AN: Wow! I am so surprised to see people already following the story. So not much to say except don't expect this to be a story where he's just supremely OP and destroys everyone. I find those stories are fun to read but lack tension because you know the MC will win.

Also I need to apologize for being so late in releasing this chapter. I originally intended to release it the day after the last, however, life has a very particular was of mucking up your plans. Anyways... I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1 – The Overmind

One second he was sitting in his chair playing Starcraft. The next he was knocked unconscious by a high pitched shriek. Following that he happened to end up waking up... in a forest.

"What the hell is going on..?" asked a confused Drew to no-one in particular as he glanced around. He reached out and tapped a tree beside him and that was followed by the 'thunk' of the tree.

"Well, I must have fallen asleep while I was gaming though this is a strange dream. Normally, I'm not able to control what I do in my dreams though, so this is a nice and new experience." He got up and checked his clothes, it was the same black and white tracksuit accompanied by dark blue jogging shoes that he had on when he was in his room.

"At least my clothes are okay. Alright let's see what this dream world has to offer." Thought Drew aloud as he took his first steps towards his future. Of course after the tenth step he collapsed on the floor due to intense pain in his mind. He wanted to scream, but instead when he opened his eyes and his mouth, he found that he couldn't. He saw a giant eye that had a jagged red 'X' iris held in place by long, thick mucus-like strands. The eye was looking directly at him though Drew knew he wasn't there a few seconds ago.

'Hello my child. Know that I am the Overmind and I have the most important task for you.' Drew was stunned into silence. Not only did this dream cause him pain, but he also got to see the Overmind. It even sounded like it was talking directly into his mind, so this was Drew's #1 dream by far.

'You are my reincarnation. Your will is as mine and mine is the prosperity of the Swarm and the elimination of all who seek to harm us. Know that no average Terran would be able to accept my gift so do not waste it. Go forth and prosper! Go forth and show the world the might of the Overmind! Show them the might of the Swarm!'

With those words, Drew found himself once again in the forest, and now no Overmind was in sight. He felt different though, the pain in his head had subsided and now it felt akin to a dull buzz. He rubbed his temples to try and make it go away, however, he was instead greeted by an influx of new information all focused around a particular building- a Hatchery.

Drew couldn't contain his excitement and yelled out, "Woo! I'm going to be the Overmind!" He was so excited he didn't notice the sounds of a sloshing liquid as he ran off.

-|0|-

Ten minutes of happy laughter and running later Drew arrived at a small clearing in the otherwise dense forest. He walked around the clearing for a bit observing the space. The information is his head told him it would fit with space to spare in fact... He put his hand to his head and willed the information to appear in front of him.

Hatcheries: Hatcheries perform three vital functions that no colony can survive without these are producing creep, which most zerg structures require to be built, giving birth to larvae that mutate into various zerg structures and units, and digesting minerals and gases to change into a nutrient form that zerg can use to feed their mutations.

Space Required: 20,000 square feet around build location and 10,000 square feet above build location. (Roughly half an acre/ half a football field)

Build time: 2 hours

The clearing he was in was three times the size of that so he knew he wouldn't have to worry about space. Also there was no build cost, but he assumed that his mind was following the 'first one is always free' rule from the game. So Drew went as close to the center of the clearing as his body willed him to.

'Now what?' thought Drew as he glanced left and right. 'Am I supposed to just will it to happen or...?' He thought about it for a good 2.032 seconds before decided it couldn't hurt to try and so he pointed to the ground and focused on creating a Hatchery... Nothing happened...

He stood there for a second before sighing, "Of course it wouldn't be that easy. While this does have a game-like feel to it, it's not as easy as saying something like Overmind Skills and expecting it to actu- Huh?!" Triggered by his words there was now a slightly transparent black panel that had two skills on it: Spawn Larva and Physic Blast.

After a few button presses he realized the skills were pretty straightforward. Create Larva instantly created a singular larva while Psychic Blast well...

Physic Blast: Channels user's Psychic Energy to be fired in any shape the user wills it to be. The origin of the shape can be anywhere on the user's body and the damage varies based on how much physic energy is put into this skill.

Cast Time: Varies based on how much psychic energy is put into this ability. More psychic energy = Greater Cast Time.

So yeah, he could high-five a tree from way over here... but enough of that. The units were never seen up close in the game, other than in a cinematic, and Drew was excited to see how one of them looked, even if it was just a larva. He held his hands out and focused on the Spawn Larva skill. He immediately felt the sensation of something creeping inside his arm. The feeling went down his arm, past his elbow, and when it reached his hand, a bottle-cap sized hole opened in the center of his palm. From this hole, what looked to be a brown worm crawled out before splatting on the ground.

"So gross, but so cool at the same time. Man I love the zerg." Drew picked up the small creature and admired it. It was a light brownish-yellow and was about the size of his finger... Then it started to grow rapidly. The larva grew until it was as long as the distance from his fingertips to his elbow and as thick as his hand. It was dark brown and was slowly growing a coat of purple and dark blue armor.

He watched the larva's growth for about a minute. Once it was finished, the dark brown of its body was only visible on the very tip of its tail everywhere else was wrapped tightly under its dark bluish-purple carapace. Its face had four eyes, two on each side of its head, and it had three small tongue-like structures where one's mouth would be. It's 'legs' were similar to that of a crab's only the larva's were thicker and more stubby.

"Hmmm... I guess I should have you turn into a drone then." When those words left his mouth the larva curled into a ball and rolled onto the grassy floor. A second passed, then it was encased in a green egg-like sac. The sac was then filled to the brim with a green slime looking substance. Once it was full it started pulsating... like a beating heart. Drew started wondering how long it would take, and his wondering was answered by a voice in his head saying it would take thirty minutes.

Drew admired the gestating egg before he decided to explore the surrounding area. So he spent the next half an hour doing-exploring. When the drone was finished Drew was too far away and decided it didn't make sense to trek back and focused on the drone. He reached out and felt something in the back of his skull. Remembering the dialogue from the game, he figured it was because drones didn't have a psychic presence as they only had one purpose, but those thoughts were for later.

Drew focused on the drone and attempted to command him through his mind.' Evolve into a Hatchery.' were his exact words (thoughts?) and he could 'feel' the drone's understanding and 'felt' it entering its egg state another time. Drew smiled, but then it broke as the realization struck him one more time. If this was a dream, that'd mean he'd have to wake up from it soon.

Drew stopped going North. What was the point if he was going to wake up soon? Drew was mulling on that thought for a while before it was interrupted by a sound similar to sloshing liquid caught his ear. He crouched down a bit and looked towards the direction he heard the sound from. To his surprise what he saw was not a Terran doing something in the water, but rather a creature he recognized from playing many RPGs in the past and something that didn't belong in his Starcraft based dream.

It was a slime

Drew was just staring at the offensive creature. It shouldn't have been in this dream, this one was about Starcraft, so why was it here? Drew was considering ways to get rid of this monster before he remembered he had another skill he wanted to test out. He pointed his open palm towards the slime and felt for his 'psychic energy'. He had to search his mind and with the small buzz that came with the drone it was rather difficult to find it. After a bit, he felt something hot and static-y in his head kind of like lightning. He grabbed onto the feeling and focused on the Psychic Blast skill.

A purple blast, shaped like lightning, flew from his palm and struck the jelly creature. There was only time to blink as the psychic energy was absorbed into the slime as it exploded into quite a few smaller chunks. Drew nodded appreciatively as he stared at his hand, impressed. He glanced at the scattered bits of what was once a slimy blob, shrugged and continued to exploring once more, not noticing that very slowly the blobs were creeping back together.

-|0|-

Around3 hours later, Drew was back in the clearing. He stepped through the forest and was immediately greeted by the sight of his new Hatchery. He didn't know the exact size from his HUD earlier, but now it appeared to be around eight times bigger than him. It resembled a fleshy hill with the way the was shaped- thick at its base and thin at its peak. On its sides were tube-like holes that appeared to lead inside the Hatchery. The sides of it had purplish colored blobs that were full of the same liquid he recognized from the sac earlier. The top of the Hatchery was open and was surrounded by 5 sharp tooth-like... Armor?... Plating?... Maybe it was a mouth? Drew decided he would check later as he intended to do something he wanted to do for months- he was going to check out the inside of the Hatchery.

He walked around its perimeter for a bit, but besides the tube-like openings he couldn't find any other entrance. After that thought crossed his mind, he stared at the tube-like entrances before he, figuring it couldn't hurt to try, stood in front of one of the tubes and was sucked in and thrown inside the Hatchery. He did a very (un)graceful tumble and landed face-first into the bottom of the Hatchery. He got up and removed a thick slime-like substance that clung to his clothes. When he looked around he realized that this slime-like substance was visible on every inch of the Hatchery. Other than this substance the interior of the Hatchery was rather empty, not counting the small circular pool full of a green bubbling liquid. It was directly under the 'mouth' of the Hatchery, which gave it a gloomy appeal.

Drew stared at the pool, trying to figure out what it was. It dawned on him that this must have been the area that the Minerals and Vespene Gas were added to the player's resources. Drew admired the pool with respect when suddenly he felt something nibbling on the side of his leg. He looked down and saw a larva, so he searched for any other areas he missed to try and locate where the larva came from. That's when he realized that the blobs he saw on the outside were the chambers that these babies spawned from. He wondered how many larvae this Hatchery could produce as it was obvious from the 'build' time on the drone and hatchery that the game spawn time was not the same here, and as if on cue:

Larva Spawn Rate: 1 per two hours or 12 larvae daily.

Total Larvae Produced by current Hatchery: 1

Drew appreciated that this information was always readily available when he needed it. It made immersing into this dream world that much easier for him, however, now Drew didn't know what to do. He could try and build a Spawning Pool, but would this dream last long enough for its completion? As he was mulling over his options he felt something on the front of his face and, assuming it was a bug, he tried to swat it off but the feeling stayed. He put his hand to where the sensation was but felt nothing there. He then remembered that the Zerg were a hive mind and slapped himself. He relaxed and immediately felt something crawling around inside his head. He then 'felt' the Hatchery being... happy...?

'Is it you in my mind?' thought Drew and the inside of the Hatchery pulsated which, for some reason, he knew meant yes.' Can you let me outside of you please?' With those thoughts, he was sucked outside through the same tube he used to enter the creature. Once Drew was outside, he immediately slipped and fell onto his face.

The reason he fell was because of a different slime that coated the grassy floor, one that was purple, and one Drew would recognize as creep. The creep felt thick and slimy on Drew's face, not to mention that it was a living organism so it was snaking itself all over his body. Drew jumped back not expecting the sensation. Once he realized it was creep, he easily relaxed and he found the feeling of the creep creeping all over his body to be pleasurable.

He spent five minutes enjoying the feeling before his earlier thought crashed back onto him. The sun was starting to set so he figured that meant he had a few more hours left at best. Drew got up and was startled by how far the creep had expanded it such a short time. It was already touching the two sides of the forest that bordered the clearing.

He felt the Hatchery mentally reach out to him and he answered. He felt the dull buzz in the back of his head explode forth in a major headache. However, It wasn't long enough for him to scream out. He shook his head and glared at the Hatchery. Then he saw, well it would be more accurate to say he felt another slime bordering sitting on the edge of the creep.

'Another one? Oh well it's not something I can't deal with.' Drew shrugged and headed to the direction which the offending slime was, albeit at a fairly relaxed pace. He honestly shouldn't have done that. Warning bells went off in his mind and the same sight from earlier came back. The slime was rolling all over the creep... and eating it.

The warning bells spurred Drew forward and- out of panic- he fired a max power Psychic Blast at the small blob, this time not making it split into chunks, but annihilating it instead. Drew was upset that he wasted all of his 'psychic energy' on a slime, but what's done was done he supposed. He turned around and then felt drowsiness wash over him.

'No! Not yet, there's still so much I want to do!' Drew hurried back towards the Hatchery and then collapsed onto one knee. 'Well it seems like running won't work.' If nothing else maybe I can have this dream another day again... Yeah, maybe.' With that thought Drew asked the hatchery to make a Spawning Pool nearby. He didn't look at the info, knowing it would be pointless in the end.

The Hatchery was able to sense Drew's tiredness and sucked him inside of itself, like a defense mechanism. Drew was knocked unconscious to the feeling of the Hatchery's light breathing like motion.

So, not too much happened it this chapter. Established the location, introduced an enemy type and Drew started to build his Hive Cluster. This is kind of the 'World Intro' chapter if you will, much longer than the last, but I still am going to try to make the average chapter length longer more in the 5k word range.

Also thank you guys for all the follows and favorites, even if there isn't a lot to go off of with the first chapter. I'll try to make it as interesting as possible so we can all enjoy the ride.

So yeah... gotta lotta games to play, so I gotta run, but I'll begin the plot in the next chapter I can promise that much.