Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 174 Bait arrangement

Just when Chen Ming had a clear idea in his mind.

The robot he had arranged before to go to the landing point of things entering the planet's atmosphere from space in the video finally arrived at its destination.

It's just that five months have passed since the day the video took place.

The landing point has been completely covered by these huge plants unique to the planet.

Except that the plants here are sparser and less vigorous than those around them, which shows that the plants here have been damaged and have grown again.

No trace was left.

But fortunately, Chen Ming had thought about this possibility before and prepared some things in advance.

He immediately modified a set of geological exploration equipment for the robot near the landing point.

Let the robot start collecting soil near the landing point and under the center of the landing point.

Soon the results of the geological survey came out.

Chen Ming did not find any traces of asteroids or meteorites.

No stone or metal elements unique to space were brought to the planet.

Instead, he found some broken gray-green growths in the soil underground.

It can be seen without any research that these growths must be left behind by the Zerg.

Only traces of bugs were found, but no traces of the meteorites that were expected to bring bugs into the atmosphere were found.

What this means is that Chen Ming's mood, which has been unable to calm down, has fluctuated significantly again.

Maybe these bugs...he didn't need to eliminate them.

In addition to the traces found here, Chen Ming also realized something.

First of all, he can measure the vegetation at the landing point and the density difference between the soil layer beneath the landing point and the soil layer next to it, as well as the size of the red shiny area where the thing rubs against the atmosphere in the video.

It is estimated that this is a destroyer-sized "thing" belonging to the Zerg race that landed here wrapped in almost completely full of bugs.

The bugs that attacked the mechanical city before were obviously more bugs than a hundred-meter-long destroyer could fill.

This shows that the Thorn Zerg have indeed begun to breed on the planet as he thought before.

The bugs that attack the city are definitely only part of the Thrawn bugs currently on the planet.

More zerg must be breeding in some dark underground cave.

Chen Ming can try to reversely track the location of the insect nest through the tunnel dug by the Zerg just now.

Although the tunnel completely collapsed under the artillery bombardment of the cluster of [Machine Tribe Heavy Machinery - Blazing Silkworms] located in the center of the city just now.

However, the [Machine Tribe Small Mechanical Body and Digging Worm] that he had just controlled can perform such work.

But Chen Ming has a better choice.

It is much more efficient to let the highest point enter the planet's atmosphere and scan at full power without being affected by the atmosphere than to let the burrowing insects dig back along the road dug by the Zerg.

After confirming the location and specific situation of the bugs, he could decide how to face these bugs in the future.

But this matter cannot be rushed, he has to do other things first.

Chen Ming forced himself not to think too much about the bugs. Anyway, the bugs were on the planet now, and they would never be able to escape under the supervision of the highest point.

He now let his robot board the landing craft with the insect corpse samples and the mechanical race controlled by him, and returned to space, back to the Defender.

In order to prevent some possible accidents, Chen Ming would rather spend more time and freeze the insect corpses on the defender.

I'll look for an opportunity to send it back to China.

After doing this, Chen Ming unconsciously started thinking about bugs again.

After all, if his conjecture is correct, then the Zerg may also bring him some special benefits.

These thoughts made him feel itchy and unbearable. He just wanted to deal with the bug matter quickly so as to determine whether his idea could be realized.

Although Chen Ming should now handle the matter of the mechanical race and the Zerg race together.

But he couldn't help but focus all his attention on the Zerg things.

The High Point quickly entered the planet's atmosphere with brilliance under his control, leaving the Defenders in orbit.

Chen Ming deliberately kept a distance from the mechanical city, arrived at the location where the Zerg landed, turned on the galaxy scanning array at full power, and locked the scanning target on the surface below.

Scans powerful enough to cover the entire galaxy stretch from the planet's surface deep into its mantle.

A detailed scan is performed in this interval.

The mechanical tribes in the distant mechanical tribe city seem to be unable to see the highest point suspended in the sky in the distance, and are still doing their own futile work.

A few minutes later, the scanning equipment at the highest point penetrated several kilometers into the ground, following structural features in the underground soil and rock layers that were obviously different from other places.

And here, Chen Ming finally locked his target.

A huge Zerg nest located deep underground that covers an area almost the same as a city on the surface.

In the center of this lair, there is a giant Zerg organism hundreds of meters in length.

It's still alive and has a slightly elongated, symmetrical appearance.

And its body is connected to the core existence of the insect nest, the insect queen.

Although Chen Ming looks a bit different, its overall appearance is somewhat similar after a few glances.

This giant organism seemed to be what he was looking for.

And what surprised Chen Ming even more.

From this giant Zerg organism, there are some growths wrapped around a special Zerg tissue, like a thick and long tentacle, extending from deep underground to the surface.

Chen Ming looked up along this tentacle.

It was eventually discovered that this extending tentacle branched into thousands of more slender tentacles near the surface.

Then, it was connected under almost every solar panel in the solar panel array that powered the mechanical city.

Chen Ming looked at this scene and thought for a long time.

Suddenly I understood something.

That is, the Zerg have the ability to convert electricity into bioenergy.

No wonder when he went to ask Bai Quan for the records, he found that when the former military team boarded the space station, the entire space station was already empty, and even the warehouses had been emptied.

Now it seems that this is the reason. The Zerg have the ability to convert electrical energy, so it is normal to empty the fuel warehouse.

And he suddenly understood.

Why did he find a gap in the entire city's power supply when he controlled the tower before?

He previously thought it was because the electrical equipment was damaged.

Now it seems that such a group of things are hosted at the core of the city's power supply. It is strange that there is no shortage of power.

Let's be honest, now that the bugs that once settled in the warm space of the space station's power generation zone have evolved the ability to convert electrical energy into bioenergy.

It's not surprising that Chen Ming evolved something like an engine.

But now, although Chen Ming has investigated the specific location of the Zerg nest.

But this depth.

Don't talk about digging.

The solar panels on it alone would cause him to conflict with the mechanical races he didn't yet control.

He can definitely beat them, but Chen Ming doesn't want to waste these mechanical tribes in a place like this.

He also wants to control these mechanical races and make them his abnormal sub-individuals.

Not to mention the spiritual power of the repayment, the strength of the mechanical race itself is worth what Chen Ming does.

But if he continues to wait, he will control all the mechanical races in the entire city.

The insects below can continue to reproduce for several rounds, and the insect nest may continue to expand.

With the speed at which the Zerg race was reproducing, Chen Ming felt it was best not to delay.

It is better to get rid of the bugs quickly.

Just the specific processing method...

Chen Ming thought about it for a moment.

Suddenly he remembered that he seemed to have a way to make these bugs, even the most core bug queen, come out of the ground on their own initiative.

Gather the source of spiritual energy.

Creatures have the habit of instinctively pursuing psychic energy fluctuations, which is also the habit of instinctively becoming psychic creatures.

This is a piece of knowledge Chen Ming learned from Xiao Shi.

Ever since he had the source of condensed spiritual energy, Xiao Shi would jump on his bed every day.

It didn't want to live in the newly bought stone nest that was similar to the ore that exploded with the Iron Ore. It just wanted to absorb the escaping spiritual energy fluctuations from the source of its spiritual energy.

Although Xiaoshi is very small, rubbing and rubbing will not affect it at all.

But because Chen Ming was worried that he would accidentally crush Xiao Shi while sleeping, he didn't want Xiao Shi to lie on the bed with him.

It wasn't until later that he saw the little stone running around in the highest point, jumping down from a height of more than 20 meters, bouncing twice on the ground very elastically and continuing to walk around without any trouble.

He then remembered that the little stone was no longer an ordinary little stone, so he just let it go.

Just like it is now.

Chen Ming put the source of condensed spiritual energy in the pocket of his clothes.

Xiaoshi stayed in his pocket, holding the source of condensed spiritual energy without letting go of his paws.

Of course, Xiaoshi is still very smart and won't bite things he shouldn't bite.

But Chen Ming can see that this thing's attraction to living things is really quite remarkable.

And Chen Ming still remembers what the president said before, that there are several ways to use the source of condensed spiritual energy.

One of them is what Chen Ming is currently using as a supplement to train his mental strength.

The other is to use it to condense the original spiritual stone.

The last one is used to feed some creatures, which can almost 100% turn them into psychic creatures that have some connection with psykers.

Therefore, if the underground Thorn Zerg perceives the existence of spiritual energy fluctuations and condensed spiritual energy sources, they will definitely rush out crazily to try to obtain it.

It's just that Chen Ming thinks it's better not to use this special source of condensed spiritual energy at hand.

After all, he still has to rely on this thing to enter the consciousness space.

Even if he didn't feed the condensed spiritual energy source to the Zerg, and rely on his mental power to connect to the Zerg, he had no idea.

It's just the idea of ​​using this thing as bait.

He'd better play it safe.

Trying to use his own mental power to condense the second condensed spiritual energy source, and then act as a bait.

It’s just the materials needed for this thing…

Chen Ming is hard to say and hard to deal with.

The fact that the materials needed to condense the source of psychic energy are random materials is really outrageous.

How many materials are there in this universe? The probability of picking a random number and just getting it right is completely the same as zero.

But maybe he can change his mind?

Chen Ming took out his own colorless amber-shaped condensed spiritual energy source that was condensed after the death of the abnormal heart. Under the influence of the ship spirit, it was purified and became his condensed spiritual energy source.

His condensed psychic energy has a colorless amber appearance...

Chen Ming happened to know of several materials with such a colorless amber appearance. Maybe the material he needs to condense the source of spiritual energy is this colorless amber?

Although Chen Ming himself felt that this idea was a bit unreliable.

But you won’t suffer any loss if you try it.

Chen Ming immediately called Lao Wu and asked him to help buy these materials for experiments.

Of course, Chen Ming clearly remembers what the president said before about the problems that may arise from condensing a second condensed spiritual energy source.

Therefore, in subsequent attempts, he would stop directly once there was a negative impact on his mental strength.

To prevent accidents.

But if it doesn't appear, the second source of condensed spiritual energy is definitely a good thing.

A rough plan has been determined.

So now, Chen Ming needs to first use the special spiritual energy fluctuations he has on hand to condense the spiritual energy source to release some basic spiritual energy fluctuations on the surface of the planet as an illusory bait.

Attract the Zerg's attention to the surface.

In this way, the next time he really releases the source of condensed spiritual energy, he can be discovered by the Zerg as soon as possible.

The method of releasing bait is also very simple.

He only needs to let the flying mechanical body carry the condensed spiritual energy out for two rounds.

The escaping psychic energy fluctuations will stay in the outside world for a period of time and then dissipate.

This period of time was enough for the Zerg, who could detect his spaceship in the vacuum, to notice these psychic fluctuations.

Chen Ming quickly followed his idea and completed the operation of leaving psychic energy fluctuations near the surface of the insect nest.

Next, he only needs to wait for the materials to be in place and try to condense the second condensed spiritual energy source.

It's best if you succeed.

If he failed, he would have to take a certain risk and try using a special source of condensed spiritual energy.

Although there are risks, the benefits are obvious.

Chen Ming can slowly and safely control the remaining mechanical clan in his hands.

There may even be some additional, special gains.

And risks are no longer risks as long as they prepare anti-risk measures in advance.

As for the Zerg, which had been scanned from beginning to end by Chen Ming, the risk it would bring to him was obviously certain.

So as long as you are prepared, even if you fail, it is nothing more than a waste of consumption required to deal with risks.

The only thing that needs to be paid attention to now is that Chen Ming must not be able to alert the enemy directly.

If the cruiser he drove scared away the bugs below, he would definitely lose blood.

So after arranging everything needed on the planet, Chen Ming left the planet with two cruisers.

Back on track.

It's almost time to take a break now.

Chen Ming ruled out the robots from infiltrating the city from the beginning, let the robots run around in the city, confirmed various intelligence, and then let the Supreme Point enter the atmosphere. The investigation process took a lot of time.

It was almost evening, and it was best to wait until tomorrow to deal with the remaining matters. Anyway, it was impossible for the materials to be delivered so soon.

But before taking the final rest, Chen Ming turned his attention to the Defenders.

The Defender's warehouse contains a damaged satellite that he had previously taken from orbit.

And when he discovered that the tower had been continuously trying to send messages to the satellite, he had a special idea.

Chen Ming activated his spiritual power and repaired the satellite again.

He then used the tower, still under his control, to send the signal the tower had been sending to the defenders.

The signal was picked up by a refurbished satellite at the Defender warehouse.

After a brief pause, it launched a new signal toward a specific coordinate in the more distant starry sky.

Of course, the signal transmitted by the satellite was intercepted by Chen Ming, but the coordinates of the destination where he sent the signal were recorded by Chen Ming.

And this coordinate happened to be in the direction that Chen Ming would open up in order to build a colony.

It can be reached after about thirteen extreme jumps.

In a place that receives signals connected to a mechanical city with a high probability of being a border flag, there is a high possibility that there will be something of high value.

In other words, the place itself will have a very high value.

If he had a chance later, he would have to go take a look.

Chen Ming turned off the signal transmitters of the satellite and the tower.

By now he was feeling a little tired, so he lay down on the bed after a brief wash.

To be honest, he really didn't expect that he came to this planet with mechanical races this time just because he was bored and had a look. Unexpectedly, he actually gained something in the end, quite a lot.

Just the existence of the Machine Tribe and the construction of the hive mind network with him as the core are outrageous enough.

Now the location of that coordinate is obtained.

You may even get some possible benefits from the bugs later.

Thinking of this, Chen Ming closed his eyes with great satisfaction.

But before taking a break, Chen Ming and Huihuang explained the HR matters and asked them to help with some ideological work.

In the end, he also chose to consume 100% of his mental power to add an additional Alpha core bonus called [Elite Individual] to HR.

After the selection was confirmed, Chen Ming felt a rapid consumption of mental power that he had not experienced in a long time.

And quickly reached the limit of his mental power.

This time Chen Ming did not hold on and fell into a coma.

The next day came in a blink of an eye.

Chen Ming climbed out of bed energetically.

The first time was to confirm the situation at the temporary base.

The prototype of the temporary stronghold has been basically established at this time, and the construction of the star port has also been carried out step by step.

Some spaceships with combat capabilities have already left the stronghold and started exploring the surrounding galaxies.

After the star port is built, nearly half of the spaceships Chen Ming has on hand can go out to explore and find valuable galaxies.

If he only explores galaxies with the possibility of habitable planets, then Chen Ming estimates that his afterglow can be used to completely explore the surrounding four hundred light-years within a week.

Of course, if a more detailed and broader investigation is to be conducted, it will take longer.

Anyway, Chen Ming doesn't have anything else to do now, he just has a lot of time, so he needs to take his time, he's not in a hurry.

There is no point in being anxious, it will take a lot of effort for him to control the mechanical race on the planet.

When Chen Ming finished confirming the situation at the stronghold.

Huihuang gave Chen Ming good news.

I talked to HR.

Let HR understand the significance of Chen Ming's spiritual power to Yu Hui.

Moreover, Chen Ming's addition of the core bonus of [Elite Individual] to HR last night can be regarded as an assist to Brilliance.

So when Huihuang came over today, it said to Chen Ming: "HR said he will help you protect this place, but he doesn't want to do anything else yet. Please understand, he still needs time to think about it."

Chen Ming felt that what Huihuang said was somewhat embellished.

However, the overall meaning should remain unchanged.

All Yuhui controlled by Chen Ming knew what they were encountering and knew that they had no way out.

The same is obviously true for HR. It is a rational choice for it to do this, giving it some time to think.

But again, Chen Ming is not in a hurry.

Anyway, there will definitely be no cruiser-level battle in a galaxy like his that is close to the border of the empire in a short period of time, so there is no need for him to rush to ask HR to obey his orders.

And HR also said that it will help protect this place, and it can never go back and violate what it promised.

If push comes to shove, Chen Ming is not someone who doesn't know how to adapt.

In short, his relationship with HR has improved to a certain extent.

If there is progress, that is a good thing.

After chatting with Huihuang.

Chen Ming opened the HR panel and took a look.

[Elite·Afterglow Alpha Level AI Core (HR)]

[Manufacturer: Afterglow B-01 Colony Low Earth Orbit Industrial Facility]

[Alpha level core bonus: energy gathering effect]

[Self-awareness: Existence]

[Computing power: sector level]

[Executable operations: None]

Apart from the fact that the name has become golden, and that [Elite Individual] does not appear on the core bonus, but appears in front of the name, there are not many other changes.

But when Chen Ming opened the extra core bonus panel, he saw that the number of additional core bonuses that could be added was 2.

He turned off the panel with great satisfaction.

Then it’s time to continue dealing with yesterday’s affairs.

Chen Ming asked Lao Wu yesterday to buy a total of five transparent amber-like materials that looked similar to his condensed spiritual energy source.

Three of the easier ones are now in place and were sent to the Space Arm No. 6 of the space station by Lao Wu.

Chen Ming can bring it directly to him by using the transformation psychic energy.

Because concentrating the spiritual energy source is the same as Chen Ming adding an extra core bonus to Alpha Afterglow, it requires 100% of mental power.

And Chen Ming also needs to remain conscious and not fall into a coma.

So he came to the kitchen just like before, holding the knife in his hand first.

When Chen Ming left the space station, his boss specially gave him several medical robots.

One of them is located here in the kitchen.

There is no need to worry about whether you can receive timely medical treatment after being injured.

Chen Ming was still a little nervous before, feeling that his boss had misunderstood him.

now...

It seems that the boss has nothing wrong with him.

At this time, I was on a video call with the president, and I just happened to send the video from the highest point that I had previously discussed with Chen Ming and retrieved to the president's boss and sneezed.

The president stopped what he was talking about with his boss and asked, "Do you have a cold?"

The boss nodded slightly and said, "It's possible that your physical fitness will get worse if you lie down every day."

"But it's okay. Let's continue talking about Xiao Ming. I'm quite optimistic about him."

"Look at the action of stabbing yourself with a knife. Does it look like the little lunatic I was optimistic about before?"

"Isn't that little madman dead?"

"Um, that's right..."

(End of this chapter)