Baiquan said without hesitation: "Antimatter reactors certainly count."

"But there was nothing we could do at the time. If we didn't bring some powerful weapons with us, it would be hard to defeat a giant shipyard."

"Anyway, even if you do take the antimatter reactor away in the end, it'll be fine as long as you don't show it off everywhere."

Chen Ming blinked his eyes. He suddenly realized that Bai Quan seemed to be unaware that he had the technical patent for the antimatter reactor.

But he didn't bring it up.

Although Baiquan didn't say it explicitly, if all the members of the special operations team were dead, the problem of what to do with the antimatter reactor should not be a difficult problem to solve.

However, as soon as Baiquan finished speaking, he suddenly brought up a topic that he had mentioned from time to time recently.

"If you are interested in these experimental things, why not join us?"

"You also know that our Fourteenth Legion has many self-developed improved models of spacecraft."

"I can directly bring you to our research institute and give you access to these spacecraft blueprints. Even if you haven't mastered this technology yet, I can let you have access to it in advance."

"And recently there is a new type of spaceship that is about to be released. It is still in the testing phase. I can also find a way to get one for you."

Bai Quan was already used to Chen Ming's daily solicitation, but he still refused as usual, "I still don't like being restricted. At least I have to wait until the decision I made fails before considering turning back."

However, despite his refusal, Chen Ming was still very interested in the new type of spaceship Bai Quan mentioned, and asked, "So can you tell me what the capabilities of the spaceship you mentioned are?"

Bai Quan suddenly felt some of the speechlessness that Chen Ming felt when he heard what he just said.

But he also knew that you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a kid.

Reveal what you can, there will always be a day when Chen Ming really takes the bait.

Bai Quan thought for a moment and said, "Before, when you were still with Yuhui, Yuhui headquarters sent the device to the Yuhui star region in the Galo star field."

"The technology used to transport the equipment is similar to that used in our new spacecraft. This thing directly allowed the equipment to cross the entire empire, and we had no way to intercept it."

Previously, Chen Ming had learned from the people who had contacted him in the Fourteenth Legion that the Yuhui headquarters had sent a device to the Galo star field, but the specific transportation method and route were not clear.

I didn't expect it to go straight across the empire.

If it is really as Baiquan said...

Is it really just impossible to intercept it? I'm afraid it's impossible to even lock it.

This thought suddenly flashed through Chen Ming's mind.

Because if there is no way to intercept it, this kind of thing that crosses the empire will definitely be surrounded by a bunch of military fleets and escorted all the way to the Galo star field.

When the thing reaches the destination and is received by Yuhui, he will kill all the Yuhui near the final landing point and take the thing away.

He didn't even need Chen Ming's help to feedback his previous position with Yu Hui.

But if even the location cannot be captured, and people can't even see it, then what Baiquan said makes sense.

This makes sense as the 14th Legion could only give him a rough date for the equipment to be delivered.

This is truly a unique technology.

In that case, the new spaceship that Baiquan mentioned seems to be quite awesome.

What does a spacecraft that cannot be locked and intercepted by normal means look like?

Chen Ming was aroused by Bai Quan's words and asked, "Since the new spacecraft is about to come out, it means that this technology must not have been studied recently."

"Then why couldn't you intercept it before? You couldn't even locate it."

Bai Quan was not surprised that Chen Ming correctly guessed some situations that he had not mentioned at all.

"Because this technology was initially researched in the direction of spacecraft, there was definitely less research in other areas."

"And as I just said, there will be a new spaceship soon, not already one, so..."

"I can't say more. Let's talk about what happened to you afterwards, about the mechanical race."

"That's fine."

Chen Ming also knew that there were some things that he was not allowed to know with his current identity, so he took the opportunity to back off and did not continue asking questions, waiting for Bai Quan's next words.

Baiquan seemed to be reminiscing, and after a while he said: "Although I have fought with Yuhui for many years, I have also fought with the mechanical tribe before."

"The fighting style of the mechanical race is similar to that of us humans. It is relatively complex and varied. Depending on the enemy we face, we will encounter different tactics."

"So we can't just rely on experience, we have to analyze it based on the actual situation."

"Of course it doesn't matter if you have no experience."

"But one thing remains unchanged. When the mechanical race fights humans, they will fight to the death and will definitely defeat us to the point where we are completely helpless."

"And they are different from Afterglow. Afterglow will capture humans and use them to trade with us for things."

"But the Mechanic will just kill everyone."

"Don't hold back on the mechanical race, at least not before you completely defeat them."

Bai Quan's words seemed to have a hidden meaning, but Chen Ming did not say anything. He nodded silently and accepted Bai Quan's suggestion.

"Also, you're going to attack a Mechanic colony, so ground combat is also a problem."

"I don't have much experience in ground combat. You can only figure it out on your own. Try not to stay on the ground for too long."

"By the way, when you fight the mechanical tribe next time, you can record the whole process, or broadcast it to me in real time like you did when you were at the pirate space station before. I can teach you something based on that."

This might expose Chen Ming's current location, and might also expose the Queen of Insects, but Chen Ming did not directly refuse, but just said: "We'll see what happens then."

"Well, good luck to you then."

"In fact, I suddenly feel that your permission to simulate space combat is useless. You are here for the real thing."

Chen Ming smiled and said, "It will be useful someday. I can't fight with the mechanical tribe every day, right?"

"Well, let's continue with the class. You should still send the things you want to Wu An as before, right?"

"right."

The morning class ended shortly after Chen Ming and Bai Quan finished their chat.

A few days passed in the blink of an eye.

The several devices that Bai Quan promised to use for the deployment have been delivered to the boss, and Chen Ming used his psychic power to transform them back onto his spaceship.

Since it takes some time to debug the equipment and prepare for installation, Chen Ming patiently waited while studying and observing the mechanical family every day.

It was just that this waiting time was longer than Chen Ming had imagined.

Until another week passed.

Chen Ming had already prepared several devices and was ready to fight against the mechanical warships.

The cocoon in which the queen insect was dormant finally began to move.

It was almost late at night and Chen Ming was planning to go to bed.

Discovering the changes in the cocoon made him stop immediately and instead control the insects in the nest to go to the place where the queen insect is dormant to observe the queen insect's condition.

At this time, some purple sticky liquid was gradually overflowing from the gray, green and black cocoon that was originally covered with growths.

Gradually cover all the growths that the queen insect covered on the surrounding ground when it cocooned.

And not even just covering it, this purple goo is taking root within the growths, swallowing them whole.

Chen Ming immediately ordered the mechanical people who were originally protecting the cocoon to move away from here.

So as to avoid being affected by the purple liquid of the queen insect.

After waiting for about another half an hour, the area around where the queen insect had cocooned was completely covered with the purple sticky liquid.

And the cocoon in the center of the area finally cracked at this time.

Soon, several tentacles completely tore open the cracks in the cocoon, pulling the biomass spacecraft, whose appearance had changed again, out of the giant cocoon.

The Queen's second evolution is complete.

Although its overall appearance is still covered by a hard shell, the color has changed from the original black to dark purple, and there are a large number of purple fungi covering the shell.

The originally smooth shell looks like it is covered with mold, and people who don’t know it will definitely feel disgusted when they see it for the first time.

But it was just a few breaths after the queen insect was exposed to the air.

The purple color of the shell faded, and the fungi outside the shell were taken back into the body of the queen insect.

The entire biological spaceship has returned to its appearance before the Queen Insect evolved, with only slight differences in some details of the appearance.

But it is obvious that with the presence of these fungi, the shell of the biological spacecraft definitely has stronger protective capabilities than before.

The changes in appearance are not really that significant.

What is really important is that Chen Ming sensed the spiritual energy fluctuations from the Queen Insect.

It was not the psychic fluctuations caused by Chen Ming's psychic power acting on the Queen Insect, but the psychic fluctuations that emerged from the Queen Insect herself.

Moreover, this psychic energy fluctuation is very restrained, completely different from Chen Ming's psychic energy.

More like psychic fungus being eaten by the Queen.

To this day, Chen Ming still basically relies on his own exploration of matters related to psychic powers.

Therefore, it is still unclear what effect the psychic fluctuations in the Queen of Insects have.

When Chen Ming was communicating with the Queen of Insects, the information she sent was very vague.

The Queen of Insects doesn't quite understand the psychic power she has just acquired.

It was just like when Chen Ming had just acquired psychic power.

It's not a big problem.

As time goes by, the Queen of Insects will become familiar with its psychic powers and will know what their uses are.

So Chen Ming was not in a hurry to figure out the Queen Insect's psychic powers right away.

Instead, he paid attention to other major changes in the Queen of Insects, except for her psychic powers.

That is, the purple liquid that spreads out of the queen insect's body is purely composed of fungi.

After being spread out, the purple liquid gradually lost some moisture and turned into the common fungus-covered appearance.

It’s just that the mold is more widespread, thicker, and more biologically active than the mold Chen Ming occasionally sees on food.

And when the queen insect returned to the nest, it sprayed the purple fungus directly into the entire nest again, covering the entire nest with a thick fungal carpet.

All the insects that came into contact with these fungi were instantly absorbed by the fungi, turned into nutrients, and gathered on the body of the queen insect.

Chen Ming no longer needs to recycle old worms through his digestive organs.

These fungal mats are now the digestive organs of the queen insect.

And in the process of digesting the insects originally in the nest.

Chen Ming also saw that around the Queen Insect's body, things similar to insect eggs, wrapped in a translucent dark purple film, gradually appeared.

A new generation of Zerg with psychic and fungal abilities are being nurtured by the Queen.

This is a new and huge change in the Queen of Zerg, or rather, a change in the Zerg.

By utilizing the power of fungi to cultivate Zerg individuals, the overall reproduction rate has increased significantly.

And the queen insect has not abandoned its original method of reproduction. When necessary, it can still lay eggs containing larvae.

It doesn't mean that fungal mats are required for reproduction, but fungal mats can speed up the efficiency.

It won't take long, at most two days, for the Queen to completely replace the insects inside the hive, which now covers an area far larger than the size of the city it once was.

As long as the Queen Zerg completes the development of the new hive, the Zerg's reproduction rate will definitely increase exponentially.

In addition, Chen Ming discovered that the fungal mats on the ground are not just organs for eating and nurturing larvae.

When adult insects hatch, they can connect to the fungal carpet on the ground, which is a combination of Zerg biomass and fungal genes, through some special organs on their limbs.

Draw nutrients directly from it.

Although the efficiency is not high, and the nutrients that a fungal carpet can store are limited, if there are too many insects absorbing nutrients at the same time, the fungal carpet under their feet may be sucked dry.

But the only situation in which a large number of Zerg will demand a large amount of nutrition at the same time is during a battle, and there will be death in a battle.

The dead bodies can be directly digested by the fungal blanket and converted into nutrients, which can be immediately supplied to other Zergs that are still fighting.

Although it is still not possible to completely free the Zerg from the constraints of food and energy crystals, it has greatly alleviated the Zerg's original problems in long-term combat.

It seems that Chen Ming's previous method of feeding the insects and then eating the fungi was correct.

The Queen, including the entire hive, has undergone extremely obvious evolution and enhancement of capabilities, allowing Chen Ming to attack the mechanical city later.

Seeing such Zerg, Chen Ming suddenly thought of a question.

Would fire be more effective against Zerg?

Chen Ming remembered that when the Queen of Insects controlled a bunch of insects to run to the Mechanical Clan’s city to cause trouble for him, she was killed by the Mechanical Clan’s Fiery Silkworm Cannons.

At that time, the Zerg did not show much resistance to fire, or it could be said that all carbon-based creatures should not be resistant to fire under normal circumstances.

So after the Zerg combined the genes of the fungal creatures that were also afraid of fire, would they...

Chen Ming was a little worried.

So he thought about it and decided he'd better test it now.

Chen Ming specifically asked the Queen to give him a few Zergs and a small piece of fungal carpet.

Then Chen Ming directly built a mechanical body, the Fiery Silkworm, near the Queen Insect. Chen Ming had successfully mastered the manufacturing technology of the mechanical family during this period.

This type of mechanical creature has two attack modes, one is the flamethrower mode for close-range, long-term output, and the other is the long-range, fixed-point artillery shooting mode that Chen Ming had seen last time.

Chen Ming deliberately fired the flamethrower in vain first, trying out the flamethrower mode which he had never seen before.

When I saw the flaming silkworm, which was ten meters long and five meters high, spewing out a fierce flame that completely covered the area 30 degrees in front of it and 100 meters in length.

Chen Ming silently asked the Queen for a few more insects and fungal mats.

Then the testing began.

Although the testing process had some twists and turns, the results did give Chen Ming more confidence in future battles.

To be honest, Chen Ming just found a planet that the mechanical race had just colonized not long ago.

The hind worms woke up from evolution and underwent great changes. They even had the ability to counter the strongest attack method of the mechanical race against the Zerg.

Although the back foot is a bit long, it is not a problem.

In this situation, if Chen Ming didn't do something quickly, it would be a waste of his preparations over this period of time.

At the same time, another good news came from the distant empire.

On the boss's side, the Stardust-class cruiser mothership from Tachyon Technology that Bai Quan promised to send some time ago, this spaceship that best reflects Chen Ming's psychic power, has arrived with the spiritual awakening nerve.

It has been delivered to the boss's colony, and under the boss's arrangement, an afterglow core belonging to Chen Ming was installed.

The cruiser was completely handed over to him.

After only a few more jumps, the cruiser will be able to reach Chen Ming.

Of course, Chen Ming still informed Bai Quan first, and used Bai Quan's relationship to cover up the traces of the jump to avoid being tracked.

Although it was not nice to disturb people in the middle of the night, Chen Ming finally couldn't wait any longer.

Bai Quan also seemed to be very busy. At least when Chen Ming looked for him, he seemed to still be working.

Although he was not very friendly to Bai Quan, the fact that he had not yet rested did make Chen Ming feel a lot less guilty about disturbing others in the middle of the night.

And twenty minutes later the Stardust level was sent to the boss.

It carried Chen Ming's spiritual nerves, made several consecutive jumps, and came to Chen Ming's side.

Chen Ming went directly to the Stardust class as soon as possible and found the awakening nerve stored in a special storage container in the Stardust class captain's room.

This spiritual awakening nerve, like the one Chen Ming had eaten before, was stored in a cylindrical object with a slight curve that looked like a medicine bottle.

As long as Chen Ming wants, he can take it out and absorb it at any time.

However, Chen Ming was not in a hurry for the time being, but opened the Stardust-level panel.

【Spaceship Panel】

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Stardust-class cruiser]

[Radiant Energy Capacity: 0/24000]

[Radiation energy dissipation: 1800]

[Fuel reserves: 99%]

[Front Weapon: Tachyon Spear]

[Port side weapon: Large "Defender" point defense energy cannon]

[Starboard Weapon: Large "Defender" Point Defense Energy Cannon]

[Tail weapon: Large "Guide" heat-seeking missile launcher]

[Flight deck (first floor on the port side): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (second floor, port side): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (first floor on the starboard side): 400/400 (0)]

[Flight deck (second floor on the starboard side): 400/400 (0)]

[Armor: Tachyon Cruiser-class Standardized Armor]

[Engine: Tachyon Cruiser-class Antimatter Experimental Engine]

[Internal cabin: ...]

[Important equipment: control system module (in operation), landing module (in operation), hyperspace channel system module (in operation), unmanned aircraft auxiliary control module (in operation), ship AI overclocking instrument (in operation), full-angle shield module (in operation), "Meteor" network (in operation), "Meteor" real-time target positioning system (in operation), "Meteor" target feeding system (in operation)]

Chen Ming quickly scanned the panel, skipping over the built-in cabins that were completely unimportant and even unnecessary to look at.

Locked on the two lines of engine and important equipment.

Chen Ming could see the three words "antimatter" clearly in the engine column.

No wonder, the radiation energy capacity and radiation energy dissipation of the Stardust class are much higher than the Supreme Point and Brilliant classes that Chen Ming often opens and often sees.

The radiance capacity is 18000, and the radiance dissipation is 1000.

As a non-combat ship, the radiation energy capacity of the Supreme Point is a little low, 15,000, but the radiation energy dissipation is pretty good, at 1,200.

But obviously none of them can compare to the 24,000 and 1,800 of the Stardust-class.

It can only be said that it is an indisputable fact that Tachyon Technology excels in the design of spacecraft energy systems.

But the three words "antimatter" still surprised Chen Ming.

It is not known whether Baiquan did this on purpose, or whether Tachyon Technology saw that the military needed it, so they specially took out the experimental antimatter engine.

Or maybe... the Empire has already begun large-scale testing of antimatter reactor-related technologies.

In short, this matter does not do any harm to Chen Ming.

Since the antimatter reactor has already received support from the government and even the military and neighboring companies have the relevant technology, there is almost no possibility of problems with the equipment in actual use.

People can choke to death while eating. The probability of something happening to the engine that Chen Ming is protecting with his psychic energy is definitely lower than the probability of choking to death while eating.

So Chen Ming took a closer look at the antimatter engine and considered whether he should collect patent fees from the company.

Then he turned his attention to the [Important Equipment] column.

The most important thing inside is the meteorite three-piece set.

They are all centered around Stardust, and provide auxiliary functions for the ship's 1,600 "Meteor" unmanned fighter jets that can be launched in total.

Taking into account the Meteorites' similar but more powerful self-destruction function as the Terminator, these 1,600 Meteorites are equivalent to 1,600 expendable destroyers.

Chen Ming still remembered the cattle herder. This was the largest model of destroyer, and it could barely be considered an aircraft carrier.

It can actually carry a total of 320 fighter jets.

Now, a Stardust ship can carry more than four times that.

With this boat, Chen Ming will be able to go out without any small boats in the future and leave all the pressure of the small boats to Stardust.

Anyway, the small boats are basically cannon fodder in cruiser-level battles. Instead of using the afterglow boats equipped with gamma-class afterglow cores to fill the line, it is better to use these ships that can self-destruct when necessary.

I just don't know if operating this Stardust-class ship will give him the same adrenaline rush as the Rainstorm.

Chen Ming let out a breath, without thinking too much, he turned off the panel first.

He will have plenty of time to get familiar with Stardust-level things later.

He now needs to transfer the consciousness of the Queen of Insects, which has just awakened, into its body that he had previously sent to the mechanical planet.

Originally, Chen Ming thought that he needed his help to update the genes in the Queen Insect's body.

After all, the Queen Insect's body shell was left behind by the Queen Insect, and it has now evolved once.

But when Chen Ming expressed this intention, the Queen Insect directly took the initiative to transfer its consciousness and landed on the old body on the planet.

Then, Chen Ming saw the body begin to fluctuate with spiritual energy, and countless purple hyphae grew on the body, devouring the body and forming a cocoon.

By absorbing the energy crystals left by Chen Ming, a brand new body of the queen insect broke out of the cocoon after a period of time.

Lying dormant deep underground, they began the breeding process.

Chen Ming didn't understand, but he was greatly shocked.

In short, after this, the Queen of Insects needs to breed a hive that can pose enough danger to the mechanical race.

It is also necessary to move the hive to an appropriate distance from the mechanical city.

This gave Chen Ming enough time to familiarize himself with the new spaceship and absorb the new spiritual nerve.

(End of this chapter)