NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 54: Establishing the Hive
After a brief chat with Li Tian, Xu Luo hurried back to his Divine Realm.
He had chosen these three materials from the many rare items because the Zerg Overlord system detected that these three could be fused together to form something else suitable for constructing Zerg structures.
[Biological Hive: Nano Alloy + Murphy's Biometal + Demon Iron + 10 million evolution points.]
[Properties: Queen's reproduction rate +20%, Zerg combat power +20% within the Divine Realm, autonomous growth!]
These were the attributes given by the Overlord system.
The combat power bonus within the Divine Realm was significant, but most importantly, the Queens' reproduction rate increased, and it could continuously grow, eliminating future concerns about expansion as the Zerg population increased.
However, there was a current problem of severe evolution point shortage.
Earth Dragon Zerg consumed a lot daily, and now with another major consumer, plus the need to increase the number of Earth Dragon Zerg, this deficit would only grow larger.
Fortunately, with the large amount of faith power now in hand, Xu Luo first increased the number of Mayflies by several billion at once, boosting the daily collection of evolution points.
Both the Queens' egg-laying and the Mayflies' evolution point collection required time, and now the Divine Realm's area was large enough not to worry about the Mayflies' collection causing destruction.
So Xu Luo directly exited the Divine Realm and surfed the internet in reality, continuing to learn about this world.
[Evolution points accumulated have reached 10 million!]
When the personal assistant's set reminder appeared, Xu Luo's spirits lifted.
When not in the Divine Realm, one could set reminders to help understand the Divine Realm's information.
After receiving the reminder, Xu Luo quickly entered his Divine Realm through the game pod.
Once inside, he didn't hesitate and directly took out the three rare metals.
After unsealing the three sealing cards, the full appearance of the three metals enclosed within was finally revealed, though Xu Luo didn't need to handle these personally.
At this moment, evolution points were being consumed frantically as the three metals began to melt rapidly, then were molded according to a pre-set template.
Everything happened incredibly fast, with various changes lasting only a short time.
On the surface, the previously selected empty ground didn't seem to have changed much.
But in Xu Luo's perception, he knew that beneath the ground, earth-shattering changes had occurred.
Although there was a fixed template, Xu Luo still made fine adjustments afterward. It took a long time before the Hive was finally fully formed.
The center had more than a dozen egg-laying chambers, specially prepared for the Queens. Although there were only four now, there would be more in the future, so preparing in advance wasn't a problem.
Then there were egg storage rooms, hatching chambers, and Queen resting rooms. This was the bottom layer. The layers above were where other Zerg units would stay; with so many, they couldn't just be buried randomly in the soil.
The entire Hive was actually three-dimensional, like a beehive, with layers upon layers. There were many troop storage rooms and interconnected passages extending to all corners of the Divine Realm.
No matter where enemies landed in the Divine Realm, Zerg would be able to reach them immediately.
Of course, many troop storage rooms were still empty now, but they would surely fill up in the future.
The establishment of the Hive caused quite a commotion, with earth-shaking tremors being the least of it.
A massive Hive took shape underground, changing the surrounding terrain to some extent. Although the Zerg had simple intelligence, even they trembled in awe of such mighty power.
From the surface, it was actually hard to discern much about this Hive.
But inside, the network of various passages was highly developed. Considering that the Zerg's body size might grow larger in the future, these passages were built very spaciously to avoid situations where Zerg might get stuck due to their size.
Each passage's ground exit was a specially made portal, normally closed but easily opened when entry or exit was needed.
With the Hive established, management and other aspects fell into place.
Queens laid eggs, which then hatched in dedicated hatching chambers to produce corresponding Zerg, which then evolved.
However, Xu Luo no longer needed to worry about these details himself.
From now on, he just needed to wait for the Queens to lay eggs and increase the number of Zerg, but Xu Luo wasn't idle during this time.
After each invasion, he would use relocation cards to move his Divine Realm's location to avoid retaliation.
This time, he relocated his Divine Realm again.
However, most of the surrounding area was occupied by human newcomers, with very few alien races, and they were quite far away. Invading would require a lot of resources just for unit transfer.
So Xu Luo decided to go all in, continuously relocating his Divine Realm until he reached an area close to alien races before stopping.
Although he wouldn't act now, he could position himself in advance, ready to strike when the time came.
Besides this, he was also setting up defenses around his Divine Realm.
The previous invasion by Qi Ze and others served as a lesson; his Divine Realm's defenses were too weak, making it easy for others to forcefully break through. He had been constantly invading others but didn't want others to invade him.
Although Divine Realm defense wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight, and it wasn't just to guard against invasions, starting construction now couldn't be wrong.
If he only thought about building defenses when faced with chaotic storms or divine calamities, it would be too late.
Now, Xu Luo could obtain a large amount of faith power daily, but he was constantly hatching new Earth Dragon Zerg, which also consumed a lot.
Fortunately, evolution points only consumed terrain and didn't require additional payment from him.
Moreover, new Earth Dragon Zerg also increased the faith power he received, forming a cycle.
As the number of Zerg increased, the feeding costs rose, but the faith power gained also increased. Overall, it was still profitable.
Four Queens could produce 240,000 eggs in one real-world day, which was truly terrifying.
Moreover, Burrowing Zerg and Earth-Shaking Zerg that hadn't been fused into Earth Dragon Zerg could provide more faith power than Earth Dragon Zerg and consumed less. Although their combat power was inferior, combat wasn't needed now, and he could save on one fusion cost.
As a result, the number of Zerg in the Divine Realm exploded. Although they would eventually be fused, for now, their numbers were enormous.
The two types of Zerg provided about 40% more faith power than Earth Dragon Zerg. With large numbers, this difference was very noticeable, and Xu Luo naturally knew what to do.
Earth Dragon Zerg had powerful combat abilities but didn't provide much faith power and required high investment costs. If he wanted to break even relying solely on the faith power they provided, it would take a very long time.
For a farming player, this wouldn't be an issue, but Xu Luo now needed to make moves and grow stronger in the shortest time possible. He had to use every means at his disposal.
