The Queen’s body was as large as an adult wild boar, its entire form a deep, dark red. Its abdomen was bloated like a ball, and its six thick legs were driven deep into the soil. Its tail end writhed continuously, churning out white ant eggs one after another.
Surrounding the Queen, hundreds of Blood-Scythe Ant Guards—each several times larger than a typical worker ant—stood in a tight defensive formation.
Su Wan came to a halt at the entrance of the ant nest.
The main force of the swarm had poured out, meaning the nest’s defenses were at their weakest.
However, each of those guards possessed combat power nearing that of a Level 1 Ability User. With hundreds of them gathered together, even at Level 3 Late Stage, a direct frontal assault would be a death sentence.
Su Wan hid herself among the ruins near the entrance. Closing her eyes, she condensed her mental power into an extremely fine needle and extended it down the main tunnel.
She bypassed the guards' patrol routes and navigated through the dense, tangled maze of branching paths.
The needle of mental power slipped silently into the core cavity where the Queen resided.
In Su Wan’s perception, the Queen’s massive body felt like a burning fireball. Its life energy was incredibly vibrant, far exceeding that of a typical Level 3 Aberrant.
Su Wan’s mental needle slowly approached the Queen’s head.
The Queen seemed to sense something. Its fleshy body writhed slightly, and its antennae twitched rapidly in the air.
But its mental power was too weak.
As the “production machine” of the colony, the Queen possessed formidable reproductive capabilities and absolute dominance over the swarm, but in terms of mental power, it was actually inferior to a common worker ant.
The moment Su Wan’s mental needle pierced the Queen’s consciousness core, the creature’s body stiffened.
The bloated abdomen stopped writhing, its six legs trembled slightly, and its antennae froze mid-air as if someone had pressed a pause button.
But this brief stalemate only lasted an instant.
A violent resistance erupted from the Queen’s consciousness—an instinctive, almost frantic struggle.
The Queen’s body began to writhe violently, its tail swinging wildly as it expelled a chaotic string of eggs.
Sensing the Queen’s distress, the guards began to grow restless. Their antennae flicked madly as they attempted to re-establish a connection with their ruler.
Su Wan gritted her teeth, pouring out her Level 3 Late Stage mental power without reservation.
Her consciousness became like an invisible hand, firmly seizing the vitals of the Queen’s consciousness core, forcing it to settle down.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds...
The Queen’s struggle gradually weakened.
Its body stopped its violent writhing, its antennae slowly drooped, and its six legs dug back into the soil.
The agitated guards also gradually quieted down, returning to their alert state.
The Queen was temporarily under control.
Su Wan did not waste a single moment. While her mental power suppressed the Queen, she pulled up the system interface.
In the 【Aberrant Research】 category, the first icon—the Shadow-Stalker Beast—was already lit up.
Now, a second icon was slowly emerging.
It was the silhouette of a massive ant with a bloated abdomen and thick, powerful legs.
【Detected Aberrant for Research: Blood-Scythe Queen (Level 3)】
【Special Ability: Swarm Command — The Blood-Scythe Queen issues orders to her swarm by secreting specific pheromones. These pheromones cover a radius of five hundred meters. Within this range, Blood-Scythe Ants will unconditionally obey the Queen’s commands, including attacking, retreating, patrolling, and guarding.】
【Special Ability: Pheromone Perception — The Blood-Scythe Queen can perceive the location, status, and number of her swarm within a one-kilometer radius, allowing for coordinated tactical maneuvers. The larger the swarm, the higher the tactical value of this ability.】
【Special Ability: Enhanced Reproduction — The Blood-Scythe Queen’s reproductive capacity far exceeds that of ordinary queens, allowing her to produce thousands of eggs daily. With sufficient food, reproduction speed can be further increased.】
【Research Progress: 0%】
【Extractable Ability: Swarm Command (Fragmented Version)】
【Points Required for Extraction: 45,000】
【Extraction Success Rate: 82% (Influenced by aberrant status, host strength, extraction environment, etc.)】
【Post-Extraction Status: Alive (The ability will be permanently lost, and the Queen will lose dominance over the swarm, though reproductive capacity remains unaffected.)】
Su Wan’s gaze quickly swept over the descriptions.
Swarm Command.
Unconditional obedience from all Blood-Scythe Ants within a five-hundred-meter radius.
She didn’t actually need to raise a nest of Blood-Scythe Ants herself, but with this ability...
If she encountered a similar large-scale battle in the future, she could directly commandeer the swarm as a combat force.
A five-hundred-meter range was more than enough.
“System, begin extraction.”
【Command confirmed. Extracting ability: Swarm Command (Fragmented Version). Consuming Points: 45,000.】
【The extraction process requires the host to maintain a mental link with the target. The system will provide full assistance. Estimated time: 5 minutes.】
She had to finish the extraction before the swarm returned.
But five minutes was plenty of time!
The system began the extraction. A strange sensation spread from the system interface, following the mental link between her and the Queen and reaching deep into the Queen’s consciousness core.
The Queen’s body began to tremble slightly again.
But this time, it wasn’t resistance; it was a deeper, more fundamental change.
Blurred images began to surface within Su Wan’s consciousness—the Queen’s instinctive memories.
How to secrete pheromones, how to sense the swarm’s positions, how to mobilize all forces in an emergency...
Those images flooded into her perception like a flowing stream, where they were parsed, refined, and compressed by the system.
【Extraction Progress: 12%... 27%... 43%...】
Time ticked away, second by second.
Fine beads of sweat broke out on Su Wan’s forehead. Maintaining mental suppression on the Queen was difficult enough, and guiding the system’s extraction simultaneously placed an enormous drain on her mental power.
But she couldn't let go.
Once the Queen broke free from her control and sent out a distress signal, those hundreds of guards would swarm her instantly.
If that happened, forget extracting an ability—even escaping alive would be a question.
【Extraction Progress: 58%... 71%... 86%...】
Su Wan gritted her teeth, her mental power outputting at maximum capacity.
【100%!】
【Extraction complete! Congratulations, Host, you have obtained the ability: Swarm Command (Fragmented Version).】
【Ability Description: The host can simulate the Blood-Scythe Queen’s pheromones through mental power to issue simple commands (attack, retreat, guard, etc.) to Blood-Scythe Ants within a three-hundred-meter radius. The effectiveness of the commands is influenced by the size of the swarm, distance, environment, and other factors.】
【Note: This ability is only effective on Blood-Scythe Ants and will not work on other ant species or aberrants.】
【Note: This ability cannot be used on Blue Star (as no Blood-Scythe Ants exist there).】
Su Wan didn't have time to look closer. She immediately released her mental suppression on the Queen.
Holding her breath, she used the cover of Shadow-Hide to retreat silently, vanishing from the swarm's range of perception.
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