“They've landed. The people on this island don't have many resources to offer. Considering that fleets from the countries on the opposite shore might come here later, let's leave some of the population,” Xia Jin mused.
Xia Jin thought for a moment and decided to preserve the local ecology... at least on the surface.
After all, this place was likely very close to the Empire. If they found out that the island had been occupied by an unknown monster faction, it would likely lead to very unfavorable consequences.
Xia Jin did not want to come into conflict with the Empire too early.
So far, she still didn't know what the Empire's stance was regarding a little princess who used foreign races to overthrow her own Kingdom.
From the perspective of the Swarm's current rule, the status of humans hadn't changed much compared to the past. At least on the surface, society remained harmonious and stable.
Splash—
A zergling poked its head out of the water, shook its head, and looked around to see several other zerglings reaching the shore beside it.
Boats lined up one after another in the rear. The Zerg on board jumped into the water, swimming a few meters or tens of meters to reach the island.
Without needing any rest, these Zerg automatically chose a direction and began to advance.
Under the recommendation to preserve the ecology, the subsequent offensive was mainly targeted at local natives with a rank higher than Tier 1.
Even those above Tier 1 were quite few, consisting mostly of the local male warriors.
The women seemed to primarily gather wild fruits, while the men hunted for food.
But the arrival of the Swarm was clearly about to change things.
To observe the battle, Xia Jin had left a small number of scourges on the ships beforehand.
At this moment, the scourges took flight, rising hundreds of meters into the sky.
Through the sparse jungle, one could see zerglings sprinting across the land.
Each zergling squad consisted of only two to three units, moving in a loose triangular formation with about ten meters between them.
The expansion line was commanded remotely by Brain Bug No. 1, and the coordination between every single Zerg was perfect.
People along the path were fleeing. Some warriors picked up weapons and charged toward the Swarm without fear, but their bravery was meaningless in the face of absolute power.
As the Swarm's expansion line widened, they encountered more and more natives.
It was evident that basic agriculture had developed on this island, though only a few specific tribes practiced farming; most natives relied on hunting for food.
The population wasn't particularly large, allowing this first wave of over ten thousand Zerg to advance very rapidly.
“With an island this big, can we really just steamroll it with zerglings?”
Seeing the Swarm cover seven or eight kilometers in a short time without a single casualty, Xia Jin muttered to herself.
The push was going too smoothly.
However, once the place was conquered, she planned to spread camouflaged creep in localized areas and have the Swarm burrow and hide beneath it.
Nutrients for survival would be supplied by the creep.
By now, two mutalisks were flying toward the island, towing the queen.
The journey was bound to be exhausting, but fortunately, preparations had been made. Ships were left on the sea every few hundred meters, allowing them to take brief rests along the way and safely reach the island.
The mutalisks' endurance was still problematic, with a range of only about a thousand kilometers. To fly indefinitely, the hive would need further upgrades.
As the main Swarm force advanced at a speed of sixty kilometers per hour, the tribes along the way either became food or chose to surrender.
For those who seemed weak and were particularly eager to surrender, Xia Jin let them live and relocated some of them to the coast.
Xia Jin also considered analyzing the genes of the local natives to create Zerg that looked similar on the outside. When fleets from other countries arrived, these mimics would handle them, acting like local tribespeople.
As long as the secret was kept well, even if the Empire came, they would never suspect that tens of thousands of Zerg were hidden on this island.
Half a day later, the subsequent wave of over ten thousand Zerg arrived on the island by boat.
Naturally, they encountered fleets from other countries along the way, but the Swarm surrounded and seized them using their small boats. Only afterward did they discover the fleet belonged to Novien.
Without hesitation, everyone was wiped out to prevent them from returning with information.
Subsequently, the Swarm's thousand small boats arrived at the island of the primitive tribe, reinforcing the numbers on the front lines.
By that evening, the entire island was under Zerg control.
Most of the island consisted of high-salinity soil, making farming difficult. Only the coastal areas and the north could grow grain. However, a strange plant was actually able to survive in the saline soil, serving as one of the local food sources.
In reality, consuming too much of this plant was very bad for the body. This caused the locals to easily contract a strange disease, inevitably dying with stiff bodies before the age of forty.
The brain bug immediately performed tests on the thing.
Relying on scourges to carry samples back overnight to the vicinity of the hive, analysis confirmed that the plant contained trace amounts of toxins while also producing a certain amount of high-energy crystals.
“Another plant that can produce high-energy crystals.”
The plant obtained last time had already been sent to the hive for research. Results were in, but cultivating it was extremely troublesome, and its genes couldn't be easily modified—any change turned it into an ordinary plant, making it difficult to process.
This one was a surprise, as it could be grown on a large scale.
Once the specific data was obtained, the brain bug immediately decided to spread creep over the area, using this island for mass production and rapid harvesting.
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