Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Juvenile Form

The sharp bite of gunpowder mixed with the rancid stink, and for someone with Zhou Zhou’s overly keen sense of smell, it was a perfect recipe for rage.

He kicked over a dead bug and cursed. “This is fucking disgusting. Meat-worms in corpses were bad enough, and now these black, hard-shelled things. How many bugs are in this damn hole?”

Feng Ling crouched by one of the monsters and studied it.

The front half looked like a centipede—blocky armored plates, a pair of thick, vicious mandibles. It had fewer legs than a real centipede: twelve in total, arranged in two rows.

The back half dragged a long, flat abdomen, darker in color. A thin layer of plating covered it, softer than the shell up front. At the tail were two small hooks, built for anchoring into rock while it climbed.

She’d seen that hooked structure on the white meat-worms too.

“The white ones are probably the juvenile form,” Feng Ling said thoughtfully. “These blue-black ones with armor are adults after metamorphosis. No idea how many are still deeper in. We should move. If you’re killing bugs, you wipe them out while they’re still juvenile form—once they grow up, they’ll be a real problem.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Huang Fu Miao Miao watching her with a strange expression. Feng Ling raised a brow. “Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao flinched and shook her head hard. “N-no. Nothing.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao was always wound too tight. Feng Ling didn’t dwell on it. She turned to Zhou Zhou. “Deputy Captain, what’s the plan?”

“We do need to wipe out the juvenile form early,” Zhou Zhou said, “but there are too many holes here. If we wander, we’ll get lost.”

He rummaged through Qin Liang’s pack, pulled out a black box, and muttered, “Didn’t think the tunnel network would be this messy. Good thing Old Su prepared this.”

“What is it?” Feng Ling asked.

“State-of-the-art tunnel detector.” Zhou Zhou shoved bug corpses aside to clear a patch of ground, set the box down, then flipped the lid.

Inside was a pull-out LCD screen about the size of an A4 sheet, with rows of complicated, color-coded buttons beneath it.

“When scientists design this crap,” Zhou Zhou complained, “why can’t they make it easier to use?”

He jabbed buttons. Nothing happened.

Qin Liang spoke up quietly. “You need to activate the mini drone underneath first.”

Zhou Zhou blinked, slapped his forehead, then started a flurry of fast, aggressive inputs.

A metal object popped out from inside the box—less than ten centimeters wide, shaped like a ladybug.

A tiny propeller mounted beneath it whirred to life. It rose slowly, buzzing as it hovered near Feng Ling’s knees.

Then a micro-scanner on top fired a green laser and began sweeping the cave in a rotating scan.

“All right,” Zhou Zhou said, exhaling. “Qin Liang, watch the screen. Everyone else, keep guard.”

Feng Ling leaned in. The display was split in two: the top half showed a 3D map forming in real time; the bottom half was a stream of data she couldn’t make sense of.

Qin Liang explained anyway. “While it scans, it records temperature, humidity, and other environmental data in real time. It can also detect living creatures. Helps us understand the tunnel layout and what’s moving in it.”

“Fancy,” Feng Ling said, straightening. “How much does it cost?”

Zhou Zhou snorted, pride flickering in his eyes as he glanced at her. “Internal equipment. Not for sale. No price.”

Feng Ling looked mildly disappointed.

The metal ladybug flew farther and farther, then slipped into a random opening and vanished from sight. The data kept streaming back uninterrupted.

“Deputy Captain,” Xiao Li reported, “we’ve used over half our ammo. Do we need to fall back for resupply?”

Zhou Zhou thought it over. “Once the detector finishes mapping, you go back to the car and grab supplies.”

They’d come down light. Most of their ammunition was already gone. If they got hit with another swarm, they could end up short on firepower.

After that, Zhou Zhou’s gaze shifted to the two men huddled in the corner. He told Xiao Li, “When you go out, take those two with you.”

“Understood,” Xiao Li said.

Brother Chao’s face kept changing—calculating, uncertain, like he wanted to speak. Beside him, Fang Ye looked relieved and grateful, practically vibrating with the need to get out.

Then Brother Chao spoke, voice cold and slick. “You won’t make it back.”

Everyone looked over.

Zhou Zhou ignored him and asked Fang Ye, “What’s wrong with your buddy? Is he mentally unstable?”

Fang Ye gave a stiff, awkward laugh. His eyes skittered away. He lowered his head and didn’t answer.

Brother Chao let out a nasty little chuckle. “You’re not its match.”

Zhou Zhou actually laughed, more angry than amused. He walked over. “Yeah? Then who’s this ‘it’ you keep talking about? Call it out. Let’s see.”

Brother Chao didn’t say anything. He simply lifted his chin and stared up at the cavern ceiling.

Zhou Zhou frowned and looked up too.

Even with flares and light sticks, the ceiling was still dim. Black openings dotted the stone above them, breathing out something deep and wrong.

Zhou Zhou had killed plenty of aberrant, including polluted entities. Right now, pride and irritation twisted together inside him.

He heard the familiar skitter of insect legs and tried to pinpoint the source, but the tunnels were connected. The sound bounced and blurred. Useless.

He tried relying on scent, but the cavern was drowned in thick, rancid stink. He couldn’t isolate anything else.

The sound drew closer.

Scrape… scrape…

Every muscle tightened. Weapons came up. Eyes locked on the holes.

Then, from the largest opening, a human face appeared.

A rotting green human face.

It was warped like melted wax. When it opened its mouth, teeth fell loose and clattered to the ground.

Brother Chao’s eyes lit up with feverish excitement. He ran forward like a man begging at an altar. “I brought you the people you wanted! Look—they all have ability cards! Just keep me, and I can bring you more!”

Thump.

The face dropped.

A head coated in rot rolled across the stone and came to rest off to the side.

It hit Brother Chao squarely. He froze, staring upward, stunned.

In his vision, massive mandibles opened like a claw machine dropping from above, snapping down in an instant.

Everything went black.

Zhou Zhou’s shout tore through the cavern. “Fire!”

The Special Assault Team fired at once.

But the thing was terrifyingly fast. The moment it bit down on Brother Chao’s head, it snapped back into the opening. Every bullet hit Brother Chao instead.

His body hung for a heartbeat in the hole above, blood pouring from the impacts. Two seconds later, it dropped.

His neck was severed clean. A headless body collapsed to the ground, spraying blood.

And somewhere in the dark, Brother Chao’s voice echoed through the cavern.