Chapter 193
As soon as Akai's fingers touched the manganese crystal support of the protective netting, he felt a rough, scratching sensation on his fingertips—
This isn't right. The acid-resistant coating applied yesterday should be smooth. He looked down for a closer look, and his heart sank: the silver-gray coating on the stent surface was riddled with tiny pits, as if it had been sanded with fine sandpaper.
There was still some pale green powder clinging to the bottom of the pit. When you scraped it with your fingernail, the powder fell off in a flurry, revealing the rusty metal underneath.
"What happened? How did the coating come off?"
Ah Kai quickly called Ah Jie over, and the two squatted down next to the support frame, carefully examining it by the light of the base's emergency lights.
Ah Jie scraped off a little green powder with a knife, smelled it, and suddenly frowned: "It has a sour smell, different from the smell of acid rain, stronger, and with a fishy smell..."
Before he could finish speaking, the soil at the base of the support suddenly shifted, and a tiny insect, about the size of a fingernail, crawled out—
Its body is dark green, its shell has an oily sheen, it has a pair of black eyes on its head, and its six legs are covered with damp mud. Where it crawls, the mud is eroded with a shallow mark.
"What kind of bug is this?" Kai was about to reach out and pinch it when Jie stopped him: "Don't touch it! Look at the coating it's crawling on!"
The two looked up and saw the insect climbing up the support. As it passed the coated area, a little transparent liquid seeped out of its shell. When the coating came into contact with the liquid, it disappeared slowly, like sugar melting, revealing the metal underneath.
Akai's heart tightened. He suddenly remembered that Lao Zhang had mentioned stepping on similar insects by the well. "Could they be mutated insects that have been soaked in acid rain?"
He quickly pulled out his communicator, opened the "Number One Shop Under Heaven" monster encyclopedia, and frantically searched—soon, a picture caught his eye: [Second-Tier Mutant Acid Ant: Developed after acid rain seeps into the ground, causing soil mutation; its shell contains acid-resistant components.]
It can secrete strong acid to dissolve acid-resistant coatings, prefers to eat metal equipment, and operates in groups. A single one can destroy manganese crystal equipment, and a group can destroy small defensive fortifications. The text also includes a note: "Responsibility suggestion: Use high-temperature flames or third-level acid-resistant manganese crystal powder. Ordinary acid-resistant sprays are ineffective."
"It's a second-tier mutated acid ant!" Akai's voice trembled. He was about to notify the others at the base when he heard a soft "creak"—
It came from the tracking laser gun next to us.
The two turned their heads and saw that more than a dozen mutated acid ants were crawling on the acid-resistant coating of the gun body. The transparent acid liquid was flowing down the gun body, and the originally smooth coating had been corroded into a black spot. The metal shell of the gun body even had a small hole the size of a grain of rice. If this continued, the gun would be ruined!
"Quick, get the acid spray!" A-Jie turned and ran towards the warehouse, while A-Kai picked up a wooden stick from the ground, trying to pry the acid ants off the gun.
But as soon as the stick touched the acid ants, the acid corroded a small pit in it, which enraged the acid ants, who then crawled down from the gun and toward Akai's hand.
He quickly threw away the stick, took two steps back, and watched as more acid ants emerged from the soil, densely packed like a green tide, crawling towards the equipment at the stronghold.
Ah Jie ran back with the acid-resistant spray and pressed the nozzle at the ant colony. The white spray landed on the ants, but only made them pause for a second. The acid on their shells instantly neutralized the spray, and the ants continued to crawl forward.
"It's no use! The spray can't deal with them!" A-Jie threw the spray on the ground in frustration. "The communicator says we need Tier 3 acid-resistant manganese crystal powder, but we only have Tier 1, it's completely useless!"
The others in the stronghold also noticed the anomaly and rushed out to help: some tried to burn them, but the acid ants were too fast and could only kill a few.
Some people tried to smash it with stones, but the acid ant's shell was too hard. The stones only made a "tap-tap" sound when they hit it, and they couldn't break it at all.
Some people wanted to move the equipment into the warehouse, but the acid ants had already crawled all over it. If they tried to move it, it would fall to the ground and continue crawling to other places.
"Kai! Look over there!" A-Jie suddenly pointed to the gate of the stronghold—dozens of acid ants were crawling on the acid-resistant iron sheet of the gate. The acid had already corroded several small holes in the iron sheet, and cold wind was blowing in from the holes, carrying the smell of acid mist from outside.
Even more terrifying, in the distant ruins, a patch of green "dots" could be vaguely seen moving towards the stronghold; they were clearly more mutated acid ants.
Akai took out his communicator, intending to send a message to Chen Yang, but found dozens of unread messages already popping up on the screen—all SOS messages from other outposts: "West City Outpost: Mutant acid ants have gnawed through our protective netting, come in quickly!"
"Eastern Suburbs Retail Investor: My acid-proof clothing was torn by acid ants, and my body is burning from the acid!"
"Xiao Li from the Northern Base: Our water tank has a hole chewed by acid ants, and all the water is leaking out! Does 'Number One Store Under Heaven' have Tier 3 manganese crystal powder?"
Akai quickly sent a private message to "Number One Shop Under Heaven": "I urgently need Tier 3 acid-resistant manganese crystal powder, the more the better, I'll exchange it for 2 Tier 2 demon cores!"
The system quickly replied: "Current inventory of Tier 3 acid-resistant manganese crystal powder is insufficient. Replenishment is expected in 2 hours. We recommend evacuating to an area free of acid termites." A chill ran down his spine; in two hours, the base's equipment would likely be completely devoured!
Just then, the stronghold's gate was suddenly pushed open, and a refugee wearing tattered acid-proof clothing stumbled in.
There was a large hole in the shoulder of his clothes, revealing festering skin underneath, with blood mixed with acid flowing down: "Quick...quick, close the door! There are so many acid ants outside, they've torn my acid-proof clothing, and there are people...there are people trying to steal my acid-proof shield!"
Akai's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the refugee's head—sure enough, the acid shield on his head was gone, leaving only a few scratch marks.
The refugee, panting, continued, "Outside, some people saw that the acid-proof clothing had been torn by acid ants, and they started stealing other people's. I saw with my own eyes someone tear off the old lady's acid-proof shield, and the old lady fell to the ground. The acid ants quickly crawled on her..."
Akai gripped the wooden stick in his hand, looking at the increasing number of acid ants in the stronghold, and thinking of the people outside scrambling for acid shields. He knew in his heart: before the acid ants even got in, man-made disaster had already struck.
He shouted to the people at the stronghold, "Take out all the acid shields from the warehouse, give one to everyone, and find something to block the hole in the door so that acid ants can't get in and people outside can't come in and loot!"
But no sooner had he finished speaking than he heard a loud banging on the door, accompanied by a hoarse shout: "Open the door! We know you have acid shields! Hand them over now! Otherwise, we'll let acid ants in!"
Akai walked to the gate and looked out through the small hole—several refugees holding steel pipes were standing outside, their eyes fixed on the stronghold, their faces contorted with rage. They were clearly the thugs who had just stolen the acid shields.
The mutated acid ants were still gnawing on the equipment in the stronghold, and the thugs outside were banging on the door again. Akai's back was already soaked with cold sweat.
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