An army ant had lodged itself in a groove of the base and was climbing upward, its huge mandibles snapping toward Caroline's face. Without hesitation, Caroline waved her hand and stored it in her storage space for Nelson to study. She frowned as she stared at the vast swarm of army ants before her, her expression grim. She'd spotted the ant queen—massive in size with a pair of enormous wings on its back. The ant queen's compound eyes stared coldly at the base before it, and in those eyes flickered a trace of human-like intelligence. This was a high-level mutant creature. But after the ant queen swept its gaze around in a circle, it finally locked its eyes on the very top of the base and stopped moving. It was as if there was something at the top of the base that posed a threat to it. "Cupcake..." A voice filled with resentment, one that could make anyone's heart break just from hearing it, drifted through the wind. By now, the base had fully sunk to ground level. Its overall height was only about 50 feet, but it stretched for several miles in length, looking like a massive flattened object lying on the ground. Such a large obstacle happened to be blocking the army ants' path forward. They couldn't possibly go around it, so they could only face the base head-on. These simple-minded creatures had extremely violent tempers. They had demolished everything along their path, absolutely unstoppable in their rampage. The several hundred army ants that had reached the base first were just their advance troops. Now that these advance troops had all been wiped out, their ant queen was furious. Colonel Sutton stood on the base's second floor commanding everyone. When he saw the dense swarm of army ants that made his scalp tingle, he shouted into his walkie-talkie, "Team One, protect the civilians! Team Two, spread out across the windows on each floor and prepare for combat! Teams Three and Four, get the firearms! Team Five, protect Commander Ball!" But on this side, the military had gotten everything ready, only to discover that those army ants weren't moving at all. It was as if they'd been frozen in place. Even Caroline stared at this bizarre scene, countless thoughts flashing through her mind."Something's wrong. These ants have been hit with an ability." Tyler suddenly emerged from the metal wall and stood beside Caroline, beginning to observe the army ant horde ahead of them. Caroline furrowed her brow. She had also noticed the problem. Including the ant queen, all the army ants had stopped moving. Even their antennae, which had been constantly twitching half a minute ago, weren't moving at all now. At this moment, there were tens of thousands of people throughout the base, facing this army of several thousand army ants, yet it was dead silent. Not a single person spoke a word, and not a single army ant moved. Even the ant queen held the same pose, head tilted slightly and completely still. However, its compound eyes, which had originally held provocation and wariness, were now filled with pure terror. All around, only the sound of wind remained. That howling wind swept past everyone, blowing the army ants' antennae to point in one direction. "Cup ... cake!" Through the wind, a voice suddenly came. This voice seemed to have been amplified by some means and carried a kind of magic that could penetrate people's eardrums and pierce directly into their brains. At this moment, the same phrase appeared in everyone's mind. It was ear-splitting. Even Caroline winced and covered her ears. "Oh no! You've got to be kidding me!" Denton covered his ears forcefully while letting out a startled cry. Caroline and Tyler locked eyes. Both saw a trace of worry in the other's gaze. They had both thought of the same person. Just as Denton's cry fell, the sound that ruptured eardrums, made brains throb with pain, and made people feel like they were about to pass out suddenly vanished. For a moment, all that remained around them was the sound of the wind. And the army ants before everyone had all returned to normal. However, they weren't rushing to continue forward. Instead, they panicked and communicated with each other using their antennae, as if they didn't understand what had just happened. Even their ant queen didn't continue issuing orders to advance. Instead, it remained in place, gazing into the distance. But the ant queen's eyes were no longer staring at the top of the base. Instead, they were focused on... Just as Caroline and Tyler both became alert, they heard Denton shout from beside them. Then, from Denton's position, thick smoke spread out in all directions. Wherever the smoke drifted, it left a foul stench. Colonel Sutton, who happened to be directly above Denton, heard him roar and then thick smoke began wafting up from below. Since all the windows in the base had been destroyed by the army ants, Colonel Sutton immediately held his breath. However, he didn't close his eyes. He just waved his hand forcefully, trying to disperse the yellow smoke in front of him.