CHAPTER 349: CHAPTER 328: PREPARATIONS FOR THE SECOND ROUND

Everyone sighed with relief when Tang Er and Yao drove over. Yao Wei went ahead and grabbed Gou.

The drone flew over, stopped at Yao Wei’s feet, and was picked up by Yao Wei with her other hand.

"We were just worried about you guys, afraid that Boss Liang and Xu might run back, and you wouldn’t be able to sneak back. Didn’t expect you to return so soon, great! Great!"

Luo Ping joyfully patted Tang Er and Yao on the shoulder, smiling as he spoke.

After he finished speaking, he asked, "I saw on the resonant gene scanner that one person is missing on the opposite side, what type did you kill?"

Yao looked at Tang Er, and Tang Er thought for a moment, then said, "It should be a Type C.

"To be honest, I’m not even sure if I killed it. I relied on Gou to guide me in the direction, and I seem to have hit someone with a stone.

"But after hitting, I only heard a bit of noise, couldn’t see anything."

Luo Ping nodded and said, "Understood, you killed someone, the abilities of the D-type Neo-Humans were still being displayed, so the D-type Neo-Human is still there.

"And you did indeed kill someone; that person only got hit by your stone, without body separation or anything, so it couldn’t have been a B-type Neo-Human.

"At the time, the Type A’s had all run out, not at the back, so the one you killed could only be a Type C Neo-Human, right?"

Tang Er continually nodded and said, "Yes, that’s it."

Luo Ping pondered, "Now the enemy is three Type A Neo-Humans, two B-types, two C-types, and one D-type. Just had a fight, got rid of two of their Neo-Humans, not bad."

Lu Xi’an frowned, "But the problem now is, those two Type A Neo-Humans are a bit crazy, the more they fight, the stronger they get. The fight just now, I don’t even know how many times they’ve gotten stronger.

"I’m afraid the strength they’ve gained is more powerful than the loss of one Type A and one Type C."

Everyone listened, unable to help but frown.

Luo Ping also frowned, "This is indeed a problem...

"Never thought eating the Fungus Stone would have such a terrifying effect.

"Seeing how terrifying they are, I almost want to eat the Fungus Stone myself."

Lu Xi’an said, "Don’t say it’s you, I just thought about it too."

Yao Wei followed with a sentence, "I also want to..."

The three main players said so, and others also opened up and said:

"I also want to."

"I also want to."

"I thought I was the only one who wanted to."

...

A brief silence.

Lu Shou quickly waved his hand, "No way! No way! Eating the Fungus Stone is not so easy to digest!

"In the Northern County, there have been about a dozen people who have eaten the Fungus Stone, all sorts of people, all sorts of methods, all sorts of ways have been tried.

"This thing doesn’t care if you’re A, B, C, or D type, if you eat it, it’s basically death. It was said that even Xu almost died, enduring for several months before surviving.

"Later they had no choice but to come up with this idea—to let the expendable Neo-Humans eat it, and then they eat the Neo-Humans."

Luo Ping thought of a question and asked, "Weren’t you afraid that the Neo-Human would eat the Fungus Stone and then kill all of you?"

Lu Shou angrily said, "Not us! It’s them! I’m not involved with them!"

Luo Ping quickly corrected himself and apologized, "Oh oh, them, them, sorry, I misspoke."

Lu Shou then calmed his anger and continued, "They studied this specifically, saying that when Neo-Humans eat the Fungus Stone, even if nothing happens, it would take a while to digest, during which time they might lose mobility.

"Later they stopped trying to give Fungus Stone to their own and started having those they caught eat the Fungus Stone, then kill and eat them.

"And those Fungus Stones were hard to digest, especially those that couldn’t be digested, after one person ate it, they could still cut it out from the intestines for the next person to eat.

"This loop happened several times, allowing them to eat meat multiple times and increase strength several times."

"..."

Lu Xi’an felt a bit nauseated listening.

Luo Ping asked again, "Didn’t they think of giving it to animals? Give it to animals, then eat the animals, it’s much better than eating people."

Lu Shou said, "I remember I told Mr. Lu and Mr. Yao this before, they tried, but it didn’t work.

"First, this is also like with people, only animals that are already a bit different could digest the Fungus Stone; ordinary animals, just like humans eating Fungus Stone, were useless.

"Secondly, animals that ate the Fungus Stone died directly without absorbing even a little of it, and the Neo-Humans in Northern County who ate those animals’ meat had no effect.

"Those animals only progressed by eating human meat, eating Fungus Stone didn’t work.

"Besides, it’s not easy to find those special animals, and for Type C Neo-Humans, they’re easier to control than humans. So they were reluctant to use those animals for experiments."

"I see."

Luo Ping, Lu Xi’an, and others all nodded thoughtfully.

Lu Xi’an thought this might be related to the origin of the Fungus Stone.

Lu Xi’an figured that the Fungus Stone came from the X-17 Strain, which mainly targets humans, and its effects on plants and animals are incidental, so it’s understandable that the Fungus Stone only works on humans.

This essentially blocked the route for them to enhance themselves relying on the Fungus Stone and meat.

But now was not the time to consider this.

As everyone talked, they kept an eye on the map on the Resonant Gene Scanner, only relaxing to communicate when they saw it remained still.

Lu Xi’an remembered something and said to Liu Hua, "Liu Hua, there’s a Type A Neo-Human’s corpse over there. Let your ants eat it first."

"Okay."

Liu Hua immediately commanded the Flying Ants to move out.

These ants were a bit different from others, human or animal; as long as it wasn’t during combat, they wouldn’t eat food directly but instead would transport it back for the Ant Queen to consume.

According to what Lu Shou and once Yang Shuxia said, the meat containing the Fungus Stone component, when eaten by humans or animals, would require some digestion time.

During the digestion time, humans and animals would experience some level of weakening, making it hard to exert full strength.

But for the Ant Queen, this problem doesn’t exist.

The Ant Queen doesn’t participate directly in battles; its role is to produce Flying Ants and control them in combat using pheromones.

Therefore, this weakening effect doesn’t affect it. On the contrary, it can directly produce Flying Ants containing the Fungus Stone component, mature them quickly, and deploy them in combat, skipping the digestion process.

So currently letting the Flying Ants consume the Type A Neo-Human killed by Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei is completely fine.

The Flying Ants flew over, quickly crawling all over the Type A Neo-Human’s body, as expected by everyone—

They didn’t devour the Type A Neo-Human’s corpse like a whirlwind but instead divided the work by taking meat, bones, and even internal organs and blood vessels, not leaving anything behind, and carried everything back to where they came from.

Last time, when eating the remaining corpse of Yang Shuxia left by Lu Shou, Lu Shou didn’t see it; now, seeing the ants divide the Type A Neo-Human’s body, Lu Shou couldn’t help but shiver.

These ants are really terrifying; no wonder they were able to block Boss Liang and Xu’s way back then.

Yang Shuxia’s meat, even when eating it himself, wasn’t as swift as them.

The Flying Ants divided and transported the Type A Neo-Human’s body in just a brief moment. Everyone quickly watched this efficient and well-coordinated performance and then turned their attention back to the Resonant Gene Scanner.

On the scanner’s map, the remaining nine red dots finally began moving but no longer separated into formations. The leading Type A Neo-Human charged first.

Their speed wasn’t fast, suggesting they were traveling by car.

It seems they had the same idea as Lu Xi’an and the others, intending to directly press forward and confront Lu Xi’an and the others head-on.

"It’ll take a little while for them to get here; let’s redeploy," Luo Ping said solemnly.

Everyone nodded seriously, without speaking, looking to see how Luo Ping would arrange things.

Luo Ping first took a sniper rifle from the car, handed it to Yao Wei, and said, "Sis, when they come over this time, it won’t be the same as before. They’ll definitely protect the Type C Neo-Human at all costs, then let the Type C Neo-Human support those three Type A Neo-Humans.

"Our best strategy is to quickly cause casualties among the opposite’s Type C Neo-Humans.

"When you dealt with Xuan Xiaocao before, I heard from Big Brother about your approach, so we’ll need you to try again this time."

"Okay."

Yao Wei nodded, put down the drone, and took the sniper rifle.

—This sniper rifle was hers, but in her haste to pursue Boss Liang and Xu before, she hadn’t had time to retrieve it. Luo Ping had picked it up and brought it over after.

Luo Ping continued, "Then, Tang Er and Yao, you will still form a group by yourselves, finding opportunities to ambush from afar. They can’t lock onto you, which is your advantage."

Tang Er and Yao both nodded and said, "Okay."

Luo Ping looked around at everyone and further instructed, "The rest should spread out. We can all be located by them, so there’s no point in hiding together anymore; everyone must be careful.

"Bottle, Chou Nu, and I, our primary task is to protect Liu Hua and Tang. Liu Hua, Tang, you know what you need to do, I assume?"

Everyone replied, "Understood."

Chai Xin asked, "What about me?"

Luo Ping smiled and said, "Don’t worry, you have an important role; it’s a good thing you came along."

As he spoke, he paused and looked at Yao Wei and Lu Xi’an, saying, "Big Brother, Big Sister, I hope next we can leave Gou with Yao; Gou won’t be detected with Yao.

"Then, the drone will be handed over to Chai Xin.

"This girl is excellent, the best-trained of the D-type Neo-Humans, as you’ve seen over this past month. She can now hide things in plain sight.

"She can hide the drone, letting it find opportunities to attack."

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei both had no objections to this arrangement; they nodded and said, "Okay."

Luo Ping then turned to Chai Xin, saying, "So, Chai Xin, you need to manage the drone, and if you have spare capacity, manage Liu Hua’s Flying Ants a bit. If you can also hide Liu Hua’s Flying Ants, our chances of victory will be greater. How about it, can you do it?"

Chai Xin said, "I’ll hide as much as I can!"

"Great!"

After giving his instructions, Luo Ping said to Lu Xi’an, "Then the rest is up to you, Big Brother. If Big Sister has to withdraw a bit to find opportunities to target their rear forces, the pressure will be on you. Are you okay with that?"

Lu Xi’an grinned and said, "No problem, it isn’t just Boss Liang and Xu who can take a beating."

Luo Ping said, "What are you saying? We still have the Flying Ants, and Big Sister is just positioning herself; if the situation changes, she can immediately intervene. We won’t let you take the hits alone."

Lu Xi’an said, "A few hits are no big deal. I also want to see if I have that Super Saiyan bloodline that gets stronger the more you fight."

"What kind of person?"

Luo Ping didn’t quite catch it.

Everyone else also looked at Lu Xi’an, puzzled.

But Lu Xi’an glanced at the map on the Resonant Gene Scanner and said, "Alright, enough talk. They’re coming; get ready for round two of the fight."