[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-player-reboot":3,"chapter-player-reboot-player-reboot-chapter-6":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},2271971,4438,"Chapter 6: Mantis","player-reboot-chapter-6",6,"\u003Cp>The chat screenshot abruptly ended; Li Cheng leaned back, resting against the chair, his brow furrowing unconsciously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This screenshot clearly mentioned terms like 【Lord of Insects】 and 【Divine Corruption】, matching the content mentioned by the Special Affairs Bureau last night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But curiously, the screenshot provided no further details on how to save oneself if infected by the Lord of Insects.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I need to first determine whether this screenshot is real or fake.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng thought of something and repeatedly zoomed in on the so-called Mothman photo posted by the OP hacker.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The monster in the photo was obscured by tree shadows, indistinct; but the night sky in the background remained relatively clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Based on his knowledge of astronomy, he recognized Mercury, Mars, Venus, Dousu Four, Dousu Two, and the M22 globular cluster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng immediately opened a star map website, searched for the star chart of the previous night based on the screenshot’s date, and began calculations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He converted the celestial right ascension into hour angles under horizontal coordinates, transformed the celestial north pole into horizontal coordinates, and determined latitude, longitude, and local time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Found it: the northwestern corner of South Dakota, USA, along the Rabbit River.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng rubbed his temples; this star-mapping method had an error margin of about twenty kilometers—difficult to pinpoint the photographer’s location in densely populated urban areas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, South Dakota was vast and sparsely populated: 199,747 square kilometers with a total population under a million, its settlements limited to just a few, enough to narrow the range to a small town with several farms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng searched for news using the town’s name—and indeed found a report: half a month ago, a local farmer’s family was robbed by bandits; a fierce gunfight erupted, leaving only the farmer’s child alive, now undergoing psychiatric treatment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Below the news article was an advertisement from Prometheus Laboratory Company:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A beautiful blonde white woman held a semi-automatic shotgun with a drum magazine, solemnly stating: “In the American Midwest, police take twenty minutes to arrive. In those twenty minutes, who protects you besides a gun?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This gun ad was everywhere—of course, the United States had its own peculiarities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng closed the webpage; he could now confidently confirm the chat screenshot’s authenticity. “Considering China has the Special Affairs Bureau, America has the FBI’s Special Incidents Division, every country likely has established specialized agencies to handle anomalies—and has accumulated vast experience.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There must be a way to counter 【Lord of Insects】 infection. I just haven’t gathered enough data yet. I still don’t understand that world well enough.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After careful consideration, he unplugged the USB drive, shut down the computer, took out paper and pen from his backpack, and began detailed notes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The content included, but was not limited to: total calories consumed today, his current height, weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, body temperature, and more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he began exercising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two sets of twenty-five push-ups, two sets of twenty-five squats, two sets of twenty-five seated knee curls, two sets of twenty-five burpees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He repeated this cycle until his muscles ached and his breathing grew rapid, then stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Muscular endurance has improved significantly compared to before, though not as dramatically as my explosive strength.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng recorded the fitness data on paper and pondered seriously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Elementary school textbooks mentioned that ants can lift objects hundreds of times their own weight, the strongmen of the insect world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, if an ant were scaled up to human size, could it lift cars or trucks?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The answer is no. Even excluding factors like oxygen levels and chitinous joint load capacity, it’s utterly impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason is simple: when an organism’s size changes, length scales linearly, area scales by the square, and volume by the cube.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you scale the ant up 250 times, its muscle cross-section becomes 62,500 times larger, but its weight becomes 15,625,000 times greater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, it cannot generate its original strength; second, it would be crushed under its own weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, does the ant have no useful traits at all?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When moving, ants produce special enzymes and hormone proteins that trigger drastic changes in ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the body’s most direct energy source), releasing immense energy and causing rapid contraction of muscle protein filaments to achieve explosive power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Li Cheng wasn’t mistaken, the ability he absorbed was precisely this—extreme burst.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hunger returned; Li Cheng pulled out a snack box from under his bed and nibbled chocolate balls one by one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Another question: why did the taxi driver mutate so rapidly, immediately growing compound eyes and chelicerae, while my changes weren’t nearly as violent?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Was it because he lost blood to the wasp monster, while I was only stung? Or because I once touched the red amber on the wasp monster’s forehead?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Too little information; no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t find answers. Unconsciously, he ate even more snacks, yet the hunger didn’t subside. The needle-like hairs beneath his arms emerged again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he entered the state of 【Gene Hunger】?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the screenshot, he must absorb new genes to stabilize his mutation; otherwise, he would become a monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng checked the time—it was already 1 a.m.; everyone at home was asleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wrapped his entire right hand in a towel, grabbed a forehead thermometer, silently opened his bedroom door, left the house, and arrived before the greenery strip below the apartment building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a day of drying agent absorption, his phone could now power on. He turned on the flashlight, scanning the grass for targets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There it is!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He extended his left hand, grasping a green Chinese mantis, placing it in his palm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His palm skin writhed, gripping the mantis’s legs and forearms, preventing escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His skin slowly absorbed the mantis’s blood cells, while simultaneously returning some of Li Cheng’s own blood to the mantis, keeping it from dying immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hot! Scorching hot!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The same heat he felt when crawling out of the canal surged through him again; steam radiated from every part of his body, especially his left hand holding the mantis.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He instinctively took a deep breath—and exhaled a long white plume, like a coiling dragon. His internal temperature was far beyond the 45 degrees shown on the digital forehead thermometer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heat came swiftly and vanished just as quickly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After half a minute, the skin on his left palm returned to normal; the needle hairs on his right arm retreated again; the mantis staggered upright, showing no visible abnormalities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A faint, elusive connection still lingered between it and Li Cheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Has this been completed?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His expression grew grave; the intense hunger in his abdomen gradually faded—this appeared to have completed one cycle of 【Gene Hunger】.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Occasionally, people passed beneath the apartment building at night; he didn’t linger. He gently clasped the mantis and returned upstairs, placing it in a ventilated plastic box, securing the lid with twisted wire, and hiding it under his bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he examined himself: no noticeable change in height, weight down by one kilogram, waistline reduced, body fat decreased, strength slightly increased.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If I gained needle hairs and explosive strength from the grassland pavement ants, what did I gain from this gene extraction?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment of silence, Li Cheng raised his arm and tensed his muscles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zing!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two long, slender bone blades suddenly erupted from the lower ends of his forearms, slicing through the air with a sharp whistle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1236,"2026-06-19T22:31:22.154Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","726d8d922991a7de075b27138a80152fdb69f067acfa63f9c5425765f92efd31","player-reboot-chapter-7","player-reboot-chapter-5",612,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fplayer-reboot-cover.jpg"]