Capítulo 156: Chapter 156: The Hatchery Hive and the Tier 2 Eggs in the Meat Tower
As everyone prepared to eliminate the six or seven Tiger Bugs before them, another group of Tier 2 Tiger Bugs appeared at the hive entrance.
Lin Feng quickly signaled his team to stop aiming their guns.
Dealing with six or seven Tiger Bugs was manageable, but their numbers doubling or more would lead to vibrations, potentially collapsing the tunnel structure.
If collapsing debris buried the hive entrance...
All previous efforts would be for naught.
The tunnel they were in was far less stable than the large hive-like caverns.
A tunnel collapse would block the exit.
They had to wait for one or both Tiger Bug patrols to depart before entering the hive to attack.
The two Tiger Bug patrols met.
As before, they exchanged information via their large mandibles.
Once confirmed safe, they switched shifts.
Constantly ensuring hive safety.
While Lin Feng's team patiently waited, a Tiger Bug suddenly left its group, approaching the Red Beetle swarm. It used its mandibles to tap a large Red Beetle.
The Red Beetle received a signal and expelled a pile of beige fluid from its rear.
It was the same food Ling Yi had them excrete for the queen!
But excreted fluid, having passed through the digestive tract, contained impurities and toxins.
Yet it remained a delicacy for Tiger Bugs.
The Red Beetle, rear raised, expelled nutrient fluid like an aphid.
The Tiger Bug used its mandibles to sip it.
Typically, like Black Spinal Bugs, they fed in bio-hives through automatic pipelines, akin to refueling.
Those nutrients sustained them, but offered no advancement.
Aside from consuming corpses or following the queen to attack, Black Spinal Bugs had no other advancement paths.
Smarter Tiger Bugs secretly consumed concentrated nutrients, slowly but safely leveling up.
The queen knew but didn't interfere unless it affected the swarm.
Tier 2 insect power determined swarm combat limits.
Without direct queen involvement, Tier 2 insects fought strong awakeners.
The Tiger Bug's sneaking snack worried Lin Feng's team.
Lin Feng and Shen Jie, at the front, dared not breathe, fearing a probing mandible might discover them.
Their armor, made from Tiger Bug mandibles, would reveal a difference with a tap.
They couldn't excrete such nutrients.
Fortunately, when the Tiger Bug reached its third Red Beetle, its distant companion screeched, urging it to catch up.
Reluctantly, it left.
The team's tension eased.
After both Tiger Bug patrols left, Lin Feng turned to Ling Yi for her opinion.
His psychic sense indicated guards on either side of the suspected Tier 2 hatchery hive entrance.
Five guards total.
Equivalent to a small squad.
The entrance was narrow, with few Red Beetles for cover.
Entering would inevitably trigger a fight.
To handle a pincer attack, Lin Feng and Shen Jie would separate for rear and frontal defense, and Ling Yi would disrupt the swarm.
With the plan set, Ling Yi proposed another:
"Hold off on direct action."
"We're 350 meters deep, and those Tiger Bugs and food-bearing Red Beetles lacked queen scent, suggesting the queen..."
"Isn't beneath the county, but hidden in another northern city."
Lin Feng was puzzled:
"So? We have more time?"
Ling Yi nodded, explaining:
"Not just that."
"Without the queen, I can fully use my intent... my power, to control the Tiger Bugs, letting us enter without fear of a pincer attack."
Lin Feng's eyes lit up.
The Tier 2 corps was shocked, realizing why the commander brought this seemingly delicate woman into the dangerous hive.
If her power controlled Tier 2 insects, they could move freely among them.
Her ability had helped them infiltrate.
Ling Yi clarified:
"It's limited, only controlling seven Tiger Bugs, at close range for thirty minutes, with a half-hour cooldown, not matching your combat strength."
"It must be far from a queen, or control is lost, and we're exposed."
Lin Feng smiled, gesturing to the hive entrance:
"No worries."
"Let's start."
"Half an hour is plenty!"
Ling Yi nodded, approaching the entrance under Lin Feng's protection, her eyes glowing gold, mental power rippling with intent.
Though only lv20, her mental attribute reached the Tier 2 cap of 390, surpassing regular awakeners and Tier 2 insects.
With mental control, the entrance's Tiger Bugs' eyes flashed yellow, then retreated.
The queen's mental control was a vast web over the swarm, unable to focus on individuals.
Though the queen's mental attribute was thousands, spread across Tier 2s, it was weaker than Ling Yi's focused control.
Being a queen's avatar, she expertly controlled Tiger Bugs.
In seconds, Ling Yi seized control from the queen, commanding the five Tiger Bugs.
Ling Yi led the Tier 2 corps inside.
At the entrance, the Tiger Bugs stood like lifeless statues.
Their menacing aura still prompted the team to raise shotguns.
Ling Yi turned:
"Don't worry, they're neutralized."
She ordered the Tiger Bugs:
"Block the entrance!"
The 15-meter-wide entrance could be blocked by a single Tiger Bug, giving time to gather resources.
The controlled Tiger Bugs obeyed, squeezing to fill the entrance.
Seeing obedient Tiger Bugs, the team was impressed.
Killing them was easy, but mental control was more effective underground.
Now they had time to explore.
Ling Yi led the way inside.
Lin Feng directed Shen Jie to split into pairs, searching.
The green fungi inside provided faint light, like the first defense line, only illuminating ten meters.
Lin Feng sensed only a large light source ahead.
Unable to pinpoint the Tier 2 eggs.
They needed to split, search faster.
Seven members and Shen Jie formed four teams, with Lin Feng and Ling Yi as the fifth, preventing her from hoarding the find.
Ling Yi noted Lin Feng's caution, smiling as she walked:
"This secondary hive, a hatchery, spans four to five square kilometers, mostly bio-hives refining nutrients for Tier 2 eggs, storing mandibles for Tiger Bugs."
"Tier 2 eggs are in a secret corner."
"Nearby are small tunnels known only to Black Spinal Bugs. When they reach late-stage, they enter for final molting, forming a new life."
Lin Feng frowned; did lv19 Black Spinal Bugs ascend to lv20 Tiger Bugs without upgrade energy?
Ling Yi continued toward a fixed point, sensing his confusion:
"Not all late-stage Black Spinal Bugs become Tiger Bugs. It takes ten Black Spinal Bugs to form one egg, and only half the eggs mature into Tiger Bugs."
"Ten thousand Black Spinal Bugs, a thousand reach peak, producing fifty Tiger Bugs."
"Early third-stage queens have two to three hundred Tiger Bugs, never over a thousand."
"Also limited by mandible synthesis."
"Limited resources mean limited hive production, needing careful allocation."
"Only in places like Lake Tai, rich in biomass, can they produce at full capacity."
Lin Feng realized:
"Wait, if eggs liquefy..."
"Does advancing to Tiger Bugs erase past memories? Are hatched Tiger Bugs new?"
Ling Yi shrugged:
"Of course. It's a shortcut without killing higher stages, using biotech, evolving from lower life, directly synthesized, costly but quick."
They reached the bio-hive.
The massive, pulsing bio-factory, like a mountain of flesh, had Red Beetles injecting nutrients.
A strange horror gripped them...
It was a living giant!
Like a jellyfish colony, mindless, executing genetic programming.
Bluestar genes focus on heredity, evolving for better reproduction, but insects used biotech to code new functions and tasks.
Like nutrient-purifying bio-devices.
Injecting media into Tier 2 eggs, fueling Black Spinal Bugs' metamorphosis.
Other factories synthesized armor, collecting late-stage Black Spinal Bugs' shells, adding minerals, forming Tiger Bugs' tough exoskeletons.
Not as hard as mandibles, but missile-resistant.
Even lv19 shotguns, building-destroying, only heavily damaged Tiger Bugs' armor.
Tier 2 Tiger Bugs, basic combat units, elite close-combatants, weren't naturally grown.
Eons of iteration led to efficient assembly.
Ling Yi proudly introduced their civilization's strength:
"Mass production ensures Tiger Bugs meet the minimum standard, always above average."
"It's faster than queens synthesizing eggs, several times over."
"Queens don't synthesize eggs for this reason. They produce twenty a day, ordinary eggs are cost-effective."
"New Tier 2s are post-breakthrough, receiving more legacy, bio-fusing technology, directly synthesized."
"No larval stage."
With no humans nearby, Ling Yi revealed insect operations.
They reached their destination.
Ahead lay a pyramid-like meat mountain, 500 meters wide, faintly glowing.
Solemn, majestic.
If not for the red-brown flesh pulsing, Lin Feng might think it a relic.
On the glowing surface, the coveted Tier 2 eggs were embedded!
Half encased in meat, nutrient tubes topping and surrounding, the other half exposed.
Light came from nutrient-filled veins, connecting to the eggs' transparent membranes.
Illuminating their development.
Some were thick organic liquid, others forming Tiger Bugs.
Like candling eggs to observe developing chicks.
Now, embedded in the meat mountain's surface, Lin Feng's side alone had 210 eggs, totaling 840!
The bottom row had twenty eggs, decreasing in arithmetic sequence.
Lin Feng calculated at a glance.
But an early third-stage queen couldn't have so many eggs.
Its low-tier Black Spinal Bugs numbered only tens of thousands, producing at most 500 eggs in a cycle.
It couldn't control so many Tiger Bugs.
This confirmed Ling Yi's theory...
Haicheng's queen delegated Tiger Bug production to its northern ally, focusing on new Tier 2s.
The two swarms would jointly defeat, absorb human defenders,
Then invade Lake Tai, expanding further!
Lin Feng's invincible fleet faced its toughest challenge.
Thousands of Tiger Bugs encircling,
And hundreds of new Tier 2s bombarding!
As they marveled at the Tier 2 eggs, hearts racing...
Ling Yi's face changed, tense, looking behind the hatchery pyramid, stepping toward Lin Feng...
Warning:
"Careful! Other guards are here!"
From the meat tower's dimly lit depths...
A humanoid figure emerged.
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