Chapter 1123: Can"t Fool People, but Can Fool Ants
"I"ve noticed that your brain works exceptionally fast during battles!" When Mrs. Manas said this, she sounded genuinely impressed. "You actually thought of using this trick to deceive it."
Lin Sanjiu didn"t have time to respond. As soon as she grabbed the smooth fine ring, she fell to the ground. She sat there, ignoring the ants around her. She tried to get up a couple of times but still couldn"t stand, and her right leg remained an illusion.
The ants around her seemed taken aback by the sudden turn of events. They stepped back a few paces before stopping. Lin Sanjiu was grateful for the layers of branches above her head, as they partially obscured the view of the ant queen and delayed its reaction. Even though it would eventually figure out that the fine ring ant had died, it might provide her with a brief respite.
"Come on," Lin Sanjiu sneered at the ants around her, waving her wrist. "You all have Special Items, right? Show me what you"ve got, and maybe use them one by one."
The damp fine ring on her wrist glistened in the sunlight, casting a reddish hue. The ants around her seemed to sense that something dangerous was happening. They retreated further, about ten meters away. Countless fine antennae in the air swayed and wiggled, resembling thick parasites emerging from their hosts.
Speaking of which, just staying there is enough to be called stubborn, after all, who knows how many abilities, effects and item attacks are hidden in this fine ring.
Seeing that she couldn"t get up, Lin Sanjiu simply gave up and sat on the ground panting while turning a blind eye to the ants around her. While observing the fine ring on her wrist and wondering how to use it, she replied to Mrs. Manas unconvinced: "I am usually okay... Besides, as soon as I noticedthat the other ants stopped attacking me, I immediately thought that the fine ring antwas right next to me which is not a very simple matter."
"No, I"m not referring to this... You can actually think of it all at once that the ants can"t detect whether the fine ring hasabsorbed the effect of the ability!"
Lin Sanjiu couldn"t help but smile. When she lunged at one of the ants earlier, she had already sensed that the fine ring ant had approached her. Of course, she wouldn"t willingly surrender her abilities. In fact, she hadn"t even activated [Mosaic Censors.h.i.+p];after pressing her hands onto the ant"s body, she simply exclaimed, "Where are my abilities?"
The ant had fallen for her ruse.
"Actually, because they are ants," Lin Sanjiu explained with a hint of embarra.s.sment, "you know, ants have several ways to communicate and send messages. The most significant method is through scents."
Apart from antennae, sound, and their limited visual abilities, ants also communicate by emitting pheromones, which are odor molecules that humans can"t detect. As Lin Sanjiu had been running through the forest earlier, she had been pondering a question. How did the Ant Queen transmit signals to the worker ants, instructing them to move precisely through the forest?
She hadn"t heard the ant queen make any sounds or seen any overt actions. This question had puzzled her for a while, until a nugget of biological knowledge, she had read somewhere, floated into her mind. That was when she had a Eureka moment.
The fine ring was clearly designed for humans, so if it needed to send any signal transmissions between itself and its user, it should be a method that humans could perceive and understand, like flas.h.i.+ng, verbal prompts, or even mental waves.
The fact that it had ended up in the possession of an ant, one that primarily communicated through scent, meant something significant. Even if the fine ring had sent a signal saying, "Unable to successfully absorb abilities," the ant wearing it wouldn"t have the capacity to understand it.
Lin Sanjiu had worried that the fine ring might use the worst method, like verbal prompts, to notify its user. Ants had limited visual fields, which wasn"t a concern. It turned out, however, that her risky move had paid off. The fine ring had remained silent, and when the ant heard her say, "Where are my abilities?" it fully believed that her ability had been absorbed by the fine ring.
Otherwise, it wouldn"t have walked in front of her to activate [Mosaic Censors.h.i.+p].
With her thoughts racing at an incredible speed during mental communication, Lin Sanjiu"s fleeting thoughts were processed in just a few seconds. She raised her head and glanced at the ants still lurking in the shadows, then grumbled, "I didn"t expect this phantom limb to last a little longer than I thought..."
Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly froze. Shortly after, the long antennae of the ants in the shadows began to sway, all facing in the same direction.
Holding her breath, Lin Sanjiu faintly heard the rapid footsteps in the distance and the almost imperceptible trembling of the ground beneath her.
"d.a.m.n, those misshapen ones have found their way back! I thought I had shaken them off," Lin Sanjiu complained to Mrs. Manas and quickly made a decision, "Let"s deal with these ants first. It"s better they come for me than go after Bohemia."
The effect of the [Tornado Whip] was currently hidden within the fine ring. She guessed that a flick of her wrist should activate it, but nothing happened. The fine ring remained wet and glistening with ant"sbodily fluids, showing no changes.
"What"s going on?" Lin Sanjiu looked back in the direction of the approaching footsteps and voices. She also gave the fine ring a few taps, speaking more forcefully, "Am I not doing it right?"
It seemed like those people in the distance had noticed her location and were charging straight towards her, without any hesitation. They were about to arrive any moment. Lin Sanjiu was still sitting with nothing but a blank s.p.a.ce where her right hip used to be.
"Start working, come on!" She was afraid that the fine ring might be voice-activated, and she yelled at it in frustration – fortunately, Bohemia did not see this moment.
At this moment, Mrs. Manas suddenly screamed loudly which resonated from the depths of her mind, almost making Lin Sanjiu"s heart stop.
"Why did you suddenly—"
Before she could even finish her question, Mrs. Manas brought up a picture in front of her eyes. It was the scene when she first spotted the ant wearing fine rings on its antennae during the melee not long ago; at that time, it raised its head from the ground far away, and a long stream of saliva was pulled out from the side of its mouth, with dark fine rings on each of the two antennae-
"Look carefully, those are a pair of fine rings! This special item is a pair, of course it cannot be used if one is missing!" If Mrs. Manas had a tongue, she would definitely bebiting it in a hurry at this moment: "Quick, quick, the other fine ring must still be in that muddy mess. Go find it!"
Lin Sanjiu didn"t need Mrs. Manas to say any more; she leaped forward and plunged into the ma.s.s of broken insect debris left by the ant. She grabbed handfuls of the insect tissues mixed with black mud—disgusting as it was, she had no choice at this moment.
Fortunately, the ants were just standing quietly in the shadows and hadn"t advanced. They couldn"t hear Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas" conversation, and with their poor vision, they couldn"t see whether Lin Sanjiu had the other fine ring on her other hand. When they sensed that humans were approaching, they followed their usual habit: they didn"t take any action and let the humans approach.
"Hurry up, hurry up! You haven"t searched that area yet. Oh, no, that"s not it..." Mrs. Manas became increasingly anxious, and her constant nagging was driving Lin Sanjiu crazy. She relentlessly dug into the insect remains, searching for anything shaped like a fine ring. The footsteps behind her were getting closer, and when she heard someone say, "She"s over there," Lin Sanjiu"s fingers pressed down.
Under her fingertips, she found another fine ring, buried in the damp soil.