Cell Evolution System: The Rogue Queen

5

POV: Leon

The silence that followed that hiss was more terrifying than the hiss itself. I stood my ground, calm as a still lake, while Mark trembled across from me in his lavish territory. The shaking of the earth wasn't just a tremor; it was an announcement of the arrival of something that did not belong to the order of this world. I looked at the entrance of the dark cave my Queen had carved, and a flicker of pride ignited in my chest. I had created a biological masterpiece beyond human comprehension.

Just as Mark was lost in his daze, a massive black silhouette erupted from the ground, lunging upward. The gargantuan creature stood before him, blotting out the sun. Mark stared up blankly, his jaw nearly hitting the floor in sheer disbelief. His beast, the Triceratops, was whimpering in terror, a strange yellow fluid soaking the ground beneath it.

"What... what is this? Where have I been taken? Is this still Earth?!" Mark’s pupils dilated, and his entire face froze in a mask of horror.

In fact, it wasn't just Mark who was petrified. I, Leon, was also taken aback. I scratched my head, feeling a bit awkward. "Ah... did I overdo the nurturing a little?" When I had left the beast space earlier, the Queen was only about my height. But the thing flying out of the tunnel now was a staggering four to five meters tall.

Her pitch-black skeletal structure had morphed into a meso-skeletal frame. A massive, fan-shaped crest had grown over her elongated head, and additional armor plating appeared on her chest. The dorsal tubes on her back had become longer and sharper, forming lethal spikes. Furthermore, the most distinct feature of this Queen compared to normal Xenomorphs was the pair of extra forelimbs on her chest.

Though they looked somewhat disproportionate to her massive body, they allowed her to stand in a horizontal, T-Rex-like posture, presenting a "tripod gait." Her tail was thick and long, resembling a series of skinless bony segments ending in a straight, sword-like tip.

The Queen’s rasping hiss was constant, with translucent slime dripping from her exposed teeth. Looking at her, I knew she was hungry. I figured... well, since Mark is so wealthy, breeding another Triceratops would be child’s play for him.

Before Mark could react, the Queen, driven by an insatiable hunger, lunged at the Triceratops. Her tail swept across with a blur, the stinger piercing deep into the creature’s neck.

The Triceratops let out a blood-curdling wail as blood erupted from its neck like a waterfall, drenching Mark in crimson. Mark stood frozen, staring blankly at his blood-stained hands. Beside him, the Queen had already pinned the Triceratops down, ripping it open to feed.

I wiped the sweat from my brow. Doing this for the first time made me feel a bit guilty. "I hope I haven't left any permanent psychological scars on the poor kid..."

In no time, the Queen had finished devouring the Triceratops. She raised her bloodied head and looked at the still-dazed Mark, saliva dripping from her jaws.

Wait... Mark is my classmate, after all. We have no real grudge; I can't let her use him as food. With a single thought, utilizing the Hive Mind trait, the Queen immediately understood. A second later, she turned without looking back and sprinted into her underground tunnel.

From the moment she emerged to the kill and the retreat, the entire process was seamless—it hadn't even taken a minute. In front of an illogical monster like the Xenomorph, even an Ancient Species stood no chance. What’s more terrifying is that the Xenomorph can assimilate the host’s genes, making the victim's strength its own. As long as she kills enough beasts, the Queen will keep growing stronger. There is no upper limit.

Unlike me, who was comfortably imagining a bright future, Mark was utterly broken. "Who am I? Where am I? What was that thing?!" he thought. Despite his extensive education and top-tier tutors, he had never seen anything like it. "It must be a Mythical Species! Yes, that has to be it! Otherwise, how could it slaughter my noble Triceratops so easily?"

As Mark lost his will to fight, his taming space began to collapse. Within two breaths, we were back in the real world.

The cafeteria was still surrounded by students. They were all expecting me to come out crying and broken, but the scene that greeted them was completely different. I was as calm as ever, if a bit awkward. Mark, on the other hand, was pale as a ghost, soaked in sweat and covered in blood. It looked like he had been to a slaughterhouse.

Mark’s hand went limp, and his beast card fell to the floor with a *clack*. He collapsed right there on the spot.

"What happened? Mark lost?!"

"How? Leon’s beast is just a bug! Did he cheat?"

"Maybe Mark’s beast was just weak?"

Whispers turned into shouts as someone noticed the card on the floor. "Wait! Look! A Triceratops?!"

The crowd exploded. Mark, in his arrogance, had never hidden his beast's info. Everyone now realized that Mark had nurtured a rare Ancient Species on his very first day. The shock was palpable. How could such a powerful creature be defeated in minutes by a bug?

"A bug killed an Ancient Species? Is this a joke?!"

"I just searched the web—there’s no info on a 'Facehugger' anywhere!"

"Could it be that the Facehugger is also an Ancient Species we don't know about?"

Countless eyes turned toward me, many feeling a chill run down their spines. If Leon could crush an Ancient Species with a bug, what kind of monsters were the rest of the top ten? For a moment, the mockery turned into pity for Mark. They realized that the gap between rank 7 and rank 11 was an unbridgeable abyss.

I wasn't gloating, though. I knew this was just the beginning. The Queen isn't the limit. She can evolve into an Empress, and eventually, the Queen Mother—the ultimate organism.

I thought to myself as I went to order my food: "If I've already crushed an ancient type, what's next? It doesn't matter. My army is coming, and

I will show this world the true meaning of evolution."