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Chapter 12: The Gas Mine
Tang Fang emerged from the tunnel, his face lit up with barely concealed excitement. As expected, despite the Queen's slow movement on land, her other abilities were remarkably strong.
With the Spine Crawler's long range attack, the Queen's powerful defensive abilities, and Zerglings for mobility, even if Wei Haitao brought his elite squad, Tang Fang wouldn’t fear them.
Moreover, after killing so many Rock bugs, the crystal count on the system interface jumped to 734. After using 300 crystals to produce an Overlord, there were still 434 left—enough to make 16 Zerglings.
"What... What is this?!"
Two beams of light flashed nearby as Arroz and the woman walked out of the tunnels nearby. Their eyes swept over the field littered with bug corpses and the terrifying, monster-like Queen. Their pupils shrank in shock, faces filled with horror.
Unlike Tang Fang, they didn’t possess his ability to see in the dark through the eyes of the Zerg. Although they had guessed what he was doing based on the disturbances earlier, seeing it in person was an entirely different experience.
A glint of surprise flashed through Arroz' eyes, but he quickly returned to his usual indifferent demeanor. The woman shone her beam on the Queen, glancing at Tang Fang with a look that suggested she had many questions but remained silent.
She really wanted to know what was going on—how those Zerglings and the Queen had appeared, and why they obeyed his commands. But after hesitating for a long time, she ultimately didn’t ask.
Arroz had a point: everyone had their secrets. While the three had established a tentative trust, it was still too early to share such deep secrets.
Tang Fang, still silent, moved toward the acid-secreting Rock Bugs pierced by the Queen's spikes. The Rock Bugs had unlocked the Spawning Pool; the fish-scorpion-like creature had unlocked the Spine Crawlers. What would this acid-secreting variant unlock? Could it be Roach Warren?
Ignoring the foul stench, he approached a dead bug and slowly pressed his hand onto the green liquid oozing from its wound.
[Life energy collection complete: 120 units.] The same emotionless voice sounded in his mind.
Watching the system interface’s crystal count jump six times, from 734 to 854, Tang Fang showed no sign of joy.
No new structures unlocked? That doesn’t make sense. These mutated Rock Bugs attacked similarly to the Roaches in the game. Why could they only provide life energy?
Just as he was puzzled, the system’s voice spoke again: [Rare element detected... Collection complete: 30 units.]
Rare element? What’s that? He focused on the system interface and saw that the gas value in the top right had increased from 0 to 30.
His thoughts raced as he looked back at the mutated Rock Bugs corpses, noticing a faint blue glow under their abdominal wounds that soon faded.
These mutated Rock Bugs contained rare elements! And they could be converted into the system’s gas resource?
Tang Fang was stunned for a long moment before snapping back to reality. He glanced down at the mutated Rock Bugs and then at the regular ones, his brow furrowing. Why did the mutated Rock Bugs contain rare elements while the regular ones did not, even though they lived in the same environment?
"Is something wrong with these corpses?" the woman asked, noticing his furrowed brow and silence as he crouched beside the bugs.
"No." Tang Fang shook off his confusion. He wasn’t a biology expert; such professional questions weren’t his concern. Now that he knew mutated Rock Bugs could provide gas, his priority was to collect as much as possible. Zergling speed upgrades and stronger units all required gas. To fight against Wei Haitao and the Wei family behind him—or even the Empire—he’d need more than just a few Zerglings and a Queen.
"Let's go." He casually threw out the words, recalled the Queen and Zerglings, and started moving to catch up with Byron and the others.
The woman was startled once again when the Queen and Zerglings vanished in an instant. However, seeing Arroz already unfazed and hurrying forward, she could only shake her head and follow.
The cave sloped downward, and every so often, they encountered more Rock Bug corpses. As Tang Fang moved, he collected life energy along the way, while also commanding the larvae at the Zerg base to hatch more Overlords and Zerglings.
During this time, he discovered a pattern: for Rock Bugs whose DNA had been analyzed by the system, as long as their corpses were within his or his summons' line of sight, life energy would automatically be collected. The collection range wasn’t fixed but depended on his field of vision.
In other words, if he stood in a high place, he could collect life energy from kilometers away. But in narrow areas, even if a bug corpse was only two or three meters around a corner, if he couldn’t see it, he was out of luck.
After walking a bit further, faint voices could be heard from ahead. Tang Fang glanced at the newly added Queen, twelve Zerglings, and an Overlord in the system, then gestured for the two behind him to halt.
"Huh? They’re gone?"
"Strange. There were at least six or seven hundred bugs chasing us. What happened to them?"
"Yeah, and what about those acid-spitting ones? There were seven or eight, but we’ve only found two corpses. Where are the rest?"
Listening to their conversation ahead, Tang Fang smiled faintly and stepped around the corner, appearing in Byron and the others' sight.
Housen was startled and raised his gun. When he realized it was Tang Fang, he froze. "It’s you?"
The others were just as shocked. They hadn’t expected the bug swarm to disappear, only for Tang Fang to show up instead.
Even with guns pointed at him, Tang Fang remained calm. His gaze swept over the pile of bug corpses in front of him, and he said quietly, "Yes, it’s me."
With his current strength, wiping out these people would be easy. But he wasn’t bloodthirsty. As long as they didn’t provoke him, he saw no need to kill them for a mere 50 crystals.
At that moment, Arroz and the woman also stepped out from behind the corner and stood beside him.
Housen raised an eyebrow, about to speak, but Byron stepped forward and asked, "Did you take out the Rock Bugs behind us?"
Tang Fang nodded. "Yes."
"Nonsense," scoffed a scar-faced man behind Housen. "Just you lot?"
Tang Fang shot him a glance but didn’t bother responding. Instead, he focused on the system interface, contemplating how to use the 230 newly collected crystals and 40 gas.
The scarred man grew angry and lifted his rifle, wanting to teach the three a lesson. But Byron quickly pressed down on his rifle. "James, don’t be impulsive. I believe what he said."
"Tch." James glanced at him, snorted, and put away his gun. The others exchanged glances and also lowered their weapons.
"We’re close to our target. There’s no need to cause more trouble," Byron muttered, before turning to continue forward.
James and the others shot wary glances at Arroz, then quickly followed.
"There are now twenty-two Zerglings, two Queens, and one Spine Crawler."
After thinking for a moment, Tang Fang decided not to produce more combat units for now. He wanted to save the resources for emergencies.
"Let’s go. Let’s see what’s further down," he called to the two behind him, walking slowly, keeping a safe distance from Byron's group.
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