Control

The situation discovered by Zhao Xin was quickly transmitted to Captain Kent below. Kent immediately used a loudspeaker to loudly command Tom and the others to retreat and build a defensive line below.

However, Tom has a different idea.

"Captain, I can control ants. Please ask Zhao Xin to assist me. I have a tactic."

Kent thought for a moment and said, "Alright, be careful, the mouthparts of mutated soldier ants can clip people in half!"

"I know!" Tom licked the corner of his mouth and whispered, "They're all old friends now."

"Duan Fei, what tactics do you have?" Zhao Xin asked beside him.

"Can your armor withstand the pliers of mutated soldier ants?"

"Sure!" Zhao Xin nodded. "This is the basic standard. The Jade Rabbit Type 1 armor is designed to withstand the bite of mutated soldier ants, let alone the current Type 2 armor."

"Okay! You go up there now, bite those soldiers' ants, protect your vulnerable areas, and leave the rest to me."

"Um..." Zhao Xin was a bit timid. "We only have two people, we have to wait for the captain and them to come up before we can talk?"

"Don't be afraid, it's just six mutated soldier ants. It's okay, go!"

Zhao Xin hesitated for a moment, then turned around and looked down. Captain Kent was climbing up with the vulture, while the rest remained in place.

"Okay... okay... Duan Fei, you need to be careful. The weakness of the Jade Rabbit II is that the protective power of the crystal energy components is not enough. Once bitten off, I will be useless."

"Don't worry, I understand." This Awakened Armor was designed by him, and of course, he knows exactly where the greatest lifeline is.

Zhao Xin hesitated and headed towards six black mutated soldier ants, who were already larger than yellow ants. Now that the soldier ants have mutated, they will naturally become even larger. He has already reached a height of 10 centimeters, the same as Zhao Xinchuan's Jade Rabbit Type II armor.

The mutated soldier ants crawled fast, and in just a few seconds, their first two were wrapped in the jade rabbit type II armor. The sharp jaws of the pliers marked sparks on the surface of the alloy armor, which frightened Zhao Xin inside and made him scream in surprise.

Tom grabbed the second level green crystal in his hand, slowly leaned up, and took advantage of a black mutant soldier ant not paying attention to touch its tail.

Thanks to his spiritual communication with the promising mutant queen ant in the rental building, Tom learned how the queen ant secretes pheromones to control ants.

This type of pheromone has moved beyond the realm of odor and mucus, more like a magnetic field or radio wave, with limited propagation range. So many times, traditional mucinous pheromones are still needed to assist in strengthening, and rely on scent to remind nearby ants of the same tribe to approach and receive pheromones.

This type of compound pheromone requires the queen ant to evolve specialized secretory organs, and Tom found that the characteristics of secondary mutated organisms are very unique, as new organs are mutated to carry new abilities. Therefore, the mutated queen ant in the rental building was the first secondary mutated organism that Tom came into contact with.

It's just that the direction of the mutated queen ant belongs to the super brain dominated type, and the individual's defense is extremely low, so it was killed by Tom's sudden burst of reinforcement.

Tom's body naturally did not mutate into an organ that secretes pheromones, but through communication with the queen ant's mind, he had already understood how pheromones work in the ant population.

So he can strengthen his spiritual power with green crystals by touching individual ants, simulating pheromone effects of specific commands within the ant's body, and making the ant obey his commands.

The result was very successful, and the mutated black soldier ant immediately followed Tom's instructions to crawl towards its companion, then grabbed its leg and held it down. Tom immediately leaned in and made the same move, quickly domesticating and controlling two mutated soldier ants.

By the time the mutated soldier ants reacted, four of them had already been controlled by Tom. They wanted to attack Tom and were naturally defended by four companions, combined with Tom's assault rifle, and were killed in a few seconds.

"Will they... bite me?" Zhao Xin looked at the four mutated soldier ants tearing open the corpses of his companions, still trembling with fear.

Kent rushed up to see everything in front of him, but the gun still didn't go down, but he said, "Well done, Duan Fei."

Tom smiled and said, "Unfortunately, these two rebels are quite fierce and can't be controlled. However..." He swung his big knife on the head of the soldier ant corpse, and surprisingly, sparks struck. "It's too hard." He then pressed his hand onto the head, and soon the head was bent and deformed.

"Duan Fei... what kind of ability are you? Another ability?" Zhao Xin was greatly surprised.

"No," Tom said, "the shells of these mutated soldier ants actually contain iron. No wonder they are so hard, they must have absorbed iron during the mutation process."

"Oh my goodness," the vulture took a dagger and slashed twice, "really."

Tom said to the mooncake with a flamethrower on its back, "Spray fire on the corpse to try it out." As he spoke, he could only give instructions to the four soldier ants who were struggling to dissect the corpse to disperse.

At Kent's signal, the mooncake turned on the flamethrower, which was brought out to deal with mutated ants. Because the mutated ants were on the spot, Tom relied on this characteristic and managed to escape from the ant colony several times.

Unfortunately, as Tom had anticipated. The body of ants contains iron, which compensates for their flammable nature.

The flames emitted by the flamethrower are all blue and extremely hot, making it flammable and unable to ignite the corpse under burning. This proves that the previous methods of dealing with mutated ants were no longer effective.

"So... is the flamethrower useless?" the vulture looked at the reddened soldier ant's head and asked.

"At least it's ineffective against these mutated soldier ants," said Tom, pointing to the four ants that didn't show any fear when facing the flames

"But bullets can still penetrate its skull," Kent fired another shot at the ant's skull, proving his guess. "But the killing power must have decreased. These damn creatures have mutated again."

This is the situation that Tom is worried about. As humans become smaller, they are constantly exploring and improving their abilities, while mutated creatures are also evolving and improving themselves. If one thinks that having a tall city wall can lead a comfortable life, then the result must be tragic.

"This is the machinery factory." Tom used a big knife to knock open the body of the mutated soldier ant and dug out a crystal, a third level red crystal. As soon as he held it in his hand, he felt a bit different. He immediately asked Yang Caishan to bring some clean water to wash off the surface mucus, and found that he had obtained a dark red crystal.

"New crystal?" Zhao Xin was overjoyed. Just as he took it down, Tom took out his own red crystal and compared it side by side.

The dark red crystal is slightly smaller in size, but it also holds a considerable weight in the hand. He tried to activate the energy of the crystal and asked Zhao Xin to take out a force gauge before punching.

Before Zhao Xin could even report the number, he knew that the effect of the strengthened power was no different.

Kent's eyes lit up and he waved to the soldiers to dig up the body of another mutated soldier ant. He took out the crystal and washed it clean, but it turned out to be a red one, not a dark red one.

"It seems that this is a rare crystal," Zhao Xin said, "but the enhancement effect doesn't seem to make a difference. Duan Fei, your fist is 20."

Tom nodded and was about to put in his backpack when Kent reached out and said, "The gains from the war belong to the shelter, hand them in. But you can get a contribution ticket as a reward."

If it were Zhao Xin, he would not be willing to accept it, but he was very clear about the rules, so he advised, "Duan Fei, submit it. Anyway, when you go back to the shelter, you need to search yourself, and all the crystals cannot be brought in. This is a type that has never been before, and the R&D department will give you an additional bonus."

Tom remained noncommittal, but still handed over the dark red Level 3 crystal. As for the R&D department's bonus, they still owe themselves a sum of money, and he has no hope for the bonus for this crystal.

On the contrary, the vulture took the crystal handed to him by Kent, immediately stuffed it into its backpack, and coveted the four mutated soldier ants controlled by Tom next to it. "Captain, there are still four here, maybe there are more."

Tom immediately said, "It's useful for me to control these soldier ants, but I can't kill them yet. They have strong load-bearing and climbing abilities, and we can entrust them with carrying our supplies."

Kent looked at the four soldier ants with suspicion and said, "These weapons and equipment are all guarantees for us to retrieve mission items. We cannot afford the consequences of these ants carrying things and running away."

Tom confidently said, "No problem, captain. The pheromones I simulate inside them are very advanced, and unless the mutated queen comes over personally, they cannot take control of them."

really

"Please believe me!" Tom said.

Captain Kent hesitated for a moment before nodding and saying, "Alright, vulture, lead someone to get some rope and tie all the supplies to the backs of these four mutated ants. Mooncakes, hold your weapon and be on guard. If they have any movement, shoot immediately."

"Yes!" The two of them saluted and answered, then quickly parted ways.

For Tom, this is a good thing because Kent has been skeptical of him as an awakened person since the beginning, and now gradually trusts him, all of which have been proven by Tom's actions to be reliable.

It's not that Tom wants to please the other party, but in the face of unknown dangers, a team must hold the most basic trust in order to cope with the crisis.

If each has their own ulterior motives, they will inevitably have reservations about mutual support, and even add vigilance and calculation.

After three months of living, Tom was very aware of the danger in his surroundings after becoming smaller. Even when he was wearing the armor of Old Street Zero, he never let go of his guard and treated every action with caution.

Tom doesn't expect to form a life and death trust with this team in just one day, but the most basic trust is the basic guarantee that every member of the team can play to their strengths.

For example, just now the mutated soldier ant emerged. If the team leader trusts his strength, they can gradually approach Tom and Zhao Xin while ensuring the safety of Yang Caishan. Instead of leaving three soldiers and Lufeihang in place like before, Kent came up with the vulture himself.

If there are ants attacking below again, it will lead to a situation of neglecting everything.

With Tom's current strength and Zhao Xin wearing the Awakened Armor, the two of them are not in danger when facing six mutated soldier ants, let alone they are not unarmed and can handle it with assault rifles.

Tom doesn't intend to point out the issue of Kent's behavior, after all, trust between both parties has just been established, and all he can do is be more careful. Because he needs Yang Caishan to return to the shelter alive, it's not entirely due to the issue with his sister's clues, it's the responsibility.

If you promise, you must keep it.

This is also the reason why Ouyang Haotian called him An Shitou.