Chapter 44: The Hive Mind

Alba glanced at the surveillance feeds showing every compartment on the screen. A considerable number of hybrid aberrants clustered around the emergency evacuation room where the escape pods were located; among them, several Broodmothers appeared—including some they had previously encountered, and not just one...

Yet, when faced with Li Nanke’s question, did he have any real choice left?

“Station Chief, there’s no need to worry. Based on the surveillance footage, Bi Ji will plot the safest route for you, helping you avoid any danger posed by the monsters,” Bi Ji said gently. With a wave of her hand, a display sprang to life, projecting a 3D structural map of the space station.

The deep blue map marked two green dots and a multitude of red ones. A winding yellow path now traced from the main control room to the evacuation room, skillfully bypassing every corridor and compartment infested with red markers.

“Some monsters may move between corridors or compartments, so the safe route will update in real time. Please stay in contact with Bi Ji, and she’ll continuously provide you with the latest safe path,” she continued.

Li Nanke nodded, picked up the headset from the console, and strode out of the control room.

The hidden objective was to prevent the colossal aberrant, “Death Omen,” from forming. Though the game hadn’t specified a time limit, a creeping sense of danger steadily took root in his mind.

He knew he had to act quickly, avoiding unnecessary fights to save precious time.

Guided by Bi Ji’s voice in their earpieces, the two advanced through the station. The route twisted and turned, but they never encountered a monster head-on.

At one point, a massive Broodmother stepped into a hallway just as Li Nanke slipped in from another branch, deftly avoiding a confrontation.

With Bi Ji’s guidance, Li Nanke spared himself no small amount of trouble...

...

Finally, the last metal bulkhead slid open, revealing a vast emergency evacuation room.

The chamber was enormous, its walls lined with a series of escape pod hatches. Through the observation windows set into the sealed doors, one could glimpse the interiors of the pods themselves.

There were various types of escape pods, ranging from small single-occupant capsules to massive models capable of carrying up to fifty people. Only the medium and large pods, however, could achieve the necessary velocity to escape Gliese 798c’s gravity.

These pods were attached externally to the station. Once inside, the mechanical arms connecting them to the station could be disengaged, allowing the escape engines to fire and the pod to break away.

Simultaneously, the evacuation room would seal itself off, preventing the lethal decompression that would result from a breach to open space.

Though escape pods lacked interstellar capabilities, they could still be considered miniature starships, especially the larger models with their ample reserves and powerful thrusters—the best chance for a successful escape.

For this reason, each pod’s control system operated independently, unlinked from the station’s mainframe, which meant Alba would need to hack them.

The two quickly donned extravehicular suits equipped with compact thrusters. Alba asked, “Michael, which escape pod should we take?”

“The largest, of course. How long to crack it?”

Alba moved to the hatch, connecting his portable neural interface. “Doesn’t matter if it’s big or small, three minutes is all I need.”

“Hurry. Something feels off.”

Li Nanke frowned. The final node—boarding the escape pod—seemed suspiciously easy.

If he hadn’t triggered the hidden objective at the pit prison or spent so much time fighting monsters, he would have caught up with the first group of prisoners and reached the station sooner.

At that point, the difficulty would have been entirely different. Even with casualties and aberrant outbreaks, there would have been no rapid emergence of powerful entities like the Broodmother—at most, only low-level berserkers.

Arriving at the control room or boarding an escape pod would have been far easier then.

But because Li Nanke had spent so much time, the station was now overrun with hybrid aberrants—the difficulty had skyrocketed. The hidden node yielded high rewards, but at even greater risk.

To complete the third key objective—reaching the control room—he’d had to slay a formidable Broodmother. And now, was the final objective really easier than the last?

Thanks to Bi Ji’s guidance, he’d avoided countless powerful monsters, and could now board the escape pod almost effortlessly. He could even ignore any subsequent hidden objectives, simply accelerating the engines to escape velocity—securing victory and returning to the Far Shore.

But this level of difficulty didn’t match the current stakes. It felt like thunder with barely any rain.

So Li Nanke’s unease grew; his intuition had never failed him, and this time was no exception...

Just as Alba began the hack, a jolt of static shot through Li Nanke, a surge of electromagnetic energy emanating from the Construct, so powerful it could be felt even within the station itself.

At the same time, the hallucinations returned—visions of the Construct’s touch...

In a daze, Li Nanke saw the immense aberrant “Death Omen” on the planet’s surface, its countless fleshy tendrils devouring other aberrants, accelerating its growth and evolution.

Having once touched the Construct, Li Nanke was now deeply infected—linked to it by some invisible thread. Through this bond, he could sense that “Death Omen” was not just a beast, but an intelligent, collective entity.

And as a deeply infected aberrant who had not yet succumbed, Li Nanke was an anomaly within this collective mind. Most of his thoughts were exposed to its neural network, but the collective could not force his actions.

When he returned to himself, his spine was slick with cold sweat.

Bi Ji’s voice crackled through the headset, distorted by static: “Station Chief! An unknown, powerful electromagnetic signal just erupted. Surveillance shows a large swarm of monsters heading straight for the evacuation room!”

As she spoke, the screens in the room flickered wildly. Li Nanke saw a horde of hybrid aberrants racing madly toward them—including several Broodmothers.

Alba, hands trembling, heard the warning in his own headset. “Michael, forget hacking, we have to get out now!”

Li Nanke’s expression was grim, his tone icy. “No. They’re coming for us. We can’t outrun them.”

“These Constructs from higher civilizations are far more terrifying than we imagined. That colossal aberrant already knows our plan. It will do whatever it takes to stop us—because it’s afraid.”

“You just focus on your task. Leave the rest to me.”

Alba felt as if he’d heard those words somewhere before. But with a monstrous tide about to break upon them, he had no choice but to trust Li Nanke once again.