I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

I used a total of 5 genes to create the new monster.
For traits, I mainly used Flame Resistance (D), Armored Scales (D), and most importantly, Elemental Psychic User (D).
On the other hand, just 2 skills were enough: Psychic Flame (D) to breathe out from the mouth, and Psychic Shield (D) to defend against attacks.
Adding Thorn Tentacle (D) to quickly kill approaching ants and Hunter Claw (E) for personal protection, this completed the Hive Flamer, designed as an ant slayer.

Hive Flamer
Grade :: 7
Level :: 19
Abilities
Strength :: 25
Agility :: 8
Vitality :: 25
Intelligence :: 10
Resistance :: 20
Energy :: 30
Leadership :: 0
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (E), Hive Mind (E), Subjugation (EX), Elemental Psychic User (D), Flame Resistance (D), Armored Scales (D)
Skills
Psychic Flame (D), Psychic Shield (D)
Biological Armaments
Thorn Tentacle (D), Hunter Claw (E)

Its appearance is that of a sluggish and massive muscular lizard, at least 5 meters in body length. Another characteristic is that six flexible tentacles with sharp thorns at the ends grow from its shoulder area.

The combat method is exactly as you’d expect from its appearance and skills. It continuously spews Psychic Flame (D) from its mouth to burn the ants, and uses its Thorn Tentacles (D) to stab and kill small enemies that approach while recovering psychic energy.

Moreover, with the defense of Armored Scales (D) and Psychic Shield (D) combined, its defense is quite guaranteed, and in close combat, its solid muscles and Hunter Claw (E) make it average for a grade 7 monster.

It’s a versatile monster at the highest level within the grade 7 category, but it has just one weakness.

That is the low efficiency problem of Psychic Flame mentioned earlier, so to compensate for this, I created a separate monster to assist the Hive Flamer.

Created with reference to my genes and appearance from when I was a Baby Hive, it’s a monster with an appearance that should be called a milky-white warehouse with tentacles. It’s a grade 7 lower-grade monster called the Psychic Supplier.

Psychic Supplier
Grade :: 7
Level :: 19
Abilities
Strength :: 1

Agility :: 4
Vitality :: 1
Intelligence :: 5
Resistance :: 10
Energy :: 100
Leadership :: 0
Traits
Monster Gene (E), Predator (E), Hive Mind (E), Subjugation (EX), Psychic Storage (D), Psychic Core (D), Constant Floating (E)
Skills
Psychic Supply (D), Psychic Absorption (D)
Biological Armaments
None

Its abilities, except for Energy, are very poor. It was designed purely for the purpose of supplying and transmitting psychic energy, not for combat use.

Therefore, its traits and skills were naturally carefully selected to match its role.

Psychic Storage (D) allows it to store more energy than a normal individual, and Constant Floating (E) was obtained by attaching floating body organs for movement.

And the most crucial, Psychic Core (D), which in the game was a skill that allowed the use of stamina instead of psychic energy (equivalent to MP in other games), but in reality, can produce infinite psychic energy if there’s enough energy.

Considering the combination of skills Psychic Supply (D) and Psychic Absorption (D), it was an excellent support-type monster that could assist my psychic supply to enable various flexible tactics.

Of course, it’s a monster that couldn’t exist in the game due to balance issues, and in the ecosystem, it could never survive.

※ ※ ※

After finishing the design in the gene pool, I urgently produced these designed monsters and deployed them to the battlefield.

Six Hive Flamers and six Psychic Suppliers. For grade 7 lower-grade monsters, their functions are high-grade, so the production cost is expensive and their numbers are few. On the battlefield, they were planned to operate in pairs, one of each.

And right after their production was completed, I deployed these twelve monsters towards the passage where the ants’ invasion was ongoing, and the result…

‘…Wow.’

I could understand why the developers never released external attachment-type support monsters like the Psychic Supplier, even though they seemed likely to appear.

Fwoooosh—!
Pshh! Pook! Pshh! Pshh!

The Psychic Flame emitted from the Hive Flamer’s mouth spews for about 10 seconds each time, burning dozens of ants, while its tentacles move quickly, piercing through the ants’ heads.

12 monsters, and only half of them directly participate in combat. But with just those six, the situation on the front line quickly changed from defensive to offensive.

In other words, my monsters have now entered the inside of that ant nest.

After entering the interior of this enormous ant nest where 5-meter-long lizards can move without any problem, various special individuals started to appear in addition to the Acid Turret Ants.

Red ants that are smaller but faster and tougher, giant ants as big as the Hive Flamer, humanoid ants carrying primitive weapons made from monsters, and even psychic user ants in a floating pupa form.

The ant monsters I had seen once in the game formed their own formations and swarmed in confidently—

Fwoooosh—!!

—The consequence of the stupid act of engaging in close combat with a flamethrower-wielding creature in a straight corridor was nothing but the annihilation of hundreds of special individuals by the flames spewed simultaneously by six monsters.

Although valuable nutrient masses containing genes were burned, it was still okay.

‘As expected, it’s a big catch.’

While burning ants and exploring the interior, I discovered a place where the larvae of special individual ants were growing in a corner of the ant nest—the so-called larva room.

‘Now, everyone, transport them.’

I instructed the Hive Miners, who were following closely behind the Hive Flamers performing their role as support units, to devour the larvae and transfer the nutrients and genes.

And right after that, the Hive Miners began to eat the larvae that were attached to root-like nutrient supply tubes, absorbing nutrients.

Even for ant monster larvae that grow in a day, they have no combat power when not fully grown, so naturally, there was no resistance.

‘Wow, they’re swarming in disgustingly…’

Meanwhile, perhaps recognizing that the special individual larva room, one of the most important facilities in the ant monsters’ nest, had been occupied by us, an enormous number of ants were swarming from the entrance.

Even though the six Hive Flamers continued to kill and kill on the front line, the number of reinforcements was greater than the number of troops being killed.

Therefore, I needed a trump card to turn the situation around now.

‘—Now!’
[Hive Mind (D) has been activated.]
[Psychic Relay (D) has been activated.]
[Psychic Overload (E) has been activated.]
[Self-Destruct (E) has been activated.]

Boooom—!!!!

And that trump card was to use the eight Chief Brains among the monsters that had entered the interior as self-destruct units.

Boom!

With a grand explosion, the shock from the blast shakes the entire cave. It was an extremely dangerous situation with rock dust falling from the ceiling, but the power of the explosion was strong enough to justify the risk of the cave collapsing.

And right after the ant swarm blocking the path was swept away by this explosion…

Fwoooosh—!!!
Pshh! Pshh! Pook! Pshh!

Towards the ants that barely survived the explosion, my monsters began to advance quickly, carving a path.

When they seem to be gathered appropriately, annihilate them with Psychic Flame, and stab to death those who deviate from the group with Thorn Tentacles.

Breaking through those hundreds, or perhaps thousands of ants, the infiltration team advanced forward and forward. I supported the monsters I created using the nutrients delivered intermittently to the monsters killing every ant in sight.

And while I was busily moving and producing monsters with nutrients for quite some time…

‘…?’

The tentacles extending in all directions from the main body—the Hive Core—detected vibrations that felt like something was approaching.

The direction from which the vibrations were approaching was presumed to be the central part of the ant nest, and the vibrations had a constant rhythm as if something was digging down.

And if it’s this blatant, it would be more foolish not to notice.

‘If you come to the main base, you think you can win, huh?’

Contrary to my choice to push with newly produced specialized units, the ants seemed to be planning to dig a second passage towards my main base and attack the command—the Hive Mind—directly through that passage.

Given the characteristics of Hive Mind monsters that are highly dependent on the Hive Mind, they seem to have thought that if only the Hive Mind is gone, the monsters under it could be dealt with through scorched earth tactics.

…Huh, I didn’t think I’d be underestimated this much.

Of course, to me, the ants’ judgment was absurd.