Devouring Stars: Master of Evolution

Chapter 2 Zerg Larvae

To become a martial artist, one must first pass the preliminary martial artist assessment.

Qin Mu, who was familiar with the plot and had accepted all of his original memories, knew very well.

As members of the Extreme Martial Arts Academy, we can participate in the preliminary martial arts assessment on the first of each month. However, to become a true martial artist, it is not enough to just pass the preliminary martial arts assessment.

They also need to participate in a practical assessment. Only after passing the practical assessment can they truly become a martial artist.

The practical assessment for aspiring martial artists is held only twice a year, on August 1st and February 1st.

It's already June 16th, which means that if I can't become a prospective martial artist by July 1st, I'll inevitably miss the assessment on August 1st, and I'll have to wait until February of next year to become a martial artist.

This is something Qin Mu cannot accept.

It has been only three and a half years since the Golden Horned Beast attacked the base in New York State, USA.

How could Qin Mu possibly accept wasting half a year?

Although he possesses Zerg larvae, theoretically Qin Mu doesn't need to consider the martial arts assessment; he can simply wait for the Zerg swarm to grow stronger.

Under normal circumstances, as long as resources are sufficient, a single larva can develop into a swarm in a very short time.

Because each larva preserves all the genes of the entire swarm, it can hatch various different Zerg units as needed.

But in reality, Qin Mu learned from the larva's fragmented memories that during its long slumber, it had lost almost all of the Zerg unit genes from its gene pool.

The current gene pool only retains one type of worker insect, which resembles a giant worker ant. This worker insect can only hatch into the lowest-level Zerg mother nest.

This means that the development of the swarm must rely on plundering genes, analyzing them, and then evolving.

This not only takes time, but also requires a suitable environment for the insect colony to grow.

The city of Yangzhou where I am now certainly does not meet the requirements.

Only the wilderness area can provide the environment necessary for the Zerg to grow, but the wilderness area is teeming with monsters and is not an area that ordinary people can easily set foot in.

The problem has returned to its starting point: if Qin Mu wants to develop the insect swarm, he must first become a martial artist, or at least a quasi-martial artist, because only quasi-martial artists can legally and legitimately enter the wilderness area.

Bringing his thoughts back, he realized that becoming a martial artist couldn't be rushed. What he needed to do right now was to feed the Zerg larvae that had been starving for who knows how long.

After searching around the house, Qin Mu finally found several pieces of frozen meat in the refrigerator that had been there for who knows how long.

Qin Mu took out the frozen meat and placed it in front of the Zerg larva.

The larvae, already starving and nearly driven mad by hunger, spotted the food, immediately opened their mouths full of sharp teeth, easily bit into the frozen meat, and began to swallow it in large gulps.

While the larvae were feeding, Qin Mu carefully examined this familiar yet unfamiliar home, and also looked for other food.

This is a small apartment with two bedrooms and one living room located on the eighteenth floor.

There are two rooms: one is my bedroom, and the other is my parents' bedroom.

The original owner never wanted to clean the room in her parents' room, so it remained exactly as it was when they were there.

I pushed open the door and entered my parents' room.

In the middle of the room was a double bed, and to the left was a wardrobe filled with all kinds of clothes.

A family photo sits on the bedside table, with a desk to the right and a bookshelf next to it.

The bookshelves were filled with books, most of which were about biology, genes, monsters, and the like.

These books were left to me by my mother, who was a military researcher.

Qin Mu walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a book, flipped through it, found he couldn't understand it, and put it back.

The living room is simply furnished with only a television, a sofa, and a coffee table.

After searching around, I couldn't find any food to feed the Zerg larvae.

While Qin Mu was searching for food, the Zerg larvae had already eaten most of several pieces of frozen meat that were larger than their own bodies.

In Qin Mu's perception, the food disappeared in the blink of an eye due to its terrifying digestive ability after entering its body.

After swallowing a large amount of food, a warm sensation spreads throughout the larva's body, centered on its stomach.

Under Qin Mu's gaze, the larva's shriveled body grew larger at a speed visible to the naked eye.

As the larvae revived, Qin Mu felt a faint warmth within his body, but it was extremely weak.

"My strength seems to have increased somewhat, and the hidden injuries in my body feel a bit better."

Qin Mu clenched his fist, feeling the changes within his body.

"There's no food left."

"The energy converted from this little food is not enough for the larvae to recover their normal bodies, let alone hatch into worker larvae."

Since the original owner of this body didn't have the habit of storing food, Qin Mu had to find a way to do it himself.

I turned on my phone, entered the password as I remembered it, and operated it for a while.

This phone is a bit more advanced than the one in his previous life, but not by much. Qin Mu quickly figured out how to use it.

I opened the bank app, and it showed a balance of 523586.23 yuan.

"Fortunately, we still have a lot of money."

This money comes from the parents' savings, as well as pensions and monthly government subsidies.

As a descendant of a martyr, I receive a government subsidy of 3000 yuan per month until I turn eighteen.

Over the years, the original owner of this body had spent a considerable amount of money to become a martial artist. After being injured, he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat his body.

The remaining money, if left idle, will last for a long time.

But Qin Mu clearly didn't have that idea.

In his past life, Qin Mu was mediocre enough. In this life, he wanted to try a different way of living.

I checked the time.

"It's not even nine o'clock yet, I'm going out to buy something."

Qin Mu remembered that there was a vegetable market not far downstairs, with many meat stalls.

Pork, chicken, duck, and even monster meat are all available, but monster meat is much more expensive than regular meat.

Zerg larvae are not carnivorous; on the contrary, they eat almost anything, and in extreme cases, they can even survive by eating dirt.

However, the most suitable material for it is still the flesh and blood of living beings.

Qin Mu put the Zerg larvae into the inside pocket of his clothes, tidied himself up a bit, and went straight out.

Qin Mu's neighborhood is a resettlement area for military families, and the security conditions are very good.

I took the elevator down to the eighteenth floor and wandered through the narrow alleyways.

In this era, except for certain regions, the efficiency of land use in most areas is almost at its limit.

Each residential building resembles a giant square concrete pillar, even those in the military dependents' resettlement area.

After walking through several alleys, Qin Mu finally arrived at a narrow street.

It was already night, the streetlights were on, and many people had just finished get off work, so the streets were bustling with people.

The aroma of snacks wafted from the roadside stalls, attracting passing customers.

Some people were loudly hawking their wares, while others were calling out to their friends; the atmosphere was lively and bustling, without a trace of apocalypse.

If Qin Mu hadn't noticed the strange menus on some of the stalls ahead, he would have thought he was still in the food street of the urban village in his previous life.

Grilled skewers of wild boar belly

"Clay Pot Braised Tiger Mastiff"

Longhorn lamb skewers

……

Ignoring all that, Qin Mu strode toward his destination, the vegetable market at the other end of the street.

Because it was evening, there wasn't much meat left at the meat stalls, and some stalls had already closed up shop.

Amidst the stall owners' astonished gazes, Qin Mu bought all the meat from several stalls.

A full 60 jin of ordinary pork and 50 jin of wild boar meat.

Regular pork is fine, around ten yuan per pound.

The meat of ferocious beasts is different. Even the cheapest H-level monster unicorn boar meat costs more than 100 yuan per kilogram.

This small amount of meat cost Qin Mu over 7 yuan, which is almost two months' wages for an average worker.

The reason Qin Mu bought monster meat was that he wanted to know if there was any difference between larvae devouring ordinary pork and monster meat.

Carrying 100 pounds of meat, Qin Mu returned home.

This is because Qin Mu is physically strong now. In his previous life, carrying such a heavy thing would have made him collapse from exhaustion long ago.

Qin Mu placed all the meat in the living room and put the larvae in the middle of the meat.

With a change of heart, the larva frantically devoured the chunks of flesh, each one much larger than its own body disappearing into its mouth as if it were a bottomless pit.

Its body was growing rapidly at a visible speed, and faint warm currents were flowing through Qin Mu's body.

(End of this chapter)