Chapter 120: Insect-Human City, Queen's Controlled Enclave
Lin Feng slowed his pace, transforming into a bright yellow blur, weaving through the city's streets and alleys. In some corners, he noticed open manhole covers, evidence of insect activity.
As Lin Feng suspected, the insects hadn't demolished the city but integrated into it, using the existing sewer system to build nests and survive.
This was unusual.
Much like humans can't revert to living in caves, the city's infrastructure doesn't align with insect habits.
If not for exterminating and consuming the humans in the city, insects likely wouldn't care for the urban jungle.
With curiosity, Lin Feng cautiously advanced.
He traversed the edge of the previous battle.
The area, once littered with insect corpses and debris, was now cleaned. Aside from the destruction caused by shotguns, there were few signs of the fierce urban skirmish from three to four hours ago.
Presumably, after Lin Feng's team retreated, Red Beetles emerged to clean up.
The Land Cruiser Battleship could only navigate main roads, leaving Black Spinal Bug corpses in side alleys uncollected. The situation didn't allow for a prolonged stay.
Not knowing when the next insect attack would come, and if twice as many Tier 2 Tiger Bugs arrived next time, Lin Feng couldn't escape to support, risking the loss of over a hundred awakeners to a stray Tiger Bug.
The hurried retreat left the battlefield unswept.
Seeing the clean streets and mall didn't surprise Lin Feng.
But after a few steps, he halted.
At a mall entrance, the glass was shattered by shotguns, yet the broken glass was swept into piles against the wall.
The peculiar insect blood stains weren't licked clean by Red Beetles but washed with a slick detergent layer, emitting a faint fragrance.
Low-level insects lack such awareness and wouldn't clean debris with detergent.
This meant survivors were in the insect-occupied city, using tools to clean the battlefield.
This deepened Lin Feng's curiosity.
How did these people avoid insect patrols and survive in a resource-scarce city?
Unfortunately, telepathy couldn't detect life forms below lv7, excluding ordinary people from its range.
With questions, Lin Feng cautiously entered the mall.
After ten minutes of thorough searching, he found no one but traces of human activity.
Some signs were fresh, like footprints in damp soil.
Following the tracks, they led deeper into Jia City.
Lin Feng hid in the shadows, continuing forward.
He needed to find these people to understand Jia City's strange situation.
How did human survivors coexist with insects?
Insects can't speak, but humans can.
As Lin Feng ventured further into the city center, passing a park, the lush summer foliage in the forest mirrored the trees lining the roads...
Red Beetles hadn't consumed these low-fat foods.
It was entirely different from Haicheng's outskirts.
Insects seemed to treat this city as their home, preserving its former state.
Soon, Lin Feng, hiding in a corner, saw figures emerge from the park's woods.
There were indeed survivors!
Lin Feng's eyes focused, but he didn't call out, opting to observe their actions.
Surprisingly, these survivors were cultivating crops in the park's soil.
They used tools like shovels and hoes, appearing as ordinary laborers.
If Jia City hadn't been overrun by insects, Lin Feng might have believed it.
Such blatant farming without insect consent made them sheep for slaughter.
Lin Feng considered a possibility.
Relying solely on military force to conquer couldn't sustain such a large insect population; there must be other stable energy sources.
Since the invasion began over a month ago, humanity hadn't uncovered the alien insects' societal structure.
The insects' organizational order, societal form, and most crucially...
Their basic energy acquisition method!
Water is a fundamental energy substrate, like humans on Blue Star relying on plants for photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy like sugars, starches, and proteins.
Photosynthesis occurs on sunlit planets, but insect hives are buried over a hundred meters underground, sometimes deeper.
In the sealed underground, sunlight is absent. Only ancient bacteria and primitive cells survive.
Thus, insects must use unknown methods to obtain additional biomass.
Seeing survivors farming in the insect-occupied zone, Lin Feng wondered...
Could the insects be enslaving humans?
Forcing them to grow food for the insects.
Like the parasitic host Cheng Zhan revealed before dying, this alien insect species had invaded multiple planets, with the lowly Red Beetles as conquered alien life forms.
If humanity fell, they could become insect slaves, handling logistics or caring for high-tier insect offspring...
Considering this, Lin Feng, planning to approach, crouched and retreated quietly.
Leaving the park, he ventured deeper into the city center.
Not long after crossing two districts, Lin Feng, within five kilometers of the city center, detected a cluster of dense signals via telepathy.
Judging by the signal size and brightness, they were around 100 health.
Likely a group of early-stage Tier 1 Black Spinal Bugs.
But the density was far greater than any swarm Lin Feng had encountered.
As he delved deeper, a new possibility emerged.
Could these signals be human awakeners?
This thought lingered in Lin Feng's mind...
Ten minutes later, Lin Feng reached a hundred meters from the clustered signals, crouching atop a high-rise.
The signals were in a large shopping mall, the Wanya Shopping Center.
Seeing this, Lin Feng's suspicions grew.
The mall couldn't house hundreds of Black Spinal Bugs; only the slender human awakeners could survive there.
Soon, human figures leaving the mall confirmed Lin Feng's hypothesis.
A group of survivors left the mall for the nearby greenery.
There, they were also cultivating crops.
Seeing only five people, Lin Feng quietly approached from behind.
Controlling his strength, he knocked out three, pointing his gun at the remaining man and woman.
They were stronger than the others, both mid-stage Tier 1 lv13, small leaders of the enclave.
"Hands up, don't move!"
Lin Feng ordered, releasing his mid-Tier 2 awakening aura, causing the pair to kneel in panic.
Seeing an outsider, the pair seemed hesitant and shocked.
Clearly, outsiders were rare here.
The city's outskirts were defended by swarms, blocking "invaders."
"You're... from outside?!"
The kneeling man realized, recognizing everyone in the enclave, but not the young man before him, unfamiliar in appearance and aura.
Lin Feng nodded slightly, asking:
"Jia City has fallen to insects. Why are you alive? Why haven't the swarms attacked?"
The man swallowed, visibly agitated, while the numb woman briefly showed hope upon Lin Feng's admission.
"We're... being farmed."
"The enclave's overseers are a group of..."
Fear crossed the man's face. The woman snapped out of it, adding:
"A group of inhuman insect people!"
"Parasites control their speech and thoughts, ruling and enslaving survivors."
Lin Feng nodded, unsurprised.
If Haicheng's queen used a parasitic host to infiltrate the Thirteenth Division's leadership, stealing intelligence, other queens could control local humans via parasitism.
The pair seemed shocked by Lin Feng's indifferent reaction.
They believed such news would cause an uproar if spread outside.
The supposedly dim-witted insects possessed intelligence, capable of parasitic communication with humans...
"Continue, the insects' purpose for farming you."
Lin Feng raised his gun slightly, his tone stern, not trusting them despite the lack of parasitism.
The man, alarmed, quickly said:
"I'm Huang Qixin, she's Lin Ping."
"The insects arrived here half a month ago."
"The city still had tens of thousands of Jia City locals. Unfortunately, the Federation sent no garrison. We were surrounded on evacuation routes, forcing survivors back into the city..."
"Thousands hid in the center."
"But that day, the insects didn't attack. Instead, a few people emerged from the swarm... insect people."
"They announced we could live if we followed their orders and stayed in the center, granting us the city's resources."
"Afterwards... our nightmare began."
"Survivors were taken to the mall center, where insect people made a living flesh incubation device. We were forced to reproduce inside..."
"Two weeks after conception, they extracted the placenta."
"Placed it in that flesh construct for sustenance."
Huang Qixin glanced at Lin Ping.
Her haggard, numb expression and shrunken abdomen confirmed his story.
After Huang Qixin's fearful account, Lin Ping added:
"You... were the explosions in the city east this morning the Federation coming to save us?"
Lin Feng didn't answer, shaking his head slightly, his gaze growing colder.
This queen's ambition rivaled Haicheng's.
Though weaker than Haicheng's forces, it was plotting to seize humanity's reproductive abilities, aiming for complete control.
Children raised by insects, infiltrating human safe zones, would evade scans without physical parasitism.
Subtle mental control and brainwashing were more terrifying than any tactic.
Lin Feng briefly considered destroying this insect-controlled enclave.
Allowing their development could yield bizarre creations.
Compared to human gene warriors, would insects mass-produce high-intelligence Tier 2 insect people?!
To swiftly dismantle human resistance.
Thinking this, Lin Feng's gaze on the survivors grew colder.
Despite his efforts, he couldn't save thousands in the enclave.
This meant waging war on all city insects.
Not just breaking through one side.
Killing was simpler than saving.
They remained a perpetual threat...
As Lin Feng prepared to pull the trigger, a group of humans approached from behind.
Most were enhancers, but among them was a cloaked figure, its back hunched like a crone.
The figure was early Tier 2.
Lin Feng quickly identified it:
"Insect Queen Host, lv21/29"
"Health 250, Physique 210, Spirit 290"
Confirming its identity, Lin Feng aimed his gun.
The host's raspy voice emerged from the apathetic crowd:
"Hello, brave human warrior..."
Lin Feng smirked:
"Disperse these people; they mean nothing to me."
The crone chuckled, unconcerned:
"Humanity's weakness is compassion, for kin and others."
"Only a few overcome this, becoming rulers of your kind."
"They glorify this emotion, making sheep for slaughter, easing their reign..."
Lin Feng frowned, abruptly turning his gun, firing two shots behind him!
The kneeling man and woman fell, holes in their heads.
Lin Ping clutched a sharp spike, coated in vile, toxic fluid.
Lin Feng turned back, switching his divine pistol to the lv25 Armor-Piercing Railgun, eyeing the host with interest:
"What did you promise them to die?"
The crone waved her bony fingers, dispersing the crowd:
"Her unborn child and freedom."
"Your kin's obsession with sacrifice for family is useful..."
"And you humans have a saying,"
"Everything's for sale if the price is right."
Lin Feng nodded, diverting his gun to the Wanya Shopping Mall:
"You're right."
"Anyone inside takes another step, they'll stay here forever."
The host grimaced, halting the retreat.
Sensing something, it bowed respectfully:
"Her Majesty wishes to speak with you..."
Lin Feng frowned:
"We have nothing to discuss."
"I'm more interested in you than the queen."
As he spoke, the host convulsed, collapsing, its humped back swelling.
A gentle female voice emerged from the crone's mouth:
"How much to sway you..."
"Say, a hundred Tier 2 Tiger Bugs?"
Some say insects lack intelligence—not true.
The plot thickens, full steam ahead!
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