Technological advancement begins with devouring.

With the approaching beast tide, Jiang Chen, for the sake of caution, recalled the SCVs and protective mech units in the mining area, shrinking his territory to its limit.

The launch tower brought from the Jiangnan base city was also erected above the base's protective wall thanks to the emergency construction by the SCV.

Through continuous expansion and reinforcement, the scale of the base's protective wall has been increased again and again, reaching a thickness of more than ten meters and a height of more than one hundred meters. It is made entirely of high-strength alloy, and even a king-level monster would not be able to penetrate it in one blow.

This specification is very close to the protective wall surrounding a regular base city.

Perhaps lord-level or king-level monsters have enough ability to jump over the high walls and rush into the base city, while monsters below the lord level can only climb the walls by stepping on the corpses of their own kind in order to pose a threat to the inside of the city walls.

The sheer strength of these high walls alone gives one a great sense of security.

Although it is somewhat extravagant to use so many materials to build a protective wall given the current size of the base, these materials can be completely recycled and reused when further expansion is needed in the future, so the loss is minimal and it cannot be considered a waste.

Only after we survive the first wave of beast attacks can we talk about what comes next.

Inside the base city, hundreds of SCVs are on high alert, ready to perform emergency repairs on defenses, buildings, equipment, and combat mechs at any time.

— Under Jarvis's control, the SCV also has the ability to perform emergency repairs on the [Boxer] mech. Although it is not as good as a professional 'Repairman', it is sufficient for emergency use.

Considering that this time they are facing a beast tide rather than hunting high-level monsters, all but eight 'Guardians' and four 'Snipers' of the 180 combat mechs are equipped with the [Ripper] rifle, aiming for higher range and rate of fire.

In any case, the vast majority of the beast tide consists of low-level monsters below the lord level. No matter what weapon you use, as long as you hit a vital point, you will be killed instantly. Range and rate of fire are the most important factors.

Power is not that important.

Having a few 'snipers' specifically responsible for picking off any Lord-level or Planetary Tier 1 or 2 monsters that might appear is enough.

If a monster of planetary rank three or higher appears, Jiang Chen will be responsible for dealing with it.

The day after Jarvis reported this, sporadic monsters began to appear around the base.

Jiang Chen didn't stand on ceremony and directly ordered Jarvis not to conserve ammunition, but to kill any monsters that got close to the effective firing range.

Over the course of a few days, they also amassed quite a few "heads".

They were all worthless beast-soldier level monsters, and Jiang Chen was too lazy to send a mecha squad to collect the materials, so he just left them in the wilderness.

However, the monster corpses were quickly devoured by the other monsters.

Inside the room, Jiang Chen watched this scene through the monitor and immediately showed a look of disdain, muttering, "No wonder they're beasts, they even eat the corpses of their own kind..."

"Master, we have received a call request from Councilor Jia Yi." Jarvis's voice rang out. This was the first time in two days that Jia Yi had called.

Among the high-ranking members of other major forces, those who were even slightly close to Jiang Chen also made numerous phone calls to inquire about the situation here.

The gathering of numerous monsters on the central highlands of South America has clearly attracted a lot of attention.

"Could you answer this for me? Tell him I'll contact them immediately if he needs any help," Jiang Chen said casually.

At first, Jiang Chen had the patience to exchange a few words with others, but with dozens of calls a day, he couldn't take it anymore, so he simply had Jarvis imitate his tone and voice to deal with them.

A moment later, Jarvis's voice rang out again: "Master, Councilor Jia Yi reminded us that the beast tide in the eastern rainforest has gathered and is heading this way."

"What about the scale?" Jiang Chen asked.

In the rainforest, the view is blocked by the forest, and satellites cannot take clear pictures.

However, once the animal tide leaves the rainforest, it is not difficult to estimate its approximate size through satellite monitoring.

"Between 500,000 and 600,000, there is currently no trace of the King-level monster in the rainforest, but we cannot rule out the possibility that it is lying in wait, preparing to launch a surprise attack from the shadows." Jarvis quickly reported, "Based on the speed of the beast tide's advance, it is expected to enter the attack range of the [Hurricane] rocket within an hour."

"Five or six hundred thousand... and the formation isn't very dense, so the [Hurricane] rocket's lethality might be reduced a bit..." Jiang Chen looked at the images displayed on the big screen and suddenly felt a headache coming on.

These days, even monsters have gotten smarter. When attacking human base cities, they often maintain a relatively loose formation to prevent a large group from being wiped out at once by weapons of mass destruction.

They don't need to be too far apart. If each monster keeps a distance of more than 30 meters from the others, ordinary shells and rockets can only kill a dozen or even just a few monsters at most.

If you're unlucky, you might not even be able to kill a single monster.

Even weapons of mass destruction such as thermobaric bombs and tactical nuclear bombs will have their lethality drastically reduced in such a loose formation.

Unless strategic nuclear weapons are used, hundreds of thousands of animals can be wiped out at once. But weapons of that level also pose a significant threat to humanity itself, and are rarely used unless forced into a desperate situation.

However, the monster's strategy immediately made Jiang Chen uncomfortable.

Jiang Chen had a total of over 100,000 rockets, which was the main force that caused large-scale casualties to the beast tide.

To ensure that the remaining number of 600,000 beasts is within the range that the mech squad can handle, at least 80% of the beasts must be eliminated.

Less than two hundred mechs are already the limit for dealing with a beast tide of around one hundred thousand.

No matter how many mechs there are, their combat power is sufficient, but when it is necessary to protect the base and 'kiting tactics' cannot be used, the speed at which the beast tide is eliminated is absolutely insufficient.

On paper, it seems that killing four or five monsters with a single rocket would complete the mission, which doesn't seem difficult.

However, as the monster tide is continuously eliminated and its density decreases, the killing efficiency of rockets will also decrease rapidly. In order to suppress the number of monsters to a sufficiently low level, the highest killing efficiency must be pursued from the very beginning.

“Master, let’s wait until the beast tide gets closer before attacking. Our base isn’t very big, and our formation will inevitably become denser as the beast tide gets closer,” Jarvis suggested.

The current base can only be considered a small base, covering an area of ​​more than 2,000 acres.

This number seems large, but in reality, it is only a very small target compared to the scale of this beast tide.

If the monster horde wants to attack the base, they will inevitably move closer together after reaching a certain distance and switch to a dense formation; otherwise, most of the monsters will just be spectators.

Only then can the destructive power of rockets be maximized.

Jiang Chen nodded slightly and said, "Let's do as you say, wait until the monster gets closer before attacking. But we can only let it get within thirty kilometers at most. Any closer, and the risk will be too great."