature within the enemy fleet that particularly concerned her. The intensity of that attack clearly exceeded the endurance of any of her children, and even presented a slight threat to the massive insect herself.

Under such circumstances, engaging in a two-front battle would be even more foolish.

Therefore, the massive insect pondered for a moment. Since the enemy was following the dark matter trail she had left, she decided to circle around her current position a few times to disorient them, then ambush them stealthily.

Fortunately, this section of space contained numerous large meteoroid fragments and barren planets. After circling a few times, the massive insect selected a relatively large cosmic planet, settled upon it, and covered it.

All her children then distributed themselves evenly across the planet’s surface and her own body. From the outside, the planet appeared to be an ordinary black sphere.

However, upon closer inspection, one could discern peculiar bulges on its black surface. Beneath these bulges were countless small insects, densely packed together.

Once her disguise was complete, the massive insect gradually calmed, diligently reabsorbing the heat leaking from her body. As her aura receded, the black planet appeared utterly unremarkable.

But once the massive insect had hidden herself, the human pursuit fleet fell into complete disarray. What had been a straight and simple path to follow suddenly became a tangled mess of repeating and overlapping routes.

From the orbital traces on the star map after several loops, it looked as though they had drawn a twisted knot across the entire map.

“What the hell is going on?! Where did that massive insect go?!”

“Don’t panic, don’t panic. This is the first time we’ve encountered such a situation. Let’s discuss it for a moment.”

The chief technical officer waved his hand, signaling the supreme commander to calm down, then immediately convened all the scientific engineering team members for a discussion.

A short while later, everyone had settled on a reason.

“You might not believe it, and we find it hard to believe ourselves, but this is the only possibility.”

The chief technical officer spoke in a roundabout manner for a long time before finally concluding:

“It seems this mother organism has discovered we’re chasing her…”

“!?”

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