Chapter 425 - 397: Abdominal Aphid Spider’s Pregnancy
"How’s it going? Did they go in?" In the distant darkness, the Red-armored Ant-man stood on his tiptoes, straining to see into the distance.
But he couldn’t see a thing. An Ant-man’s eyesight had always been poor.
In his field of vision, the distant scenery was just a blur.
He gently nudged the Mantis People leader beside him with his arm. "Your eyesight is better than mine. See if they went in."
He nudged him several times, but the Mantis People leader next to him said nothing.
The Red-armored Ant-man turned his head, a little angry. "I’m talking to you."
The Mantis People leader beside him wore a grave expression, staring straight ahead.
But for some reason, the Red-armored Ant-man saw his body was shaking slightly, as if... trembling.
The Red-armored Ant-man sensed the strange, tense atmosphere in the air.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He stomped his right foot, twisted his waist, and threw a punch behind him.
THWAP.
A large hand enveloped his fist.
"Shhh—"
The Red-armored Ant-man looked up and met a pair of playful eyes. "Can’t see clearly? I’ll take you inside for a better look."
The Red-armored Ant-man tentatively tried to pull his right hand away but couldn’t break free. The large hand gripping him was as hard as an iron hoop.
Their strength was on completely different levels.
"Fine..." The Red-armored Ant-man turned to look at the Mantis leader. ’That old codger definitely noticed long ago! And he didn’t even tell me.’
The Mantis leader stared straight ahead, murmuring to himself, "It might be good to go have a look."
The Red-armored Ant-man: "..."
’Might as well give up.’
The Red-armored Ant-man gave up struggling. The hand gripping his neck from behind suddenly tightened. The next second, the ground vanished from beneath his feet, and the surrounding scenery flew backward at incredible speed.
In an instant, the world spun around him. Then his feet felt rooted to the ground as he landed steadily.
When the Red-armored Ant-man’s vision cleared, he saw two Black-armored Ant-men crouching in a clearing not far away, wearing woven baskets on their backs. Behind them, several humans were helping to place items into the baskets.
The Black-armored Ant-men stood up, ready to leave with the baskets on their backs.
The Red-armored Ant-man was stunned. "You’re done trading? That was fast."
’They can’t have been in here for long.’
Hearing their leader’s voice, a Black-armored Ant-man turned his head and looked surprised to see the Red-armored Ant-man.
"Big Stone, the captain must have been worried about our safety and secretly followed us."
"Captain." The Black-armored Ant-man ran forward, then turned to show him the basket on his back. "The human said our ore is very good, and this is the weapon he gave us." The Black-armored Ant-man excitedly spun around again. The basket on his back was filled with weapons.
"Is this... a weapon?" The Red-armored Ant-man picked up one of the weapons and swung it lightly. He felt the shape of the weapon in his hand was a bit strange.
One end was pointed, the other was flat, and it was attached to a wooden handle.
"That’s right. This weapon is called a pickaxe!" Qin Ziwen walked over, smiling. He took a pickaxe from the basket and swung it, letting out a sharp whoosh.
"This pointed end can be used to smash someone’s head, or to break through rocks underground. You Ant-men live underground, so you must do a lot of digging, right? This will help you dig," Qin Ziwen said with a smile, while thinking to himself, ’And it can also help you mine...’
It was the Red-armored Ant-man’s first time seeing a pickaxe. He swung it a few times and felt that, aside from being a little light, it was fine. But the other Ant-men in his clan weren’t as strong as him, so it was actually a perfect fit for them.
He instinctively glanced down at the basket again and saw it was full of pickaxes. He froze for a moment. ’We could really trade for this many pickaxes?’
Immediately, the Red-armored Ant-man was ecstatic. "Human, good!"
’Who said humans were bad? Humans are great!’
’From now on, if anyone says humans are bad, I’ll be the first to disagree.’
The Mantis People leader walked over. When he saw the basket full of pickaxes, his expression was a bit strange.
Although he didn’t know what the humans did, he knew they would never make a losing deal. The amount of ore they brought, while not small, shouldn’t be enough to forge all these pickaxes.
’So... there’s definitely something wrong here!’
But the Mantis People leader saw the foolish grin on the Red-armored Ant-man’s face, fell silent for a moment, and cast a wary glance at Mogu, who had remained silent ever since bringing them here.
’This place is too dangerous.’
’I’d better wait until we get back to say anything.’
"Father, this is the food the humans gave us." A Mantis Man ran over and turned around. The basket on his back, woven from vines, was filled with lush, tender leaves, among which was the faint, sweet-and-savory scent of meat.
There was also some meat hidden in the basket.
The Mantis People leader’s already large eyes bulged.
’Something’s not right!’
’Why did the Ant-men get so many weapons, while we only got some food?’
’It feels... strange.’
"Consider these pickaxes a gift this time. I hope this will strengthen the cooperation between our two sides." Qin Ziwen extended a hand to the Red-armored Ant-man, a smile on his face.
The Red-armored Ant-man didn’t understand the custom of shaking hands, but seeing the gesture, he thought for a moment before tentatively extending his own hand.
Watching the backs of the departing Insect Men, Qin Ziwen retracted his gaze.
’The seeds have been sown. Whether they sprout or not remains to be seen.’
From his interactions with them, he found that these Ant-men were very simple-minded.
In comparison, the Mantis People were a bit smarter.
And then there was the Dragonfly Person. They were the calmest one of the group, but they didn’t say much. From their conversation, it was clear the Dragonfly Person wasn’t the backbone of this team.
Zhao Pu pushed up his glasses. "These Insect Men are short on weapons. They’ll definitely come back after they return. President, what exchange ratio should we use next time?"
Qin Ziwen said, "The ore they brought this time is quite pure. If they can guarantee this level of purity, you can handle the trades as you see fit. But we need to play the long game. The ore is nice, but it’s not what we’re primarily after. In this underground world, the truly rare things are the locations of altars, information on Marvels, Extraordinary Animals, or Extraordinary Plants."
"They’ve lived here for so many years. They must know the locations of the altars in this underground world."
"Understood," Zhao Pu nodded.
Qin Ziwen said, "If they only want to trade ore again next time, you don’t need to report to me. Old Zhao, you can just be in charge of receiving them."
"Don’t worry, President. I’ll handle these Insect Men next time. I guarantee I’ll earn back double what we ’lost’ on the pickaxes today."
After Zhao Pu left, Qin Ziwen went to the Giant Beast Breeding Center within Giant Beast Heavy Industry.
After several days of care and with the enhancements from the Breeding Center, many of the mother Abdominal Aphid Spiders had successfully become pregnant.
Arriving at the Giant Beast Breeding Center, he had just stepped inside when he saw a group of mother Abdominal Aphid Spiders running along the walls. Dangling from the rears of their abdomens were flat, round egg sacs.
These pregnant Abdominal Aphid Spiders were like a pack of champion runners, sprinting nonstop inside the Breeding Center.
The bizarre scene made the corner of Qin Ziwen’s eye twitch.
It was the first time he’d ever seen creatures that became *more* active after getting pregnant. Weren’t they afraid of harming the pregnancy?
No wonder the staff member responsible for their daily feedings had been so startled.
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