Shocking the World

As someone who had once played games, Fang Zheng had always believed that when it came to frontal assaults, the Zerg brought the greatest sense of oppression.

Humanity's steel tide looked invincible, possessing the beauty of steel and order. When they advanced, it was like a gigantic machine of steel rumbling forward, making people tremble. The Protoss possessed the strongest individual combat power in existence, and when they charged, they felt like a fearless assault by a band of warriors, inspiring awe.

But the Zerg were different. When that overwhelming Bug Tide appeared before your eyes, it was more like a natural disaster that you could neither stop, resist, nor even evade. Like avalanches, flash floods, and tsunamis, the Zerg's combat was more like taking numbers to the absolute extreme. Facing a Zerg charge, what one felt was neither the courage of battle nor rage and madness, but the insignificance and instinctive fear that arose when an individual confronted numbers beyond the limits of comprehension and acceptance. This was an indispensable part of every creature's natural evolution. You could hold back a river with a collapsing dam, you could resist raging floodwaters, but when faced with a tsunami dozens of meters high or a hurricane that blotted out the sky, there was very little you could do to change any of it.

And this was the Zerg.

Tens of thousands of Zerglings poured out of the forest, transforming into a murky tide that swept forward. From afar, it even looked as though the entire battlefield had been covered with a blood-red carpet in an instant. Above their heads, Mutalisks beat their wings, becoming an endless, dense blanket of clouds. This attack wave even made it feel as though hell itself was arriving—the gates of hell had opened, and crimson infernal flames were scorching everything in this world from earth to sky as they surged rapidly toward them.

Team Wang lowered the machine gun he had raised. He stared blankly at the Bug Tide before him, to the point that he no longer cared about the Alien Creatures behind him. Extreme fear brought despair. They had never felt this way when facing those Mimics Alien Creatures, because although there were quite a few Mimics overall, their attacks lacked any real pattern. Moreover, because they often hid underground, the offensive of those Alien Creatures did not appear as fierce as it truly was.

But the Zerg were different. Before they had even reached the battlefield, their terrifying presence alone was enough to seize one's soul.

This was the Swarm.

No one opened fire. They had even given up struggling. Before such numbers, all they felt was helplessness and despair. Several soldiers had even closed their eyes, waiting for death.

But... a miracle happened.

Those terrifying monsters did not kill the soldiers. On the contrary, the rushing Zerglings even deliberately made way for them. Their massive bodies seemed completely unaffected, and the entire Bug Tide truly flowed like water, bypassing those few soldiers before continuing onward, onward, and onward.

"What's going on?"

Team Wang opened his eyes. He had already prepared himself to die in battle, but after waiting for so long without meeting his death, he could not help opening his eyes and taking a look. To his astonishment, those terrifying insects did not seem to have any intention of harming him at all. They had even gone around him?

It was not just him. When Team Wang looked to the side, he was astonished to find that his other subordinates were also standing there completely unharmed. Some were already dumbfounded, while others still had their eyes tightly shut as they waited to die. It looked somewhat comical, but at that moment, no one could laugh.

A moment later, the Swarm had vanished from before their eyes. It entered the battlefield and began fighting. Everything around them was deathly quiet, so much so that it all felt unreal. Several soldiers stood there blankly, completely unsure what to do.

"My God, what exactly was that?"

After an unknown amount of time, one soldier finally broke the silence. He turned around and looked behind him. The others also turned uneasily to stare at the battlefield behind them. There, the Zerg were slaughtering everything they saw in a frenzy, while the Mimics Alien Creatures could not put up any resistance at all.

"They're... attacking those Alien Creatures?"

The sight before them was truly unbelievable to the soldiers, but the truth was that these terrifying, ugly things, like fiends released from hell, really seemed to be... on their side?

"No matter what, we leave this place immediately!"

The others still had not figured out what was happening, but Team Wang made a decision at once. The current situation had already exceeded their ability to handle it. They had to return to headquarters immediately and report it, then consider their next move. Upon hearing his order, the other soldiers obeyed without hesitation and followed him away.

This was no longer their battlefield. They had no idea where these monsters had come from, but since they were attacking the Alien Creatures, they still hoped the monsters would not lose.

And if Fang Zheng had known what those soldiers were thinking, he would definitely have told them with great disdain.

How could he lose when Mutalisks were already in their faces?!

Fang Zheng was not worried about getting jinxed at all. There was no way he could get reversed, not in this lifetime. With such an overwhelming population advantage, all he needed was a single Dragon Dog push. How was he supposed to lose?

And the facts proved that Fang Zheng's guess was correct.

Although those Mimics monsters did possess all-purpose attack capabilities, their lack of air power was a fatal flaw, and their numbers were far inferior to the Zerg's. Thus, in the first wave of the charge, those Mimics monsters were immediately torn to pieces by the Zerglings and Mutalisks, their forces completely shattered. From the air, the Mimics monsters that had been swaggering around earlier looked like shells on a beach, washed away clean in a single sweep by the Bug Tide that outnumbered them several times over.

However, Fang Zheng did not simply send everything in for a single all-out attack. He knew very well that the most dangerous thing about those Mimics monsters was not their battlefield combat ability, but their Save Load ability. To avoid getting hit by an SL exploit himself, Fang Zheng ordered his Zerg not to kill the strange node monsters immediately upon finding them. Instead, like what he had done to Tom Cruise, they were to capture them, drag them back to base, drain their blood, and only finish them off with a single strike after absorbing their genetic sequences.

This indeed limited those monsters' ability to Load, and for a time, the Zerg advanced triumphantly. In just a single day, they captured the entire front line.

And at this moment, the entire Human World had fallen completely into chaos. The sudden emergence of the Zerg shocked everyone. Humanity had originally believed that after experiencing battle against aliens, they had developed immunity and would no longer be surprised by any unexpected event. But after seeing these terrifying Zerg, humanity finally realized that they had been far too naive.

The military high command of every nation immediately gathered together and began holding meetings to study the matter.

The people who had just returned to headquarters did not even have time to change clothes before being brought directly to the United Army command center to report.

"Captain Wang Dong of the Fifth Armored Brigade reporting!"

Wearing a uniform stained with blood, Wang Dong strode solemnly into the command center, saluted the people before him, and spoke.

"No need for formalities."

Watching Wang Dong enter, the elderly man seated at the head of the table raised a hand in gesture.

"Wang Dong, I believe you know why we summoned you here."

"Because of those monsters that suddenly appeared?"

"That's right."

Upon hearing Wang Dong's answer, the old man's expression immediately turned grave. Beside him, the military higher-ups of various skin colors also changed expression repeatedly.

"I heard your squad had direct contact with those monsters. Can you tell us your opinion?"

"My opinion?"

Upon hearing this question, Wang Dong's expression changed. He recalled once more the nearly unstoppable Bug Tide that had surged toward him from every direction. For a moment, Wang Dong even felt his legs go weak, but he quickly forced himself to recover through sheer willpower. Then, looking at the senior officials before him, Wang Dong slowly spoke.

"They are... nearly unstoppable."

At Wang Dong's answer, everyone present frowned, including the elderly man at the head of the table. They were all soldiers, and naturally looked down on weakness. In their eyes, what Wang Dong had displayed was cowardice.

"Perhaps you think I am making excuses, but gentlemen, I am merely stating a fact from the perspective of a soldier fighting on the front lines, a frontline commander. This was my first impression when I faced them on the battlefield. Of course, if you do not believe me, I have video footage from the battlefield. I believe that once you see this recording, you will understand what I mean."

"Bring it over."

Hearing this, the old man gestured. Wang Dong took a memory card from his pocket and handed it over. A staff member quickly accepted the card and inserted it into the playback equipment nearby. Soon, footage from the battle appeared on the screen behind them. The others turned to look at the contents of the screen as well.

At first, the screen showed Wang Dong's squad fighting the Mimics monsters. Although the battle on screen was intense, everyone present was military personnel, and quite a few officers had fought Mimics monsters on the front lines before, so no one reacted strongly. By the end, when only Wang Dong and a few others remained and were about to be surrounded by the Mimics monsters, the old man at the head of the table heard Wang Dong shout those words and nodded appreciatively, glancing at him. Clearly, he greatly admired the courage Wang Dong had displayed then.

But the next scene changed everyone's expression.

At first, the Mimics Alien Creatures that had been about to attack suddenly stopped moving. Seeing this, everyone grew tense. They had all read the reports and naturally knew what would happen next. But a written report could never compare to witnessing it firsthand.

Then the camera turned, and they saw... the Bug Tide.

"WTF?!"

"My God..."

"God, what is that?!"

When they saw the Bug Tide rushing in from the distance, everyone's expression changed. Many cried out in alarm, some even swore, while several people stood up outright, their faces deathly pale. Yet even so, they held on and forced themselves to remain calm. After all, it was only a video.

But when the Bug Tide reached Wang Dong, and they watched those insects blotting out the sky as they pounced toward him, these people could no longer remain seated. Most of them instinctively stood, trying to defend themselves. Others went pale, their hands dropping to their sides as despair filled their faces. A few with even weaker nerves screamed and toppled over with their chairs, crashing heavily to the floor. When they clutched their heads and looked around, realizing they were not on the battlefield but in a conference room, they actually wore expressions as though they had survived a disaster!

That was only the military higher-ups. The ordinary people nearby fared even worse. Several female clerks were frightened unconscious on the spot. Even the guards responsible for standing watch widened their eyes and gripped their guns tightly. They had to use nearly all their strength to stop themselves from opening fire.

Seeing this scene, even Wang Dong clenched his fists. Embarrassingly, when the Swarm had rushed at him, he had simply shut his eyes and waited to die, so he had no idea what those monsters had actually done. But the camera on his body obviously had no ability to close its eyes, and it had recorded every scene. Thus, Wang Dong watched Zerg after Zerg race past him. They had not even glanced at him, as though he did not exist. Even so, seeing those monsters' sharp claws and fangs through the screen still made Wang Dong suck in a cold breath. Back then, he had completely given up resisting. If those monsters had struck him even once, he would probably have already died without a corpse left intact.

Thinking about it now, the fact that he had returned alive truly was a miracle!

The video finally ended, but no one present moved. Even the old man had his fists tightly clenched. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, looked toward the others, and gave a light cough. Then he spoke with a grave expression.

"It seems we need a plan."