LRAB Chapter 83 The Intruder
Chapter 83 The Intruder
Chapter 83 The Intruder
A giant cockroach, over a meter long, is waving its barbed antennae as it climbs over an abandoned concrete wall.
Its long-term consumption of industrial waste has led to mutations. Its carapace shimmers with radioactive dust and emits a faint blue glow. Its abdomen is swollen, and behind it are packs of scavenging wild dogs.
These beasts had long lost their canine characteristics; their fur had fallen off, revealing bright red muscle tissue, and some had grown extra limbs and pus-filled tumors.
There were also swarms of plague rats, which moved like a black tide through the shadows of the ruins.
Seeing this, Luo Wei wasn't too surprised. As if he were taking stock of the mess in the warehouse, he muttered to himself, "Radiation giant cockroaches, carrion wild dogs, plague rats—the specialties of Abundance II, all here."
"They're being attracted, Supervisor," Case analyzed the server. "Grey Mule-1 is growing too fast."
"Even though we used highly toxic waste liquid for irrigation, the vibrant biomass was still very tempting to these wild beasts that were starving in the wasteland."
The instinct of living beings is greed.
Even if the wheat field is full of poison, as long as it smells like food, they will rush over without hesitation.
The only thing that surprised Luo Wei was that famine on Plenty II was not uncommon.
The rats and cockroaches in the nests and granaries had long been eaten by the refugees, yet there were still so many of them in the wild.
At the same time, Buck's rough and excited report came through the communicator.
"Sir, the outer sentries have spotted a beast horde! These bastards are trying to storm our land for a buffet!"
The background sound is accompanied by the click of a gun bolt being pulled back.
"The First Detachment of the Defense Force is assembled, and heavy explosive machine guns are set up! Just give the order, and I'll turn these scum into mincemeat!"
Buck was clearly bursting with pent-up frustration.
Ever since returning from the expedition to the Ninth Granary, he had been longing for a battle to repay Rowe for the Grox meat he had been given.
You should know that it was a gift from the Governor to Luo Wei, and Luo Wei then shared it with them, which shows how loyal he is.
Luo Wei quickly calculated in his mind.
Mobilize the defense forces?
Firing means consuming ammunition.
Every live ammunition he fires now, every box of super-strength fuel, is a life-saving asset he has accumulated for the "Children of the Stars" cult, which lies lurking in the shadows, in order to prepare for the real threats of the future.
Using it to kill cockroaches and rats results in a severe cost inversion.
This is a breach of duty in auditing.
"Bark, have your men switch the safety on," Rowe said coldly into the communicator. "No one is allowed to fire without my order. Not even if those rats crawl onto your boots."
"Oh? But supervisor, what about the newly planted wheat field?"
"The wheat will take care of itself. If you fire your guns and disturb my crops from feeding, I will deduct money from your meat rations next month."
After hanging up, Rowe switched to another channel.
"Father Alpha, wake up."
"Praise be to the God of all machines—I am meditating, Advisor. Is there any technical problem that needs to be solved?"
Luo Wei stared at the red dot on the screen, which was getting closer and closer.
"Open all the backup valves on pipe B-7. Turn the drip irrigation system to maximum power. I don't want just water; I want flood irrigation."
"Release all the 'good stuff' we brought from the western granaries."
"Advisor, doing this will cause the acid concentration between the furrows to exceed the standard, creating a swamp effect—"
"That's the effect I wanted." Luo Wei picked up his cold coffee, took a sip, and the bitter taste spread on his tongue. "When guests come, we always have to prepare some foot bath water for them."
The area surrounding the eastern grain depot is a heavily polluted wasteland.
The darkness of night concealed the grotesque nature of the wasteland.
Thousands of mutated creatures converged into a chaotic torrent, breaking through the rusted outer barbed wire fence.
For these "scavengers" at the bottom of the food chain, the gray-green fields brimming with "life" ahead are the promised land bestowed by the God-Emperor.
A large, scavenging wild dog took the lead, its three-toed paws stomping heavily into the ridge of the field.
It longs for firm soil and tender, juicy wheat seedlings.
-
However, it missed a step.
"Pfft."
A soft sound.
The once dry, hard wasteland has now turned into a black, muddy swamp.
This is strong acid waste liquid from cleaning heavy engines at the western grain depot, which was just injected via a high-pressure pump, along with highly toxic chemical sludge from the bottom nest.
The stray dog's leg was half stuck in the hole.
Then, the chemical reaction began.
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle".
The strong acid quickly burned through the wild dog's mange-covered skin and penetrated deep into its bone marrow.
"Aww!!!"
A heart-wrenching scream pierced the night sky.
However, this did not deter the subsequent beast tide.
Hunger drove them one after another to plunge into this death trap.
More and more mutated creatures are getting trapped.
The chitinous exoskeleton that the giant radiated cockroach was so proud of was as fragile as a sheet of paper in the face of industrial acid, quickly softening and dissolving to reveal its disgusting white internal organs.
The plague rats struggled frantically in the mud, squeaking and screaming, trying to climb up the slightly drier mounds where the "Grey Mule-1" was planted.
They thought it was an island that would save them.
Little did they know it was the dining table.
In the monitoring room of the administration building, Luo Wei observed everything, then quickly typed on the keyboard, adjusting several key parameters.
"The biomass signal concentration meets the standard."
"The nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium inducers have been released."
"Start eating."
If the acidic swamp was just an appetizer, then what followed was a true feast of predation.
The previously still, grayish-green wheat seedlings suddenly began to tremble.
At this moment, they sensed it.
The entire field is filled with warm, fresh flesh and blood, rich in protein.
This is the most primal desire etched into their genetic code, the code of greed originating from the Tyranids.
The soil churned up.
The root system of "Grey Snail-1" is no longer satisfied with absorbing nutrients underground.
They broke through the soil.
Those are not the delicate roots of a plant at all.
Instead, it resembled rusty wire mesh, a surgeon's probe, or countless thin, grayish-white snakes.
A plague-ridden giant rat, struggling in acid, has just placed its paws on the stalk of a wheat seedling.
In an instant, more than a dozen fine roots shot out from the soil.
They skip the wrapping step and puncture directly.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The roots precisely pierced the wounds on the giant rat caused by the acid corrosion.
It pierced its eyeball.
It pierced its soft belly.
Before the giant rat could let out a final scream, its body began to convulse violently.
Its body began to shrivel.
Its blood, fat, internal organs, and bone marrow are all being greedily extracted by its root system and transported to the stems and leaves above through vascular bundles.
The same scene played out across the entire wheat field.
The giant radiated cockroach had its abdomen ruptured by its roots, hanging in mid-air like a punctured balloon.
The carrion-eating wild dogs were pinned to the ground by countless roots, becoming nutrient bags for the plants.
This field has come alive.
It turned into a green Venus flytrap carpet!
Lo Wei leaned back in his chair, watching the red dot on the screen, representing life, fade away at an alarming rate, turning into the gray dot representing fertilizer.
He wrote a line in his diary:
[Time: 03:45]
[Event: Additional application of organic fertilizer.]
Expected results:
The crop maturity period is shortened by 72 hours.
This saves 300 work points in labor costs for corpse disposal.
Saves approximately 500 credits on ammunition.
[Note: The Grey Snail-1 exhibits extremely strong predatory behavior. When harvesting, serfs should be reminded to wear thick leg guards to prevent accidental ingestion.]
Six o'clock in the morning.
The dim, yellowish sun of Fengrao-2 pierced through the thick layers of acid rain clouds, casting a pale, bleak light upon the earth.
The defense forces at the eastern granary received no combat alerts all night.
However, the stench of blood in the air told everyone that something terrible had happened last night.
-
Wearing a black raincoat, Lowe, accompanied by Father Alpha, arrived at the edge of the field.
The sight before my eyes was enough to make any ordinary person, even one with a strong mentality, throw up their breakfast.
The black swamp has calmed down.
The fields were littered with white skeletons and broken shells.
The flesh and blood of those mutated creatures were completely drained.
The remaining bones are slowly softening and crumbling under the influence of strong acid, and will eventually turn into calcium fertilizer and return to the earth.
And those wheat seedlings that have finished "eating" are now stretching out their leaves.
The leaves, which were originally grayish-green, now have an eerie sheen.
The dark red color of the leaf veins is even more intense.
This is the color of something soaked in blood.
They grew taller.
It grew nearly ten centimeters taller overnight.
The wheat ears became fuller, and each grain was like a miniature bullet, hard and heavy.
Father Alpha couldn't help but exclaim, "Praise be to the God of all machines—what efficient energy conversion this is! This is the perfect collaboration between machine spirit and biology!"
"Advisor, you've created a closed-loop ecosystem. No waste, no redundancy; invaders become nutrients—it's practically industrial art!"
Lowe did not respond to the priest's praise.
He wore leather gloves and gently flicked the hard leaf.
The blades emitted a metallic hum.
Lowe shook his head and corrected him, "This isn't art, Father, it's cost control. We just replaced the bullets that would have been wasted with free feed."
He looked down and saw a huge wild dog's eyeball half-buried in the mud at his feet, cloudy and filled with the terror of its death.
Luo Wei lifted his foot and stomped it hard into the mud.
"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, meat to wheat."
He turned to Buck, whose face was pale, and said, "Have a few brave guys put on hazmat suits and pick out those big bones that haven't completely dissolved. They're excellent phosphate fertilizer; don't waste them. They can be ground into powder and used."
"Yes—yes, supervisor," Buck replied, swallowing hard.
He gazed at the man-eating wheat field with a look of awe.
Compared to enemies who fight openly and directly, this silent and insidious encroachment is far more chilling to the bone.
After the inspection, Luo Wei prepared to call it a day and go home for a nap.
The bird divination device at her waist emitted a rapid buzzing sound.
The Case server sent an emergency alert.
"Supervisor, a new intrusion signal has been detected."
Luo Wei frowned slightly and asked, "Are there still fearless wild beasts?"
"No, the signal characteristics are different." Case's voice was somewhat hesitant. "It's on the edge of Sector C-9, and it's very small."
Luo Wei immediately took out a portable display terminal.
The screen displays the surveillance footage of the edge of zone C-9.
That was where the beast tide had hit hardest last night, and a large hole had been torn in the outer barbed wire fence.
At that moment, through the thin morning mist, Luo Wei could see the so-called "intruders".
Then, his finger hovered over the red "Release Acid" button and froze.
A group of people arrived.
To be precise, they were a group of children who were barely clothed and looked to be only six or seven years old.
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