"500 souls isn't too expensive. Let's recruit one first and see what it's like!"

Su Bai muttered to himself, initiating the autonomous recruitment of cockroaches.

【Soul-500】

The hatchery seemed to come alive, with biomass and wriggling skin beginning to surge.

A huge gash appeared in the purple skeleton.

A six-legged reptile moved quickly, passed through the opening, and came to Su Bai.

It stands about 1.6 meters tall and is 3 meters long. Its body is dark brown and covered with a hard, heavy carapace.

A pair of sickle-shaped blades extend from the carapace above the head, gleaming with a cold light.

"Such a huge size, it is truly majestic and imposing!"

"Although it's not as tall as a Hydralisk, it looks much stronger!"

"If we could have the same vitality as cockroaches on Earth, that would be perfect!"

Su Bai smiled, his face beaming with joy.

As their gazes converged, lines of information popped up.

【cockroach】

[Level: Lv9]

Race: Interstellar Zerg

[Quality: A Myth of Ultimate Excellence]

[Weapons: High-density blades / Melee, acidic saliva / Ranged attacks]

[Talent 1: Salivary Glands]

These glands secrete a special enzyme that makes corrosive saliva even more deadly. This saliva is then powerfully ejected through the contraction and relaxation of muscles, dissolving flesh, corroding steel, and penetrating alloy armor.

[Talent 2: Heavy Shell]

Cockroaches grow extremely thick exoskeletons by absorbing compounds from the soil, especially rare earth elements and metals, making them susceptible to only minor damage from ordinary weapons.

[Skills: None]

[Combat Power: Level 11]

Loyalty: 100

[Description: These extremely tough, heavily armored insects are a new species evolved by the Zerg to adapt to increasingly brutal battlefield conditions. They can be used as assault units to penetrate the battlefield, but due to their thick carapace, they cannot raise their heads to attack enemies in the air.]

"The ranged attack method is to spit acidic saliva, which is not a physical attack in the usual sense. Perhaps it can play a different role against certain special monsters."

"Moreover, this saliva is capable of dissolving flesh, corroding steel, and penetrating alloy armor; it's comparable to a chemical weapon!"

"Now the Zerg swarm finally has a heavily armored unit with strong defense. With it acting as the front line to absorb damage, the overall combat power of the Zerg swarm will undoubtedly be raised to a new level."

"Although it cannot attack enemies in the air, its advantages outweigh its disadvantages, so we can't expect too much!"

Su Bai smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

From now on, springtails and cockroaches will charge at the enemy together, and they will surely be invincible.

With the added firepower support of Hydralisks, the area-of-effect explosions of Banelings, and the healing abilities of the Queen, the overall strength of the Zerg Swarm will reach a new level.

They will be able to handle more complex battlefield environments with greater ease.

For example, launching an attack on the Indian lords who are holding onto their territories—this kind of offensive warfare will no longer be a concern.

"Keep recruiting!"

Su Bai's heroic spirit soared to the clouds.

The number of cockroaches to be recruited was set at 999.

【Soul-499,500】

The hatchery erupted with bursts of noise, as biomass and wriggling skin surged wildly.

The purple skeleton opened up, revealing an even larger crack.

One by one, six-legged cockroaches appeared and crawled out quickly.

Ten minutes later.

1,000 more cockroaches have appeared in the territory.

They darted about, their sturdy, heavy shells colliding with each other, producing a series of dull thuds.

"A completely new type of insect, with diverse genetic coding, has a lot of room for future evolution!" Abathur emerged from the evolution chamber, his compound eyes gleaming with unusual excitement.

"Keep it up! Do a good job! I won't let you down!"

Su Bai smiled broadly and patted Abathur's dark gray carapace.

"The swarm is supreme. I will make it perfect, until it devours everything in the world!"

Abathur spoke rapidly, his eyes filled with unparalleled fervor.

"The lord will be your strongest support!"

Su Bai smiled.

Then, he turned around and ordered 10 cockroaches and 10 hydralisks to launch a ranged attack simultaneously.

The objective is very simple: to test how far this brand-new unit can attack.

The hydra opens its bony plates and launches bony spikes.

"Swish swish!"

The cockroach's muscles bulged, and it sprayed acidic saliva.

"Puff puff puff!"

The experimental results show that the attack range of cockroaches is not as far as that of hydralisks.

In particular, the Hydralisk's attack range increases by 50% after upgrading its Deep Groove Spikes.

The acidic saliva that a cockroach spits out travels only one-third of the farthest distance its spurs can fly.

"However, being able to spray saliva more than 100 meters away is already quite impressive!"

"From now on, we can finally truly say that we will drown our enemies with our saliva!"

Su Bai couldn't help but chuckle and said with a smile.

Currently, there are still over 140,000 Souls remaining, which can be used to continue recruiting.

The number of springtails recruited was set at 1030.

【Soul-103,000】

The hatchery began to stir.

One after another, springflies emerged from it.

Six minutes later.

A brand new 1,030 jumping insects appeared before Su Bai.

At this moment, Su Bai has 3,000 springtails, 1,190 hydralisks, 1,000 cockroaches, 500 blast bugs, and a small number of alien dragons, queen bugs, and worker bees under his command.

There are also 100 larvae that have not yet mutated into combat units.

"The swarm is getting closer and closer to our goal of breaking the 10,000 mark!"

Su Bai smiled broadly, feeling extremely pleased.

Leave 500 Zerglings, 500 Hydralisks, and all the Queens to guard the home base.

He led Abathur and the rest of the fighting forces, leaving the territory in a grand procession, heading southeast towards the dwarven territory of the ruler of the Three Kingdoms.

...

...

Twenty minutes later.

"Kerrigan, have the dwarves inside the walls made any unusual moves while I was away?"

Su Bai stepped forward and asked.

"My lord, the dwarves are holed up inside the city walls, putting on a show of holding out to the death!"

Kerrigan spoke rapidly and answered.

This Indian lord was cautious enough to hold the city walls and not send troops out to attack.

However, now the heavily armored unit, the Roach, has joined the battlefield.

The Indians are hiding in their turtle shells, which is completely useless.

Immediately afterwards, Su Bai, through mental perception, commanded 1,500 jumping insects to divide into three teams and establish an encirclement in the east, west, and south directions.

The northern city wall will serve as the primary target of the insect swarm's attack.

Meanwhile, Hendrik, who was standing on the city wall, noticed the changes in the swarm.

"This lord of the Dragon Kingdom is quite capable; he actually brought even more troops!"

"The swarm of insects on the outskirts of the territory has almost reached five thousand!"