I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

“Ugh… uugh.”
How much time had passed? Sergeant Kim got up from his position, groaning with the impact of the explosion that came with the death of the giant self-destructing monster still lingering—and encountered a desperate reality.

“Ah… ahhh.”
Most of the defense facilities deployed on the first defense line were annihilated by the explosion despite the protection of the psychic shield, and the turret where Sergeant Kim was stationed was no exception.

“Sergeant Park… Sergeant Jeong…”
The upper part of his assigned turret had been completely torn off, and because of that, the two who were operating the laser machine guns on the top had their upper bodies vaporized and their lower bodies turned into rags, scattered around.

In fact, his survival was a miraculous event resulting from the overlap of various coincidences and variables.

As he happened to be in charge of the laser cannon at the bottom, his upper body wasn’t vaporized, causing instant death, and miraculously, the laser cannon blocked fragments, preventing turret shrapnel from piercing his body.

In addition, he had separately obtained and implanted a so-called monster implant—a modified implant of monster biological organs—from the private sector to increase his survival probability even slightly, which, combined with military modification procedures, played a crucial role in his survival.

The tough skin (E) of the skin and the synthetic muscle fiber coils (E) applied to the muscles increased durability, protecting the body from fragments that the laser cannon couldn’t block while reducing the power of the shock wave, and the regeneration (D) monster implant installed in the heart quickly repaired the damaged body.

However, even so, it would be difficult for him to accept the fact that he has survived now as something happy.

“Huu… huuh.”
Looking at the corpses scattered in a state crushed like pork cutlet pounded with a meat tenderizer, Sergeant Kim unconsciously let out a groan filled with deep lamentation.

As negative and depressing thoughts filled his head, Sergeant Kim silently retrieved the personal belongings from the pockets of the two and then began picking up the weapons scattered on the floor.

The K101A9 laser submachine gun for personal protection, a hunter knife processed from Hunter Claw (E), and even Sergeant Park’s homemade energy pistol.

After picking up weapons that could protect his body, he held the laser submachine gun in his hand and forcibly steeled his resolve as he got up—

Grrrr…

“…Shit.”
Just then, a spider-like monster passing in front of him made eye contact with him.

Woong—Piiiiiiiiiiii!!
Kruraaaaaaaaa—-!!!!

He hurriedly aimed the submachine gun and pulled the trigger, but the submachine gun, which focused on rate of fire and portability rather than output (firepower), couldn’t penetrate the monster’s thick exoskeleton.

Damn it!

So he hastily unfastened the submachine gun’s stock and threw it at the spider monster, then drew and aimed the energy pistol from the holster on his waist.

Woooooong—Peoong!

As it was an illegally modified energy pistol that consumed all the energy in the magazine in a single shot, and in an overcharged state at that, the high-power energy mass that flew from the muzzle exploded upon contact with the spider monster, disintegrating it into pieces.

Chiiiiiii…
Tak!

“Damn thing…”
And right after that, he dropped Sergeant Park’s energy pistol, which had completely malfunctioned due to the side effects of the modification, and sat down on the floor with a sigh.

The fluid flowing from the exploded corpse of the monster was unpleasant, so as Sergeant Kim was looking for a relatively clean spot, something caught his eye.

It was a monster that Sergeant Kim knew well. It had a spider-like body structure, but its shell was smooth, and its size was almost as big as a small passenger car.

The two legs protruding forward like pincers had sharp blades attached, and six eyeballs were arranged symmetrically near the mouth that split sideways.

In summary, this monster with a terrifying appearance is the Heavy Hive Spider, the most commonly seen among the Hive Mind’s grade 8 monsters.

“…Shit.”
To be honest, if he had the equipment, he could take down something like that alone.

The carapace is hard, but it can be penetrated with the high-output mode of a laser rifle, and even if it comes to close combat, with the assistance of a skeleton suit, he could overwhelm that monster even with a short military hunter knife.

But now, he doesn’t satisfy any of the above conditions. He threw away the laser submachine gun with high-output mode, the energy pistol is broken, and the skeleton suit isn’t functioning properly due to damage to its power unit.

In other words, that monster is now something he might not be able to defeat even if he fights with all his might in his current situation.

“This is so f-fucking shitty…”
As he was inwardly cursing and drawing his hunter knife, the monster, instead of making a terrible noise, quickly moved its tentacles and threw its huge body towards him—

—Piiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!

Suddenly, dozens of laser beams poured onto the Heavy Hive Spider, turning it into a honeycomb.

“What…?”
Sergeant Kim was bewildered by the sudden event, but just by turning his head towards where the lasers were fired from, he could tell who his savior was.

‘…Seonggwang Guild?’
It was a giant Giant Armor painted in white and gold, with a large Seonggwang Group logo drawn on one shoulder.

Sergeant Kim stared blankly at the Giant Armor, which seemed to be carrying out a survivor rescue operation while leading stragglers in skeleton suits that were as battered as him, but soon he picked up the laser submachine gun lying on the ground and joined the group of stragglers.

Feeling both self-loathing for being the only survivor except for his two comrades, and joy at having survived nonetheless.

※ ※ ※

‘The first defense line collapsed, but the defense was successful… Subsequently, a new Hive Mind, individual name Bomb Spider, appeared, and another high-grade monster appeared nearby. Identification results confirm it as an animal type, with a high possibility of conflict with the Hive Mind.’

If I were to roughly summarize the information about the human side sent to me by Theresia, it could be organized like that.

Unlike the plans in creative works that fail day after day, my plan was carried out exactly as I had planned, except for one variable: the breakthrough of the human side’s first defense line.

The human side blocked my offensive and misunderstood properly as I intended, and at the same time, in this process, I was able to solidify Theresia’s position firmly in South Korean society while giving her quite a lot of credit.

Theresia took down hundreds of low-grade monsters and 17 medium-grade monsters, and at the same time successfully completed the rescue of 89 stragglers, which even I hadn’t intended.

Since there’s Theresia with just the right conditions to push forward, especially in the eyes of the government trying to cover up the breakthrough of the first defense line in this situation, it seems that she will be propagandized as a hero for the time being according to the current ruling party’s intentions.

Well… even if we exclude the fact that I helped a little by manipulating, hunting 17 medium-grade monsters with that old junk Giant Armor in one sortie would be a miraculous achievement even by game standards, so there’s not much of a problem.

In fact, I was much more dissatisfied with the individual name “Bomb Spider” that humans gave me as my identification code, so I’m paying more attention to this.

No matter how much I mass-produced self-destructing spiders because I didn’t want to hand over resources, I felt strongly that “Bomb Spider” was too careless.

So while grumbling inwardly about this fact, I started moving the personnel I had prepared to secure a means to exert influence on South Korean society in earnest.

And these personnel were a few monsters whose characteristics were set to be particularly inconspicuous among the mercenaries under Theresia’s command, which I had secretly diverted.

‘Move slowly towards the target.’
Three individuals… three monsters with appearances not much different from ordinary Korean men approached the target, a reporter from the Monster Department of Daily Shin-bo, chattering among themselves as if they were friends.

He’s a war orphan with no family, and no friends with deep enough relationships to notice changes at a glance. Moreover, he has no influence in the workplace, so there won’t be much problem even if we ‘switch’ him.

In addition, their current location was a temporary shelter converted from an abandoned city in Gangwon-do, so it was a secluded place with no working surveillance cameras and few people around.

This is… anyone can see it’s telling us to just do it, right?

‘Inject.’
[Y-You guys, what—mmph! Mmph!]
One of those who approached restrained the reporter’s hands and feet, while another covered his mouth and fixed his body.

Finally, they inserted a thorn into the neck of the fixed reporter and injected a drug to make him lose consciousness, then put him into a backpack with spatial expansion, a space-type psychic ability applied, and half the job was done.

Now, to succeed with the rest, all that’s left is to take this person to my secret base and replace part of his brain with a disguised biological monster using the small biological organs there.

With this, this reporter has become a puppet that moves according to my guidance without even realizing it himself.

And this was the core plan I’m currently secretly carrying out, namely the ‘Switcheroo’ plan.