Apocalypse Architect: A Tower Defense LitRPG

Chapter 188: Luring the Parasitic Silkworm

Volt’s despair vanished, replaced by an overwhelming surge of relief.

“Really? You’re offering me a slot? In The Sprawl?”

“Yes,” Jax said, his tone pragmatic. “But not today. I need you to hold the nuclear plant and keep the grid operational. I’m going to need your expertise to integrate this power into my city’s infrastructure.”

“Done! Absolutely done!” Volt nodded vigorously, a new light in his eyes.

Jax smiled thinly. “Good. Keep monitoring the lines. We’ll finalize the logistics later.”

The long, grueling night bled into a hazy, suffocating dawn. By four in the morning, the oppressive sun of the Northern Wastes was already baking the concrete.

The Insect Swarm had fully mobilized, choking the streets in a sea of clicking mandibles and armored plating. Below, Vance and his crew had finalized the new Defense Tower layout.

Volt scrambled up to the third floor, wiping grease from his forehead. “The grid is stable for now! I can push the wattage higher if you need it!”

“Perfect,” Jax replied. “If we can squeeze more juice out of the reactor, we actually have a shot at dropping that Tier 7.”

Heavy, frantic footsteps echoed from the stairwell. Kaleb burst onto the floor, his chest heaving, his face pale with panic.

“The swarm!” Kaleb gasped. “They’ve breached the perimeter block! They’re engaging the first line of Sentry Towers now!”

“Hold your positions,” Jax ordered calmly. “The kill box is set. Now, we wait.”

He turned his binoculars back to the Tianhai Building. The colossal Parasitic Silkworm was perched on the edge of the roof, watching the carnage below. It made no move to join the fray.

“This bastard is playing it safe,” Jax muttered. “If it won’t come to us, we need to force its hand.”

Elena stepped up beside him, resting the barrel of her Soul Collector Rifle on the windowsill. “Give me a target.”

Jax grinned. “You always read my mind. Put a round through its eye. Piss it off.”

“Copy that.”

Elena settled into her stance, exhaling slowly as she found her sight picture.

CRACK!

The heavy rifle bucked against her shoulder. Across the chasm, the Silkworm’s massive, multifaceted eye exploded in a geyser of viscous green fluid.

The beast shrieked—a high-pitched, metallic wail that vibrated in their teeth.

CRACK!

Elena fired again, putting a second round through the exact same ocular cavity.

Enraged, the Silkworm launched itself off the roof, its massive wings beating the air as it surged toward their building. But halfway across the gap, it hesitated. It saw the blinding, crackling aura of the high-voltage Defense Tower waiting for it. The beast banked hard and retreated to the safety of the Tianhai roof.

“Are you kidding me?” Jax lowered his binoculars in disbelief. “It actually backed down?”

“I’ve never seen an insect act like a coward,” Vance said, equally stunned. “Is that really a Tier 7? A Tier 1 Sandworm has more spine than that thing.”

“Keep shooting, Elena,” Jax ordered. “Blind it.”

Elena adjusted her scope.

CRACK.

More pus and ichor sprayed from the creature’s ruined face. Yet, despite the agonizing damage, the Silkworm refused to cross into the kill zone. It writhed and dodged, but Elena’s aim was flawless. Within minutes, she had blown out its remaining primary eye.

“Okay, now it has to charge,” Vance said. “If it doesn’t retaliate after being blinded, it’s pathetic.”

Suddenly, the staccato rhythm of the Sentry Towers below intensified into a continuous roar. The main body of the Insect Swarm was flooding the streets, crashing against the defensive perimeter.

Jax watched the swarm, then looked back at the bleeding Silkworm. The tactical reality clicked into place.

“It’s a command node,” Jax realized. “It’s not acting out of cowardice; it’s acting out of self-preservation. It controls the swarm. If it dies, the hive mind fractures, and the horde scatters. It knows it has to stay alive to direct the siege.”

Vance nodded slowly. “That makes sense. So… do we keep shooting it?”

“Absolutely. We bleed it until it snaps.”

Elena resumed her relentless sniper fire.

The sun climbed higher, baking the city. For two grueling hours, Elena systematically dismantled the Silkworm. She punched holes through its mandibles, its thorax, and its armored joints. The beast bled profusely, yet it remained anchored to the opposing roof.

Jax watched the stalemate, his frustration mounting. My Defense Tower is useless if the target refuses to enter the range. I need bait.

“Hold fire,” Jax said, his mind racing. “If it won’t come to us, I’ll give it something it can’t resist.”

He jogged to the rear of the floor and found a heavy, thirty-foot wooden plank left over from scaffolding.

“Help me move this to the window,” Jax ordered.

The crew hauled the heavy timber over, shoving one end out the shattered window so it hung precariously over the street below.

“Anchor the back,” Jax commanded.

Vance and Kaleb threw their entire body weight onto the interior end of the plank, looking at Jax like he’d lost his mind.

Jax stepped onto the makeshift diving board and walked two paces out over the terrifying drop.

The men holding the board were sweating bullets, terrified Jax was going to plunge to his death. Jax, however, was perfectly calm. He had the Aero-Step skill in reserve; he wasn’t going to fall.

He walked to the very edge of the plank, stepping just outside the protective radius of the Defense Tower.

Sensing the exposed prey, the blinded Silkworm roared, its mandibles snapping in a frenzy of hatred. It reared back and unleashed a torrent of toxic, melting silk.

Jax didn’t flinch. He triggered his system skill.

Luring Doppelganger.

Because the skill was now Level 3, the phantom clone radiated an overwhelming, almost intoxicating biological signature to the insect.

Instantly, the Silkworm’s aggression spiked into madness. It beat its wings, shedding clouds of scales, and launched itself across the chasm, diving straight for the phantom Jax standing at the end of the plank.

Inside the building, the crew stared in utter disbelief.

Vance carefully reached out and poked Jax’s shoulder. “Are… are you the real one?”

“No shit I’m the real one,” Jax snapped, stepping off the plank and back into the room. “The one out there is a holographic decoy designed to trigger predatory instincts.”

“What the hell else can you do?” Vance asked, his voice tinged with a mix of awe and fear. “Every time I look at you, you pull a new superpower out of your ass.”

“I have plenty of tricks,” Jax said, his eyes locked on the approaching beast. “You’ll learn them if you live long enough.”

He turned to Volt. “Get ready on the breaker. Don’t blow the circuit yet. Let it make contact with the decoy, then max out the dial.”

Volt nodded, his knuckles white as he gripped the heavy remote control. His heart hammered against his ribs.

Seconds later, the colossal Silkworm slammed into the airspace just outside the window. It opened its ruined, bleeding maw and clamped down violently on the holographic Jax.

The phantom didn’t dissipate immediately. The beast thrashed, utterly consumed by the illusion of the kill, refusing to let go.

Jax smirked. The crew behind him, however, were paralyzed with terror, watching a Tier 7 apex predator thrash mere feet from their faces.

“Relax,” Jax said calmly. “It’s completely fixated on the decoy. It won’t even notice you for the next ten minutes.”

The men didn’t entirely believe him, but as the Silkworm continued to violently gnaw on empty air, they slowly exhaled and took a tentative step forward.

Volt stood frozen, his thumb resting on the trigger, waiting for the order.

Jax watched the beast for another three seconds, ensuring it was fully committed to the bite.

“Now,” Jax ordered, his voice cold. “Light it up. Push the dial past the redline. I don’t care if the cables liquidate. Give me a lethal strike.”

Volt cranked the amperage dial to its absolute maximum.

Down below, thick blue smoke hissed from the heavy trunk cables as the rubber insulation began to melt under the catastrophic load.

Volt slammed the activation button.

The orb atop the high-energy tower shrieked, a deafening, metallic ZIZIZI that drowned out the gunfire. The sphere vanished beneath a blinding halo of blue plasma.

CRACK!

A column of raw electricity, thick as a tree trunk, lashed out like a god’s whip. It slammed directly into the distracted Silkworm.

The impact locked the beast’s muscles instantly. It went completely rigid in mid-air. Before the creature could even register the pain, the tower fired a second, catastrophic bolt.