142 hours.
That was after the planet had completed exactly one rotation.
Lu Li'an excitedly woke up the others.
Everyone was carrying large and small bags, having already made plans to “escape the construction site.”
At this moment, a sudden sound of footsteps approached, slowly getting closer.
Everyone became alert, even equipping the weapons on their mechs.
Until a voice from the opposite side spoke, “It’s me!”
It was Chris’s voice.
The others looked at Lu Li'an with confused expressions.
“Didn’t you say the Captain wasn’t going?”
Lu Li'an was also puzzled.
Chris said with a smile, “How can a Captain go alone?”
Starlight dotted the night.
The group left the military camp.
The Host had already discovered them.
But there was no notification.
Because no relevant notifications had been set up; after all, no one would have thought that under such circumstances, someone would choose to leave.
A group of eleven people directly activated their mechs and flew away from their planetary base.
By the next day.
Ebi Jin received a message.
“A squad of Soldiers is missing.”
He ordered a thorough investigation.
“Could it be that the enemy has arrived?”
Such an incident occurring at this stage made him feel a bit nervous.
This was six dimensions space.
Even encountering a weaker Civilization would be enough to cause their complete annihilation.
Ebi Jin didn't pretend to be calm and simultaneously inquired about the progress of the Solar Insect Nest.
Neil was inside the Star, focused on the completion of the Insect Nest.
“The first batch of 10,000 trial-produced Solar Zerg has been generated.”
“Most are infantry and tank-type Soldiers, specifically the Scythe Serpent and the Swift Star Insect.”
“Should they be dispatched to the base to protect you?”
Ebi Jin snorted.
“Relying on such a large energy source, wasting so much time, and only 10,000 insects.”
“No need!”
At this moment, Anon Jie had just received the information and walked into the command cabin.
“Send them all. If it’s truly the enemy, at least they can resist for a while, giving us ample time to escape.”
“The enemy Civilization might not be more advanced than ours. As long as we seize the initiative, if the speed of our warship is faster than theirs, we can still ensure our escape.”
Neil replied.
“No problem!”
Ebi Jin turned his head and looked at Anon Jie, his expression displeased.
“Anon Jie, remember, I am the Captain.”
Neil not obeying his orders and instead listening to Anon Jie, who wasn’t even a staff officer, made Ebi Jin even more annoyed.
“Soldiers are not machines; they should obey correct commands.”
Anon Jie ignored Ebi Jin’s dissatisfaction.
Anyway, such conflicts had occurred quite often in recent days.
He didn't need to care about that guy’s thoughts.
While the two were at loggerheads, the investigation information arrived.
“The surveillance from that night has been checked. It seems it wasn’t an enemy attack, but rather that squad of Soldiers voluntarily left the base.”
“Monitoring their communication information, it was found that this group of people was very dissatisfied with the current base construction. They wished to explore the Starry Sky instead of being construction workers.”
Ebi Jin cursed loudly.
“A bunch of bastards.”
“Soldiers, obeying orders is the most basic duty; they can’t even do that well.”
“Send people to capture them.”
It was bad enough that Anon Jie didn’t obey orders, but even the lowest-ranking Soldiers were like this. This was simply not putting him in their eyes.
“Doing that will only delay our current progress.”
“Moreover, who knows if they were influenced by the enemy to leave and act as bait?”
“I think this matter still needs deliberation; we can’t jump to conclusions so quickly.”
“Even if we lock onto their direction of departure now, catching up will be difficult, after all, those people left several hours earlier.”
Anon Jie made the best judgment.
Deserters or people wanting to leave the army for various reasons were all very normal occurrences.
Many people, before joining the army, believed that military life in games was real.
But after truly entering the army, they discovered the dullness and boredom of being a Soldier and naturally couldn’t bear it, wanting to escape this environment.
Anon Jie called these people fools.
After all, if they weren’t foolish, why would they do such a thing?
Regarding their surroundings, they had no idea what existed.
They called it exploration, but in essence, it was just suicide.
Moreover, those guys didn’t even have a single spaceship. They wanted to explore with just mechs; there’s a high probability they wouldn’t even have traveled one light-year by the time this place developed.
Ebi Jin also thought of this.
“Wait, they’re just a bunch of fools, no need to pay attention to them at all.”
He refused to admit that it was Anon Jie’s suggestion.
Dozens of hours later.
The Solar Zerg finally arrived at the planet.
All the Soldiers looked up and saw those terrifying insects.
The Scythe Serpent was a long, strip-shaped insect with four pairs of abdominal legs.
The first pair was like the normal legs of an insect, covered with barbs to grasp things.
The latter three pairs were like scythes, each about a quarter of its body length.
The overall length of the Scythe Serpent was between 12,000 and 14,000 meters. The smaller carapaces were dark green, and the larger ones were dark red.
The Swift Star Insect was even larger than the Scythe Serpent, but not in length; its volume was dozens of times that of the Scythe Serpent.
Its entire body was like a giant Dorayaki, with a smooth carapace and white and yellow spots like Stars.
The only exposed part of its body was very small, less than 100 meters, like the front half of an antlion’s limbs.
And there were tens of thousands of such behemoths.
Flying in outer space, they looked exceptionally huge even from the ground.
Ebi Jin was stunned.
As a former ordinary person, his understanding of the Zerg was still limited to fictional works.
Upon seeing the actual Zerg, he froze in place.
“You call these insects?”
Each one was as large as a warship.
In his mind, Zerg a few hundred meters long were already considered big guys.
If he had known they were this big, he would have definitely focused all his efforts on producing insects.
If there were a hundred million such insects, what couldn’t be conquered?
He fell into his own fantasy.
Anon Jie spoke to awaken him.
“After formal production, the first batch of Zerg should be 1 billion.”
“Once the Insect Nest is fully built, it is estimated to produce 1 trillion Zerg.”
“After that, we will expand to other Stellar Systems around us and begin truly plundering resources to mass-produce Zerg.”
“In the Pan-Plan, each base must complete at least 100 trillion Zerg to be considered on track!”
1… 1… 100 trillion?
This number had already exceeded Ebi Jin’s imagination.
He thought 100 million was already enough, but then Anon Jie said 100 trillion was just the beginning.
Ebi Jin was deeply shocked, but he knew he couldn’t show fear on the surface.
“Hmm, naturally it must be so.”
“Only 100 trillion Zerg can truly allow us to gain a foothold in six dimensions space.”
“Even this is not enough; our goal should be set at 100 quadrillion, after all, others are in Four-Dimensional space, and we are in six dimensions space; we are isolated and unaided.”
At this moment, Ebi Jin was filled with heroic spirit.
He would be the controller of these 100 quadrillion Zerg!
By then, he might even be able to conquer six dimensions space.
However, that bastard Anon Jie started pouring cold water on him again.
“100 quadrillion is too easily discovered. Zerg are Zerg after all; against a powerful top-tier Civilization, even 100 quintillion would just be cannon fodder.”
