Chapter 1165: Who Is the Disaster?

Insect tide attacks.

As the earth trembled again and a nauseating humming sound rang out, the insect tide surged forth once more across the sky and land.

This time, Lin An does not intend to act.

The captured Awakened Ones are enough; although he killed over half of them, the remaining third- and second-level ones are more than enough to fend off the early insect tide.

It's just a matter of more deaths.

"Around thirty thousand, numbers doubling. Among the insects, the strongest monsters have already reached second-level strength."

Looking at a distant slender insect resembling a sickle worm, using its wings to slice an Awakened One's head, Lin An silently recorded it.

Compared to previously harmless insect types, this fast-flying, swarm-adept sickle worm can already pose a huge threat to Awakened Ones.

The difficulty is rising quickly, which also matches Lin An's judgment.

So far, he has encountered over 17 types of insects.

Fire-spitting worms, sickle worms, burrowing worms, transport worms, heavy-armor worms, and ox-worms used like battering rams to break formations...

"Quite an interesting species..."

"Their evolutionary path is clearly targeted..."

Lin An muttered to himself, constantly constructing a branching tree of these insect races in his mind.

Obviously, these insects are not like real-world mutants with all kinds of oddities; although mutants have similar types, they are random mutations, but these insects are not.

In the whole insect tide, each type has a certain number, with a clear division of labor.

"If my current approach is wrong, or if the 'alien species' that entered the apocalypse battlefield earlier couldn't achieve killing to stop killing..."

"Then how would they solve the final insect tide outbreak?"

"Do these insects have a mother worm behind them?"

Hearing the hissing, screeching insect cries in his ears, Lin An frowned and couldn't help but ponder.

From the Heavenly Eye People, he got few clues, even within the gathering places; these Heavenly Eye People only know roughly how many insect types there are, and they've almost forgotten the origins of these monsters, only managing to stammer that these monsters existed since their great-grandfather's time.

Only two pieces of information are useful.

1. The more central the gathering place, the more Heavenly Eye People there are, perhaps they have insect records; in oral tradition, they've fought the insects for hundreds of years.

2. Spirits, control—or perhaps the sun in the sky was once controlled by them.

Besides that, there's nothing else useful.

"First, according to plan, deal with the nearby so-called alliance, then directly lead people to the core area..."

"Maybe we can discover something..."

After revising the plan, Lin An no longer thought much, simply sent Zhang Tie a "letter" to drive the crowd in the opposite direction to rendezvous directly in the core zone; as for Xiong Hanzi's safety, he had no worries at all.

In this confrontation match, aside from the danger of alien species and the match itself, Lin An practically ignored other Awakened Ones.

Moreover, deep down, Lin An felt that with the new suit's support, no Awakened One could harm Zhang Tie, even though he is only a third-level high rank.

Furthermore, Lin An secretly suspects that alien species might not appear in this confrontation match.

In the insect tide, several third-level fighters from various battle zones cautiously gathered together, slaughtering the insects before them.

Although their strength isn't outstanding, the few strong third-level ones Lin An already killed; but facing this level of insect tide, they feel little pressure.

After swinging a blade technique, Pa Wa instinctively glanced back at the gathering place.

They fought ahead, Lin An seemed to have hidden himself, not monitoring them.

"Several of us, should we consider fleeing?"

His eyes rolled.

After dodging insect blood with a slight sidestep, Pa Wa couldn't help but whisper to the other third-level fighters.

Having witnessed Lin An's tormentous methods and knowing he merely uses them as bait—both as cannon fodder and sometimes to lure other Awakened Ones over—claiming they don't want to flee is false.

"Run? How to run?"

"Bang!"

After a punch shattered the incoming giant shell worm, a power third-level fighter grimly wiped the squeaky burnt-skin insect blood from his body and softly replied:

"Whether we can escape is one thing, but Lin An's speed is monstrous; I fear that the moment we move, that monster will come after us."

"Staying here, he'll still need us for a short while and won't kill me..."

Helpless.

If he were a bit faster, I might really be tempted to look for a chance to flee, but having seen Lin An blast Wu Wen apart, that thought is just wishful thinking.

Who knows how Lin An's power could surpass theirs so much.

I thought the gap after third level would narrow, but it's even wider!

Seeing several people say they can't run, Pa Wa suddenly felt anxious; fleeing requires everyone to run together, only then is there a slim chance to dodge Lin An's pursuit. Everyone is afraid; if he fled alone, that would be pure suicide.

"But if we keep dragging on like this, once our spiritual energy is exhausted, the outcome will only be worse!"

"You guys don't really want to die in the insects' mouths, do you? Or be drained as cannon fodder, then harvested by Lin An?"

"We can't replenish spiritual energy! Lin An won't let us absorb the Heavenly Eye People!"

Moreover, vexed, Pa Wa roughly calculated his spiritual energy consumption.

His physical strength isn't particularly strong; now he seems to manage, but after a few more rounds he'll soon run out of spiritual energy. A third-level without spiritual energy boost is essentially a large second-level, with strength greatly reduced! Especially, he's actually a half-assassin-type Awakened One, unable to endure such large-scale combat.

Silence.

Being third-level, everyone present can naturally imagine their own fate.

They are just moving points.

Lin An capturing them is essentially the same as them capturing the Heavenly Eye People.

Better to die struggling than live in shame; now the odds of escaping alive are too low... they've been scared stiff.

"Let's wait a bit longer..."

Let's see if that 'monster' will catch more third-rank.

If we had a few more, by the time of a joint escape, our chances would be much better. Who knows...

Being wary, they closed their mouths; after a third-rank gave a bitter smile to comfort Parva, they seemed to think of something and changed the subject.

But speaking honestly, have you noticed that Lin An really doesn't 'eat' the Tianmu people?

I don't believe he didn't consume anything in that fight just now, but he really didn't even move a Tianmu person; instead, he collected all the corpses...

Could it be that his warning is true? He came to hunt us down simply to avoid triggering a worm disaster?

With a hint of doubt, upon hearing that, several people's hearts suddenly tightened.

Indeed, although they know Lin An has this perverse method of killing Awakened Ones to draw power for replenishment, they also feel that the effect is actually not good. Given Lin An's cold-blooded nature, they don't believe he would feel pity and be unwilling to act against the Tianmu people.

Not letting them absorb, and not absorbing himself either... This round of the worm tide has obviously become stronger.

Their expressions strange, several people subconsciously glanced at each other, all understanding what the other was thinking.

Could it be... that Lin An could actually be a good person?!

"Forget it, no need to think so much."

"Even if what Lin An says is true, absorbing Tianmu people would bring unpredictable consequences. But who among us dares to guarantee we can last until the end?!"

"If we don't replenish our spiritual energy, we'll die either way!"

"Speaking honestly, rather than fearing the outbreak of the final worm tide, we'd better fear Lin An!"

"Damn, I always feel that guy is the biggest disaster of this confrontation!"

"Lin An's disaster!"