Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 520: Chapter 172 - The Hive Mind Cluster Consciousness’s Feedback_3

It was due to human causes that they became quite rare now.

The reason this situation occurred was that when the Empire discovered the Thorn Insect Race, a species found everywhere, it happened to be during the Empire’s expansion period.

During this period, the Empire often encountered many organisms harmful to humans.

Faced with the almost endless profits brought by expansion and benefits enough to make anyone and any power insanely envious, any organisms hindering human expansion had to die.

Eventually, the Thorn Insect Race was almost exterminated during the Empire’s expansion period.

Later, someone noticed that the situation seemed a bit off, so some Thorn Insects were intentionally left for research purposes.

Currently, within the Empire, there should still be individuals being cultivated.

There must also be some outside, maybe lurking on some asteroid.

The spread and harmfulness of the Thorn Insect Race are still evident and now they even have a rare characteristic.

At the time, they were used by people from the Star Zone Military to create the Space Station.

However, judging by this paper, these insects aren’t capable of forming a climate.

Roughly speaking.

After reading the paper, Chen Ming always felt that something was still not right.

According to the records in the paper, these insects did indeed show a certain evolutionary capability in the past.

But quickly, under the Empire’s deliberate extermination of these dangerous organisms affecting expansion, they nearly went extinct and couldn’t evolve.

But according to the paper, this ’quickly’ is measured in years because the expansion era lasted for hundreds of years, and the Empire has always been influenced by these insects.

The insects Chen Ming encountered, however, took only two days to evolve from ordinary insects, specifically those Striding Insects, to possessing the ability to spit acid.

Then, within two or three months, they disappeared from the Space Station and appeared here; no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like they have weak evolutionary abilities.

In the past, it might have been because all internal conflicts across the Empire were dissipated by the benefits brought by expansion, with everyone working together to handle the troubles on the expansion path, preventing the insects’ evolutionary capabilities from being realized.

But the current time is different, and Chen Ming is really worried about the hidden issues these insects might have.

Moreover, his question remains unanswered.

How exactly did these insects come over? And why did they crazily attack cities because of him or the Mechanical Race?

It couldn’t possibly be because they, like the Mechanical Race, possess a hive mind, and then one evolved and the others could also evolve, causing the insects here to evolve into Bubble Insects just like those on the Space Station?

No, that’s impossible.

Chen Ming once again dismissed his idea.

Unless there is Spiritual Energy in them, otherwise, this thing is absolutely impossible.

Separated by hundreds of light-years, what hive mind could still function across such a distance?

If such a perverted ability truly existed, the Insect Race couldn’t have been exterminated to near extinction so effortlessly by humans during the expansion era.

So could it be... that the Insect Race on the Space Station truly evolved flight capabilities for space or even Superspace Channel flight and flew over?

Chen Ming still can’t be one hundred percent sure; he is still lacking evidence.

But one thing he can be sure of is that these insects might be a significant threat.

He has to find a way to take some insect corpses back to the Empire, either for his boss or for Bai Quan.

If he speaks up, his words should be enough to make them take this matter seriously.

To prevent a repeat of the former insect plague.

The current Empire is not so united anymore.

Chen Ming dispatched several landing boats again, landing near the cities of the Mechanical Race, and without any obstruction, found the opportunity to take the corpses away.

There are a total of four kinds of insects here.

Chen Ming had previously seen the [Thorn Insect Race · Striding Insect] and the [Thorn Insect Race · Bubble Insect].

The [Thorn Insect Race · Giant Spider], which is the largest, and the beetle-looking [Thorn Insect Race · Shell Insect].

There’s actually another one Chen Ming had seen, but it’s not among the corpses here, [Thorn Insect Race · Larva].

The Insect Race couldn’t exist without larvae, which is precisely why Chen Ming is worried.

The Thorn Insect Race most likely could still be breeding deep underground on this planet.

After transporting all these insect corpses onto the Defender and freezing them for preservation.

Chen Ming couldn’t resist and instructed his robots to attempt to contact the Mechanical Race.

During the recent battle, Chen Ming saw quite a few units of the Mechanical Race with impressive individual combat power.

Plus there are those that can fire that special artillery, giving them a significant advantage in ground combat.

Finding a way to take one away and compare it with the blueprints in his possession for research certainly wouldn’t be a loss.

Chen Ming’s robots secretly transporting already dead Mechanical Race units was not discovered by other Mechanical Race units.

He indeed succeeded in acquiring several Mechanical Race corpses.

Besides the [Mechanical Race Standard Mechanical Body · Silent Mantid] and the [Mechanical Race Small Mechanical Body · Worker Bee] that Chen Ming already had.

There is also the melee unit with high-speed combat abilities, the [Mechanical Race Standard Mechanical Body · Flying Mantis], and the massive frontline combat unit [Mechanical Race Small Mechanical Body · Tunneling Insect].

Although Chen Ming doesn’t understand why this several-meter-high big guy is considered a small mechanical body, it doesn’t matter, the name doesn’t affect its abilities.

Additionally, the [Mechanical Race Medium Mechanical Body · Blazing Silkworm], which Chen Ming coveted for its artillery capabilities, also had a few thoroughly dead units in the area where they usually station, and Chen Ming smoothly took them away from the city after taking control.