Insect Cataclysm

Rumble! The ink-black sea was shrouded in dark mist, waves churning violently. Shui, Yu, and Bo kept watch, waiting for Luo Yu to return from the Ghost Sea. "Bets are open! Take a guess—what kind of pet beast will Luo Yu contract in the Ghost Sea this time?" Yuwan had secretly performed a divination and was eager to make a killing. "Whoever's guess is closest wins. As for the stakes, keep it light—how about a thousand Alliance coins?" Yuwan suggested with a beaming smile. "Gambling again?" Chen Bo hesitated. "I'm still just a kid..." Last time, he had bet against Luo Yu, only to be thoroughly swindled... "Sixteen counts as grown up. It's time you learned to smoke, drink, and play cards. That's life on the open sea—most of the time it's dull as dirt, so you've got to make your own fun," Shui Wuyue lectured him. "It might look like gambling, but in truth, it tests a Beast Master's analytical skills. Yuwan's proposal is sound." "My bet is that, besides having the Ghost attribute, he'll contract a Water-system pet beast that excels at deep diving!" Shui Wuyue chuckled slyly. After all, Luo Yu's first pet beast was Earth-system. No matter how one looked at it, his second beast ought to be a sea beast skilled at underwater operations, right? Furthermore, the most remarkable feature of a ghost ship was that it could submerge deep into the undersea world just like a submarine! A ship spirit acted like a protective film coating the vessel, ensuring everything inside remained safe from the corroding seawater! To choose a ghost sea beast proficient in deep diving as a ship spirit was, in Shui Wuyue's eyes, without question the optimal choice. "How am I supposed to beat that..." Hearing this, Chen Bo also felt it made a lot of sense. "Then I'll bet Luo Yu contracts a beast with wings. He seemed pretty fond of flying ships." Chen Bo threw in a casual guess, determined that this would be his very last gamble. "Heh heh." Seeing how broad both of their guesses were, Yuwan knew she had this bet in the bag. After all, she had astrology as her secret cheat, giving her far greater accuracy than their pure guesswork. She said, "I bet he contracts a 'Metamorphic Jellyfish.'" "A Metamorphic Jellyfish?" Yuwan explained, "The Metamorphic Jellyfish is a Monarch Species, one of the ten wondrous creatures. Its ability is Gene Replication, allowing it to temporarily copy the genes of other mutated beasts and take their form. Most importantly, it can apparently mate with whatever race it transforms into." "Luo Yu is a biologist specializing in breeding. If he comes across a Metamorphic Jellyfish, there's no way he'd pass it up..." "It's the ultimate savior for endangered species and solitary races." Shui Wuyue's mouth twitched. "The problem is, ghosts can't reproduce. What good is contracting a Metamorphic Jellyfish ghost? It's not like it's alive." Yuwan retorted, "Don't you worry about that—just have your money ready. I narrowed it down to the exact species, so if I'm right, you two owe me double." ...... Before long, the black mist cleared. Luo Yu's figure materialized on the deck when no one was looking. Seeing him return from the dimensional interstice, the eyes of the three who had been waiting for so long lit up. "You're all here," Luo Yu said, blinking in surprise. "Did you get back that fast? By the way, what kind of ghost sea beasts did you contract?" He had assumed everyone on board had strayed into the Ghost Sea. "Only you went in," Yuwan said ruefully. If she had gotten in, she wouldn't need to buy a new pet beast, would she? Entering the Ghost Sea and contracting a Monarch-tier ghost—think of how much money that would save! "Only me?" Luo Yu paused, glancing at Chen Bo, only to see him grimacing with a wry expression and bared teeth. Only Shui Wuyue remained relatively calm; caring for two pet beasts was already troublesome enough, and he had no desire to take on a third. "None of that matters," Shui Wuyue said. "Luo Yu, did you contract a ghost pet beast? Did you take my advice to heart?" Luo Yu nodded. "I did contract one, but..." "What is it?" all three asked in unison. Luo Yu covered his right eye, attempting to communicate with the Honey-Water Bee. A moment later, as he drew his hand away from his eye, the silhouette of a wing pattern surfaced within his pupil. Immediately afterward, a radiant glow spilled forth. Bzz... Scattered motes of light converged and flickered before Luo Yu, and a palm-sized, entirely translucent Honey-Water Bee materialized in front of the trio. "A Honey-Water Bee? What kind of joke is this?" Shui Wuyue froze in disbelief. Damn it all! He entered the Ghost Sea—one of the seven great mysterious seas countless people dream of visiting—and after a whole day inside, he came back with a Lower Common Species ghost? How could this thing possibly be any better than a living Honey-Water Bee? With a body that tiny, let alone piloting a ghost ship to dive into the ocean, it'd struggle to pull a wooden raft! I told you to pick conservatively, not this conservatively! "This...?" Yuwan was bewildered too. She knew Luo Yu was fond of Honey-Water Bees, but she never imagined he liked them this much! Damn it, my divination was wrong again. "Wait, what...?" Although Chen Bo had envied Luo Yu for entering the Ghost Sea, seeing him pick a Honey-Water Bee filled him with exasperation at his friend's squandered potential. How could he waste such a monumental opportunity? It was the classic dilemma: you feared your bro flying too high, yet hated to see him suffer. Hold on a second, did I just win? Chen Bo suddenly realized. Among the three guesses, his blind shot seemed the closest... A Honey-Water Bee had wings! Holy crap, I'm definitely betting again next time! "Why on earth did you pick a Honey-Water Bee?" Shui Wuyue still couldn't wrap his head around it. Luo Yu said, "It's different..." He extended his hand, and the Honey-Water Bee Queen alighted onto the back of his hand. "I've studied Honey-Water Bees extensively. If my judgment is correct, it possesses a command over bee swarms that surpasses even the 'Bee King talent.'" "I looked into its obsession. After learning about it, I discovered that even a Bee King would have to bow its head in submission before her." The three stared blankly. A king of kings? So what? Isn't it still just a Honey-Water Bee? "Oh, in fact, other insect races would acknowledge her as their monarch too!" Luo Yu added. "What do you mean by 'other insect races'?" Chen Bo asked, taken aback. "Literally what I said... Mid Common Species like the Gale Butterfly, Upper Common Species like the Waterblade Mantis..." Luo Yu said. "Those insects would react to it just like ordinary Honey-Water Bees reacting to a Bee King?" Chen Bo asked, astounded. What kind of Honey-Water Bee is this?! Is that even legal?! Luo Yu nodded. "At least in the memories of its obsession that I witnessed, that was the case." Pity the poor creature had no ambition! So many insect races in the forest could have fallen under its rule, yet it hadn't spared them a second glance! It insisted on viewing itself as a "Honey-Water Bee Queen" rather than an "Empress of the Insect Race." Being devoted to its own kind was fine, and being exclusionary was fine, but it could have easily commanded other insects to serve as bodyguards and caretakers for the Honey-Water Bees. Why would it ever have had to fear natural predators hunting them? On top of that, it hadn't made good use of its talent to properly develop the colony's combat strength, which gave Luo Yu immense heartache just thinking about it. Yet that was only natural; the Honey-Water Bee Queen was born in a primeval forest, without much worldly knowledge, so failing to utilize its talent properly was entirely understandable. Yet according to the description of the Zerg Empress talent... Let alone Common Species, as long as it belonged to an insect race—whether it was the Monarch Species Torrent Horned Beetle, the Abyss Species Dark Sea Polypod, or even the Frenzied Insect Cataclysm: Sea Pledge Swarm... in theory, they could all be ruled by the Empress. The Frenzied Insect Cataclysm: Sea Pledge Swarm, in particular, ought to be even easier to command than solitary powerful insects. If the level disparity was too great, perhaps some formidable individuals might disobey the Empress's orders. But the Sea Pledge Bugs, at least, were very weak individually. They were a peculiar insect race—individually feeble, yet like locusts, when gathered together, they acquired the Time attribute and were hailed as one of the ten great cataclysms. Blue whales, water dragons, and even zombies served as their food. The five major human settlements feared this threat—which was far more intractable than a zombie tide—so intensely that they had biologists uncover the Sea Pledge Bugs' swarming patterns and spent three whole years carrying out an extermination campaign before the bugs could form an effective force. Nowadays, the number of Sea Pledge Bugs in the world was likely rarer than giant pandas, and they were classified as an SSS-rank forbidden species, strictly barred from artificial breeding. If the Bee Queen had only possessed some book learning and understood the traits of various insect species, aggressively recruiting subordinates and establishing a clear division of labor, then with the insect race's absurd reproduction rate and army-spawning capability, it would easily wipe the floor with other races. The Honey-Water Bee species was weak, but if the collective might of all insect races were harnessed to elevate them, let alone dominating the sky, even becoming the king of the world wouldn't be out of the question. Realizing its boundless potential, Luo Yu's heart had practically skipped a beat. Sharing the same top-tier talent status, in single combat it might never match July in the future, but in group warfare... Furthermore, it didn't merely rule over other insects; its talent could also empower them. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement where they formed a community of shared interests, making such dominion far more stable. "That really is special..." Yuwan commented in surprise. Still, none of them thought too deeply about it, assuming it was just a special mutant that could at most order around ordinary insects. If they knew about its top-tier talent, its ability to contract dozens of retainers, and its immortal retainer legion... they would probably cry foul even louder about how illegal it was. Luo Yu smiled. "Anyway, the research institute just happens to keep plenty of Honey-Water Bees. Contracting it might allow us to complement each other." "Fine," Shui Wuyue said helplessly. "Then what is its obsession?" For such a weak mutated beast, its obsession ought to be easy to fulfill, right? "About that... its obsession actually has quite a lot of potential." Luo Yu didn't intend to reveal the full obsession; after all, if he told them it dreamed of becoming the King of the Sky, the island wouldn't be of much help anyway. So he phrased it in a way the island could assist with: "Its obsession is to command a colony of ten million Honey-Water Bees and become an empress of a ten-million-strong swarm. As luck would have it, I'm already breeding Honey-Water Bees. To fulfill its obsession, I'll probably need to expand our bee-farming scale going forward." "This..." Shui Wuyue pondered. While ten million Honey-Water Bees sounded like an outrageous number, compared to finding a mate for the Ghost Shark, it didn't seem quite as difficult. As long as the environment was suitable, food was plentiful, and natural predators were absent, inducing an explosive population boom in a Lower-tier Species through artificial breeding was actually fairly simple. No, no, no, wait—maybe it isn't so simple after all. Jingyue Island is just a tiny island. Where could it possibly provide living space for ten million Honey-Water Bees? Are there even enough wild flowers for them to forage? How would their food supply be secured? He estimated that if Luo Yu wanted to fulfill this Honey-Water Bee's obsession, he would at least have to buy a piece of land on the Canglan Continent!