Three New Insects

“Now, let’s take a look at the newly appeared insects.”

The first type is the ravager.

This creature is a modification, or rather an evolution, of the roach—nicknamed the fire roach.

In truth, its appearance is quite different from a roach, and its size is an entire degree larger.

Considering that roaches are already massive creatures, this fellow’s stature made Xia Jin feel truly tiny.

Unlike the roach, the fire roach is a dedicated long-range unit.

Of course, it still possesses melee capabilities, but it is primarily specialized for range, making melee combat largely unnecessary.

Atop its body is a region containing a large amount of high-temperature plasma, emitting a glowing red light.

In battle, they can launch this plasma liquid like mortar shells, following a parabolic trajectory to land in enemy positions.

Without a doubt, this is a biological version of a mortar.

Once this high-temperature plasma lands in an enemy formation, it triggers an explosion with a splash effect, possessing terrifying power.

The ravager’s attack range isn’t particularly long at this stage, but it still reaches about 2 kilometers.

“It’s shorter than the current hydralisks, but the power is greater, and the method of application is different.”

The range of a hydralisk’s spines has already reached a staggering 3 kilometers, and it will surely continue to upgrade in the future.

Besides the ravager, the second insect species to appear after the upgrade is the nydus worm.

This is a massive, terrifying-looking worm.

True to its name, this creature can construct an incredibly long tunnel network underground, helping the Zerg move rapidly between two locations.

Due to the gene liberation of the Hive, biological space genes have clearly been applied to the nydus worm. This creature can not only stretch to great lengths but also compress space, shortening a distance of up to 1,000 kilometers down to a mere 10 kilometers.

In other words, as long as Xia Jin wishes, she can have the nydus worm’s head and tail separated by a thousand kilometers. Once it opens its mouth, an insect entering at one end would only have to run 10 kilometers through its long body to emerge at the other end.

“It’s a low-cost way to move troops over long distances.”

Xia Jin didn’t know exactly how large the nydus worm was yet, but it certainly wouldn’t be small. Just like with the ravager, she decided to try producing one first to see the results.

The final one to appear was the ultralisk.

The king of land combat for the primal Zerg.

With an initial rank of Tier 8, it can go toe-to-toe with a legion commander of the Kingdom’s main army upon its debut.

No, strictly speaking, unless facing certain top-tier beings of the same rank, a single ultralisk could easily defeat a Tier 8 human powerhouse.

Its appearance is somewhat similar to an armored mammoth, though its actual build is much sturdier, with extremely thick armor on its head. Relatively speaking, the ultralisk’s belly and face are its only weaknesses, but even then, the thickness of its carapace is beyond imagination, enough to drive any opponent to despair.

The cost of a single ultralisk is as high as 10,000 units of standard energy, largely due to its exaggerated size.

Their weapons are four giant scythe blades at the front that can be swung with ease. Weighing hundreds of kilograms, they can slice through steel effortlessly, and their edges are incredibly sharp.

“Produce one first; I’ll take a look later.”

With all her selections made, Xia Jin began the wait.

Before long, the first new creature appeared—the ravager.

Looking down from above, its back resembled a bowl filled with lava. Even from ten meters away, she could feel the intense heat radiating from it.

“Fire at a distance.”

At her command, the fire roach crouched low, its hideous, spine-covered body entering a ready state. It was clear that its preparation speed wasn’t as fast as expected; it took about 5 seconds to fire the first shell.

Swoosh—

A fireball immediately launched from its back, trailing a long plume of flame as it flew into the distance.

It was very fast, nearly matching the speed of a mortar shell from her past life, though because the fireball was quite conspicuous, its trajectory could still be seen from afar.

After five or six seconds of flight, the fireball slammed heavily into an open field.

Boom!!

Following a deafening explosion, the area was engulfed in flames.

The crater blasted into the center was a strike worthy of Tier 7 strength.

“Not bad, very good.”

Coordinating perfectly with zerglings and roaches, the fire roaches hiding in the rear would become another sharp tool for ground fire support. Furthermore, their damage wasn’t kinetic-based like the hydralisks’, but focused more on high temperatures and instantaneous explosive force.

Sometime after Xia Jin’s test, the first emergency-produced nydus worm was perfectly formed.

In an instant, a creature roughly ten meters in diameter with a strangely sanity-draining appearance appeared before her eyes.

At Xia Jin’s request, the fellow almost immediately began establishing an underground network.

Currently, the nydus worm requires the assistance of creep during construction, but that wasn’t a problem. Creep had been laid down intermittently in many parts of the territory Xia Jin controlled, and with occasional patrolling insects along the way, the entire process was virtually effortless.