Chapter 8: The Cap
Inside the nest chamber, Su Xiao, the Necromancer Girl, and the Priest all remained silent. Even if only one person had used the [Beginning of Nightmare], the danger level of this world would already be high enough. Now, however, it was a triple supercharged blow.
Since the matter was already settled, Su Xiao was more concerned about one thing: whether, aside from the three present, anyone else had entered this world using the [Beginning of Nightmare].
Estimating based on the reputation ranking list, among the top ten, aside from Su Xiao and the other two, the remaining seven included the leader of the Hall of Heroes, Kain, and the Black Demon. There was a possibility that they had used the [Beginning of Nightmare] to enter this world.
Under normal circumstances, few people actually used this item because it was too dangerous. If one person used it, nine times out of ten, it would result in a rough start and being placed in high-risk areas.
For example, Su Xiao's status as an empire fugitive was a rough start. He had originally thought the side effects of the [Beginning of Nightmare] had already manifested, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.
To put it simply, if only one person used the [Beginning of Nightmare], it was equivalent to that person experiencing nightmare-level difficulty. If the world's structure was large enough, it wouldn't easily cause a worldwide impact.
This world's structure was indeed large: Pandora Star (main star), Oka Star (empire's home star), Lucky Star (colony star), Gray Hunt Star (colony star), ζXV367 Star (colony star), Bainini Star (colony star)…
With a main star, a home star, and over a dozen colony stars inhabited by intelligent beings, the world's structure was vast. Logically, if one person used the [Beginning of Nightmare] to enter this world, it would only trigger personal nightmare difficulty.
But from the moment Su Xiao entered this world, aside from starting in prison, he hadn't faced much targeting from the empire. Developing the insect nest had gone smoothly. It was only the third day in this world, and in such a short time, Jila had already advanced to the [Mother Queen] level, stepping into the top tier of this world's insect race.
Such smooth progress had made Su Xiao feel that this nightmare difficulty was undeserved. But now, he understood what was going on. Why had it been so smooth before? Because the nightmare difficulty wasn't coming—something far more terrifying was about to descend.
Three people had all used the [Beginning of Nightmare] to enter this world. This world was already building up a big move, which was why the early stages were so peaceful. It was as if it were saying, "Cherish the calm and sunny days now. Eat whatever you want while you can, because you might not get another chance."
"Rational analysis, I don't think Kain would use the [Beginning of Nightmare]. He brought his adventure group this time."
The Necromancer Girl spoke. All three present had seen all kinds of major situations, so despite the dire circumstances, they remained calm, even composed.
"Makes sense."
The Priest agreed with the Necromancer Girl. If Kain didn't want his adventure group to suffer heavy casualties, he wouldn't use the [Beginning of Nightmare] to enter this world.
"What kind of disaster do you think will come?"
The Necromancer Girl looked troubled. Compared to visible powerful enemies, she was more wary of this unknown danger.
"At first, I thought it was the empire's wanted list."
The Priest spoke. Hearing this, the Necromancer Girl asked in a tone of schadenfreude, "Oh? You're wanted? For what?"
"Allegedly for forming a cult organization."
The Priest slowly shook his head as he spoke, looking as if he had been slandered.
"That really suits your style."
The Necromancer Girl laughed a bit happily, clearly having had a conflict with the Priest before.
"Thanks for the compliment."
"I wasn't praising you. Anyway, since things have come to this, shouldn't we join forces?" The Necromancer Girl's eyes gleamed.
"Yes, we should indeed unite. Bai Ye, what do you think?"
The Priest looked at Su Xiao.
"Mm."
Su Xiao naturally agreed to cooperate. In his view, no matter what was about to happen, having two more teammates was a good thing. At critical moments, teammates were truly useful, whether for sharing danger or using them as projectiles.
"Then let's make it clear. If we cooperate, we must at least be united."
The Necromancer Girl's gaze swept across Su Xiao and the Priest's faces. Somehow, she suddenly felt that this team's future was bleak.
It wasn't surprising she felt this way. The team members were either former Hunters or current Hunters, and more absurdly, there was even a Violator.
After discussion, the three decided to cooperate and continue developing in this world, trading resources at low prices.
However, jointly developing Su Xiao's insect nest together was basically impossible. The situation was indeed dangerous, but before this, the three were either hostile or had only traded with each other. No one knew if the Priest had a secret plan to suddenly devour Jila—such a thing wasn't impossible.
Moreover, even if the three worked together to develop this nest, the effect wouldn't be high. The nest's development relied more on worker-type or combat-type insect units. Instead of all being tied up here, it was better for each to handle different areas.
Su Xiao would continue developing the mother nest. The Priest would go find the Black Demon to ask if he had also used the [Beginning of Nightmare]. No matter how dangerous the situation, they needed at least to know the facts.
If the Black Demon had also used the [Beginning of Nightmare] to enter this world, Su Xiao's existing plans would all change. He would adopt a higher-risk, faster development approach.
Besides finding the Black Demon, the Priest would also go recruit more cannon fodder… ahem, recruit more teammates to deal with the current situation.
Additionally, the Priest's methods were bizarre and varied, making him the most suitable for investigating the source of the danger.
The Necromancer Girl, on the other hand, would contact the empire. She had previously soloed an eighth-rank insect nest and killed a Mother Queen-level insect mother, which greatly shocked the empire. Although they could destroy an eighth-rank nest, they couldn't solo one.
The empire had been actively recruiting the Necromancer Girl, but she had refused before, knowing their recruitment wasn't out of goodwill. She didn't want to play political games with them. Now, forced by the situation, she would temporarily agree to the empire's recruitment, using their comprehensive intelligence network to investigate the origin of the crisis and what type of danger it was.
The Necromancer Girl had destroyed an eighth-rank insect nest. Su Xiao had originally planned to trade some [Life Ore] from her, but unfortunately, not even the enemy insect corpses were left.
The undead army she summoned was not only ferocious in combat but also brutal in style. By the time the battle ended, the enemy nest had been eaten clean by the undead, let alone the Life Ore. The only remaining underground vein had been sold to the company faction yesterday afternoon. As the Necromancer Girl put it, "If I'd known, I wouldn't have sold it."
After finalizing their respective responsibilities, the Necromancer Girl and the Priest left. At the entrance of the mother nest, Su Xiao watched their retreating figures and made a decision: he would change his strategy and adopt a war development mode.
The so-called war development mode meant plundering resources. Su Xiao had originally planned to stabilize, but the environment didn't allow for stability.
Around midnight last night, Jila had completed her advancement, upgrading their nest to an eighth-rank nest. Now, the sky was turning pale with dawn. The bio-energy from 340,000 worker scorpions mining for nearly six hours had all been used by Su Xiao to build insect structures.
The [Research Lab] had been established, located in the middle layer of the mother nest. As for what the [Fusion Host Insect] inside the lab looked like, Su Xiao hadn't seen it yet, but he could sense it and communicate with it.
The [Fusion Host Insect] was a high-intelligence unit among the insect race, or even a hero-level unit. To put it simply, it was an insect scientist. It would use all existing knowledge and the nest's genetic reserves to develop insect structures based on Jila's or Su Xiao's requests.
What surprised Su Xiao even more was that shortly after the [Fusion Host Insect] appeared, it submitted a request to Su Xiao and Jila, asking for a unique title, name, or code to distinguish it from combat and worker insects.
Such strong self-awareness was undoubtedly good news. The [Fusion Host Insect] was responsible for development and innovation, and without strong self-awareness, its creativity and imagination wouldn't be particularly strong.
However, there was a problem: Su Xiao and Jila's naming skills were generally…
Jila sent a mental command to the [Fusion Host Insect], granting it the right to name itself. Thus, the hero-level unit, the insect scientist, named itself Pross.
Pross was the fourth hero-level unit in their nest. The first three were: Mantis Armor·Bru, Leader-level Demon Beast·Abaddon, and Leader-level Demon Flame Dragon·Barbatos.
Bru had no combat power. After the initial construction of the mother nest, it became Jila's little errand runner. Previously, on the original continent, when it was bullied by Barbatos, it would come to Su Xiao and Jila to complain.
As for Leader-level Demon Beast·Abaddon and Leader-level Demon Flame Dragon·Barbatos, they were currently in a state of consciousness slumber. They would only be awakened when their nest could cultivate leader-level individuals.
At this stage, the fungal carpet around their nest had been improved by Pross once, covering an area with a diameter of 5 kilometers, or 20 square kilometers. This area was sufficient for now.
On the roughly circular fungal carpet, the mother nest sat at the center. Behind it was the newly built [Jila Spiral Tower (Eighth Rank)].
The Jila Spiral Tower was spiral-shaped, like a dark red spike shooting into the sky, reaching a height of 140 meters—20 meters taller than the mother nest. This was a landmark structure.
With it, the mother nest gained 120,000 health points and 196 points of external defense. The health boost wasn't huge for the mother nest, but the defense increase was particularly significant. A few dozen points of defense was already impressive, and nearly 200 points was only possible for building-type units.
Currently, the most numerous structures on the fungal carpet were the several-meter-high [Ground Nests]. There were hundreds of them, varying in height, scattered loosely around the mother nest, forming an insect-style architectural cluster with the mother nest and other structures.
The [Ground Nests] had many uses. When their insect units' bio-energy was nearly depleted, they could rest in a [Ground Nest] for a short time and be fully recharged, several times faster than resting on the fungal carpet.
The [Ground Nests] also served as exclusive hospitals for insect units. Injured combat insects could crawl into a [Ground Nest] to recover.
Additionally, the [Bio-Reaction Mounds] for charging various insect structures had been completed.
Finally, there was the Positional Attack-Type Insectoid Building: Killing Watchtower. Su Xiao looked up. The Killing Watchtower stood diagonally in front of the mother nest. It was ugly, about 35 meters tall and nearly 17 meters thick. Its upper part drooped like an elephant's trunk—this was the launcher. When the sensing tower detected enemy approach, the Killing Watchtower's upper part would adjust its angle based on the enemy's method. Every 20 seconds, it could fire a giant chitinous spike cone.
The Killing Watchtower was an old model of insect structure with poor performance and an unappealing design. As Baha put it, "This thing looks like a guy's junk. When it attacks enemies, it's not very strong, but the insult is huge."
Su Xiao gave Pross its first task: develop two types of [Defense Towers]. One was for dealing with large numbers of enemies that had already reached the fungal carpet—essentially, anti-mook towers. These needed high attack frequency and low cost, as many would be built.
The other type was for ultra-long-range aerial targets, ideally capable of shooting beyond the atmosphere. Attack frequency didn't need to be high, but the power had to be devastating—one hit should cripple a large enemy flying unit.
This type of defense tower would naturally develop toward plasma systems. However, considering the cost of plasma structures, the large vein they currently occupied suddenly didn't seem so rich.
Su Xiao set these thoughts aside for now. He sat cross-legged on top of the mother nest, watching the sunrise while organizing his current assets: one eighth-rank mother nest, plus the Sensing Tower, Research Lab, Killing Watchtower, Jila Spiral Tower, and Bio-Reaction Mounds.
As for insect units: 1,001 Mantis Armors, 340,000 elite worker scorpions, 30 spore tanks, and 12,053 demon beasts.
Now that the nest had advanced to eighth rank, the existing combat units needed to be replaced. Elite demon beasts would become the main force, with a certain number of demon flame dragons as breakthrough weapons.
The problem was that the mother nest currently only had 650 bio-energy points stored, enough to cultivate just 10 elite demon beasts.
Su Xiao estimated that to fight the Mother Queens of this world, he would need at least 100,000 elite demon beasts to form a combat advantage and eventually breach enemy nests to quickly obtain [Life Ore].
For 100,000 demon beasts, he would need 5 million bio-energy points to cultivate them, equivalent to 500,000 units of Life Ore. Hollowing out the large vein beneath the mother nest could achieve this, but at the current mining rate of 17,000 units per day, it would take a month to mine 500,000 units.
Su Xiao figured he wouldn't last a month. Maybe even ten more days, and he'd be six feet under. He needed to get rich quick.
Thinking of getting rich quick, an image appeared in Su Xiao's mind. If that guy could come, the situation might be salvageable, and his chances of surviving this world would greatly increase.
The problem was, if that guy sensed the situation in this world, there was a 99.999% chance he wouldn't come. That guy prioritized his life first, money second. Yes, that person was Kaisa.
Su Xiao set aside the thought of tricking Kaisa into coming—the success rate was very low. The cooperation with the Priest and Necromancer Girl had yielded zero resource help but plenty of intelligence.
First, the Insect Alliance. This alliance consisted of five Mother Queens:
- Crimson Empress: The strongest Mother Queen in this world, said to be on the verge of advancing from Mother Queen to Dominator level.
- Brutal·Kara: Their nest's neighbor, cruel in nature. Her combat insect units were relatively weak, but her insect structures were strong. Offensive actions often failed, but defensive capabilities were terrifying.
- Aisea: Above-average overall strength, very low-key.
- Gai: The most cowardly Mother Queen, repeatedly advocating for peace talks, only to be beaten to the point of questioning her existence by the Empire's Third Fleet.
- Spider Queen: Her combat units and structures were mid-to-upper level, but her worker insects were top-tier, with the strongest mining capabilities. The Spider Girl who was previously eliminated had been expelled from the Spider Queen's group. Compared to her strength, the Spider Queen was more famous for lending [Life Ore] and then collecting principal plus exorbitant interest.
Among the five Mother Queens, the Crimson Empress was the leader. After learning this, Su Xiao found the world's power structure simpler than expected.
The Empire's Third Fleet was hostile to the Crimson Empress. The company faction was ostensibly the empire's lackey but secretly traded with the Crimson Empress.
Among the five insect factions, Su Xiao was most interested in their leader, the Crimson Empress. Beneath her nest was the largest Life Ore vein in this world, which was also the main reason the empire was at war with her.
Su Xiao felt that to withstand the approaching disaster, he had to seize the Crimson Empress's super-massive Life Ore vein. Otherwise, there was a 90% chance he would die in this world. The disaster accumulated from three [Beginning of Nightmare] items was terrifying just to think about.
Among the five Mother Queens, the one Su Xiao most wanted to contact was naturally the Spider Queen. She was a loan shark. For example, borrowing 10 units of Life Ore today would balloon to at least 300 units in a week—compound interest couldn't even keep up.
For such unscrupulous behavior, Su Xiao decided to teach her a lesson about the world's dangers. He was currently short on Life Ore. Borrowing 500,000 units was impossible, but 100,000 units might be feasible.
Su Xiao wasn't trying to get something for nothing. Beneath their mother nest was a large vein that could produce 30 to 50 units of Life Ore. Using this as collateral, the Spider Queen would likely be willing to lend.
If he could get 100,000 units of Life Ore, the situation would change. Thinking this, Su Xiao vanished from the nest top and reappeared on the fungal carpet. He had Mantis Armor·Bru fetch Bubu Wang and Baha.
A moment later.
"Woof."
"Boss, what's up?"
Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha all arrived in the inner nest chamber. Jila, who had just woken up, sat on the bed yawning.
"Jila, can you pinpoint the Spider Queen's location?"
"Yes. There are five beings of the same rank as me here. They can sense me too. The one with the red mental wavelength is the strongest. The Spider is over there."
Jila pointed northwest.
Su Xiao turned to Bubu Wang and Baha. "You two go as representatives to negotiate a loan with the Spider Queen. The amount… no upper limit, lower limit 100,000 units."
Hearing this, Baha asked, "Boss, what are we using as collateral?"
"The vein. Tell the Spider Queen we urgently need a large amount of Life Ore for initial development."
Su Xiao wasn't speaking idly. They currently had 340,000 worker scorpions and 12,000 demon beasts, with worker-to-combat unit ratios out of proportion.
He was sure the Spider Queen wouldn't lend casually. She would definitely send scouts to investigate. At that time, Su Xiao would use the fungal carpet to reduce the visible worker scorpion count to 30,000, sacrificing some bio-energy to make it look like they urgently needed Life Ore for initial development.
The Spider Queen's modus operandi was to lend and then demand interest 2 to 3 days later. If unpaid, she would use force.
For this world's insect race, 2 to 3 days wasn't enough to digest such a large amount of Life Ore. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been beaten into this state by a single empire fleet.
Thus, the Spider Queen's exploitation would begin. She would quickly recover the principal, then use coercion to keep collecting interest until she bled the borrower dry, eventually destroying them.
Su Xiao, of course, had no intention of repaying this loan shark. The Spider Queen's military threat? Perfect—he was looking for someone to attack him. Having an enemy insect faction attack was much faster than mining and developing.
"Got it, boss. Bubu and I will go. You'll see my—"
"You keep your mouth shut."
Hearing this, Baha gave an awkward laugh. Last time in the Primordial World, he had been the one to negotiate a loan, and the results were… best not mentioned.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang barked, as if to say, "Leave it to me." His 237 points of true charm attribute weren't for nothing. A moment later, Bubu Wang and Baha set off.
Su Xiao checked the notification that had appeared.
[Notification (Void Tree): The Hunter's current reputation ranking: 4th place.]
[You have received 1,000 Soul Coins.]
The reputation ranking rewarded every two days at 6 AM. Fourth place getting 1,000 Soul Coins was already quite good.
Checking further, Su Xiao learned that the first place received 5,000 Soul Coins every two days, second place 3,000, third place 2,000, fourth place 1,000, and fifth place 600.
This was excellent income. If he could hold first place for 10 days, he would gain 25,000 Soul Coins.
Su Xiao looked at the current rankings. The first-place Hall of Heroes leader was charging hard, heading toward the 5,000 mark.
…
8 AM, clear skies without a cloud. An airship with a large billboard screen slowly passed overhead. This was Oka Star, the empire's home star.
Compared to the imperial power center of [Hewa City], the small town of [Genmaos] wasn't filled with floating cars, but it was clean and tidy. Occasionally, a floating car would weave between high-rises covered in colorful billboards.
No matter how advanced technology became, people's lives still retained a touch of everyday vitality—something carbon-based beings couldn't shed.
The morning streets had quite a few pedestrians. On a three-way main street about ten meters wide, dozens of people waited for the pedestrian light. Some held breakfast, others read newspapers. The headline read: "Different Surrender Poses of the Insect Race."
Although this wasn't a major newspaper, it showed the direction of propaganda. For a long time, the empire had been glorifying war, making young people believe that courage alone could lead to promotions and riches on the battlefield. Only a few newspapers still reported on the bloody, visceral reality.
The pedestrian light above emitted a soft chime. The elderly reading newspapers and the young looking at their terminals all looked up. Suddenly, a refined middle-aged man collapsed. He convulsed, his body shaking, his bloodshot eyes turning first crimson, then a dark green, or rather, a deep, eerie green.
Beep-beep-beep~
The man's emergency rescue wristband emitted a piercing alarm, indicating this was beyond the citizen wristband's capacity. The surrounding onlookers just watched, not knowing what to do. This was the downside of over-reliance on technology—the more advanced it was, the lazier and less willing to think people became.
The fallen man arched his chest and abdomen like a dying fish, making gurgling sounds in his throat. Suddenly, he seemed to lose all strength, crashing back onto the ground.
Now, dark green, almost black liquid oozed from his seven orifices, slowly evaporating.
Suddenly, the man's dilated pupils contracted, making the eerie green in his pupils glow brighter.
"Boo-shoo, see-fay-wah-goo (unknown language)."
The man rose stiffly from the ground, still in a lying-down posture. He raised his hand, making a grasping motion.
"Ah!!"
Screams of agony spread across a dozen blocks. It wasn't one or two people screaming, but thousands. Their flesh was visibly torn and stripped away. Some were reduced to skeletons, still instinctively running forward.
In a very short time, the area fell silent. The man with eerie green eyes still held his grasping pose. A sphere compressed from flesh and blood floated in his hand. Just as this sphere began to turn eerie green and spread root-like tendrils, continuously infecting the surrounding space, a dull boom came from afar.
Thump!
A beam of energy landed, blasting up the ground of half a block. In the energy explosion, the man was knocked back, flying hundreds of meters before landing on one knee. Throughout, his gaze was cold—no, indifferent, even more terrifying than cold.
Bang! A metal spike crackling with electricity pierced the man's chest, pinning him diagonally to the road behind. The spike was about three meters long, covered in holes.
The man's arm first liquefied into an eerie green semi-fluid, then his entire body followed, breaking free from the sonic restraint.
A fighter jet screeched to a halt above, about to open fire, but the man on the street had already vanished. When the jet pilot received a tracking warning, the man was already crouching on the jet's roof. He placed one hand on the jet, and in an instant, the jet turned eerie green-black. Eyes appeared all over it, transforming the dead machine into a half-living thing.
Just as the man and the jet were about to merge and rain fire on the residential area below, a blazing red beam of light fell from the sky.
When everything settled, a well-dressed empire official hurried to the wreckage of the jet. His expression grim, he asked, "How long did this intrusion take?"
"5 minutes."
A bespectacled girl pushed up her glasses. She was part of the elite team dispatched, specializing in detecting spatial signals.
"It's getting faster. What is this?"
The empire official sighed, lit a cigarette, and turned to walk toward a small spaceship parked nearby.
…
The sun blazed high. Pandora Star, 11 AM.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang played a recording. It was the negotiation between him and Baha with the Spider Queen. The result wasn't good—the Spider Queen refused to lend, or rather, she demanded different collateral.
The fact that she didn't outright refuse meant she wanted to lend, but she didn't want to seem too eager, afraid of scaring Su Xiao off. So, the Spider Queen played hard to get, preparing to give in reluctantly.
In reality, the Spider Queen didn't need to bother with all this. She couldn't scare Su Xiao off because Su Xiao had no intention of repaying this loan. As for signing a contract with binding force? Hah, amateur hour.
Judging by the Spider Queen's coy, hesitant attitude, she would likely relent by evening, with a loan amount of around 100,000 to 150,000 units of Life Ore.
"Good."
Su Xiao patted Bubu Wang's dog head. This was well done. Just as he was about to heat up some food packed from Xia's place and have a hearty lunch with Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Jila, the Priest and Necromancer Girl arrived.
Back in the same nest chamber, the three sat around a black chitin round table. The Priest said, "Bai Ye, I've confirmed it. The Black Demon didn't use the Beginning of Nightmare."
Hearing this, Su Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. If four people had used the [Beginning of Nightmare], the stacking effect would be…
The Necromancer Girl was in a good mood. Since cooperating with Su Xiao and the Priest, this was finally some good news.
Su Xiao pondered. If it was only three [Beginning of Nightmare] items, he could "slightly" embellish his words and maybe trick Kaisa into coming.
Thinking this, he took out a [Treeborn Page] and 150 ounces of space-time power, attempting to contact Kaisa. He didn't believe Kaisa could resist 150 ounces of space-time power.
As soon as he tried, Su Xiao sensed something was wrong. The [Treeborn Page] was ineffective, meaning… Kaisa was also in this world.
Confirming this, Su Xiao contacted Kaisa through normal means. A few seconds later, he received a message: "My dear friend, what a wonderful coincidence. Where are you?"
Su Xiao chose to provide his coordinates. To trick Kaisa onto the same boat, he had to show some sincerity. A few seconds later, Kaisa replied: "I'll be there in 5 minutes."
Seeing this, Su Xiao's expression stiffened. He had planned to lure Kaisa in, but now the guy was rushing over frantically. This was wrong, very wrong.
Kaisa used some item and arrived in 3 minutes instead of 5. He hurried into the nest and, upon meeting, flashed his signature sly grin.
"My dear friend, save me~"
Kaisa's last word trailed off with a tremble. Hearing this, Su Xiao, the Priest, and the Necromancer Girl all felt a sense of dread.
"Kaisa, you didn't use the Beginning of Nightmare to enter this world, did you?"
Baha swallowed as he spoke.
"Beginning of Nightmare? How could I? I…"
Kaisa's expression gradually turned serious. He seemed to realize something, making a gesture to slow down. He asked tentatively, "Bai Ye, you didn't…"
"…"
Su Xiao didn't speak. He took out a Withered Heart. Across from him, the Priest and Necromancer Girl each awkwardly produced a Withered Heart.
Seeing this, Kaisa looked like he'd seen a ghost. It took him a moment to recover.
Kaisa turned to look at the door, confirming no one was blocking his escape, then gave a "shy" smile. He reached into his bosom and pulled out the Abyssal Jar, which was emitting eerie green smoke. At that moment, the air in the room seemed to freeze.
If Su Xiao, the Necromancer Girl, and the Priest had played four 2s, four Aces, and four Kings, and they had worried about the Black Demon throwing down four Queens, they needn't have. Because Kaisa had just dropped the nuclear bomb—straight to the top.