Chapter 593 - 180: Stress Relief Maneuver

Admiral Bai’s speculation coincided with his own conclusions, though there wasn’t enough evidence to support it.

He instructed the commanders of the support ships to retreat immediately and notify him if any signs of intelligent life were detected.

Around the Mothership, there were generally warriors guarding it. For a long time, Admiral Bai had only seen the Mothership cooperating with humans on Blue Star without any Insect Man Warriors around.

It seems that every time Su Xiaocai appears on the front lines, something unexpected happens. It’s either discovering the Mothership in advance or intercepting the professor halfway, catching the enemy off guard.

An Insect Man killer? Crime nemesis?

Admiral Bai multitasked, contemplating how to respond if the Mothership appeared and whether his Mecha could be utilized.

"Stay cautious, it might be a ploy by the Mothership."

The support ship on Hu Ping’s side responded: "Understood."

They still had to enter the Mechanical Planet. Even if they couldn’t install the backup energy to power it up, they needed to break the sky canopy from within so that the Mecha could land inside and proceed to the next step.

The sky canopy material was quite special, primarily designed as an emergency exit. It’s hard to destroy from outside, but easier to demolish from within.

The support ship command immediately named the Insect Man growing on the sky canopy as "Scaleshell" to accurately convey orders.

"Continue advancing the plan."

After the previous incident, part of the team went in to deal with the Scaleshell, while another part handled the ground Insect Man, also known as cowardly troopers.

Hu Ping, along with a few soldiers who had cooperated well with him, played the role of pathfinder vanguard. Thanks to Hu Ping saving them several times, they had complete trust in him.

These few formed a team on their own and privately created a channel, appointing Hu Ping as the team captain.

The officer said they couldn’t give authority, but they could still collaborate secretly, couldn’t they?

These soldiers were quite clever; under Hu Ping’s command, the survival rate was higher, and they could share the military merits, so why not?

Though the call might be recorded, it wasn’t a big deal as long as they didn’t openly call Hu Ping their team captain; the higher-ups wouldn’t hold them accountable.

The team captain also agreed to this decision, as he lacked the experience of Hu Ping, so it was better to let him have power to ensure their survival.

Hu Ping considered his own skills pretty good; although not at the leader level, he was at least a veteran.

The combat training provided by Su Xiaocai over time amounted to thousands of rounds, which is a similar number a soldier who has served ten years would experience.

Continuous training honed his reflexes, making his nerves more acute than most.

This is the benefit of realistic simulations.

With no limits in the Simulation Pod, he had many brushes with Death God. Without Su Xiaocai’s continuous vigilance, who knows how many hospital visits it would’ve taken to hone his skills to today’s level.

Once entering the training ground of the Mechanical Planet,

The surrounding tentacles once again attacked, while the ground Insect Man were eager to take the initiative. They were so hungry they wanted to devour their own kind.

But a voice in their minds kept stopping their actions, making them confused and frustrated, yet afraid to move rashly.

They were forbidden to go out and search for food.

What if the food invited itself?

With a few less Scaleshells, there were more gaps, and an Insect Man jumped up, leaping out of the gravity constraint circle and pounced on the cave entrance.

Leading the charge, Hu Ping raised his knife and stabbed it into the pouncing Insect Man’s body.

Actually, it wasn’t really a stab.

The Insect Man in space couldn’t maneuver, and their pounce was a straight line, so there was no need to guess if they’d change direction midway; just point the knife tip straight at them.

He flicked the knife, and the skewered Insect Man was tossed onto the Scaleshell’s tentacle.

The drifting Insect Man’s blood immediately spurred the Scaleshell into action.

The Scaleshell unceremoniously grabbed its useless companion and pulled it into its shell.

The Scaleshell’s shell wasn’t large, yet the cowardly trooper skewered by Hu Ping was not small in size.

Though no sound could be heard, as the Scaleshell swallowed the Insect Man, one could almost hear the crunching of chews by their ears, as the cowardly trooper was slowly squeezed into the shell.

During the squeezing process, some tissues were forced out, and the fragments drifted, quickly consumed by other Scaleshells.

Disgusting!

The commentator on Hu Ping’s side couldn’t find words to describe the scene, so simply said: "Scaleshell’s eating habits seem less than refined."

Barrage:

"When have Insect Men ever been refined eaters?"

"The Demon Eye is rather particular; it likes to suck its food."

"Stop, I’m getting visuals. Luckily, I chose the option to automatically mosaic the restricted images."

"If you don’t watch the real scenes, how can you understand the hardships of the front line? I’m different; I let the live feed automatically convert to comic form, much easier to stomach."

"Huh? Does the broadcast have such a function? Let me explore it."