A wedding flight turned into a murder tragedy—an ending no one could have predicted.
All the male nobles were dead, leaving only two trembling female nobles. It was common knowledge that women in this world could not bear children, nor could they lose their wings and become queens.
"Actually, there is another male nobleman," the adjutant coughed, "who was just born."
"...So you plan to wait eighteen years and have this newly emerged male nobleman marry one of these two female noblemen?"
Saman was struck by the people's devotion to the Queen and raised a crucial question: "Leaving aside the probability of male nobles impregnating female nobles, I just want to know one thing: can the current Queen sustain herself for that long?"
Everyone fell silent.
They withheld food from the Queen for more than ten days, putting her on the verge of death, and her body almost stopped secreting the blue liquid.
It was only after Saman mentioned the 'splitting the nest' plan that they resumed feeding. However, with this secretion interrupted, the queen found it difficult to return to her previous state.
The queen ant is indispensable in the ant world because she ensures the population size and continuation of the species. However, the queen in this scenario doesn't seem to have the ability to give birth to an entire colony.
Saman was actually a little curious about the Queen here. What made her indispensable? Was it simply because of the Black Cube?
However, if the humans in this world are willing to try, they can survive in the wild, and the Black Cube is not indispensable.
Yes, Saman's anxiety was only on his face. Like all the other players, he didn't care about the lives or deaths of these NPCs; he only wanted to know more about the secrets and the truth of the world.
This information can help him find the 'ghost'.
"Where are the workers arrested yesterday? Who is controlling them?" Saman stood up. "I want to see these people."
"What about here?" The deputy pointed to the machine that was still being repaired.
"Who is the patrol captain on the second floor today?"
"Shuye," the second-in-command said.
Saman paused for a moment before remembering that she was a very strong female soldier/civilian. In this world, women are generally stronger than men, and whether soldiers or workers, those in power are mostly women. Saman's role was that of a leader because of her outstanding intelligence.
"Then let her take over temporarily." After thinking for a moment, Saman added, "Find two more people, so the three of us can work together."
Beneath the anthill lies a sizable dungeon, a small section of which is submerged in water, hence the name "water dungeon." The water dungeon is the most torturous; prolonged submersion causes a layer of white mold to form on the body, resulting in intense itching.
The dozen or so people arrested yesterday are being held in the water dungeon.
They were all laborers, the youngest being thirteen or fourteen, the oldest over thirty. If Ren Yifei were there, he would be very surprised, because the big boy who had drawn a pattern on his hand that day was among them.
When the higher-ups came to interrogate them, they certainly wouldn't choose the water dungeon; they were brought out one by one.
"Who gave you the bows and arrows?" Saman asked the first question.
It was a very special bow and arrow with a very long range. The arrows were also special, and the arrowheads were poisonous. It was not a product of the Black Cube. Advanced civilizations would not send them such lethal weapons.
Therefore, it could only have been done by them.
The captured workers gritted their teeth and refused to speak.
"If you are not afraid of death, then aren't you also afraid of the deaths of others you've had contact with? What wrong have those who lived in the same cave as you done?"
At this moment, Saman is a complete villain, or a cruel and cold-blooded tyrant; his smile sends chills down one's spine.
After being coerced and bribed, someone in the workers finally confessed: "It was 'Jiang'. Jiang used to go out to look for the Black Stone (Black Cube), but he wasn't actually looking for the Black Stone (Black Cube). He was making bows and arrows for us and other things, which were hidden in a cave in the sacred tree."
Jiang? Is this a new character who suddenly appeared?
"Which one is 'Jiang'?" Saman thought that the 'Jiang' who made the weapons was among the prisoners.
"He's not here, you won't find him," the young man said, his eyes red with hatred as he glared at him. In their eyes, 'Jiang' had already gloriously sacrificed himself; the last thing he did as he was taken away was to say goodbye to them.
"Go and bring Jiang back," Saman told his subordinates.
The subordinate left, but returned shortly after: "Boss, 'Jiang' disappeared two days ago. They saw 'Gucheng' take him away, and he hasn't come back since."
"What about Gucheng?" Saman, undeterred by the trouble, continued to unravel the mystery.
"It's the guy who broke into the fourth floor yesterday. We've been looking for him all day but haven't found him."
Saman: ...
Him? Samantha recalled that player's behavior; he was clearly not one to uphold the current system. So, would he kill an NPC who was also preparing to cause trouble for the Anthill?
"Tomorrow, send people to search all the places in this area where people can hide."
This line of questioning was temporarily cut off, so Saman decided to ask a different question: "Who started the shooting of the nobles yesterday?"
The timing was perfect. They took the hidden weapons, hid in the bushes, and a volley of arrows took the lives of more than a dozen nobles. No one would believe that there was no one in command.
The location and time for the noble wedding flight were only decided yesterday. To prevent anyone from causing trouble, Saman only told a few key people in charge and asked them to keep it a secret.
The mastermind behind this must have known accurate information to have such precise timing and location.
So, which guy is playing a double agent here?
At first, this group of people stubbornly denied it, saying that they had been waiting for this for several years.
Saman almost laughed. Nobles only come of age once every eighteen years. Are they going to wait for nothing? They can't even lie properly. How can you believe they have the brains to come up with such a detailed plan?
Saman pulled out more than a dozen people, put them in different prisons, interrogated them separately, and broke them down one by one.
The bow and arrow maker, 'Jiang,' has already been exposed, which means a hole has already been opened in the window, so what's wrong with opening another one?
So, without much effort, the commander-in-chief was revealed.
She calls herself Shuye.
"Field of Surgery?" Saman stood up, his face ashen. "Back to the lab."
It was late. When Saman returned to the lab, the scene was one of fierce fighting. Not only were the machines and equipment smashed, but everyone was lying on the ground, and the scene was littered with footprints and disorder.
There were soldiers and civilians guarding the place, two patrol captains who stayed behind, and some workers.
They ran over to check on them, checking on four or five in a row. The deputy stood up and shook his head.
Last night's intruders only knocked them unconscious, but this one showed no mercy; they were all... dead.
The door to the sixth floor was wide open, and they already had a bad feeling.
But when they actually went up there and saw the completely destroyed machinery on the sixth floor and the long-vanished queen, the soldiers and civilians brought by Saman couldn't help but tremble.
"They took the Queen away, and they also took the blue potion."
The deputy overheard this and was about to say something when Saman stopped him with a look. He then walked around the sixth floor: "Those who come here are all workers."
This is obvious, because the site still retains many of the smells of the workers.
Workers and civilians, like ants, possess unique pheromones. The pheromones of workers are particularly noticeable, and their lives in the damp environment below contribute to their distinctive scent over time.
There's a strong, damp, musty smell here now.
Speaking of this scent, Saman recalled the intruder from yesterday. The intruder was a soldier-civilian, so theoretically, he would carry some of their pheromones—not a foul smell or anything, but at least detectable when close.
However, when he was abducted yesterday, he only smelled a very faint scent of perfume.
Suddenly, a scene flashed into Saman's mind: blood.
He failed the first time he tried to draw blood, but succeeded the second time. But was the second attempt truly successful?
"What does a nobleman smell like?" Nobles like to wear perfume, but he really didn't know what a nobleman's pheromones smelled like.
"Hmm? Ah... nobles can imitate the scent of others," the deputy said, revealing what he knew.
Saman's eyebrows rose slightly; he seemed to have caught the player red-handed.
"Boss, what do we do now?" Amidst the chaos, the soldiers and civilians awaited his orders.
"Go to the first floor and get the list of workers who didn't reach the cave today." Saman suspected that this was not just a small group of people involved.
This group's goal is clear: to change the oppressed status quo of workers.
The aristocratic marriage was merely a catalyst; the long-standing class conflict finally found its outlet at this moment.
Samantha couldn't help but think of the 'unknown' world, and the fire he had ignited. Now, however, the roles were reversed; he was no longer the one who lit the fire, but rather the one who protected the old order.
"What are they planning to do with those blue potions?"
"I don't know either, but I've heard from the elders that in the past, during sacrificial rites, this blue potion secreted by the Queen would be distributed to those who made great contributions. Could it make people stronger?"
The soldiers and civilians talked about it; they were all young people, born with the presence of the Black Cube, and they didn't know much about the function of the blue liquid on the queen's body.
"Don't talk nonsense," an older soldier shouted. "This thing was originally for controlling fertility; it has none of those health-strengthening effects."
They stared in astonishment at the elderly woman. She was in her fifties, practically an old woman in this world. But the history of divine intervention was older than her age, so how did she know all this?
It's not even recorded in books.
"Of course I know. My grandmother told my mother, and my mother told me." The elder chuckled, his gaze piercing through the rings of time, returning to his memories.
"At that time, we did not have a unified system for raising children; each parent was responsible for raising their own child."
As an elderly person, she knows far more than young people.
"How does the Queen control childbirth?" Having finally encountered someone who knew the effects of the blue liquid, Saman wasn't going to let this opportunity pass. He didn't even want to look at the nobles, since he wouldn't die anytime soon anyway.
"If you want to know, then I will tell you. I have to tell you eventually, I can't let it go into eternal darkness."
The old man began to recount stories from the past.
They lived on this land before the gods descended, and multiplied and thrived here.
They didn't build these cone-shaped nests back then; instead, they nested in trees. The nobles lived in the upper classes, weaving leaves into nests in which they flew.
Workers and soldiers lived in the lower classes.
Their lives were much the same as they are now; the workers went out to find food and various raw materials, while the soldiers guarded the houses and the queen.
The only difference is that workers and soldiers are infertile; they need the Queen's blessing to have offspring.
Back then, the queen was the guarantee of childbirth, while the nobles were the true rulers, unlike now, where they are merely spoiled mascots.
Author's Note: Saman: Bring Jiang back.
Subordinate: Jiang has disappeared.
Saman: What about Gucheng?
Subordinate: I tricked you and got away unscathed.
Saman: What about my Ah Fei?
Reader: I got so caught up in the fun that I can't come back.