Dimensional Codex - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Startling the World

As someone who used to play games, Fang Zheng had always believed that the sense of oppression brought by Zergs was always greatest when it came to the frontal assault.

The torrent of human steel seemed invincible. It was a kind of the beauty of steel and order. When they moved forward, it was like a giant machine of steel rolling forward, and it made people shudder. The individual combat efficiency of Protoss was number one in the world. When they charged forward, it felt more like an attack of a fearless group of warriors, which was awe-inspiring.

But the Zerg were different. When the overwhelming tide of Zerg appeared in front of one’s eyes, it was more like a natural disaster that could not be stopped, resisted, or evaded. It was like an avalanche or a tsunami. The Zerg battle focused on overwhelming numbers. Facing the Zerg’s charge, what one felt wasn’t the courage to fight, nor anger or animosity, but the tiny and instinctive fear of individuals when facing a number beyond the scope of understanding and acceptance. It was an integral part of any creature’s natural evolution. One could block the breach in a dam, resist the raging flood but one couldn’t change anything in the face of a tsunami that was dozens of meters high, a hurricane that blotted the entire sky, no matter what one did.

And this was the Zerg.

Tens of thousands of Zerglings poured out of the forest, advancing forward like a turbid tide. Looking from the distance, the entire battlefield at this moment seemed like an expanding blood-red carpet. And Mutalisks were also flapping their wings over their heads, giving the impression of endless dark and dense clouds. This offensive wave gave everyone the impression that purgatory had arrived — as if the gates of Hell had opened, the bright red flames of purgatory were burning from the ground to the sky, rushing towards Captain Wang and his team.

Captain Wang put down the machine gun and stared at the Zergling in front of him with a blank expression. He didn’t even care about the alien monsters behind him. Fear to the extreme limit had brought despair. They didn’t feel this way when they faced the mimics. Although the mimics were great in numbers, as a whole, their offense wasn’t ordered. And because they often hid underground, the offensive of the aliens didn’t seem as violent as it actually was.

But the Zergs were different. They might not have reached the battlefield yet but their terrifying aura was enough to take anyone’s soul and breath away.

This was the swarm.

No one fired a single bullet, but they still gave up struggling. In front of such numbers, all they felt was an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and despair. Several soldiers even closed their eyes, waiting for their deaths

But…a miracle happened.

Those terrifying monsters didn’t attack those soldiers. On the contrary, those galloping Zerglings even made way on their own. Their huge bodies seemed completely unaffected. The entire worm tide was like a real stream of water, bypassing the soldiers and then moving forward, on and on again.

“What happened?”

Captain Wang opened his eyes. He was ready to die but after waiting for quite a while, he was still alive. He couldn’t help but open his eyes and look around. Then, he was surprised to find that those terrifying bugs seemed to have no intention of hurting him. They are making a way out of their own!?

Not only him, but even when Captain Wang looked to the side, he was also surprised to find that several of his other subordinates were standing totally still. But some also had wide eyes and slack jaws, some still had their eyes shut close, waiting for the grim reaper. It seemed funny but no one could laugh at this moment.

After a while, the swarm disappeared from their view. They had stepped onto the battlefield and started fighting. Everything around them was so quiet that it made everyone feel a little surreal. Several soldiers stood there blankly, not knowing what to do.

“Oh my God, what’s that?”

God knows after how long, a soldier finally broke the silence. He happened to have his head turned, looking behind. Others also turned their heads at this moment, staring at the battlefield behind them in amazement. There, the Zerg were frantically killing everything in their sight. Those mimics couldn’t even make any waves at all.

“They are…they are attacking those aliens?”

The soldiers found the scene before their eyes unbelievable. But the fact was that those terrifying and ugly monsters from hell seemed to be on their side.

“Anyway, we should leave this place immediately!”

Everyone might not have had any idea what was going on, but Captain Wang had made a prompt decision. The current situation was beyond their scope of understanding and control. They had to return to the command center to report immediately. And then, they could consider the next course of action. And the soldiers followed his order without a moment of hesitation and left the battlefield at once.

This was no longer their battlefield. They might have known where these monsters came from but since they were attacking those aliens, they hoped that the opposite party would not lose that easily.

And if Fang Zheng came to understand the way they thought, he would tell them very disdainfully.

How is it possible for Mutalisks to lose against Stalkers?

[TLN: This saying is quite famous among the starcraft players. On 3rd June 2014, in the group stage of 2013 WCS America, the final game between TooDming and Alicia, Xiaose believed TooDming would definitely win as TooDming was 60 supplies ahead and Xiaose said: “How is that possible (for TooDming) to lose as (TooDming’s) Mutalisks are dominating over (Alicia’s) stalkers?” However, TooDming lost the game afterward. Xiaose’s Poisonous Milk is the most famous SC2 commentator in China. “Poisonous Milk” is very popular among the Chinese SC2 community.]

Fang Zheng wasn’t worried about getting it wrong like Poisonous Milk. He couldn’t allow the tables to turn on him, in this life ever. With such a huge advantage of numbers, even if I rely on a wave of dogs, how can you tell me that I will lose?

The facts also proved that Fang Zheng’s guess was correct.

Although these mimics did have all-round attack ability, the lack of air force was their fatal flaw. Besides, they were far less than the Zerg in numbers. Therefore, those mimics were torn to pieces by the Zerglings and Mutalisks in the first wave of attacks, utterly defeated. If one looked at the battlefield from the sky, they would find that the mimics, that had previously flaunted their might, were almost like shells on the beach. They were washed away by the wave of Zergs that was several times larger than the mimics.

However, Fang Zheng did not directly press for an attack. He knew very well the most powerful mimic wasn’t fighting on the battlefield that had the ability to save and reload. To prevent himself from being attacked by other party’s SL cheats. Fang Zheng also ordered the Zergs not to kill any strange checkpoint monsters and drag them back to the base and bleed them just like they did with Tom. And after absorbing the gene sequence, they could finish them off again.

This did limit the ability of those mimics to reload. The Zergs advanced triumphantly. In just a short span of one day, they had captured the entire front line.

At this moment, the entire human world was in complete chaos. The emergence of the Zerg shocked everyone. Originally, the humans believed that after experiencing the battle with the aliens, they would have already grown immune to all kinds of surprises, that nothing would be able to faze them. But the humans finally discovered that they were too naive, after having seen those terrifying Zerg.

The top military brass of various countries immediately gathered together and held a meeting to discuss this matter.

The people who had returned to the command post were taken directly to the command center of the joint army to report the situation. They didn’t even have time to change their clothes.

“Wang Dong, captain of the Fifth Armored Brigade, reporting on duty!”

Wang Dong, in a blood-stained uniform, solemnly walked into the command center and saluted the first person in front of him.

“At ease.”

Looking at Wang Dong who just walked in, the old man sitting in the first seat raised his head and gestured.

“Wang Dong, I think you also know why we ask you here.”

“Sir, is it regarding those monsters that appeared out of nowhere?”

“Yes.”

The old man became extremely serious after hearing Wang Dong’s answer. The expressions of those high-ranking officers of different colors beside him also changed.

“I heard that your team has had direct contact with those monsters? Can you tell us about your opinion?”

“My opinion?”

Wang Dong’s expression changed at once upon hearing this question. He recalled the almost unstoppable, overwhelming tide of worms rushing at him. For a moment, Wang Dong even felt his legs go limp a little. But soon, he relied on his firm willpower to force himself up again. Then, he looked at the high-level brass in front of him and spoke slowly.

“They…are almost unstoppable!”

Wang Dong’s reply made everyone in the room furrow their brows; it was even true for the old man heading the meeting. They were all soldiers. Naturally, they looked down on weakness. And in their opinion, Wang Dong’s expression showed cowardice.

“Perhaps you guys think that I am making excuses but Sir, I’m just explaining this fact from the perspective of a soldier standing on the front line and a front line commander. This is my first impression of them after encountering them on the front line. Of course, if you don’t believe me, I still have a video of the battlefield. I believe if you see this video, you will understand what I mean.”

“Let’s take a look then.”

The old man motioned with his hand upon hearing this. Wang Dong immediately took out a memory card from his pocket and handed it over. Soon, a special staff member took the memory card and inserted it into the playback device. Soon, an image of the battle appeared on the back screen. Everyone turned their heads at once, looking at the video on the screen.

The video started with the battle between Wang Dong’s team and mimics. Although the battle between them was very intense, all the people present were soldiers. There were many officers among them who had fought with the mimics more than once. The video didn’t garner any special reaction because of this. In the end, only Wang Dong was left with only a few comrades. When they were about to be surrounded by the mimics, the old man in the lead nodded in admiration and looked at Wang Dong having heard Wang Dong’s final cry. Obviously, Wang Dong’s display of courage at that time made him appreciate it very much.

But the next scene caused everyone’s faces to change.

In the beginning, the mimics that were about to attack stopped suddenly. Everyone suddenly became nervous. They had all read the battle reports and naturally knew what would happen next. But a report on a piece of paper was just a report after all. It wasn’t as real as witnessing it personally.

Then, the camera turned around. And then they saw… the Zerg tide.

“WTF!?”

“My GOD…”

“Bloody Hell, what is this?”

Everyone’s expression changed when they saw the Zerg tide rushing from the distance. Many people screamed, even swore, a few even stood up, their faces pale. Be that as it may, they persisted and forced themselves to calm down. After all, this was just a video.

But when the worms came to Wang Dong’s side and pounced on Wang Dong, these people finally couldn’t sit still. Most of them instinctively stood up, on guard. Some people turned pale, dropped their hands; desperate looks on everyone’s face. There were even a few people with even worse self-control, who started screaming. Some even fell back along with their chairs. And when those people looked around, holding their heads, they found that they weren’t on the battlefield but in a conference room with shell-shocked expressions on their faces!

This was the reaction of only the high-level military personnel. The reaction of those ordinary people next to them was even more unbearable. Several of the clerks and secretaries even fainted in fright. Even the guards on the sentry duty stared with wide eyes, holding their guns firmly. They tried their best to control themselves and not let loose.

Even Wang Dong clenched his fists. In fact, he had closed his eyes, waiting for the swarm to take his life. So, he didn’t know exactly what the monsters looked like. But his helmet cam obviously didn’t have the function of closing its eyes. It recorded everything. So, Wang Dong saw the Zerg passing him by, one by one, without even taking so much as a glance at him as if he didn’t even exist. Be that as it may, the sight of those sharp claws and fangs on the monsters through the screen took Wang Dong’s breath away. It must be brought to notice that he had completely given up resistance at that time.

I’m afraid I would have died without an intact corpse if those monsters attacked me even for a bit.

Thinking about it now, it was a miracle that he could come back alive!

The video ended at last but everyone present remained still, even the old man clenched his fists. He wiped the cold sweat dripping down his forehead, looked at the others, and coughed lightly before speaking with a serious look on his face.

“It seems we must come up with a plan.”