Matrix Survival: One random treasure chest per day

Chapter 522 Glandular Fluid
The transparent gate opened, and Kanger pulled his grandson Basil to a safe distance, afraid that leaf-eating ants would fly out of the greenhouse and land on them.

Seeing that there was no way out, the three tiger brothers had no choice but to go inside with grim faces, each revealing their weapon—sharp tiger claws.

"Big...Big Brother, I'm scared!" Tiger Three, hearing the rustling sounds coming from the rows of fruit trees, timidly grabbed Kota's soft armor cloak.

Kota's forehead veins bulged, revealing sharp claws as he bared his teeth and said, "They're just a bunch of insects, what's there to be afraid of?"

"Exactly, what's there to be afraid of?" Tiger Two, at the very back, was shaking his legs incessantly.

Li Zheng stood at the door and gave Kanger a look, signaling him to close the door.

"But I'm scared... Second Brother, don't pull my tail, you're hurting me!" Tiger Three turned around and found that Tiger Two had both paws raised in front of him and was not grabbing his tail.

He looked down and immediately let out a bloodcurdling scream: "Aaaaaah!!! Bugs! Bugs are biting my tail!"

The tiger's roar instantly startled all the leaf-eating ants in the greenhouse, and a dense buzzing sound filled the orchard.

The next moment, countless leaf-eating ants, each the size of a thumb, flew out, brandishing their enormous mandibles, their eerie green eyes fixed on the three tiger-men brothers with a cold light.

"What are you yelling for? Just crush it!" Kota roared, activating his genetic abilities to create a strong gust of wind around him.

Gusts of wind swept through the greenhouse, scattering the leaf-eating ants that were flying in mid-air. They crashed into the transparent greenhouse walls, making a series of crackling sounds.

However, this seemingly powerful scene has little effect on leaf-biting ants.

The leaf-eating ants that had crashed into the wall wobbled and took flight again, having somehow adapted to the strong winds, and swarmed over in droves.

Tiger Three's fur stood on end when it saw this. Forgetting that it still had a bite on its tail, it frantically ran and jumped around in the greenhouse, stirring up fallen leaves on the ground.

"Don't run around like that!" Tiger Two had originally reached out to crush the leaf-eating ant, but Tiger Three pulled him along and he ran after Tiger Three's tail, pouncing on it with his eyes fixed on the leaf-eating ant.

Kota: "...Two idiots!"

The leaf-biting ant swarm did not detect any hostility from Tiger Two and Tiger Three, and ignored them, turning their attention to the only creature present that exuded murderous intent.

buzz~
The flapping of wings created a continuous sound, as if the leaf-biting ants had received some command, and they crashed into Kota, the center of the gale, like a dark cloud.

"Come on! Roar~" Kota roared, his hands forming claws, scratching wildly and haphazardly within his attack range, which really baffled Li Zheng.

Damn, that's it?
He had thought that three tiger-men with extraordinary strength wouldn't be much of a fighter. Judging from their fierce and menacing appearance when they robbed him, he never expected that a real fight would be less effective than watching the old ladies dancing in the square on Earth.

呲!
Snapped!
Click!

rustling, rustling...

Surprisingly, when the density of leaf-biting ants reaches a certain level, even Kota's frenzied, cat-like scratching can actually hit a few of them...

Despite his unreliable fighting style, his claws possess genuine extraordinary power, and any leaf-biting ant that he accidentally scratches is instantly decapitated.

Unfortunately, there are just too many leaf-biting ants, and he can only scratch less than 12 percent of them, so the effect is very limited.

The leaf-eating ants that crossed his attack range opened their huge mandibles and bit down hard on his hair-covered body. Once the mandibles bit the target, they held on tightly and wouldn't let go.

At first, Kota could endure it, but when his body, except for his head and claws, was covered with leaf-eating ants, he could no longer stand it and frantically tried to escape while slapping himself.

"Third brother, stop running!" Tiger Two was still chasing Tiger Three's tail.

"Big brother, save me, I'm scared!" Hu San covered his head and ran around wildly, with several more leaf-eating ants on his body, some of which had already been torn and bled.

Hearing the calls from his two useless brothers, Kota was overcome with grief, his tiger-like eyes filled with tears.

I'll save you?

Who can help me?
I'm the most miserable one!
We usually stop you from going to casinos and brothels, but where is your fighting spirit when you rebel?
Why can't I get it out now?
Are you all just bullies at home?
Mad!
Ouch! That hurts!
My whole body aches!

It hurts like being bitten by an insect!
Someone please save me...

Kota was filled with despair. His body was covered with leaf-eating ants, and even his most valuable soft armor had several small holes torn in it. The leaf-eating ants were frantically trying to burrow into his body.

Li Zheng stood at the door, watching coldly. There were at least two or three hundred leaf-eating ants flying all over the sky!

He gave Kanger a cold look: "Old man, you're definitely not telling the truth!"

"...?" Kanger didn't understand and looked bewildered.

Kanger previously said that these leaf-eating ants were brought in while mixed with the original plants, or that they might have been framed.

It sounds reasonable, after all, at least half of the factories in this alley are botanical gardens.

As the saying goes, rivals are enemies, so it's perfectly reasonable for them to sabotage each other's botanical gardens.

Of course, judging from the fear the two wisteria tribe members showed towards the leaf-eating ants, it's not hard to see that the claim that leaf-eating ants are the nemesis of the wisteria tribe is probably true.

However, judging from the number of leaf-eating ants, Kanger would be lying if he said he only discovered the leaf-eating ants in the greenhouse today!

This number must have been raised for at least half a month!
Li Zheng's face was grim. Kanger had discovered the leaf-eating ants at least ten days ago, but had not sought help from pest control immediately.

Their true intentions are self-evident!

"Merchants are truly driven by profit; they even dare to keep such a nemesis around until things get out of control before they think of issuing private missions."

Li Zheng himself also does business within the Matrix. From a businessman's perspective, leaf-eating ants can produce substances that accelerate plant growth, so it's understandable that he would take risks for profit.

However, allowing danger to grow to the point of threatening oneself is absolutely a crime that one deserves!
However, the tasks still need to be done; who would turn down money?

Li Zheng sighed. The Tiger Brothers were causing chaos in the greenhouse; it was wishful thinking to expect them to completely eradicate the leaf-eating ants.

Moreover, Li Zheng forced them to come here with the intention of teaching them a lesson. Now that they've suffered enough, he can't just stand by and watch them get bitten to death by leaf-eating ants.

Li gestured to Kanger to open the door, and then he placed a layer of low-temperature cold air in front of him, using his mental power to control it so that it did not spread into the air, forming a barrier the same size as the door.

The greenhouse door slowly opened, and a few leaf-eating ants happened to fly over and tried to escape, but they were frozen into ice blocks in the brief moment they passed through the wall of cold air.

Insects are naturally afraid of fire, but low temperatures and cold air have a devastating effect on them.

With a flick of his hand, the leaf-eating ants, frozen into ice blocks, slowly deformed and compressed into fine needles before landing, then floated again.

"You guys wait for me outside."

After informing Miriel, Li Zheng cast a layer of extreme isolation around himself and stepped into the greenhouse.

After his shaping ability reached the King level, a qualitative change occurred. The ice compressed using this ability became incredibly hard, no weaker than ordinary metals of the same level. Furthermore, due to the significant increase in his mental power, Li Zheng directly mastered an ability similar to telekinesis. The fine needles he created by condensing and compressing the ice were perfectly matched, giving Li Zheng the feeling of playing with flying swords like a cultivator.

The only drawback is that his mental strength can currently only control objects whose size and weight are within a certain range, such as the fine needles he condenses.

The reason he chose a fine needle instead of a miniature flying sword is that he discovered during his initial exploration that the shape of a needle-shaped object is best suited for aerial attacks, while forcibly using the sword form would affect both power and flight speed.

"If I ever need to show off, I might as well try the 'flying sword'."

Li Zheng manipulated eight leaf-eating ant needles to rapidly circle around him. Stepping into the greenhouse, he locked onto a flying leaf-eating ant with his mental energy, and one of the needles disappeared from his side.

When the needle reappeared, the locked leaf-eating ant seemed to be struck by something, involuntarily thrown to the side, crashing into a fruit tree and shattering into pieces.

The icy needles not only have strong penetrating power, but also generate temperatures of tens of degrees below zero during the attack, damaging tissue within a certain range.

Leaf-biting ants are small, and a fine needle piercing their bodies is enough to freeze them brittle in an instant.

"Ok?"

Li Zheng's expression shifted, and he raised his hand to bring the fine needle back, holding it in front of his eyes for careful observation.

The sharp needle tip had been worn down slightly during the attack. Although it was so small as to be barely noticeable and invisible to the naked eye, it was clearly observed by Li Zheng's all-pervasive mental power.

"Such a hard shell. Before it became brittle from being frozen, its strength was already comparable to that of a slightly lower-quality superhuman armor."

Low temperatures can alter the form of matter to a certain extent, and even destroy its stable molecular structure, making it more fragile.

Li Zheng has acquired new knowledge, although it's practically useless.

"You three, come here!"

The three Kota brothers were still jumping around, and Li Zheng, annoyed that they were making the greenhouse filled with flying leaves and severely affecting visibility, simply told them to come and hide next to him, which could be considered an act of leniency.

Kota was overjoyed and, covered in blood and leaf-eating ants, nimbly turned around and ran back.

Just as Kota reached three meters in front of Li Zheng, he heard a series of rapid crackling sounds around him. Sensing danger, Kota froze, afraid to breathe.

"Alright, you can handle the rest yourself."

A few seconds later, Li Zheng spoke again. Kota looked down and found that all the leaf-eating ants biting his body had been pierced with perfect precision, without missing a single one.

Cold sweat instantly poured down his back, soaking his hair. Kota was extremely grateful that he had backed down quickly not long ago, otherwise the three brothers' corpses would definitely be lying in the alley outside right now.

"Thank... thank you for sparing my life!"

Kota expressed his heartfelt gratitude, after all, Li Zheng could have killed them without much effort.

"Hmm." Li Zheng nodded lightly and waved for him to go to the side.

Kota was very obedient, like a domesticated cat, squatting not far from Li Zheng, picking the heads of the leaf-eating ants that had already bitten through his fur.

The frozen leaf-eating ant crumbled into pieces with a gentle squeeze. The extremely low temperature froze the sweat and moisture in its hair, causing the fragments to stick to the hair and stick to it, impossible to shake off. It could only wait for them to slowly melt.

"I'll give you thirty seconds to call your two idiot brothers back, or I'm going to start an indiscriminate attack." Li Zheng frowned as he looked at Hu Er and Hu San, who were still running away with their heads down, revealing a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Okay, okay." Kota nodded repeatedly, ignoring the leaf-eating ant heads that were still on his body, and hurriedly jumped up to call his two silly younger brothers back.

Fortunately, although these two idiots were stupid, they weren't truly dumb. After Kota called them several times, they ran back.

Tiger Three was truly a genius. He closed his eyes and covered his head as he fled. Apart from the leaf-eating ant that had been on his tail at the beginning, he had hardly any left on his body.

However, his tail was pinched, leaving a deep wound that exposed bone. As soon as he returned, he hugged Kota and cried.

Tiger Two was much stronger; its back was completely unharmed, while its injuries were all on its front.

It bit more than a dozen leaf-eating ants, but the bites weren't very deep. After the fine needles finished piercing, they all fell off with a few gentle prying motions.

Then Tiger Two and Tiger Three instantly transformed into apes, catching fleas for Kota... oh no, I mean picking the heads of leaf-eating ants.

"What a clown."

Li Zheng looked at the Tiger Brothers and shook his head helplessly.

For some reason, he saw a bit of himself in the three brothers, a reflection of his own time with Lu Li and the others.

Does spending too much time with trustworthy people really make you heartless?
Even though they'd only been apart for a short time, Li Zheng already missed Xiao Siyuan and the others. He wondered if they'd been retaliated against by the Muddy Players...

He needs to find an opportunity to go back and take a look. He searched carefully in the mission hall today but didn't find any missions to go to the Matrix, which means that such missions are very rare and can only be encountered by chance. They are not available every day.

Distractedly manipulating the eight flying needles, he slaughtered all the flying leaf-eating ants, instantly making the greenhouse much quieter.

However, many worker ants were still hiding in the orchard. With the combined efforts of Lao Pu and his mental strength, even if they burrowed into the tree trunks, they had nowhere to hide and were killed one by one by Li Zheng with fine needles.

Finally, on the trunk of a tree in the very center of the orchard, Li Zheng discovered the nest of leaf-eating ants.

These ant nests are different from those commonly found on Earth; instead, they resemble beehives, hanging upside down on tree branches.

The enormous ant nest resembled an enlarged lantern, its surface covered with countless tiny holes the size of a thumb. The remaining few male ants seemed to sense the danger, poking their heads out of the holes and brandishing their massive mandibles at Li Zheng, trying to scare him away.

Unfortunately, although the male ant's mandibles are even more exaggerated and huge than those of the soldier and worker ants, they are all show and no substance, and have no offensive capabilities whatsoever.

Even without using a fine needle, Li Zheng pulled out an ordinary iron ingot to lure them into a trap. The iron ingot was unharmed, but their jaws shattered into pieces.

Li Zheng casually crushed a few male ants to death, then dissected the ant nest and pulled out a tender white worm about the thickness of a baby's arm.

This is the queen of the leaf-eating ant. Apart from having an extremely strong reproductive ability, she has no offensive or defensive capabilities.

Once exposed, they are at the mercy of others.

In addition to the queen ant, Li Zheng also found about ten liters of viscous, dark green liquid in the ant nest.

Leaf-biting ant growth-inducing gland fluid
Description: The excrement of leaf-biting ants has a unique effect of accelerating plant growth. If added to fertilizer formulas, it may enhance the fertilizer's effectiveness.

Old Pu: You know, sometimes what's the nemesis of other races is a treasure in our eyes.

nice one!
Li Zheng pinched the queen ant, revealing a kind and amiable smile.

Giving this thing to the Wisteria Clan is such a waste!
(End of this chapter)