Chapter 1 The War Begins

Bathed in the cold light of the dome algae, the war began.

Mountainous Leviathans opened their abyssal maws to the sky, spewing thunderous blasts of high-temperature plasma, showering the onrushing clusters of immune cells and corroding the microvilli on their surfaces.

At the same time, the Leviathans brandished the giant tentacles growing from their backs, ensnaring the tentacles slammed down by the leading macrophages.

Like savage beasts locked in combat in an ancient Roman arena, the two sides collided heavily, unleashing visible shockwaves.

Beneath the feet of the two hill-sized behemoths,

Tens of thousands of Zerg soldiers, revived from their dehydrated state, charged forward.

Beast-class Zerg soldiers were the most numerous and diverse.

They moved at speeds exceeding vehicles, came in various shapes, and carried equipment including, but not limited to, giant axe claws, acid cannons, flamethrowers, and carnivorous beetle guns.

Before the Zerg occupied the Door World, Beast-class Zerg soldiers often used modern firearms manufactured by Zerg Factory worker drones.

However, after occupying the Door World, extensively collecting genetic samples, and developing bioweapons, the current Zerg soldiers primarily used biomass weapons.

Even a seemingly ordinary carnivorous beetle rifle in the hands of a Beast-class Zerg soldier was a Zerg organism—a highly specialized carnivorous beetle shaped like a firearm.

Its body was the gun stock, its throat the barrel, its abdomen the magazine, and its eggs the bullets. When the carnivorous beetle's eggs struck a living organism, they would quickly hatch into larvae inside the target, devouring its body.

Furthermore, the Zerg Overminds had tirelessly developed multiple, combined forms of bioweapons.

A rifle could be composed of several small Zerg, capable of changing their configuration to switch functions when necessary.

The vast and varied Beast-class Zerg soldiers met the immense army of immune cells beneath the macrophages' feet.

The moment they clashed, astounding casualties erupted.

Among the immune cells, whether killer T cells, B lymphocytes, or ordinary neutrophils, all were far larger than the Beast-class Zerg soldiers.

Due to their inflated size, the tendrils on the surface of these immune cells could extend dozens of meters. Once they ensnared a Zerg soldier, they would immediately retract, pulling the Zerg into the immune cell's body.

The lysosomal enzymes contained within the immune cells could corrode the Zerg's body like sulfuric acid.

Initially, this was indeed the case. The immune cell army swept through the Zerg's front lines like a hot knife through butter.

Killer T cells and neutrophils, like invincible demonic beasts, brandished their wild tendrils, devouring Zerg soldiers one after another—one could even see the dissolving remains of the Zerg bodies suspended in the cell fluid through the translucent cell membranes.

However, as more and more Zerg soldiers were deployed and activated, the battle rapidly shifted.

Boom boom boom boom!

Shells exploded, and flames soared into the sky.

The moment Heavy-class Zerg soldiers entered the battlefield, they immediately halted the immune cells' advance.

The current Heavy-class Zerg soldiers had greatly improved in both size and firepower compared to before.

They were equipped with various weapons—flea cannons. Their bullets were tiny flea-like Zerg that could rapidly eject from the barrel using hydraulically propelled legs.

Devourer Cannons—capable of opening their muzzles and firing chameleon-tongue-like claws, remotely grabbing the flesh of targets and dragging them in to be devoured.

Heavy Venom Cannons—capable of firing not only liquid toxins but also crystallized toxin shells, creating corrosive smoke at the target location.

Thermic Cannons—capable of firing viscous, napalm-like oily substances that burned at temperatures as high as two thousand degrees, causing bone-deep corrosion upon contact.

Burst Cannons—one of the most powerful conventional weapons, each shell a bulging tick filled with explosive ammunition, capable of shattering even fortresses made of steel with a few shots.

The first round of fire from the artillery array shattered the leading immune cells—before they could even extend their tendrils, they were overwhelmed by far superior firepower.

If one shell couldn't penetrate the surface defenses, what about ten, twenty, or thirty?

Under the relentless, no-holds-barred bombardment, the immune cell army that had just broken through to the Zerg base's front lines was directly crushed and shattered.

Countless cells died, and massive amounts of cell fluid seeped out, flowing across the ground.

Shasha—

Amidst the continuous roar of gunfire, a rustling sound was mixed in.

Black-red creep, centered on the first Zerg base, rapidly spread in all directions.

Underground, flourishing roots grew and shuttled, frantically drawing on biomass resources.

Above ground, the activated creep automatically collected the flowing cell fluid, continuously transporting the biomass components to the Zerg base through intricate networks of micro-pipes within the creep.

The horror of the Zerg lay not only in its endless, fearless Zerg soldiers but also in its terrifying resource utilization efficiency—the flesh and blood of dead Zerg soldiers were also efficiently absorbed by the creep, providing nourishment for the Zerg base.

Zerg bases had different structures in different environments.

(For example, in urban environments, Zerg bases were built against cities; underwater, they were built against caves; and in the sky, they were integrated with motherships.)

When there was nothing to attach to, the Zerg base was generally pyramid-shaped.

At the top was a specialized Zerg radar, with radar detection and telepathic abilities, capable of probing the surrounding environment.

Below that was the habitat of the Zerg Overmind, protected by Guard-class and Elite Guard-class Zerg soldiers.

Further down were the different structures of the Zerg base.

Such as the biological gene resource bank—storing a wide variety of biological genes.

Digestion Pools—digesting biomass (including but not limited to corpses, severed limbs, cell fluid, and living organisms), concentrating nutrients.

Psionic Towers—low-level Zerg soldiers had no ability to think and had to be commanded by superiors. The Zerg Overmind could use the Psionic Towers to enhance its own psionic energy and precisely control the Zerg soldiers. Of course, in addition to psionic energy, the Zerg Overmind could also command lower-level Beast-class and Servant-class Zerg soldiers by controlling individual Heavy-class Zerg soldiers to release pheromones.

And the most important, the Hatchery.

The current Hatchery was no longer like a huge, dark green pond; it was more like countless factory assembly lines arranged side by side.

Each red-black blood vessel that ran through the pyramid-shaped Zerg base was covered with large, grape-like cysts.

Through the translucent protective membrane, one could see the various levels of Zerg units rapidly growing in the cysts—the larger the Zerg unit, the larger the cyst responsible for hatching it.

In addition to these structures, the Zerg base's periphery was also surrounded by Spore Towers—these spiraling, dead coral-like chimneys could continuously erupt spores, spreading creep in the distance.

Considering that the entire world was currently an ocean of biomass,

The effective range of the Spore Towers was basically equivalent to...infinity.

Infinite resources, infinite territory, infinite enemies.

Li Ang hovered above the Zerg base, able to feel a pressure looming from the shadows—the immune system within the giant's body was slowly and fully awakening.

Those macrophages in front seemed to have realized the importance of the Zerg base, desperately charging forward amidst the cannon fire.

However, the Zerg base, just getting on track, wouldn't give them a chance.

Whoosh—

Sky-covering swarms of flying Zerg soldiers flew out from the rear of the Zerg base, sweeping across the entire battlefield.

These flying Zerg soldiers, like the ground units, were divided into Servant-class, Beast-class, and Heavy-class, some of which had Thermic Cannons or even Burst Cannons that were not inferior to the ground-based Heavy-class.

The Zerg's aerial units, with their flying advantage, quickly covered every corner of the immune cell army with firepower.

Everywhere one looked, there were raging flames, sulfurous smoke, severed limbs, and shattered flesh.

Some macrophages tried to eject tendrils from their surfaces to intercept the flying Zerg soldiers.

But the latter were too agile, lightweight, and maneuverable, and they also had the help of other Zerg units—

The smallest ground-based Servant-class Zerg soldiers, taking advantage of their light bodies, climbed up the sides of the pipelines.

Using the sharp claws extending from the tips of their limbs, they hooked onto the dome algae layer, crawling quickly across the ceiling, bypassing the ground-based immune cell army, and landing directly on top of the macrophages.

The size of a ground-based Servant-class Zerg soldier was similar to that of a large dog.

Their size and structure meant that they could not become the main force on the battlefield, but precisely because of their light weight, they could bounce and move on the surface vesicles of the macrophages, using the claw blades extending from their forelimbs to quickly cut the microvilli on the surface of the macrophages.

Preventing the macrophages from interfering with the flying Zerg soldiers.

Soon, the battlefield situation tilted toward the Zerg.

The creep spread past the front lines, growing and spreading towards the front and back of the pipelines.

"Kraken Zerg Mothership has completed dehydration and is ready for deployment."

The voice of the Kraken Overmind echoed through the psionic network.

Li Ang silently observed the battlefield situation. How many immune cells had just died here?

One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?

Compared to the planet-like giant, these immune cells were just a drop in the ocean.

More Zerg bases and more Zerg motherships were needed to win this war against the entire immune system.

War to support war, endless life.

"Begin deployment."

Li Ang coldly waved his arm, and the Door expanded slightly again.

The Zerg mothership, having completed dehydration and appearing extremely withered and shriveled, slowly drove out of the Stargate.

Whoosh—

On the player panel, Li Ang's Divine Power bar dropped rapidly as if diving into water.

Each Zerg mothership not only carried countless Zerg soldiers but also an entire complete Zerg base.

If an ordinary Lv27 Transcendent possessed a Stargate, the energy consumption generated when such a behemoth passed through the Door would be enough to drain that Transcendent dry, and even death on the spot was not impossible.

Fortunately, Li Ang was well-prepared.

In the Zerg Tower of the Door World, hundreds of millions of humans, in the churches of the Lord of Flesh and Swamps, listened to the teachings of the Patriarchs, piously grateful for all the blessings bestowed by the Lord of Flesh and Swamps.

The continuous stream of faith generated by this crossed the Stargate, supplementing Li Ang's body,

Making his psionic power bar rise and fall like a high-speed elevator, but ultimately completing the deployment of the Kraken Zerg Mothership.

Pa pa pa.

As soon as the Kraken Mothership entered the airspace, it immediately dropped hundreds of soft pipelines according to pre-war plans, connecting them to the digestion pools of the base below.

Like aerial refueling of an airplane, it directly drew energy from the digestion pools, quickly recovering from its dehydrated state.

"Kraken Mothership has completed recovery and is ready to deploy the second Zerg base."

The voice of the Overmind Kraken echoed in the psionic network. As the first Overmind to formally enter the giant's planet (not counting the Leviathan),

Even the usually calm Kraken's neural plexus couldn't help but tremble with excitement at this moment.

"No, cancel the original plan."

Li Ang said lightly, "Leave this place to Cerberus. You follow me, leave here, and go to the next location."

His will pierced through the Zerg psionic network. Cerberus, receiving the order behind the Door, unhesitatingly drained its water and jumped out of the Stargate in a dehydrated state, entering the first Zerg base to garrison it.

The immune system was far from being defeated. The first Zerg base had at most activated the pulmonary macrophages in this area.

In addition to T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes, there were also K lymphocytes and NK lymphocytes,

As well as inflammation and specific immunity.

The fierce battle inside the giant's body had just begun.

Whoosh.

Li Ang casually closed the Stargate, raised his left hand, pointed his finger at the side wall of the tunnel, and released Disintegrate.

Om—

One after another, dark green beams of Disintegrate bombarded the side wall of the tunnel,

Carving a huge rift in the thick side wall, causing a massive amount of light red liquid to pour in.

Li Ang put down his arm, snapped his fingers casually, and used his Mind Creation abilities to erect an invisible barrier on his body.

His feet stepped on invisible stairs, plunging into the rift.

And the Kraken Zerg Mothership followed suit, following in the footsteps of the Lord of Flesh and Swamps.

The world inside the giant's body was too vast, and it was meaningless for the Zerg base to hold fast to one place.

Expand, devour, utilize, transform.

The Zerg's hunger was never-ending, and this world, composed entirely of biomass, was simply the most suitable stage for the Zerg to perform.

Liver, gallbladder, cecum, large intestine, small intestine, appendix, lungs, stomach...

Li Ang was going to deploy Zerg bases in multiple locations, using the giant's blood vessels as the Zerg's marching roads.

Finally, surround the heart.

At the same time, he also wanted to use reconnaissance Zerg soldiers as eyes and ears to observe the movements of others.