221: Chapter 222 The Tactics Have Changed

In deep space, there is no alternation between day and night.

The light of the stars is always cold and glaring.

In an environment without a natural circadian rhythm, the human biological clock is easily disrupted, leading to neurasthenia.

But Lin Li is a person who cares about maintaining his health.

On Earth in the old era, there was a classic health motto circulating:

"To be healthy and live long, smoke, drink, eat fatty meat, sleep late, wake up late, don't exercise, and make more friends of the opposite sex."

Of course, this is definitely sarcasm.

As for Lin Li's current daily routine, except for the last point about making friends with the opposite sex, which he has no condition to realize, he strictly executes the opposite of everything else.

"Beep, beep, beep—"

At seven o'clock sharp, the alarm clock in the captain's quarters of The Guardian rang on time.

Lin Li did a kip-up and rolled straight out of bed.

He washed up briefly with cold recycled water, grabbed two high-energy synthetic compressed biscuits from the table, and strode toward the core operations room while munching on them.

Pushing open the doors to the operations room.

Lin Li saw that the two Men of Iron were still nailed to the console like two tireless iron pillars.

As top-tier workhorses that don't need sleep, the Men of Iron naturally didn't need to rest.

Iron Man U-999 was covered in cables, its massive mechanical head swaying slightly with the firing frequency of the outer defensive line, still precisely controlling the Macro Cannon array to carpet-bomb the bugs outside.

Meanwhile, the blue light in Iron Man 73's eyes flickered like a waterfall, methodically processing the massive amount of information data coming in from all channels.

The two had a clear division of labor, and their efficiency was terrifying.

Beside the tactical sandbox.

Commander-in-Chief Ushtan had been replaced by Owen to rest, as he had been up for several days and nights.

"Brothers! Morning!"

Lin Li swallowed the last bite of the compressed biscuit and brushed the crumbs off his hands, "How's the situation?"

Iron Man U-999 turned its heavy metal Ironhead over, its electronic voice devoid of waves: "Report, Creator. The fire control array is operating normally, and the barrel temperature is within safety thresholds. Additionally, because the bugs actively changed their charge tactics in the second half of the night, the power consumption of the main energy storage pool has decreased significantly."

Veteran Owen stood straight immediately upon hearing Lin Li's voice.

Beside Owen was a portable ecological jar made of high-strength glass.

In the soil inside the jar, a small, emerald-green sapling was growing.

This was an original ecological green plant he had managed to find on the surface.

"Lord."

Owen held the ecological jar, his tone filled with deep emotion, "The performance of those clone warriors... is still so brilliant that it's frightening."

"These super warriors can not only constantly respawn, but their fighting will is like that of a mad dog. The most terrifying thing is their growth speed!"

Owen pointed to the data of several players on the screen who were slaughtering enemies on the battlefield, "After growing through this campaign, many of the individual soldiers' combat power is already on par with us Thunder Warriors."

"Some exceptionally strong individuals have even far surpassed us in physical fitness. I dare say, even if you brought those annoying Golden Custodes from the Empire over, they probably wouldn't be any better!"

Lin Li listened and a proud smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Of course."

Lin Li looked at The Fourth Calamity dancing like demons on the screen, "I've said it before, they are the most perfect war weapons in the universe. And besides, this is just the beginning. This is far from the limit of their potential."

After reassuring Owen, Lin Li turned to look at the Men of Iron on the tactical console: "Old Seven, what do you say? The bugs' tactics have changed?"

"Yes, Creator." Iron Man 73 pulled up a comparison image of the holographic star map, "Generally speaking, after experiencing this period of tactical probing, the disgusting, lower-life-form bugs have finally learned to be smart."

"The bugs have completely abandoned the stupid tactic of using those massive cruisers to force a breakthrough and engage us in boarding battles. Because large targets are purely living targets in front of the Mass-Energy Conversion Cannon."

Iron Man 73 pointed to the small red dots on the screen that were as dense as a swarm of bees, "They have turned to hatching and using large numbers of those small-to-medium-sized, light-armor, but extremely fast small Zerg assault ships!"

"They are attempting to use these massive numbers of low-cost units to deplete our interceptor ammunition and infiltrate The Guardian. As for the remaining large cruisers and frigates, they have all retreated, protecting the Hive Mother Ship at the very back, and even retreated directly outside the effective range of our main guns."

Lin Li snorted coldly: "Obviously, the bugs have also discovered the power of our Mass-Energy Conversion Cannon, which kills whoever it sees, and they dare not bring out big ships to die anymore."

At this moment, the red light on Iron Man U-999's head flickered, and it prompted: "Creator, as the fire control hub, I must remind you of a very serious piece of news."

"Because you almost completely filled The Guardian with large-caliber heavy weapons when designing it, these heavy guns are indeed effective against large warships. However, when used to deal with the current massive, dispersed small bug breakthrough tactics, the firepower net appears somewhat too sparse and struggling."

Iron Man U-999 paused, "Just in the second half of last night, quite a few tiny boarding units slipped through the blind spots of the Macro Cannon and rushed onto the external armor of The Guardian. Although they were cleared by the defensive troops, this is definitely a huge hidden danger."

Hearing this news, Lin Li was not panicked; instead, he nodded calmly.

"Don't worry, we already have a plan for this situation."

Lin Li reached out and entered a string of keys into the tactical console, "Did you really think that just because I moved those production lines to the surface, the headquarters stopped building things?"

"Calculating the time, the four independent firepower platforms specially designed to mount small-caliber, high-frequency rapid-fire anti-aircraft cannons, which were rushed into production, should be manufactured by now. 73, remember to sync the data!"

Lin Li looked at Iron Man U-999, "When the time comes, these four auxiliary gun platforms will launch directly into space and physically link to the four faces of The Guardian! Those annoying flies will then be all yours to strafe."

...

Meanwhile, on the flank line not far from The Guardian.

Inside the flagship of the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers, a massive, knock-off triangular Star Destroyer.

After a night of fierce fighting, a large number of players who had been grinding all night finally couldn't hold on anymore and returned to the cryo-chambers on the bottom floor of the ship to AFK and save, letting their clone bodies physically rest.

Another batch of players who had rested well began to log back in to take over.

"Ah—!"

ikun True Fan just sat up from the cryo-chamber and stretched vigorously, his bones popping like firecrackers.

He put on his Power Armor while asking loudly in the channel: "Brothers, how's the battle situation?"

At the console in the corner, Shushu Failed the Exam, despite having been up all night with heavy dark circles under his eyes, was in a terrifyingly excited state.

"Haha! Brother Kun, you're finally online!"

Shushu Failed the Exam turned his head excitedly, "Let me tell you! Those bugs have finally changed tactics! They were definitely scared by the super cannon on the boss's fortress."

"Now you can't even see a shadow of a cruiser; they've sent out massive amounts of small-to-medium-sized micro-units to play a war of attrition with us!"

"I have to say, this tactic of the bugs is somewhat effective. That big cannon on The Guardian is too much effort to hit mosquitoes; last night, it was already breached by large numbers of small bugs, and they boarded several times!"

After listening, ikun True Fan rolled his eyes at him.

"Wait! The bugs have breached the boss's fortress, so why the hell are you so happy? That's a bad thing, okay!"

"What the hell do you know!"

Shushu Failed the Exam slapped the console excitedly, "What did our guild start with? On the wasteland, didn't we specialize in drones and missile business?"

"Doesn't this just happen to play to our strengths! The large number of interceptor drones we stockpiled in our guild warehouse that had no use before can finally be put to use now!"

ikun True Fan checked the plasma rifle in his hand and asked: "So? How were your drone results last night?"

Shushu Failed the Exam chuckled: "As everyone knows, because of that annoying Warp psychic interference from the Brain Bug, our ordinary radio-controlled drones lost connection and control not long after flying out in space; they weren't of much use."

"But! Several big shots in our guild stayed up all night to hand-craft and modify a large batch of fiber-optic drone control modules! Then we used the constructor to print fiber optics!"

Shushu Failed the Exam gestured, "We just connect an ultra-long, high-strength physical fiber optic cable to the tail of the drone! Transmitting signals via wire! Now the bugs' psychic interference is completely useless! These wire-guided drones are simply amazing for dealing with those small bugs that are numerous and have thin armor!"

"Moreover, the space fighter formation our guild spent a fortune building finally has a place to shine! I won't tell you more; open the panel and see for yourself! My fighter's weapons are loaded; I'm going to fly my Mach 20 fighter to dogfight with those bugs!"

After saying that, Shushu Failed the Exam walked out of the control room and headed to the internal launch bay.

ikun True Fan rubbed his chin, looking suspicious.

He took out the electronic dog tag pv terminal hanging around his neck.

He clicked on the legendary expansion pack server-wide kill merit leaderboard pinned to the top of the system.

You wouldn't know if you didn't look, but he was shocked when he did!

He saw that on the leaderboard.

Bear Ridge and the Brotherhood of Steel, which had originally been firmly in the first echelon, were now suppressed below!

The total merit points of the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers had soared several levels overnight, killing their way directly to second place on the leaderboard!