Planetary System Exploration

One month later, the Zerg had produced a total of 15 Floating Transport Ships.

The number of Small Leviathans remained at one.

Production of new warships was halted; the Zerg's current goal was to hatch more insects and accumulate energy for the next Hive level.

With a month of effort, not only was Insect Guard 1 completely covered in creep, but Dawn 1 was as well.

Dawn 1 produced 4 million units of high-energy crystals daily.

In contrast, on the much larger Planet Insecta, all continents (except for certain areas reserved for humans and magic beasts) were now fully covered in creep.

Of course, due to the vast ocean surface and the thick atmosphere, the total energy generated by the creep there wasn't overwhelming.

It totaled 50 million units of high-energy crystals per day.

The high-energy crystals produced on Planet Dawn reached 5 million units.

Although mining on Planet Flame had begun last, its output reached a staggering 8 million units.

This was due to the planet having no atmosphere and being close enough to the star.

“So, the total is now 87 million units per day?”

Exponential growth.

“Build ten Floating Escorts.”

It was time to expand their combat power and prepare for the eventual departure from this planet.

Currently, the Swarm's hatching speed was kept at a relatively low level, primarily to focus on the Hive's upgrade.

After all, they couldn't even fly out of their own stellar system yet.

During this time, the Small Leviathan had flown to the vicinity of a more distant planet.

Specifically, a gas giant located further out than Planet Dawn.

It was currently about 400 million kilometers away from Planet Dawn.

Whether by coincidence or not, Xia Jin noticed that many stellar systems had smaller solid planets on the inner side and more gas giants on the outer side.

One explanation was that even if inner planets had atmospheres, they would be stripped away by the star during formation.

This planet was found to have a massive planetary ring, with a width of about 300,000 kilometers.

The diameter of this gas giant itself was a staggering 90,000 kilometers.

The harsh environment clearly made landing impossible, but there were many meteorites and a significant number of moons within its ring plane.

After ten days of observing the planet's rings, the Brain Bug identified 80 moons.

Most were small, but a few were larger than Insect Guard 1—for instance, the 22nd moon had a radius of 1,700 kilometers.

This gas giant was eventually named Border Planet.

Border 1 through 80 were the planet's moons, and starting from 81, the large meteorites in the planetary rings were named accordingly by size.

In fact, because it was so far from the star, the sunlight received there was extremely weak.

While creep could be laid down, there would be almost no profit.

The Zerg simply chose to drop three overseers evenly above the ring plane before leaving.

These overseers were used to monitor outer space.

To strengthen Zerg control over the home system, more than ten overseers had recently been dropped evenly throughout deep space, positioned at various points within the system.

They would not only observe their own system but also perform optical detection of the environment outside the Insecta Solar System.

Many beautiful images of the universe were transmitted into Xia Jin's mind through their eyes.

...

Another month passed.

In the third month since the Zerg entered space, the Small Leviathan arrived in front of another gas giant even further out than Border Planet.

This planet was named Demon Planet.

The gaseous composition of the planet was very complex. After a brief observation and confirming the presence of 24 moons, the Small Leviathan continued its flight outward.

This month, the Zerg built only one ship.

The second Small Leviathan was expected to finish hatching in four days.

Xia Jin waited quietly for four days until the new hull was finally completed on Insect Guard 1.

After taking off, this ship also began a constant-speed flight orbiting the home planet.

As of now, the creep on Planet Dawn had been completely laid down.

It was expected to produce 32 million units of high-energy crystals daily.

On Planet Flame, half of the areas receiving the most sunlight were covered, expected to produce 200 million units of high-energy crystals daily.

Xia Jin estimated that in another twenty days, Planet Flame would be fully covered, producing 350 million units a day.

She still chose to wait.

By the end of the third month, when the creep on Planet Flame was finally complete, the day for the Hive's upgrade had finally arrived.

“Begin.”

Under Xia Jin's command, the Hive Carrier began a new evolution.

This evolution lasted for a week.

Finally, the volume of the Hive Carrier increased significantly, growing from 300 meters to 500 meters in length.

“As expected, it's now capable of interstellar navigation.” Witnessing the birth of this behemoth with her own eyes, Xia Jin grew excited.