Chapter 25: The Insectoid Hive Mothership, Cosmic Robot King Joe

The comprehensive performance and combat capabilities of King Joe were nothing short of perfection. More importantly, I had already collected six monster fragments.

If I pulled again, I might be able to get the remaining three, though pulling the "Big Iron Chunk" would also be a decent consolation. Rod checked his system balance; he still had over four thousand gold coins. Meanwhile, Red King was closing in on the tentacles of another Tyranid hive ship.

"Come on, Red King, show me what you've got! Whether I can obtain King Joe or snag that cosmic robot iron giant depends entirely on you!"

These were the only two options capable of surviving in the vacuum of space. If it didn't work out, he would just have to try another ten-pull. Under Rod’s command, Red King sprang into action, swinging its massive arms to strike at the tentacles of the hive fleet. It opened its cavernous maw, sank its gargantuan fangs into the hive ship’s appendage, and began to tear away relentlessly.

As Red King began its feast, Rod’s system gold count started to climb rapidly, siphoning the biomass that the hive had spent so much effort to harvest. The hive ship in the sky soon detected the disturbance and was forced to emergency-detach the tentacle. From the perspective of the Hive Mind, this terrifying titan had suddenly begun attacking their biomass-extraction tentacles, turning the tables to consume their hard-earned resources.

The hive fleet had no choice but to deploy forces to retaliate, though they only sent cannon fodder, hoping merely to stall Red King. By that afternoon, several hours later, Red King had finished off the tentacles, tearing them apart completely, and Rod’s gold balance had soared to fifteen thousand.

Checking the monster’s status, Rod saw that while Red King’s bodily functions were normal, its mental state was bordering on extreme exhaustion. Although the great monster could regenerate its physical stamina, its mental endurance was not infinite. Red King had been battling for two full days and nights—over fifty hours.

"Go take a rest, Red King. Get some sleep," Rod commanded from within the system space. He directed Red King to find a valley, where the beast promptly collapsed and fell into a deep slumber.

Rod could have chosen to recall Red King to the system space to recover. Minor injuries or simple physical exhaustion could be healed in twenty-four hours without spending any gold. However, severe or near-fatal injuries would require gold coins to restore, with the cost varying based on the severity of the damage, alongside the necessary recovery time.

Still, he had to maintain the intimidation factor against the swarm, so he couldn't call Red King back. Besides, the monster could recover just fine while sleeping on its own. Red King’s previous actions had thoroughly rattled the Tyranids. Rod estimated that as long as Red King was present, the Tyranids would not dare to launch an active offensive.

As expected, once Red King fell asleep, the hive fleet merely dispatched a few units to monitor it. Several hive ships quickly relocated to the other side of the planet, rooting themselves into the dark side to extract biomass. The entire Tyranid force retreated rapidly to the opposite hemisphere, keeping a safe distance from Red King’s activity zone.

After such a long engagement, the hive fleet had realized that Red King could not fly. It could only stomp around on its massive feet; if that was the case, they would simply stay far away. With Red King's short legs, it would take at least a dozen days, perhaps even a month, to reach the other side of the planet on foot. That time was more than enough for the hive fleet to extract sufficient biomass to hatch new ships.

The hive fleet's mission was constant: extract biomass, hatch more ships, produce more broods, and launch the next wave of invasion. Whenever the Imperial forces discovered a hive fleet within their galactic territory, they never hesitated to strike with devastating force. If they failed to destroy the fleet in time, it would continue to consume worlds, swell its ranks, and launch a fresh offensive. A fleet that started with only four or five ships could expand to hundreds after consuming the biomass of a single planet—that was the true terror of the hive fleets.

Once he confirmed that the area around Red King was safe, Rod immediately opened the system shop and initiated another ten-pull, specifically targeting mechanical monsters.

He pulled one fragment of the subterranean monster Gudon, one of the two-headed monster Pandon, one of the cosmic monster Bemstar, and one of King Joe. He also received one fragment of the "Big Iron Chunk," one of the Alien Ace Killer, one of the Mechanical Ace, and two more fragments of King Joe. He rounded out the pull with one fragment of the snow mountain monster Gigass, one of the ancient monster Gomora, and one of the ancient monster Gomes.

Pulling the mechanical giant, the robotic Ace, and a Bemstar fragment was a pleasant surprise. However, he had ended up with three more King Joe fragments, leaving him just one short of the ten required for synthesis. Rod sighed helplessly. It really was a "pay-to-win" system! Thirty thousand gold coins, enough to upgrade a monster to its peak, and he still hadn't pulled a single full monster.

However, there was a workaround. The monster synthesis system included a decomposition-synthesis method. If a user possessed eight or more fragments of a specific monster, they could trigger a special synthesis process: by sacrificing ten fragments of other monsters, they could force the synthesis of one fragment of the desired monster at a 10:1 ratio.

Rod already had nine fragments of King Joe. He could easily afford to sacrifice ten useless monster fragments to synthesize the final piece. He navigated the shop, carefully setting aside his powerful fragments—the other mechanical monsters, Bemstar, Gomora, Golza, and the super-ancient vanguard Zoiger—and selected ten "trash" fragments, including Gomes, Gigass, Ragon, Muruchi, Gudon, and Bemular, to decompose.

With the final tenth fragment secured, he clicked "Synthesize."

In the monster interface, the ten fragments of King Joe swirled and merged, giving birth to a massive, golden robotic beast: the Cosmic Robot, King Joe, standing 55 meters tall and weighing 48,000 tons.

Along with the synthesis, he also received several accessories for King Joe, including a massive Pedanium Rocket Launcher that could be assembled on its arm.

Most surprisingly, he even received a Pedan starship!