Wu Kai had not slept for an entire night, making him look extremely gaunt. He knew that the worm had burrowed into his body. At first, he felt nothing, assuming his stomach acid had killed it.
However, the worm then began to move within his stomach, seemingly gnawing at the stomach lining, causing excruciating pain.
Wu Kai tried to vomit the worm out, but all he could manage was dry heaving. He expelled a considerable amount of stomach acid, but the worm remained inside.
Wu Kai quickly consulted some information and was met with devastating news: this type of worm was specifically parasitic to animals, and humans were not exempt. A worm the size of a little finger was insignificant, but it produced eggs. Once these eggs entered the bloodstream, they traveled to the brain, developed there, and ultimately killed the human host.
What was even more terrifying was that once the worm's eggs entered the human brain, they could even briefly control the person's actions.
Upon discovering this, Wu Kai fell into despair. He could not fathom such an absurd thing happening to him. While others had not been attacked by worms, his luck was so terrible that he could be parasitized even while sleeping.
"No, I must hold on. Only by returning to Pudong can I have a chance to survive. I absolutely cannot let anyone discover the abnormality on me now!" Wu Kai thought to himself.
Wu Kai's greatest concern was that his parasitic condition would be discovered. If that happened, he would surely be thrown into the sea. The people on the ship would not kindly save him, and there were no medicines on board to treat parasitic worms.
"I can definitely hold on until we return to Pudong. As long as I persevere, I will surely get treatment!" Wu Kai told himself.
Thus, Wu Kai found his portable cosmetics and restored his complexion. Then, he put on sunglasses. With this disguise, no one could tell anything was amiss.
After a short voyage, the fleet had reached the vicinity of the worm's nest. Both the sea spiders and water spiders sensed something unusual and emerged from their nests.
"Don't waste time talking to these bugs. Open fire immediately and blast their nests to smithereens!" The captain, spotting the nest within firing range, immediately gave the order to fire.
The ships were still several kilometers away from the nest, but the cannons on board were already extended, aimed at the nest. Then, they opened fire.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Cannonballs were fired from the barrels, and in an instant, violent explosions echoed in the distance.
On the vast, misty sea, there was a fixed nest. These nests were pieced together from many discarded ships, along with plastic and wooden planks. White foam connected these nests, which was speculated to be a secretion from the worms, acting as a binding agent.
The cannonballs struck the discarded ships, causing explosions. The intense blasts tore apart the precariously connected vessels. No matter how strong the worms' saliva was as a binding agent, it could only provide a limited adhesive effect and could not withstand the onslaught of cannonballs.
The cannonballs continued to bombard the sea spider nest. With each falling shell, large sections of wooden planks were blown apart. The fixed structures on the sea were no longer connected but scattered and drifted away. Many larvae and eggs within the nests immediately fell into the water.
Once in the water, these eggs quickly became food for the fish. Normally, sea spiders fed on fish roe or dead jellyfish while drifting at sea. But now, fortunes had reversed. When the worms' segments also fell into the sea, the fish in the surrounding waters seemed to smell the food and immediately gathered, vying to eat the eggs that fell into the water.
In an instant, the entire nest on the sea descended into chaos. Most of the ships were carried away by the currents. Suddenly, countless dark, swarming insects emerged from the nest. These insects could walk on water due to the special structure of their legs, which had numerous fine hairs that increased surface tension, allowing them to stay afloat.
The sea spiders also discovered that their nests were under attack. However, these insects had very low intelligence. Even when attacked, they didn't know who was responsible. They could only see cannonballs continuously falling from the sky, causing their nests to disintegrate.
"Bugs are still bugs. We've been bombarding them for so long, and they still haven't reacted at all," a soldier remarked, feeling relieved and displaying a look of contempt.
Previously, they had fought in cities, making these insects seem very troublesome. But now, with the change in scenery and fighting at sea, the insects' advantages were no longer as pronounced.
"Don't celebrate too early. These bugs will definitely retaliate. Even if we destroy their nests, we've only killed the larvae and eggs. The adults are still floating on the water," a soldier nearby offered his opinion, warning against underestimating the enemy.
A reconnaissance plane took off from a warship, flying into the sky to collect data on the worm nests. If any changes occurred in these nests, the reconnaissance plane could immediately transmit the information to the command center on the warship.
The warships continuously bombarded the worm nests on the sea for half an hour. Finally, the nest was broken apart. Countless ships and planks were scattered. Some planks, after being hit by the bombardment, even caught fire on the sea, producing large amounts of flames and smoke.
A large number of sea spiders rushed out of the nest and stood on the surface of the sea, searching for the enemy. If they found an enemy, they would immediately pounce and bite. Unfortunately, these sea spiders found nothing.
The reconnaissance plane in the sky continued to fly, constantly reporting the front-line situation to the command center. At this moment, the bugs on the sea also noticed the noisy object in the sky. However, these bugs lacked the ability to fly and were helpless against the reconnaissance plane.
Just then, a massive dark shadow emerged from the remnants of the broken ships. The moment this shadow appeared, it was captured by the reconnaissance plane.
"Report, a giant bug has been discovered at sea. It appears to be the Bug King!" the people on the reconnaissance plane immediately reported their discovery to the command center.
Upon hearing this, the command center made an immediate decision: "Initiate targeted strike immediately. Use missiles to eliminate it. We absolutely cannot allow the Bug King to act freely!"
Many insects have their kings, and the Bug King can control the actions of all other insects. Therefore, to prevent subsequent abnormal situations, a swift and decisive action was needed to kill the Bug King immediately.
A cannon barrel suddenly appeared above the warship, specifically designed for launching missiles. Subsequently, a missile soared into the sky, trailing a long tail of flame and smoke, flying towards the distance. In just a moment, it reached the location of the Bug King as reported by the reconnaissance plane.
"Boom..." The missile accurately hit its target. In an instant, the strong airflow tore the Bug King's massive body to shreds.
The reconnaissance plane instantly transmitted the footage to the command center. Seeing this, everyone on the ship breathed a sigh of relief. In the face of modern weaponry, these bugs were still too fragile.
"But if there are Bug Kings in these sea nests, are there also Bug Kings in the underwater nests?" someone suddenly posed this question.
"This question is worth considering, but it's alright. We have enough chemicals on board to deal with the underwater bugs. Regardless of whether there are Bug Kings or not, they can be poisoned instantly," the captain nodded upon hearing the question, but he was not flustered, as he had already thought of a solution.
To combat the detestable bugs, the fleet carried highly toxic chemicals on the ships. As long as these chemicals were thrown into the sea, the surrounding waters would become toxic. The moment these bugs came into contact with the highly toxic substances, they would die immediately.
"It would be great if we could really kill these bugs with chemicals," Ke Yiming said with a smile.
Others shared the same sentiment. If the bugs could be easily killed, then everyone wouldn't have to risk their lives. However, they were unsure if the battle would unfold as they envisioned.
After losing their nests, the sea spiders appeared disoriented. Soon after, their Bug King also died. These insects were now leaderless and had no recourse. They drifted away with the currents. Since they wouldn't sink, perhaps with good luck, they could establish a new nest at sea.
The first insect nest was successfully cleared. Next was the second nest, built on the underwater kelp by water spiders. Although these insects were arthropods, they could survive in water. When moving, they often had a small bubble on their backs. When lacking oxygen, they would poke their heads into this bubble to breathe.
These insects could also secrete silk to build nests. Moreover, their silk was highly hydrophobic, meaning they could construct nests with air pockets underwater without being submerged by seawater. The long kelp growing from the seabed was their habitat.
"Prepare to deploy chemical agents and poison these bugs directly. Begin the operation immediately!" the captain issued the order.
Subsequently, a helicopter took off from the ship and flew towards the distant sea surface. A large device was suspended beneath the helicopter, filled with chemicals. Once it reached the designated sea area, this device would automatically release the chemicals.
The helicopter quickly reached the designated sea area. In this area, the color of the sea was noticeably darker than elsewhere, indicating the presence of many objects underwater, which absorbed sunlight more weakly. A significant amount of light was absorbed by the objects in the water. On the surface of the sea, one could still vaguely see many giant leaves. Those unfamiliar might mistake them for leaves of some plant.
However, these were actually leaves of algae. Although they looked like plants, they were in fact kelp.
Looking down from the sky, one could see that the kelp leaves were enormous, with a width of tens of meters, comparable to the width of a football field. Only kelp this wide could be anchored to the seabed and not be swept away by the currents.
Upon reaching the destination, the device in the sky opened, and a large amount of mist was sprayed directly into the sea.
These chemicals appeared ordinary and insignificant, but in reality, they were extremely toxic. Even whales and elephants could not withstand 100 milliliters. As for the spiders underwater, although their size had increased significantly, with each spider being the size of a human palm, just one drop of the solution could kill dozens of them.