Chapter 4: Vegetarian Like a Lawnmower
Within the base camp valley, the insect nest stood tall. In the Primordial World, a seventh-rank nest had been nearly 180 meters high, but in this world, the seventh-rank nest was only a little over 80 meters tall. The difference in world systems had a very intuitive impact on an extreme race like the Demon Insect Race.
Su Xiao paid this no mind. Gaining a higher ceiling naturally came at a cost. The nest being only 80 meters tall was actually a good thing. While the rate of spawning troops was weakened, it was more conducive to concealment. The nest's height didn't exceed the valley; as long as one didn't fly directly over the valley, the nest was not easily discovered.
Regarding the spawning speed, Su Xiao wasn't worried. Jila was currently at the "Queen" rank. Once she advanced to the "Mother Emperor" rank, the nest would reach the eighth rank. At that point, the spawning speed would definitely surpass its former peak rather than decline.
As for reaching the "Overlord" rank, that would be a new height Jila had never achieved before.
The current situation in the south was that several "Mother Emperor" rank insectoid mothers were engaged in a prolonged war with the Empire's Third Fleet.
The insectoids of this world developed by mining, making them semi-vegetarian. But as insectoids, their combat capability should not be underestimated.
Beini, who had gone out to scout, had already discovered two eighth-rank insect nests. Both were established by "Mother Emperor" rank insectoid mothers. Using their own base camp as a reference point, the two eighth-rank nests were located to the northwest and northeast, meaning they were on the left and right sides ahead of their base camp.
To the left front was the "Kara Nest." According to Beini's observations, the insectoid units here were larger in size. The nest and various insectoid buildings covered an area about half the size of a city. There were many types of insectoid buildings, with particular emphasis on air defense.
To the right front was the "Crimson Queen Nest." The nest there was quite tall, but there weren't many insectoid buildings around it. The combat insectoids here were mostly flying units. The Crimson Queen's side was more aggressive, unlike Kara, who preferred defense and development.
Su Xiao decided not to greet these two "neighbors" for now, both because he couldn't defeat them and because they were quite far away.
The area behind their base camp wasn't worth exploring. Behind them were continuous gray mountain ranges with increasing altitude. When the altitude exceeded ten thousand meters, they entered a gravity-disturbed zone. Many rocks and dust floated in the sky. Even the Empire's warships wouldn't easily fly there.
This meant that as long as they built a perception tower, they wouldn't need to worry about sneak attacks from the rear. Such a geographical advantage should naturally be utilized.
Using a mental connection, Su Xiao issued an instruction to Jila inside the nest to begin cultivating Demon Beasts.
They currently had a total of 42,150 units of bio-energy. The cultivation of Demon Beast eggs and their subsequent maturation to adulthood consumed 10 units of bio-energy per individual. 4,215 Demon Beasts were decisively arranged.
The nest began working. A portion of the bio-energy first entered the egg-laying tissue, which then used genetic templates to cultivate eggs. The eggs were transported through incubation tubes to the cultivation sacs.
Inside the cultivation sacs, which maintained a constant temperature of 40°C and a warm, humid environment, the bio-energy was converted into liquid form and supplied to each egg through umbilical tubes.
The eggs grew at a visible rate. Soon, Demon Beasts in their early juvenile stage, with shells still somewhat soft, were cultivated and entered the final growth process.
Su Xiao didn't know how other insectoids operated, but the Demon Beasts cultivated by their nest had impeccable growth speed. Once they emerged from the nest, the Demon Beasts were combat units at their peak, fighting until death before they would stop.
Of course, such ferocious Demon Beasts weren't without flaws. Their lifespan was only 40 to 50 days, the price paid for pursuing combat power through extreme means.
Compared to the Demon Beasts' previous peak state, the ones cultivated this time were definitely stronger. The task reward had granted three shell enhancements.
Unfortunately, due to incompatibility, Demon Beasts couldn't integrate "bio-plasma." If they could, the cultivation cost of Demon Beasts would be several hundred times higher without question.
The sound of running came from within the nest. Su Xiao looked toward the sound and saw Demon Beasts rushing out of the nest. He temporarily took control of one, stopping it in front of him, and began observing whether the Demon Beasts had changed compared to before.
At this moment, the Demon Beast, not counting its tail, was about 3.5 meters long. Its two hind legs were bent, and the black shell on its body had clear lines. Although it was thinner than before, the current shell had a metallic texture.
The Demon Beast's forelimbs were slightly shorter than its hind legs. Its claws were like razor blades, with a slight curve at the tips. If it barely caught an enemy, it could tear off a piece of flesh.
Overall, the Demon Beast looked somewhat similar to a Xenomorph, except for the head. The Demon Beast's mouth could open very wide, and its teeth were structured not for eating but purely for tearing.
The most noticeable feature was the Demon Beast's armored tail. The entire tail was nearly four meters long, exceeding its body length. Due to the unique shell structure, this long tail could swing 360° freely. At the tip of the tail, it looked like a blade-shaped spike, but it could open. Once stabbed into a prey's body and opened, escape was impossible.
Given the Demon Beast's form, in narrow terrain, it could run quickly on walls and ceilings. With its agile body, hard shell, sharp claws, and pointed tail, the bone tail, longer than its body, could easily sever an enemy's head with a sweep of its nearly 50-centimeter-long tail blade. This creature called the Demon Beast was born for slaughter and war.
All the Demon Beasts stood on the fungal carpet, awaiting orders.
The nest's bio-energy reserves had returned to zero. It was time to gather some bio-energy for development. Su Xiao looked at the map on his terminal. The nearest neighbor was a Queen-rank insectoid mother with a fifth-rank nest.
Since she was a native insectoid, her nest's characteristics differed from theirs. That fifth-rank nest mainly affected the upper limit of the population and the construction of insectoid buildings, rather than cultivating insectoid units that were also fifth-rank.
What was cultivated there weren't fifth-rank insectoid units. Instead, the fifth-rank nest was used to cultivate eighth-rank insectoid units. The specific strength was unknown for now.
Of course, there were limitations. The number of insectoid units in this world was determined by the nest's rank. For example, a fifth-rank nest could support at most 7,000 to 10,000 insectoid units.
Beyond that number, the bio-energy income and expenditure would become unbalanced, eventually causing the nest and insectoid buildings to wither due to lack of bio-energy supply.
Jila was a different case. Her nest could cultivate insectoid units of the corresponding rank, and the quantity could reach very exaggerated levels.
The nearby insectoid queen had over 700 combat insectoids in her tribe. The remaining 3,000 worker-type insectoid units didn't need to be considered; these were miners or responsible for nest maintenance.
Although these 700-plus combat insectoids were eighth-rank, due to the poor quality of the nest and genes, whether their actual combat power reached the eighth rank was unknown.
Demon Beasts had once dominated the Primordial World. Now, on new soil, they still had to respect their opponents. Su Xiao left Amu and 1,215 Demon Beasts to guard the base.
To be safe, Su Xiao took 3,000 Demon Beasts with him, along with Bubu Wang and Baha. One was responsible for ground reconnaissance, the other for high-altitude reconnaissance.
Su Xiao leaped onto a Demon Beast's back. The Demon Beast coiled its long tail, and Su Xiao sat steadily on it. Under his mental command, the 3,000 Demon Beasts let out roars one after another before charging out of the valley.
The Demon Beasts ran on all fours at great speed. The Demon Beast Su Xiao was riding, needing to maintain stability during the run, was slightly slower than the main group. This was convenient for observing the battle from behind later.
The wind whistled past his ears. Su Xiao glanced at the map on his terminal. Their base camp was about 5 kilometers from the insectoid queen, far too close.
A tree branch barely brushed past Su Xiao's face. The experience of using a Demon Beast as a mount wasn't great. It would be much more convenient once they cultivated Demon Flame Dragons.
Su Xiao took out a soul crystal (complete). When he finished eating the soul crystal in his hand, the view ahead suddenly opened up. This was a clearing carved out of the dense forest. The weeds were short, and a grayish-brown insect nest stood ahead, about 50 meters high, looking somewhat like a bloated mountain peak.
Near the nest were several insectoid buildings. One living tower emitted a warning wave, indicating an enemy's approach. This should be a perception-type insectoid building.
Near the enemy nest, six-legged shelled insectoids were running toward the nest. Their short, thick legs and robust tail structure indicated they weren't combat insectoids. Some were responsible for digging and mining, others for transport.
Compared to these panicked worker insectoids, the several hundred spider-like combat insectoids on the periphery had already formed a defensive formation. These combat insectoids were called "Venom Stingers." They were about 3.2 meters long, with most of their bodies protected by shells. Their eight legs were like eight blades, and even more terrifying was their acidic venom.
This was a combat insectoid that combined speed, ferocity, and one-hit lethality. It shouldn't be underestimated.
The enemy's defensive line was already set up. A defensive insectoid building began to charge energy, its single eye fixed on Su Xiao.
A mental wave spread out, its meaning being expulsion or driving away. Seeing this, Su Xiao ordered the battle to begin.
"Roar!"
The surrounding Demon Beasts roared and charged forward. They didn't care what rank the enemy was. Receiving orders and killing the enemy was the only thing they had to do.
Currently, their soldier-type units exceeded 3,000, which meant one thing: the War Lord title, which was equipped, had activated its bonuses.
"1. Morale +80 points (triggered by 500 soldiers)."
"2. Max HP +50%, Physical Defense +30 points (triggered by 3,000 soldiers)."
The morale +80 points, which had been particularly useful, was now completely useless. Su Xiao didn't know about other insectoids, but for their insectoids, there was no concept of morale. The battle wouldn't stop until the last insectoid unit died.
With the bonuses of max HP +50% and physical defense +30 points, their Demon Beasts, which had just received shell enhancements, now had a significant boost in survivability.
Originally, Demon Beasts leaned toward speed and attack characteristics, making them fragile high-attack warriors. Now, with these survivability bonuses stacked, their weakness in defense was compensated.
Thousands of Demon Beasts swarmed forward. During the run, their claws kicked up mud and grass clippings. The Venom Stingers on the opposite side showed no fear. The leading Venom Stinger charged toward the Demon Beasts.
A Demon Beast and a Venom Stinger charged at each other. When the distance closed, the Demon Beast leaped forward, claws spread, mouth full of sharp teeth open, like a beast pouncing on prey.
The Venom Stinger raised its legs, seemingly preparing to pierce the Demon Beast with its blade-like legs before being pounced on. In the Venom Stinger's compound eyes, there seemed to be a hint of ferocity. This was a characteristic of this world's insectoids; they had a certain degree of individual consciousness.
Just as the Demon Beast leaped into mid-air, its long tail whipped around, and the tip embedded into the ground. This caused the Demon Beast's forward pounce to halt, abruptly stopping its advance.
The Venom Stinger stabbed forward with four legs. Due to the Demon Beast's sudden stop, the Venom Stinger's legs missed, digging into the ground in front of the Demon Beast.
The Demon Beast came to a complete stop with an emergency brake. Its long tail whipped around, and the tail blade cut into one of the Venom Stinger's legs.
With a tearing sound, the leg was severed. Fluorescent green acidic insect blood splattered. The Demon Beast seemed to have anticipated this, sidestepping to the Venom Stinger's flank.
"Hiss!"
The Venom Stinger let out a pained screech and lunged at the Demon Beast beside it. The Demon Beast displayed extraordinary agility. While dodging, its tail blade flashed repeatedly, cutting off three of the Venom Stinger's legs.
This wasn't the end. The Demon Beast's long tail whipped around, wrapping around the severed leg. Then the Demon Beast grabbed the severed leg and made a throwing motion.
Meanwhile, inside the enemy nest, the insectoid queen, wrapped in biological tissue, sensed the Demon Beast's series of actions. A clear look of surprise appeared on her face.
This insectoid queen's appearance was very similar to a human. Most insectoid mothers in this world were like this. It was one of their self-preservation methods. At critical moments, they could disguise themselves as Orvans to avoid being captured alive by the Empire's soldiers for research.
The surprises for this insectoid queen were just beginning. On the chaotic battlefield, the Demon Beast, holding the severed leg in its front claws, made a throwing motion but then faked it. Its long tail, also wrapped around the severed leg, whipped around. A cold gleam flashed, and a leg was embedded next to the Venom Stinger's head.
Having succeeded, the Demon Beast pounced forward, seemingly about to strike the enemy with its claws. But the real attack came from below. The long tail stabbed upward in an arc.
Pfft.
The tail blade pierced through the Venom Stinger's head. The Demon Beast's long tail whipped around, flinging the Venom Stinger up. The tail blade then slashed repeatedly, cutting the Venom Stinger into over a dozen pieces. Various organs scattered on the ground. The acidic blood corroded the ground with a hissing sound, and a foul smell spread.
The Demon Beast flicked the insect blood off its tail blade and turned to charge at another Venom Stinger. These Venom Stingers, claimed to be eighth-rank insectoid units, seemed to fall short of their reputation.
This situation was actually normal. Demon Beasts were designed entirely for combat and war. In contrast, Venom Stingers, though insectoids, were naturally reproduced. Their birth process differed from other creatures. Using talent points as an analogy, with a total of 10 points, they had 6 in combat, 3 in reconnaissance and defense, and 1 in hunting and evolution.
Demon Beasts, on the other hand, had an ability that greatly enhanced their overall combat power.
"Combat Instinct (Passive, X): A killing creature born for battle. Combat ability is etched into their genes."
To put it simply, the Demon Beasts' genetic memory was like a "shared cloud drive." Every time a Demon Beast fought, it uploaded the combat segment to the shared cloud drive. This drive was useless initially, but as the Demon Beasts fought more and more battles, the combat memories stored in it became a huge advantage.
Each Demon Beast, after being cultivated to adulthood in the nest, could "download" the combat memories from the "Demon Shared Cloud Drive," allowing them to possess formidable practical combat ability shortly after birth.
How many battles had Demon Beasts participated in? To put it another way, how many wars had Demon Beasts participated in? The answer was: so many that it was hard to count. They had slaughtered their way through two worlds.
Now, the Venom Stingers, equivalent to nest security guards, encountered Demon Beasts who were all veteran cold-blooded warriors. They were completely outmatched.
Boom!
An explosion sounded. Broken shells flew in all directions. A Venom Stinger had exploded, compressing its internal acid sac, causing a devastating acid-blood explosion.
When the battle subsided, the ground was covered in fluorescent blue acidic insect blood, with white smoke rising from the corroded ground. In this battle, 715 enemies were eliminated. Their side lost 85 Demon Beasts, most killed by the acid-blood explosions, a few killed by being surrounded.
The Venom Stingers were said to be eighth-rank insectoid units, but Su Xiao suspected they were the weakest of the eighth rank, perhaps even pseudo-eighth-rank. Only their self-destruct ability posed a threat to the Demon Beasts.
This allowed Su Xiao to estimate the general strength of the insectoid queen. Before being able to establish a seventh-rank nest, the insectoid queens in this world were all weaklings.
Su Xiao leaped off the Demon Beast's back and walked toward the nest. Behind him, Baha said, "Bubu found the insectoid queen's location. She wants to run."
"..."
Su Xiao quickened his pace. Entering the nest's entrance, he came to a passage about 5 meters high, covered in slime. The inner walls of the passage had a web-like structure.
Following the path provided by Bubu Wang, Su Xiao reached the deepest part of the nest. Just as he arrived at the insectoid queen's dwelling, he saw several elite Venom Stingers guarding inside.
Seeing this, Su Xiao retreated from the passage and issued a mental command for the Demon Beasts to attack. He lit a cigarette and began to wait.
A few minutes later, a leg flew out in a spiral. Su Xiao glanced at the leg, extinguished his cigarette butt, and walked into the queen's chamber.
Compared to the queen's chamber Jila had set up, this one was much smaller and the environment much worse. It seemed not all insectoid queens were as reclusive as Jila. Taking a few steps out of the nest to bask in the sun was considered an outing for her. Leaving the base camp valley would probably be equivalent to traveling abroad for Jila.
A girl who looked like she had spider genes sat there. Su Xiao knew this creature was vastly different from humans. This was probably some kind of adaptive shape-shifting ability.
The insectoid queen, Spider Girl, sat quietly, looking at Su Xiao with an indifferent gaze.
"Boss, how do we handle this?"
"Capture alive. Take her back to feed the nest."
"Human, I can temporarily submit to..."
Spider Girl spoke in an indifferent tone.
"No need. You're useless."
As Su Xiao spoke, he signaled to tie her up and take her back. He didn't think that with his charm attribute, he could make Spider Girl submit or follow him. Her saying this was more likely to stabilize the situation, then find a chance to escape or retaliate.
Taking her back and throwing her into the nest for the nest to seize her genes was the best choice. This was the law of the insectoids: survival of the fittest.
Spider Girl tilted her head and looked at Su Xiao, as if pondering why this human understood their insectoid behavioral rules.
After a thorough search, Su Xiao obtained a lot of rough soul stones and 596 units of life ore. After conversion, this would yield about 6,000 units of bio-energy.
Su Xiao didn't destroy this nest because there was a life ore vein underground. Once they had mining capabilities, coming here to mine would be a good choice.
Su Xiao had already noticed the difference between Jila and the native insectoids. The native insectoids, because their units had a certain degree of individual consciousness, made it more difficult for the insectoid mother to control them.
Conversely, Jila's swarm had no self-awareness at all, making control much easier.
This led to a situation: even if they went on a massive spawning spree, Jila could handle the control with ease.
This situation meant that as long as they had insectoid individuals capable of mining, they could cultivate these individuals en masse and then go mining.
Once the number of mining-type insectoid units piled up, a vein that other insectoid queens would take months to dig empty could be emptied by them in a day or two.
After that, they needed to keep a low profile. First, avoid cultivating insectoid units like Demon Flame Dragons that could easily break the enemy's morale, to prevent being besieged by other contractors' nests and wild nest forces.
At this stage, the lowest-profile development method was: only cultivate worker insectoids and Demon Beasts. The Demon Beasts would attack and occupy other insectoid queens' nests. After occupation, their worker insectoid army would move in and start mining. After mining was done, they would go and "visit" the next neighbor.
This way, accumulating bio-energy would be much simpler. Once Jila advanced to the Mother Emperor rank, their nest would also advance to the eighth rank. At that point, various insectoid units would definitely undergo a qualitative change.
Thinking about it this way, the most pressing problem now was that they had no mining-type units. Su Xiao's gaze fell on Spider Girl. It all depended on this insectoid mother.
Leaving 400 Demon Beasts to guard this place, Su Xiao took the remaining Demon Beasts, over 3,000 worker-type insectoid units called "Burrowers," and the insectoid queen Spider Girl, and returned to the valley base camp.
When the midday sun was at its harshest, Su Xiao returned to the valley. He saw Amu sitting in a newly built wooden shelter to escape the heat.
Su Xiao issued a mental command for the Demon Beasts to escort all the Burrowers onto the fungal carpet. He activated the fungal carpet's decomposition ability and began decomposing these Burrowers.
When the last Burrower dissolved, the nest gained a total of 4,150 units of bio-energy. It seemed the cost of cultivating mining-type insectoid units was not low.
As for why not let Jila take control of these Burrowers to better utilize their value as insectoid miners, if it were feasible, Su Xiao would have done so long ago. Each insectoid mother and her swarm's individuals had their own mental wave frequencies. If the frequencies differed, no matter how strong the insectoid mother was, she couldn't control individuals from other swarms.
The nest split open. Demon Beasts carried the life ore they had plundered this time inside. One unit of life ore could be converted into about 10 units of bio-energy.
A total of 596 units of life ore were thrown into the nest's opening. As these greenish ores clattered and collided, the nest's opening closed. After a moment, the nest's bio-energy reserves stopped increasing, reaching 10,168 units.
With over ten thousand units of bio-energy gained from one trip, Su Xiao gained confidence in subsequent development. Although Jila's swarm was strong, the resource consumption was too severe.
As Su Xiao was pondering, Jila rarely came to the entrance to observe Spider Girl.
"Jila, are you going to devour her?"
Baha tentatively asked.
"I don't eat spiders. She's poisonous."
As Jila spoke, she ate the fries Bubu Wang had given her. Compared to the poisonous Spider Girl, Jila clearly preferred the fries.
"Can't the nest obtain her genetic fragments?"
Su Xiao frowned as he spoke. If that were really the case, then the plan just now would be dead in the water.
"Can't devour her. She and I are not the same species. I am a Jixing insectoid. She is... what is she? I don't know."
Jila twisted open a bottle of cola with a pop and began chugging it down. Bubu gave Jila anything to eat. This insect girl was becoming more and more deviant. Other people's insect girls were aloof and queenly; theirs was a super homebody who, outside of wartime, read comics, ate junk food, and drank fat-boy happy water.
"Although I can't devour her, I can use her as a plug-in, inserted into the nest's gene library area."
Hearing Jila's words, Su Xiao frowned even deeper and asked, "Plug-in? Temporarily borrowing genes?"
"No, it's replicating genes. After replication, I can have them permanently. No need to worry about the plug-in breaking."
"..."
Su Xiao didn't speak. He signaled for Amu and Baha to cooperate with Jila and send the plug-in queen, Spider Girl, to the designated location.
Jila led the way. Su Xiao walked through the nest's main passage, went up to the second floor, and after reaching a corner, a prison made of biological tissue appeared before him.
As if worried there would be other "guests" in the future, Jila raised her hand, and several more biological tissue prison cells appeared.
The cell door opened automatically. Amu threw Spider Girl inside. This completed the installation of the plug-in. There was no need to press Spider Girl against the wall.
According to Jila, the more such plug-ins, the better. The more worker-type insectoid genes the nest collected, the stronger the combined worker-type insectoid unit template would be.
Jila chose the "Insectoid Unit: Worker Scorpion" as the initial template. With the Worker Scorpion's endurance and form, it was suitable for mining or transport. For medium-to-long-distance transport, they would manufacture "Spore Tanks." Su Xiao had used this insectoid unit many times before to transport supplies.
Su Xiao exited the nest and came to the wooden shelter. He sat cross-legged on the bed. This wooden shelter only had a roof for shade, with four wooden pillars around it, offering a wide view. The bed base, made of stacked logs, was covered with several animal skins.
Time passed as he waited. Su Xiao didn't go out hunting again. They still had a "mining nest" waiting to be exploited. Without mining-type units, capturing too many "mining nests" would be a burden instead.
At 3:30 PM that day, Su Xiao received a notification.
[Notification: The nest has unlocked the advanced insectoid unit: Elite Worker Scorpion.]
Elite Worker Scorpion (Fifth-Rank Worker-Type Race)
Endurance: ★★★★★
Digging: ★★★★
Mining: ★★★★★
[Due to the significant increase in the Elite Worker Scorpion's life tier, you may choose one of the following characteristics for it.]