Chapter 288 Deep Virtual Reality 115
Most of the people in the group took a step back in fright. After all, the experimental subject's appearance was quite frightening, and they had just experienced several life-or-death situations, so they were still in a state of fear.
Professor Lillian and her assistants were the ones who went up to inject the drugs into the experimental subjects and reconnect them.
Director Crete and Chu Qing were conducting simple analysis and testing. They kept tissue samples and data records for almost every alien creature that appeared.
The conditions here aren't suitable, so we can only conduct simple tests first. We'll have to wait until we get to the experimental base. At this moment, Chu Qing is talking to Director Crete about the giant mutated spider they just encountered.
"Preliminary assessment indicates that the giant mutated spider is a variant of the bird-eating spider... Its body is armored, its size is large, and while it typically has eight simple eyes at the front of its cephalothorax, only two have been found, and the eye color has changed. The fangs at the ends of its chelicerae lack venom gland ducts, yet its bite force is astonishing... There are approximately thirty-five smaller mutated spiders nearby. Given that bird-eating spiders typically lay between 50 and 200 eggs, the mutated spider's reproductive rate may be lower than that of a typical spider..."
The giant birds in the sky stopped attacking, perhaps not only because the forest environment restricted their movement, but also because of the bird-eating spiders.
Bird-eating spiders... Xie Ning, who was still fiddling with the drone with his head down, suddenly looked up when he heard Chu Qing's analysis. "Speaking of reproduction, since there were female spiders and small spiders that have already hatched, what about the male spiders?"
Director Crete paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Spiders exhibit cannibalism during mating. Females often kill and eat males before, during, or after mating. This cannibalism is also common among many insects other than mantises, many arachnids other than spiders such as scorpions, some amphipods, some copepods, and some gastropods."
"Are there no exceptions?" Xie Ning asked.
Director Crete and Chu Qing exchanged a glance. Chu Qing recalled the observational experiments she had done during her university years, and her expression changed instantly. She whispered something to Director Crete, and then Director Crete went to find Dr. Ji, Professor Lillian, and Zhan Lin.
“There are exceptions,” Chu Qing said.
"Mating is their nature; they cannot resist it. But survival is also an instinct. Many male spiders perform complex courtship rituals, such as massaging the female and releasing pheromones, presenting her with gifts to reduce her aggressive tendencies, or waiting for the female to forage for food to quickly complete mating. Some even use silk to bind the female spider to complete mating, thus avoiding being eaten..."
While male birdeater spiders may exist, I don't think it's nearby, otherwise it would likely become food for the females. Besides, our experimental subject has arrived, and Professor Lillian's chip core control... is impressive.
Chu Qing didn't know the principle behind this. Although he still didn't like Professor Lillian, it didn't stop him from acknowledging Professor Lillian's professional abilities.
Even if you use cunning and tricks, you can't get this far without real skills.
Xie Ning relaxed a little. She did know that some animals cannibalize each other, but she wasn't sure if this mutated spider was the same. In any case, it was always good to be vigilant.
Unbeknownst to either of them, shortly after everyone had left, as the branches and leaves of the forest swayed, a bird-eating spider, slightly smaller than the giant mutated spider, slowly dangled from a tree. Several white cocoons were still hanging from its abdomen, one of which was held in its mouth, only half-wrapped in spider silk, and the yellow and black abdomen of the creature inside could be faintly seen.
Its sharp, long legs severed the white cocoon at the joint, then pushed the cocoon next to the female mutated spider, hissing as it made a sinister sound, its pair of scarlet single eyes scanning the surrounding broken corpses with a menacing gaze.
The reddish-brown mutated spider walked to the other human corpses and tore open the bags wrapping the bodies.
The crunching sound of chewing rang out, sounding especially eerie in the silent forest.
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