Douluo: Transforming Xiao Wu into a Zerg Queen Was Just the Beginning-Chapter 4: The First Zerg Combat Unit

With this realization, Lin Fan quickly closed his eyes and used his psychic link to connect with the Hatchery.

The Fire Lizard had already been fully absorbed by the Creep, yielding a total of 100 energy points. As expected, soul beasts contained far more energy than ordinary plants.

Inside the Hatchery, one of the vacant gene processing chambers was pulsating, accelerating its extraction of the Fire Lizard's DNA.

Lin Fan watched the progress with a mixture of anticipation and curiosity. What kind of useful genetic traits could a mere ten-year soul beast provide?

It wasn't much, sure—but he had just hatched his first Hatchery. What more could he ask for? Even if some impressive gene came out of this, he didn't have the resources to create a powerful new Zerg strain yet.

After all, the higher the tier of a Zerg unit, the more energy it cost to produce—and the more upkeep it required. At this stage, with a single patch of Creep and one initial Drone, Lin Fan was practically broke.

Drones could serve as emergency combat units, but their primary roles were harvesting resources, constructing buildings, moving structures, and expanding territory. In terms of combat power? Practically negligible. A single hundred-year soul beast could probably shred a Drone to bits.

That's why Lin Fan desperately hoped this Fire Lizard would bring him something useful.

While he waited, the two Drones sent out earlier to gather resources returned periodically, delivering shredded plants to the Creep. Energy points ticked upward in Lin Fan's mind. It was slow, but watching the number increase felt like watching his savings grow—each digit made him a little happier.

Soon, a wave of psychic feedback came from the Hatchery:

—Fire Lizard gene extraction complete!—

Lin Fan's eyes lit up as he quickly pulled up the gene report.

[Gene Bank Updated: Reptilian Agility – Leaping Ability | Sharp Claws]

[Compatible – Would you like to fuse these traits?]

Huh?

Lin Fan was a little disappointed. Only two rather ordinary gene traits? But thinking it over, this was just a ten-year soul beast—how much special DNA could it really have?

He reconnected to the Hatchery and gave the command to fuse the two traits.

[Fusion complete!]

A new wave of psychic information buzzed into his mind, as if the Hatchery was trying to alert him.

Lin Fan focused and connected deeper into the Hatchery's neural net. In the Gene Bank, a glowing shard stood out amid the surrounding darkness. When he touched it with his consciousness, information flowed into his mind:

[New Unit Available – Zergling]

For a moment, Lin Fan was stunned—then visibly surprised.

It worked?! I can create a new Zerg combat unit already?

And not just any unit—a Zergling!

He quickly checked his current energy reserves. The Drones' steady supply runs had built up about 200 energy points, and there was still one Zerg egg left in the Hatchery.

Just enough!

Without hesitation, Lin Fan gave the order: Produce Zergling!

In a dark corner of the Hatchery, the lone Zerg egg began to swell. A large spore—taller than Lin Fan himself—rapidly formed, expanding as it prepared to hatch.

Lin Fan stared at it, awed by the sheer size of the pod. This is a combat unit of the Zerg, after all... I can feel the bloodlust through the membrane already!

"Squelch!"

With a wet, rupturing noise, the spore split open—and three vicious-looking creatures emerged, snarling as they stood before him.

Each Zergling was slightly smaller than a Drone in mass but built for speed and violence. Their bodies were lean and crouched low to the ground, their backs arched and armored with light, natural plating.

Their elongated heads featured vicious maw-like mandibles, while the claws on their forelimbs gleamed with deadly sharpness, barbed and serrated for maximum lethality.

Their design made it clear—Zerglings were born to kill. Their lean frames allowed them to move swiftly across complex terrain, and their multiple sharp appendages made them living blenders on the battlefield.

They were the perfect small-scale killing machines.

Lin Fan blinked in surprise. One spore... hatched three Zerglings?

And the energy cost wasn't even that high—barely more than it took to hatch a single Drone.

Of course, Zerglings had their weaknesses. Their greatest flaw was defense—only a few key parts of their bodies had any armor. One solid hit from a stronger opponent could cause lethal damage.

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Still, Lin Fan couldn't help but smile at the sight of three Zerglings from a single egg.

When it comes to mass production, no race can compete with the Zerg!

One Zergling not enough? Send three. Still not enough? How about ten?

Even if someone had godlike martial strength, the moment they saw an endless tide of snarling Zerglings charging at them from all directions, they'd probably feel despair set in immediately.

The true power of the Zerg didn't lie in their individual strength, but in their limitless swarm, bred for annihilation and conquest.

Lin Fan wanted to hatch more Zerglings immediately. He was still in a soul beast forest after all—who knew when some monstrous creature would appear and threaten his life?

He'd only feel safe with some real combat power on hand.

Unfortunately, he had to abandon the idea. Zerg units needed eggs as incubation mediums, and the Hatchery in its current form could only produce one egg every 30 minutes.

He'd need to start accumulating energy and find a way to evolve the Hatchery soon. The more Zerg units he had, the more control he held over this world.

Even better—if he could locate a soul beast with rapid reproduction traits, he could extract its genes to further accelerate Zerg reproduction.

Feeling content, Lin Fan lay down once more. He ordered the idle Drone to join the others in resource collection, and stationed the three Zerglings at the Hatchery entrance to guard and eliminate anything that approached.

He might be resting, but the swarm never sleeps.

Before drifting off, Lin Fan issued one final command:

Maintain continuous production—follow the ratio: one Drone for every three Zerglings.

The Hatchery, following Lin Fan's orders, began its steady routine of Zerg production.

Every 30 minutes, a new egg was produced and hatched.

New Drones marched out according to the pre-set protocol, harvesting resources tirelessly. Meanwhile, Zerglings clustered at the front of the Hatchery, ever watchful, reacting to every rustle of leaves and whisper of movement in the forest.

The swarm was growing.

****

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