Chapter 267: The Return Journey (Part 6)

Chapter 267: The Return Journey (Part 6)

"I have a rough idea of what this world needs to figure out, but let's find the body first."

If they only used his corpse to create insect soldiers, it wouldn't matter much. What he feared most was that these people believed he could be replicated and thus studied his body.

After all, he was the only known 'half-breed' between insects and humans.

Each race has its own fatal weakness. From a broader perspective, the fatal flaw of the insect race is 'hunger'—the more powerful they are, the hungrier they become, and the more uncontrollable their urge to kill.

From an individual insect’s perspective, their fatal weakness is pheromones; they cannot break free from the control of pheromones and spend their lives following predetermined roles.

Humans, on the other hand, weigh pros and cons and can restrain their nature. Similarly, although humans are influenced by various hormones, they can sometimes make decisions beyond instinctual control.

What would happen if the insect race's 'hunger' meets human 'restraint'? What if the insect race's 'domination' meets human 'destiny is in my own hands'?

Ji Xinghai is such a twisted and deformed product.

Humans didn’t know how he managed it; they only saw an insect within the insect race that could act independently. Tracing back, they found the sacrificial team and Ji Xinghai.

"What if we could use the insect race to complete the transformation? Insect bodies with human brains." There are always some eccentric scientists, and worse, many thought this idea wasn’t bad.

It sounded good, but it was almost impossible.

"After the Queen appeared on this planet and began breeding, a group of powerful insect warriors roamed around searching for energy-rich fighters to serve as the Queen's exclusive food. When the Queen consumed high-energy humans, she would give birth to evolved insects."

The newly born insects would share some similarities with humans, but like humans transformed into abnormal beings, they were already a different life form.

Ji Xinghai, however, was an anomaly.

Perhaps due to the vast amount of soul energy during his several transitions, which couldn’t be completely consumed and digested, combined with the immense pain from witnessing his team's death, he retained his self-awareness and emerged as a different species. On the day of his birth, he broke the insect race's pheromone dominance and devoured the weakened Queen.

After devouring the Queen, he grew rapidly and escaped the insect nest.

"Throughout my life, I've been seeking an answer: am I an insect with human memories or a human with an insect body?" If he were human, why couldn’t he resist the insect race's 'hunger'? If he were an insect, why did he suffer so much?

Even with the memories of several lifetimes, he struggled with this question. How could others be so confident that they could retain their self-awareness after being consumed by the Queen?

"Do you have an answer now?" Qin Yu asked.

"No."

Halfway through, Ji Xinghai stopped and turned to Qin Yu, "And don't you think humans are quite similar to insects, especially in times of total mobilization?"

On the battlefield, seeing the ground littered with remains, one might think humans were nearly extinct. But entering the military camp revealed a significant number still alive.

Everyone moved hurriedly, their faces devoid of smiles, focused solely on survival.

The war between civilizations is brutally cruel. Regardless of which civilization, they will spare no expense to survive.

The price humans pay is the lives of these young people and the entire social system. They transition from a scattered society to a 'wartime' mode, essentially becoming 'super individuals.'

Families leave one person behind for reproduction and production of logistical supplies. They are like the Queen and worker insects, also 'super individuals' in reproductive and productive organs.

Those sent to the battlefield fight the insects directly, akin to the insect race's warrior insects.

Humans abandon all entertainment, focusing solely on survival, becoming increasingly like insects.

"Too rigid a society can easily break. This form can last for a while, but not indefinitely," Qin Yu said. Humans are different from insects; their unpredictability is too strong.

"Indeed, so later on, many methods were added to soothe the soldiers, such as honors upon returning home and ensuring their families' well-being, along with providing some entertainment like movies and dances."

After Ji Xinghai's team was sacrificed, each member received a first-class merit and enough money to ensure their families' security, even adding an 'exempt' status to each family.

After transforming into an insect, he secretly visited the human settlement and felt relieved seeing them relatively stable before leaving.

Otherwise, his resentment would have been even deeper.

The two entered the central area of the safe base. Despite losing contact with several worlds, Ji Xinghai immediately sensed his body’s location. They walked into a hidden underground facility. With strict security, he tore open space and arrived directly.

"Look."

Inside a cylindrical glass tube floated a beautiful insect corpse.

Although describing a corpse as beautiful seems strange, the pale golden insect corpse indeed had a mesmerizing charm.

The researchers surrounding the glass tube, their eyes filled with fanaticism, confirmed this point.

According to Ji Xinghai, it had been several years since he left, yet the researchers' passion remained undiminished over these years.

Qin Yu had seen insect soldiers before; the higher the rank, the more they resembled humans. This was because the insect race landed on this world to evolve, and humans were the chosen direction for evolution.

The Queen's ideal offspring would possess human intelligence and a balanced, agile body. The higher the rank, the more human-like they became.

But the insect soldiers encountered earlier merely resembled humans, whereas the corpse before them had an appearance almost indistinguishable from humans. Only humans do not have two pairs of dragonfly-like translucent wings or porcelain-like flawless skin.

Perhaps due to this skin texture, it looked less dead and more like it was sleeping. One wonders how beautiful it would be if it opened its eyes.

"Doesn’t it look like a porcelain doll? At the time, I thought it resembled those dolls in haunted houses. I remember there was a similar one in one of the scenarios—a porcelain clown doll... Why doesn’t anyone make collectibles? I wanted to collect one."

Qin Yu silently watched the mood-breaking Ji Xinghai: Actually, there were some, but they circulated privately, and he secretly collected one.

This research room was built around Ji Xinghai's insect corpse. They found many discarded plans on the walls.

Qin Yu quickly scanned through the materials.

"The replication failed. The replicant was no different from the other bugs and couldn’t escape the control of pheromones. Based on the events following the division of the bug hive and the nurturing of the juvenile queens, they deduced that you might have killed or consumed the queen at birth. Without this process, the ‘specialness’ could not be guaranteed."

The scientists' speculation was correct; there indeed was such a critical step.

"Did they go to capture a queen?" Ji Xinghai made a reasonable guess.

At the early stages of the division, it was disadvantageous for the bugs, but once the queen matured and began reproducing, it would become detrimental to humans. Therefore, regardless of the angle, humans should take advantage of the bugs' weakened state during the split to eliminate at least two juvenile queens.

If an additional condition were added to this plan—capturing the queen alive—the laboratory might replicate his existence one-to-one.

"Did it still fail?" If it had succeeded, there wouldn’t just be his corpse here; there would certainly be a successful specimen as a memento.

Qin Yu nodded; the scientists still underestimated the power of the bug bloodline’s suppression.

After paying a huge price, humans obtained two juvenile queens.

They hastened the maturation of one surviving juvenile queen, and then the sacrificial volunteers willingly gave up their lives to become food. To maximize the effect, that person was bitten to death piece by piece.

Later, the queen who had consumed humans began to reproduce.

The first step succeeded because the queen did not produce eggs but rather young wrapped in a membrane. Moreover, these young exhibited characteristics of higher bugs, such as human-like appearance, right from birth.

The volunteer who sacrificed himself was one of the strongest warriors among humans, but he was severely injured on the battlefield, beyond even mechanical limbs’ ability to save him, so he volunteered to become a donor.

The scientists at least proved one thing: bug evolution exists, and the more energy-rich the food consumed, the stronger the life force of the born young.

However, what happened afterward was beyond the scientists’ expectations.

Faced with a dying queen, the first reaction of the young emerging from the membrane was not to consume but to attack the onlookers.

Even after using drugs, the young behaved like proper bugs, protecting the queen.

It showed not a trace of human characteristics.

The other juvenile queen was also used for experiments, but this time, Ji Xinghai’s replicant was used, implanting the young into the matured queen to replicate Ji Xinghai’s birth process.

It still failed.

Protecting the queen is a command written into every bug’s genes.

"A bug that can defy genetic commands and remain human could surely grow into a hero who protects a territory," the head of the research institute wrote the final sentence before sealing these records.

They were wrong; Ji Xinghai’s strength was the cause, and his ability to retain humanity after becoming a bug was the result. Without the cause, how could there be a result?

"What were they planning to do next? Replicate and nurture? Wow, that’s a much harder and longer task than capturing a queen." Ji Xinghai himself couldn’t count how many bugs he had eaten to grow into that form.

Because he was so hated, wherever he went, people wanted him dead, so he had to seize every opportunity to grow stronger.

Bugs do indeed determine their rank at birth, but that only means the ‘ceiling’ they can reach in life; if they do nothing, they can only be at the bottom.

To replicate him, they would need to provide a large number of live bugs for the replicant to consume while ensuring that the strengthened replicant could still be controlled.

Ha, when he was most hungry, he even tore off his own arm to eat. Of course, due to the bugs’ powerful regenerative abilities, his arm grew back after replenishing new energy.

If it were a replicant, it wouldn’t hold back but would quickly devour everything around it—bugs, humans, edible plants and animals, and even non-edible metals and minerals.

Humans would create an unstoppable source of disaster with their own hands.

However, Qin Yu didn’t answer that question; instead, he answered another question that Ji Xinghai had been struggling with for a long time without finding an answer.

"Xinghai, you don’t need to struggle anymore about whether you’re human or a bug. These scientists have already answered with their countless failures: you are human, a human with a bug body. Even if occasionally controlled by your body, you never crossed the line of humanity."

Qin Yu couldn’t help reaching out, his fingers brushing through his black hair: "Judging someone’s identity doesn’t depend on where their blood comes from but on what they do. Because of your existence and restraint, the humans here gained a crucial period of development. You’ve worked hard."

Ji Xinghai was stunned, feeling a sense of settled floating, quite unreal.

So he really was human.

Qin Yu saw a pure joyous smile bloom on Ji Xinghai’s face.

Ji Xinghai leaned over and hugged Qin Yu tightly: "Ah Qin, I’m human."

"Of course you are human, and a human who remains true to oneself even after being consumed. Your parents would be proud of you." Before Qin Yu could finish speaking, he was kissed.

In front of his own corpse and those unseen scientists, Ji Xinghai’s eyes sparkled: "Ah Qin, shall we?"

Having traversed two worlds, each of his lives was spent in exile. He lacked the moral compass of someone raised in normal society and had no sense of shame, expressing his likes directly in various ways.

As an abnormal being, Qin Yu also felt a headache under such shameless words: "At least not here."

Perhaps his analysis was incorrect; Ji Xinghai shouldn’t be considered purely human.

"Of course not, I don’t have that kind of fetish." Ji Xinghai looked at Qin Yu suspiciously, as if he had some bad habit.

Qin Yu: ...wronged.

With a wave of his hand, Ji Xinghai collected the glass tube containing the corpse: "Take it back and make it a specimen. There’s no better-looking bug than me."

...Confirmed, definitely not purely human.

But even more liked.

"Please wait five minutes."

Qin Yu kissed his forehead, and abnormal powers spread.

This world does not need a duplicate of Ji Xinghai; a wrong path should be ended right at the beginning.