Chapter 162.1 Zerg Tide
Editor: Jodi
“Does anyone even know what’s happening now?!” Marshal Yu Xiu Yuan roared in the military meeting, his voice laced with urgency and frustration. “In just one day, one single day, three planets have fallen.”
General Admiral Sheng was sitting in his office, his expression solemn, however he remained silent. And he wasn’t the only one — as none of the other senior military officials in the video conference spoke either.
“General Admiral Sima, you speak up. Two of those planets were lost under your watch. Tell me, what exactly is going on with this sudden zerg raid?” Yu Xiu Yuan began to call names.
And Sima Qing, true to his name, was green in the face at this moment: “The zergs appeared out of nowhere, there was no prior indication.”
“Was there really no indication or did you just fail to take precautions? Planet H-33 only resisted for half an hour. Just thirty minutes and the entire planet was overrun. Do you realize that the whole Starnet is questioning the military right now, asking us if we deliberately opened the doors to invite the zergs in?” Yu Xiu Yuan, in a fit of rage, grabbed a cup of water from his desk and hurled it towards Sima Qing.
And if it wasn’t because they were having a video call meeting, Sima Qing would have undoubtedly been drenched in tea leaves by now.
“The main reason is that their appearance was too sudden, and the military force on Planet H-33 wasn’t sufficient, causing them to be caught off guard by the zergs’ surprise attack….”
“Why would they be caught off guard? Isn’t it because you’ve been too preoccupied with making money?!” Just two days ago, the Federation’s finance officer had come to him to tell him that recently, the military merits of the soldiers of the various legions had risen too fast, with substantial amounts of starcoins being exchanged every day and suggested that they lower the exchange rate between military merits and starcoins. There was nothing wrong with soldiers wanting to make money, however they couldn’t neglect the rears defenses just for the sake of doing so. “I’ve seen the videos from the front lines. There were loads of soldiers in the ports without mechs. Why? Because their mechs are either out of energy blocks or under maintenance.”
Sima Qing lowered his head, unable to respond.
However just at this moment, General Admiral Feng, who had been silent up until now opened his mouth. One of the planets under the jurisdiction of the Divine Wind Legion which he was responsible for had also been captured by the zergs.
“Marshal Yu, I don’t think it’s entirely due to insufficient combat strength. The cyan zergs that appeared in this raid are very peculiar.” General Admiral Feng told him.
“How so?” Marshal Yu asked.
“At that time, Lieutenant General Qi happened to be on Planet G-12, and so engaged the zergs with his mech, Fair Wind the moment he detected them. Fair Wind is a level 9 mech, and Lieutenant General Qi is a seasoned warrior who has single-handedly k*lled two level 9 zergs before. However when facing these cyan zergs, he said directly that he wasn’t their opponent. What’s more…..” General Admiral Feng paused.
“What’s more what?”
“He felt that apart from them being stronger than level 9 zergs, these new cyan zergs seemed to have significantly higher intelligence.” General Admiral Feng revealed.
“What?!” Immediately, looks of horror appeared on everyone’s faces.
For over three hundred years, the Federation had been at a stalemate with the zergs, and although they were often at a disadvantage, they had always been confident primarily because the zergs lacked higher level intelligence. Hence as long as humanity continued to develop, they believed they would eventually find the zergs’ weakness and create more potent weapons to be able to drive them away. But what if the zergs also developed higher intelligence?
“The zergs are really evolving?” An old man with white hair and beard suddenly shouted.
“Professor Bai, what do you mean?” Yu Xiu Yuan turned to the old man.
The old man, his name Bai Qi, was a professor of biology who had dedicated his life to studying the genetics and biological structure of the zergs.
“When we were studying the zergs, we found that they consume all life forms—plants, animals, and humans, and among all their food, they seem to prefer humans the most.”
“Humans are omnivores, and through continuous evolution, our flesh isn’t particularly palatable. One can even say it’s quite unappetizing, so what exactly makes humans the zergs’ favorite food?”
In the video conference filled with battle-hardened soldiers, an awkward discomfort spread when Professor Bai started discussing the unpalatability of human flesh seriously. Besides, we humans don’t want to compete for the top spot on the food chain, okay?
“Plants, animals, humans— think about it, what is the thing that is ranked from the lowest to the highest among these three?”
“Intelligence.” General Admiral Sheng replied.
“Correct, it’s intelligence.” Professor Bai said loudly. “What is the essence of a living being’s existence? Is it evolution? Millions of years ago, we humans were nothing more than microorganisms in the ocean, then we evolved step by step to our current state. And the zergs too, are undergoing this same evolution.”
“Are you saying that the zergs will evolve into becoming beings like us humans? And that they evolve by devouring other life forms?” Yu Xiu Yuan asked.
“That’s right. According to our research, the higher the level of the zerg, the higher the level of their intelligence. Why? Because the higher the level, the higher the force value, and the higher the force value, the more humans they eat.” And the more Professor Bai spoke, the more excited he became.
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