491: Chapter 491 Zerg Elite

The frontline's advancing speed was even faster than expected.

By the evening of the second day, the reconnaissance range of the drone Swarm had advanced more than three hundred kilometers into the Zerg hinterland. The red dots on the battle report disappeared one by one, replaced by blue friendly-occupation markers.

Su Mingyuan sat in the Central Command, holding a cup of tea that had already gone cold, staring at the tactical map on the screen.

"Report, Group Leader Su, another Swarm gathering area on the frontline has been cleared. Three million one hundred and seventy thousand enemies were wiped out with zero losses."

"Mhm."

Su Mingyuan acknowledged, his gaze not moving away from the screen.

It was too smooth.

The bugs died far too easily, without even a semblance of decent resistance. It was somewhat abnormal.

Just as Su Mingyuan was thinking this, Tao Zhe's voice suddenly sounded in the communication channel.

"Group Leader Su!"

The speaking speed was very fast, and the tone was half a section higher than usual.

Su Mingyuan's fingers paused.

"Speak."

"The energy monitoring System on my side has captured abnormal fluctuations. The source is not on the frontline, but directly beneath our base!"

Su Mingyuan abruptly stood up.

"Directly beneath? What do you mean?"

"Underground. Between roughly one hundred and fifty meters to two hundred meters beneath the base, a large number of biological energy signals are moving rapidly. Their direction is coming from the Zerg hinterland toward our side. The quantity is not large, but the energy intensity of each individual is very high."

Tao Zhe paused on the other end, his voice lowered significantly.

"Based on my preliminary estimation, the lowest is equivalent to Early Foundation Establishment, and the leading few have already touched Late Foundation Establishment."

Lightning flashed through Su Mingyuan's mind.

Zerg Elites.

As expected, she had no intention of going head-to-head with ten thousand mechas on the front surface.

Those outer cannon fodder Swarms were a smokescreen from start to finish, buying time with their lives and drawing fire.

The real trump card went underground.

"How much distance is left to the base?"

"Judging by the moving speed, they will arrive within fifteen minutes."

Su Mingyuan grabbed the communicator.

"Zhang Dabiao!"

"Present!"

"There is something rushing toward the base underground—the elite Swarm of the Gu Mother, quantity unknown, with a Rank of at least Early Foundation Establishment and above. Take the mecha formation immediately to deploy defenses on the periphery of the base, press all heavy firepower forward, whether shelling the ground or digging three feet deep, block them for me!"

Zhang Dabiao was stunned for less than half a second on the other end.

"Coming from underground?"

"Right, they want to circle around to stab us in the back."

"Good grief." Zhang Dabiao muttered, his voice abruptly raising, "First Formation, Second Formation, turn around for me! Three hundred meters around the outer perimeter of the base, arc defense line, set up all heavy firepower! Engineering Mecha move forward, dig open the ground for me!"

A flurry of noisy responses came through the channel.

The mecha formation reacted as fast as if they had springs; hundreds of mechas swooped back from the frontline, neatly lining up into an iron wall on the periphery of the base.

The Engineering Mecha charged at the very front, their massive mechanical arms smashing into the ground and forcefully turning over the soil layer.

Three meters, five meters, eight meters.

When they dug down to the twelfth meter, the ground suddenly began to vibrate.

"They're here!"

Before Zhang Dabiao's roar had even faded, the ground directly south of the base suddenly blasted open a large hole.

Soil and gravel sprayed seven or eight meters high, and black insect figures crawled out from the hole.

The first bug that rushed out was a full two meters long, its entire body covered in a layer of dark purple carapace, with its joints emitting a metallic cold light.

It was completely in a different league from those previous peripheral cannon fodder bugs.

Those cannon fodder bugs would be blown to pieces with a single armor-piercing shell.

This one took three armor-piercing shells, leaving only three white spots on its carapace.

Zhang Dabiao widened his eyes inside the cockpit.

"These are tough bones!"

Following closely, the second, third, and fourth ones emerged from the cave one after another like dumplings being dropped into a pot, and over thirty of them gushed out in a dozen seconds.

There were more behind them.

Five or six holes exploded successively on the ground, and the Swarm pounced toward the base from all directions.

"Open fire!"

At Zhang Dabiao's command, the firepower net of the mecha formation fully opened up.

Armor-piercing shells, missiles, and kinetic weapons rained down head-on onto the Swarm.

But this time the effect was completely different from when fighting the periphery.

The damage of ordinary armor-piercing shells to these elite Zerg was noticeably reduced. Striking the carapace, some only blasted out a shallow pit, while others simply bounced off directly.

The three leading insect kings were even more outrageous.

Their sizes were nearly a circle larger than the others, their carapaces were so dark they looked black, and their surfaces emitted a faint, visible glow of spiritual power.

One insect king directly crashed through the firepower blockade of two mechas. Its massive body swept across, knocking one mecha staggering and nearly overturning it.

"Dammit, these bugs have turned into spirits!" Zhang Dabiao cursed in the channel, aiming his mecha's shoulder cannon straight at that insect king's head and blasting.

A high-explosive armor-piercing shell hit the head squarely.

The insect king's head tilted to the side, a crack blew open on its carapace, and dark purple blood spurted out.

But it showed no intention of falling down; instead, it became even more frenzied, scraping the ground with its six legs and charging toward Zhang Dabiao's mecha.

"Holy shit."

Zhang Dabiao fired three shots in succession and retreated two steps.

The third shot finally hit the crack, blowing open half of the insect king's cranium, its body swaying a couple of times before collapsing to the ground with a loud crash.

"These bugs are countless times tougher than before." Zhang Dabiao panted heavily, "One insect king requires four or five high-explosive shells to settle. If hundreds really came, the ammunition consumption alone would be enough for us to handle."

The battlefield on the other side was even more tense.

Over at the Second Formation, three mechas were caught in a pincer attack by two insect kings, their deck armor caving in by a large chunk, and the pilots shouted to report the damage in the channel.

"Commander Zhang! The hydraulic System of my mecha's right arm has been bitten off, and half of its firepower can no longer be used!"

"Mecha Number Three reports, the left leg joint has been pierced by the bug's tail sting, moving speed decreased by sixty percent!"

The loss data on the battle report began to jump upward.

For the first time.

Ever since the Zerg clearing battle began, it was the first time the mecha formation suffered substantial losses in frontal engagement.

Su Mingyuan stared at the battle report in the Central Command, his fingers tapping on the armrest with an increasingly fast rhythm.

"Chen Rong, Lin Wan."

"Already on the way."

Chen Rong's voice came through the channel, still carrying the sound of wind.

Thirty seconds later, two figures smashed down from the sky.

The moment Chen Rong landed, his mecha's right fist was already wrapped in a layer of purple lightning arcs, and the entire arm was buzzing.

Without even braking, he crashed directly into the densest part of the Swarm.

He punched down hard on the spine of an insect king.

The lightning arcs burst open, purple light surged, and the insect king's carapace shattered starting from the impact point, scattering fragments in all directions like broken porcelain.

Before the insect king even had time to scream, its entire body was pierced by the lightning arcs, burning from head to toe into a piece of charcoal.

This was the gap between the Golden Core Stage and the Foundation Establishment Stage.

Zhang Dabiao needed four or five high-explosive shells to deal with one insect king, but Chen Rong resolved the battle with a single punch.

Lin Wan's fighting style was different from Chen Rong's.

She did not charge into the pile of bugs; instead, she hovered mid-air, pushing her hands forward as a sheet of ice mist gushed out from the palms of her mecha.

The ice mist spread at an extremely fast speed, covering most of the battlefield in the blink of an eye.

The movements of the Swarm visibly slowed down, white frost condensed at their joints, and ice shards hung all over their carapaces.

A few bugs were directly frozen in place, their six legs stiffened into popsicles.

Following closely, Lin Wan flipped her palms, and a dozen two-meter-long ice spikes condensed out of thin air, shooting out in unison.

Every single one was nailed right into the head of a bug.

As precise as if measured with a ruler.

Zhang Dabiao watched in dumbfounded amazement from behind.

"When did these two become so fierce? The Golden Core Stage is truly the Golden Core Stage; fighting bugs is like child's play to them."

Chen Rong didn't hear this remark in the front, but even if he did, he wouldn't have had the time to bother.

Advancing forward, he scanned his surroundings.

The number of remaining bugs was decreasing rapidly.

A dozen minutes later, the last insect king was smashed into the ground by Chen Rong with a single lightning punch.

The ground grew quiet.

Tao Zhe reported the results in the channel.

"The elite Zerg have been completely annihilated, totaling forty-seven, including three insect king-level ones. Our side lost six mechas, four are heavily damaged, three personnel are lightly injured, and there are zero casualties."

"Group Leader Su, I have reason to suspect that the Gu Mother already knows where you are. I hope you can leave the Zerg World and return to the Main World."

Su Mingyuan did not answer.

He knew what Tao Zhe said was right.

This batch of elite Zerg was testing the waters.

Next time, the Gu Mother will no longer be polite.

Su Mingyuan picked up the communicator.

"Chen Rong."

"Present."

"Expand the drone search range further, and focus on investigating the distribution of underground insect tunnels."

He paused for a moment.

"At the same time, have the frontline accelerate its advancing speed. Don't give her any breathing room."