Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 19 The Second Round of Expansion

Under the continuous grazing of the ants, within two months, the output of the aphids has been able to meet [-]% of the food consumption of the entire ant colony.Coupled with the daily income of the ant colony and some subsidies provided by the earthworm farm, the food in the ant nest has piled up like a mountain, and some even have signs of corruption.

Under such circumstances, Zero believed that the conditions for further expansion were ripe, so he decisively sent thirty flying ants around to lead the ant colony to expand to the outside world.

They will lead a colony of about [-] ants to settle around the ant colony. This number accounts for [-]% of the current ant population, leaving only the necessary worker ants for grazing aphids.

This expansion is almost the upper limit that the ant colony can expand at a time.If it was the ant colony before the winter last year, it would not be able to produce so much new energy even if the entire colony was hollowed out.

These flying ants that go out to build a family are all female ants, but they are not allowed to reproduce under normal circumstances, and only exist as scouts of the ant colony.

But when it comes time to expand, they can become the queen ants of a group at any time, leading the people to develop the group.

Soon, a new batch of ant nests were built around the sphere of influence of the entire ant colony. Compared with the first expansion, there were more of them, and the nests built were like stars guarding the mother nest and the first The outermost perimeter of the batch nest.

Some troubles are the flying ants heading to the south. Considering the size of the ant colony, the wide river is an existence that they cannot conquer at present.

Flying ants can cross the river very calmly, but other ant species can't. If they want to build a branch nest on the other side of the river, they will have to face the same problem as No. [-], that is, develop from scratch. offspring.

Moreover, after the establishment of the ant nest is completed, the exchange of materials with the many ant nests on the north bank of the river is also a very important issue. big meaning.

In addition, there is another trouble, that is, the frogs that exist near the river in the southeast of the brood.

In this area, Zero did not place any ant colony to enter. The current number of ant colonies is still not enough to pose a threat to them, and this amphibian can escape into the water even if it is invincible. Ants cannot threaten the huge body in the water. frog.

So, as long as they don't come to provoke Zero's ant colony, Zero is happy to live with them peacefully.

However, after all, they are too close to the ant colony, and they will also prey on ants. For Zero, this is always a threat. One day they must be eliminated, and at worst, they must be driven away to be at ease.

Zero also has a solution to the problem of crossing the river, but it will be very troublesome and take a lot of time.

With the size of an ant, it is basically impossible to cross the wide and turbulent river surface, but it is still very feasible to build a simple "pontoon bridge" at a place where the river surface is shallow and the water flow is not so fast by moving some weeds and dead branches of.

The first is the selection of the location for crossing the river. Zero-control flying ants flew along the direction of the river, and finally found a shallow stall not far from the west of the ant nest. The terrain here is relatively flat, the water flow is not urgent, the water level is not high, and There are some large and small rocks protruding from the water, which meet the requirements of zero.

The ants first cooperated to move some small stones, and tried to throw them into the water.

Most of these stones did not seem to have enough weight, and were washed away as soon as they entered the water. Only a few stones sank to the bottom of the current with bumps, and slowly accumulated.

For several days in a row, the ant colony worked so tirelessly to carry the stones to build the pile, until they could barely connect with the first stone near the river bank in the river, this step was barely completed.

However, up to this time, ants are still not allowed to pass through here. They need to move branches and grass leaves to spread on the small stones for the next stage of construction.

Through the exposed stones on the river surface, the ants divided the river surface into several small sections, and built the stones section by section, placed the branches and grass leaves, and finally completed the construction of the entire pontoon bridge.

Of course, this is actually not safe. If the river swells in summer, this small pontoon bridge can't stand the erosion at all.

However, there is already a way to build a bridge, and it can meet the needs of the ant colony at present, so Zero puts down this little worry for the time being.

"Maybe I can dig under the river?" Zero thought uncertainly.Looking at the water flowing day and night in front of Flying Ant, Ling felt that this might be a huge project.

With the pontoon, the expansion team led by the flying ants has no obstacles. They move enough food from each nest, and lead the ants that are almost the upper limit of their command to the new territory.

Due to the particularity of the south bank of the river, just in case, during this round of expansion, a total of ten ant queens, that is, ten branch nests, were deployed here, allowing them to develop on their own.

As the ant colony expanded again, the construction of new underground passages was put on the agenda again.In Zero's cognition, only when the ant colonies are connected with each other and there are no traffic obstacles, the entire group is considered a whole.

Therefore, he paid special attention to the underground safety passages connecting the interior of each nest, and also kept a constant eye on the ant colony heading to the south bank of the river.

Due to the existence of the river, at least within two meters of the vertical depth below it, the ants cannot penetrate the channel.

Compared with the pontoon bridge on the surface, it is more than ten times more difficult to dig underground to cross the river?
But Zero decided to dig through it anyway.

One is that the pontoon bridge on the surface is not safe and may be destroyed by various external forces at any time.The second is that there is a need for communication between the ant colony on the north bank and the ant colony on the south bank.

Of course, the most important thing is that the ant colony already has sufficient food resources, which releases a large amount of labor. With a sufficient number, if it is only a matter of distance, it is only a matter of time for the ant colony.

The ant colony that connects the south bank is a key project that Zero is concerned about. At the same time, the communication network that communicates the newly built nests is also under intense construction.

With the expansion of the ant colony, a large number of aphids are brought to the new living point, and they will continue to provide sufficient food for the ant nest under the continuous domestication of the worker ants.

In addition, the flying ants responsible for going out to build new nests took away most of the ants in the mother nest and each sub-nest, leaving only the worker ants who shepherd aphids to supply the needs of the nest. Each ant nest also needs time to recover the ant colony .

After a large-scale expansion, the entire ant colony has entered a stage of recuperation.

(End of this chapter)