While Kushida Kikyo was busy dealing with her own embarrassment, Chris had already cleared out all the Chimera Ant grunts in the vicinity.
Along the way, he'd also fished Asahina Nazuna and Shiraishi Asuka out of a nearby thicket, where they'd been forced to hide after being dropped in as intruders.
Although Chimera Ants usually moved in groups, the hunting zone was large enough that the soldier ants scattered across the same area weren't all that densely packed.
What's more, the timing Chris had picked was a moment before even the cat woman had descended.
Among the Chimera Ant swarm, there wasn't a single one who could use Nen.
Meanwhile, the test that Tachibana Akane, Kiryuuin, and the others faced had simple rules too.
The score was based on the number of Chimera Ant eggs destroyed; the top four who destroyed the most would be the winners.
At the same time, the moment one was spotted by five or more Chimera Ants, that counted as meeting the trigger condition: the main exam would be forcibly started, and the premature Ant King and his three Royal Guards would be forcibly induced into being born.
And since the spot where they'd descended happened to be right inside the Chimera Ant nest...
In fact, their current optimal play was to just trigger the main exam directly, letting Nagumo Miyabi and the others—Nagumo with his Gorilla Armor—come in to help as quickly as possible.
Even though it would make the Ant King and his three Royal Guards awaken ahead of schedule.
But at the moment the Ant King and his guards were just born, Chris figured that, with Nagumo Miyabi's group plus Ayanokoji in the lineup, handling them wouldn't actually be much of a problem.
After all, this was a bonus round for farming points after the midterm exam.
Having to fight a fully reborn Ant King head-on would be a bit too steep in difficulty—and besides, what kind of demon did people take Chris for~
Just as he was thinking this, Chris confirmed through his God's-eye view that Kiryuuin, the instant she grasped the rules, had crisply and decisively triggered the alarm, kicking off the main exam right away.
And shortly after, she'd run into Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who had dropped in as an intruder.
Just as he was thinking. "Bzzz—"
The Black Sphere's electronic notification tone sounded in his ear:
[Abnormal awakening condition detected as met.]
[The Chimera Ant King is born. The official exam begins ahead of schedule.]
Hearing this notification, Shiraishi Asuka blinked expressionlessly and spoke softly:
"We only just got teleported in not long ago, right? And the exam's already started?"
Asahina Nazuna, standing to one side, sighed at this:
"It really is beyond what we expected. We did only start the preliminary test a little while ago."
"I imagine things weren't looking too good over on Kiryuuin's side, so they had no choice but to start the exam as fast as possible to call for reinforcements."
Chris pretended to frown and mull it over for a moment, then said:
"Let's link up with Shiina and the others first, then check the specifics through the controller."
"At first I was only paying attention to the grunts around us... Come to think of it, I did just see a cluster of green dots gathered together on the radar—pretty far from where we are."
Asahina Nazuna nodded, no objections.
By now, Kushida Kikyo—who had barely managed to tidy up her appearance—had followed Shiina Hiyori and Yotsuya Miko, carefully making her way over with the guidance of the Enhancement Gun's radar.
Seeing everyone assembled, Chris raised his wrist.
As a three-dimensional map surfaced in midair, everyone couldn't help but be startled.
On the map, the dense red dots around the nest were, at this moment, all rapidly retreating in the same direction.
"That direction is..." Asahina Nazuna made out the bearing, then exclaimed, "Isn't that where Tachibana Akane-senpai and the others are?"
Chris didn't say anything; he merely tapped open the red double-ring at the very center of the map, which looked like two red dots overlapping.
The monster data appeared accordingly:
[Chimera Ant Queen (Ant King)]
[Value: 30 points (54 points)]
[Trait: A Chimera Ant Queen over two meters in length, seemingly mixed with human genes. Cannot speak; communicates with the other soldier ants through signals akin to telepathy. Her sole purpose in living is to give birth to the Ant King and carry on the species.]
[Trait (Ant King): Born of the Chimera Ant Queen, the king of the Chimera Ants. Brutal by nature, intensely curious. He has no need to understand Nen; from birth he stands at the pinnacle of all living things, and by devouring the flesh and blood of Nen users—combined with his innate, terrifying rate of learning—he can grow infinitely stronger.]
[Fatal Weakness: Best to kill him together with the mother body before he's born. Ah... he's already been born, huh. Never mind then. Good luck to you—you'll need it.]
Seeing this very Black-Sphere-style commentary.
Chris's expression didn't change as he went on to tap open, one after another, the three red dots surrounding the Ant Queen.
[Royal Guard · Cat Woman · Neferpitou: 48 points]
[Royal Guard · Elephant · Menthuthuyoupi: 42 points]
[Royal Guard · Butterfly · Shaiapouf: 38 points]
Right after, Chris shifted his gaze sideways, looking at the nine green dots of light that had suddenly appeared inside the Chimera Ant nest.
This was clearly the main force of the official exam, led by Nagumo Miyabi.
Chris raised an eyebrow, his tone a little odd:
"Nagumo Miyabi and his group don't seem all that close to our position yet..."
"Here's hoping the staff member in charge of handing out the midterm exam's top-three rewards to Nagumo's group, and the mysterious merchant, are a bit closer to them—otherwise their opening's going to be rough."
At these words, Asahina Nazuna fell silent for a moment.
Then, somewhat awkwardly, she raised her hand:
"Um... little junior."
"As it happens, I'm the staff member the Black Sphere selected this time..."
Shiina Hiyori, her little mouth slightly open, said worriedly:
"And I'm the mysterious merchant this time..."
"Then doesn't that mean they'll have to face this exam's target head-on, without any equipment resupply at all?"
Chris didn't rush to a conclusion; instead, he tapped open the info on those green dots inside the Chimera Ant nest one by one.
When he saw one familiar name among them, he let out a soft laugh:
"This Ayanokoji kid actually got picked to be an intruder too..."
"But he's been enhanced to the point where he's no pushover now. If he coordinates with Nagumo Miyabi, then even if they can't win, getting everyone out and running should be no problem."
"I just don't know whether, in your test this time, the upperclassmen have any channels for gaining item points or confirming location info."
Asahina Nazuna pressed her lips together and gave an affirmative answer:
"That, you don't need to worry about."
"After the midterm Uninhabited Island exam ended, aside from Nagumo redeeming the Gorilla Armor and Kiriyama redeeming Inferno Summoning, Fujimaki also used points to redeem a controller and an item codex."
"As long as they calm down, locating and finding us should be no problem..."
Asahina Nazuna was still speaking.
Yotsuya Miko, who had been staring at the three-dimensional map the whole time, suddenly stretched out a trembling finger, pointing at the center of the map in warning:
"Ch-Chris! Look, everyone!"
"Those red dots representing the four BOSSes... why are they coming out of the nest?!"
Everyone looked over toward her voice.
Sure enough, the red dots of the Ant King and his three Royal Guards were, at an unhurried pace, breaking away from the central region of the nest.
Shiina Hiyori propped her chin on one hand and, recalling, softly speculated:
"In nature, once ants give birth to new drones and a new queen, they complete the nuptial flight and mate."
"After the new queen sheds her wings and gains the ability to lay eggs on her own, she leads a group off to split from the colony and establish a new nest."
"Splitting the swarm?"
Shiraishi Asuka thought it over:
"Even though the Black Sphere data says this is an Ant King and not a queen... going by the nature of ants, have they already, subconsciously, treated it as two separate groups? So once the new king is born, it stops caring at all whether the old nest and the queen live or die?"
Kushida Kikyo immediately picked up the thread, trying to assert her own presence:
"So he just doesn't care whether the queen and the soldier ants in the original nest live or die, and simply takes his people and leaves?"
Shiina Hiyori thought about it and felt that was right.
She looked at Chris: "So right now, do we stay put, or go take the initiative to link up with the Student Council President and the others?"
Chris nodded in agreement:
"We don't know the specific clear conditions for this exam, and we have too little usable combat power."
"The moment the newborn Ant King fixes its sights on us, in an open-field encounter battle, a lineup like ours would have absolutely no power to resist."
He made his decision:
"Besides, since Nagumo Miyabi's group also has a controller—to ensure most of the students survive and earn S-points, he's bound to bring the main troop over to join up with us."
"Since we're both rushing toward each other, let's get moving too."
Shiina Hiyori nodded obediently.
But just as they were about to set off, the girl seemed to suddenly remember something.
She quietly fell half a step behind, reached out a fair little hand, and gently tugged at Chris's sleeve.
As Chris turned back in puzzlement, Shiina Hiyori tilted her face up slightly:
"Um... Chris. I'm the mysterious merchant this time, you know."
"Would you like to... take a look at what's in my shop first, buy some things to update your equipment before we go?"
....
Just as Chris and the others were preparing to move out.
Deep within the Chimera Ant nest.
Nagumo Miyabi and the others, who had descended here via Black Sphere teleportation, had also successfully linked up with Tachibana Akane, Kiryuuin Fuka, and the rest, who had started the exam ahead of schedule.
Right above their heads, at the core of the colossal ant nest, dozens of meters high.
The Ant King, having just torn his way out of the queen's belly and now sampling human flesh, cast an indifferent glance at the mother body lying in a pool of blood, on her last breath, then turned and left.
Just like the bloody froth he spat out—not caring in the slightest.
One of the three Royal Guards accompanying him, the cat woman Neferpitou, suddenly twitched her furry ears.
She paused in licking her paw, turned her head back, and looked, somewhat surprised, at the newly born king.
"My King... it seems some strange enemies have slipped in."
"Still, just like the ordinary human food stockpiled in the nest, they don't have any 'Nen' fluctuations on them."
Neferpitou licked her paw: "How about I go catch them and bring them so you can have a taste?"
"Human brains are the real essence—the most delicious food, nya~"
The still-unnamed Ant King merely flicked his tail in disgust and said offhandedly:
"The taste of those incompetent humans... the texture is terrible—inferior and useless."
The Ant King walked toward the exterior of the nest without so much as looking back:
"Flesh and blood without power is meaningless to eat."
"Since Chimera Ants have their strong and weak, then humans naturally must too... So let's leave this place and go out into the wider world to seek out those rare ingredients."
Neferpitou lowered her head obediently:
"Okay, nya, no problem, nya~ Everything according to the King's will."
Beside them, the butterfly-winged guard Shaiapouf stepped forward and gave an elegant bow.
Just as he was about to suggest first visiting a kingdom of the human world, to let the Ant King personally experience the joys of ruling and, along the way, learn the knowledge befitting a king—
Neferpitou suddenly blinked her eyes.
She sniffed at the air with the tip of her nose and said, a little surprised:
"Huh?" "My King... something seems a bit off, nya."
Neferpitou looked toward the lower part of the nest:
"The scent of those humans in the nest... it seems to have suddenly become 'appetizing,' nya!"
"And what's more, just now, several unfamiliar scents suddenly appeared at the bottom of the nest... they showed up in an instant!"
Hearing this.
The Ant King's steps, which had been ready to leave, came to a halt.
He lowered his head, his deep gaze seeming to pierce through the thick rock walls, looking straight toward the position where Nagumo Miyabi and the others were.
"Oh?"
"Then let's head back and take a look."
"I hope they... don't spoil my fun."
....
Let's rewind to two minutes earlier.
At the moment of abruptly appearing inside this Chimera Ant nest and hearing the preliminary test's notification tone overhead.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka knew that his decision not to heed Chris's advice—to refuse to use the intruder exemption—had been the correct one.
Although in the eyes of the vast majority of his classmates, the so-called Black Sphere exam had always been a Sword of Damocles hanging overhead, a trap to be avoided at all costs.
But in Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's view, it shouldn't be like that at all.
Since he'd already been forced into the game, and knowing full well that a big wave would come sooner or later—
those who still cowered in the back, timid and shrinking, praying for luck to favor them—
were either fools or cowards.
In this unreasonable miniature garden, there was only passing exams to continually gain points.
Either save up enough points to escape completely, or grow stronger and stronger until you could ignore the rules of the game altogether.
Apart from that, there were no other options.
So this kind of intruder opportunity to farm extra points was, for him, actually a resource.
If his luck was good this time and things went smoothly, he might even save up a full hundred S-points outright and try to redeem, from the Black Sphere, the freedom to leave the exams.
As for whether the other students traveling with him lived or died in the process...
Honestly, Ayanokoji didn't care.
"Zero." He silently intoned in his heart.
The Parasyte immediately responded.
Relying on the superhuman five senses granted by his enhanced Parasyte, Ayanokoji quickly locked onto the positions of Tachibana Akane, Kiryuuin Fuka, and the others within the labyrinthine nest tunnels.
After approaching without a sound, he hid himself in the shadows.
After eavesdropping and learning the scoring conditions of this preliminary test, Ayanokoji's eyes flickered slightly; he'd originally intended to break away from the group and farm points throughout the nest.
After all, although he'd only died once across these several exams, plus he'd been a winner in the two subsequent preliminary tests, leaving him holding two extra lives gifted by the Black Sphere as a safety net.
But in this world, no one ever complained about having too many lives.
What if, even after saving up a hundred points and leaving the Black Sphere exams, he ended up being forcibly dragged back by the school's higher-ups or some force majeure?
In that case, these extra S-points and lives he'd accumulated would count as a trump card he was keeping for himself down the line.
But before Ayanokoji could actually make his move.
Because Kiryuuin Fuka, the moment she grasped the rules, decisively chose to trigger the condition, causing the main exam to start ahead of schedule.
Nagumo Miyabi and the others, who had entered the exam venue early, had already tracked their way over by radar.
And so Ayanokoji realized his hiding was pointless.
Considering that Nagumo Miyabi fellow kept casting aggressive glances toward where he was, every now and then.
On top of that, this was, after all, the upperclassmen's exam venue.
With the personnel already complete and a clear organizer in place, if he went rushing off in a panic to grab points, it would inevitably come across as somewhat overstepping, easily inviting unnecessary hostility.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was a man who hated trouble.
He weighed the advantages for a moment, then temporarily reined in his thoughts of going solo.
He planned to wait until they formally went to war with the monsters, then return under the pretext of "protecting an intruding classmate" to farm points with a clear conscience.
He figured that by then, no one would be able to stand on the moral high ground and accuse him of anything.
Meanwhile, on Nagumo Miyabi's side.
When he led his group over and saw Ayanokoji Kiyotaka standing in the shadows, his first reaction was actually one of mild surprise.
After all, through the Ichinose Honami connection, he knew perfectly well that over on the first-year side, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was a victor who had won two preliminary tests and held two whole-class exemption privileges!
Since he hadn't used his exemption and had instead shown up here.
Nagumo Miyabi absolutely did not believe it was carelessness or forgetfulness—it could only be deliberate.
'Looks like he's the type to seek fortune amid danger, huh...'
'Not taking his own life seriously, nor anyone else's—that part, at least, is different from Horikita.'
'A different feel. Kind of interesting.'
Just as Nagumo Miyabi was thinking this, Fujimaki—Horikita Manabu's close friend, standing nearby—had already, via the controller he'd purchased during the settlement of the midterm Black Sphere exam, checked the location of this exam's highest-scoring target.
At the same time, he also noticed Chris and the others making their way toward them.
Fujimaki looked at the holographic map, a bit surprised:
"They're taking a very methodical route, completely avoiding the large enemy swarms... Are they intruders who bought Enhancement Guns and have radar? First-years?"
At this, Ayanokoji leaned in for a glance without leaving a trace.
He reached out and tapped open, on the controller screen, that green dot in the lead.
Looking at the name "Chris" that floated up displayed right after.
Ayanokoji raised his eyebrows slightly.
And not far behind him, Kiryuuin Fuka—who was likewise watching the controller's three-dimensional map—saw this, the corner of her mouth curling up as she teased:
"Looks like the two strongest figures from first-year Class A have both come to play sidekick for us today..."
"Should we say we're lucky, or that they're just too unlucky?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka neither confirmed nor denied it.
He merely pointed at the center of the screen and spoke up in warning:
"Look at the map—those mission targets you were just about to leave have turned back again."
"Vice President Nagumo." Ayanokoji looked at Nagumo Miyabi, tossing the decision to him. "Right now, do we go find this exam's mysterious merchant to resupply equipment, or do we go on a killing spree nearby and farm some item points here first?"
Nagumo Miyabi looked at the Ant King's guard squad closing in on the screen, thought for a moment, and spoke decisively:
"I don't believe ants that split off from the colony would come back out of some laughable homesickness."
"The only explanation is that they've sensed something that caught their interest..."
"Either way, getting surrounded here isn't a wise move. Pull back first! Go link up with Chris and his group."
Nagumo Miyabi let out a cold laugh: "For now, we can only pray that there just happens to be a mysterious merchant on their side. Otherwise, getting through unscathed is going to be a bit difficult..."
Listening to Nagumo Miyabi's decision.
Tachibana Akane, standing in the center of the group, pressed her lips together slightly.
She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting together.
In her eyes, somewhat dimmed from lack of rest, who knew what she was thinking.
—End of Chapter—
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