Natural Disaster: Insect Tide

Synopsis: The game "Insect Swarm Online" descends upon the world, encompassing [Apocalyptic Disaster] + [Hoarding Survival] + [Base Building and Farming] + [Superpower Hegemony]. At the sam...

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From the perspective of the crew, the familiar fishing boat underwent a drastic change in an instant.

However, due to the special effect of the refuge ship [Blurred Perception], they did not show too much shock, but were curious about the new ship and looked around excitedly.

Zhou Ning looked out of the porthole of the captain's room and saw the wide deck and huge anchor locker below. He couldn't help but feel excited.

This massive warship could sail into the deep blue, standing firm like an island amidst the waves. They actually had one of these massive ships, something they'd only seen on TV before!

"Taotao, our boat is great! I want to go out and take a look!" Zhou Ning put down the pen in his hand and ran. Because his body had not yet fully adapted to the power attribute, his steps were staggering.

"Slow down." Tao Sai reminded from behind.

Tao Sai seemed very calm, as she was familiar with the structure of the fourth-level shelter ship.

In the game "Insect Tide," she had only ever reached level four. Because the next level required over 400 million experience points and gold, as well as a vast amount of materials, reaching level five was practically impossible. Furthermore, the game's prerequisite was to survive for twenty years with the refugees. She had achieved this by drifting at sea for twenty years in a level four refugee ship.

The "Deep Sea Fish", upgraded to warship size, has a five-story hull.

The deck level is used as the dividing line, with two layers on the upper and lower levels.

The deck level has the highest ceiling height, approximately 4 meters, and is primarily used for functional areas. The anchor lock, galley, storage room, toilet, shower, and large empty space are similar to those of a Class III refuge vessel, except that the space is larger and more spacious. For example, the new empty space is the size of two basketball courts.

The two floors below deck house the crew rest areas, each with a similar layout. Each floor houses 18 rooms, nine on each side of the corridor. Each room features two bunk beds, each with four berths, for a total of 144 beds.

There is a ventilation duct installed on the top of the corridor. At one end is a staircase, and at the other end is the bathroom and fishing gear room at the stern.

Pushing open the watertight door at the end of the corridor reveals the stern work platform, where you can fish, set nets, and even start diving. The work platform is spacious enough to accommodate two small boats side by side.

There are two floors above the deck level. The first floor is the rest cabin for the core crew and another large storage room. There are six rooms in the rest cabin. There are no longer bunk beds, but a large bed. The room area is more spacious than the cabin in the lower cabin, and each room can sleep 2-3 people.

The captain's cabin is still closely connected to the cockpit and is located on the highest level of the entire ship. The water tank is located behind the captain's cabin, and its principle is similar to that of a water tower to ensure sufficient water pressure.

After the upgrade, the original items returned to their corresponding positions, but they all needed to be reorganized. For example, the supplies in the storage room needed to be reclassified and placed in more and larger lockers, and the shelves and plastic storage boxes on the deck were also messed up. The new deck was larger, and the 50 unopened shelf parts could be assembled to plant soil and grow vegetables.

After Zhou Ning went down from the captain's room on the third floor, he rearranged the rooms for everyone and then organized everyone to clean up the equipment and facilities on the refuge ship.

The solar photovoltaic panels and wind turbines on the top of the hull need to be reassembled, and the air outlets of the central air-conditioning in each cabin, the parallel connection of the industrial power supply, and the electrical equipment and power supply system of the entire ship need to be reconnected in series and ensure stable operation.

Under the overall command of Zhou Ning, a newly graduated undergraduate student majoring in electrical engineering, everyone was full of energy and worked intensively and in an orderly manner.

Tao Sai suddenly heard a knock on the door. He opened the door of the captain's room and saw Lan Xiaojia standing outside the door, panting.

"Sister Sai, I think the deck is wide enough. Let's assemble the remaining fifty shelves."

“Of course,” Towsey said.

"Sister Sai, I still want to lend you some people. Can your friends come and help me?" Lan Xiaojia asked.

"No problem, I'll just talk to them." Tao Sai nodded in agreement. She thought so too.

"That's great!" Lan Xiaojia was very happy.

She will arrange for some people to go ashore with her to dig fertile soil, and the other part will stay to assemble the shelves. After the assembly is completed, they can almost lay the soil and then plant new crop seeds!

As a result, the "water farm" she manages includes 195 plastic storage boxes and 100 shelves. Her workload has increased dramatically, but she enjoys it.

Tao Sai fully supports the practice of continuing to expand the planting area. As the population on board increases, the demand for food increases, which is actually very necessary.

Although her ally, Shi Jiahui, possesses the A-rank skill [Time Shift], which helps crops grow faster, it's not a panacea. Firstly, her skill can only affect one plant at a time, and tending to a single plant requires considerable effort. She needs to monitor its growth bit by bit, constantly watering, fertilizing, and pest control. Once the number of plants increases, she'll become overwhelmed.

Tao Sai withdrew her gaze from the porthole. She did not choose to join in for the time being because there was another thing she needed to do now.

She focused her gaze on the skill [Collapse], and this time the skill introduction finally popped up.

[Collapse S-Rank: With this skill, you can create a singularity. Objects within the singularity's range will collapse into it. You can control the singularity's opening and closing.]

Tao Sai looked at the text silently, reading, understanding, studying and pondering it over and over again.

This is indeed a skill related to the laws of the universe. What He Zhaonian said before is true. All the skills in "Insect Tide" are actually quite consistent with the laws of physics and are mostly related to physical phenomena.

Although Tao Sai knew little about astrophysics, he did have some basic common sense.

Singularity, a concept in physics or cosmology, refers to the center of a black hole.

The density of a singularity is infinite, its mass is amazing, but its volume is infinitely small, so the gravity of a singularity is infinite because mass and gravity are positively correlated.

When a singularity appears, all the mass around it will collapse infinitely towards the singularity. This is the terrifying black hole.

If she could use her skills to artificially create a singularity, what would that mean...

When Tao Sai thought of this, his hair stood on end.

It's not fear, nor surprise, nor joy, but a complex emotion that is hard to describe.

She can use rules as weapons, and under the weapon of rules, she is invincible.

She suddenly understood more and more what Hai Lan said, "The S-level magical skills make me feel like I am dominating the world."

It sounds a bit childish, but it may not be untrue.

Tao Sai took a deep breath and carefully equipped the skill [Collapse].

She was going to try out her skills now.

The skill must not be tried here. If it is used as described in the skill, the singularity will definitely drag her "Deep Sea Fish" into it.

So she wanted to stay away from here, preferably to a deserted place.

Tao Sai opened a space wormhole to the sea surface 10 kilometers away, then left a clone in the original place and jumped into the wormhole.

She emerged from the other end of the wormhole and used [gravity adaptation] to float above the ocean.

The sea was rough, but there were no passing ships within sight, making it a perfect place to try out some skills.

Tao Sai tried to use her mind to drive her S-level skills to see if she could create a whirlpool on the sea surface.

Tao Sai had considered it carefully, because she didn't know the suction force of the singularity, so to be on the safe side she left a clone 10 kilometers away.

If the singularity is opened and the suction is too strong, she will not be able to break free from the collapsing gravity, nor will she be able to shut down her skills in time, and will return to her body at the last second.

After using her mind to drive the skill, a blue light spot appeared in the center of Tao Sai's field of vision. The blue light spot could switch according to the distance of her vision focus.

She froze the light spot on the sea surface fifty meters away from her, and then activated [Collapse].

Tao Sai silently floated on the sea, staring at the area where the light finally stopped.

I waited for ten minutes and nothing seemed to happen.

Everything seemed to be still, but it was definitely not still, because the waves were still rising and falling, and the salty sea breeze was still blowing her hair.

The huge whirlpool on the sea surface that Tao Sai had expected did not appear.

After waiting for another ten minutes, Tao Sai put down another clone and continued to approach the blue light spot until she was two meters away from the light spot and found a clue.

There was actually a whirlpool, but it was too small for her to observe, because the whirlpool on the entire water surface was only as big as a pea.

The surrounding sea water was attracted by gravity and continuously poured into the center of the vortex. The sea was the singularity she created artificially. As long as the singularity existed, everything would collapse towards the center of the singularity.

Tao Sai estimated that this singularity can absorb about 500 ml of seawater per minute, and should also absorb a lot of air, but it is invisible to the naked eye.

Tao Sai: “…”

So-called S-rank skills, is this all? It's like they're kidding me. Cursing, Tao Sai closed the singularity and prepared to return to the Deep Sea Fish.

She suddenly changed her mind and thought, this is S-level, it shouldn't be so lame, even her skills are useless, could it be some growth-type skill?

According to the game "Insect Tide", if it is an upgradeable skill, the three words "(upgradeable)" will appear in the text description of the skill introduction. Fusion of two identical skills can enhance the effect of the skill. If fusion of more identical skills is used, the level of the skill can be increased.

However, the word "upgradeable" does not appear in the skill description text paragraph of [Collapse].

This proves that the growth method of this growth skill is not through the fusion of the same skill cards.

Another thought popped into her mind: as the singularity swallowed more matter, would its own mass increase, and thus its gravity also increase?

This is a possibility, but it cannot be verified now.

Because Tao Sai spent another twenty minutes, the pea vortex was still a pea vortex, and there was no visible change to the naked eye.

She tried to stretch her fingers towards the vortex and feel it with her heart. She seemed to feel a suction force, which was about the same as the suction force at the end of a hair dryer, or perhaps even weaker.

With this level of suction, even a mosquito could easily reach the collapse escape velocity.

Tao Sai couldn't help but smile bitterly. She couldn't think of any other way to verify it.

But she did not give up. According to her theory of skill usefulness, she could use D-level skills very well, not to mention S-level skills.

She just hasn't found the way yet.

When we stepped onto the deck of the Deep Sea Fish from the space wormhole, everyone was still working on their own tasks, arranging the tables, chairs, and benches, retying and knotting the clothesline wires, connecting the power supply circuit wires, laying the central air-conditioning vents, installing solar photovoltaic panels, fixing the wind turbine's turbofan, assembling supermarket shelves, and so on.

Tao Sai took a look and saw that there seemed to be no shortage of manpower, so he ran to the kitchen to help Aunt Li and the others cook.

Grandma Zhou and Grandma Lin can't do physical work, but they also help in the kitchen to wash and pick vegetables.

Tao Sai received his own small task, which was to peel garlic, chop garlic and cut dried chilies.

The upgraded open kitchen is more spacious, and the countertop is large enough to keep dishes and sauces organized without making a mess. Several refrigerators and freezers do not take up space at all, and it does not seem crowded even if several people are working at the counter at the same time.

Li Yinzhu grabbed the large piece of thawed pork belly from the basin, opened the lid and put it into boiling water. When it was almost cooked, she took out the cooked meat and put it on the chopping board and started cutting it quickly.

Aunt Li's knife skills are amazing, as Tao Sai has witnessed. Under her knife, each piece of meat is cut thinly and evenly.

Tao Sai poured the chopped garlic into the bowl and asked, "Aunt Li, is there anything else I can do?"

Hearing this, Li Yinzhu stopped cutting, looked around the kitchen, and said, "Xiao Tao, go to the chicken coop and see if the hens have laid any eggs today. If so, bring them back so I can make some egg drop soup."

"Okay."

Tao Sai received the task and walked through the large empty warehouse to the chicken coop.

Although the refugee ship had been upgraded, the chicken coop remained in its original location. Tao Sai squatted down and peered inside carefully from all angles. Sure enough, he saw three eggs nestled in the weeds of the chicken coop.

Tao Sai squatted and moved closer to the chicken coop. The three old hens immediately stared at her warily.

If you try to pick up the eggs with your bare hands, you will probably get pecked.

But Tao Sai was not panicked at all. She equipped herself with the skill [Tempering], and would activate the skill as long as the hen pecked her, so that she would be safe.

In fact, she has a high resistance value, so even if she is pecked, it is no big deal and the wound will heal quickly.

But it hurts after all.

Tao Sai opened the door of the chicken coop, reached in, grabbed three eggs quickly and accurately, and then closed the door in one go.

The old hen clucked and glared at Towse, as if vehemently accusing her of dissatisfaction with the woman.

Tao Sai put the eggs into the pocket of his overalls and poured the feed and leftovers into the trough. "Just consider it as compensation for you. Be good."

But the three old hens didn't buy it. They pecked at the rice twice and clucked at her again.

"Well, they're not breeding eggs anyway. They can't hatch chicks. What's wrong with giving them to us to eat? You're so stingy." Tao Sai clicked his tongue twice and said seriously.

Suddenly, Tao Sai smelled a foul odor. He looked down and saw that one of the old hens was defecating sticky and smelly feces. The chicken droppings passed through the chicken coop and fell into the tray at the bottom.

This was probably the hen's revenge on her, Towsey thought.

The tray can be taken out at any time. Chicken manure is a rare fertilizer. Lan Xiaojia looks forward to using chicken manure to fertilize the soil every day.

However, the chicken manure on the wooden bars at the bottom of the chicken coop also needs to be cleaned, otherwise it will not only smell bad and stinky, but also easily breed bacteria.

Tao Sai was thinking about what to use to wipe off the sticky dirt on it, when suddenly his eyes lit up.

She quickly activated the skill [Collapse], freezing the blue light spot on the chicken manure, and a singularity invisible to the naked eye was created.

The surface of the sticky substance attached to the wooden strip began to deform, slowly being drawn in by a force, and then collapsed. Five minutes later, the dirt disappeared into thin air.

Tao Sai stood up from her squatting position, her legs were numb, and she couldn't calm down for a long time.

Well, it seems she has found a good use for [collapse].