Chapter 155

Su Jing squatted in front of the equipment rack in the villa's control room, quickly counting the supplies with her fingertips: two laser guns filled with energy bullets (one for herself, and one for Robot No. 1).

A light blue gleaming mineral blade was tucked into his waistband, along with three bottles of diluted spiritual herb cooling spray (which could maintain cooling for 3 hours at a high temperature of 55℃) and a specially made demon core collection box (with a thin manganese crystal sheet on the inner wall to prevent energy loss).

She looked up at the communicator and ordered: "Number 1 and Number 2, come with me to the ruined city to find the Crimson Flame Ant Nest. Set the laser gun to 'rapid fire' mode, and keep the mechanical blade on standby."

Numbers 3 and 4 will remain at the villa to reinforce the protective netting and monitor the movements of the stone-patterned insects in the northern mountainous area. They should immediately communicate if any situation arises.

"Su Jing, I'm going too! I can smell the ant nest! It's even more accurate than the robot's scanner!"

Little Jin crawled out of the supply box, a mini cloth bag in its mouth (used to hold the demon cores it found), its short golden fur dusted with mineral powder, its voice filled with urgency, and its little paws tugged at Su Jing's trouser leg.

"I was the first to smell the monsters in the mountains last time, so I'll definitely be able to help you find the ant nest this time!"

"I'll take you there, but you must stay by my side and not run around."

Su Jing rubbed its head and hung a mini cooling spray bottle on its cloth bag—although Xiao Jin's fur could insulate against the heat, it would still suffer from heatstroke if it stayed in the abandoned city for a long time in the 55℃ high temperature.

With everything ready, Su Jing, along with Robot No. 1, Robot No. 2, and Xiao Jin, set off from the side gate of the villa and headed towards the abandoned city 3 kilometers away.

At the entrance to the abandoned city, piles of collapsed reinforced concrete formed small mountains, and abandoned cars lay askew by the roadside, their windows shattered and their bodies scorching hot from the sun.

As soon as Su Jing stepped into the ruined city, she was choked by a smell of scorched earth and decay. She immediately sprayed some cooling spray and ordered Robot No. 1: "Activate ground scanning and find the trails of the Crimson Flame Ants—their trails will have dark red ant droppings and the humidity will be 5% higher than the surrounding ground."

Robot No. 1's robotic arm popped out a scanner, and a pale green scanning light swept across the ground. After taking only a few steps, the screen displayed "Ant trails detected, direction: abandoned supermarket to the northeast."

Suddenly, Xiao Jin approached a pile of rubble, sniffed it with its little nose, and said with certainty in its mind, "It's not the northeast side! The smell is stronger in this direction! It's the 'home ground smell' of the ant nest, much stronger than the smell from the ant tunnels earlier!"

It pointed with its tiny paws to the abandoned hospital on the west side, "Over there! The ant nest must be in the hospital's basement; it's cool inside, perfect for ants!"

Su Jing hesitated for two seconds—the scanner showed ant trails on the northeast side, but Xiao Jin's monster communication ability was more sensitive to the scent of nests, so she decided to trust Xiao Jin: "Number 1, cancel the northeast route and go to the abandoned hospital on the west side instead. Be careful to scan the surrounding ant colonies, but don't disturb them."

Sure enough, after walking about 200 meters towards the abandoned hospital, the ant trails on the ground became increasingly dense, and the dark red ant droppings were particularly conspicuous in the sunlight.

Upon reaching the hospital entrance, Su Jing instructed robots No. 1 and No. 2 to guard the entrance, while she, holding a laser gun, quietly stepped into the lobby.

Half of the ceiling in the hall had collapsed, and sunlight shone through the holes, casting dappled shadows on the floor. Tiny red flame ants kept crawling out of the cracks in the corners of the walls, moving in the same direction.

"They're in the basement! They're crawling into the basement!"

Xiao Jin lowered its voice, its inner voice filled with tension, and its little paws gripped Su Jing's trouser leg tightly, "I can feel a lot of ants inside, and there's a 'big one,' which is the queen ant!"

Following the direction the ant colony was moving, Su Jing found the entrance to the basement. The stairs were already rotten. She had Robot No. 2 use its mechanical arm to clear a passage, while she and Robot No. 1 followed behind.

The basement was pitch black. Robot No. 1’s searchlight was on, and under the beam of light, countless red flame ants crawled all over the walls. In the center was an ant nest that was half a meter high. The pale red queen ant was huddled in the center of the nest, surrounded by dozens of slightly larger guard ants.

"Number 1, use laser guns to sweep the guard ants, but don't hit the queen. I need the queen's demon core alive!" Su Jing ordered.

Robot No. 1's laser gun instantly lit up with a pale red beam, and with a "sizzle," the outermost layer of guardian ants was hit and instantly turned into charred fragments.

Startled, the ant swarm rushed towards Su Jing and the robot. Robot No. 2 immediately switched to its mechanical blade, the metal blade flashing rapidly, slicing the swarming ants in two. The pale red demon core from its abdomen rolled off.

Little Jin immediately ran over and used its tiny paws to scoop the demon cores into its cloth bag. "Su Jing! I found so many! This small one is from an ordinary ant, and that bigger one is from a guard!"

Su Jing then targeted the queen ant—who was trying to burrow deeper into the nest. She immediately pulled the trigger of her laser gun, the beam striking the queen's leg. The queen screamed and stopped. Su Jing rushed forward, her ore blade slicing down with pale blue energy. The queen's shell was cleaved open, and a pale red demon core, twice the size of an ordinary demon core, rolled out. She immediately caught it with her collection box.

A communicator popped up: "[Obtained 1 Tier 1 Queen Ant Demon Core, with an energy concentration 3 times that of a normal Tier 1 Demon Core, which can greatly enhance the strength of your special ability]."

After cleaning up the ant nest, Su Jing sat on the hospital steps and took out an ordinary demon core—

The pale red demon core was about the size of a grain of rice, and you could feel subtle energy fluctuations when you held it in your palm.

She attempted to infuse the demon core with the power of the ore. A pale blue glow enveloped the demon core, which instantly transformed into a stream of red energy that entered her palm.

The communicator popped up: [Ore control ability strength increased by 5%, unlocked the "Energy Blade" basic feature: can condense energy blades on the surface of ore blades to increase cutting power].

"My superpower has really gotten stronger!" Su Jing exclaimed in surprise as she swung the mining blade. A pale blue energy blade condensed on the surface of the blade, causing more noticeable energy damage than before.

Little Jin ran over with a cloth bag, poured the demon cores from the bag into the collection box, and was still sorting them with his little paws: "Su Jing, look! I've sorted them! The big ones are the guards', the small ones are the ordinary ones, and the biggest one is the queen ant! I can even smell which demon core has higher activity. This one has a little fragrance, so its activity is definitely higher than the others!"

Su Jing picked up the "highly active" demon core from Little Golden Finger and tested it with a scanner. Sure enough, it showed "92% activity, higher than the 80% of ordinary demon cores".

"Your efficiency in identifying pills is much higher than before. Before, you could only smell their aroma, but now you can distinguish their activity level."

Su Jing smiled and patted its head. Just as she was about to tell the robot to pack up its equipment and leave, three dark shadows suddenly flashed on the monitoring screen of Robot No. 1—

At the entrance to the ruined city, three men carrying machetes were staring at the collection box containing demon cores, sneaking over with greed in their eyes.

"Someone is following us, trying to steal the demon core."

Su Jing gripped the mining blade tightly, and the energy blade condensed again. "Number 1, Number 2, switch to combat mode and prepare to deal with it."

Xiao Jin immediately bristled, clutching the cloth bag tightly to his chest, his inner voice filled with vigilance: "They smell like robbers! Just as bad as those thugs from last time!"