CH 59

Chapter 59: Ant Nest

Shi Qingyang had a deep impression of the ant nest. He once stayed in the ant nest for more than a month. At first, he was trapped inside one of the rooms in its tunnels, and then he slowly began to explore the whole ant nest.

There were several entrances to the ant nest, and he had been pushed in from one of the entrances above…

When Shi Qingyang ran with Cheng Ran to the vicinity of the ant nest, he was in a much more embarrassing state than in his previous life, with wounds all over his body. However, in his previous life, he was only a level-1 rad-warrior. This time he was a level-2.

Several attacks came towards him and Cheng Ran. Shi Qingyang stopped the attack that flew to Cheng Ran, and regardless of his injuries, he accelerated his speed. Fortunately, Cheng Ran also exercised normally, and his speed completely kept up with him.

The only trouble was that Cheng Ran couldn’t be allowed to be injured. Cheng Ran’s body had an abnormal rejection to radiation, and while other people’s injuries would just injuries, a radiation injury on Cheng Ran might even lead to him dying.

Although ant beasts would not take the initiative to attack humans, if humans approached their nests, the situation would be different. Not to mention that Shi Qingyang was now injured.

The ant beasts, that had been readying to make their move, suddenly surrounded Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran.

Although ant beasts were small in size, they had great strength. More importantly, ordinary worker ants had low intelligence, so they were unafraid of death…

When the ant beasts attacked, Shi Qingyang finally saw the nest opening.

Pretending to slip, Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran fell down together and didn’t forget to scream. Halfway down, however, Shi Qingyang propped his legs on the cave wall and stopped their fall at the middle of the cave.

This hole lead directly to the bottom, but there were small caves along the sides. From time to time, ants came in and out. Shi Qingyang was lucky to hide in one of them at the beginning. There was also a stone that could block the opening in the cave, which let him survive. This time, he spotted the cave again without any doubts.

The wounds on his hand became more and more painful. A climbing ant beast also bit Shi Qingyang’s leg. Shi Qingyang didn’t dare to move around. With a push, he shoved Cheng Ran into that hole with an opening only small enough for one person at a time, and then sent a wind blade to hit the tentacle of the ant beast, knocking the opponent down.

Taking advantage of this moment, Shi Qingyang also climbed into the hole.

Although this was a few months earlier, the situation presently was similar to what Shi Qingyang remembered from his first time in the ant nest. This hole was more like a crack in the rock, but because ant beasts came and went all year round, the crevice smoothed out .

The place inside was very small, only about five cubic meters, and it wasn’t possible to stand up straight when inside. But it wasn’t small for ant beasts, who turned it into a small nest room for storing ant eggs.

A dozen ant eggs were placed neatly in the middle of the nest room. In addition, an ant beast had approached Cheng Ran. Cheng Ran didn’t ask for help or panic, but instead shot countless bullets quickly.

As soon as Shi Qingyang climbed in, he quickly sent out several wind blades to strike at the ant beast’s joints. After twitching, the ant beast finally stopped moving.

At this time, there were two ant beasts trying to squeeze in at the cave entrance, and there were many more surrounding the outside. Shi Qingyang threw several wind blades to force back the two who were about to enter the cavern, then threw out the body of the ant beast in the room, which attracted several other ant beasts–ant beasts didn’t mind eating the bodies of their own kind.

“Ranran, you have to move that stone inside this cave over to the entrance, and block the entrance to the cave as soon as I come in,” Shi Qingyang told him.

“Alright,” Cheng Ran responded.

After giving orders, Shi Qingyang guarded the entrance of the cave and began to use radiant energy to drive away or kill the ant beasts around him. Fortunately, he didn’t use radiant energy so much along the way, so he could persist at this time.

Before, he and Gu Changjin had discussed their general countermeasures. At that time, they had already been in a desperate situation. If they could, they would grab a armored vehicle and leave. If not, he would pretend to have an accident and fall into the nest together with Cheng Ran. Gu Changjin would take the potential potion to stop the people coming after them and try to seriously injure or kill the level-5 radiant warrior, and then he could also jump into the ant nest.

Death surrounded them on all sides, and in the end, Gu Changjin agreed to cooperate. Now, everything was going according to plan.

The group of people who chased them outside were also injured. After Gu Changjin took the potential potion, he would inflict even more casualties on them. In addition, even the level-5 rad-warrior wouldn’t dare to enter the ant nest so easily, so they would be saved if they hid in this ant nest.

For the current situation, this was the best solution. Cheng Ran had no combat power. After taking the potential potion, Gu Changjin would be no different from being disabled, and he was injured on top of that…

Shi Qingyang stood at the mouth of the cave, and the scent of his body attracted more and more ant beasts. Fortunately, the cave was not large, and there would not be too many ant beasts that could climb in front of him. He could cope for a while, and in fact, he didn’t have to endure for long when Gu Changjin fell from above.

As soon as he caught Gu Changjin and stuffed him into the cave, Shi Qingyang felt that something was already pulling Gu Changjin inside. Seeing this, he hurriedly scrambled in, but while in the process of this, his leg had another chunk bitten…

An ant beast bit a small piece of meat from his wound, and another ant beast bit on his foot, though in the end its jaws couldn’t penetrate his combat suit.

After entering the cave, Shi Qingyang fired out several wind blades. Finally, Shi Qingyang breathed a sigh of relief, and then, together with Cheng Ran, blocked the cave with stones.

The cave was then surrounded by rock, and those worker ants had low intelligence. Since the queen ant hadn’t paid attention to those three enemies who invaded their nest, they didn’t have to kill them now that they couldn’t see them.

One could mention that these ant beasts sometimes raised some other mutant beasts in their nests, such as their beloved aphid beasts.

As soon as the hole was blocked, there was a dull noise outside. Shi Qingyang knew that it was most likely their hunters dropping a bomb. Fortunately, the cave they were hiding in was not the bottom of the passage, and the whole mountain was filled with rock, so the bomb did not affect them after it was dropped.

Cheng Ran used the weak light from the contact terminal to help Gu Changjin look at the wound, and then mentioned, “It’s all stone here.” 

“Yeah, we can hide pretty well here.” Shi Qingyang opened some of the containers he had tied to his body and began to spray hemostatic drugs on himself. At the same time, he sighed over this magical ant hole – this ant hole was originally some caves existing between cracks, extending in all directions, but it was extremely solid.

Perhaps it was because the ant beasts in the cave were agitated that Shi Qingyang felt that the radiation outside the cave made waves, and it seemed that countless ant beasts had ran out.

He breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize that the situation that all three of them faced was getting worse and worse.

The one in best shape was Cheng Ran. He didn’t suffer any injuries, but with his physical condition, even if he wore anti-radiation clothes, he would have an accident if he stayed out in the field for too long… The second was Shi Qingyang himself. He was scratched by several wind blades, and a small piece of flesh on his leg was bitten off by ant beasts. Although he still had a little combat power, he also needed to rest. The one in the worst shape was undoubtedly Gu Changjin.

Gu Changjin was already unconscious when he fell down. At this moment, he still hadn’t woken up. The radiation energy in his body had disappeared, and his body was severely overdrawn. His body was majorly damaged due to taking the potential potion. In this case, if he had been sent to the hospital immediately and had the help of a senior pharmacist to recuperate, he might still have two or three levels of radiation energy. Now… Whether he could survive at all was uncertain.

However, this was the best result for them. In the previous situation, if they didn’t hide here, they had no chance of escaping at all.

“Qingyang, I’ll give you medicine,” Cheng Ran said. He had helped deal with Gu Changjin’s external wounds, but when it came to the internal injuries, he was helpless to assist as he was now.

Speaking of just external injuries alone, Shi Qingyang had any more over his body than Gu Changjin, and looked to be in a frightening state. Though this was Cheng Ran’s first time seeing wounds that looked like this, he was unexpectedly not afraid. Although his bandaging speed wasn’t as proficient as Shi Qingyang’s, it was very standard.

Discovering Shi Qingyang’s doubts, Cheng Ran whispered, “I’ve watched videos on bandaging on the computer.”

“So smart.” Shi Qingyang grinned through the pain.

“Qingyang, you have to live,” Cheng Ran whispered.

“We’ll live together.” Shi Qingyang let out a ‘ss’ of breath.

Cheng Ran didn’t speak, and Shi Qingyang said, “I don’t know what’s going on outside. I hope those people think we’re all dead.”

In fact, there was a mess outside, and indeed, just as Shi Qingyang hoped, they thought they were dead.

Gu Changjin held back the level-5 rad-warrior before, but there was still a level-4 rad-warrior along with two level-3s pursuing Shi Qingyang. They watched Shi Qingyang fall into the ant nest with their own eyes and heard the scream.

When Shi Qingyang ran towards the ant nest, they felt that Shi Qingyang was likely leading them over to a hive like he did before, and wanted to use these beasts to deal with them. However, when he encountered the hive originally, Shi Qingyang was able to make a quick escape using his car. This time, however, he faced the consequences himself.

There were a lot of ants around the ant nest. After Shi Qingyang fell, several other people got entangled near the ant nest. If it weren’t for the strong combat effectiveness of level-4 rad-warrior, they would be in danger.

They solved the ants at the entrance of the cave and were about to check it out, when Gu Changjin suddenly broke out.

Gu Changjin managed to hold on the entire time, his attacks becoming weaker and weaker while still perfectly blocking the path behind him. Everyone saw this, so when they found that Gu Changjin had blocked their pursuit and let Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran run for their lives, they all felt that Gu Changjin had been planning to die.

Gu Changjin’s strength was also very weak when he blocked the level-5 powerhouse.

Gu Changjin was not young, and he had been a housekeeper for over ten years. No one thought he had much fighting power. Just because of this, the level-5 powerhouse directly confronted him, but he didn’t expect that when Gu Changjin saw that he was about to lose, Cheng Ran and Shi Qingyang unexpectedly fell into the ant nest, and then Gu Changjin suddenly burst out with strong radiant energy.

Even their eldest brother who brought them here to hunt down Cheng Ran this time was killed by Gu Changjin.

“The boss is gone. What should we do now?” After repelling the swarming ants, a level-3 rad-warrior looked at the level-4 radiant warrior who had been chasing Shi Qingyang.

“What else can we do, obviously we have to leave first,” the level-4 powerhouse said angrily. Gu Changjin obviously consumed something he shouldn’t have, so after killing their boss, he started bleeding through his seven orifices, but to everyone’s surprise, Gu Changjin had endured through the pain and even managed to strike a hole into the level-4 warrior’s shoulder in a single breath.

If Gu Changjin hadn’t lost his strength at that time, that sword would probably have pierced his chest.

Of course, he didn’t let Gu Changjin take advantage of him. At that time, he threw several blades in a row, cut several holes in Gu Changjin, and pushed the dying Gu Changjin into the ant nest along with a grenade.

“Shall we check to see if the three people are still alive?” someone asked. Their boss’s death made them panic, but they were not very sad. They were outlaws, and they always listened to whoever was strong.

“How can those three people still be alive? Gu Changjin was half dead when he fell in… The boss’s dying attack wasn’t just for show,” the level-4 rad-warrior said. Gu Changjin really killed their boss, and their boss also gave Gu Changjin a hard blow… Gu Changjin should have taken some medicine to enhance his strength, and was severely injured. He wouldn’t survive even without falling into an ant nest, let alone surviving now that he’d gone inside. “Besides, there are so many ant beasts there, who would dare to go in?”

As soon as he asked this, the survivors were silent. After they had just thrown grenades, many ant beasts suddenly climbed out of the mountain…

For the first time, they found that ant beasts were still such terrible things! And now they finally managed to escape, of course they couldn’t go back in.

“If our tank was still there, we could get some bombs from it to blow up the ant nest. But now that they’ve destroyed our tank, what else can we do? We have to walk to ask for help,” the level-4 rad-warrior with the injured shoulder said. It had come all this way with them, experienced so many battles, and they’d even wrapped their tank in radiant energy to keep it safe, but when they got off the car and searched, someone seized the opportunity to blow it up!

They also took medicine and several grenades with them. The grenades had been used up when dealing with ant beasts just now, and now even eating was a problem…

What if they ate something contaminated by radiation? That kind of food would damage their bodies…

“They can’t live anymore. Don’t forget that the young master of the Cheng family is an ordinary person who doesn’t even have rad-energy. At least we can eat something from the wild, but he can’t eat a mouthful… It’s no big deal to leave someone here to watch and see if they escaped. If they don’t come out in a few days, they’re probably dead,” another level-4 rad-warrior said. Because some people had fallen behind, now there were only two levels-4 left here, and both of them are slightly injured.

In fact, the young master of the Cheng family dying in an ant nest was a good thing for them. They can even justify themselves if caught.

“Yes, let’s eliminate the traces first, and then arrange someone to guard here. Cheng Ran is just an ordinary person, and he can’t last long!” Other people also reacted. Most of them were rad-warriors. Although it was inconvenient to live in the wild, they could persist for a few days. After someone brought them food, they likely had no major problems except wearing combat clothes all day, but it would be different for Cheng Ran.

The people outside planned to hold on for a few days, waiting on Cheng Ran’s endurance. In the ant nest, Shi Qingyang was also worried.

Cheng Ran couldn’t even bear a radiation inducer. How could he live in the hostile wild environment?

The feeding mouth on the anti-radiation mask could use a straw to drink water and eat liquid food. He also brought some water and several tubes of liquid high nutritional food with him, but even if he gave them all to Cheng Ran, it couldn’t last for a few days, not to mention there was also Gu Changjin. Gu Changjin’s body condition was too severe. Even if they gave Gu Changjin all of the medicine he could take, his life’s breath was still weak.

If he left soon, his experience told him that so long as he didn’t kill all the ants, he would be attacked the moment he went out.

“Ranran, how do you feel now?” Shi Qingyang looked at Cheng Ran.

“I’m fine. I’m fine now,” Cheng Ran said. This day’s events were extremely stressful for him. He was still tense now, but he had been trying to calm himself.

“Ranran, if you feel uncomfortable, just tell me. It would be better if we stay here for a few more days,” Shi Qingyang said. He had planned to find an excuse to come here in the future, but he didn’t expect to end up here at this time.

Who knew if he was as lucky as he had been in his last life.

Cheng Ran had wrapped up all the wounds on Shi Qingyang’s body. He was silent and leaned against Shi Qingyang.

His anti-radiation suit gave him no chance to have skin contact with Shi Qingyang, but his heart was much calmer.

Rationally, he thought that his chances of survival were slim. But Gu Changjin and Shi Qingyang had done so much, he could never give up now!