In the woods, the scientific expedition team, each member suddenly raised their heads!
After wandering in the mountains for two days, these people were all very tired. But they couldn't just return so casually after rushing all the way from Shanghai to this border forest. That would be unfair to the time wasted and even more so to the funds allocated by the school.
Just when everyone was feeling hopeless about this task, they heard a sudden shout from the organizer of the mission, Professor Lin from the Department of Life Sciences.
Giant mosquitoes?
Everyone looked up in suspicion.
However, what they saw was a huge dark mosquito with a body length of about seven to eight centimeters suddenly flying by from high above, and then disappearing among the bushes!
"Such a big mosquito," exclaimed Chen Kuaiyu, a teacher from the School of Media.
"How is that possible? Could there really be so-called giant creatures?"
Among all the people, perhaps only Ye Tongyu had been skeptical from the beginning, just joining the team to avoid trouble. Now seeing such a huge mosquito, she suddenly felt like overturning her previously certain thoughts! Could it be that there are really many giant creatures in this border forest?
As for the male student from the Department of Life Sciences, after seeing such a big mosquito, the first thing he did was shudder. He looked at the lump on his arm and secretly hoped that he wouldn't be bitten by such a huge mosquito. Otherwise, he didn't know how big the lump would be.
"Very well, today is considered fruitful. Let's put more effort into it. It doesn't count unless we see it with our own eyes. Even if we can't catch one, we must capture it on camera to have evidence," said Professor Lin, finally changing his expression from gloomy to sunny.
"Exactly, if we can find more evidence, our School of Media will also benefit," Professor Lin also brightened up.
The two students didn't think much about it. Ye Tongyu was just wasting time coming out, and the male student hated jungle life. He wasn't the type to attract mosquitoes, so he didn't understand this pain.
"All right, prepare for camping tonight, and let's explore deeper into the jungle tomorrow."
In the previous few days, the five-member exploration team had always returned to the houses in the town to rest at night. But with camping outside, the search range would expand much more the next day, beyond the ten kilometers near the town.
"Oh no..." The male student was a bit unable to accept it, feeling like crying without tears.
Jia Yan flew in the sky.
"Were those just humans? I didn't expect there would still be humans in the jungle. Could they be tourists? But it doesn't seem like it. What would tourists do in the forest?"
There were many tourists on the border, but they were all in some well-known tourist spots.
The likelihood of tourists appearing in such an unknown town and forest was very low.
Jia Yan didn't expect that this would be an investigation team attracted by the continuous rumors of giant creatures around the town.
Encountering a few humans was nothing. This world was least lacking in humans. Naturally, Jia Yan didn't bother to think much about it.
"Now, the flying speed is at least 50 kilometers per hour!" He checked his speed and felt very satisfied.
Although there was still a big gap compared to birds that flew very fast, compared to some small birds, the difference wasn't that big.
And with Jia Yan's full power, his speed could still increase.
After undergoing mutation, his wings also seemed to have changed in appearance, more suitable for long-distance flight and instant bursts of speed.
And those long slender legs seemed to resemble crab legs after mutation, covered with an additional layer of hard shell, no longer soft.
Jia Yan felt that his current appearance, although still very much like a Chinese mosquito, looked significantly different upon closer inspection. Leaving aside the body size, in terms of strength, he was several times stronger than an ordinary Chinese mosquito!
In other words, even if there really was a Chinese mosquito with the same size as him, it would definitely be much weaker than Jia Yan by several levels.
"The feeling of strength is too powerful! So, let me see if I can develop any attack methods now!"
Jia Yan finally began to descend.
After about ten minutes of flight, he found that he had flown at least five kilometers already. His speed was really fast!
He landed on a branch of a tree about as thick as a coin.
The heavy body pressed down the branch when he landed, making it bend.
Jia Yan realized that his current weight was having some impact on him. Actions that used to be simple now seemed a bit difficult. For example, mosquitoes could use the tension of water to stand on the surface, but now, he would drown in a matter of minutes if he tried to do that.
Of course, Jia Yan wasn't that foolish. It would be silly for him to try to stand on water with this body size.
"Of course, there are far more advantages than disadvantages. For example, lifespan. I can't even guess how long I can live now, maybe several years."
"But with such a large body size and no attack or defense capabilities, I'm still vulnerable to predators. So, I need to think about what kind of attack and defense methods I can develop!"
Jia Yan began to observe himself.
He found that his mutation seemed to be a kind of foundation laying, enlarging his body first, and then building some basics.
And this second mutation seemed to show some of the foundation laid by the first mutation.
Like the defense of the exoskeleton.
During the first mutation, although his exoskeleton had changed, it only became darker, and the increase in hardness was only a little bit.
But after this mutation, he found that the foundation laid by the first mutation had finally come into play.
The exoskeleton retained the shape changed in the first mutation and enlarged it, and then thickened the shell, finally forming the sturdy exoskeleton defense it had now.
With this even harder exoskeleton, his protection was stronger. At the same time, he could also consider the issue of offense!
"Let me try the hardness of my forelegs first."
Jia Yan lifted one of his pairs of forelegs.
He scraped against the bark, leaving clear marks on it!
Jia Yan saw that the upper half of his forelegs was sharp, covered with scales and a hard exoskeleton.
Using forelegs to stab enemies?
Jia Yan shook his head after thinking about it. Besides the fact that his forelegs weren't that sharp yet, there were also many fine hairs at the front end of his legs, which were necessary structures for standing on smooth terrain. If he used them to attack, these structures could easily be damaged.
As for the mouthparts, although the proboscis had evolved to be even stronger, it might even compare to a normal steel needle.
But this mouthpart was an important feeding organ, and Jia Yan dared not risk using it. Besides, using mouthparts for attack, would it be like a dart, piercing into the enemy's body?
That was a ridiculous method. Unless the enemy was restrained by him, it would be nearly impossible to pierce the enemy's body with the mouthparts...
"Huh! Isn't this a kind of attack method? First, use my six slender legs to firmly hold the enemy,
and then insert the mouthparts into the enemy's vital organs, such as... the head!"
Jia Yan's eyes lit up.
This method seemed to make some sense.
Jia Yan's body, from head to tail, was about seven centimeters long, but his six long legs, each longer than his body, could completely cover an area of about twenty centimeters when fully stretched out!
With such a huge coverage area, as long as his six long legs had enough strength, he could firmly grasp the enemy. Then, his sharp mouthparts would spit out...
Pierce the enemy's head! Stir its brain into a mess!
"This close-range attack method is really good!"
Jia Yan almost jumped up. Didn't he just think of an attack method?
Although this kind of attack still had many drawbacks and was full of danger.
For example, in close-range attacks, would the enemy bite off his neck first, or use long-range attack methods to control him?
But on a mosquito with no frontal attack power, he thought of a way to attack.
"This close-range attack method is indeed good, and now that my mouthparts are so long, the needles inside are even thinner. Even if they are spit out and suddenly attack an enemy one or two centimeters away, it might still hit. Of course, this becomes the previous plan, using mouthparts alone, it's very easy to cause damage to these vital organs..."
"So besides this, are there any other attack methods?"
Jia Yan pondered.
He looked down and suddenly saw the tail organ used for reproductive behavior on his tail!
This organ had undergone mutation. At this time, the part of the tail that male mosquitoes had, used for holding reproductive organs, had become hard and sharp!
"A needle?"
Jia Yan was surprised. After the mutation, this tail organ seemed to have become sharp like a bee's sting!
Although it wasn't as long and sharp as the sting of bees and other animals, it was already about a centimeter in length. Since Jia Yan hadn't realized that his tail had become like this, he hadn't noticed that his body was eight centimeters long when adding this one centimeter tail organ!
The function of this tail organ was for mating, but for Jia Yan, this function was basically useless.
The change in this tail organ seemed to be because during the mutation process, the most powerful protection was automatically given to the important organs.
And this protection had formed the long and sharp sting!
"This is great! If it's sharp enough, it's definitely a weapon!"
Jia Yan controlled his abdomen to move. He felt that the strength of his abdomen was also enough. As long as the tail needle mutated into a strong enough stinger, he could stab it into the enemy's body with just one stab.
Hehe... using reproductive organs to 'insert' into the enemy's body, would that feel very refreshing?
Oh, that's too wicked, even mosquitoes are blushing!
"But the abdomen of mosquitoes doesn't seem as flexible as that of bees. To stab people flexibly, I need to practice..."
The research on mosquito attack and defense continued.
No one knew if this research would produce a powerful mosquito capable of close combat!
At least in Jia Yan's eyes, the hope was great.