Chapter 12: Infecting The Colony
With a mixed feeling of guilt and joy wrapped shut in its heart, the blood ant quickly treaded toward its home.
Clasping the zombie’s arm securely, the blood ant jumped.
With a loud thud, it landed on the ravine’s floor. The impact created several small craters in the ground with shallow cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.
With steadfast steps, it slowly entered the hole in the wall. A narrow tunnel stretched from the hole, slanting down into the depths of the ground.
As the blood ant continued to walk through, the zombie arm in its mouth started to scrape off the tunnel walls.
By the time the ant entered a small pocket in the ground, a small part of the flesh on the arm had already been shed.
Right now, the blood ant stood before a maze of swirling tunnels. Before its eyes, countless tunnels extended in different directions—each going towards a completely different section of its home.
Nearly a hundred blood ants stood before its eyes. Because of the unwanted commotion some time ago, the colony had become vigilant.
Obeying their queen’s orders, hundreds of blood ants were deployed near the entrance. But when a blood ant came through holding onto a zombie’s leftover arm, the other ants stared in confusion.
As far as they knew, a small group of their family was ordered to patrol outside, not hunt.
Exchanging concerned gazes, the ants considered what to do. But before they could speak, the incoming ant quickly presented the zombie’s arm.
Releasing its mandibles, it gently put it down before hundreds of ants. Seeing its actions, one of the guards stepped forward cautiously and extended its antennae.
The patrolling ant touched its antennae and told the guard everything that happened in detail.
How an intruder zombie suddenly killed one of their family members.
How its brothers furiously chased after the intruder.
And how, upon capturing the intruder, its brothers gave it a slow and torturous death.
Upon hearing these words, all of the guards present couldn’t help but feel enraged. When they thought everything was fine, another member of their family had been murdered!
"But this?" The guard asked unpleasantly, staring at the zombie’s arm.
"Brothers gave. They said, share with family."
As soon as the patrolling ant muttered those words, hundreds of guard ants pounced on the arm. The patrolling guard was pushed aside, as within moments, the arm disappeared without a trace.
For a moment, the patrolling ant felt sad because it couldn’t get a share itself. However, had it known how vicious of a trap it was, it wouldn’t even dare hold it between its teeth.
At this moment, a strange green hue began to emerge in its eyes.
***
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[#/System Notification/#]
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[Unique circumstances have been detected.]
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[The designated user has formulated a viable expansion strategy.]
[The Overlord System has acknowledged the user’s plan.]
[Generating Compatible Mission...]
[...]
[Mission Generated Successfully.]
***
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[#/Mission/#]
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[Mission]
└ ■ Conquer the Blood Ant Colony
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[Description:]
The Blood Ant Colony has become an ideal target for expansion.
Capture the colony while minimizing unnecessary casualties.
A complete colony will provide a significantly greater long-term benefit than a destroyed one.
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[Objectives:]
■ Dominate the Blood Ant Queen.
■ Bring the entire Blood Ant Colony under your authority.
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[Current Progress:]
■ Blood Ants:
└ 112 / 1,407
■ Blood Ant Queen:
└ 0 / 1
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[Mission Rating:]
└ ■ Dynamic
[Reward:]
└ ■ Reward quality will be determined according to overall performance.
└ ■ Higher completion rates and fewer casualties will yield greater rewards.
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[Failure Conditions:]
└ ■ User Death.
└ ■ Death of the Blood Ant Queen.
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[Time Limit:]
└ ■ None
---
Staring at the system window, Ethan grinned proudly.
"It worked just right, though; I’d better not let this get to my head!"
Every once in a while, Ethan had been reminding himself constantly.
An SSS-ranked class. A unique system. Skills powerful enough to overturn common sense.
Any ordinary person would eventually grow arrogant.
Ethan refused to become one of them.
’If I don’t pay attention to my actions, who knows, maybe I’ll die a stupid death.’
"Now that I think about it," He quickly diverted his mind off-topic, "It’s about time for the undead registry to update."
Just as he said so, a new system window appeared before his eyes.
---
———————————————————
[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[Updating Undead Registry...]
[...]
[New Undead Registered.]
└ ■ Zombie Blood Ant (F) ×104
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[Current Registered Undead:]
└ ■ Zombie Blood Ant (F) ×112
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[Total Undead Under Authority:]
└ ■ 112
***
[A new achievement has been registered.]
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[Achievement]
└ ■ Dominate Over One Hundred Undead
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[Description:]
Successfully establish authority over more than one hundred undead under your command.
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[Achievement Reward:]
└ ■ Wood-Rank Selection Box ×1
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[Item Description:]
The lowest-ranked selection box.
Allows the user to personally choose one reward from several options upon opening.
Different selection boxes may contain different rewards.
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"A reward selection box? That’s nice!" Seeing his reward, Ethan was content.
Right now, his entire mind focused on his left arm. Though it had been healing rapidly, only a few minutes had passed.
"I can’t wait that long just to let my arm heal on its own. The pair of humans has already died. Clearly, they had ulterior motives. If they belonged to any organization, they’d surely send more after their disappearance."
Ethan’s biggest concern was the blood ant colony and the blood stones.
If a blood ant colony could boost his strength, then the blood stones were rare materials that could come in handy anytime!
"Listen up." Moving his gaze towards the zombie blood ants, he commanded coldly. "Search through the forest and bring me bodies of any animals that you can find!"
Under the effects of his skill—Undead Command—the ants obeyed his command and began to search the forest.