ATPnovel Chapter 110 Strange Sounds
Chapter 110 Strange Sounds
Chapter 110 Strange Sounds
Yu Wang met their gazes and calmly introduced himself: "Yu Wang, you're in for a big surprise, ID. This harpoon is the one I'm most comfortable using; it has an extra thrust and charge skill, and a utility item that acts as a 'wallhack,' allowing me to see the location of survivors within ten kilometers. Besides, I'm quite familiar with the dungeon environment and know many shortcuts. This is DuckB, my summon."
"Quack!! (May the Duck Gate live forever!)" Duck B quacked at the opportune moment.
"A summoned creature? Interesting, looks like a toy." Old Wang, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, looked Duck B up and down with great interest.
Duck B seemed to understand the word "toy," and quacked in dissatisfaction, flapping its wings at the bone gun.
"Hey, you've got quite a temper." Old Wang chuckled, not angry at all, but laughing even more heartily, his wrinkles smoothing out.
"So you're the one who got all those reports!"
Lin Wei's eyes widened slightly, her tone filled with gratitude: "I really want to thank you for sharing the special supply ship guide in the trading area before!"
I'm a scaredy-cat. If I hadn't read your guide, I wouldn't have dared to approach that strange supply ship that looked like "the witch's hometown"!
Upon hearing this, Yu Wang nodded, thinking to himself:
It seems that Lin Wei not only went to the Witch Alliance, but may have also had a strange encounter there.
Observe her brightly colored liquids in those syringes—liquids that are clearly not ordinary medicines—without making a sound. Maybe she's already been spotted by some eccentric witch and taken on as an apprentice?
A future super support/logistics specialist/maybe even double as a jinx—Yu Wang quietly raised his opinion of this teammate.
He then looked at Old Wang. Old Wang's boat was an ordinary wooden raft, but with his talent, he could consistently rank in the top ten on the group dungeon leaderboard.
I later heard that they even created a fleet, but it didn't develop very well.
As for the Mad Shark—alas, he's a pitiful fellow too.
Let's try to make a quick buck if we can.
Yu Wang temporarily suppressed his thoughts and suggested, "Let's all add each other as friends first? It'll be easier to contact each other in the short term."
"No problem." Old Wang nodded readily and exhaled a smoke ring.
"Okay," Mad Shark said succinctly.
"Mmm!" Lin Wei quickly replied.
The four quickly operated the control panel and added each other as friends.
Yu Wang wasted no time and immediately opened the [Area Survivor Map], giving a brief introduction to the item's effects.
The other three curiously peered over.
The lion ant nest is about ten kilometers in diameter, which happens to fall within the largest area on the map.
Therefore, as the map unfolds, all the light spots representing survivors scattered throughout the ant nest become visible.
240, not one missing!
This result was within expectations. As long as the main force has not yet reached the stage of large-scale superhuman abilities, this map is the biggest cheat for seeing through walls!
Because the lower half of the ant nest was previously flooded by seawater, the light spots are mainly concentrated in the upper part of the nest that was not flooded.
Fungal Garden "Protective Barrier" "Water Storage Bag Hole" —
Looking at it this way, the "food storage room" area that Yu Wang and the other three were assigned to was indeed one of the farthest and most remote corners from the "royal court hall" in the center.
While observing the movement of the dots on the map, Yu Wang quickly analyzed in his mind that the reason why the location of the "Royal Court Palace" was exposed so quickly was inseparable from the seawater backflow.
The seawater destroyed a large number of lower-level nest structures, rendering those areas unexplorable. The system may have directly credited the exploration progress of those destroyed areas to all survivors, thus accelerating the overall progress.
More importantly, the royal palace must have been flooded as well. The queen lion ant, startled, would surely summon a large number of lion ants to defend the core area.
With such a commotion, it would be difficult for the survivors not to notice, and the location of the queen ant would naturally be exposed.
Therefore, the final boss battle, which was originally scheduled to be triggered in half a month, was forced to be brought forward due to this unexpected event.
After analyzing the situation, Yu Wang couldn't help but sigh once again at the sheer number of butterfly effects his rebirth had brought, including being drawn into the struggle between the local gods.
Although he doesn't even qualify to be a pawn right now, fortunately, so far all the changes have been positive.
The most terrifying thing is to be given a second chance at life and then continue down the same old path.
Just as the four were about to continue their discussion, the game's announcement suddenly rang in the ears of all the survivors.
[Ding! All participants have completed the distribution]
[Remaining squads: 60/60, Number of members: 240/240.]
[Note: There is no time limit for this instance. The escape function will be available when only one faction remains or after the boss, the Lion Ant Queen, is defeated!]
[The in-game chat channel is temporarily open! Please communicate in a friendly manner!]
No time limit! Either eliminate all other competitors, or take down BSS!
The harsh rules made all four of them look more serious.
There are no speaking restrictions in the temporary chat channel, and everyone can speak freely.
However, right now, only one survivor is speaking in the channel.
212 Zone Pineapple Bun: "Everyone! I'm the one who discovered the Royal Court Palace! You've all heard the rules of the game, but surely no one's thinking of clearing the game by killing all the survivors, right? Now everyone has temporary superpowers, killing people is much harder than killing ants!"
Therefore, to make it easier for everyone to refer to, I am now making all the information I know public.
The queen ant is almost immobile; she mainly relies on her mental shrieks to directly influence mental attacks, and also on summoning lion ant swarms!
Pineapple Bun: "Based on my observations from multiple dungeon runs, the estimated defensive strength of the anthill is as follows: approximately 3000-5000 worker ants and approximately 800-1200 soldier ants."
Originally, Yu Wang and his companions were still waiting for the pineapple buns to continue their conversation, but the increasingly clear and intense sounds of battle coming from the next area made it impossible for them to concentrate.
It wasn't a series of sporadic collisions or chases, but rather the sound of carapaces rubbing together like waves, and the dull thud of heavy objects hitting rock walls!
"Have the survivor teams from other zones already started fighting with Lion Ants?" Lin Wei listened for a while and guessed.
Mad Shark slowly shook his head: "No, something's wrong. It doesn't sound like the human team fighting the lion ants."
If there were humans present, there would likely be shouts and tactical maneuvers, making this seem more like infighting among the lion ants.
They had just looked at the map; next to the "food storage room" was the "hatching room," and there were no glowing spots representing survivors inside.
Only lion ants can exist.
In other words, the battle did not take place between human players and lion ants.
How could a Zerg society led by the will of the queen ant possibly have internal strife?
Just as doubts began to arise, the constantly refreshing message notifications drew everyone's attention back to the dungeon channel.
Pineapple Bun: "Even after several days of slaughter, the number of lion ants is still dozens of times greater than ours. Therefore, I personally suggest that all teams participating in the final battle temporarily put aside their regional prejudices, set a trap in one place, and work together to kill all the remaining lion ants! Then we can all rush towards the queen's location."
Once inside the main hall, we'll each have to fight for the final blow against the BOSS! Otherwise, we might not even get to see the Queen Ant and will just die on the way!
Pineapple Bun: "Those willing to cooperate, please immediately proceed to the Siren Market area within the instance!"
I have a tool that attracts ants. I can set traps in the "Siren Market" to slowly lure and kill all the ants.
To reiterate: the meeting point is the Siren Market! For survival and for the rewards, please cooperate!
Below are the scattered responses from other survivors, roughly estimated to be around one hundred people.
Yu Wang had never participated in the instance in his previous life, and he knew nothing about whether Pineapple Bun's plan was credible or whether there were other schemes behind it.
He planned to observe the situation for a while longer and see how it developed. He just didn't know what the other three members of the team thought.
Old Wang smacked his lips, exhaling a cloud of smoke: "Listen to you young people. As long as I have cigarettes to smoke, I'm fine. I can even get into a fight."
Finally, as if remembering something, he looked at the decaying environment around him and said listlessly, "Sigh, to prevent a methane explosion, I'll put out this precious cigarette now."
Lin Wei shook her head: "I don't have much combat experience, and I rarely enter dungeons, so I don't know much about this place. I'll follow your arrangements."
Mad Shark, however, was bothered by the sounds coming from next door and seemed to want to go and take a look.
Since Yu Wang was fine with going anywhere except the Siren Market, he suggested, "Shall we go check out the incubation room next door first?"
Mad Shark nodded, and the others unanimously agreed.
Besides Lin Wei and Yu Wang, the other two were frequent visitors to the dungeon when they had 7 days of priority exploration rights in the 444 area.
They have extensive experience in the structure of this underground labyrinth, the habits of lion ants, and even how to deal with these beetles in complex cave environments.
Anyone who has ever crushed an ant knows that ants are extremely resilient.
The head and body are separated, but the legs still swing back and forth.
Or even if the head is cut off, the mouthparts will still open and close.
In the real world, it doesn't matter. No matter how much an ant struggles to its death, it can't harm a human in the slightest. When it reaches its limit, it will curl up into a ball and die.
But in the world of sailing, when faced with lion ants that are as big as large dogs, with hard shells and mandibles that can easily cut through wood, their struggles after death become extremely deadly!
If you don't want to be attacked and have your bones broken by a lion ant that's only half a body or even just a head at the last moment, you need to change your usual fighting style.
Therefore, the first element in fighting lion ants is not to aim for a headshot, nor to cut them in half at the waist, as that would only create two still-aggressive halves.
Instead, prioritize removing the lion ants' legs, completely depriving them of their ability to move and climb!
Based on their rank, worker ants are only F1 strong, while soldier ants are stronger, reaching F+, with thicker carapaces and larger mandibles, requiring careful handling.
The strength of the queen ant boss is unclear, but it's likely around E level.
At present, without ships, humanity's strength fluctuates around F-level. Only with the addition of suitable offensive supernatural abilities can they contend with E-level.
Therefore, the difficulty of this dungeon is precisely at the limit for survivors.
As long as they don't encounter too many lion ants at once, their squad's configuration is sufficient to handle it.
After applying the "monster essence," the four people and the duck moved silently through the dimly lit passage.
Lion ants have no eyesight and rely entirely on scent to sense things.
After applying the "monster essence," humans became invisible in front of the lion ants.
There will be no danger as long as you don't touch it.
To transport large food items that are difficult to cut, the aisles in the food storage area are wide, more than two meters high, and wide enough for three people to walk side by side.
The group maintained a formation with DuckB leading the way, followed by Yu Wang, with Lao Wang assisting from behind with a knife, then Lin Wei, and finally Kuang Sha bringing up the rear to prevent Lion Ants from appearing behind them.
Originally separated from the incubation room by only a wall, the collisions and battles became increasingly intense as they got closer.
When passing a crossroads, you can see soldier ants going to provide support, as well as worker ants carrying insect eggs and escaping from the direction of the hatchery.
They moved hurriedly, and because they were concealed by the "monster essence," they ignored Yu Wang and his companions who were standing nearby.
Yu Wang could see the wounded ant more clearly as it passed by.
Some were missing half their bodies, their shells were broken, and their pale yellow internal organs were dragging on the ground; some had severely deformed heads and crooked mouthparts; many more were missing arms or legs, and some even had only two or three legs left, yet they were still frantically digging at the ground to "crawl" forward with their remaining legs.
It was as if something extremely terrifying was chasing them from behind, forcing them to flee even with their last breath, to deliver some kind of message or warning.
"What attacked us? Was the anthill attacked? Should we just hide and wait for the ants to finish off the enemy?"
Old Wang chuckled, "I'm kind of enjoying the show."
Yu Wang shook his head: "This is deep inside the nest where the larvae are kept. If there were any intruders, they wouldn't be able to get here."
The duck B that was scouting ahead suddenly stopped and assumed a fighting stance.
This unusual reaction immediately put Yu Wang and the others behind him on edge! They prepared to attack.
"Click-clack—"
From the direction of the incubation room, a massive, dark gold figure that almost filled the entire passageway approached.
That was also a "lion ant", but it was more than three times larger than an ordinary soldier ant!
If it weren't for the fact that the main features of the body are exactly the same, at first glance you would think that this is another species of lion ant!