“Sorry to keep you waiting. Like I told you before, this thing is incredibly hard to get. I finally managed to secure it through a channel in Japan this time.”
“It really is huge.”
The person Lin Miao had been meeting most frequently lately was this insect dealer who sold him all kinds of bugs.
Right now, the insect dealer was showing him the insect inside a plastic bucket.
In fact, Lin Miao had placed the order a long time ago, but because this insect was so difficult to obtain, he had only finally gotten his hands on it today.
Inside the bucket was a giant, dark-brown insect about the size of his palm. It was a rare exotic insect, often called the giant tiger beetle, also known as the tyrant tiger beetle.
Known for its formidable combat ability, this insect would undoubtedly be of great help to the ant colony.
‘It looks a bit listless, but as long as it's alive, it doesn't matter.’
Contrary to its massive size and terrifying appearance, which would make anyone afraid of bugs scream at first sight, this giant tiger beetle was just sitting there quietly, completely motionless, as if it were sick.
Since he was only buying this insect to feed to his ant colony as prey anyway, Lin Miao didn't ask any further questions.
“By the way, now that I think about it, you were in the shop back then too, right? You know, when the nearby rift collapsed and the monsters broke out.”
Just as Lin Miao was holding the giant tiger beetle and preparing to head home, he noticed something unfamiliar pasted on the shop's wall that he hadn't seen when he walked in—a poster featuring someone's photo and signature.
“This is Ye Yunshang, a rising star Awakened who's incredibly famous right now. I heard she lives nearby. Even though she was off-duty at the time, she guarded the shelter and protected everyone.”
It seemed the insect dealer was a fan of the Awakened. He spoke with even more excitement than when he was introducing the insects, rattling on with information Lin Miao had absolutely no interest in hearing.
‘It's that woman.’
Listening with only one ear, Lin Miao looked at the woman's face on the poster and recognized her.
Ye Yunshang was the woman who had grabbed his arm back then and urged him to quickly take shelter.
Given his profession, he should have known these rising star Awakened like the back of his hand. However, ever since he temporarily suspended his work, he had lost touch with news from the industry.
‘It's been a while since I checked the Earth section of the forum.’
He naturally thought of the Divine Net forum.
After all, on the Earth section of the forum, one could always find posts of deities showing off the Awakened under their command.
A rising star Awakened this famous was bound to have a deity watching over her.
‘I really have changed a lot.’
Lin Miao suddenly let out a soft chuckle.
In the past, the moment he saw an Awakened, his first reactions would have been admiration and curiosity. Now, however, the first thing that came to his mind was which deity was influencing them.
His plan was to expel all the Outer Gods invading Earth, as well as the deities within the Divine Net who viewed Earth as their territory and were plotting another war.
If this plan actually succeeded, the situation of those Awakened who served as the servants of deities would become incredibly awkward.
When that time came, having suddenly lost their combat objectives and their entire system, where would the Awakened go?
And when that time came, would he be able to bear the weight of it all?
【Elise is very satisfied upon seeing the new prey.】
Of course, for now, just focusing on raising his ant colony already took up all of his time and energy.
“No way, is this bug really sick? Why isn't it moving at all?”
【Elise is somewhat bewildered by the enemy's weak resistance.】
Even after being thrown into the terrarium, this giant tiger beetle showed no signs of activity.
Not only Lin Miao, but even Elise was somewhat surprised.
Seeing its terrifying appearance and massive size, Elise had prepared thoroughly, sending out combat ants to gather complete battle data. Yet, it had turned out like this.
Far from a fierce and brutal struggle, even when a large number of worker ants swarmed over to bite and dismantle its body, this giant tiger beetle did not put up any semblance of resistance.
【Elise has discovered another prey inside the enemy.】
But before long, the truth of the matter came to light.
The ant colony tore open the giant tiger beetle's abdomen, and several weirdly wriggling things suddenly crawled out from inside.
They were parasites that looked like thin black threads but could wriggle on their own—the infamous horsehair worms. They had been parasitizing the body of this giant tiger beetle.
‘So giant tiger beetles can also be its hosts.’
Lin Miao searched the internet for horsehair worms and found out that exotic giant tiger beetles were indeed one of their hosts. He couldn't help but sigh.
“This is trouble.”
Horsehair worms were creatures completely outside of his plans.
Fearing that something unexpected might happen, he wanted to retrieve the horsehair worms immediately, but it was already too late.
In the brief moment he gasped, the ant colony had already sliced the horsehair worms into pieces along with the beetle.
【Elise has devoured a brand-new prey with a form completely different from all previous prey.】
Then, something unexpected happened. Elise did not just absorb the horsehair worm as ordinary nutrients; she actually devoured its ability.
Horsehair worms belonged to a completely different biological phylum. Lin Miao had never expected that they would be able to devour such a creature now.
‘Then again, those classifications were only created to make things easier for humans to understand and organize. There's no rule saying they have to adhere to Earth's latest academic taxonomy.’
After looking up the exact classification of horsehair worms online, Lin Miao fell into a state of confusion, feeling a bit flustered.
All along, he had taken it for granted that the organisms they could devour would upgrade step-by-step in a linear fashion.
But in the end, this was merely a bias arising from him still viewing himself as an ordinary Earthling.
After all, his ant colony had long since transcended the boundaries of ordinary ants.
What's more, with Elise's recent growth, she had already unlocked even more biological categories that she could devour.
In that case, even if they devoured other unexpected organisms in the future, as long as it was part of his ant colony's unique growth ladder, nothing was impossible.
【Elise is currently agonizing over how to use the ability she has just devoured from her prey.】
Having devoured a parasite for the first time, Elise felt highly perplexed by this brand-new prey.
Even Lin Miao himself found it difficult to guess how Elise would ultimately utilize this ability.
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