Intensified Offensive

To date, the total daily volume of munitions deployed has been steadily increasing.

In just the past twenty-four hours, each unicycle had fired an average of twenty rocket bugs. This amounted to 220,000 rockets launched in a single day, each weighing 45 kilograms, for a total weight of 9,900 tons.

While this might not seem like much, it was intentional. Most of the rocket bugs and subsequent unicycles produced by the Zerg were being held in various positions deep in the rear rather than being sent to support the front lines.

Brain Bug No. 1 believed the Zerg should conserve their strength to deal with the Empire.

Surprisingly, the majority of the forces currently engaged on the front lines were conscripts from the city states region and the Clear region. Additionally, several tens of thousands of men had been forcibly organized into puppet armies within the occupied territories and sent to fight on relatively safe sectors of the front.

While support fire at the squad level was provided by unicycles, battalions—units of roughly one hundred bugs—were equipped with a single heavy cannon bug for focused breakthroughs.

Recognizing the significant threat posed by tanks—the fortress vehicles—especially after the enemy managed to tear through the defensive lines in several engagements, the Swarm's response was swift. That very day, the gene sequence was altered to improve the heavy cannon bug.

The 150mm long-range howitzer was converted into a direct-fire weapon. Its rate of fire and armor-piercing performance were enhanced, while its caliber was reduced to 120mm and its protection was reinforced.

Indeed, a new model of heavy cannon bug had emerged: the Armored Heavy Cannon Bug.

Final testing proved that the Armored Heavy Cannon Bug was fully capable of going toe-to-toe with the enemy's heaviest class of armored vehicles on the open battlefield.

At this point, two solutions were proposed to achieve total dominance.

The first was a production surge—mass-producing the Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs to clash head-on with the enemy's armored vehicles, overwhelming them through sheer numbers.

The second was to increase investment by raising the caliber to 120mm or even higher, increasing the lethality and significantly boosting the cost to thicken the armor of the Armored Heavy Cannon Bugs, allowing them to gain a greater advantage on the battlefield.

If melee units like zerglings received sufficiently powerful long-range armor-piercing support, they could easily close the distance with the enemy using their flexible movements and staggering speed to deliver a devastating blow.

The land-based front lines were no longer lacking in long-range bugs.

The only shortcoming was the need for this specific upgrade.

Previously, units like the ravager were better than mortars for using high-angle fire to strike enemy cover. The spines of the Hydralisk Type II targeted light armored vehicles and eliminated infantry. It was thanks to their help that the Swarm's overall expansion had been so effortless.

However, once the enemy deployed heavy armored combat vehicles on most fronts, the offensive became difficult. Since the cost of an ultralisk was high, the deployment of the Armored Heavy Cannon Bug became an urgent necessity.

Xia Jin truly felt like thanking the demons. It was precisely because the demon battlefield had tied up the majority of the Empire's main forces that the Swarm did not have to face that behemoth directly, allowing them to continuously refine their tactics through these current battles.

...

Xia Jin closed her eyes to sense the current state of the Swarm's offensive.

On the map in her mind, basically half of Gexilu had already been conquered.

This included the northern, western, and eastern regions of the country. Only the southern and central areas remained under the nation's control.

According to intelligence relayed by reconnaissance beetles and scouting mosquitoes on the front lines, 100,000 troops from the Dawn Empire had already entered the country's borders.

At the Swarm's current rate of expansion, they would clash with them in two days at most.

Unlike the landing force on the East Continent, which was limited by ship size, the Dawn Empire had been unable to transport much of its heavy equipment across the ocean.

But here, it was different. On the vast plains, they could commit their full strength without reservation.

With the great battle approaching, a portion of the scouting mosquitoes finally flew across the vast territory of the Dawn Empire and reached the southernmost tip of the West Continent.

Ruins of battlefields were everywhere. Creatures resembling humanoid beasts with lizard-like tails and bodies covered in scales lay dead on the ground.

Though they were corpses, judging by the density of their energy, most of these individuals had reached Tier 8 in strength.

“No wonder they've been fighting for so long, even with the Empire's military power.”

Xia Jin felt somewhat fortunate. The current zerglings had reached Tier 7, and they possessed a large amount of long-range firepower capable of killing Tier 8 and Tier 9 powerhouses. Otherwise, once the war started, they might have collapsed just like the countries she was currently invading.

Looking back at the City of Darkness, a city lord at Tier 5 had been considered terrifyingly powerful.

A single city lord could kill many low-tier bugs even when surrounded.

But now, someone of that level was no different from cannon fodder on the modern battlefield if they weren't operating a weapon.

This was the development of a civilization.

Despite being on the same planet, the gap in strength between different factions was immense.

It was just as Xia Jin knew from Earth: a certain superpower from the early 21st century and a primitive tribe both existed in the same world.

The difference was that the Dawn Empire, as the sole superpower, was already looking to break free from the constraints of other factions and was preparing to unify the world with its unrivaled power.

“The appearance of the Zerg must be an unexpected variable for them.”