Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 552 Theory of Evolution
In the spacious conference hall of Harvey Castle, almost all the senior officials involved in the national military system of Xinghuo City were present. Dozens of young staff officers from the General Staff Headquarters hurriedly replaced the waiters' work and quickly distributed a large number of freshly-made war reports.

Harvey sat on the throne at the head of the long main conference table, looking straight ahead with a serious expression. The officials below him either lowered their heads to carefully study the reports, or raised their heads from time to time to take a peek, waiting for the meeting to begin.

He tapped the armrest lightly with his fingers a few times. The subtle sound immediately silenced the officials who were still whispering in the hall, and they all turned their eyes to His Majesty the Emperor.

"I'm sure you've all reviewed the intelligence information recorded by the frontline combat units using the Image Stone many times," Harvey said loudly, clearing his throat. "Let's discuss and analyze the enemy we're facing. How can we fully understand their details?"

Blackwater weapons, red light plasma, anti-magic soft armor... and deep-diving floating islands that can travel through the dark rivers of the abyss.

As their combat contacts with the Lizardmen gradually increased, these mysteries were constantly being solved, but what followed were more unexpected things for them. Large-scale battles had not yet occurred, and humans could not even fully understand what combat methods the enemy possessed, let alone estimate the specific power of these methods.

The newly established General Staff Headquarters does not have a chief officer, but is directly headed by the country's supreme commander, His Majesty the Emperor himself... Although he was just a "political and military enthusiast" in his previous life, in this different world, Harvey still prides himself on having a lot of advanced strategic vision.

The emperor started to ask questions, and Pierce, as the highest commander of the army, naturally took the lead and stood up to express his opinion first.

"Your Majesty, in the previous internal discussion, I think it is very likely that the alien race you mentioned has the ability to evolve..." Pierce stood up, walked to the projection slate of the magic stone, and broadcast the battle image again.

"During this infiltration plan, our air force's entire operation, from arrival to evacuation, lasted over half an hour. Aside from the initial cover of darkness and cloud cover, the subsequent air operations were almost direct exposure, intentionally drawing the enemy's attention while allowing ground forces to sneak in."

He paused. This lengthy speech was clearly prepared in advance, his analysis coherent and logical. "Thus, if the enemy had mastered countermeasures to aerial bombardment in advance, they wouldn't have had to wait until our operation was nearly complete and we were about to withdraw to launch a response."

Before he could finish, Asdalen interjected, "It's a bit arbitrary to speculate based solely on their reaction time. Perhaps this anti-aircraft weapon is slow to activate, or perhaps they simply can't react quickly enough. The Black Water weapon tanks of the Demon Lizardmen need to be replenished at all times. These Black Water-spraying crystal spikes probably also need to be charged in advance and prepared for a long time before they can be released."

Pierce nodded and switched the magic stone image to the interior of the floating island. "Then let's take a look at the infiltration team's feedback. The entire floating island is distributed with a large number of completely independent spiral passages. Each passage is responsible for a combat unit of hundreds of demon lizardmen, including several higher-ranking red lizardmen leaders. Enemies killed in battle will be directly swallowed by the floating island, while living enemies can hide in the inner walls of the floating island. Once the enemy alerts them, they will immediately rush out in large numbers to resist the invasion."

He repeatedly played the footage of Dave and his companions before their final evacuation, his expression grave. "We have every reason to believe that this entire massive floating island fortress is a complete living organism, possessing a certain degree of intelligence and thinking ability. It can autonomously secrete large quantities of black water, supplying it to the vast combatants within the tribe for use as weapons. Just as the demon lizardmen can use black water to transform into weapons, the floating island can do the same."

This judgment was actually mainly based on Harvey's conjecture. After all, this kind of egg-laying monster that reproduces in large numbers like an insect is entirely possible to have a mother nest and a large number of branch nests like an insect swarm. It is also very likely that there is a leader with the status of "queen bee" in the nest as the commander of the operation, or in other words... the branch nest itself is a "queen bee" with wisdom and thinking ability.

Chris also stood up and said slowly, "We analyzed the tissue fragments from the nest sent back by the infiltration team. They're made of a material completely unrelated to any non-living organism. Although the peeled-off parts are not alive, they are indeed biological, as soft as flesh and with texture." Harvey waved his hand and asked, "What are the properties of this biological material?"

Benoit held up a stack of test reports and read out the script, "The material of the floating island's inner wall isn't particularly unique. Not only can magical attacks shatter it, but even the high temperature of ordinary flames can quickly carbonize it... Unlike the skin and armor of the demon lizardmen, it's like a piece of fragile dead flesh."

Its only characteristic is probably that it can devour and absorb dead individuals of the tribe, and can accommodate and hide living beings inside.

"But the outer shell on top of the floating island, shattered by the high-explosive bomb, is clearly different... It's more like the scaly carapace of some ancient dragon creature. It's hard, fire-resistant, and extremely waterproof."

Harvey chuckled bitterly and said sarcastically, "The soldiers really guessed it right. This thing is a giant living turtle, able to dive freely in deep water. Its shell is solid, but its flesh is soft and fragile inside."

It is a turtle that can actively identify hostile targets and control liquid weapons to flexibly counterattack.

Its defects of large size and slow movement are perfectly compensated by the hundreds of thousands of fighting individuals in the tribe.

It was hard for Harvey not to think of a strategy game called "StarCraft" that he played in his previous life. The alien race controlled the battle situation with an aggressive rhythm by rapidly expanding through mass production of troops, establishing sub-nests, relying on "swarm" tactics to consume the opponent's resources.

Moreover, from the intelligence sent back by Chief Dawson, it can be learned that the hatchery used by the other party for "massive soldiering" is obviously located in the secret deep sea that humans cannot explore at all, and there is not just one place. The individual combat units that exploded do not need to go through the "larvae" stage, and almost immediately possess strong and flexible combat capabilities.

This is something that the cheap consumable cannon fodder in the game, such as "Zootch" and "Hydralisk", cannot match.

Fortunately, the enemy is still in the process of multi-front invasion, and the branch nest is still in the development stage... The Northern Wastes and Isengard can still rely on a sufficiently broad strategic depth, using distance to buy a certain amount of breathing time for the Southern Territory.

Floating Island No. 1 and Main Island No. 2 store more than 100,000 "Insect Sea" combat units. Perhaps there are even more branch nest fortresses lurking in the dark rivers deep in the continental crust that have not yet been exposed. The thought makes Harvey feel as if a thorn in his back is a chill.

How should humans win this war?
Harvey couldn't help but laugh to himself: I guess I can only bite the bullet and madly pursue human magic technology. Let's see if the magical version of "dragon riding on the face" and "AOE" firepower coverage can defeat them as expected...

(End of this chapter)