There were a lot of Zergs around me, and as soon as I noticed them, I felt a telepathic network connecting us. Now I clearly understood what each of these creatures felt and thought. Alas, the level of intelligence of all of them could be compared to a smart dog. The only exception was the Queen's mind, which was already moving toward me, surrounded by a dozen hydralisks.

"Welcome, new member of the swarm.” This creature communicated to me. "From now on, you serve Hive and me as his representative.”

I was in no hurry to answer, studying the mind of the Queen. To do this, I used not only our telepathic connection, but also my ability to directly influence the astral level. Picture was familiar to me in detail.

"Are you one of the game figures?" I asked the Queen, watching her reaction.

"That's right.” She answered. "If you participate in the game, then you have to operate under the control of the Supermind. Come on, I'll take you to the hive.”

“Let’s go” I agreed.

I took a quick look at the bodies around me and followed the Queen. Apparently, in the first batch, only I had a chance to survive and not turn into a stupid animal. I did have to run after the Queen, though it was only a slow step for her. Her body was three meters high and all five in length. And all this mass with amazing dexterity slid along the 'road' of slime that led from the base to the hive.

Half an hour later, we reached the familiar 'area' where the hive and the Deposit of crystals were located. When she reached the main Zerg building, the Queen activated the 'communication organ' available there.

"Hello, Zagara." I heard a powerful telepathic signal.

“I bow before your greatness, Supermind. I found another game figure. I transformed this man into a zerg”

I felt the mental power of the Supermind concentrate on me, trying to scan my mind. But my defenses were too good for that kind of remote exposure to threaten me in any way.

"Who are you?" Supermind frowned inwardly.

“My name is Atman. I came to your world to invite you to take part in another game. Once you lose here, you can go to another world and help me destroy one powerful creature.”

“I'm going to lose?” Suddenly, the Supermind was furious. “I will win this game! And no one can get in my way. Wretched creature, I will destroy you!!!”

With these words, my interlocutor unleashed all his telepathic power on me. Maybe it would have scared someone else, but not me. At the very beginning of our conversation, I found out that the personal power of the Supermind does not reach this planet, and it affects me only through the hive. So as soon as the mental attack began, I used a chakra-based jutsu to destroy the 'telepathic organ' inside the hive. At this point, all the impact stopped.

"He's kind of nervous.” I lamented, turning to the Zagara. “Don't you want to take part in another game? I don't think you should lose this one. I can get you back after you help me.”

“No. As long as the Supermind lives, I obey its orders. You were able to break the link of minds, but in my mind remained the attitude of submission. As soon as the hive is restored, I'll probably get an order to destroy you.

With that, the Queen busied herself with repairing the damage of the hive. Judging by her words, she personally has nothing against me, but she is not going to oppose the Supermind.

"Do you think serving the Supermind is more important than your own game?" I asked her.

"You don't understand. Supermind gives us immortality. Even if I get killed, he'll resurrect me right away. As long as I obey him, I can't lose. And that's enough.”

"Oh! I see. Okay. I'll need five workers and an overlord from you. And we will assume that we have armed neutrality.” The Queen turned and looked down at me from her height of three meters. "Or do you prefer to resolve this issue with the old-fashioned violence?"

"Supermind won't forgive me if I let you go without a fight.” She said.

"Okay, how about this?"

With these words, I stretched my hand and activated the Earth element technique, which instantly turned into mincemeat the fifty roaches buried in the ground surrounding the hive.

"What was that?" The Queen stared at me.

"It was a small part of my true power. If you disturb me, I can destroy your entire swarm, and for one thing make sure that your soul goes not to the Supermind, but straight to hell.”

"Do whatever you want." She answered me and turned to the hive. In her mind, hidden behind mental shields, I saw echoes of fear and panic.

Taking these words as permission, I went to the busy workers. After selecting five of them, I telepathically subdued them, amplifying my orders with my chakra. After a couple of minutes of work, I was sure that now these zergs would listen only to me. And even if the Supermind can connect to their consciousness, he will not have the right to give orders.

In the same way, I also subdued one of the overlords. It was a huge flying brain that coordinated the actions of ordinary zergs. The overlord had special leathery sacks in which he could transport other zergs. I drove my workers there, and then I climbed myself. After that I gave the command to my 'transport' and sent it away from the hive. By my calculations, the hive's telepathic connection with the Supermind will recover in an hour, and by that time I should be far enough away from here that they won't be able to find me.

While the overlord was flying away from the hive, I began to study the technologies of breeding and development of zergs. Crystals with psi energy contained in them were a universal resource that could help the Zergs to mutate into another form. If desired, it was possible to do without crystals, but in this case the duration of the mutation was not minutes, and days or even weeks.

Well, since the Supermind has subjugated all the zerg, I should wait until it's destroyed by the protos. At this time, it will be possible to study the nature of zerg and protos and create hybrids from them, using human DNA as an intermediary. It seems that this is how hybrids got in the original story.

Based on these assumptions, I need a new plan. First, I need to develop my existing zergs to the level of spaceflight availability. Actually, even the overlord is capable of this after a certain 'upgrade'. Next, I need to find a planet of protos. There may be a problem with that, but I know a place where the protos can be found right here. In a few days, they'll fly to Mar-Sar and destroy all life, including the zerg.

By that time, I will need to develop 'beacons' that will be attached to the protos' ships. When they return to their home world, I can track them. And then I can steal a couple of guinea pigs, in the sense of protos, and start breeding hybrids. So, when I become a hybrid myself, and for one of the strongest psionics of the galaxy, it will be possible to think about finding commanders for my Zergs army.

There were no problems with the first part of the plan. Well, it almost didn't work out. After four hours of flight, I discovered a good deposit of crystals and decided to settle next to it. Chakra easily replaced the psi-energy, so the mutation of the worker in the hive passed without problems. And then I arranged the rapid development of the economy and began to rivet the mutalisks. These flying critters were supposed to be the basis of my plan.

Alas, for mass production of mutalisks, I needed a large amount of vespen gas, which usually came out of the ground near the crystal deposits. But relatively nearby, I discovered a huge Deposit of this valuable element, where I set up a second base.

But this deposit, as it turned out, attracted not only me, but also people. A dozen years ago, they found it, built a gas condensate station and laid a gas pipeline. I was a bit of a fool and considered all this equipment as non-working, so I just let it go for scrap. But after a couple of hours people came to visit me and tried to 'destroy the aggressive fauna'. In General, my confrontation with the local Petroleum Company resulted in a small local genocide of the population of a small city.

However, I will not concentrate on such small things, and move on to the main thing. Mutalisks in 'standard equipment' fired with a small parasite that deals damage with the help of stored psionic energy. I left everything as it is, but some of the created parasites were replaced with their stealth modification, which was supposed to carry a beacon for Hiraishin label. The Zergs couldn't produce the chakra, so I had to charge each mutalisk 'manually'. Ordinary psi-beacons were not suitable, because protos can easily determine such presence.

After my army reached the number of a couple of million individuals, I loaded all of them to the 'enhanced' overlord and in the company of thousands of mutalisks left to surf the vast expanses of space. The protos invasion began about a day after I left. All this time I've been controlling my army through the hive, not letting them waste its strength. But when the protos ships appeared, all this crowd abruptly rushed into near space and began to attack the enemy.

To my surprise, I almost won. My swarm of mutalisks turned out to be the biggest on the planet. The Protoses were not prepared for such resistance. After all, most of zergs were 'ground modification', and I was only planning the air force. But I managed to land my own beacons on every ship. Following the program, mutalisks parasites crammed into the cracks and other secluded places and ... died.