110: giant ants

The takeout containers hadn't been fully cleared when Lu Jianchuan's personal terminal vibrated urgently. He quickly opened the message, and his expression immediately turned grave.

“Emergency directive,” he put down the terminal and looked at Wang Yu and the Rabbit King. “An Abnormal Evolved Organism has appeared in the West City Seventh Cemetery area. Its energy signature highly matches the previously stolen ‘Bursting Crystal Umbrella’ spores. We suspect its explosive properties have been utilized.”

The situation was urgent. Lu Jianchuan immediately stood up and said to the Rabbit King, who was squatting on the sofa, “Please stay here. I will return shortly.”

“Huh? A mission?” Wang Yu immediately stuffed the last half of the compressed biscuit he was holding into his mouth and said, muffled but firm, “Don't leave me behind, Senior, I'm coming with you!”

Almost simultaneously, the Rabbit King's mental message clearly entered Lu Jianchuan's mind: “I'm going too.”

Lu Jianchuan frowned and looked at it. “What are you going to do? It might be very dangerous there.”

A hint of shrewdness flashed in the Rabbit King's red eyes. “Are you really that confident leaving me, an ‘outsider,’ alone in your lair? Perhaps the moment you leave, I'll try to escape.”

Lu Jianchuan met its gaze, not intimidated by the words. Instead, he calmly retorted, “The fact that you actively brought up this possibility indicates precisely that you don't truly intend to run. Otherwise, you could have remained silent and acted after we left.”

“...Tch.” A hint of annoyance at being seen through permeated the Rabbit King's mind, but it immediately found a new reason. “Even if I don't escape, staying here alone is too boring. Take me with you; I can offer assistance. After all, an extra piece of wisdom always increases the chance of success.”

It jumped off the sofa and walked to Lu Jianchuan's feet, its attitude clear.

Lu Jianchuan looked at the eager Wang Yu, then at the resolute Rabbit King. The situation was urgent, leaving him no time to hesitate further.

“Alright,” he finally compromised, bending down again to pick up the Rabbit King. “Stay close and be careful.”

“Understood!” Wang Yu replied, full of vigor.

Just like that, the two people and one rabbit quickly left the rental house, their figures merging into the night as they sped toward the West City Cemetery.

When Lu Jianchuan and the others arrived at the West City Seventh Cemetery. The cemetery was terrifyingly silent. The air was thick with the stench of dirt and humus, mixed with a faint, strange sweetness reminiscent of niter.

Lu Jianchuan's gaze sharply swept the environment, and he immediately noticed the anomaly—at the base of the gravestones, under the pine and cypress trees, and even on the exposed soil, small, brightly colored mushrooms clustered in ominous crystal formations were sporadically scattered. They emitted an extremely faint phosphorescence.

“They are the juvenile forms of the ‘Bursting Crystal Umbrella.’ They haven't grown large enough to pose an explosive threat, but this place has already become their breeding ground,” Lu Jianchuan said in a deep voice, simultaneously setting the Rabbit King down on a relatively clean stone platform nearby.

“It looks like we found the right place.” Wang Yu also sobered, vigilantly observing the surroundings.

Just then, a sickening, wet squirming sound came from the depths of the darkness ahead, accompanied by the viscous noise of some heavy object being dragged across the ground.

“Something is coming.” The Rabbit King's mental message carried a high degree of warning. “It's quite large, and its life signal is chaotic and violent.”

Lu Jianchuan didn't need any more warning; he knew he had to prepare for battle immediately. Without hesitation, his right index finger precisely pressed the crimson jewel in the center of the armband on his left wrist.

“Buzz—!”

Amidst a low biological hum, silver-white Biomass Fluid instantly surged from within him, rapidly covering his entire body and constructing the sharp, angular silver skeleton armor. The sapphire blue eye lenses lit up in the dim cemetery, like two points of icy starlight, and a powerful energy fluctuation spread out from him.

“Wow! So cool!” Despite the tense atmosphere, Wang Yu couldn't help but gasp softly, his eyes shining. “As expected of a hero about to debut in Tokusatsu—this transformation sequence is amazing!”

The transformed Lu Jianchuan ignored the teasing. He turned his head and instructed Wang Yu, “Don't be careless. I remember your Clone ability, but your main body must remain safe.”

“Relax, Senior!” Wang Yu patted his chest confidently. “You're worried about the wrong thing! What I'm most proud of is my undying regeneration ability! As long as the opponent doesn't instantly smash my head, I can rapidly regenerate other organs, even if my heart is pierced! So don't worry about me; go all out!”

Within the few seconds of their brief exchange, the darkness ahead was torn apart by a massive silhouette.

It was an ant. It maintained the basic morphological structure of an ant—head, thorax, and abdomen were clearly discernible. But its size was as massive as an adult Doberman Pinscher, completely violating the physiological limits of insect structure.

What was most terrifying was its body surface. It was not covered in a hard exoskeleton but encased in a thick, wet, dark red layer of flesh and blood that continually pulsed slightly.

This layer of fleshy skin was rough and tough, and thick vascular networks could vaguely be seen wriggling beneath the surface. It was as if, in order to support this massive body, it had completely abandoned its original exoskeleton and evolved a new support System based on high-strength biological muscle and connective tissue.

And on its bloody, mangled back, at its joints, and even at the base of its antennae, dozens of semi-mature “Bursting Crystal Umbrella” stalks, shimmering with amethyst and ruby colors, were conspicuously growing! These deadly mushrooms were like malicious abscesses, deeply rooted in its flesh, trembling slightly as it moved.

This terrifying, spore-infested Flesh and Blood Giant Ant “looked” towards the intruders with its head, which lacked compound eyes and was left with only two deep holes. Its mouthparts, lined with sharp teeth, opened and closed, emitting a hiss mixed with the churning of mucus and a certain low frequency.

[Consciousness Space]

Outside, Lu Jianchuan was focused intently on the bizarre Flesh and Blood Giant Ant. Inside the Consciousness Space, Han Chengyu, utilizing the System's perception, also “saw” the target clearly and couldn't help but exclaim.

“This thing... its frame is still an ant, but how did its exoskeleton turn into muscle?”

[Performing reverse inference based on morphology...] The System's cold electronic voice rang out.

[The target's original form is confirmed to be a Formicidae Organism. Its gigantism violates the physical support limits of arthropod exoskeleton structures. The tracheal System cannot effectively deliver oxygen, and the Chitinous Exoskeleton, when scaled up proportionally, cannot bear its own weight, leading to structural collapse.]

[Inference Conclusion: The System further analyzes that this individual adopted an extreme evolutionary strategy—it actively “dissolved” most of its Chitinous Exoskeleton and old tracheal System, reconstructing the usable components with its own muscles and connective tissues to form a brand new System based on high-density biological muscle and internal hydrostatic support, and likely evolved a more efficient internal circulatory method. While this solved the support and oxygen supply problems, its physiological structure has severely deviated from the standard template.]

“This evolutionary path is too extreme.” Han Chengyu's mental message carried doubt. “But the stranger thing is those mushrooms! System, I remember that ‘Bursting Crystal Umbrella’ spores can only germinate on the remains of recently deceased organisms; the immune System of a living body would instantly clear these foreign spores. But now they are growing on this living ant like symbionts!”

[Yes. The System confirmed, this phenomenon severely contradicts the basic biological characteristics of the ‘Bursting Crystal Umbrella.’ Logical conflict.]

[Initiating deep biological structure scan... Scan complete. Abnormal gene splicing traces and unnaturally synthesized pheromone receptors detected.]

The System's tone became definitive:

[Comprehensive Judgment: After undergoing the aforementioned abnormal evolution, this ant individual's physiological System was subjected to third-party human intervention. Its immune mechanism was specifically suppressed or rewritten, and a biological interface capable of establishing a compulsory symbiotic relationship with ‘Bursting Crystal Umbrella’ spores was implanted. The current state is the product of a combination of ‘extreme evolution’ and ‘subsequent biological modification.’]

“Just as I thought...” Han Chengyu's mental message sank. “Stealing the spores, then finding this specialized evolved individual for forced modification to create this twisted symbiotic weapon... What exactly does the ‘New Federation’ intend to do?”