Chapter 394: Endangered Species 1 |
When Qin Ziwen heard about insect-people, he was surprised for a moment, but he felt relieved after seeing one.
Since fish-men could appear, encountering other intelligent races was just a matter of probability.
[Common · Insect-person: ☆☆☆☆☆]
From this name, it was clear their race wasn't just limited to grasshopper-people.
"Where did you catch this thing?"
Qin Ziwu said proudly, "Luck. While patrolling, I heard someone say they saw a humanoid monster, so I went to search that area and just happened to see this guy hiding behind a stone pillar.
This guy was like an idiot, thinking I wouldn't spot him if he stayed perfectly still behind there."
Qin Ziwen looked it over. "Interesting. This insect-person is quite a novelty to see."
Qin Ziwu said, "It's quite strong, a bit more robust than a human of the same star rating. More importantly, its legs have explosive power, probably related to it looking like a grasshopper."
This insect really looked bizarre and strange.
Honestly, seeing the fish-men didn't disgust him as much, but after seeing these insect-people, goosebumps rose all over his body.
The arms of these insect-people were covered in needle-like barbs, and those compound eyes, larger than pears, were filled with tiny facets like a honeycomb, triggering his trypophobia.
Deng Guang swayed a couple of steps, turned his back, and made sure he wasn't looking at it.
Zhao Pu crouched down, pinched the insect-person's arm with his hand. It was very hard, like it was wearing an exoskeleton.
Zhao Pu knocked on it again.
*Thunk~ thunk~*
Hollow. The inside of the arm wasn't solid.
He examined the grasshopper insect-person. "This body structure resembles an insect more than a human. This kind of structure gives it strong explosive power, but lifting hundreds of times its own weight should be impossible. Being able to lift ten or twenty times its own weight would be the absolute limit."
The insect-person surrounded in the middle suddenly trembled violently, its mouthparts opening and closing, a low, grinding sound coming from its throat.
Through Resonance, Qin Ziwen sensed the emotions it was radiating: "fear," "nervousness," "terror."
"Such rich emotions, seems its intelligence isn't low." Qin Ziwen waved a hand. "Take it back to Home. I'll have a proper chat with it."
Previously, he could communicate with the fish-men because there was a fish-man translator.
This time, communicating with this insect-person, there was no insect-person recruiter, so he'd have to rely on the Resonance ability to make an effort.
Language is a medium for conveying emotions.
But when Qin Ziwen could directly transmit emotions, even without knowing the other party's language, communication wasn't impossible.
After sensing the friendly emotions Qin Ziwen was radiating, the still-struggling insect-person hesitated.
Arriving in the living room, Qin Ziwen brought a wooden stool for the insect-person, then sat down on the sofa himself.
As for why the insect-person wasn't given the sofa, he was afraid the sofa upholstery would get torn by the barbs under the insect-person's body.
"Have something to eat first." Qin Ziwen picked up a small tomato from the table and tossed it to the insect-person.
The insect-person caught it reflexively.
"Pretty fast hands." Qin Ziwen raised an eyebrow.
After catching the small tomato, the two antennae on the grasshopper insect-person's head swayed, detecting the fruit's fresh, sweet scent.
Friendly emotions plus fresh, sweet food.
This made its tense body relax slightly, almost unconsciously.
"Chat?" Qin Ziwen picked up a small tomato and tossed it into his own mouth. Sweet, sour, refreshing.
The grasshopper-person looked at it twice, hesitated for a moment, then tentatively used its mouthparts to take a small, tearing bite of the tomato.
Its eyes lit up, and it quickly swallowed the tomato in two or three bites.
Qin Ziwen asked, "Do you survive in tribal form or as individuals? How many of your kind, like you, are in this underground cavern?"
The grasshopper-person hesitated.
"Bro, I brought someone." Qin Ziwu led a Dark Tide fish-man over.
The grasshopper-person whipped its head around. Upon seeing Lanxie, its body suddenly recoiled, leaping like a grasshopper, instantly jumping seven or eight meters away to hide far off.
Lanxie originally didn't know why it had been brought here, but after seeing this "giant grasshopper" that suddenly dashed away, it instantly understood.
"Master, this is an insect-person."
"I know it's an insect-person. Get to the point."
Lanxie paused, then hurriedly began its account.
After listening to Lanxie's story, Qin Ziwen understood.
These insect-people were another intelligent race living in this underground world. Fish-men lived underwater, insect-people lived on land.
Because their main living areas were different, the two races originally had occasional friction but not many conflicts.
But decades ago, the fish-man tribe suddenly began hunting and killing insect-people on a large scale, destroying their civilization. Now, the insect-people in the underground world were no longer a significant force, mostly just scattered wild insect-people.
"No wonder it got so agitated seeing you." Qin Ziwen looked at the grasshopper-person. From it, he sensed emotions of "hatred," "anger," "fear."
"Is the power gap between your two sides that big?" Qin Ziwen looked at Lanxie.
If the power gap was so huge, how could they have coexisted peacefully for so long before? He didn't believe that.
A sudden surge in one side's strength was either due to a rapid advancement in their technological tree or the influence of an external force.
Qin Ziwen thought of the fish-men's ability to control insects. Could it be related to that?
"I don't know either." Lanxie shook its head. When it was born, that war between the two races had long ended. It had heard many things from the elders in its tribe.
It hadn't deliberately inquired about it.
"Fish-men..." A light of hatred flashed in the grasshopper-person's eyes. Its body bent, adopting an attacking posture.
Lanxie grew somewhat nervous, taking half a step to the left to hide behind Qin Ziwu.
At such close range, and on land at that, it was no match for an insect-person.
Seeing the grasshopper-person display such intense anger, under his Resonance perception, the insect-person's emotions were like a fiercely burning torch.
Qin Ziwen understood.
These insect-people and fish-men had a deep-seated blood feud.
Where there is hatred, it can be exploited.
He stepped forward and said to the grasshopper-person, "We can be friends. The fish-men are also my enemies. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
After speaking, he glanced at Lanxie, who was standing behind his younger brother.
Their eyes met. A flash of insight struck Lanxie. With a *thump*, it directly knelt down, prostrating itself completely, adopting a posture of submission.
The grasshopper-person, which had been maintaining its guard, was startled. It was somewhat shocked. Based on what it had heard since childhood, these fish-men were very bad, having killed many of its people.
Such bad fish-men were actually afraid of this human.
Just how terrifying was this human, then?
The grasshopper-person's gaze towards Qin Ziwen now held a few more traces of fear!
"Do you understand the insect-person language?" Qin Ziwen asked Lanxie.
Lanxie shook its head.
After pondering for a moment, Qin Ziwen beckoned to the grasshopper-person. "Follow me."
He took it to the Hundred Schools Book Tower, then took out a copy of *Intermediate Human Language Primer* and tossed it to it.
"Study hard. When you've learned it, you can leave this place."