Qin Ziwen rose onto his toes, sidestepping a mother Abdominal Aphid Spider scuttling past.
He tiptoed across the sandy ground, eventually reaching the back of the enclosure.
"Big Beetle, is it alright for these Abdominal Aphid Spiders to be running around like this?"
"It’s normal..." The Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle was unfazed, long since accustomed to the sight.
"As long as it’s normal." Qin Ziwen nodded. He didn’t understand the sight of pregnant mother Abdominal Aphid Spiders running around like they were doing parkour with their babies, but he decided to respect it.
’As long as it isn’t a stress reaction from failing to adapt to the environment, it’s fine.’
A pregnant mother Abdominal Aphid Spider scurried over and climbed onto the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle’s back. It scrambled down a little, its rear egg sac pulsing rhythmically.
Inside the egg sac, curled up within the taut, fist-sized eggs, the small Abdominal Aphid Spiderlings had already taken on a rudimentary spider-like form.
The mother Abdominal Aphid Spider opened its mandibles to suck the honeydew from the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle’s back.
Qin Ziwen looked intrigued. "Is it tasty? What flavor is it?"
"Have a taste..." The Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle shifted its body, generously offering Qin Ziwen a sample.
Qin Ziwen politely but firmly declined.
"Oh, well..." The Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle seemed a little disappointed that Qin Ziwen wouldn’t eat.
"You go ahead and enjoy it. As for me, I’ll just look, not touch." Qin Ziwen waved his hand dismissively. ’Eating that stuff causes dependency.’
’If it were just an addiction to the honeydew, that would be one thing. The main problem is that it also makes you dependent on the one producing it—the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle itself.’
’That’s a little terrifying.’
’One taste and you’d become completely obsessed with the beetle. Who could handle that?’
Qin Ziwen inspected the area once more and was about to leave.
A nearby Abdominal Aphid Spider raised its rear, the egg sac upon it pulsing.
The next second,
POP!
The egg sac split open with a crisp sound.
An Abdominal Aphid Spiderling dropped out onto the ground.
The mother spider held its rear high in the air, letting the spiderling simply free-fall. After hitting the ground, it lay stunned for a good while before slowly wiggling its legs and shakily getting to its feet.
Qin Ziwen was speechless.
’Holy shit... that’s savage!’
’The weak don’t even deserve to be your children.’
After the first spiderling’s free-fall, more began to drop one after another.
In the air,
POP! POP!
The sounds echoed one after another.
As if a horn had sounded, spiderlings emerged one by one from the egg sacs on their mothers’ abdomens.
Qin Ziwen did a quick count. Each mother Abdominal Aphid Spider could produce about 10 to 20 spiderlings at once.
For spiders, this number was a sign of high-quality, selective reproduction.
He had looked into it before. A typical spider lays a clutch of at least fifty to sixty eggs. Hundreds are common, and some species even lay thousands.
Of course, in the wild, not all of them survive to adulthood.
Out of a thousand eggs, fewer than ten might live to become adults.
Lacking food and the means to hunt, they resort to cannibalism, get eaten by predators, or simply starve after hatching.
Here, however, that wasn’t an issue for now. Qin Ziwen would raise them all.
Once this brood of spiderlings reached maturity, his Abdominal Aphid Spider army would begin to take shape.
And this was just for the Abdominal Aphid Spiders. If he found other suitable insects in the future, he could have the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle continue to act as their "godmother."
A sweet fragrance wafted to his nose. Qin Ziwen turned to see the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle producing honeydew on its back. Attracted by the scent, the surrounding Abdominal Aphid Spiders were all crawling toward it.
The Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle waved its antennae, shooing away the adult spiders and only allowing the young ones to climb on.
The young spiderlings that climbed onto its back gathered around the gaps in its wing casings, excitedly sucking up the honeydew.
The Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle settled down gently, its body rocking lightly like a giant cradle.
On its face, Qin Ziwen thought he saw a hint of... damn, was that motherly love?
’Damn it, must be a trick of the light.’ Qin Ziwen shook his head sharply. When he looked at the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle again, it was clearly just a big, pitch-black insect. There was nothing gentle about it.
Leaving the Giant Beast Breeding Center, Qin Ziwen headed to the feed processing plant.
The place was much busier now than it had been a few days ago.
Every day, large quantities of fresh carcasses were brought here, loaded into the disassembly chute, and processed into canned food.
Xiao Xuemei emerged from around a corner at the sound of his arrival.
She stopped short. When she saw it was Qin Ziwen, her lips moved as if to say something else, but what came out was, "Alliance Leader."
"Sister Xuemei," Qin Ziwen said with a smile. "How’s today’s canned food production?"
Xiao Xuemei glanced at the notebook in her hand. "We’ve produced 1,700 cans so far today. I heard from Wang Yun that another batch of kills is coming in later, so we should be able to run another production cycle. For the past few days, daily output has been holding steady at around 2,500 cans."
"How many are left in the warehouse?"
"There are still twenty-one hundred."
Qin Ziwen did a quick mental calculation and shook his head.
’This production rate isn’t enough.’
’After deducting the fixed eight hundred cans for the Giant Beast Breeding Center and the one-thousand-can daily quota for Qin Alliance members, the daily surplus is only seven hundred.’
’In reality, even a thousand cans a day isn’t enough for the Qin Alliance members.’
’With over three thousand mouths to feed in the Qin Alliance, that’s not even one can for every three people.’
’Now that the Abdominal Aphid Spiders have given birth, their population has ballooned by more than tenfold.’
’The previous eight hundred cans a day definitely won’t be enough anymore. If I want these new spiderlings to grow up strong and healthy, the number of cans required will have to at least double to sixteen hundred per day.’
The current production capacity was far from the Giant Beast Feed Processing Plant’s limit. The only thing missing was meat!
But the amount of prey that could be hunted daily in the underground caverns was limited. He had to find a way to increase the supply.
Qin Ziwen thought of the fish in the River of Spirits.
But he quickly dismissed the idea. They had stocked the River of Spirits with plenty of fish, transferring a large catch into the river late in the previous map, but they hadn’t spawned yet. It wasn’t time to start fishing.
Fishing now would be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Then, an idea struck him: the backtrack function.
’I could go back to a previous map, find an area teeming with prey, and have a proper hunt.’
His mind immediately went to the Gobi Desert.
’The massive dinosaurs in the Gobi Oasis. It would be easier to hunt them—and find them—on land than it was at sea.’
’Plus, dinosaurs have a much higher meat yield than these insects from the underground world.’
At this thought, Qin Ziwen decided it was a viable plan.
The initial forest map had also been rich in prey, but after several hunts, the animal population around the Gated Community had been depleted.
On the other hand, they hadn’t been to the Gobi Oasis in a while.
’I wonder if the dinosaurs in the Oasis have missed us.’
That evening, as the Hunting Teams returned, Qin Ziwen summoned his core members and proposed his idea: returning to the Gobi Oasis to hunt dinosaurs.
Everyone present immediately volunteered for the mission.
Cao Biansheng spoke up at once. "Alliance Leader, let me go! I have experience hunting dinosaurs!"
Wang Yun spoke up. "Captain Cao, we all know how capable you are. But with Fishmen still hiding in these underground caverns, an expert like you should stay here. Let us go instead."
"Captain Wang, Captain Cao, you’re both veterans of the alliance. How about giving us rising stars a chance?" Jiang Shan said with a grin.
Zhang Chongshan added, "Alliance Leader, I remember there’s a large lake over at the Oasis. Our navy hasn’t had a chance to see any action. How about we take the Lost Home out on the lake? With the ship’s mounted Crossbows, none of the dinosaurs on the shore will be able to get away."
Zheng Yuan coughed. "That’s nonsense! What’s the navy butting in for? Alliance Leader, give us second-line Hunting Teams a chance. It’ll be good training. An opportunity to hunt huge dinosaurs is rare. We didn’t get to go last time, so it’s the perfect chance for our guys to see some real action."
Qin Ziwen glanced around at them. He finally understood.
They had all been underground for too long. Every single one of them just wanted to feel the sun on their skin.
...
...