“A big bug?” Yae-hi tilted her head slightly and asked in confusion.
“Yes, yes! Really big!” Little Blue spread her arms wide, gesturing enthusiastically. The more she gestured, however, the harder it beca for Yae-hi to understand what she ant. After all, when a creature asured fifty or sixty centiters long, whether it could still be called a “bug” was already questionable.
‘Could it be one of those giant insects?’
“Did you see it inside City of Chaos, or outside?” Yae-hi hurriedly asked.
“Outside!” Little Blue replied.
“Through the city caras?” Yae-hi asked.
“Yep.”
“Do you have a photo?”
“I do.”
“Then hurry up and show it!” Yae-hi felt a strong urge to knock her on the head.
Seeing that her master seed a little impatient, Little Blue quickly opened a floating panel and displayed the photo. The mont Yae-hi looked at it, her eyes widened. There really was a huge bug in the picture.
To be precise, it was a mantis nearly fifty to sixty centiters long, its entire body a vivid green. Clamped in its jaws was an adult black cat! The photo itself was not very high in resolution, but the surrounding environnt could still be made out.
The giant mantis stood in what appeared to be a sowhat filthy alley. Scattered on the ground were bits of leftover food, likely discarded kitchen scraps from a cafeteria or restaurant behind the building. Under the dim orange streetlight, the mantis’ scythe-like forelegs glinted with a chilling tallic sheen.
“This bug is abnormally large,” Yae-hi said. A hint of concern crept into her voice.
Aqua Blue Star had awakened ahead of ti, and the consequences of that early awakening were already beginning to reveal themselves. First ca strange anomalies appearing across the world, followed by the awakening of ancient creatures.
“And now even giant bugs are starting to show up…” In her previous life, Yae-hi had seen news reports about giant insects attacking humans. Back then, she had assud those creatures had co from the Saint Demon World. She never expected them to be native species!
“Master, do you think a bug this big would taste delicious if it were roasted?” At that mont, Little Blue asked while drooling. Hearing this, Yae-hi and the Vera clones blinked, wondering if they had misheard.
“I really want to try it!” Little Blue added eagerly.
“….” Silence imdiately filled the room.
“Huh? Why are you all looking at with such weird expressions?” Little Blue tilted her head, completely puzzled.
“You actually want to eat a bug like that?” Yae-hi’s eyelid twitched.
In this world, quite a few insects were edible and even highly nutritious. However, even if insects were tasty and packed with nutrients, the majority of people still preferred not to eat them. Not to ntion a monstrous bug like this. Just looking at it was enough to ruin anyone’s appetite.
“Little Blue, that’s so scary…” Vera 18 whispered.
“Mm-mm!” The other clones nodded in agreent.
“That’s so an! What’s wrong with eating bugs!?” Little Blue protested when she saw their increasingly strange looks.
“There’s nothing wrong with eating bugs,” Yae-hi said. “The problem is that you want to eat a monster like this.”
She enlarged the image so everyone could clearly see the details of the giant mantis.
“There are so many little black spots on its body… that’s disgusting!”
“And that green liquid dripping from its mouth is gross!”
“It’s probably highly poisonous… ugh, it might even be crawling with parasites!”
“A carnivorous insect… that’s just revolting!”
The Vera clones began talking all at once as they stared at the zood-in image.
“You’re making it sound so disgusting… fine, I won’t eat it anymore!” Little Blue said miserably, on the verge of tears.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Yae-hi said, raising a hand to signal them to stop. The room quickly fell silent. Seeing this, Yae-hi nodded in satisfaction before continuing, “Little Blue, this photo was captured from surveillance footage, right?”
“Yeah. Right after this was recorded, the cara stopped working,” Little Blue said with a nod. “The location is nearby.”
“With Roc City so heavily urbanized, there clearly isn’t a suitable environnt for such a giant insect to survive. It’s very likely an invasive species.” Vera 1 said.
“I think so too,” Yae-hi nodded. She rembered that the earliest reports of giant insects attacking humans had co from a small island nation in South Asia. That insect might very well have invaded from overseas.
“Little Blue, send over there. I need to check the situation.” Yae-hi said. When it ca to unknown dangers like this, it was always best to eliminate them as quickly as possible.
A faint chill of killing intent arose in her heart toward the giant mantis that had suddenly intruded into her sphere of life. For now, it was attacking small animals, but who knew when it might begin attacking humans.
“Okay!” Little Blue’s eyes widened as a blue glow flickered across her entire body.
The next mont, Yae-hi was teleported away. At the sa ti, inside a narrow alley that carried a faint stench of decay, a flash of white light suddenly appeared, revealing a graceful figure.
“There’s still a subtle trace of its presence in the air. It seems it hasn’t been gone long.” Yae-hi closed her eyes and concentrated, carefully distinguishing the various scents lingering in the air.
After reaching Level 40, her body’s latent potential had developed even further, and her sensory perception had improved significantly compared to before.
“I should be able to track it from here,” she murmured softly as she opened her eyes. Her gaze then shifted toward the ground not far away. There were traces of blood, scraps of flesh, and patches of black fur scattered there.
“So it ate right here. Quite bold.” It was obvious that the giant mantis had enjoyed a full al here before leaving. “How foolish. If you had left imdiately, it would have been much harder for to find you.”
The mont she finished speaking, Yae-hi lightly tapped the ground with her toes and shot upward between two buildings. In less than three seconds, she appeared on the rooftop of a nearby building.
“Strange… that unusual presence still hasn’t dissipated.” Yae-hi scanned her surroundings and spoke with a hint of confusion.
**Swish!**
At that very mont, a dark shadow dropped from above. A cold gleam flashed as it shot downward like an arrow! Yae-hi remained standing exactly where she was, as though completely unaware that sothing was plumting toward her at high speed.
In 0.5 seconds, the shadow closed in to an extrely short distance. 0.8 seconds later, the shadow was about to make contact with Yae-hi, but… at the exact instant before it could touch her, a half-transparent tentacle lashed out with lightning speed. It struck the shadow violently and sent it flying.
With a loud bang, the dark figure slamd hard into a wall, the impact cracking the tiles embedded in its surface.
“You actually stayed here wandering around. Your courage is quite impressive.” Yae-hi turned to look over, a mocking smile curling at the corner of her lips. Over there, the shadow slowly slid down the wall. It was the giant mantis. Apparently, after devouring the black cat, it had continued roaming around this area instead of leaving.
“I thought insects had sharp instincts, that they knew how to seek fortune and avoid danger.” Yae-hi walked toward it step by step. “But you don’t seem to be very intelligent.”
“…Ksssh… ksssh…” The giant mantis struggled to stand up, its body trembling as it stared at Yae-hi, strange sounds coming from its mouth.
“Heh, you still want to resist? Good. Go ahead and try.” As soon as she finished speaking, the aura radiating from Yae-hi surged forward like a violent storm, wrapping tightly around the mantis.
A human-like expression of terror instantly appeared on its face. Imdiately afterward, it began struggling wildly. However, how could a re insect break free from Yae-hi’s aura restraints?
One minute later, the giant mantis finally gave up struggling. Just as Yae-hi thought she was about to claim her prize, the creature’s head suddenly began to swell. Then, like a waterlon dropped from a great height, it exploded completely.
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