Translator: AnubisTL
Yes.
In other words, those insect race players were merely extensions of her own being.
As the insect race players relentlessly slaughtered human players, panel notifications flooded her screen:
[Ding! You have killed a human player and successfully stripped their innate ability.]
[Innate Ability: Silence is Golden]
[Innate Ability Effect: Every word you speak, even with good intentions, will sound grating and sarcastic to listeners.]
[Ding! You have slain a human player and successfully stripped their innate ability.]
[Innate Ability Name: Horticulturist]
[Innate Ability Effect: Every seed you plant, even in harsh environments, has an extremely high chance of taking root and sprouting.]
[Ding! You have slain a human player and successfully stripped their innate ability.]
[Innate Ability Name: Culinary Avatar]
[Innate Ability Effect: Food you prepare will randomly gain positive or negative effects. You will not know the effects until it is consumed.]
Notifications flooded her mind, one after another.
She scanned each innate ability, hesitating over which one to choose.
Since she could only strip one human's innate ability, she naturally wanted the one most useful to her.
Ideally, she would choose an offensive ability or one that accelerated reproduction. Unfortunately, all the available options seemed to be life-oriented abilities.
That giant bird she had transformed into an insect race player!
It was her greatest trump card!
Thanks to this giant bird, she had come within a hair's breadth of acquiring the heart of the insect hive during the blood sacrifice event!
The mere thought of the heart of the insect hive sent her mood plummeting. Her face darkened as she glared at Chen Jiang's name on the player fire seed point rankings.
If Chen Jiang hadn't spent 6,000 blood sacrifice points to claim both hearts of the insect hive from the Altar Shop—the only two available—her power would have been far greater now!
Worse still, the heart of the insect hive was utterly useless to players of any race other than the insect race!
Chen Jiang hadn't acquired those two hearts for his own use; he had done it purely to spite her.
This realization fueled her fury even further!
Fortunately, this global event had presented her with a chance to rise again.
She had deployed all her subjects!
Even stripping a single offensive innate ability would be a massive gain for her.
Thanks to the Queen Mother's unique trait, she could pass on any acquired innate ability to her offspring.
If she could strip Chen Jiang of his unrestrained modification innate ability, then every insect race player she created would possess it. Moreover, all true insect race players she bred would inherit this ability as well!
She could fully maximize the potential of human innate abilities!
All she needed was to seize one particularly powerful ability, and that would be enough!
"Can we handle this?" Chen Jiang asked, his brow furrowing slightly as he glanced at the chaos behind the city walls. He turned to the human guardian beside him.
"It's nothing to worry about," the old man replied calmly, shaking his head. "Kindling City wasn't built from scratch. Before this city existed, the Human Race Guardian Association had already been protecting many human players."
"Over the past few months, we've faced countless dangers, risks beyond counting."
"These few insect race players might cause some casualties, but they'll be dealt with swiftly."
"Hmm." Chen Jiang nodded lightly, casually scanning the nearly thousand-strong squad that had breached the city walls. "Are they your subordinates?"
"Not exactly. It's more of a cooperative relationship. The hierarchy exists solely to coordinate actions, not as a strict chain of command."
"..."
"You could have just answered with a yes or no."
"That might not have been accurate. This matter..."
"Alright, I understand."
Chen Jiang nodded slightly, his tone tinged with resignation. "I just wanted to acknowledge their impressive strength. I need to focus on dealing with the alien race players emerging from the light gate now. Why don't you go attend to your duties?"
"Uh, right. Be careful, Brother Chen Jiang."
"Found her."
After the elder left, Scar Dog frowned and spoke up. "It's likely the insect race player Dudu."
"As soon as the insect race players stormed the city and began causing casualties, Dudu's name rapidly climbed the player fire seed point rankings, and her kindling points kept increasing."
"Dudu?" Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow. "That name sounds familiar."
"She's the insect race player whose heart of the insect hive you bought. She was furious and cursed you over the global speaker."
"Ah, I remember now."
"This is quite the grand scheme," Chen Jiang murmured, pausing before adding softly, "This giant bird, converted into an insect race player, could have unleashed far greater devastation on other battlefields. Deploying it here seems like a waste."
"To expend such resources just to earn a few kindling points? Doesn't seem worth it."
"I don't know," Scar Dog replied, shaking his head. "There's no specific information on that. But based on the current situation, it definitely doesn't seem worth it."
"The insect race player Dudu currently has fewer than 400 kindling points."
"So, despite the chaos in the city, the actual casualties are less than 400."
"And there have been no subsequent attacks."
"In essence, they've squandered so many resource-intensive trump cards for a mere 400 kindling points. That's a terrible return on investment."
"But no one makes a losing deal."
Chen Jiang nodded in agreement. "If the insect race player took this action, they must have carefully weighed the pros and cons beforehand."
"What benefit could possibly make that insect race player send their trump cards out like suicide bombers?"
He paused, glancing at the panel describing the global event, 'Defend Kindling City'.
"Unless... when these insect race players kill humans, they not only strip away their innate abilities but also grant Dudu the corresponding ability."
"Just one innate ability? Is it really worth it?" Zhao Ritian asked, puzzled.
"That depends on whose ability it is," Scar Dog replied coldly. "If they stripped Brother Jiang's ability, it would be worth more than anything. If they stripped yours... well, that might be worth it too."
He trailed off, his expression suddenly freezing into a strange look. "Insects can already mass-produce units quickly. With your innate ability, it would be exponential growth on top of exponential growth!"
Meanwhile, no more alien race players were teleporting through the light gate.
Clearly, they had been scared off again by Chen Jiang's scorched-earth tactics.
This isn't fair! they must be thinking. We agreed on a siege battle, but you're just bombarding the entire area! How are we supposed to attack?
"I've got it!"
In the distance, the insect race player Dudu's eyes lit up as she immediately focused on one of the stolen innate abilities. Without hesitation, she selected it.
Consuming 100 kindling points, she permanently acquired the ability.
From that moment on, whether she created insect race players or bred them naturally, all her insect race players would possess this innate ability.
[Innate Ability Name: Self-Destruct]
[Innate Ability Effect: Upon death, the body will self-destruct, causing massive damage to the surrounding area!]
A simple and brutal ability.
Yet she believed it was perfect for her.
With enough alien corpses, she could quickly raise an army of millions of insect race players. Though these insect race players lacked spiritual intelligence and weren't true insect race players,
if millions of them launched a simultaneous suicide charge!
Even Chen Jiang wouldn't be able to stop them, right?
This was worth it.
Dudu nodded in satisfaction, shifted her massive body, and settled into a more comfortable position in her nest.
[Ding! Kindling City has withstood the alien race players' assault for one hour!]
[All human players within Kindling City will receive a reward of 10 kindling points.]
The notification echoed in the ears of every human player.
An hour had swiftly passed since the event began.
Apart from the unexpected appearance of an insect race player, no other surprises had occurred. The area around the light gate had been reduced to dust by relentless bombardment, obscuring any view of what lay beyond.
Yet not a single alien race player had emerged from the blasted zone.
Clearly, none could withstand such an overwhelming saturation of firepower.
Soon, six hours had elapsed.
Another notification rang out:
[Ding! Congratulations! Kindling City has withstood the alien race players' assault for six hours!]
[All human players within Kindling City will receive a one-star item as a reward.]
As this message sounded, many human players perched on the city walls, still awaiting orders, exchanged complex glances at the light gate shrouded in artillery fire.
The bombardment had raged for six relentless hours.
They hadn't paused once during the entire six hours. A notification informed them that they had endured the alien race players' attacks for six hours.
Yet, apart from the insect race player five hours earlier, they hadn't seen any alien race players appear beneath the city walls.
Sometimes they wondered:
If the light gate hadn't restricted Chen Jiang's full potential, would the notification now be congratulating the alien races for enduring six grueling hours under the relentless barrage of Human Player Chen Jiang's artillery fire?
At that moment, a private notification sounded in Chen Jiang's ear:
[Twelve hours have passed. The three-star random item treasure chest has been unlocked.]
[Player Chen Jiang, please choose one of the following seven options: "Vehicle," "Weapon," "Armor," "Life," "Fashion," "Miscellaneous," or "Building."]
[After making your selection, you will receive a random item from that category.]
[Furthermore, this item will be unique.]
[You will be the sole owner of this item within the entire Ten Thousand Races Arena.]
This treasure chest was an additional reward for securing the top ranking on the Ten Thousand Races Blood Sacrifice Event Leaderboard. However, the notification had specified that the chest could only be opened after twelve hours.
Now, twelve hours had passed.
The treasure chest had unlocked.
"Hmm..."
Chen Jiang hesitated, glancing at the seven options. To be honest, he still hadn't decided which one to choose.
The "Weapon" option could be ruled out for now. A three-star weapon item wouldn't significantly enhance his combat power at this stage. After all, his turret was already more than sufficient.
As for "Fashion," he would have been tempted if it were a complete set. The "Fashion Expert" achievement required collecting fashion sets, but a single item wasn't worth it.
"Vehicle" was also temporarily excluded. They currently traveled using phantom gates, which were far faster than any vehicle. Unless it was a warship-class vessel, it wouldn't be very useful to them.
That left "Life," "Miscellaneous," "Building," and "Armor."
The "Life" and "Miscellaneous" options were immediately dismissed due to their high unpredictability. Who knew what kind of random items they might yield?
Truthfully, he was drawn to the "Building" option. He could establish it beneath the world tree and gradually construct his own small kingdom.
However, his current weakness lay in defense.
After a moment's hesitation, he reluctantly abandoned the "Building" option and chose "Armor."
Instantly, a delicate, palm-sized item materialized in his hand.
The item panel popped up before his eyes:
[Item Name]: Rabbit Badge
[Item Star]: Three-Star Item
[Item Details]: A badge shaped like an adorable little rabbit. You can wear it on your left chest to protect you.
[Item Effect]: Your rabbit has its own emotions, divided into three states: happy, bored, and sad.
When your rabbit is happy, it will absorb all attacks for you, granting you absolute defense.
When your rabbit is bored, it will still absorb attacks, but its reactions will be sluggish, leaving you vulnerable to sudden strikes.
When your rabbit is sad, it will ignore all attacks meant for you.
[Item Description]: Telling jokes will cheer up your rabbit. Prolonged neglect will make it sad. Also, if the rabbit absorbs too many attacks, it will die.
Chen Jiang stared at the rabbit badge before him with a complex expression. He glanced at the intricate item panel, momentarily at a loss for words.
Does this mean I have to tell jokes to a rabbit badge every day?
Heaven bear witness, he had never told a joke to anyone in his life.
Not even a single joke came to mind.
The rabbit's mouth on the badge's relief sculpture drooped slightly, and the item panel indicated its mood as "bored."
After a long silence, Chen Jiang picked up the badge and pinned it to his left chest.
I'll gather some jokes after this event ends, he thought. At least I have none in my head right now. Who knew I'd ever have to tell jokes to an item?
Six hours had passed since the global event, "Defend Kindling City," began.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, it seemed the alien race players might truly fail to breach the light gate cluster, which had been saturated with bombardment strikes!
(End of the Chapter)
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