I Am the Swarm

Two long months passed in the blink of an eye, and the appearance of the insect nest has changed drastically.

Above the insect nest is a transfer station that serves as a false nest. Four spacious passages connect it to four ant nests. Worker ants coming and going in the passage continuously carry the food in the ant nest to the transfer station.

Then wait for the passage between the transfer station and the insect nest to reopen in the evening, and then transfer the food to the insect nest.

Above the transfer station, the soil that was excavated and transported out of the tunnel at the beginning formed a high mound, which not only prevents the cave from being flooded by accumulated water in rainy days, but also contains a lot of undivided food, such as the corpses of many sentinel worker ants .

In the continuous blood transfusion of the four ant nests, the insect nest has developed rapidly, and the number of adults has exceeded the one thousand mark, and there are almost two thousand other eggs, pupae, and larvae.

And these newly bred insects are all ants whose genes have changed drastically after the upgrade. Although they are somewhat similar to ants in appearance and habits, they are already a combination of several kinds of insects inside.

As soon as the temporary insect nest was dug, Rowan took the lead in ordering the mother nest to produce more than 200 eggs of digging ants, and added soil-eating genes to them, so as to ensure that they would not die under the difficult environment in the early stage. starve.

Digging ants not only have all the functions of ordinary worker ants, but also are good at digging holes. The four passages connecting the ant nests add up to more than a thousand meters, all thanks to these new species of ants.

After the tunnel was dug, and with a stable food source, Rowan deployed worker ants sprayed with formic acid. They have poor melee capabilities and are mainly responsible for carrying food and providing long-range fire support in battle.

Then there are recruit ants, which are based on the original template of soldier ants and have added different gene fragments. The main manifestation is the difference in attack weapons. Some are the large hook-shaped teeth of the yellow ants, some are enlarged versions of the jaw teeth of the black ants themselves, and some are the giant jaws of the black beetle.

At the same time, they have also been added with the strong gene of the black beetle, coupled with the soldier ant gene of their half body, making their mature body size a circle larger than that of ordinary soldier ants, and their combat effectiveness is also stronger.

In addition, there are a small number of special units, such as scout bugs with clairvoyance, whose visual distance is more than 20 meters. However, because the intelligence is not very high, the ability to express and describe the detected situation is limited, and it is not of great use at present, and it needs to be continuously upgraded and trained.

There are also spy bugs, the distribution of the four ant nests is relatively scattered, it is impossible for Luo Wen to travel thousands of meters back and forth every day by himself to complete the work of sneaking in and carrying food. In desperation, this kind of bug that can change its own pheromone was still deployed.

Also limited to intellectual problems, these bugs are poor at getting the job done. However, they have a certain self-learning ability. After Luo Wen taught them for more than a month, they were finally able to barely complete the task independently.

After that, although their performance was still flawed, Rowan still gave them the job of smuggling food from the ant nest. It's not that he has a big heart, he has his own understanding.

First of all, the safety of these bugs is still guaranteed, and black ants cannot recognize their camouflage. At most, their finishing work was not done well, and the black ants noticed the smuggling channel.

However, the strength of the insect nest is no longer what it used to be, so what if it is discovered? Although the number of members of the ant nest is several times that of the insect nest, Rowan still has the confidence to push it flat.

If it weren't for the work done by their tool bugs, maybe there would have been fewer ant nests around.

Just a few days ago, the ant nest in the southeast found a smuggling passage, and a few scout engineers got into the passage. Then the ant nest gathered a large number of troops and rushed into the passage, and the insect nest also responded quickly. The transport worker ants also took on the task of scouting, spreading pheromone along the way, and the transport team slowly retreated from the passage in an orderly manner.

Then, the army of soldier ants in the nest entered the passage, and the worker ants of the transport team stopped retreating and followed the soldiers to the battlefield. After the two teams met, there were not many BBs, and a big battle broke out directly.

The soldier ants on both sides blocked the passage, and the worker ants took the opportunity to attack by biting their tentacles and tearing their joints. However, the worm nest is equipped with a long-range attack phalanx. After several rounds of formic acid were sprayed down, the worker ants on the other side suffered heavy casualties. Although the soldier ants have a high defense, they are also burned to weak parts such as eyes and tentacles.

And all the bugs in the nest have been added with acid-resistant genes. Therefore, although the formic acid spray does not distinguish between friend and foe, it did not cause any harm to them except for washing their carapaces to make them extra bright.

The wounded soldiers of the ant nest are naturally no match for the intact army of the ant nest. Without the support of the worker ants, the formation of the ant nest soldiers is directly overwhelmed.

The engineers of the insect nest swarmed up, grabbed their limbs and pulled them, placing them in the shape of five horses and quarters, unable to move. And the big E soldier ants took the opportunity to go forward and behead them.

Afterwards, the hive soldier ants took the lead in the charge, and some worker ants followed closely behind, and some fell behind, making up for some enemy troops who had been corroded by formic acid and had not completely died.

Just like that, they went all the way to the hatching room of the ant nest. After Luo Wen's intervention, the army retreated. As the defeated party, the ant nest naturally didn't dare to have more BBs, so it could only knock down teeth and swallow blood.

According to post-war statistics, the nest lost nine soldier ants and dozens of worker ants. The ant nest lost 71 soldier ants and nearly 1,000 worker ants. It can be said that it was half disabled in World War I.

Although the insect nest lost some, it harvested a large number of ant carcasses, which are high-protein food and an excellent food reserve. Much of what is buried in the mound above the hive is the spoils of this war.

But then, the food intake of this ant nest was greatly reduced. Luo Wen fell into deep self-reflection, why is he so hostile, and if there is a conflict, can't everyone discuss it peacefully and resolve it?

Even if you want to fight, you can just accept it as soon as you see it. He feels a little hasty. Although the fighting started at that time, watching the swarm army charge all the way, the blood boiled, but the destruction of the ant nest also delayed its own development.

Out of support for the post-war reconstruction of the ant nest, Rowan temporarily closed the smuggling channel to let them recuperate for a while. Fortunately, their eggs have not suffered any loss. I believe that with such a strong support policy, they will soon be able to take on the job of tool bugs again and do better.

Rowan didn't participate in this local war, because his body shape had also changed dramatically. After he gave up his infiltration work, the transportation channel was never expanded. If he participates, it will not only block the passage, but also affect the combat power of himself and other bugs.

Through this battle, Luo Wen felt that the IQ of these bugs had improved a lot. If you want to describe it, the original bug is like a simple machine, it must have instructions to work. And this batch of new bugs seems to have a certain amount of AI intelligence, can complete some more complicated tasks, and has a certain learning ability.

But because of what caused this change, Rowan guessed that it might be the continuous growth of the nest, or the interaction of various gene segments. Of course, this is just speculation, and the specific reason needs further observation and experimentation.

All in all, a nice change for Rowan.