I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

Dragon.
This creature, usually regarded as a transcendent and powerful life form or as a stepping stone for the protagonist in fantasy novels, is naturally implemented as a monster that has had perfect attendance since the first installment in Project Monster.

Usually, animal-type monsters with 4 legs and 1 or more pairs of wings, resembling reptiles, are called dragons, and these are basically called true dragons.

On the other hand, monsters such as drakes, serpents (water dragons), wyverns, and wyrms are called sub-dragons, which means that even if their appearance is different, they have the monster gene of dragons, so analyzing these could allow for the recreation of dragons.

After reproducing the excellent physical abilities of drakes, the high aerial maneuverability of wyverns, and the psychic genes embedded in wyrms—I started additional modifications by combining these.

After combining and inserting various powerful close combat specialized traits obtained from other monsters, I injected my monster gene transformed to maximize psychic user abilities.

In addition, to recreate the unique combat style of dragons, I injected various skill usage methods into the brain, resulting in the expected status of the dragon that would be completed over time:

Dragon (tentative name)
Grade :: 1
Level :: 79
Abilities
Strength :: 8250
Agility :: 2565
Vitality :: 9750
Intelligence :: 150
Resistance :: 6600
Energy :: 7500
Leadership :: 500
Traits
Monster Gene (A), Predator (A), Hive Mind (A), Subjugation (EX), Bio Core (A), Elemental Psychic User (A), Elemental Resistance (A), Psychic Resistance (B), Adamantium Scales (A), Synthetic Muscle Fibers (A), Superhuman Strength (A), Super Regeneration (B), Aerial Combat Proficiency (A), Close Combat Proficiency (B)
Skills
Psychic Fire (A), Psychic Lightning (A), Psychic Frost (A), Psychic Shield (A), Telekinesis (B), Gravity Manipulation (B), Flight (B), Endurance (B), Advanced Detection (A), Concentrated Fire (B), Evasion (B), Psychic Stealth (C)
Biological Weapons
Psychic Claw (A), Biological Flamethrower (A), Biological EMP (A)

The abilities are well-designed to specialize in both psychic and physical aspects as I planned, and in addition, it has 14 traits, 12 skills, and 3 types of biological weapons equipped.

Therefore, if completed as is, the dragon will be no different from a flying fortress, flying through the sky and spewing powerful psychic and biological EMPs over a wide area.

‘…Hm? Ah, it’s about time.’

And while I was excitedly thinking for a while, I realized it was about time for me to send out troops and turned my attention to the temporary production factory on the ground.

Giiik.
Gigiiik.

In the production factory, monsters resembling Hive Spiders with bodies inflated to dozens of times their size, varying in size but all of the same shape, were waiting and being produced in numbers easily exceeding several thousand.

‘Now, depart!’

And the moment the order fell, these giant monsters began to advance rapidly towards their assigned battlefields.

It was the beginning of a full-scale war.

※ ※ ※

“…Hey, aren’t you nervous?”

“How could I not be? Of course, I feel like I’m going crazy…”

“Whew, whew, whew, whewww…”

Inside a fixed gun emplacement temporarily constructed in the southern part of Gangwon-do, three soldiers armed with all sorts of equipment were saying such things while surveying the outside from inside the turret.

Of course, basically, all such gun emplacements are automatically aimed and remotely fired by computers, but they are made to be able to load and fire manually in preparation for disconnections due to monsters equipped with biological EMPs that occasionally exist or external impacts.

And because of the unexpectedly frequent damage to the automatic control function, soldiers must be assigned to each turret, which is why they are conversing in the cramped turret interior.

The weapons mounted on such a medium-sized turret are basically one laser cannon and two laser machine guns moving through separate small turrets on top of the turret.

Given the characteristics of laser weapons that use electricity to fire and thus don’t need reloading, it goes without saying that one gunner is assigned to each weapon.

Kwang! Peoeng! Kwagagagaggang!

“…Hey, is it coming?”

“Yeah. They say it’ll be here within 1 minute.”

As they naturally tensed up at the sound of explosions and weapon fire from outside, the battalion commander’s voice came through the installed radio.

[They’ll arrive within range in 3 minutes! Stay sharp!]

It really meant that combat would begin in just 3 minutes.

“Hey, hey! Put on your gear!”

“I know without you telling me!”

After firmly fixing themselves in their respective positions, they connected the aiming devices to their helmets and then placed their hands on the triggers.

They had to start attacking through manual control immediately if the remote control was cut off.

And while they were preparing like this, 3 minutes passed in an instant. During that time, the location where friendly artillery fire was exploding gradually got closer, and now, at the moment when the silhouettes of monsters began to be visible through the detection devices in their helmets.

[Engage! Engage! Commencing automatic engagement!]

Simultaneously with the battalion commander’s voice flowing from the radio, the turret they were currently in—furthermore, all turrets currently deployed on the first defense line—began to move.

Woong, woooong—booong! Woooong—booong! Woooong—booong! Woooong—booong!
Piiiiiiiiiiiiii—–!!!!
Piiiiiiiiiiiiii—–!!!!

As the rotated turret aims at the enemy, one laser cannon and two laser machine guns spew light.

The laser cannon fires a laser that charges for about 3 seconds and sustains for 2 seconds at large individuals, while the laser machine guns grind small individuals with beams of light flashing at 0.1-second intervals.

And with such turrets densely installed across the entire defense line, most monsters not only couldn’t approach the wall but became honeycombs within the field of fire and exploded… did they?

“Sergeant Park!”

“What! What is it!”

“Why are those bastards exploding?!”

“…You’re right, this is just a laser! There’s no reason for them to explode at all!”

“Shit, then maybe… are those self-destructing types?”

At Sergeant Kim’s words, they watched the traces of explosions occurring beyond with serious expressions.

They knew from hearing it to the point of nausea during anti-monster combat education. Engagement with monsters with self-destruction abilities has a higher casualty rate compared to engagements with other monsters.

“…Do you think we can survive?”

“Shit, how can you say that! Of course we’ll survive!”

“…I can see them.”

So while they were trying to calm each other’s shaken hearts, Sergeant Kim said he was starting to see those monsters—and at his words, the other two who focused their attention also began to see the monsters.

“It looks similar to a spider…”

“No, damn it, does that look like a spider to you? It’s just a monster bastard!”

“Hey, stop cursing all the time!”

The monster, as they said, seemed similar to a spider but was grotesquely distorted.

With a spherical body at the center, dozens of spider-leg-like tentacles protruded, and two arms that were somewhere between pincers and hands jutted out towards the front.

In the center of the body was a mouth blocked by dozens of irregular and long teeth, and around it were arranged dozens of black eyeballs.

Such monsters, numbering at least several hundred, were charging. Spider-like self-destructing monsters, almost identical in form but varying in size, were surging forward endlessly like waves.

“…It, it looks fucking like the battalion commander’s face.”

Meanwhile, Sergeant Park said that trying to lighten the mood, but… it didn’t have much effect.

More important to them was that just now, with a loud boom and a slight vibration, the automatic firing stopped—meaning they now had to start firing manually.

[Fire! Fire! Shoot as you’ve trained!]

The moment the battalion commander’s voice rang out from the radio, the three sergeants reflexively aimed at the visible monsters and started pulling their triggers.

It wasn’t as clean and mechanical as before when it was remotely controlled automatically by computers, but instead, there was a sense of expertise in the firing of these veteran soldiers.

They skillfully aim for the legs to incapacitate, or fire at the belly to cause explosions, making adjacent monsters get caught in the blast.

Although they felt uneasy at the occasional vibrations, they continued firing, covering each other’s blind spots as they always had, when at that moment.

Sergeant Kim… no, something began to appear in the eyes of everyone fighting on this first defense line.

“…Sergeant Kim?”

“…Yeah, I know. Those damn monster bastards, they really intend to see this through to the end.”

“Shit… tomorrow is my Yejin’s birthday.”

What made the three sergeants, who had been fighting bravely, drop everything in an instant was a huge self-destructing monster, enormously large, twice as tall as the barrier of the first defense line (10 meters).

Although the body was wrapped in a blue psychic shield and force field, more than half of it was damaged by artillery fire and various attacks, exposing bare flesh.

In addition, perhaps due to its weight, the relatively thin legs were barely dragging the body along, and even that wasn’t very fast as several legs seemed to have been damaged by howitzer fire.

But that’s not the problem. If that monster, which has come close enough to be visible, explodes, the first defense line will certainly be annihilated, if nothing else.

In other words, the huge self-destructing monster that should have been intercepted beyond in advance has essentially made the defense of the first defense line fail just by being allowed to approach.

‘…Then that artillery fire at that time.’

And only at this point did Sergeant Kim realize that the large explosion beyond that created a mushroom cloud was the trace of intercepting the same kind of monster as the one right in front of them, but… it was meaningless.

[Unfasten your equipment and duck your heads!]

The battalion commander’s desperate voice was heard from the radio, and just before unfastening, it suddenly occurred to him that he saw the psychic shield installed on the defense line activating.

Outside the turret, an anti-monster warhead missile flew towards the unprotected bare flesh of the giant self-destructing monster—

Kuuuuuuuuu—Kwagagagagagagagagagagagagagang!!!

With a tremendous boom, the first defense line, with its psychic shield and other defensive systems deployed, was engulfed in the massive explosion from the monster.