West Coast

The Kingdom's West Coast.

Xia Jin's silver-haired projection stood on a cliff, facing the sea breeze as she gazed at the boundless ocean over a kilometer away.

"The black-haired projection has begun launching sneak attacks in the capital's outer city. However, the enemy's numbers are still vast. It will take two or three days to wear them down."

While her main forces were still upgrading, her attention shifted to the West Coast.

With Clearwillow Lake fully under her control, the nearly 80,000 Swimmers there had nothing left to do.

Since her primary offensive direction was focused on land, those Swimmers were still at Tier 3.

"I need to send a batch of organisms into the ocean ahead of time."

With that thought in mind, a group of drones transported roughly 1,000 Swimmers for an emergency rank advancement before delivering them to the shore.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

With a series of volleys, these creatures plunged into the sea.

Fortunately, the transition into saltwater caused no issues for their biological systems.

The azure ocean was far vaster than any lake, and the waves were much stronger.

Some Swimmers were slapped back onto the shore as soon as they entered the water. Fortunately, relying on their own strength, they quickly dove back in and sprinted toward the calmer depths below the surface.

Through shared vision, she saw that the water depth was around a hundred meters.

She estimated that the area extending from the coast was a continental shelf; the water in this region shouldn't be too deep.

However, as it stretched further out, the depth of the sea would plummet to thousands of meters, even reaching depths of ten thousand meters in certain zones.

After the Tier 4 Swimmers spent some time adapting to the coastal waters, they began exploring the surroundings in squads of ten.

Compared to a lake, such a vast ocean was undoubtedly much more dangerous, making this tier increase absolutely necessary.

The Swimmers did not disappoint her. Upon descending, they immediately located schools of fish in the coastal areas and began a one-sided slaughter.

After more than an hour of carnage, the Swarm had annihilated over 2,000 aquatic creatures underwater.

Half were Tier 1 or 2, while the other half were roughly Tier 3 or 4. Those exceeding Tier 4 were rare, though they had encountered more than ten in total.

There were many predatory fish lurking beneath the surface that would launch sudden attacks as the Swimmers passed by.

To be honest, even with their poisonous exploding needles, the difficulty of combat here was far greater than at Clearwillow Lake.

By now, cumulative losses had reached over 300. While the casualty ratio didn't seem high, this was achieved with her forces having been upgraded by an entire tier.

"Still, this region is now under my control."

After an hour of intense fighting, the vanguard stopped its frenzied attacks. Five hundred remained to patrol the coastal waters, while the remaining 100 ventured directly into the deep sea. They avoided provoking other creatures, serving instead as scouts.

The ocean held many dangers and its own complex food chain. Most creatures wouldn't go out of their way to attack a formidable-looking stranger once they were full.

Except for certain terrifying water monsters.

After pushing 200 kilometers into the West Coast, the Swimmers indeed encountered a water monster on the level of a giant squid.

Crucially, this one seemed even more fearsome. She estimated it was at least Tier 9, possibly even Tier 10.

It looked like a shark covered in a thin layer of chitinous shell.

Despite its heavy armor, its swimming speed was impressive. It actually managed to catch up to the fleeing Swimmers and swallowed them all in a single gulp.

Its mouth spanned over a dozen meters when wide open.

"Can't the monsters on the seabed be a bit more normal?"

Xia Jin didn't know what to say.

But looking back, she remembered the massive shadows flying through the sky during that rainstorm. If that were the case, there were likely monsters just as powerful on land.

She stretched and watched the subsequent Swimmers being launched into the water from time to time, eventually turning her attention away from the battle.

...

Two days later...

As the Zerg on the Kingdom front were completely replaced by reinforced units and the creep was spread across vast areas, the Swarm's production speed accelerated further.

Excluding the queens, primal brain bugs, and underwater species, the daily production of the combat Swarm was as follows:

40,000 zerglings, 2,000 hydralisks, 2,000 banelings, 200 lurkers, 200 infestors, 2,000 roaches, 200 ravagers, 15,000 scourges, 200 mutalisks, 100 swarm hosts, 20 nydus worms, and 50 ultralisks.

In other words, over 60,000 combat Zerg were born in a single day.

Furthermore, to secure the 2 billion tons of minerals, the Hives had begun a massive production surge of drones.

This wave primarily hatched Tier 1 drones. Each unit cost only 10 points of standard energy, and their strength was only fifty percent less than the 40-point Tier 4 drones. Moreover, even when fully loaded with stones, they rarely reached their maximum load capacity. Thus, Tier 1 drones were far more efficient for this task.

Of course, in more dangerous areas—such as regions where magic beasts still roamed and couldn't be cleared quickly—drones still had to be maintained at Tier 4. This was to ensure they had some combat capability in case of a sudden attack.

Currently, several Hives had already advanced toward mining areas in different regions.

The drones followed the principle of proximity for excavation. On average, each drone spent 20 minutes bringing a load of minerals to the Hive. They could carry about 5 tons at a time, resulting in 15 tons per hour.

On the first day, Xia Jin invested 300,000 units of energy into drones, producing 30,000 of them. This meant a daily output of 10.8 million tons.

"At this rate, it's actually not that slow. With new drones added every day, reaching 2 billion tons seems quite achievable."

She realized she might have underestimated the reproductive speed of the Zerg.

"Once this war is over, I'll initiate a massive breeding cycle for drones."