Reever looked around the room once more.
This time, he wasn't focusing on the queen or the mutated creatures. His eyes moved upward. From where the cocoons had been hanging earlier, he noticed sharp protrusions sticking out from the ceiling. They weren't random rocks. They looked intentionally shaped.
So that was how she anchored them.
"This queen is smart… just like a human," he thought.
She hadn't just trapped him. She had calculated everything. She saw the explosives he carried. She must have realized that if he used them, the entire tunnel system would collapse. And if that happened while he was trapped here, he wouldn't survive either. He would be buried alive before the blast even finished spreading.
She cornered him in a place where his strongest option became useless.
He clicked his tongue inwardly.
He didn't try to contact Conner again. There was no point. The webbing had already climbed past his chest and was tightening around his shoulders. It was thick and sticky. The more he shifted slightly, the tighter it pressed against him.
Soon it would cover his face.
And once he was fully wrapped, whatever process she used on the others might begin on him too.
He stayed still.
Struggling now would only waste energy.
Meanwhile on Conner's side.
"I have yet to hear from Bot 067. This tunnel is super long. It would have been better if we met midway."
Conner glanced behind him as they advanced.
The number of men behind him was depressing.
After entering the tunnel, waves of suicidal spider ants had attacked nonstop. They didn't retreat. They rushed in and detonated themselves without hesitation. Conner handled anything that got close to him easily. But his men weren't built like him.
Seven hundred at the start.
Now down to two hundred and thirty.
It annoyed him.
Not emotionally. Practically.
His men couldn't react at his speed. They couldn't think as fast. They couldn't defend against sudden swarms the way he could.
"Screech."
Another wave rushed in.
This time, led by a rook and two bishops.
Conner immediately adjusted formation mentally. The men shifted, forming a defensive arc with him at the front.
He paused.
"Naah. Let me take care of this myself."
"Limitless Assault."
He whispered it calmly.
White swords appeared around him. Countless. Some hovered clearly in the air. Others seemed to fade slightly, like they weren't fully present.
He moved his hand.
The swords vanished.
Then instantly appeared inside the bodies of the charging creatures.
The rook collapsed first.
Then the bishops.
Then the rest of the wave fell apart mid-charge.
Silence followed.
"That feels better," he muttered.
He motioned forward again.
"Bot 067, can you hear me?"
Nothing.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Something is wrong with him. Or maybe he's in a serious fight and can't respond."
He summoned a black screen.
A location marker blinked steadily.
"No…"
The marker hadn't moved.
"He's still in the same position."
Of course, Conner had placed a tracer in the communicator device earlier. He wasn't careless.
From what he could tell, Reever hadn't moved at all.
Which likely meant one thing.
Trapped.
"I should save him. He is still of use to me."
He ordered his men to increase their pace.
Another suicidal wave attacked shortly after.
He used the same skill again.
No delay.
No visible strain.
If Reever had been there, he would have definitely questioned why the skill had no cooldown. But legacy kids weren't measured with normal logic.
Tremble.
The tunnel shook violently.
Then a loud screech echoed through the entire passage. It was sharp enough to make several men clutch their heads.
"F**k."
Conner quickly summoned small earplugs and inserted them.
His men weren't as quick.
Some dropped instantly.
Others fainted.
He didn't look back for long.
Moments later, the ground in front of them exploded upward.
A massive silhouette forced its way through the earth and stood before him and his remaining 187 men.
"I guess this is the queen," Conner thought.
Seconds later, mutated players stepped out beside her. Behind them stretched an enormous swarm of spider ants.
"Guess I'll be going home late today."
He ordered his men to fire.
Bullets shot forward.
"Screech."
The queen roared.
The bullets froze mid-air.
Completely stopped.
"Screech."
With another roar, the bullets reversed direction and shot back toward Conner and his men.
"Shield up."
A large white dome formed around him instantly.
Most of his men reacted fast enough to raise shields.
Some didn't.
They were pierced before they could react.
Bodies dropped.
He dismissed the dome and quickly assessed the situation.
One hundred and forty-eight left.
Behind the queen were millions of spider ants. Alongside her stood mutated players.
"Sh*t. She's powerful. Master rank. Lower tier maybe, but still… this won't be easy."
If she decided to sacrifice herself along with the swarm, it would become even worse.
Just then, another army approached from behind him.
He turned slightly.
"Hey. Do you want to team up and beat this queen?"
A young girl's voice.
Calm.
Confident.
Behind her stood over a thousand men.
The battlefield just became more complicated.