The Second Kingdom (VII)
Shi Xiaofeng and Allen were in charge of training new recruits, though most didn't require additional training. A player's ability to control the giant insects depended on their combat prowess, physical fitness, and mental strength.
Although many of those who came to seek refuge were women and the elderly, their determination to escape from this copy was no less than that of any strong man, so within three hours, most of them had already gotten along well with their giant insects.
Fortunately, Liang Qing and his team had stockpiled the necessary equipment ahead of time, allowing them to expand their team fivefold without any shortages. Shi Xiaofeng used a water dispenser to chisel small holes in the roots of the giant tree. The juice that gurgled out of the holes was free of toxins and, after a simple purification step, was ready for everyone to drink.
There was no need to worry about food. After removing the metal fittings from the giant insect's limbs, the insides were filled with high-protein muscle. After a simple cooking process, it could be eaten directly. While Nie Yun was grilling the meat with tongs, Liang Baobao circled around her like a happy little chubby bird. He couldn't wait for the meat to cook, so he groaned and stamped his feet. His chubby appearance amused everyone.
Nie Yun smiled as she cut the meat into pieces for him to eat. Liang Baobao devoured the meat, piece by piece, even faster than she could feed him. Finally, he simply tried to catch the insects himself, and he found the worm meat tasted like roasted lamb legs.
On the side, even the players who had been hungry for three days were stunned.
"I say, this kid has been hungry for a long time, so pitiful..." Lily sighed and touched Liang Baobao with pity.
Nie Yun smiled politely without saying anything: Don't ask, if you ask, it's a sure thing that they abused Liang Baobao.
Arthur found Liang Qing at the end of his first day. Seeing that he was hesitant, Liang Qing sent the others away and gave him some space to himself.
"Tell me, what's the matter?"
"Aren't you planning on using the insecticide in the black tube? I made that..."
"I know."
Liang Qing's decisive answer surprised Arthur: "Why are you..."
"I can see your personal information. You're an expert with chemical agents." Liang Qing waved his hand, not wanting to elaborate. "The insecticide in the black tube is a backup nuclear threat. If Party A refuses to cooperate, we'll use it. We can't just all perish together."
Liang Qing said the last sentence with a smile, her eyes were indeed clear and calm, she looked at Arthur calmly.
Arthur lowered his head, a hint of relief on his haggard face.
"Liad did consider a mutual destruction... but he left himself a way out. Do you remember the initial hint the system gave for this level?"
Liang Qing nodded: "Survival, survival, survival. Survival is and only is the highest moral standard."
Arthur looked up at her: "Do you agree?"
Liang Qing was silent for two seconds: "Before I came to find you, I fought side by side with a giant dragonfly. She died because of me."
Facing Arthur's startled gaze, Liang Qing continued, "Before she died, she told me that she and countless other insect ancestors should have theoretically been lost to history. However, human scientists extracted her genes from amber fossils, reconstructed her body, and even created clones of her juvenile form—her children."
"She accepts it, but disdains such a fate. If insects have the right to choose death, she hopes that she and her descendants will die in the chaos of nature, the law of the jungle, rather than becoming weapons of humans, disassembled and reassembled, or destroyed by artillery fire or poison."
"She wanted me to repay her by giving her children the right to choose death."
"Arthur, have you ever thought about detonating the clarinet, making all of this disappear in an instantaneous explosion?"
Hearing this, Arthur, a man in his forties, suddenly squatted down helplessly.
He covered his face with his hands, his voice hoarse: "It's not just a thought... Liang Qing, let me tell you frankly... When I was debugging the insecticide, I added unstable gas to it. Each section of the pipeline has such a detonation point every two kilometers. It's too tiring... I've been in this crappy survival game for a full eight copies... When can I get out, how can I get out... I can never go back to my original world..."
"Arthur, I'm not good at counseling."
She walked over to his side and looked down at him. "But, think about it from another perspective. What if everything you and I are going through is the way the world is supposed to be? What if our normal, gentle world was just a collective nap for humanity?"
“Perhaps our history is just like this, filled with crucial turning points one after another, and humanity has always made the wrong choices at such turning points.”
"In parallel universes, every wrong choice creates a dead end. We travel between these worlds, experiencing the darkest moments shared by all of humanity."
"Perhaps this is the normal world we live in. Only the dark predicament exists permanently and objectively. Even if you die, it will still be there."
"Of course you can always choose to be disgusted with the world and escape. But if you choose to be in it, you can try to become a disruptor."
"Breakthrough..." Arthur muttered as he looked at the dust on the ground.
Liang Qing shrugged: "Yes, only those who break the situation are qualified to see the sunrise after dawn."
The silence between the two lasted for a few minutes, and Liang Qing was about to turn around and leave.
Behind him, Arthur finally revealed his trump card: "The black pipe has a secret link that can connect to the nutrient solution in Xia's factory."
Liang Qing turned her head to look at him. Arthur met her shining eyes and nodded: "I can stop them from creating more giant insect killing machines."
…
The first to notice something was amiss was one of Xia's brigade commanders. Park Jun-ho was in charge of the metal parts modification work at the Giant Insect Factory. Late at night, his players came to report that all the Giant Insects had mysteriously died within an hour of modification, regardless of whether they were the mantises they'd produced in the largest numbers or the fleas they'd invested so much effort in.
These giant insects struggled violently before dying. Since there was no veterinarian or zoologist in the modification workshop, many people suspected that there was something wrong with the modification drawings of Brigade Commander Park Jun-ho due to such a large number of deaths.
Seeing that they could no longer conceal the truth, the subordinates came to report the problem.
Park Junhao was furious, and even more unsettled was the fact that Xiya had been out of contact for a whole day. The red dragonfly, supposedly delivered a day earlier, hadn't appeared either. These weren't good signs in the game.
"Let's go and take a look!" Park Junhao pulled up his trousers and followed his subordinates to the renovation workshop.
The transformation workshop occupied the area of five or six giant leaves, and its staff consisted entirely of Xia's trusted associates. These individuals were either proficient in mechanics or had some knowledge of biology. Before the incident, Park Junhao personally created the blueprints for the animal transformations, while others executed the transformation plans. A team of nutritionists was responsible for replenishing the energy of the transformed giant insects, and insect trainers were responsible for connecting the players with the giant insects and providing combat guidance.
This is how Xia divides the work among her subordinates.
When Park Jun-ho arrived, hundreds of giant insects were lying neatly together. Their bodies had turned black and emitted an indescribable chemical stench.
The smell wafted over, and Park Junhao felt nauseous. He covered his nose with a handkerchief and asked, "Did this happen during or after the renovation?"
One of his subordinates, who had been waiting for him, had been immersed in this smell for a longer time. His face turned pale, and unusual sweat appeared on his head. "...After the transformation."
Park Junhao's voice suddenly rose: "Then why are you looking for me? Where are all the nutritionists?"
He scanned the twenty or so people standing in front of him one by one, and suddenly realized that there was not a single nutritionist among them.
The subordinates also noticed something was wrong: "Did they defect?"
Pu Junhao wiped the sweat off his face and suppressed the nausea: "Look for it!"
The nutritionist's workroom was quickly kicked open, revealing six people sprawled across the room, all in a deep coma, their lips purple. A clear liquid gurgled from the pipes on the roof, and wisps of white mist slowly seeped down...
Park Junhao walked around the room and suddenly felt dizzy and dark. By the time he finally realized something was wrong, his voice was gone. In panic, he grabbed his subordinate's shoulder, but the subordinate fell down like a piece of paper at the touch, and he himself fell backward heavily...
…
A formation of fifty giant insects hovered in the air in a neat formation. They faced the entrance to the Xiya factory. The guards at the entrance had disappeared, no giant insects were entering or leaving, and no sound could be heard from within the factory.
Xia was tied up and sat on a flying ant. Ten meters above her head, the red dragonflies were still circling and dancing, their sharp wings shining with a cold light.
"Twenty hours have passed since the last T-system report. In the past twenty hours, no Party B players have died. Xia, you know exactly what this means to you. Four hours left. Either surrender or expect to be wiped out."
The swaggering pride on Xia's face vanished. She stared in disbelief at the factory, which was as quiet as a tomb. "How... did you do that?"
Liang Qing shrugged: "The desire to survive."
Then she handed over a loudspeaker. "Hurry up! There might be a few people alive inside who have guessed you've been captured. Tell them to come out and we can get out of here together."
Xiya's eyes fell on Liang Qing's face: "Leave together?"
"Who said this instance has to end only when either Party A or Party B is completely dead?" Liang Qing tilted his head. "The system never said that."
"The system is asking us to pass certain tests. Perhaps the final outcome will be complete resignation to our fate, and humanity will return to a united team."
"Let's leave the giant tree and go to the surface."
Xiaya's expression was solemn for a moment, as she carefully considered Liang Qing's words, even though she knew that her only option was to obey. She still had teammates waiting for salvation at the factory.
"Okay, I'll cooperate..."
The flames suddenly lit up, blinding everyone. The heat and explosions sent the giant insects flying. Just before Liang Qing was knocked away, she saw Xiya being engulfed in flames, along with the flying ant.
The red dragonfly above my head escaped because it was too far away...
She bumped into a nearby cave entrance and only managed to grab a vine to avoid falling. Liang Baobao was in her braces, clutching the clothes on Liang Qing's chest tightly. He didn't cry out of fear, but looked up at Liang Qing with concern.
"Mother..."
Liang Qing leaped onto the platform, summoned another giant insect, and smoothed his hair: "It's okay, it's just a small scene."
What came was a locust. Liang Qing jumped onto its back and drove it back to the place where the explosion had just occurred. She escaped, but several Party A who came out to surrender, including Xia, and more than a dozen Party Bs in the giant insect formation were all blown to death.
The instigator was Liad, who was missing a leg, and his men, who were ambushing and firing crazily less than a kilometer away from the factory.
The good news is that Liang Qing saw that Nie Yun, Shi Xiaofeng and Allen had gathered together, organizing a resistance while anxiously looking for Liang Qing and Liang Baobao.
Liang Qing used the communicator to send them a signal that he was safe, and then let the locust fly high and approach the red dragonfly in the sky.
Liang Qing: Are you willing to fight with us?
One of the red dragonflies was hit in the wing by Liad's bullet because it wanted to find Xia's body after the explosion. The broken wing made it lose balance, and it flew with great effort but tried very hard.
The red dragonfly responded immediately: Yes, we do.
Liang Qing: Even if you don’t want to, I will set you free and take you out.
Red Dragonfly: He is abusing our kind.
After Red Dragonfly's reminder, Liang Qing realized that Liad and his companions had also come here in giant insects. However, unlike Liang Qing, they hadn't figured out the secret of how Xiya and his companions could control giant insects. Instead, they had forcibly removed the mouthparts and limbs of the insects they had captured in the battle, leaving only the trunks and wings.
To tame them, Liard attached electrodes to their tentacles and heads, and blinded their eyes. The electrodes helped Liard and his team control these semi-defective creatures using the most primitive "error - shock, correct - no shock" method.
The original bodies of these insects have been modified by Park Junhao so that they only obey the radio wave commands conveyed by the electronic chip. These two sets of commands fight in the insects' already simple brains, causing them immense pain. Coupled with the pain of their damaged bodies, these insects have no combat capabilities and have been reduced to the lowest level of "transportation tools."
In the giant tree, the insects that have not yet been transformed and still have natural bodies, the insects transformed by Xia's team, and the insects transformed for the second time by Liad form three completely different living ecosystems.
Liang Qing: Please protect yourselves. I promised your mother.
Red Dragonfly: Okay, we will only follow your orders.
Liang Qing: Destroy Liad and the others’ wings.
As soon as her thought formed, the red dragonflies were launched like stray bullets. As expected, they were born from the genes of the giant dragonfly and still retained the most primitive and fierce hunting instincts of prehistoric animals.
The red dragonflies were astonishingly fast. Liang Qing could only hear the whistling sound of the wind. Looking again, ten small dragonflies rushed directly into Liad's formation like ten red ribbons.
They cleverly avoided the munitions and directly cut off the wings of the insects in the Liad phalanx in the light and shadow.
Liad didn't even have time to realize what was happening. His two consecutive victories were like an anchor sinking to the bottom, falling straight into the abyss.
The last thing he saw was Liang Qing looking down at him with contempt from above.
"The Second Kingdom dungeon is currently 4/5 complete! 258 players have been eliminated, leaving 42 remaining. The score between Team A and Team B is 56:202! Team B has secured an almost irreversible victory! The game continues! Please keep working hard!"
The system's sweet voice echoed, and an unprecedented abundance of water and food appeared before the Party B players. As everyone celebrated their rapidly increasing points and their comfortable living, Shi Xiaofeng and the others approached Liang Qing, asking, "What do you mean by 'almost'? Why isn't it over yet? Do we have to kill or win over the last remaining Party A player to win?"
A nearby Party B player brought by Arthur came over and said excitedly: "I just saw a few Party A players heading in that direction! I'm going to chase them back!"
Liang Qing stopped her: "No need. The dungeon progress bar is almost over, and we can't waste any more time searching for a single point and seeking revenge."
"Then how do we get out?"
Liang Qing didn't answer her. She turned to Arthur and the two whispered a few words.
A few seconds later, Liang Qing picked up the loudspeaker again and turned the volume up to the maximum, so that the sound could be heard by all the people and insects in the giant tree.
"We are the players from Party B. Not long ago, we wiped out Party A's main force and the insect-producing factory. The game hasn't stopped. Everything tells us that perhaps fighting between the two factions isn't the solution. We will cease all combat and concentrate all our manpower to leave this giant tree."
"We will set up camp outside the Giant Insect Factory. All Party A and Party B players who want to join us have two hours to make a decision."
"During these two hours, our team will not initiate any fights and will not hunt unless it's in self-defense."
"After two hours, we are not responsible for anyone's death or survival."
Liang Qing finished speaking and threw the speaker back to Shi Xiaofeng: "This is the last thing we can do."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
