I am a reincarnation player.

"This mist is a kind of soul energy." Yuki looked around and quickly set his sights on the distant mountaintop, knees slightly bent.

boom!

The sonic boom ring burst out, and he stepped out a shallow pit on the hard ground. In just ten seconds, he ran three kilometers, using his hands and feet to climb up the steep mountain.

When you reach the commanding heights, the surroundings suddenly become clear.

On the left is a plain, which should be the Emerald Basin mentioned in the hint. The black mountains stretch endlessly and disappear into the end of the horizon.

And over there...is that a man-made thing?

Looking around, Yuki saw a metallic luster reflected in the distant valley. Squinting slightly, it looked like a small fortress.

"Is it the human outpost?" Yuki touched his chin. It was true that he was a lurker, but prompt 4 clearly stated that the player's identity was very secret.

We have to gather intelligence. We don't know if those Zerg can communicate, and we can't contact Hiyori either.

If he had to make a choice, Yuki would rather communicate with humans, after all, he has no experience dealing with insects.

[Tip 7: Players can temporarily raise the Trusted reputation of the selected faction. Limit 1 time, lasting 5 hours]

This tip is helpful, but don't forget that it's for a short period of time and it's definitely not the norm.

Judging from the hints, we lurkers were supposed to sneak in anyway, and...

Such a coincidence?

Yuki slowly lowered his head and saw that another small hill a few kilometers away suddenly arched up, and the hard black rock was being stretched. Switching to the soul vision, he could see a large black mass.

boom--

Almost at the same time Yuki raised his eyebrows, the mountain exploded like a volcano, and a huge black shadow jumped out.

It looked like a giant sandworm, swaying its body back and forth, appearing just behind the city.

Is this the Zerg?

Yuki was also shocked by the huge size of the monster. Judging from its size alone, it was larger than any other monster he had ever seen. It was estimated to be a hundred meters long and ten meters thick. God knows how powerful it was.

But just as he was unconsciously stroking the hilt of the knife, the sandworm suddenly split apart.

Like a blooming morning glory, the entire insect body splits apart starting from the head, spreading all the way to the body that penetrates the ground.

What's going on? Why did it explode before the fight even started?

Yuki was confused and felt the power, but then he understood what was going on.

A black tide surged out from the torn insect body and rushed towards the fortress from behind. Since it was not far away, Yuki could clearly see the appearance of these insects.

The one in the front looked a bit like a cockroach, about the size of a car, with a black shell and a pair of mantis-like front legs. The one lagging behind looked like an ant, about the same size, with a brown-black shell, and was gnawing on the rocks with its teeth.

The former was spreading along the hillside at an extremely fast speed, while the latter was eating iron like mud, and the entrance of the cave was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Is this the Zerg?" Yuki raised his eyebrows. He didn't think they were disgusting, but rather majestic, and there were a lot of them.

Hundreds of them emerged within two minutes, which made the fortress react.

beep.

A shrill alarm sounded from afar. Yuki took out a telescope and saw a silver-white metal wall. Two turret-like equipment were rising behind the wall. There were crowds of people on the wall, and it was estimated that hundreds of people were gathering.

The soldiers on the wall were not very clear. Yuki could only make out that they were quite bulky and wearing green and white space suits.

The reaction speed is very fast, but this fortress is too small.

The total area was only about the size of a village, which meant that there couldn't be too many soldiers inside. As a 'lurker', Yuki felt worried for these fellow soldiers, but had no intention of intervening.

Observation is the best way to collect information. I am lucky that I have the opportunity to explore the combat power of both sides as soon as I entered the dungeon.

The insect swarm ignored the fortress that was on high alert. After crossing two hills, the only sound in the mountains was the swish of arthropods moving. Yuki held his breath and stared into the distance without blinking.

Like the calm before the storm, the roaring swarm of insects formed a sharp contrast with the silent fortress. About two minutes later, a dazzling light illuminated Yuki's eyes.

call out--

Lasers shot out from the watchtower, sticking to the entrance of the col and pouring into the swarm of insects. In an instant, the swarm of insects was penetrated, and all living things melted under the artillery fire, leaving only two lava-like traces.

So fierce! ?

Yuki sat up straight all of a sudden. The power was too great. Players below the extraordinary level would be killed instantly by one shot. The humans in this copy were so powerful, what else could we players do?

But he soon discovered that this was just a superficial phenomenon. White smoke was coming out of the muzzle of the watchtower's gun, and there was no intention of continuous firing. The insect swarm was fearless and continued to charge forward. At this time, the sound of gunfire like frying beans rang out.

Ta da da da da...

Countless fire snakes emerged from the gray-white city walls, and a metal storm broke out, causing sparks to fly and blood and flesh to fly everywhere.

It was very lively, but Yuki found that the effect was not as terrifying as before. The insects in the front row were torn to pieces, and the ones in the back continued to rush forward, stepping on the corpses. They soon rushed into the valley and were less than a kilometer away from the city wall.

"Kinetic weapons have a very high rate of fire and much greater penetration than Earth's firearms. But these bugs are no pushovers either. They have extremely strong defenses and amazing vitality. On average, they take dozens of hits before collapsing."

Yuki had a rough idea of ​​what was going on. He hadn't experienced any high-tech copies, but he had watched a lot of movies, and he felt a bit like the machine gunner in StarCraft.

The fighting was intense, but the lethality was very limited.

"This won't work. Could it be that they're good at close combat?"

call out--

At this time, the dazzling laser shot out again, like two whips of light sweeping across the mountains, cutting the peak at the entrance of the col in half.

Rumble.

Tens of thousands of tons of rock fell, crushing all living things and splitting the insect swarm into two parts, while inside the valley, the dense gunfire intensified.

The bullets tore the cockroaches into pieces one by one. When the insect swarm was still 500 meters away from the city wall, a ten-meter-sized gap suddenly appeared in the wall.

Several silver-white mechas about five or six meters tall walked out of the gap. They reflected a metallic luster, their legs were disproportionately thin, their torsos were oval, and two thick mechanical arms extended forward.

Bang bang bang!

You can tell from the caliber that it was very large, and it actually blew up cockroaches one by one, while dazzling flames spurted out of its left hand.

The cockroaches were burnt on charcoal, and the sea of ​​fire engulfed most of the valley, which made Yuki's eyes twitch.

Such a strong firepower! It seems that we can’t fight them head-on.

Almost all players are experts in squad battles, and probably no one would do something stupid like charging towards the enemy while facing hundreds of rifles. As he watched, he found that these mechas had powerful firepower, but moved too slowly and were too bulky.

Some of the escaped fish with flames all over their bodies rushed to the front and immediately ran into the blind spot of the shooting. The mecha began to retreat, and only with the cover of the infantry on the wall did they retreat to the gap.

The swarm of insects continued to flow in and had already crossed the collapsed valley entrance. Looking back, the cave entrance had expanded to more than ten meters. In addition to the cockroaches that kept pouring out, there were even more terrifying things squeezing out.

A huge round ball emerges from the center of the "Morning Glory". It is grayish white and has an uneven surface, like a raised tumor.

The huge body filled up most of the hole, leaving some gaps for the swarm of insects to continue pouring out. The speed suddenly slowed down a lot, but looking at those "ants" that kept gnawing on the black rock, the speed of the outflow would increase sooner or later.

Yuki didn't understand what this thing was, but he could make a judgment:

Humanity is doomed.

Cockroaches are just cannon fodder. Once more advanced insects emerge, this small fortress will be immediately overwhelmed.

He had no desire to intervene and only recorded the battlefield he saw. But at this moment, he heard a "dragon roar", raised his head slightly, and saw something flying in the air.

Accompanied by the roar of the engine, it started as a small black dot and then quickly grew larger.

"After the mecha, there is an air force?" Yuki raised his eyebrows and saw a silver-white fighter plane with rounded lines and short wings.

It looks a bit like an enlarged version of the Y-20 I saw in my previous life. From a distance, it looks like several dozen meters long and more like an aerial battleship.

As we were watching, the transport plane suddenly fired two missiles from more than ten kilometers away.

Grass.

Yuki quickly lowered his head and heard a muffled "boom". Two huge fireballs rose on the mountaintop a few kilometers away. The shock wave made his ears buzz, but there was not much dust raised.

The cockroaches that swarmed out from all around the mountain were melted instantly, but a blue light curtain rose from the entrance of the cave, offsetting most of the energy and preventing the cave entrance from collapsing.

Yuki finally knew what the gray-white sphere was. It turned out to be split in the middle, forming a huge insect mouth, and the light curtain was ejected from the mouth.

"He's intelligent enough not only to attack fearlessly but also to defend himself in advance?"

Yuki raised the Zerg threat to a notch, and saw the silver-white fighter plane begin to slow down, the tail hatch lowered, and a dozen black dots jumped out from it.

They were wearing silver-white metal armor that also emitted azure light. They actually penetrated the light curtain and landed around the cave entrance in a battle formation.

At this time, the swarm of insects on the top of the mountain had just been cleared out, and those in the cave had not yet poured out. It was just the right time to land. The dazzling laser flashed, cutting a mountain into pieces, and the falling boulders blocked the way for the insect tide to turn back.

The laser cannon couldn't shoot directly at the cave entrance because it was separated by several hills. This was obviously to cover the people who were landing. Even the soldiers took the initiative to leave the city wall and started a counterattack under the cover of several mechas.

Is this the global insect plague?

Yuki put down the telescope and didn't know what to say. Just from the battle that lasted more than half an hour, it was enough to discard all his previous dungeon experience.

Previous copies were always weird and small-scale, like a knife hidden in the night, stabbing you unexpectedly.

But the mission of this camp is completely different. This is war, a war fought in an orderly manner, requiring all courage and wisdom.

Feint, lure, airstrike, surprise attack...

Yuki had never seen such a grand scene, nor had he seen such sharp conflicts within the copy.

He gently stroked the hilt of the knife and looked at the dozen or so soldiers fighting bloody battles after landing. For some reason, he suddenly felt relieved.

I still prefer this flavor.

He didn't know why he liked it. It was obviously much more dangerous here and not suitable for the old cunning guy to set up a plan.

But he just liked it, every cell in his body was cheering, and he couldn't help but put away the telescope, draw his sword and head towards the battlefield.

The battle situation has returned to a balance. Will the humans kill the giant insects blocking the cave entrance first, or will the insect swarm break through the obstacles? As for the meaning of the players' existence...

It is to break this balance!

Chapter 5: First Kill of the Insect Swarm (K)

Kill insects, gain reputation, and obtain more information from humans.

After watching the battle, Yuki knew what "lurker" meant. An individual's strength would rapidly decline due to the scale of the battle. In a large-scale, systematic war like this, even a monster-level player could not cause much trouble.

Therefore, players standing on the Zerg side can only act as lurkers. Anyone who dares to join the charge will be blown to pieces by laser cannons and flamethrowers.

"Besides, the Zerg may not appreciate it. At least I don't have the means to communicate with them."

Yuki said to himself, maybe there are insect players among the players, this is their home ground, but he is not one of them.

As he climbed the second hillside and approached the battlefield, he could already feel malicious gazes. Some cockroaches that were heading to the cave entrance to provide support turned around and locked onto Yuki who was coming from behind.

The tentacles trembled, the limbs crawled wildly, and it rushed over without saying a word.

Wait, we are family.

Yuki moved his lips. It was just as he thought. The main quest did not include "protecting a certain insect species", so naturally he would not be accepted by the Zerg according to his identity.

Many people must be regretting it now!

Yuki looked at several huge cockroaches. Their front legs emitted a metallic luster, their eyes were scarlet, and their mouths were full of sharp teeth. They were still a little scary when viewed up close.

Thinking of the first contact, he stopped abruptly and raised his shotgun.

Shotgun!

Gunshots rang out, and hundreds of soul bullets covered the area a hundred meters ahead, and those cockroaches instantly turned into a pool of rotten meat.

"Weaker than I thought. No, I'm too strong."

Yuki was not surprised at all. If these cannon fodders could block the hunter's musket, he would turn around and run away, hiding from then on.

boom!

With the second shot, the deer hunting bullet penetrated several cockroaches in succession, leaving washbasin-sized holes in their shells. The gunshot attracted dozens of insects that were climbing the mountain, and they turned around in an orderly manner.

Clang——

With his long sword drawn and his knees bent, Yuuki launched himself forward, slashing cleanly into the insect's back and breaking the shell.

"It's not as weak as I thought. Its physical resistance is quite high."

He deliberately did not use any energy, relying solely on brute force to break the shell, almost confirming the monster's defense.

It is similar to an infantry fighting vehicle. If it is brought to Earth, it is enough to ignore firearms with a caliber below 12.7 mm, and it has strong vitality. It will take a long time for those future-tech rifles to withstand it.

"And never back down."

Under his feet, the cockroach with its back split open struggled and lifted Yuki into the air. The surrounding insects swarmed over and slashed at him with more than a dozen sharp front legs.