Who would have thought that the black-robed insect, despite appearing weak, was quite agile in dodging.
With a retreating step and crouching low, the black-robed insect managed to evade, and Zelan’s sharp hand blade only flipped off its hood.
The hood slid off with the wind, revealing the insect’s face concealed by a silver mask, leaving its true appearance unknown.
It also had black hair, with naturally slightly curled ends that shimmered faintly in the sunlight. For a moment, Zelan even thought this insect might be the disciplinary insect itself.
Upon closer inspection, however, the antennae nestled within the fluffy hair were unfamiliar brown ones, and parts of the hair ends also had a gradient brown tint, completely different from what he remembered.
Hair could be dyed, but an insect’s own antennae could never be colored—dye simply couldn’t adhere to such nerve-rich areas. This was something that couldn’t be disguised in color.
Zelan had even considered dyeing, but he never delved into the possibility that the antennae themselves might be fake.
These hair ends and antennaes were actually the failed product of Carlos’s temporary hair dyeing experiment, which, in a sense, achieved unexpected results.
Seeing that the first strike failed, Zelan remained calm. He quickly gathered strength and attacked continuously with his other hand as a blade.
No matter how agile the black-robed insect was, it couldn’t completely avoid this strike.
Swish—
The palm wind cut through the air, arriving instantly.
The black-robed insect solidly took this hit, its antennae severed in half, falling silently to the ground.
An insect’s antennae are crucial organs for sensing the external world and communicating information, and they are also much more sensitive. If severed at the waist, most insects would writhe in pain on the ground; even the toughest insect would suffer muscle spasms from the agony.
But the black-robed insect before him seemed to show no reaction at all.
This was the first time Zelan had encountered such a situation in battle.
Carlos, who had turned disguise into a miraculous performance, suddenly felt guilty. Heaven knows how much effort he had put into fixing these antennaes.
Normally, if injured, one would choose to retreat to a safe distance and strategize, but the insect opposite him didn’t retreat—it advanced instead.
In a breath’s time, the black-robed insect pressed forward, nearly face-to-face.
So close that Zelan could even see the eyelashes beneath the mask’s hollows.
Again, that lemon scent.
It was what he had smelled on the disciplinary insect. The scent was already faint enough to be hardly noticeable, but the warmth distinct from the Sweet Home was unmistakable; he couldn’t have mistaken it.
The thought flashed through his mind in an instant. Years of combat experience on the battlefield allowed Zelan to react swiftly within 0.1 seconds, but the blade in his hand instinctively softened, turning into a regular punch.
Enough to knock an insect unconscious, but not fatal.
Before Zelan could deliver the strike, his brain suddenly felt dizzy.
His vision darkened, and Zelan’s consciousness began uncontrollably fading away.
“Dear audience friends! Although 2757 Insect Slave is not fully healed, its body still brims with power. This punch clearly shows its explosive strength! Though regrettable, our subfemale insect Kaka is about to…”
The commentator could already predict the miserable state of the subfemale insect being beaten bloody. His words halfway through gradually fell silent.
On the field, the female insect collapsed straight down under the eyes of tens of thousands of spectators.
“Audience friends, the match seems to have taken a dramatic turn!”
Contestant 2757 collapsed on the spot!”
The shouts that had been roaring “Tear that stupid sub-male to shreds!” and “I want to see blood!” suddenly fell silent.
Carlos became the only contestant still standing in the center of the arena.
“Uh… although the match took an unexpected turn, it seems our winner is about to be decided! Contestant Kaka has knocked down… knocked down Insect Slave 2757.”
Even the commentator referee was momentarily stunned. His heart told him this was a ridiculous, nonsensical knockout—sub-male Kaka had been standing there so idly he might as well have grown bored out of his mind. How could that be considered a victory? Yet his professionalism forced him to swallow his disbelief.
“Can 2757 still get up? Let’s count down from ten.”
“10!”
“9!”
Before the referee could finish the countdown, the audience in the stands had already caught on. The more agitated spectators began hurling trash into the arena or cursing loudly.
“Damn fixed match! Refund!”
“Get out of here with your fixed matches!”
“What kind of bullshit is this?! Refund!”
If every insect spat once, Carlos would have been drowned in saliva.
Fortunately, Carlos was far enough from the stands to avoid being sprayed with spittle.
He stood in the center of the arena with one hand raised high. Though it felt awkward, he had indeed won.
Even Carlos hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly. The fact that he could make Zelan fall “painlessly” was largely thanks to an information gap.
Disguised as a disciplinary insect, Carlos had access to very little information from the original book, but one spoiler allowed him to exploit a loophole.
In the original book, Zelan was injected with various drugs at Sweet Home, one of which was a test for targeted medications—one of the best ways to find a restraint for insect slaves. Future buyers could use neck collars and custom-made drugs to take delivery, completely controlling the insect slaves and ensuring their absolute physical obedience.
The list of drugs tested on Zelan at that time filled a full two pages.
It was during that agonizing torment that a weakness even Zelan himself hadn’t known about was discovered.
Fir tree sap.
It was common knowledge that moth tribes naturally detested the smell of fir trees. For ordinary moths, this was merely akin to disliking a certain fruit—eating it would make them nauseous, and they simply hated it.
But fir tree sap was half a nemesis for Zelan, causing his body to become paralyzed for dozens of seconds.
Even though Zelan later trained himself with near-masochistic methods to develop drug resistance and overcome this weakness, it was still useful for now.
Before entering the arena, Carlos had replaced the antennae on his head with a new version, injecting a compound drug mixed with fir tree sap into them to serve as blood. During the match, he used himself as bait to lure Zelan into attacking, creating an opportunity for the drug to seep into Zelan’s body.
This was an extremely risky move. If it failed, Carlos’s grave would have grown several layers of grass by this time next year. No normal person or insect would attempt such a thing.
But taking risks? Carlos feared nothing less.
To win against the odds, one had to go all out. As long as there was even a 1% chance of victory, he would always try.
“3!”
“2!”
The referee’s ten-second countdown felt unusually long at this moment.
Now, Carlos only needed to take Zelan off the field and use another method to neutralize the female insect’s insectification ability. In this regard, he was a complete slacker. To slip past the system’s inspection, he had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
As for the victorious “Kaka,” he would simply vanish into thin air.
“1!”
“The winner of this match is—Contestant Kaka!”
Amidst the roaring curses and shouts filling the arena, Carlos smiled as he welcomed his victory.
He scanned the stadium, then glanced at Zelan lying beside him. The female insect’s eyelids twitched slightly, showing signs of awakening. All he needed to do now was exit smoothly, and Zelan would be carried back by the attendant insects.
Everything was going smoothly—almost too smoothly. Carlos couldn’t shake off a faint sense of unease. His intuition had always been sharp, or, to put it more dramatically, it had never failed him.
His intuition made him pause mid-step as he headed toward the exit.
And at that very moment, chaos erupted!
“Roar—”
A deafening roar echoed from the passageway.
From the shadows, a colossal blue spider materialized out of thin air, charging recklessly toward Zelan and Carlos.