44: Corpse Exploding Bugs

That single crack was like the first stroke of a baton from a conductor of a hellish orchestra.

Immediately after, the "white land" that had been slightly undulating on the surface of the corpse oil began to boil completely.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The dense sounds of bursting merged into one continuous noise.

It sounded like a long string of New Year's firecrackers being thrown into a septic tank full of methane—muffled and disgusting.

Under the pale beam of the searchlight, Jiang Ran witnessed a "hatching" ceremony that he would never forget for the rest of his life.

Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of bloated corpses began their final mission at the same time.

Bellies that were originally as swollen as leather balls burst one after another, spraying a sky full of yellow-green acid mist and fragments of rotten internal organs.

And within that nauseating blood mist...

Countless tan shadows, each as large as a washbasin, scrambled to crawl out from those tattered skins.

They waved slender, barbed limbs and emitted sharp, piercing "squeaks."

Stepping on the corpses of their own kind and the remains of their hosts, they converged into a tan, writhing whirlwind.

In just a few seconds, the entire canyon waterway was covered by this newborn "biological carpet."

The originally pale tide of corpses had vanished, replaced by an undulating, dense sea of insects.

The smell of rotting corpses in the air, which was already suffocating, was now mixed with high concentrations of volatile acid.

Even through the filtration system, one could seemingly feel that spicy, pungent chemical gas that could make one's eyes water.

"They're looking at us."

Su Qingyu's voice trembled slightly as she pointed at the countless, dense heat signatures on the holographic screen.

Yes, they were looking.

These "Rotten Corpse Methane Water Striders" that had just burst from their bodies...

Although they lacked a complex visual system, they had an almost perversely keen perception of heat and bioelectricity.

In this cold, deathly silent River Styx...

The black iron ghost, possessing a scorching nuclear heart and carrying two living human lives, was like the only burning torch in the polar night.

That was the temperature they had long craved, the feeding signal etched into their genes.

"Squeak—!!!"

Accompanied by a shriek that felt like it could pierce eardrums, the swarm moved.

They no longer crawled aimlessly but acted like a suicide squad that had received a unified command.

With their hind legs kicking hard, tens of thousands of insects catapulted forward simultaneously.

What kind of sight was that?

It was like a tan rainstorm surging upstream, overwhelming everything, obscuring vision, and even blocking radar signals.

Carrying bellies full of acid and methane, they launched a death-defying charge toward the black iron.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Without any buffer or probing...

The first wave of the insect tide hit the pale blue [Klein Field] surrounding the black iron ghost like a series of heavy blows.

This was no longer the crisp sound of metal clashing.

Instead, it was a hair-raising, wet, muffled sound, like countless liquid-filled balloons being squeezed and popped at the same time.

The moment they hit the shield, these frenzied insects did not hesitate to directly detonate the poison sacs in their abdomens.

In an instant, the black iron seemed to have plunged into a yellow-green rainstorm.

The force field shield, which was originally clear and transparent with blue light only at the edges, was now completely smothered by countless bursts of acid.

That highly corrosive liquid did not bounce off like bullets.

Instead, it was like sticky mucus, clinging tightly to the surface of the energy layer and flowing slowly along the curvature of the light shield.

"Sizzle, sizzle—!!!"

The piercing sound of corrosion drowned out the sound of the rain.

Jiang Ran sat in the command chair, and a series of unsettling yellow warnings popped up on the holographic screen in front of him.

[Warning: Klein Field is undergoing continuous chemical erosion.]

[Energy level oscillations on the shield surface are intensifying.]

[Current Output: 35%... 42%... still rising!]

"This is the disgusting part about biochemical attacks."

Jiang Ran looked at the light shield on the screen, which was trembling violently like waves, and frowned slightly.

The Klein Field was a physical barrier constructed based on the principle of nuclear repulsion.

It could perfectly deflect kinetic warheads and even neutralize energy beams.

But facing this "facial mask" of strong acid that continuously adhered and underwent chemical reactions, its computational logic was clearly struggling.

It was like using a high-precision laser knife to cut a lump of sticky asphalt; although it could cut through, it would always end up covered in filth.

"Sizzle—"

Finally, a glob of acid splashed through an energy gap in the shield.

It landed on the thick black armor of the foredeck.

Accompanied by a puff of white smoke, that Bio-active Metal armor, which was strong enough to resist armor-piercing shells...

Actually had a fingernail-sized pit etched into it, and the surrounding metal tissue was writhing and repairing itself in pain.

"Jiang Ran! Look at the window!"

Su Qingyu's terrified voice came from the side.

Jiang Ran turned to look and saw that the expensive bulletproof glass outside the bridge was now covered with a layer of grayish-white mist.

It was the steam evaporated from the acid, which was etching the rain-repellent coating on the glass surface.

If the shield hadn't been turned on, this layer of special glass, several centimeters thick, would probably have been burned through long ago.

"It can even etch glass..."

Jiang Ran looked at the rapidly spreading white mist, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

How were these insects?

These were clearly tens of thousands of bottles of flying aqua regia.

If they didn't strip off this disgusting "skin," even if the black iron wasn't blown up and sunk, it would be melted into a pile of scrap metal by these layers of acid.

The attack was still escalating.

Seemingly realizing that ordinary acid spitting couldn't open a gap in that light shield...

The swarm's tactics instantly became even more frenzied and determined.

"Squeak—"

With a sharp, unified hiss, the insects that were still scratching at the shield with their claws suddenly stopped their movements.

The next second, it was as if they had received some kind of self-destruct command.

Hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of insects contracted their abdomens simultaneously.

Then, turning themselves into biochemical bombs, they slammed violently into various parts of the ship's hull.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

It was no longer sporadic bursting sounds, but a continuous roar.

This was a saturated suicide attack.

The massive hull of the black iron ghost was actually forced to vibrate slightly by this endless sea of insects.

Every impact left a large puddle of boiling strong acid and a thick cloud of yellow-green methane on the shield.

In just a dozen seconds...

The entire warship was completely enveloped in a thick, suffocating cloud of toxic gas.

Looking from the outside, where was the black warship?

There was only a huge, writhing, constantly exploding yellow-green light cocoon.

"Warning: External optical sensors have failed."

"Warning: Phase Radar array is obscured by organic matter; signal attenuation is 90%."

"Warning: Ambient methane concentration has exceeded the critical value! The air is extremely flammable!"

zero's cold warning echoed in the bridge, and the images on the holographic screen went out one by one, finally turning into static.

They were blinded.