In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

More than thirty people took off and ran wildly in the direction where the fighter jets had withdrawn.

Bai Lu sat in the passenger seat, eyes closed, maintaining her mental connection with the fourth-order mother.

She could clearly sense the terrible state of the Hellhound Legion at that moment.

"They won't last much longer."

Bai Lu opened her eyes and looked at the data flashing on the screen.

"I can sense the change in their mental strength."

"The battlefield is their best place to be."

Su Ran's tone was flat.

The fighter jet flew eastward and hovered in mid-air five kilometers away from the mine.

This is a safe distance.

Ten minutes later.

The console's communication channel received a confirmation message from the North African air force base.

"Advisor Su, Air Force Base 04 is calling. H-20 bomber formation has arrived over the target. Please confirm whether to drop bombs."

"Drop the bomb," Su Ran responded.

A deep, suppressed mechanical roar came from high above.

Two Daxia H-20 strategic bombers pierced through the thick red sand and appeared over the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.

The bomber's ventral bomb bay slowly opened, revealing the heavy weapons inside.

Four Type 7 Wallbreaker heavy thermobaric bunker-buster bombs detached from their mounting brackets.

Gravitational acceleration caused the projectile to crash into the rock strata at the bottom of the abandoned copper mine with a piercing screech.

The earth trembled violently.

A muffled explosion came from hundreds of meters below the ground.

The hard granite layer was forcibly torn apart by special explosives.

The bottom of the entire mine collapsed downwards, and a large amount of rubble and dust were thrown into the air.

Following closely behind were two Dongfeng-Kuangbiao thermobaric bombs.

The projectile precisely penetrated the deepest part of the fault fissure that had just been blasted open.

A dazzling white light erupted from underground.

A huge fireball, mixed with dark red and bright yellow, expanded from the center of the mine pit like a volcanic eruption.

A huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky.

The scorching shockwave spread outward in a ring, overturning the ruins along the way and stirring up clouds of red sand.

The Xuan Nu fighter jet experienced a slight jolt.

The intelligent assistance system automatically adjusts the balance.

The mushroom cloud gradually dissipated, but dust continued to fall from the sky.

Su Ran stared at the tactical tablet.

On the screen, tens of thousands of red dots representing vital signs were immediately cleared.

Su Ran leaned back in the driver's seat, her gaze drifting towards the bombing site.

"Let's go see if there are any fish that have escaped the net."

Looking down at the giant crater below, which had been scorched into a glassy state by the high temperature, Bai Lu felt that the decision was completely unnecessary.

"The entire cave collapsed."

She pointed to the ruins outside.

"The yield of two thousand tons of TNT is comparable to that of a nuclear bomb. No matter how tough their shells are, they would all be buried alive and burned to ashes."

Su Ran adjusted the flight altitude, and the fighter jet descended smoothly.

"Never underestimate the resilience of ants."

The fighter jet slowly descended, approaching the ruins.

"I remember a text in elementary school about an anthill that caught fire. The ants rolled themselves into a ball, wrapped the queen inside, and forced their way out of the inferno."

Bai Lu turned her head away and pouted.

"That's all just for kids. I figured it out when I was in junior high."

Once the outer ants are burned, the ball will fall apart and won't be able to escape.

Su Ran turned her head, looked at Bai Lu's serious expression, and reached out to pat her head.

"Go and see for yourself."

The fighter jet returned to the top of the mine.

The original open-pit mine terrain has been completely changed.

Under the scorching heat of 3,000 degrees Celsius, the earth's surface turned into large areas of vitrified crystals.

The surrounding rocks were dark red and emitted a pungent sulfur smell.

There were no signs of life in the entire area.

The white deer looked down at the barren, scorched earth and shrugged.

"Look, everything's gone, they're all dead."

Su Ran did not answer; he looked down at the tactical tablet in his hand.

His perception of spatial power allowed him to sense subtle spatial fluctuations.

His gaze settled on a flat area.

The charred, hardened ground began to undulate unnaturally.

The surface layer of limestone was pushed aside, and a crack half a meter wide appeared.

Dozens of mutilated, mutated army ants crawled out of the crack in the ground.

Their shells were burned and curled up, with sparks still flying from the edges.

Some had only three or four legs left, while others had half their bodies crushed and oozing green pus, yet they were still frantically digging out the soil.

The crack is getting bigger and bigger.

Accompanied by a chilling rustling sound.

A huge black sphere, three meters in diameter, was covered with swarms of ants that rolled out from a crack in the ground.

Their mouthparts gripped their companion's limbs tightly, layer upon layer.

The outermost layer of the army ant's carapace had been baked to a grayish-white color by the high temperature, and most of it was incomplete.

The white deer opened its eyes wide and pointed ahead.

"Holy crap... I'm really wrapped up like a ball!"

The total number of surviving ants is far less than the 30,000 previously surveyed; at most, only a few thousand remain.

Moreover, they were all at their last gasp, relying on their survival instinct to protect the core parts in the middle.

"There aren't many left, maybe two or three thousand at most."

Su Ran looked at the heat source distribution on the screen and provided an analysis.

"The outer layer is all dead matter, driven by the living worker ants in the inner layer."

Moreover, the component with the strongest thermal reaction is hidden at the very center of this sphere.

He pressed the switch to open the side hatch.

"Make your move. The one inside is definitely the queen ant; we can't let it escape."

High-altitude airflow enters the cabin.

Bai Lu floated out of the cabin under the support of her mental power and hovered in mid-air.

She closed her eyes, and blue spiritual energy rippled downwards from her center.

At the lower edge, the hellhound received its command, its limbs stomping heavily on the scorched earth as it raced toward the ant ball rolling at the bottom of the pit.

The white deer in mid-air waved its right hand forward.

The throwing blade he carried flew out and slashed at the rolling black ball first.

"Pfft!"

The flying blades whistled through the air, precisely slicing into the outer edge of the ant ball.

Those mutated army ants that barely clung to the sphere, attempting to use their flesh and blood to shield themselves from harm, were dismembered on the spot.

Green fluid splattered everywhere, hissing as it landed on the scalding ground.

At the same time, thirty-three hellhounds, led by the fourth-order mother, charged forward at full speed.

The mother's enormous body leaped high into the air, smashing the army ants charging at the front with a single claw.

Su Ran did not stay where she was.

He communicated with the surrounding space with his mind, and the tactical mech appeared directly on the open ground in front of him.

Su Ran leaped onto the mecha, and the neural interaction system quickly loaded.

"Da da da da da!"

The tube-shaped electromagnetic cannon began to rotate, unleashing a torrent of energy bullets that struck the ant ball directly in the front.

The ant ball was instantly blasted away, with more than half of it gone.

But in an instant, more army ants came from all sides to reinforce the ball, carrying it forward.

"Still struggling in its death throes."

Su Ran piloted the mecha and took another step forward.

A massive, high-frequency vibrating battle blade was drawn from behind.

The mecha arm swung, its battle blades slashing with unstoppable momentum directly at the core of the ant ball.

The thick ant mound was split in two.

The worker ants that fought desperately to protect the core were cleaved in half by this single strike.

The ant ball was torn open.

At the very center, a huge creature, over two meters long and entirely translucent white, was exposed.

It has no hard shell or sharp pincer-like mouthparts; its fat body is covered with wrinkles.

It looks more like a large silkworm.

That was a third-order mutated ant queen.

It lay on the ground, its fat body wriggling and making a faint hissing sound.

The few dozen remaining army ants around it desperately crawled toward it, trying to cover it with their broken bodies once again.

The sword slashed again, cutting through the barrier of dozens of worker ants.

"White Deer, quickly bring Little Grey over here."

Su Ran's voice came through the mecha's external loudspeaker.

"Swallow the queen ant directly; that would be a great tonic."

The crystal core of the third-tier queen insect, combined with the bio-energy contained within its body, will greatly benefit Little Grey's future advancement.

"good!"

Upon hearing the sound, the white deer landed on a rock and gave the hellhound mother a feeding command.

"roar!"

Ignoring the ant swarm blocking its way, the hellhound charged straight ahead and bit the queen ant's body.

*Smack!*

There was very little chewing involved; it was simply tilted back and swallowed.