Generally, soldier ants are twice the size of worker ants, with their most aggressive parts concentrated in their large mandibles. Unlike worker ants, the tips of soldier ants’ antennae have also developed into two small pincers.

A chorus of sobs and shouts erupted around them—

“What is he going down for?!”

“Damn it! Is he crazy?!”

“God! The soldier ants are swarming him!”

Song Yu sat up with a flip, knelt on one knee, reached for the long military knife at his lower back, and looked at the rapidly approaching soldier ant swarm with cold eyes.

“Brother!” Qin Luo yelled, too anxious to even think about who had made the sneak attack.

If they didn’t quickly rescue the prince, it would be too late once the soldier ants completely surrounded him.

But someone was even faster than him.

Just as Qin Luo stepped out of the cave, a phantom flashed past.

In the blink of an eye, Rong Shi had already jumped down from the rubble.

Song Yu swept his military knife horizontally, the sharp blade slicing across a soldier ant’s antenna.

Clang!

The soldier ant’s antenna was cut off.

But for every pair cut off, more antennae probed out.

He fought and retreated, his mind quickly thinking of countermeasures.

There were too many of them, almost no gaps, making a breakthrough difficult.

Soldier ants were larger than worker ants and had aggressive antennae, so climbing over them was also impossible.

After thinking it over, there was no way out except to buy time for rescue.

But with so many soldier ants, how long could he hold them off?

A slight movement on his hair startled Song Yu, and he spun around abruptly, bringing his military knife down.

But before the military knife could touch it, the pincer on the antenna dropped to the ground.

Hearing Qin Luo’s loud shout earlier, Song Yu thought it was him, but when he looked up, he was stunned.

“Why are you here?”

“Can’t I be?”

Rong Shi pulled his arm and brought him close, then quickly dealt with the closest antennae with a few swings of his military knife.

Song Yu: “What did I hear you call me just now?”

Rong Shi: “Is this the time to care about such details?”

Song Yu pulled his hand away, and they stood back to back, each dealing with the attacks within their line of sight.

“You have such impulsive moments too, running down to your death?”

Rong Shi: “If I didn’t come, what would you do?”

Song Yu couldn’t see Rong Shi’s expression when he said this, and his heart felt as if ants were crawling over it, making him a little uncomfortable.

Inside the cave, Qin Luo, Chen Chen, and the others ran down afterward. The others at the cave entrance were panicking, but no one dared to go down to rescue them.

But in just one or two seconds, the two of them were completely surrounded by thousands of soldier ants.

They wanted to get through, but the outer soldier ants immediately turned and attacked them.

They simply couldn’t get through!

The five of them tried to form a small team, fighting their way towards Rong Shi.

Liu Hong shouted with a loud voice, “Has the distress signal been sent?!”

Chen Chen: “Yes!”

Qin Luo was incredibly annoyed: “If I find out who’s behind this, I’ll dismember them!”

Hu Feng: “This won’t work. We move in, and they swarm back! We won’t have saved them, and we’ll need rescuing ourselves!”

The barrage of comments on the live stream was so dense it drowned out the screen, and the arguments were fierce—

“Why isn’t the rescue team here yet, people are going to die!”

“What’s going on! Why are there such difficult levels in the competition?! Haven’t they been tested?”

“I didn’t expect termites to be so strong, it’s terrifying! Hope they’re okay.”

“Idiot, the most dangerous thing in a Level 3 danger zone is termites! Even raptors are no match for them!”

“Song Yu is so… what was he doing running out at a time like this?”

“He was clearly pushed out, are you blind?!”

The circle was constantly shrinking, leaving less and less room for Rong Shi and Song Yu to maneuver.

Song Yu’s fingers, gripping the military knife, were white with tension: “Looks like there won’t be any rescue for now.”

He knew who had pushed him without even thinking.

Since they were so intent on killing him, how could they let him escape so easily?

Rong Shi: “Don’t be afraid, I have a way.”

Song Yu scoffed, wanting to say he was never afraid, death was just death, no big deal.

If Song Ke wanted to kill him, he’d have to be prepared for a fight to the death.

But the words caught in his throat, and Song Yu swallowed them back.

He had promised Bunny that they’d meet; he couldn’t break that promise.

“What way?”

Rong Shi: “The emitter.”

Emitter? Song Yu remembered during new recruit training, Rong Shi used the emitter’s rope to set up an electric net and defeated hundreds of wild buffalo.

But this was a Level 3 danger zone; the emitter’s electrical intensity wasn’t enough to penetrate the soldier ants’ exoskeletons.

Song Yu: “Useless, think of something else.”

Rong Shi: “Did you bring your bio-mask?”

Song Yu: “?”

Many soldier ants and worker ants also surrounded the cave entrance.

All the teams were fighting very hard, and only Song Ke managed to suppress his laughter.

Even if he couldn’t kill Song Yu today, he would at least half-kill him.

On the live stream—

“How long has it been, where’s the rescue team?!”

“Damn it, they’re already out of sight! Are they going to wait until they’re completely eaten before moving out?!”

“Just contacted our homeroom teacher, they said the Mortis sub-system is malfunctioning and undergoing emergency troubleshooting, it’s critical!”

“If the system malfunctions, can’t they just send a helicopter themselves?!”

“Please save them, ahhh!”

“People might already be—”

Two freshmen who had only been in school for a few months were surrounded by so many soldier ants. Although most people didn’t dare to say it, they increasingly understood that they probably couldn’t be saved.

Even the bullet comments could feel the explosive tension in the air.

At this moment, the screen flashed, and someone shouted: “Damn! What is that?!”

Everyone watching the live stream was drawn in.

A line of ants suddenly exploded, their bodies split vertically in half, and green blood splattered everywhere.

“Damn it!!!”

“What is this?! Why don’t I understand?!”

“Ahhh they’re alive, they’re alive!”

“Is that a laser gun? Is it that powerful?”

“Is it the emitter?! Holy cow! Am I dreaming?”

“Ahhhh it’s the Chairman and the Goddess!!”

Both of them simultaneously wrapped the ropes from their emitters around a century-old banyan tree. Using the tree as the center, they stepped on the soldier ants and ran in opposite directions, like minute and hour hands, landing in the right places, using the strong electricity on the ropes to shatter all the ant colonies in their path.

A few drops of green blood splattered on Song Yu’s mask, and he had no time to wipe them off. He swung the rope with precise movements, freely weaving through the ant swarm.

Many soldier ants extended their large mandibles to try and cut the ropes, but were instantly killed by the strong electricity.

Rong Shi pulled one end of the emitter, flipped to the ground, and said in a hurried but soft voice, “How much more can you increase it?”

[3-4 times.]

Rong Shi: “Increase it.”

[Yes!]

01 adhered to the bottom of the emitter’s casing, and strong electricity was instantly released, making the entire rope crackle.

The two ropes were tightly wrapped around the banyan tree, and the current immediately transferred to Song Yu’s rope.

Rong Shi swung hard, the rope as sharp as a blade, instantly harvesting the lives of the ant swarm, it was even easier than cutting tofu.

The tide of battle instantly turned.

The live stream was flooded with comments—

“Military Academy Chairman 666”

“Ahhhhh, it’s making my blood boil! Their fighting stances are so cool!”

“The emitter is actually that good? Don’t lie to me?!”

“They don’t even care about the ant swarm! Their teamwork is too seamless?!”

“At this rate, if the soldier ants don’t run faster, they’ll be wiped out, hahahaha”

“Damn it! I knew nothing could stump the Chairman!”

After dealing with a portion of the soldier ants, their numbers decreased, and the crisis gradually lifted.

Song Yu moved, stepping on various broken termite exoskeletons to avoid sinking into the blood.

Seeing him jump over, Rong Shi asked, “How’s this method?”

Song Yu smiled: “So-so.”

On the battlefield, the ones who were originally in the most danger were now out of it, while those standing at the cave entrance watching were instead caught in a bitter struggle.

Rong Shi’s gaze swept over them, lingering on Song Ke’s face for an extra moment, almost imperceptibly.

[He’s the one who pushed the benefactor, I have surveillance footage here! My energy stone villa almost got destroyed!]

Another group of soldier ants charged over.

Rong Shi swept the rope in his hand horizontally, splitting the soldier ants in half, their broken exoskeletons flying.

As a prince, Song Ke didn’t need to participate in such bitter fighting; even if there was danger, he could just lift a finger and someone would immediately come to his rescue.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his side, as if something had hit him hard.

He stumbled two steps, uncontrollably falling towards the ant swarm.

Lin Rui and Liu Nan were already struggling to deal with the soldier ants alone, and at this moment, they had no spare capacity to look after Song Ke.

Song Ke clawed at the air with both hands, but still couldn’t find a foothold, falling directly to the ground. Just then, a soldier ant’s antenna extended, piercing his rear shoulder, going straight through.

“Ah—!”

Blood instantly gushed out, and Song Ke thrashed on the ground, twitching in pain.

Lin Rui heard his scream, turned his head, and his face turned ashen with fright.

“Your Highness!”

In his panic, he didn’t notice the problem with his address.

Just before the soldier ant’s mandible could crush Song Ke’s neck, Lin Rui cut off the antenna and pulled him away from his original position.

At a time like this, there was no thought for gentleness.

Song Ke was thrown, landing awkwardly, blood quickly staining his clothes and back. His face was devoid of color, and he looked as if he’d been pulled from water.

“Resc-rescue team! Qu-quickly save me—”

[01’s products are always top-notch, hehe, want another shot? This time, aim for the head.]

Rong Shi didn’t respond to him.

When he shattered the soldier ant’s exoskeleton just now, he used the force of an air bullet to make one of the fragments hit Song Ke.

If someone dared to harm his person right under his nose, then he would retaliate under surveillance.

With things mostly settled over there, Rong Shi freed up his hands and cleared the area around Qin Luo and the others.

Qin Luo was exhausted and stumbled backward half a step: “Thank you, Sister-in-law.”

Rong Shi: “…” I shouldn’t have saved you.

Chen Chen looked at the emitter in his hand, his eyes shining: “Is this the new training artifact?! It really is good!”

Liu Hong: “We have this too! Wanna play together?”

Although covered in green blood and looking disheveled, the few of them were very excited, nodding eagerly, taking off their emitters and eager to try them out.

Who on a battlefield hadn’t dreamed of single-handedly facing a multitude, sweeping all before them?

Rong Shi: “Mine is modified; don’t try it easily.”

After helping them clear the soldier ants, he left the remaining worker ants for them to handle themselves, and Rong Shi turned to rush towards Song Yu.

Halfway there, the ground vibrated again.

Less than five meters from Song Yu, a pair of mandibles seven or eight times larger than a soldier ant’s burrowed out of the ground.

An antenna as thick as an adult’s thigh broke through the earth and lunged towards Song Yu’s back.

“Move aside!”

Rong Shi moved at his fastest speed, running and pulling out the military knife from his leg pouch, throwing it.

The force of the military knife knocked the antenna off course and deeply embedded itself.

The entire antenna began to flail wildly, breaking trees and sending debris flying across the ground.

Seeing Song Yu pushed to a relatively safe area, Rong Shi kicked off a tree trunk, using the momentum to jump onto the mandible.

“What are you trying to do?!”

Song Yu’s anxious voice came from below.

Rong Shi stepped on the termite’s exoskeleton, steadying his balance amidst the violent shaking, and with a few leaps, wrapped the rope around it, then jumped back to Song Yu’s side.

Tightening the rope, 01 received the hint and immediately released super-strong electricity.

This termite, which had only managed to emerge with its head, was instantly shredded into pieces.

Its contents splattered out like a celestial shower, and Rong Shi pulled Song Yu behind the tree trunk, avoiding the tragic fate of being drenched.

From discovery to resolution, it took less than a minute.

Not to mention the contestants on site, even the viewers watching the live stream couldn’t react in time.

The bullet comments paused for more than ten seconds, then suddenly exploded—

“This terrifying combat power, and you’re telling me he’s a freshman?! I ask how many military officers could do that?!”

“So the rumor that he only scored 60 points means 60 in theory, 100 in practical? QuQ I was deceived!”

“Ahhhhhh I’m dead, I’m dead! The Chairman is too amazing! Those few from the Royal Academy can’t even compare!”

“Absolutely amazing, so satisfying! I apologize for saying disparaging things before, ahhh!”

“Damn it, no one noticed that this was just the Ant King? It was just cut up like vegetables, suddenly I feel a little sorry for it (doge)”

“He deals with Level 3 mutated Ant Kings effortlessly! I’m going back to the military academy to send a congratulatory message!”

On the battlefield, Rong Shi emerged from behind the tree trunk. The air was filled with a strong burnt smell, a rotten egg smell, and an unusually pungent fishy smell.

Rong Shi surveyed the situation, his expression grim.

“It’s clean.”

Song Yu walked out, took a glance, then shifted his gaze, smiling casually.

“What do we do, big brother? You’ve revealed a bit too much.”

Rong Shi said coldly, “…Accident.”

It was all to save you.

__

Author’s Note:

Rong Bunny: I generally don’t hold grudges; if there’s a grudge, I pay it back on the spot with interest.

Song Cat: I generally keep a ledger; I pay it back in installments, each installment with interest.

#Is this what they mean by looking like a couple? (not really)#