After searching from the sky for several hours, System found more than a dozen simir centipedes. However, he didn't find any insect demons that had transformed from centipede demons.

  He saw both rge and small centipede demons, with the rgest one being over one meter long. He didn't know how rge these giant centipedes could grow before they naturally transformed into insect demons.

  The smaller ones ranged from only a few centimeters long to more than ten centimeters long. If he hadn't encountered them during this Abyssal centipede invasion, he probably would have assumed that they were ordinary centipedes.

  As soon as he had that thought, System decisively flipped through the video footage in his [Tools Menu] of him taking Meatball out to patrol more than ten days earlier. As he'd expected, he had seen a simir centipede about twelve centimeters long at that time.

  Scorpions and spiders could occasionally be found in the Warren Pins during the winter due to the warm climate there, so System hadn't cared about the centipede at the time, much less thought about catching it.

  After several hours of investigation, especially after he discovered the centipede demons that were only a few centimeters in size, his specution that these centipedes were breeding in the Warren Pins had basically been confirmed.

  If System's guess was correct, these centipede demons were likely breeding underground, just like his own ant subjects. However, after searching for a long time near the locations where he'd found centipede demons, especially the smaller ones, he didn't manage to find their breeding ground.

  After catching a centipede demon about one and a half meters long and forcing it to transform into a 0.6-meter-tall little insect devil, System was able to acquire the undamaged vocal cords that he'd been wanting.

  Unfortunately, although he was able to modify his vocal cords based on the vocal cords of the little insect devil, his voice still sounded as hoarse as it always did. His modification had only made the hoarseness sound slightly different.

  Just like knocking on a stone couldn't produce the sound of metal colliding, it seemed that it was basically impossible for his voice to change significantly in a short period of time.

  While inspecting the little insect devil, System also discovered some differences between this one and the previous one. Unlike the first little insect devil he'd seen, this little insect devil didn't have mandibles. Instead, its tail was like a scorpion's, with a stinger at the tip.

  After tasting it, System found out that the stinger's venom wasn't much different from normal scorpion venom. They both tasted like strong, bitter coffee and were slightly more bitter than a spider's venom.

  The differences between the little insect devils should be reted to the changes brought about by the centipede demon's [Devour] talent. After each centipede demon transformed into a little insect devil, it would inherit some of the characteristics of the various creatures it had devoured.

  ...

  Although System didn't discover all of the secrets of these centipede demons, nor did he find out how they reproduced, he did learn a lot of information about them.

  For now, although these centipede demons had appeared across the entire Warren Pins, they hadn't yet changed the overall environment. The undead creatures wandering the Warren Pins hadn't significantly decreased in number.

  After more than half a month, the distant gnoll town was still surrounded by undead creatures. The undead creatures didn't seem to have broken through the town's defenses, and there seemed to be no centipede demons there.

  One or two wandering zombies would also pass by System's nest from time to time.

  However, System knew that the current situation in the Warren Pins couldn't continue forever.

  For the centipede demons, the undead creatures were just food. Eventually, the undead creatures, whose numbers wouldn't increase, would all be devoured by the centipede demons.

  The storm was about to come. In the next month or two, the food chain in the Warren Pins would likely undergo some changes.

  ...

  Even after several more hours of investigation, System never found the pce where the centipede demons were breeding.

  The underground ant nest now covered nearly two hundred meters. There was enough space for his ant subjects to live even if their popution increased to hundreds of thousands.

  In order to prevent the centipede demons from invading the nest again, System decisively ordered Excavator to suspend her original work. Her new job would be protecting the nest's entrance.

  Excavator had the ability to manipute soil, which was perfect for defending the entrance of the nest. Her ability could open, seal, or resize the nest's entrance at will. As long as the entrance was left with only a narrow passage during normal use, it would be difficult for the giant centipedes to invade.

  For this reason, System also criticized Bck, who had been responsible for guarding the nest in recent days. He pointed out that Bck didn't know how to adapt.

  In fact, after discovering that these giant centipedes had invaded multiple times, with Bck's intelligence, it was impossible for her not to think of using Excavator to block the nest's entrance to prevent the next crisis.

  But Bck hadn't done so. Instead, she had asked the recently born ant subjects to stop going out to forage, then left Meatball and several ant knights to guard the nest's entrance.

  It was precisely because of this that there had been many ant knight casualties in the nest.

  However, after hearing Bck's reasons, System couldn't help but remain silent.

  In fact, Bck had already thought of using Excavator to rebuild or block the entrance of the nest. She had even discussed the idea with several ants that had undergone their second pupations, including Queen Linda. However, in the end, the proposal had been rejected by Bck and the others.

  The reason Bck gave was very strange, and it made System speechless.

  "Because there were vines pnted by you personally at the entrance of the nest."

  Bck's mental message sounded very aggrieved, and she sent out another extremely quiet mental message.

  "We didn't want the vines to change."

  Bck and other ant subjects' reason for refusing to change the entrance of the nest had simply been that they didn't want to destroy those insignificant vines.

  But after thinking for a moment, System immediately noticed something strange.

  During the one and a half years of his pupation, because of the arrival of the rainy season, Excavator had obviously needed to rebuild the nest's entrance more than once.

  Those vines had actually been moved several times already, and even if the cave entrance ended up being sealed completely, the vines rooted deeply in the ground might not die.

  Why did she suddenly mention not wanting to move the vines now? Isn't that contradictory?

  System tilted his head and pondered.

  'How could Bck come up with such a weird reason? Is it because she just learned to lie and doesn't understand how to make her lies believable yet?'

  'But why are the other ant knights also cooperating with Bck to lie?'

  System suddenly felt something inexplicable from Bck's emotions.

  He looked around at the luminescent mushrooms in the nest that appeared exactly the same as they had half a month earlier. He suddenly understood why Bck had been unwilling to change the appearance of the nest's entrance in the past half month.

  It was because his absence during his third pupation, which had sted one and a half years, had been fundamentally different from his absence during the previous half month.

  Half a month ago, he had suddenly vanished with no expnation.

  Extending his tentacles, System touched the bck spot on Bck's head and asked slowly, "You must have been worried these past ten days, right?"