Chapter 941: Bug Tribe
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After speaking with Chan Dou for a while, Lin Huang did not stay in the Genius Union and logged out right away.
He spent a day practicing his sword skills in the hotel and only logged in again the next morning after breakfast.
The levels between checkpoints 63 to 72 on the Stairway Tree were filled with monsters with immortal-level rank-9 combat strength. The level of difficulty was different from the monster levels before checkpoint 63.
The strategy that people left behind was very simple: rush through without holding back.
However, bug guardians would appear as soon as one passed through half of checkpoint 63. According to the strategy, as soon as one passed through the 12 bug guardians defense individually, they would not encounter any bug guardians later on. The probability of the Queen Mother appearing was then extremely low.
Someone asked if they could form a team. The rest of the teammates could pass through as long as a few people stopped the bug guardians.
In reality, that would not work. The level of difficulty on the Stairway Tree would progress according to the number of players that entered.
If one person entered, he would encounter 12 bug guardians at the most. If two people formed a team, they would encounter 24 bug guardians at the most. A three-man team would encounter 36 bug guardians, and so on and so forth.
Moreover, these bug guardians would not attack based on personal reasons. Everyone would be assigned the same number of bug guardians to fight with. If someone in the team died, the number of bug guardians would not change. Instead, they would be allocated to the remaining team members.
Some even speculated that the number of Queen Mothers on this level would be affected by the number of players who entered. Naturally, nobody verified that because everyone stopped trying since they realized the level of difficulty would increase when they entered in teams.
Bloody began releasing Leech Pods as soon as Lin Huang stepped into checkpoint 63 to look for the bug guardians and the Queen Mother's coordinates.
Lin Huang sat at the starting point, waiting for Bloody's search results patiently. A monster appeared in his field of vision not long after he sat down.
It was a monster with many legs similar to a centipede with a body of at least ten meters long. Its upper body was raised two to three meters high while eight of its front legs looked like they were equipped with black spiked bayonets that were half a meter long. A layer of black shell extended from its head all the way to its tail and there was a black scythe on the end of its tail.
From the looks of it, it was a monster that lived to fight.
Before the monster attacked, Bloody was done casting parasites with his Leech Pods and commanded the monster to leave.
"There's a Bug Tribe here?!" The stone tablet's voice came into Lin Huang's ears all of a sudden.
"What's so odd about that? Weren't those Combat Hornetdemons on checkpoint 56 earlier a Bug Tribe too?" Lin Huang did not find that peculiar.
"No, the Bug Tribe that you know is different from the one I'm talking about," explained the stone tablet, "The Bug Tribe that I'm talking about is a galactic race. In this world, the Bug Tribe's overall abilities are no less than a Protoss.
"The Combat Hornetdemons that you encountered on checkpoint 56 earlier were just a tiny branch of the Bug Tribe even hundreds of thousands of years ago. Furthermore, from the long course of evolution, the Combat Hornetdemons could basically be removed from the Bug Tribe branch.
"The real Bug Tribe's a race that's gravely predatory and destructive. In this world, anywhere the Bug Tribe passes by will turn into barren land. They swallow other beings and planets' resources to strengthen their race continuously. They would do anything for the sake of expanding and for the longevity of their race.
"Just like most living things such as humans having a stable gene sequence, a tribe's overall evolution depends mainly on reproduction to produce a variety in generations. They also use knowledge for the inheritance of civilization which is a long cycle.
"However, the Bug Tribe's different from most beings when it comes to this. They have an extremely unstable gene sequence which causes mutation easily. Not only that, it's a controllable mutation. Perhaps the genetic mutation of a Bug Tribe will create an evolution that's on par with human evolution throughout hundreds of years after a battle has ended. Such a mutation makes them grow stronger continuously as well as gives them a formidable adaptive ability to the environment. They can survive in extreme environments that most beings can't.
"The Bug Tribe has gone through billions of years of evolution. They're just as powerful as the formidable Protoss in this world now. They've evolved to perfection individually. Almost every tissue and every part of the Bug Tribe fighters' bodies were made to fight. They never need any external tools. To them, their body is the best weapon.
"Each Bug Tribe fighter has a powerful combat ability, defense and battle will. They have no pain receptors, so they can maintain extremely high battle power even if their bodies are severely injured. They're fearless to fight anyone and they won't stop until they're dead."
Lin Huang found the stone tablet's explanation unbelievable. He thought that the Protoss was already powerful enough, so he did not expect the Bug Tribe to be just as mighty.
Lin Huang was even more interested in the Queen Mother now after listening to it. "Since the Bug Tribe's so powerful like you said, wouldn't it mean that the Queen Mother's even more powerful?"
"There are many varieties in the Bug Tribe. This one on the Stairway Tree is only one of them. It's called the Queen Mother species," clarified the stone tablet further.
"If the Queen Mother evolves to its ultimate form, naturally, it'll be extraordinarily powerful. It can even mass produce true god-level Bug Tribe fighters. However, this one on the Stairway Tree's clearly a baby. It's even been weakened a few times.
"Under normal circumstance, even a baby Queen Mother will be on true god-level. The Bug Servants that it produces would have a combat strength of at least virtual god-level and there would be at least hundreds of them. However, this one on the Stairway Tree isn't even on imperial-level. The combat strength of the bug guardians didn't only drop to immortal-level rank-9, but their grade also dropped and there are only 12 of them." The stone tablet was clearly looking down on the weakened Queen Mother on the Stairway Tree.
"That's already not bad. I could train it slowly if I really get the Monster Card." Lin Huang was getting excited about the prospect of his battle loot. "If it's not weakened, I'll have to avoid it if I encounter it."
"I'm in no place to comment about how powerful Xiao Hei actually is, but there's something that I must remind you." The stone tablet seemed to feel negative about this plan. "The Bug Tribe isn't easily controlled."
"The Bug Tribe master isn't an individual but is the will of the bug horde. It's an extremely compelling conglomeration of will. It essentially connected to each Bug Tribe member's brain and consciousness.
"The Queen Mother is the node creature of the will of the bug horde, just like branches that are derived from a tree trunk. Under normal circumstances, it should be able to sense if the Queen Mother were to be controlled by another being.
"Of course, the Queen Mother has a powerful control ability as a node creature. The children that she gave birth to would take her orders no matter what, no questions asked. Hence, if you manage to control a Queen Mother, it would mean that you have yourself a Bug Tribe army. In a nutshell, risk and opportunity coexist in this situation."
"How powerful is that will of the bug horde that you mentioned?" Lin Huang could not help but ask.
"It's the top existence in the world whereby the level of life is far above the True Gods. It's much more powerful than my master who, by the way, is dead." It was Lin Huang's first time hearing the stone tablet acknowledge someone as being more powerful than his ex-master.
"I'm not sure if the will of the bug horde will sense you changing the Monster Card. However, I'll be able to sense it immediately if there's anything unusual that happens during the change of Monster Cards. Just destroy the card if necessary," Xiao Hei voiced its opinion.
"Sure, let's do that then!" Although there were risks, Lin Huang was unwilling to give up on making the Queen Mother his target
Chapter 942: May I Know What Kind of Service Do You Need?
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Found it!" After close to an hour of searching, Bloody finally found where the Queen Mother was. It then marked the coordinates on the map.
Lin Huang enlarged the map but all he could see was a flatland.
"The Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians' coordinates are underground. It's a complicated maze hive down there. There are a total of eight entrances and exits. Apart from the Queen Mother and her bug guardians, there are at least over three million Bug Tribe monsters in the hive," Bloody explained immediately.
"Is the exit far from where the Queen Mother is?" Lin Huang asked.
"It's some distance away. The nearest one is over 20 kilometers away and the farthest is over 100 kilometers away."
"Eight entrances and exits…" Lin Huang frowned a little. He was worried that the Queen Mother would escape in the chaos when it found out that something was off.
"Actually, no matter how many entrances there are, they won't be able to run because we're fast enough. We can get to them before they can even respond." Bloody knew Lin Huang was considering guarding the entrances, so it gave him the solution right away.
"You're right." Lin Huang nodded.
After summoning the Herculean King, Lin Huang headed straight to the entrance that Bloody pointed at.
They encountered many Bug Tribes along the way. Bloody cast parasites on the monsters while Bloody controlled them to leave Lin Huang alone.
Around ten minutes later, the Herculean King finally brought Lin Huang to the entrance of the hive.
The entrance was the closest one to the Queen Mother and her bug guardians among the eight entrances.
It looked like a naturally formed cave with an irregular shape. However, the narrowest entrance was over three meters and the widest was more than five meters wide.
Lin Huang recalled the Herculean King and summoned Grimace. He talked Grimace through the mission via voice transmission.
Seeing Grimace's ignorant behavior, Lin Huang thought he would use material wealth to motivate him instead. "If you perform well this time, I'll get you a demigod-level telekinetic weapon relic."
"Deal!" Grimace had a change of expression immediately. Grinning, he was extremely friendly as he offered, "Boss, may I know what kind of service you need?"
'Damn, the change of expression could win Grimace an Oscar!' Lin Huang could not get used to Grimace's sudden change of attitude. 'Indeed, if you have money, you can make the devil push the millstone for you. People in the past were right about this.'
"Do you remember what I said?" Lin Huang asked while raising his brow.
"I do. Bring the Bug Tribe monsters out using illusion and minimize casualties as much as I can." Although the minimization of casualties sounded odd to him, Grimace did not ask about it any further. He was not interested in the mission to begin with; he only agreed to it for the demigod-level telekinetic weapon relic. He would just follow Lin Huang's orders.
After he was done speaking to Grimace, Lin Huang spoke to Bloody, "Bloody, assist Grimace in his mission. Try not to create conflict with the monsters in the hive."
"Understood." Bloody nodded in agreement. It had actually discussed this plan with Lin Huang yesterday. Since the delegation was done, the human and the two monsters began moving immediately.
Grimace opened a path before Lin Huang. An illusion forcefield was formed automatically around Grimace's body, cloaking both Lin Huang and himself.
The inside of the cave was dark and damp, and there was a stench lingering in the air.
Lin Huang went further into the cave, following Grimace. The long cave entrance was winding and it gave him a feeling that they were walking down a slope towards the underground.
The deeper they went, the worse the stench became. The stench smelled like rotten eggs during the summer, disgusting Lin Huang.
After passing through a long path, they arrived thousands of meters below the ground. Grimace finally brought Lin Huang into a vast underground space which looked like an underground cave that was formed naturally. It was massive.
In his field of vision, Lin Huang saw tens of Bug Tribe fighters in deep sleep.
Grimace walked towards them nonchalantly while Lin Huang followed him immediately. The Bug Tribe fighters did not seem to notice the duo as they continued sleeping.
When they walked closer to one of the bug's heads, it twitched its nose and looked at Lin Huang. Just when Lin Huang was ready to pull his sword to kill, it turned around and returned to its slumber.
"My illusion shields the outsiders' sense of us. These bugs can't see us, hear us, or smell us. That single bug just now must have a sensitive sense. It could felt the unusualness faintly but didn't find out about us. There's nothing to worry about.
"My illusion might be limited if we encounter monsters with a combat strength above imperial-level crimson gold rank, but it's impossible for these low intelligence immortal-level bugs to see through my illusion. It's impossible for them to sense us as long as we don't activate any energy," Grimace explained through voice transmission upon noticing Lin Huang looking at the bug with his guard up.
Nodding lightly, Lin Huang did not doubt Grimace's ability at all. After all, Grimace could walk around immortal-level rank-9 monsters with the help of illusion when he was on immortal-level rank-9. Then, he managed to play a fool on the monsters on the same level, what more now that he was already on imperial-level crimson gold-rank.
The bug's response earlier just made him panicked a little.
He was relieved after confirming Grimace's illusory effect while following him deeper into the cave.
The wet ground began to turn sticky. Mugginess stuck on the sole of his shoes with every step he took.
They would see piles of yellow or green semi-transparent goo on the ground occasionally. You guessed it right. Those were a discharge of the Bug Tribe.
"It's hard to imagine a tribe that has their shit all around is a tribe that's as powerful as a Protoss," Lin Huang could not help but comment.
"To be exact, these aren't actually shit, or rather, they're not complete shit." The stone tablet could not help but reveal, "The secretion produces a massive amount of microorganisms that make the environment around more liveable for the Bug Tribe. In addition to that, the microorganisms will dissolve rapidly so there's no need to get rid of them. The few piles that you saw earlier should have been discharged today.
"Also, the stench you smelled doesn't come from the Bug Tribe's secretion. It is the stench produced during the fermentation of the microorganisms."
Lin Huang was speechless by the stone tablet's pretty useless information. He still thought that gooey stuff was disgusting. To avoid vomiting, he put up a shield to block out his ability to smell directly.
"Go to the one on the second left when you come to the six forks in front." At that moment, Bloody's voice piped up all of a sudden. "You'll reach your destination after going approximately five kilometers on the path. The Queen Mother and her bug guardians have yet to notice anything unusual, so we should be able to get them without them realizing!"
Chapter 943: Congratulations, You've Obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card Pieces x2
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Grimace headed all the way, following the route Bloody had given him while Lin Huang followed a few meters behind him.
One must say that Grimace's illusory forcefield was useful. Lin Huang was not attacked even once all the way to their destination.
Some bugs sensed the unusualness a couple of times, but they proceeded to sleep since they saw nothing after looking around.
Lin Huang had finally seen how the Queen Mother looked like from a distance when they arrived in the area of their destination. He revealed a shock expression.
The Queen Mother looked like a human child of five or six years old. She wore no clothes as her naked body curled up and hovered in the air. Her eyes were shut tightly and she seemed to be in a deep sleep.
The only difference from a human was her tailbone. There was a long, white tail that extended out with a white webbing that was connected to the end of her tail.
The webbing looked like it was made of countless gigantic spider webs. It was a solid structure made of various angles and it took up half of the cave.
There were white cocoons of all sizes around the web. Lin Huang glanced over to notice tens of thousands of them.
Just when he was observing the Queen Mother quietly, in her little girl-form, she opened her eyes out of the blue. Her black pupils rolled slightly until they landed two kilometers away from Lin Huang.
'Are we busted?!' Lin Huang was horrified.
At the moment, Grimace stopped walking. Seriously, he spoke to Lin Huang and Bloody through voice transmission, "That fella's something else! She could see through my illusion. Plus, there's a powerful spiritual energy that's meddling with my illusory forcefield. She must be the one behind it."
"The closer, the better. If the illusory forcefield is broken, Bloody will take care of the rest," Lin Huang ordered Grimace. Then, he spoke to Bloody through voice transmission, "Start casting the parasites."
Grimace nodded and brought Lin Huang forward.
Seeing that Lin Huang and Grimace were not retreating, black rays lit up in the Queen Mother's eyes all of a sudden.
Grimace scoffed and grabbed Lin Huang's arm to dash forward.
When they were almost 100 meters away from the Queen Mother, Grimace spat a mouthful of blood out suddenly and fell. "I can't go on with the illusory forcefield…"
Before he even had the time to check on Grimace, Lin Huang noticed the 12 bug guardians around the Queen Mother lift their heads out of nowhere and glare at his direction.
Lin Huang responded immediately without even thinking. He recalled Grimace while crushing seven Monster Cards that he had been hiding in his sleeve with the other hand. He also crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card.
Lancelot, Killer, the Evil Dominator, the two knights, and the two Dark Crescent Snakes appeared before Lin Huang out of thin air.
"Kill the 12 bug guardians and that Queen Mother. Let Bloody take care of the rest." The seven imperial monsters attacked without hesitation as soon as Lin Huang ordered them.
Lancelot summoned the 18 sword servants directly while he went after two bug guardians on his own. His servants formed a sword formation and went after another two bug guardians.
The Evil Dominator changed his appearance into Killer and went after two bug guardians with his sword.
The two knights merged with the Dark Crescent Snakes. Their combat strength skyrocketed to imperial-level white gold-rank right away as they went after three bug guardians.
Killer was left with the Queen Mother.
He sensed the Queen Mother's threat. Although she looked like a child and her combat strength was only on immortal-level rank-9, he dared not be careless at all.
He showed his trump card as he dashed, not holding back at all.
Seeing Killer coming at her, a layer of black fluid began spinning on the Queen Mother's body, forming a black armor. She held a black whip in her hand.
Surprisingly, the Queen Mother attacked before Killer even got to her. She swung the whip in her hand, and the lash created shadows in the air. Countless spiritual serpents came out from the end of the whip, blocking Killer's way completely.
Killer lifted his sword and swung it over and over again. It collided with the whip shadows in the air.
The result of the collision was out of Lin Huang's expectations. A tie?!
The two-level difference in combat strength did not give Killer any upper hand at all.
Clearly, although pseudo-mythical-level was only a step away from mythical-level, the difference in ability was huge.
After multiple collisions, Killer, who was on imperial-level crimson gold-rank, did not get anything out of the immortal-level rank-9 Queen Mother.
On the other side, Lancelot and the rest were close to the end of the battle.
Since Lancelot and the Evil Dominator were on pseudo-mythical-level, the two-level difference made it easy for them to kill the bug guardians.
Although the two knights were not on pseudo-mythical-level, their combat strength was on imperial-level white gold-rank after merging. Their ability was just as impressive as Lancelot and the Evil Dominator's.
Meanwhile, the sword formation of the 18 sword servants had an overall ability that was on par with Lancelot. Killing two bug guardians was a piece of cake for them.
The first to finish the battle with the bug guardians was Lancelot. He took less than a minute to kill both of them. He glanced through everyone on the battlefield and joined Killer in the mission to destroy the Queen Mother without any hesitation.
The Queen Mother's stress levels doubled when Lancelot joined the battle.
Initially, she was fighting Killer who had a similar overall ability with her and now another powerful opponent of the same level had advanced.
The Queen Mother looked around. Apart from her remaining six bug guardians that were still fighting, she was surprised to find that the other bug fighters were just watching aside and ignored the battle she was involved in completely!
Under Bloody's parasitization, apart from the Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians, the other bugs were actually under Bloody's control.
The Queen Mother soon noticed the weird situation. She glanced at Lancelot and Killer that she was fighting with and eventually her eyes stopped on Lin Huang. After some observation, she ended up staring at Lin Huang's left hand.
Bloody, who was in a cloud form, attached itself on Lin Huang's left arm at the moment while controlling the battle.
Nobody knew how the Queen Mother figured out that it was Bloody who was the culprit. She flicked the whip hard to make Killer and Lancelot retreat. As she staggered hundreds of meters back, she lifted her head suddenly and released an ear-piercing chirp.
It sounded like a high-frequency buzz which was so high that it was almost beyond one's audible limit.
Bloody spat a mouthful of blood out all of a sudden as soon as the sound blared. The bugs that it was controlling with its Leech Pods began to go out of control.
"She took out all of my Leech Pods!" Bloody gasped to Lin Huang through voice transmission immediately.
Lin Huang frowned upon noticing that the bugs around were regaining their consciousness. He knew they would be drowned in the bug horde if he dragged it on further, so he then summoned the Ninetails Lynx instantly.
The white little cat sat on Lin Huang's shoulder, locking on its target as it glanced through the scene. It vanished in the next second.
"You've obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother's Card Pieces (Mythical-level) x2!
"Congratulations, you've obtained a complete Bug Servant Card (Pseudo-Mythical-level) x14"
In the next second, Xiao Hei's notification rang in Lin Huang's ears.
When the Ninetails Lynx returned to Lin Huang's shoulder, the Queen Mother was not the only one that turned into card pieces but so did the few remaining bug guardians.
Chapter 944: It's My Fault but I'm Not Owning Up!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After killing the Bug Tribe's Queen Mother, Lin Huang almost drowned in the bug horde that went chaotic. He depended on the Ninetails Lynx's dimensional portal to escape the underground hive.
He logged out of the Genius Union as soon as he left the hive. As he sat on the couch in the living room of the hotel room, he began to summarize the battle.
'I underestimated the Queen Mother's ability. I didn't expect it to not only break through Grimace's illusion, but it even removed Bloody's parasites. I was caught off guard. If I didn't manage to summon the God Figurine's Combat Soul in time, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to kill it today.'
'The Queen Mother's combat power was out of my expectations as well. It didn't die when both Lancelot and Killer attacked it. I shouldn't be careless no matter what kind of enemy I encounter.'
After coming up with the conclusion, Lin Huang looked at the reward he had obtained this time.
There was no complete Queen Mother card even though the Lucky Card was activated. However, he had more of the bug guardians' complete cards.
Among the dozen bug guardians that were killed, seven of them had turned into complete cards. With the Double Reward Card, Lin Huang obtained 14 pseudo-mythical-level bug guardian cards.
One must know that a pseudo-mythical-level monster's individual ability was just as powerful as Lancelot and Killer who were on the same level.
Moreover, now that they had turned into Monster Cards, their combat strength was affected by Lin Huang whereby they were now on imperial-level crimson gold-rank. They were so much more powerful than they were on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree now.
Lin Huang tapped on the bug guardian's cards accordingly to look at the details.
"Monster Card: Unnamed
"Rarity: Pseudo-Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Queen Mother's Bug Servant (Saber Warrior)
"Type of Monster: Saber Bug / Bug Tribe
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank
"Major: Saber
"Major Skills: Bug Saber, Saber Dao's Gene Extraction…
"Minor Skills: Bug Steps…
"Summon Authority: Activated
"Card Remarks: Passable."
…
"Monster Card: Unnamed
"Rarity: Pseudo-Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Queen Mother's Bug Servant (Firearms Warrior)
"Type of Monster: Firearms Bug / Bug Tribe
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank
"Major: Firearms
"Major Skills: Biogun, Ultimate Fire…
"Minor Skills: Bug Steps…
"Summon Authority: Activated
"Card Remarks: Passable."
…
'Although I didn't get any complete Queen Mother cards, 14 pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians aren't bad either.' Lin Huang put away all the 14 Monster Cards after looking through the card details. The reason he did not summon them was that he recalled the stench in the hive earlier. If the bug guardians that he summoned emitted the same stench, the other hotel guests on the entire floor would surely complain about him.
He proceeded to practice sword as soon as he put away the cards.
The monsters on the Stairway Tree would refresh daily, so he would have to wait until tomorrow to begin the second round of killing.
The sword skill that Lin Huang was practicing now was called the Buddha Killer. It was a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill that he had obtained from the Fallen God Land.
He had been practicing it for a couple of days on and off. All in all, he had put in more than 20 hours.
Even with the guidance of the Sword Spirit in his body, learning a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill was much slower than learning a legendary-level sword skill.
This was because not only were the sword skill card pieces lesser every time he practiced, but he also required many more card pieces for a pseudo-mythical-level sword skill.
Usually, a legendary-level skill would need at least 10,000 skill card pieces while the better ones would need more than 30,000 card pieces. Meanwhile, pseudo-mythical-level skills basically required more than 300,000 card pieces.
That was the reason why he had only learned two new pseudo-mythical-level sword skills at the moment after learning thousands of legendary-level sword skills. This was the third one that he was acquiring.
However, he had already accumulated over 200,000 Buddha Killer skill card pieces. He was confident that he could complete the cultivation of the third pseudo-mythical-level sword skill that day and turned it into a complete Skill Card.
Lin Huang practiced from nine something in the morning until past four in the afternoon. He was so immersed in practicing his sword skills, totally forgetting to check the accumulation of the card pieces.
When it was almost 4.20 p.m., a notification came from Xiao Hei out of the blue.
"Congratulations, you've obtained pseudo-mythical-level sword skill Buddha Killer card pieces x 300,000. Would you like to merge them into a complete Skill Card?"
"Yes!" Lin Huang answered without delay.
After a moment of silence, Xiao Hei's second notification soon came.
"Congratulations, you've obtained a complete Sword Skill Card Buddha Killer (pseudo-mythical-level) x1"
Lin Huang looked at the time after he was done cultivating the third pseudo-mythical-level sword skill. Noticing that it was not the time for dinner yet, he began looking at the fourth pseudo-mythical-level sword skill in his memory.
…
Early the next morning, Lin Huang logged into the Genius Union right after he had breakfast.
As soon as he got to the Stairway Tree, Bloody began looking for the Queen Mother and bug guardians' coordinates that had been refreshed.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang looked at the Genius Union internal news.
A headline soon grabbed his attention. The title of the article was 'Why Did The Monster Horde Break During the Day on The Stairway Tree?'
Lin Huang clicked on the article which said that bugs rushed out of their hives all of a sudden yesterday morning and attacked the human foothold on checkpoint 63.
Many of the members were killed by the bug horde that came out of nowhere and fell back to checkpoint 1 on the Stairway Tree. After their deaths, some of them lost half of their points that they had been accumulating for years.
"The bug horde broke out at 9 a.m. yesterday. It was almost the same time I killed the Queen Mother and logged out." Lin Huang roughly figured out the reason for the bug horde during the day. It should have been caused by him killing the Queen Mother.
The death of the Queen Mother caused the bug fighters to lose their minds and falling into chaos. Without the Queen Mother's control, their destructive nature was revealed. Hence, they attacked the human foothold, causing a series of devastating events.
However, the author of the article had no idea about that. Instead, he came up with an analysis from his personal view and listed some possibilities. Unfortunately, he did not hit the point; it was far from the truth.
The author would not expect the culprit of the incident to be the death of the Queen Mother because even Chan Dou, the top powerhouse, did not possess the ability to kill the Queen Mother. The non-disputed opinion became the author's blind spot, causing him to fail to get an accurate answer.
"Seems like it's really my fault," Lin Huang teased himself while grinning. He had no plan to own up to his mistake although it was him who caused it. "Since nobody knows about it, let's make it a secret."
hapter 945: I Didn't Know Everyone Love Fighting Monster Hordes
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With the previous killing experience, Lin Huang's second kill was very successful.
Bloody found the newly refreshed coordinates for the Queen Mother and bug guardians on the Stairway Tree.
Lin Huang used the old way of getting Grimace to open a path with his illusory forcefield.
However, the difference this time was that he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card when they arrived two to three kilometers away from the Queen Mother without her even noticing Grimace. He then summoned the Ninetails Lynx directly.
The imperial-level purple gold-rank Ninetails Lynx had an ability that was nothing less than a demigod's. It suppressed everyone as soon as it appeared.
With its suppression, Bloody did not even need to control with its Leech Pods. All of the bugs within a radius of 100 kilometers, including the Queen Mother, could not move at all.
Upon witnessing that, Grimace, who was standing before Lin Huang, could not help but have envy flash through his eyes.
The Ninetails Lynx stepped forward silently and disappeared all of a sudden. Almost at the same time, Lin Huang saw the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians being sliced into pieces.
Before he managed to blink, he noticed that the Ninetails Lynx had returned to his shoulder without him even realizing. It licked its paws with its little pink tongue.
Until then, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians' sliced bodies began to turn into pieces and faded a few kilometers away. Xiao Hei's notification came into Lin Huang's ears.
"You've obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother (Mythical-level) Card Pieces x2!
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Servant (Pseudo-mythical-level) complete card x12
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Incubator(Mythical-level) x2"
Noticing the bugs becoming chaotic since they lost the Queen Mother, Lin Huang pressed down his urge to look at the Bug Tribe incubator card. He recalled Grimace and Bloody, then said to the Ninetails Lynx, "Bring me back!"
The Ninetails Lynx tapped on Lin Huang's shoulder, and the human and the cat vanished from the hive in the next second.
Without the suppression of the Ninetails Lynx's aura, the bugs that lost their Queen Mother fell into a complete frenzy and rushed out of the hive's exits in madness.
Lin Huang, who had logged out of the Genius Union, sat in the living room of the hotel room and took out the two Bug Tribe incubator cards.
"What the hell are these two cards?" Doubtfully, Lin Huang began studying the cards.
There was a three-dimensional spider web with white cocoons hanging on it on the front of the both of the cards.
He recalled the similar web that connected the two Queen Mother's tails when he saw that.
"So, this isn't a part of the Queen Mother's body…" Initially, Lin Huang thought that the web was part of the Queen Mother's body. Now, it seemed like this item called an incubator existed in the name of the Queen Mother.
Lin Huang turned the card around and began to read the details.
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Bug Tribe Incubator
"Incubation Direction: Cold weapon
"Starting Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank (affected by the owner's combat strength)
"Insertable Data: Various cold weapon battle data
"Starting Skill: Cold Weapon's Gene Extraction, Bug Steps…
"Application Authorization: Passive.
"Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
"Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother"
…
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Bug Tribe Incubator
"Incubation Direction: Hot weapon
"Starting Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank (affected by the owner's combat strength)
"Insertable Data: Various weapon battle data
"Starting Skill: Hold Weapon's Gene Extraction, Bug Steps…
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
"Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother"
"Only the Bug Tribe Queen Mother can use these? So, I can't activate these two cards before I get the complete Queen Mother card…" Lin Huang was speechless after he finished looking at the card details.
However, he roughly knew what the function of the two cards was. Those were indispensable special items to make a Bug Tribe army. He was determined to hatch Bug Tribe Queen Mothers with this.
Lin Huang only glanced through the 12 Bug Servant cards quickly and put them aside. Together with the 14 that he had obtained earlier, he had 26 pseudo-mythical-level Bug Servant cards now.
Looking at the current progress, he would be able to build a pseudo-mythical-level bug guardian army soon. However, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother's complete card seemed far-fetched at the moment.
Lin Huang put the cards away and pushed his messy thoughts aside. He took out the wooden sword and began practicing his sword skills again.
On the checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree, a bug horde broke out again since Lin Huang had killed the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and her bug guardians.
Without the Queen Mother's control, the hundreds of millions of Bug Tribe fighters streamed out of the underground hive like water. They headed down the branches below on checkpoint 63.
In less than an hour, Bug Tribe fighters of various forms took over half of the human foothold.
The people did not panic as they did before since they had experienced the same thing yesterday. They soon formed a defense, blocking the bug horde.
One must say that those who made it to checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree were the best of the best in the Genius Union. They had compelling personal ability whereby they basically had the ability to fight fairly with imperial-level black gold-rank powerhouses.
Compared to other checkpoints, the powerhouses on this checkpoint had high self-esteem.
Most people on any checkpoint below this would choose to avoid involving themselves if they encountered a monster horde. Only a minority of them who were desperate for points would stay at night to fight the monster horde.
However, the people on checkpoint 63 were cultivated by major organizations as candidates with the potential to get to the core circle. They did not lack any resources, hence, they were not desperate for points on the Stairway Tree and did things based on personal interest.
To most people on checkpoint 63, a monster horde during the day was something interesting.
One must know that they had never encountered a monster horde during the day since the climb from checkpoints 1 to 63. It was only natural for them to join the fun since this happened out of nowhere.
Many of them who were offline logged in immediately to fight the monster horde after hearing the news of the monster horde breaking out during the day.
Meanwhile, those powerhouses who were caught off guard on the first day of monster horde were in agony. Some of them were killed by the monster horde right away since they were unprepared. They could not even last for a minute and ended up being the laughing stock of their organization. They were eager to return and show their real ability off in the monster horde.
Lin Huang heard the news from the Heaven Alliance group chat. They were discussing the monster horde on checkpoint 63 enthusiastically. Some of the Heaven Alliance members were pumped up after hearing the news and logged in just to join the monster horde. They even sent live videos to the group chat.
The expression on Lin Huang's face was weird after he read the messages in the group chat. "I didn't know that everyone loved fighting monster hordes during the day. Very well then, I'll kill the Queen Mother every day for all of your sadistic killing pleasure."
Chapter 946: 16 Queen Mothers
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree was crowded today.
There were usually very few people on this checkpoint. There were usually less than 80 people online during the day. However, due to the monster horde, there were more than 400 people online during the day this time.
The quiet checkpoint 63 where one normally would not bump into anyone else had become extremely crowded now.
Many major organizations formed teams to fight the bug horde eagerly. Some of the minor organizations on checkpoint 63 with few members formed teams too.
As they fought the bug horde, the power of hundreds of powerhouses skyrocketed together on the Stairway Tree leaderboard.
The absurd change on Stairway Tree leaderboard grabbed the attention of all members on different checkpoints.
Knowing that a breakout of a monster horde on checkpoint 63 was rare, most of them were dumbstruck to see the skyrocketing points of the hundreds of people.
"What are these people doing? Why are their points skyrocketing during the day?"
"Were they triggered by Lin Xie?"
"Wait, their points are skyrocketing during the day. Did these people discover Lin Xie's secret to obtaining points?!"
"I want Lin Xie's secret to obtaining points too!!"
After some hot discussion in the forum, somebody finally revealed the truth. "There's a bug horde on checkpoint 63 during the day. All of the big bosses on checkpoint 63, fighting the bug horde together."
Another hot discussion broke out after the truth was revealed.
"They're worthy of being called big bosses! They're even fighting a monster horde during the day."
"Why do I have the odd feeling of being envious of such reckless behavior?"
"I, too, am envious of them. I don't usually feel like participating in fighting monster hordes at night. Could it be that the timing of the monster hordes breaking out has gone off?"
"Is this the Stairway Tree's new activity? I want to join too!"
"I want to join this new activity too. Please promote this!"
The bug horde on checkpoint 63 lasted until the sky was almost dark. It was finally gone. The last defense on checkpoint 63 remained standing in the end.
However, a new round of monster horde came after less than ten minutes. This time, besides the bug horde, the monsters from checkpoints 67 and 71 joined too. The overall scale of the monster horde was twice as large as the one during the day.
"Again!? Is there something wrong with the Stairway Tree?"
"There are 24 hours a day and there've been 22 hours of monster hordes now. How are we supposed to go on?"
"Could it be the Stairway Tree system urging us to break through checkpoint 63 as soon as possible?"
Many of the members on checkpoint 63 were exhausted after fighting the bug horde during the day.
However, figuring that it might be the trick the Stairway Tree system was playing, most of them chose to stay fighting the monster horde. Even some of them who went offline logged in again.
The majestic monster army charged once again. Many powerhouses on checkpoint 63 bit the bullet and fought the monster horde head-on.
Naturally, Lin Huang had no idea that he had caused such a thing. He went to sleep directly after washing up as he was done practicing his sword skills until past 11 at night. He did not follow what was happening in the Genius Union.
If the Genius Union system had human emotions, it would definitely be complaining right now.
The fight on checkpoint 63 went on until 6 in the morning the next day. It was disastrous.
Among the 388 participants, only 31 people made it to the end. The rest were sent back to checkpoint 1 of the Stairway Tree.
Some of them climbed up again after they died and fell back to checkpoint 1. Some did not only make it back but even joined the monster horde fight again.
Among the 31 survivors, less than ten of them survived along the way while the rest clambered their way back from checkpoint 1.
The monster horde was finally gone as they watched the sun rising in the distance.
The bunch of powerhouses were either sitting or lying on the ground, no longer caring about their image.
"It's finally over!"
"I know. I'm exhausted!"
"Damn it! I died in the monster horde. This is my first time dying on the Stairway Tree ever since joining the Genius Union."
"Well, I've died twice and I'm not complaining."
"I've never experienced such a tiring battle in my life. I have a sudden realization that it's good to be alive."
"Should we find out the reason why there's a bug horde during the day in checkpoint 63 since there's no monster horde now?" Someone suggested all of a sudden.
Everyone went silent upon hearing the suggestion.
A moment later, the chief of the Hong Alliance, Zhu Hong, broke the silence. "I think it's a great suggestion. There's definitely a reason why the bug horde broke out. We'll have to log out in our current condition if another bug horde happens again two hours later. I think we should take a look since there's no bug horde now."
"I agree with Sister Hong's suggestion. Instead of waiting for things to happen, we should take the initiative to tackle it." The chief of the Tang Alliance, Zhang Xiaoshan, nodded to show his agreement. "We have approximately two hours to look around since there's no bug horde now."
"Of course, I'm not forcing everyone to participate in the investigation. After all, we've been fighting for over 20 hours, so everyone must be exhausted now." Zhu Hong knew some of them were unwilling to participate. "Those who are joining, please raise your hand."
Zhu Hong was the first to raise her hand while Zhang Xiaoshan was the second without thinking much. Some raised their hands later on. They were all members of the Hong Alliance and the Tang Alliance.
The chief of the Heaven Alliance, Chan Dou, had been offline. The deputy chief Jian Fei hesitated for a moment and raised his hand in the end. "I'm in, too!"
The other three from the Heaven Alliance raised their hands immediately upon seeing that.
Divine Alliance's chief Zhong Liyan smiled and said while shaking his head, "I'm lazy to join, I'm too tired. I'll head home to sleep."
Since the four from Heaven Alliance raised their hands, the chiefs from two minor organization raised their hands too.
Just like that, Zhu Hong and the rest gathered 15 people into a group forcefully and headed towards the Stairway Tree's main branch on checkpoint 63.
Around an hour and a half later, Lin Huang logged onto Genius Union after he had breakfast. He summoned Bloody to get the new Queen Mother's coordinates again while he looked at the internal news on Genius Union's website.
A headline title got his attention again.
'The Big Bosses on Checkpoint 63 Are Crying!'
Lin Huang was not sure to laugh or cry when he clicked in and read the article.
What happened was that the bug horde broke out together with a monster horde, causing the monster horde yesterday lasted for 22 hours. Most of the people on checkpoint 63 who thought it was an activity created by the system were fighting forcefully for the entire day. The situation was horrible whereby only 31 people left among the over 400 who participated.
"Do they have to do that?" Bloody suddenly spoke as Lin Huang was done reading the news.
"I found a human team of 15 people. Because of them, the number of Queen Mother had a boost. I did a rough search earlier and already found a few. Including you, I'm speculating there should be 16 Queen Mothers on the Stairway Tree this time…"
"What?" Lin Huang could not help but stunned for a bit hearing the news, "Is that possible?!"
Chapter 947: 16 Consecutive Kills
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"16 people would mean 16 Queen Mothers, so 100 people would mean 100 Queen Mothers…" Lin Huang's eyes lit up when he heard Bloody's investigation results, but soon he fell into deep thought. "I wonder why did they come into the monster stage. If they come in as a team every day, I'll be able to kill many Queen Mothers and bug guardians, but how do I make them come in everyday?"
"It's easy. Find something that's irresistible to them and lure them in by putting it somewhere unreachable." Bloody could not help but gave Lin Huang a suggestion in response to his soft mutter. "In that case, they'll try to get that item every day."
"Something that's irresistible… A god relic should be a great choice." Lin Huang soon had a plan in his head after hearing Bloody's suggestion. "An unreachable place… The most unreachable place on checkpoint 63 should be where the Queen Mother is, deep in the hive."
After coming up with the two most important points, Lin Huang figured how to implement this plan to bait right away.
Not long later, Bloody had located the coordinates of all the Bug Tribe Queen Mothers. As expected, there were a total of 16 Queen Mothers.
Lin Huang headed toward the first target immediately as soon as they located the closest hive.
When they arrived at the entrance of the hive, he used his old way again. He got Grimace to open a path with his illusory forcefield to get deep in the hive's central zone. They stopped when they were two to three kilometers away from the Queen Mother and her bug guardians.
This time, Lin Huang did not summon the Ninetails Lynx right away. He summoned the Nightmare Tapir instead, telling it what he wanted through voice transmission.
The Nightmare Tapir nodded and hovered mid-air, emitting a squeal with its head up like the sonar roar of a whale. A circle of invisible sound wave spread out like water and soon covered the entire hive.
With the Nightmare Tapir's imperial-level white gold-rank combat strength, he could even make imperial-level purple gold-rank monsters fell into a deep sleep with one roar, let alone these immortal-level rank-9 Bug Tribe monsters.
The Bug Tribe that was already sleepy fell into a deep sleep without any ability to fight back after hearing the Nightmare Tapir's hypnotizing sound wave.
Lin Huang smirked and took out a god relic sword from the storage space in his Emperor's Heart Ring.
It was a sword that was completely black. There was a faint, black mist lingering around it, giving people a terrifying feeling even from a distance.
In reality, the sword was not cursed or anything. The swordsmith must have made that intentionally to give it a cool appearance.
Lin Huang thought the sword was perfect as bait since many people on the Stairway Tree were talking about the monster horde incident during the day on checkpoint 63. With this item, it could coincidentally mislead the people, letting them connect the unusual turn of events on checkpoint 63 to the sword.
Lin Huang appeared next to the Queen Mother that was in deep slumber as he moved. He pierced the god relic sword into the ground before the Queen Mother so that only half of the sword was showing.
After setting it up, Lin Huang retreated almost three kilometers away and activated the video recording function in his Emperor's Heart Ring. He did not speak during the course of the video recording. All you could hear was his soft breathing.
The video began with a glance through the situation inside the hive and panned where the Queen Mother and her bug guardians were. After the image was focused on the Queen Mother and the bug guardians, he zoomed in and focused on the black sword before the Queen Mother.
The image of the black sword lasted for less than a second. Then, Lin Huang got the Nightmare Tapic to wake one of the bug guardians up from its sleep. It opened its eyes slowly and soon stared at Lin Huang's direction.
Lin Huang shook the video a little, then it became a black screen after that.
The bug guardian that noticed Lin Huang just got a look of him before it felt an intense hit of drowsiness. It fell asleep again without even being able to fight back.
After shooting the video, Lin Huang looked at the recording while standing where he was. He then walked to the Queen Mother and pulled out the black sword and put it away into his storage space after making sure the video was good to go.
He retreated two to three kilometers away before he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card. He then summoned the Ninetails Lynx. In the next second, the Bug Tribe Queen Mother and the 12 bug guardians turned into pieces and disappeared.
Lin Huang heard Xiao Hei's notification almost at the same time.
After recalling the Nightmare Tapir, Lin Huang projected the map of checkpoint 63. He pointed at the coordinates Bloody had marked; it was the area where the second Queen Mother was.
"Ninetails, bring us to the area directly. You don't have to be accurate with the exact coordinates. Just bring us to the area."
The Ninetails Lynx placed its claws on Lin Huang and Grimace's shoulders. In the next second, including Bloody that was in Lin Huang's sleeve, the human and the three monsters vanished from the hive.
What he had no idea about was that the bugs that were in deep sleep in the hive slowly awoke after the Nightmare Tapir disappeared for close to half an hour.
As the Ninetails Lynx brought them to the area near the second hive, Lin Huang found the entrance in less than two minutes. He went into the hive in the same way he always did.
When they arrived in the area where the second Queen Mother was, he did not summon the Nightmare Tapir this time. Instead, he got the Ninetails Lynx to attack directly. Immediately, it completed the harvest.
Lin Huang then told the Ninetails Lynx to send them to the area close to the hive where the third Queen Mother was.
After spending almost two and a half hours, Lin Huang finally killed 16 Queen Mothers and 192 bug guardians.
Apart from spending some time shooting the video in the first hive, he spent most of the time traveling from the entrance of the hive to the Queen Mother. Lin Huang completed the journey on foot due to the complicated hive structure and the Ninetails Lynx's inability to teleport them to the exact coordinates since it had never been there.
He was not terribly pleased after completing the 16 consecutive kills and signing out of the Genius Union because the 16 Queen Mother kills did not get him any complete Queen Mother Monster Card.
"You've obtained Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card Pieces (Mythical-level) x32!
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Servant Complete Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x384
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Incubator (Mythical-level) x4
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Genetic Optimizer (Mythical-level) x6
"Congratulations, you've obtained Gene Extractor (Mythical-level) x2!"
After glancing through the notification from Xiao Hei, Lin Huang took out the eight new cards and studied the details.
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Bug Tribe Genetic Optimizer
"Function: Performing genetic optimization on Bug Tribe fighters using the most compatible genes in the gene database following the direction of the chosen genetic evolution.
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
"Remarks: Only for the use of the Bug Tribe Queen Mother"
…
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Gene Extractor
"Function: As long as there's sufficient flesh, it can be used to extract the respective genes as well as detaching the gene the user desires and put it into the genetic database.
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Pretty good special item.
"Remarks: Must be used in compliance with the genetic database."
Chapter 948: A Thread That's Straying Off Topic
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Lin Huang killed the 16 Queen Mothers at once, he caused a mob of bugs from the 16 hives to break out on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree. A supermassive bug horde made up of more than five billion of bugs burst out.
The bug horde was like a flood pouring down the branches of the Stairway Tree.
The Zhu Hong team that was investigating the reason for the bug horde on the main branch of the Stairway Tree came in contact with the bug horde less than five minutes after it broke out.
Under the chaotic attack of the bug horde, the 15 team members braced the onslaught painfully for more than three hours. In the end, all of their Life Power was worn out and they were soon dead.
Less than five hours later, the other members on checkpoint 63 who were online were dead too. Apart from a minority of them who managed to hide in defense barriers, the rest of them were sent back to checkpoint 1.
The entire checkpoint 63 had fallen. Even the defenses of all the organizations on the branches were attacked by the bug horde in a frenzy.
The news of checkpoint 63 falling soon spread through the entire Genius Union.
People called it Doomsday.
On the front page of the Genius Union news was all about Doomsday. Everyone was talking about the same topic even in the forums.
"Did you hear? Checkpoint 63 has completely fallen! They can't even log in now."
"Yeah, I heard the scale of the bug horde was super scary this time. There were billions of monsters, and it surpassed the normal monster horde at night by folds!"
"I heard the team led by the chiefs of the Hong Alliance and the Tang Alliance has fallen too. Someone saw them on checkpoint 21."
"That's nothing. I heard that all the big bosses on checkpoint 63 are dead apart from those who didn't log in and a minority of them who managed to hide behind the defense barrier in time. All of them fell back to checkpoint 1!"
…
Lin Huang was speechless when he read the popular thread in the forum.
He knew the monster horde would come after him for killing their Queen Mothers, but never had he thought that the number of Bug Tribe fighters would have multiplied as well. However, now that he thought about it, it made sense since there was an increase of hives.
People who experienced the bug horde complained in the forum, saying that everyone had died on checkpoint 63. One even posted a video of the bug horde breaking through their defenses.
In front of the defense barriers, Bug Tribe fighters crawled all over. Each and every one of them was attacking the defense under their feet insanely like they had lost their minds.
Everyone was worried as they watched the video. To their relief, the defense remained intact at the end of the video.
Lin Huang felt a little guilty after watching the video. "Will this bug horde traumatize the people?"
However, his guilt only lasted less than a minute. He then revealed a smirk. "So many of them are talking about the reason for the bug horde breaking out. I shall seize this opportunity to tell them the 'truth'!"
Lin Huang set his account to anonymous status and created a thread entitled 'The Truth of the Bug Horde Breaking Out on Checkpoint 63'. He then uploaded the video that he had recorded earlier.
After submitting it, he waited for almost ten minutes until the thread went through a review.
The thread grabbed the attention of many Genius Union members as soon as it appeared.
Many of them clicked on it suspiciously because there was no description in the thread. There was only a video. Everyone then watched the video directly and were shocked after finishing it.
The thread created a stir right away.
"This has to be fake! The Bug Tribe Queen Mother is a little girl? Who'd buy that?!"
"The Bug Tribe Queen Mother really does look like that. Although I've never seen the real thing, I saw the strategy for checkpoint 63 and there were photos. It's almost the same as the one in the video."
"The Queen Mother, her bug guardians, and the bug beasts are real. The details of the hive's real too. This video's legit. What I'm curious about is who took this video? The person went really deep into the hive." It was the chief of the Hong Alliance, Zhu Hong, who posted that.
Zhu Hong used her personal account instead of going incognito. The forum went into a frenzy all of a sudden.
"Pleased to meet the goddess!"
"Sister Hong, please reply to me!"
"Please let me ride on your fame, Almighty!"
Another big boss replied to Zhu Hong's comment, "Sister Hong, what do you think about this video?" The person who commented was the chief of the Tang Alliance, Zhang Xiaoshan, who had used his personal account to comment too.
People were agitated again as soon as Zhang Xiaoshan appeared. No matter if it was Zhu Hong or Zhang Xiaoshan, both of them were the top bosses in the Genius Union. They were in the top five among the people at the same level.
Zhu Hong replied when she saw that it was Zhang Xiaoshan who had asked the question, "It looks more like a prank, but we can't rule out the possibility of it being authentic. What I want to know most is how did he go so deep into the hive?"
"It's actually easy for someone who has powerful spiritual energy. They can use an illusion to isolate themselves to do this," Zhang Xiaoshan replied.
"Brilliant! I know roughly who posted this thread now that you say that."
Many people asked who the person was as soon as Zhu Hong commented, but she did not reply.
Zhang Xiaoshan also disappeared as soon as Zhu Hong was gone.
However, people on checkpoint 63 soon began to analyze Zhu Hong's comment.
"Sister Hong should be talking about the Divine Alliance's Zhong Liyan. Chief Zhong's a psychic and he has extraordinary spiritual power. It's possible that he's mastered illusion skills too. Looking at it now, on the entire Stairway Tree, he's the only person who could possibly shoot the video so close to the Queen Mother."
The people in the thread soon began to talk about the Queen Mother after the analysis.
"So, that's what the Queen Mother looks like! It's so cute."
"I want to keep one!"
"Here's a question. If you brought the Queen Mother home and had sex with it, would the children the Queen Mother gave birth to be a human or a bug?"
"There won't be any children because you can always use precaution. Thank me later!"
"I've reported inappropriate content."
As Lin Huang read the comments, the thread was straying off topic. Only a minority of people talked about the god relic sword, and he felt helpless.
"These people are just here for the fun. They don't care about the reason for the bug horde breaking out at all."
"It's natural that they don't care since it doesn't concern them. They'll definitely be desperate for answers if the bug horde spreads below checkpoint 63," Bloody grinned while explaining, "Most people on checkpoint 63 who saw this video should have opinions about the god relic sword. It's just that they didn't comment on what they think. Be patient. We should be able to see how many people exactly show interest in the god relic."
Chapter 949: Obtaining the Bug Tribe Queen Mother Card!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Lin Huang had no idea that although the thread he posted was straying off topic, the video he posted had stolen the attention of many organizations on checkpoint 63.
Although Zhu Hong had said in the comment that it was surely a prank, she forwarded the video to the Hong Alliance group chat on checkpoint 63 to instruct them to form teams to investigate this as soon as she got off the thread.
Zhang Xiaoshan also began to gather people as soon as he closed the forum page.
Most of the other organizations began working too.
A majority of the people on checkpoint 63 could tell that the video was real because many of the details could not be staged. Although they had no idea how the person who shot the video managed to go so deep into the hive, they had little doubt about the authenticity of the video.
There were some organizations that hired professionals to conduct verification exercises. Naturally, the final consensus was that the video was authentic. No special effects were used in the video.
To verify the video source, Zhu Hong even went out of her way to contact Zhong Liyan, asking if it was him who had recorded the video. Naturally, Zhong Liyan denied it.
Some suggested that it might be Lin Xie because he was the only person on the Stairway Tree who could afford to get god relics with his points. However, after some investigation, they realized that all of the god relics were still there in the Stairway Mall. They then ruled out the suspicion on Lin Huang.
Although nobody could find the video source, the authenticity was verified. This caused the people on checkpoint 63 to think that the bug horde was related to the god relic that had appeared out of nowhere. This also proved the existence of god relics in the hive.
Many organizations began forming teams with the mission to obtain the god relic.
Since nobody could log into checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree because it was invaded by the bug horde, Zhu Hong of the Hong Alliance held a video conference call right away.
"Soldiers are valued by courage, not in numbers. This is the motto of our mission this time. Since it's a stealth mission, we need people who have mastered stealth techniques, illusion skills, stealing techniques or those who are simply fast. Each team will have one person responsible for hiding, one for stealing the god relic and one more with detective techniques. Each team will have two to three people. Three is the maximum because the more people there are, the higher the risk of exposing ourselves."
The Tang Alliance and the Divine Alliance carried out similar implementation whereby they formed a few teams that were skilled at carrying out stealth missions. Those who were great at battling and not suitable for stealth were excluded.
Naturally, Lin Huang received the messages that the deputy chief of the Heaven Alliance, Jian Fei, had sent in the group chat. It was definitive that he would not participate in such a mission. Eventually, the Heaven Alliance only managed to gather 11 people who formed four teams.
"The Heaven Alliance is almost done with their preparation. The other organizations are also almost ready." Lin Huang was secretly elated. The Heaven Alliance alone had gathered 11 people, so there would be more than 16 people participating in the search tomorrow.
At past six in the morning the next day, the monster horde on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree was nowhere to be seen.
Lin Huang was still in bed while the organization members who were participating in the search had logged into the Genius Union and began the congregation.
Apart from the major organizations including the Heaven Alliance and the Hong Alliance that managed to form four to five teams, a few other organizations gathered a couple of teams. Some of the minor organizations that had insufficient members came together and form a few teams themselves.
Before it was even 6.30 a.m., one after another, the 36 teams climbed onto the main branch of the Stairway Tree from different starting points.
Lin Huang only got out of bed when it was almost 7 a.m.
After washing up, and washing his breakfast down with a cup of coffee, he logged onto the Genius Union leisurely when it was almost 7.30 a.m.
Soon, Bloody was summoned and it found the teams sent from the various organizations.
"There are a total of 36 teams participating in the search this time. There are 91 people."
"Only 91? That's lesser than I expected." Lin Huang raised his brow. "I thought there would be more than 100 people no matter what."
"There are only two to three people in each team. It seems like they're using our way of sneaking in, so they must've selected those who are great at stealth. It's actually not bad for them to have gathered 91 people among less than 500 people." Bloody figured out what was Zhu Hong and the rest's plans by looking at the allocation of the team members.
"Moreover, the sky will turn dark in 11 hours. If we take our efficiency of ten minutes per hive yesterday as a baseline, the most we can clear today would be 66 hives. We must speed up to seven minutes and 15 seconds if we want to clear all 91 hives."
"Understand. Then, let's not chat unnecessarily as soon as we enter the hive. Just tell me which fork Grimace and I should head to directly." Lin Huang nodded.
"Let's begin with the first hive now. We don't have to wait for the whole search to be done. My search won't be affected in the hives." Bloody stopped speaking and projected the map for Lin Huang. It then pointed out the coordinates of the first hive.
Lin Huang summoned the Ninetails Lynx and got it to send them to the coordinates immediately.
When they arrived at the entrance of the hive, he crushed a Lucky Card and a Double Reward Card.
He then summoned Grimace and told him the accelerated mission plan through voice transmission.
Grimace nodded and grabbed Lin Huang's wrist.
"Turn second left at the first fork." Grimace had disappeared from where he was while grabbing Lin Huang as soon as Bloody was done speaking.
They entered the first fork in less than two seconds.
"Turn first right at the second fork."
"Turn third left at the third fork."
"Then, at the fourth fork…"
In less than two minutes, Grimace brought Lin Huang to where the first Queen Mother was. The Ninetails Lynx killed her right away and brought Lin Huang and Grimace to the second hive later on.
Subsequently, Grimace grabbed Lin Huang along and dashed into the hive at full speed. The hunting efficiency experienced a few folds of improvement.
Initially, Bloody suggested speeding up the hunt to achieve one hive within seven minutes and 15 seconds, but now they had improved to doing so within three minutes.
Lin Huang only spent less than five hours clearing all 91 hives.
Only five teams among the 36 retreated to the starting point after noticing the unusualness in the area while the remaining 31 teams perished in the hives. None of their members survived.
Meanwhile, Lin Huang logged out of the Genius Union after he was done with the hunt. He did not care about the breaking out of the bug hordes on the Stairway Tree at all because he finally heard the notification that he had been waiting for when he was clearing the 53rd hive. He tamped his urge down and finished clearing all the 91 hives.
As he sat on the couch in the living room of the hotel room, Lin Huang tapped Xiao Hei's notification box open with a shudder of excitement.
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother Monster Card (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained complete Bug Servant Monster Card (Pseudo-mythical-level) x2,184
"Congratulations, you've obtained Bug Tribe Incubator (Mythical-level) x4
"Congratulations, you've obtained Genetic Database (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained Genetic Modification Editor (Mythical-level) x2
"Congratulations, you've obtained Biomaterial Decomposer (Mythical-level) x2"
…
"Yes! I've finally gotten the complete Bug Tribe Queen Mother card after working on it for so many days!"
Chapter 950: Another New Rule is Added
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Monster Card: Unnamed
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Monster Name: Bug Tribe Queen Mother
"Type of Monster: Mother Bug / Bug Tribe
"Nickname: None
"Combat Level: Imperial-level Crimson Gold-rank / Virtual God (Immature)
"Major: Spear Dao, Lightning Element
"Major Skills: Bug Center, Breeding Mother, Genetic Evolution…
"Minor Skills: Bug Tribe Army, Total Control…
"Summon Authority: Denied (To be activated when you reach imperial-level)
"Card Remarks: Great personal ability but encouraged to be cultivated as an army."
Lin Huang looked through the skills one after another and eventually had his eyes on the Bug Center.
"Bug Center: Special ability exclusively for high-tier Bug Tribe. A Bug Tribe that possesses such an ability will be able to hear the voice of the bug horde's will. Only Bug Tribe members that possess such an ability can build their own quantum consciousness network to control the Bug Tribe army.
"Remark 1: The bug guardians will only possess an intelligence close to a human's as well as having learning abilities under that premise when they're connected to the Bug Center. The intelligence of bug guardians that aren't connected to the Bug Center will be oppressed to its minimum whereby they will have almost zero self-consciousness. They will just be puppets that listen to orders blindly.
"Remark 2: The more bug guardians are connected to the Bug Center, the more powerful the Bug Center will grow and the more Bug Tribe fighters it can contain.
"Remark 3: The Bug Center can be taken away by other high-tier Bug Tribes that possess a Bug Center. It can be shared with other high-tier Bug Tribes that possess a Bug Center too.
"Remark 4: The Queen Mother can retrieve information from all the members in the Bug Center network. It can also control the information access of the other members as well as setting their intelligence level."
…
The first thought Lin Huang had after glancing at the skill description was that the Queen Mother would renegade.
However, he realized that the skill was extremely crucial for the entire Bug Tribe army after reading the many remarks below. Without the skill, the bug guardians and the Bug Tribe fighters would just be a plate of sand. They would not be worthy of being called an army at all.
Moreover, after reading the skill remarks, Lin Huang noticed that the thousands of pseudo-mythical-level bug guardians that he got earlier were just a bunch of stiff battle puppets if they were not connected to the Bug Center.
The reason he did not summon the bug guardians was that he was worried about the stench on the bug guardians which would affect the other hotel guests. He could not help but crush a bug guardian card after reading the description of the Bug Center.
A ferocious bug guardian with six arms made of sabers consolidated before him.
He was relieved that there was no odor coming from the bug guardian.
When it was summoned, the bug guardian that was over three meters tall stood motionlessly where it was.
Lin Huang waved before its eyes and it showed no response as if it could not see.
"Speak. Just say something," Lin Huang ordered.
The bug guardian looked at Lin Huang with its head held low and said nothing.
"Has its intelligence been oppressed so much that it can't even master a language?" Lin Huang frowned deeply.
"This should've been installed in its settings to prevent bug guardians from other tribes from acquiring it and using it as a weapon or to obtain important information. Disconnecting them from the Bug Center would result in their intelligence dropping rapidly whereby they can't even perform basic communication," Bloody speculated.
After carrying out some tests, Lin Huang realized that the bug guardian could only take simple orders. Furthermore, it would attack a specific target with all its might when it was given a slightly complicated order such as 'attack'. It would not be able to avoid the opponent's attacks and carry out an effective defense at all.
"This is so backward. The upper hand of a pseudo-mythical-level is being compromised by its intelligence." Lin Huang shook his head in dissatisfaction. "If they're put in a battle, Bai could fight five to six of them alone at once."
"Luckily, I've got the Queen Mother Card. Otherwise, those bug guardians would just be your puppets," Lin Huang smiled while saying to Bloody.
"I might not be able to cast parasites on them since they're on the same level as I am, which is pseudo-mythical-level." Bloody was taken aback.
Lin Huang shook his head without saying much.
After all, he could not summon the Queen Mother yet and those bug guardians could not be connected to the Bug Center. They were pretty useless to Lin Huang now since they had such low intelligence. He could only put them aside at the time being.
After recalling the bug guardian card, Lin Huang looked at the few new cards that he had just obtained.
…
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Genetic Database
"Function: Database storing various genetic data
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Good stuff
"Remarks: Must be used in compliance with biomaterial decomposer and gene extractor."
…
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Biomaterial Decomposer
"Function: Decomposes flesh of living beings into various materials as well as separating gene fragments for genetic modification
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Not bad
"Remarks: Can't be used to decompose living beings."
…
"Special Item Card
"Rarity: Mythical-level
"Item Name: Genetic Modification Editor
"Function: Modify living beings' genes
"Application Authorization: Passive
"Card Remarks: Good stuff.
"Remarks: Must be used in compliance with biomaterial decomposer and gene extractor."
Lin Huang put all of the cards away after reading the card details and realized that he could not activate them due to the authority restriction. He then began practicing his sword skills.
Meanwhile, it was chaotic in the Genius Union once again.
A bug horde had broken out on checkpoint 63 of the Stairway Tree like never before since Lin Huang had killed 91 Bug Tribe Queen Mothers.
This time, the big bosses on checkpoint 63 hid behind the defense barrier right away after learning their lesson earlier when they saw the bug horde sweeping toward them. With the experience from the day before, very few of them chose to stay to fight head-on this time.
Everyone clearly felt that the bug horde this time was even more terrifying than the day before whereby there were folds of increase in the number of bugs.
Can you imagine tens of billions of bugs in various forms occupying all the buildings with no gaps in between?
One must know that even those bugs which were smaller in size were over two meters long while the bigger ones were hundreds of meters long. Imagine the space that almost 30 billion of those monsters could occupy!
Almost every inch of the ground on the entire checkpoint 63 was covered with bugs. Even the defenses on all of the human residence buildings had bugs crawling all over them. Some even had layers of bugs writhing on them. It was chilling to watch.
Some people took videos and photos of the situation and posted them on the forum. People from other checkpoints began talking about it.
Lin Huang only found out about it when he looked at the Genius Union forum before he went to bed.
As he was reading a few minutes into the thread, a notice came from the Genius Union all of a sudden.
"Notice: A new rule has been added to the Stairway Tree system!
"A player will pass the checkpoint as soon as he kills the boss!
"Every Genius Union member will pass the checkpoint right away as soon as they kill the final boss in the monster stage of the respective checkpoint. The player will not obtain any benefits on the respective checkpoints after the final boss is killed.
"We hope everyone acknowledges this notice."
Almost every Genius Union member who received the notice at midnight were dumbstruck.
"What happened? Why did such a notice appear like that?"
Lin Huang was the only one who realized that the system was directed at him again.
"Luckily, I've already gotten the Bug Tribe Queen Mother!"