Ashen God
Chapter 261 - 260: Unexpected Gains

Chapter 261: Chapter 260: Unexpected Gains

Two hours later, the cleanup of the fourth area was in its final stages, but Zhang Yanhang suddenly discovered something quite extraordinary—he had indeed encountered the situation he had previously envisioned wherein despite being separated by just one wall, dozens of Crimson Iron Ants moving on the other side had gathered.

However, these gathered and swiftly moving Crimson Iron Ants weren’t the Crimson Iron Worker Ants that Zhang Yanhang had anticipated, but rather the much faster Crimson Iron Flying Ants.

If this had been in Raccoon City, Zhang Yanhang would have likely punched through the wall and started firing right away, but unfortunately, this was the Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

Even setting aside the material issue, even though both were walls, the thickness was completely different: the walls in Raccoon City could be as thin as just a few centimeters, but the walls in the Crimson Iron Ant Nest that formed the passages could easily be over ten meters, even dozens of meters thick.

The thickness alone could be at least tens of times different, with the maximum being up to a hundred times more—there was absolutely no comparison.

Even with walls made of concrete a dozen meters thick, Zhang Yanhang, with his strength of not even ten tons, couldn’t possibly impact them, let alone these walls composed entirely of Crimson Iron Ore with a hardness comparable to that of steel. It definitely wouldn’t be possible to break through such a wall in a short amount of time.

For such a major undertaking, Zhang Yanhang felt that even using Alchemy to assist himself wouldn’t be effective—it would take at least fifteen to twenty minutes and consume a considerable amount of Energy Value, making it an extremely unwise expenditure.

After all, with the twenty minutes of spare time, Zhang Yanhang could clear an additional half square kilometer of area, and wasting that time on breaking through a wall would yield no profits since by the time he laboriously broke through the wall, the Crimson Iron Flying Ants on the other side would have long since flown away.

"So, breaking through the wall is impossible, the only option is to rely on Death Wave Skill to get by," Zhang Yanhang remarked while activating the Death Wave Skill. A transparent distorted wave emanated from Zhang Yanhang’s body and instantly spread in all directions.

Accompanied by a buzzing sound, the transparent distorted wave swiftly penetrated the solid walls, enveloping the dozens of Crimson Iron Flying Ants moving towards an unknown destination behind the wall.

Almost simultaneously, all the flying ants halted their motion, their entire exoskeletons shattered bit by bit, and their appendages and fragile joints broke under the immense power of the Death Wave Skill, sending copious amounts of dark red thick fluid splashing everywhere.

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Flying Ant (Elite)’ ×1, Soul points +7.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Flying Ant (Elite)’ ×1, Soul points +7.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Flying Ant (Elite)’ ×1, Soul points +7.]

...

Boom, boom, boom!

Dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground echoed at a high frequency as the carcasses of dozens of Crimson Iron Flying Ants heavily impacted the hard ground of the passage.

Perhaps because there was no struggle during their death, these groups of Crimson Iron Flying Ants, though dead, still maintained the same flying formation as when they were alive, remarkably neat.

After the deaths of these Crimson Iron Flying Ants, Zhang Yanhang unexpectedly found he had some other gains.

The last dozen or so Crimson Iron Worker Ants that Zhang Yanhang was about to finish clearing in the fourth area had also been enveloped by the Death Wave Skill and had now entered a silent state similar to the Crimson Iron Flying Ants that had just been killed.

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Worker Ant (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Worker Ant (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Worker Ant (Common)’ ×1, Soul points +3.]

...

Zhang Yanhang stood silently "enjoying" the barrage of the killing notification sounds. Although initially he had found it uncomfortable, now he could essentially get used to the continuous occurrence of these killing notification sounds.

Okay, maybe it’s because the frequency of the killing notification sounds was much lower now than before; when being swarmed by Crimson Iron Ants, the killing notifications would continuously emerge, reaching two hundred in succession, but just now, it was only about sixty or seventy notifications, a two-thirds decrease in density.

Zhang Yanhang stood still for a few seconds, and unexpectedly discovered that it seemed both groups of Crimson Iron Ants that had been killed by the Death Wave Skill had dropped treasure boxes. The group of Crimson Iron Flying Ants had dropped two Green Treasure Boxes in total, while the distant Crimson Iron Worker Ants had dropped just one White Treasure Box.

"Sigh, I have to take a detour again to pick up the treasure boxes," Zhang Yanhang had already foreseen the situation he was currently facing—due to the inability to break through walls, when the monsters killed by the Death Wave Skill were behind walls, he could only take a long detour to collect the treasure boxes.

Since he had used the Death Wave Skill numerous times along the way, Zhang Yanhang frequently encountered this situation.

Moreover, often the reason Zhang Yanhang used the Death Wave Skill was because the density of the Crimson Iron Worker Ants within its range was relatively high but quite dispersed, and going down each branching path was a waste of time.

After using the Death Wave Skill, Zhang Yanhang only needed to run through the passages where the Drop Treasure Boxes appeared, which could save him a lot of time.

It wasn’t just saving him time on the road; it also saved him the time waiting for the treasure boxes to appear since all the ants within range died at the same time, meaning Zhang Yanhang only needed to wait once.

But if he killed them separately, he would need to wait a few seconds at each location where a Crimson Iron Ant had died.

Do not underestimate these few seconds; considering Zhang Yanhang’s current hunting efficiency, the average time for killing each Crimson Iron Ant and collecting the corresponding treasure box totalled about ten seconds, including the time taken to reach the location.

Therefore, while it might just be a few seconds, it actually meant that every additional Crimson Iron Ant killed by Death Wave saved Zhang Yanhang a few seconds of time, and the time saved from killing dozens of ants amounted to almost several minutes, which overall was still quite considerable.

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