However, after winning the battle, he found that the situation of the Queen of Insects on the ground was not optimistic.

Just when he was quickly dealing with the second batch of reinforcements of the Mechanical Tribe, the Queen of Insects was instead suppressed by the Mechanical Tribe.

The reason is that when the Zerg just entered the core area of ​​the city, they encountered the centipede, the main mechanical body of the Mechanical Clan.

Those centipedes equipped with charged cannons can directly shatter the Zerg's most powerful front-row meat shields with just one shell, and the aftermath of the shell explosion after penetration can affect a large number of Zerg.

Although a large Zerg will not die even if a hole with a diameter of 40 centimeters is opened on its body, it also means that it has no way to share the damage with other Zerg.

All they could do was let explosions and electric arcs wreak havoc among the swarm.

So in the past ten minutes or so, in front of the core area of ​​the city, the mechanical race relied on the bombardment of the centipede's electric cannon to suppress the number of Zerg.

And the mechanical centipedes here are not only equipped with charging cannons, but also two other weapons.

Inferno Cannon and Charge Machine Gun.

The Hellfire Cannon is better. It is a flame shell version of the Charge Cannon, and its penetration performance is even worse, but the flame killing range after the shell explodes is larger.

However, fire is not very effective when the Zerg on the ground have various means to counter it. On the contrary, pure impact or other damage is more likely to kill the Zerg.

For example, the concentrated bombardment of the Fiery Silkworm's long-range artillery that forced Chen Ming to use the Supreme Point Tachyon Spear to support it, and the electric arc produced by the explosion of the Charge Cannon now.

Both types of damage can deal a devastating blow to the Zerg.

The charged machine gun also has the ability to destroy Zerg.

The charged machine gun is called a machine gun, but it is no different from a machine gun.

The diameter of the bullet is enough to easily break the Zerg's limbs, and it also has the same terrifying penetrating ability as the charge cannon's shells.

Coupled with the machine gun's own high rate of fire and the special property that the charged bullet will explode at the point of impact, producing a violent electric arc.

These bullets can cause frequent damage to other Zergs after penetrating the front row of Zergs in batches.

In the dense insect swarm, its strength is much higher than that of the Hellfire Cannon.

It was these three centipedes equipped with different types of weapons that led the rest of the mechanical race to suppress the Zerg's advance, and some even looked like they were about to counterattack.

Just as Chen Ming was about to start the idea of ​​supporting the ground that he had just come up with before he encountered the second wave of reinforcements from the mechanical clan.

He suddenly discovered that large quantities of fungi were once again rising from the fungal carpet under the Zerg's feet.

And the density of the fungi is higher than before, like a purple curtain covering the Zerg and Mechanicals on the front line.

Although the Fiery Silkworms and centipedes equipped with Hellfire Cannons were quickly clearing away the flying fungi, once the coverage area and density of the fungi reached a certain level, the flames could not completely eliminate them.

At most, all the fungi that fall onto the body of the incandescent silkworm, which has an extremely high temperature, will die.

Most of the other mechanical races on the front line are still covered by these fungi.

Chen Ming noticed the peculiarity of these fungi as soon as they rose up.

They are not the fungi that the previous Queen used to sense the invisible units of the mechanical race, or it is not quite right to say fungi.

Because Chen Ming discovered that the key to the matter was not the raised fungi themselves, but the tiny insects hidden inside these fungi.

This is not the insect that Chen Ming and the Queen of Insects had made in advance, but a new insect that the Queen of Insects had just cultivated.

The only reason that the Queen of Insects can breed new insects is because of those difficult-to-deal-with centipedes.

This is the method used by the Queen of Insects against centipedes.

Chen Ming withdrew his hand from the highest point control panel and continued reading.

It just so happened that he also wanted to know what the Queen of Insects’ limits were.

As large numbers of fungi attached to the bodies of the mechanical people on the front line.

Chen Ming discovered that these fungi gradually spread across the mechanical bodies, seeping into their bodies through the gaps between their armor and structures.

From the perspective of other Zerg, it is impossible to see what these fungi and bugs that have infiltrated the mechanical body do next.

So Chen Ming immediately connected his consciousness to one of these micro-Zangs, and broadcast what they saw to him in real time.

It is not quite accurate to say that they can see. These microscopic insects have no vision. They rely on their own special structure and the surrounding fungi to perceive the surrounding environment.

And because Chen Ming used the hive mind network and psychic energy to access the nerves of the micro Zerg to obtain the images that these Zerg "saw".

So Chen Ming's perspective at this moment was extremely distorted.

But after a while he got used to it and understood what the micro bugs were doing.

These Zerg that infiltrated the bodies of the mechanical race used the fungi that protected them to take root directly in place.

It grows stronger and continues to spread by absorbing the extremely tiny energy crystals it carries and the energy running through the mechanical race itself.

These fungi gradually spread to the bottom of the mechanical body and returned to the outside world.

It also came into contact with the fungal carpet that had rapidly expanded to the feet of the mechanical race without their noticing, and connected with the fungal carpet.

With the nutrients provided by the fungal mat, the fungi in the mechanical race grow even faster.

The entire mechanical family was completely filled in almost the blink of an eye.

Just when Chen Ming thought it was over and the microscopic bugs only needed one step to completely kill such a mechanical creature.

He suddenly discovered that these tiny insects hiding in the bodies of the mechanical race suddenly formed cocoons, just like the queen insects.

However, unlike the queen insects, they do not break out of the shell after forming a cocoon.

Instead, countless nerve-like tentacles grew directly from the cocoon, following the fungi in the mechanical race's body and gradually spreading throughout the body of the mechanical race.

Then Chen Ming saw through the sensor that a centipede with a charge gun that was covered with fungi suddenly turned its gun and fired a charge gun at the rear of the mechanical front. Immediately afterwards, other mechanical races that were completely covered with fungi and whose micro-insects inside had developed to the cocoon stage also made the same move.

They were controlled by the Micro Zerg, betrayed the Mechanoids, and used against their own kind.

Chen Ming also didn't know how the Queen Insect learned to control the mechanical body. It was possible that the Queen Insect learned it on the spot.

It is also possible that some of the knowledge in his brain was shared through the honeycomb network.

But no matter what, the Queen of Worms did launch another powerful attack before being pushed back.

Although such parasites cannot target the incandescent silkworms that maintain high temperatures at all times, the incandescent silkworms alone cannot play a decisive role.

Because the number of mechanical species that were covered by the fungus just now was at least three thousand, and this happened to nearly two thousand of these three thousand mechanical species.

The situation on the ground battlefield has completely changed.

With the betrayal of the centipedes, the Mechanical Clan's trump cards, the Zerg immediately broke through the defense line set up by the Mechanical Clan on the edge of the city's core circle and completely broke the Mechanical Clan's resistance.

Chen Ming also took advantage of the favorable situation on the battlefield to communicate with the Queen of Insects.

After learning about the situation of this microscopic insect, we realized that this was a kind of insect that the Queen Insect had just evolved, based on its model and with reference to the genes of parasitic animals and plants.

The Queen of Insects can evolve whatever the battlefield needs.

This is the power of the Queen of Insects.

It seems that the Queen Insect will not need his subsequent help.

After careful consideration, Chen Ming decided to arrange for the cruiser to land on the planet in advance, preparing for the Zerg to begin capturing the remaining mechanical individuals.

After all, the main purpose of Chen Ming's raid this time was not to completely wipe out the mechanical race on the planet, but to seize the mechanical population and the mechanical colony ship.

It is obviously very difficult to destroy the entire city when the neighboring mechanical star field may send more troops at any time.

Although if Chen Ming really wants to destroy the city, it is not impossible. He can just let the cruiser's large weapons destroy it.

But even mechanical individuals without combat capabilities are quite meaningful to Chen Ming.

Chen Ming would never do something like laundering weapons, which would harm others and not benefit himself.

Only the mechanical individuals that he managed to snatch are valuable to him.

And now there are new bugs that can help him capture the mechanical race.

Now the front line has been pushed into the core of the city by the Zerg. The Zerg in the rear have spread out in the city and started to capture

The Zerg on the front line have already approached the cruiser in the center of the mechanical city, and will soon be able to completely paralyze all ground forces, allowing the Zerg to take whatever they want.

However, not long after Chen Ming began to implement his plan, an accident happened again.

Not far from the mechanical cruiser, a unique and huge mechanical creature that Chen Ming had never seen before suddenly appeared.

Its existence once again curbed the advance of the insect tide.

This mechanical machine looks similar to a centipede, but its size is twice as large as the average centipede of about 20 meters.

Its size on the ground battlefield can be said to be far superior to others, and it is seven or eight meters larger than the giant Zerg.

But just being huge doesn't mean anything, just like a centipede can easily blast through a giant Zerg with one shot.

So if this mechanical machine was just an ordinary mechanical machine, the Zerg would have already crushed it.

But since it can contain the insect tide, this mechanical machine is obviously not ordinary.

I saw that its whole body was emitting high temperature like that of a fiery silkworm, but the heat it contained was far hotter than that of a fiery silkworm.

Moreover, this burning heat, which posed a fatal threat to the Zerg, did not dissipate with the passage of time like the incandescent silkworm. Instead, it gathered inside the body and actively transferred to the limbs and feet.

It was transferred to the ground in the mechanical city that had been specially transformed by the mechanical clan.

The metal floor gradually began to shine due to the high temperature.

A wave of heat also suddenly rose from the environment surrounding the city.

The core area of ​​the entire mechanical city is heating up at a terrifying rate with this mechanical machine as the center.

The pure white city originally built of Baiyun steel alloy is moving towards the orange-red heat.

The Zerg relied on their own ability to influence the environment to suppress the damage caused by the fire.

Especially the fungal blanket that comes into contact with the metal ground inside the mechanical city.

As the Zerg advanced, the fungal blanket spreading ahead gradually shriveled, lost water, and became inactive under the scorching heat that could cause an entire city area to begin to heat up, and eventually even began to burn.

Even if the queen insect continues to increase the supply of nutrients to the fungal mat, it can only barely keep the growth rate of the fungi equal to the rate of loss.

Once the supply of nutrients slows down a bit, the fungal blanket will instantly be burned into a pool of slag by the high temperature conducted by the metal, and will no longer be able to provide a steady supply of nutrients to the Zerg on the front line.

This is not just a problem that prevents the Zerg from advancing.

In addition to these high temperatures that have begun to affect the environment on a large scale, some mechanical buildings that are not made of Baiyun steel alloy have even begun to melt.

This mechanical race itself is destroying the mechanical race’s city.

Even as the temperature spread by this mechanical family continued to rise, some buildings made of Baiyun steel began to melt under this extreme high temperature.

The burning flames and molten metal almost covered the path it walked and the Zerg it was about to encounter.

It created a scene like purgatory.

In addition, this mechanical machine itself has a huge cannon that is almost as long as its body and mounted on its back, and looks like an electromagnetic gun.

Chen Ming had already seen the power of the centipede's weapon. This was obviously a giant cannon carried by a very special individual of the mechanical race. It was definitely a terrifying weapon in ground combat.

Although Chen Ming did not have much contact with the mechanical clan, ever since he had more contact with Yu Hui, he had deliberately tried to learn about the knowledge and news about the mechanical clan next door, and had some understanding of the mechanical clan.

But Chen Ming had never seen the mechanical machine that appeared in front of the Zerg before, had never known about it, and had not found a similar one in any of the information he had searched.

But Chen Ming was clear about one thing, that this family of machines must have technology that is truly beyond this era.

The heat emitted by a mechanical body that is only more than 40 meters long can actually affect the environment of the surrounding city.

Although not the entire city, and the mechanical city itself is basically made of metal, it is very easy to conduct heat.

But it is absolutely beyond the capability of modern technology to have a body of forty meters in size and to be able to increase the temperature of a coverage area of ​​tens of kilometers to this extent.

There must be some powerful individual technology left over from that civilization.

Although Chen Ming only needs to have one of the five cruisers in space mobilize a large weapon and use a tachyon spear to completely solve this problem.

But after seeing the performance of this mechanical clan, he wanted more.

Moreover, landing operations do not always provide the opportunity to directly use space weapons to carry out dimensionality reduction strikes on the ground like we do now.

It would also be of considerable benefit to him to obtain such a special mechanical family.

So after seeing the impact of this machine.

It and the cruiser behind it in the city center.

Chen Ming wants them all.

Therefore, he did not wait for the Queen Insect to perform her function. Instead, he activated the scanning array at the highest point that had already begun to descend at full power, trying to find a weakness in this mechanical machine that could be quickly resolved.

However, when this scanning array, which was capable of scanning the entire planet, scanned this mechanical machine, the result was complete darkness.

Except for the external armor and some exposed structures that can be scanned, the interior of the rest of the machine seems to be covered with some special protective material, and the scanning array cannot scan it at all.

But this is also expected.

Chen Ming was still able to analyze through some details on the scanned surface that this mechanical machine seemed to be a mechanical body temporarily activated by the mechanical family.

There are problems with many maintenance details, and it is obvious that it has not been well maintained.

Combat equipment and weapons that lack maintenance and upkeep will often have problems during long-term use.

Perhaps the only shortcoming of this mechanical family is that it lacks maintenance and cannot fight for a long time.

It seems that the Queen can only rely on numbers to pile up, relying on the sacrifice of a large number of Zerg individuals, until it breaks down.

After receiving Chen Ming's order to try to capture the mechanical body, the Queen's choice was the same as what Chen Ming had just thought, and she commanded the Zerg to continue charging.

But just at that moment the insects made new violent movements.

The huge cannon on the back of the machine started moving.

The surrounding heat suddenly began to converge towards the cannon in a way that violated the laws of physics.

A scorching red light emanated from the barrel, and violent airflow carrying extremely high temperatures was violently emitted from the sides of the gun.

The threat posed by the orange-red laser beam shot out by its locking device made all the Zerg swarms desperately crowd forward as if they had received extreme stimulation even without the Queen's command.

But before the Zerg could make contact with the mech, the cannon had already fired.

The moment it opened fire, the entire city seemed to fall into darkness.

All the light was absorbed by the huge cannon.

In the blink of an eye, the area in front of the mechanical machine with a diameter of nearly a thousand meters was occupied by a fireball where only blinding flashes could be seen.

Whether it was the Zerg or the Mechanicals who had not retreated to safety, even the Mechanical buildings themselves, were all covered by this fireball.

And after dozens of seconds, the flames completely dissipated.

All that was left was a deep pit.

And at the bottom of the deep pit, there are huge lakes formed by molten metal.

Inside, apart from the mechanical people and their own buildings, all the rest were the Zerg corpses that had been burned to ashes.

The power of this weapon is close to that of large weapons normally only carried on cruisers.

In just a few seconds, the Zerg suffered casualties almost equal to the losses they had suffered along the way.

As a result, the entire battle line was dragged back nearly a thousand meters.

The mechanical race, which had already been devastated by the centipedes that had turned against them due to being controlled by parasites, once again took this opportunity to regroup.

They are not afraid of such scorching environment like the Zerg.

If the Zerg want to come again, they won’t have as good an opportunity as before.

Moreover, the temperature of the surrounding environment has been rising, and has gradually begun to affect the Zerg that are parasitic in the bodies of the mechanical race.

If this continues, these mechanical tribes mixed in with the Zerg may turn against them at any time.

The Queen was forced to let these parasites retreat to the outer urban areas.

Then, let the surviving Zerg continue to rush towards the defense line recast by the Mechanical Clan in the distance.

Only one step away from the mechanical cruiser, the Queen of Insects no longer cared about any casualties.

In any case, the consciousness of all Zerg individuals will return to the hive mind network at the moment of death, and their bodies will be reabsorbed by the fungal blanket.

It doesn't matter even if the corpse is not absorbed and is burned to ashes by the flames.

From the moment Chen Ming put resources onto this planet, he never thought about recovering them.

He just needs those mechanical people.

Time passes by every second.

The special mechanical family's artillery has fired continuously for more than a dozen times.

The Zerg's casualties have reached a level that is difficult to calculate.

Although Chen Ming could feel that the time it took for the mechanical machine to activate the giant cannon on its back was getting longer and longer, it was obviously due to poor maintenance.

But it has only become longer, and no key progress has occurred, allowing the Zerg to break the current deadlock.

Chen Ming was also a little anxious at this time.

This won't work, he has to go faster.

After all, the mechanical race has a hive mindset, and everything that happens here can be known to the mechanical race within the mechanical star field.

In other words, after the second batch of mechanical reinforcements were easily killed by Chen Ming, the third batch of mechanical reinforcements would definitely not make the same mistake as before.

The third batch of mechanical people coming here may very likely take his life.

So he is now considering whether to give up this special mechanical family and instead just acquire his original target, the mechanical family's colonial cruiser.

But just when Chen Ming was about to give up, he suddenly realized something.

There seemed to be a slight delay in the movements of that mechanical creature.

Either the delay is caused by component wear due to lack of maintenance, or it is a strange delay that should not occur according to common sense.

Chen Ming immediately said to the extraordinary person on the highest point he was riding: "Fried rice, do me a favor."

“I don’t know how to conduct.”

"No need to understand. Help me calculate the propagation time of the mechanical communication signal and the delayed reaction time of the mechanical machine below each time it makes an action."

Chaofan did not reply, but sent a string of data to Chen Ming a few seconds later.

When Chen Ming saw this string of data, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes, and he subconsciously said, "That's it."

"What's that?"

Chen Ming looked at the special mechanical family on the ground again and said: "That mechanical family does not have a core chip. All its actions are controlled by the cruiser."

The strange delay that he had just noticed after a long battle was exactly the time delay required for the signal from the cruiser behind to propagate.

This mechanical family is not a living mechanical family at all, it is just a controlled shell.

Chen Ming finally found its fatal weakness.

(End of this chapter)