Chapter 172 The Thorn Zerg Reappears

The tower itself doesn't look special.

It's just a large power supply facility that can cover the entire city.

But its lower floors seem to have other uses.

After looking around the tower for a while, Chen Ming found a collapsed wall.

There were no mechanical individuals moving inside or outside the wall, and there was no monitoring in operation.

The robot was able to enter the tower.

As soon as he entered the tower, Chen Ming noticed that there was a large area for movement in the bottom floors of the tower.

And as he observed, he also understood the functions of the bottom of the tower and the underground floors.

This is the control center of this city.

Someone... No, there are creatures that have worked here.

These creatures belong to the destroyed civilization, and their species are very likely to be similar to humans.

So there are these designs in the tower that allow Chen Ming to easily understand the general purpose.

It's a pity that this place is as dilapidated as the city outside.

Chen Ming asked the robot to continue trying to find out if there were any actual control panels or exposed data cables on the nearby floors, or to try to find the database of this city.

Since many mechanical races in the city were just dormant, not dead, and the same was true in the tower.

So Chen Ming had better not do anything destructive now.

In the process of searching.

Chen Ming did not find the things he had just thought of, but found an archive.

All the files placed inside were paper files.

Now Chen Ming can be sure that there are indeed traces of the main species of that civilization in this city, not that they just put a flag here and never care about it again.

This means that the probability of him finding good things here has been greatly improved.

But there is a problem.

As time goes by, these paper files can only barely maintain their paper appearance, and the slightest movement will cause these files to be completely destroyed.

Even if Chen Ming wants to scan the contents of the files directly, it is impossible, because the text on these files has long been worn out and cannot be recognized at all.

There is nothing left in the archive.

Fortunately, Chen Ming found a monitoring device in the corner of the archive room that was still in operation and had some of its lines' protective layers damaged.

Chen Ming immediately blocked his vision and directly connected the data line of the gamma core to the exposed data line connected to the monitoring device.

The monitoring of the archive room is connected to an independent monitoring room.

This independent monitoring room is quite special. Its function is to monitor some important equipment, such as the archive room here.

Although many images on the monitoring are completely dark.

But Chen Ming can still confirm the location of some important equipment through monitoring.

For example, the bundled cables under the tower that provide energy for the tower and the city.

Chen Ming can see many thick cable lines extending from outside the city to inside the city.

At the starting point where the line extends, there is a solar panel array with many mechanical protections.

This is the place that I didn't see last time I came here.

It was also after Chen Ming came here this time, the moment when the highest point scanned this place, Chen Ming knew what they were useful for.

The energy lines outside extend from underground to the top of the tower.

At the same time, there are countless lines branching at the bottom of the tower, connecting the entire city.

Now, only the power supply equipment of the entire tower is still intact and barely running.

But if there is no subsequent maintenance, these devices that are still in operation will most likely be almost all broken within a few decades.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Chen Ming. He just came to see if there is anything good in the tower.

With the location of the archive room and the monitoring room, and Chen Ming's ability to directly repair all the monitoring connected to this special monitoring room.

Chen Ming quickly determined the distribution of important locations in the entire tower, and the location of the main control room naturally appeared in his eyes.

The robot quickly found the way to the past.

Found the main control panel that had been completely damaged.

After a simple modification to connect the gamma core, Chen Ming once again used the repair psychic power to restore the main control panel to its original state. .

The entire tower was controlled by him at this moment.

Then Chen Ming discovered that in addition to the basic control lines, the entire tower also had a lot of damage to the internal power grid.

This caused a lack of power in the tower and the entire city. If it weren't for the shutdown of many facilities and the hibernation of many mechanical races, the entire city would have been paralyzed long ago.

And this situation seems to be caused by some power supply equipment, and there is a problem with the solar panels outside.

This is quite normal. A large installation area outside the city has been in a state of trouble for so many years, so it is not possible that the situation inside the city is better.

Anyway, this does not affect Chen Ming's use of the main control room.

Chen Ming's psychic power actually has a powerful effect besides [Maintenance], which ignores Chen Ming's own skills.

In fact, there is another special effect, that is, no matter whether he has ever understood the mechanical equipment he controls, as long as he controls it, he can rely on psychic power to master the method of using it.

Of course, it is just the method of use. Chen Ming still has to spend time to study these equipment himself.

For example, a cruiser, Chen Ming has never driven it, and has no chance to touch it.

But after controlling the highest point, he can drive the highest point, and he can use all kinds of complex exploration equipment on it at will.

Although there are restrictions, it is outrageous enough.

So it is the same now.

Chen Ming quickly understood the various functions of the main control room and found the most critical one.

This tower has the highest control authority over the mechanical families inside the city.

Chen Ming tried it immediately.

Try to give a command to a mechanical family in the tower that is dormant near the main control to stop dormancy and move.

But it failed.

Chen Ming frowned slightly and tried again.

But the result was the same.

The process of issuing the command was normal.

The process of receiving the command was also normal.

Even the feedback was normal.

But the abnormal thing was that the mechanical family that received the command did not execute the order issued by Chen Ming.

It was still dormant in the same place.

Chen Ming immediately found another mechanical family dormant in the tower through the monitoring inside the tower.

Its appearance was damaged and could be connected.

Chen Ming arranged the robot with the gamma core to go there.

At the same time, he tried to give it a command.

The situation was the same.

The process was normal, but the final result was that this mechanical family completely ignored Chen Ming's order.

So Chen Ming asked the robot to connect the gamma core, control it, and open the panel at the first time.

You can see that the name of this mechanical family is [Mechanical Family Small Mechanical Body Worker Bee].

The column of consciousness is "sub-individual (dormant)", not "existence" or "dormant" like Yuhui.

Just when Chen Ming was trying to figure out why it accepted the order but did not execute it.

He suddenly found that the column of consciousness on the panel had changed.

From the original [Individual consciousness: sub-individual (dormant)] to [Individual consciousness: sub-individual (abnormal)]

This unexpected situation made Chen Ming completely unexpected.

He knew that the sub-individual meant an individual in the entire collective under the hive thinking of the entire mechanical race.

He also knew that the reason for this situation was probably because his psychic power controlled this mechanical race.

But he didn't know what the "abnormal" behind the sub-individual specifically represented.

Wait, Chen Ming seemed to understand suddenly.

He found that the mechanical race he controlled suddenly seemed to be disconnected from a certain network, causing its computing power to suddenly drop a lot.

This mechanical race lost its cluster and lost the assistance of the mechanical race cluster in the city.

However, it seemed to have gained some ability to think for itself.

This is the meaning of abnormal sub-individuals.

Apart from that, it seems that there is nothing special.

Forget it, forget it for now.

Chen Ming temporarily put the matter of the abnormal sub-individual aside.

First, find a way to figure out what happened just now.

Chen Ming once again used the tower to try to send a command to the mechanical family that had become an abnormal sub-individual.

This time, Chen Ming was observing its behavior throughout the process.

Receive the command.

Confirm the command.

Feedback the command.

Execute...

There was a problem in the step of executing the command.

Just like Chen Ming couldn't understand the core of Yuhui, he couldn't understand the process of the mechanical family's chip when it was calculating.

But he could see that in the mechanical family's chip, the three things of receiving confirmation and feedback were constructed into a loop.

And the point of executing the command was excluded.

Chen Ming could understand the meaning of this special logical loop that had been completely locked.

Because this basic logic could not be changed if it was locked, the only outcome of the change was death.

This completely cut off the possibility of it executing any external commands from the root.

It can only rely on the internal hive mind network to receive commands from the main body, just like it is now receiving commands from Chen Ming using psychic energy.

Normal methods can no longer affect this or all mechanical races.

After completely eliminating the possibility of receiving commands.

They are already independent mechanical life, not manufactured mechanical creatures.

If Chen Ming could understand the way the mechanical race thinks a little, and express these logics in a way that normal humans can understand, rather than in a psychic way.

Then he could publicize the situation of the mechanical race being locked in logic, and at least he could write several papers, and he would definitely have no problem winning some awards.

Although it cannot compare to the antimatter reactor, which can be said to be a groundbreaking product, it must be a very important node on the road to the empire's continued development.

Unfortunately, Chen Ming couldn't do it.

He could only rely on psychic powers to understand this matter himself.

Chen Ming shook his head slightly.

Continue what he came here to do at the beginning, looking for valuable things.

Relying on the authority of the main control room, Chen Ming quickly explored the entire tower thoroughly.

He actually found a database that was still running and not damaged.

Chen Ming saved all the files in it as soon as possible.

Although he couldn't understand the text on the file.

But he could still understand the blueprint on it.

These databases contain the blueprints of the early planning of the entire city construction, as well as some design blueprints of the mechanical race.

There are also several chips and several spherical objects design blueprints included.

Chen Ming immediately thought of the two special things on the mechanical family he just controlled.

Core chip and secondary core.

These blueprints with quite a lot of pages and extremely complex should be used to make these two things.

Although Chen Ming does not think that it is enough to prepare the materials and make the shell to make the mechanical family.

But some things must be tried.

After trying, he knew what he would lack.

These are the only valuable things in the entire tower.

Chen Ming searched for the others several times but did not find anything special. They were basically damaged things, and there was no point in repairing them.

The only meaning was to dismantle them and get materials.

But Chen Ming felt that there was no need.

Being able to obtain these blueprints and retreat safely is the best outcome of this trip.

Chen Ming plans to stop here and leave directly.

Anyway, the city of the mechanical family is here. As long as he has not left too far, he can come back whenever he wants.

Chen Ming's robot quickly took the worker bee he had just controlled out of the tower.

This way out was much easier than when they came in.

Although Chen Ming could not control the mechanical race, the tower's control over various facilities inside the city continued.

Chen Ming could choose those areas that were still under the control of the tower and swagger out of the city.

With two mechanical races, Chen Ming's robot successfully came to the edge of the city where it had entered before.

Intend to return to the landing craft from the original road.

Just as Chen Ming's robot just stepped out of the city's territory.

The ground suddenly began to shake.

"Earthquake?"

Chen Ming's subconscious question immediately made him feel something was wrong.

Because according to the investigation of the planet just now conducted by the highest point, it can be determined that the intersection of the continental plates of this planet is not here.

And no matter how stupid the people of another civilization are, it is impossible to choose a place where the plates meet on such a large planet to build a city.

This sudden earthquake is definitely not a natural phenomenon, but something is moving underground.

Chen Ming immediately asked the highest point on the track to adjust the detection frequency.

The frequency was locked to the underground.

Although the influence of the atmosphere caused the highest point to be unable to detect too deeply when it was outside the atmosphere.

But now it was enough.

The highest point almost instantly discovered a large area of ​​biological reactions underground not far from Chen Ming's robot.

These things were digging quickly underground, close to the city of the mechanical race.

Seeing the familiar appearance in the results transmitted back by the scanning array.

Chen Ming finally couldn't help but say: "Thorne Zerg?"

"No, we can't just draw a conclusion like this."

Chen Ming suppressed his subconscious thoughts, kept calm thinking, and let his robot take the two mechanical races back to the city.

Not long after, the bugs that caused the ground to shake broke out of the ground at the edge of the city.

The tentacles extending from their ugly, sharp heads covered with spikes were sniffing frantically.

Almost instantly locked Chen Ming's robot that had entered the city.

Chen Ming had a feeling at this moment that these bugs seemed to be coming for him.

The bugs waved their limbs and rushed through the gap in the defense facilities and rushed into the city.

At this moment, they seemed to have triggered some defense mechanism.

In all places within the sight of Chen Ming's tower, all dormant mechanical races were restarted at this moment.

They each performed their duties and returned to their posts. At the same time, most of the mechanical races with combat capabilities were moving towards here.

Before Chen Ming could react, a massive battle broke out between the Thorn Zerg and the Mechanoids.

Chen Ming's robot, which seemed to have caused all this, became an outsider for a while.

Chen Ming took advantage of the chaos to let his robot find a safe place to make up for the blind spot of the monitoring area that Chen Ming's tower had lost control of, and sent back the picture of the battlefield.

After leaving the battlefield, Chen Ming immediately noticed that under the huge deep pit dug by these bugs, many bugs that looked very familiar to him were still crawling out.

Those cyst bugs had huge vesicles storing acid in their necks, and the muscles on their necks were also extremely developed.

Chen Ming had a very deep impression of this kind of bug.

Because at that time in the space station, although the Zerg were numerous, they basically only had some melee individuals, that is, broad-strider bugs.

Chen Ming believed that these bugs were most likely the basic individuals of the Thorn Zerg, so now, even if he saw them, he could not completely confirm that these bugs were the same batch as those in the space station.

Just think of it as another batch of Thorn Zerg in the universe.

But these cystic worms are different.

Chen Ming remembers very clearly that these cystic worms are a type of worms that evolved in just two days after he used the range of the spacecraft's weapons to attack those worms from a distance.

Even if it is said that Thorn Zergs in other places have evolved the ability to attack from a distance.

But this evolution is not exactly the same, right?

Chen Ming can be 100% sure that these worms that appear here must be those on the space station.

What the hell is the Thorn Zerg? What is going on?

Two questions that suddenly appeared in Chen Ming's mind surrounded him, making him completely unable to understand.

Just as Chen Ming couldn't think of an answer at all.

The battle between the Thorn Zerg and the Mechanical Clan continued.

In addition to the largest number of broad-strider worms in the Thorn Zerg.

There are also some smaller beetle-like Zergs.

And the larger Zergs, more than three meters tall and with quite a lot of limbs, also emerged from the holes they dug and joined the battlefield, rushing towards the mechanical race like crazy.

Although the Zergs charging in the front were all rushing forward like brainless people, the cystic worms behind were completely different.

They were very smart and wandered around the edge of the battlefield, scattered, but they were able to focus the sprayed acid on a certain target in a very consistent manner.

These acids, which were different in color from those Chen Ming had seen before, could even melt Baiyun Steel.

These Thorn Zergs seemed to have the same hive mindset as the mechanical race.

Although the Zergs were numerous and their actions were extremely crazy.

But the number of mechanical races in the city was also very large, and they didn't care about the madness of the Zergs at all.

They were just cold machines, slaughtering the Thorn Zergs that invaded their city.

In addition to the long-range combat individuals such as the Jing Mantis that Chen Ming had seen, which carried electromagnetic javelins, the mechanical race also had close combat units like the Zerg.

In particular, there is a kind of mantis that is similar to the Silent Mantis controlled by Chen Ming. It also looks like a combination of a human and a mantis, but it looks more like a mantis mechanical body.

From each of its arms, a light blue translucent curved blade like a mantis sickle is extended.

At the same time, it has auxiliary wings and jet holes like a real mantis on its back.

It can maintain its own balance while having a strong instant burst speed.

With its terrifying speed and sharp weapons, this mechanical race can cut off the flesh of several insects in a blink of an eye.

Even the largest insect with many limbs can be split in half in an instant.

In addition to this relatively light-looking Silent Mantis, another type of mechanical race can gain the upper hand in melee with these huge insects.

There are more powerful machines in the mechanical race.

For example, a large mechanical body about four or five meters high.

With a mammoth-like appearance, four extremely sturdy lower limbs and two huge mechanical forelimbs waving in front, it can fight against the surging Zerg tide like a tank.

It can easily crush all the bugs in front of it.

However, the larger number of mechanical races are still various mechanical bodies holding thermal weapons, such as Jingmantis or some other mechanical races.

They are the real main force when clearing out the Zerg outside.

These long-range combat units can easily lock the cyst worms hiding in the Zerg swarm and accurately kill these Zerg long-range combat units.

Although the Zerg has strong physical ability and can easily kill humans, the flesh can only be easily crushed in front of the steel of the mechanical race.

As long as these materials that can threaten Baiyun Steel are dealt with, the mechanical race will definitely have an advantage.

The battle gradually began to affect the hiding place of Chen Ming's robot.

Chen Ming had to move the robot towards the city again, away from the troubled places.

Soon Chen Ming found another collapsed building, and a lush tree grew in the building, which could be well hidden in it.

It also allowed Chen Ming to observe the battlefield situation more accurately.

The battle between the mechanical race and the Thorn Zerg was obvious to everyone, and the mechanical race's attack capability was completely different from that of the Zerg.

But as Chen Ming got to a higher place and could see the situation on the battlefield more clearly, he found that the number of mechanical races and Zergs that fell at this time was close to 1:2.

This was obviously abnormal.

Chen Ming quickly devoted himself to observation

Then he found a special place.

The muscles under the brown carapace of the Thorn Zerg were gray-green, and gray-green blood would be sprayed out when injured.

The blood pressure in the insects seemed to be very high, and these gray-green blood could be easily sprayed out for several meters.

Once these gray-green blood covered the mechanical race,

Even if there is no external damage and no abnormalities such as leakage.

The mechanical race will gradually lose their combat effectiveness and have abnormalities in the control of their own equipment and devices that should not appear at all.

It is precisely because of this blood that the insects can barely pull the battle loss ratio back to 2:1.

There is something wrong with this blood.