Colonial Suit

The spaceship quickly disengaged its alert status and continued its journey through the pipeline. Half an hour later, they reached their destination, and Li'er was placed in a completely enclosed room. There were no windows, no light, and not even a door. The only thing inside was a bed—a hard, bone-like bed, resembling a coffin.

"You will stay here for five days," Sapos said to Li'er, "until we confirm that you pose no threat to the Star Nest."

"Okay," Li'er replied without objection, showing no dissatisfaction with the room's simplicity.

This was to be expected. Since Dixiaite was the most important brood offspring of the Sasa clan, what reason was there to allow an outsider to enter? Even an experimental subject like her? Necessary quarantine and precautions were essential. Li'er believed that these five days were not only for testing her but also for the main body of the brood to develop a systemic response.

So, Li'er settled down in the room. Every day, she would sit on the bed with her chin propped up, lost in thought.

She appeared calm, eerily so. But unknown to everyone, within this calmness, contamination was quietly taking place. Drop after drop of blood-colored liquid dripped from Li'er's heels, seeping into the brood's biological layer. No one noticed, not even the brood itself.

No, it couldn't be said that the brood felt nothing. It was just that as soon as the liquid came into contact with the brood, it naturally merged into it, as if they had been one from the very beginning. Therefore, the brood offered no resistance. Who would resist their own body?

However, within this silent infiltration, Li'er was gradually, bit by bit, expanding her perception.

The brood's defenses against her were being peeled away layer by layer from the bottom up. Some biological tissues close to her also began to change, transforming into a new state. Although they still accepted the brood's commands, their true master had become Li'er.

Biological contamination...

Li'er's innate ability as a War Matriarch. All enhanced biological weapons were unable to resist it.

Give me a cell, and I can infect a planet.

Li'er sat silently, her chin propped up, looking serene. In this enclosed room, everything seemed to freeze, including time. Air seeped in from the biological walls, but it felt dry and gritty. The silence in the room was maddening. An ordinary person would probably die after only half a day. But for Li'er, it was warm and comfortable.

What could be safer than a Matriarch surrounded by her subjects? That was how Li'er felt at this moment.

In the silence, time had no meaning, but Li'er's thoughts spread out little by little, transmitted through the contaminated cells. Gradually, lines, nodes, modules, and functional areas appeared in her mind. Parts of the brood's structure were analyzed by her, presenting a three-dimensional model. Only then did Li'er realize that the organizational waste within this enormous brood reached an astonishing 37%. Almost all modules had been replicated no less than ten times. In particular, the vital biological energy pools numbered over seven thousand! They were scattered in a star-like pattern throughout the brood.

This was simply a crime!

Li'er understood the Sasa clan's thinking. First, their biological technology was insufficient to modulate highly integrated and efficient biological energy systems. Second, this layout would greatly enhance the brood's survivability, ensuring it wouldn't lose functionality even if it suffered significant losses. This was understandable for a super-giant war weapon carrying a civilization.

But the premise was that this war weapon wasn't called a Brood.

What was a Brood? It was a high-intensity collection of organisms, with efficiency and life intensity running throughout the Brood's design. Biological energy pools were no exception. A large number of energy pools not only failed to give the Brood surging concentrated power but also created a huge burden on management. At the same time, the repulsive nature of biological tissues would bring instability to the structure. In large-scale, high-intensity wars and environments, this configuration had only one possibility... self-destruction!

Therefore, the multi-point placement and star-like layout of energy systems, suitable for mechanical and energy civilizations, should never belong to a Brood. The energy system that truly belonged to a Brood should be a single-point placement with a tree-like layout. A core energy pool at the origin, commanding the subordinate energy pools, was the most efficient and suitable power structure for a Brood.

Some might ask, what if there was only one core energy pool and it was severely damaged?

The answer was simple: regeneration.

A highly integrated and efficient biological energy pool was itself a nearly infinitely regenerating biological core. Because energy was completely concentrated, their regeneration speed would surpass even the Brood's outer shell! It could be said to be the most indestructible part of the Brood. The weakest point was actually the strongest point!

Of course, sometimes the Brood would also have a multi-point layout, but that would have to be based on the strong command of the main brain. But in any case, it was not the Sasa clan's turn.

The Sasa clan was simply courting death by playing this trick without even being able to guarantee command.

Li'er sneered inwardly, but the contamination continued. She had already noted this weakness, waiting to repair it in the future. At this time, she had already regarded Dixiaite as her future 'body'. How could she not be meticulous? After all, such a huge 'body' was rare in the current universe. Li'er didn't want to waste it.

Meanwhile, in another part of Dixiaite, in a spacious and bright room, Li'er's image was being displayed through a light screen in front of Sapos and the Great Sage Napolitt. The two watched quietly, speechless for a long time.

Suddenly, Sapos said, "Do you think it's possible that she knows we're watching her?"

"…" Napolitt didn't speak, but concentrated on observing Li'er, not missing a single expression or nuance. At the same time, another light screen displayed Li'er's heart rate, hormone secretion, and other data.

After a long time, he shook his head and answered in a hoarse voice, "I don't know either."

"You don't know either?" Sapos raised an eyebrow, revealing a hint of a sneer. "Under your absolute control in this Brood? Don't tell me that you haven't even completed the most basic preparations after so long."

"I can grasp how much blood is pumped out with each heartbeat, how many platelets are contained in the blood, and I can also know how much carbon dioxide she exhales with each breath, as well as how many cellular debris," Napolitt replied without looking up, his tone calm. "But I cannot grasp her thoughts."

"I am not a god."

"Even in this Brood, I am infinitely close, but I am still not."

"Then let's create a little accident, maybe you can discover something." Sapos nodded, acknowledging Napolitt's statement, but snapped his fingers with his right hand.

"Cut off her perception of the rules, shield her from energy interaction, and isolate her with spatial barriers."

"Let her return to the world of ordinary people."(To be continued...)