Chapter 977: The Unfathomable Insect

Flame? Mental storm?

Withering?!

Rushing into midair, after briefly escaping the Human-Insects' encirclement, Lin An quickly considered all his means against enemies.

However, seconds later, all skills were rejected.

Whether he spewed flame from his fire sac or unleashed a pure mental storm, these insects could "eat" it completely clean.

The Death God Crystal's innate Withering skill is single-target damage; no matter how abundant his spiritual power, he could not activate it hundreds of times in a row.

After these insects die, there is essentially no energy scattering; he cannot even absorb them with the Seed of Death.

Tricky, hard to deal with.

The Human-Insects' displayed characteristic of endless energy absorption instantly left the three of them helpless.

Spiritual energy attacks don't work; even pure kinetic attacks are digested completely clean.

Even the spiritual energy trail generated by his movement is, in the mouths of these insects, like a delicacy, as if they would gladly eat along the trail.

"Lin Dui! What the hell is this thing!!"

His expression grim, Zhang Tie, who is not adept at aerial movement, stood in midair; his menacingly shaped Lingchi Weapon stiffened, and for a moment he didn't know what to do.

Neither smashing nor not smashing works.

One strike down, smashing kills them, but amid their mutual devouring of corpses, this damage poses no threat to the insects whatsoever.

A stomp that causes an earthquake only makes this swarm of insects grow larger by a notch.

Moreover, these ground‑crawling mutant worms moving at high speed seem poised to leap into the air.

Without answering Zhang Tie's words, Lin An's face grew heavy; he merely glanced around quickly.

Up to now, he still cannot tell what these things actually are.

The ability to consume energy without limit, as if breaking rules, is a trait that could belong to either a Meme or a Special Event.

For the time being, it seems he has no worries about his life.

He cannot kill these mutant worms, but fleeing is still no problem.

Merely watching the Human-Insects continually build insect ladders and climb along his spiritual energy trail, Lin An also realizes that to escape he can only rely on Mo Ling's teleport back to Long An.

Otherwise, once these insects follow him out into the outside world, with these Human-Insects' terrifying survivability, they could likely destroy the entire Dongshan war zone in an extremely short time.

By then, it won't be just hundreds or thousands...

Even if it reaches a scale of hundreds of millions, they will devour everything in sight!

Like Zhang Tie, Lin An also cannot fathom how such a thing could exist in this place.

The seemingly harmless Space‑flight City actually harbors this monster; truly it can be called a "surprise".

Now thinking about it, it must be that this small city is remote; after the Human-Insects ate everything, they lost their target and thus became trapped here.

Otherwise, Lin An even suspects that the horror level of this thing could qualify as war‑zone‑level.

His gaze turned fierce.

As a Death God Phantom appeared behind him, after unleashing the Withering skill, Lin An decisively reached back and pulled out a silvery‑white giant bomb.

White phosphorus bomb!

It is a weapon of the technological side that he has not yet used.

These insects' defense is not high; perhaps for higher‑order mutants, the burning effect of a white phosphorus bomb is not very effective.

But for these troublesome insects, it might prove useful.

Taking Mo Ling along, he rose higher again, and Lin An unhesitatingly hurled the white phosphorus bomb in his hand downward.

At a height of a hundred meters, the silvery‑white bomb, once released, swiftly fell.

The activated warhead quickly split into hundreds of sub‑munitions.

At the same time, a precise burst of spiritual energy shot out, directly detonating a small warhead that covered an area the size of a football field.

"Boom!"

"Bang!! Bang!"

In an instant, bright white flames flared in the pitch‑black night sky like heavenly fire rain, scattering and splitting like rain‑fire, enveloping all the Human‑Insects on the ground.

The pungent chemical burning smell gathered into white smoke, just like a comet's tail trailing behind the flames.

Bone‑corroding, flesh‑burning.

As the most cruel white phosphorus bomb in human technological means, upon contact with a target it can erupt in thousand‑degree heat, melting iron and refining steel.

As long as it touches even a bit, it will keep burning until the target's entire flesh and blood are reduced to ashes!

As the fire rain fell into the insect swarm,

Lin An's pupils suddenly reflected a blaze of intense fire.

In an instant, the Human‑Insects on the ground were ignited by the flames, a strong scorched stench mingling with their screams.

"Hungry!!"

"Hungry ah ah ah!!"

Under the white fire, worm after worm writhed in pain on the spot, and as they twisted, they even spread the flames to nearby insects like cotton.

The scorched stench assailed the nostrils, and the hall rose with towering flames.

From a high vantage, one side of the city center looks like being amidst a grand fireworks display; splendid fire rain behind it hides the most ruthless burning.

One second.. two seconds..

Staring fixedly at the situation on the ground, the wails amidst the firelight seem like a piece of hell.

After a while.

Zhang Tie gulped dryly; the scorching heat from the ground made his mouth a little dry.

At a glance, half a block was about to be set ablaze.

「Lin Dui, is this damned thing... burned to death? 」

He felt somewhat worried.

In the flames, he couldn't see clearly; he could only vaguely sense that something inside was still moving.

「No. 」

His face looked grim.

His mental power extended downward inch by inch.

Through the flames, the Human-Insects that had been writhing were turned to charcoal by the extreme heat, but in Lin An's sight, their outer skins carbonized and then quickly peeled off.

Once the outer skin peeled off, the burning ended.

But these Human-Insects that had escaped the flames not only had no intention of fleeing; instead, they recklessly madly devoured their burning companions.

Their adaptability was extremely fast.

Substantial flames are not like energy that can be directly eaten.

But at a speed visible to the naked eye, these Human-Insects, just like Zhang Tie, were quickly adapting to the attack; in a moment, they could turn the flames into energy.

Seeing the Human-Insects emerging again from the ground, it was obvious that their numbers had increased considerably.

Lin An took a deep breath; for a moment, he actually felt somewhat helpless.

He could no longer continue attacking.

He quickly made a decision.

His eyes flickered as he rapidly observed everything around him.

Since force couldn't solve it, he had to find a way to locate the source.

Whether it was a Meme or a Special Event, an infection source was needed.

They definitely weren't inside the Human-Insects, nor in the auditorium.

After being killed, the Human-Insects do not regenerate unconditionally; instead, they require a living Human-Insect to split, which shows that the Human-Insects themselves do not belong to the Meme concept.

Just like a doll, the doll's essence is a Meme, which cannot be destroyed.

Then, where exactly is the source?

He thought at extreme speed.

After blocking out the shouting that seemed to drill into his mind, Lin An suddenly noticed a subtle abnormality.

The charred Human-Insect corpses were distributed in a circle.

The closer to the city center, the more living Human-Insects there were, and the faster their splitting speed.

From high above, a clear dividing line came into view.

A fragment flashed back.

A circular area instantly appeared in his mind.

From the escape route from the city entrance to the business street where they were dragged away, from the Human-Insects holed up in the auditorium to the stronger ones deeper in the core...

There was none nearby, and none could be seen.

It was neither contact transmission nor visual, so...

What was something that, at the far point of the arc, kept spreading its ability, causing the Human-Insects to mutate?

Like a precision instrument, the rocket statue in the city center was instantly marked in red by him.

「Go! 」

「Head to the city center! 」

Without hesitation, Lin An turned and flew straight toward the rocket model, his eyes firmly locked on the top of the tower.

However, in the instant he turned, out of the corner of his eye, Lin An unexpectedly saw Xiong Hanzi clutching his stomach and following behind him.

Only saw Zhang Tie, as if murmuring in a half-conscious dream, muttering to himself:

「Hungry... 」

「So hungry... 」