Chapter 173: Materials

"They actually know that spreading out will weaken the power of that blue plasma!" Yingzhou watched the Zerg with the swollen tails and muttered in surprise.

But the artillery formation reacted quickly; a portion of the Basilisk Self-Propelled Artillery began to rotate their barrels, adjusted their angles, fired a wave of calibration shots, and then dense artillery fire began to rain down on those Zerg with the swollen tails.

These Zerg with swollen tails were relatively slow in their movements; although the first wave of calibration Rune Bullets did not hit them, they had made movements, but they were still covered by the dense artillery fire and could not be more dead. Their swollen tails were shattered, and a large amount of blue plasma scattered all around.

On the front lines, the Krieg soldiers, under the cover of artillery, engaged with the tide of rushing Hormagaunts. But after all, the Zerg were far too numerous, and just as the Hormagaunts crossed the artillery-covered area and stepped on the corpses of their own kind to approach these Krieg soldiers, they were met with cold bayonets or Entrenching Tools.

Just then, from beneath the defensive line where the Krieg soldiers were stationed, several giant Zerg, about 30 meters long with mouths full of tiny sharp teeth and hard outer shells, suddenly burst out.

Their appearance added some variables to the defensive line.

The Krieg soldiers on the defensive line reacted immediately, quickly splitting off a portion of soldiers to deal with these Zerg that had burrowed out from underground. These soldiers were mostly Krieg combat engineers; they picked up the Lucius Mark 22c tactical shotguns in their hands and opened fire on the emerging Zerg. However, despite the powerful firepower of the shotguns, the Zerg's hard shells were not penetrated.

Afterward, the Krieg combat engineers continued to concentrate their fire, shooting at the Zerg incessantly. They soon shattered the shells of these few Zerg and successfully killed one of them.

However, this did not kill all the Zerg; they quickly burrowed back underground. But the tunnels they left behind spewed out a large number of Hormagaunts.

These Krieg combat engineers quickly split into two groups; one part was responsible for blocking the Hormagaunts' advance, while the other began to set up Explosive Devices. In this narrow tunnel, the Krieg combat engineers operated skillfully, placing the Explosive Devices precisely at the predetermined locations. They also carefully placed several Meltabombs on the side.

After everything was ready, the Krieg combat engineers quickly retreated from the tunnel. Watching those detestable Aliens gradually approach the set-up Explosive Devices, the Krieg combat engineers at the tunnel entrance immediately detonated the bombs inside the tunnel once some Hormagaunts passed by the Explosive Devices.

The Hormagaunts charging at the front were engulfed by the sudden explosion, and the massive shockwave and flames instantly turned them into Ashes. Immediately following, the subsequent Hormagaunts were also Devoured by the high-temperature flames.

The scorching flames spread rapidly along the tunnel below, expanding toward the open spaces. The entire tunnel instantly turned into a sea of fire; the raging flames illuminated the surrounding darkness, and even the tunnel entrance spewed out some flames.

In an instant, a large number of Hormagaunts inside the tunnel were burned to nothing. After the Krieg combat engineers who retreated from the tunnel left some engineers to guard the tunnel, the other Krieg combat engineers threw themselves back into the battle against the Hormagaunts.

Fortunately, Yingzhou had specifically instructed not to fire artillery toward the defensive line; otherwise, the Krieg soldiers there would likely have been halved—though, of course, the Zerg would have died in greater numbers. But since his side was at a disadvantage in numbers, this was the only way for now.

Witnessing this scene, Yingzhou couldn't help but click his tongue, "If the Human Alliance soldiers were here fighting the Zerg, they would probably have been completely wiped out by now, right?"

Just then, the Catachan toughs beside him suddenly aimed their Laser Guns in unison at a gentle slope not far away and opened fire.

Yingzhou looked over and saw that among a group of Hormagaunts, a humanoid Zerg was approaching. Yingzhou thought it was a human parasitized by the Zerg, when suddenly a system notification sounded in his ear.

"Recyclable material detected. Please recycle, Host. It is recommended not to cause large-scale damage to the material."

Upon hearing this prompt, Yingzhou understood in his heart that this must be the monster gestated from the children the Zerg had abducted.

"You suffered cruel treatment by the Alien Race while you were alive, and even after death, your bodies are still controlled by the Alien Race, becoming terrifying monsters. Let me use your remaining bodies to add a glimmer of hope to the faint flame of Human Civilization."

Yingzhou watched the humanoid Zerg approaching; it was clearly targeting him. It seemed the controlling Zerg had realized he was the commander of these Legions.

And there seemed to be a force field generated by Spiritual Power around the humanoid Zerg. The Laser Beams fired by the Catachan toughs' Laser Guns were absorbed when they reached two and a half meters from the humanoid Zerg.

Every time it absorbed the Laser Beam, Yingzhou felt the humanoid Zerg's Spiritual Power grow stronger.

"Damn, what is the principle behind this? Is this reasonable?" Yingzhou muttered casually, then took out his own Bolter and opened fire at the humanoid Zerg, but at this moment, the system prompted.

"Host, please do not damage the material. If the material is severely damaged, there will not be many usable components left after recycling."

Seeing this, Yingzhou hurriedly put away the Bolter and asked the system, "Then how should I recycle it? What counts as not damaging the material?"

"The Host only needs to avoid damaging the material itself; as for the extra parts on the material, that is no problem."

Yingzhou looked at the appearance of the humanoid Zerg in front of him and thought thoughtfully, "Do I have to perform a slow execution on him? Remove everything the Zerg attached to him?"

"If the Host is willing, that is not impossible. The best method is to break the connection between him and the source that controls him; after that, the material can be recycled, and the system will pick out the excess impurities."

"Oh? So considerate?"

Yingzhou asked the system with some surprise. In his impression, this system should be stingy and wouldn't let him take advantage; did it have a bug today?

"Requires payment of points and Faith Value, determined by the system's workload."

"Beautiful! System, you really didn't let me down!"

Yingzhou said with a hint of amusement after hearing the system's follow-up addition.

After speaking, Yingzhou looked at the Spiritual Power force field surrounding the humanoid Zerg with a headache.

"It seems I have to use Spiritual Power to break through that Spiritual Power force field."

The Catachan toughs around Yingzhou no longer thought about firing at the humanoid Zerg, but began to shoot at the Hormagaunts following around the humanoid Zerg.

The Hormagaunts not within the Spiritual Power force field were killed by the Catachan toughs with Laser Guns, and some Catachan toughs set up simple Portable Mortars to fire at the Hormagaunt swarm.