The insect tide erupted on the night of September 30th. Before the eruption, the village was bustling with activity.
The reason was simple: the sun had set, and many people were moving houses. However, they weren’t moving out, but rather into the village.
These people moving into the village were relatives and friends of the villagers. Most of them lived in apartment buildings. Due to electricity and air conditioning problems, they had to move out of their own homes. But they weren’t willing to stay in the public facilities opened by the authorities, feeling those places were too crowded. So, they turned their attention to relatives who had self-built houses.
It was noisy and chaotic. Some young people who didn’t agree with their relatives moving in, but whose parents had consented, gathered together to complain.
Occasionally, large cockroaches and large mosquitoes appeared in the sky and on the ground. People would then use whatever weapons they had on hand to fight these enlarged insects.
In short, the scene was quite lively, even chaotic.
Fortunately, the village chief, the patrol team, and the community had arranged for people to maintain order.
“Hongxia, is your house for rent?”
“Daming, that relative of mine doesn’t get along with my wife. Can we rent your house?”
The Qin family was watching the excitement at their doorstep and inevitably got pulled into conversations about houses by the villagers.
“Hey, don’t you have many rental rooms too? They’re all empty right now. They’d be quite suitable for relatives to stay in.” Qin’s mother directly refused. Their village was an urban village specializing in renting out houses. Everyone had empty houses to rent to others.
“Well, aren’t all the air conditioners in those rental rooms broken?”
Qin’s mother said, “Ours are broken too!”
Qin’s father nodded along beside her. Seeing his expression made Qin Sang want to laugh a little. Her father definitely didn’t want any more outsiders living in the house either.
Qin Sang was even less willing.
She lifted her foot and stomped on a large cockroach trying to climb up her leg. She then pulled out an electric fly swatter and successively electrocuted two large mosquitoes that came near her. Qin Sang thought to herself that there were quite a lot of insects tonight.
After all, these past few days, the village had thoroughly cleared out the insects that appeared nearby.
Just as she was thinking this, several large centipedes, twice as long as chopsticks, crawled over. Qin Sang lifted her foot and stomped on them again.
With all kinds of enlarged insects around, the villagers, who used to prefer wearing sandals, now either wore rain boots or leather shoes. These types of footwear offered better lethality and protection.
There was a fishmonger in their village who went out every day in his fishing waders. Many people envied him and offered to trade grain for a pair. However, that family only had two sets of waders and was reluctant to part with them.
——
“Hey, hey, hey, which family’s relative are you?” Just then, Brother Fa’s voice sounded in the distance, amplified by a loudspeaker. Many people looked over. Qin’s mother was even dragged by several aunts to go watch the commotion.
Qin Sang didn’t go over herself, but with a sweep of her mental energy, she spotted a familiar face.
That person was holding onto Qu Meijing, refusing to let go, clearly trying to enter the village. Qu Meijing kept pushing her away, shouting for the patrol team to help.
Because so many people were moving, roadblocks had already been set up at the village entrance.
Qin Sang thought to herself that Qu Meijing’s younger sister was quite something. She had actually managed to find this place. And Qu Meijing was also remarkable for coming downstairs to meet her sister.
Over there, Qu Meijing’s younger sister, Qu Mei’an, dressed in old clothes and still sporting bandages, pitifully said to the gathered villagers, “I’m her younger sister. I’m 17 years old. I have no family left. I have nowhere to live, so I came to seek shelter with my older sister. But she keeps refusing.”
The villagers weren’t stupid. Although they loved watching a good scene, they weren’t about to meddle in someone else’s family affairs.
Seeing this, Qu Mei’an gritted her teeth in frustration.
Qin Sang noticed the young woman’s little expression and found it quite amusing. She thought this girl was pretty ridiculous. It was the apocalypse. Who cared if you were a minor? According to Qu Meijing, this sister of hers was a classic “white lotus” – she’d never gotten along with her since they were young. They were half-sisters. The stepmother had been the other woman who stole the father. If Qu Meijing actually brought someone like that home, she’d have to have a hole in her head.
Qu Meijing thought the villagers would gossip about her. But when no one urged her to take care of Qu Mei’an, that busybody, she immediately felt that choosing to live here was the best decision she’d made since her rebirth.
She reached out, shoved Qu Mei’an away, and said to the village chief who had walked over, “Village Chief, I don’t really know her. Her affairs have nothing to do with me.”
With that, she turned and prepared to walk into the village.
Seeing this, Qu Mei’an rushed forward, trying to grab hold of Qu Meijing.
Watching this scene, some onlookers thought it was quite entertaining, while others felt the younger sister didn’t seem like a good person.
Suddenly, Qin Sang felt a tightness in her chest. Her mind, like a radar, started emitting a beeping sound.
“Dad, you head home first. I need to go get Mom back.”
Seeing his daughter’s expression suddenly turn grim, Qin’s father knew something bad was about to happen.
“I’ll go with you.”
Knowing this was no time to hesitate, Qin Sang simply started running forward. She ran and called out for her mother at the same time. She told her father to take her mother home, while she went to tell the village chief that danger was approaching.
There were at least several hundred people outside in the village. If something really happened at this hour, these people might not survive the night.
But the world is nothing if not dramatic.
Just as Qin Sang reached the village chief, just as her father was pulling her mother to run home, just as Qu Mei’an was about to pounce on Qu Meijing…
At that moment, time seemed to stand still for a second, or maybe nothing happened at all. Regardless, a wave of screams pierced the night.
——
The first to suffer was Qu Mei’an. A swarm of ants, each the size of a cherry, seemingly appearing from nowhere, bit directly onto her two feet.
Only then did Qin Sang notice that this woman had come wearing sandals.
In just a few short seconds, Qu Mei’an’s feet were torn to a bloody pulp. Several large mosquitoes also targeted her body. Clearly, she wouldn’t survive.
Besides her, many other villagers were attacked by insects that seemed to come from nowhere.
These insects weren’t mutant insects, but each one was dozens or even a hundred times larger than normal insects.
They weren’t a single species either. Some flew in the air, some crawled on the ground. They moved in swarms, biting anyone they saw.
Quite a few people had gathered at the village entrance to watch the excitement.
Now, it became extremely chaotic. Some ran towards their homes, others ran towards the community center. The two crowds moving in opposite directions jammed together. No one could get out.
Qin Sang immediately shouted for her parents to prepare for battle. The two elders moved quickly. They immediately pulled helmets out of their spatial spaces and put them on. No matter what, they had to protect their heads.
Seeing her parents were okay, Qin Sang snapped the dazed village chief out of it.
“Village Chief, quickly tell everyone to stay calm!” The village chief immediately started shouting through his loudspeaker. But more and more insects of all kinds appeared around them. He couldn’t get anyone to listen.
Qin Sang immediately pulled several large floor lamps out of her spatial space, turned them on, and aimed them at the crowd.
With the light, the insect swarms finally became less ferocious.
Qin Sang checked on her parents again. Seeing them back-to-back, covering for each other, wielding their weapons with great skill, she felt relieved. Sure enough, the benefits of having her parents exercise regularly were now showing.
With the large lamps providing light and the insect swarms’ assault less intense, many people calmed down. Those with spatial abilities pulled weapons from their spaces; those without had been carrying weapons on their backs whenever they went out. One by one, they started fighting the various bugs around them.
Thanks to their previous experience dealing with cockroach swarms, everyone fought quite effectively.
Seeing this, Qin Sang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But screams were also echoing from elsewhere in the village; those areas were under insect attack too. The village chief was organizing the patrol team to go and help.
Seeing that everyone here had the courage to fight, while most of those who stayed home were the elderly and children – who couldn’t handle a sudden insect attack – Qin Sang suggested, “Everyone, fight as you retreat!”
There was no point in keeping people here. And Qin Sang wasn’t going to stay and guard this spot either. Because the battle that belonged to her could begin at any moment.
The village chief thought the suggestion was viable and called for everyone to start retreating into the village. Qin Sang asked Brother Fa to find a few people to help carry the large lamps.
This stretch of road wasn’t very long, but everyone moved extremely slowly.
The main reason was that the ground was covered with bugs everywhere they stepped. With every footfall, they either crushed ants, spiders, or centipedes, or bumped their heads and faces into mosquitoes, flies, moths, or cockroaches. These insects were all huge. They had some offensive capability, and people could handle them one by one. But in swarms, they were exceptionally difficult to deal with.
Fortunately, everyone fought hard. And they had combat experience. After more than ten minutes, they finally made it back to the village center. By then, the village lanes were empty of people. But there was fresh blood on the ground. Every household had its doors and windows shut, with occasional shouts and curses ringing out.
It seemed the situation wasn’t too bad.
Qin Sang swept her mental energy around and roughly confirmed that most people were alright.
The returning villagers immediately rushed home to protect their families.
Naturally, Qin Sang led her parents towards their own house, killing bugs along the way. It seemed like there was no end to them.
Qin’s mother still had energy to spare. “There are too many bugs. The authorities probably won’t be using credits to buy these.”
Qin’s father nodded. “Everyone might have one less way to earn credits in the future.”
Qin Sang’s expression remained serious. “Let’s get home first. I have a feeling this insect swarm isn’t that simple.”
Qin’s father and mother nodded repeatedly. Just as they opened the front door, stepped inside, and were about to close it, Qin’s mother suddenly thought, “Where’s Qu Meijing?”
Qin Sang replied, “She’s behind us. Close the door first. Otherwise, more bugs will get in.”
Yes, when the insect swarm appeared, some of them had headed into the houses.
All the cracks and gaps in their house had been sealed. But just by opening the door to get in, a lot of bugs had flooded inside. They needed to kill them.
Other households were likely in even worse shape than theirs.
The entire village was lit up all night. No one dared to sleep.
The community security personnel arrived about an hour after the insect swarm appeared.
They came in water trucks. But the trucks weren’t spraying ordinary water; they were spraying insecticide.
The trucks sprayed as they drove, broadcasting announcements telling everyone to shut their doors and windows. The community was going to carry out disinfection and pest control. At the same time, everyone received various alerts on their phones.
Only then did Qin Sang learn that insect tides had simultaneously erupted across the globe.
All these insects were enormous, biting anyone they saw, extremely ferocious. But they could be defeated by human effort. Online posts were already calling for everyone not to be afraid, to just deal with the swarms like they had dealt with the cockroach swarms.
Qin Sang thought this advice made sense. But not everyone could overcome the fear brought on by a sky-darkening swarm of insects.
The water trucks’ disinfection went very smoothly. After they sprayed around the area, even inside the sealed house, there was a strong smell of pesticide.
Qin Sang figured the concentration of this insecticide was particularly high. Her Gatling-style sprayer would need an upgrade too.
It wasn’t until sunrise that people finally dared to go outside and take a look.
The ground outside was covered with layer after layer of various insects. From a distance, it looked like a dark, black carpet. There was nowhere for people to even place their feet.
The authorities then arranged for loaders to come and haul away the insect bodies.
Villagers who had been injured the previous night went to the officials for help. Those who had spare time and had already cleaned up their own homes went to the workers and asked if they needed assistance.
After that, everyone used their own tools to help the officials clean up the dead insect carcasses.
Seeing this scene, Qin Sang felt that this world was still pretty okay.
However, such an okay world was destined to endure even more hardships.
Sure enough, just when it seemed like the insecticide spraying had eliminated the insect swarms, as night fell again, the entire sky suddenly went dark.
Qin Sang happened to be on the balcony mixing insecticide at that moment. She suddenly felt a chill run through her heart. Qin’s father and mother felt it too. They ran out of the kitchen and looked up at the sky together with Qin Sang.
The night sky, already dark, had turned even darker. It looked as if the entire sky was pressing down on them.
But with her sharp eyesight and mental energy, Qin Sang could easily see the reason for the change in the sky.
The entire firmament was covered with insect swarms!
At the same time, a piercing air defense siren began to wail.
It felt just like the day the disaster first struck. But on that day, it was only the arrival of the high heat. And now? An insect tide was falling from the sky!
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