The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen
Chapter 151 - 65 Conquest, Mutual Slaughter? (3k)

Chapter 151: Chapter 65 Conquest, Mutual Slaughter? (3k)

"Can completely take over all the territories of a Lord after defeating him...

Is this implying that the Lords should kill each other?"

Bai Yi read the prompt over and over again to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

The effects of the conquest feature are mainly divided into two aspects, one is aimed at the Lords; after thoroughly defeating a Lord by killing or making them surrender, one can take over all their territories.

This even includes territories not in this world!

Even if not desired, these out-world territories can be turned over to the game for handling, and further compensated with resources, but the specific compensation wasn’t detailed on the panel.

With this rule, however, all powerful Lords will probably develop enmity in the future and may no longer fully trust each other.

The stronger the Lord, the larger the territory they own, and the greater the benefits after conquest!

Compared to swallowing dozens of Lords, conquering a powerful Lord probably offers bigger gains.

Luckily, so far only she has been promoted to a 4th-rank territory, this function is not yet known to other Lords, and in the short term, familiar Lords such as Jun Lin or Corpse King can still be trusted.

The second function of conquest allows for the conversion of ownerless land into territory, but the conditions are somewhat strict.

It needs to be occupied by one’s unit types for over a month without interruption, not invaded by other Lords or natives, and buildings have to be constructed before the area can be claimed as one’s own.

Regarding construction, it’s fairly simple, as with the blueprint of the Blood Flesh Worm Nest, those underground Fungus Blanket tunnels can also quickly be recognized as part of the structure.

The only difficulty indeed is time, at least a month or more of occupation—this is no short duration.

She’s been in this world barely longer than a month, of course, not counting the time within instances.

With this feature, the increase in territory area brought by the promotion of the territory seems less significant, perhaps future territory promotions will not feature any increase in territory area.

This conjecture by Bai Yi is based on the 5th-rank territory promotion task she saw after the promotion.

The task to promote to the 5th-rank is very unique, it’s not only a demand for territory promotion but also for the Lord’s promotion.

Or rather, at this level of promotion to 5th-rank, it seems that Lords and territories have been bound together.

Compared to the task for promoting to 4th-rank, however, the requirements have decreased significantly, leaving only two, but both appear quite challenging.

One of the requirements is to possess at least 200 square kilometers of territory within this world!

Currently, even including territories expanded with expansion vouchers, she barely has 80 square kilometers, in other words, she needs to at least more than double that to promote!

Clearly, this requirement aims to push Lords at the 4th-rank to expand and conquer more territories.

Either by occupying unclaimed lands, which takes more time, or by conquering other Lords, allowing the capture of territories without needing extra time, which is the fastest method.

Without swallowing other Lords and solely relying on claiming ownerless lands, it would probably take other Lords at least two or three months to secure.

However, most of the Lords currently in White Poplar City are at the 2nd-rank, while those at the 1st-rank have mostly vanished in this round of challenges, leaving few remaining.

Those 2nd-rank Lords aren’t like Bai Yi who could get Expansion Scrolls; at most, their territories are less than 1 square kilometer, and gathering enough territories would require slaughtering most existing Lords.

These Lords are considered in some sense "fellow locals," or perhaps should be called "same-area" residents, and Bai Yi is somewhat reluctant to proceed.

After all, capturing territories equates to killing them.

It would be nice if she could leave Zone 33, as she doesn’t need to be soft on Lords outside the region, but unfortunately, there are barriers between zones making traversal impossible.

The other task is just as Bai Yi had once conjectured; it demands much more fear or admiration, multiplied by ten-fold to a total of one hundred thousand.

However, the criteria are much more relaxed; simply having at least one hundred thousand intelligent beings can fulfill it, without any racial requirements.

Bai Yi had thought that this task might not even have started before already being completed, considering how vast her swarm is.

And as their Queen, admiration is maxed out; it’s not just about admiration, it’s almost about devotion.

But after seeing the progress of the task, the outcome was disappointing.

The progress didn’t show the nearly forty thousand admirers she expected, but just under twenty thousand. To be precise, just over thirteen thousand and a few digits more, not even reaching fourteen thousand.

Bai Yi calculated, excluding herself, this number exactly matches the count of all field hands, business opportunities, intelligent Transcendent plants, and the group consciousness within the entire swarm.

"Does this intelligent being require intelligence, not just life?

Must there be an independent will to count as one unit?"

Bai Yi made a conjecture based on the progress of the task she received.

After the formation of the group consciousness by the Insect Swarm, it was just deemed as one intelligent being, whereas all the Transcendent plants with newly emerged intelligence in the territory could provide progress for Bai Yi.

What was once an advantage for Bai Yi—the Swarm Consciousness—now became a limitation, entirely integrating the individual wills of the numerous insects, leaving only a singular group consciousness.

Could the Insect Swarm be physically divided and have the Swarm Consciousness separated?

Just as this idea surfaced in Bai Yi’s mind, it was immediately dismissed; currently in White Poplar City, even the Fungus Blanket tunnels were completely pervasive, making physical isolation impossible.

Moreover, even if isolation were achieved, given the area of White Poplar City, the amount of separated group consciousness would be like a drop in the ocean relative to one hundred thousand, creating no ripples whatsoever.

It seemed that compared to one hundred thousand Admirers, gathering one hundred thousand fears was much simpler.

As long as she commanded the Insect Swarm to wage war simultaneously against all Lords in White Poplar City, using bloodshed to pave her infamy, coupled with the soldier units under other Lords’ commands, she could quickly amass one hundred thousand fears.

But Bai Yi soon had new doubts; if fostering fear was so easy, what was the point of admiration?

Or could it be that some rewards from this promotion were due to admiration?

It must be that Divine Domain follower!

Bai Yi quickly reviewed the panel prompts and immediately identified the suspect.

"It seems I still need to gather as many Admirers as possible; at least the territory enhancement is worth the effort.

The territory size required by the task still needs at least another month, so I’ll try to gather some Admirers during this month. If I really can’t meet the number, I can switch to using fear later; there’s no rush."

Moreover, her promotion this time had already utilized Admirers, and with this foundation, gathering one hundred thousand would be less difficult.

In her heart, Bai Yi truly did not want to change her approach and use fear for her promotion.

If it were for gaining experience and enhancing strength, she would act without hesitation, similar to how a predator needs to consume meat, and Bai Yi would not let benevolence stop her; it would be irresponsible to herself.

However, if it was to purposely torment and induce fear to achieve her goal, Bai Yi was somewhat reluctant.

"If I really have no other choice, I’ll resort to that as my last measure...

And just using fear, it should be achievable within the instance. If by then the territory size requirement has already been met, and I still haven’t managed Admirers, then I’ll act in the instance."

Bai Yi set a baseline for herself in her mind, preferring to promote with Admirers if possible.

But currently in White Poplar City, there were not many beings left that could be converted into Admirers, especially humans.

The largest Sanctuary had already been brought under her command, and other scattered humans, even with diligent searching, would not add up to a significant number.

If not counting humans, then it would have to be mutant creatures, but where could she find enough mutant creatures?

Bai Yi pondered and found only one answer—

That would be White Poplar Mountain adjacent to her territory!

Admirers needed intelligence, and in all of White Poplar City, only in White Poplar Mountain could she find a sufficient number of mutant creatures with intelligence.

With her identity as the Tree King, and considering the current plague of the cold disaster causing hunger and cold, it was the best time to win their hearts, or rather, their beastly hearts!

If she could extend aid, the many creatures in White Poplar Mountain even including the groups of the two Beast Kings, could all become her potential Admirers!

This cooperation also increased her goodwill among the two groups.

As for other scattered mutant creature groups, negotiations would have to proceed slowly.

She cast this idea into the Swarm Network, letting Shang Ji quickly draft a detailed plan.

However, even including White Poplar Mountain, there was still a significant gap from one hundred thousand, as intelligent mutant creatures were not very numerous to begin with, and the intensified infighting among mutant creatures due to the cold disaster makes it uncertain whether even ten thousand could be gathered.

"Ah, if only I could leave White Poplar City and cross the barrier to other regions...

I remember during the second week, the barriers at monster spawn points were the same, and back then Ju could pass through them. If I let Ju wear a headpiece, could we fix a location on the other side?"

This idea rose again in her mind, and Bai Yi decided to try the regional border after this Cycle Challenge ends.

But right now, the most important thing was to complete the Cycle Challenge and arrange the upgrading affairs within her territory.

Thinking this, Bai Yi exited the territory panel and entered the channel to see the effects of the beast tide she had triggered.

.........

Insect Nest Maze: Everyone only saw the surface of the Insect Swarm, witnessed those fierce, bloodthirsty insects and the troublesome Fungus Blanket, but almost nobody considered that beneath the Fungus Blanket was the true territory of the Insect Swarm...

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