Annihilation

Seeing that the enemy defensive line was still stubbornly resisting, the mutated Ultralisks' venom sacs turned red, radiating a dangerous glow.

Zhang Han ordered them to spray several key points. Red Blood Mist Insects instantly enveloped critical positions along the steel defensive line, with generators, defensive bunkers, and armories all within range.

The Blood Mist Insects' powerful corrosive ability produced astonishing results. Steel that the Zerglings' all-out attacks could only leave a few white scratches on began melting like butter over a flame.

The Little Blue Men inside the fortifications were instantly eaten down to bare skeletons after barely touching the Blood Mist Insects. The generators also exploded violently from short circuits. This steel defensive line, which had killed vast numbers of the swarm, looked ready to fall.

Without the generators and bunkers, nothing stood in the way of the swarm's attack. They split into small squads and poured into the defensive line through the breaches corroded open by the Blood Mist Insects.

The Little Blue Men still tried to resist with light weapons and the complex terrain. They were brave, but it was meaningless.

Zerglings and Banelings alone easily captured every defensive strongpoint.

The assault on the fortress quickly turned into a massacre.

On the battlefield in space beyond the planet, dozens of special Brood Lords had also finished mutating. Their targets were the Little Blue Men's steel fleet.

The swarm's space combat units primarily consisted of Mutalisks, Corruptors, Devourers, and Scourge.

Devourers were mid-range aerial combat units of the swarm with thicker carapaces and greater killing power. They served as both damage dealers and damage takers.

In terms of composition, Mutalisks had high mobility and could engage enemies in maneuvering dogfights; Corruptors and Devourers could provide sustained damage; Scourge could pierce armor and damage the enemy fleet. This aerial combat lineup was relatively well-rounded.

So, logically, the swarm's space forces should not have been at a disadvantage in battle.

Building a warship was no easy task. All the different components, the resources consumed, and the training and provisioning of personnel were difficult matters.

For the swarm, however, these things were much, much simpler. As long as they had sufficient reserves of matter and energy, they could hatch a swarm fleet without restraint.

The situation on the battlefield did indeed reflect this, with vast numbers of swarm units surrounding and attacking a fleet of dozens of warships.

It looked like an advantage, but the swarm was actually at an enormous disadvantage. Neither Mutalisks, Corruptors, Devourers, nor Scourge could breach the defenses!

The Little Blue Men's fleet possessed a special kind of shield with extremely strong defenses. The more powerful and faster something was, the more likely it was to be blocked.

Scourge could approach slowly before accelerating into a collision. The few successes achieved had been theirs.

But the enormous warships had dense fields of fire. The coverage provided by their lasers and automatic cannons was more than sufficient to shoot down large numbers of slowly approaching Scourge.

If the fighting continued like this, either the enemy fleet would run out of ammunition or the entire swarm would be killed. Neither outcome was acceptable to Zhang Han.

He chose a third option: using the newly mutated Brood Lords to deal heavy blows to the enemy ships.

To allow the Gray Mist Insects and Blood Mist Insects to function in space as well, the Hatchery Brood Lords' mutation took longer and was more complex.

The method involved wrapping the two types of insects in a special green biomass slime. This special biomass ensured that the insects would not be immediately killed by the harsh conditions of space.

But it also reduced their lethality.

They would no longer be able to devastate a broad area with a single attack as they had on the planet, but the green biomass slime also had certain benefits.

It could coat a target's surface, reduce its movement speed, and inflict sustained damage. It could be imagined as napalm that did not burn.

At Zhang Han's command, a dozen or so mutated Brood Lords attacked, firing green projectiles at the enemy warships.

These green projectiles did not fly fast enough to trigger interception by the enemy ships' special shields.

Although the dense fields of fire could easily tear Scourge apart, small bullets and lasers had little effect on the green projectiles, as though they were firing into water. This was the effect of the Gray Mist Insects.

Soon, the first enemy ship subjected to concentrated fire fell victim to the green projectiles. They clung to the warship's surface like mud, and the Blood Mist Insects inside began to work. Under their corrosion, the hard steel began to disintegrate and crumble.

A single projectile inflicted limited damage on an enormous warship, but dozens striking at once quickly corroded it into wreckage riddled with holes.

The Little Blue Men's fleet had initially appeared entirely composed, steadily harvesting the lives of the swarm fleet.

Now they panicked. Their peculiar shields and fields of fire could no longer guarantee the fleet's safety, so they began adjusting their battle line and exchanging fire with the mutated Brood Lords.

Because the mutated Brood Lords had extremely complex biological structures, only this many had been mutated in such a short time. In an exchange of fire with the Little Blue Men's warships, they were at an absolute numerical disadvantage.

But although the flesh-and-blood swarm had many weaknesses, competing with an enemy in numbers was the one thing it did not fear.

Large numbers of Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Devourers used their own bodies to block the munitions fired at the mutated Brood Lords.

Only the Zerg could command their troops to fight with such fearlessness. The insects had no fear, knew no pain, and would carry out their orders without fail.

Death was simply not worth fearing to them. The swarm would not fear death; death would fear the swarm.

Thanks to the cover provided by the other swarm units, the mutated Brood Lords did not suffer much damage.

Like precise machines, they picked off the Little Blue Men's fleet one ship at a time. Soon, after losing more than half their fleet, the Little Blue Men broke.

For an army of intelligent beings, their performance had been excellent. Facing an enemy of astonishing numbers, they had continued striving to fight back even while suffering enormous casualties.

They only broke after losing more than half their forces, when there was no longer any hope of victory. It had to be said that the Little Blue Men were formidable enemies.

The Little Blue Men's fleet scattered and began breaking out in different directions. The swarm pursued them with all its might, trying to stop the enemy from escaping.

But there were too few Mutated Zerg Brood Lords, and their mobility was relatively poor. The other insects could not inflict heavy damage on the enemy ships. In the end, a third of the enemy ships still broke out and slipped into hyperspace.

"Congratulations to the great Overmind on a glorious victory," the Hive Mind said inside Zhang Han's mind.

After winning, Zhang Han's mind finally relaxed. Only then did he realize there was a problem.

Why was he here? Hadn't he just been playing a game? Why was he commanding the swarm in battle against an enemy?

These hideous, terrifying insects bore some similarities to the Zerg in StarCraft, but there were even more differences.

They were probably just hive-like alien life-forms with a social structure similar to that of the Zerg.

They called him the Overmind. Did that mean he, an ordinary person, now controlled a force capable of dominating a region even in the cosmos?

Zhang Han began to grow excited. Just as he wanted to exchange more information with the Hive Mind inside his mind,

bad news arrived.