I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

After agreeing to save the poor and pitiful Lizardmen, I decided to dispatch monsters through underground passages and moved quickly.
In addition to two Royal Guards to act as commanders under Theseus, I dispatched about a thousand medium-grade monsters and about 30,000 low-grade monsters awakened from frozen state.
The dispatched monsters were divided into two units, each with one Royal Guard as commander, and one of them is the engineering unit.
These monsters, consisting of Hive Silent Wyrms and 10,000 low-grade monsters for excavation, are diligently creating passages underground in the jungle and laying the foundation for bio-facilities to be built for the subjugation of Lizardmen.
On the other hand, the other unit is monsters dispatched to drive the Orcs out of the jungle.
Because it’s difficult to detect from outside in the jungle, I was able to dispatch complete combat forces, not just disguised ones, for the first time since becoming a high-grade monster, and thanks to this, their battle was beyond smooth—it was easy.
With even Theseus taking action directly and moving freely through the jungle, mere 500,000 Orcs couldn’t possibly match up.
In just 3 days, all Orcs in the jungle were driven out or killed, and around the time peace was restored to the jungle—the construction of bio-facilities began.
The bio-facility, more precisely a bio-facility for reconstructing bodies and assimilating mind-souls into the Hive Mind, is being built where the Lizardmen’s temple and the Priest-King’s palace used to be.
There are three main reasons for this.
First reason: The Lizardmen’s temple has a spawning pool where eggs that have not yet hatched are stored, so building facilities here would allow them to be born subordinated from birth.
The second reason is because of the Lizardmen’s special relic that exists in a fixed state in the temple.
This huge rock, engraved all over with patterns reminiscent of magic circles, not only produces psychic energy on its own but also causes various miracles with this psychic energy.
It can form a psychic shield large enough to cover the entire Lizardmen capital, fire energy bombardments, or even amplify psychic users’ psychic use.
It’s close to an out-of-place artifact that even has a stealth function to hide the location of the capital where the temple is located without any particular energy consumption, but there was no way to interpret it just by looking, so in-depth analysis was needed.
And the third and final reason is that it’s advantageous for deifying me—or further, the Hive Mind.
The reconstruction process can be packaged as a sacred ritual if explained well, and knowing how faith affects personalities, there’s no need to not use it if we can use it.
Therefore, I started building bio-facilities here with the intention of making this temple a place to worship not only their ancestors but also Theseus as their savior, and further, the Hive Mind as their creator.
The existing temple resembles pyramids of ancient South American civilizations like Aztec or Inca, but objectively speaking, it’s undeniably shabby no matter how much you try to dress it up.
So, referencing very good examples from the internet, I started building the temple into a splendid Aztec-style pyramid.
There’s a pillar with splendid pictures drawn on it rising on each side, and at the top, there’s a kind of shrine where the Lizardmen’s relic rock is enshrined.
Deep inside the pyramid is a spawning pool where eggs are stored until they hatch, and there are also facilities for reconstructing Lizardmen inside.
After installing facilities that are close to the best possible at least for now, I ordered the Priest-King through Theseus to reconstruct other Lizardmen.
{‘Priest-King, bring your people here.’}
[I understand, great one.]
But even though I gave the order, I felt something strange about the Priest-King’s actions of reconstructing his people and family—and further, himself—despite knowing the truth of the reconstruction with his transcendent psychic ability.
{‘Priest-King. Do you know the truth of this ‘blessing’?’}
[…Yes.]
{‘Then why on earth did you accept without hesitation bestowing this blessing on your people and yourself?’}
So when I asked the Priest-King directly, his answer was quite unexpected.
[That is because even if the blessing’s purpose may be impure, it is no different from a true blessing for our kin and families.]
{‘…Why is that?’}
[The great being beyond that physical form makes our bodies powerful, and even if the body perishes, the soul is recovered and reborn as a new kin.

You drive away the green barbarians (Orcs) that threatened us and even try to eradicate them completely, and you intend to make our kin prosper widely and develop.
So, it doesn’t matter even if the great being doesn’t think so. The great being is our savior and a sacred one.]
The Priest-King seemed to have a hint of madness, but at the same time, I felt a certain emotion—pure faith—in his words and received a fresh shock.
It feels like it reinforces my existence, which is essentially a mental entity, for an intelligent being who is still thinking and acting on their own without being assimilated into the Hive Mind to send me faith and respect.
Although it might have started as salvation aimed at sympathy, amusement, and good long-term pieces, the moment I heard the Priest-King’s words, I felt a kind of emotion similar to responsibility.
If I had to compare it, this might be the emotion a god feels when looking at their believers.
[You realize @%%:×/.]
[Currently possessing fragment of @%%:×/ (1/3)]
‘…Huh?’
And the moment I realized this, I confirmed that a status window had appeared in front of me at some point.
Although it’s a status window with a word that can’t be interpreted linguistically at all, I could understand the meaning of that word when I saw it.
@%%:×/ was one of many directionalities for becoming a grade 0 monster—if I had to express it briefly, it was transcendence in a mental direction beyond monsters.

※ ※ ※

But even if I’ve realized the directionality, nothing changes right away.
As described in the game, in the case of grade 0 top-grade monsters, it’s close to grouping monsters with completely different directionalities as grade 0 just because they’ve surpassed grade 1 monsters.
Naturally, unlike until now where you just gathered energy and evolved according to instinct, the method of evolving into a grade 0 monster is different for each individual and hasn’t appeared in detail even in the game.
‘…Should I just do as usual?’
So I had to put aside my lingering thoughts about grade 0 for now and deal with the Orcs who had retreated to the plains after withdrawing from the jungle.
Orcs.
They are humanoid monsters named after the green-skinned orcs that appear in fantasy, and their appearance is not much different from the orcs in fantasy worlds.
They are monsters close to fantasy orcs that exude a strong mob-like atmosphere, with well-developed muscles, abnormally large lower jaws and teeth, and greenish-yellow skin.
The size of typical low-grade (grade 7-9) Orcs is between 2 meters to 2.4 meters, with size increasing as they evolve to higher grades, medium-grade being about 3 meters, and Orc Lords being giants comparable to 5 meters.
It varies by region, but they usually form primitive civilizations at a Neolithic level, and Orcs living in grasslands tend to wander rather than settle, mainly continuing their lives through herding and hunting.
Therefore, their dwellings are mostly tents, and they tame medium-sized herbivorous monsters as livestock to ride, showing a typical nomadic lifestyle… similar to the Jurchen people of Manchuria.
Their society is a typical clan society. Relatives centered around families form groups of about several hundred people, and the strongest Orc among them becomes the clan chief.
And as for the most important combat power… honestly, it’s ambiguous to say they’re strong as individuals.
They have thinner skin compared to monsters of the same grade, and due to their bipedal nature, their movement speed is slow, and their strength and toughness are just average.
But this is only talking about Orcs as individuals, and considering that Orcs are humanoid monsters and form groups, the story changes.
Compared to other animal-type monsters they’re inferior, but among humanoid monsters, Orcs rank in the upper-middle tier in terms of combat power.
Except for extreme exceptions like Minotaurs, Ogres, and Trolls, Orcs have powerful physiques and quite tough skin, and they’re famous for their tenacious vitality compared to other monsters.
Although not to the level of regenerating severed arms like Trolls, if severed parts are fixed in their original form, they regenerate from most injuries on their own.
In addition, Orcs possess psychic resistance as a species, which only a very few humanoid monsters are born with, so they don’t have to worry about being swept away by other humanoid shamans.
So to summarize, Orcs are close to being specialized in dealing with other humanoid monsters, but… what does that matter?
‘Seri. It’s your turn.’
[Yes, I understand. I will definitely annihilate those evil Orcs.]
After all, the enemies they have to face now are not humanoids.