Actually, the situation in the Federation war zone was even worse than Brother Dong had described.
Wormholes of all sizes had not only blossomed everywhere within the Federation’s borders but had also spread throughout the Empire.
But the Empire was faring a bit better than the Federation, because they had Bayard.
Inside an Imperial space battleship, a group of people wearing Imperial royal uniforms sat in comfortable chairs, holding fine wine, watching the battles on the planets below while chatting and laughing cheerfully.
“Congratulations, Eugene. You’ve created a humanoid monster.”
Eugene’s eyes sparkled. On the display screen, Bayard stood amid the swarms, directing a group of black beetles to resist another group of black beetles.
The suddenly appearing wormholes had instead become Bayard’s training ground.
The way Eugene looked at Bayard was satisfied yet tinged with a hint of pickiness. “He was fused with a Tier 2 Zerg gene. It’s still a bit lacking.”
Humans weren’t sure exactly how many tiers the Zerg had. They could only rank them with numbers based on what had been observed so far.
Tier 1 Zerg had no independent consciousness. They were the lowest combat units, unconditionally obeying the tier above them.
The black beetles were the most common type of Tier 1 Zerg.
Tier 2 Zerg had some independent consciousness and could command a corresponding number of Tier 1 Zerg based on their abilities.
The flying fat grubs belonged to Tier 2.
As for the newly appeared [Void Devourer], people guessed it was probably on the same level as the Octopus, making it a Tier 3 Zerg.
The person sitting across from Eugene used a fork to pick up a small bite of cake and put it in his mouth. He frowned, showing a hint of displeasure. “Our Empire’s own honey isn’t as good as the Federation’s. The cake doesn’t taste as good as before.”
With that, he casually pushed the cake aside, too lazy to give it another glance.
Actually, the difference in the honey wasn’t as big as he made it out to be. If you didn’t taste carefully, you wouldn’t even notice the difference in texture.
Everyone expressed understanding of his fussiness, complaining one after another.
“What is the Marshal thinking anyway? Why did he have to raze the black market? It’s just a place the size of a fingernail. Why waste the Empire’s military power on it?”
“Exactly. If the black market were still there, we could buy as much honey, bunny-girls, and those sorts of things as we wanted.”
Eugene lowered his eyelids, hiding the contempt in his eyes. These people were just here to gild their resumes on the battlefield. They didn’t understand what a huge opportunity and challenge the appearance of the Zerg posed for humanity!
If he could completely control the Zerg, both the Federation and the Empire would kneel at his feet!
Eugene stroked the scepter under his palm. His two thin lips were pressed tightly together, showing a sharp lip line.
Let Bayard test the waters first. If it succeeded, he would stand at the pinnacle of humanity!
The tone of those fools was full of disdain and a hint of unconscious jealousy: “Eugene, how did you succeed? Didn’t the fusion experiments fail a long time ago? Starlight Life was secretly doing this research too, but not only did they not succeed, they also attracted quite a few wormholes.”
Quite a few wormholes had appeared in the Federation’s First, Second, and Third Star Rings.
An Empire national-level analyst had analyzed the phenomenon and speculated that the problem lay with the Zerg blood taken by Starlight Life.
The Zerg had an extremely strong ability to sense the blood of their own kind and could locate them based on it.
To confirm this speculation, the Empire conducted experiments on ten planets. Ultimately, they proved that some active component in Zerg blood acted like a locator device.
After a Zerg died, this active component died along with it. Only by collecting blood from a living Zerg could the active component be preserved.
Starlife Life must have conducted live experiments, which was why the Federation’s core star rings had been targeted by the Zerg.
The Empire had always maintained a cautious attitude toward extraterrestrial life. The fusion experiment sites had been confined to the periphery.
Back when Eugene was appointed as the project lead, everyone thought he had been cast out by His Majesty, banished to the frontier, never to rise again.
Who would have thought that fate had other plans.
The Zerg launched a large-scale attack on humanity, and to top it off, the fusion experiment had actually succeeded. Bayard’s usefulness on the battlefield was even better than a nuclear bomb!
How could that not make people jealous?
Eugene noticed everyone’s emotions, but he pretended not to and said considerately, “Maybe it’s because of bloodline. Out of over 123,000 test subjects, only Bayard has the bloodline of a Golden Family. He’s also the only true chimera.”
The bloodline of a Golden Family?
A flicker of suspicion and desire appeared in everyone’s eyes.
Humanity had gone from Tigre Star into space, and over the long years, had eventually split into two political entities: the Federation and the Empire.
The Federation had four Golden Families. The Empire had the royal family and the nobility.
If their blood could increase the success rate, what about the royal family’s blood? What about the nobility’s?
Watching everyone’s varied expressions, the corners of Eugene’s mouth curled up slightly into a faint, barely noticeable smile.
A few managed to hold onto the last shred of rationality amid their desires. “Starlight Life should have done experiments with Golden Family blood too, right? Also, did Lin Xiaohe fuse with a Zerg?”
Eugene said candidly, “Starlight Life definitely did, but those people were different from Bayard. His jealousy and hatred of Lin Xiaohe gave Bayard the will to fight to the bitter end. As for Lin Xiaohe, she’s not a chimera. She just has a low-tier Zerg bio-armor.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up instantly, widening as big as brass bells.
They had all seen Lin Xiaohe’s combat videos—walking through the void, destroying half a space fleet with a single whip crack!
Even if they looked down on commoners, they had to admit Lin Xiaohe’s power.
Such an impressive Lin Xiaohe only had low-tier Zerg armor?
If they had Tier 2 Zerg armor, or became Tier 3 chimeras, wouldn’t they be like gods?!
A wave of heat surged into everyone’s hearts, making them tremble slightly with excitement.
…
Unlike the Empire’s high-level officials, who eyed the Zerg with predatory desire, the Federation had deeply experienced the Zerg’s power.
The capital planet of the Third Star Ring faced its greatest crisis ever.
A wormhole appeared directly above the capital planet’s government building!
Melina followed the crowd, evacuating under the protection of the planet’s defense forces.
“Director, the hover car is ready.” The secretary ran ahead of Melina and quickly opened the car door.
Suddenly, Melina’s heart tightened. A chill spread through her entire body.
She used every ounce of her strength to dash desperately toward the hover car.
The instant the car door closed, a black tentacle slammed down violently toward them.
The hover car arched into an extreme curve in the air, narrowly dodging the tentacle, then accelerated to its limit, leaving the wormhole far behind.
Inside the hover car, the secretary’s face was ashen, forehead covered with beads of sweat the size of soybeans.
She had come within a hair’s breadth of being killed by a black beetle!
Melina looked back. The wormhole above the government building was an ominous, deep black. Massive black beetles were swarming out of it, scrambling over one another.
The steel-and-concrete jungles that humanity had once taken such pride in were, to these black beetles, merely unpalatable food.
They much preferred human flesh and blood.
The workers who hadn’t had time to escape were skewered like candied hawthorn skewers by their tentacles.
The entire capital planet was filled with anguished wails and the metallic stench of blood.
Melina clenched her fists tightly. The muscles in her face spasmed from sheer rage.
Why was there a wormhole on the capital planet?!
