Chapter 44: Nirvana

“From today on, your designation is K424.”

When she first hatched and opened her eyes to the world, the first thing she heard was this cold designation.

She opened her eyes in a daze, and what met her sight were dense rows of insect eggs.

Beside her, a pair of dark green pupils observed her with curiosity.

At the very front, a pink figure moved past each successfully hatched egg, one by one, bestowing them with their numbers.

“I am K423, and you are K424. That means I’m your big sister!”

the green figure said with a look of wonder.

‘Troublesome,’ she thought.

Yet, she did not refuse.

The genes within her body told her that she was an Imperial Guard, and her mission in this life was to protect the Lady Empress.

The designations were assigned in alphabetical order.

Being part of the K-generation, she was assigned to serve under an Imperial Guard of the G-generation.

“From today on, you are my students. I will teach you combat techniques, as well as how to sense the Insect Hive to obtain your own talents,” their teacher, G502, declared.

K423 was a simple-minded soul and agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

But at that moment, a doubt that should not have existed sprouted in K424’s heart.

‘Is my mission in this life, as an Imperial Guard, truly just to protect the Lady Empress?’

Time did not allow her to ponder.

G502’s training followed immediately.

She and K423 trained every day until they were on the verge of collapse.

“Ugh, I’m so tired. But today I finally sensed the Insect Hive! I wonder what my talent will be?”

K423 lay on the bed, her two fair, tender feet swinging back and forth.

The first lesson for the Imperial Guard was Mimicry.

As the mortal enemies of the Witches, they had to maintain their Mimicry at all times to catch the Witches off guard during battle.

“My dear little sister, what is your talent?”

“I told you, stop calling me your sister.”

K424 put down the book in her hand with a look of helplessness.

This was a spoil of war from the Zerg front lines, likely a book belonging to some Witch, and it was about philosophy.

K424 felt somewhat moved after reading it.

The book’s concepts regarding personal freedom left a deep impression on her, but that was as far as it went.

K423 didn’t care about that and kept pestering her, wanting to know her Insect Hive talent.

Unable to withstand the nagging, K424 sighed helplessly.

“My talent is [Nirvana]. It might as well be nothing.”

“Oh, oh, oh! That sounds so powerful! But why do you say that?”

K423 really was simple-minded.

K424 tilted her head.

“The Insect Hive told me that this talent allows you to be reborn from the ashes like a legendary Phoenix when you die, becoming even stronger. However, the probability of a successful rebirth is very low — only about a one percent chance. It’s basically useless.”

One percent.

That was worse than having no talent at all.

“Wow! But I think that’s already enough! One percent? I heard that guy K123 say that the probability of getting a ‘gold’ drop in some Witch’s gacha games is only 0.6%. Aren’t you much better off than them?”

“You’ve been listening to K123’s nonsense again. She has two mouths, and not a single word out of either of them is the truth, yet you still believe her.”

K424 flicked K423’s forehead, causing the latter to clutch her head with a look of grievance.

However, the girl was soon grinning again.

“Hehe, it’s fine. Since you’re my bratty little sister, I’ll definitely protect you in the future. Don’t worry!”

K423 said, patting her chest confidently.

“Hmph, who needs your protection?”

K424 muttered, though the corners of her mouth could not help but turn upward.

***

Time passed quickly.

K423 eventually obtained her Insect Hive talent, [Spirit Memory].

She could consume the memories of intelligent beings and use those consumed memories to generate her own Spirit Memories to fight on her behalf.

It was a very powerful talent.

Because of this strength, she was selected to be part of the personal Imperial Guard protecting the Lady Empress.

K424, relying on her own formidable strength, was also selected.

“Wow! It’s the Lady Empress! Look, look! It’s the Lady Empress! She’s so beautiful!”

The Lady Empress of their generation was very special.

She always appeared in the form of a white-haired Witch.

The moment K423 saw the Lady Empress, she was completely starstruck.

K424, however, gave her a helpless look.

‘Is it really that big of a deal?’

To her surprise, the Lady Empress actually noticed them.

“You are very special. Within your heart, there are thoughts that do not belong to the Zerg,” the Empress said, scrutinizing her from her high position.

K424 was shocked.

At the same time, she was filled with confusion.

‘What does she mean by thoughts that don’t belong to the Zerg?’

The Empress did not make things difficult for her, but she left a very strange sentence before departing.

“Are the Zerg the Zerg of the Insect Hive, or are the Zerg the Zerg of the Zerg?”

It was so strange.

She could not figure it out at the time.

Later, they encountered that loathsome Witch.

That Witch abducted the Lady Empress and even gave birth to two princesses for the Zerg.

Among them, the First Princess was chosen by the Insect Hive to become the new Lady Empress.

the former Lady Empress completely lost her memories and power, becoming an ordinary housewife Witch.

K424 and K423 had no choice but to follow that Witch to the Witch Universe.

Here, there was no war.

Looking at this completely different world, that previous thought began to sprout in her heart once more.

‘As an Imperial Guard, is my life’s mission truly just to protect the Lady Empress?’

The genes surging through her body tried to kill this thought over and over.

However, everything she saw and heard before her eyes made this thought spread like a wildfire that could not be extinguished.

The Witches of the Witch World were very strange.

They seemed no different from the Zerg; they had superiors, inferiors, and a strict social hierarchy.

But the difference was that the Witches here were born with their own freedom.

They could freely choose their own paths.

There were those who were dirt poor, whose parents were both Shao Nian You.

According to Zerg logic, their children should also be Shao Nian You, just as Imperial Guards were determined by their genes.

Yet their children refused to accept that.

That child walked a different path, was accepted into the Witch Academy, and completely left the Lower City behind.

There was the daughter of a wealthy merchant from the Upper City who fell in love with a married woman from the Lower City, and even took advantage of the wife’s absence to launch a nightly raid on her.

There was a skinny girl who was crushed under a voluptuous woman all day, only to one day purposefully drug her and turn the tables, driving that “large truck” until not a single drop was left.

There were…

During these twenty years, she saw too many things in the Witch World that were completely different from the Zerg.

The Zerg were endowed with missions by their genes from birth; it seemed their fates were selected by the Insect Hive the moment they were born.

She fell into The Confusion.

Until the final moment of her life, when she was blown to pieces by a Witch, she still hadn’t figured it out.

Was her sacrifice to protect the Lady Empress a choice made by her genes, or was it her own choice?

Whenever an Imperial Guard died, their genetic progenitor would be reclaimed by the Insect Hive and thrown into the gene pool to be deconstructed and recombined with other genes, forming a brand-new gene and becoming yet another brand-new Imperial Guard.

“To become [The Confusion], she needs a trial.”

But the Insect Hive chose another path for her.

Every Empress had to undergo the trials of the Insect Hive, and [The Confusion] was the first.

At this moment, she thought of the words of the former Lady Empress again.

“Are the Zerg the Zerg of the Insect Hive, or are the Zerg the Zerg of the Zerg?”

She smiled.

Right now, before her eyes, the swarm of Insects that blotted out the sun was roaring at her in a frenzy.

She had let the Lady Empress go.

She had defied the will of the Insect Hive.

The Insect Hive was furious.

Never had an Insect dared to defy it.

“Lady Empress, take care. Please… take good care of K423 for me…”

She knew that the only consequence of defying the Insect Hive’s will was death.

She watched Su Ling falling down the cliff and laughed with such joy.

She charged into the swarm without looking back.

Her body was instantly torn into countless fragments.

But she was still laughing loudly.

“Hahaha! You’re afraid! You’re afraid!”

“You previously made the Lady Empress’s mentor become her girlfriend because you wanted to keep her here, but you didn’t expect the Lady Empress to break through The Confusion on her own!”

“Now, you wanted the Lady Empress’s mother to trap her, and you almost succeeded!”

“You thought the Lady Empress defying your will was an isolated case, but you didn’t expect there to be me as well!”

“Hahahaha! You’re afraid! You’re finally afraid! Because I am an Imperial Guard — a member of the Imperial Guard who is supposed to be incapable of defying your will!”

“Hahahaha!”

Her laughter was so unrestrained, so bold.

But soon, that laughter completely vanished amidst the vibrating wings of the swarm.

Thunder and lightning crashed in the sky, as if the Insect Hive were roaring in anger.

And no one noticed that within those sun-blotting dark clouds, a flicker of golden light flashed.

***

“If [Hope] has a color, it must be gold.”

“What an interesting little thing.”

“A one percent chance, is it… Hee, probabilities and such… in my eyes, they don’t even exist~”

On a desolate Industrial Planet, a white insect egg lay quietly amidst the scorched wasteland.

*Crack!*

Without warning, a tiny fissure slowly split across the surface of the egg.