[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-player-reboot":3,"chapter-player-reboot-player-reboot-chapter-15":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Player Reboot",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2271980,4438,"Chapter 15: Blood Amber","player-reboot-chapter-15",15,"\u003Cp>Realizing this, Li Cheng let out a long breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The greatest immediate threat is the Gene Hunger caused by the Infection of the Lord of Insects, putting me at risk of becoming a monster. To eliminate this hazard, the optimal strategy is to seek help from official institutions or guild organizations.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They entered the Killing Ground over four and a half years ago; they must have accumulated considerable resources, knowledge, and experience.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But the problem is, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. First, I must demonstrate enough potential to be worth cooperating with—at the very least, I need self-defense capabilities. Otherwise, I might walk into negotiations only to be reported to the Special Affairs Bureau, who’d shoot me dead on the spot.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng paused, then noticed a statement on the forum’s registration page—only players could see the registration option; non-players could not register as official forum users.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After confirming his visitor status prevented him from accessing more forum content or gathering further information, Li Cheng closed the webpage and pulled out two plastic boxes from under his bed, each containing a mantis and a cocoon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he absorbed the genes and grew the bone blades, Li Cheng had felt a certain connection to this mantis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After two days of settling, he could confirm it was no illusion—he could indeed control the mantis to some degree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Focusing completely and gathering his consciousness, he solidified the thought of “raise the left arm,” and the green insect slowly lifted its left forelimb.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He changed his thought again, and the mantis raised its right arm, moving precisely as Li Cheng intended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because I absorbed its genes, it became my subordinate? If so, if that bee-like monster hadn’t died back then, would I have been controlled by it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And how does this control work? Sound, light, pheromones, or electrical signals?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng conducted further experiments: he sealed the gaps of the plastic box containing the mantis with tape, cutting off airflow, and found he could still control the insect—thus eliminating pheromone-based control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he wrapped both the plastic box and his phone in an opaque bag, filmed the box’s interior with the phone, and continued focusing his consciousness—the control effect still worked, eliminating the possibility of control via light or sound transmission.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I had a lead box, I could test whether control is achieved through electrical signals.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng silently thought: “But one thing is certain—the strength of control is tied to distance; the closer I am, the stronger the effect and the lower the delay.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After pondering, he used metal tweezers to extract a blood amber from a sealed plastic bag he carried on his person, and gently pressed it against the mantis’s body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment contact was made, the blood amber—once as hard as crystal—rapidly melted and seeped into the insect’s body through its thoracic and abdominal spiracles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the light, he clearly saw threads of crimson spreading throughout the mantis’s body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After half a minute, its forelimbs, left middle leg, and abdomen swelled into bulges; its dorsal cuticle could not withstand the pressure and split open, spraying out green fluid.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire insect trembled uncontrollably, as if unable to bear the power granted by the Nephilim shard, on the verge of transforming into something else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng immediately reached out and touched the mantis; as their connection reestablished, the excess power of the Nephilim shard transferred to Li Cheng, halting his own mutation, and his body gradually returned to normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>About fifteen minutes later, the mantis stopped trembling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its body had grown larger, its forelimbs now even more massive, its overall color shifting from emerald green to brown, resembling a Malaysian leaf mantis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The control effect has strengthened. Precise control range increased from one meter to five meters; maximum range increased from three meters to fifteen meters.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng sensed the subtle changes and manipulated the new insect to perform complex actions—picking up a pencil, opening a drawer, and more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Its weight and strength have been greatly enhanced—it can now lift a bottle of water. Its forelimbs have become stronger and sharper, capable of easily cutting through leather and fibrous materials. Crucially, it can now fly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At Li Cheng’s command, the brown mantis spread its hind wings, took flight, circled the bedroom ceiling once, then landed back in the plastic box.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ordinary mantises could only flutter short distances—they could never fly so effortlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A flying insect with immense strength, forelimbs as sharp as daggers, capable of hiding among vegetation—this is essentially an assassination weapon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng easily imagined its applications—he could send the mantis ahead to perch on a treetop, wait for the target to pass beneath, then suddenly drop down and slit their throat before taking flight again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the position, angle, and lighting were right, it could easily evade surveillance cameras and carry out silent assassinations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No wonder the Special Affairs Bureau is so wary. The Lord of Insects’ infection can turn even low-tier organisms into deadly threats—let alone those at the top of the food chain.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He replaced the lid on the plastic box, secured it with wire, and slid it back under his bed—the mantis only needed feeding every three or four days, and once fed, it became lethargic, so no great concern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next came the cocoon of the Hercules beetle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng took out the second Nephilim shard from the bag and placed it gently on the cocoon’s surface.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As before, the cocoon was easily penetrated by the Nephilim shard and began swelling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng repeated the process: he touched the cocoon and absorbed the excess Nephilim shard power, establishing a connection.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could sense profound changes occurring within the insect developing inside the cocoon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cocoon’s color shifted from brown-yellow to gray-yellow, lying still in its artificial pupal chamber, occasionally twitching—but it showed no sign of hatching anytime soon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Hercules beetle was already the apex of the rhinoceros beetles; after being enhanced by the Lord of Insects’ infection, who knew what form it would emerge as?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Four blood ambers remained. Under the lamp’s glow, their surfaces shimmered with an alluring luster, stirring a powerful urge within him to absorb them all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“For now, I’ll leave them be.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng took a deep breath, bundled together charcoal powder, air-filter cotton, and deodorizing cotton, wrapped the blood ambers tightly in the mixture, sealed them with plastic wrap, tied them with a rubber band, and stashed them in the most hidden corner of the box under his bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Gene Hunger cycle hadn’t arrived yet—no urgency—and he had another idea: perhaps he could sell the surplus Nephilim shards for information or healing agents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having put these away, he turned to examine his second acquisition of the day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When I picked up the blood ambers, I touched the blood of the two Lord of Insects-infected bodies and absorbed their genes. I wonder what ability I’ll gain this time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1156,"2026-06-19T22:31:22.154Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","2fcc70b214a683cbd6a7cbbd6b666463ec7a4a433d17048691144453b5522f94","player-reboot-chapter-16","player-reboot-chapter-14",612,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fplayer-reboot-cover.jpg"]