There were only nine and a half years left until the Sector Tournament—time was running out, and William had to start producing tangible results.

  He needed to amass a sizable number of suicide units as a trump card, a last-resort measure to ensure his survival.

  From what he could see so far, the Thunder Drakes were already performing impressively.

  In one-on-one combat, they could hold their own against standard elite-tier minions.

  Once their numbers grew and they formed a swarm, they’d be an unstoppable force at that level.

  That was the terrifying potential of the Zerg’s current evolutionary momentum.

  Other participants had to burn through a million bloodline cards just to cultivate 700,000 elite-tier minions.

  And sure, maybe their second or third generations could give birth to descendants who naturally inherited the bloodline.

  But without a large enough breeding population, the inherited bloodline would eventually become diluted.

  For William, though, just one bloodline card was enough.

  He didn’t even need to worry about dilution.

  He had used a 30-million-credit bloodline card.

  And with that, the Thunder Drakes had gained enough strength to break into the elite tier.

  But to send them up against hero-tier units?

  Without real combat testing at that level, William still felt unsure deep down.

  Which is why the genetic design of the suicide unit had to be prioritized.

  "Overtime? Crunch mode? Yeah, yeah… that’s life. I’m used to it by now…”

  With a pained look on his face, William threw himself back into his work.

  Fortunately, his primary combat unit, the Mutated Drake, had seen rapid progress in the past four months.

  Even with just a few rounds of testing and revisions,

  he had already nearly completed the optimization of its genetic blueprint.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Finalization was just around the corner—his progress had been remarkable.

  Once that was done, William would be able to focus all his attention on developing the new Zerg suicide unit.

  Immersed in his work, he lost track of time completely.

  He was like a top spinning on its own, not needing any external force—

  constantly in motion, never stopping.

  Time flew by unnoticed. Days and months blurred together as William toiled nonstop.

  He had just finished designing the gene template for a normal-tier test unit,

  and after uploading the blueprint into the gene database,

  he immediately pulled up the glowing blue interface to jot down his summary report.

  As soon as the report was done, he habitually reached for his to-do list to choose the next task—

  when suddenly, a strong ripple spread across his divine domain barrier, interrupting his motion.

  Expressionless, eyes dull, William slowly looked up and peered beyond the barrier.

  There stood Lex, casually slapping the divine barrier—slap slap slap.

  Realizing who it was, William’s semi-divine form flickered,

  and in the next moment, he appeared outside the barrier, face-to-face with Lex.

  Seeing William show up, Lex finally stopped what he was doing.

  He stared William up and down, noting the rigid expression and lifeless eyes,

  and spoke with a knowing smile:

  “Kid, you’ve been holed up in here for years. What the hell have you been doing?”

  William’s eyes slowly rolled toward Lex, his semi-divine form just barely showing signs of life.

  “…Oh.”

  Lex: “…”

  That was it. Just an "oh."

  Lex’s expression twitched. A black line formed on his forehead.

  Without warning, he reached out and smacked William hard on the shoulder, gripping him tightly and shaking him like mad.

  “Oh, your ass! Snap out of it! I’m here on serious business!”

  Under Lex’s intense shaking, William’s eyes gradually regained their clarity.

  He quickly grabbed Lex’s wrist.

  “Alright! Alright! Lex, stop! I’m awake! I’m good now!”

  Once William seemed fully alert again, Lex finally let go.

  “Alright, enough with the ‘bro’ talk. Call me ‘teacher’ or ‘advisor.’ You go dark for a few years and suddenly forget your manners?”

  Finally free from the zombie-like state caused by months of overwork,

  William’s brain was running smoothly again. He forced a grin and replied:

  “Zous is my uncle, and he’s yours too. We both call him ‘uncle,’ right? That makes us practically brothers.”

  “Besides, it’s not like we’re in class right now—calling you ‘teacher’ feels so stiff, don’t you think? Right, Lex?”

  Lex’s mouth twitched again.

  “Damn you, Zous… my dignified image as an educator is gone, just like that.”

  Suppressing his complaints, Lex gave William a long-suffering look.

  “Enough joking around. I’m here for a reason.”

  “There are only a few days left until the Sector Tournament begins. Are you actually ready?”

  Hearing that, William froze, blinking slowly as he tried to recall the date.