Chapter 904: Bug Evolution

"Fang Yi, weren't you and the others going to guard the shuttle?" Yang Ze didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the interest the other members of Team Zenith were showing in his family drama. "How's the shuttle? Are you neglecting your duties?"

"Ah, Captain..."

Fang Yi turned to Zhang Lie, only to be met with a death stare. "I only left for a bit! Nothing could have gone wrong in that time, surely? We're not robots, after all, and we need to rest as well. The shuttle has its own defenses, so even if something were to go wrong, we'd be able to head there in time."

Yang Ze folded his arms playfully. "I must say, you sound quite uncertain. Should you really be asking me this?"

Fang Yi, Jun Jiuxiao, Ye Xianchen, and Hong Xi all sighed.

Yang Ze turned to Zhang Lie. "Captain, why did you call everyone here?"

"Ah, I was simply curious about what was going on. This is private clan business, and I would hardly feel comfortable stepping in!" He clasped his hands behind his back and continued seriously, "At any rate, our preparations are complete. We can set off now!"

Yang Ze blinked, as did the other members of Team Zenith. "Our preparations are complete?"

Zhang Lie coughed. "Ah, I mean, we have to complete our preparations quickly!"

The next moment, Zhang Lie vanished from sight, having teleported away.

Deep in the underground caverns of Mars, countless bugs were crawling on the walls of the cavern. The ground was littered with all sorts of bug parts.

In the center of the cavern was a cocoon of unimaginable size, which was thumping like a heart. Capillaries appeared over the surface of the cocoon, as though something was gestating within.

The cocoon glowed with faint light, which grew brighter and brighter with every passing moment. The bugs surrounding it began to move with every pulse of light, as though it were some sort of command center that was controlling the bugs' motion.

A crack appeared on the carapace of one of the bugs. Subsequently, a pitch-black arm, one as hard as steel, cracked the carapace from within. The arm was still sticky with fluid.

The figure widened the crack in the carapace, then emerged from within it as though the carapace had been an egg. It boasted a solid, sturdy humanoid body.

If anyone had witnessed this scene, the entirety of the Milky Way would have been abuzz. Never had a humanoid bug made an appearance in the universe.

After the first humanoid bug appeared, the carapaces of the surrounding bugs also began to crack. More and more humanoid bugs emerged as the cocoon itself began to crack. From within the crack, one could see an existence of unparalleled strength, almost fully developed...

Zhang Lie explained, "According to our scouts, the bugs are surprisingly intelligent. After this defeat, they understand that there have been reinforcements sent from outside Mars. They're already starting to consolidate their forces and focus them on specific fronts.

"As though they were planning to settle everything with a big fight..." Yang Ze murmured.

Zhang Lie shook his head. "Not them, us."

Yang Ze immediately understood what Zhang Lie meant. "The bugs understand that we're here to slaughter them, so they're responding in kind."

Zhou Ying frowned. "I believe there's one more possibility."

Everyone had learned as much as they could about these bugs in their downtime here. Yang Ze asked, "Do you mean that they're about to evolve?"

Fang Yi frowned. "Surely not? We've only been here for a day and won a single battle. Would that be enough to prompt such rapid evolution?"

A rapid evolution had been reported as an emergency measure taken by the bugs in times of crisis. If they were about to suffer defeat, they would pool all their resources together to create a few particularly strong superbugs to counter a force that would otherwise have annihilated the entire invasion force.

Zhou Ying shrugged. "We killed two five-star bugs and even a six-star bug. I expect that the bugs have re-evaluated the danger of this planet and are taking measures accordingly."

Each race had a path toward strength. These space bugs, who were invaders that were a blight on the universe, naturally had one of the best such paths: evolution.

Unlike genetic lifeforms, these space bugs only needed to consume enough matter from other lifeforms and accumulate strength within their body. Once that strength exceeded a certain threshold, evolution would occur. In other words, they were basically stealing the best genes from the creatures they devoured, and were, in some sense, similar to the hunters of the Milky Way.

The difference was that the bugs were able to manifest the physical characteristics of the prey they devoured. For instance, if they were to hunt down a pack of scorpions, they would be able to grow a poisonous stinger from their backs. If they were to consume a flock of birds, their bones would grow lighter, and they could develop wings. After hunting down a variety of prey, these bugs would essentially turn into chimeras.

If not for the fact that they would have to reach higher and higher energy thresholds to evolve, these bugs could grow stronger indefinitely—and that limitation was essentially immaterial. Their frightening digestive systems meant that they were able to replenish their energy by consuming just about anything.

Even more astonishingly, the bugs essentially had a telepathic network and evolution database set up. When a given bug evolved into a two-star bug, its genes and evolution would be documented and uploaded into the database, which could subsequently be downloaded and emulated at will by other bugs in the vicinity.

As a result, the appearance of a two-star bug frequently heralded a huge swarm of them.

The only restriction to this sort of unbridled growth was the need for energy. This was why these space bugs invaded every planet they could come across.

In some sense, they were like players in a game. The mobs they hunted down were converted into experience and equipment, and once they reached certain level thresholds, they could evolve. Some of these players would post walkthroughs and strategy guides on the relevant game forums to be copied by others, thereby producing a huge wave of high-leveled players.

Zhou Ying explained, "I've just read a report that analyzed the conditions under which these bugs can evolve. Allegedly, these bugs have a highly developed system for predicting danger. There were quite a few case studies documented in the report of such evolution occurring more frequently than expected, not just when their opponents were too strong for them."

This sort of evolution was a response against danger. When the bugs were forced to confront a strong foe, they would consolidate their strength in just a few superbugs.

The lower-tier bugs would willingly give up their bodies as nutrition and energy for higher-tier bugs, who were then able to choose the best evolutionary outcome from the database that they had compiled.

Subsequently, a mass evolution would occur.

"If a given planet's strength is far higher than the bugs had originally predicted or could account for, they will also evolve in order to take care of such threats."

The members of Team Zenith were listening to Zhou Ying attentively.

Zhang Lie summarized, "Our appearance on Mars has catalyzed these bugs' growth, then."