Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

When all the insects die, people are happy; that's how it is.

Zhang Jie's actions were even simpler. He used his mental power to initiate cognitive interference while simultaneously crushing the warrior insects that had already penetrated the ranks of soldiers with his telekinesis. The exact number... was probably only three to five hundred.

Three to five hundred was nothing compared to the tens of thousands of insect swarms. But after that, the Marines picked up their weapons and began to fight back. With the sheer number of bullets and the quality of the Reincarnators, the swarm's offensive was quickly contained. After Zheng Zha killed the last few heavy units that suddenly appeared, these hundred-odd soldiers finally got a chance to catch their breath.

They collapsed to the ground, panting heavily without any regard for their appearance. This is when Cheng Xiao came in handy. He organized a temporary field medical team and immediately began treating the wounded. At the same time, he also reorganized the chaotic formation, allowing these new recruits to find their proper ranks.

And just then...

[Zheng Zha, there's news.] — Zhang Jie's mental communication message sounded in Zheng Zha's mind.

[We just dealt with two plasma worms lurking ten kilometers away, but my scan detected more worms approaching us underground. Destroying the tunnel entrance is pointless; we'd better move out as soon as possible.]

Zheng Zha pulled the Destruction Greatsword from the ground—the surrounding Marines ignored him—and, too lazy to reply to Zhang Jie mentally, simply asked him directly, "Approximately how many are there?"

"…………"

Zhang Jie's lips twitched. Helpless, he had no choice but to readjust his cognitive interference mental ability to ensure that the Marines wouldn't collapse on the spot after hearing this. Then he answered seriously, "The number is over a million, and there are a large number of special Zerg units."

“A million?! Are you kidding me?” Zheng Zha’s brows furrowed deeply, then immediately relaxed. “This doesn’t make sense. They shouldn’t be coming for us… Their target should be all the marines in this landing zone. The first landing operation killed 300,000 people. Considering the previous exchange ratio, I think a million insect troops are enough to annihilate them all.”

“But that doesn’t conflict with our marching route with the swarm,” Zhang Jie lit a cigarette. “And do you remember? We still need to gather the remnants along the way to meet up with Alice. Obviously, the swarm won’t just sit idly by and watch us move.”

"Then charge in," Zheng Zha said in a deep voice. He raised his Destruction Blade, and with just one move in mid-air, he evoked a chorus of shouts from the more than one hundred surviving Marines. "Kill as many insects as there are!"

“You seem quite confident,” Zhang Jie chuckled, glancing at Ba Wang and Ming Yanwei, who were also popular among the soldiers, and Cheng Xiao, who was coordinating and commanding the nearly disintegrated organization. “Be careful not to get wiped out by plasma cannon fire. Those things can reach outer space from the ground. I can handle a dozen or twenty shots, but dozens or hundreds are definitely beyond my capabilities.”

“Ha, then let’s wait until dozens or hundreds of plasma worms arrive. I believe Margot Royd can help us solve this problem. But for now—” He took a deep breath, pointed to Alice’s coordinates, and shouted at the surviving soldiers.

"Star Marines, advance!"

His will was immediately implemented, and the inspired soldiers were in high spirits. Even those wounded who were not too badly injured gritted their teeth and tried to adjust their condition in the assault vehicles. In the original movie, the expeditionary force was so stupid that it didn't even provide the assault team with a vehicle, but the marines in the reincarnation world were obviously a little luckier.

They marched south, gathering up the fleeing soldiers along the way as they advanced towards Alice's location. Every now and then, swarms of insects would surge forth from the surface openings. They were numerous, with sharp teeth and claws, but they were of little use against the increasingly numerous and reorganized Marines—miniature nuclear bombs and Zero's long-range sniping were enough to take out the powerful giant insects. Those swarms attempting to sneak up from underground were easily detected and killed by Zheng Zha under Zhang Jie's mental scan.

For Zheng Zha, after experiencing the truly terrifying and oppressive war against the ancient angels of the Death Kingdom from the Final Destination world, the weaklings in the Starship Troopers couldn't really arouse his vigilance. He knew that with his current strength, he could easily kill any native animal on this planet, and he also knew that as long as he had enough energy, he could single-handedly spend a slightly longer time wiping out this planet.

Managing his army was a far greater headache than dealing with the insects. He knew he could bring victory to his soldiers, and he knew that victory alone would guide them forward. However, knowing how to do it and to what extent was still a matter of careful consideration. This problem became increasingly serious after he took in more than 20,000 defeated soldiers—he felt his mind was overwhelmed.

..........................................

Consider switching to the Second Watch Beast mode.

Section 7. Examples of Erroneous Evolution

Alice had no interest in what Zheng Zha was thinking, nor did she care whether he would overthink and overload his brain. All she knew was that her forward base had been established for the time being, and the swarm's offensive was weakening.

Their numbers have decreased; has the plan worked?

As she thought this, the standard-issue rifle in her hand fired round after round at the large Zerglings mixed in with the swarm hundreds of meters away. Whether flying Zerg or laser Zerg, they all died with a single shot. Then she heard the score notification from the main god ring clearly in her ears—the ordinary warrior Zerg no longer aroused her interest, and although bullets were cheap, she felt that her finger pulling the trigger deserved a much higher appearance fee.

Killing a flying bug earns one-tenth of the reward points, killing a laser bug earns ten reward points—looking at the thousands of points that have already accumulated on her wristwatch, Alice thought it wouldn't be bad if this war could continue a little longer.

[Tsk, if I ignored these mortal soldiers and just used magic...magic cannons to clean up the floor, I suspect I'd have tens of thousands of points by the time the opposing reincarnation squad arrives...maybe even over 100,000. This fixed scoring mechanism is fantastic...is this how Zhang Jie maxed out all his skills? Damn it, why didn't they give extra points when fighting angels in the last world?!]

[Is it because all the angels are considered part of that birdman, so all my attacks didn't result in any real kills? But why didn't even the Transformers get points...? The God's scoring system is just too ridiculous!]

She pursed her lips, and suddenly a glimmer of light appeared on her retina!

'Kill one tank bug and earn 100 reward points...'

A giant tank bug emerged from the ground, and she, just as she had killed its brethren before, blasted its mouthparts with a burst of long bursts of fire, detonating them internally. Two or three more followed, and this time, the expeditionary force's miniature nuclear bombs dealt with them.

'Boom—!'

With explosions, flames, and the aroma of barbecue carried by the wind, the entire area quickly fell silent. This battle was temporarily over, the battlefield was cleared, and the Zerg swarm was once again completely contained before it could even approach within a hundred meters of the forward base.

The soldiers cheered.

She looked up at the sky. Large chunks of ship debris had been falling from the heavens for the past twenty minutes, turning the leaden clouds crimson and unsettling the soldiers. But once the communication antenna was set up, communications from the De Croy gave them renewed courage.

The fleet is still there, but the battle has been quite fierce.

Since there is still a way out, the morale of these new recruits will not collapse easily.

However, it's practically meaningless. Whether you have the courage or the determination, this base is unlikely to be destroyed. Not only will the orbital artillery in the sky provide support, but the Zerg on the ground won't easily destroy this base either.

The girl's fingers trembled slightly—since she had become a regular, obsessive soul, she naturally didn't experience any physical fatigue, but this little habit of thinking remained, allowing her to assess the current situation in her familiar environment.

The situation has changed. Once Chu Xuan gained temporary access to the expeditionary force's decision-making level through the emergency plan, he was destined to save a significant portion of the human fleet. Even if his eloquence and command skills were lacking, as long as direct communication with the expeditionary force's high command was established, Patchouli could deflect their thinking through information interference—this task would have been more convenient for Zhang Jie, but considering the distance in space, this configuration was the only option.

After all, they were just ordinary people, and ordinary people are quite weak-willed before they become heroes.

Once command is transferred to Chu Xuan and the fleet is saved, then as long as more than one-third of the fleet survives, the Zerg swarm will not be able to adopt the original strategy of wiping out the expeditionary force's marines in one go. The cerebrates are not stupid. It is understandable to wipe out the ground troops if the fleet is defeated, but if the fleet is intact, then they will have to consider the matter of using orbital artillery to clean up the ground.

Since they couldn't eat the flesh directly, they had no choice but to create a large wound to continuously bleed it out. Therefore, not only would the expeditionary force not abandon this forward base, but neither would the insects. Compared to the Earth Federation, whose war potential was extremely strong, the insects' foundation was far too weak. They were not a powerful biological civilization, but merely a group of alien monsters with high intelligence. And clearly, they themselves and the future Federation were well aware of this.

No, it may not be in the future; the federal government may already be aware of the Zerg's true nature.

The girl recalled some subtle details from the film. The federal government in the original story was actually an extremely authoritarian fascist regime. They led the world and used strict order and laws to control their people. People were divided into different classes, with a vast difference in rights between civilians and citizens—the former were unable to perform many jobs, participate in elections, or even have the right to reproduce. More importantly, under such a government, there was a peaceful atmosphere; even the most passionate young people only thought about winning citizenship by joining the army rather than raising a flag in rebellion.

This shows that the regime has done a good job in ideological work, and also shows that they have a very strong control over the internal affairs.

Since they have such strong control, many things seem particularly illogical under these circumstances.

[...They must know the true state of the swarm, yet they still deliberately send so many to their deaths. Are they planning to deplete their surplus population? No...in the interstellar age, there's no such thing as a surplus population. In this worldview, Earthlings haven't even fully explored the solar system yet...so are they training their troops? Using these insects as whetstones to quickly acquire sufficiently powerful warriors?]

Could there really be a third force besides the human-insect faction?

Alice's brow twitched. Her mind raced through a series of deductions in a split second before discarding them all—she knew perfectly well that if she could think of something, Chu Xuan certainly could too. Therefore, that man with the cheat code would inevitably use his resources to maximize his gains, and given that the Central Continent team was the first to enter the Star River team, he would likely handle any unexpected situation reasonably.

The capable should do more work, so it's more appropriate for me, who is less capable, to do things that I'm good at.

For example...

She looked in the direction where the nuclear explosion's smoke had dissipated. Even without any instruments, she could sense the earth trembling and the sound of the dense limbs striking the ground. A new wave of the swarm was about to attack, and just as she braced herself to prepare for it, the invisible 'field' emanating from beneath her feet quietly expanded outward a little further.

................................................

Meanwhile, high above, in the command hall of the starship de Chroy, Patchouli watched as the surface plasma cannon, exhausted in its trajectory and ultimately collapsing helplessly into the vacuum of space, a slight smile curved her lips.

Five hours before the battle, Patchouli and Chu Xuan used their privileged access to the bridge command center of the USS de Chroy. By orchestrating an 'accidental' personnel incident to divert attention, they were able to successfully access and hack into the expeditionary force's internal network.

Four hours before the start of the war, Patchouli successfully hacked into the internal network backdoor, collected information on high-ranking officers of the expeditionary force, and conducted appropriate analysis and probing. She specifically identified and archived the expeditionary force officers who were slightly weak-willed and easily manipulated, as well as the starships they were in charge of.

Three hours before the battle, Patchouli gained higher privileges and manipulated the expeditionary force's internal database—the fleet deployment locations during the airdrops were slightly altered. The starships housing the stubborn, unruly officers were repositioned at low altitudes, ideally serving as human shields.

Two hours before the battle, Patchouli interfered with the expeditionary force's identification system, causing them to land at a slightly higher altitude than in the original film. Simultaneously, the Great Library was released and identified by radar as an ordinary transport ship.

An hour before the battle, final proofreading was completed. Meanwhile, Patchouli used the intranet to curse and kill several overly intelligent or meticulous junior officers and operators, ensuring her intervention would go undetected.

Thirty minutes before the battle, the Expeditionary Force's Internal Affairs Department detected anomalies in its intranet communications. As they attempted to inspect the ships, Patchouli orchestrated a meteorite impact through the Grand Library—meteorites were plentiful near the insectoid planet—damaging the inspectors' transport ships and buying them a crucial last-minute boost.

Half an hour ago, the war began, and the Zerg swarm's ground artillery began attacking the expeditionary fleet. Those pre-selected human shields perished in the plasma fire. The de Croy, along with several other misdirection starships in the central area, were also bombarded, their high command killed, leaving only the highest-ranking officers on board to temporarily assume command.

Twenty minutes ago, the contingency plan was approved, and an emergency evasive maneuver and temporary video conference were initiated. All surviving captains and high-ranking officers were now directly exposed to Patchouli's view. The meeting, led by Chu Xuan and assisted by Patchouli, commenced. Mental interference via the information network began to operate.

Fifteen minutes ago, Chu Xuan had dealt with the captains and commanders of the other fleets. He had 'miraculously' become the temporary commander of the expeditionary fleet with the rank of major. Under his command, a large-scale evacuation began. Thanks to a 'coincidental' fleet formation and some 'luck,' the starships that could maintain communication remained largely intact.

Ten minutes ago, the expeditionary fleet began to break away from the gravity zone of Korendadu on a large scale.

Five minutes ago, the Zerg swarm's ground firepower was essentially rendered ineffective, and the expeditionary fleet's high command, under Chu Xuan's will, formed a small wartime council. Ostensibly, the fleet's decisions were made through discussions among the surviving senior officers, but in reality, they had become Chu Xuan's puppets.

Setup complete.

After approximately seven hours, the entire surviving fleet of the expeditionary force was brought under the control of the Central Plains Team.

"The underground squad is doing a good job; Alice has successfully established a forward base. Meanwhile, Zheng Zha and his team have also gathered more than 20,000 marines. It is expected that the number of surviving troops will exceed 200,000 in the next twelve hours, and perhaps they can build a fortified city on Kolenda."

She wasn't talking to Chu Xuan because she knew he had no interest in answering such a simplistic question. Although they both knew the claim that 'Korenda's geology is too fragile for heavy weaponry' was pure nonsense—this was the interstellar age, and even with the worst military technology, the lack of anti-gravity technology shouldn't prevent them from even building a gunship. And even if they couldn't build a gunship, there was no reason why a self-propelled artillery piece couldn't be placed securely on land where even tank bugs could roam freely.

Clearly, this is a problem at the highest levels of the government. The reincarnators are neither qualified nor obligated to be involved in these issues. Therefore, the so-called fortress city is utter nonsense. Even if the witches could build it, they shouldn't.

The reincarnators only need to do their assigned tasks.

Patchouli gazed at Korenda, engulfed in flames—each spark representing a nuclear explosion. Clearly, the ground battle was now at a disadvantage for the humans, but victory for the insectoids was not something that could be achieved overnight.

The Zerg were already doomed. They were doomed until the expeditionary force suffered a devastating blow due to the absurd reason that 'the Zerg's anti-air firepower is weak.' They knew this, and so did the expeditionary force's leadership.

After all, this is an interstellar battle, where a single starship is far more important than ten thousand soldiers. Since the Zerg have no starships, control of the cosmos rests with humanity. And as long as the space battle is not lost, the number of soldiers who die is insignificant.

However, that only meant the "insects couldn't win," not that the expeditionary force didn't lose. The heavy damage inflicted on the fleet during the airdrop was a serious command error. In the original work, this mistake even required the Federation Marshal to resign to atone for it. And since the highest levels paid the price, the middle-level officials naturally couldn't escape being held accountable.

Therefore, not only can the soldiers on the ground not die too many times, but they also need to achieve considerable results. Only in this way can they ensure that the higher-ups will keep their heads on their shoulders. And it is precisely because of this that the Reincarnation Squad has more room to maneuver.

So Patchouli made a decision.

....................................

Evolution and all that... I... I'd better think about it some more _(:з」∠)_

Section 8. Let's make a small change.

Patchouli didn't intend to change the original plan; she only planned to modify it, adding her own elements in places that wouldn't affect the overall situation. For example, building a stellar extraction tower at the forward base in Kolendadu, and then, at the appropriate time, directly draining the energy of the insectoid planet's sun and artificially creating a supernova explosion.

—A small plan, insignificant to the big picture.

At least compared to what Chu Xuan did, it was nothing to brag about.

She stood quietly on the edge of the porthole, looking down at the burning earth. Only the occasional sound of Chu Xuan's keyboard could be heard from the hall behind her. Minutes earlier, she had dispersed all irrelevant personnel from the command center, creating a relatively safe environment for conversation.

She stared at the ground for a full seventy seconds.

“You’re taking a risk,” Patchouli suddenly said out of the blue. “This is unlike you. As far as I know, you usually only gamble when you’re 50% sure.”

Unlike her previous self-talk, this time she was speaking to Chu Xuan, and she knew that Chu Xuan would answer her question this time.

Chu Xuan was testing the Supreme God, not just testing, but even attempting to control him. All the plans he had previously deduced were actually attempts to... control the Supreme God in some way, to make the Supreme God deploy other reincarnation teams at the time and place he needed. And his chances of success were very high.

This also has a high probability of triggering the main god's internal emergency mechanism.

“More than 50%,” Chu Xuan replied, without looking up, his focused gaze still fixed on the pile of data and information in front of him: “When you and Alice are in this team, the odds are already more than 50%.”

Patchouli took it seriously and listened.

Chu Xuan is willing to gamble if he has a 50% chance of success. Yes, he is indeed willing to gamble if he has a 50% chance of success, but his willingness to gamble is contingent on him being the bookmaker. His betting table is different from others; others' 50% chance means a 50% win and a 50% loss. But his 50% chance means a 50% success and a 50% big success. There is simply no option of failure.

He seemed adventurous, but in reality, he never took a single risk. The only thing that could cause him to fail was a miraculous possibility within the impossible. However, miracles require luck, and for a being like Chu Xuan... or rather, a being, luck has never affected him from beginning to end.

But this time is different.

This time, he was truly taking a risk, at least in Patchouli's perception. Ah… that's right, he controlled the expeditionary fleet and created a powerful 'momentum,' making it impossible for the second reincarnation team to descend within the fleet. And with the base on the insect planet established, even assuming the expeditionary force remained largely intact, the insect planet wasn't safe. Therefore, of the remaining two reincarnation teams, the second team's landing location could only be Earth… or more precisely, the fleet that came from Earth after the Battle of Korendadu to award medals to the meritorious soldiers.

Clearly, the team battle can only begin when all the reincarnation teams are present, and the Supreme God won't deliberately strip the reincarnation teams of their 'momentum' that arrived first. Therefore, the decisive battle will only take place in this sea of ​​stars, and since the Southern Flame Team can no longer borrow 'momentum' from the Expeditionary Force, they can only try to gain 'momentum' from the Federal Government. The Supreme God will then certainly grant them favors, arranging for them to assume the identities of personnel in a secret or non-secret department with slightly higher authority, and then… they will have the opportunity to manipulate things during the awarding ceremony.