I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

After checking the completed status window, I noticed that about an hour had passed since I started resting.
[Psychokinesis (E) has been cast.]
So, thinking it was okay to start moving now, I used psychokinesis to float up from where I was lying down, then settled in the middle of the large cavity that was once Autochthon’s lair, and tried to take root as instinct dictated.
[Baby Hive (Grade 10) is settling on the ground.]
Suddenly, all the tentacles dug into the ground and began to suck up energy from the earth. This energy was absorbed into my body—the Baby Hive’s body—causing rapid changes.
[Baby Hive (Grade 10) is evolving.]
The milky white, pudding-like body turned red, and in an instant, it grew from about the size of a human head to an oval shape resembling a cocoa pod, nearly 4 meters tall.
The bottom part where the tentacles had grown was covered by bark-like skin, and when it seemed that sufficient energy had been supplied, the trunk began to glow orange.
[Baby Hive (Grade 10) has evolved into Hive Core (Grade 7).]
As a Hive Mind type monster, it had completed its evolution to produce lower species.
‘From now on, it’ll be difficult to move directly, I guess I’ll have to possess the ones I produce to move around.’
While I was thinking about the settings I had read in the setting collection (By Treewiki), along with guidance messages informing me of strengthened and added abilities, traits, and skills, something caught my eye.
[Do you want to designate the nearby area as Hive territory?] (Y/N)
‘Ah, right. First, I was supposed to infiltrate the surroundings and suck up energy?’
In the game, Hive Mind type monsters were almost like dungeon gimmicks, so I only remembered this fact after seeing the message.
‘Yes, I’ll do that.’
Anyway, for the supply of energy—the foundation of everything—I accepted it, and immediately my tentacles that had dug into the ground began to infiltrate the surroundings—that is, the inside of the cavity.
Although the cave was about the size of two high school auditoriums put together, the infiltration happened in an instant.
Flesh sprouted from beneath the rocky surface, and in places where a lot of flesh had sprouted, something round glowing orange like my main body appeared on the surface.
Thanks to this, the dark interior of the cave became bright enough to be comfortable, if not exactly bright. In the midst of this, I focused energy on part of the infiltrated cave to form external organs.
To use an analogy, it’s like constructing buildings in an RTS game.
Among the external organs—which I’ll refer to as biological facilities from now on—I’m going to form two types of facilities.
One is the so-called gene pool. It’s a pond filled with liquid that should be called meat porridge, which decomposes life forms killed by monsters, turns them into nutrients and energy for monster production, and stores the remaining genes for use in producing other monsters.
The other is the production farm, a facility that directly produces monsters, as the name suggests. This facility can only produce lower-grade monsters (grades 7-9 fall into this category), but in return, it has very good production capacity and is specialized for mass production.
Well, with the energy obtained in the early stages of infiltration, these are all the facilities that can be built.
Anyway, after forming all the necessary facilities to create an environment for monster production, my instinct strongly demands aggressive expansion.
It insists that it is my duty to frantically extend tentacles to absorb nutrients and energy, and use that energy to continuously produce monsters and expand the range of activity.
And my answer to this instinctual claim is very simple.
‘Screw that!’

To begin with, humans don’t just sit back and watch monsters increase their influence.
Obviously, the moment human eyes notice the Hive Mind’s influence expanding, they’ll launch cruise missiles first if it’s an uninhabited area, and at that point, the Hive Mind doesn’t have psychic abilities strong enough to block cruise missiles.
Also, if a Hive Mind’s psychic abilities grow strong enough to block cruise missiles, from that moment on, that Hive Mind is permitted to be exterminated no matter what it does.
Mass deployment of drones for thermobaric bomb attacks is just the most basic measure, and in severe cases, they bring in nuclear weapons or psychic annihilation weapons using monsters’ psychic energy production organs.
I must always keep in mind that in this world setting, the reason humans can’t exterminate monsters is only due to environmental destruction and cost issues. If necessary, humans can become extreme at any time.
But even if I try to live quietly for these reasons, without sufficient military power, I’ll just live a life of being unilaterally dragged around.
I don’t want to experience such a life again even in this state, so my strategy is to hold out.
Gather energy, endure and endure. Expansion of influence is done through underground, and meanwhile, only a small hunting party is dispatched to the outside for securing genes.
My strategy is to endure underground as long as possible, and then when I evolve into a Hive Queen, the highest grade 1 Hive Mind type monster, and become able to move, I’ll start full-scale external activities.
And before implementing this strategy, I decided to check my changed abilities first.

Name :: ???
Age :: 0 years (0 months 0 days)
Race :: Hive Core
Grade :: 7
Level :: 1

Abilities
Strength :: 0
Agility :: 0
Vitality :: 50
Intelligence :: 50
Resistance :: 50
Energy :: 100
Leadership :: 100

Traits (8/???)
Monster Gene (EX), Predator (E), Composure (A), Hive Mind (D), Versatile Psychic User (D), Subjugated Species Control (D), Fixed Position (D), Fixed Turret (D)

Skills (6/???)
Comprehensive Interface (S), Subjugated Species Production (D), Mental Control (D), Psychokinesis (D), Split Thinking (D), Energy Absorption (D)

‘I, my main body is going to be incredibly strong, isn’t it?’
Energy levels comparable to a decent grade 6 lower psychic user, leadership and high intelligence for controlling troops. And overall increased ability grades and Hive Core traits.
Except for the inability to move, this status is practically on par with a grade 6 specialized psychic user.

…Of course, I don’t intend to fight directly.

※ ※ ※

After self-evaluation, I decided to squeeze out all the remaining nutrients and energy to produce a suitable number of monsters.
The genetic information of the monsters to be produced, recorded in the main body, and the stored energy flow from the main body to the production farm through underground biological pipes.
Stimulated by the energy, the farm writhes and soon forms four large lumps of flesh, and soon after, they split open and my first produced monsters are born.
The weakest individual among the monster data possessed by all Hive Minds, and a part of a colony reconstructed based on a grade 9 monster called Cave Spider.
It’s a grade 9 monster called Hive Spider.
Its appearance looks like a mix between a spider and a crustacean. It looks like a typical low-level grunt of an SF colony lifeform, and its size is about one class larger than a large dog.
It has a total of 8 legs, 6 of which are used for walking, while the 2 legs next to the head are used for work or mainly used in combat with biological weapons attached.
…Although at my current level, biological weapons are limited to primitive blades.
And this is the status window of the Hive Spider:

Hive Spider
Grade :: 9
Level :: 1

Abilities
Strength :: 15
Agility :: 15
Vitality :: 15
Intelligence :: 8
Resistance :: 15
Energy :: 5
Leadership :: 0

Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (E), Hive Mind (E), Subjugation (EX), Group Behavior (D), Adaptability (E), Psychic Resistance (E)

Skills
Rapid Regeneration (E), Environmental Adaptation (E)

Biological Armament
Hunter Claw (E)

As you might guess from looking at it, the biggest characteristic of the Hive Spider is its wide versatility.
Its close combat stats are exactly 15, 15, 15, so there are no rough edges, and although its intelligence is low, it’s not so low that it can’t understand combat or instructions. Thanks to its Group Behavior trait, it can show decent combat power.
In addition, it has excellent psychic resistance, so there’s no worry about being swept away by low-grade psychic attacks, and even if injured, it recovers quickly thanks to its skills and can even adapt to the environment.
Thanks to these combined characteristics, this Hive Spider was famous for being a surprisingly hard-to-kill grunt monster at low levels, and at high levels, it became a very annoying grunt that would attach long-range biological weapons to its arms and fire away.
But knowing that such an annoying creature is my subordinate somehow feels good.
It’s like summoning and using an enemy monster that used to frustrate me in the game.