Underground Nest
Ding Ruotong silently tied two emergency oxygen cylinders to Liu Xia's back, carefully fastened the climbing rope to the alloy ring around her waist, and checked her equipment three times before stopping.
Liu Xia put on a protective helmet, his eyes firm and excited.
On the one hand, she also wanted to try whether killing the mutant queen ant would meet the recycling standards of the garbage recycling station. On the other hand, it was also to have a temporary shelter in the wasteland world in the future.
No matter from which perspective, killing the mutant queen ant is imperative this time.
"After I go down, return to the camp and wait."
"Alive." A rare ripple appeared in the white eyes.
Liu Xia descended backwards into the cave. The blue skylight gradually disappeared, the rock walls on both sides were gradually covered with yellow mucus, and the air slowly became as sticky as glue.
Fortunately, the protective suit on my body has a filtering system, so I don’t feel so uncomfortable.
"Fifteen degrees to the left and front." Ding Ruotong's voice in the headset was a little distorted, and vague guidance came out.
Liu Xia followed the instructions and swung over there, landing safely in a corridor. He no longer had to keep descending endlessly, and his heart seemed to return to his stomach.
A sour smell permeated the air underground, like that produced by meat corroded by acid.
Liu Xia followed the instructions and walked for a while. In the dark and narrow place, he had almost no concept of time. If he hadn't been reminded every fifteen minutes to report whether it was safe or not, he would have had no idea how much time had passed.
He swung his blade to split the curtain of slime, and suddenly an incubator the size of a football field appeared before his eyes.
She moved cautiously, sticking to the shadow of the rock wall, trying not to make any more noise with her tactical boots, but she still couldn't completely avoid crushing the thin, brittle shells left by the hatched ant eggs on the ground.
"Be careful right above!" Ding Ruotong, who had been monitoring steadily, suddenly became anxious, and a sharp explosion came from the headset.
The top of the rock collapsed with a loud bang, and mutant soldier ants more than one meter tall suddenly fell down. They were the guards protecting the egg cases in the hatchery.
Liu Xia rolled on the ground to quickly avoid the attack and raised his hand to rub his ears involuntarily, but this subconscious action was blocked by the protective helmet.
"I wasn't killed by the mutant soldier ants, but I was almost stunned by the explosion." Liu Xia thought silently, feeling both amused and helpless.
The mutant soldier ant's mouthparts suddenly split into four pieces, revealing the sharp ring-shaped teeth inside, staring at the unknown invader with a fierce look.
No wonder Ding Ruotong suddenly became so anxious. The soldier ants that were originally patrolling at the entrance of the upper level seemed to have sensed the invaders. Instead of following the route, they directly broke through the rock wall.
Liu Xia did not retreat but advanced. He noticed with his sharp eyes that the soldier ants' abdomens were rolling, obviously trying to summon their companions around them.
His fingers suddenly grasped the relatively fragile neck of the mutant soldier ant. Under the tremendous force, acid burst out, and the mutant soldier ant fell to the ground before it could summon its companions.
“Hiss, hiss, hiss…”
Even though the mutant soldier ants in front of him were dealt with in time, the noise caused obviously still alarmed the guards here, and a fine hissing sound came from behind him.
Then Liu Xia felt an invisible air wave hitting his back, and his body involuntarily fell forward. He was blown away and crashed into a pile of egg cases that had already hatched.
The crisp egg shell was hit and flew everywhere like exploding fireworks. The remaining yellow nutrient solution burned a layer of black marks on Liu Xia's armor.
“It’s corrosive.”
Liu Xia quickly stood up to avoid further contact with the yellow mucus. Fortunately, the corrosiveness was limited and did not burn through her protective suit.
Ten mutant soldier ants swarmed in from various locations, and their position was completely exposed.
This is why Shen Wanren did not organize his own attack force to come down. In such a narrow space, even if they were equipped with a powerful weapon like a flamethrower, they would not be able to use it at all.
"Transmit the mutant queen ant's location directly to me, no need to worry about the route!"
Three burning bullets flew towards the pile of unhatched egg cases before the words were finished.
The mutant soldier ants hissed continuously and gave up the siege on Liu Xia. They rushed towards the burning bullet without fear of death. Some of them were so fast that they grabbed the burning bullet directly.
With a loud bang, the ant was burned into a ball by the flames. Even so, the mutant soldier ant still controlled its body to fall to the outside to prevent the flames from reaching the egg case pile. A hint of burnt aroma from burning meat gradually drifted in the incubation room.
"Forty-seven meters below!" Ding Ruotong's voice came from the headset, with an anxious tone.
The map appeared inside Liu Xia's helmet, and the scarlet markings flashed in a regular rhythm.
That area looked very large, and the sonar drone lost its movement when it arrived at this location, and failed to clearly map the site.
Because of the impact of □□, Liu Xia obviously felt that the pressure was relieved a lot.
The black muzzle of the gun glowed with orange flames, and the sound of "da da da da" echoed in the incubation room. The assault rifle that had not been used for a long time ignited with hot flames.
The pale yellow acid splashed as if it were free, and the powerful firepower temporarily blocked the mutant soldier ants that were trying to rush up from all directions outside the line of fire.
In this battle, the helmet was inevitably burned by the acid, leaving fine holes. The rotten, sour smell of burnt meat flowed in through the tiny gaps and filled the lungs.
“Ding ding ding!”
The radiation monitoring device began to sound, and it was obvious that these holes allowed the undissipated radioactive dust in the air to enter the helmet.
"There's no time to take it slow."
Taking advantage of the fact that the mutant soldier ants were blocked, Liu Xia quickly tore the ground in front of him with his hands. No matter whether it was relatively thin soil and rocks or hard rock walls, at this moment they all seemed to become fragile and were quickly torn into large holes one after another by this invisible force. Liu Xia actually created a rock slope out of thin air.
The "hissing" sound approached quickly. Even though their bodies were burning and the explosions ignited handfuls of flames, the mutant soldier ants still rushed up in this gap.
Liu Xia kicked the rock wall with both feet, crushed the burning mutant soldier ants, jumped down directly, and slid along the collapsed earth and stone passage to the location of the queen ant.
He thrust his short blade into the rock wall to slow down his sliding, and the armor fibers scraped against the rock wall, producing dazzling sparks as he fell.
The mutant soldier ants also wanted to drill into the hole, but unfortunately their size did not allow them to do so.
The whistling cold wind blew into the helmet, but the feeling was better than just now. Every time the corridor in front became narrower, Liu Xia tore it once, until he was only separated from the scarlet mark by a wall. Liu Xia stabbed the dagger into the rock wall even harder until his falling figure gradually stopped.
The passage in front contracts into intestinal-like folds, and the flesh-like barrier secretes an asphalt-like substance that is indeed dark yellow in color and looks very strange.
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