Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 14 Ideas for Building a "Ranch"
The autumn is crisp and clear, and the autumn wind that still has a little summer heat wave blows across the grass, setting off layers of dark green waves with golden waves.

The northern branch of the mother nest, after defeating the ant nest at the bottom of the tree trunk, the northern branch cleaned up the surrounding ant colonies step by step, and became the insect overlord on this piece of land.

Following Zero's instructions, they sent flying ants to guard the fruits on the small trees, and at the same time they were actively looking for a suitable breeding room.

The autumn wind is bleak, and in this mature season, food has gradually become abundant. Some weeds on the grassland have gradually produced a large number of seeds, and many autumn insects have also become active, looking for food everywhere.

Those insects that need to hibernate or do not need to hibernate eat one by one to become fat and strong, and a large number of insects begin to bury their eggs for breeding in the soil.

These undoubtedly provide a lot of food information for the ant colony led by Zero, who has almost all the surrounding vision.

Ant colonies also need to survive the winter. The cold air in winter prevents ant colonies from moving on the ground, so they must also stockpile enough food.

Although in summer, the ant colonies attacked from all directions and harvested a large amount of food, the mother nest and branch nests have already stored enough food to meet the current size of the ant colony to survive the cold winter.

But who would want too much food?What's more, under Zero's command, even in the cold winter, the ant colony hidden deep in the ground will not stop developing, which requires more food to provide security.

If there is insufficient food, the ant colony can only hibernate in the cold winter.From Zero's point of view, this is undoubtedly a waste of time throughout the winter.

The amount of grain storage becomes larger and larger, and the ant colonies have to expand their respective ant nests again. They dig new granaries again, and store old grain and new grain separately according to the order of capture.

As a result, the ant nest ushered in another round of expansion.

Although the food has increased significantly, Zero has no plans to further expand the ant colony on a large scale.

On the one hand, because the cold winter is approaching, Zero must reserve enough food to ensure nothing goes wrong.At the same time, in Zero's plan, there are still many projects that need to continue construction in winter, which will undoubtedly require huge food consumption.

On the other hand, it is also a good plan for the expansion in the spring of next year.

To expand the ant colony on a large scale before the possible risks of winter come will undoubtedly increase the possibility of risks. Although Zero hopes that the ant colony can expand rapidly, it does not mean that he will choose to take risks to achieve this.

Judging from the current situation, as long as it develops steadily, it is only a matter of time before the power of the ant colony covers the entire grassland. This goal can be achieved as long as it develops steadily, and there is no need to take unnecessary risks.

Since the sub-nest where No. [-] is located and the mother's nest have opened up an underground express passage that connects with each other, the western part of the nest that is closest to the mother's nest has also completed the construction of the passage a few days ago.

The other directions are still being excavated due to the long distance. However, according to the current progress, these passages can be completed before winter comes.

At present, Zero's ant colony already has 25 queens, totaling more than [-] ants of various types. The food stored in the ant nest is enough for the existing ant colony for two seasons, and it is still increasing.

A total of 7 earthworm breeding rooms have been found, and five of them have been put into use. There are 22 adult earthworms, more than 100 larvae and countless eggs.

However, due to the reproduction cycle of earthworms, it has not been able to increase much output for the ant colony.

The other two are under rapid construction and are expected to be completed in ten days.

After another month, the currently reared earthworm larvae will usher in the maturity period, and they will complete the union with the original adults to lay eggs within a few days. Before winter, a large number of worm eggs will hatch.

This batch of hatched earthworm larvae will all become the initial rations for the ant colony to spend the winter, including some adult earthworms.

Due to the lack of breeding rooms, the ant colony cannot feed so many adult earthworms. The humus food they eat is not a problem, but it is necessary to ensure that they live in the ant nest safely instead of drilling holes around and destroying the structure of the ant nest. This is something that the current ants cannot do.

Zero actually had an immature idea in his heart, but he never put it into practice.It takes a certain amount of risk, and it takes a long enough time, so Zero has been hesitant.

The idea is very simple. It is to build a breeding space that is not hardened at all, put a small number of earthworms in it, and then send a large number of soldier ants to closely guard it.

As soon as you spot an earthworm trying to escape, drag it out and attack it, inflict as much pain as possible without killing it, and then release it back.

Such a cycle goes on and on, accumulating over time, and if things go on like this, it may be possible to complete the domestication of these earthworms one day.

However, the large-scale expansion of the ant colony has stopped at present, the food is abundant enough, and the cold winter is approaching, and it will take a lot of time to complete this work. Thinking about it, it seems that there is no need to do this at present.

However, if this idea is possible to realize, it will undoubtedly be a great plan for the ant colony for generations to come.It will also be a huge reform for the way of survival of the ant colony, and it is not unreasonable to call it evolution.After all, this is a real "earthworm ranch"!
"Why don't we start a pilot project first? If the risk is controllable, it will not be too late to expand the scale. If it is uncontrollable, the loss will not be too great." Zero thought.

Once you make a decision, do it immediately. Zero has always had a strong ability to act.

He immediately ordered three hundred worker ants to be released from the mother nest, and let them open a passage more than two meters long and two centimeters wide and two centimeters high from the easternmost ant room of the mother nest.

The ant colony faithfully carried out Zero's orders as always.

Relying on these [-] ants alone, this channel cannot be achieved in a short period of time. Zero is not in a hurry.At present, when food is abundant in the outside world, the labor force of worker ants is needed everywhere.

It is the most sensible choice to devote more worker ants to the work of carrying and hoarding food.

Under the non-stop work of the worker ants, after six days, the channel was completed, and the ants also used their saliva to simply reinforce the outer wall of the channel.

After the passage was completed, Zero ordered them to dig a shallow pit fifty centimeters in diameter and five centimeters deep at the end of the passage.

This is obviously an even bigger project, and it will take several months to complete with only [-] worker ants.

Moreover, such a huge underground pit is very easy to collapse, so it is also a huge test for the load-bearing above.

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(End of this chapter)