Long Qi had originally wanted to explain, but Ronan's praise made him swallow the rest of his words. In the end, he merely said:
"So..."
"Strictly speaking, your question isn't accurate—where are the insects here?"
"Huh?"
Ronan turned his gaze elsewhere. Director Song was still groaning on the ground. The consequence of excessive excitement was his current half-dead state.
His strength, emotions, and even bodily functions had all fallen to their lowest point, leaving Ronan and Long Qi free to comment on him—though neither of them was really focused on him.
Around his prone body lay a layer of gray-white ash: the remains left behind by the "insects" that had clung to him after passing through the Format Fire.
From Long Qi's perspective, no matter how one put it, they were still insects. Cui Da and Xu Er were still locked in a standoff with the Insect Swarm at the crack in the refrigerated cabinet, and neither of them had mentioned anything unusual.
Yet Ronan was very certain. "These aren't insects. At least, they don't qualify as such for the moment. They can only be considered... carriers that barely meet the minimum standard for parasitism."
Ronan took half a second to settle on a not-quite-accurate term, then added:
"They don't even want to 'parasitize' anymore."
Long Qi scratched his head. Looking at the insect corpses curled and distorted by the high temperature and special formatting effect of the Format Fire, he could not make sense of the details for the moment.
Still, he had a basic degree of trust in Ronan. He gave a dry laugh, stepped forward two paces, and observed more closely.
Once he got nearer, he discovered that some of the "insect corpses" scattered across the ground were still twitching faintly, perfectly demonstrating what it meant to