As his fingertip brushed against the dagger’s scale-like pattern, the neural interface suddenly erupted in a blinding red glow⚠️. Starbound mercenary K instinctively clenched the weapon—unearthed from the ruins of the Zerg homeworld’s core. The cryptic markings on the blade seemed to writhe like living things🌀; the icy chill of contact sent shivers up his nerve endings and into his mind, triggering a cascade of fragmented memories from countless Zerg colonies: crushed starships, roiling swarms, and the dying queen’s whispered last words. He had assumed it was merely an antique worth a hefty price tag—little did he know that, after absorbing a trace amount of his blood, the dagger began voraciously devouring his consciousness. The scattered remnants of Zerg exoskeletons around him suddenly trembled and coalesced, their sharp appendages locking onto the distant human observation station. K’s pupils gradually transformed into the characteristic vertical slits of the Zerg, and he let out a savage grin, tapping the claw-like ornamentation on the dagger’s hilt🔑. It dawned on him: his true identity had never been that of a mercenary at all—but rather a Zerg sleeper agent, dormant for centuries. And this very dagger was the ultimate key to awakening the long-dormant homeworld.