“Qin Sang, how’s it going? How many did you kill?”
Brother Fa’s shout reached her from a distance. Qin Sang didn’t even turn her head. She targeted another small wave of giant cockroaches appearing in midair. With a sweep of her net, electricity crackled, and the smell of scorched bugs made her take a few steps back.
Brother Fa, who had been about to come over, quickly waved his hand in front of his face a couple of times. Then he said, “The village chief sent me to bring you insecticide! Looks like you don’t need it.”
Qin Sang shook her head. “No need. So, did you finish clearing out every house today?”
“Not yet. Every household is terrified of missing a hiding spot, so they’ve been going back and forth multiple times. A lot of clutter has been tossed into the yards. They’re afraid cockroaches might be hiding inside.”
What Brother Fa didn’t mention was that quite a few people even wanted to throw their things out onto the street, but the village stopped them.
Qin Sang didn’t need to ask; she could picture the scene. Thankfully, after checking her own house during the day, she had gone straight to sleep.
“By the way, your place doesn’t need the village’s help with cleanup, right?”
Qin Sang shook her head.
“What about your tenant?”
Qin Sang thought about Qu Meijing, who had been unusually quiet these past few days, and shook her head again. “My mom notified her. She’s been told to clean up the sanitary blind spots on the fourth floor herself.”
Anyway, her family had sprinkled plenty of insecticide at the top of the fourth-floor stairs. Even if there were giant cockroaches up there, they’d be unlikely to crawl out. As for helping Qu Meijing? Not only was Qin Sang unwilling, but even if she were willing, Qu Meijing wouldn’t open the door. She’d been hiding inside like a quail these past few days. Qin Sang figured she was still in shock that reality wasn’t matching her previous life.
—
As the two were talking, they heard someone not far away shouting for help again.
Brother Fa sighed. “I’ll go check it out.”
Qin Sang nodded and continued guarding her own doorstep. From the time she had come down until now, she had lost count of how many cries for help she’d heard. Sometimes it was one household, sometimes another. The patrol team ran back and forth trying to figure out what was going on.
Eight out of ten times, it turned out to be just a few giant cockroaches. The patrol team rolled their eyes every time.
Qin Sang had killed cockroaches ferociously yesterday, and today people had already called out to her for help many times. But she refused them all.
She knew these people were screaming just because they were afraid of cockroaches. If there were truly an unusually large number, her ears would be able to hear the cockroaches’ movements.
Sure enough, about five minutes after Brother Fa left, they heard him roar, “Don’t call for help if there aren’t more than twenty cockroaches!”
Qin Sang’s parents, guarding the side, heard Brother Fa’s bellow and sighed in unison. “If Brother Fa keeps shouting like that, he’s going to need a few boxes of throat lozenges.”
Her dad added, “He’ll be shouting for a while longer. Once everyone gets used to these giant cockroaches, it’ll be fine.”
Qin Sang nodded silently. Exactly. Once people realized that when the numbers were small, these giant cockroaches were easy for humans to deal with, the chaos would stop.
That was easier said than done, though. That night, the patrol team ran their legs off. Brother Fa’s throat was so hoarse from shouting that he couldn’t make a sound the next day.
But human potential is endless.
The next day, there were still people screaming for help at the sight of giant cockroaches. One more day later—on the fourth night of the cockroach invasion—the situation in the village finally began to change.
—
That evening, the Qin family finished dinner as usual and went downstairs.
Thanks to the efforts of the past two days, the number of giant cockroaches had finally decreased significantly. The main cockroach-killing force in the Qin household had become Qin Sang’s parents.
Qin Sang sat on a wooden stool, keeping an eye on their surroundings, ready to warn her parents if a large swarm appeared.
“Die, die!” Her mother wielded an electric fly swatter in each hand. Spotting a lone cockroach, she lunged at it with fierce intensity.
Her father was more reserved. He held a modified metal insect net and swung it nonstop with both hands—better to catch one just in case.
Watching from the sidelines, Qin Sang found it quite amusing. Her parents seemed to have gained a new vitality. Of course, while they were swatting cockroaches, they used the technique Qin Sang had taught them: channeling the energy from their cultivation into their eyes, ears, hands, feet, and other parts. This greatly improved their efficiency.
“Your family is the fiercest in the whole village.”
Brother Fa strolled over, a toothpick dangling from his mouth and a black plastic bag in his hand.
“Hey, what’s that good stuff in there?” Qin Sang called out from a distance.
Brother Fa replied, “Anti-inflammatory powder just sent from above, specially for wounds caused by cockroach bites. They say sprinkle this on and the wound will scab over in a couple of days.”
Qin Sang reached out, took a small packet, and examined it. The packaging was very basic, but the ingredients felt oddly familiar to her.
She wasn’t sure, but she suspected the powder was made from giant cockroach corpses.
Now that was something…
“Every household in the village gets one packet.” Brother Fa said, then shouted upstairs for Qu Meijing to come down and get hers.
Hearing about the special powder, Qin Sang’s parents were very curious and came over to look.
Brother Fa said, “It really works. One of our team members got his big toe bitten. He sprinkled the powder on, and the pain was gone the next day.”
Previously, most bite victims would experience redness, swelling, and ulceration of the wound, requiring strong antibiotics. But with this powder, there were far fewer problems.
Qin Sang had also been paying close attention to how cockroach bites were being treated. She’d seen many people online posting photos of various cockroach bites, saying they were particularly hard to heal and prone to inflammation. Some severe cases even required amputation.
She hadn’t expected a specialized powder like this to appear.
“Cockroach corpses are definitely going to become valuable after this,” she said.
Brother Fa shrugged when he heard this. “Isn’t that right? But we all use electricity. Cockroaches zapped by electricity aren’t worth anything.”
Just then, Qu Meijing came downstairs. Brother Fa went over to mention the medicinal powder to her.
Bored, Qin Sang got up from her stool and decided to head next door to Xu Lin’s place to check on things.
But as soon as she entered the yard, she realized Xu Lin had a little guest.
“Meow…”
A tabby cat was hiding under the stone bench in the yard. The yard light wasn’t very bright. Through the dim glow, she could see a pair of green eyes staring intently at her.
Qin Sang wasn’t scared. She pulled a ham sausage from her spatial space and peeled it open. “Kitty, kitty…”
On the day the high-temperature disaster struck, countless stray cats and dogs died outside. Many pets died too. In their village, Second Aunt had saved quite a few stray cats and dogs. They were still being kept at the village company. As for this little tabby, Qin Sang had no idea where it had come from. It looked small but had a fierce demeanor.
After calling “kitty, kitty” a few times with no response, Qin Sang simply placed the ham sausage on the ground. Then she walked past the cat and entered Xu Lin’s house to check if any cockroaches had gotten inside.
She quickly finished checking the basement and first floor. Then Qin Sang went up to the second floor. Xu Lin’s house was one of those older self-built homes. The second-floor balcony was very large, separated by glass windows. Arriving on the balcony, Qin Sang was about to check the windows when she heard a meow from the yard below.
Under the dim yellow light, a figure darted past like lightning. Qin Sang reached up and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
She quickly took out her phone and started recording the figure.
After filming, she sent the video straight to Xu Lin.
“Da Linzi, take a look at this. Unbelievable! The cat can catch giant cockroaches!”
Xu Lin, on the other end of the phone, was also watching a similar video. In the video, a Labrador was resting in the living room when a giant cockroach suddenly fell from above. The Labrador sprang up and pinned the cockroach to the ground with one paw.
The video had been clipped from surveillance footage by a pet blogger. It wasn’t very clear, but it was enough for people to see the moment the dog caught the cockroach.
Under the video, countless “666” comments popped up. Countless people were praising the dog’s skill. Some clever ones were already thinking about where to get a dog to catch cockroaches for them.
Other cat owners chimed in, saying their cats loved catching cockroaches and bringing them to their owners as gifts—hunting, they said, while also supporting their owners.
Soon, Qin Sang received a reply from Xu Lin.
“I’ve seen similar videos online too.”
After watching the video, Qin Sang immediately replied, “This gives us another way to kill cockroaches.”
This was good news.
The situation in their village was under control, but there were still places where residents couldn’t even leave their homes.
“But if cats and dogs can catch cockroaches, what about chickens, ducks, and geese? And those spiders that eat cockroaches—would they be useful too?”
After sending that message, Qin Sang thought about the current size of the giant cockroaches and realized they’d have to test things out to know for sure.
—
The authorities moved very quickly.
Within half a day of similar videos appearing online, the authorities released an announcement.
Cats, dogs, pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, and other animals—just like humans—could handle small numbers of giant cockroaches. However, whether they actually had the ability or the courage depended on the animal itself and the owner’s guidance.
In short, they could all help kill cockroaches, but the results were inconsistent.
Even so, as soon as the announcement was made, small animals became highly sought after.
In the village, Second Aunt was being pulled in every direction by people wanting to adopt those stray cats and dogs.
As for households that had chickens, ducks, or geese, they simply let a big rooster loose. Qin Sang then witnessed a scene of a rooster flying through the air, locked in battle with giant cockroaches.
And honestly, that rooster—with its large, bright red comb, its sharp beak, and its long talons—looked extremely mighty. It had to be the king of roosters.
The rooster’s owner cheered loudly from the sidelines: “Rooster King, go get them! Peck those giant cockroaches to death! When you’re done, I’ll set you up with ten hens!”
The onlookers nearby burst into laughter.
They were happy. Not to mention, every household in their village raised chickens, ducks, and geese. Although many had died on the first day of the apocalypse, plenty had survived too. Before, they hadn’t known because the animals were kept in cages. But now that they were let out, wow—each and every one of them was valiant and fierce when it came to dealing with giant cockroaches.
The outcome of the Rooster King against a few giant cockroaches was clear. In less than five minutes, the rooster had pecked the cockroaches to death and swallowed them.
That last part made Qin Sang feel a little nauseous.
Mostly because cockroaches burst with goo when they die, which is especially disgusting. Anyone who regularly kills cockroaches would surely understand.
The stray cats and dogs had an even easier time dealing with giant cockroaches.
In short, with the help of the small animals, the cockroach situation in the village finally stabilized. It wasn’t that they were completely eliminated—because even after clearing them from the village, more would still wander in from other places. But the numbers had dropped dramatically.
Just then, the authorities released a mission to collect giant cockroach corpses.
The mission requirements preferred live giant cockroaches. If dead, they couldn’t be electrocuted. The corpses had to be intact.
In short, there were many requirements. But ten giant cockroaches earned one point. And the supply store had just stocked a batch of high-tech sun-protective clothing, heat-insulating shoes, electric fly swatters, grid guns, and other hot-selling items.
Eager to buy these things, everyone was rubbing their hands together, ready to go all out.
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