19: F-1 "Hummingbird" drone swarm

Jiang Ran's finger slid across the holographic screen, pulling up a blueprint he had long since conceived.

It was a strange-looking aircraft, only the size of a palm.

It didn't have fragile rotors; instead, it used a four-winged flapping structure similar to a dragonfly, with high-energy miniature explosives mounted on its abdomen.

[Target Blueprint: F-1 "beebird" class miniature tactical drone]

[Type: Reconnaissance/Suicide Attack/Swarm Combat]

[Cost: Each unit consumes 50g of gold (high-precision conductive circuits), 100g of polymer, and 1 miniature high-energy lithium battery.]

"Build twenty first."

Jiang Ran ordered indifferently.

"Received."

In the next second, Su Qingyu witnessed a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Inside the three transparent processing chambers, dense laser beams lit up instantly.

This was no longer crude smelting, but nano-scale weaving.

Countless strands of molten gold wire, guided by lasers, were instantly printed into an extremely complex 3D circuit network.

It was as precise as the human nerve system, shimmering with a noble dark gold luster.

Next, black high-polymer was sprayed and solidified, precisely encasing those fragile gold wires to form a streamlined, teardrop-shaped fuselage.

No sparks, no noise, only a dazzling mechanical dance. Only five minutes passed.

"Ding."

The outlet of the processing chamber opened.

Twenty black things, looking like oversized mechanical beetles, slid out neatly and lay quietly on the tray.

Su Qingyu leaned in curiously, wanting to reach out and touch those wings as thin as a cicada's.

"Don't touch."

Jiang Ran warned coldly, "That's a single-molecule carbon fiber structure, with diamond-plated edges.

When vibrating at high speeds, its cutting ability is stronger than a scalpel and can easily sever a person's finger."

"This is... a drone?"

Su Qingyu retracted her hand as if she'd received an electric shock, looking at these little things as exquisite as works of art:

"So small, what use can they be?

The wind speed outside is level eight; they'll be blown to pieces as soon as they fly out."

"Blown to pieces?"

Jiang Ran picked up a freshly made espresso, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Ordinary rotorcraft certainly wouldn't work.

But this thing is a masterpiece of bionics."

He snapped his fingers.

"zero, activate the swarm."

"Buzz—"

A very low, almost piercing high-frequency vibration sounded.

The twenty "hummingbirds" on the tray woke up instantly.

They didn't wobble into the air like ordinary drones, but instead catapulted into mid-air, hovering around Jiang Ran.

Four transparent wings vibrated at high frequencies hundreds of times per second, actually carving ripples visible to the naked eye in the air.

Twenty pairs of miniature red electronic eyes stared coldly ahead.

How was this a drone?

This was clearly a swarm of hungry mechanical killer bees.

"They are my eyes, and also my bayonets."

Jiang Ran reached out his hand, and a "hummingbird" hovered with extreme precision on his fingertip, the wind pressure from its wings actually blowing Su Qingyu's hair into a frenzy.

"With them, we have God's eye view."

He turned to look at Su Qingyu, his eyes flashing with the confidence of one in control of everything: "Let's go, Dr. Su.

Let's go see the world outside.

Just right, zero just reported that some things that don't know whether they're dead or alive are approaching our territory."

...Returning to the cockpit, the violent sound of rain outside was once again shut out.

Jiang Ran sat comfortably in the Commander's seat, his coffee still steaming.

Su Qingyu sat somewhat stiffly in the co-pilot's seat, her gaze occasionally drifting to the flashing golden eyeball cursor in the center of the console—"zero".

"Commander, external weather conditions are severe.

Wind speed level 8, gusts level 10, visibility less than 50 meters."

zero's calm voice sounded: "The swarm system has preheated. Execute deployment?"

"Deploy," Jiang Ran said indifferently.

"Click."

On the back of the streamlined hull of the black iron ghost, two armor plates slid open silently, revealing a dense honeycomb-like launch array.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

There was no hum of propellers, only the extremely faint sound of air being pierced.

Twenty "hummingbird" drones catapulted into the sky instantly.

Their diamond-plated bionic flapping wings vibrated at frequencies hard for the naked eye to capture, actually slicing through the wind and rain by sheer force.

Under Su Qingyu's shocked gaze, this group of palm-sized black spirits was not blown askew by the gale.

Instead, they utilized the lift of the air currents like a flock of well-trained swifts.

Carving eerie yet stable arcs in the air, they vanished into the dark clouds in the blink of an eye.

In the next second.

The giant holographic main screen in the front of the cockpit suddenly lit up.

The originally pitch-black image was instantly divided into twenty high-definition split screens.

Then, with the support of zero's terrifying computing power, they merged seamlessly into a massive 3D real-time bird's-eye view.

"This..."

The coffee cup in Su Qingyu's hand almost tipped over.

On the screen, where was there any sign of the rainstorm?

zero's image processing algorithm filtered out the interference of the rain curtain in real-time.

Using infrared thermal imaging and low-light night vision technology, everything within a three-kilometer radius was illuminated in minute detail.

The outlines of ruined buildings, trash floating on the water, even a rat hiding under a billboard to escape the rain were clearly delineated.

This wasn't just looking; this was X-ray vision.

On this map, any object with temperature had nowhere to hide.

"In this world of the blind, the one who can fly is God."

Jiang Ran's finger slid gently across the screen, the image shifting accordingly, as if he were operating from God's eye view.

"zero, search for abnormal heat sources.

You said just now there were rats nearby?"

"Yes, Commander.

Bearing 11 o'clock, distance 1.8 kilometers.

Top floor of the 'Tiansheng Building'."

The screen instantly zoomed in and enlarged.

It was an office building with the last five floors still above the water because of its high elevation.

At this moment, on the broad rooftop terrace, a dozen figures were moving, showing piercing orange-red thermal imaging outlines.

Su Qingyu leaned closer to the screen, and when she clearly saw the image restored by the optical lens, her pupils shrank suddenly.

That was not survivors huddling for warmth.

That was an execution scene.

A dozen thugs wearing various colored raincoats, holding machetes and modified zip guns, were surrounding a bonfire.

At their feet knelt four or five naked men who had been beaten bloody.

There were also two women being dragged to a corner, undergoing humiliation.

And on the edge of the terrace, a simple catapult and two homemade harpoon launchers were even set up, their muzzles pointed at the surrounding waters.

"It's the 'Vulture Gang'..."

Su Qingyu recognized the red armbands on these people's arms, her voice cold and even carrying a hint of trembling:

"Before on the yacht, it was their accomplices who attacked us.

They specialize in hunting in this area. Whether they're living people or dead, as long as there are supplies, they rob them. They... eat people."

On the screen, a leading One-Eyed Dragon was holding binoculars, seemingly searching for movement on the water's surface.

He had a cigarette in his mouth, kicked a kneeling man over, and then raised the machete in his hand, seemingly preparing for the final execution.

"A bunch of trash."

Jiang Ran looked at the screen as if he were looking at a cluster of bacteria under a microscope.

If it were before, he would have had to sail over for these few people, wasting fuel and potentially scratching the ship's paint with their crude weapons.

But now... Jiang Ran picked up his coffee, gently blew off the steam, and didn't even stand up from his comfortable leather seat.

His finger tapped lightly on the screen, locking onto those dozen or so red heat source signals.

"zero."

"Present."

"I don't want to see them polluting my territory alive."

"Swarm attack mode—total extermination."