Trap

Although the chances of Nano-Seed reaching their target location and successfully infiltrating enemy warships are ultimately only one in a thousand, or even one in ten thousand, the journey is fraught with hardship and danger.

However, even a low percentage cannot overcome the sheer number of Nano-Seed. Although Nano-Seed are technologically advanced, their extremely small size means that each Nano-Seed consumes very few production materials. A single Insect Empress can easily produce hundreds of millions of nano-prototypes per day, and if dedicated to expedited production, the speed can be even faster, potentially reaching a production rate of hundreds of billions.

Therefore, even when their numbers reach a terrifying level, the actual number of Nano-Seed reaching the enemy's formation is still considerable, with each warship likely carrying at least a hundred or so.

It's impossible for all of these Nano-Seed to mutate into Insect Empress and Creep, as these, while valuable, lack any offensive capabilities in the early game. Therefore, each warship will have at most ten Nano-Seed mutated into Insect Empress and Creep. The remaining Nano-Seed will all mutate into support units.

Given that the Nano-Seed are located in enemy territory, their energy-gathering methods are limited. Their mission is to protect the normal development of the Insect Empress Egg and the Creep, so they certainly cannot wait for the Creep to fully develop before charging their energy reserves; that would be putting the cart before the horse.

However, inside enemy warships, where there is little radiation, the Nano-Seed have to take risks to collect the energy from the mutation. But multiple Nano-Seed absorbing energy simultaneously would inevitably attract attention and cause unnecessary trouble. Therefore, how to develop rapidly and stealthily has become a new problem.

However, thanks to the efforts of Intellect and Rowan, this problem was solved before it lasted long.

Because it is a state of war, these Nano-Seed do not need to remain dormant for long. Their goal is to develop rapidly and dismantle the enemy from within.

Therefore, rapid development is the top priority, while concealment is the second. The issue of rapid development has already been resolved by burning through the body's lifespan. So, the only remaining issue is energy supply.

Based on this idea, the Tentacle Trap was born. Contrary to the predictions of the Coalition Army foreign tribes, this Tentacle Trap, in its early stages of development, lacked mobility due to its pursuit of speed.

Therefore, they usually choose an easily corroded wall or floor as their breeding ground. The broken walls that outsiders see are not because they dug them for hiding, but because they need energy and have dug them out.

Although the Tentacle Trap lacks mobility in the early stages, it still possesses formidable destructive power when combined with the Zerg's powerful mimicry and electromagnetic technologies. Once the attention of other races is drawn, the mutated Insect Empress and the Nano-Seed of the Creep Seed are safe.

"Everyone, slow down and carefully check every corner." Inside the warship, Knox directed his team members to carefully walk forward along the internal passageway.

At this point, their formation had changed to two shield-wielding ZR-2 humanoid robots in front, with other models and ZR-2s without large metal shields behind.

The defensive units providing cover became the trailblazers. Compared to other robots, the shield-wielding robots, which appeared somewhat clumsy, cleared the way while carefully checking their surroundings, using their bodies to eliminate traps.

However, the sheer size of the warship's cabins makes it incredibly difficult and inefficient to search them bit by bit using such a giant shield robot. But there's no other way; this is already the fastest speed they can manage.

The two giant shields held up at the front bore numerous dents and scorch marks, remnants of the attacks from the Zerg's Tentacle Trap during the initial physical search.

Although the shield is made of the same material as the warship's Reactive Armor, the attack power of the Zerg Tentacle Trap is unimaginably strong. Judging by the shield's current damage level, it can probably withstand about two more attacks before it's destroyed.

In fact, Knox Squad's ZR-2 robot had already replaced two of its shields. The number of those Tentacle Trap was somewhat beyond the outsiders' expectations; they weren't rare and were scattered throughout the ship's cabins. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and it was unclear how the Zerg had managed to do so.

Their powerful attacks and sheer numbers caused considerable trouble for the reconnaissance team, resulting in rapid wear and tear on their shields. However, there was nothing they could do; even specially designed riot shields were suffering such a fate. If other units were hit like that, the consequences would be unimaginable.

While this method of investigation is much safer, it is far too slow. Several hours have passed since the Tentacle Trap were discovered, and their team has only explored two passages that are just over 100 meters long.

At this rate of investigation, it would probably take several years to survey the entire fleet. By then, even if the fleets hadn't been destroyed by the Zerg, the war would likely have been over long ago.

But given the current situation, this is the only option; there is no other way. The foreign advisors have discussed solutions, and even now they are still discussing this topic, but no solution has been found.

The Zerg's powerful mimicry technology rendered the outsiders virtually blind. The outsiders had also considered using other types of robots to quickly clear the minefield.

While Z-series robots are rare, the warship carries many other types of robots, such as various models of repair robots.

Using these robots to complete one-for-one jobs wouldn't seem like a bad deal. The foreign tribes tried to monetize this idea, but still failed.

There are two reasons. First, the number of Tentacle Trap is not as small as speculated. They are numerous. The warship where the most Tentacle Trap have been found has already had about two hundred, and that is far from all. Based on the regional proportions, each warship has at least a thousand of them.

Secondly, these Tentacle Trap surprisingly demonstrate a certain level of intelligence. They understand how to differentiate situations and know whether or not to attack under the current circumstances.

On one warship, the tactic of using repair robots to clear mines was first employed. However, after destroying several Tentacle Trap using this method, the Tentacle Trap seemed to have been reprogrammed, ignoring the repair robots and refusing to attack even when the robots walked over them.

Furthermore, there seemed to be some mysterious connection between the Tentacle Trap. This wasn't unique to that warship; suddenly, all the Tentacle Trap became like this. This added another question to the foreign advisors who were pondering the matter.