Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 282 Observing the Ant Hill
This time, the broadcast signal stayed connected for an unusually long time. After Lu Xi'an and Luo Ping finished their business, Chai Xin chattered on for a while, recounting all the recent developments at the 923 Institute base.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei also learned about Chai Xin's recent progress. The girl said that she had grown taller, her back was straighter, the wrinkles on her face had decreased, and her teeth seemed to have become whiter after brushing them every day.

She added that not only her, but everyone at the base brushes their teeth every day and their health has improved significantly.

Furthermore, her abilities have also greatly improved. She can control things remotely, and can apply optical camouflage to anything she has touched within a certain period of time to make it invisible.

This is the training direction for Type D new humans recorded in that booklet. Luo Ping said at the base that of the four booklets, Type D was the one that opened his eyes the most.

Many of the methods and techniques recorded in this Type D booklet were things he had never seen before. The Type D new humans he had encountered throughout his travels mostly limited their abilities to themselves.

Going further, Chai Xin could develop many more variations, but that would probably be very difficult.

Chai Xin chattered on and on, much of it a complaint, saying she spent so much time and effort exercising every day, but her progress was so slow.

However, after hearing Chai Xin's words, what Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei wanted to know most was not how well Chai Xin had developed his new abilities, but rather what the girl looked like now.

She herself said that the changes are quite significant, so they must really be quite significant.

After the signal was lost, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei drove the car to the hill where Yao Wei had been before.

Firstly, there's something to block the view; secondly, the terrain is slightly higher, offering a wide view; and thirdly, it's within the dog's scanning range, allowing the dog to help observe the movement of the anthill. It's the perfect temporary camp.

Without exchanging a word, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei tacitly chose to park their car there.

After parking the car, Lu Xi'an went to the back to take a look at the resonance gene scanner, which now only had five red dots representing him, Yao Wei, and the three fungal stones.

But Lu Xi'an paid no attention to these things. His gaze fell on another sloping road, and he pointed to a spot on it, asking, "Was their car here?"

Yao Wei said, "It seems so..."

Her memory wasn't bad, but the map was too small, and the situation was urgent at the time, so they didn't pay much attention to the exact location of the six red dots. How could they be too sure now?
Fortunately, while they couldn't figure it out, the dog did record it and immediately marked Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei on the map of the resonance gene scanner.

The dog said, "Mechanical Dog 02 has marked the stop distance of the previous target red dot for you."

Lu Xi'an couldn't help but exclaim, "Dogs are really amazing!"

Yao Wei nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes!"

Having a dog makes things much easier.

Lu Xi'an immediately had an idea and said, "Dog, I'm facing the direction that group of people came from. Adjust your position so I can turn accurately."

After he finished speaking, he turned to the northwest, and then Gouzi said, "Please turn 15 degrees to the east."

Lu Xi'an turned slightly eastward.

Dog: "Please turn four degrees west again."

Hmm... that's a bit too precise...

However, Lu Xi'an still made some adjustments.

"Please turn east one more time."

"..."

Lu Xi'an said, "That's not necessary, that's enough. I've already determined the location, thanks, Gouzi."

Dog: "No need to thank me, Mechanical Dog 02 is at your service."

Lu Xi'an said, "I'll go there and find their vehicle to see what supplies are on it."

“They should have a resonance gene scanner in their car. I need to get that at the very least. Otherwise, if someone finds it and recognizes us from it, that won't be good.”

Yao Wei said, "I'll go with you."

Lu Xi'an said, "I'll go alone, I can go and come back quickly. You need to keep an eye on the car and the ant colony here."

Yao Wei reluctantly replied, "Okay, then be careful and carry some hidden weapons with you."

Lu Xi'an glanced at Yao Wei and said with a smile, "Okay, no problem."

However, most of the useful hidden weapons had already fallen on the battlefield of the previous battle, where swarms of flying ants were entrenched, and Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei dared not go there easily.

Yao Wei took out the pistol bullets and handed them to Lu Xi'an, who then filled a pocket with them.

"This is not bad either."

Lu Xi filled his pockets and said with a smile. He shook his pockets, and they rattled.

After equipping himself with the hidden weapon, Lu Xi'an got out of the car.

A biting wind swept in again, seemingly even colder than before. Lu Xi'an had to tuck in his collar and clutch the fungal stone tightly in his hand before he felt much better.

He only carried one fungal stone with him; as for the one he had just picked up, he had already given it to Yao Wei.

He hasn't analyzed the specific effects of that substance, or which type of new human it's best suited for, and he might not even be able to analyze it.

He glanced at the ant hill, where the ants' movements had slowed down, as if the extreme weather was making it difficult for them to cope, and their movements became stiff.

However, upon closer inspection, he discovered that only the surface layer had slowed down, while the internal processes were still very fast.

"What would you like to eat? I'll cook in the car."

Yao Wei suddenly spoke.

Lu Xi'an said, "Let's have another lazy meal I made this morning, with extra sausage. This fight must have drained a lot of energy, so we need to replenish it."

Yao Wei said, "Yeah."

After Lu Xi'an finished speaking, he prepared to set off. He glanced at the ant hill again and saw that many small black balls formed by ants were separating from the hill and rolling down the slope.

After rolling down, the ant balls kept rolling around on the grass.

Lu Xi'an headed northwest, and when he got a little closer, he saw that where the ant balls had rolled, much of the grass on the ground had been gone. And within the ant balls, there was a patch of yellowish-green grass, all of which was withered grass frozen and brittle in the cold winter.

When those ant balls are filled with weeds, they will roll back up the ant mountain and merge into it.

Are they collecting food?

Lu Xi'an was slightly taken aback.

They actually collect their own food, and the food is so simple.

If that's the case, they're actually quite easy to keep if you have them under your control.

What a perfect Type C Newtype weapon!
Lu Xi'an took a slight detour to avoid disturbing the flying ants, and then quickly ran towards the slanted road.

It won't take long; it didn't take long for those two Type A new humans to arrive either.

Lu Xi'an quickly spotted a dilapidated silver minivan parked on the road. He immediately ran over, got in, and took a look.
The vehicle was in a dilapidated state, with very little stuff inside. The back seat was piled high with animal fur and rags, frozen dry and stiff, as if it had been watered before.

Lu Xi'an also smelled a familiar fishy smell, and couldn't help but feel disgusted by the smell. He didn't collect the furs and rags from the subway old man's gang.

He picked up the resonance gene scanner he found in the car, put it in the "power bank" as well, got out of the car, and ran back home.

Carrying things in your hands will naturally slow you down a bit, but not by much.

Lu Xi'an quickly returned to the RV.

As he passed by the ant hill, he was surprised to find that a hole had been dug out a little further away from the ant hill.

There were many frozen ants near the hole, indicating that a major battle must have taken place there before.

Upon closer inspection of the ant balls, Lu Xi'an discovered that each ant ball contained, inside which tiny, swaying grass snakes could be vaguely seen, curling up and wriggling.

In several ant balls, snake eggs were still coiled inside the snake's body.

Good heavens, these ants actually destroyed a snake's nest!
"Wow, so fast! The food isn't ready yet!"

When Lu Xi'an returned to the car, Yao Wei exclaimed in surprise again.

This is the second time today that she has said "it's so fast".

Lu Xi'an said, "It's not far from here, how slow could I be? There wasn't much in that car, I only brought these two things back."

As he spoke, he put the resonance gene scanner and the "power bank" in the car, and then said, "We don't need these two things, so let's give them to Luo Ping and the others later."

Yao Wei said, "Okay."

Lu Xi'an asked, "Did you notice that those ants built a snake's nest?"

"Ah."

Yao Wei nodded and said, "I just saw them all turn into balls and roll out. As they rolled, they suddenly scattered and flew up."

"I went up the slope to get my sniper rifle and took a look. I saw the hole. All the snakes in the hole were killed, and a lot of ants were dead too, but they all froze to death."

"Then they turned into balls again, rolled the snakes and snake eggs back with them."

The slope she was referring to was the top of the small mound.

Lu Xi'an exclaimed, "Amazing! I wonder how much food they can store?"

Yao Wei said, "I don't know."

Of course, they didn't know that after rolling the snake and snake eggs, these ant balls went on to roll grass, seemingly without end, as if they were storing food to prepare for a famine.

After a while, the meal was finally ready. Yao Wei ate only a little, giving most of the pot of lazy-style braised rice to Lu Xi'an.

"I didn't use much strength and I'm not very hungry. You just fought so hard, so eat more."

She said this to Lu Xi'an.

Then, while Lu Xi'an was eating heartily, she watched from the side.

Lu Xi'an said, "Don't look at me like that, it's making me feel really embarrassed."

Yao Wei said, "But you seem to enjoy your meal very much."

Lu Xian: "..."

After finishing their meal, the two quickly cleaned up the cookware. Because they needed to consider their water usage in the coming days, they avoided wasting too much water.

After tidying up, the two sat down to rest and opened their laptops to watch a movie.

As they watched, the two seemed to realize something and suddenly glanced out the car window at the same time.

"Snowing."

"Ah."

Lu Xi'an thought of something, opened the car door and looked outside. The ant balls in the distance had all returned to the ant mountain. The outermost layer of the ant mountain also seemed to be completely still. The dense layer was much denser than before, making it impossible to see the inside.

The snow came suddenly and fell heavily, leaving a lot of white on Ant Hill.

Lu Xi'an had an idea and went to the car to get the sniper rifle.

When he reached the top of the hill, he looked through the scope of his sniper rifle and saw that the surface of the distant anthill had frozen into a hard shell, truly resembling a black mountain.

The ants that make up the "shell" remain motionless, piled together, giving it the texture of high-strength plastic.

Looking through the sniper scope, Lu Xi'an could confirm that the outer ants were all dead.

—Or rather, it has been completely transformed into a tool for protecting the interior of the anthill.

(End of this chapter)