Anthropology
"Do they have other means of transportation?" Ye Miaomiao had to start doubting her own observation skills. Perhaps she should ask more questions instead of rushing and worrying that asking this question would take a lot of time due to translation problems.
But it's too late to say anything now.
"Rest first." At this point, Ye Miaomiao could only pray that the Homo sapiens activated the signal jammer in time. "Inform everyone, get some rest, and be ready for battle tomorrow morning at five!"
.
This battle lasted for five days.
Ye Miaomiao could clearly perceive that due to the chaos in the reserve resources, the locusts were becoming increasingly restrained in their fight, and even retreated actively in the face of many competitions.
The Hungry Hungry had already taken over half of the Locust ship. Concerned about the possibility of usurpation, they refrained from damaging the facilities. The team protected two researchers as they attempted to decrypt the ship's systems. Although the Locust had long since severed the occupied hull, some of the information still within was worth preserving.
"Launch a general attack tonight!" Mingyi gently tossed the flag onto the sand table from the Hungry Hungry spaceship. The bloody battle had lent a calm and confident tone to her usually high-pitched voice. "The locusts are gathering their forces. For some reason, they're showing signs of a resurgence. Luckily, their various departments are incredibly busy, so they've only deployed a small detachment for defense. This provides us with an opportunity for a sudden general attack."
"I guess it's because we only sent small teams to engage in harassment these days. How could they have imagined that we still have so many people in reserve and would go out in full force?" Scott's expression became increasingly calm as he led the army for the first time.
War can indeed change a person. You don't need to look at those new recruits, just look at these two commanders to see it.
The only two who remained unchanged were Fang Yan and Ye Miaomiao. The former had personally experienced war and a doomsday disaster, while the latter...
Fang Yan looked at Ye Miaomiao, who was almost lying on the side. "It's all thanks to Miaomiao that she was able to sneak into the locust group with the [Human Skin Mask] these days. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to get so much information so easily."
"Of course." The other two said in unison.
Although Ye Miaomiao did not go to the battlefield, her contributions are obvious to all.
"Boss, why don't you just have a good rest tonight?" Facing Ye Miaomiao, Mingyi seemed to have turned back into the cheerful elder sister. She considerately covered Ye Miaomiao with an air-conditioned quilt and said, "You haven't slept well these past few days. I'll find two good-looking people to accompany you to have a good sleep. Don't worry, I'll ask them if they want to."
Ye Miaomiao: “...?” She woke up instantly.
Before anyone else could react, she immediately said, "Assign me a small team. I want to join the general attack tonight."
She hurried out to wash up and wake up. Liu Mingyi was holding the air-conditioned quilt with a smile, still maintaining his original posture.
"That joke is too much." Scott said reasonably.
"I've noticed that the boss has been worried lately," Mingyi said jokingly, turning to look at Fang Yan, who was glaring at her. "And by the way, I'm creating an opportunity for someone."
Fang Yan: “…”
"I'll go wash up too." He calmly put away his personal belongings and turned to leave. However, as he stood up, he accidentally kicked the table and, in his haste, overturned the stool.
Amid Mingyi's wild laughter, he fled from this place as if escaping.
night.
It was in the silence that the hungry army assembled. They turned off all light-emitting and noise-generating devices, activated shielding devices, and slowly approached the locust nest in silence.
When they encountered the first hungry soldier, the locusts thought it was just a common harassment battle. They made low buzzing sounds in annoyance, and the locust squad formed a battle formation.
Until the entire starry sky was lit up, in an instant, countless shells bombarded the spaceship. The Hungry Hungry team members followed closely behind in their mechas. The huge Hungry Hungry spaceship finally revealed its original form in the darkness. Although it was moving slowly, it was like a hideous and terrifying beast, exuding an infinite sense of oppression.
The narrow brain structure of the locust squad was filled with the horrific scene that oppressed their vision. At that moment, they even forgot to issue a warning and stared blankly at a shell coming towards them.
With a "bang", blood and flesh splattered everywhere.
"Charge!" The leader shouted excitedly in the Hungry Hungry team's voice chat, and the team members following him quickly collected the locust corpses - Ye Miaomiao had specifically instructed that these locust corpses would enter the Demon Research Institute, and they might be the next type of battleship paint.
"You're not going?" At the top of the spaceship, Ye Miaomiao was wearing a mecha and leaning against the fence.
Fang Yan, who was standing beside her, had his cheeks wrapped in a thin layer of metal. His angular face was strangely cold, which made people suspect that he should not be here, but on the fierce battlefield below.
"Mingyi was just joking. How could he really let me go?" Ye Miaomiao stretched and said frankly. In order to find out the information, she had not rested for two consecutive days. "By the way, why don't you go?"
"Just like you, I've entrusted the soldiers to Mingyi." Fang Yan smiled faintly. "I see you're not in good shape, so I'm staying here to keep you company."
"What I'm going to do isn't dangerous." However, Ye Miaomiao didn't refuse. She turned and looked inside the cabin. Several researchers were still preparing, and she couldn't help but mutter, "I hope I can translate the Homo sapiens language more smoothly. If possible, I really don't want to use those two translators. Homo sapiens are actually quite smart, but we can't understand the meaning of their language from their perspective."
Seeing Fang Yan nod, Ye Miaomiao smiled and said, "You haven't seen Homo sapiens before."
"So I'd rather go with you," Fang Yan said seriously, then smiled, "But I can guess they're a friendly race."
After the researchers finished sorting, Ye Miaomiao led the team and several doctors on their way out. They set out now because they were worried that locusts might take refuge on Zhixing and wreak havoc. Of course, there was also the researchers' impatience and other reasons.
Compared with the last time when the task was assigned in haste, this visit was particularly formal, and many gifts were brought along. With the mentality of trying to see if she could cure their brains, Ye Miaomiao even brought a doctor along.
The group successfully entered Zhixing under the cover of the team members.
As soon as they entered the planet, the team members cried out in surprise: "Huh? Boss, there are no signal jammers here?"
Ye Miaomiao's foreboding grew stronger. A team member fiddled with the machine in his hand. "Boss, there's not even any sign of Homo sapiens here, except..." He suddenly looked up at Ye Miaomiao's increasingly unpleasant expression and said hesitantly, "Except for a group of locusts in the southwest, there's also a pile of bones that look very similar to human bones..."
"Let's go and take a look." Ye Miaomiao said with a cold expression.
Ye Miaomiao was terribly anxious the entire way, and no one spoke. A few minutes later, just as the team members had described, the exact same scene came into view. With her mind blank, Ye Miaomiao even saw the signal jammer she had painstakingly built amidst the swarm of ugly locusts.
Why.
The scene of Luo cautiously inviting her to stay for a meal resurfaced before her eyes. Ye Miaomiao anticipated a terrible possibility and suppressed the urge to kill all the locusts. She took out the translator and said in an extremely calm tone, "Where are those Homo sapiens?"
"Are they Homo sapiens?" These locusts also saw the group of fully armed people, but probably because they had just eaten a group of Homo sapiens who looked similar to humans, so at this moment these locusts ignored the terrible weapons on their bodies, and just thought that they were fish on the chopping board like Homo sapiens, and made excited buzzing sounds.
"Kneel down before our leader!"
"We are a highly advanced civilization, and have evolved an omniscient and omnipotent leader! It would be an honor for you to offer your body to our leader!"
"Are you as productive as Homo sapiens? They can produce a herd in twelve days!"
"You look more naive than Homo sapiens!"
Being treated as food by this group of ugly locusts, the team members almost took out their big guns from the mecha and killed all these disgusting creatures.
Ye Miaomiao stopped him. She suppressed her nausea and asked again, "Where are the Homo sapiens?"
In fact, she didn't need to ask, because the bones in front of her had already given the answer, but Ye Miaomiao still had some subtle hope.
This tiny bit of hope vanished completely in the angry buzzing of the locusts: "Damn Homo sapiens, they destroyed the pipeline, damn it! Die! Eat them all!"
"Oh." Ye Miaomiao raised her head and looked at the group of locusts seriously.
They were so fat that juice was almost overflowing from their soft-skinned tails beneath their thin wings. I wonder how many Homo sapiens they had to eat to achieve this result.
Ye Miaomiao took out his gun and killed the nearest locust without saying any unnecessary words.
The fishy juice splashed out, and Ye Miaomiao didn't know who was inside, maybe Luo was one of them.
"Ah!" The locusts screamed in fear, and the buzzing sound almost hurt people's ears.
"Then you deserve to die too." Ye Miaomiao killed the next one without any hesitation, and then the next one.
The team member wanted to step forward to help, but was stopped by Fang Yan: "Just let her come."
A few people stood quietly behind, watching the locusts go from shock to insults, and then to begging for mercy. They had no way of escaping. The locusts that took flight were always shot down by Ye Miaomiao at a faster speed. They could only slowly crawl away from Ye Miaomiao's position, begging for mercy in extremely pleading tones.
"You can't kill us. We are the leader's subordinates. We are responsible for the command of most of the locusts..."
"We can give you a lot of things. Please, we will give you everything we have."
Ye Miaomiao fell into an extremely strange state of mind. She ignored the locusts' pleas for mercy, nor did she kill them all in anger. She imagined the scene of locusts eating Homo sapiens, wondering if they would also beg for mercy like the locusts now, and then slowly killed them with disgust and pleasure.
Until the last locust who called himself the leader.
"Wait!" Its IQ was clearly much higher. It had realized that the man before it was no Homo sapiens, but the very human who had been giving them the crap out of the past few days. "Don't you want to know where we hid our supplies? I've moved most of them since we started fighting you. Let me go, and I'll tell you everything."
If it had not suddenly discovered that the signal jammer was ineffective and it could have had a good meal, it would have probably escaped to somewhere unknown. Thinking of this, the leader felt a little regretful.
Ye Miaomiao looked at it with a smile, and indeed stopped, as if waiting for it to speak.
It hummed softly and flatteringly, "Of course you are different from Homo sapiens, you fools! You deserve to die. It is us who have occupied this planet that have angered you. Don't worry, this is a magical planet. If you spare my life, I will teach you how to produce food at such a high speed..."
A bullet went straight into its face. Before it could even finish its words, it stared at the woman in front of it with its round eyes and fell to the ground.
"Go search for any living organisms," Fang Yan instructed the team members beside him. "Don't let any living organisms go."
He turned to look at Ye Miaomiao, who appeared extremely calm.
"Check these bodies." She kicked the locusts aside and hurled arrows of judgment at them, burning them one by one. Fang Yan stepped forward to help, and soon, the whole swarm of locusts was burned to a crisp.
At the same time, the researcher's examination also yielded the results: "Based on the skeletonization, the time of death is at least one month."
The researchers working on the signal jammer were also confident: "The battery was depleted naturally, which means it actually lasted three months."
The two men's conclusion was astonishing. The team members exclaimed in disbelief, "But if I remember correctly, only five days have passed! Even if there's an error of a few hours, it's only been six days at most. How could it be as long as a month or three months?"
"It's time." Ye Miaomiao lowered her head. "To be more precise, it's the speed at which time flows."
Memories flashed back in his mind, and the clues gradually solidified. "Homo sapiens have no concept of time, so they never noticed the locusts colonizing. Their time is different from the locusts'. My calculations were correct. I expected them to blow up the pipeline in about three days, and in fact, they did. It's just that time flows differently on the planet Homo sapiens, so from our perspective outside of it, it took three hours."
"Our five days are roughly one hundred and twenty days for Zhixing. This is more than enough time for the signal jammer's battery to run out, and even enough for their corpses to turn into skeletons for a month."
"Twelve days to market," Ye Miaomiao suddenly wanted to laugh, but a sense of sadness spread within her. "Isn't twelve days the same as ten months on Zhixing? These locusts occupying Zhixing aren't eating those 'nutrient-deficient' crops at all; they're just using it as a breeding ground. In a way, they're more disgusting to me than simply plundering!"
The rest of the people were shocked by this horrifying fact. They had thought about how the locusts would destroy and plunder the planet, but they never imagined that they would take advantage of the difference in the speed of time flow to keep the entire planet in captivity and use intelligent life as food.
"Perhaps it's the glass soil's unique magnetic field that causes time to pass faster here," the researcher sighed. "Glass soil is both their success and their failure. It's a shame for this race; they're the first humanoid civilization we've discovered. Perhaps they could become our own kind."
"Kill him! Kill him hard!" The team member was so angry that he immediately took out the communicator and sent a message to his teammates as if to vent his anger.
But he found it difficult to explain why he had to kill so cruelly. Perhaps it would take him some time before he could recount the incident.
There was not a single Homo sapiens left on Zhixing. After searching for a while, several people worked together to bury the remains of the Homo sapiens in glass soil. Their remaining memories seemed to emit a glimmer of hope.
After all this, Ye Miaomiao and Fang Yan joined the great war. Perhaps because she had accidentally killed the locust leader, the locusts were completely defeated once attacked. The war ended much earlier than expected, in just one night. With the last buzzing sound, it disappeared into the universe, and Hungry Hungry was victorious.
After a day's rest, the hungry army prepared to return.
Because the galaxy names given by the system were too complicated, Ye Miaomiao simply named his own galaxy X1 and the galaxy where the locusts were located X2.
The spacecraft returned to the X1 galaxy, and scientists, explorers, and the Hungry Hungry Army led by Mingyi stayed in the X2 galaxy. On the one hand, they cleaned up the remaining dangerous factors and rebuilt the locust spacecraft, using it as the second base of the Hungry Hungry Army; on the other hand, they explored the X2 galaxy and searched for new resources.
However, the group will not stay for long.
After the Hungry Hungry spaceship returns, the [Technology: Interstellar Transit] they successfully acquired from the locusts will be ready for immediate use. While researchers won't be able to fully research this technology in a short period of time, they'll be able to follow the map. By then, the journey from X1 to X2 won't take days, but just minutes.
By the way, we've reaped quite a bit from the locusts this time. Besides [Tech: Interstellar Transit], the technological spoils also include [Tech: Spacecraft Ecology (the science of efficiently utilizing all available resources to create a healthy ecosystem within closed environments like spacecraft and space stations)], [Tech: Advanced Artificial Intelligence (assisting with computing and thinking), and [Tech: Human Aquaculture (maximizing environmental adaptation to accommodate the reproduction of humanoids)]...
When Ye Miaomiao saw [Anthropology], she recalled many bad things, but the researcher told her excitedly that this science could greatly transform Lichun Star, and it even involved the knowledge of [changing planetary orbits] that they had been studying, which might play a big role.
Ye Miaomiao realized: There is no bad science, only bad creatures using science.
In terms of supplies, Hung Hung Hung reaped a rich harvest. In addition to the super potatoes taken away from the Zhixing, there were also various high-end materials collected from the spacecraft, such as electronic components, aerospace building materials, etc. There was even an entire library of books, including historical records of various civilizations, literary books, religious culture, and some unconventional technologies - Ye Miaomiao reasonably suspected that these were all stolen by locusts after plundering civilization.
These books were so new that they were covered in dust, which was enough to prove that locusts just loved to plunder and never read books - but if they read more books, they would not be stupid or bad.
The return ship's warehouse was already packed, with much of the supplies even piled up in the lobby. The logistics team busily began to sort things out, and the team members, after a long period of intense activity, finally began their break. Undoubtedly, everyone was eager to return to Hung Hung Hung, and the entire return journey was filled with laughter and joy.
On the night before arriving, Ye Miaomiao stood behind the railing at the top of the spacecraft and looked into the distance, when she met an unexpected person.
Fang Yan smiled and said, "Have you been here every night these days?"
Ye Miaomiao looked at him with her eyes open.
Fang Yan hummed, "I said I kept hearing movement behind me, so it was you." He explained, "I was behind you these nights, and it just happened that I didn't see you, and you didn't see me either."
The two stood side by side in front of the railing, with stars twinkling in the darkness and a cosmic breeze blowing on their faces. Despite the mecha's built-in air filtration, there was still a slight, harmless smell of sulfur that penetrated Ye Miaomiao's nose. This was the natural smell of the universe.
After a moment's silence, Fang Yan suddenly realized that Ye Miaomiao wasn't on the team chat. It was fine in the spaceship, but in the open, vacuum environment at the top, his voice couldn't reach her ears.
"What's wrong? Are you in a bad mood?" Today was the last night before returning to Hunger, and a grand celebration banquet was held downstairs. Considering her own bad mood, Ye Miaomiao couldn't help but suspect that Fang Yan had the same feeling as her when he stepped onto the high platform.
She placed her hand on Fang Yan's shoulder with concern. After receiving no response for a long time, Ye Miaomiao suddenly realized that she had previously blocked herself off because she was annoyed by the noise.
After talking to himself for a while, Fang Yan felt a little embarrassed. Ye Miaomiao patted his shoulder gently, as if to comfort him.
The mech did its best to simulate a realistic touch. Fang Yan felt a strange, yet artificial, sensation on his shoulder. His entire body felt as if it were being electrocuted. He felt strangely at ease. This quietness wasn't bad either. Fang Yan smiled, silently gazed into the distance, and muted his team chat.
"Are you in a bad mood?" He tilted his head slightly, and even though he knew Ye Miaomiao couldn't hear him, he still muttered to himself, "Of course I'm in a bad mood. After all, I just went through such a terrible thing."
"Anyway, I'm in a bad mood," Ye Miaomiao simply left the team chat muted. Unspeakable confusion, bewilderment, and helplessness constantly impacted her. "After seeing the Homo sapiens, I'm really afraid that we'll encounter a more advanced civilization, or to be more realistic—[Shadow of Doom: Origins]. It's like when my grandmother was ill, I sat by her bedside, powerless to do anything. I can only constantly feel uneasy and fearful about the unknown, half resisting, half accepting my fate."
"Like you, but also different from you, I'm in a terrible mood too. I thought that as time went by, I would gradually forget the last death, but water pollution, food shortages, mutant infections, alien invasions, tsunamis... every time a disaster strikes, the image in front of me becomes clearer - the image of you dying in front of me always surfaces when I fall asleep." Fang Yan said quietly, "But I can never tell anyone about it, because... the butterfly effect."
"I really don't know what to do, and I don't know who to talk to. After all, telling everyone will only add to everyone's troubles. Faced with this kind of thing... no one has a solution, right?" Ye Miaomiao tilted her head slightly and looked at Fang Yan, as if looking for recognition. "Our civilization is even more fragile. In these rounds of disasters, I always fall asleep listening to the news of the territory being breached. Sometimes I wonder, what if I can't stand it anymore, how will I survive? Maybe take the rest of the people to find a quiet place to farm? As long as there is a bite to eat, it's enough. Can you accept that kind of life..."
"I'm really scared, even more scared than facing death." Fang Yan laughed at himself, "So let me stay with you forever, no matter what. If there's a next time, I want to die before you, at least to reduce your pain a little. When I think about this, I feel I'm no longer afraid."
"I think you can probably accept it," Ye Miaomiao suddenly laughed out loud, "You have no complaints about the conditions of the first residential house in the Hungry Hungry Territory." Ye Miaomiao suddenly wanted to turn on the voice chat and interview Fang Yan about his opinion on the residential house, but after thinking about it, she decided not to. What if the latter was full of complaints?
"Ye Miaomiao, I..." Fang Yan was about to speak, but when he turned his head slightly, he saw Ye Miaomiao looking at him with bright eyes. He stopped talking, showing a smile from the heart, tapped his ears, and turned on the team voice.
"Are you feeling better?" Fang Yan asked.
Ye Miaomiao also turned on the voice chat. She smiled and nodded: "It's definitely better to have you accompany me."
Fang Yan hummed, and said in a very low voice: "Me too."
Although they didn't say anything, it seemed as if they had said everything. After looking at the scenery for a while, Ye Miaomiao enthusiastically dragged Fang Yan downstairs to drink. The two of them got drunk. It was a pity that Mingyi, the drunkard, was not there, otherwise the atmosphere would have been even better.
Early the next morning, the spacecraft arrived near the Hungry Hungry Space Station.
A team member nervously knocked on Ye Miaomiao's door: "Boss, boss, wake up! We found two other space stations besides Hung Hung!"
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