Chapter 179: An Epic Blueprint

After all, any individual completely unaffected by the queen’s pheromones was clearly highly independent in thought and certainly would not lack personal ambitions and hidden motives.

Once they grew stronger in the future, there was no guarantee that they would recognize the queen as their "mother queen."

They were rebels by nature, and perhaps one day they might even turn around and stab her in the back.

The problem was that these individuals were also exceptionally talented, and the chances of them becoming powerful in the future were extremely high.

From Joo Joowon’s perspective, it would probably be best to eliminate such risks in advance.

Of course, this was merely Joo Joowon’s thinking as an outsider observing the situation.

He had no idea what considerations the real queen ant might have.

In theory, queen ants should not possess any emotional attachment toward their offspring.

After all, a single brood contained thousands of children.

Every ant working for her was her child.

Even if maternal affection existed, it should have long since been exhausted.

However, once a creature stepped into the realm of the supernatural, all aspects of its abilities would improve.

Its emotions would likely become richer as well.

Because of that, perhaps it was not impossible that the queen ant might care about her offspring to some extent.

Of course, it was also possible that she still followed the social laws of ants from before the apocalypse and simply did not care what achievements the princess ants who left to establish new colonies might attain in the future, nor whether they lived or died.

Some female ants were conserving their strength.

Others were deliberately shifting danger onto others or adding fuel to the fire.

At first glance, it seemed as though the battle would end very quickly.

However, even if the fighting progressed rapidly, reducing such an enormous group until only one or two hundred individuals remained, or even fewer than that, would still not happen easily.

Because of that, Joo Joowon did not keep watching the battle without interruption.

Instead, he shifted part of his attention toward the six cards stored inside the Spatial Waist Pendant.

To his surprise, the highest grade card among them, the epic card, was not a Zombie Core at all.

Instead, it was a blueprint.

...

[ Blueprint · Purification Altar ]

[ Grade ]: Epic

[ Description ]: A sacrificial type building that possesses the abilities of purification and ritual offerings. It does not require intelligent units to be stationed within it. The highest grade of items that can be purified cannot exceed [Epic]. Depending on the item being purified, there is a chance for special items to drop randomly. This building can be upgraded. (Note: Intelligent units cannot be purified.)

[ Usage Method ]: Place the object that needs to be purified onto the altar and choose Purify / Destroy / Offer to a designated target / Offer to a random target.

[ Required Materials ]: Basic stone / wood / iron ore 0 / omitted; Evolution Stone 0 / 3; Zombie Core 0 / ?; Ritual Patterns 0 / ?

...

Joo Joowon blinked his eyes in surprise.

A purification altar had dropped from a zombie of all things, and even more unexpectedly, it did not appear to be intended for purifying zombies at all.

Did this mean that after the Big Belly Boss became a zombie, it had later been infected by another unknown "virus"?

Perhaps calling it a virus was not entirely accurate.

Maybe it was closer to contamination.

Had the Big Belly Boss been contaminated by a force that belonged to a faction hostile to the apocalypse game itself?

Joo Joowon felt as though he was slowly beginning to touch upon the background setting created by the apocalypse game.

He could not tell whether this was something the apocalypse game had deliberately arranged, or whether there truly existed another existence on the same level as the apocalypse game itself.

Many games featured faction warfare and opposing camps as part of their core gameplay systems.

Matters on that level were still far beyond anything he could interfere with.

Joo Joowon shifted his gaze toward the required materials.

This altar could apparently be built using only wood, stone, or ore.

He guessed that the type of materials used would probably affect the identity of whatever existence received the "sacrifices."

Evolution Stones and Zombie Core, however, were mandatory components.

Without them, the altar simply could not be constructed.

As for the Ritual Patterns, they were entirely optional.

If Joo Joowon worshipped some particular existence, then the ritual patterns could depict anything related to that belief.

They were simply decorative markings used to embellish the altar.

As long as he wanted to, he could paint the altar green or even carve an Ultraman figure onto it without any problems at all.

Even so, anyone with common sense could guess what the consequences of doing something like that would be.

He would most likely lose any chance of obtaining the "special items that drop randomly" mentioned in the description.

After all, it was obvious that this particular mechanic was closely related to sacrifice itself.

It was much like the way believers in the West sought to please their gods.

Only when the gods were satisfied would miracles be granted in return.

Unfortunately, Joo Joowon still did not even know what an Evolution Stone looked like, so the blueprint could only remain in storage gathering dust for now.

Besides, he was not a construction professional.

He had no idea whether this blueprint would automatically construct the building after all the required materials had been submitted, or whether it would still require a professional builder to complete it.

And given how stingy the system usually was, Joo Joowon strongly suspected it would be the latter.

The other five cards were somewhat unexpected as well.

...

[ Zombie Core ]

[ Grade ]: Elite

[ Description ]: An energy crystal left behind after a zombie’s death. An excellent crafting material. It has already been contaminated. Using it without purification may produce unpredictable consequences.

...

Unpredictable consequences?

Joo Joowon thought about it for a moment.

Could that mean becoming one of the followers of the cult and worshipping their so called "god"?