Chapter 1120: What's Wrong with Ants Being Industrious and Wealthy?
The heavy buzzing sound, like tens of millions of swarming bees, strangely transformed into the voice of the queen ant—a voice filled with a sense of distance and friction with emotions that resonated with no known human feelings. "Do you know? You've been walking for twelve minutes. All the way, you've attracted quite a bit of attention, haven't you?"
Lin Sanjiu stared fixedly at the massive ant's face in front of her, captivated by the lifelike insect body, the thunderous hum of the bee-like sound, the strong earthy stench, and this unexpected encounter. Even though she knew this was no time to space out, she couldn't help but stare blankly at the queen ant, and her limbs grew heavy and cold.
Bohemia was clearly in the same predicament. Her instinctual aversion and repulsion toward giant insects conflicted violently with her rational understanding that she had to get close to it and fight. As a result, she was also paralyzed.
What finally snapped Lin Sanjiu back to her senses was not the queen ant's subsequent sentence, "Bring them to me."
In the corner of her eye, a flickering black shadow suddenly lunged at them like an eagle. She jolted and immediately sprang to life, ramming her shoulder backward, pushing Bohemia out of the path of the attack.
In the next instant, her right hand produced a series of light clinking sounds as it was completely encased in a metallic gauntlet. As the gauntlet rapidly descended in mid-air, a bright brass-colored flash streaked through the sunlight and landed heavily on the face of that dark shadow.
When she got serious, her speed was unmatched by any ordinary posthuman. The force in this strike was more than enough to shatter a person's facial bones. However, what surprised her was that the gauntlet softened when it made contact, as if it had been flattened like a pancake. It absorbed most of her force.
"What... what's going on?" Bohemia gasped, "He—"
As the metallic gauntlet withdrew from the face, the dark shadow staggered back two steps. The sunken nose, mouth, and forehead slowly bulged out from their previous dents and returned to the twisted-faced man's appearance from earlier. After taking Lin Sanjiu's blow, he hadn't sustained any injury; only a red flush appeared on the beaten part of his face.
"How... dare you?" He clenched his teeth, glaring at the two of them as he slowly twisted his head at an incredible angle, making his neck look like it was hanging over his shoulder. "How dare you?"
"Bring them to me," the queen ant repeated without any change.
Even if they didn't look, they could sense the footsteps converging rapidly from various directions in the forest with their ears alone. Just as Puppeteer had said, when they reached The Big One, The Little Ones indeed began appearing one after another without end. Along with the rustling of leaves, countless shadows emerged one by one from the forest's shade. Some were tall, others short and round like ants. It was as if there were always more and more shadows continuously joining the encirclement. The two of them pressed their backs tightly together, well aware that they were about to face a tough battle.
"Can you tell who is a posthuman?" Lin Sanjiu whispered softly from her shoulder. contemporary romance
"Who knows?" Bohemia's warm back was pressed against Lin Sanjiu's shoulder, her voice trembling slightly. "These people have all undergone surgery on their brains, right? Who knows what the consequences of those surgeries are..."
Is she scared?
Just as this thought crossed Lin Sanjiu's mind, Bohemia's next words extinguished it. "Ever since my Potential Growth Value has been restored, I've been feeling especially great, just haven't had a chance to test my abilities yet."
Her voice still trembled, but this time Lin Sanjiu heard it even more clearly. It was a trembling sound made when someone was holding back their excitement, and it wasn't entirely successful.
She had almost forgotten that during her peak with her abilities intact, Bohemia was very unrestrained and headstrong. She always thought she was stronger than the ants and half-baked posthumans, so how could she restrain herself? It was quite remarkable that she had been holding back and pretending to be a fish out of water for so long.
"Mom,"
Lin Sanjiu was about to warn her not to be complacent and careless when a voice from the forest shouted, "Do you want to live?"
"Of course," the queen ant's voice, in human language, seemed somewhat awkward, causing a strange and somewhat awkward feeling. "After the surgery, they still need to bring another man."
Wasn't the surgery supposed to be for people infected by the spores?
At this point, even if Lin Sanjiu wanted to ask, she wouldn't get an answer. In response to a sudden whistle from the man behind them, almost all the figures hiding in the shade of the trees began to move.
"Get away from me if you haven't taken a shower!"
Following Bohemia's yell, streams of silver light suddenly brightened under their feet, like a spiritual snake or lightning, rapidly scattering in all directions. Some who couldn't evade it in time had a stream of electricity spark around them as soon as they touched the silver light as if they were being struck by lightning. However, the agility of these people was by no means inferior to posthumans; some even exceeded the average posthuman's level. Even Lin Sanjiu was amazed. Most of those who had avoided the silver light rushed toward them, swarming them and dragging them into the encirclement.
Oddly enough, at this point, Lin Sanjiu still couldn't distinguish whether they were posthumans or not. Not a single one of them used their abilities or special items. Every attack was a physical confrontation, bearing an unimaginable and unprepared force that rained down upon them, like a small storm that erupted on level ground. Even Lin Sanjiu couldn't make out what Bohemia was shouting in the midst of it all.
Since they weren't using their abilities or items, this was an advantage gifted to them. As Lin Sanjiu's boot sunk heavily into a man's abdomen, she took advantage of the people nearby who hadn't managed to follow up with an attack and hurriedly activated [Tornado Whip]. Unexpectedly, before she could flick her wrist, Mrs. Manas suddenly exclaimed in shock, "Stop!"
"Stop? Don't use the whip?" She stopped in astonishment. In that brief moment of blankness, Lin Sanjiu was kicked in the support leg by another young girl, and the pain almost caused her to lose her balance. She asked irritably, "Why?"
"Listen to what Bohemia is shouting!"
The two of them were attacked by the crowd that rushed towards them as if they were desperate. The rush dispersed, leaving a few steps open. Lin Sanjiu's left hand formed a claw, digging deep into the young girl's calf. She pulled her over with great force, dragging her from the ground in front of her. A young man sidestepped a punch to her side, but she had the opportunity to turn her head and look at Bohemia.
Bohemia was also engaged in hand-to-hand combat, just like Lin Sanjiu. It was definitely not her style. She liked to torment her enemies to near death from a distance. In close-range brawls with multiple opponents, there were almost weaknesses all over her body: her sleeves were too wide, her skirt was too cumbersome, her accessories jingled and got in the way, and her loose hair was grabbed several times.
This wasn't the most challenging part – the attacks that fell on their enemies' faces and shoulders could all be absorbed without harm by their soft and doughy-like bodies.
So why wasn't she using abilities or items? Lin Sanjiu raised her ear in Bohemia's direction to listen carefully. She soon got her answer.
"For heaven's sake, didn't you hear me?" Bohemia exclaimed, gasping for breath while evading attacks. "Are you deaf? I told you not to use abilities and items. Can't you keep your mouth shut?" She was clearly getting impatient, awaiting no response.
"What's wrong? Why?" Lin Sanjiu reached out and grabbed the girl. In her screams, she threw the girl headlong into a big man attacking her. Now was no time for being gentle.
"My [Silver Thorn] just now," Bohemia explained as she was suddenly charged by one man. Her hands were already busy blocking attacks from another direction. She ended up being grabbed around the waist and thrown to the ground. Lin Sanjiu's metal glove plunged heavily into another man's chest, finally producing a satisfying sound of cracking bones. After enduring a hit to her back, she finally managed to leap to Bohemia's side, and with a single motion, she flipped the man off her.
Bohemia was flushed, coughing several times before getting back on her feet.
"It's gone," she remembered where she left off, "it's gone!"
"What do you mean, 'gone'?"
"It's the effect of one of my items," she took advantage of Lin Sanjiu's cover to catch her breath and pointed to a small silver crescent ornament on her cheek. "It's this, but when I tried to use it a second time just now, the effect was gone. It's definitely been stolen."
It was quite a leap to conclude that it was stolen, and this train of thought passed through Lin Sanjiu's mind. However, right at that moment, Bohemia suddenly exclaimed, "Be careful!"
Her cold fingers landed on Lin Sanjiu's arm, pulling her backward. Then, the view before Lin Sanjiu's eyes was lit up with the same silver light as before.
While observing them earlier, she had only felt how fast the silver light was. Now, as it targeted her, she realized just how vicious the speed and momentum of this silver light were. Fortunately, Lin Sanjiu and Bohemia reacted quickly. A stream of silver electricity whizzed past Lin Sanjiu's boot and created a burnt leather smell in an instant. Lin Sanjiu immediately understood what Bohemia meant by stolen.
The people surrounding them had stepped aside just in time for the silver light to pass, creating an opening behind them. Lin Sanjiu and Bohemia's startled gazes fell directly on the person emitting the silver light.
No, it shouldn't be called a person.
A two-meter-tall ant slowly emerged from the soil beneath its feet, and a sticky, saliva-formed thread was pulled from the mouth.
"Its antennae," Bohemia said urgently. "My [Silver Thorn] just touched its antennae."
Lin Sanjiu interrupted her.
"No," she said softly, "it's not its antennae... you didn't see clearly."
Why hadn't she noticed this earlier? The ant's antennae tips were wrapped with two small circular rings, almost like a pair of handcuffs. Since the rings were also dark in color, Bohemia, who didn't want to look closely at the bug, had not noticed.
1
Taking a closer look, nearly every one of these ants wore some Special Item on their bodies.
