Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 188 The Brand New Zerg

Bai Quan said without any hesitation: "Of course the antimatter reactor counts."

"But there was nothing I could do at that time. If I didn't bring something powerful out, a giant shipyard wouldn't be that easy to fight."

"Anyway, even if you do take the antimatter reactor away in the end, it'll be fine as long as you don't show it off everywhere."

Chen Ming blinked, and he suddenly realized that Bai Quan didn't seem to know that he had the technology patent for an antimatter reactor.

But he didn't take the initiative to mention it.

And although Baiquan didn't say it clearly, if all the people in the previous special operations team died, the problem of what to do with the antimatter reactor should not be difficult to solve.

But as soon as Bai Quan finished speaking, he suddenly brought up a topic he had brought up from time to time.

"If you are interested in these experimental things, you might as well join us, right?"

"You also know that our Fourteenth Legion has many self-developed improved models of spacecraft."

"I can directly take the initiative to drag you to our research institute and give you access to these spacecraft blueprints. Even if you haven't learned to master this technology, I can still let you have access to it in advance."

"And there is a new type of spaceship that is about to come out recently. It is still in the testing stage. I can also think of ways to get one for you."

Baiquan has gotten used to recruiting Chen Ming on a daily basis, but he still refuses on a daily basis: "I still don't like being restricted. At least I have to wait until the decision I make fails before I think about turning back."

However, Chen Ming was still very interested in the new type of spaceship Bai Quan mentioned and asked, "So can you tell me about the capabilities of the spaceship you mentioned?"

Bai Quan also felt a little speechless when Chen Ming just heard what he said.

But he also knows that if you don't want to let go of your children, you won't be able to trap the wolf.

To reveal what I can, there will always be a day when Chen Ming really takes the bait.

Bai Quan thought for a while and said: "Before, when you were still at Yuhui's place, Yuhui headquarters sent that equipment to the Afterglow star area in the Gallo star field."

"The technology used to transport the equipment is similar to the technology used by our new spaceship. This thing directly allows the equipment to travel across the entire empire, and we have no way to intercept it."

Chen Mingyou had previously learned from the people who contacted him in the Fourteenth Army that Yuhui headquarters had sent a piece of equipment to the Gallo Star Territory, but the specific transportation method and route were not clear.

Unexpectedly, it went directly across the empire.

If it is really like what Bai Quan said...

Is it really just that there is no way to intercept it?

I'm afraid it can't even be locked.

This thought suddenly flashed through Chen Ming's mind.

Because if there is no way to intercept it, this kind of thing crossing the empire will definitely be surrounded by a bunch of military fleets and escorted all the way to the Gallo Star Territory.

When the thing reaches its destination and is received by Afterglow, then kill all the Afterglow near the last landing point of the thing and snatch the thing away.

Chen Ming didn't even need help to feedback his previous location at Yu Hui's place.

But if the location cannot be captured, or even seen, what Baiquan said makes sense.

Previously, the Fourteenth Legion could only give him a rough date for the equipment to be delivered, which was reasonable.

This is truly a unique technology.

If you put it this way, the new spaceship Bai Quan talked about seems a bit awesome.

What does a spacecraft that cannot be locked and intercepted by normal means look like?

Chen Ming's curiosity was aroused by what Bai Quan said, and he asked: "Since new spaceships are coming out, it means that this technology must not have just started to be studied recently."

"Then why couldn't it be intercepted before? You couldn't even locate it."

Bai Quan was not surprised that Chen Ming correctly guessed some situations that he had not mentioned at all.

"Because this technology has been researched in the direction of spacecraft since the beginning, there must be less research on other aspects."

"And I just said that there will be a new spaceship soon, not that it already exists, so..."

"I can't say too much. Let's talk about what happens after you, about the machine race."

"also."

Chen Ming also knew that there were some things that he could not know based on his current status, so he borrowed Po Xia Donkey's name and did not continue to ask further questions, waiting for Bai Quan's follow-up.

Baiquan seemed to be reminiscing, and after a while he said: "Although I have fought with Yuhui all year round, I have also fought against the mechanical tribe."

"The combat style of the mechanical race is similar to that of us humans. They are both complex and changeable. Depending on the enemies they face, they will encounter different tactics."

"So we can't just rely on experience, we have to analyze it based on the actual situation."

"Of course it doesn't matter if you have no experience."

"But one thing remains unchanged. When fighting humans, the machine race will never retreat, and they will definitely beat themselves to the point where they are completely unable to fight."

"And they are different from the afterglow. The afterglow captures humans and uses the captives to trade some things with us."

"But the machine clan will only kill everyone."

"Don't show any mercy to the mechanical tribe, at least not until they are completely defeated."

Bai Quan's words seemed to have a meaning, but Chen Ming said nothing and silently nodded to accept Bai Quan's suggestion.

"Also, you are fighting a mechanical colony, so ground combat is also a problem."

"I don't have much experience in ground combat. You can only figure it out on your own and try not to stay on the ground for too long."

"By the way, you can videotape the whole process when you fight against the Machine Race, or broadcast it to me in real time like you did when you were at the Pirate Space Station. I can teach you something based on it."

This might reveal Chen Ming's current position, or it might reveal the Queen of Insects, but Chen Ming did not refuse directly, and just said: "We will see the situation at that time."

"Well, good luck to you then."

"Actually, I suddenly feel that it is useless for you to ask for permission to simulate space battles. You are serious."

Chen Ming smiled and said: "There will be times when it will be useful. I can't fight with the mechanical tribe every day, right?"

"Well, let's continue with the class. The things you want should be sent to Wu An as before, right?"

"Correct."

The morning class ended soon after Chen Ming and Bai Quan chatted.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

Several pieces of equipment for layout promised by Bai Quan have been sent to the boss, and Chen Ming used psychic energy to transform them back onto his spaceship.

Since it would take some time to debug the equipment and prepare for installation, Chen Ming still waited patiently while learning and observing the mechanical family every day.

It's just that the waiting time was longer than Chen Ming imagined.

Until another week passed.

Chen Ming had already prepared several pieces of equipment and was ready to compete with the mechanical warships.

The queen's dormant cocoon finally started to stir.

It was almost late at night, and Chen Ming planned to take a rest.

Discovering the changes in the cocoon made him stop immediately, and instead controlled the bugs in the nest to the place where the queen hibernated to observe the queen's condition.

At this time, some purple viscous liquid was gradually overflowing from the grey, green and black cocoons that were originally covered by the growth.

Gradually cover all the growth that covers the ground around the queen as she spins her cocoon.

Not even just covering it, this purple viscous liquid is taking root in these growths, eating them whole.

Chen Ming immediately told the mechanical tribe that was originally protecting the cocoon to stay away from here.

To avoid being affected by the purple liquid from the insect queen.

After waiting for about half an hour, the area around the queen's cocoon was completely covered by the purple viscous liquid.

The cocoon located in the center of the area finally cracked open at this time.

Soon, several tentacles completely tore open the cracks in the cocoon, pulling the biomass spacecraft, whose image had changed again, to climb out of the giant cocoon.

The second evolution of the Insect Queen is completed.

Although its overall appearance is still that of being covered by a hard carapace, its color has changed from pitch black to dark purple, and the carapace is also covered with a large number of purple fungi.

The originally smooth carapace looks like it is covered with mold. People who don't know it will definitely feel disgusted at first glance.

But just between the few breaths the queen took after being exposed to the air.

The purple color of the carapace faded, and the fungi outside the carapace were taken back into the body by the queen.

The entire biological spacecraft has returned to its appearance before the insect queen evolved, but some details of its appearance are slightly different from before.

But it is obvious that with the presence of these fungi, the carapace of the biological spacecraft definitely has more powerful protective properties than before.

The changes in appearance are actually not too important.

What's really important is that Chen Ming sensed psychic fluctuations from the Queen of Insects.

It is not the spiritual energy fluctuations produced by Chen Ming's spiritual energy acting on the Queen of Insects, but the spiritual energy fluctuations that emerge from the Queen of Insects herself.

Moreover, this spiritual energy fluctuation is very restrained, completely different from Chen Ming's spiritual energy.

More like a psychic fungus eaten by a bug queen.

Chen Ming still basically relies on himself to explore all things related to psychic energy until today.

Therefore, it is not clear what role the psychic energy fluctuations in the Insect Queen have.

When Chen Ming communicated with the Insect Queen, the information from the Insect Queen was also very vague.

The Insect Queen didn't know much about the psychic power it had just acquired.

Just like when Chen Ming first obtained spiritual power.

The problem is not big.

As time goes by, the insect queen will become familiar with its spiritual power and know the uses of its spiritual power.

Therefore, Chen Ming was not in a hurry to figure out the psychic powers of the Insect Queen immediately.

Instead, he paid attention to other major changes in the Insect Queen other than her psychic powers.

In other words, these purple liquids made purely of fungi spread out from the insect queen's body.

The purple liquid gradually lost some moisture after spreading and turned into a common fungus-covered appearance.

It's just that it's more widely covered, thicker, and more biologically active than the mold that Chen Ming occasionally sees on food.

And when the insect queen returned to the nest, it sprayed the purple fungus directly onto the entire nest again, covering the entire nest under a thick carpet of bacteria.

And all the bugs that came into contact with these fungi were instantly absorbed by the fungi, turned into nutrients, and gathered on the queen's body.

Chen Ming no longer needs to recycle old bugs through the digestive organs.

These carpets are the current digestive organs of the queen.

And in the process of digesting the original bugs in the nest.

Chen Ming also saw things similar to insect eggs wrapped in a translucent dark purple film gradually appearing around the insect queen's body.

The new generation of Zerg with psychic and fungal abilities is being cultivated by the Zerg Queen.

This is a new and huge change in the insect queen, or it can be said to be a change in the Zerg race. They changed from egg laying to this method of reproduction that is close to budding.

Using the ability of fungi to cultivate Zerg individuals, the overall reproduction speed has increased significantly.

And the queen has not abandoned its original method of reproduction. When necessary, it can still lay eggs containing larvae.

It doesn't mean that you need a creep to reproduce, but it can speed up the efficiency.

It won't take long, at most two days, for the insect queen to completely replace the insects inside the insect nest that now covers an area far larger than the size of a city.

As long as the insect queen gestates a new insect nest, the rate of insect reproduction will definitely increase exponentially.

In addition, Chen Ming also discovered that these carpets on the ground are not just organs for eating and cultivating larvae.

When adult worms hatch out, they can connect to the carpet on the ground produced by the combination of insect biomass and fungal genes through some special organs on their limbs.

Get nutrition directly from it.

Although the efficiency is not high, and the nutrients that a piece of bacteria blanket can store are limited, if there are too many bugs absorbing nutrients at the same time, the bacteria blanket under their feet may be sucked dry.

But the situation that allows a large number of Zerg to require a large amount of nutrients at the same time must be during a battle, and there will be death in the battle.

The dead corpses can be directly digested by the bacteria carpet and turned into nutrients, which can be immediately supplied to other Zerg that are still fighting.

Although it still cannot completely free the Zerg from the constraints of food and energy crystals, it has also greatly alleviated the original problems of the Zerg in long-term operations.

It seems that what Chen Ming did before by feeding insects and then eating fungi was correct.

The Queen of Insects, including the entire Insect Hive, has undergone extremely obvious evolution and enhanced capabilities, allowing Chen Ming to attack the mechanical city later.

Seeing such Zerg, Chen Ming suddenly thought of a question.

Will fire be more effective against zerg?

Chen Ming remembered that when the insect queen controlled a bunch of bugs and ran to the mechanical city to cause trouble for him, she was killed by the concentrated fire of the mechanical cannon.

The Zerg at that time did not show much resistance to fire, or in other words, all carbon-based organisms should not be resistant to fire under normal circumstances.

So after the Zerg combines the genes of fungi that are also afraid of fire, will they...

Chen Ming felt a little worried.

So he thought about it and decided he'd better test it out now.

Chen Ming specifically asked the Insect Queen to give him a few Zerg and a small piece of carpet.

Then Chen Ming made a machine directly near the insect queen. During this period, Chen Ming successfully mastered the manufacturing technology of the mechanical body of the mechanical family, the Blazing Silkworm.

This type of machine has two attack modes, one is a flamethrower mode with short-range and long-term output, and the other is a long-distance fixed-point artillery shooting mode that Chen Ming saw last time.

Chen Ming deliberately put it empty first and tried the flamethrower mode that he had never seen before.

When I saw the fiery silkworm, which was ten meters long and about five meters high, spraying out a fierce flame that completely covered an area 30 degrees ahead and 100 meters long.

Chen Ming silently asked the Queen for a few more bugs and a few more pieces of fungi.

Then the testing began.

Although the test process was a little twisty, the results did give Chen Ming more confidence in the subsequent battles.

To be honest, Chen Ming found the planet that the mechanical race had just colonized not long ago.

After the hindfoot insect, it woke up from evolution and underwent great changes. It even had a method to counter the previous strongest attack method of the machine race against the Zerg race.

Although this one is a little long on the back foot, it's not a problem.

In this situation, if Chen Ming didn't do something quickly, he would be sorry for his preparation during this period.

At the same time, another good news came from the distant empire.

On the boss's side, the Stardust-class cruiser of Tachyon Technology that Baiquan promised to send some time ago. This ship that best embodies Chen Ming's spiritual power is already in place with the spiritual nerve.

It has been sent to the boss's colony, and under the boss's arrangement, an afterglow core belonging to Chen Ming was installed.

The cruiser was completely handed over to him.

It only takes a few more jumps for the cruiser to reach Chen Ming.

Of course, Chen Ming informed Bai Quan first, and used Bai Quan's relationship to cover up the traces of the jump to avoid being tracked.

Although it was not good to disturb people in the middle of the night, Chen Ming finally couldn't wait any longer.

And Bai Quan seemed to be very busy. At least when Chen Ming came to see him, he seemed to be continuing to work.

Although he was not very friendly to Bai Quan, the fact that he hadn't rested yet made Chen Ming feel a lot less guilty about disturbing others in the middle of the night.

And twenty minutes after the Stardust class was sent to the boss.

Carrying Chen Ming's spiritual enlightenment nerve, it made several consecutive jumps and came to Chen Ming's side.

Chen Ming immediately went directly to the Stardust level in person and found the spiritual nerves stored in a special storage container in the Stardust level captain's room.

This spiritual nerve, like the one Chen Ming had eaten before, was stored in a slightly curved cylindrical object like a medicine bottle.

As long as Chen Ming wants to, he can take it out and absorb it at any time.

However, Chen Ming was not in a hurry for the time being, and instead opened the Stardust level panel.

[Spaceship Panel]

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Stardust-class cruiser]

[Radiant energy capacity: 0/24000]

[Radiant energy dissipation: 1800]

[Fuel Reserve: 99%]

[Front Weapon: Tachyon Spear]

[Port side weapon: Large "Defender" point defense energy cannon]

[Starboard weapon: Large "Defender" point defense energy cannon]

[Tail weapon: Large "Guide" thermal decoy launcher]

[Flight deck (port side level): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (second floor on the port side): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (starboard level): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (second floor on starboard side): 400/400 (0)]

[Armor: Tachyon Cruiser Grade Standardized Armor]

[Engine: Tachyon cruiser-class antimatter experimental engine]

[Built-in cabin:...]

[Important equipment: control system module (in operation), landing module (in operation), hyperspace channel system module (in operation), unmanned fighter auxiliary control module (in operation), ship AI overclocking instrument (in operation), Full-width shield module (in operation), "Meteor" network (in operation), "Meteor" real-time target positioning system (in operation), "Meteor" target feeding system (in operation)]

Chen Ming quickly glanced around the panel, after skipping the built-in cabins that were completely unimportant or even unnecessary to see.

It is locked on the two lines of engines and important equipment.

Chen Ming could clearly see the words antimatter in the engine column.

It's no wonder that the radiation capacity and radiation energy dissipation of the Stardust class are much higher than those of Chen Ming Changkai and Chang Kan's highest point and Brilliance class.

Brilliant's radiation capacity is 18000, and its radiation dissipation is 1000.

As a non-combat ship, the maximum radiation capacity is a little lower, 15000, but the radiation dissipation is pretty good, with 1200.

But obviously they are not as good as the Stardust-class 24000 and 1800.

It can only be said that it is an indisputable fact that Tachyon Technology is excellent in the design of the spacecraft's energy system.

But the word antimatter still surprised Chen Ming.

I don’t know if Baiquan did this on purpose, or if Tachyon Technology saw that it was needed by the military, so it deliberately took out the experimental anti-matter engine.

Or... the empire has begun large-scale testing of antimatter reactor-related technologies.

In short, this matter is not harmful to Chen Ming.

Since the antimatter reactor has received support from the government, and even the military and the company next door have related technology, there is almost no possibility of problems with the equipment in practical applications.

He could still choke to death while eating. The probability of something happening to the engine protected by Chen Ming's psychic energy was definitely smaller than the probability of choking to death while eating.

So Chen Ming took a second look at the antimatter engine and considered whether he should collect patent fees from the company.

Then he turned his attention to the [Important Equipment] column.

The most important thing inside is the three-piece meteorite set.

They are all equipment with Stardust as the core, providing auxiliary functions for the "Meteor" unmanned combat aircraft that can release a total of 1,600 ships on board.

Taking into account that meteorites are similar to terminators and have more powerful self-destruction functions, these 1,600 meteorites are simply equivalent to 1,600 consumable destroyers.

Chen Ming remembered that the Cowherd was the largest type of destroyer and could barely be regarded as an aircraft carrier.

It can actually carry a total of 320 fighters.

Now, a Stardust can carry more than four times that.

With this boat, Chen Ming can go out without any boats and leave all the pressure of the boat to Xingchen.

Anyway, the small boats brought out are basically cannon fodder to fill the line in cruiser-level battles. Instead of using afterglow boats equipped with gamma-class afterglow cores to fill the line, it is better to use these ships that can directly self-destruct when necessary.

He just didn't know if the operation of this Stardust class would give him the same adrenaline rush as the heavy rain.

Chen Ming let out a breath and turned off the panel first without thinking too much.

He will still have plenty of time to do things that are familiar to him at the Stardust level.

He now still needs to put the consciousness of the newly awakened insect queen into its body that he had previously sent to the mechanical planet.

Originally, Chen Ming thought he needed his help to update the genes in the insect queen's body.

After all, the insect queen's body was left behind by the insect queen, and it has now evolved again.

But when Chen Ming expressed this intention, the insect queen took the initiative to transfer its consciousness and landed on the old body on the planet.

Then, Chen Ming saw that the body was experiencing psychic fluctuations, and countless purple hyphae grew on it, swallowing the body in reverse and forming a cocoon.

By absorbing the energy crystals left by Chen Ming, after a while, a brand new insect queen's body emerged from the cocoon.

Hibernating deep underground, the process of reproduction began.

Chen Ming couldn't understand, but he was greatly shocked.

In short, after this, the insect queen needs to breed an insect nest that is dangerous enough to the mechanical race.

And it is also necessary to move the insect nest to an appropriate distance from the mechanical city.

This gave Chen Ming enough time to get familiar with the new spacecraft and absorb the new spiritual nerve.

(End of this chapter)