Arms race

Zhang Fan had never imagined that plants could possess a consciousness surpassing his own, let alone rapidly evolve a fungus that targeted only the Insect Race.

"Order all Insect Race units to withdraw to Rebecca. Before boarding, they must be checked for fungal infestation!"

"Noya, assign several Matriarchs to develop specialized Insect Race units. Since this Plant Planet has declared war on us, we'll give it what it wants!"

All Insect Race units underwent strict inspections before withdrawing from the planet. After returning to Rebecca, Zhang Fan joined the research efforts.

With his knowledge of the evolutionary history of life on Earth and the Matriarchs' assistance, Zhang Fan soon found a targeted solution.

Pheromone camouflage. Using genes from the planet's native organisms, they disguised the Insect Race units from within so the planet would no longer reject them. After repeated experiments, the fungus no longer posed a threat.

But Zhang Fan was deeply interested in the fungus's ability to parasitize creatures and drive them berserk. The fact that the planet itself was a living organism intrigued him even more.

A war against the plants began without smoke or gunfire.

Just when Zhang Fan thought he had secured an initial victory, the fungus began evolving too. It could quickly identify the disguised pheromones and then take control of the Insect Race units.

This time, the Insect Race went mad even faster. Previously, a Matriarch-level unit would go mad in three days. Now it took only one, and death followed two days after infection—twice as fast as before.

An opponent that could not communicate through language. A war between animals and plants, between eating and being eaten. There was no smoke, no artillery fire. Everything was so peaceful.

Behind that peace, however, lay a race in biotechnology. Zhang Fan could win by destroying the planet, but what he needed now was improvement.

In this invisible arms race, the planet was the perfect opponent. Yet Zhang Fan had to remain vigilant at every moment. Its infectious power was terrifyingly strong; if Rebecca became infected, he would be trapped in a disadvantage from which there was no recovery.

"Overlord, this is a Parasitic Wasp bred from the planet's native insects after they were parasitized. We've enhanced its parasitic abilities, and since it's a native organism itself, Jade won't recognize it."

Zhang Fan examined the little green-and-white flying insect. It was two centimeters long, with a three-centimeter wingspan, spear-like forelegs, hooked middle legs, and a parasitic sac at its tail.

"What can it do?"

Noya smiled. "After our modifications, the creatures that hatch from its parasitized hosts won't have a diluted connection to the Overlord's consciousness. The hosts themselves will also carry the Overlord's consciousness until they die."

"This is good. We can control the hosts directly in battle, and after they die, the eggs inside them will still hatch. Very nice. But what use will it have against Jade later on?"

Jade was the name Zhang Fan had given the Plant Planet because its entire surface was emerald green, like jade.

Noya showed Zhang Fan another crawling insect, slightly larger than the Parasitic Wasp.

This insect could change its body color to match its surroundings, making it almost invisible to creatures that relied on sight.

"This little thing could make a good scout."

Noya smiled. "Overlord, this one was designed specifically to deal with Jade. It doesn't eat meat. We developed it using genes from the Sap-Sucking Beast, a herbivore from Asha Star stored in our gene bank."

Noya placed the little insect in a petri dish containing Jade Parasitic Fungus. It immediately crawled onto the fungus and inserted its needle-like mouthparts into the fungus's roots.

Within moments, the fungus began to wither until it resembled dried grass.

Just as Zhang Fan thought it was over, the dried-grass-like fungus twitched. Five or six larvae crawled out of it.

Zhang Fan nodded in satisfaction. "This little thing is good. What's it called?"

Noya said proudly, "It was developed from the Parasitic Wasp. We call it the Parasitic Tick."

"Have the Parasitic Wasps attack this planet's animals and evolve entirely new Insect Race units for me. Have the Parasitic Ticks attack Jade. I want its genes and its terrifying infectious ability."

The battle against the Plant Planet Jade began...

The Parasitic Wasps were released onto Jade, and sure enough, Jade failed to recognize them.

The Parasitic Wasps began hunting down herbivores in a frenzy. Driven mad, the herbivores devoured vast quantities of plants until they ate themselves to death. Once the hosts died, large numbers of larvae carrying their hosts' traits hatched and continued eating plants to grow.

"The most classic words from the tale of the Foolish Old Man moving mountains: if I can't finish digging, I have sons and grandsons. My grandsons will have grandsons of their own, generation after generation without end."

Standing aboard Rebecca, Zhang Fan laughed heartily. But the descendants of this particular Foolish Old Man reproduced so quickly and in such vast numbers that, in less than four days, the once emerald-green Jade had been devoured by the Insect Race and turned gray-black.

Moreover, the number of species produced through mutations in hosts parasitized by the Parasitic Wasps reached the tens of millions.

Now, only the Insect Race remained across Jade. Looking at the tens of millions of new species, Zhang Fan suddenly recalled his earliest evolution on Death Star.

The difference this time was that he no longer controlled the direction of evolution. Instead, it would be a struggle for survival, with the fittest prevailing.

Under the control of Zhang Fan's consciousness, the entire ecosystem of Jade's Insect Race began evolving through elimination.

Six-Eye, the ruler of Jade's skies, had an eagle's head with six eyes, wings like enormous fans, and a body as large as a bull. Its spear-like forelimbs could spray Corrosive Fluid, while its middle and rear legs formed two pairs of hooked feet. Its four tails—red, white, blue, and yellow—could unleash attacks using four types of energy: qi, electricity, magic energy, and crystal energy.

Zhang Fan combined Six-Eye with the Venom Bee and hatched Super Six-Eye. Not only did it possess all of Six-Eye's abilities, but it could also survive in outer space, move faster, and carry Qi Spiders.

The birth of Super Six-Eye neatly filled the gap in Zhang Fan's forces, which had lacked a combat unit comparable to a small attack aircraft.

Meanwhile, Jade's land ruler, the Thunder Elephant, had a flat, pointed head and the strength to shatter mountains. Its six pincer-like teeth crushed stone as though it were cotton, and its six legs were like pillars. Electric currents surrounded its entire body, preventing ordinary creatures from getting anywhere near it.

Zhang Fan fused the Thunder Elephant's genes with those of the Giant Scarab and the Bull-Armored Scorpion. After several rounds of modification, he finally hatched the Insect Race's most powerful ground unit yet: the Overlord Beast.

The Overlord Beast was twenty-five meters long, ten meters tall, and weighed a hundred tons. In addition to the Thunder Elephant's traits, it had the Giant Scarab's energy cannon on its back and three venomous Bull-Armored Scorpion tails at its rear. Each scorpion tail alone was roughly six meters long.

Super Six-Eye was manageable, but the Overlord Beast was enormous. Once their numbers increased, Rebecca simply would not have room for them. Moreover, the time an Overlord Beast needed to mature from a juvenile made it impossible to deploy promptly for battle.

If Zhang Fan wanted the strongest ground force, the Overlord Beast, he now had only one choice... evolve Rebecca.