Star Citizen Online: Isekai Edition

Using the Memory Extraction Skill on the Commander Warrior Bug was probably one of the stupidest decisions that he had made in his whole life. He certainly wasn't making many logically sounding decisions since his transmigration, but he would rank this one at the top of the list.

It would most possibly stand on the number one list.

When he entered the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug, he realized that if he had entered the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug under normal circumstances, his mind would have been torn apart by the sheer Psionic Collective Cosnsciouss by their entire Arachnid Swarm.

Even when the Commander Warrior Bug was severely weakened due to the Cosmic Storm that created the phenomenon known as Psionic Shroud and to wear things up even more for the Commander Warrior Bug, they even activated the Psychic Disruptor Device, and yet despite all of that, the bug's mind was extremely dangerous.

Even though he spent only a few moments in the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug, it was still enough to realize that he almost perished there several times. The mind of any bug was chaotic and weird, completely foreign, and in certain parts, it seemed pretty unnatural.

When he was in there, he heard countless whispers or something, and even under the circumstances that he was in, Arcturus felt that the Commander Warrior Bug was trying to counterattack his mind and kill him.

He would not be surprised by such a development because the Arachnids were a very psionically apt species. They had an uncanny affinity for Psionics and the Mind Arts, and they were famous across the entire Cosmos for Mind-Controlling Capabilities on the same level as the Mind-Layers.

Some even theorized that the Mind Arts of the Arachnids were superior to those of the Illithids. Arcturus was considered lucky that he emerged from Commander Warrior Bug's mind intact.

One mistake could have led to disastrous consequences, and he already made a mental note to be more careful about situations like this in the future. Even though death seemed pretty bad, there were fates that were even worse compared to death, like ending vegetative or becoming slave to the will of the Arachnids.

Those were some of the possible scenarios that could have been the price for his recklessness.

Still, even despite the dangers and everything, the gains from the usage of the Memory Extraction Skill on the Commander Warrior Bug were undeniable. At least in this aspect, it was totally worth the risk that he had undertaken.

Even though he obtained only a small amount of information from the memories of the Commander Warrior Bug that he managed to access, it was still enough to have some sort of idea about the state of the Arachnid colony in this world.

And certainly, he was very pleased by the information that he had learned.

"So what have you learned? Judging based on your expression, it seems that the situation isn't that bad as it seems."

After Arcturus was cut the connection with the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug, Jenaiel killed the Commander Warrior Bug by stabbing her sword through the head of the Commander Warrior Bug, though the Arachnid was barely alive due to the grievous injuries that it had sustained during the fight.

Now that it seemed that Arcturus managed to extract the memories from the Commander Warrior Bug, there was no reason to keep the bug alive, as Jeniael decided to kill it to be safe.

Even though the connection between the Commander Warrior Bug and Arcturus was cut, there was still some very slight possibility that the Commander Warrior Bug would try to counterattack, no matter how abysmal the chance was.

"Wait a moment... give me some water... and did you kill the Commander Warrior Bug?"

Before he answered, he looked at the two young women and asked for some water, because he was thirsty.

"Give me a second."

Jeniael went to the armored vehicle that Red Queen drove here as she went to grab a bottle of water for him.

"And for the second part, yeah, the white-haired battle maniac killed Commander Warrior Bug the moment you cut the mental connection with the Arachnid."

Arcturus nodded as he heard that and took the bottle of water that Jeniael brought him and drank it whole in one sitting. He was rather thirsty from the entire ordeal and from his escapade into the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug.

"So, what is the situation with the bugs?"

Zehal asked because she was the most curious about what he had seen in the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug, as Arcturus seemed almost relaxed right now. It was evident that whatever he had seen in the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug was something good that was putting him at ease.

This was then good because, at least for the first time since they had accepted this dammed mission, something was going well or for the better, actually.

Hopefully.

"Well, it was exactly as you predicted, and the actual number of the Arachnids on the Ziras IV is much smaller. Like really, really much smaller than we have initially anticipated, and the overall number of the Arachnids is only around three thousand to five thousand, meaning that their numbers are very manageable."

After that, he smiled a bit as he proceeded to explain the situation with the Arachnid Nest to Zehal and Jeniael and explain everything that he had learned from the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug.

"Whelp, the situation is as follows. The Arachnid Nest here is old, something around one year, and due to the environment of the Ziras IV, they never reached a very high population. Much to their bad luck, their Nest is located in the Frostearth Valley, which is one of the most dangerous regions on the entire planet and filled with many powerful predators native to the Ziras IV; this led to the really wonderful situation when the bugs were essentially forced on the defensive and needed to fight for every single square meter of territory that they obtained. Additionally, the very few of the powerful high-grade beasts managed to wipe out a large swath of the budging swarm last month, so the entire Arachnid Nest is in a rather crippled state, one could say."

Even though he didn't manage to get a lot from the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug, what he got was extremely precious and told him about the real state of the Arachnids on the Ziras IV, and it wasn't nice to the bugs.

It seemed that Zehal's theory about the actual weak state of the bugs was true, and they were indeed on the verge of death. And the entire thing with the infiltration and everything was their last cover, so they could very slowly build their power.

"It seems that I was right..."

Zehal's smirk was everything that he needed to know, and she would be insufferable for the next few days because she was right in her speculation.

"Now, the thing is, their numbers are not very high, and with the extermination of the large part of their forces some time ago, the bugs are in desperate need of the Biomass. The problematic thing is that they have Pseudo Queen Bug. Fortunately for us, even though normally this bug would be at the Beta-Grade or so, due to the Cosmic Storm and Psionic Shroud, it suffered enormous backslash from that and also from the death of approximately 80% of the combat power of the Nest and around 90% of the elite combat power of the Swarm. Right now, all that they are left is something around 4 or so Praetorian Bugs at the Gamma-Grade, and their Pseudo Queen is half dead right now the entire Nest is gathering the necessary Biomass for the healing of their Pseudo Queen."

Pseudo Queen Bugs were the Queen Bugs that had not fully evolved into the Queen Bugs, but they were capable of creating new Arachnids, even though they were not as skilled or efficient as the actual Queen Bugs.

The Arachnids that were created by the Pseudo Queen Bugs were generally on the weaker specter of the bug rankings, and their combat prowess wasn't as high as that of the bugs created and cultivated by the real Queen Bugs or similar bugs.

"And their other heavy hitters? Do they have the Brain Bug or any other special Bugs in their ranks?"

Zehal asked, even though she was rather surprised and at the same time disturbed about the fact that something on this planet managed to wipe out the majority of the combat forces of the entire Arachnid Nest, yet that was a matter for an entirely different time.

Though she knew that the entire Ziras IV was a death planet and in the confidential information, it was confirmed that the planet housed a few creatures that had reached the limit of the mortal level.

The peak of the Sigma-Grade.

And some of them were even Space Beasts, meaning that more would most probably come to the Ziras IV and make this planet even more dangerous than it already was.

If it wasn't already dangerous enough.

"Yes. The bugs are commanded by Gamma-Grade Brain Bug, but it was also severely injured in the late Cosmic Storm, and its strength has dropped severely. Aside from the Praetorian Bugs that I have mentioned, the only danger would be the Tiger Warrior Bugs, one Titan Bug, and then just the average bugs. The rest was wiped out some time ago. Though it would be problematic to breach the defenses of their Nest in the Frostearth Valley."

Arcturus said that most of the effort of the bugs went into upgrading the defenses and evolving their base in the Frostearth Valley.

Getting into their Nest would be a highly problematic thing because of how well-defended it was and how they have already corrupted the entire area into their sort of Biomatter.

So, getting into the Arachnid Nest would be problematic thin, and they would need to create a plan. Not to mention, even with the much lower number of bugs compared to what they had been anticipating, it would still be a very hard fight.

"Still, the things now seem pretty much doable. Despite everything, the Arachnids are actually much weaker than anticipated, and without anyone particularly powerful to counter the Holy Judgment of God or Dimension Empyrean, as the bugs don't have means of countering these two Super-High Risk Psyker Abilities, I believe that we can be successful."

Arcturus knew that the Arachnids at the Nest wouldn't be powerful enough to counter the Holy Judgement of God and Dimension Empyrean. With those two Super-High Risk Psyker Abilities, they would be able to quell the numbers and tear their way through the countless bugs there.

It seemed that heaven was indeed smiling at them.

"Well, this is already much better than expected, and if we could capture both the Brain Bug and Pseudo Queen Bug and, at the same time, annihilate the Nest, we could get rather significant rewards from the Empire on top of what was already agreed. The research value of the Brain Bug is very high.. But what is the research value of the Pseudo Queen Bug? That would be out of charts."

Arcturus agreed with Zehal's mindset as even in a situation like this, she wanted to make the maximum from the situation, and she knew that the Directorate wouldn't be stingy with their rewards, especially if they could get their hands on some prime research materials.

On the other hand, Arcturus was surprised by the information about why the Pseudo Queen Bug was so valuable to the Directorate.

"Why would the Pseudo Queen Bug be so valuable as the research material?"

Arcturus couldn't help but ask as Zehal proceeded to explain the true value of the Pseudo Queen Bug.

"Well, aside from the scarcity of these bugs, as they almost never leave the deep core territories of the Arachnids or the main Hiveships of their respective Hive Fleets, the real value lies in their incomplete estate and the fact how they were exactly evolving into the Queen Bug and advancing on the evolutionary ladder of the Arachnid species. On the Pseudo Queen Bug, one could observe how the bug was changing towards the Queen Bug and developing the abilities and skills of the Queen Bug, which are practically invaluable information."

The more Zehal explained about the situation with the Pseudo Queen Bug, the more intrigued Arcturus became, and now it was unanimously decided that they would capture the Brain Bug and Pseudo Queen Bug so they could sell them to the Directorate.

"How far from it, is the Frostearth Valley?"

Arcturus asked the Red Queen, who soon materialized in miniature holographic form.

'Five days at the top speed.'

He nodded as he then called upon the Empyrean Power and started disintegrating the corpse of the Commander Warrior Bug. He wasn't leaving anything to the accident that the corpse of the Commander Warrior Bug would be found by another bug, and they would be able to tell that someone had breached the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug.

The brain of the Commander Warrior Bug showed some subtle traces of the mind intrusion, which was one of the side effects of the Memory Extraction Skill that Arcturus performed on the bug.

So, to be safe from any possibility of discovery, Arcturus resorted to the destruction of Commander Warrior Bug's body entirely through the Empyrean Power. With that being done, they entered the armored winter vehicle and departed to the Frostearth Valley.

Zehal started planning the steps against the bugs, but only after Arcturus started writing everything that he had learned from the mind of the Commander Warrior Bug. It took some several hours to write everything down that he had learned from the memories of the Commander Warrior Bug and then Zehal started her work.

They needed a precise plan of action against the Arachnid Nest because even despite their much lower number and significantly lower power, the defenses were still standing extraordinarily strong.

Meanwhile, Zehal was working on their battle plan and strategy; Arcturus and Jeniael decided to contact the man from the Directorate and inform him about this development because things had moved considerably.