How to Feed an Abyss!

Chapter 1.2 – Little Monster

The group of armed individuals approached.

It was the first time Shi Yuan saw so many humans.

Then they pinned him down, several hands pressing him to the ground, the cold barrels of guns against his head. He could barely make out someone approaching with a syringe, extracting several vials of blood from him.

“We’ll have the results in half an hour,” the person drawing blood said, “then we’ll know if he’s infected.”

“Why bother with the test,” one of the individuals holding him down said, “just look at his scales, his horns, and his tail. It’s obvious he’s in the late stages of infection. It would be merciful to end him. Who knows what kind of monster this kid could transform into.” The gun barrel pressed harder against the back of Shi Yuan’s head.

“We need to be thorough,” the blood extractor replied firmly, “we can’t rule out the possibility of severe post-infection complications. It’s a probability of less than one in a million, but it still exists, doesn’t it?”

The man sneered, “One in a million… Did you not see him try to touch the queen bee just now? Is that something a normal person would do?!”

“That’s not conclusive evidence; my lab results will be. And by the way, Captain Cai, General Lu is about to return to the city. He will be informed about this matter.”

This time, “Captain Cai” remained silent.

Shi Yuan felt defeated.

He had done his best to imitate humans, yet he was seen through at a glance. Fortunately, the humans didn’t currently have the intention to kill him.

He wanted to tell them that they didn’t need to restrain him like this, that he wouldn’t attack or infect them.

He was a kind and harmless monster, only wanting to find someone.

But Shi Yuan didn’t have a chance to defend himself. He was escorted all the way to the convoy and thrown into a cage. The cage was spacious but airtight, specifically prepared for suspected infected individuals. There were simple tables and chairs inside, and someone had brought hot water for him.

People were busy sorting out the post-battle chaos, organizing firearms, treating wounds, and sending the queen bee’s dissected body parts back for research. Amidst the chaos, they assigned three guards to watch over Shi Yuan.

Shi Yuan didn’t know when the “test results” would come, but he felt there was no way that he could pass the test.

He had to escape.

Before escaping, he needed to find out in which direction the city was located.

The cage had only a small window covered with porous iron sheets. He drank the hot water, feeling much more comfortable. Then he approached the window and asked the guards, “Hello, can I ask a question?”

The guards remained silent.

Shi Yuan said, “Could you please tell me which direction the city is?”

No one answered him. He asked several more times, and after a long while, someone finally replied grudgingly, “If your test results are fine, we will take you into the city.”

This meant they didn’t want to answer him.

Shi Yuan had no sense of time and didn’t know how long it had been since the blood extraction until now, but he had to escape. He covered his right hand over the right side of the cage, the spot he considered the weakest…

“Wait, are you sure the test results are fine?” A muffled conversation came from outside.

Shi Yuan paused, retracting his hand and listened carefully.

“I’m sure,” it was still the voice of the blood extractor.

“But didn’t you say it would take half an hour? Why so fast?”

The blood extractor replied, “That was a conservative estimate. It doesn’t take long to test one person. Here’s the report, the process is quite complicated. Take a look, although I doubt you’ll understand. But Captain Cai, you said we could release him, so you should let him go quickly, the tomato soup is going to be cold.”

“Alright, alright, let me open the door,” the guard sighed, “Why tomato soup again?”

Shi Yuan could hardly believe it: How did they not discover anything abnormal about him?

After a metallic friction sound, the door of the cage was opened.

A petite woman stood outside, wearing a white coat. She raised an eyebrow and said, “Come out, follow me.”

She turned around and walked, and Shi Yuan quickly followed her footsteps.

In the distance, people were busy, and more than a dozen off-road vehicles were parked together. Before Shi Yuan could see more, the woman pulled him into a tent beside the convoy.

“Go inside and rest,” the woman told him, “we’ll be driving through the night later.”

Shi Yuan said, “Thank you.”

“No problem, it’s the least I can do,” the woman hesitated for a few seconds, wanting to say something but then stopped. Finally, she looked at Shi Yuan and said, “If the Empress Bee appears, there will be an evacuation vehicle at the rear of the convoy to take you there. At least this way, you can survive.”

Shi Yuan asked, “The Empress Bee?”

The woman explained, “The purple light insect has an Empress Bee and a Queen. You should be grateful that we encountered the Queen Bee. The Empress is much more dangerous. We need to leave this area before it shows up.”

A trace of uneasiness crossed her face.

Not only her, but everyone was in a rush, preparing and being on guard. Some held guns, their eyes bloodshot, some wiped their blades, some knelt on the ground to inspect the vehicles, hands covered in oil stains. The muddy ground was full of footprints, and the lights illuminated half of the sky. The modified vehicles were ready to start at any moment. Although no one explicitly stated it, tension oozed out from every corner.

No one wanted to encounter the enraged Empress Bee, with its wings like blades, a body like steel, and an insatiable and fervent desire to reproduce.

Finally, the woman said, “Rest quickly. This is not something you need to worry about.”

And then she left.

Inside the tent, there were clean clothes. Shi Yuan changed into them and wrapped himself in a blanket, nestled in bed.

He took a deep breath.

He had been extremely nervous just now, and even now, his tail was still curled up, afraid that the other side would notice his abnormality.

What the woman didn’t know was that the Empress Bee had already appeared.

This story began five days ago when Shi Yuan encountered the dead man.

The man’s name was Xie Qianming. At first sight, he assessed Shi Yuan’s appearance and believed that he was an infected.

“I’m also infected,” Xie Qianming said with a bitter smile, “So I don’t mind you getting on my car.”

Xie Qianming explained that he had encountered a group of insects and accidentally got bitten. The infection was worsening, and the insects were rapidly growing inside his body.

He felt a kinship with Shi Yuan, both sharing the same illness.

So Shi Yuan didn’t bother to deny it.

For the first four days, everything was calm. They ate together, chatted together. On the fifth day—this evening—they encountered the Empress Bee of the swarm.

The Empress Bee hovered in the green forest, sucking the nectar from a giant flower. Its body was covered in yellow and black markings, and its metallic wings, with three pairs, looked like works of art. The off-road vehicle in front of it seemed tiny like a toy.

Xie Qianming abruptly turned the car around, but the two-meter-long stinger of the Empress Bee pierced the vehicle directly!

Everything was in chaos. Xie Qianming shouted, “Get out!” He kicked open the car door, crawled out, weakened by the infection, he fell to the ground.

Shi Yuan also escaped from the car, watching the weak man and the enormous Empress Bee, feeling that he should do something.

He didn’t consider himself human; otherwise, he wouldn’t have tried to befriend the Queen Bee.

But Xie Qianming was his companion, and Shi Yuan couldn’t just watch him being eaten.

So the Empress Bee died.

Black crystals burst out from its body. The Empress Bee screamed silently before its death, and more crystals gushed from its mouth, layer upon layer, sharp and jagged, sticking half of its body to the ground. Two minutes later, it looked like a specimen wrapped in black crystals, forever frozen in its struggling moment.

When Shi Yuan went back to find Xie Qianming again, he saw him lying weakly on a rock.

The Empress Bee’s presence accelerated the growth of the larvae, and he was covered in blood, about to die.

Shi Yuan held his hand.

Xie Qianming said, “You lied to me. You’re also a damn monster.”

After that, Shi Yuan encountered the Queen Bee and the convoy.

Shadows loomed outside the tent, and one could vaguely hear people discussing the Empress Bee, their voices filled with tension. The wind from the wasteland and the forest intertwined, whimpering, as if countless monsters were whispering.

Shi Yuan held himself with his tail, holding a cup of hot water with both hands, taking small sips. He didn’t know if the woman had noticed his nervousness, or if Captain Cai still suspected him. In any case, he managed to bluff his way through and blend in with humans.

He was just a little liar.

The Empress Bee was dead, and the various creatures in the forest dared not approach. He was the most terrifying monster in this wilderness.

However, Shi Yuan wondered with anticipation, will my human be there in the city? Perhaps he can touch my head, scratch my chin, and spend a whole day with me without getting bored.

In this world, only he belongs to me.

Shi Yuan finished the hot water in one gulp.

The night was long. He wrapped himself in a blanket and curled up into a fluffy ball.

Meanwhile.

At the main city’s eastern defense line.

A fierce battle had just ended. Supply trucks stood silently in a row, the ground covered in shell casings, mud, bloody footprints, and monster corpses. A few infected struggled on the verge of death. A young and handsome officer strode through the filth, seeming to sense something, he paused and turned around.

It was in the direction of the wasteland.

“General, do you have any orders?” the adjutant asked.

The man remained silent, the flashlight’s beam outlining his straight posture. After a few seconds, he shook his head slightly and said, “It’s nothing.”

He stepped on the writhing monster on the ground, aimed the gun at its head, and pulled the trigger.

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**TN

Queen Bee (蜂王/fēngwáng) and Queen Bee (蜂后/fēnghòu) – I changed the latter to Empress Bee to differentiate them.