Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 116 Strengthening
After clearing the jungle, Zero temporarily stopped the Zerg from expanding its scale.

It's not that there are any resource constraints. With the harvest of the insect swarm in these few wars, it is still possible to expand its number several times in a short period of time.

It's just that while Zero was actively hunting for the kind of bug Sommer used recently, Sass also completed another research project.

It is not the Zerg explorer that Zero had been thinking about before. For this unit, Zero now has more ideas, and because there is an ant tribe that can be used as a substitute, he is not in a hurry to realize it.

What Sass completed this time was the analysis of the ant guardians and assassins.

After going through several wars, the Zerg captured many Lizardmen, some of them died halfway, but some persisted and eventually became the nourishment of Sass.

During this period of time, it grew very rapidly. It took less than ten days to complete the ant unit that was expected to take several months to research.

Of course, this is not all due to the lizard people.

The reason why so much time can be saved is naturally due to the growth of Sass on the one hand, and more because the previous analysis of the ant individual has allowed him to understand the general structure of the group, which has greatly accelerated this time. The speed of the entire study.

The reason why Zero suspended its expansion is because Sass said that after the completion of the research on the two ant species, it has some new ideas about today's Zerg.If it can be realized, there is a high probability that the combat power of individual Zerg units will be strengthened.

Fortunately, the Zerg now has plenty of food. Although the crops planted before this year are relatively small compared to the current scale of the Zerg because of the small planting area, they have won a lot of food through continuous wars.

If Sass' idea can be implemented later, then it is just right to strengthen the subsequent hatched bugs and improve the combat effectiveness of the Zerg as a whole.

With the Zerg's current food reserves, even if Sommer attracts a large army of lizardmen during this period, Zero is confident that he can increase the number of Zerg to a terrifying level in a short period of time to fight the opponent with all his strength.

Unless the opponent can summon the power to crush the Zerg, even if they lose, the Zerg will not lose their foothold on the mainland.

However, judging from zero understanding of Sommer and the lizardmen, even if a low-status civilian like Sommer knows the information, it only needs to win the trust of the high-level lizardmen and attract enough attention to make him convinced that there is nothing wrong with this world. It is definitely not a simple matter to have such a race that can be called a disaster once it develops, let alone directly mobilize an army that can crush the Zerg.

Even if they cooperate sincerely and there is no barrier, in this era, to mobilize an army of tens of thousands or even more than [-], the logistical materials and time costs consumed are enough to give zero months.

By then, I'm afraid it will be next year, and Zero has no reason to worry about it.

Today, although the overall number of the Zerg is far less than that of the Lizardmen, they undoubtedly occupy the strategic initiative.

The reason is simple, the social system.

Compared with the Zerg, the social composition of the Lizardmen is quite complicated.They have emperors, nobles, armies, civilians, three religions, etc. Lizardmen with these identities together constitute their ruling system, which has been the case since ancient times, and they have created a splendid civilization because of this, with a hundred flowers blooming, Ten thousand families contend.

This system is more scientific and applicable to an intelligent race like the Lizardmen.However, when it comes to war, this ruling system is far from enough compared to the Zerg.

It can be said that every unit of the Zerg was born to serve for war.Including Sass as a brain worm and engineers used by Zero as a logistics unit.

They do not have a hundred flowers blooming, nor do a hundred schools of thought contend. They may be huge in number, but they will only have one voice.

There are no extra desires, and no more needs. Except for Sass, all individuals have strong fighting capabilities once they hatch. This perfect centralized ruling system is the root of the Zerg's strength. .

Today's Zerg has the strength to deal with the possible attack of the lizardmen, so Zero doesn't mind temporarily stopping the large-scale expansion and waiting for Sass to complete the transformation.

However, stopping the expansion of scale does not mean that Zero will not do anything.

Although they did not continue to hatch new swarms, these tens of thousands of warriors had no intention of stopping to rest at all.

Some of them will go to the places where several underground dark rivers were discovered from the lizardman's memory before, to search for traces of that special bug.More will cooperate with explorers to search for the existence of other underground river entrances in the jungle.

Not long ago, the Zerg camp on the cliff far behind had completed its autumn harvest. Although the output was not much, far less than the gains from the lizardmen, it was not a one-off sale, but a long-term and stable income. .

If one day the Zerg can no longer take a large amount of food from the Lizardman due to various factors, for example, the opponent adopts a strategy of fortifying the wall and clearing the wilderness, directly burning food before the war is completely defeated, then this output will be an important pillar for maintaining the main force of the Zerg. .

By now, the leaves have begun to fall in the jungle, which means that winter is coming soon, and this is another reason for Zero to stop large-scale operations.

After so many evolutions, today's swarms are no longer as afraid of the cold as the ants were back then.However, the Zerg's body structure is almost entirely composed of muscles and bones, without any thermal insulation facilities. Even if they have a certain ability to resist cold, if the temperature drops to a certain level, they may still be frostbitten or even freeze to death!

Although they are no longer what they used to be, they are still not out of the category of ordinary creatures, and they are still not suitable for survival at a low temperature of tens of degrees below zero.

Moreover, being in a cold environment for a long time, the Zerg's energy consumption will also increase sharply, and the external performance is a large amount of food demand.

Although Zero obtained a lot of food from the lizardmen, such unnecessary consumption still needs to be avoided.

So He needs to open up a habitat for them that can at least resist wind and snow before winter comes, and Zero also has plans for this.

Those caves that lead to underground rivers are a good choice. If it can be confirmed that there are no large numbers of fire worms living in them, it is indeed worth using. This is also the work that the Zerg is currently working on.

In addition, from the memory of the lizardman, Zero has already learned some information about the outside of the jungle.He knew that after the extermination of the barbarians, the imperial army lost a lot, and more than [-]% of the army of more than [-] was lost.

Therefore, after completing the final combing of the jungle, most of them were transferred back to the rear hinterland for repairs.However, in order to prevent the resurgence of the barbarians, while sending the jungle lords to lead the tribe into the jungle to establish a territory, the empire still left [-] elites in the city closest to the jungle—Hurley.

According to the information obtained from the lizardmen, unlike the lizardmen armed in the jungle territory encountered before, these [-] lizardmen are the real elite of the empire. Each of them has excellent equipment and a strong physique.

They are fully equipped and have a clear division of labor, ranging from long-range to close combat, including mobile units with mounts, and also have branches dedicated to resisting attacks.

Relying on the strong city that was originally used to resist the invasion of the barbarians, with the current number of the Zerg, if they attack by force, even if they have the convenience of a surprise attack, there should not be much chance of breaking through.

Zero is also unwilling to launch an attack against the severe cold. For today's Zerg, the cold weather still has a relatively large limit on their combat capabilities, and the Zerg has already obtained enough food to last for a long time, and there is no such urgent need to attack.

Such a huge change in the jungle cannot be hidden from the Lizardman for a long time. Even if Sommer did not inform him, the other party would soon realize that something was wrong, but Zero is not worried about this.

If the lizardman dared to enter the jungle in the severe cold in winter, he wouldn't mind consuming some food and having a duel with the other party under the same conditions.

If not, Zero will naturally surprise them when the weather gets warmer.

As an advanced mammal, the fat in the body will provide a certain amount of warmth for the lizardmen. In addition, the flexible use of tools will also greatly reduce the impact of the cold on them.

However, this does not mean that they can easily organize a winter offensive. In fact, judging from the information obtained from zero, even in the entire history of the Lizardmen, wars that took place in severe cold are very rare.

…………

When the main force of the Zerg on the mainland temporarily stopped expanding due to various reasons, the Zerg swarm in the ocean did not stop.

In Zero’s plan, they will carry their larvae along the coastline, looking for hidden places to complete the landing. In the early stage, the Zerg units in the ocean will provide them with food, thus establishing Zerg camps one by one, and developing slowly and secretly. .

Now, this task has been carried out for several months, and the swarms of insects that have set off in both directions along the coastline at the same time have accumulated twelve small-scale zerg bases on the east coast of this continent. In inaccessible areas, if this is not the case, this number may be multiplied several times.

Under Zero's instructions, they hid themselves very well, while quietly accumulating strength in the dark.

And this plan is still going on, even in winter.It can be predicted what kind of situation the Lizardmen will face next year when the main force of the Zerg has completed its transformation and begins to walk out of the jungle on a large scale.

In addition, for the Zerg units in the ocean, Zero has always wanted Sass to try to research and improve them. Although today's sea warriors can barely meet the needs, the Zerg should not be limited to land forever.

Judging from the Zerg's current exploration scope, the ocean is much wider than the land, which means that if the Zerg can gain a foothold in it, they will definitely be able to obtain a better development environment than the continent.

In the past time, the ocean has indeed caused many troubles and even crises to the group led by Zero, but this is not the reason for the Zerg to abandon the ocean.

Even if today's Zerg units still cannot ensure their absolute safety in the ocean, there is never a shortage of large predators in the mysterious and vast ocean, but Zero believes that as long as they continue to improve themselves, sooner or later, the Zerg will also be in the ocean. Run freely in it.

However, at present, their main goal is to compete with the lizardmen for control on the mainland, and Sass' schedule is therefore very tight. Regarding the improvement of sea units, it can only be carried out after this Zerg transformation is completed.

However, this study, SARS has come to an end.

…………

In the Zerg camp, as the weather continues to turn cold and the exploration of underground caves continues, they have begun to move to it in a planned way. If there is no accident, Sass will be placed in such a place for a long time to come. In the underground environment, the base camp will also be rebuilt here.

This is of course out of safety considerations. Although Zero has seen through Sommer's tricks, it still doesn't rule out that the other party thinks of some strange tricks again.

In this case, it is obviously much more concealed and safer than above ground.

In addition, after a period of hard work in the search for firebugs, progress has finally been made.

Although there were no traces of this kind of worm in the many caves discovered before, Zero still recognized the similarity between the rock material on the rock wall and the stone box at a glance, which further confirmed this kind of worm trail.

Finally, in the hinterland of a valley, the swarm found the cave that Sommer had been to.

The reason why Zero was able to confirm this was mainly because of the traces of hand-polished stones on the ground and several discarded stone boxes.

Although the Zerg has taken precautions, damage is still caused here, but for the Zerg, this loss is completely a drop in the bucket.

However, the swarm of insects that made people feel as if they were in the sky full of stars for a moment still left a deep impression on Zero.

Although I don't know why there are so many caves extending in all directions, they only exist here, but since they exist, there must be a reason, but Zero has not discovered it yet.

As long as they are found, it means that one day, Zero will study their characteristics clearly, let Sass try to use them to transform the Zerg, that will be a leap forward!
But this is all for later. During this period of time, Sass has completed another transformation of the warriors and engineers. Zero tried to hatch a few of them respectively, and really felt their enhancement.

In this transformation, the warrior's original skinny appearance has undergone some changes. It is no longer a simple combination of muscles and bones, but some special designs have been added to make the entire outer skin tougher.

Consistent with all previous evolutions and mutations, Zero conducted a relatively comprehensive test, including changes in speed, energy utilization, and the most important changes in offensive and defensive capabilities.

Finally he came to a conclusion.In terms of speed, they have basically not changed much compared to before, and the utilization efficiency of food seems to have been slightly enhanced.Of course, the most important thing is that their offensive and defensive capabilities have been considerably improved.

In Zero's test, some attacks that could have been crippled or even fatal, such as the sweeping and stabbing of the unreformed warrior's legs, for the current ones, the damage has been reduced a lot.

The tough outer skin will protect them from a considerable degree of damage, making attacks of this intensity no longer a threat.

In addition, in terms of attack, they have also made great progress.

The originally sharp forelimbs became stronger and more powerful, which made it easier for them to kill the enemy.

After this series of tests, Zero finally came to a conclusion.

On the whole, in this transformation, their capabilities should have been improved by as much as [-]% on the original basis.

Quite impressive.

　Today's update (4400+) saves manuscripts and prepares to pay off debts~~

　　
　
(End of this chapter)