Invasion - Chapter 124

Chapter 124

When Rachel came out after changing his clothes, Du Yuanyuan stopped whistling.

The so-called traditional clothing of the City of Mantis was actually quite beautiful, well-tailored, made of soft material, it showed off the wearer's figure to the fullest.

The parts that should be emphasized were emphasized, the parts that should be minimized, minimized, it was, undeniably, a feast for the eyes.

But Du Yuanyuan felt that, if it were her, she probably wouldn’t be willing to wear such clothes.

It wasn’t clothing designed for warriors, it deliberately exposed most of the vital parts that should be protected during battle, purely for visual pleasure.

Rachel’s figure was beautiful, with golden proportions, the physique of a first-class warrior, powerful chest muscles and a narrow waist, deep blue eyes, and his long golden hair braided and hanging down his back.

The tall Mantis ladies present all had loving looks in their eyes, their gazes lingering on key areas.

Rachel was a powerful warrior, but here, in this strange city, under this atmosphere, he suddenly felt like he had become some kind of object.

He flicked his long braid, trying to maintain his composure under those impolite stares.

But he still subconsciously moved closer to Lin Yuan and the other two girls.

It happened very suddenly, without any warning, not even any conversation.

A tall Deviant suddenly appeared beside Rachel. Her movements explosive, so fast it was almost like teleportation.

She suddenly approached, her huge compound eyes, a playful smile on her lips, and reached out to touch Rachel's chest.

Speed was an innate ability of their race. Very few in this world could be faster than them.

The Golden Lion, his brows furrowed, quickly retreated, his long golden braid flying, but he clearly couldn't completely avoid such blatant humiliation.

Fortunately, in this world, there was something even faster than physical movements.

Consciousness.

The moment this deviant had that lewd thought, someone had already captured it.

As she approached, a pair of golden eyes seemed to appear in the void.

Those mysterious golden eyes blocked her outstretched, greasy hand, coldly staring at her.

A sharp pain shot through the Deviant’s mind, she paused, her outstretched hand grabbing, only to touch air.

She didn’t succeed, shrugged, giggled, and under the angry stares of Rachel, Du Yuanyuan, and Nicole, returned to her companions without a care.

"Why are you back? You even have a human-like arm," one said.

"Actually missed? How rare.”

"No, I don’t know why, I suddenly lost interest, figured it wasn’t worth it."

"Haha, alright then. They’re guests after all, don’t scare them away.”

Those people opened their feather fans, covering their faces as they chatted and laughed, their demeanor elegant. They called them "guests", but their actions just now hadn’t been polite at all.

Yun Luo, as he came out, happened to see this scene.

His face was grim, even more uncomfortable than Rachel. The clothes here had no sleeves, and even deliberately exposed the shoulders, completely revealing where his mechanical arm was connected to his body.

It wouldn’t normally matter, he had become able to calmly face his incomplete body. Which warrior on the battlefield hadn't had their clothes torn a few times?

What made him uncomfortable were the gazes from those people. Those sticky gazes lingered on his arm, obscene and blatant, making the long-healed wounds on his severed arm ache faintly.

"Wow, look at that male human. A bionic prosthetic, I love it!"

"He's also quite handsome. If all his limbs were gone, it would be even more adorable."

"Hee hee, he’s making me hungry, I feel like eating again."

"Be patient, don't embarrass yourself, you're a mature species now."

Ni Ji came out right after Yun Luo. He didn't have long golden hair or a mechanical arm, wearing these revealing clothes, they finally saw how thin he actually was.

His muscles, taut over his bones, his exposed ankles, arms, and abdomen covered with noticeable scars—it hadn't been long since he had received complete treatment.

Thin, bony, his scarred muscles tightly defined, making him look like a wild animal, with a scent of the abyss, the wilderness, of blood and battlefields still clinging to him.

A very primal kind of hormonal aura permeated his very being. It was hard not to look at him.

Even Lin Yuan, for a moment, couldn’t look away.

She looked at that tall, thin Sentinel and suddenly remembered Xun Hua’s words, sitting in the tree.

“You don’t have to overthink it. Your body's instincts will tell you whether you like him or not.”

Silence fell, and Lin Yuan smelled a faint scent, the shadows of a few giant mantises projected on the wall.

Lin Yuan's tentacles had sensed similar scents before, in that closed storage room in the White Tower. In spring, such a presence could be sensed in many damp meadows.

Giant, crimson tentacles suddenly appeared, twisting and intertwining, instantly wrapping around the male sentinels.

The Sentinels’ mental bodies appeared, large and small. Nicole’s silver python hissed, sticking out its tongue.

The Deviants swayed their feather fans, their serrated sickles reflected, swaying, on the wall.

Tensions high, a battle about to erupt.

"Hey, hey, there's no need to be so nervous," Greenwing, who had just finished handling the registration procedures, came back and separated the two sides, smiling. "They were just joking with you all."

She waved her sickle-shaped arms, and said to her companions, "Restrain yourselves, don't get so excited every time you see a good-looking member of the opposite sex, can’t you see they already have girls with them?”

Those giant Deviants, standing in the shadows, their faces half-covered, stared at the three men for a moment, then finally snorted and dispersed.

Greenwing led Lin Yuan and the others towards the border, saying with a smile,

"After you go in, keep an eye on your men, it's spring now, everyone’s a little more… excitable.”

Half of her body disappeared past the boundary line, she turned her head back and couldn't help but complain, “If you ask me, you shouldn’t bring men when doing business."

As if everything was Lin Yuan and her friends' fault.

Compared to the tense atmosphere at the entrance, the inside of the City of Mantis was like a fairy tale world.

The buildings here were very low, built underground, with only their beautiful roofs, made of a strangely colored stone, exposed on the surface.

It was nighttime in the city, lights everywhere. There were vast flowerbeds, lush vegetation, a giant Ferris wheel, rollercoasters, and carousels standing amidst the sea of flowers.

The Deviants moving about had various forms. Some with mantis heads and green compound eyes, some with human-like features, some huge and burly, three or four meters tall, others small and slender, about Lin Yuan’s height.

Most were female, each wearing a beautiful dress, carrying small accessories, moving through this colorful, amusement park-like world.

After bringing them in, Greenwing gave each of them an ID card, and left.

The Mantis who now volunteered to be their guide was called Green Ant. She was very cute, small and petite, not even as tall as Nicole.

She said, giggling, that she would take them to find buyers who paid a high price for clothes.

"That family’s having a celebration. They love this kind of exquisite, handmade human clothing. They should buy several pieces. I can make a little commission.”

Green Ant's appearance and demeanor reminded Lin Yuan of Xiao Suo and Xun Hua at home.

Her facial expressions were even richer than Lin Yuan’s, and her words flowed like a torrent.

Although she was a Deviant, if you only looked at the parts of her body not covered by clothing, it would be difficult to distinguish her from a human.

"There's no need to be too nervous. Only those few at the border are a little… overbearing with you humans," Green Ant, lifting her skirt, walked down the street paved with colorful stones, hopping and twirling with every step, her dress a little old, but she herself beautiful.

"You have to pass through them if you want to come in, and many humans try to please them, silently enduring their… touchiness… which has made them develop some bad habits."

"I like being friends with humans. Most of the people here like you all, the humans who come in always bring interesting products, I’m always excited to see them."

"So after we come in, men won't be treated like… that?" Nicole asked her curiously.

"Not exactly, boys have always had a harder time in this world," Green Ant said. "You get used to it after staying here for a while. You’re a girl, why would you worry about these things?"

Night had fallen, the lights in the City of Mantis were bright, the low-growing plants lush, and countless flowers were blooming.

Small roofs neatly lined the nearby ground, seemingly the residential area.

Further away, a sea of flowers, a boundless field covered with flowers and grass, large amusement park rides standing amidst the flowers, everything very beautiful, like a dream, a fairy tale world.

A commotion came from the square ahead, many people gathering there.

"Wow, a proposal!"

Green Ant, very excited, spread a pair of thin wings on her back and flew towards the square, leaving Lin Yuan and her group behind.

It was a square filled with red roses, the ground paved with colorful stones in a heart shape.

A well-dressed, handsome woman knelt down on one knee, singing to a man in “traditional” clothing.

The young man's face was grim. He shook his head, turning away.

The one proposing stood up, changed positions, and knelt down in front of him again, singing passionately, persistent.

"Say yes! Say yes!" The onlookers shouted.

The boy’s face turned even grimmer, he looked like he was about to cry, his lips tightly bitten, he turned his face away.

Green Ant, who didn’t know when she had returned, landed beside Lin Yuan and her group.

She dutifully explained. "This is a unique custom in our City of Mantis."

"During this season, there are always a lot of proposals, sometimes even some… violent incidents."

"Boys, if you don't want to get married, don't go out alone during this season."

Lin Yuan and her friends' faces turned strange, thinking of those three laws regarding women that they had seen at the entrance.

No murder, no arson, and no forcing the opposite sex.

This place, although seemingly no different from a normal human world,

Completely imitating human language, human clothing, human etiquette,

With its bright lights and Ferris wheel, the fairy-tale-like beautiful town, had a nightmarish, eerie feeling about it.

"If someone proposes to you, you have to think carefully about it," Green Ant said this to the three men in the group. "Marriage here is a little different from human marriage.”

She smiled sweetly, her hands clasped together in front of her chest, seemingly lost in some beautiful fantasy.

"But sometimes it's like this, when love comes, it's hard to resist, right? Even if it costs one’s life and body."

What kind of marriage required sacrificing one's life?

The terrain here was very flat, the buildings low, their vision unobstructed.

As Green Ant was speaking, beyond the huge Ferris wheel, a small light silently appeared on the distant horizon.

In the night, the small light spot gradually brightened the edge of the sky.

At that moment, the noisy chatter and music on the square disappeared, and everyone turned to look at the rapidly expanding white spot.

"Quick, the sun's rising," someone shouted.

As if a starting pistol had been fired, the colorful roofs of the small buildings on the ground opened one after another.

Deviants, like a swarm of termites, either flew low in the air, or ran swiftly, flooding towards those opening roofs.

Ni Ji stepped onto higher ground to look. On the horizon, a huge sun was slowly rising.

A clear dividing line, between day and night, appeared on the flat land.

The long, golden arc, with flickering sparks, rapidly devoured the darkness, quickly advancing.

It was the boundary of death.

The scorching sunlight brought extreme heat, everything touched by it, whether grass or flowers, quickly withered, turning yellow, and then into ashes.

Those Deviants who had run too far, their long, powerful legs moving, desperately raced the rising sun.

Winning meant life, a single step too slow meant death.

Someone, before being touched by the boundary line of death, jumped into an open underground house, the roof slamming shut with a bang.

The flickering dawn light passed over the house, scorching the surrounding ground black.

Among the fleeing crowd, a distant figure was clearly too late.

It was a boy, very young, he seemed to rarely go out, and had carelessly run too far, beyond the safety zone, not making it back to the residential area in time.

About to be overtaken by the sunlight, he frantically hid under a tall cartoon sculpture, curling up in its shadow, wailing and crying for help.

Many people on this side of the night, standing on higher ground, watched him.

He was too far away, no one had the ability to cross that sea of fire and save him.

The shadow cast by the giant sculpture gradually shortened. The cries for help from the distance became more and more shrill.

On this side of the night, countless people watched as he died.

The boundary of dawn was approaching, a wave of heat hitting them, and from an open roof, Green Ant's head emerged. She shouted towards Ni Ji, who was standing on higher ground,

"Hurry up and come down, why are you still up there? Everyone’s inside, we can’t wait for you!"

The Sentinel took one last look at the colorful sculpture, now silent, and jumped into the underground house.

The moment the roof closed, he smelled the scent of burning flesh and blood from afar.

A wave of heat rolled over.

In the dark underground room, the six companions looked at each other.

The City of Mantis, they were in.

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