Chapter 44: The Massive Insect’s Annoyance

‘They were clearly blocked, yet they weren’t.’

The massive insect suddenly realized the projectiles had pierced straight through its erected energy barrier at an astonishing speed.

It was as if they had met no resistance at all, smashing directly into its face.

The immense explosive force caused the massive insect’s body to tremble slightly.

Fortunately, the damage was negligible; given its colossal size, even such a massive barrage of bombs couldn’t directly send it tumbling.

Moreover, the ordnance appeared to be purely explosive rather than penetrative.

Thus, it inflicted virtually no harm upon the massive insect beyond the initial tremor.

“Report! High-explosive rounds are ineffective against the enemy! Particle beams are ready!”

“Photon cannons are ready to fire. Order all warships to prepare to approach the enemy mother organism!”

Odinxis had clearly observed this as well. At such a distance, the weapons capable of striking the massive insect were utterly incapable of inflicting any damage.

After all, these high-explosive munitions were designed for human-on-human combat, and even then, only against warships with very thin armor.

Such weaponry thrived on technological disparity, much like how, in ancient times when humanity was confined to planets, naval warfare fought within visual range was an entirely different concept from engaging beyond it.

The cosmos is far vaster than any ocean. If radar performance was subpar, a launched missile, even if its trajectory was off by a single degree, could miss its target by tens of millions of meters.

Precisely for this reason, the Empire could leverage its incredibly powerful active and passive radar systems to track enemy targets.

They would then employ ultra-long-range cosmic missiles to deliver precise and accurate strikes against their foes.

Incidentally, the warheads of these missiles were equipped with an energy shield-nullifying interference device.

When these warheads encountered an energy shield in flight, they could perfectly penetrate it and strike the enemy target directly.

Evidently, while the reason for the Zerg’s ability to deploy shields remained unknown, these defenses still fell within the Empire’s technological understanding.

Therefore, Odinxis immediately ordered all fleets to close in on the massive insect, preparing for close-quarters combat.

After all, the most potent range for certain beam weapons was relatively short. Firing from too far away, even if a hit was scored, wouldn’t yield practical results.

Moreover, Odinxis, who had previously witnessed the massive insect emerge unscathed after taking a hit from a small Imperial secondary cannon, believed that energy-based weapons like photon cannons would inflict absurdly low damage upon it.

Based on the photon cannon’s principle, it converted stored energy from its reserve pool into high-energy light and heat through extremely complex reactions to deliver pinpoint strikes against the enemy.

While the massive insect possessed the power to devour stars, light and heat were clearly outside its scope of consumption. It consumed the internal energy of stars, not the light and heat emitted during energy reactions.

If one were to use a human body as an analogy for the massive insect’s view on light and heat, it would be akin to the excrement produced after digesting consumed energy.

Of course, it wasn’t quite that disgusting.

The massive insect gradually noticed the enemy actively closing the distance. Having taken a few not-so-significant hits earlier, it was still somewhat annoyed.

The enemy was simply too far away; it couldn’t see them within its visual range.

It could only barely pinpoint their direction using quantum radar, and even then, only by tracing the trajectory of the recent missiles.

And why had its shield been utterly useless against those missiles? It felt as if it had proudly erected its shield only to be slapped hard across the face.

A profound sense of displeasure welled up in the massive insect’s heart.

“Humans, you have angered me.”

Facing these unknown entities, the massive insect felt no fear or dread. Instead, it grew even more excited.

The more mysterious the enemy, the greater the massive insect’s confidence—no, not confidence, but desire—to defeat them.

It understood that by merely devouring its opponent, it could acquire the vast majority of their knowledge and strength.

Once that knowledge was assimilated and utilized, it would become even more powerful.

Once it reached a certain level of strength, even the Universal Empire would seem less terrifying in its presence.

Speaking of which, the massive insect harbored a question mark in its heart regarding whether it was truly afraid of the Universal Empire now.

After all, its impressions of the Empire thus far were entirely derived from these border humans, lacking a more objective perspective.

Consequently, the massive insect discarded all other useless intelligence.

Now, with the appearance of this Imperial fleet, the massive insect felt it needed to seize the opportunity.

As the enemy drew closer, the massive insect impatiently urged its children to prepare their combat formations.

The children, of course, would not disappoint their mother. They immediately spread out their formation according to their mother’s command.

Each Zerg maintained a significant distance from the others. This tactic was to prevent the Empire’s area-of-effect weapons from causing heavy casualties among its children.

This time, the massive insect personally entered the fray, acting as the primary combatant, intending to tie down the majority of the enemy’s firepower.