Yan Ning’s refusal was entirely expected.
“Take it. Exchange it for some meat. I’ve been craving it,” Qi Heng said, giving the excuse he had already prepared.
Without hesitation, Yan Ning replied:
“I haven’t used any of the points you gave me. If you want meat, I can exchange those for it. You should keep the Starstone for yourself.”
“What can that handful of points possibly buy?” Qi Heng said, momentarily speechless.
Tianyun Star’s ecology had deteriorated severely. Few living creatures remained, and even fewer were edible. Whenever someone occasionally caught suitable prey, purchasing it required a considerable number of points.
Qi Heng turned in only the minimum requirement of one basket of ore each day. After One-Horn 28 deliberately targeted him, he received only five points for it.
Forget exchanging them for meat. They would barely be enough to obtain anything else.
“Take it. I already told you that living in your home is one matter. I can provide my own food and clothing.”
“I don’t like owing favors.”
“Whether it’s points or Starstones, just consider them payment for my meals.”
Qi Heng knew why Yan Ning refused the Starstone.
Cultivating stellar power was difficult, and it took a female Zerg several days to fill a single Starstone.
Qi Heng had found that strange when he first learned about it.
Logically speaking, the Zerg were born with mental power. They did not need to cultivate it from nothing, only develop what already existed within them.
After completing their first evolution during childhood, female Zerg would naturally gain access to their mental power.
Male Zerg possessed it from birth as well, though it was not particularly noticeable while they were still children.
Under such circumstances, cultivating stellar power should have been easy.
Even if their cultivation method was inefficient, it should not have taken several days to fill a single low-grade Starstone as Yun Tian had claimed.
More accurately, it was merely a broken fragment of an A1 Starstone.
When Qi Heng went to exchange for an empty Starstone shell, he discovered that nearly all the Starstones had been deliberately shattered into incomplete fragments.
After scanning them with the system, he found that there was not a single intact stone in the entire basket.
Everything about the Zerg’s present condition in the slums felt strange.
The more Qi Heng learned, the more alarmed he became.
Fortunately, he was no longer completely powerless if danger arose.
Perhaps…
It was time to begin planning how to leave Tianyun Star.
Only by preparing early could he ensure that he would not miss an opportunity when one finally appeared.
Qi Heng’s thoughts wandered for only a moment before he quickly returned to himself.
“Take it.”
He pushed the Starstone into Yan Ning’s hand. Before Yan Ning could speak, he added:
“It’s getting late. I should leave.”
Before departing, Qi Heng did not forget to pinch the cheek of the little Zerg nestled beside the doorway.
At the entrance to District 49, Qi Heng spotted Yun Jiu from a distance.
He walked over, greeted him, and the two began running toward the mining district together.
The mine was not particularly far from District 49, but it could not exactly be called close either. The straight-line distance was approximately twenty kilometers.
To arrive early and mine more ore, they ran for most of the journey.
Female Zerg naturally possessed excellent physical constitutions, and cultivating stellar power further improved their bodies significantly.
Although all the stellar power they cultivated was ultimately transferred into Starstones, the cultivation process still tempered their bodies to some extent.
As a result, Yun Jiu could run at full speed at approximately thirty kilometers per hour.
Qi Heng had reached this conclusion by having the system measure Yun Jiu’s speed.
It was absolutely accurate and reliable.
Such speed was above average among the present-day Zerg.
Compared with the average physical ability of female Zerg during the civilization’s peak, however, it fell far short.
Even Qi Heng had to admit that the civilizations which had confined the Zerg to a barren, abandoned planet like Tianyun Star and imposed layer after layer of restrictions had done so for good reason.
Otherwise, even an abandoned planet would not have been capable of containing them.
With physical abilities like these, if the Zerg had been allowed to develop normally for more than ten thousand years, they might not necessarily have rebuilt an interstellar civilization, but they would unquestionably have developed a planetary civilization.
As usual, they lined up and descended into the mine.
Over the past several days, Qi Heng had stopped mining in the same tunnel as Yun Jiu.
He deliberately chose tunnels that no other female Zerg visited and concealed his movements as much as possible so that the others would not notice him.
As always, he spent the entire day underground.
His mining technique had become increasingly practiced.
Once he began using stellar power as well, his speed improved even further. The amount of ore that normally required a full day to excavate was completed in only half a day.
Qi Heng used the remaining time to study the system.
His understanding of it still came primarily from its game version.
But the truth was that the system after transmigration differed from the one he had used in the game.
Now that he had already created Primordial Zerg, awakening A0 was essential if he wanted to use them more effectively.
He lifted A0’s restrictions.
Rationally, Qi Heng understood that A0 was currently more useful to him than A1.
When dealing with matters involving the Zerg, A0 could provide approaches entirely different from A1’s.
Qi Heng casually found somewhere to sit and leaned back against his vine basket filled with ore.
On the system interface visible only to him, his personal attributes had changed somewhat since his arrival.
[Civilization Simulator System]
[Bound User: Qi Heng]
[Race: Human/Tianjia Zerg (Fusion in Progress)]
[Current First-Stage Progress: 39% Fusion]
[Sex: Male/Male Zerg (Fusion in Progress)]
[Identity/Titles: Ruler of the Tianjia Civilization…][Abbreviated]
[Age: 27/23,000+]
[Height: 187]
[Mental Power: 110/110 (Phantasmal God Grade · Sealed by Fusion)]
[Stellar Power: 5/60 (Half-Step Star River · Sealed by Fusion)]
[Physical Fitness: 85/105]
[Money: 0]
[Resources: Obsidian Crystal Vein]
[Special Resources: 0]
[Subordinates: None]
[Primordial Zerg: [Mining Worker Zerg] 450]
[Activated Subsystems:]
[Energy Conversion]: Energy-conversion rate increased to 120%
[System Energy: 220]
The personal attributes interface would become increasingly detailed as more system functions were restored.
Having played the game, Qi Heng had expected this.
The increases in his mental power and stellar power were also within expectations.
The system had directly designated the mineral vein as one of his resources, probably because of the mining workers laboring diligently there every day.
“A0, is there a more convenient method of absorbing the energy?”
Qi Heng released his mental power to keep watch.
If any female Zerg approached, he would sense them, so there was no need to worry about anyone overhearing his conversation with A0.
Entering and leaving the abandoned tunnel every time was manageable when it happened only occasionally.
Over an extended period, however, it would become difficult to conceal.
[You may construct an energy converter or create Crystal-Eating Zerg to convert and concentrate the energy within Obsidian Crystal into more portable energy crystals.]
A0 answered Qi Heng’s question in its usual formal manner.
Having finally been released, A0 naturally did not want to send itself back into confinement so quickly.
Furthermore, Qi Heng’s restrictions prevented it from bringing up missions on its own.
Under normal circumstances, A0 was fully capable of performing A1’s duties and could even do them better.
“No. Both options consume far too much energy.”
Qi Heng rejected A0’s proposal without hesitation.
If he were capable of using either method, there would have been no reason to ask A0 in the first place.
Neither option was simple.
Among the Primordial Zerg, Crystal-Eating Zerg stood at the highest level of the middle-ranking species.
They were on an entirely different level from mining workers.
Producing even a single larva would require several hundred energy points, and one Crystal-Eating Zerg alone would not accomplish much.
As for an energy converter, it sounded simple, but its technological requirements were anything but low.
Without an established technological foundation, manufacturing one directly with system energy would consume even more.
[You are correct.]
[In that case, have you considered awakening the Commander of the Primordial Zerg?]
A0 spoke with perfect seriousness, as though it had not slipped any personal agenda into the suggestion.
[The Commander itself possesses the ability to consume mineral crystals and produce energy crystals. Even a juvenile Commander would equal more than one hundred Crystal-Eating Zerg and would be extremely useful to you in your present circumstances.]
[Furthermore, once the Commander is awakened, you may allow it to take direct control of the mining workers inside Mine No. 1 and command the lower-ranking Zerg on your behalf.]
The greatest difference between A0 and A1 was that A0 would actively ask questions and propose solutions.
A1 only followed instructions rigidly and answered whatever it was asked.
Had Qi Heng consulted A1, it might also have proposed manufacturing a Commander.
However, it would never have considered whether Qi Heng possessed enough energy to create one.
A0 approached the problem from practical circumstances.
That was precisely why A0’s suggestion surprised and confused Qi Heng.
“Awaken the Commander?”
[Yes, Overlord.]
Qi Heng frowned and considered it.
A moment later, he suddenly remembered the Commander that had accompanied him through several thousand years of interstellar conquest inside the game.
A0 had used the word “awaken.”
Did that mean the Commander which had undergone its Second Rebirth was still alive?
“You mean it’s still alive… That’s impossible. If it survived, why did the Zerg lose so catastrophically back then?”
Qi Heng could not imagine that the Commander might still be alive after more than ten thousand years.
Even a Commander of the Primordial Zerg could not possess such an extraordinary lifespan.
Furthermore, that Commander had already exhausted its potential and lifespan through warfare.
Had Qi Heng not frantically “whaled” energy into it, combined with an ability it had unexpectedly evolved, it would have been declared dead long ago.
From the Tianjia Civilization’s earliest written records until the day it dominated the sea of stars, only eleven thousand years had passed.
Throughout that entire period, the Primordial Zerg had been led by the same Commander.
By the time the civilization reached its peak, the Commander had already become extremely weak.
Its Second Rebirth could no longer be delayed.
After absorbing an enormous amount of energy, a Commander using that ability would gradually regress into its juvenile form over a long period.
It would then emerge as though a butterfly larva breaking free from its cocoon, gaining a second life and undergoing new changes of its own.
However, the Second Rebirth process took an extraordinarily long time.
A single use required roughly half the total development period of the Tianjia Civilization.
Qi Heng had not used it earlier because the civilization still needed the Primordial Zerg under the Commander’s leadership.
By then, however, the Tianjia Civilization had already become overwhelmingly powerful.
Even if the Commander entered its Second Rebirth, no hostile force should have been capable of threatening Tianjia.
Therefore, Qi Heng had simply ordered the Commander to begin the process.
No matter how long the Second Rebirth lasted, it would still require only five thousand years of in-game time.
Once the Commander awakened, it could continue shining and contributing to the Zerg civilization.
At least, that was what Qi Heng had thought at the time.
Who could have known that shortly afterward, he would lose interest in the game and never log in again?
Since transmigrating, one event had followed another.
He had thought about the Commander for only a fleeting moment when awakening the mining workers and had never seriously considered that it might still be alive.
After all, more than ten thousand in-game years had passed.
If the Commander could awaken, it should have awakened long ago.
And given the Commander’s thoroughly “refined and easygoing” disposition, inherited from the Tianjia Civilization’s fine traditions and personally cultivated by the Overlord over ten thousand years…
The moment it awakened, it would probably launch itself straight at the civilizations that had destroyed the Tianjia Zerg.
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