Chapter 24: We Have to Compete on the Same Stage as This Monster?
Inside a village in East Gorteau.
Thin smoke rose within the village. This was not from cooking fires, but from the smoldering remains scattered about.
Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, and Amu walked toward the village. Before they even entered, they saw a human torso and head.
The limbs of the torso had been torn off by brute force, with bloodstains scattered around. This was not a murder, but the remains left behind after some creature’s hunt. Compared to the torso and head, the limbs were easier to carry and had better meat.
Without needing to think, this was the work of Chimera Ants. The Chimera Ants did not hunt much wild game, because they had discovered that humans were easier to catch than those beasts with strong escape abilities. Moreover, humans were “social animals,” and every time they found a village, they could obtain a large amount of “food.”
Su Xiao crouched before the torso, his fingers touching the skin. From the temperature of the corpse, he could tell that the Chimera Ants that had just finished hunting were not far away.
“Bubu, track them.”
Bubu Wang began searching for suspicious scents in the village. He quickly caught a trail, and the tracking began.
In a forest five kilometers away, a group of bizarre creatures was moving quickly. They carried large bundles, with blood seeping from the packages and dripping onto the ground.
These strange creatures were similar in build to humans, walking upright and wearing clothes, but their limbs and heads were completely different from humans. They looked like a fusion of beasts and humans.
These were Chimera Ants. The Chimera Ants’ greatest ability was to seize the DNA of other creatures, taking excellent genes and discarding inferior ones.
Therefore, among the Chimera Ants, except for their Queen, most high-ranking Chimera Ants had no ant-like features. They might be a fusion of humans and beasts, or a fusion of beasts, beasts, and a small part of humans.
Whoosh~
A sound of wind cutting through the air came. Hearing this, the dozen or so Chimera Ants in the forest did not react much, because in their view, this was their territory.
“A beast?”
A hippopotamus-like upright Chimera Ant spoke. This was a characteristic of second-generation or higher Chimera Ants: they mastered human language from birth.
“Not sure, don’t worry about it. We need to hurry back. The ‘Queen’ has a bad temper.”
“Why is ‘she’ the queen? It wasn’t her who gave birth to us. The real queen might already be dead, since the King has been born.”
Just as these Chimera Ants were chatting, a voice came.
“The Ant King has been born?”
“Who is it!”
“Over there.”
The Chimera Ants turned their gazes toward a towering tree not far away.
Su Xiao stood on a thick branch. The reason he had Bubu Wang track these Chimera Ants was mainly to understand the current situation in East Gorteau.
“Oh, it’s a human. We’ve already got enough meat rations for today…”
The Chimera Ant’s words were cut off mid-sentence as it met Su Xiao’s gaze. The bundle it was carrying fell to the ground with a thud, spilling human limbs.
“What… are you?”
The genes inherited from insects made this Chimera Ant sense danger.
“A special human?”
A lizard-headed Chimera Ant stepped forward, and Nen energy surged from within its body.
“Even ordinary worker Chimera Ants have mastered Nen. It seems someone has been speeding up the process.”
Su Xiao stood still on the tree. Just then, the ground began to tremble.
Boom, boom, boom…
It was like a war chariot charging through the forest. With a crack, wood splinters flew, and Amu burst out from the debris, charging straight at the Chimera Ants.
Screams, thuds, the cracking of carapaces—all these sounds intertwined.
Two minutes later, Su Xiao jumped down from the tree. Of the dozen or so Chimera Ants, only three survived: the lizard-headed Chimera Ant, a dog-headed Chimera Ant, and an unknown insect Chimera Ant (suspected to be a dung beetle).
The three Chimera Ants sat slumped on the ground, some missing limbs, others with large dents in their torsos.
“I ask, you answer.”
Su Xiao stood before the three Chimera Ants, lighting a cigarette.
“We will never betray the Quee—”
Bang.
Su Xiao kicked out, and the head of the suspected dung beetle Chimera Ant flew off. From start to finish, it never saw what happened.
“You said earlier that the King was born? When exactly?”
Su Xiao exhaled a puff of smoke, waiting for the remaining two Chimera Ants to answer.
Five seconds, ten seconds.
At the ten-second mark, Amu directly grabbed the dog-headed Chimera Ant and smashed it repeatedly against the surrounding ground.
With a splat, the twisted body of the Chimera Ant was thrown to the ground, losing all signs of life. Just moments before, these Chimera Ants had been cruel and savage when hunting humans. Now, they had encountered a human stronger than them.
“The… The King was born a day ago.”
The last surviving lizard-headed Chimera Ant spoke, its voice trembling, because it knew that if it said even one wrong word, its head would be kicked off.
“A day ago. That’s four days early.”
Su Xiao nodded and continued asking, “Your ant army has already disbanded?”
“That’s right. After the Queen gave birth to the King, she became weak to the point of death and lost the ability to reproduce further. The squadron leaders all left, and a new Queen has appeared…”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant had a strong will to survive, so it spilled all the information it knew.
“That’s everything I know. Can… can you let me go?”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant lowered its head, occasionally glancing at Su Xiao from the corner of its eye.
“Take me to see your current Queen.”
“This…”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant hesitated. Su Xiao crooked his finger at Amu, who bared his flat teeth.
“I mean, finish it off.”
Su Xiao rubbed his forehead. He didn’t know how Amu had developed this bad habit of wanting to bite everything he saw.
“I’ll take you there, just don’t kill me!”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant’s will to survive was indeed strong. It stood up shakily, swallowed its saliva, and walked deeper into the forest.
Under the lizard-headed Chimera Ant’s guidance, Su Xiao soon arrived before a “mountain” made of piled earth. This “mountain” was red, and this was the ant nest.
The ant nest was not small in area. It had originally been ruled by the Chimera Ant army, but now it had been abandoned.
“Lead the way.”
Su Xiao looked at the lizard-headed Chimera Ant, but it stood still.
“The Queen… has already left.”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant trembled even more violently.
“Left?”
“I really don’t know why the Queen left. Maybe she thought the resources here were too scarce, so she abandoned us.”
“Oh, then you’re useless.”
“Bastard!”
The lizard-headed Chimera Ant lunged at Su Xiao. A large hand reached out to meet it, but this lizard-headed Chimera Ant was a Nen user, an elite among the grunts. It sidestepped, actually dodging Amu’s hand.
Clang.
A silver line flashed. The lizard-headed Chimera Ant froze in place, looking down at its chest. Everything below its chest was completely numb.
With a thud, the upper half of the lizard-headed Chimera Ant’s body fell to the ground. A somewhat displeased Amu stepped on it.
Squelch, green blood splattered, and a blue treasure chest rolled out from the corpse.
“To the capital of East Gorteau.”
Su Xiao picked up the treasure chest from the ground and left with Bubu Wang and Amu.
Above the ant nest, a girl with twin ponytails witnessed what had happened below.
“This guy… he’s ridiculously strong, like a monster. Did you guys see that slash just now? It was absurdly fast. I have to compete with this kind of guy for the Ant King’s heart? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The twin-ponytail girl forced a smile. She was a third-rank early-stage contractor.
“And that’s not the worst part. There are four more guys like this monster near the capital of East Gorteau. If we run into any of them, we’re dead for sure.”
A bespectacled man behind the twin-ponytail girl spoke. He was the “brain” of this team. Although his IQ was very high, facing the current situation, he only felt helpless.