Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Desert Army Ants

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

It had only stated that his level wasn’t high enough, but it didn’t state that synthesis was impossible!

Lin Ke was even more impressed by his synthesis cheating device now. He had only touched a bit of the insignificant outer edges, yet the cheating device actually could scan the ant nest’s entire internal structure successfully.

The Queen of The Ant Nest was Level 5.

Lin Ke was currently Level 2.

He had to raise his level at least three times, becoming the same level as the Queen Ant, before he could carry out the synthesis.

Lin Ke took a look at his total EXP. He had an excess of 400 EXP after going from Level 1 to Level 2. Killing five Machinery Holy Cult fanatics had also earned him 2,500 EXP. Therefore, he had a total of 2,900 EXP now.

“Oh, right! There’s the mission, too!” Lin Ke hurriedly switched to the [Missions] interface. He had a total of three missions right now.

1. C-level mission: [Prey hunted by the Wasteland]

2. E-level mission: [Escape from the Desolate Gobi] (Completed)

3. E-level mission: [Moros’s Pocket Watch]

After killing the Machinery Holy Cult fanatics and successfully arriving at Weeping Valley as well, he had completed the ‘Escape from the Desolate Gobi’ mission.

Lin Ke promptly chose to submit the mission assignment.

[You’ve completed the E-level mission, ‘Escape from the Desolate Gobi,’ and gained 5,000 EXP. Your Status has changed from Slave to Refugee.]

After submitting the mission, he gained 5,000 EXP and the status change reward.

“A total of 7,900 EXP… That’s enough for me to advance to Level 5!” Without a second word, Lin Ke began to level up.

[Leveling up from Level 2 to Level 3 will consume 900 EXP. Will you level up? Yes/No]

Yes!

[Leveling up from Level 3 to Level 4 will consume 1,400 EXP. Will you level up? Yes/No]

Yes!

[Leveling up from Level 4 to Level 5 will consume 2,100 EXP. Will you level up? Yes/No]

Yes!

Lin Ke jumped three consecutive levels. His leveling up speed was like a rocket that had launched into the sky.

After leveling up three times, he still had 3,500 EXP left. Although leveling up from Level 5 to Level 6 required only 2,800 EXP, Lin Ke didn’t rush to level up.

As a strong and experienced player, retaining sufficient EXP for level ups was the most basic rule.

Leveling up after a battle at critical moments could help dispel negative status effects. One would also recover all HP and Energy Points; it was equivalent to having two lives.

After advancing three levels in quick succession, Lin Ke had also accumulated 12 Latent Capacity Points. He similarly didn’t need to use them now, so he wasn’t in a hurry to allocate them to his attributes.

Lin Ke took a look at his stats panel and was satisfied with what he saw.

Name: Lin Ke

Race: Human

Level: 5

EXP: 3,500

Class: N/A

Status: Refugee

Health Points: 60/60

Energy Points: 40/40

Stats: Power (3), Agility (3), Endurance (6), Intelligence (4), Energy (2), Charm (1), Luck (1)

Latent Capacity Points: 12

Talent: N/A

Skills: N/A

Equipment: Sharp Dagger (White), Glock 17 Pistol (White), Bezos T1 Tactical Machine Pistol (White), Pump-Action Shotgun (White)

Special Abilities: Basic Driving (40%), Basic Marksmanship (54%)

Appraisal: You’re really a ‘lucky one.’

His level!

His EXP!

His Latent Capacity Points!

His equipment!

His appraisal…

Cough, let’s go back to the main topic.

Since he had now reached the level requirement, Lin Ke placed his hand on the edges of the ant nest without a second word and entered Synthesis mode.

Desert Army Ant Nest (Whole) + Searchlight = ? (35% success rate)

[Synthesis consumes 100 HP. Synthesize? Yes/No]

Lin Ke frowned lightly when he saw the synthesis formula.

Here comes the second problem-‘consumes 100 HP…’

That’s tough!

Lin Ke allocated nine Latent Capacity Points to his Endurance and kept three points in reserve.

Fifteen Endurance equaled 150 HP… After synthesis, he would still have 50 HP left, so he would roughly still be within the safe zone.

After making certain that synthesis was possible, Lin Ke immediately began to think about the synthesis material.

What kind of material will give the best results when matched with desert army ants? Lin Ke calmly thought about the materials he had at hand and could use. 1

The ant nest was of Green quality, so the material selected also needed to be of high enough quality.

Otherwise, Lin Ke would’ve suffered a huge loss if he spent so much EXP to level up-even using nine Latent Capacity Points-just to synthesize a new pet that didn’t have much use.

Among all the materials he had at hand, gold was the only thing that counted as a high-quality material at the moment.

However, Lin Ke didn’t have enough gold at hand. Moreover, he intended to exchange all the remaining gold he had for money when he reached Sand City. Thus, he couldn’t use the gold for synthesis.

Apart from gold, he only had a few guns and ammunition left now. However, they were all of White quality.

With his head lowered, Lin Ke fell into deep contemplation. Then, his eyes suddenly lit up. “Right, the fanatics’ exoskeleton armor is of Light Green quality, so that’ll barely suffice!”

Lin Ke had abandoned both the mechanical arms and exoskeleton armor in the ancient castle’s garden because they weren’t adjustable and were too heavy.

It was just right to use them for synthesis and recycle those useless junk now!

“Forbes, let’s go out and bring the exoskeleton armor here!”

Lin Ke climbed up into the secret room. Then, he and Forbes spent a great amount of effort to drag the exoskeleton armor into the sunken-in secret room.

Forbes sprawled on the ground with his butt stuck in the air at the secret room’s entrance. He held the searchlight in one hand while his other hand hung in mid-air, ready to pull Lin Ke up at any moment.

When he saw how bright and excited his Boss’s eyes were, Forbes immediately knew that his Boss was about to use his supernatural powers, Synthesis, again.

To be honest, he was also kind of looking forward to seeing what the desert army ants would be modified into. 2

Lin Ke carefully placed the exoskeleton armor onto the floor. Then, he placed his other hand on the ant nest’s outermost edge again.

Desert Army Ant Nest (Whole) + Exoskeleton Armor = ? (100% success rate)

[Synthesis consumes 100 HP. Synthesize? Yes/No] 1

When Lin Ke saw the 100% success rate, even his breathing became quick and ragged. He didn’t expect the compatibility rate between the army ants and exoskeleton armor to be so high. It was actually 100%!

What was there to consider anymore?

He began the process right away!

Synthesize!

Lin Ke’s right hand began to absorb the exoskeleton armor.

His hand was just like a barrel of aqua regia acid. After coming into physical contact with the exoskeleton armor, his palm devoured the armor bit by bit.

In just a brief moment, the exoskeleton armor-which weighed a few dozen kilograms-was thoroughly devoured, leaving behind only a few pieces of torn rags and tape bits.

At the same time, blood threads began to extend from Lin Ke’s other hand. Little by little, they spread from his fingertips and advanced toward the ant nest’s trunk.

Despite the synthesis interface displaying a 100% success rate, Lin Ke was still nervous. This was his first time synthesizing a living organism and material that were both of Green quality. 4

Moreover, the living organism-an ant nest-was such a unique one this time as well.

Adding this to the 100% success rate… Lin Ke was both nervous and full of anticipation at the same time.

Lin Ke discovered that the army ants didn’t actually display any hostility upon encountering the blood threads. Instead, they chose to be quietly enveloped by them.

The blood threads had already wholly enveloped the ‘roots’ by now. The blood threads climbed up bit by bit, swallowing up the entire white trunk.

Forbes’s mouth fell agape as he held up the searchlight and watched the entire white ant nest turn into a red blood cocoon, which gave off a bewitching and strange smell.

Treasure Hunter Rat rested on the ground beside Forbes. Its two little paws scrabbled at the cave-in’s boundaries as it stuck out its little head and watched timidly. Although it was a treasure hunter, it was still just a mouse in the end.

When encountering an army ant nest of this scale, its natural instincts were, of course, to become extremely fearful and stay far away.

As for Sand Condor, it laid at the side with both its neck and head hanging. Suspended upside-down in mid-air, it was sleeping deeply with both its eyes closed.

Blood threads enveloped the whole ant nest and formed a gigantic blood cocoon tree.

At the same time, the system issued a notification: [Blood cocoon incubation countdown: 30 minutes]

The amount of time needed was a little long. However, this was understandable. After all, this was Lin Ke’s first pet that used a Green-quality organism. Added to this was a Light Green-quality material. This round of synthesis was…

… of an upper-class standard!

“Alright, you guys can come down now. We’ll be able to witness a miracle in half an hour.”

Upon hearing that there were no dangers, Treasure Hunter Rat was the first to jump down from above. It quickly darted up to Lin Ke’s shoulder and placed its paws on its hips in a valiant and heroic manner, seeming to have forgotten how it had obsequiously hidden up there just now. 5

Forbes turned over and slowly shifted his body with his butt up in the air.

His pair of thick legs swayed as they hung in the air.

Despite being very careful, he still fell from above with a boom in the end.

It seemed like he had been overconfident in his arms’ strength.

With regard to this, Lin Ke tried hard to hold back his laughter and expressed his condolences.

His pair of arms had taken on a load that arms of that age shouldn’t have had to endure. 1

Half an hour was neither too long nor too short.

Lin Ke also didn’t stay idle during this period of time and spent it thinking about his future.

Ever since the quicksand in the desert ruins, he had relied on the Zerg’s Nest’s synthesis function-as well as his own in-depth knowledge of the game-to get through dangers and flee all the way to Weeping Valley safely.

His cheating device had an infinite number of wondrous uses.

Treasure Hunter Rat, Gerbil, and Sand Condor all nodded to express their agreement. 3

Lin Ke: Little Treasure, Sand Condor, the two of you, stand up for a moment.

Treasure Hunter Rat and Sand Condor stood up.

Lin Ke: What I’m saying is, everyone seated here is trash!

Gerbil: ??? 3

The effects of synthesis were very obvious, but its flaws were also just as obvious. The higher the synthesis creature’s level and quality, the more HP the synthesis consumed.

Even if Lin Ke wanted strong and powerful pets, he needed sufficient HP if he wanted to synthesize them. Therefore, a pressing need had surfaced in front of Lin Ke-Endurance.

He needed high Endurance and high HP.

Toward this, Lin Ke already had no fewer than three solutions in mind. He would make detailed plans again according to the situation after he reached Sand City. Apart from that, something else also troubled Lin Ke.

He had accidentally activated the cheating device that was Zerg’s Nest.

According to the plot, it was in Version 6.0, ‘Heart of the Swarm,’ that the final boss-Paul The Great Emperor-finally gathered all the fragments and synthesized the complete Zerg’s Nest. Upon doing so, not only did he awaken all the Zergs in every part of the world, but he also built a great army of synthesized creatures, easily crushing every player. 2

Yet, he had activated one of the fragments now. In that case, that Destined One, Child of The Plot, and Legendary Boss would definitely find him at some point in the future and kill him to seize the Zerg’s Nest fragment currently bound to him.

Just thinking about this alone gave Lin Ke a headache.

This single Luck point of his was a little troublesome.

On the one hand, it allowed him to activate his cheating device. On the other hand, it had cemented his fate of being pursued by the final boss in advance.

Lin Ke rubbed his face and mentally consoled himself. Phew! No need to worry. I still have six years. By relying on my understanding of the game, maybe I can fight a round of two with Paul The Great Emperor if I power up myself during these six years.

During his contemplation, the blood cocoon incubation countdown had ended. The blood cocoon with a tree stump-like outer appearance began to split open and peel apart.

[Monster synthesis is complete. Obtained Silver Queen Ant (Light Blue)!]

[Monster Stats]

Name: Silver Queen Ant

Quality: Light Blue

Race: Formicidae

Stats: Metal Affinity

Level: 5

Initial Skill 1: Troop Proliferation Lv1 (When the Silver Queen Ant activates Troop Proliferation mode, propagation rate is increased by 1,000%. Effect lasts 1 day. It has a cooldown period of 30 days.)

Initial Skill 2: Propagation (The Silver Queen Ant can propagate army ants. The army ant types that she can propagate include worker ants, soldier ants, and flying ants. When food is available, she can produce 1,000 ants per day.)

Appraisal: An absolute nightmare! The ants the Silver Queen Ant gives birth to have fully metallic bodies. Apart from fully retaining the ant species’ characteristics, they have also gained a new metal-devouring ability and are able to eat metals. Their metal bodies greatly extend the army ants’ lifespans, allowing them to adapt to even more extreme environments. From this moment onward, an existence that is even more terrifying than quicksand has been born in the desert-Silver Army Ants! 3

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