Infiltration

“It tells me something is restricted, but won't tell me what it is... This is so frustrating.”

Lin Miao grumbled as he walked out of the bathroom.

Ultimately, all these problems stemmed from the fact that he had awakened as a deity in an abnormal way.

Even if the Divine Net explained everything to him down to the smallest detail, as someone who was just an ordinary office worker before this, he probably wouldn't be able to understand it anyway.

But the chain reaction triggered by this event had already begun to roll.

Even if the method and original intent of his awakening were abnormal, Lin Miao was now indeed a deity whose level had increased.

And this change, which even the person involved had not yet noticed, was first captured not anywhere else, but at a nearby rift observation station.

Inside the observation station, a duty observer stared at the monitoring screen and shouted in panic, “W-What's going on here?”

Rift observation stations were facilities that countries around the world now inevitably established at strategic locations.

Their function was like a watchtower, capable of detecting the appearance of rifts that would release powerful magic power in advance.

The observer on duty completely panicked as he looked at the data on the screen.

He hurriedly yelled into his walkie-talkie, “Chief! The rift that was predicted to appear has vanished!”

The chief walked over quickly, frowning. “What nonsense are you talking about? Move aside and let me look... What the?”

Both the observer and his superior fell into a state of immense shock as they looked at the data on the screen.

The energy fluctuations of the rift, which had been clearly detected as about to appear nearby, had completely vanished.

It was as if someone had thoroughly cleaned the area with a vacuum; not a single trace was left behind.

Another observer also ran over in a panic, shouting, “It's not just here! The one over there has vanished too!”

The chief's face turned pale as he muttered, “What on earth is going on?”

Multiple rifts that were expected to appear near their observation station had actually vanished simultaneously.

Even for them, who could be considered experts in this field, they couldn't guess the reason at all. This was an unprecedented anomaly.

Rifts, and the monsters that crawled out of them, were one of the most core elements of national security in this era.

This sudden anomaly was reported all the way to the highest levels, reaching the ears of the military district commander.

The commander-in-chief of the military district frowned and asked, “You're saying that no one knows the reason yet? This is unprecedented! What did Academician Yang Zhenning say?”

The subordinate immediately bowed and replied, “The academician said that this is also his first time encountering such a situation.”

“We have already issued alerts for the relevant areas, but...”

An anomaly that even the country's top authority and expert could not explain made the military district commander's frown deepen.

He had originally wanted to suppress this matter before finding a clear cause, but the areas where the rifts were expected to appear had already been evacuated of civilians, and the military was already deployed in position.

The military district commander said in a heavy voice, “Call a meeting. We need to discuss our next steps.”

This truth, which no one knew when it would be uncovered, could not be hidden after all.

[God of Compassion: No, seriously, which bastard did this? Daring to make a move on Earth at a critical juncture like this is a blatant violation of the rules!]

[God of Life: Yeah, anyone with eyes can see that a deity has used their power to intervene.]

Yet, even the deities who should have understood the reasons behind it could not know the details.

In the deity forum where deities gathered, a massive uproar had broken out over this unknown divine power that had suddenly descended upon Earth, with everyone venting their dissatisfaction.

Lin Miao had absolutely no idea that because of him, the outside world had been thrown into a massive uproar.

Sitting on the sofa, he suppressed his slightly racing heartbeat, calmed his mind, and tapped open the system interface.

What he wanted to check were the private messages sent to his account.

He had been receiving these private messages since the early stages of the colony's activities, but he had been unable to view them back then due to restricted functions.

【Sender: Venerable Night Moon】

【I don't know who you are, but I've already claimed this area first.】

【What do you think you're doing?】

【How dare you do such a thing! Don't ignore me, speak!】

【Speak! Are you trying to play dead? @#@$!】

The first ones he saw were the private messages from Venerable Night Moon, the deity of the goblins who had first clashed with his colony.

Lin Miao looked at the final message filled with profanities, blinked, and muttered, “He sure has a temper...”

He could even feel the other party's unvented rage radiating from these unanswered, dumped private messages.

Lin Miao thought to himself, So those goblins really weren't ordinary monsters.

Although this was somewhat within his expectations, he still felt a bit helpless now that his speculation had become reality.

He looked at these private messages that he could only view but not reply to, his face full of awkwardness.

【Sender: Goddess of Light】

【First of all, reply. If you don't reply, I will classify you as an Outer God.】

【Hey, don't ignore me, reply!】

【How uncultured...】

The private messages sent by the Goddess Hestia weren't in a much better tone either.

She also wanted to find out his true identity hidden behind the colony and had sent proposals for dialogue and negotiation.

Lin Miao froze for a moment and muttered, “Outer God?”

It was also at this moment that he finally realized he was being called an Outer God by those people.

He had occasionally heard this name in the scenes of the otherworld he had been watching.

Before, Lin Miao had never taken this to heart. But now, when he learned the true meaning of an Outer God from the Divine Net, he found it absurd and ridiculous, and couldn't help but chuckle.

The so-called Outer Gods were entities that rejected the system and the established order, acting solely for chaos and destruction.

Honestly, given what he and the colony had been doing lately, it wasn't surprising at all that they were misunderstood like this.

Looking at these private messages that he still could only view but not reply to, Lin Miao sighed softly. “Even if I could explain to them... nothing would change.”

The misunderstanding continued to deepen. He had no way to explain, and even if he did, the situation would most likely remain the same.

Setting aside whether he was a deity or not, the colony, which understood none of this, still craved more war and more growth.

Ironically, for Lin Miao's thoughts to be truly transmitted to the colony, they had to devour more prey and achieve further growth.

What's more, at the end of the day, the ultimate goal of those so-called controllers of order was merely to nurture their own servants, expand their territories, and raise their deity levels.

Once they found out that Lin Miao was a deity within the Divine Net system just like them,

and a weakling who had just promoted to Low-Tier Deity, Grade I at that, they would only pounce on him with even greater ferocity and crush him completely.

One could truly feel this just by looking at the private messages sent by these two veteran deities.

【Your servants have detected a large number of enemies gathering】

Lin Miao looked at the prompt that popped up and immediately switched back to the battlefield screen. His eyes flickered as he thought to himself:

The system prompt that popped up at this moment finally made him realize that the colony had set its sights on a sufficiently valuable group of prey.

Naturally, the colony was already prepared to go to war with these enemies.

It was a foregone conclusion that they would devour these enemies and turn them into nutrients to achieve further growth.

Lin Miao sighed softly, thinking to himself, ...It's already too late.

By now, even if he felt it was too late, he still wanted to understand the countless secrets of this world that he did not know.

It would have been fine if he was completely ignorant, but since he already knew of their existence and had even caught a glimpse of them, he could absolutely never turn a blind eye again.

Lin Miao had already confirmed this possibility. He felt that if he could learn more bit by bit like this, perhaps he would be able to see another path.

Although the heavy stone in his heart still weighed him down, he deliberately ignored this anxiety.

Right now, he only hoped that the colony would continue to win and grow.

In the otherworld's allied army camp.

Count Merlin said in a heavy voice,

“The northern territories can no longer withstand the plunder of those monsters. Once the northern territories fall, those monsters will spread in all directions for more land.

There is only one way to stop them, and that is to trample their territory in turn and completely destroy them. We must complete the subjugation we failed to accomplish last time!”

The sufficiently heavy prey that the colony had targeted was precisely the large-scale force meticulously prepared by the northern allied army.

This allied army, with humans and beastkin at its core, was actively preparing for a general offensive.

They couldn't possibly keep up with the movement speed of the colony, which operated under a hive mind. Rather than sitting back and watching other areas get devoured one by one, it was better to take the initiative, launch an attack, and lure the colony out for a decisive head-on battle. This was their core intention.

A beastkin general asked with a frown, “Will this work? The more those monsters gather, the stronger they become.”

Count Merlin replied coldly, “One thing is certain: those monsters' vitality is far more resilient than ours.”

He knew very well that if they fought a war of attrition against a colony whose very instinct for survival was to sacrifice themselves for the hive, they would undoubtedly lose.

Instead, they had to stake all their bets on this single decisive battle.

Based on all the previous battle situations, Count Merlin had ultimately made this decision.

But there was one thing Count Merlin did not know: this entire situation had been deliberately guided by the colony from the very beginning.

The choice had never been theirs. Rather, it was the long-plotting colony that forced them step by step, leaving them with no choice but to walk down this path in the end.

【The Queen Ant senses that the time has come and has approved the deployment of the strongest individuals currently in the colony】

Lin Miao looked at the massive figures soaring into the sky from the nest on the screen and couldn't help but let out a soft sigh. “They're finally here?”

Those behemoths flapped their wings, casting heavy shadows on the ground. The size of each one was comparable to a sturdy bull.

The strong wind whipped up by their flapping wings caused countless leaves to rustle and fall. The speed at which they sliced through the sky was so fast that by the time the people on the ground could make out their shadows, they had already turned into tiny dots in the distance.

Even when they folded their wings and stayed inside the cramped nest, they exuded a suffocating pressure.

Not only their physical structure and size, but the special resources like magic power invested to maintain and strengthen these bodies were also worlds apart from other ant species.

They lined up in neat formations and flew toward their target. Their purpose was naturally to secure the maximum harvest with the minimum cost.

And the stage that belonged to them had already been set.

【A target has been detected to test their power without exposing secrets】

The flying soldier ants, which had disguised themselves as birds in advance to perform aerial scouting missions, had already locked onto a group of humans.

This group of people carried mismatched equipment, barely arming themselves.

Which faction they belonged to, whether they stole property in abandoned villages, plundered fleeing refugees, or committed acts of violence and evil, was completely irrelevant to the colony.

To the colony, as long as they could kill and eat them, it was enough.

A bandit cried out in panic, “W-What is that sound?”

Before the mutated hornet ants even landed, the surrounding air had already begun to vibrate violently.

That dull and violent sound of tearing through the air was absolutely not something any ordinary bird could produce. It threw the bandit adventurers, who were taking advantage of the chaos to commit crimes, into a panic, and they hurriedly looked around.

“It's in the sky! Look at the sky!”

Completely different from what they had expected, their enemies were diving down from the sky, accompanied by a raging gale.

Slender bodies encased in hard exoskeletons; in stark contrast to their delicate frames were legs as sharp as blades and a hideous, terrifying stinger.

A bandit screamed in terror, his soul nearly leaving his body, “Wyverns?!”

Another bandit quickly raised his blade and shouted, “Get a grip! They're monsters from the abyss! They're coming!”

At first glance, their appearance would indeed remind one of high-rank magical beasts like wyverns, but their essence was worlds apart.

A young girl, who had been captured by these bandits during her flight, lost her family, and been subjected to wanton abuse, watched with her own eyes as the hideous monsters descending from the sky tore the abusive bandits to shreds one by one.

No matter how others screamed, begged, or prayed, these monsters only carried out their slaughter mechanically and mercilessly.

Weak magic struck them and bounced right off; ordinary blades slashed at them, only leaving shallow scratches on their exoskeletons.

And the price they paid was having their heads bitten off alive or their bodies impaled by stingers thicker than spears.

It took the colony a mere three minutes to slaughter all the bandits.

“Kill me.”

And among those targeted for death, she was included as well.

She took the initiative to walk toward the colony.

In the next moment, a stinger pierced through her without mercy.

Why she revealed a smile at the final moment and actively sought death—

the colony present naturally did not care in the slightest.

Only the deity of the colony, watching this scene through the screen, understood the meaning behind her smile.