Chapter 26: The Doom of the Eye Worm!

This is why the Goddess of Hope was able to complete the design and production in such a short time. Aside from their eerie methods of attack, Eye-worms are essentially trash in the context of interstellar warfare. And those very methods are completely useless against non-living units like drones. The production line was already in place; it only required some modifications to specific modules and parameters.

At this moment, everyone was staring intently at the screens on the hive containers, because drones had already reached the battlefield! Indeed, it was that swift. The drones consciously slowed down, drifting through the city. The entire city was now empty. Most of the residents had fully evacuated, leaving only blindfolded soldiers moving cautiously, occasionally escorting the few remaining residents who, for various reasons, had not yet left.

They dared not stay in one place for too long, nor did they dare to let too many people gather together. Once a sufficient number of Eye-worms were attracted to form a "Zone of Despair," even blindfolds would be of no use.

Suddenly, every commander at the airport could see clearly through the drones' perspective as several drones, as if having locked onto a target, accelerated toward a specific area. There, three soldiers were escorting a child. The fastest drone reached a point less than five meters to the right of the group, extended two metal tentacles from its edge, and with expert precision, dissected an eyeball lying on the ground.

"When was that shot down?" a commander asked, eyes wide.

It was indeed an Eye-worm. They were certain they hadn't blinked for a second, yet there was a clear, charred black spot right in the center of the creature’s pupil, proving it had been struck.

"Micro-high-energy particle beams; they are invisible to the naked eye," Interstellar Shen Yu remarked. "And it’s not just one that has been downed—the statistics are right here."

Only then did everyone notice the red number jumping constantly in the bottom left corner of the screen. It displayed 1158. In just these few seconds, it had jumped to 1312.

"It’s killed that many already?" a commander couldn't help but ask.

Over fifty thousand Eye-worms sounded like a lot, but considering their size and flight capabilities, they were like a drop in the ocean across the entire city. The total results of all their operations thus far hadn't even reached two thousand, and that had come at the cost of significant sacrifices. They weren't doubting the power of this interstellar weapon; they were simply stunned by its terrifying efficiency. It hadn't even been two minutes since the drones arrived on the battlefield!

"This is one of our most targeted modifications," Interstellar Shen Yu said slowly. "Our scientists discovered the unique biological energy contained within the Eye-worms. Based on their performance parameters, they designed micro-scanning sensors to be installed on every anti-Eye-worm drone. While the current scanning range isn't large, the master AI automatically collects intelligence to find the most efficient search method—which is to patrol near the humans in the city."

The commanders watched as the drones flew toward their soldiers, nimbly dissecting one Eye-worm after another around them and harvesting the energy organs. A sudden realization dawned on them, yet they remained deeply shocked. Only now did they fully grasp the design philosophy of this weapon: precise detection systems, overwhelming mobility, highly efficient attack methods, and rapidly optimizing combat logic. It was no exaggeration to say that the moment this weapon was produced, it became a ruthless and efficient Eye-worm slaughtering machine.

The name "Anti-Eye-worm" was perfectly fitting. This wasn't a war; it was a harvest on a farm. The human soldiers' only role was to act as "bait," just needing to keep their eyes covered and walk about leisurely. If there were one hundred such hives... no, just ten would be enough. The end of the Eye-worms had arrived!

The commanders looked at one another. In every pair of eyes, one could see surprise, excitement, shock, and other complex emotions. Some even had eyes that turned slightly red—a reminder of the comrades they had lost during this time. Although this sudden shift in the war against the Eye-worms was so easy that it felt like a dream, they wished that all wars could be this easy.

"Let’s go. We need to explain this to our soldiers and adjust our combat plans," Jiang Hui said slowly, his expression equally complex. "Look at the battlefield; some of our soldiers are clearly bewildered."

Indeed, it wasn't just the soldiers on the front lines; even the commanders at the rear were immersed in a cacophony of confusion.

"What are those things?"
"The Eye-worms are being slaughtered!"
"The attacks are invisible!"
"Is this the 'powerful support' from above? This is alien technology!"
"They are so fast! Much faster than the Eye-worms!"
"They are using our soldiers as bait, but they have no intention of attacking us."

Although the appearance of the Eye-worms had already shattered people's perception of the world, there was at least some explanation for their origin. But these strange, seemingly mechanical gadgets had appeared on the battlefield with such sudden, overwhelming force, without any explanation at all. The impact was naturally immense.

Soon, Jiang Hui’s voice appeared on the army-wide command channel.

"What you are seeing now are anti-Eye-worm drone units brought by our allies. This is merely an experimental operation. All units, do not panic. Obey orders, cooperate with the operation, clear the city of Eye-worms in the shortest possible time, and reclaim our city!"

*Allies.*

When that word was spoken, everyone felt even more lost. While the threat of the meteorite crisis had spurred the human civilization to form an all-civilization alliance that was rapidly advancing, no one believed that any of the countries or factions on the home planet could produce something like this.

"These 'allies'—don't tell me they are also from the stars," someone muttered.

Since the monsters were known to be from the stars, it didn't seem strange that their "allies" might come from the stars as well. But regardless of their origin, as they watched those "Eye-worms" falling one after another, every person in the know realized that the entire world was about to be shaken to its core.