Chapter 1451
Chapter 1451 - 1447: The Hunt
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7 min read
Starting a war might only require an incident, an outrage, but ending it often isn’t within an individual’s power to decide.
Once a Plane War begins, it cannot be halted before one side completely collapses and lacks the strength to fight.
Especially for an entity like the Abyssal Insect Race, whether it’s an Insect Swarm or the Abyss itself, these are breeders with aggression maxed out; once they share a border, there’s simply no stopping them...
"Actually, their ’rationality’ doesn’t support them stopping either. Their innate thought logic is quite simple: feeding, slaughter, reproduction (copying), encroachment..."
The term "single-celled organism" was originally used to describe individuals with simple minds, and through research, scholars have indeed confirmed that they are very "single-celled".
"...Personally, I suspect that this is to form what they call a collective consciousness. For the sake of unity, they must erode individual consciousness, making it simple and efficient, the simpler and more straightforward the ’AI logic’, the better. In a sense, the entire ethnic group is a machine, a mechanized killing machine dedicated to executing functions..."
Indeed, it’s better for lower-level units to be "integrated" as simply as possible.
Of course, not everything is exactly the same; based on the type of soldier and their strength, there are natural differences.
It’s been repeatedly verified in actual combat that the Abyssal Insect Swarm possesses at least five levels of authority, with higher levels being more complex.
By the time this "subject" was laid out before Big Shot Linnu’s group of scholarly elites, many questions had already been answered.
"Stop, lower life form."
But when a tiny golden beetle was brought out, covered in a faint golden light, nobody paid it any mind.
Until it activated for the first time, and the battlefield shook to its core.
A strange sound followed by even more inexplicable flashes of psychic light.
The entire battlefield came to a standstill... Literally stopped, as the Insect Swarm remained motionless, as if time itself had frozen.
The Static Insect, a mimicry of the King Bug, with only one function: to continually send out the "halt" command.
The Insect Swarm had stopped, yet the warriors it was fighting had not.
Just ten seconds later, the frontline was completely collapsed, and by then, the "Static Insect" had reached its end.
But that was enough...
Designated grenades detonated one after another, and a vast amount of targeted "halt" energy emerged.
Being still wasn’t the only "command" to be cracked, but the "do nothing" command was the easiest for creatures to inherently obey; no extra instructions necessary, just stopping was enough.
With the pseudo-King Bug at the core, the residual psychic network was expanded by these "Static Grenades".
They couldn’t actually bring the Insect Swarm to a halt, but they could induce "confusion"... When the body subconsciously stops while the mind continues to act, the dissonance between flesh and consciousness creates a jarring sensation.
In actual battle, this was quite deadly.
"As expected, the effect is quite good. It’s a pity it has no effect on King Bugs..."
The "psychic disruption" weapons that have now been cracked essentially only have very basic effects.
"...It’s already enough, the most troublesome are always the low-level hordes; their numbers are simply too vast."
These weapons were just one link in the chain of current developments. When Big Shot Linnu’s group focused solely on the Abyssal Insect Race, the peculiar traits of this ancient Exotic Species were unearthed one after another.
Why hadn’t this been done before? Because there was no value.
"...From our Easterners’ perspective, the more chaotic this world is, the better."
"Moreover, even if we deal with those Insects, who’s going to repay us? Research funds won’t be recouped, right?"
"Furthermore, even if we had produced the weapons back then, who was going to use them?"
Lu Ping’an once again understood the importance of "Nation-Building"; if there were no "employers," these people would likely just look out for themselves.
In fact, what they said wasn’t wrong. Previously, everyone was an outsider... If the world wasn’t threatened and invaded, our own position was also quite delicate.
And now, with the assurance that slaughtering those Insects could establish merit for the New Kingdom, even make the news, many people were getting excited.
Not just developing weapons, some Big Shots even took to the battlefield themselves.
All of this was actually within Lu Ping’an’s expectations; in some way, it became the first battle for Nation-Building. Naturally, many Strongmen seeking fame would try to prove themselves.
In fact, by the time the third Mr. Quasi-God appeared on the battlefield, Lu Ping’an knew it was probably no longer a problem.
Worth mentioning is that this Quasi-God had only recently arrived in this world...
"I’ve never seen nor heard of them before," said Wang Xier, the man in question.
The newcomer was a "Half-Dragon Person", clearly a highly scaled Return to Ancestry Saphire people.
Lu Ping’an had a brief chat with him... Completely talking past each other. The man not only didn’t speak the Eastern Country language, he even spoke the Saphire language of the Silent Mountain Range World with a stammer.
"He’s speaking the ancient language of the Saphire people... It seems this Excellency left the Silent Mountain Range World quite some time ago."
Wang Xier seemed to be making an outrageous claim, but she herself had only learned it recently.
In reality, the Saphire Kingdom in the desert had survived the apocalyptic catastrophe relatively intact not due to luck, but because they had ascertained the world’s inevitable doom long ago.
Hundreds of years prior, they had begun "small-scale migration"... The Quasi-God Excellency before us was from a group that left quite early.
This time, accompanied by the Saphire Quasi-God, were several oddly-dressed Saphire warriors; Lu Ping’an glimpsed many Holy Fire and Sealing Series Ability Users among them, not originating from the professional path. They could be considered solitary-path Strongmen, their power traits quite distinct.
These warriors were indeed fighting fiercely on the frontline... It seemed they had found their opportunity to integrate into this world.
Lu Ping’an also gradually found his place; rather than rushing into the fray, his "trade group" played an even more irreplaceable role.
Just selling language knowledge to those outsiders made Lu Ping’an famous among the New Human Tribe... Compared to invincible warriors fighting bravely on the frontline, a "function holder" like Lu Ping’an was even more rare and valuable.
As the war went on with continuous reinforcements arriving, the state of the battlefield gradually shifted... From a tough defensive sniper battle to a "hunt by the Strongmen".
He conducted his business, selling various services and equipment, and while amassing wealth, he also accumulated a lot of goodwill... Just the life-saving abilities he offered with postponed payment allowed various ethnic groups to treat him as a distinguished guest.
Yet in this process, the one who left Lu Ping’an unable to relax was a nameless Long Hand Clan eighth-tier.
"Long Spear Thrower? I invented that profession back in the day; I never imagined it could reach eighth-tier."
— End of Chapter 1451 —