Doomsday Train, I went crazy by hoarding billions of items.

Chapter 23 The Strange Golden Ants
Jiang Ran looked around but couldn't see where the ants had come from.

But if we don't stop it, it might actually manage to gnaw a small hole in its own safe house!

Although she has other safe houses, such large "equipment" cannot be replenished in a short time. If one of them is damaged, Jiang Ran will be heartbroken!

These ants look somewhat similar to fire ants, but they don't have those disgusting insect eggs on their backs, and they are dozens of times smaller.

If the setting weren't so inappropriate, Jiang Ran would have even thought the little thing was quite exquisite.

Seeing that it had gnawed a small, curved gap in the corner of the room, Jiang Ran couldn't sit down any longer.

She wasn't sure how dangerous this thing was, and she didn't want to risk it—if it was extremely fast, Jiang Ran would have a hard time defending herself given its small size.

Ants probably all like to eat sweet things, right?
She took out a string of candied hawthorns from her storage space, and while keeping an eye on the monitor, she tossed them towards the ants through a small hole in the door, then quickly closed the small door.

The outside temperature was too high, and the candied hawthorns started to melt before they even hit the ground.

By the time it landed on the ground, it had already melted into a pool of sugar water and hawthorn.

But the commotion did indeed startle the ants.

Its tentacles twitched, and then it headed straight for the candied hawthorn!

Jiang Ran was once again thankful that she hadn't rashly confronted this strange ant—even with her current powerful dynamic abilities, she had almost lost track of the ant.

This is assuming we know where the ants will land.

These ants are incredibly fast; they can even chew up a safe house. Once you get close...

Jiang Ran kept a serious face, preparing for the worst.

But what happened next was somewhat unexpected.

Perhaps such sweet food is unlikely to be found in the environment of the Flaming Mountains, so the ants were indeed attracted to the sugar on the ground immediately.

However, as mentioned earlier, the ant is very small and its wings are too thin, which means that it gets stuck instantly as soon as it lands on the puddle of melted sugar.

Jiang Ran watched the ants struggling futilely in the sugar solution, only to have their wings sink into the sugar swamp, and her expression became somewhat strange.

Do you want to go out?

Just as she was hesitating whether to go out and finish her off, a faint sound suddenly came from the surveillance camera.

"What is this! Let me go! But this is so sweet... I'll lick it... Damn it, my wings are stuck too!! Oh well, I should be able to get out after I lick it... It's so sweet, hehehehe."

Jiang Ran: ...

Was it her imagination? She thought she heard ants talking.

But the ant seemed to have given up struggling and began to enjoy the sweetness of the sugar.

The sugar syrup on the ground was decreasing at a visible rate—not just the syrup, but the sugar water along with the sugar-coated stones was being swallowed up by it!

"What's this red stuff? It smells good, chew, chew, chew. Ugh, ugh, it doesn't taste good! But the surface is sweet..."

Jiang Ran watched numbly as the ant, like a locust, quickly devoured the sugar water and hawthorn skin from the ground.

Watching the ants turning their heads around as if they were still not satisfied, Jiang Ran made a bold decision.

She took a small jar of honey out of her spatial storage, opened the lid, and threw it out through the hole.

"Eat up, you'll probably like this too."

As the honey jar slammed to the ground, Jiang Ran's voice was also transmitted through the surveillance camera.

The ants vanished from the monitor's view in an instant, but the next second they were already sprawled on the pile of honey. "What is this?! It smells so good, so sweet! Why do you have so many delicious things?!"

Jiang Ran said, "I have a lot of these delicious things here. If you answer my question, I can give them all to you."

The ant had its entire head buried in the honey and was sucking it in like crazy, completely ignoring Jiang Ran's words.

Seeing how much the ants craved sweets, Jiang Ran tempted them, "Would you like some cake? The sweet cream is fragrant and smooth, melting in your mouth. It also has fruit and delicate cake inside. One bite, and it's much tastier than honey!"

As they were talking, the ant had already finished eating the honey, jar and all. Hearing Jiang Ran's words, it twitched its antennae: "What's that? Is it even tastier than this?"

Jiang Ran stared in astonishment at the pit on the ground and then at the unchanged body of the ant.

She doubted whether she could kill the thing if she tried.

But if we could recruit them for our own use, they would be the perfect assassination tool...

Jiang Ran shamefully fell for him.

But despite the attraction, she would never venture out rashly before confirming her safety.

Jiang Ran pulled a small piece of cream cake from her spatial storage and tossed it out, saying to Ant through the monitor, "Here, have some."

The ants were equally ruthless; they arrived almost as soon as the cake was thrown out of the hole and began to nibble at it as it fell.

By the time that small piece of cake fell to the ground, only a tiny bit remained.

"This is delicious!!" The ant's voice became exceptionally high-pitched with excitement: "Is there more? Is there more?"

Jiang Ran said calmly, "Yes, there are... but you know our current situation. It's too dangerous outside, and I don't dare to go out easily. I... am worried that you will hurt me."

She had only intended to elicit some information; a talking ant that looked so different from others should surely have a special identity.

But the ant's reaction was completely unexpected. It seemed to sigh, and its voice became a little more composed: "Weak Earthlings, no wonder..."

Jiang Ran was taken aback.

No wonder? Does it know why all this happened?
The ant continued, "Don't worry, I have no interest in you Earthlings; I'm just here to join in the fun."

Jiang Ran's heart suddenly raced, and she tried to keep her voice steady: "You're not a creature from Earth, where did you come from?"

What she really wanted to ask was: Why did Earth become like this, and is there any way to return to reality?

But she had a gut feeling that the ants wouldn't answer her if she asked them that.

Hearing Jiang Ran's question, Ant shook his head: "You shouldn't know these things. Um, do you still have that thing from earlier?"

Although Jiang Ran was somewhat disappointed, she still took out another, slightly larger piece of cake, handed it out through the hole, and asked directly, "Is there any way to end all of this?"

The ants landed directly on the cake and gnawed on it without even lifting their heads.

After finishing the whole cake, it cleaned the cream off its body, and then its tentacles began to vibrate at a strange frequency.

After a while, a rustling, gnawing sound came from the cave entrance.

Below the tightly sealed entrance, fire ants had carved out a square hole.

Next, a diamond treasure chest was delivered by fire ants to Jiang Ran's safe house.

Thank you Sweethome for the monthly vote! o(o`зo)

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(End of this chapter)