Book 6 Chapter 33.2 - Storm
Su continued to lay there without moving, but his perception was firmly locked onto those mechanical bugs he had never seen before. The mechanical bug swarm consisting mostly of scouting bugs was extremely fast, instantly flying out from the lake region, passing above the forest’s skies, but the numerous detection instruments on their bodies weren’t able to detect Su. Regardless of which type of probing method they used, regardless of whether it was active or passive, Su was no different from the ancient tree he was laying on. When the radar-like detection wave passed over Su’s body, the signal that was sent back completely proved that Su was made of wood. Meanwhile, the imaging sensing captured precisely a tree branch, just one that was a bit thicker. This tree branch was a bit different from the others, but the deviation was within the mechanical bugs’ calculation range, which was why they didn’t sense any abnormalities.
As they passed over the forest’s skies, the mechanical bug swarm detected many large-scale biological reactions, and as such, more than ten high energy light beams descended one after another, killing a few large-scale vicious beasts. Even though these mutated beasts were predators in the forest, before this mechanical beast swarm from a civilization exceeding the present age, they were still weak to the point where they couldn’t take even a single hit.
In the depths of the forest, a mutated leopard was currently crazily running. It already sensed the smell of death, and as such, it ignited all of its potential. However, a light speck suddenly shone in the air, and then a high energy light beam instantly descended, penetrating the nape of its neck! The leopard planted face-first into the ground, only stopping after tumbling a few times. Its body twitched powerlessly a few times, its survival instincts making it continuously stretch out its head with everything it had. In its eyes that were gradually becoming despondent, the image of a biological creature that looked like a wolf, but wasn’t a wolf appeared. This was a Herkula. It quietly walked over, took a sniff by the leopard’s body, clearly lacking much interest, thus quietly walking into the depths of the forest. The leopard’s intelligence was actually already comparable to a five or six-year-old human child, but it just couldn’t understand how those mechanical demons flying in the sky could lock onto itself so accurately, yet turned a blind eye to this black wolf that was clearly much larger than itself.
The Herkula’s movements were smooth and steady, to the extent where it almost seemed a bit lazy. That leopard obviously had no way of seeing the thin energy field around the Herkula’s fur. In the mechanical bug swarm’s scouting system, the biological signal that was reflected off a Herkula was roughly equivalent to a mouse. They obviously wouldn’t waste a high energy beam to kill a mouse, because even if they didn’t have to worry about energy consumption, this was still an extremely stupid thing to do. At the very least, this was the case within Fitzdurk’s eyes, and every single mechanical bug was equivalent to a nerve terminal.
In the depths of the forest, what was roaming about wasn’t only the Herkula, there were also foragers, Leigna, and several other types of biological weapons. The signals they gave off were virtually the same, which was why in the mechanical bugs’ information system, due to the number of mice in this expansive forest being a bit larger in number, this place’s marking was changed to forest of giant mice.
Su suddenly moved. He leapt up from the tree branch he was laying on, gradually rising into the air. With a raise of his hand, he grabbed one of each type of mechanical bug, and then slowly descended. The sudden attack immediately threw the bug swarm into chaos, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t find the attacker, even more so didn’t know where their lost companions went. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, the original order’s level of precedence once again returned to the top, and as such, the mechanical bugs continued in their pre-scheduled direction, treating their lost companions as destroyed. This was an insignificant matter, as the mechanical bugs were extremely weak individually, speeds not fast, attacks not powerful, defensive strength not all that outstanding either. That was why forget about powerful human race ability users, even some powerful mutated species were able to bring them great losses. However, when the size of the mechanical bug swarm was large enough, only then would their strength be truly displayed.
The scouting bug swarm gradually left into the distance. Su squatted down in a vacant area of the forest, starting to disassemble these mechanical bugs. Long and sharp fingernails reached out from his ten fingertips, turning into sensitive tools, breaking down the mechanical bugs one after another. Meanwhile, the thought centers had long begun to operate at full force, starting to reverse engineer these mechanical bugs’ composition.
This was a comprehensive and meticulous dissection. Su didn’t have much industrial or machinery knowledge, so forget about the mechanical bug swarm’s technology exceeding this present age, he didn’t even understand much about the olden era’s basic engineering knowledge. However, while analyzing the mechanical bugs, he naturally understood the functions and principles behind most of the components. This wasn’t because his intelligence reached an inconceivable degree, even though Su’s intelligence already far exceeded the so-called geniuses of the human race, the reason why Su could understand the theory behind the mechanical bugs’ composition, was because he already knew this information. These were dusty memories, originally hidden within that corner of his consciousness, and now that Su began to carefully analyze these mechanical bugs, all of the knowledge related to the mechanical bug swarm began to surface. What accompanied this knowledge, was a type of indescribable emotional state, an ice-cold killing intent mixed with anger. Su didn’t understand where the killing intent came from, but he knew that right now, he didn’t really need a reason to want to kill; if the other party was powerful enough themself, that was already an extremely adequate reason.
Su lowered the mechanical bug that had long been disassembled into components, stood up, and then took a long breath. There were six or seven scouting bugs floating within his Panoramic View, and Su who had just dissected them knew that these scouting bugs could continue to fly in the sky for a month, everything within a range of a few kilometers belonging to their thorough investigation domain. Several scouting bugs’ areas of cover overlapped, thus making it almost impossible to escape their detection. Under these scouting bugs’ surveillance, even the low-level biological weapons who were innately equipped with concealment abilities that weren’t weak couldn’t move as they wished, this the case even in a complex environment like the forest. If they left the forest, they might not necessarily be able to hide even if they tried. Of course, the so-called good concealment abilities of low-level biological weapons were relative to the low technological environment they were exposed to. The mechanical bug swarm’s composition and theory looked simple, but they represented a higher level of technology. Only mid-level biological weapons could move freely under their scouting.
However, the number of biological weapons under Su wasn’t that large, and he had no plans to greatly enlarge it for the time being. Even though his own strength already reached the level where he had access to the mid-level biological weapons, he only intended to create a few of them. Otherwise, the foragers that served as the cornerstone for a great biological army would not be limited to just a few dozen.