[When you've killed most of the bugs, or when you yourself are in danger, the red bugs will appear.]
"Hah... hah... hah..." Heavy breaths escaped the girl's lips.
Even as sweat soaked her hair and dripped into her eyes, Cool Mita couldn't look away. Because, before her, the Devouring Entities and Man-Headed Spider-Wasps had formed an encirclement.
Nearly ten minutes had passed since the battle began. No matter how many bugs she defeated, even though the glitches had already congealed into something like a swamp, the viruses had still managed to surround her.
"Is... is it still no use...?" She lowered her head slightly, letting her bangs hide her eyes and conceal her expression.
Her baseball bat was long gone, her clothes had several new tears—the situation was dire.
And into the circle of viruses, several bright red bugs slowly crawled.
The red bugs were visibly several sizes larger than the regular Devouring Entities, and the code on their bodies was much denser. They opened their mouthparts, and although there was no sound, Cool Mita felt as if she could hear them mockingly screeching at her useless courage.
This is... to be laughed at by viruses.
Cool Mita gave a bitter smile. Through the slivers of light between her bangs, she could clearly see the black bugs taking a few steps back, as if not to disturb the red bugs' feast.
Then, the red bugs coiled their bodies and shot towards her like a released spring. They didn't arc into the air; they lunged directly at her...
Just as Alain had said, they had lazily and greedily waited for their "subordinates" to wear down her stamina and spirit, arriving on the scene like the oriole in the story.
Time seemed to slow down infinitely for Cool Mita as she recalled Alain's advice again.
[When you've killed most of the bugs, or when you yourself are in danger, the red bugs will appear.]
This much was undeniable.
But after he said that, there was another sentence:
[So, what you need to do is put yourself in danger to make them appear.]
"Put myself in danger... You make it sound so easy."
Her gaze followed the red bugs to the swarm that had formed a net around her.
Without a doubt, Alain was right. The red bugs—the orioles—had appeared. Since it was the "oriole"... Cool Mita figured she must be the "cicada."
Yes, it thought it was the oriole, able to prey on both the mantis and the cicada. Little did it know...
"Alain, you are my oriole." Her lips curved into a defiant smile, the sense of exhaustion that had clung to her vanishing completely.
The crisis had been fabricated.
She looked at the Devouring Entity, still mid-air and impossible to dodge, and smiled faintly.
"And you, you've gone from the oriole to the cicada."
The girl's hand, which had long since finished gathering its strength, clenched into a fist and shot out.
From her perspective, it was as if the red bug was running right into it, flying straight towards her punch.
It was too late to dodge, or rather, it didn't react at all—everything happened so naturally.
Her fist pierced through the red bug, and its bright red garbled code splattered against her cheek like tomato juice.
She casually flung the virus's dangling remains from her wrist, and it landed on the ground with a pathetic "thud."
She coolly surveyed the surrounding swarm of viruses.
[Once you've successfully defeated the red bugs, then you'll be safe]
That was Alain's final piece of advice.
And before Cool Mita's eyes, the leaderless Devouring Entities retreated as quickly as a receding tide.
Alain's last sentence was correct. But only half correct.
The girl, panting slightly, looked at the viruses that remained—the Man-Headed Spider-Wasps.
The bugs were gone, but the Man-Headed Spider-Wasps were still here...
For some reason, Cool Mita felt a sense of satisfaction.
To be honest, successfully repelling the Devouring Entities under Alain's direction felt a little strange... In the past, she had fought tooth and nail in this version, trying time and again to break through the blockade of viruses at the version's exit. But without exception, she had always failed.
If every piece of Alain's advice came true, wouldn't that make all her past efforts a lie? Now, seeing that he wasn't always completely right, she actually felt a little relieved.
But the girl's relief didn't last two seconds. She watched in shock as the menacing spider-wasps—their human heads—suddenly began to cough violently.
"Cough, cough cough!" The coughing sounded like a concerto, surrounding her and creating a bizarre atmosphere.
"Huh?" While she was confused, Cool Mita's peripheral vision caught a head peeking out from a corner of the battle area.
It was pale, watching the battlefield with a frightening expression. But the girl felt she could see from its eyes a trace of... emotion that didn't belong to a virus.
"Emotion?"
Could viruses have emotions? And why wasn't that strange Man-Headed Spider-Wasp joining the others? Instead, it seemed to be observing her...
Before she could think further, the spiders surrounding her stopped their violent coughing.
They coughed up something yellow from somewhere, a sight Cool Mita's girlish heart just couldn't handle.
"What... is this?" Cool Mita felt her mind was a complete mess, like a bowl of mush.
Alain hadn't said anything about this... So, should she fight now or not?
Cool Mita decided to just observe the spiders surrounding her.
And unexpectedly, the spider she had accidentally spotted in the other corner slowly walked over and mixed in with the group of Man-Headed Spider-Wasps.
The identical-looking spider-wasps merged together, making it impossible for Cool Mita to distinguish them.
What surprised her was... the faint trace of hostility she could feel from the spiders moments ago was now completely gone. In its place was some kind of emotion.
Cool Mita could confirm it was a positive emotion.
"Wait, emotion?!" Only then did she realize that this group of spiders was observing her with identical gazes.
The hostility from the earlier battle seemed like a sham.
Now, the spider-wasps seemed to have become "one person." Yes—possessing [the same consciousness]—Cool Mita felt this was a very fitting description.
And she was staring right at "that person."
"What... is going on?" She felt her brain capacity was completely unable to process this.
Alain... Where's Alain? She didn't want to think anymore!
After staring at her in unison for a few seconds, the spiders left without a second thought. They scurried into various dark corners or climbed into nearby broken crevices.
In less than ten seconds, all dozen or so spider-wasps were gone.
Cool Mita was even more bewildered.
But now, there was only one thing she could sort out:
[Once you've successfully defeated the red bugs, then you'll be safe]
She remembered the words Alain had spoken.
"So, I really am safe now."
He was actually right...
The girl grumbled to herself.
___
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