Chapter 123 Swarm Tide

*Whoosh—*

A sharp whistling sound pierced the sky.

Oval-shaped shells shot out from the high-rise jungle of the ruined city, drawing beautiful arcs in the air before finally falling into the middle of the beast swarm.

*Bang!*

The pale shells of the bombs burst open, spraying out large amounts of yellowish-green smoke.

The smoke spread rapidly. Any machine beast caught within it suddenly slowed down, then staggered and fell to the ground, limbs twitching and sparking with electricity.

Their surface armor and joints were severely corroded, and their central processors were destroyed by the pervasive corrosive smoke.

*Boom!!*

The ground was lifted in chunks as six gigantic creatures burst from the surface.

They looked like worms magnified countless times, their bodies covered in layers of tough, fish-scale-like armor plates tightly connected to prevent underground sand and rocks from cutting their muscles.

Their heads… or rather, one end of their bodies, were olive-shaped.

The top was a protruding three-jaw spiral drill bit, with arrays of multi-jaw drill bits on the sides.

The drill bits varied in size and shape, but their color was dull, making it difficult to tell whether they were biological or mechanical—after all, all the drill bits could rotate freely, and there were no visible eyes or mouths.

Only a small part of the tunneling worms’ bodies were exposed above ground, but even that small portion was comparable to an entire subway car.

The machine beast swarm instinctively avoided the tunneling worms, the silver tide splitting and branching as if encountering a solid reef.

The tunneling worms didn’t actively attack the machine beasts (except for those knocked away or crushed when they emerged from the ground).

Instead, they wriggled forward a short distance, rotated their drill bits, and burrowed back underground.

Leaving behind two wide, pitch-black tunnels.

*Swish—*

The sound of heavy rain and dense footsteps immediately came from the tunnels as a large number of ferocious creatures climbed out of the underground passages.

They could be broadly divided into two types: beast-class and servant-class.

The beast-class were larger, with four limbs and long tails. They stood on sturdy hind legs, with their forelimbs holding firearms (the firearms varied, some purely made of biological flesh and blood, some crafted by human civilization, some made of lost-world materials, and some mixed from multiple materials).

Their tails were generally long, tapering sharply at the end.

They resembled velociraptors.

These beast-class zerg soldiers were covered in layers of tough chitin mixed with metal armor, the gaps between the armor filled with countless tiny pores for heat dissipation and oxygen extraction.

Tens of thousands of beast-class zerg soldiers rushed out of the tunnels at speeds comparable to cars (their long tails helping to maintain balance).

They formed a formation at the tunnel entrances and fired their weapons at the surrounding machine beasts, unleashing a barrage of fire.

Various types of heavy bullets flew through the air, and the surrounding machine beasts fell like wheat.

Only a very few machine beasts managed to step over the corpses of their comrades and reach the front of the defensive line.

The blades of ordinary machine beasts could cut through a layer of armor on the beast-class zerg soldiers.

However, the armor on the zerg soldiers' bodies was controlled by muscles. Once it sensed a cut, it would quickly contract its muscles.

The armor on both sides would clamp down like iron pliers, firmly gripping the machine beast's blade and preventing it from causing more damage.

Also emerging from the tunnels were the servant-class zerg soldiers.

They were smaller, similar to medium-to-large dogs.

They carried biological bone knives, sharp blades scavenged from machine beasts, and small firearms.

The number of servant-class zerg soldiers was comparable to the beast-class. They were agile and swift, running even faster than the latter.

They could move freely across the battlefield, using their bone knives to sever or their firearms to break the limbs and joints of machine beasts, causing them to collapse and be trampled to death by their comrades.

Six fortress-class tunneling worms meant six tunnels.

The beast-class and servant-class zerg soldiers constantly emerging from underground surrounded the tunnel entrances, devouring the surrounding machine beast swarm like reefs.

Coordinating with them was the swarm's long-range firepower—

Hundreds of large creatures called "heavy-class" slowly crawled out of the steel jungle city.

Their size was comparable to elephants. They usually had six limbs, the rear four sturdy and thick, with sharp thorns at the ends that could dig deeply into the ground.

The smaller front limbs supported the surface, acting as support and cushioning.

There were more than ten models of heavy-class zerg soldiers, but they were generally used as artillery and tanks.

They usually had a single or twin-barreled heavy cannon mounted on their backs, the cannon's length exceeding the heavy-class zerg soldier itself. The cannon barrel had no rifling, making it a smoothbore cannon in a sense.

Rifled cannons with rifling inside the barrel had a major advantage over smoothbore cannons in that the rifling could impart a spin to the projectile, allowing it to fly stably after leaving the barrel.

But faced with a machine beast swarm that didn’t require aiming, the swarm, capable of targeted evolution, naturally chose smoothbore cannons with higher chamber pressure and relatively simpler manufacturing.

All of the heavy-class zerg soldiers' cannon barrels were connected to their backs. The heavy-class's exaggerated weight could absorb the recoil from firing, and the eight pairs of chimney-like organs on the black armor on their backs could dissipate heat and cool the cannon barrel.

Behind each heavy-class zerg soldier were a dozen or so beast-class and servant-class zerg soldiers.

They were responsible for loading various types of shells into the heavy-class zerg soldier's back loading port.

Dealing with the machine beast ocean didn't require armor-piercing shells.

More often, they used grenades and biological explosive shells—a swarm weapon like a mortar shell, shaped like a sphere, with a solid exterior that would automatically explode upon impact.

They used shockwaves, chemicals, gunpowder explosions, shell fragments, and other means to kill the enemy.

Sometimes they also fired special shells containing corrosive gases.

Hundreds of heavy-class fired in unison, the ground resembling a drum surface being struck rapidly amidst dense booms.

Vibrating, undulating, shaking.

Dust was kicked up by the shockwaves, and gravel and metal fragments fell like rain.

The machine beasts hit by the shells were shattered to pieces, and those around the blast crater were torn apart, buried in the soil.

A few machine beasts were lucky and tough enough.

They broke through the heavy blockades of servant-class and beast-class zerg soldiers and weren't hit by the dense artillery barrage, roaring (some machine beasts would emit voices like "Welcome to the Garden Area, Level 42 of the Sanctuary") as they pounced toward the steel city.

*Bang, bang, bang, bang!*

Countless figures fell from the high-rise buildings on the city's periphery.

The massive guard-class zerg soldiers blocked the heavy-class's front, firing at the machine beasts and quickly extinguishing the enemy's charge.

On the entire battlefield, the swarm units weren’t without casualties.

The most numerous beast-class and servant-class were sometimes swarmed by fearless machine beasts and killed directly.

But their corpses were quickly recovered by some special swarm units (worker-class and special-class), pulled into the dark tunnels, and disappeared.

Replaced by more zerg soldier units.

Machine beasts, fighting only with their bodies, were ultimately limited.

The swarm, which had made targeted evolutions and adopted targeted tactics, quickly seized the initiative on the battlefield.

The "seemingly endless" machine beast swarm was quickly divided and devoured bit by bit.

As a security guard crouching on the wall at the rear of the battlefield emitted a sharp cry, several other security guards began to move, landing in front of the machine beast swarm, using their blades to slash and drive the machine beasts, stopping their charge.

They turned into a certain pipeline in the rear of the battlefield and retreated.

Only the swarm units were still active on the battlefield.

The heavy-class and guard-class zerg soldiers slowly withdrew into the depths of the city.

The beast-class and servant-class at the tunnel entrances scattered, using firearms and biological bone knives to finish off the machine beasts that weren’t completely dead.

And a massive number of worker-class crawled out of the tunnels, collecting the corpses of swarm units.

Using their sharp teeth and claws to cut off the machine beasts' limbs, they carried them to the ruined city.

The process of cleaning the battlefield was silent and quiet.

So quiet that Nina in front of the screen felt a tremor from her soul.

"Zerg? Natural disaster?"

Qin took a deep breath and murmured, "What exactly are these things?"

"Biological weapons."

Eva said expressionlessly, "Like the flying creature we saw before. Born purely for war, slaughter, and devouring.

Look closely at those dead swarm units. Their bodies are full of organs, muscles, and bones.

They don't have digestive or reproductive systems, organs that take up a large amount of space in ordinary creatures.

There's a small chance I'm wrong, but it's likely that these zergs have abandoned digestion and reproduction functions,

Being fed by other zergs, directly replenishing biomass and energy,

And leaving reproduction to other types of zergs.”

"More ant-like than ants..."

Pei Youzhen murmured, a flash of light in her eyes, "Could it be that Ant King? I heard he keeps an army of biological weapons."

"No, it can't be him."

Qing Xingdeng's face was gloomy as she said in a low voice, "I've fought the Ant King before. His own strength is only so-so. As for his army of biological weapons?

It's okay to bully modern armies without heavy weapons,

But it's not even in the same dimension as this army of hundreds of thousands or millions of zergs.

The difference is like heaven and earth."

If it were usual, Qing Xingdeng would definitely use a mocking tone to ridicule the Ant King, one of the Seven Wuhai,

But now she had completely lost her interest and was instead enveloped by shock and fear.

Suppose she fell into the center of the zerg battlefield. How long could she last in the face of overwhelming artillery fire and an endless ocean of biological weapons?

Half an hour? Or fifteen minutes?

Perhaps in less than ten minutes, she would have to use all the equipment effects on her body, exhaust most of her potions, and put all her skills on cooldown...

Or even worse,

In order to survive, she would overuse the ability of 【Hannya Transformation】, completely lose her self-awareness, and become a monster without a mind, only with the instinct to kill...

No, calm down, calm down.

Qing Xingdeng took a deep breath and forced herself to wake up from her terrible imagination.

The biological weapons in the picture weren’t that scary.

The strongest point of players was the mobility granted by the strange and varied skills.

Even if they couldn't beat the vast zerg sea, they could always escape and retreat—judging from this local war alone,

The zerg sea units didn’t seem to have ultra-high-speed mobile units...

Qing Xingdeng slowly exhaled a turbid breath, not thinking about the most terrible possibility: the zerg may not have shown their true strength, and there were more terrible things hidden in the dark, lightless large city ruins...

"The detector is still on."

Eva's face was pale, her lips tightly pressed together. She looked at the system detector in the corner of the basement and said in a low voice, "Did the camera show the picture just now?"

"Yes."

Nina nodded.

"That's good."

Eva lowered her eyes, her mind racing. At this moment, the support team in the real world must be analyzing the picture information and deducing the origin and combat power of those strange creatures.

It was a pity that there was a barrier between the lost world and the real world. Information could only go out but not in, and they couldn't receive the analysis results from the outside world...

"Where did these monsters come from? What are they doing? What's their identity?"

Qin frowned and asked, "Are they player summons?

Or players from another world?

Or dangerous species that escaped from a secret test site in the lost world?

Why are they conflicting with the machine beasts and security guards?"

"It can't be summons."

Qing Xingdeng said seriously, "Even the Thousand-Throated Beast Guild, which is the best at taming monsters, its president, ranking 23rd Mistletoe, can only summon five two-headed Chimera Flying Dragons at the same time.

Summons consume the user's various stats.

The hundreds of thousands of biological weapons on the battlefield can't be summoned by players of the current level. No matter how strong a player is, they can't do it.

Moreover, judging from the behavior of those biological weapons, they recycle their own corpses and dismantle enemy parts, obviously having a complete logistics system.

This also contradicts the characteristic that summon-type skills must have a maintenance time."

Hai Fangzhu thought for a moment and said in a low voice, "Could it be that they were brought in from the outside using space storage equipment?"

"The possibility is very, very small."

Qing Xingdeng said expressionlessly, "Players' inventory slots can't store living things,

And those space equipment and props that can store living things,

Their capacity is directly proportional to their price,

But at most, it won't exceed the volume of a building.

The volume of all biological weapons added together definitely exceeds the building, and even if they are biological weapons, space needs to be reserved when storing them. It's impossible to stuff them all in—

Unless that space storage equipment is also very considerately equipped with zero-gravity and freezing functions, allowing the organisms deposited in it to fall into hibernation and weightlessness, and not crush each other due to their weight.

Moreover, even if the storage problem is solved, how will players solve communication and command?

I don't think there's any possibility that the current players can do it..."

Before she could finish speaking, Nina's control panel made a cracking sound.

*Crack!*

The screen suddenly turned black, startling a few people and almost causing them to draw their weapons.

"A drone was attacked!"

Nina's face changed drastically. She pressed the control panel several times, switching the picture from drone 1 to drone 2. Only then did she see that

Drone 1 had been pierced by a nearly one-meter-long spike.

Attacking it was the swarm's flying unit that the Wind Chasers had seen before—a flight formation consisting of a dozen or so scout zerg soldiers swooped over and grabbed the smoking drone 1.

Dragging it to the ground and tearing it apart with their claws.

Eva said anxiously, "Quick, let the other one leave!"

Without her companion's reminder, Nina pressed the button, ordering drone 2, which was parked at the rear, to fully activate its stealth function and slowly fly backward at an extremely slow speed.

Fortunately, drone 2 was parked relatively far back. After turning a corner, it couldn't see the battle scene.

Qin couldn't help asking, "How was the first drone discovered?!"

"Who knows."

Eva's expression was gloomy as she said, "The sound of the propeller blades, the humming of the motor, the heat radiation emitted by the motor, or the change in the position of the black clouds in the dome caused by the propeller blades stirring—the stealth function can't block this."

She turned to look at Nina and said softly, "Is the signal from the portable communication device confirmed to be in the middle of the battlefield?"

The latter shook her head. "It's on the left edge of the city, but with this drone alone, it definitely can't pass through the defensive line..."

Suddenly, without any warning, drone 2 was displaced passively—a delicate whip made of dozens of pieces of wood swept silently, hooked the drone's body, and pulled it back hard.

The drone's lens spun around, and when it stabilized again, it was facing several faces: Bai Haozheng, Qi Mian Xuantian, and Juzi, who was holding the wooden whip.

They were lurking in a broken large pipeline. Seeing the 【Longteng-style Support Drone】, their expressions changed slightly, obviously recognizing that it was owned by Nina.

Ju Tianfu and Long Xiangbao Bian weren’t seen...

Qing Xingdeng narrowed her eyes and took half a step back.

Bai Haozheng thought for a moment, waved his palm, released his mind power, and re-added the soundproof barrier that Juzi had just destroyed when he waved the wooden whip. Looking at the drone lens, he said softly, "Excuse me, is this the Indian Special Situation Security Department? I'm Bai Haozheng, an intelligence analyst from the Special Affairs Administration."

Nina looked at Eva. After receiving the latter's affirmative nod, she pressed the button on the control device, remotely projecting her face on the screen of the Longteng-style Support Drone.

Bai Haozheng had also met the Wind Chasers before. The last time the Wind Chasers recorded a program, they had come to Yin City.

After the two sides met, they breathed a sigh of relief. After briefly asking about the situation, Eva immediately asked that question, "Mr. Bai, where is Ju Tianfu? We received intelligence before that he was with you..."

"..."

Bai Haozheng paused, his expression serious, "I'm sorry, Comrade Ju Tianfu was accidentally involved in the war between the Zerg and the Machine Beasts half an hour ago.

He was captured by the Zerg creatures occupying the 41st floor of the city ruins."

Huh?

Qing Xingdeng on the side raised her eyebrows slightly, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously raised slightly.

Captured?

Interesting.

"How could that be?!"

Eva's face changed drastically, "Aren't the members of the Special Affairs Administration equipped with emergency tactical suits?"

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"They are equipped."

Bai Haozheng nodded and said in a low voice, "But the Zerg can release high concentrations of hypnotic gas to bypass the automatic surrender function of the emergency tactical suits.

We are now trying to rescue him..."

Qing Xingdeng was even more proud. If they were going to rescue Ju Tianfu, then the other party would definitely have no energy to turn around and find trouble with Qing Xingdeng and the others.

Maybe Qing Xingdeng could also muddle through and use the Zerg to harm and eliminate these people from the Special Affairs Administration camp...

"...them."

Bai Haozheng said seriously, "Not only Ju Tianfu was captured in the Zerg nest, but also Long Xiangbao Bian of the Special Affairs Administration, Chengying of the Sword King's Court Guild, Twilight Knight of the Royal National Church Knights, Li Tangjianxue of the Phantom Moon Ring, and Tumon Komitsu of the Japan Abnormal Affairs Investigation Bureau..."

Hearing the last name, Qing Xingdeng, who had been smiling happily ("These idiots were wiped out hahaha"), suddenly changed her face.

Tumon Komitsu was the child of a high-ranking official of the Japan Abnormal Affairs Investigation Bureau...

———

Zerg Nest City, in the depths.

In the underground works, which were covered with fungus carpets, meat blocks, and alien plants, seven Overminds each lay in a life-support pod, with a large number of catheters connected to the back of their brains.

Some catheters were responsible for transporting nutrients to the Overminds and discharging waste,

Some catheters were connected to the Zerg biological factory, reporting the status of the biological factory directly to the Overmind in the form of nerve signals—the latter could issue nerve commands underground to remotely control the biological factory.

And now, these seven Overminds were reporting their work to their creator and father.

"Captured players..."

In the upper layer of the Lost World, Li Ang thought silently, "How should they be dealt with..."