A pitch-black underground tunnel.

After being knocked unconscious, the three newbie players were dragged here by a group of Mutant Slime Mold, and later brought into a narrow, claustrophobic chamber.

This place seemed to be part of Clearspring City’s underground transport network, but it had been so completely transformed by Slime Mold growths that there was no way to tell where they were anymore.

The first player to regain consciousness shook his head groggily, pressing his hands to the floor, and felt something sticky and warm. When he opened his eyes, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

All around him was red, pulsating Slime Mold carpets that looked disturbingly like slabs of living meat, exuding a nauseating stench.

Pig Hoof blinked and looked around, dumbstruck, before finally blurting out, “What the hell?! Where the fuck are we?”

They had only been offline for a moment, and somehow their in-game location had changed completely!

By then, the other two had also woken up, shivering at the sight around them.

Starving Force gasped, “Oh crap... Are we inside the Slime Mold right now?!”

Bowed Starving snorted. “Get real. You’re so damn chunky, how’s it supposed to swallow you whole without chewing?”

“...?”

Bowed Starving coughed once before speaking again. “Okay, okay, I take it back.”

At that moment, something emerged from the pitch-black tunnel ahead, a grotesque figure stepping into the dim light.

It stood nearly twice the height of a human, broad-shouldered and massive, its face little more than an abstract smear of features. Its upper body was thick and muscular, while its lower half flared outward like a skirt fringed with octopus-like tendrils that writhed and rippled.

It vaguely resembled Little Feather back when it was still growing, though clearly larger and with even fewer human traits.

The three players froze in terror, faces pale, stumbling backward instinctively. Unfortunately, the room was a dead end. Behind them was only a wall. There was nowhere to run.

The creature’s tendrils undulated as it moved closer, filling the narrow space. Cold sweat dripped down Starving Force’s forehead. She swallowed hard and lifted her chin stubbornly. “G-go ahead... kill me if you want! I won’t talk!”[1]

She always wanted to try saying that line, and besides, it wasn’t like any of them actually knew anything.

Whether it understood her words or simply reacted to her voice, the monster tilted its vague face toward her. The edge of its skirt suddenly lifted, revealing a dark seam.

Before anyone could guess what it was doing, countless tendrils burst forth from the opening, lashing around her and yanking her into a gaping, fleshy maw.

She didn’t even have time to scream. In the blink of an eye, Starving Force was gone, swallowed whole.

The skirt-like body pulsed rhythmically, as though chewing her up.

Seeing his partner devoured before his eyes, Bowed Starving froze for a second, then let out a raw, heart-wrenching scream. “BABY?! I’LL AVENGE YOU!”

He lurched to his feet, fists raised, charging at the two meter tall monster. Well, he met the exact same fate.

Before he could take two steps, a tendril whipped out from beneath the creature’s skirt, tripping him, and he was slurped into the mouth like an insect before a frog.

Both were gone in seconds.

Having finished its meal, the monster swayed happily, its tendrils tapping the ground like someone patting their belly after steak, though its abstract face showed a flicker of confusion, as if something about it bothered it.

Watching that churning red mass, Pig Hoof went pale with terror. His eyes darted wildly, then he had an idea. “Wait! Don’t eat me! I, I don’t taste good! I surrender, okay?! You need a translator or something? I can work for you! I’ll be your snitch!”

He had heard this game had insane freedom. Who knew, maybe it’d work?

Thea turned its faceless head toward him, seemed to ponder it for a moment, then, without warning, lifted its skirt again.

Inside were scraps of clothing and writhing, meat-grinder-like tendrils. Pig Hoof’s face went blank as dread flooded in.

So he was doomed either way, huh?

“Mother...!”

Before he could even curse the devs, the gaping mouth swallowed him whole. He didn’t even get the chance to resist, his consciousness dissolved into a sea of crimson.

Feeling the life essence melt into her body, Thea chewed quietly for a while. The confusion on its face slowly deepened into an incomprehensible melancholy.

“Strange...”

Sensing her child’s puzzlement, a calm voice appeared in her mind, the voice of the Main Mother Body appeared. “What’s wrong, my child?”

Facing the bloody wall and the indigestible remains at her feet, Thea whispered softly, “They’re... empty.”

Those things were hollow shells, even emptier than cockroaches or rats. They were like blank sheets of paper, devoid of any information.

It was the first time since its birth that Thea had encountered something so strange.

They couldn’t be assimilated. Or rather, even if they were, it meant nothing, they were just moving corpses. It couldn’t understand what these beings were.

Were they puppets, like the Main Mother Body’s sub-entities, controlled by some external will? But they had shown signs of self-awareness.

Thea’s face twisted in confusion.

Could it ... Humans also had a Mother Hive?

...

“They’re assimilated mutated creatures.”

Shelter 404, in the library on level B4.

Seated on the couch, Hyrja summarized the preliminary findings of the Biological Research Institution’s examination of two sub-entity specimens to Chu Guang and Yin Fang.

Hearing this unexpected theory, Yin Fang raised his eyebrows with interest, setting down his coffee cup. “Assimilated?”

Hyrja nodded gravely. “Yes. The Slime Mold absorbed their DNA data, while consuming their organic matter, it retained a portion of the host’s original neural tissue.”

She paused briefly before she continued, “You remember Bucky, right? The guy fused to Slime Mold. His case is similar, but the Slime Mold in Clearspring City is far more aggressive than in Forever East Municipality. The strain here assimilates much more thoroughly, converting almost the entire host body into part of itself, while leaving behind only a fragment of brain tissue.”

In a way, it was an evolutionary leap for the Clearspring City’s Slime Mold strain, like moving from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Instead of merely using bones as weapons, they learned domestication, turning prey into obedient combat thralls.

Yin Fang stroked his chin as he thought to himself.

Their village idiot, Chu Guang, who hadn’t spoken the whole time, cleared his throat. “Can we... get a version in a language I understand please?”

Hyrja smiled patiently. “Simply put, they’ve improved their Hive structure. Before, Crunchers and Creepers all hunted under the Hive’s direct control. Now, certain special sub-entities retain fragments of their former combat experience. They fight using their enhanced bodies, but with their old instincts and skills.”

Yin Fang added with a grin, “So basically, self-thinking battle drones running offline with a built-in AI plugin.”

Hyrja snapped her fingers. “Exactly.”

Chu Guang rubbed his chin. “And that... matters why?”

Yin Fang leaned back and explained in his own words. “It means the Hive can allocate more of its ‘processing power’ to strategic control while letting higher sub-entities and Evolved Types handle tactical decisions on their own. Even if their tactics aren’t brilliant, they’ll be far more flexible than before. That's about right?”

Hyrja nodded approvingly. “Precisely.”

Taking a sip of coffee, Yin Fang sighed, “Evolving this much in just one year... that’s insane.”

Hyrja shook her head. “It’s not just one year. Evolution is continuous. They’ve been learning from us, from our tools, our structures, even our society. The New Alliance’s emergence may have accelerated their evolution, but the real trigger, the shift from quantity to quality, came from years of observing us.”

The spore clouds covered every inch of Clearspring City. In theory, the Main Mother Body could see everything that happened within the city.

Just as the New Alliance’s scientists worked tirelessly to find ways to defeat it, the Hive was surely working just as tirelessly to find a way to destroy them.

Perhaps it would’ve been better to wipe them out entirely back in the early Wasteland Era, before they had grown so intelligent.

But that was long past. Humanity back then had enough trouble surviving the cold, let alone fighting an unknown enemy.

“... Actually,” Chu Guang said after a pause, “There’s something else that worries me more.”

The others turned to look at him.

“They’re learning to hide,” he said slowly. “They’re probing us... while deliberately keeping us from recovering their remains.”

His gaze darkened. “They’re starting to understand us.”

...

1. TAIL, I FOUND YOUR FRIEND ☜