"Pfft!" Watching the little tiger disappear from sight, Zhang Yang viciously spat in his heart.
"Ding, task triggered: Kill the Queen Ant. Task requirement: Return to the ant nest and kill the queen ant. Task reward: Unknown."
"Great, perfect timing for this Young Master Yang to go on a killing spree."
Hearing the system issue this task, Zhang Yang was instantly fired up. He felt like he finally had a place to vent all his pent-up rage.
Right at that moment, the group of male ants that had been chasing him came rushing out.
Facing this swarm of little airplanes, Zhang Yang charged straight at them without a second word. Same size, but completely different physiques—the ordinary male ants couldn't withstand Zhang Yang's onslaught at all. With his greatly increased strength, even though he couldn't beat the little tiger, dealing with these male ants was one-hit kills.
And Zhang Yang was fast too. His figure darted and weaved through the male ant swarm; every time he appeared, one male ant would die.
The drop rate from male ants satisfied Zhang Yang quite a bit. Evolution points weren't that many—only 2 points per kill—but talent fragments dropped generously.
"Huh? No more monsters?"
In just over ten minutes, Zhang Yang helplessly realized there were no more male ants around him.
It wasn't that these guys got scared and ran away—they were all killed by Zhang Yang.
At the same time, the soldier ants and worker ants on the ground were all retreating.
"Not a single one gets to escape—especially those few that just bit my butt earlier."
Zhang Yang roared in his heart and immediately gave chase.
He still hadn't farmed enough fragments; not one little ant was allowed to get away.
Zhang Yang returned to the ant nest once again—this time descending as the victor, utterly domineering.
No ant was his match, not even for one round.
The queen ant panicked. She frantically ordered the ants to charge at Zhang Yang, at least to stall him.
But this played right into Zhang Yang's hands—he was just worried there weren't enough ants to kill!
Soon, Zhang Yang's evolution points reached the cap.
A male ant body could hold a maximum of 3000 evolution points, and the fragments were steadily increasing too.
"System, synthesize fragments."
"Ding, beginning talent fragment fusion… Fusion successful. Congratulations, host has obtained Mighty Strength Stone (Advanced) +8."
"Use talent stone."
"Ding, Mighty Strength Stone (Advanced) used successfully. Mighty Strength talent upgraded to Advanced. Talent effect increased to 3×."
"Seven advanced talent stones left. Still need three more—that's 300 primary fragments."
Zhang Yang's strength increased again. Killing these small worker and soldier ants no longer satisfied him. He decided it was time to go have a "chat" with the queen ant.
Given the queen's level, she should drop at least a hundred fragments, right?
The queen ant was actually quite easy to find inside the nest. Those silly little ants' only job was to protect her—so wherever the ants were thickest, that's where the queen was.
With Zhang Yang's current power, he bulldozed his way straight to her location.
"Ugh… bleurgh!"
After seeing the queen ant, Zhang Yang almost gagged. She really looked hideous—just a giant white grub, nothing like an ant at all. About 4–5 cm long and as thick as a pinky finger.
At this moment the queen was desperately wriggling, sensing immense danger.
"Do I really have to bite this thing? What if it squirts some weird liquid?"
Zhang Yang hesitated. The queen's pale, fat body looked like it would burst with one bite.
"For the sake of survival—fine, I'm going in."
Zhang Yang wouldn't gamble with his own life. No matter how disgusting it was, he had to bite.
If he didn't complete this task, the next one might never come. He valued his life too much.
The queen ant had no combat ability herself; she could only command the other ants.
Unfortunately, the other ants couldn't stop Zhang Yang at all—the power gap was simply too huge.
Zhang Yang showed zero courtesy. He rushed to the queen's side and started chomping wildly.
The disgusting liquid he'd imagined didn't appear. Instead, it felt strangely satisfying—like taking big bites of meat.
"Ugh…" Zhang Yang disgusted himself with that thought.
"Ding, killed Queen Ant. Evolution points +5, Mighty Strength Fragment (Primary) +10."
"Ding, task completed: Kill the Queen Ant. Task reward: Lifespan +5 days."
"What the hell?"
Zhang Yang could hardly believe his ears. Killing the queen only gave ten fragments?
Was the system pocketing the rest or something?
"System, come out and explain yourself."
"Ding, the queen ant is a special unit of the colony."
The system actually responded with an explanation.
Zhang Yang stared blankly at the queen ant's corpse.
Then he understood.
It really was tough on her. Dropping ten fragments was already pretty generous.
Because this thing could barely even move.
So the question now was—should he evolve into a queen ant?
Zhang Yang had already reached the end of the male ant path.
Evolution points were maxed out.
To continue evolving, he'd have to become a higher-tier creature.
But the moment that idea entered his mind, Zhang Yang shivered all over.
Imagining himself turning into a giant white grub that had to reproduce with thousands of male ants made him feel a wave of horror.
"No way, no way—absolutely not."
After the shiver, Zhang Yang went right back to slaughtering.
Whoever wanted to become a queen could do it—he sure as hell wasn't going to.
Still short of over 200 talent fragments, Zhang Yang continued the massacre.
To be fair, this queen had really worked hard; the colony she produced was quite large. Even after Zhang Yang's rampage, he hadn't wiped them all out.
Once he had farmed enough talent fragments, Zhang Yang withdrew.
Killing ants nonstop was starting to cause visual fatigue.
"System, synthesize talent fragments."
"Ding, talent stone synthesis successful. Congratulations, host has obtained Mighty Strength Stone (Top-tier) +1."
"A top-tier talent stone."
Zhang Yang didn't use it immediately. He carefully examined the purple stone in his inventory.
"Alright, doesn't look particularly special. Use it."
"Ding, talent stone used successfully. Mighty Strength talent upgraded to Top-tier. Attribute multiplier increased to 4×."
"Ding, task triggered: First Fusion. Task requirement: Find another species and use the Fusion function. Task reward: Unknown."
Fusion?
Zhang Yang paused for a moment.
He had already used evolution and enhancement, but he had indeed never tried the fusion function.
But where was he supposed to find another species?
So far, the only other creature he'd encountered was that little tiger. Did he have to fuse that thing into his body?
Pretty sure it wouldn't agree…
Anyway, whatever creature could be fused definitely wasn't going to be found inside this ant nest. Time to leave first.
Zhang Yang departed. The remaining ants had no objections—not because they didn't dare, but because they were still furious. He had killed their queen.
But they had no way to express that fury. Zhang Yang could fly; they couldn't. And all the flying male ants had already been wiped out by him.
However, Zhang Yang, who had just left the ant nest, was not having an easy time either.
"Big dragonfly, get the hell away from me!"
Right after taking off outside the ant nest, Zhang Yang was targeted by a large green dragonfly. It had mistaken him for food.