Watching the Excitement

When he climbed back to the surface, it was already night. The cold moonlight bathed the land, and the thin frost on the ground reflected a crystalline sheen.

Rowan didn't feel much; after all, he was already an unknown distance from his original location, and perhaps the temperature here at night wasn't that low.

It was also possible that his cold resistance had increased, but due to the change in location, he couldn't draw a precise conclusion.

Two light sources still hung high in the sky. Although Rowan still couldn't see them clearly, he could vaguely sense their positions and colors. One was white with a slight yellow tint, while the other was slightly reddish, and the yellow-white one was several times larger than the red-white one.

A cold wind blew, and the surroundings were deathly silent, devoid of any insect chirping or other sounds. In this setting, it appeared somewhat eerie and terrifying.

His six legs trod upon the frost, emitting faint sounds and vibrations as Rowan cautiously explored forward.

The surrounding shrubbery had curled up its small green leaves, pressing them tightly against the branches. The originally yellow-white twigs seemed to have donned a green coat. Rowan guessed this might be their unique method of keeping warm.

Since he hadn't encountered any trouble—not even the friends or family of the giant earthworm—he had managed to travel quite a distance in a short time, despite searching slowly.

Previously, his position had been directly above the underground river, which allowed for faster collection of food and water.

However, as the riverbed rose, Rowan had slightly deviated from the path of the underground river to ensure his strategic depth underground.

Now, his position was several hundred meters away, running parallel to the flow of the underground river. This way, he wouldn't be too far from the water while still having enough thickness of soil to ensure his safety.

Rowan still couldn't figure out the rotation and revolution system of this strange planet; the timekeeping methods of his original world didn't apply here. He had been crawling for a long time, yet the sky remained unchanged, and the sun showed no intention of coming out to work.

Feeling that his internal energy reserves had dropped to nearly half, Rowan stopped moving forward.

In this strange and dangerous place, he dared not exhaust his stamina completely. Instead, he would stop whenever he had nearly half left, reserving the remainder to deal with any potential emergencies.

After replenishing some food from the roots of the shrubs, he crawled deep underground to rest.

After several days of slow progress, the number of plants on the surface gradually increased, and the variety became much richer.

The last time Rowan climbed to the surface, it was broad daylight, and not long after he started moving, he witnessed a grand spectacle.

A giant Black Beetle, more than ten times his size—roughly the size of a human palm—was there. A pair of exaggerated, giant mandibles grew from the front of its flat head. Its body was divided into three segments when viewed from the back, covered in a thick shell. Six short, jointed limbs made its chassis look very low to the ground, and a pair of equally tiny antennae extended from either side of its mandibles.

At this moment, this Black Beetle was surrounded by dozens of Black Ants. They were nothing special, with a very ordinary appearance; they lacked the exaggerated hooked fangs of the Yellow Earth Ants he had seen before, nor did they use any Fecal Spray Attack. What specific talents they had would only be revealed once they showed them.

The two sides were at daggers drawn, with battle imminent.

The Black Beetle paced slowly and leisurely, seemingly disdainful of the small fry surrounding it.

The Black Ants, meanwhile, surrounded it without attacking, seemingly waiting for reinforcements. Come to think of it, these Black Ants were even smaller than Rowan, and he couldn't fathom why they would be foolish enough to challenge such a behemoth.

Rowan's advantage was evident here: although his two large eyes were nearsighted by human standards, they were definitely Clairvoyance among insects.

He watched the battle from outside the visual range of both sides; as long as he was careful not to make too much noise, he wouldn't attract their attention.

After all, among insects, those with poor eyesight usually have much sharper other senses.

He couldn't afford to provoke either of the two parties in front of him. Last time, watching the spectacle had come at a heavy price; not only did he lose his self-built nest, but he had also been wandering in exile for so long.

Although he had sworn that he would be a dog if he ever watched a spectacle again, he couldn't control himself when he actually encountered one. So be it if he became a dog; dogs were much more combat-capable than this fingernail-sized insect he was now.

However, he had learned some lessons: don't get too close when watching a spectacle, and watch secretly to avoid getting burned.

The gradually shrinking encirclement of the ants finally annoyed the Black Beetle. It seemed somewhat irritable and was no longer relaxed, its two mandibles constantly posturing to attack.

The tense atmosphere finally reached a critical point, and the Black Beetle could no longer hold back. With a forward lunge, its pair of mandibles clamped onto a Black Ant. Seemingly without much effort, the Black Ant was decapitated.

The two halves of the body fell to the ground, the antennae on the head and the limbs on the body still twitching unconsciously.

The scene was explosive from the start, a one-hit kill without any hesitation. Rowan watched with boiling blood, wanting to shout "666."

The death of a clansman enraged the Black Ants, and without further hesitation, dozens of them swarmed forward.

The battle between the two sides quickly reached a fever pitch.

Although the Black Ants were numerous, they had small arms, small legs, and thin waists, with only those sharp fangs by their mouths to show for it. Facing the heavily armored Black Beetle, the damage they could inflict was minimal.

The Black Beetle, on the other hand, looked like an invincible War God! Its pair of giant mandibles were indestructible; once clamped, there was no such thing as being injured without dying—leaving a whole corpse behind was considered a lucky outcome.

Fortunately, although its giant mandibles were exaggerated and invincible, they had some flaws. Like two 7s closing together, they could only meet at the tips to inflict terrifying damage.

Given the slender bodies and agile movements of the Black Ants, it wasn't easy for the Black Beetle to clamp onto them accurately.

Therefore, although the Black Beetle's strikes were lethal, the two sides maintained a back-and-forth stalemate.

However, there were always some unlucky ones caught by the Black Beetle, and scattered around the battlefield were pieces of their body parts.

Although the ants still held an absolute numerical advantage, their numbers were slowly dwindling. At this rate, if there were no reinforcements, it was only a matter of time before they were wiped out by the Black Beetle.

The ants finally realized this problem and changed their combat strategy.

The ants that had climbed onto the Black Beetle's back no longer bit the sturdy shell, turning instead to attack its eyes and antennae. If these two parts were destroyed, it would become deaf and blind.

Meanwhile, the ants on the ground attacked the Black Beetle's claws.

Although the Black Beetle's thick half-body armor could protect most of its limbs due to its low chassis, the claws at the very front of the limbs were exposed, and they became the primary targets for the ants.

The effect of the tactical change was immediate; the Black Beetle's originally wide-open attack style became constrained and hesitant. Most of its energy shifted from aiming at targets to shaking off the ants on its back and dodging the sneak attacks at its feet.

Rowan cursed in his heart from afar, thinking these guys were playing dirty and using underhanded tactics.

The early stages of this story are primarily realistic, and many of the insects that appear have real-world prototypes; the prototype for the Black Beetle is the Stag Beetle.