Chu Huaying lived on the Dark Night Starship for twenty-eight years. In her memory, she had been wandering in space with her parents since she was a child. Unfortunately, her parents passed away early, and the Dark Night Starship never landed on Zerg Planet again. She only had a superficial understanding of this planet.
At Chu Huaying's command, all thirty-odd Space Pirates on the Space Pirate ship gathered in the command room.
She began questioning him one by one: "Have you ever been to Zerg Planet before? How much do you know about this planet?"
Most of the Space Pirates knew only limited information, having only heard from their parents that the planet was infested with insects. They didn't know exactly what kind of insects they were, and the scene of the insectoid fusion they had just witnessed...
The sight of it made many people turn pale with fright.
Yu Hanjiang was more professional at interrogating people than Chu Huaying. He stood next to Chu Huaying wearing a mask, carefully observing the expressions and movements of these Space Pirates. When Chu Huaying interrogated an elderly man with gray hair, Yu Hanjiang suddenly leaned close to her ear and said, "When this old man heard 'Zerg Planet,' his eyes darted away, and his right hand instinctively shrank behind his back. He clearly knows something."
Body language is also very important. In many cases, Yu Hanjiang can judge whether a suspect is telling the truth or lying based on subtle body language. This is a valuable experience he has gained over the years of interrogating criminals.
Chu Huaying understood and began to question the old man in front of her.
The old man was over 50 years old and was a Space Pirate of the same generation as Chu Huaying's father. He was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the starship and rarely appeared in public, but Chu Huaying remembered him.
She walked up to him and said gently, "Uncle Qin, you've watched me grow up since I was a child. Now that I'm the captain of the Dark Night Starship, shouldn't I have the right to know some secrets? Otherwise, if I accidentally sail the starship to Zerg Planet again, like today, wouldn't I be harming everyone?"
The old man trembled suddenly, gritting his teeth and refusing to speak.
Chu Huaying said, "Why did those insects suddenly fly over and attack us? The Zerg Queen said that we humans haven't done enough evil over the years... Do you know what she meant? Please tell me."
The old man was silent for a moment before speaking slowly in a hoarse voice: "Twenty-three years ago, we were wandering around the stars when we accidentally discovered that this planet had a large number of precious minerals. We landed in that mine, intending to mine some minerals to sell to various countries, but we were surrounded by countless insects instead."
"We were startled and were about to pick up our weapons when the former captain stopped us. The insectoids didn't attack us; they were just curiously watching us. The captain said that we only had about thirty people and didn't know the abilities of these insectoids, so we shouldn't rashly harm the native race here. It would be best to communicate and negotiate with them."
"But humans and the Zerg don't speak the same language, so we didn't know how to negotiate. We talked for ages, but the Zerg just circled around us curiously without giving any response. Then, the captain came up with an idea. He approached the Zerg, and since he had a wound on his hand, the Zerg actually crawled into his body through the wound..."
Chu Huaying's expression changed: "And then? He turned into a Zerg?"
"No, he conquered the Zerg that was residing in his body." When the captain was mentioned, an expression of admiration appeared on the old man's face. He coughed lightly and continued, "What's amazing is that the captain possessed the abilities of the Zerg and could even understand their language. He went to talk to the Zerg Queen and told her that we were just taking some ores that were useless to the Zerg but extremely precious to us."
"Did the Queen agree?"
"She agreed," the old man said. "Those minerals are trash to the Zerg, but they can help humans make armor. Coincidentally, the nutrient solution we brought for cultivating plants can help the Queen accelerate the reproduction of creep."
There is indeed a greenhouse on the Dark Night Starship, specifically for growing vegetables and fruits. After all, the Space Pirate spends a lot of time wandering in space, so it can't just eat compressed biscuits all the time. Nowadays, with advanced technology, nutrient solutions are widely available, which can accelerate the growth of crops; a cabbage can mature in just a few days.
Surprisingly, this nutrient solution actually works on the Zerg?
A bold conjecture suddenly occurred to Xiao Lou, and he asked, "So, you made a deal with the Zerg Queen: you provide her with nutrient solution to help her grow creep, and she allows you to mine the planet's minerals?"
The old man glanced at Xiao Lou. The young man was wearing a mask, so his face was not visible, but his eyes were dark and clear, and his voice was very gentle... He didn't know whether he should answer.
Chu Huaying said calmly, "They have already decided to join Space Pirate, so they're on our side. Uncle Qin, please feel free to speak."
The old man nodded and continued, "We made peace with the Zerg on this planet and designed a new starship based on their appearance. After that, we mined large quantities of ore to sell and continuously supplied nutrient solutions to help the Queen cover the entire planet with creep. Those three years were the best three years our Space Pirate team ever had..."
Chu Huaying could almost guess what would happen next: "Your large-scale sale of precious minerals has made many people envious. They will definitely wonder about the source of the minerals and try to track you down."
Old Qin closed his eyes painfully, clenching his fists tightly, and said, "Yes. When we went to Zerg Planet to mine ore, we were tracked by counter-surveillance drones. This hidden resource planet was discovered by the Minister of Resources of the Luoke Empire. Then, he sought help from the military and dispatched a legion to wipe out the Zerg and occupy the resource planet..."
Recalling the scene from back then, Old Man Qin trembled all over. He choked up and said, " The Space Pirate suffered countless casualties. In the end, only a few people escaped in Starships, including me and your parents."
Chu Huaying frowned and said, "So, the Imperial military discovered this resource planet by tracking you. Because the planet was so rich in minerals, and they didn't know that the Zerg were intelligent beings, they simply sent troops to exterminate them?"
Old Man Qin said, "Yes, after all, in their eyes, we Space Pirates should be wiped out. We occupy resource planets and make huge profits, so of course they want to wipe us out along with the Zerg... However, they did not expect the Zerg to be so terrifying. They failed to wipe out the Zerg, but the Zerg fought back desperately, and the troops they sent were almost completely wiped out. Only a few people survived and escaped in the fastest S-class battle armor."
Xiao Lou asked, "Where is your old captain?"
Old Qin was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "They've been arrested."
"So, the captain who fused with the Zerg was captured by the military and brought back to Capital Star?"
"Yes, he evolved extremely powerful abilities after merging with the Zerg. He wouldn't have been captured otherwise, but there were too many troops sent at the time. To protect us, he went to fight them in his battle armor. The Imperial elite troops were also very capable, and they directly trapped the captain's battle armor with an electromagnetic net and took him away..."
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance. Although they were separated by masks, they both thought of the same possibility at that moment.
Chu Huaying said, "Uncle Qin, what else do you know? Please tell us."
The old man sighed softly and said, "Because the old captain often chatted with the Queen after merging with the Zerg, the Zerg Queen also learned human language. When we escaped in the Starship, I heard her say that humans should never set foot on Zerg Planet again, or she would kill them all. That's why we never dared to land on Zerg Planet again."
He looked at Chu Huaying with a face full of regret: "If I had known you actually went to Zerg Planet today, I would have stopped you! Huaying, don't be so impulsive anymore, the Zerg are not to be trifled with!"
Chu Huaying nodded: "Thank you, Uncle Qin, I understand. You can go back and rest now."
After the old man left, everyone took off their masks.
Everyone looked grim.
Ye Qi summarized: " The Space Pirates accidentally discovered minerals needed by humans in the Zerg territory and negotiated with the Zerg, achieving mutual benefit... However, the Space Pirates became increasingly greedy, selling more and more minerals, which attracted the attention of the Ministry of Resources. After discussions between the Imperial Ministry of Resources and the Military, they decided to annihilate the Space Pirates and the Zerg, and occupy the resource planet. This triggered a fierce resistance from the Zerg, resulting in a lose-lose situation. Zerg Planet suffered heavy losses, and the Zerg Queen harbored resentment towards humanity from then on; the Space Pirates suffered more than half their casualties, their leader was captured, and their army was almost wiped out?"
If the military had softened its stance and negotiated with the Zerg Queen, this tragedy could have been avoided.
However, upon first seeing these seemingly "weak" insects, humans, with their innate arrogance stemming from being "higher beings," subconsciously think... "Aren't they just some lowly bugs? Burn them all, and this planet will be ours."
But reality dealt them a heavy blow.
Ye Qi's summary weighed heavily on his teammates' minds, especially Lu Jiuchuan, who had learned his lesson and was filled with remorse. However, that was a scenario the Guardian had orchestrated for him and Tang Ci, something that happened before they entered the secret room. If it were Lu Jiuchuan himself, he would never have acted rashly.
Yu Hanjiang suddenly said in a low voice, " The captain of Starship was captured 20 years ago, which was also the year Noahs Ark Project was restarted."
In the year 2977, Space Pirate discovered the Zerg Planet, sold minerals, made huge profits, and enjoyed three years of comfortable life.
In the year 2980, Space Pirate was tracked by the military, which carried out an extermination plan. However, they failed to eliminate the Zerg and nearly suffered total annihilation. Their only gain was the capture of the former leader of Space Pirate who had merged with the Zerg.
In the same year, the Noahs Ark Project was restarted.
Could it be a coincidence?
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "The first Noahs Ark Project failed in Star Calendar 2975 because of a problem with the culture medium. The cloned children didn't live long, and the experiment was forced to stop. We've always wondered why the project was restarted in 2980. Now it seems that this restart is closely related to the discovery of the Zerg!"
The timing is too perfect!
That same year, humanity suffered a setback on Zerg Planet and captured a Space Pirate leader who had merged with the Zerg. Not long after, the Noahs Ark Project was restarted, with an investment of 3 billion to research cloning again.
Xiao Lou and his team had long suspected that the restart of the plan was due to a significant improvement in experimental technology, and now it seems that this improvement may have been inspired by the Zerg.
Following his words, Yu Hanjiang speculated, "The culture medium humans use to cultivate vegetables and fruits can accelerate the reproduction of Zerg creep. So... can Zerg genes also accelerate human development?"
Xiao Lou said, "If that's the case, scientists will definitely take the captured Space Pirate to conduct experiments. Maybe they'll extract the Zerg genes from it and add some gene fragments into the clone cell's gene sequence?"
Xiao Lou took a deep breath, clenched his fists tightly, and said in a trembling voice, "The reason why the second experiment went so smoothly, and the cloned child was able to grow up quickly and match the original age, is because the mad scientist actually hybridized and modified the human genes!"
Hearing this, his teammates felt a chill run down their spines.
What if adding Zerg genes into the human gene sequence causes mutations? Are they crazy?!