"Damn it! Let them escape again!"
Chen Fei, frustrated, slammed his white steel crowbar on the ground, sending rock fragments flying. Underneath was only thick, sandy soil, not even a shadow of an insect to be seen.
A sudden kick came flying, knocking him flat on his face.
"Have you got a death wish? Not running but instead chasing after them?"
Executive Manager Hanna Gagel kicked the distracted Chen Fei, flipping him over.
With such a suicidal tactic, no wonder they say he's died several times a month. Are you here to scam war pensions or what?
The most annoying things are these presumptuous subordinates, no matter how many there are, they can't withstand such foolishness!
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and kicked again.
"Not at all! Those insects can't take a hit. I killed so many last night."
Men shouldn't fight with women, so Chen Fei could only cover his head and endure the beating.
A few days ago, with a crowbar in hand, he had left a field of corpses.
Yet, the achievements of a day and a night had vanished without a trace, and he couldn't understand why!
Pure Light Sparrow Xiao Jiu flew over, landed on the ground, watched the interaction between the two, then finally realized something. It rushed towards the executive manager, chirping and attempting to peck at her, but it couldn't even break through the airflow surrounding her and ended up spinning around instead.
How much combat power can a "Band-Aid" have?
Light-element magical beasts at a low rank inherently lack combat power, let alone a little bird.
Might as well completely ignore it!
Hanna Gagel looked at the messy ground in front of her as dust and gravel fell back to the ground, everything returning to normal as if nothing had happened.
"There's something fishy!"
The old soldiers, tense and on edge, dared not relax their vigilance.
The ground churned slightly, not as loudly as before, and a large mass of black insects appeared, burrowing in and out where the mutant worm swarm had disappeared.
Chen Fei picked up the white steel crowbar and casually scratched at the sand, unearthing a dozen or so... black and red insects?
Fat and big-eared, lacking wing cases; apart from heads, they were all belly, nearly three inches long, and just looking at them was repulsive.
Glancing as far as the eye could see, the ground was faintly visible with these insects moving around, and some of the shattered remains of mutants that had been hit by machine guns or rockets were crawling with these, dense and numerous, enough to trigger trypophobia, at least in the millions.
"Seems like... rhinoceros cockroaches?!"
The executive manager hurriedly picked out an insect with the tip of her boot, stepping lightly on it and examining it back and forth.
Rhinoceros cockroaches, native to the tropical regions of Ocean Continent, feed on eucalyptus leaves, and most peculiarly, these creatures even possess a kind of intelligence.
As most insects act on instinct or pheromones and can't really be talked about in terms of intelligence.
Yet this cockroach-like creature could even understand human speech, alien, right?
"Indeed, they do look like rhinoceros cockroaches."
The technician, who had returned to the ground from the helicopter, mustered up the courage, also examined an insect thoroughly.
After thinking, he took out a glass jar from his backpack and carefully trapped one inside.
Theoretically speaking, rhinoceros cockroaches are harmless, even more so than mealworms.
"And they have very good teeth!"
The executive manager frowned upon seeing some marks left on the surface of her high-end leather boots, similar to the faint marks she had seen on many rocks before.
She began to realize that the marks on those rocks were mostly gnawed by these insects, thankfully she hadn't rashly reached out to touch them.
"Right! We must hurry back now, this, this jar won't hold out for long."
The technician, pale-faced, looked at the glass jar in his hand which now bore a ring-shaped mark gnawed by the insect inside. If it continued gnawing tirelessly, it might even burrow through the jar.
He looked down and saw a few similar insects crawling around, which scared him into quickly stepping back several paces.
If they can chew through glass and stone, let alone people.
"Let's head back first."
Hanna Gagel made a decisive call without hesitation.
She finally remembered Chen Fei's words; the ejection seats and parachutes that had fallen here had vanished without a trace, most likely eaten by these insects.
Probably not just those.
For a moment, the executive manager felt more wary of these insects, resembling rhinoceros cockroaches, than the mutant worm swarm they had just encountered.
The group quickly retreated to the Aircrew Base 911, and night fell soon after.
No sooner had they returned to the base than Chen Fei's phone began to ring.
The caller ID showed Teacher Shen Fei, and one could almost guess the reason behind the call.
"Chen Fei, you just got back?"
Teacher Shen had already made several calls, but could never reach anyone.
Fortunately, when she called the Aircrew Base again, she found out that Manager Hanna and Chen Fei had gone out together until it got dark before calling again.
Chen Fei tentatively asked, "Yes, I just got back. Is there something you need, Teacher Shen?"
Just then, Manager Hanna made a few hand signals at him.
Drinks tonight, are you in?
Chen Fei subtly nodded his head and walked towards his new residence at the Energy Tower.
Little Bird was extremely tired, curling up inside his pocket and occasionally chirping weakly, seemingly talking in its sleep.
"By the way, how did your investigation go? Did you find any of those mutants?"
Teacher Shen looked around, people of all ages were staring at her. Nobody dared to breathe too loudly, maintaining a deathly silence, not daring to interrupt her phone conversation with Chen Fei.
Sheep and other livestock had been driven far away; one could only faintly hear some noises.
Chen Fei was fortunate to have relayed the network signal all the way to a mountain area elementary school, leaving several sets of backup relay stations. Shen Fei and the mountaineers temporarily redirected the signal to a few villages where people crowded together for safety.
"Yes! We indeed found those mutants. They are hiding deep underground and can use the Earth Escape Technique."
Chen Fei thought and added, "In the areas where these mutants appear, there are many insects like Rhinoceros Cockroaches. You must be very careful!"
Speaking of the Earth Escape Technique, Teacher Shen, being from the same hometown, would surely understand what that meant.
Those "Rhinoceros Cockroaches" were very suspicious; it was hard to determine their relationship with the Mutant Worm Swarm. However, they left nothing behind in their path, posing a threat to ordinary people as well.
"I understand. We'll be careful with both types of insects."
Sure enough, Teacher Shen Fei understood the underlying meaning of his words.
The insects resembling rhinoceros cockroaches must have some connection with the Mutant Worm Swarm; once spotted,
one must be cautious as the Mutant Worm Swarm might appear in the vicinity any moment.
"Are you guys well-equipped with weapons? If not enough, I can think of something to help!"
Chen Fei wasn't just concerned about the flustered Patan people; he was mainly worried about Teacher Shen Fei's safety.
If Teacher Shen wasn't there, he wouldn't care about the locals' fate.
"For now, it's enough. The villagers pooled resources to buy two large sniper rifles, four large-caliber machine guns, three hundred anti-armor rockets, ten mortars, ten grenade launchers, four flame throwers, and several anti-infantry directional mines and hand grenades."
Teacher Shen Fei counted the emergency purchases on her fingers.
The villagers also had numerous 7.62mm caliber automatic weapons, which, when focused fire was applied, could not be underestimated.
Chen Fei thought for a moment and said, "Make some more Molotov cocktails; they might come in handy."
The high temperatures generated by fire should effectively threaten the Mutant Worm Swarm and the insects like Rhinoceros Cockroaches, considering proteins fear high heat, which denatures them into crispy chicken flavor.
"Molotov cocktails, ah, you're right, I'm on it. Gasoline, sugar, and what else was there?"
Teacher Shen Fei tried hard to recall her middle school chemistry classes.
Chen Fei reminded her, "Also rubber, white phosphorus…"
These materials were very easy to obtain. White phosphorus is a fire starter. This way, one doesn't need a visible flame to ignite before throwing; just smashing the bottle would cause the white phosphorus to react with air and self-ignite. Even without white phosphorus, it's just an extra step.
However, care must be taken during transport to avoid self-ignition.
"Right, right, right, I'm getting on it. We'll reconvene later. If there's any new information, please notify me immediately."
Chen Fei and Teacher Shen both ended the call together.
Teacher Shen remembered the recipe for the Molotov cocktail, couldn't wait to get started. The materials were readily available, cheap, and easy to put together.
However, there was still an urgent matter to attend to—the selected campground wasn't safe. It'd be better if the ground underneath was completely made of solid rock, making it difficult for the Earth Escape Technique-using mutant insects to surface.
After returning to his shack, Chen Fei gently placed Little Bird back in its nest, took a bath, changed into clean clothes, and headed to the cafeteria.
After dinner, he still had to help Chef Abel. The newly salted duck eggs were unexpectedly popular. Chen Fei and Chef Abel planned to process all their egg stocks, some into salted duck eggs and some into preserved eggs, to add variety to the cafeteria offerings, which was undeniably better than frozen meals.
Toting snacks that could serve as a drink accompaniment back to his shack, Chen Fei discovered that Manager Hanna had arrived half an hour earlier than the appointed time.
Xiao Jiu's nest had been placed on the round table for some reason; the female executive manager was peering into it.
"Manager Hanna, what's wrong?"
Chen Fei casually closed the door of the shack.
Since no one else came and there were no thieves at the Aircrew Base, locking the door made no difference.
Inside the nest was a Magical Beast Crystal Core that was quite valuable, but... you're here just to sneak a peek?
Hanna Gagar withdrew her gaze from the nest and straightened up again by the round table.