Currently, Do-Hyeok was in a situation.
'I swear… if I had a nickel for every time I was chased down with a chainsaw by a jacked Santa Claus I'd be a millionaire.'
(No context here, just know he swindled alotta people.)
But yes, Do-Hyeok, and the rest of his class, were now running for his life against a professor with a chainsaw.
How did we get here?
—
Earlier that day, practical entomology lecture hall,
Do-Hyeok sat in his seat at the back and noticed the ID thief was gone,
'I know I said kill confirmed but i didnt mean it literally.' he joked,
He thought that most likely the school found out and put him on probation.
Dohwa was also nowhere to be found, he heard from her last night that she had to volunteer for nest research and won't be in class for a while.
'Well that's no fun…'
That's when professor Ji walked in,
"Listen up. Like I said yesterday, we'll be starting with a simple test."
With a chainsaw!
VVRRR-!
"These test scores will count for your final grade, and you could die, so just don't."
'...what the fuck.'
—
And now, here Do-Hyeok was running from his chainsaw wielding professor so he doesn't fail a test.
'I know I'm not running at my top speed but…'
Do-Hyeok turned around to see Professor Ji hot on his tail,
'Why the hell is this old man so fast?!'
Professor Ji was keeping up with him!
"This is one of your required courses for your major, it teaches you how to fight using your insect abilities..." Started the professor
"...because it's up to you to fight off predators that threaten insect humans like us."
Intimidation appeared on his face,
'Scary…!'
"All of which I explained in yesterday's orientation, but 4 of you never showed up…"
He stopped for a moment, chainsaw still in hand,
"Insect abilities are weapons, and some insect-humans use these abilities to commit various crimes. The objective of Nest is to find all the insect-humans out there and to protect them, which is why you must all learn how to fight."
He looked over to Suchan, who was also nearby,
"Like I said, only the strong will survive. You'll have to do better than that if you want to win Cinderella, kid."
Then he looked at everyone.
"The first test will be a game of hide-and-seek. Run away from me using your insect abilities, anyone who gets caught…"
VRRRRR-!
The chainsaw revved again.
"...will fail the course, and valedictorian will be out of the question."
'Fail the whole course?'
"Let's begin."
'Aw hell nah.'
[Saharan silver ant x Compound eyes]
Do-Hyeok accelerated instantly, but unlike before the world around him didn't blur.
He could see clearly, even better than before!
'I'm outta here!'
And like that, he was already far away from the area,
'That's gotta give me an A. Now I just gotta wait till class ends…'
Do-Hyeok hopped up into a tree and decided to take a nap.
—
Nest University, underground isolation sector
The woman in purple walked down the hallway, dead bodies sprawled across the floor.
Then she walked up to the cell at the end of the hall,
"Yoo-Hoo! Are you still kicking in there?"
"...?"
"Why, you poor thing! How can they be so cruel to a living creature?"
She held up a student ID to the cell's access panel.
[Denied.]
"Believe me, hon. I want to get you out of there as soon as possible, but it looks like just a student ID can't get me past every line of security…"
As she said that, a honeybee insect-human student walked up to her,
It was the bee that told Suchan about registration!
"But don't fret, because I came prepared…"
"Here it is! The security pass from the faculty office! It was easy since he was still in class!"
The honeybee spoke enthusiastically, but the look in his eyes was off…
The woman pulled him into an embrace,
"Well, aren't you just the sweetest! I can't believe this wretched school is forcing a capable young man like you to take a year off!"
"Hehe, thank you–"
His eyes changed.
"...huh? Wait, why did I steal the professor's security pass? I don't even know this lady…"
If looked at closely, you would see a stinger mark on his neck…
"...and how did I even get here?"
"Don't you worry your sweet little head with such things."
In his stupor, the woman pressed the security pass up to the access panel,
[Granted.]
The door opened up.
"Say hello!"
Out of the cell walked an insect-human with a praying mantis' raptorial legs,
"Whats this? Are you both insect-humans?"
A psychopathic smile laced on his face.
"Because you smell tasty."
To this, the woman responded holding the bee in front,
"My, my. Spoken like a true insect! You're exactly how the boss described."
She pushed him in front of the mantis,
"Here. A little gift from me to you."
The mantis was drooling, the bee, scared straight.
"Dig in."
CHOMP-!
—
Sleeping in a tree was not as comfortable as Do-Hyeok thought it'd be.
"My back is in so much pain…"
He'd read books and watched movies where characters sleep in trees and they seemed so comfortable…
'That's going on the 'never again' list…'
Do-Hyeok hopped out the tree and began to wander.
'Still a good while left' he thought looking at his watch.
'Guess I'll just think to myself for a bit.'
And he did,
'Cinderella… Do I even want it?'
Do-Hyeok before this had literally nothing, did he really want to go back to that life? To the emptiness that consumed him daily?
'No… I guess I don't want it. I mean, it's not like I have any bug features other than this damn neck tattoo.'
he thought looking at the ant trail tattoo on his neck, looping his right arm.
(A/N: Added this in chapter 1 cuz having no bug features made no sense. I'll delete this author's note later so it doesn't ruin immersion sorry abt that.)
'It does look cool though…'
As Do-Hyeok thought about it, he found a few things off about his behavior since the jungle juice incident.
'...wait, why was I even mad at Breeder in the first place? I consented to the experiment, if anything, I should be thankful… Maybe I got riled up when I saw the feed training method. But even then, I wouldn't still be so mad I'm not that sympathetic…'
The more he thought, the more holes he found,
The way he craved combat,
The way he was impassive to certain people,
The way he smiled when the odds were against him…
…okay that last one was actually just him.
Maybe it was because of the ants? He had no clue how many were in him but it seemed like they were of different species…
'Ants tend to fight neighboring colonies all the time, right? Maybe they're all having some massive war in my body?"
It was all he had to go off of. Not like he had much information about the experiment done on him all he remembers was,
"...Project: colony… those scientists said something about that before I stopped listening and panicked."
'Sigh… I'm getting nowhere with this. Let's drop the topic for now, my head hurts…'
It'd been an hour since the test started, still about an hour to go.
Do-Hyeok kept walking through the forest aimlessly, no particular goal in mind,
Until…
Footsteps.
A chainsaw.
And two girls running from said chainsaw.
'Huh. Didn't think the old guy would come out this far honestly.'
Then Do-Hyeok looked into the bushes across from them, past the two girls.
He saw Suchan, Huijin, and Hyeseong coming in his direction but it seemed like they hadn't seen anything he's looking at yet.
Then the shorter girl with long silky hair fell over,
FLOP-!
"Hyeona! Are you okay? Oh no! Did you sprain your ankle?"
The other girl , much taller than this dirt eating shorty, bent down to check on her.
'Well that sucks. They should be fine though right, the professor should let them off if she's injured…'
But then Do-Hyeok remembered who he was thinking about.
"sir! Hyeona's ank–
"So? Keep moving."
"B-But she's sprained…
"Whether or not you sprain your ankle or get your leg cut off, you run away or you die. That's reality."
He raised his chainsaw,
"What are you waiting for? I told you, you'll die…"
'...really man?'
And professor Ji swung down his chainsaw, but before it could get down two the two…
Clank-!
Do-Hyeok appeared before the old man, holding the chainsaw, preventing him from swinging it down lower.
"Professor, what the hell are you doing?"
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Stopping a rampaging maniac old man from cutting off a girl's leg. Aren't you going a little too far?"
"Too far? If this were an actual combat situation, they'd both be dead. You think this kind of talk will work with predators who can't even reason with themselves?"
He pulled away the chainsaw,
"I clearly stated you'd fail if you got caught, you've got some nerve."
"…there's about an hour left, I'll make you a deal. If you can land a hit on me just once before class ends, I won't fail these two, or any of your classmates for that matter."
'Just great. I'm squaring off with a combat instructor…'
"But if you don't land a hit, then you and those three hiding in the bushes over there will all be expelled."
'So he did see them.'
"What do they have to do with me though?"
"Nothing at all. I just saw a certain winged student move in to help but you were quicker to move, revealing his and his friends location."
"..."
'Whatever, what more do i have to lose at this point. Can I even hit this guy though? For an old man he's surprisingly fast…'
'NOPE. Dont wanna think about it, fuck it.'
"Deal."
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: professor ji MIGHT be the goat im ngl. Also, if you've read the webtoon you'd know it really just throws chaos after chaos after this arc so get ready for some antfarming (ant aurafarming).
Separate note tell me if you guys want me to get rid of that A/N i put up there. Sorry again I just had to emphasize that I added a small important detail back to chapter one.
SEPARATE separate note, you lucky bastards are getting a chapter early. This one. The rest are coming this weekend when I finish writing them.
[Insert cool ant joke]