Chapter 21
Chapter 21: The Aberrant Beasts Are Here for You, So Why Are We the Cannon Fodder
Aberrant beasts underground too?
Jiang Tea Tea’s words landed like a dull thunderclap. Everyone present except Chong Ming immediately dropped their gaze to the ground. Where. Where were they.
Chong Ming’s eyes fell on the back of her head. His voice was low and steady as he asked, “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, what kind of aberrant beasts are underground?”
Jiang Tea Tea tugged Huang Da Zhuang closer to Chong Ming’s side to make sure they were safe, then stared at the ground and answered, “Bugs. Mutated insects.”
Damn it. Even if she had already reached the Great Demon Stage, her true body was still a tree. And trees hated bugs the most.
Right now there were not just one or two bugs under the ground. There were countless bugs, packed together, all about to break through the surface.
Huang Da Zhuang’s legs went weak. If Jiang Tea Tea had not been holding him up, he would have dropped straight to his knees and given her a full five-point prostration on the spot. She was way too brave, talking to his idol like that without even a tremor in her voice.
Bang, bang, bang. Gunshots rang out. Several Level Seven mutant rats were shot in the head. Their brains burst, limbs twitching as blood flowed all over the ground.
The students being chased by the swarm of mutant rats were so panicked that they seemed to forget they were supernatural ability users. They did not use their powers at all. They only screamed and ran.
The security guards and the students above A-level and Level S who were locked in combat with large aberrant beasts like mutant leopards, mutant tigers, and mutant foxes still had to spare time to look after the schoolmates being chased by mutant rats so they would not get bitten.
There were too many mutant rats. Everywhere you looked, there were rats. The heat-sensor alarm stopped sounding. No one could tell how many aberrant beasts were inside the Academy in total.
Headmaster Wu led the school leaders as they joined the hunt for mutant rats and the effort to protect the students.
They used wind element power and ice element ability. They swept mutant rats away with wind, froze mutant rats in ice, then smashed the frozen rats with sticks.
The frozen mutant rats shattered into pieces with one hit from a club, bits of corpse scattering on the ground, horrifying to look at.
The students who had run out of the teaching buildings and forgotten to use their supernatural abilities, screaming and nothing else, were surrounded and protected by the headmaster and the others.
“They are here.” Jiang Tea Tea grabbed the panicking Lu Ling’er and Lin Feng Feng in passing and said, “The mutated insects underground are coming up.”
As soon as her voice fell, there was a cracking sound. The hard stone slabs on the ground split cleanly in two.
One stone slab split in half. Then a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth. Countless slabs broke apart.
The bugs under the slabs pushed upward, loosening the stone. Piece after piece shifted, dense and countless. Even if there were countless students and staff from the Academy standing here, they still could not hold the ground down.
Suddenly, a broken slab flipped up and a fist-sized tea hornet burst out from underneath.
The tea hornet’s belly was pale white. Its back and wings were black. It was a variant strain of the ring-necked yellow hornet. They laid eggs underground, grew underground, and after maturing, they broke through the soil. They ate whatever they saw. Wherever they passed, it was like a swarm of locusts.
With a bang, the first tea hornet that flew out was blown apart by a bullet. But the second, the third, the fourth, and then countless more followed right after.
Even if every bullet hit its mark, there were too few people with guns. They could not possibly shoot down all the tea hornets pouring out.
“Jiang Tea Tea, I am so scared.” Lu Ling’er clung tightly to Jiang Tea Tea’s arm and said, “My mother said getting stung by a tea hornet can kill you. My jumping-type supernatural ability cannot protect me at all. What do I do, what do I do. Am I going to die here?”
“I am scared too.” Lin Feng Feng pressed herself against Lu Ling’er, her voice choked with sobs as she said, “Jiang Tea Tea, you were right. My C-level wind element supernatural ability is only good for being a fan. It has no attack power.”
“Will I die if a tea hornet or a mutant rat touches me. Wuu wuu, I do not want to die. I have not even chased down my idol yet. I do not want to die…”
“All of you, shut up.” Jiang Tea Tea’s head hurt from their crying. She yanked back her own arm and scolded them without mercy: “Use your pig brains for a second. You are standing this close to the Commander in Chief of the Three Armies and Regent Prince of the Blood, His Highness Chong Ming. You really think he would let you die?”
They had such a big backer right beside them and still worried about getting axed. Jiang Tea Tea really had no idea how people’s brains had grown in this Interstellar Era. They were like decorations.
Lu Ling’er, Lin Feng Feng, and Huang Da Zhuang: “!!!!”
Right. They were inside their idol’s circle of protection. Their idol was not going to refuse to protect them. What were they afraid of.
Chong Ming’s golden eyes darkened a little as his gaze fell on the top of Jiang Tea Tea’s head. She only came up to his chin, and she was baring her fangs at everyone with not a trace of nervousness.
He tried again and again to feel his dragon aura on her, but there was nothing. There was none of his dragon scent on her at all, no fluctuation of any supernatural ability. Her trust in him was real. She was purely, completely unafraid.
“Holy crap.” Huang Da Zhuang suddenly spoke: “Sister Tea, the tea hornets are flying toward us. There are so many. They are about to treat us like dinner.”
Jiang Tea Tea answered in a mild tone, “It is not just the tea hornets. Every aberrant beast that appeared is fighting to get over here.”
“If people were not blocking and killing them, the aberrant beasts and mutated insects would have already rushed over here to fight.”
Whether it was the large aberrant beasts or the small tea hornets, they all had only one goal, to charge toward this side.
Several mutant tigers that weighed tons, bodies bloodied from being shot, still dragged their wounded bodies forward, stubbornly rushing this way.
The defenses on this side were tight. Before the aberrant beasts could get close, they were either shot in the head or ripped apart by supernatural abilities. Not one beast broke through.
Every student following beside Chong Ming was safe and sound under the protection of his personal guards. Their position was like an iron fortress.
Huang Da Zhuang’s brain seemed to be missing a screw as he blurted out, “What is over here that is making all the aberrant beasts and mutated insects charge this way?”
Jiang Tea Tea looked him over like he was an idiot and said sharply, “Big Dog Huang, you are a dog-type beastman, not a pig. Use your head and think about who they are coming for.”
Huang Da Zhuang stared blankly and said, “They are not coming for you, are they?”
Hearing that, Jiang Tea Tea clutched her forehead. She almost wanted to die from frustration: “You moron…”
“They are coming for me.” Chong Ming’s deep, magnetic voice cut smoothly over Jiang Tea Tea’s words as he said, “Schoolmate Big Dog Huang.”
Huang Da Zhuang: “!!!!”
That was not his name. He was not called Big Dog Huang. He was not called Big Dog Huang.
His name was Da Zhuang, Da Zhuang.
Why was his idol also giving him a random nickname, just like his Sister Tea.
Jiang Tea Tea said bluntly to Chong Ming, “You know they are all after your life, so why are you not solving it yet?”
Chong Ming’s gaze sank into her black eyes as he said calmly, “There is no rush. The nation gives the Imperial Military Academy such a large budget every year. An aberrant beast invasion of this scale hitting the Academy is something that only happens once in a hundred years.”
“We can just use this chance to test the Academy’s reaction speed, the skill of the teaching staff, and the individual and group combat abilities of the students.”