Insomniac Player

The Queen had turned forty hectares of farmland into a nest. Corn had once filled the central Greenfall fields. Nothing green remained. The soil lay exposed beneath layers of pale eggs and moving Level 1 locusts. Conductors flew slow circles overhead, gathering new swarms as they hatched.

In the middle of the ruined land, something enormous moved.

The Golden Locust Queen stood taller than a transport vehicle. Her abdomen dragged through the soil, leaving rows of eggs behind her. Six gold-and-black wings rested along an armored back. Her jaws removed entire young trees in three bites.

She ignored Nova Corps.

Damien inspected her.

➤[Golden Locust Queen]

➤[Level: 50]

➤[Classification: Event Boss.]

➤[Disposition: Non-hostile.]

➤[Primary Functions: Reproduction, swarm coordination, and crop consumption.]

➤[Dietary Target: Living crops and vegetation.]

The Queen looked toward them, decided they were inedible, and returned to an irrigation orchard.

➤[Boss-class target identified.]

➤[Boss Killer activated.]

➤[All physical attributes increased by 15% against the current Boss-class target.]

Naked Nun cracked her knuckles. "A boss that refuses to fight."

"You wanted something stronger," Hamari said.

"I wanted it to respect me."

Doctor Smoke surveyed the egg beds instead of the Queen. "Those hatchlings become active in minutes. Killing the large one means nothing if we leave ten million replacements."

She opened the valves on two industrial tanks. Aerial sprayers rose behind her and formed a wide line across the nest.

No skill activated. No mana gathered around her.

She entered the required pesticide concentration by hand.

"Daria, keep this below shoulder height and out of the western canal. Hamari, destroy any Conductor that tries to carry hatchlings beyond the field. Naked Nun, I need those blocked sprayers moved through the mud."

Naked Nun looked at Damien. "She has taken command."

"She has pesticide."

"Fair."

The operation began.

Daria shaped the wind into a shallow bowl. Doctor Smoke released the pesticide, and a pale layer spread over the eggs instead of rising into the open air. Level 1 locusts dropped across the field. The nearest Conductors tried to reorganize them, but Hamari’s rifle cracked from the irrigation tower.

One Conductor fell.

The others scattered.

The Queen noticed the dead hatchlings. She did not attack. She turned away from the poisoned soil and began moving toward the southern orchards.

"She’s escaping," Hamari said.

"She’s eating," Damien replied.

To the Queen, both actions were the same.

Daria drove her staff into the earth. A ridge rose ahead of the Boss, but the Queen climbed it with surprising speed. Her feet broke through packed soil. She spread her six wings and lifted her massive body several meters from the ground.

Damien ran beneath her.

The First Blood Dagger struck the armor beneath her abdomen and left only a white scratch.

The Queen never looked down. She continued toward the orchard.

"Very respected," Hamari called to Naked Nun.

Naked Nun jumped.

She caught one of the Queen’s rear legs and pulled. The Boss dropped hard enough to shake the field. It thrashed only to regain balance, not to harm the person hanging from it.

Daria trapped two more legs in stone. Hamari fired into the joint of the Queen’s nearest wing. The first shot bounced. The second entered the same mark. Chitin cracked.

Damien climbed the armored back.

Ordinary locusts covered him without biting. They searched his clothes for leaves while he drove the dagger repeatedly into the damaged wing joint. Boss Killer strengthened his arms, but the blade still moved one painful centimeter at a time.

The Queen tore free from Daria’s stone and lurched forward.

Damien held on.

At the far edge of the nest, figures in dark armor appeared between the irrigation machines. Neva recruits opened fire, not at Nova Corps, but at the pesticide drones.

Three machines fell.

Doctor Smoke swore and sent the remaining sprayers lower.

Daria turned toward the attackers.

"Keep the wind on the eggs," Doctor Smoke said. "If that cloud rises, we lose the canal and the crop."

"They’re destroying the drones."

"Then stop them without dropping my pesticide."

Daria divided her attention. The air bowl trembled but held. A water whip crossed the field and tore a firearm from one recruit’s hands.

Hamari changed targets. Her next shot broke the knee plate of another attacker.

Naked Nun released the Queen and charged the people who were willing to fight back.

She looked happier immediately.

Damien remained on the Boss.

The Queen’s damaged wing opened beneath him. He allowed it to lift him, shifted his weight, and drove the First Blood Dagger into the softer line where wing met body. The blade entered to its guard.

The Queen staggered.

Daria raised a second ridge directly beneath its front legs. It struck the earth. Naked Nun returned long enough to seize a cracked plate and wrench it away.

Pale tissue appeared beneath the armor.

Damien dropped into the opening and stabbed.

The Queen’s wings beat once, sending dead locusts across the field.

Then the enormous body became still.

➤[Event Boss eliminated: Golden Locust Queen.]

➤[Local reproduction source terminated.]

➤[Boss Killer deactivated.]

The surviving Conductors lost their shared pattern. They flew in different directions, each followed by a fraction of the remaining swarm. Hamari began selecting targets while Doctor Smoke’s sprayers covered the final egg beds.

The Neva recruits retreated.

Someone walked through them in the opposite direction.

Silas Vane wore no helmet. His pale blond hair remained neat despite the swarm, and the scar across his lip deepened when he looked at the dead Queen. A narrow black sword rested in his right hand.

One wounded recruit crawled toward him.

"The Queen was stronger than the report," the man said. "We can redirect another..."

Silas placed the tip of his sword beneath the recruit’s chin.

"Your task was to keep civilians with impressive aliases away from an insect."

"We were outnumbered."

"You had an army." Silas glanced at the harmless locusts. "Admittedly, it was a disappointing army."

His sword moved.

The recruit stopped speaking.

Silas stepped over him.

The System marker above his head changed from neutral gray to hostile red.

Daria released the pesticide wind and turned fully toward him. Naked Nun came from the left. Hamari placed her sight over his forehead.

Silas tapped his sword against an irrigation pipe.

➤[Sunder Step.]

He vanished.

The black blade crossed the pipe thirty meters away. Metal split. A pressurized wall of water erupted between Damien and the others, flooding the broken irrigation trench and forcing Doctor Smoke’s remaining workers back from the chemical zone.

Silas appeared beside Damien.

"Take the prisoners and contain the eggs," Damien shouted through the water.

Daria’s eyes narrowed. "Martin said not to engage him alone."

"I’m not engaging him. He came here."

Silas looked amused. "A meaningful distinction."

More irrigation pipes burst beneath cuts Damien could barely see. Water and mud separated the dead Queen from the storage road. The remaining Neva recruits used the confusion to flee, forcing Naked Nun and Hamari to pursue before they escaped with the stolen transmitters.

Daria could cross the flooded trench. She could also abandon the pesticide cloud, the workers, and millions of unhatched locusts.

Damien read her decision on her face.

"Finish the mission," he said.

Silas inspected him.

His gaze paused at Damien’s level.

"Thirty," he said.

"Yes."

"I expected more."

"People often do."

The swordsman lifted his weapon.

A System notice appeared before Damien.

➤[Target classification confirmed: Player.]

➤[Target designation confirmed: Murderer.]

➤[Player Killer Activated.]

➤[All attributes increased by 10% against the designated target.]

Damien felt power settle through his body.

Silas did not see the message.

He saw only a Level 30 Player holding a dagger.

The title did not make the decision easier.

Damien had killed goblins, wolves, knights created by Gates, and a perfect copy of himself. The System had even counted a Player death under Tutorial rules, when the dead returned afterward. None of that was the same as ending a human life that would stay ended.

This one doesn’t get to log back in.

Silas Vane would be the first.

Damien’s fingers tightened around the dagger, then loosened without his permission.

"This will be brief," Silas said.

Damien looked at the sword, the flooded field, and the shadow beneath the dead Queen.

"Probably."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!