180: Chapter 180 Expansion Pack Update: Shadow of the Hive!

Outside the capital Hive City on Mobius Prime.

The roar of heavy artillery was continuous.

The tremors of the ground had just subsided, and the smell of gunpowder in the trenches was so choking that one could hardly open their eyes.

[Hand of God] Legion Commander Black Tiger A-Fu was fully armed.

He stood on the armor plate of a hover tank, holding a plasma rifle in his hands, ready to lead the charge.

Suddenly.

A blinding red light popped up from the pv terminal on his wrist.

A-Fu looked down and saw that the main quest, originally to capture the Governors Mansion, had unexpectedly changed directly to "Go to the agricultural planet and annihilate the Tyranid vanguard."

He was confused for a moment and stood there stunned.

"What's going on?"

A-Fu scratched his helmet, "Our armored positions have already pushed to the foot of the city walls, and taking this crappy Hive City is just a matter of the final kick. Why did the developers suddenly change the script at this time and make us go fight some bugs?"

The deputy commander [Hunger Tycoon] next to him leaned over, glanced at the quest panel, and analyzed, "I feel like some wandering scenery-loving player accidentally triggered a hidden plot on another map. That caused the Tyranids to invade early, right?"

"That doesn't add up either."

A-Fu frowned. As a Chapter Master, he still had a sense of the big picture, "The battle objective changed so completely all of a sudden. The biggest possibility is that the situation is extremely urgent! It might even threaten the survival of our faction!"

"Oh no!" A-Fu slapped his thigh hard, "Could it be that our home base, Shelter, got backstabbed by the bugs?!"

A-Fu hurriedly opened the public chat channel of the pv terminal.

Sure enough, players across the entire server were frantically discussing the sudden change in battle objectives.

The messages in the channel were scrolling by rapidly.

[Captain Blood Pressure Gabriel]: Brothers, what is actually going on? Are we still attacking the Governor?

[Red Stone Tech]: I don't know! I just blew open the blast door!

[ikun True Fan]: Forget about the Governor! We just received precise coordinates! All fleets are required to turn around immediately and take people to the agricultural world! Our Star Destroyer is currently on its way to the orbital platform. Flame Fist, get your people ready to board!

[Use Fire Punch]: OK! Positioning immediately!

[Praise Ming Shen]: Brothers on the ground, hurry back to the ships! The grand fleet is heading to the agricultural planet at full speed!

[Devil Muscle Thor]: By the way, when will Shelter's tech tree be able to develop portals? Traveling across star systems is too troublesome; by the time we fly there, the food will be cold.

[Paratrooper One]: In your dreams? Why don't you go cozy up to the Eldar bean sprouts and ask them to build a Webway to your home base?

[This Dumpling Is Also Delicious]: Does anyone know the specific situation? Are we really going to fight bugs? StarCraft?

[Liver Emperor]: Most likely, the Tyranid vanguard fleet arrived early and happened to jump to the agricultural planet, so the situation is quite urgent now.

[Lao Ba Canteen]: There is a key question, is there any lore expert who can come out and explain? Can the meat of these Tyranids be eaten? Is it delicious?

[Liver Emperor]: As long as the cells are completely inactivated, it should theoretically be edible, but it's best to roast it thoroughly with high-temperature plasma, otherwise, if you eat it, just wait to be mutated into a bug.

[Void Terror]: Holy crap? There's such a good thing? Any good brothers willing to turn into a queen bug and cozy up with me? I've been craving the Norn Queen for a long time!

[Why Panic When I Have Flash]: You have to ask brother Slaanesh about that.

[Wanna Sleep with Slaanesh]: Get lost!

[Makabazi]: Hahahaha! The bugs are finally here! We [Gou Xiong Ling] just received an exclusive quest released by Stone Men sister, asking us to go to the front line to collect more advanced Tyranid genes. This way our biological mechs can continue to mutate and evolve! Hehe!

[Paratrooper One]: Paratrooper One ready!

[I Think The Emperor Can Stand Up]: Brothers! Wait for me! I'll show you a big flying trick in a bit!

[Widowmaker]: That said, what kind of substantial rewards can we get for fighting bugs? This quest only says it rewards Core Points; I don't feel much motivation compared to fighting the Governor and getting gear drops.

[Gugu Eagle]: Are you guys already this extravagant? You don't even want points?

...

At this moment, high orbital, bridge of sea breeze no. 9.

Lin Li sat in his chair, flipping through the hilarious, joking remarks of the players on the pv terminal channel, and his originally tense nerves relaxed slightly.

"It seems that the enthusiasm of this Fourth Calamity to participate in the war is still acceptable; they don't even know how to write the word 'fear'."

Lin Li calculated secretly in his heart, "However, that Widowmaker is right."

"Disgusting creatures like the Tyranids can't drop any gear, except for corpses everywhere. After the players finish fighting, they can't even pick up any loot. Relying solely on the meager dead-wage Core Points given by the system is indeed not enough."

Lin Li knew the nature of players very well.

Faced with such a war of attrition with huge numbers and an absolutely boring and tragic combat process.

If enough benefits are not given, players will easily develop war-weariness in the later stages, or even go AFK and log off directly.

"I need to give them a stronger dose of medicine and draw a big, round pie."

The corner of Lin Li's mouth curled into a capitalist's cold smile.

He directly called up the system backend panel and began to edit the text rapidly.

After a few minutes, a brand-new game announcement flashing with dark golden light popped up directly in the center of the pv terminal screens of all online players!

[Large Expansion Update: Shadow of the Hive!]

Background Summary: The distant galaxy is wailing!

The greedy gaze of the Great Devourer has crossed the abyss and noticed the Yuanwang Star System!

A terrifying Tyranid vanguard fleet is about to arrive.

They are numerous and ferocious.

They will devour everything that can be eaten.

Calamities, take up your weapons, destroy them, and protect your home!

Expansion Special Benefit 1: During this expansion.

Players killing any Tyranid unit, in addition to regular experience, will receive [Double Core Points] drops!

Expansion Special Benefit 2: During the event, if an individual's number of Tyranid kills reaches a specified milestone, they can automatically unlock limited, unique, out-of-print titles such as [Alien Butcher] and [Swarm Nightmare]!

Expansion Special Benefit 3 (Heavyweight):

After the expansion ends, the system will open a [Blind Box Grand Lottery] prize pool! Players can consume campaign military merits for unlimited draws!

The prize pool includes: various legendary-grade individual equipment! If you pull it, you earn it!

Once this announcement with "out-of-print titles" and "blind box lottery" elements was issued.

In the public channel, as expected, it once again welcomed a nuclear explosion-like boiling!

All players' eyes turned red.

No loot? Doesn't matter!

The developers are giving out benefits and opening a lottery pool!

The chance to turn a bicycle into a motorcycle has arrived!

Lin Li did not pay attention to the players' fanatical pre-battle boasting anymore.

Because, although The Fourth Calamity is useful, this is ultimately a real universe with billions of natives.

Facing an extinction-level threat like the Tyranids, which is second only to the Warp Chaos, relying solely on 100,000 players might not be able to withstand the endless attrition.

He must completely mobilize the population and industrial capacity under the Spark Alliance.

"No amount of careful preparation is too much."

Lin Li took a deep breath, stood up, and walked toward the broadcasting control room of the spaceship.

He decided to give a wartime speech to all the natives in the territory.

...

At the same time.

Coastal City, Archon building.

As the Archon of Coastal City personally appointed by Lin Li.

His daily work was very busy.

Even though he recently passed the assessment and recruited a dozen shrewd and capable aides from the commoners to help him handle government affairs.

He was still so busy every day that he didn't even have time to drink a sip of water.

There was no way around it; the population base of Coastal City was too huge, and the defense zones and jurisdiction under his management were too vast.

At this moment, Kolom was sitting behind a large desk.

He carefully finished reading a document submitted by the newly established [Labor Construction Union] of Coastal City, titled "Proposal for Post-Disaster Sewer Reconstruction and Sewage Treatment".

After confirming that the budget was reasonable, Kolom picked up a pen and, without saying a word, signed the word "Approved" at the end and stamped it with the Archon's seal.

Kolom put down the pen and rubbed his sore neck.

He came from the slums at the very bottom of the Hive City.

He knew too well how desperate and difficult life was for the people at the bottom in that dark, sunless environment.

But fortunately, Coastal City had changed now.

Since Coastal City joined the Spark Alliance, everything had undergone earth-shaking changes.

First, hunger was completely eliminated.

Shelter not only provided high-yield wheat known as [Jinkela No. 1], which had amazing yields and ignored radiation;

but even transported a large amount of edible starch, which was said to be synthesized directly from carbon dioxide in the air!

These two types of high-energy foods were now openly supplied at extremely low prices in the major markets of Coastal City.

No one would kill for a piece of moldy black bread anymore.

Secondly, there were plenty of job opportunities.

As the bosses of Shelter (players) came to Coastal City with capital and technology.

They opened machine processing plants, military accessory factories, and large farms on a large scale here.

As long as the bottom-level commoners were willing to put in the effort, they could get a well-paying job.

Now, a regular laborer's daily wage was enough to buy enough food for the whole family to eat for a whole month!

When the commoners had surplus money and their stomachs were full, they naturally began to pursue a better life.

For example, spending money to purchase land from the City Hall, using the newly produced sturdy cement to build their own spacious houses;

buying clean clothing without radiation;

and even buying those two-wheeled internal combustion motorcycles mass-produced by factories for transportation.

Under the stimulation of this huge domestic demand, the local light and heavy industrial products of Coastal City had achieved amazing explosive development.

And those old nobles who were originally deprived of political privileges by Lin Li.

Because they already had a good financial foundation and network background.

After the initial growing pains, these shrewd people quickly transformed.

In this wave of asset and industrial rise, they turned into capitalists and investors, earning their first pot of gold.

Furthermore, these nobles, in order to obtain higher profits.

They began to generously fund those technicians who were smart and willing to tinker with small inventions.