The Doomsday Lord: Starting as a Insect Queen
Chapter 202 - 115 The Upgrade of the Erosion Worm

Chapter 202: Chapter 115 The Upgrade of the Erosion Worm

Since yesterday, after completing the high-tier potion that Shang Ji needed, Bai Yi began the update work on the Erosion Worm.

Although most of the genes were already present, the actual transformation process still involved the addition and upgrading of many genes.

This update of the Erosion Worm could almost be described as a complete species change, even its appearance has been altered.

The first change to accommodate the growing number of genes was the body size of the Erosion Worm.

In a normal hovering pose, the Erosion Worm’s height has already successfully surpassed Bai Yi, reaching that of an average adult.

In fact, now even if the Erosion Worm lies flat on the ground, Bai Yi can barely see the top of it.

Along with the growth in size, there was also an increase in its Life Value and panel attributes.

With various stacking enhancement effects, the Erosion Worm’s paper Life Value has already broken through ten thousand, and thanks to its armor, it has obtained a damage reduction of 100 points for All Attributes and an additional 20% immunity to Elemental-type damage.

In terms of attributes, the Erosion Worm is the opposite of her own body; the other three attributes can still be displayed normally, but the Spirit Attribute has successfully collapsed.

Bai Yi speculated that this might be due to the current Swarm Network. With today’s over one hundred thousand diverse Insect Swarms and the substantial Fungus Blanket’s support, the Swarm’s Spirit Attribute has been enhanced to an outrageous level on paper.

In reality, that vast spiritual power simply cannot exist within an individual Erosion Worm. If any Erosion Worm attempted to fully channel that immense spiritual power, the first thing to collapse would not be the enemy, but the worm itself.

Under this level of spiritual power, the collapse of the attribute values doesn’t seem like an unexpected event.

Before the upgrade, she had not paid attention to the Insect Swarm’s panel for a long time. Perhaps even before she upgraded them, the Spirit Attribute had already collapsed on some day, but she just hadn’t noticed.

In terms of other abilities, Poison Blood has been successfully updated to the latest version. However, this once-signature ability of the Insect Swarm has become less important for the current Erosion Worm.

The other abilities have been strengthened to a level that is usable.

For example, the Spatial Adaptability, which originally only enhanced some Armor-breaking Ability, she deleted most of the superfluous features during this strengthening and specialized its Armor-breaking Function in combination with the transcendent profession [Butcher] granted by the Insect Swarm.

Now its limbs and wings wielded in combat could get 150 points of basic Penetration, which at the same Rank could virtually be seen as true damage with each hit.

But this is the limit of what this gene can achieve.

After all, it was originally just a Low-tier gene obtained by Bai Yi from a plant, and specializing it to this degree was no easy task.

To truly add a Space superpower to the Erosion Worm, she would have to wait until her Superpower Tier advanced and then extract more reliable abilities from the orange cat.

Who knows, by then her Insect Swarm might even be able to have each member of the Insect Clan carry a Storage Space with them!

Besides strengthening the already existing superpowers, the extra carrying capacity gained from the increased body size was naturally not going to be wasted.

However, for the Erosion Worm as her fundamental Insect Swarm, Bai Yi still preferred them to be balanced, with abilities prioritized on versatility.

[...]

The best is the kind that is difficult to be targeted by people.

As for the specific details, she would consider them when she cultivated branch Insect Swarms in the future.

Among the various Superpower Genes that Bai Yi currently had, the one ultimately chosen was a gene entry formed from Little You’s Extraordinary Ability that was then applied to their bodies.

After this entry was merged into the Insect Swarm, it gave the Swarm a Magic Power control ability similar to Little You’s Extraordinary Ability.

While enhancing its efficiency in utilizing and drawing Magic Power, it was also capable of using the Insect Swarm’s vast spiritual power for auxiliary calculations to mimic and cast special Spells akin to Little You’s Extraordinary Ability.

For example, spewing a Magic Power Jet with erosive magic and material fracturing effects or using the Shadow Concealment ability to hide in shadows.

The former is an ability that the Erosion Worm can achieve with its magic due to the changed nature of the magic brought by the gene entry, while the latter requires a certain number of the Insect Swarm to be assembled before being able to achieve it through group consciousness.

The rest, including the acquired genes such as Adaptive Evolution and hibernation, could not be ignored either, and all were supplemented after strengthening.

Purely from the panel stats, in terms of survival and reproductive abilities, they have undoubtedly been elevated to a 5-tier level.

Before the upgrade, despite the Insect Swarm’s similarly relying on powerful regenerative abilities to reach a certain level of toughness, the Insect Swarm’s own Blood Volume cap limited their ability to withstand strong burst damage.

But now that this shortcoming has been addressed, Bai Yi knows that apart from unseen high-tech, probably only nuclear bombs could exterminate the Insect Swarm.

If judged by game standards, the Insect Swarm’s survival ability would undoubtedly reach a 5-tier Gold Level without a question, with defensive power potentially achieving 5-tier Green.

But the Attack Power is only at the level of 4-tier Gold, and the methods are not diverse, significantly lowering the average score.

If they were to really fight with the Hero Units within the territory, they would definitely be at a disadvantage, as the gap in Extraordinary Abilities and superpowers cannot be bridged by physical attributes alone.

Even when compared to the Corpse King, Bai Yi feels there would likely be some disparity.

After all, it’s unclear to what extent the opponent’s 5-tier abilities can accomplish, so it’s better to be conservative.

Well, probably five to one, or even ten to one might be needed to defeat it.

At least for Low-tier Lords, this has already reached the level of a mini-boss.

As for the specific tests, they can be conducted by the witches within the instance.

Now, the most important thing is to update the Insect Swarm within the territory first, the change in the Erosion Worms this time is too significant, it’s no longer possible to upgrade them through simple spore infection.

After all, the principle of energy conservation must be observed, the increased size doesn’t appear out of nowhere, but must draw upon a certain amount of Blood Flesh to assist.

This part can be left to the Swarm Consciousness to allocate and manage.

Now that the foundational Insect Swarm research has been completed, cultivating other branches should be much simpler.

Even if there is a need to change forms, it’s possible to directly use the ready-made genes from these Erosion Worms, just by loading some specialized abilities on top of this.

The cultivation of other branches that I intend to carry out later already has a plan in mind, but this part will have to wait until the upgrade of the Fungus Blanket is completed.

"One night’s time should be enough to update the Insect Swarm within the territory, and tomorrow a portion will be released into the instance, the rest will start the exchange with Bai Sheng, updating the Insect Swarm of Sector 28.

Oh, and I wonder how the plans on Shang Ji’s side are progressing?"

Last night, she had already handed over all the potions prepared as investment capital to Shang Ji.

Now that a day has passed, the first investment window has closed, and if anyone is interested in Shang Ji’s plans, they should have at least started to contact her by now.

Scanning through the Swarm Network, she found that Shang Ji is indeed still "online" and directly inquired with the person concerned.

On the other side, Shang Ji quickly replied, reporting back through the Swarm Network.

"After announcing our plans today, it indeed drew the attention of quite a few low-level Lords, who wanted to understand the specifics.

Due to Anonymous’s recent reputation, even though the profit-sharing ratio has been severely criticized, many Lords just finished scolding and turned around to privately chat with Anonymous.

However, due to the requirement of signing contracts in person, the number of Lords who have actually received investments isn’t high."

"Are there any Tier 3 Lords participating?"

Bai Yi asked curiously, as she didn’t think Tier 4 Lords would be willing to accept so-called investments and let a large portion of their resources be divided.

Moreover, with the current investments Bai Yi has put forth, it’s not enough to provide a Tier 4 with substantial crushing power

—unless they are willing to let their subordinates become witches.

And for Tier 2 Lords, their instances won’t be able to garner much, as confirmed in the battle reports from that Firecracker Lord.

Even with witches steamrolling through instances, in addition to some common resources, they could only obtain some instance-specific, non-replicable mechanical weapons, with little knowledge gained.

For Tier 2 Lords, those resources and weapons could help them level up quickly, but for Bai Yi, such a yield is only marginally better than nothing.

The witches of that world are even considering how to start mining on the spot, to maximize the use of that instance, nearly extracting the entire instance.

Under such profit circumstances, Bai Yi naturally lacks interest in the earnings of Tier 2 Lords.

On the contrary, Anonymous’s battle report has already brought Bai Yi good news, including a brand new cultivation system, and she has begun to investigate the trail of a powerful witch suspected to be of Tier 6 strength.

With such a comparative profit, Bai Yi is of course more concerned about Tier 3 Lords.

"None for the time being, but there is already a Tier 3 Lord who has privately inquired and seems to be planning to observe for a while, waiting for feedback from those Tier 2 Lords before deciding."

Bai Yi understood their caution, as not everyone is so blind to risks for the sake of possible benefits.

These Tier 3 Lords don’t feel as urgent about their own strength as Tier 2 Lords do, and Anonymous, as the investor in the spotlight, is still a Tier 3 Lord, so naturally, they won’t easily trust.

Another more important reason is that these Lords may genuinely not know about this...

A few days ago, Shang Ji had already discovered that these Tier 3 Lords seemed to have entered instances in groups, and at the earliest, it would take another two or three days for them to return.

"Master, should we try to promote Anonymous’s territory as well?

With the current spotlight on Anonymous, a promotion at this time will definitely draw a lot of attention and even attract some Lords’ trust."

Shang Ji’s proposal sparked an idea in Bai Yi.

Indeed, since Anonymous doesn’t need to possess strong combat power, it’s merely a title after all.

And the conditions for advancement are even simpler, without the need to pursue Admirers, isn’t spreading fear an easy matter?

As long as Bai Sheng shouts Anonymous’s name before killing, it could easily aggregate fear onto her and pile up the quota of ten thousand without effort.

Furthermore, the fear doesn’t need to be sustained; as long as it once emerged in their hearts, it could be counted, even if those Fearful had already perished by the time Anonymous advances.

"Good, you manage the other conditions, and as for the Fearful, let Bai Sheng handle it."

......

Witch: They are the Unclean who devote themselves to demons, terrifying beings carrying the power of demons, and must-be-purified dangerous elements. Once a witch is discovered, do not attempt contact, immediately report to the Church Court. If the report is true, a reward of 15 Gold Coins will be given...