Chapter 74 Gold-Eating Ant Invasion (Bonus Chapter on Saturday)

Soon, noises could be heard from near and far: screams, running sounds, and the sound of doors being opened and then slammed shut.

A strong sense of unease emanated from the baby in Zuo Shan's belly. Zuo Shan held the baby tightly in the corner, while Mao Li stood in front of them like a guard, ready to deal with any enemies that might appear at any time.

Suddenly, a "click, click" sound came from underground, like the meshing of metal gears.

The sound clearly came from underground. Mao Li immediately activated his infrared detection eye and looked towards the source of the sound. Then, he cried out in a low voice in terror:

"Oh no! Master, it's gold-devouring ants! This is a mutated ant that even advanced civilizations can't deal with. It must be that the queen ant in the colony has undergone a metal-related mutation, which is why she was able to give birth to a nest of gold-devouring ants!"

Their mouthparts have extremely strong bite force, capable of crushing any hardened material and swallowing most kinds of metals.

They also have a super digestive function, capable of breaking down and absorbing all food and metals; they are essentially miniature versions of iron-eating beasts.

However, iron-eating beasts usually only have one or two offspring, and their nests can only produce a maximum of two offspring. In contrast, the gold-eating ant colony will not perish as long as the queen lives, and will continue to expand.

Clearly, they have now set their sights on District 50, and tonight their target is all the living residents, houses, and roads in District 50.

Hopefully, this group isn't too large, otherwise no one will escape tonight.

Mao Li was genuinely terrified. She had only seen records of gold-eating ants in databases, and none of them offered any solutions.

"So, the current situation is that going out means death, and staying at home also means death?" Zuo Shan was somewhat desperate.

She had heard stories of ants killing elephants, and she knew that her small body was far inferior to an elephant. Moreover, she was about to face not just any ant colony, but a group of gold-devouring ants that could crush metal!

Although it seemed hopeless, she still chose a stick of suitable thickness that was easy to use, ready to fight back against the invaders who had invaded her home!

A crack finally appeared in the center of the room, and then the crack shattered into a spiderweb pattern. This was the result of the hardened floor being attacked.

Zuo Shan raised her stick, ready to smash the thing that was crawling out of the crack, when suddenly, Xiao Bao rushed forward and slammed his palm onto the broken ground.

The next second, Zuo Shan finally saw the intruder's appearance clearly. Its body was slender and about 30 centimeters tall, shaped like a spindle, except that the top of the spindle was a head that was obviously much larger than its body.

Its entire body gleamed with a dark, metallic sheen, and its large mandibles were poised to stab fiercely into Xiao Bao's head.

I created two images using AI, and I think they both turned out well, so I'm posting them together. The images are not included in the word count of the main text, so this doesn't count as padding!

"Xiao Bao, watch out!" Zuo Shan shouted, gripping his stick and searching for a way to avoid Xiao Bao, preparing to deliver a powerful blow to the guy.

However, the next second, she saw Xiao Bao stretch out his front paw, grab the gold-swallowing ant, and stuff it into his mouth.

Then came a sharp, teeth-grinding metallic cutting sound, and Xiao Bao actually chewed it up and swallowed it.

"Xiao Bao, what's wrong? Isn't it dirty?!" Zuo Shan was so shocked that she didn't know what to say.

"Friendly reminder, Master, Xiao Bao is a metal-eating beast; devouring metal is one of its innate skills," Mao Li said excitedly from the side.

He had originally planned to get a robotic arm, but he wasn't sure if the gold-eating ant would bite it up and swallow it too. If that happened, it would be terrible!

You should know that his mechanical arm was made of special materials. Once it is bitten off, even if only a piece is bitten off, there is nowhere to repair it.

Whew! Luckily, we had Xiao Bao this time, the nemesis of all metal-type mutated small animals.

As the first gold-eating ant broke through the hardened layer, a second, a third... and so on, soon appeared!

Xiao Bao's belly was round and full from eating. Of course, Zuo Shan and Mao Li were not idle either. Each of them held two pieces of broken hardened material they had picked up. When they spotted a gold-eating ant emerging, they smashed it against its head.

Although it may not kill them instantly, a few more blows will be enough to smash their heads and leave them dead on the spot.

After overcoming their initial fear, the three of them were full of energy, and two hours later, not a single gold-eating ant crawled up from the ground.

But the noise in the distance had not stopped. The first person Zuo Shan thought of was Pan Duole. She left Xiao Bao to watch the house and hurriedly ran towards her house with Mao Li.

The residents of District 50 total less than 10,000 people, distributed across an area of ​​more than 500,000 square meters, in more than 4,000 single-story courtyard houses. The layout of the entire residential area is a fan-shaped ring, with a width of about 300 meters between the inner and outer diameters and an outer arc length of about 2 kilometers.

This design was originally intended to defend against the invasion of mutated beasts. To put it simply, this residential area is a defensive line formed by a human wall, protecting District 49 behind it.

This is why houses in District 50 are cheap. When the ancestors of the Zuo family bought houses here, they chose the innermost layer of this fan-shaped ring, so the Zuo family was attacked by the Gold-Eating Ants a little later.

The Pandora family was on the outermost layer, so it was likely to be the first to be attacked.

In this ant infestation, families with three or four members are likely to survive if they can avoid the first wave of attacks from the gold-eating ants.

However, for someone like her who is single, or someone like her who has no male heirs and a child with weak fighting ability, the danger is much greater.

Zuo Shan sprinted at full speed, covering the 800-meter distance in less than a minute, a speed far exceeding the record of 1 minute and 40 seconds set by world 800-meter champion David Rudisha.

Zuo Shan was stunned by his own speed. Could this be the power of his superpower?

Along the way, she heard many wails and cries, as well as the terrified screams of children, but she didn't dare stop to take a closer look.

She might recognize those people, but she had no connection with them, and she didn't have the ability to help more people. All she wanted to know was whether Pandora was still alive!

This was the first time Zuo Shan had visited Pan Duole's house, but she had repeatedly told her the house number before, and Zuo Shan remembered it very clearly.

When Zuo Shan saw the address, he felt a sense of panic. It was number 45 in row 6 of section C.

The door frame is warped and deformed, likely due to damage to the interior hardened layer. In this situation, the sturdy door becomes an obstacle, making it impossible for people inside to open it and difficult for them to escape.

Zuo Shan pounded on the door a few times, calling out in a trembling voice, "Lele, are you still alive? Answer me if you hear me!"