Chapter 404: Insect Tide! Insect Tide!
After communicating with Fayaren, Yang Ming felt more at ease, and his previous doubts about 'why hasn't the game started yet' were also answered.
He immediately asked Lu to find Pioneer No. 5 remotely and asked Lu to mobilize resources as much as possible to protect this guy from dying in the insect tide.
How can we casually sacrifice such a useful 'server launch countdown timer'?
However, from another perspective...
Does our little broken ball really have no chance?
The Faya people have begun to no longer shy away from his identity as a candidate and have started to let him do some logistical and physical education teacher work!
Ah this...
There was something strange happening to Posa's body, so she took the initiative to enter the medical cabin.
Yang Ming simply gathered everyone together and looked at the time. A high-level military meeting was about to start. Now he could only make it short and briefly recount the content of his negotiations with the Faya people.
"We are going to hunt a false queen."
Yang Ming said seriously:
“And we need to extract some microorganisms from the body of the fake queen.
“The Queen will feel that the Pseudo-Queen has died in battle, and this will not anger her. However, as long as we take action against the microorganisms in the Pseudo-Queen’s body, it will be equivalent to touching the Queen’s sensitive points, and she will most likely order the swarm to attack us crazily.
"So, this matter cannot be done near Luofeng."
Lu said softly: "Then do it within the empire. However, how to extract the microorganisms of the pseudo-queen and take them away is a more troublesome problem."
026 raised his hand and said, "I can do this job. Boss, go kill a false queen, and I will extract her microorganisms... But you have to tell me how to extract them. My Red Devil has completed three upgrades, which should be useful."
Kolev smiled and said, "You young people should be careful. Can the Faya people be completely trusted?"
"It's not that we completely trust them, but we have no room for bargaining with them," Lu sighed, "This is a dimensionality reduction attack by a high-dimensional civilization on a low-dimensional civilization. It's like when we play some online games and you, as a game administrator, play the game, will you allow those NPCs to resist your will?"
Kolev just clicked his tongue.
Mimi Li suddenly asked: "Why not hunt the fake queen near the New Federation?"
Yang Ming said: "Our influence is mainly in the empire..."
"There are swarms of insects directly under the Queen in the Empire. These insects are very powerful. Although the number of insects facing the New Federation is also very large, the dozen or so pseudo-queens they have obtained must exist in remote areas."
Mimi Li smiled and said:
"Our fleet was outside the New Federation and attacked the Zerg from behind. After killing a pseudo-queen, we immediately dispersed and escaped.
"Wouldn't it be enough to let the fleet carrying the fake queen's microorganisms enter the empire and muddy the waters?
“If we want to take action, we must do so when the Zerg launches a full-scale offensive.
"It would be hard to explain it within the Empire, and we would have to bear additional risks within the Empire. That is to say, she has now integrated the Empire's network, and it is not appropriate for us to take any action within the Empire."
026 retorted: "If the boss is not here, can we defeat the sixth-level pseudo-queen?"
"Yes," Lu said softly, "We need to mobilize more than half of our elite fleet. Although it is risky, the overall risk is controllable. We can also directly pull Miss Hera's research ship over and collect materials and conduct experiments on the spot. I am confident that our fleet can avoid the Zerg's counterattack."
Yang Ming closed his eyes and thought. After several people expressed their opinions, they stopped talking for fear of disturbing Yang Ming.
Yang Ming said: "Mimili, Lu, 026, the three of you will carry out the task of hunting down the false queen. We will discuss the location. It does not have to be within the New Federation, as long as it is not in the Empire area."
The three of them answered at the same time, and then gathered together to start discussing.
Yang Ming checked the time and rushed to the medical cabin for a look. He found that Posa seemed to be enduring some kind of pain. Her back was glowing and there were several question marks on her forehead.
What's wrong with her?
Feel like growing wings?
The Faya people put much more effort into Posa than he, a latecomer who got in the way.
Yang Ming originally wanted to bring Po Su to attend today's military meeting to boost the confidence of the military leaders, but now it seems that the opportunity for her to show up will have to be postponed again.
When we returned to the bridge, the holographic conference equipment had already been set up.
Yang Ming entered the virtual conference room and, under the gaze of a group of generals, sat down in the only empty seat on the podium.
The Knight Commander badge on his chest was extremely conspicuous.
Lieutenant General Thomas, who was presiding over the meeting, said in a deep voice: "Hanton is here, let's get started... The current situation is not optimistic. Although we have made so many preparations, we still dare not say that we are sure to repel such a terrifying swarm of insects."
Yang Ming sat there quietly, thinking about the right time to speak.
He needed to have more say, and communication with the Fayals was his best bargaining chip when facing the Empire.
…
Ding, ding, ding, ding——
A coin that kept spinning slowly landed on the table.
There was a constant rumbling sound coming from the ground. Even if you were sitting on the suspended sofa, you could still feel the vibration of the conference room.
This is Skywrath Fortress, an artificial planet that is currently traveling in space.
Gris opened a few bottles of sustained-release nerve agents that would not make one drunk and handed them to several middle-aged men and women in military uniforms around him.
There were a dozen people resting in another corner of the conference room, waiting for combat orders at any time. At this moment, they could just find a place to lean against and recharge their energy.
"I'm about to go fight the bugs. Do you have anything else to tell me? I can keep your account passwords, equity securities, precious metals, etc. I'm lucky!"
"Get lost! I've already left it for my wife and kids!"
"Hahaha!"
Gris sighed, "It's already good enough that we can arrange for our family to stay in the Imperial Star Circle. At least half of the administrative stars in the Empire have been exposed to the threat of the Zerg, and they can only hide in underground shelters."
"There's nothing we can do about it. If we stretch our defense line, it will only give the Zerg a chance to defeat us one by one."
"It's time to stop thinking about this."
"That's just my feeling," Gris took a sip of his drink. "Let's not talk about anything else. Just the shielding technology that White Ghost brought out, I don't know how many humans it can save this time."
"I heard that the Zerg can also evolve. If they can't find humans this time, they will be able to evolve corresponding abilities next time."
"Then our technology cannot be updated and iterated?"
"What I'm saying is," a middle-aged man muttered quietly, "we are an empire, not a democratically elected government, otherwise the White Ghost would have definitely replaced the president."
"Why!"
Grace glared at the guy: "Watch your words! Do you really think so?"
He winked at the monitor in the corner.
"Hey, that's just what I said... Just pretend you didn't hear it, hahaha."
"Tell me, why do the Zerg have to go against us?"
"The continuation of the high-dimensional war, that's what the textbooks say."
"And there's also a squeeze on ," Gris said with a smile, "The fertility rate of humans in the Milky Way has been below 1% for years. This is a problem in our current society, but as long as we open up the technology of in vitro fertilization of fertilized eggs, the population will explode rapidly. We can fill up the Milky Way at an exponential rate."
"Then why don't we do this?"
"Higher-dimensional civilizations don't allow it. That's what's written in university textbooks," one person laughed. "Higher-dimensional civilizations want our primitive human civilization to develop in a small-scale, sustainable way, constantly changing within the Milky Way to explore different possibilities. Population explosions give rise to a new large galaxy cluster civilization, which consumes a lot of heavy elements in the entire Milky Way... Damn it, anyway, higher-dimensional civilizations won't let us increase our population indefinitely."
"Ah, look," someone seemed to have found a blind spot, "The higher-dimensional civilization doesn't want us to have a population explosion, and the higher-dimensional civilization wants us to fight against the space Zerg. Isn't this treating us like fools!"
"Yes," Gris said with a smile, "If you want to curse, just curse the high-dimensional civilization. They won't bother with us. Let's not say anything else!"
A few people chuckled.
"Gris, aren't you familiar with Ghost? Do you have any gossip?"
Grace sighed, "What gossip can I have? He's a very busy man. He's now a formal member of the committee and the chief expert in dealing with insect swarms. I'm just an ordinary enhanced elite captain. We can't compare, we can't compare."
As they were talking, a majestic ringtone came from Gris's pocket.
He opened it and took a look, and immediately became alert. He made a gesture to the people around him to keep quiet and chose to answer the call.
A bust of Yang Ming appeared in front of Gris.
The other people subconsciously sat up straight and hid the drinks in their hands behind their backs.
Yang Ming's eyes were very bright, and a strong sense of self-confidence came over him, as if he had already put a knife on the Queen's neck.
"Gris, are you busy?"
"Ah, waiting for combat orders, we have entered combat readiness!"
Grace smiled and said, "I thought you had some orders to give, but it seems like you just want to chat with me and reminisce about the past."
"I can't convey the order directly to you," Yang Ming laughed, "I'm just worried about you and asked if you're under a lot of pressure."
Grace laughed, glanced at his brothers out of the corner of his eyes, and raised his eyebrows.
The other people immediately looked indignant.
Grace smiled and said, "What's the pressure? If the insect tide comes, just fight them. Do your job well and exert all your strength. The worst that can happen is that you will fight the insects."
"Don't have the mentality of sacrificing yourself for the good of others. You can only continue to output if you are alive."
Yang Ming gave a warning and then asked, "Do you have enough mechas prepared?"
"Enough. There are many of them. They are all new models developed based on your Ghost Mech. They reduce the load on the pilot and increase firepower and group combat linkage systems."
Grace said quickly:
"There are 1.2 million mechas of this type in the Skywrath Fortress, and over the past year, 920,000 new general modifiers have been added.
“Later, we will act as a sharp knife and carry out the order to attack the Queen.
"Once the Empire's war machine is set in motion, it is truly terrifying."
"The number of bugs the empire has to face is in the hundreds of billions," Yang Ming shook his head, "You don't have enough people."
“Ah, this!”
Yang Ming said: "At the combat meeting just now, I have rejected the combat plan of using you to fight a war of attrition. You will soon receive a transfer order and will be dispersed to various fleet groups to carry out the order to protect the flagships of each fleet group."
Gris smiled awkwardly: "Okay, I'll listen to you. You're an expert in killing insects."
Yang Ming laughed and continued, "Gris, I hope you can lead 50,000 transformed warriors to my side and I will personally command them."
"It's fine as long as there's a transfer order."
"Time is running out. Remember to bring your best equipment. Each person should be equipped with two mechas. The logistics team must bring enough. I will lead you to conduct rapid mobile operations. Our target is those false queens, who are the command center of the insects."
Yang Ming said:
“I have just come into contact with a higher-dimensional civilization. The insect swarm will soon break out, and it will break out simultaneously across the entire galaxy.
"The bugs will not give us a chance to support each other. They will prioritize attacking our fleet. However, before attacking our fleet, they may look for human gathering points to clean up in order to crush our morale and disrupt the mood of our soldiers.
“So, no matter what kind of news you see next, don’t get impatient or anxious.
“We need to keep our sanity.”
"Yes!" Gris shouted loudly.
Yang Ming sighed and saluted to Ge Lisi: "Come here within half a day, I'm waiting to fight alongside you."
Gris stood up quickly, returned a military salute to Yang Ming, and hung up the call himself.
Um?
Why do I feel like there's something wrong with the atmosphere around me?
When Gris turned his head, he saw a dozen strong men and women with green eyes rushing towards him.
"Gris! We usually have a good relationship, right?"
"I always take you with me when I go out to drink and pick up girls!"
"Gris! Do you remember that we were drunk that day?"
"Take me one!"
"Damn! Charging against the bugs with White Ghost is worth it even if I die!"
"My players are all White Ghost fans!"
Grace: ...
His damn charisma.
…
On the border of the empire, on a remote administrative planet.
In the underground shelter that is more than 800 meters deep, people are scattered in dozens of underground fortresses. The internal structure of each fortress is like an ant cave, and hundreds to thousands of humans live in each "room".
They have prepared sufficient supplies, have a complete oxygen production system and sewage disposal system, and will not have any interaction with the outside world.
In addition, they were required to maintain radio silence.
No one knows what's going on outside.
But the red indicator light, indicating that the second disaster had arrived, remained on.
When the insect tide recedes, someone will come to tell them that the disaster is over, and they can return to the cities on the surface, resume their previous lives, continue to reproduce and thrive on this planet, and pass on their genes.
Everyone's emotions are relatively stable.
Taking the cave at the very edge as an example, except for the lack of internet access, all kinds of facilities are available here.
To the sound of rhythmic music, dozens of elderly human men and women performed a simple social dance, while the young people who should be the most sociable gathered near the game consoles and book shelves, keeping a relative distance.
The simple children's playground is the most popular among children. Parents chat and drink tea at the tables and chairs next to it. Everything is so "normal".
The door to the cave is covered with a picture of the White Ghost's armor.
This is their patron saint, although now, this patron saint cannot float above the planet to express deterrence to the insects that may arrive here.
"We are actually still in danger," a middle-aged man said worriedly, "Even if the bugs can't sense our biological information, our city is above the surface. If they want to deal with us, they can still find us by searching underground."
"But why would they want to deal with us who have no ability ?"
"Yes, the bugs will first look for the army. Don't scare yourself here. If we were on the surface, the bugs might come down and slaughter us when they pass by. There is no need for them to attack us now."
"To disrupt our military formation and put pressure on our troops?"
"That's possible..."
"Can you please think of something positive? We are all under a lot of pressure! Can you please stop talking about these nonsense?"
boom!
Suddenly there was a slight tremor at the edge of the cave.
A faint crack appeared on the cave ceiling above.
People looked up with a bit of fear in their eyes, and the rhythmic music became a little abrupt, abrupt and noisy.
Boom, boom!
Stone chips fell down, and the sound of impact became louder and louder!
In just a few seconds, the cave roof suddenly collapsed, and a giant digging worm, which was pitch black and tens of meters long, crashed down the stone wall, crushing dozens of humans who had no time to dodge.
The black armor;
Those terrifying compound legs and mouthparts dripping with highly corrosive mucus;
The slightly vibrating tentacles and the thin wings spread out on the back...
"insect!"
"They found us!"
"ah--"
Screams, buzzing, and cursing.
Insects six or seven meters long swarmed down from the huge hole above.
In the corner of the cave, a child was trembling all over and was tightly hugged by his mother. An ordinary fifth-level adult insect swooped over, and its raised knife-like limbs and the fragile but strongly arched back of the child's mother formed a picture of cruelty.
Blood was splattered on the corner wall.
Tens of thousands of digging worms digging at the same time on the surface of the planet began to gather in this direction.
Countdown to the Zerg Tide: 0 standard galactic days.
