Chapter 1
It was no wonder these two were so shocked. They had fought the Ant King in the Sky Arena and Realm Corridor stages before, and knew that this so-called Shichibukai (Seven Warlords of the Sea) was actually a player who specialized in summoning.

He could use a special item called 【Wan Yi Xiong Meng】(Myriad Ants Nest) to summon a massive number of mutated ants, overwhelming his opponents with numerical superiority.

At the time, they had determined that the Ant King's true strength was definitely higher than his ranking on the leaderboard.

They just didn't expect it to be this high...

Xingyun kicked off the ground, her figure suspended in mid-air. Two masses of astral matter emerged from her palms, rapidly expanding and swelling into fists the size of trucks.

She smashed out with both fists, blasting away countless soldier ants.

In an instant, carapaces shattered, fluids splattered, and legs flew everywhere. However, in the next second, even more soldier ants surged up to fill the vacant positions.

Alina took a pistol-shaped detection device from her backpack and pulled the trigger toward the tunnel.

A cone-shaped, faint blue beam shot from the muzzle, quickly scanning the entire tunnel and emitting a "beep" sound,

indicating that no life forms with energy exceeding normal levels—that is, the summoner controlling the ant swarm—had been detected.

"Go."

Xingyun's expression changed drastically. She retracted her fists and retreated violently. As she skimmed the ground, she grabbed Alina's arm and flew her companion toward the back of the tunnel, showing no intention of fighting.

In order to target summoning-type players, these two members of the Global Supernatural Alliance had specifically brought a scanning device—summoners usually couldn't stray too far from their summons. As long as they used the scanning device to lock onto the summoner's location,

and then break through the summons' defenses to close the distance,

they could easily take care of the summoner, whose physical body was usually weak.

This scanning device was a high-level, perfect-grade equipment. If it didn't even detect the Ant King... either the latter had an item of the same level that could counteract it,

or the Ant King's strength was beyond their imagination.

He was able to remotely control the ant swarm from beyond the scanning device's fifteen-hundred-meter detection range...

The two traversed the complex terrain at high speed, the ant swarm doggedly clinging to their heels. Winged soldier ants kept flying out of the tunnels on both sides.

These soldier ants had various human civilization weapons installed on their bodies: machine guns, autocannons, grenade launchers, man-portable rocket launchers...

They unleashed a barrage of fire at the two from a distance.

To prevent other players from collecting discarded shell casings and taking them to the real world for testing, finding clues, all weapons and ammunition currently used by the Zerg units came from human players captured by the Zerg previously.

In fact, some specialized organs of the Zerg hive factories could themselves achieve the effect of industrial machine tools, and could use raw materials from the Lost World to produce light weapons and ammunition, but the efficiency and cost-effectiveness were too low, not as fast as looting.

Boom boom boom!

Various types of ammunition poured onto the astral matter barrier created by Xingyun, causing the spherical barrier to ripple and almost shatter.

Alina gritted her teeth and raised her right hand toward the rear, a cone of cold air like an extinguisher spray emerging from her palm, freezing a large patch of soldier insects, but it was only a drop in the bucket, of no help.

After all, she had consumed a lot of spiritual power when fighting the two Lishan alien players before, and hadn't been able to fully recover it yet...

The two were both helpless and angry, shouting at the ant swarm, telling the Ant King to stop.

They revealed the information about the existence of alien players in front of the detector lens, demanding that the Ant King cease his attacks and work together.

If he didn't believe them, they could give him the belts they had seized.

However, the ant swarm didn't react at all.

Another dozen or so rocket-propelled armor-piercing projectiles shot toward them, Xingyun, flying at low altitude and high speed, maneuvered to evade the projectiles, her figure compressed into a streak of lightning.

She instantly darted into a narrow crevice ten meters long.

Bang!

A large number of ants crashed into the wall where the crevice was located, crowding together.

The dense legs of the ant swarm trampled the ground, making a rustling sound.

After discovering they couldn't squeeze into the crevice,

the swarm immediately used their sharp, scythe-like mandibles to cut away at the walls around the crevice.

"Huff, huff..."

The two's breathing echoed in the dark space.

"Damn Ant King."

Xingyun gritted her teeth and said, "If I don't level his house after we get out of here, I'm not letting this go."

"We've shaken them off for now."

Alina had no mind to curse the Ant King. She glanced at the impenetrable ant swarm outside the crevice, turned her head, and exchanged a glance with Xingyun, a hint of relief in the depths of her eyes.

If they were trapped by the ant swarm, they would probably be worn down to death.

"It's so dark here."

Xingyun turned her head and looked at the pitch-black space, frowning slightly. She raised her palm and snapped her fingers, a tiny ball of light immediately appearing at her fingertip, emitting a warm glow.

"Huh? There are lights on the wall?"

Xingyun was stunned. She saw a smooth, curved wall as black as ink not far ahead. Eight washbasin-sized yellow light bulbs were installed on the wall,

arranged in an inverted trapezoid, large at the top and small at the bottom, emitting a faint brownish-yellow light under the illumination of the starlight.

Alina took a step forward, her brow furrowing as well.

Suddenly, she seemed to realize something and exclaimed in shock, "This isn't a wall, this is..."

Rumble!

The black, curved, smooth wall slowly moved backward, revealing a wide, circular tunnel.

Only then did the two see clearly that the so-called washbasin-sized light bulbs were actually the eyes of a creature.

The wall was the head carapace of a giant, ant-like insect lying prone in the tunnel, its head against the crevice.

And around the giant ant, there were also countless ant swarms, as many as in the previous tunnel...

A chill instantly ran through the two of them.

Without hesitation, Alina raised her hands and summoned a blizzard of ice crystals, blowing down on the giant ant and the ant swarm.

Xingyun also used astral matter to create spears, arrows, and swords, which she shot down.

But in the next second, the giant ant shook the antennae on its head, and a strong psychic power vibrated the air, turning into a visible shockwave,

causing the blizzard and the astral weapons to gradually slow down.

Mind Conversion type, Level 1 ability, Sub-Shockwave.

The giant ant seemed to be a fortress-level Zerg individual unit, but in fact, ten cerebrates were hidden in its abdominal cavity. Each cerebrate was a psychic of the Mind Conversion type, and each was connected to a conduit, drawing amber-like energy mined from the Lost World.

The combined psychic effects of the ten psychics temporarily barely blocked the attacks of the two top-tier players who were not in good condition.

They bought enough time for the countless soldier ants lying around to pick up their weapons and aim them at Xingyun and Alina on the platform above.

All types of shells rained down, but an invisible barrier still stood in front of the two, leaving them nowhere to retreat.

Swoosh—

A bullet shot from a great distance, tearing through the air as it spun, hitting the giant ant's head.

Bang!

The giant ant's head carapace exploded directly into a spherical depression, as if hit by a tank shell, and the psychic shockwave being released came to a standstill.

"Quick, come over here!"

At the cross-shaped tunnel behind the Zerg, Li Ang, driving an armored vehicle, slammed on the brakes. His right hand reached out of the car window, pulled the trigger of the Colt revolver, fired a demon-breaking bullet, and hit the giant ant's head again.

The giant ant's solid head carapace caved in again, and its massive body staggered back a few steps, its psychic power immediately dissipating.

Of course, the giant ant itself didn't have self-awareness.

The solid head and the nerve ganglia in the head were just decorations.

The ten cerebrates that were truly responsible for controlling the giant ant's body were now responding to their creator's orders, all pretending to be struck by lightning,

to prevent Xingyun, Alina, and others from seeing the cerebrates themselves through the giant ant's body.

If you're going to put on a show, you have to go all the way.

Liu Wu Dai, sitting in the passenger seat next to Li Ang, instructed the mechanical golem standing on the roof of the armored vehicle to fire a crimson beam, sweeping over the ant swarm.

Without hesitation, Xingyun grabbed Alina and swooped down, bypassing the giant ant and jumping onto the top of the armored vehicle.

Li Ang stepped on the accelerator, and the armored vehicle's explosion-proof tires spun rapidly, kicking up a cloud of metal debris.

Before the barrage of fire from the massive number of soldier ants rained down, he drove into the left side of the cross-shaped tunnel.

Li Ang didn't need to turn on the headlights to see things in the dark. He drove the armored vehicle at high speed through the complex tunnel, around corners, and through narrow gaps.

The hissing sound of the ant swarm behind them went from loud to soft, until it was completely inaudible.

The vehicle slowly decelerated. Li Ang turned on the headlights, glanced at the rearview mirror, and after confirming that there were no pursuers behind them, he breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door to get out of the car.

Xingyun and Alina also jumped off the roof of the car and looked at Liu Wu Dai and Li Ang, gratefully saying, "Thank you both. We are members of the Global Supernatural Alliance..."

They stated their identities in a few words. In fact, Liu Wu Dai knew who they were, after all, the "Wind Chaser" program was too popular, and the two instructors' exposure rate had never been low.

As for Liu Wu Dai and Li Ang, their fame was not actually low. After all, the number of first and second echelon players was limited, and all 300 strong players must have seen the information of other people.

After a brief introduction, Alina asked in confusion, "How did you two manage to save us? Do you also know about the alien players?"

"Alien players?"

Li Ang said in some surprise, "No, we were being chased by the Zerg all the way here.

We just saved you when we saw you being attacked—as you've seen, this floor is full of dense Zerg swarms.

The passage to the lower level is also guarded by Zerg.

One or a few players probably wouldn't be able to break through the Zerg's defenses, so we saved you."

"I see."

Alina nodded. Besides wanting to unite manpower, the reason why the other party was willing to save them

was probably also because they were members of the Global Supernatural Alliance and had a certain degree of credibility.

However, thinking of the almost endless Zerg swarm, Alina felt a few more shadows in her heart. She wondered how Qin, Eva, and Ju Tianfu were doing...

"By the way,"

Li Ang asked, "What's going on with the alien players you mentioned?"

Alina and Xingyun exchanged a look, took out a button-shaped surveillance camera and a token, and played the footage they had taken of interrogating the two Lishan players,

and explained it.

"Hmm..."

Li Ang narrowed his eyes and pondered, "You just said that the Zerg swarms on this floor that are besieging players are controlled by the Ant King?"

"Most likely."

Xingyun nodded. Since the Ant King attacked first, she didn't have to worry about her official status and talk about sentiment. She directly revealed, "He has an item called 【Wan Yi Xiong Meng】(Myriad Ants Nest) that can store, release, and modify soldier ants.

The recent ground collapse and subsidence in Rio de Janeiro

was caused by the Ant King raising ants in the real world, under the city of Rio.

I just didn't expect him to raise so many soldier ants..."

Li Ang and Liu Wu Dai exchanged a look. They had also encountered the Ant King's subordinate 13mArk in the last mission.

"So, did you tell him about the alien players?"

Li Ang asked, "His main goal in attacking players on this floor is to eliminate potential competitors and get as many belts as possible, right?

If you tell him about the alien players, he might stop attacking..."

"We did, but it was useless."

Xingyun frowned and said, "The Ant King's power system allows him to sense the Zerg units he summons, especially those special and powerful Zerg units.

We told him about the alien players before, but the ant swarm didn't stop at all."

"...Didn't hear it? Or has he already joined the alien players?"

Li Ang pondered, "If he has joined the alien players, then everything makes sense.

The number of Zerg has increased because he collected amber energy from the Lost World, solving the energy shortage problem.

And the types of Zerg are abundant, with a large number of mutated insects,

because he absorbed the genes of the native creatures of the Lost World, or received additional help from the alien players..."

Alina was silent. She also thought that the Ant King might have betrayed them.

If the system's detection instrument discovered any clues that the Ant King was connected to the alien players,

then the various forces in the real world would definitely tear up their potential tacit understanding, directly mobilize their forces, and completely search the areas controlled by the Ant King in the real world.