CH 61

Chapter 61: Male Ant Beast

The radiation contained in ant eggs really wasn’t too strong. Nature was so magical; in the past, people couldn’t directly drink seawater, but could eat the fish in the sea. Now, animals living in a radiation-filled environment often condensed all kinds of harmful substances on the surface of their bodies, but the meat within contained relatively little radiation. At least, to a level that was completely acceptable to humans today–even ordinary people in the present had some radioactive substances in their bodies.

“Ranran, you can’t eat this until there’s no other choice,” Shi Qingyang strongly insisted. He should have protected Cheng Ran well, but in the end, he hurt Cheng Ran to this point. Could he still helplessly watch on and let something happen to Cheng Ran?

“Qingyang, I think there’s something different about these ant eggs,” Cheng Ran suddenly said. “I feel very comfortable when I touch them.” He wore very expensive radiation protection clothes, but the wild environment still made him uncomfortable. He even felt his skin being stabbed from time to time, but this feeling disappeared when he was close to these ant eggs.

Shi Qingyang was stunned, and soon crawled to the side of those ant eggs. He always remembered that he had been in this ant nest for more than a month, and then inexplicably became a level-3 radiant warrior. After going out, he completely broke through the limitations of his talent, and his strength began to become stronger and stronger

He never knew what caused all these changes. He once returned to the ant nest, but he didn’t see anything useful. Now, Cheng Ran unexpectedly said that these ant eggs were somehow different.

Could it have been that these ant eggs he had eaten were what had changed him? Shi Qingyang was in a complicated mood for a while. He ate the ant eggs in this nest room at that time, and later he ate the ant eggs in other nests. He couldn’t remember how many he ate in total, and as for the ones he didn’t eat, he had stabbed them one by one out of resentment…

If his changes were really caused by these ant eggs, then he had been far too wasteful back then!

However, countless people had eaten ant eggs. Some people liked to eat live mutant insect eggs, but no one turned out like him. Was there any other reason to this?

Shi Qingyang took off his gloves and put his hand on an ant egg, but he didn’t feel anything. He stroked the eggs one by one and used radiant energy when checking them, but he still didn’t discover that made these ant eggs different from ordinary ones.

In his senses, these were very ordinary ant eggs. At most they were a little weak–they were not like the mole cricket eggs he had seen before, which had strong radiation on the outside.

“Qingyang, these ant eggs are very comfortable to touch and a little cool. How about putting two beside Grandpa Gu?” Cheng Ran added, “Also, I don’t need to eat for the time being. If I really want to eat something, I’ll eat the ant eggs.”

“Ranran, do you really think these ant eggs are somewhat different?” Shi Qingyang couldn’t help asking. Although he couldn’t feel it, he couldn’t be sure that Cheng Ran’s feeling was wrong. You know,Cheng Ran didn’t have any radiation in his body, so Cheng Ran’s sense about some things would be more profound.

Cheng Ran nodded: “I think the outside world is very violent, but these ant eggs are not. They are very stable, Qingyang. I think it’s fine for me to eat these ant eggs.” He still didn’t give up persuading Shi Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang was silent for a moment. He knew that his radiant energy in his last life was much more stable than ordinary people. Now Cheng Ran got the sense that these ant eggs were very comfortable to him. Maybe they really were unique.

The radiation of ant eggs themselves was very weak, and Cheng Ran felt very comfortable upon touching them. Maybe it really would be fine for thim to try to eat some ant eggs.

After a moment of silence, Shi Qingyang said, “I’ll open an ant egg. You can take a sip with a straw first. Don’t drink too much.”

There was a straw for consumption on the anti-radiation suit, which also allowed ordinary people who couldn’t withstand radiation to eat without taking off the lower facial cover in the wild. Most people didn’t use this setting, but Cheng Ran now depended on it.

“Alright.” Cheng Ran nodded. He had never been short of food or drink in his life. The Cheng family gave him living expenses every month, so he had never tried to eat such things in the past, but now that food was scarce, he had to adapt.

Shi Qingyang made a hole in the ant egg. Immediately, there was a thin layer of skin on the surface of the ant egg which began to deteriorate due to exposure to radiation, but the inside was intact. Cheng Ran sucked two mouthfuls of the viscous liquid and forced himself to swallow it. Then he saw Shi Qingyang staring at him: “How do you feel?”

“I’m fine,” Cheng Ran said. He had no other problems except that he felt a little nauseous now, and disgusted… Shi Qingyang could even eat raw meat, yet he can’t even stand to swallow this?

On this thought, Cheng Ran no longer felt sick.

“Let’s wait first.” Shi Qingyang turned on Cheng Ran’s body detector. If it detected any issues in Cheng Ran’s body, he wouldn’t give Cheng Ran any more.

The data on the detector was very normal. Shi Qingyang had been waiting for several hours, but Cheng Ran’s state didn’t differ from the usual.

“Ranran, are you really not uncomfortable?” Shi Qingyang couldn’t help asking again.

“I’m not uncomfortable. I don’t feel anything, but Qingyang, I want to go to the bathroom,” Cheng Ran said. He had actually been enduring it for a long time.

After Cheng Ran said this, Shi Qingyang realized he also needed to go. Fortunately, he remembered that there was a stone crack behind him that could be used to solve this issue, so he pointed out the direction to Cheng Ran. Once again, he was glad that Gu Changjin bought Cheng Ran an expensive anti-radiation suit for ordinary people. This kind of anti-radiation suit not only had an intake port for eating, but also an excretion port which could be cleaned through a disposable bag. As long as Cheng Ran was careful, he would be fine.

After Cheng Ran solved his issue, he returned to Shi Qingyang. Obviously, he was a little embarrassed, so he let himself focus elsewhere: “Qingyang, can I eat some more ant eggs? I don’t feel unwell, so even if I eat some more, it doesn’t matter.” He was now hungry and thirsty, but since the ant eggs were liquid, both of those needs would be solved after he ate them.

“Sure.” Shi Qingyang nodded. Only when one was full could one have strength. He had always believed this. If possible, he didn’t want Cheng Ran to be hungry at all.

The surface of the  just-opened ant eggs was contaminated by radiation, but the insides were fine. This time, Cheng Ran took a few mouthfuls and ate a lot. It was only after his stomach was full that he breathed a sigh of relief.

Gu Changjin couldn’t eat the ant eggs now. If this ant egg had something to do with him growing stronger in his previous life… Shi Qingyang soon ate the remaining half of the ant eggs, but like Cheng Ran, he didn’t feel anything special.

After eating, Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran fed Gu Changjin some water together, then opened the rock at the mouth of the cave and began to kill ant beasts.

Shi Qingyang didn’t want to eat this time. He just wanted to kill more ants and reduce the number so that they could escape from the ant nest in the future.

Those ant beasts were all crowded in the hole, trying to attack him, but he quickly killed the ants one by one.

Shi Qingyang remembered that in his last life, he first hid in the hole and never dared to go out until later. At that time, in addition to sleeping, he ate ant beasts and killed ant beasts. He didn’t know how long he had been killing them, stuck in the dark, until suddenly, he found that his rad-energy had become stronger, and the speed of killing ants became faster.

A level-1 rad-warrior could easily deal with a single ant beast. Even if the cave entrance Shi Qingyang guarded was fully opened, only two ant beasts could come in. His strength was far greater than that of his previous life, so when he sent out a few blades, he could directly kill two ant beasts.

The dead ant beasts would fall down along the straight cave outside, or be directly taken away by its companions behind it as food. In this way, he even saved the work of cleaning the battlefield.

Shi Qingyang stored his radiant energy, killed hundreds of ant beasts, and then closed the hole. He then cut open the meat of the ant beasts he kept with a knife, and ate them in twos or threes.

Although it was difficult to eat the first time, he felt much better now.

After eating, Shi Qingyang simply cleaned himself up and went to Cheng Ran to check the detector on his radiation suit. After seeing it, his expression immediately changed: “You have a fever. Why didn’t you tell me?” The screen showed that Cheng Ran’s temperature was a little too high.

“I don’t feel it. Really, I don’t feel it at all,” Cheng Ran immediately said.

By the light of the detector, Shi Qingyang also found that Cheng Ran’s face looked to be in a very healthy state, but his temperature was so high, which was absolutely abnormal.

“Qingyang, I think I’m even better than ever now,” Cheng Ran emphasized again. He wanted to say more, but Gu Changjin, who was next to him, suddenly moved.

While they were making their escape they had used up the Almighty Elixirs, the potions to increase radiant energy, and the potions to prevent radiant energy riots, but they had still had some medicine for treating wounds and first aid medicine. Cheng Ran had also used those up for Gu Changjin according to the detector’s suggestion.

Gu Changjin’s temperature had fallen. Although his current condition was still bad, the side effects of the potential potion had subsided, and he also woke up.

“Grandpa Gu.” Shi Qingyang opened the contact terminal so that there was a little light in the cave and immediately looked at Gu Changjin.

Gu Changjin’s eyes couldn’t focus at the start. After a long time, he looked at Shi Qingyang and Cheng Ran. He opened his mouth, but unfortunately he couldn’t say anything.

“Grandpa Gu, now that you’ve woken and are alright, things will be fine!” Cheng Ran said.

Gu Changjin stared at Cheng Ran for a while with soft eyes, but finally closed his eyes and fell into a coma again.

Shi Qingyang looked at Gu Changjin and then glanced at Cheng Ran, but he found that Cheng Ran’s high temperature, which was shown on the detector just now, had fallen.

The ant eggs were probably related to the variation of his radiation energy in his previous life. Maybe this was a good thing. Cheng Ran said that he felt very at ease eating the ant eggs, so Shi Qingyang let him eat them. However, Cheng Ran had a small appetite and couldn’t finish eating them every time, so he gave the rest to him.

For the next three days, Cheng Ran’s temperature rose from time to time, and it would drop again soon. If it weren’t for him not having problems in other aspects, Shi Qingyang would have been very anxious.

In addition to Cheng Ran, Gu Changjin’s situation was also somewhat similar. He occasionally woke up only to soon fall unconscious again. Every time he woke up, the two of them would give him something to eat. Now three days later, they had consumed all the water and nutrient solution.

Cheng Ran completely relied on ant eggs to supplement food and drink. Shi Qingyang was in better condition. He could collect water droplets on the cave wall. Although these drops of water were few and full of radioactive substances, it had little impact on him.

Shi Qingyang spent most of the day killing ant beasts at the entrance of the hole. Now he wanted to kill them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to do this. There were so many ant beasts here, and the whole mountain extended in all directions… He lived in the cave for a month in his last life. How could he solve all these in only three days in this life?

“Can we escape?” Gu Changjin was already able to say. This time he woke up and saw Shi Qingyang killing ant beasts, and he couldn’t help asking.

“Grandpa Gu, we must be able to escape. Maybe the people who are coming to rescue us are already outside.” Shi Qingyang laughed, and while skillfully killing the ant beast in front of him, he began to observe the nest room next to him.

Next, Gu Changjin also had to eat ant eggs. Even if these ant eggs were not the ones that brought him his good fortune, he also needed to find an opportunity to grab some ant eggs outside for food.

“I hope so.” Gu Changjin breathed a sigh of relief. After his whole body relaxed, he was a little sleepy again.

Shi Qingyang’s main food that day was ant beast meat as usual. At the same time, he opened an ant beast’s egg, let Cheng Ran eat some, and then let Gu Changjin eat some. The rest could not be stored for a long time, so he ate it himself as usual.

Three days later, on the seventh day they fell into the ant nest, even though they were very economical, there was only one ant egg left.

Gu Changjin had survived and didn’t die in the end, but now even if he wanted to move, he was a complete wreck. Cheng Ran had to tend to his needs for eating, drinking, and excretion. There was no way to think about fighting. Cheng Ran didn’t even need to be mentioned. Although he seemed to have completely adapted to eating ant eggs, after all, he was an ordinary person and couldn’t fight.

Shi Qingyang knew that he was the only one he could rely on to get ant eggs.

Although Shi Qingyang had been repeating the cycle of killing ant beasts, resting, killing ant beasts, resting, and still killing countless ant beasts, there remained many ant beasts crawling back and forth outside, which made him a little worried, lest he be trapped elsewhere.

But at this time, he had to go out.

Shi Qingyang climbed out of the cave, and then joined forces with Cheng Ran inside to block the hole with the rock. After this, he quickly climbed down a few steps before the ants around him gathered, and climbed into a nest room beside him which he had kept an eye on for several days.

This nest room was larger than his previous one, with dozens of ant eggs neatly placed in the middle, and some ant beasts crawling around…

Shi Qingyang was afraid of being trapped here by these ant beasts. He didn’t dare to fight. He stuffed a dozen ant eggs that hadn’t hatched into the prepared holders made of clothes, then immediately sent out a wind blade to kill several ant beasts blocking him the hole before climbing up.

Just as he climbed to the hole, before he pushed the stone blocking the entrance, Shi Qingyang suddenly found an ant beast larger than a worker ant beast rushing towards him. This was a male ant beast!

Male ants never went out to find food, only accepting the support of worker ants, but if they found danger, they would also crawl out.

Shi Qingyang had been lucky in his last life. In the beginning, he hadn’t encountered any at all, and later, he had squeezed into a small stone crack. In this way the male ant beasts and the queen ant couldn’t attack him, but he could attack them with radiant energy. In the end, he exhausted them through a battle of attrition…

Now did he meet the male ant in advance because he killed the worker ants too fast? Shi Qingyang didn’t have time to think about it. A few wind blades flew towards the male ant beast, and tried to push the stone at the mouth of the cave.

Unfortunately, although his attack hurt the male ant beast, it also stirred up the male ant beast’s fury, and it rushed over suddenly.

The stone blocking the hole could not be pushed away by the ant beast because there was a groove, but this stone could roll away to the side. At this time, Cheng Ran, who had been worried about Shi Qingyang, just pushed open a gap.

Shi Qingyang was stuck by the entrance, and the outside was surrounded by ant beasts, but this was not the most important thing. At this time, the male ant beast even bit Cheng Ran’s hand along the gap.

Shi Qingyang’s eyes instantly turned red.