“The sun is about to come out. Do you want to leave together?” The exploration team leader put the mutated cockroach’s corpse into his spatial space, called for his team to pack up, and casually asked Qin Sang and Xu Lin.
Qin Sang said, “Let’s wait a bit. You all go ahead. With so many people evacuating outside, if we leave now, we’ll probably be stuck in traffic for a long time.”
“Alright then. I have a lot of things to handle, so I won’t stand on ceremony with you.”
After watching the exploration team leave, Qin Sang blinked at Xu Lin and then tilted her chin toward the drones and ground surveillance equipment that hadn’t been removed yet.
Xu Lin said, “I’ll have the video team come and collect them.”
Qin Sang nodded, in no hurry. First, she walked around the empty area in front of her. The farm had only two buildings. One was a three-story office building. The other was the breeding area. The breeding area was built like a factory but only had one floor. There were very few windows around it because cockroaches are afraid of light.
And that mutated cockroach had come from the breeding area.
While waiting for someone to come and collect the surveillance equipment, Qin Sang also took a look outside through the main gate.
It wasn’t too bad. The injured people, under official organization, had begun an orderly evacuation. Although they all looked utterly terrified, their lives had been saved. Quite a few people were tapping away on their phones.
“The news about mutated insects probably won’t stay hidden much longer,” Qin Sang suddenly said.
Xu Lin replied, “I just received a notice. We’re no longer intercepting information on this topic online.”
This notice indicated one thing: the authorities were about to announce the existence of mutated insects.
Just as the two were talking, the video team arrived to dismantle the relevant equipment.
“Group Leader Xu, when are you two leaving? We’ll be done packing up our equipment soon.”
Xu Lin said, “We’ll wait until most of the people outside have left. No rush.”
“Okay, okay. Thanks again for your help this time. We should all get together sometime when we’re free.” With that, the person left with their equipment.
Qin Sang asked, “Will the management bureau send someone else to sweep the battlefield?”
The exploration team had left in such a hurry that they clearly valued the mutated cockroach highly. So they hadn’t thought to stay and check out where the mutated cockroach had lived.
Xu Lin said, “Yes. They’ll probably preserve the site until the Academy of Sciences sends someone over.”
Xu Lin was familiar with internal procedures and briefly explained them to Qin Sang. “The management bureau is responsible for maintaining outer perimeter order. The exploration team and armed team are responsible for combat. The Academy of Sciences handles all preliminary and post-operational scientific research. The sanitation team, video team, and information team provide support.”
He himself was part of the information team and regularly worked with these departments. As for the Academy of Sciences’ work style—it wasn’t necessarily terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Especially since there were a few bad apples.
Today’s situation, where the exploration team had been so restricted, was precisely because of some impractical orders from the Academy of Sciences.
Qin Sang picked up on Xu Lin’s implication. But she didn’t continue the topic. Instead, she pulled out full sets of protective suits from her space, signaled for Xu Lin to put one on, and then the two walked into the breeding area.
The smell was disgusting, and the air inside was stifling. The gas masks were almost useless. The floor and air were filled with all kinds of debris: shredded cardboard, food scraps, and even more cockroach feces, cockroach eggs, cockroach corpses, and human remains.
Oh, and also the body of that middle-aged woman.
“How strange. Her head was eaten, but the rest of her body was left behind.”
Xu Lin looked at the body lying in a pool of blood and said directly, “Mutated insects seem to prefer eating human heads. Over in Japan, where so many people died, that was one of the conclusions they reached. As for the remaining body parts, they’ll only eat those if they’re hungry.”
This meant that the mutated cockroach hadn’t been hungry. But even though it wasn’t hungry, its first reaction upon seeing a human was to eat the head. This suggested that these mutated insects had some kind of need for human heads.
But what was so special about a human head?
The brain? The facial features? Hair? The last two were impossible. That left only the brain. But what was so special about the human brain?
While thinking, she released thin strands of spiritual power to scan the entire breeding area. There was really nowhere to step in here. Better to get it over with quickly.
Although the impact of those disgusting images magnified more than tenfold the moment her spiritual power spread out.
“Got it…”
Xu Lin was a beat slower, but he also sensed something unusual with his spiritual power.
“Wait here. I’ll go get it.”
Looking at the disgustingly filthy scene, Qin Sang didn’t stand on ceremony with Xu Lin. But she did take a trash-picking claw from her space and hand it to him.
Xu Lin took it, smiled, and walked straight toward the target.
The object was located in the innermost corner of the breeding area. To the naked eye, it looked like an inconspicuous grayish-white stone. But the closer one got, the more relaxed their entire body felt. Their mind also became much clearer.
Xu Lin sighed inwardly. Sure enough, this energy crystal was a true treasure. He didn’t delay and directly clamped it with the claw Qin Sang had just given him. The fist-sized stone came loose. It was covered in some sticky fluid.
He discreetly wiped it with a wet wipe, planning to clean it more thoroughly once they were outside.
Qin Sang could clearly see Xu Lin’s actions. The corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curl into a smile.
Both of them were smart. Once they had the item, they didn’t waste a moment. They left the breeding area directly, bypassed the crowds still queuing to evacuate outside, got back into the car, and started heading home.
The journey went smoothly. Although they took a half-hour detour, they didn’t run into any evacuation teams and made it back to the village without issue.
By then, the sun had already risen. No one was outside in the village. It was just the two of them driving back.
—
“So? Did you sense anything?” Qin Sang came out after washing up and saw Xu Lin already studying the grayish-white stone.
Xu Lin said, “I can sense some energy inside, but it doesn’t seem like very much.”
Qin Sang looked at the now thoroughly cleaned stone, took it, and felt it for herself.
“The energy inside was probably used up quite a bit by that mutated cockroach. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been able to evolve to that extent.”
Xu Lin asked, “Do you think that mutated cockroach evolved from an ordinary cockroach?”
Qin Sang replied, “There’s no better explanation.” As she spoke, she also took out the energy core from the mutated cockroach’s head. She compared the energy crystal and the energy core to see the difference.
“Take a look.”
Xu Lin took them, holding one in each hand, and quickly sensed the difference.
“The energy crystal feels very easy to absorb. But the energy contained in the energy core isn’t.”
Qin Sang said, “Yeah, I feel the same way. But both things are beneficial to us. I want to do some research on them. I’ll give you one later.”
Xu Lin said, “No need. I can’t use these for now anyway. Take your time with your research.”
Qin Sang didn’t stand on ceremony with Xu Lin either. Then she brought up the purpose of the middle-aged woman and her son.
“Those two—one got his head eaten by the mutated cockroach, the other was beaten into minced meat by the angry crowd. It’s hard to know what their real goal was. But I suspect there might be someone behind them.”
Xu Lin thought for a moment and said, “I’ll look into it when I get back.”
After that, Qin Sang mentioned why the mutated cockroach had been fixated on her.
“Maybe my head smells more fragrant than everyone else’s.” From the perspective of appetite, Qin Sang came to this conclusion.
And what was the difference between her head and everyone else’s?
—
“The difference is huge!”
After she and Xu Lin went to their respective rooms to rest, Qin Sang went straight into the space and asked Grandpa Goose.
“Grandpa Goose, you saw me fighting that mutated cockroach today. That thing loves eating human heads. Is my head more fragrant than everyone else’s?”
“Your entire body is more fragrant than every human on the entire Blue Star!” Grandpa Goose said with a speechless expression.
Qin Sang was smart. She immediately realized something but felt it couldn’t be possible, right?
Grandpa Goose could see what she was thinking and directly shattered her hopes.
“You’ve already achieved automatic energy circulation throughout your body. Other humans are still stuck in the energy accumulation stage. Tell me, aren’t you the most fragrant human on the entire Blue Star?”
No wonder!
Qin Sang stood up and started pacing in circles. After two laps, she slapped her own forehead. She had been so busy she’d overlooked something so obvious.
It hasn’t even been a month since the apocalypse began. Although the authorities have announced the existence of anomalous energy and have suggested various methods for cultivating energy, not everyone is following the official guidance.
So, with so many people outside the farm, why didn’t the mutated cockroach come out to bite them?
Yet the moment she entered the farm, the mutated cockroach came running out.
Qin Sang realized she had become a hot commodity and found it a bit ridiculous.
“Then aren’t my parents in great danger? And Da Linzi too!”
The four of them had absorbed energy and started cultivating earlier than other humans. That meant the four of them were the most fragrant.
As for the middle-aged woman, Qin Sang had already sensed a spatial space on her when they first met. Mutated insects eat human heads—could it be because spatial spaces are hidden inside the human brain?
This conclusion still needed confirmation. But what could be confirmed was that people with spatial spaces were also fragrant.
Well, fragrant to mutated insects, that is.
As for why mutated insects prefer to eat people with more energy? That was simple. They evolved using energy crystals. Humans contained energy, so to them, they were just mobile clumps of energy! Only a stupid insect wouldn’t eat them.
The Brother Hao that the mutated spider killed also had a spatial space.
The more she thought about it, the more certain she became.
Qin Sang immediately left the space. She decided to warn her parents and Da Linzi right away to be more careful in the future.
Before leaving the space, she tossed the energy crystal and the energy core to Grandpa Goose.
—
Meanwhile, somewhere else, someone was furious over the loss of the energy core.
“Captain Qin, weren’t you told to capture it alive? Even if you couldn’t capture it alive, the corpse isn’t even intact. Can you explain why the thing inside the mutated cockroach’s head is missing?” The speaker was a researcher in his twenties, wearing a white lab coat. He stood in front of Exploration Team Captain Qin, his arms crossed, interrogating him very rudely.
“Researcher Fang, we delivered the specimen. We don’t know anything else.”
With that, Captain Qin didn’t give the man another glance. He turned and left the Academy of Sciences, leaving behind only the mutated cockroach’s corpse.
Fang Ming was so angered by this attitude that he kicked a chair over.
These exploration teams were all trash. He’d told them to capture it alive, and they failed. Then even with the dead one, they lost the most important thing. That thing was his!
Damn it. If it weren’t for that mother and son being so sloppy, how could things have turned out like this? If they had just slowly fed the farm people, they could have gradually nurtured this mutated cockroach. Now it was all gone! He had to find out who took his possession.
With that thought, Fang Ming sent a text message. Then he rubbed his face with both hands, his expression becoming very gentle. He walked straight to the research area.
“Professor Su, the mutated cockroach’s corpse has arrived. But the energy stone inside its head is missing.”
Professor Su was studying the charred corpse of the mutated spider. Hearing this, he frowned slightly. “It’s fine. Arrange for someone to go to the scene. Perhaps it was left behind there. Also, take samples from the environment where the mutated cockroach lived.”
Fang Ming was very displeased with this response. He had wanted Professor Su to get angry and blame the exploration team. Ideally, have all their points deducted.
—
Captain Qin suddenly felt a chill down his back. But he didn’t pay it any mind. After leaving the Academy of Sciences, he returned directly to his team to report the day’s mission to his leader.
“Old Qin, you’re back! Did the Academy people give you a hard time?”
“Boss, don’t even ask. You know that four-eyed surname Fang. He waves his authority like a feather as an arrow of command. I don’t believe all those experts and professors are like him. ‘Capture it alive, capture it alive.’ Are they that easy to catch? Are our team members’ lives not lives?”
The person addressed as “Boss” was a pale-faced middle-aged man. He was the head of several military teams. If Qin Sang were here, she would recognize him as the pale-faced middle-aged man they had traveled with all the way from Nan Island.
“Alright, I’ll report this up the chain. Anyway, when you go on missions, prioritize your lives.”
After offering some words of reassurance, he began listening to Captain Qin’s report of the day’s mission. After hearing it, the pale-faced man said, “This Xu Lin is from the information team. We can’t transfer him. But this Qin Sang—see if you can go talk to her. We can make an exception and let her join the exploration team.”
Being able to directly kill a mutated insect—whether by relying on a mysterious arrow or not—this woman named Qin Sang was far from ordinary. And why did her name sound so familiar?
—
Qin Sang had no idea that someone wanted to recruit her for the exploration team. And even if she did, she would say no. But for now, after explaining to her parents and Xu Lin that they had become hot commodities, she also reminded everyone to be careful when going out.
Just then, Xu Lin received a phone call.
After hanging up, he immediately said, “I have to go. There’s an urgent matter at work. Remember to watch the official press conference tonight.”
Qin Sang immediately knew what it was about.
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