Chapter 125: Chapter 112: Luring, the Capital and a Farewell, Upgrading the Armor-Piercing Cannon

The rapid sound of explosions startled the fallen Qin Hu, jolting him out of his desperate, do-or-die frenzy.

He had just been about to temporarily break his limits and risk escaping the siege when he saw the three ten-meter-tall Tiger Spine Zergs around him explode from within, one after another...

Vast amounts of warm Zerg blood, mixed with shattered limbs, rained down, drenching him as he knelt below in a foul-smelling bloodbath.

The strange yet familiar liquid and flesh fragments sprayed onto his face, some of it seeping into his mouth and filling Qin Hu with an indescribable sense of unease.

It felt like he was eating the flesh and blood of his own kind. The last vestiges of his human reason made his stomach churn with nausea, yet an instinctive craving from his body made the fragments seem incredibly delicious.

But soon, the continuous explosions shocked Qin Hu back to his senses.

Even the most elite artillery units would struggle to pull off such a bizarrely brilliant attack; it would require firing several high-end, guided Armor-Piercing Bullets from the rear.

And as far as he knew, the army’s marginalized and neglected Thirteenth Division was not equipped with such high-end weaponry.

So when he looked up toward the source of a sudden, noisy buzzing, he saw a familiar figure suspended in midair several hundred meters away.

As the flying figure drew closer, Qin Hu recognized the well-crafted, black-and-yellow Battle Armor and realized who it was.

Although that guy’s equipment was always changing, each new version retained the original base colors, making it easy to recognize.

Besides, only that guy could have conceived of—and actually created—the ability to fly using the wings of Cyan-winged Zergs.

Clad in his Flying Tiger Armor and holding the Level 20 Armor-Piercing Cannon, Lin Feng landed smoothly in front of the Tiger Spine Zerg’s mangled corpse. He looked down at the struggling human at his gunpoint...

Or rather, the parasitized Cheng Zhan, Major General Cheng.

His gaze was cold.

Judging by the grotesquely swollen nape of its neck and chest, the creature was clearly no longer human. The flames had seared off its skin. As it writhed in agony, it struggled out of its charred clothing, tearing away large patches of cooked flesh from its torso and revealing squirming Zerg Eggs nestled between its ribs.

The egg sacs resembled a cluster of grapes and were clearly visible beneath the ribs. Many had already ruptured.

The creature’s internal organs had been almost completely hollowed out; it had been turned into nothing more than a vessel for some kind of parasite!

In Lin Feng’s vision, after he used his Identification Skill, the target’s stats quickly appeared:

「Parasitic Matriarch, Lv. 21/29, Heavily Injured State」

「Life Value: 150, Physique: 60, Spirit: 220」

「Evaluation: A Parasitic Matriarch, a simplified copy of a High-tier Zerg Race Mother Empress. Possesses a powerful Spiritual Attribute but low Physique; it can only survive by parasitizing a host, and its Physique is typically based on that of its host. The Matriarch has extremely high intelligence and can incubate offspring to spread the infestation and gather enemy intelligence for the Zerg Race. The higher its Level, the stealthier the parasitism, making it extremely difficult to detect.」

「Note: Killing it grants a certain amount of bonus Spiritual Energy, which can be used to achieve a Spiritual Attribute Breaking Limit.」

Seeing this, the corners of Lin Feng’s mouth curled up slightly. ’This trip wasn’t a waste after all.’ Not only had he harvested three extra Tiger Spine Zergs, but there was also the unexpected joy of a boost to his Spiritual Attribute.

However, just as he was about to pull the trigger for a one-shot kill, the dying Cheng Zhan before him, already coughing up blood, suddenly spoke:

"Don’t... don’t kill me..." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Mr. Lin, with strength as great as yours, why remain among the humans? The Thirteenth Division has shown you no loyalty, and even though I was the one who schemed against you..."

"...it... it was with their tacit approval!"

"With your Superpower, Mr. Lin, if you’re willing to join us, you’ll have an endless supply of energy for enhancement. We can help you quickly advance to a Tier Two Late-stage Awakened, and perhaps one day, even reach Tier Three!"

"As long as you help us take Wu City, Jin City, and even the states behind them, I’m sure Her Majesty, the Mother Empress, wouldn’t mind giving you a few cities to rule autonomously."

"Then you could do anything you want, like ruling over hundreds of thousands of human survivors, and you could even ensure the continuation of your own race..."

As it spoke, the Zerg matriarch coughed violently a few times, spitting out the blood clogging its windpipe before continuing:

"COUGH COUGH..."

"The Zerg Race doesn’t exterminate the native populations."

"The ’us’ you see is actually a collection of different peoples from various planets."

"For example, the Red-Armored Beetles responsible for mining come from a low-level civilization on a Mining Star we conquered."

"You humans are very talented when it comes to spiritual matters. The intelligence of a few of your individuals is beyond comprehension, which makes you valuable assets to be absorbed and utilized..."

Lin Feng’s brow furrowed. For a moment, he was almost moved by the creature’s "sincere and earnest" words.

He was well aware that the creature was using some sort of Spiritual Means to cloud his judgment, but with his own Spiritual Attribute as high as 215, it was simply not enough.

However, if the Zerg Race were truly willing to negotiate and guarantee the safety of most of humanity, Lin Feng believed that the majority of nations on Earth would rush to surrender.

They would even willingly become puppets of the Zerg Race, pushing their own countries and peoples into the abyss of colonization.

So the terms offered by the Parasitic Matriarch were indeed tempting, especially since Lin Feng had just been betrayed and was no longer so zealous about resisting the Zerg Race’s invasion.

’Reaching some kind of armistice with the Zerg Race in exchange for a stable supply of Upgrade Energy... that seems like a decent option.’

Just as a hint of hesitation flickered across Lin Feng’s face, Qin Hu, who had gotten to his feet and approached from behind, retorted sharply: