Chapter 174 Bait Arrangement

Just as Chen Ming had a clear idea in his mind.

The robot he had arranged to go to the landing point where the object entered the planet's atmosphere from space in the video finally arrived at the destination.

However, five months had passed since the day the video was recorded.

The landing point was completely covered by these huge plants unique to the planet.

Except that the plants here were a little sparser and grew worse than the surrounding ones, which could indicate that the plants here had been destroyed and were regrowing.

No traces were left.

But fortunately, Chen Ming had thought of this possibility before and prepared some things in advance.

He immediately modified a set of geological exploration equipment for the robot near the landing point.

Let the robot start collecting soil near the landing point and underground at the center of the landing point.

Soon the results of the geological exploration came out.

Chen Ming did not find any traces of asteroids or meteorites.

No stone or metal elements unique to space were brought to the planet.

Instead, he found some broken gray-green growths in the underground soil.

It can be seen without research that these proliferations must have been left by the Zerg.

Only traces of bugs were found, but no traces of meteorites that would normally bring bugs into the atmosphere were found.

What this means makes Chen Ming's emotions, which have been unable to calm down, fluctuate again.

Perhaps these bugs... he does not need to eliminate them.

In addition to the traces found here, Chen Ming also realized a problem.

First of all, he can look at the vegetation at the landing point, the density difference between the underground soil layer at the landing point and the soil layer next to it, and the size of the red shiny area where the thing rubbed against the atmosphere in the video.

It is estimated that this is a "thing" belonging to the Zerg with the size of a destroyer, wrapped in bugs that almost completely filled it up, and landed here.

And the bugs that raided the mechanical city before were obviously more than a destroyer that was a hundred meters long.

This means that the Thorn Zerg has indeed begun to breed on the planet as he thought before.

The bugs that raided the city were definitely only a part of the Thorn Zerg on the planet.

More Zergs must be breeding in some dark underground cave.

Chen Ming could try to track the location of the Zerg nest through the tunnels that the Zerg had just dug.

Although the tunnels were completely collapsed by the artillery bombardment of the cluster of [Mechanical Heavy Machinery·Fiery Silkworm] located in the center of the city.

However, he had just controlled several [Mechanical Small Machinery·Digging Worms] to do this.

But Chen Ming had a better choice.

Letting the High Point enter the atmosphere of the planet and perform full-power scanning without being affected by the atmosphere is much more efficient than letting the digging worms dig back along the path dug by the Zerg.

After confirming the location and specific situation of the bugs, he could decide how to deal with these bugs in the future.

But this matter cannot be rushed, he still has to do other things first.

Chen Ming forced himself not to think about the bugs anymore. Anyway, the bugs were on the planet now. Under the surveillance of the Supreme Point, they would never escape.

He still let his robot take the bug corpse samples and the mechanical race under his control to the landing craft, returned to space, and returned to the Defender.

In order to prevent some possible unexpected situations, Chen Ming would rather spend more time to throw the bug corpses on the Defender for freezing and preservation.

He would find an opportunity to send them back to China.

After doing this, Chen Ming's mind unconsciously began to think about the bugs again.

After all, if his guess is correct, then the Zerg may also bring him some special benefits.

And these thoughts made him a little itchy, just wanting to finish the bugs as soon as possible to make sure whether his idea can be realized.

Although Chen Ming should deal with the mechanical race and the Zerg race together now.

But he couldn't help but focus all his attention on the Zerg race.

The Supreme Point soon entered the planet's atmosphere with glory under his control, leaving the Defender in the planet's orbit.

Chen Ming deliberately kept a distance from the mechanical city, came to the landing point of the Zerg, turned on the galaxy scanning array at full power, and locked the scanning target on the surface below.

The high-power scan that can cover the entire galaxy penetrates from the surface of this planet into the mantle.

A detailed scan is carried out in this area.

The mechanical people in the mechanical city in the distance seemed to be unable to see the highest point floating in the air in the distance, and they were still doing those futile work.

A few minutes later, the scanning equipment at the highest point followed the structural features in the underground soil and rock layers that were obviously different from other places, and penetrated into the underground for several kilometers.

And here, Chen Ming finally locked his target.

A huge Zerg nest deep underground, with an area almost the same as the city on the surface.

In the center of this nest, there is a giant Zerg organism with a body length of more than 100 meters.

It is still alive, and has a slightly narrow and symmetrical appearance.

And inside it is connected to the core of the Zerg nest, the Queen.

Although Chen Ming feels a little bit different, its overall appearance is somewhat similar after a few more glances.

This giant organism seems to be what he is looking for.

And what surprised Chen Ming even more was that.

There are some growths on this giant Zerg organism that wrap a special tissue of the Zerg, like a thick and long tentacle, extending all the way from deep underground to the surface.

Chen Ming looked up along this tentacle.

Finally, it was discovered that this extended tentacle forked into thousands of thinner tentacles near the surface.

Then, it was connected to the bottom of almost every solar panel of the solar panel array that powered the mechanical city.

Chen Ming looked at this scene and thought for a long time.

Suddenly understood something.

That is, the Zerg have the ability to convert electricity into bioenergy.

No wonder when he asked Baiquan for the records, he found that when the original star zone military team boarded the space station, the entire space station was already empty, and even the warehouse was emptied.

Now it seems that this is the reason. The Zerg have the ability to convert electrical energy, so it is normal to empty the fuel warehouse.

And he suddenly understood.

Why did he find that there was a gap in the power supply of the entire city when he controlled the tower before.

He thought it was because the power equipment was damaged.

Now it seems that there is such a group of things living in the power supply core of the city. It would be strange if there is no shortage of electricity.

To be honest, since the bugs that once settled in the warm place of the power generation area of ​​the space station have evolved the ability to convert electrical energy into bioenergy.

Then Chen Ming is not surprised to evolve engines.

But now, although Chen Ming has investigated the specific location of the Zerg nest.

But this depth.

Don't even think about digging down.

The solar panels above alone would cause him to have conflicts with the mechanical races that he had not yet controlled.

He could certainly defeat them in a fight, but Chen Ming did not want to waste these mechanical races in such a place.

He also wanted to control these mechanical races and make them his abnormal sub-individuals.

Not to mention the spiritual power of feeding back, the strength of the mechanical races themselves alone was worth Chen Ming's doing.

But if he continued to wait until he had controlled all the mechanical races in the entire city.

The insects below could continue to reproduce for several rounds, and the insect nest might continue to expand.

With the reproduction speed of the insect race, Chen Ming thought it was better not to delay.

It would be better to deal with the insects quickly or get rid of them.

That is, the specific treatment method...

Chen Ming thought about it for a while.

Suddenly, he seemed to have a way to make these insects, even the most core queen insects, come out from underground on their own initiative.

Condensing the source of psychic energy.

Living things have the habit of instinctively pursuing psychic fluctuations, that is, the habit of instinctively becoming psychic creatures.

This is a piece of knowledge that Chen Ming learned from Xiaoshi.

Ever since he had the source of condensed spiritual energy, Xiaoshi jumped on his bed every day.

He didn't want to live in the stone nest that he had just bought for him, which was similar to the ore that exploded with the iron ore, but wanted to rub against the psychic energy fluctuations of the source of condensed spiritual energy.

Although Xiaoshi was very small, rubbing against it would not affect him at all.

But Chen Ming was worried that he would accidentally crush Xiaoshi when he was sleeping, so he didn't want Xiaoshi to lie on the bed with him.

Until later, he saw Xiaoshi running around in the highest point, jumping down from a height of more than 20 meters, bouncing on the ground twice very elastically, and then continuing to stroll around without any problem.

He remembered that Xiaoshi was no longer an ordinary Xiaoshi, so he let it do whatever it wanted.

Just like now.

Chen Ming put the source of condensed spiritual energy in his pocket.

Xiaoshi stayed in his pocket, holding the source of condensed spiritual energy tightly.

Of course, Xiaoshi is still very smart and will not eat something that he shouldn't eat.

But Chen Ming can see that the attraction of this thing to creatures is really quite significant.

And Chen Ming still remembers that the president said before that there are several ways to use the condensed psychic source.

One of them is what Chen Ming is currently using, as an auxiliary product for training mental power.

Another is to condense the original spiritual stone.

The last one is to feed some creatures, which can almost 100% make them become psychic creatures with some connection with psychics.

So if the Thorn Zerg underground senses the existence of psychic fluctuations and condensed psychic source, they will definitely rush out frantically to try to obtain it.

Chen Ming thought that he had better not use this special condensed spiritual energy source on hand.

After all, he still had to rely on this thing to enter the consciousness space.

Even if he did not feed the condensed spiritual energy source to the Zerg and connect to the Zerg with his mental power.

Instead, he only thought of using this thing as bait.

He had better be safe.

Try to use his own mental power to condense a second condensed spiritual energy source, and then act as bait.

But the materials needed for this thing...

Chen Ming couldn't say, and it was not easy to get it.

It was really outrageous that the materials needed for the condensed spiritual energy source were random materials.

How many kinds of materials are there in this universe? The possibility of picking a few at random and getting it right is completely the same as zero.

But maybe he can change his mind?

Chen Ming took out his own colorless amber condensed spiritual energy source that was condensed after the death of the deformed heart, and after being affected by the ship spirit and purified, it became his condensed spiritual energy source.

His condensed spiritual energy source has a colorless amber appearance...

It just so happens that Chen Ming knows several materials with such colorless amber appearance.

Then maybe the material he needs to condense the condensed spiritual energy source is such a colorless amber?

Although Chen Ming himself thinks this idea is a bit unreliable.

But it won't hurt to try.

Chen Ming immediately called Lao Wu back and asked him to help buy these materials and prepare them for the experiment.

Of course, Chen Ming clearly remembered what the president said before, the problems that may be caused by condensing the second condensed spiritual energy source.

So in the subsequent attempts, once his mental power has a negative impact, he will stop directly.

In case of accidents.

But if it doesn't appear, the second condensed spiritual energy source is definitely a good thing.

The general plan has been determined.

So now, Chen Ming needs to use the spiritual energy fluctuations of this special condensed spiritual energy source on his hand to release some basic psychic fluctuations on the surface of the planet. The illusory bait.

Attract the attention of the Zerg to the surface.

In this way, the next time he really releases the condensed psychic energy source, he can be discovered by the Zerg in the first place.

The method of releasing the bait is also very simple.

He only needs to let the flying mechanical body take the condensed psychic energy source out for two rounds.

The dissipated psychic fluctuations will stay in the outside world for a while and then dissipate.

This period of time is enough for the Zerg who can detect his spaceship in the vacuum to detect these psychic fluctuations.

Chen Ming quickly completed the operation of leaving psychic fluctuations near the surface facing the Zerg nest according to his idea.

Next, he only needs to wait for the materials to be in place and try to condense the second condensed psychic energy source.

Success is the best.

If it fails, then he can only take a certain risk to try with a special condensed psychic energy source.

Although there are risks, the benefits are obvious.

Chen Ming can slowly control the remaining mechanical race in his hands safely.

There may even be some additional, special gains.

And as long as he has prepared anti-risk measures in advance, risks are no longer risks.

The risks that the Zerg, which Chen Ming had scanned from beginning to end, could bring to him were clearly certain.

So as long as he was well prepared, even if he failed, it would only be a waste of some of the resources needed to deal with the risks.

The only thing to note now was that Chen Ming must not directly alert the enemy.

If the cruiser he was driving scared the Zerg away, he would definitely lose a lot of money.

So after arranging everything needed on the planet, Chen Ming took the two cruisers and left the planet.

Back to orbit.

It was almost time to rest at this point.

Chen Ming ruled out the possibility of robots sneaking into the city from the beginning, letting the robots run around in the city, confirming various intelligence, and then letting the highest point enter the atmosphere to conduct investigations. This process took a lot of time.

It was almost night, and it was better to wait until tomorrow to deal with the rest of the things. Anyway, the materials could not be delivered so quickly.

But before the final rest, Chen Ming put his consciousness on the Defender.

In the Defender's warehouse was a damaged satellite that he had taken from orbit before.

When he found that the tower had been continuously trying to send messages to the satellite, he had a special idea.

Chen Ming activated his psychic power and repaired the satellite.

Then, he used the tower, which was still under his control, to send the signal that the tower had been sending to the defender.

The repaired satellite in the defender's warehouse received this signal.

After a short pause, it sent a new signal to a specific coordinate in the more distant starry sky.

Of course, the signal sent by the satellite was intercepted by Chen Ming, but the coordinates of the destination where he sent the signal were recorded by Chen Ming.

And this coordinate happened to be in the direction that Chen Ming would open up in order to build a colony.

It would be reached after about thirteen extreme distance jumps.

There is a high possibility that there are high-value things in the place where the signal is received, which is connected to such a mechanical city with a high probability of being a border flag.

In other words, that place itself will have very high value.

If there is a chance later, he must go and see it.

Chen Ming turned off the signal transmitters of the satellite and the tower.

At this time, he also felt a little tired, and lay down on the bed after a simple wash.

To be honest, he really didn't expect that he came to this planet where the mechanical race existed this time just because he was bored and came to see it, but he didn't expect that he would actually gain a lot in the end.

The existence of the mechanical race alone and the construction of the hive thinking network with him as the core are outrageous enough.

Now the location of that coordinate has been obtained.

It may even be possible to get some possible benefits from the bugs later.

Thinking of this, Chen Ming closed his eyes with great satisfaction.

However, before really resting, Chen Ming and Huihuang explained the matter of HR and asked it to help with ideological work.

In the end, he also chose to consume 100% of his mental power and add an Alpha core bonus called [Elite Individual] to HR.

After selecting and confirming, Chen Ming felt the rapid consumption of mental power that he had not experienced for a long time.

And quickly reached the limit of his mental power.

This time Chen Ming did not hold on and fell into a coma.

The next day came in a blink of an eye.

Chen Ming climbed out of bed in high spirits.

The first thing he did was to confirm the situation at the temporary base.

The prototype of the temporary base has basically been established at this time, and the construction of the star port has been carried out step by step.

Some spaceships with combat capabilities have left the base and started exploring the surrounding galaxies.

After the construction of the star port is completed, nearly half of Chen Ming's spaceships can go out to explore and find valuable galaxies.

If it is just to explore the galaxies with the possibility of habitable planets, then Chen Ming estimates that his Yuhui can be mobilized to thoroughly explore the surrounding 400 light years within a week.

Of course, if a more detailed and wider investigation is to be carried out, it will take longer.

Anyway, Chen Ming has nothing else now, but a lot of time, so he will take his time. He is not in a hurry.

There is no use in being anxious, because he still needs to spend a lot of effort to control the mechanical race on the planet.

When Chen Ming confirmed the situation at the base.

Huihuang gave Chen Ming good news.

It talked to HR.

Let HR understand what Chen Ming's psychic power means to Yuhui.

In addition, the addition of the core bonus of [Elite Individual] that Chen Ming gave to HR last night can be regarded as an assist for Huihuang.

So when Huihuang came to find Chen Ming today, it said to Chen Ming: "HR said he will help you protect this place, but he doesn't want to do anything else for the time being. Please understand that he still needs time to consider."

Chen Ming felt that Huihuang's words were exaggerated by him.

But the overall meaning should not have changed.

All the Yuhui controlled by Chen Ming knew the situation they were in and knew that they had no way out.

HR was obviously the same, and it was a rational choice for it to do so, giving it some time to think.

But again, Chen Ming was not in a hurry.

Anyway, in a short period of time, there would definitely not be a cruiser-level war in the galaxy close to the border of the empire, so he didn't need to rush HR to force him to obey his orders.

And HR also said that it would help protect this place, and it would never go back on its own promise.

If it really came to a time of necessity, Chen Ming was not a person who didn't know how to adapt.

In short, his relationship with HR had improved to a certain extent.

Improvement is a good thing.

After chatting with Huihuang.

Chen Ming opened HR's panel and took a look.

[Elite·Afterglow Alpha-class AI Core (HR)]

[Manufacturer: Afterglow B-01 Colony Near Earth Orbit Industrial Facility]

[Alpha-class Core Bonus: Energy Concentration Effect]

[Self-awareness: Existence]

[Computing Power: Star District Level]

[Executable Operations: None]

Except that the name turned gold and [Elite Individual] did not appear on the core bonus but appeared in front of the name, there were no major changes.

However, when Chen Ming opened the panel for the additional core bonus, he saw that the number of additional core bonuses that could be added was 2.

He closed the panel with great satisfaction.

Next, it's time to continue dealing with yesterday's affairs.

Yesterday, Chen Ming asked Lao Wu to buy five transparent amber materials that look similar to his condensed spiritual energy source.

Three of the easier ones are now in place and have been sent to the No. 6 space arm of the space station by Lao Wu.

Chen Ming can bring them directly to his side by using the transformation of spiritual energy.

Because condensing the condensed spiritual energy source is the same as Chen Ming adding an extra core bonus to Alpha Afterglow, it requires 100% of mental power.

And Chen Ming's consciousness must remain clear and not fall into a coma.

So he came to the kitchen as before and held the knife in his hand first.

When Chen Ming left the space station before, the boss specially gave him a few medical robots.

One of them is placed here in the kitchen.

No need to worry about whether he can get timely medical treatment after being injured.

Before, Chen Ming was a little nervous and felt that the boss had some misunderstandings about him.

Now...

It seems that the boss's idea is not a problem.

At this time, he was on a video call with the president, and just as he sent the video of the highest point that he had taken away after talking to Chen Ming, his boss sneezed.

The president stopped the topic he was talking about with his boss and asked, "Are you catching a cold?"

The boss nodded slightly and said, "It's possible. Lying down every day has made your physical fitness worse."

"But it's okay. Let's continue talking about Xiao Ming. I am very optimistic about him."

"Look at the action of stabbing himself with a knife. Doesn't it look like the little madman I was optimistic about before?"

"Isn't that little madman dead?"

"Uh, that's right..."