The chat screenshot came to an abrupt end, Li Cheng leaned back on his chair, frowning unconsciously.
This screenshot clearly mentioned terms like "Master of Insects" and "Divine Calamity", which matched the content mentioned by the Special Affairs Bureau last night.
However, the screenshot did not delve further into how to self-rescue if infected by the Insect Master.
"First, I need to ascertain whether this screenshot is authentic..."
Li Cheng thought of something, enlarged the screenshot further, focusing on the so-called 'Mothman' photo posted by the user HaccKer.
The creature in the photo was hidden among the tree shadows and was blurry. However, the background night sky was relatively clear.
With his knowledge of astronomy, he could identify Mercury, Mars, Venus, Ursa Major IV, Ursa Major II, and the M22 globular cluster, etc.
That was sufficient.
Li Cheng immediately opened an astronomical chart website, searched for the star chart of the previous night based on the date of the chat screenshot, and started calculating.
Converting celestial longitude into horizontal coordinates as hour angles, transforming the celestial coordinate's north pole into horizontal coordinates, obtaining latitude, longitude, and local time...
Found it, in the northwest corner of South Dakota, United States, along the Rabbit River.
Li Cheng massaged his temples; this method of celestial positioning had an error margin of about 20 kilometers, which made it difficult to accurately locate the photographer if in a densely populated urban area.
Fortunately, South Dakota was sparsely populated, with a total area of 199,747 square kilometers and a population of fewer than one million, with only a few residential settlements, sufficient to narrow the range down to a small town with several farms.
Li Cheng typed in the name of the town to search for news and indeed found a piece – half a month ago, a local farmer and his family were robbed by bandits, resulting in a fierce gunfight, and only the farmer's child survived, who was then sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Below the news, there was an advertisement for firearms from Prometheus Laboratory Company—
A beautiful, blonde Caucasian girl holding a semi-automatic shotgun with a drum magazine, seriously said, "In the Midwest of the United States, it takes twenty minutes for the police to arrive after a call. In those twenty minutes, who will protect you besides a gun."
...These gun ads are pervasive, indeed, it's characteristic of the great United States.
Li Cheng closed the webpage, fairly certain the content of the chat screenshot was true, "Considering there's the Special Affairs Bureau domestically and the FBI Special Incident Division in the United States, each country must have established specialized agencies to handle anomalies, accumulating a vast amount of experience.
There must be a way to deal with the 'Master of Insects' infection, it's just that I haven't found enough data yet. I'm not well-acquainted enough with that world."
After much deliberation, he unplugged his USB drive, shut down his computer, took out pen and paper from his bag, and began recording in detail.
The content included but was not limited to the total caloric intake of the day, his current height, weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, body temperature, and so on.
Then he began his physical training.
Twenty-five push-ups in two sets, twenty-five squats in two sets, twenty-five seated knee bends in two sets, twenty-five burpees in two sets...
He continued this cycle until his muscles began to ache and his breathing became rapid, then he stopped.
"My muscle endurance has improved significantly compared to before, but not as dramatically as my muscle explosive strength."
Li Cheng recorded the fitness data on paper, pondering deeply.
He remembered from elementary school textbooks, ants can lift objects hundreds of times heavier than their own body weight, and they are powerhouses in the insect world.
So, if an ant were enlarged to human size, could it lift heavy objects like cars and trucks?
The answer is no. Even excluding factors like oxygen content and carrying capacity of the exoskeleton joints, it's absolutely impossible.
The reason is simple, when the size of a biological entity changes, the length changes linearly, area changes by a square ratio, and volume changes by a cubic ratio.
If an ant is enlarged 250 times, its muscle cross-sectional area would become 62,500 times its original, while its body weight would become 15,625,000 times its original.
Firstly, it cannot exert its original strength, and secondly, it will be crushed to death by its own weight.
Then, are there no benefits to being an ant?
Not necessarily.
When ants move, their muscles produce special enzymes and hormone proteins, causing a dramatic change in ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the most direct source of energy for living organisms). This releases a tremendous amount of energy that rapidly contracts the long filament molecules of the muscle protein, resulting in a burst of muscle power.
If Li Cheng guessed correctly, what he absorbed was this ability—Extreme Burst.
The feeling of hunger struck again, and Li Cheng pulled out a snack box from under the bed, devouring chocolate balls one bite at a time.
"Another question, why did that taxi driver mutate so quickly, immediately growing compound eyes and chelicerae? Why aren't my changes as severe?"
"Is it because he had his blood sucked by the Bee Monster, while I was only bitten? Or was it because I came into contact with the red Blood Amber on the Bee Monster's forehead?"
With too little information at hand, pondering deeply couldn't yield an answer. Unconsciously, he ate a lot more snacks, yet the hunger still did not subside. The needle-like hairs under his arms shot out again.
Had he entered a state of Genetic Hunger?
According to what the screenshot stated, he must absorb new genes to stabilize the mutation; otherwise, he will turn into a monster.
Li Cheng glanced at the time; it was already one in the morning, and everyone at home was asleep.
He wrapped his entire right hand in a towel, took a forehead thermometer, and quietly pushed open the bedroom door. He left the house and went downstairs to the green area in front of the apartment building.
After a day of drying with desiccants, the cellphone could be turned on again. He lit up the flashlight of his mobile phone, searching for the target in the bushes.
This is it!
He stretched out his left hand, grabbing a green Chinese Mantis, placing it on his palm.
The skin on his palm undulated, grappling the mantis's steplegs and mantis arms, preventing it from escaping.
The skin slowly absorbed the blood cells from the mantis's body while also transferring some of Li Cheng's blood back into the mantis so that it wouldn't die immediately.
Hot! Burning hot!
The warmth he felt when he initially climbed out of the canal swept through his body once again, and Li Cheng emitted intense heat and steam all over, especially from his left hand holding the mantis.
He instinctively took a deep breath but exhaled a long white puff of air, like a roaming dragon. The temperature inside his body was definitely higher than the 45 degrees shown by the electronic forehead thermometer.
The heat came quickly and left quickly.
After half a minute, the skin on the palm of his left hand automatically returned to normal, and the needle hairs on his right hand retracted. The mantis also staggered to its feet, showing no abnormal signs.
There was a faint, almost imperceptible connection with Li Cheng.
"Is this considered complete?"
His expression solemn, the intense feeling of hunger in his belly gradually subsided. It looked like he had completed one cycle of Genetic Hunger.
Occasionally, people passed by downstairs in the apartment complex late at night. He did not stay long but gently held the mantis and went back upstairs to his home, locking the mantis in a ventilated plastic box with a wire-twisted lid, hiding it under the bed.
Then he examined himself. There was no significant change in height, he lost one kilogram in weight, his waistline shrank, body fat decreased, and strength...slightly increased.
"If I acquired needle hairs and burst of strength from the lawn pavement ants, what did this genetic extraction grant me?"
After pondering for a moment, Li Cheng raised his arm, tensed his muscles.
Clang!
Two narrow bone knives suddenly popped out from the lower ends of his left and right forearms, cutting through the air with a sharp sound.