Advance Guard of the Small Swarm

Feng Xiao was taken aback, but he instantly understood what Wang Hao meant.

As long as they entered an alternate universe to harvest Star Points, they could upgrade immediately upon returning. With four additional Star-Weapon slots, they would be able to equip the Storm Piercer the moment they charged toward that starship.

What was a Level 4 Aurora Rat?

Even a Level 5 Rat King wouldn't be able to catch the Star Origin!

It just so happened that there were three or four opportunities to capture spacetime signals every month; for other starships, this might just be a matter of luck.

But for the Star Origin, every signal capture was equivalent to a guaranteed entry ticket.

Feng Xiao explained to Wang Hao and Ilde that this was the effect of his awakened ability.

The origin of the Heart of Dawn was mysterious, and he would keep it as secret as possible; heaven only knew if it was a supreme treasure coveted by mysterious cosmic entities or major powers.

"This is the only way for now, so without further ado, let's depart immediately!"

The Heart of Dawn activated instantly, but to Feng Xiao's surprise, it had actually captured a full eleven alternate universe spatial signals!

Aside from three extremely dangerous options—which were essentially death sentences—there were five high-risk, one safe, and two medium-risk options.

He first ruled out the extremely dangerous and safe ones. After careful consideration and consulting with Wang Hao and Ilde, he also excluded the medium-risk spatial anchors.

The Star Origin was, after all, a full-time exploration starship; safe and medium-risk zones posed almost no challenge to it, so high-risk was naturally the best choice.

The higher the danger, the greater the harvest; the rewards from a high-risk zone would definitely be substantial.

The Heart of Dawn's danger rating was calculated based on the Star Origin's current combat power; a "high-risk" prompt indicated that it would truly be a challenge for the ship.

Feng Xiao stared deeply at that starship: "Randomly select a high-risk anchor. Enter immediately."

The next moment, mysterious energy instantly dragged the Star Origin into a nearby anchor, causing it to vanish completely from the main universe!

Inside the rat nest, an Aurora Rat—which had grown to look like a sable, possessing steel-like fur and purple life-veins—suddenly opened its eyes.

Its body, roughly two thousand meters long, shifted slightly before it closed its eyes again in confusion.

Alternate universe.

The Star Origin's streamlined hull emerged from the starry sky without creating a single ripple.

"Hmm?"

Wang Hao, observing the surrounding environment through the Matrix, was immediately puzzled. The number of lifeforms within the Matrix's range had actually exceeded ten billion!!

Dozens of drones scattered, continuously feeding back the captured footage.

They saw that a once-azure planet was now filled with smoke and fire; the anomalies formed by countless flames and thick smoke could even be seen from space.

Outside the planet were three severely damaged small starports, where a large number of charred and heavily corroded warship and fighter wrecks could still be seen.

The planet's surface was filled with corpses and ruins across dozens of massive cities, with countless war machines and the bodies of human soldiers lying on the ground.

One by one, hideous creatures resembling killing machines were constantly moving corpses toward biological structures a hundred meters tall in the center of each city!

In an instant, Feng Xiao and Ilde's expressions changed drastically. They looked at the dense swarm of insectoids, covered in hideous barbs and hard armor, their entire bodies acting as weapons of slaughter, and found it hard to believe.

"Are you kidding me? Cosmic Zerg!

The Cosmic Zerg is only high-risk?!"

Feng Xiao rubbed his forehead in exhaustion and looked at the intelligence report.

The Cosmic Zerg could be called the most terrifying race in the universe, all controlled by a single super-lifeform known as the Overlord.

Their terrifying reproductive capacity and near-invincible biotechnology made the Cosmic Zerg the nightmare of countless civilizations—they would devour every resource they could see to expand.

The Cosmic Zerg even possessed the ability to travel between alternate universes and the main universe in groups; they had left behind terrifying legacies in both!

Not to mention the entire Zerg race, even the various levels of swarms split from them could be called natural disasters!

Even the smallest scale of a minor swarm could easily destroy the Blue Crystal Federation!

When the Zerg acted, it was at least on the scale of a minor swarm!

Not to mention those medium, large, or even super swarms.

Even the elite nations within the Human Alliance were extremely wary of super swarms.

Some of the Origin Swarms, which sat above the super swarms within the Cosmic Zerg, might even have the strength to contend with the powerful nations of the Human Alliance!

If what was before them was truly a complete minor swarm, the Star Origin would likely have to find a way to hide and wait for the hunt to end.

Unless it was a Star-Land Class starship or higher, it would be impossible to defeat a minor swarm.

As he racked his brain for a strategy, the intelligence report finished buffering.

[Intelligence: The Starfire Alliance, a human civilization that has developed for tens of thousands of years. The entire civilization was once thriving, with surging technology.

They had even expanded their territory to the entire star sector, possessing hundreds of billions of people and hundreds of life-bearing planets, with nearly ten thousand resource stars!

However, as a minor swarm discovered them—the war began!

In just a few decades, they lost nearly half of the territory they had developed over tens of thousands of years. Even though the Starfire Humans resisted desperately, they gradually headed toward destruction as time passed.

According to the current situation, the Starfire Humans will be extinct in twenty years at most.]

The surrounding territory has been devastated by the Swarm... The Starfire Humans have nowhere left to run!

The planet before your eyes was destroyed by the Swarm not long ago; their main force is currently heading to the front lines to engage the Starfire Alliance.

Recommendation: Starship level 20 or above.

Mission: None.

Note: Any starship that kills a Brood Queen for the first time will randomly receive a title.

The types of titles are exclusively geared toward the Zerg, though their quality and effects vary. Equipping such a title will grant bonuses when engaging the Zerg.

Warning: The Swarm will lock onto the title holder within their detection range!!]

Having just learned of the Swarm's terror, Wang Hao and Feng Xiao exchanged a glance, then let out a sigh of relief.

It was fortunate that someone else was drawing their fire.

However...

Starfire Humans...

The human race might seem numerous, but in the grand scale of the universe, they were incredibly rare!

Currently, apart from the Star Sea Human Alliance, no one in the main universe had ever encountered other human civilizations or factions.

Even throughout countless years of history, they had only been seen a dozen times, and all had been absorbed into the Alliance.

Although there were slightly more human civilizations in parallel universes than in the main universe, the chance of encountering one was less than one in ten thousand.

To encounter them twice in such a short time was enough to show the fate shared by the Star Origin and human civilization; watching this vibrant human civilization perish felt somewhat unsettling.

In the beginning, the predecessor of the Star Sea Human Alliance was merely a Level 2 civilization driven from its home planet by other civilizations...

Even now, the Star Sea Human Alliance had yet to find the way back to their home planet.

The universe was just too vast...

Twenty years...

"The time dilation between the parallel universe and the main universe is about 5:1, so four years..."

That was enough!

"Prepare to deal with the remaining Swarm on this planet. Have you detected any bio-warships or life signals from a Brood Queen?"

Wang Hao connected to the Matrix, then nodded solemnly: "Both are present. A total of ten bio-warships and one Brood Queen."

Bio-warships were the Swarm's primary force for dealing with human starships. Their strength was calculated similarly to Star Beasts, but they all possessed the combat power of elite Star Beasts of the same level!

There was no shortage of Perfect-grade or even Monarch-grade combat power!

Of course, their numbers were very small.

"According to the data, the ten bio-warships are all War Centipedes, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 meters in size. Eight are at Level 2 energy output, and two are at Level 3.

The Brood Queen's combat power isn't high, but it's impossible to lock onto her specific location without first eliminating the bio-warships."

Wang Hao reported in detail.

Nodding with a hint of gravity, a cold glint flashed in Feng Xiao's eyes.

"Are there any nuclear weapons in the weapon bay? Although they aren't much use against warships or Star Beasts, I believe they'll be quite effective for clearing out cannon fodder and common Zerg soldiers."

Ilde immediately checked the data, nodding excitedly: "We have ten 300-megaton nuclear warheads kept just in case. Because of their attack speed and margin for error, they aren't very effective against bio-warships.

But for slaughtering a group of surface bugs without bio-energy fields, they will absolutely vaporize them!"

"That's good. Prepare for action!"

"Yes!"