Initially, I had assumed that their reproduction followed the pattern of regular mantises, but that notion quickly dissipated. Suspicion had been brewing in my mind ever since I encountered them, especially due to the presence of other winged insectoid creatures mingling among them, and it wasn’t far off the mark.

The reason I was so sure that this was their nest came from one larger insectoid monster in the center of the room. It feasted upon the offerings brought by its subordinate insectoids, unmistakably playing the role of their queen.

Species: Entomothrope insectoid queen (mutant)
Sex: Female
Age: 36 years old
Height: 382 cm
Source Level: First Order
Source Element(s): None

Stats:

• STR: E (34)
• AGI: E (27)
• VIT: E (31)
• SRC: E+ (37)
• SPR: E- (25)

Accumulation Points: 22 [E]

First Order? That was the first time that I found a creature having a source level other than “none,” luckily being the queen made her not suited to combat.

While brainstorming my next move, the spherical drone that Lunaria controlled suddenly appeared beside me, almost causing me to choke.

“Hey,” she began. “When you ran off half-cocked into this place, I thought your brain had turned to mush.”

“What do you mean? It is the only way for me to get in undisturbed.” If I didn’t seize that chance, I would have to fight all the insectoids, all the while spending on precious ammunition and staking my life on the line.

“I meant what I said. But the fact that you’re gauging the enemy’s capabilities and not diving into battle… tells me you’re keeping your wits about you,” she continued.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? Thank you very much.”

“That’s up to you to decide.” The camera at the center of the spherical drone contracted; she seemed to be unbothered to say a word more.

I guessed she was just concerned about me. In any case, Lunaria was such a big helper in this whole endeavor — from distracting the insectoid monsters, to kiting them away so that I could escape…

Back to the point, I had to focus on our main objective, but first I must determine where the sweet foodstuff was stored. Peeking around the restaurant helped me to distinguish an area likely to be the storeroom. I bet that the thing I was looking for was kept there, even though they would be mostly expired by now.

“Who knows how long the apocalypse had happened in this world. It can be tens or even hundreds of years…” I mused to myself.

The problem was, there were more than twenty of the insectoid monsters, and that was by not counting the younglings that looked like larvae. Charging in mindlessly would be idiotic, so the only option remaining was to use my grenade and cause chaos within their line.

Having decided to go all out, I asked Lunaria to do me a favor. Of course, what else except to lure most of them toward their queen? Let’s take them down in one fell swoop!

With a sigh, she complied with my request and controlled the drone to kite the insectoid monsters again. Only about ten of the insectoid monsters were lured, despite that.

The insectoid queen was enraged by the sudden disturbance and spewed acid at the drone, which it was barely able to dodge at the last second. Whoops.

“Not yet… Come on…” I waited until a few more gathered around their queen… “Now!” I threw an unpinned grenade at them and covered my ears, not forgetting to hide behind a wide partition near me. Shrapnel wounds were way, way more dangerous than bullet wounds, so there was a need for extra caution when using it.

An explosion arose as the grenade hit her alongside the shriek of the queen and her minions as smoke appeared to cover the area.

Through the cover of the noise and the smoke, I took the chance to sprint into the storeroom from my hiding spot. My stomach was complaining nonstop; it was to victory or to death!

“Huh?” Lifting my boot which was smeared with a revolting green goo, I just realized that I had stepped on one of the larvae on the way there. It was gross, like really, really gross. Eww, I hate wriggling things…

Ignoring the stomach-churning feeling, I opened the door to the storeroom, stepped inside, and left it slightly ajar. After a few moments, the spherical drone slipped in through the gap that I then closed and locked.

“You know, you sure have the courage to work me like this,” Lunaria complained.

“My apologies. Haha!” I laughed cynically, feeling thrilled that I got to the destination unharmed. “Now, now, I wonder what we have here…”

I inspected the inside of the storeroom, and just as expected, all the stuff here had spoiled. Some even had bite marks on them, small and big, as if eaten sparingly by various creatures. Browsing through the pile of food didn’t reveal anything edible.

“Oh, dang… Nothing worthwhile here, eh…” I kicked the box near me despondently. Was it all just for naught? No! The mission said that there’s edible food here!

“Hold your horses, check this one out, will you,” Lunaria informed; the drone she was controlling floated above a rearmost container.

Mustering the last strength in my body, I opened the container that was for some reason sealed tightly with the dagger. Inside was a pile of metal cans of compressed energy bars, or more like survival food bars of sorts. How the heck did such a thing was here?

I didn't waste time questioning the hows and whys and instead decided to switch off my brain and pry open one of the cans containing energy bars. Since it was tightly sealed, the bars were edible, albeit their surface and texture resembled a hardened brick; it most definitely had gone past its expiration date for who knew how long. My teeth almost cracked just on the first big bite.

Nonetheless, my hunger was so overpowering that I could have devoured an entire horse, so I paid no mind and kept munching away. Each bite filled my stomach with a peculiar fruity sensation; such was the wonder of compressed food crafted from long-lasting ingredients.

Ah… to think that I’ll be this happy eating crappy food…

It was said that modern people’s taste was so refined that they would hunger themselves to death rather than eat trash, but here I was now… How ironic.

After stuffing myself until I was satisfied, I quenched my thirst by drinking from a water bottle I had brought with me, then I grabbed as many energy bars cans as I could and put them inside my backpack. In this post-apocalyptic world, a backpack was one of the most crucial things to have — a large one especially.

Sadly, I could only put in as many as three cans as each one was quite big, but it didn’t matter since it could last me for a month or even two if under strict rationing. The airship had a water filtering system and could convert rainwater to clean water, so I didn’t have to worry too much about that part.

I searched around the place for some more stuff and discovered a few interesting things inside the few sealed boxes: dining utensils, kitchen wares, and many other things. They were of good quality, so I decided to take a few of them that could slip inside the gap in my backpack.

If it was me in the past, I wouldn’t be able to bring back all these things, but my current body was way stronger. Thus, bringing a more-than-twenty-kilogram bag was of no issue.

When I was still looking around the place, Lunaria warned me, “Maxim, more and more of the insectoids were converging outside.”

“Urgh! We can’t dilly-dally then. Let’s get the hell out of here!”

I peeked through the gap in the door and was dumbstruck by the number of insectoid monsters outside. No matter. I was calm in this situation since I had one more grenade in my possession and five fully loaded magazines. Enough for me to strategize a meticulous escape plan.

“What’s your plan this time?”

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “We just have to risk it and sneak out.”

“Heh, I thought you would say so. This isn’t going to be easy…”

“Well then, can you make an ultrasonic sound?”

“Nope. Stop daydreaming. That is not something that this drone can do. Besides, I have concluded it won’t be effective on insects like that anyway. Oh yeah, I must tell you that the battery inside this thing is already low.”

“Guh, as if things can’t get any worse…” I complained and decided to stick with the plan.

Steeling my heart and getting ready to slip out, I peeked outside again. But to my disbelief, there was infighting going on between all the insectoid monsters. The grenade must have killed their queen, and they were deciding who was going to be the next one to rule. Or maybe there was another nest somewhere…

I sneaked out as quietly and clandestinely as possible, eluding my way from the insectoid monsters by crawling behind the broken furniture strewn across the restaurant toward the back entrance.

…Out of the blue, a dead insectoid monster was thrown right before me. It wasn’t just it; several others were getting killed at each passing moment. It was truly chaotic.

At the sight of the twitching insectoid, my heart almost jumped out of my throat, but I was able to keep calm and proceed. But then, a sharp pain appeared on the palm of my hand.

“Ow! A white crystal? A piece of quartz? No…”

The object that had caused me the pain was a small crystal, a bit more than the size of a thumb, with mesmerizing yellow veins coursing through it. I didn’t know what kind of this thing was and didn’t bother to check its description either, simply swiping it inside my pocket.

At last, I was able to get out of that hell through the backdoor.

And yet, my relief was short-lived. A wave of terror washed over me as I came face to face with multiple pairs of insectoid eyes. I had unwittingly stumbled upon not just one, but several nests scattered throughout the resort area; it was a huge mistake.

To make matters worse, the explosion triggered by my grenade earlier had alarmed even more of them here. Though lacking traditional senses, the abrupt shift in the chemical composition of the air must have startled them.

Really. There were at least a dozen of the airborne ones that had already locked their gaze upon me, poised to strike at a moment’s notice. It was clear that I had ventured into a treacherous battlefield, with danger lurking at every turn.

““Screech…!””

“Fuck! RUN!!” I sprinted as fast as I could, beelining for the double glass door.

Twenty meters. Luckily, the distance wasn’t too far, so I was able to escape from the chasing insectoids since they were blocked by the building’s wall. But the other insectoids were alerted and chased after me, hopping their way toward me through the glass entrance.

“Told you. This isn’t going to be easy.” Yeah, right. Even though it was all in hindsight, she was acting like she was the right one.

I didn’t bother retorting and simply ran as fast as my legs could carry, wishing that I had been born with six legs instead of two. The insectoids chasing me were only held back because of the narrow hallway, or else I would have been caught by now.

My fear was right. The moment I reached the floor before the rooftop, some flying insectoids had gotten in through the balcony and broken windows and blocked my way. I didn’t know whether they were part of the group before or a different one.

“Lunaria, you go first to the airship controls to start departing. We can’t have them get there before us!” I yelled, pushing my limits as I raced ahead. In a desperate attempt to buy time, I heaved a large piece of furniture into the path of the pursuing creatures, creating a temporary barrier between us.

“Aye, Captain.” The spherical drone she controlled soon flew outside from the broken window.

“Now, then.” I aimed my rifle and began firing at the approaching flying insectoids in front of me. “Die!”

While they were more agile, they were weaker compared to the ones that couldn’t fly. This being inside the hallway and me getting used to the situation made it impossible to miss a single shot.

“One shot, one kill,” I uttered the famous line while simultaneously half-sprinting to the stairs leading to the rooftop.

Something wasn’t right.

I looked back and couldn’t help but raise my eyelids. More than two dozen insectoid monsters were on my tail from all directions, pursuing me like I was their number one enemy or something. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if they caught me there and then. Why are they so obsessed with me?!

With a sweating forehead that almost flooded my face, I raced faster, going by a few stairs at a time to get to the rooftop.

Outside, twenty or so flying insectoids had swarmed the area — their eyes were set on me. What did I do to them? Well, I killed their queen…

But with them focusing on me made the airship secure as it soon flew into the air, braving the intense wind. She isn’t trying to leave me here, right?

Anyway, all I had to do was to jump onto the rope ladder. But first I had to pass the swarm of insectoid monsters blocking my way to get there.

With adrenaline pumping to the maximum in my head, I took out my dagger and jumped into the danger before me with fierce determination. The flying insectoids quickly attacked me, but I either dodged or cut them down with the dagger.

Faster. I had to be faster!

In the end, I neared the edge of the building, my heart pounding in my chest. As I prepared to make the daring leap, a stray flying insectoid managed to sink its teeth past my jacket and into my shoulder. “Aargh!”

Gritting through the searing pain, I propelled myself upward and grabbed the rope ladder by the last few ones, swiftly buckling my limbs between the gaps. I then pulled out the insectoid that had bitten me, and sharp pain that I’d never known before colored my shoulder.

“Eat this, you little shit!” I stuffed the last grenade into its mouth, pulled the pin, and kicked it away at the swarms of relentless insectoid monsters with all my strength. My last one. It’s all on you now…!

“Scree?!”

As I silently watched while holding on to the rope ladder with my ears closed, the grenade exploded amidst their line about three seconds later at more than thirty meters away. The faint smoke was gradually shrinking with each passing second.