I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

While the monsters were diligently expanding the cave, the Hunting Team dispatched outside was busy coming and going, hunting monsters.
After hunting a pack consisting of an Elite Hound, a grade 7 monster, and several Beast Hounds of grade 9 that it dominated as the leader, they engaged in fierce battles with monsters they encountered.
Grade 9 Giant Ants, a typical colony-type monster other than Hive Mind, roaming in groups searching for food.
Minerva, a grade 8 owl-like monster, a rare psychic user among animal-type monsters.
Pyro Hawk, a giant raptor-type grade 8 monster with an organ that collects light gas to aid flight, which can breathe fire by igniting the gas it expels.
Tortlium, a grade 7 massive turtle with a horrific appearance of three heads and over seven legs.
I had essentially defeated all the lower-grade monsters that appear in this area, and as a result, I was able to obtain a large amount of nutrients and various genes.
And now, half of my split consciousness was controlling a Chief Brain, aiming at the prey in front of me along with the Hunting Team.
A huge monster with dozens of animal or creature body parts attached, a special monster also called a unique species.

※ ※ ※

The unique species was actually the first playable monster to be revealed.
This monster, unveiled at an event where you enter a simulation and control a monster—I forgot the reason—was actually an excuse setting that the developers mainly used when creating single-species monsters that didn’t exist before.
According to what I saw on Treewiki before, the unique species is said to be close to the original species of all monsters. While most monsters have evolved into specific forms to suit their environments, the unique species is the opposite.
It basically has only 1-2 traits, but continuously changes its appearance and abilities through traits obtained by eating other monsters. From a developer’s perspective, it was a monster with abilities that could be used anywhere.
Of course, from an in-game perspective, it wasn’t really strong enough to be called powerful.
Naturally, the unique species monster in the game is moved by AI, but this AI isn’t an super-precise or high-computing power super AI, just a modified version of the general-purpose monster AI.
Therefore, this AI moves by recklessly charging at enemies and taking traits or skills with relatively high values from the corpses of killed enemies. The problem is that even if you blindly take traits this way, it’s difficult to defeat a properly designed monster.
The unique species, full of traits that conflict with each other or have nothing to do with its own tech tree, let alone synergy, gets hunted down every time it respawns by monsters designed to complement each other even with fewer skills and traits, and it’s generally similar here too.
‘That thing is really useless.’
The monster right in front of my eyes is also a failure that follows these characteristics of the unique species.
Despite being almost as big as my main body, it’s moving by dragging its heavy body with dozens of spider-like legs.
The upper part of the body has arms with all sorts of biological weapons attached, but looking closely, the arms are too short to attack unless it clings right next to the target. The head part is even more ridiculous.
It resembles the upper body of a human, but instead of facial features, it has one eye, a mouth on its belly, and carries something with blades attached to both arms as if it were a head.

It’s truly a sight to behold. A bizarre appearance that can only be described as absurd.
But well. The fact that the one we’re about to hunt is a fool is rather beneficial, so let’s hunt it while sending a thank-you note.

※ ※ ※

In the battle, the first to move were, of course, the two Chief Brains.
The one I was controlling and the other monster concentrated their minds while drawing up psychic energy, and activated psychokinesis while resonating with each other.
[Psychokinesis (D) has been activated.]
Wooooong!
With a sound similar to a motor running, I used psychokinesis with the image of forming a huge iron ball above and pressing down to restrain the unique species monster.
■■■■■■■■■—!!!
An tremendous impact presses down on the monster. The thin arms and legs with weak outer skin burst, and the body with no visible skin is directly affected by the psychokinesis, distorting its shape.
The unique species’ characteristic excellent regeneration and vitality are helping to keep it from dying, but in that state, it seemed like its body might burst with a “pop!” at any moment.
‘Aim!’
And I, rather than relying on such a possibility, tried to directly cut off its breath.
Following the order, the Hive Hunters aim their biological weapons—exoskeleton crossbows—integrated with their back exoskeletons at the unique species.
The target is its head. Since the exoskeleton crossbow can’t even jokingly be said to have high accuracy, I gave detailed instructions to form a fire net, and—as soon as the aiming was complete, I ordered to fire while releasing the psychokinetic restraint.
[Psychokinesis (D) has been deactivated.]
‘Fire!’
Pshh!
The sound of the exoskeleton crossbow firing is not very loud. It uses the elasticity of tendons and biological parts created as part of the body as a power source.
And the power of the exoskeleton arrows that come out as these biological parts rewind is not far behind crossbows with all modern technology concentrated.
Fwook!
Out of the 12 crossbow arrows—bolts—9 hit, but 7 of them were stuck in the body.
One of the remaining two blew off the arm part of the head with blades attached, and the last one, very luckily, penetrated the head of the human-like upper body.
If it were an ordinary living being, I would have thought it would naturally die here, but it was a unique species monster, famous for its strong vitality even among tenacious monsters.
I knew the scene from a past cinematic trailer where a monster with its head blown off moved as if nothing happened and took down a soldier who was caught off guard, so I—immediately launched the next attack.

[Psychic Construct (D) has been activated.]
[Psychokinesis (D) has been activated.]
Activating the psychic skill—Psychic Construct—obtained from Minerva, I formed three translucent, blue-glowing spears, and then shot the psychic construct spears at the unique species using the Chief Brain’s psychokinesis.
Fwoooosh—Pshh!
One penetrating the body from the front, one penetrating from top to bottom, and finally one psychic construct spear rising diagonally from the side, cutting the body in half.
But then.
■■■■■■■■■■■—!!!!
Suddenly, from inside the tattered body, with a loud roar, a creature that looks like a giant reptile tears out of the body as if shedding its skin and comes out.
At first glance, it might be mistaken for a parasite trying to escape because its host died, but… the reality is different.
In that short time, the creature that was a unique species had reconstructed its body. Using the remaining nutrients and energy, it fused all genes into an efficient combination, evolving into a completely different type of monster instead of giving up its expandability as a unique species.
In the game, because the unique species was evaluated as so pathetic, this was added as a kind of desperate pattern where it transforms into one of the monsters it had eaten when its HP reaches 0, but due to unnecessary reality adjustment, there’s now an unidentified monster in front of my eyes.
‘No, there’s also a possibility that it’s just a monster I don’t know, ah!’
[Psychokinesis (D) has been activated.]
While I was thinking, the lizard monster that used to be a unique species suddenly swung its tail, but I leisurely used split thinking to push away the tail with psychokinesis, but… in the process, I felt something strange.
It felt as if the monster’s scales were deflecting the interference from psychokinesis.
‘Is it psychic resistance? Or another trait or skill?’
Realizing that the monster’s scales had defensive capabilities against psychic powers, I thought about the mechanism while changing my attack method to picking up nearby objects with psychokinesis and throwing them.
But the lizard monster blocked and dodged the flying rocks and trees by striking them down with its tail and moving its huge body nimbly.
And in the midst of this, suddenly the lizard monster distanced itself, opened its mouth wide, and aimed this way. At the same time, psychic energy gathered towards the lizard’s mouth and—
‘—Oh sh*t!’
That psychic energy turned into a torrent of blue flames flying towards my monsters.
It was psychic flame, the representative power of elemental psychic abilities.
[Psychic Shield (D) has been activated.]

Although I and the Chief Brain hurriedly deployed shields, the power of the psychic flame was completely different from ordinary flames.
Following faithfully the setting that psychic flame can burn psychic energy (by Treewiki), the psychic shield that collided with the psychic flame started to burn from the surface.
‘At this rate, it will break through!’
With just the output of the two Chief Brains, we couldn’t overcome that flame. So, as I was strengthening the shield by additionally supplying psychic energy drawn from my main body, something strange appeared in the view of the split Mining Team.
‘What is that?!!’
Suddenly, while digging, a cave was discovered, and from that hole, giant monsters armored with black exoskeletons—Giant Ants—began pouring in.