Chapter 57 · Volume 1

Intelligence Up

【The servants are capturing the enemy's fortress.】
“To capture the fortress, they actually made the corresponding preparations immediately?”
Packed luggage lay scattered across the floor of the dimly lit room; the lights were off.
Lin Miao sat on the sofa, staring blankly into the empty space. Unbeknownst to him, a flash of crimson light briefly flickered in his pupils.
In his eyes, scenes invisible to others filled his entire field of vision.
Several split screens were broadcasting the situations of multiple battlefields simultaneously.
The next insect he had introduced after the tiger beetle was the locust.
And the locust's ability was its astonishing jumping power, thanks to its powerful hind legs.
The moment the Queen Ant preyed on the locust, she absorbed its ability and created a brand-new variant.
She determined that this jumping variant would help them capture the human fortresses.
And her calculations were absolutely flawless.
These mutated individuals, harboring the special power of magic within their bodies, were no longer ordinary locusts. They could leap with a force far exceeding that of normal locusts, transforming into monsters capable of scaling towering city walls in a single bound.
Because of this, the ant colony caught the humans completely off guard—humans who had made flawless preparations specifically to prevent them from climbing the city walls.
All the frontier fortresses they set up have been completely wiped out. This means we can attack their rear now without any worries.
One of the screens showed a frontier fortress completely demolished by the ant colony.
The fortresses, having never anticipated the emergence of the jumping ant variant, fell one after another without the ants even deploying their strongest combat force, the tiger hornet ants.
The people stationed there had truly fought to the very last man with a resolve to face death.
“You monsters without honor or dignity! Ahhh!!!”
The last remaining knight let out a despairing roar at the ants swarming from all directions, only to be torn to pieces in the end.
Even if the knight cried out about honor and chivalry, the ant colony, which understood none of it, had absolutely no reason to grant him a so-called honorable, one-on-one duel.
As the last man fell, the battlefield, now littered with hundreds of corpses, plunged into a deathly silence.
The ant colony made no sound. The only noise they produced was the hair-raising rustling of their bodies as they moved.
“Phew.”
Lin Miao let out a soft sigh, the hesitation in his eyes completely gone.
[Goddess of Light: These damn monsters! They've created another new variant!]
Clutching a sliver of hope, he tapped into the deity forum.
Just as he expected, the Goddess Hestia was venting her fury inside over the consecutive fall of the frontier fortresses.
From her perspective, it was no wonder she was so exasperated.
The collective combat power displayed by the ant colony, along with their unpredictable growth rate, was simply too formidable.
[Goddess of Light: I can't take this anymore! Even if I have to use resources from my home planet, I will destroy them!]
[God of Knowledge: Wait, isn't that beyond the scope of a home planet? Are you sure about this? Besides, it's not like you can just bring them over whenever you want, right?]
[Goddess of Light: Shut up! If anyone dares to gossip about this, I'll deal with them first!]
In her extreme rage, Hestia had even mentioned her home planet.
Deities drifted through the universe, colonizing new planets with the ultimate goal of obtaining more servants and territory to elevate their Divine Status.
Therefore, deploying resources from one's home planet would usually result in losses outweighing the gains.
Furthermore, other deities would not allow such a thing.
A single misstep could trigger an interstellar war involving countless planets—conflicts that were already a daily occurrence.
These were the rules they had established; this was the order.
Yet, Hestia now wanted to break this rule under the pretext of special circumstances and mobilize her full power.
...Fine, do whatever you want. I won't stop either.
Staring at this deity chat room, which was filled with emotional outbursts and looked no different from the internet he was familiar with, Lin Miao bit his lip.
He no longer had the luxury of feeling heavy-hearted over the slaughter of otherworld residents.
Since he had been forcibly dragged into this game of gods, he had to win this war to survive.
With its current size, she should be able to consume it, right? Although it's longer than a rhinoceros beetle, it's lighter.
Lin Miao rose from his seat and picked up the test tube delivered by same-day courier that afternoon.
Inside was a fratricidal shield mantis.
It was a large insect with a massive body compared to the ant colony, even larger than a giant tiger-head hornet.
Recalling how the Queen Ant had previously failed to absorb the rhinoceros beetle, he walked toward the terrarium with an anxious heart.
Since Hestia, who was waging open war against him, already planned to deploy resources from her home planet, he also needed to pick up the pace, obtain more and newer materials, and feed them to the colony.
By the way, will they put out the fire?
The sun had set, and the brightest source of light was now the beacon tower in the center of the fortress.
There was still a large amount of firewood inside the beacon tower, burning with a raging fire.
Standing in front of the terrarium and preparing to drop the fratricidal shield mantis, Lin Miao looked at the screen, thinking that the ants, which loathed fire, would immediately spray bodily fluids to extinguish it.
【The Queen Ant believes this fire is very special. The Queen Ant has determined that if they maintain this fire tended by the humans, they might be able to deceive human eyes.】
“Hmm?”
But right then, the Queen Ant, observing everything through the hive mind, offered her input.
Instead of putting out the fire in the beacon tower that the humans valued, keeping it burning might confuse the enemy.
Wait, she can even come up with this kind of strategy now?
The Queen Ant's highly intelligent tactic sent a shiver of goosebumps all over Lin Miao.
They had analyzed the enemy before, but it had never reached such a sophisticated level.
His hand holding the fratricidal shield mantis trembled slightly.
【The Queen Ant awaits your response.】
The notification that popped up next continuously flashed before the dazed Lin Miao's eyes.

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