884: Chapter 39: Collecting Bug Eggs 884: Chapter 39: Collecting Bug Eggs Bullets shattered the insect nest, and Tang Zheng saw a bug egg with green patterns fall out, as big as a waterlon, so of which had cracked open.
Under the headlights of the war chariot, one could see the viscous fluid inside and the underdeveloped larvae corpses.
Tang Zheng wanted to retreat.
After all, there seed to be no benefit in killing them, but he was worried about being pursued and bitten by them.
He himself might not have a problem, but the Company Commander and the others would probably have to fight hard.
He hesitated over whether to annihilate them when a loud rustling noise ca.
The way back was blocked; those sounds were made by the insect swarm rubbing their belly feet against the floor and their bodies.
Under the command of the highly intelligent insect queen, the bugs in the underground second and third floor garage gathered, blocked Tang Zheng, and besieged him.
From various holes, more bugs kept drilling out.
At this mont, they were like a tidal wave about to sweep over everything.
Hiss, hiss, countless acid was poured onto the war chariot, slightly corroding the tal and making the floor slippery, which affected the movent of the war chariot.
“Since you’ve made the decision for , then bear the consequences,” Tang Zheng said sarcastically, initiating a counterattack and unleashing a massacre.
Bang, bang, bang, the turret rotated, and the machine gun fired, with the long orange-red muzzle fla being exceptionally conspicuous in the black night.
When bullets entered the swarm of insects, they would create gaps, with the maid bug corpses falling.
However, these were quickly filled by the bugs following behind.
Tang Zheng clenched his fist and slamd the launch button.
Five rocket shells were fired, setting off a sea of flas within the swarm of insects, their screams becoming even more piercing and shrill.
If not for the worry of collapsing the entire building, Tang Zheng would have gone for a volley, but his arrogant ti had ended.
After the bug infantry completed the encirclent, the male beetles of the leaf-armored class began to attack.
They were huge, strong, and their shells were thick.
On their heads were forked sharp horns, like heavily armored yaks, they charged.
Guessing that these beetles had high defense, Tang Zheng took the initiative to move.
The multi-legged war chariot was like a flea, pressing down first, then leaping in place, jumping eight ters away.
With a bang, the war chariot landed, crushing so bugs that couldn’t dodge in ti, squishing and bursting them, their viscera and bodily fluids splattering.
The war chariot leapt again but as soon as it landed, a horned beetle charged from the side and hit the war chariot.
Boom, the war chariot spun and tumbled out.
Before it could get up, other beetles charged successfully again, and the war chariot rolled over.
Whoosh, a piece of armor on the top of the chariot opened, and a rope shot out, with a ding it embedded itself into a corridor wall twenty ters away.
The rope was then wound up by an electric motor, pulling the war chariot over.
The horned beetles missed their target.
These bugs were strong and could lift objects five hundred tis their own weight with their single horn, about fifty tons.
Not to ntion Tang Zheng’s war chariot, a heavy tank would be flipped just the sa.
Large-caliber bullets shot at them were ricocheted off their hard shells, only leaving a few marks.
Tang Zheng fired rocket shells, which finally had an effect, but these creatures were extrely resilient.
Even with burning bodies and severed limbs, they still attacked the war chariot.
The war chariot rolled in the swarm of insects several tis, crushing countless bugs.
By this ti, the vehicle was covered in green, filthy beyond recognition.
Boom, the concrete floor suddenly broke apart, and both the war chariot and nearby bugs fell down, then they were completely subrged by the swarm of insects.
Nothing could be seen on the monitor anymore; it was blocked tightly by the bugs, and the vehicle kept shaking, which was caused by the horned beetles hitting it.
The thrusters opened, and the scorching air stream imdiately scorched the beetles at the rear.
The machine gun continued to fire, but the insects were layered on top of each other, too nurous, and even if they died, they would be squeezed into the swarm.
“So many.” Tang Zheng fired the rocket shells again, exploding around him, with flas and shock waves tossing, scattering the bugs.
The war chariot had just stood up when a crawler, like a gigantic python, smashed down on it, pounding it into the ground.
One of the war chariot’s supporting legs sparked, malfunctioning, while the others were also damaged to varying degrees.
However, the assault hadn’t stopped; the crawler struck once more, splashing debris and shattering the floor.
The war chariot escaped, Tang Zheng climbed out through the hatch, and while firing the Heavy Magnetostorm Rifle, he retracted the war chariot, Ard Hellfire.
The bugs were too dense, Tang Zheng simply couldn’t kill them fast enough.
He was knocked down from behind; his legs were bitten by bugs, and in an instant, they sward over his entire body.
Fortunately, the Power Armor covered his body in ti.
Tang Zheng swung his left arm, knocking down a swath of them, and his right hand shot out, grabbing the head of a crawler.
A beam of light from his palm blasted out, penetrating dozens of ters and charring hundreds of bugs, their bodies curling into a ball.
Boom, the giant crawler, over a dozen ters long, smashed down once again, flattening Tang Zheng.
Just as it gathered its strength to kill him once and for all, a thick, fiery beam shot out, severing its body.
Tang Zheng flew out from the shower of fresh blood, guns blazing.
Five minutes later, there wasn’t a single intact corpse left on the second floor.
Through the holes, the remaining bugs, summoned by the queen, retreated.
“A rare opportunity to kill the queen of this bug tribe.” Hellfire’s radar picked up the sonic waves emitted by the queen, and Tang Zheng followed the retreating bugs, chasing after them.
Just like ants, these bugs were led by fertile females.
On the fifth underground floor, Tang Zheng found the queen, much to his surprise.
It was not humanoid, but resembled a cocooned insect, patterned all over and thirty to forty ters long, occupying a third of the space.
Its round body was as thick as an oil tanker, with no offensive capabilities whatsoever and no defense power, its sole purpose being to consu the food brought by the other insects and to lay eggs continuously, expanding the tribe.
At the tail end of the queen, bug eggs, one after the other and covered in slimy mucus, were disgorged, utterly disgusting to behold.
Normally, other worker bugs would take the eggs away and allocate them to tribe mbers to feed, but today, the nest had been attacked by Tang Zheng, and all the bugs had been killed in combat.
Upon spotting Tang Zheng’s intrusion, the queen scread, calling for the tribe to protect her, but Tang Zheng hit her with an energy cannon, obliterating her head.
Seeing their queen dead, the charging bugs scattered in panic, fleeing for their lives.
They had two options, either to join another tribe or to take a few eggs away and raise a new queen from them.
“Easier than I thought.” Tang Zheng picked up a dropped Golden Seed, ready to leave, when Blue Trojan’s announcent rang out.
“Base People, please collect fifty unhatched bug eggs from within the queen’s corpse before noon tomorrow.
Those who fail will be executed as punishnt.”
The Conquerors, whose sweet dreams were disturbed, began to curse again, then climbed out of their sleeping bags, resignedly going to complete the task.
Night watch?
That was surely a job for the Newbies, and not everyone was as kind as Tang Zheng.
Moving at night undoubtedly increased the danger for the survivors, but they had no choice, otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough ti.
“Unborn?
Don’t tell we have to cut open the queen’s body to get the eggs?” Tang Zheng felt disgusted just looking at the queen’s bloated body, and Blue Trojan had quite the evil taste as well.
Suppressing the urge to vomit, he cut open its flesh with a snow pill.
Whoosh, hundreds of bug eggs gushed out.
He scanned them with a palmtop computer, and sure enough, those were it.
It took Tang Zheng five minutes to collect them, and after counting, there were only over a hundred and fifty—a pitifully small number.
“Sending Newbies to hunt is almost like sending them to their deaths, and I’m sure another batch of people will die.” Tang Zheng was worried about the safety of Qin Yan and her group—this mission required not only finding the queen but also breaking into her nest.
Putting aside whether they could kill so many bugs, just the noise generated in combat could draw nearby people’s attention.
At the sa ti, Dantai sighed too.
He was lucky to have tead up with Lin Weiguo and just destroyed a bug nest, but they only collected a little over a hundred eggs and there were eleven of them; it clearly wasn’t enough to go around.
This task, apart from powerhouse Conquerors like Tang Zheng, was not easy for even Dantai himself.
Facing tens of thousands of bugs alone truly felt powerless.
The only option was to form a Team, but then, how to distribute the eggs beca a problem—if there were too many people, it wouldn’t be fair, and the Team could quickly fall apart.
Hamr Squad wasn’t the type to exploit Newbies ruthlessly, so they were in a dilemma.
“Wake up, everyone, we’re moving out.” Zuo Yi, who was responsible for the night watch, returned from the corridor, seeing the soldiers already packing up their Weapons, including Lu Fan, and couldn’t help but marvel at how much this young girl had endured to survive.
Just two days, and Zuo Yi felt like he couldn’t take it anymore; death was everywhere, and a mont’s distraction might an having to say goodbye to everyone.
“Here, eat this while we walk to replenish our strength,” Lu Fan distributed chocolate, tossing so to Shen Qingshuang and asked, “How’s the taste?”
“It tastes awful.” Shen Qingshuang sat by the Campfire, hugging her Rifle, and was consuming rations scavenged from the body of a native soldier.
Many soldiers were killed on the pier, Tang Zheng had only taken useful intelligence, leaving behind things like food.
“I say, Old Shen, you look more like a soldier than us.
Don’t tell you sneak off to the woods to play survival gas in your free ti?” Wang Bo chewed on the chocolate, slapped Shen Qingshuang’s shoulder with a smile, finding this refined-looking man quite congenial.
“Not really, just being prepared is all,” Shen Qingshuang didn’t like to owe favors and tried to do as much as he could on his own, which was why he accepted the chocolate from Lu Fan.
She was sweet and didn’t have any ulterior motives; if he were in Xu Changtai’s Team, he’d rather eat these dubious rations or even the bug at than accept their kindness.
“Your computer is actually useless, just throw it away, carrying it is a waste of strength,” Lu Fan advised, shaking a bottle of drink, “Anybody want so?”
“Here’s one for your Uncle Wang,” Wang Bo, despite his hot temper, was a good and generous man.
(To be continued.
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