Apocalypse: My Items Can Upgrade Infinitely

Ultimately, the only solution was to form a unit of soldiers with Flying Ability.

As Ling Yi contemplated this, Lin Feng, who was standing nearby, clearly realized it too. Relying solely on ground-based anti-air defenses against the bombings was just passive defense; the initiative remained firmly in the Mother Empress’s hands.

The Hai City Mother Empress could, at a very low cost, deplete humanity’s logistical resources and scatter their defensive firepower, thereby creating a diversion to cover her main ground assault.

After some thought, Lin Feng said:

"If the second line of defense can’t hold, then we’ll reduce the number of defenders there. We’ll concentrate all their firepower on anti-air and no longer task them with stopping the Swarm."

"Because just ten Tanks can effectively annihilate tens of thousands of Black Spine Zergs. With fire support from the Dreadnought Battleship, we can easily suppress even hundreds or thousands of Tier Two Tiger Spine Zergs."

"We have an absolute advantage on the ground, so we must leverage the fleet’s mobility to push the front line even further forward. This will give us more strategic depth for maneuvers."

"This way, we also won’t have to worry about the enemy using Tier Two Pulse War Scorpions to attack the second line of defense from a distance."

The shore of East Taihu Lake was about ten kilometers behind the second line of defense. The Wu City defenders were effectively fighting with their backs to the wall, so they naturally had to muster do-or-die courage.

As he spoke, Lin Feng pointed to five heavy trucks that had finished unloading. Next to them was a small mountain of over five hundred tons of Fine Steel:

"I can probably synthesize about forty more Tanks right now, bringing the total to sixty. That’s enough to carry at least twelve hundred people. We’ll divide them into six squads surrounding the Dreadnought Battleship. The two vanguards will attack the ground Swarm, the left and right flanks will provide fire support and anti-air, and the two squads in the rear will specialize in defending against aerial attacks from Suicide Bugs."

After speaking, Lin Feng maneuvered the Dreadnought Battleship, turning it around and moving it near the pile of Fine Steel. He activated the battlefield-clearing collector on its bow, which swallowed all five hundred-plus tons of Fine Steel into its storage space.

After devouring the steel, the Dreadnought Battleship’s movements slowed considerably. Under Lin Feng’s Remote Control, its stern hatch opened wide, and brand-new Lv19 Flying Wing Tanks began to slowly roll out.

The battle this afternoon had been fierce, but the battered fleet was not without its gains. In addition to consuming a large number of Black Spine Zerg corpses, they had also shot down some of the scouting Cyan-winged Zergs, thanks to Chen Yanyan and a few sharp-eyed Warriors.

In the end, they collected a total of seventy to eighty Cyan-winged Zerg corpses.

It was enough to cover the cost of copying and fusing more than forty Flying Wing Tanks.

As the Tanks rolled out of the Dreadnought Battleship’s rear hatch one by one and parked on the station plaza.

It gave everyone the strange impression of a whale giving birth.

It was as if the Dreadnought Battleship possessed the ability to automatically produce and synthesize things.

While everyone stared, dumbfounded, Lin Feng was already checking the Attributes of this batch of battlefield Replicas:

「Lv19 Flying Wing Tank—Replica, Red Quality」

「Cannot be Upgraded, Defense 150, Damage 130, Average Speed 150 km/h, Range 1,000 km」

「Extra Attributes: Biological Armor (Defense Power +50), Armor-Piercing Car Head (Damage +20),

Unlimited Firepower: Twelve Heavy Machine Guns, Damage 40, unlimited ammunition

Multiple Cannons: Equipped with five Level 19 Scatter Cannons, Damage 190, range 5 km, ammo capacity 5,000, Bullet Recovery 1/s

Ground Effect Flight: Increases speed by 150 km/h, adapts to complex water and land terrain, fuel consumption +100%, Range reduced by half」

「Note: As a Replica, it cannot be Upgraded, but it can receive Energy supplements from the original Land Patrol Battleship to be used for sustaining its range, replenishing ammunition, and repairing damage」

Compared to the original Flying Wing Tanks, these Replicas possessed more shared Attributes.

The replenishment of backup ammunition and the automatic repair of damage could both draw on the Dreadnought Battleship’s Land Ship attribute, using Energy derived from incinerated Zerg Race corpses.

This was extremely significant for extending the Tanks’ combat endurance.

And in Lin Feng’s view, these special changes...

...were probably because they had been produced directly from within the Dreadnought Battleship. From the moment the Replica Tanks were "born," the two shared an extremely strong connection.

It was also because of this that Lin Feng could use the Lv29 Dreadnought Battleship to directly Remote Control the Lv19 Flying Wing Tanks.

Chen Yanyan, who was behind Lin Feng, had also clearly noticed this rather miraculous detail.

In the end, consuming over five hundred tons of Fine Steel, several thousand Black Spine Zergs, and dozens of Cyan-winged Zergs yielded forty-five Flying Wing Tanks.

Combined with the fifteen remaining Tanks, they now had a total of sixty. This force, paired with the Dreadnought Battleship, was more than enough to easily handle the assault from the Hai City Zerg Race.

In addition, Lin Feng used the last few dozen tons of Fine Steel to synthesize over three hundred Level 19 Scatter Cannons, which would be used to arm the Warriors accompanying him.

Lin Feng immediately called for Li Ran:

"Select a group of Tier One Late Stage Awakeners, about three hundred in total. Equip each of them with a Shotgun. They will accompany me to execute another important plan."

Li Ran nodded, called for a captain from the Battle Soldier Camp, and began the screening and recruitment process.

By now, any discerning person could see that following their leader, Lin Feng, would bring the greatest rewards with manageable risks. The next best option was to join the fleet as a Cannon Shooter on a Tank. Although this came with some risk, it was an easy way to kill large numbers of Black Spine Zergs and advance to Tier One Peak, so the gains were still substantial.

Excluding the three hundred men in the leader’s temporary personal guard and the twelve hundred fleet members, the remaining thirty-five hundred Warriors could only stay behind to defend the second line, or serve in the camp handling logistics, command, or as reserve squads.

Not only did they still risk being bombed, but they would miss out entirely on the benefits of killing Zergs to advance...

Therefore, the sharpest ones immediately scrambled to sign up for the leader’s direct squad. Those who weren’t quite strong enough eagerly sought out the fleet, applying to become Cannon Shooters.

During the lull while personnel were being reassigned, Lin Feng took the fifteen battle-damaged Tanks that had returned from the front and repaired them one by one.

Next, he retrieved the dozen or so remaining Cyan-winged Zerg corpses from the storage space via the Dreadnought Battleship’s rear hatch.

At most, he could create about a dozen sets of Lv19 Red Profound Flying Armor from them, but each set would only have an operational time of about ten minutes.

Therefore, considering their limits on speed, altitude, and duration, Flying Soldiers wearing the Red Profound Flying Armor were completely incapable of carrying out strike missions against the Tier Two Wind-winged Zergs flying thousands of meters up.

This was one of the clear disadvantages of the Battle Armor.

Although it retained the Zerg Race’s sturdy defenses and Flying Ability, it lacked the support of an integrated living body, making it difficult to adapt as flexibly as a Zerg could.

After all, one was a burden worn on the body, while the other was a natural, integrated part of it.

The current flight performance issues were a prime example of this problem.

When the Membrane Wings were part of a Cyan-winged Zerg, they could be used at will. As long as its body had enough Energy, it could fly continuously for hours without worrying about the wings overheating from flapping.

This was because the base of the Membrane Wings was connected to the creature’s circulatory system. During flight, the wind blowing over its entire body naturally dissipated the heat.

This was unlike the Flying Battle Armor, which could only last for about ten minutes due to overheating at the base of its Membrane Wings.

By taking out the Cyan-winged Zerg corpses now, Lin Feng was, in fact, searching for a solution to this very problem.

He turned his gaze toward the eight Tier Two Battle Groups that were assembling and reorganizing.

The Battle Groups were divided between Genetic Warriors and regular Awakeners. There were four regular Battle Groups, each with 80 members, and three Genetic Warrior Battle Groups, each with 70 members.

Thus, with Lin Feng’s approval, Liu Yi was made the general commander of the four regular Battle Groups.

They would be the main force accompanying Lin Feng on the upcoming decapitation strike.

As for the Genetic Combat Teams made up of Genetic Warriors, Lin Feng planned to give them a task that was both arduous and easy:

to form an Aerospace Corps, specifically to counter the Hai City Mother Empress’s high-altitude bombings with Suicide Bugs!

「Night had already fallen.」

The number of patrol sentries throughout the camp increased tenfold. Everyone’s nerves were stretched taut as they stood on high alert, ready for anything.

On Lin Feng’s orders, Shen Jie led seventy-two Genetic Warriors to the room where the Cyan-winged Zerg corpses were stored. Then, in front of everyone, he began to process the corpses.

He tore the Membrane Wings from their backs, slicing them off along with the thick muscle and ligaments at the base.

Then, he started to eat it, taking large bites.

He spoke as he ate:

"Since your bodies contain my cellular genes, you should naturally be able to activate your Flying Ability. The Cyan-winged Zergs and the Black Spine Zergs actually share a common origin..."

"Try it. It should activate that part of your genes!"

After speaking, he tossed the other half of the Membrane Wing in his hand to a Battle Group Leader from one of the Genetic Combat Teams.

The man caught it and swallowed nervously.

In the quiet room, aside from the crisp crunching sound of Shen Jie’s chewing, a chorus of nervous gulps suddenly arose.