Reborn as a Transcendent

Book 3: Chapter 771: Squash the Bug, Little Hime!

“A big bug?” Yae-hime tilted her head slightly and asked in confusion.

“Yes, yes! Really big!” Little Blue spread her arms wide, gesturing enthusiastically. The more she gestured, however, the harder it became for Yae-hime to understand what she meant. After all, when a creature measured fifty or sixty centimeters long, whether it could still be called a “bug” was already questionable.

‘Could it be one of those giant insects?’

“Did you see it inside City of Chaos, or outside?” Yae-hime hurriedly asked.

“Outside!” Little Blue replied.

“Through the city cameras?” Yae-hime asked.

“Yep.”

“Do you have a photo?”

“I do.”

“Then hurry up and show it!” Yae-hime felt a strong urge to knock her on the head.Seeing that her master seemed a little impatient, Little Blue quickly opened a floating panel and displayed the photo. The moment Yae-hime looked at it, her eyes widened. There really was a huge bug in the picture.

To be precise, it was a mantis nearly fifty to sixty centimeters long, its entire body a vivid green. Clamped in its jaws was an adult black cat! The photo itself was not very high in resolution, but the surrounding environment could still be made out.

The giant mantis stood in what appeared to be a somewhat filthy alley. Scattered on the ground were bits of leftover food, likely discarded kitchen scraps from a cafeteria or restaurant behind the building. Under the dim orange streetlight, the mantis’ scythe-like forelegs glinted with a chilling metallic sheen.

“This bug is abnormally large,” Yae-hime said. A hint of concern crept into her voice.

Aqua Blue Star had awakened ahead of time, and the consequences of that early awakening were already beginning to reveal themselves. First came strange anomalies appearing across the world, followed by the awakening of ancient creatures.

“And now even giant bugs are starting to show up…” In her previous life, Yae-hime had seen news reports about giant insects attacking humans. Back then, she had assumed those creatures had come from the Saint Demon World. She never expected them to be native species!

“Master, do you think a bug this big would taste delicious if it were roasted?” At that moment, Little Blue asked while drooling. Hearing this, Yae-hime and the Vera clones blinked, wondering if they had misheard.

“I really want to try it!” Little Blue added eagerly.

“….” Silence immediately filled the room.

“Huh? Why are you all looking at me with such weird expressions?” Little Blue tilted her head, completely puzzled.

“You actually want to eat a bug like that?” Yae-hime’s eyelid twitched.

In this world, quite a few insects were edible and even highly nutritious. However, even if insects were tasty and packed with nutrients, the majority of people still preferred not to eat them. Not to mention a monstrous bug like this. Just looking at it was enough to ruin anyone’s appetite.

“Little Blue, that’s so scary…” Vera 18 whispered.

“Mm-mm!” The other clones nodded in agreement.

“That’s so mean! What’s wrong with eating bugs!?” Little Blue protested when she saw their increasingly strange looks.

“There’s nothing wrong with eating bugs,” Yae-hime said. “The problem is that you want to eat a monster like this.”

She enlarged the image so everyone could clearly see the details of the giant mantis.

“There are so many little black spots on its body… that’s disgusting!”

“And that green liquid dripping from its mouth is gross!”

“It’s probably highly poisonous… ugh, it might even be crawling with parasites!”

“A carnivorous insect… that’s just revolting!”

The Vera clones began talking all at once as they stared at the zoomed-in image.

“You’re making it sound so disgusting… fine, I won’t eat it anymore!” Little Blue said miserably, on the verge of tears.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Yae-hime said, raising a hand to signal them to stop. The room quickly fell silent. Seeing this, Yae-hime nodded in satisfaction before continuing, “Little Blue, this photo was captured from surveillance footage, right?”

“Yeah. Right after this was recorded, the camera stopped working,” Little Blue said with a nod. “The location is nearby.”

“With Roc City so heavily urbanized, there clearly isn’t a suitable environment for such a giant insect to survive. It’s very likely an invasive species.” Vera 1 said.

“I think so too,” Yae-hime nodded. She remembered that the earliest reports of giant insects attacking humans had come from a small island nation in South Asia. That insect might very well have invaded from overseas.

“Little Blue, send me over there. I need to check the situation.” Yae-hime said. When it came to unknown dangers like this, it was always best to eliminate them as quickly as possible.

A faint chill of killing intent arose in her heart toward the giant mantis that had suddenly intruded into her sphere of life. For now, it was attacking small animals, but who knew when it might begin attacking humans.

“Okay!” Little Blue’s eyes widened as a blue glow flickered across her entire body.

The next moment, Yae-hime was teleported away. At the same time, inside a narrow alley that carried a faint stench of decay, a flash of white light suddenly appeared, revealing a graceful figure.

“There’s still a subtle trace of its presence in the air. It seems it hasn’t been gone long.” Yae-hime closed her eyes and concentrated, carefully distinguishing the various scents lingering in the air.

After reaching Level 40, her body’s latent potential had developed even further, and her sensory perception had improved significantly compared to before.

“I should be able to track it from here,” she murmured softly as she opened her eyes. Her gaze then shifted toward the ground not far away. There were traces of blood, scraps of flesh, and patches of black fur scattered there.

“So it ate right here. Quite bold.” It was obvious that the giant mantis had enjoyed a full meal here before leaving. “How foolish. If you had left immediately, it would have been much harder for me to find you.”

The moment she finished speaking, Yae-hime lightly tapped the ground with her toes and shot upward between two buildings. In less than three seconds, she appeared on the rooftop of a nearby building.

“Strange… that unusual presence still hasn’t dissipated.” Yae-hime scanned her surroundings and spoke with a hint of confusion.

**Swish!**

At that very moment, a dark shadow dropped from above. A cold gleam flashed as it shot downward like an arrow! Yae-hime remained standing exactly where she was, as though completely unaware that something was plummeting toward her at high speed.

In 0.5 seconds, the shadow closed in to an extremely short distance. 0.8 seconds later, the shadow was about to make contact with Yae-hime, but… at the exact instant before it could touch her, a half-transparent tentacle lashed out with lightning speed. It struck the shadow violently and sent it flying.

With a loud bang, the dark figure slammed hard into a wall, the impact cracking the tiles embedded in its surface.

“You actually stayed here wandering around. Your courage is quite impressive.” Yae-hime turned to look over, a mocking smile curling at the corner of her lips. Over there, the shadow slowly slid down the wall. It was the giant mantis. Apparently, after devouring the black cat, it had continued roaming around this area instead of leaving.

“I thought insects had sharp instincts, that they knew how to seek fortune and avoid danger.” Yae-hime walked toward it step by step. “But you don’t seem to be very intelligent.”

“…Ksssh… ksssh…” The giant mantis struggled to stand up, its body trembling as it stared at Yae-hime, strange sounds coming from its mouth.

“Heh, you still want to resist? Good. Go ahead and try.” As soon as she finished speaking, the aura radiating from Yae-hime surged forward like a violent storm, wrapping tightly around the mantis.

A human-like expression of terror instantly appeared on its face. Immediately afterward, it began struggling wildly. However, how could a mere insect break free from Yae-hime’s aura restraints?

One minute later, the giant mantis finally gave up struggling. Just as Yae-hime thought she was about to claim her prize, the creature’s head suddenly began to swell. Then, like a watermelon dropped from a great height, it exploded completely.