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Chapter 176: Don¡¯t be too stingy

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    After the first mantis came out, other mantises and flying insects came out one after another, floating around and spreading their elytra. In this way, the kinetic energy of gas molecules moving in the space can be used to produce an effect similar to a particle sail.  In this way, Li Ping let the bugs float away slowly. It was not until two weeks later that the bugs had flown at least 20 million kilometers away. After seeing that nothing happened, Li Ping asked the scouts to activate the jet propulsion bags at minimum power.  .  In the past two weeks, the shipworm has also begun to collect gas and dust in space.  However, what worries Li Ping is that so far, no signs of silicon crystals have been found in the space.  At this time, Li Ping is also considering whether to speed up the exploration. Such a slow approach is not an option. He is not absolutely safe now. If he is discovered, they should easily catch up with him based on their technology.  "The only advantage I have now is that I am in the dark and they are in the light. Without my exact position, it is difficult for them to surround themselves. But once they are surrounded, the Zerg's small force is not enough for them to focus fire.  So now Li Ping is not only worried about what the aliens who discovered this nebula will leave here, but also worried that the time delay has been too long and will be discovered by the aliens who are chasing behind.  After some struggle, the desire of silicon crystal defeated the psychological fear. Anyway, sooner or later, we will have to fight these aliens, so why are we afraid of them?  So, the flying mantises and flying insects, which were still slow at first, folded their elytra and began to accelerate as hard as they could.  Once the restrictions were relaxed, the speed of these insects was still very fast, so a corner of the nebula quickly appeared in front of Li Ping.  Although this nebula does not seem very big from a distance, once you enter it, you can clearly feel its vastness. If it were not for the gravitational force pointing to the center of the nebula for comparison, Li Ping was really not sure whether the shipworm would be able to  Will get lost.  In the interstellar voyage for more than ten years, Li Ping often encountered this situation: looking at a beautiful and peaceful celestial body from a distance, but looking at it up close, it is completely a cruel and vicious world. This is probably the so-called reason for being in this mountain.  Bar.  But now it seems that this small nebula can be considered relatively calm. As long as there is not a star lighting up in its center, it is still relatively safe.  According to the gravitational data collected by the gravitational sub-brain, there is still a lot of mass to light up a star here, so the Zerg can mine with peace of mind.  After a few days, the flying mantis, which had almost exhausted its high-energy fat, had begun to rely on inertia navigation. Without the power of maneuvering, the flying mantis could only be used as a detection satellite. When hit by a large amount of gas or dust, the flying mantis would  The inertia will also be exhausted, and in the end we can only drift with the flow.  "The flying insects are much better than the flying mantises. After all, this is a group specially bred by Li Ping for space reconnaissance. The weight advantage alone is enough for the Zerg to make a choice.  However, because flying mantises possess few resources and reproduce quickly, they have been responsible for many space reconnaissance tasks so far to make up for the omissions caused by the insufficient number of flying insects.  However, Li Ping has decided that after the silicon crystal collection is completed, all Fei Mantis's space establishment will be cancelled, and let it go back to its original business.  Despite this decision, Fei Mantis was very confident and discovered an asteroid during this last space reconnaissance mission.  After receiving this news, Li Ping suddenly became energetic and connected directly to the flying mantis. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a broad bean-shaped asteroid, and then he discovered a large number of small "dusts" suspended around it.  The small ones are only as big as sand, and the big ones are as big as buildings.  Between these small "dusts", there are also a large number of gas molecules, mainly hydrogen and a small amount of helium.  From Fei Mantis's field of view, it is estimated that the asteroid in front of him is at least 1,600 kilometers long and more than 900 kilometers wide. Compared with the gas and "dust" along the way, this asteroid is here.  It can be considered a giant.  Such an area is enough for the Zerg to build a large number of insect nests. Once the insect nest is established, exploring the surroundings will be much easier and more efficient.  The process goes smoothly until the worker bees take root and hatch into a nest. If everything goes well, the nest can hatch worker bees, and the worker bees can collect resources and hatch the nest until a large nest is hatched.  However, now there is a small problem.  Because the insect nests were hatched on planets before, and the planets were not small and had great gravity on their own.  However, this asteroid did not provide much gravity to the worker bees.  This makes the work of worker bees somewhat unsustainable.  Often with just a little force, the entire worker bee will fly up due to the reaction force. No matter how strong the worker bee is, there is nothing it can do.  Fortunately, the insect nest has rootsThe support of the system and the carpet is still relatively strong.  At this time, Li Ping also discovered another use of creep, which is to absorb Zerg units and provide them with grip in weightless or low-gravity environments.  Because the fungus carpet not only has deep roots, but also has a large area, it can firmly grasp the surface of these small celestial bodies.  Then, Li Ping remembered the carpet tumor in StarCraft II. It turned out that that thing was used in this situation!  With demand, there is naturally motivation. The Zerg research department, led by Louise and including all queens and ship insects, began to conduct research in accordance with Li Ping's requirements.  And with many gene fragments as a reserve library, the research on this kind of carpet tumor is very fast.  Three days later, the carpet tumors that can be mutated by a single worker bee were successfully born. Inspired by the field of vision effect of the carpet tumors in the game, Li Ping also retained a certain amount of biological brain tissue, making these carpet tumors fully functional.  Connected to the core network of the Zerg.  After Li Ping got the genetic sample of the carpet tumor, he checked it carefully several times. In addition to finding several places that could be modified, the entire genetic design was very rigorous, at least according to the current technology of the Zerg.  Very good results.  With a thought, a ripple occurred in the core network connecting the entire Zerg race, with Li Ping's biological brain as the core, sweeping through all the worker bees.  Tens of minutes passed, and all the worker bees woke up one after another. Their active hands and feet crawled around. After a certain distance from the carpet of bacteria spread out of the insect nest, the worker bees began to dig the soil on the spot, and then lay down quietly.  , the compound eyes all over the body also began to change and became dim.  After a few minutes, the entire worker bee turned into a cocoon, half buried in the dust and half exposed, reminding Li Ping of the potatoes in his hometown, so the most disgusting tactic in the eyes of the hostile forces emerged.  It¡¯s potato flow!  There is no defense or colony breeding. The insect nest just keeps producing worker bees. Except for the necessary worker bees to collect resources, all the worker bees crawl outside the carpet and mutate into bacteria carpet tumors.  When enough of these "potatoes" are planted, the entire planet's surface will become the Zerg's backyard.  Even if someone comes to clean it up, haha, these carpet tumors all over the ground like Xiaoqiang will make the human body experience the joy of harvest.  About two minutes later, the cocoon burst open, revealing an inconspicuous gray-brown sarcoma.  In the small holes around the sarcoma, dense roots were drilled out and thrust into the ground.  At the same time, carpet tumors can also secrete a mucus that can moisten and soften the ground.  Li Ping, who has read the gene, certainly knows that this mucus can do more than just these things. It can also harden to form a protective layer, fixing dust and gravel on the ground, and helping the roots of carpet plants to penetrate deeper.  Once the creep nodule takes root, it will continue to grow deep roots, absorbing nutrients and energy to grow and spread the creep.  Maybe a single carpet tumor is less effective, but the Zerg are all about unity. Thousands of worker bees swarmed in. In just a few hours, millions of square meters of carpet appeared around the insect nest, full of vitality.  The green color looks very dazzling in the monotonous universe.  With the carpet, the worker bees can finally work with peace of mind, and then more nests and worker bees begin to hatch.  About three days later, the entire asteroid turned emerald green, and the surface of the planet was covered with dense insect nests.  At Li Ping¡¯s order, a large number of insect nests began to hatch flying insects and flying mantises.  Although the flying mantis has short legs, it is cheap and hatches quickly.  After discarding the guide worm and most of its fat reserves, it hatches faster.  Eight minutes later, the first batch of flying mantises were born. These flying mantises had shriveled abdomens and unusually large elytra, which were specially modified to collect dust in space.  After collecting enough dust, it will come back and hand over what it collected to the insect nest.  The insect nest will detect the dust, extract the silicon crystals that may be contained in it, and then digest and absorb the part that does not contain silicon crystals on the spot as nourishment for hatching mantises and flying insects.  Groups of flying mantises flew out of the asteroid in dense numbers, causing the asteroid to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye!  As time went by, the flying insects were successfully born.  Flying insects are much larger than flying mantises, so they can naturally have larger collection elytra. Of course, they can fly farther and collect more dust particles.  Moreover, some flying insects, after collecting enough in their bodies, will come back with a few sizable space debris.  After seeing that his method worked, Li Ping just waited for the results.  After a week, a large amount of dust and small particles were filtered out, and all the insect hives on the entire asteroid combined could only collect half a silicon crystal less than the size of a grain of rice.  "The speed is a bit slow now!" Li Ping couldn't help but sigh.  Although the weight of dust processed by these insect nests in one week is heavier than that of the entire Zerg fleet, compared to the entire nebula, it is still?Insignificant.  "Master, haven't you already collected a lot of silicon crystals?" Louise may not understand Li Ping's attitude, so she asked.  "Sigh~ Silicon crystal is a good thing. Energy and resources can be obtained from it. It is so important to us." Of course Louise understood Li Ping's meaning. Naturally, there are many collections of such good things.  point.  "But Master, so far, the silicon crystal reserve has not even been used to three ten thousandths." Louise also felt that Li Ping had collected too much, so in order to let Li Ping think clearly, she had to say a few more words.  sentence.  "Huh? Not even three ten thousandths?" Li Ping was really surprised when he heard this data at first, but looking back and thinking about it, he was really very attached to silicon crystal.  "Yes, Master" Louise hesitated after saying this, which surprised Li Ping. You must know that Louise, who has super processing power and high intelligence, can do almost any task except large-scale simulation calculations.  Questions can be answered immediately.  "Master, you once said that only by cutting back on expenditure can we protect the family, and only by increasing revenue can we develop." After hesitating for a long time, Louise finally said what she had always wanted to say.  "Uh!" Li Ping was stunned for a moment at this irrelevant topic, and then he understood.  Li Ping then slapped his head and secretly thought that he was in over his head.  Under the current situation, as long as nothing happens, the Zerg will definitely fall out with those aliens. When they unite to control the flow of silicon crystals, will they still be "starved" to death?  You know, there are so many silicon crystal origins in this universe, the big one is like a giant nebula, the small one may only have one planet, it is impossible to occupy them all. As long as you find one, won't the silicon crystals come rolling in?  Even if you don¡¯t look for it, you can grab a lot of silicon crystals by just attacking a few crystal mines in so many places. If you grab them, you¡¯ll run away, and if you run away, you¡¯ll grab them again. What can they do to you?  Since this is the case, why do you still want to guard such a small amount of silicon crystal now?  The amount of hard work collected is not as much as the amount dug out after capturing the crystal mine area.  The most important thing is that energy crystals like silicon crystals have a tendency to aggregate.  Although the silicon crystals evenly distributed in the entire nebula account for more than half of the total, the time and energy required to collect these silicon crystals is too much.  Because the Zerg have always obeyed his orders, Li Ping began to develop a bad habit, that is, he was self-righteous, so he would not consider some things.  Fortunately, Louise exists, and she is the only one who dares to give him opinions, and can constantly remind Li Ping to face himself.  "Haha," Li Ping was a little dull after being separated from society for a long time, "Louise, you can just say it directly, no need to beat around the bush, I can still bear this blow." "I'm sorry, Master."  After discovering what she had planned, Louise became a little shy.  However, thanks to Louise, an intelligent being who is almost no different from humans in chatting, Li Ping can now maintain a good mental state and stable personality.  After thinking about it, Li Ping waved his hand and summoned all the flying mantises and flying insects, including all the ship insects, to move separately. After all, in such a big place, it would be impossible to explore the monkey year and horse month with just a few ship insects.  Now, Li Ping wasn't afraid of being exposed. He just grabbed the most valuable vote and ran away. What was he afraid of?  The originally peaceful Zerg clan suddenly exploded into its nest, and countless flying mantises and flying insects began to disperse in an orderly manner.  Under the guidance of Louise, the entire Zerg race covered the nebula like a dragnet.  Fortunately, this nebula is not big, so after a few months, after losing a lot of flying mantises and flying insects, the Zerg tentacles finally spread all over the nebula.  With the existence of such a network, Li Ping finally found several areas rich in silicon crystals.  This network throughout the nebulae also allowed Li Ping to analyze the movement pattern of the entire nebula. With this movement pattern, even short-legged flying mantises can use gravity and the thrust of dust and gas molecules to conduct "ocean voyages."  ".  The silicon crystal-rich area that Li Ping first found was a gravel area. This large piece of gravel orbited around the core of the nebula, and the space was filled with gravel of all sizes.  But judging from the scale of the shipworm, the space between these rubbles is still very large, at least enough for the shipworm to drill around inside.  At this time, the asteroid dragged here by the shipworm has a place to be used.  The asteroid, which has lost half of its mass, is surrounded by a thick carpet of bacteria and a large number of insect nests, forming a space insect nest base.  There are a large number of worker bees on it. As long as flying mantises or flying insects bring the gravel to the asteroid, the worker bees will firmly grasp it., and crushed them into pieces one by one and sent them to the insect nest.  This emerald green insect nest base is like a giant beast, greedily devouring the surrounding rubble.  After the silicon crystals are extracted, the residue is ejected into space.  Because the scale of the worm hive fleet is limited, the bodies of all the ship worms are already full.  It's not that Li Ping is unwilling to increase the size of the fleet, but the problem is that there are already ten ship bugs in the fleet, and the scale is already quite large. Moreover, at this critical moment, Li Ping will not let those who do not have a fully mature ship bug level consciousness alone.  To control a shipworm.  For the sake of convenience, Li Ping also temporarily put aside the idea of ??adding more ship worms. Now these five large, five small and ten ship worms can also carry a lot of high-energy fat, so energy is no longer a problem.  The biggest problem is actually material reserves.  You must know that even if kinetic energy is used for propulsion, the theoretical basis for generating propulsion is still Newton's third law, action force and reaction force.  Relying on this theory, those aliens can develop various advanced propulsion equipment.  However, this theory also has a shortcoming, that is, there must be "fuel".  "Fuel" is sprayed backward at high speed, so that the propeller can have forward thrust. The more mass of fuel sprayed and the faster the speed, the greater the thrust the propeller gets. Without "fuel", there is no thrust!  Therefore, even with the powerful technology of aliens, they cannot get rid of the problem of "fuel" in spacecraft propulsion. The most they can do is to replace low-grade rocket fuel with higher-grade ion fuel, and then push the ions through electromagnetic action or nuclear reaction.  .  This is not much different from the propulsion principle of the shipworm, except that the materials and energy consumed by the shipworm come from high-energy fat.  Therefore, even if the three-kilometer-long shipworm is filled with high-energy fat, it is still too little for space navigation!  This is also the reason why Li Ping has been wandering around alien routes and areas with dense celestial bodies. After all, there is no star map of this galaxy. It will be miserable if he wanders too far and gets lost. If he is unlucky, he will drift in the sea of ????stars with no village or store.  .  This time away from the flight path was also implemented on the basis of having such a nebula to provide material supplement.  Li Ping sometimes thinks how great it would be if he could discover a large area of ??silicon crystal mine.  Even if the utilization rate is not high, with the particle output of silicon crystal, the Zerg have no worries about material supply. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You can directly traverse the galaxy, without having to sneak along the space pirates' route like now.  Every time he thinks of this, Li Ping can't help but think of the current situation.  When he thought of the current situation, Li Ping couldn't help but feel depressed. He even lost the interest in collecting silicon crystals as before. He simply handed over all the command work to Louise and the others, closed the link directly, and went to sleep.  .  ;
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