After passing a regular planet, the shipboard AI infiltrated an Imperial satellite and successfully downloaded a strategic star map of the Koprulu Sector. At last, they arrived.
The Star Origin hovered in orbit. Thanks to some of the Eternal Sun Wall's built-in stealth features, neither the Zerg's Overlords nor the ten-meter-tall Spore Crawlers could detect it.
Looking at the screen, where Creep covered most of the planet Mar Sara, Feng Xiao raised an eyebrow.
In the game, only large numbers of Zerg had invaded the area using the Overlords' ability to travel through space. Now, however, they were invading with large Zerg forces.
Tens of millions of Zerg ground units rapidly descended onto the planet's surface. Huge Zerg structures sprang up across the land, occupying all the major resource sites.
Three Leviathans, each comparable to a Level Three Star Beast, and thousands of Corruptors roamed outer space. Unlike the small Corruptors in the game, the ones in reality were a different story.
The Corruptors were three hundred meters long and gave off the energy signature of Level One Star Beasts. And then there were tens of thousands of Mutalisks. It was a formidable blockade.
"Whoa. I'd never believe this wasn't special treatment from Kerrigan. But given the differences between reality and the game, I doubt the Hyperion is the only warship that's made a surprise incursion."
Feng Xiao watched the Zerg forces with interest, then broke into a smile.
Wang Hao looked puzzled. "Boss, these Zerg are nowhere near as powerful as the Cosmic Zerg. Even if we wiped them all out, we'd only get a hundred thousand Star Points or so..."
"The Koprulu Sector has three Level Three civilizations. Its potential value is enormous. Don't just focus on the Star Points right in front of you."
After explaining, Feng Xiao—unable to suppress his curiosity—suddenly thought of something and spoke again.
He swiped his hand across the Matrix's three-dimensional projection, bringing up a star map of the Koprulu Sector. Pointing to one area, he said, "According to intelligence, there's a fleet of the Protoss branch known as the Tal'darim here. Go deal with it."
As the vice-captain, Wang Hao had the authority to control the Star Origin if Feng Xiao was unavailable.
Wang Hao paused. "Then what about you, boss?"
"I'm going down to take a look. Besides, a human fleet will be arriving soon. There's no safety issue."
As an adventurer, getting to experience the story of a game firsthand was incredibly appealing.
Besides, he was pretty strong himself.
[Captain: Feng Xiao
Talent: Immortal Ship (lv5)
Ability: Divine Sense
Level: lv10 (increasing automatically)]
Of the fruit absorbed not long ago, seventy percent of its energy had been absorbed by his talent, while the remaining thirty percent had gone to his Divine Sense ability.
But Feng Xiao hadn't expected his talent to be so much harder to improve than his ability.
His initial estimate was that the Legendary Captain talent worked on the level of the rules, affecting the entire starship's combat power and potential in every way. That made it a higher-tier power than an ability.
The energy required to level it up was far greater than for an ability.
His lv10 Divine Sense was his guarantee of safety.
A level 10 Legendary ability was in no way weaker than an ordinary level 30 ability. According to the Star Sea Alliance's official classification of ability users,
a level 30 ability user could cause enough destruction to wipe out a few hundred soldiers from a medium-sized nation's space force.
If someone could wipe out a few hundred soldiers from a medium-sized nation that rivaled a Level Four or even Level Five civilization, then taking out a thousand Zerg should be no problem, right?
As for war machines, they might be strong enough to kill Ultralisks, but there was no need to bring them along.
"All right, don't worry."
According to the experience of some of his predecessors,
after all, five days later, as captain, he could return to the Main Universe even if he wasn't aboard the starship. He would appear directly in the starship's control room, too.
He casually granted Wang Hao second-level authority, not giving him a chance to say anything, then boarded an unmanned transport and sped toward an area with fewer Zerg.
That was where Jim Raynor had set up his defensive position.
"Damn it, there are too many Zerg!"
Raynor stood atop a massive barracks, holding a huge Gauss rifle and repeatedly firing at the Zerglings, which resembled tigers and leopards in the distance.
Fifty Siege Tanks roared incessantly, their powerful thermal cannons blasting hundreds of Zerg into pieces, but they still couldn't stop the endless Zerg horde.
Even defending just two bridges was incredibly difficult. First, the military-grade alloy bridges were three hundred meters wide and twenty meters thick, making them impossible to destroy quickly.
Then there was the width of the bridges. The Zerg could form sizable waves and keep crashing against the defensive lines.
If this were still just a game, with nearly ten thousand troops, plenty of Siege Tanks, and even missile turrets capable of attacking ground targets, the defenses would already have fallen.
Inside the alloy bunkers at the bridgehead, dozens of soldiers pulled their triggers. Dense streams of bullets cut down large numbers of Zerglings and Hydralisks.
Yet the Zerg kept advancing.
Boom!
A huge Zerg, as large as a tank, suddenly burst through the smoke of an explosion. Its armor gleamed like metal, giving it an oppressive presence.
The squad leader paled as he watched the three-meter-tall, six-meter-long Zerg unit approach.
"Roaches! Marauders!"
The Roaches spat out torrents of corrosive liquid under withering fire. In moments, the sturdy alloy bunker was pitted and scarred.
Two Marines were hit by corrosive liquid sprayed through a firing slit. Seconds later, they screamed and fell silent.
Roaches weren't the advanced cannon fodder they were in the game. In reality, they served as armored units!
Several Marauders soon arrived and killed the Roaches with grenade launchers, but more than half the bunker's front armor had been destroyed.
Shells and bullets filled the entire defensive base. Every so often, dozens of enormous Mutalisks swept across the sky.
The blade projectiles they dropped killed many soldiers.
From above, the alloy base was now completely surrounded by Zerg. Huge biological structures encircled it.
"Jim, if this surprise you promised doesn't get here within two hours, we're done for."
Tychus opened his faceplate, looking grim, as he fired his heavy machine gun at the Mutalisks.
Raynor checked the time, his voice tinged with worry. "I hope it gets here before the defensive base is breached. The Zerg are attacking relentlessly..."
Roar!
A thunderous roar made Raynor abruptly turn toward the bridge on his right, his eyes widening in shock.
Tychus also turned to look. A twenty-meter-tall, thirty-to-forty-meter-long war beast suddenly charged out from behind the ruins on one side!
Its incredibly tough heavy armor could withstand warship fire, and it wielded a ten-meter-long monomolecular blade capable of effortlessly tearing through alloy fortifications.
There was no mistaking what it was.
The Zerg's strongest ground unit, a war beast capable of easily tearing through Protoss shields—the Ultralisk!
"You've got to be kidding me! The Zerg only arrived half a day ago. How could they possibly have hatched an Ultralisk already?!"
Raynor stared in disbelief. He didn't know that three Leviathans were hovering in space.
Even with the Leviathans on guard against the Terran Dominion fleet, dropping off a hundred Ultralisks would be no problem.
"Damn it!"
The anti-air missiles weren't powerful enough to kill the Ultralisk, so Raynor could only order ten Siege Tanks to concentrate their fire on it.
He couldn't worry about leaving a gap in the defense. If they didn't take down the Ultralisk, even one could break through the line.
Just as Raynor was about to give the order, the Ultralisk—its monomolecular blade raised and poised to destroy the alloy bunker in front of it—suddenly froze.
The sudden scene left Raynor and the soldiers bewildered. Even the Brood Mother controlling the Zerg was confused.
Soon, both sides noticed something strange.
At some point, a young man in a black combat suit had appeared atop the bunker, a faint golden glow radiating around him.
He raised his right hand. The veins at his temple bulged. The motionless Ultralisk began to tremble violently, then its entire body was crushed into a ball.
Green blood seeped out. Feng Xiao casually hurled the meatball into the Zerg horde, then turned and grinned.
"Hey! Commander of the Raiders!"
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