Proving One's Value

“Brother Li?”

Lin Miao's encounter with his former boss was purely accidental.

That day, Lin Miao had just walked out of his usual insect shop when he ran into his former superior.

The moment Lin Miao and Li Chungang recognized each other, both froze.

“Lin Miao! I really didn't expect to run into you here.”

Li Chungang greeted Lin Miao with a hearty laugh.

From the time Lin Miao joined the company to when he resigned, the two had always maintained a pretty good relationship, so there was no awkwardness in running into each other and exchanging greetings on the street.

“Looks like you've been living quite a comfortable life since you resigned. Is this your hobby?”

Li Chungang's gaze fell upon the cage Lin Miao was carrying.

It was a plastic cage containing a tiny chameleon, only about the size of a finger.

Lin Miao casually replied, “...It's alright. Just getting by.”

Seeing the faint smile on Lin Miao's face, Li Chungang teased, “You didn't actually make a fortune off US stocks, did you?”

Although Lin Miao hadn't gone into details when he resigned, Li Chungang knew that Lin Miao had already made a lot of money at the time and could live very well even without working.

And after that big windfall, Lin Miao indeed never felt strapped for cash. Coupled with being busy with other things afterward, he had never looked at stocks again.

Besides, to the current Lin Miao, money no longer held any meaning whatsoever.

Lin Miao subtly shifted the topic. “Brother Li, how have things been lately?”

“How else could it be? Same old, same old,” Li Chungang complained, his voice laced with exhaustion. “Cleaning up after the Awakened every single day.”

“I heard some new rifts have opened up recently?”

Lin Miao asked politely, quietly observing his expression.

Before moving, Lin Miao had lived near the company, and without realizing it, he had completely cleared out all the rifts in the company's designated area of responsibility.

Naturally, the company had run out of business and was once on the brink of bankruptcy.

It was only after Lin Miao moved further away that rifts began appearing in this area again.

“We finally got a breather. You wouldn't believe how miserable things were before. The higher-ups were even considering pivoting the company into an MCN agency.”

Li Chungang sighed, seizing the opportunity to vent his frustrations.

Nowadays, many Awakened with good looks or talent had transitioned into becoming livestreamers.

Since they were essentially superhumans with special abilities, it was actually much easier for them to go viral.

Some companies went so far as to exclusively sign Awakened with flashy abilities and attractive appearances, showing far more enthusiasm for the livestreaming business than actually clearing rifts.

“There are more and more rifts, and more and more Awakened, right? But not everyone can make it big... So, more and more people will probably pivot to other industries.”

Li Chungang murmured, his expression complex.

In fact, as time went on, the rifts that opened were not only growing in number but also becoming increasingly dangerous.

Correspondingly, the system for the Awakened was also becoming vaster and more sophisticated.

Lin Miao's face darkened slightly as he recalled the Great Cataclysm that occurred twenty years ago.

That disaster, triggered by the initial invasion of the Outer Gods, had actually not truly ended even to this day.

As long as Lin Miao opened the Divine Net forum—which he could access at any moment—he could see countless deities eyeing Earth, plotting how to drive out the Outer Gods and carve up this land for themselves.

Lin Miao asked in an exceptionally serious tone, “If one day all the monsters are completely driven off Earth, what do you think will happen? What if the monsters vanish, and the Awakened system shuts down along with them?”

Taking Lin Miao's words as a joke, Li Chungang laughed heartily and replied, “Wouldn't that be a good thing? All those damn monsters gone, and a war we've been fighting for decades finally over. Ah, but if that happens, I'd be out of a job, wouldn't I?”

Scratching the back of his head, Li Chungang remarked with a casual sigh, “If that day really comes, the world will definitely undergo earth-shattering changes again. As for me, as long as I can put food on the table, nothing else really matters.”

This world had already become far too dependent on the existing system.

Once the system vanished, it would inevitably plunge into massive chaos once more.

To prevent this chaos, there had to be a new system to replace the old one.

After bidding him farewell and watching his retreating figure, Lin Miao's gaze fell back onto the cage in his hands.

The slowly crawling chameleon inside would soon become food for the ant colony.

He believed this chameleon would become the nourishment to breed that entirely new system.

From Li Chungang, who had just passed by, to the countless pedestrians walking past Lin Miao at this very moment, and the world they had created...

For a brief instant, Lin Miao's eyes flashed with the same crimson glow as Elise's.

His servants were currently pushing a world toward destruction.

For this goal, he had long since abandoned his daily life.

In exchange, having sacrificed so much, he intended to protect everything that remained, no matter what.

...

【Through countless experiments, Elise confirmed that simply mimicking external appearances was utterly meaningless.】

Within the original nest inside the terrarium—the dark, cave-like place known as the birthplace of the ant colony—Elise was gently tapping her antennae against a slowly squirming mass of black cells in front of her.

This cell mass, which could move freely according to Elise's will, was a creation of Universal Cells. It had been synthesized by fusing the regeneration ability of a planarian and pouring in a massive amount of resources.

It could perfectly replicate the data of any organism Elise had ever devoured.

But now, Elise wanted to use this mass of cells to create something entirely different from any ant before.

It had arms and legs, and its face had cavities resembling sensory organs.

At first glance, it looked somewhat like a beastkin, and somewhat like a human or a goblin.

【Elise determined that only through actual absorption via devouring could perfect replication and production be achieved.】

Elise had originally wanted to try creating a human based on her own understanding.

Obviously, humans were still at a stage where Elise could not devour and absorb them.

But ever since she mastered Universal Cells and gained the ability to create extraordinary lifeforms like the symbiotic carapace ants, Elise had wanted to test if she could create lifeforms she hadn't yet devoured.

The results were complete failures.

Merely mimicking the exterior was worlds apart from replication after truly devouring all genetic information.

Even if she managed to barely form limbs, the precise nerves, muscles, and blood vessel placements required to control those limbs would all go awry. Ultimately, it would only turn into a heap of immobile, rotting flesh.

“...”

Having finally given up on the experiment, Elise twitched her antennae with a hint of regret.

【Elise yearned to directly receive the oracle of the Great One.】

The root cause of her conducting such experiments was Celia.

The magical power Celia possessed certainly interested her, but what she cared about even more was Lin Miao's oracle.

Within Elise's instincts burned a fierce desire: she wanted to have deeper, more direct communication with this great, sacred existence in her mind.

Yet, as the very first servant to be granted a True Name by Lin Miao, she herself could not understand his words or his will.

Elise believed this was because her brain structure was different from Celia's—or more specifically, because she did not possess a human form.

And that was precisely why she had begun to take an interest in the human form.

【The servants reacted to the bounty of the Great One.】

Just then, the lid of the terrarium was opened, and something was dropped inside.

Elise immediately looked up, hurriedly ordering the worker ants to fetch Lin Miao's gift.

For Elise, the only path forward was to continuously devour and raise her own tier.

Until the day she could devour humans and possess everything they had.

Elise saw the chameleon through the eyes of a worker ant and rubbed her mandibles in excitement.

She instinctively sensed that this prey was different from any species she had eaten before.

Watching the chameleon extend its tongue and swallow a small worker ant in one bite, Elise actually felt heartfelt joy.

Because eating something new meant she was one step closer to her goal.

While Elise was hunting and devouring the chameleon, in the half-ruined capital of the Holy Kingdom, vast distances away from the original nest, the quietly praying Celia suddenly snapped her eyes open, cold sweat drenching her back.

Through the shattered glass windows, the cool moonlight spilled over her.

This grand structure, once built for the Goddess, had now been stripped of all her traces, becoming a place for Celia to quiet her mind and pray alone.

This massive city, which had once housed hundreds of thousands of people, was now completely a ghost town.

Amidst the stone-filled ruins that even the ant colony disdained, Celia was now the only one left.

In the dead silence, Celia clutched her chest and gritted her teeth.

She had clearly sensed Elise's thoughts through the hive mind.

Although she had made great contributions in the war to destroy the Holy Kingdom, to Elise and the ant colony, that was completely negligible.

For the ants, who took devotion and sacrifice for the colony for granted, there was no such thing as rewarding merit.

Therefore, Celia's current position was still merely that of a somewhat useful mouthpiece.

With a single order from Elise, the Gene Stealer inside Celia's body would ruthlessly destroy her brain instantly, leaving her without even a chance to resist.

If she didn't want to be discarded, Celia had to desperately prove her worth.

And Celia also knew very well that the reason Lin Miao had spared her life in the first place was precisely for this.

In other words, if she couldn't even fulfill her role as a mouthpiece, her fate would already be sealed.

Thus, she had to find a new purpose for her existence.

For this goal, Celia sought out a certain person.

Count Merlin, along with the other survivors, was currently living under the surveillance of the ant colony.

Not far away, several worker ants patrolled sluggishly, their cold compound eyes scanning everyone, while the lingering scent of formic acid filled the air.

“Lord Merlin, I plan to transplant the method of controlling magic power to the Great Devourer. I have already promised that Great One that I will accomplish this.”

Looking at Celia—whose body had already turned into that of a monster, yet who still petitioned him with such earnestness—Count Merlin was stunned. “So, you've come to find me?”

Celia nodded. “Please help me complete this research. Only by doing so can we save more lives in this world. I am not lying to you.”

Seeing how she still retained her human emotions and convictions, Count Merlin's heart filled with mixed emotions, and he let out a deep sigh. “I know. Otherwise, I wouldn't even be alive right now.”

During the ant colony's brutal purge of the Goddess's forces, the reason Count Merlin managed to survive was precisely because he had followed Celia's advice and completely abandoned his faith in the Goddess.

Although he had once joined the Goddess of Light Association, like Celia, he had never received the Goddess's true divine protection. Consequently, he had passed the ant colony's inspection and spared his own life.

Count Merlin continued, “Celia, what is your specific plan?”

Pointing to her own body, Celia, whose one eye had already turned as crimson as an ant's, said, “Right now, no one understands their ecology and physical structure better than I do.”

Celia confidently continued, “These mutated species contain a massive amount of energy within their bodies from the moment they are born, yet they do not know how to use this energy correctly. A mage's heart, however, is an amplifier and output device that can stack, gather, and release magic power in layers.”

“I plan to create a new heart for them.”

Celia raised her other hand.

In her palm, she held a fist-sized ore.

The ore resonated with her magic power, emitting a soft and brilliant glow.