Chapter 491

The sun leaped from the horizon, its rays brilliant and vast...

Ye Nan stood before the window, raised his head to look at the sun, and a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"A world just like Earth will soon fall into my hands."

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A light knocking at the door interrupted Ye Nan's deep thoughts. He reluctantly withdrew his gaze from the sun, looked toward the doorway, and said, "You have a key, come in yourself."

Without needing to think, Ye Nan knew who it was. In fact, apart from that woman in red, no one would come looking for him—except, of course, for the hotel owner; if he hadn't continued to pay, the owner would have been the first to find him.

"How did you know I had a key?" With a click, the woman in red opened the door and walked in from outside, a trace of embarrassment still lingering on her face.

"You took the key from me and then wanted to watch me make a fool of myself; do you think I wouldn't know what you were thinking?" Ye Nan said. Yesterday, before the woman in red left, she had casually taken the key. In truth, if Ye Nan hadn't had his own reasons for not wanting to expose her, he would have stopped her long ago.

"Since that's the case, why are you still able to stay so calm?" The woman in red looped the key onto her finger and swung it back and forth. "Do you know that without this key, you wouldn't be able to get out today?"

"Are you saying you unplugged the phone line?" Ye Nan replied irrelevantly.

In an instant, the woman in red became smug. "You made a call."

"No." Ye Nan shook his head.

"Then how did you know?" Now, the woman in red was startled. "Oh, I see, you're lying?"

There was a thick sense of suspicion in the voice of the woman in red. Although they hadn't been in contact for long, she knew a thing or two about Ye Nan's character; she knew Ye Nan wouldn't lie about this, and in fact, there was no need to lie.

"I just knew. By the way, you should have class today; how about it, take me along to have some fun?" Ye Nan's face was filled with curiosity.

"Fine." The woman in red agreed immediately. "But you are not allowed to go around talking about what happened last night, including the matter of the alcohol."

"Fine."

"We seem to have arrived a bit early."

Ye Nan walked into the classroom, looked at the empty room, and said, "What time do you usually have class?"

The school where the woman in red was enrolled was a high school affiliated with the Starship University. The school was neither large nor small, but it was fully equipped with sports facilities and laboratories, and it was not at all inferior to the universities on Earth before the apocalypse.

"Nine o'clock, but generally speaking, there should be people here by now, unless today is..." The woman in red suddenly pulled Ye Nan out of the classroom. She walked through the corridor and arrived outside a laboratory that was even larger than the classroom.

"Sure enough." Looking through the door window, one could see many people inside uncovering white cloths, and beneath the white cloths were bugs.

"Looks like they haven't started yet." The woman in red pulled Ye Nan into the laboratory and walked straight up to a man and a woman. "Rick, Carmen, why are you here so early today?"

"Mara, you've come just in time, hurry up and help me." When Carmen saw the woman in red approach, she immediately pulled her to her side. "This bug is disgusting; help me finish today's experiment."

"Huh, who is this?" Only then did Carmen notice Ye Nan beside Mara, and she said, "Mara, your new prey?"

She knew that Mara liked to go to bars at night, but this was the first time she had seen Mara bring a man to school.

"You haven't developed feelings for him, have you?" Carmen pulled Mara to one side and asked in a lowered voice. "That wouldn't be good. It's fine to just play around with men in bars, but it's definitely not suitable to make friends with them."

"What are you thinking?" Facing her meddlesome friend, Mara complained, "No way, how could he be my boyfriend? We are just ordinary friends."

"Ordinary friends?" Carmen looked at Mara suspiciously. The more Mara said that, the more she doubted it. Why would she bring an ordinary friend to school? They were clearly boyfriend and girlfriend.

"We are ordinary friends." Seeing that Carmen wouldn't believe her, Mara immediately became anxious. "We only met yesterday; what stage do you think we could have reached?"

"Love at first sight happens all the time." Carmen still didn't believe Mara's words, and she chattered on, "Otherwise, why would you bring him to school?"

"I told you it's not like that." Mara was completely speechless with her friend. She suddenly felt that bringing Ye Nan to school was a wrong decision.

At this moment, Ye Nan was staring blankly at the bug in front of him.

This bug was very similar to the bedbugs on Earth before the apocalypse, but it was many times larger, nearly the size of a fatty's belly.

"This is a beetle," Rick said. "A beetle from another planet, a very powerful kind."

"They have been evolving for millions of years." A middle-aged woman wearing sunglasses walked past Ye Nan. "Humans pride themselves on being the masters of all things, but in reality, that is not the case."

"This beetle is far more sophisticated than humans. It has strong reproductive capabilities, no selfishness, no fear, and absolutely no fear of death. It is a member of a highly evolved insectoid society."

"Reproduction?" Hearing the middle-aged woman's words, Ye Nan immediately fell into deep thought.

"Is reproduction one of the most powerful abilities of the insectoids?" Ye Nan murmured.

Previously, he had been misled by the power of the virus, and under Ma Xiu's guidance, he had believed that the high integration of viruses and biological weapons was the most perfect weapon. But now it seemed he was wrong.

Admittedly, Aliens combined with the virus possess incomparable power and occupy an absolute advantage in one-on-one combat, because no one is unafraid of the T-virus. As long as one is slightly contaminated by the T-virus, the virus will invade the body and turn the person into a zombie.

However, in interstellar warfare, facing the powerful firepower of space warships, Aliens are somewhat inadequate. Even if their strength were ten times greater, they would be annihilated without any resistance when facing the artillery fire of interstellar warships.

Although there are rules within the Galactic Alliance that forbid the arbitrary use of weapons capable of destroying planets, rules are dead while people are alive. Wanting to break through the constraints of the rules is not a difficult task.

For example, letting others use planet-destroying weapons and using them as scapegoats; I believe such people are easy to find. After all, for a superior in a civilization, threatening someone to serve them is truly too simple.

And why can the insectoids contend with the native civilizations of the galaxy? It is mainly because of their numbers. The terrifying numbers of the insectoids, through constant reproduction, form a "bug sea" tactic that is sufficient to drown any civilization.

"After going back, I still need to have Ma Xiu research the problem of Alien reproduction." Ye Nan murmured. The middle-aged woman could be said to have awakened the dreamer with a single word; in an instant, she shattered Ye Nan's fixed thinking and generated new ideas.

No matter how powerful the production speed of an Alien nest is, how can it compare to the self-propagation of Aliens? That is a quantity that increases exponentially.

"Humans created art, mathematics, and interstellar travel." The middle-aged woman, unaware of the shock her words had given Ye Nan, continued to chatter, "That's right, but don't be arrogant. Take the Arachnid insectoids, for example; that is a highly evolved society. From a human perspective, their intelligence is very low, but they have a history of millions of years of evolution."

The middle-aged woman extended her instructor's baton and pressed it; a holographic projection of a bug appeared on the projector.

This bug was the insectoid warrior that had invaded Earth last time, the most numerous soldier in the entire insectoid race.

"Now, they can send their embryos into space and occupy other planets." The middle-aged woman walked to Ye Nan's side again. "So, would this student from another school please tell me what your opinion is on the Arachnid insectoids?"

The middle-aged woman's baton tapped Ye Nan's back, and a smile appeared on her face. "It's been a long time since students from other schools came here to audit our classes."

"Uh, I..."

"He is my boyfriend."

Fearing that Ye Nan would say the wrong thing, Mara hurriedly interrupted him.

"Oh, is that so? Bringing a boyfriend to school is a very bad habit, but I'll let it slide this time." The middle-aged woman said pointedly.

"Thank you, teacher." Although she was a citizen and not afraid of this teacher who wasn't teaching a major course, Mara was still somewhat grateful to have less trouble, as this matter could be big or small.

"Alright, you continue with the experiment, I won't disturb you anymore." After saying this, the middle-aged woman retreated from the laboratory.

"Let's experiment together." Rick flipped the beetle over, took a knife, and cut open the beetle's belly. "The beetle's shell is very hard; a knife hitting it won't even leave a white mark, but its abdomen is very soft, and it can be opened with a light cut."

As the beetle's belly was opened, an unbearable stench emanated from it, and an unknown white, viscous liquid flowed out from the opened abdomen.

"Eww, so disgusting." Mara retreated repeatedly, staying far away from Rick.

"It is indeed disgusting." Carmen also followed Mara and retreated to the back, but as soon as she turned around, she saw a disgusting object being pulled out of the beetle's abdomen by another woman, and she immediately ran to the front of Rick along with Mara.

"Rick, compared to that pervert over there, you're still doing okay." Mara said. Although there was a stench here at Rick's, compared to that perverted woman over there, it was still better here.

"Actually, I'm also very disgusting." Rick prankishly pulled a string of internal organs out of the beetle's belly and held them in front of Mara and Carmen. "How about this?"

"Ah!"

"Go to hell!"

Mara and Carmen screamed together and ran out of the laboratory. (To be continued.)