187: Chapter 187 Something More Terrifying Than Insects

In the eyes of the bottom-tier natives, who were extremely lacking in knowledge and viewed science as sorcery, this high-precision optical telescope capable of adaptive dynamic focal length adjustment was equivalent to incredible magic!

Nikon Da Niao heard this, turned back, and cursed angrily:

"Heretic, your head! It's truly terrifying to be uncultured! That's called the Eye of the omnissiah! Understand?!"

Nikon Da Niao spouted nonsense with a straight face,

"That is a holy relic blessed by the omnissiah and consecrated with holy water by an Archmagos of the Mechanicus! Otherwise, do you think a few broken pieces of glass could see this far?"

Swayed by this explanation filled with theological overtones, the scout suddenly realized.

"So it's a holy relic! Praise the omnissiah!"

The scout looked ashamed.

He stepped forward again, and with an extremely devout heart, drew a gear symbol on his chest before carefully observing the ground through the telescope again.

Suddenly, the scout's breathing became rapid.

"Eh? My lord! What is that monster in the crashed meteorite crater?!"

Nikon Da Niao turned his head abruptly:

"Don't be so jumpy! What did you see?"

The scout's voice began to tremble as he described the chilling scene in the lens:

"The crater isn't a meteorite at all! It's a... a flesh spaceship covered in purple carapace! It crashed!"

"From the breach in the spaceship, many disgusting monsters that look like big-headed maggots are crawling out! They are crazily gnawing on the surrounding trees, mutated beasts, and even eating the corpses all over the ground!"

"And... around the crater, many bugs that look like the mutated rebels outside the city have gathered. They are transporting that food to some huge fleshy bulges!"

Hearing this detailed description,

Nikon Da Niao's hand on the joystick paused abruptly, and his face instantly turned pale.

"Holy crap..." Nikon Da Niao's voice trembled, "What did you say?! Big-headed maggots are eating trees?! Fleshy bulges?!"

Even if he hadn't fought Tyranids before, he definitely recognized the profile of those things.

Those big-headed maggots were Tyranid Rippers specifically used to decompose organic matter on the surface.

And those huge fleshy bulges were the spawning pools used to rapidly hatch swarms.

"Damn it! The bug fleet didn't leave at all!"

...

Inside the bridge of the sea breeze no. 9.

Lin Li was sitting in the command chair, quickly flipping through the battle damage and resource consumption reports sent from the front line by various legions and guilds.

Just then,

Iron Man 73's cold mechanical voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Creator, urgent intelligence received! A Tyranid capital escort ship has been detected on the surface of the agricultural planet Ceres by a clone!"

73 projected the optical image sent back by Nikon Da Niao onto the big screen,

"It is suspected to be a biological escort ship that faked its death and escaped during the recent firefight. It disguised itself as a falling meteorite and forcibly broke through the atmosphere to land on the surface."

"Currently, the biological ship has unfolded and is crazily devouring the organic matter in the surrounding environment, collecting biomass to hatch other purebred Tyranid combat units on the spot!"

Seeing the big-headed maggots gnawing on trees on the screen, Lin Li slammed the PV in his hand shut and stood up directly from his chair.

"Damn it!"

Lin Li couldn't help but curse out loud,

"In other words, while we were kiting them in space, these bugs secretly dropped a field incubation base behind our backs?!"

"I was wondering why these bugs suddenly changed their temperament and looked like they were going to move to the Mobius capital Hive City!"

"Hey! My mass-energy cannon was worried about not being able to hit them on the far side of the star. If they dared to go to the Hive City, I would have blown them to bits! I didn't expect them to play a feint and go steal our home!"

Ushtan on the side calmly analyzed the situation:

"My lord, the swarm's tactical intent is very obvious."

"They didn't get any sweetness in space and don't want to fight this meaningless war of attrition with us anymore. They want to open a second battlefield. Especially on the ground, where they can not only perfectly exert their absolute advantage in numbers but also snowball by devouring the surface ecology to recover massive amounts of biomass."

Lin Li nodded, his brows locked tightly.

"We must immediately send a heavy force capable of fighting hard battles to the ground to clear them out. We absolutely cannot let that spawning pool hatch any troops!"

Lin Li sighed,

"The local Defense Force on the agricultural planet is not reliable at all, and that godforsaken place was already raided by the Genestealer Cult before. It's probably already a mess now."

Just as Lin Li was calculating which main fleet to send to the ground,

73 issued a tactical prompt again:

"Creator, news just came from the rear that the Bear Ridge Legion has completed the refitting and cultivation of their Flesh Mecha."

"Currently, all 5,322 members of the legion are boarding their guild's [Bald Strong] heavy assault ship, preparing to join the expeditionary fleet."

Lin Li's eyes lit up instantly, seeing a perfect solution.

"That's right!"

Lin Li slapped his thigh,

"These orc players who have skewed their tech tree are now all piloting biological weapons made from bug genes. Why not just send them to fight the bugs' ground war?"

"Fight magic with magic, bugs against bugs!"

Lin Li immediately issued the transfer order:

"Number Seven, notify the Bear Ridge Legion! Tell them they don't need to join the space fleet! Just fly that whatever-it-is Bald Strong ship to the surface of the agricultural world!"

"Remember to have them send ground coordinates in real-time! Also, have Ironhead take his 5,000 gene-enhanced Defense Force members to assist. Just take this opportunity to see what the actual combat effectiveness of our local soldiers enhanced with Shelter technology is like!"

"Order received, dispatched." 73 responded quickly.

Lin Li sat back in his chair, took a deep breath, and asked:

"By the way, how is the progress of that big guy in the arsenal? Has our high-yield nuclear fusion bomb been built yet?"

73's data stream flickered:

"It is undergoing final shell encapsulation. It is estimated that it will take another 50 hours to complete the countdown."

Lin Li snorted: "Speed it up! Once the nuke is out of the oven, I'm going to send a super big gift to the Hive ship!"

...

Meanwhile.

Agricultural world, ground defense command.

The shrill air defense alarm echoed continuously over the devastated capital city.

Duke Louis King stood behind the high sandbag bunker, estimating the number of Genestealer Cult rebels launching suicide charges outside the distant defensive line.

In the rear position, the Defense Force's heavy artillery was making deafening roars.

Shells exploded in the dense charge formation of the rebels, and severed limbs flew everywhere.

The trench warfare on the front line had entered the most intense white-hot firefight stage.

At this moment, the commander, covered in gunpowder smoke, walked over in a hurry.

"Duke!"

The commander's voice was already completely hoarse,

"The situation is not optimistic! Those bug monsters have incited all the civilians in several surrounding large food factories! They are attacking us like crazy!"

"The capital has been completely surrounded! But fortunately, these rebels' weapons and ammunition are very limited. Most people are still charging with farm tools and iron rods, and our firepower can barely suppress them."

Duke Louis King put down the telescope.

"The number is wrong."

Duke Louis said in a deep voice,

"On this planet, every large food factory has nearly a million serfs and workers. There are 33 food factories around the capital area!"

"Not to mention all of them pouring out, even if only half of the people were gene-infected and came to attack, the number should be overwhelming! Why is the number of rebels charging now so sparse that there aren't even 100,000?"

Where did those tens of millions of missing infected people go?!

Just as an ominous premonition rose in the Duke's heart.

"Hiss —!"

In the sky, there was a sudden chilling sound of piercing air!

Clusters of high-energy biochemical plasma emitting dazzling emerald green light, like green meteors falling from the sky, smashed directly into the densest heavy machine gun positions of the Defense Force at the front!

"Boom!!!"

There was no shrapnel flying.

Only the high temperature of ten thousand degrees erupted instantly!

That whole squad of Defense Force, without even time to scream, along with the heavy machine guns in their hands and the sandbags beneath them, were all melted into a pool of hot, white-smoke-emitting blood under the irradiation of this terrifying biochemical plasma!

Immediately after.

It was as if the horn for the general attack had been blown.

In the sky, various long-range biochemical weapons emitting foul odors and toxic gas kept slamming into human positions like a rainstorm!

Huge acid cysts exploded, corroding swaths of soldiers into pockmarked ruins.

The Defense Force's firepower network was instantly torn open with a huge gap.

And in the rolling smoke and toxic fog in the distance, a large number of terrifying existences that the Defense Force had never seen before began to appear!

In the sky, dense monsters with bat-like fleshy wings blocked the light of the star;

On the ground, swarms of aliens with forelimbs as sharp as sickles stepped on the corpses of the rebels and rushed to the position at an incredible speed!

Behind these monsters, one could even see heavy behemoths several meters high, like mobile fortresses!

Duke Louis King stared fixedly at the figures of those monsters, his hands trembling.

"The Emperor is above... what on earth is that?!"

Nikon Da Niao, a player who had been standing in the corner without speaking and had just finished his reconnaissance flight, gasped as he looked at the terrifying scene in the distance.

"Gargoyles... Hormagaunts... Termagants... even Tyranid Warriors have come out!"

Nikon Da Niao's face turned pale, finally solving the mystery of the population disappearance in the Duke's heart,

"It's all over! Duke! Those bugs didn't send tens of millions of civilians to die!"

"They threw all the populations controlled by the Genestealer Cult into the bug nest blood pool that landed just now, using them as high-density biomass nutrients! They used tens of millions of lives to hatch a large batch of Tyranid main forces in just a few hours!"

Hearing this cruel and outrageous truth,

The commander on the side could no longer control his inner fear.

He looked at the overwhelming bug shadows in the distance that did not fear death, his legs went soft, and his body began to tremble violently.

"Wh... what do we do?! We can't stop this kind of monster at all!" the commander roared in despair.

Nikon Da Niao took a deep breath and looked down at the PV device flashing on his wrist.

"Don't panic! Hold on!"

Nikon Da Niao roared, "Our reinforcements will be here soon!"

However.

In the face of such absolute crushing strength, verbal comfort seemed so pale and powerless.

The Defense Force, who could barely maintain morale when facing rebels, completely collapsed when they saw that group of lightning-fast Hormagaunts easily cross several-meter-wide trenches and cut their comrades' bodies in half with a sickle!

"Monsters! They are devils!"

"Run! We can't fight this!"

A large number of soldiers threw away the laser guns in their hands, crying and turning to run into the city.

"No retreating! Hold the line for me!"

The Political Commissar of the rear supervisory team had red eyes, waving the Chainsword in his hand, roaring continuously.

The bolter pistol fired repeatedly, shooting down a dozen company commanders and battalion commanders who took the lead in fleeing on the spot.

But this cruel supervisory method had completely failed in the face of pure biological fear.

It could not stop the avalanche-like comprehensive rout of the defensive line.

More and more bugs poured into the trenches, starting a one-sided bloody massacre.

Duke Louis King looked at the army collapsing like a tide, a trace of ashen despair flashing in his eyes.

He turned his head to look at Nikon Da Niao, who was still standing in place, and sighed.

"Nikon, you should go."

Duke Louis King drew the power sword from his waist and activated the switch on the hilt,

"You have done your best. You are an outsider; there is no need to die with us on this planet destined for destruction. While the starport hasn't fallen yet, drive your shuttle and run for your life."

However.

Contrary to the Duke's expectations.

This outsider did not answer his words at this moment, nor did he turn and run away.

Nikon Da Niao just stood there quietly, looking up, staring fixedly at the sky covered by gunpowder smoke.

Duke Louis King followed his gaze and raised his head in confusion.

I saw that above the high clouds, I don't know when, hundreds of thousands of dense black dots suddenly appeared.

And, accompanied by a piercing screeching sound, those black dots were constantly enlarging as they fell in free fall!

"What is that?"

Duke Louis King was stunned; he thought it was the Tyranids' new round of air-dropped spores.

Nikon Da Niao looked at the steel drop pods in the sky that were becoming clearer, listening to the wanton laughter of the players coming from the communication channel.

On his originally pale face, a smile uglier than crying suddenly appeared.

"Hehe..."

Nikon Da Niao pointed to the sky and said gloomily, "Those... are things ten thousand times more terrifying than these bugs!"

The next second.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Hundreds of heavy drop pods, carrying scorching tail flames, like a meteor shower, smashed fiercely into the bug swarm position that was currently slaughtering!