Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 20 Rosin
In the season full of vitality, the grass grows and warblers fly, and the ant colony quickly fell into silence after a vigorous expansion.

It takes time for newborn nests to gain a foothold in new subterranean sites, and for old colonies to recover.

The worker ants that raise the earthworms take care of and watch over the earthworms conscientiously, and the worker ants that graze the aphids also keep a close eye on the aphids that produce honeydew, slapping the aphids' fat bellies half-urging and half-threateningly.

When the entire ant colony was working hard to ensure production, after a drizzle, a delicate leaf stubbornly pushed open the soil above its head, and poked its head out playfully.

A few foraging worker ants found them completely different from the surrounding grass. Of course, this also attracted Zero's gaze.

Zero looked at the small young leaves in front of him with some surprise. This is the place where he led the ant colony to plant unknown fruit seeds last year. Before that, he just had an attitude of giving it a try, but he didn't expect them to really grow out .

A few aphids on the surrounding grass also took a fancy to these young leaves and wanted to move there. How could Zero tolerate this happening?Without exception, they have all become rations for the ant colony.

Zero dispatched several ant teams to guard the aphids near the seedlings and prevent them from harming the new fruit tree seedlings.

At the same time, He also lifted the ban on aphids on the grass within half a meter around the seedlings, that is, allowing the aphids within this range to reproduce wantonly, killing weeds and making room for low fruit tree seedlings.

At the same time, the worker ants who guard the earthworms in the ant nest also have a job. They are responsible for moving the organic fertilizer produced by the earthworms out of the ant nest and spreading them around the seedlings. Loose soil near the seedlings.

With the precedent of the first seed surviving, Zero paid more attention to the place where the seed was planted last year.

Sure enough, shortly thereafter, another seedling broke out of the ground one after another. Zero treated them the same way, made room for growth, fertilized, and put earthworms to loosen the soil.

In the end, only ten of the more than 20 seeds survived, and zero is not disappointing. This is not a one-shot deal.

The development of the ant colony is still going on like a raging fire, without stopping for a moment.

The newly established colonies around them have gradually established themselves, and like their predecessors, they now set about cleaning up nearby competitors.

At the same time, the channels of the main group of ant colonies are also slowly advancing each other, and the aphids also enter a larger space to survive under their protection.

The new ant colony on the south bank of the river also began to explore around after completing the nest construction and stocking aphids.

Although there is a lot of food brought from the main nest group, it cannot support them to sit and eat. They must start to rely on themselves.

Teams of soldier ants and worker ants headed around purposefully under the command of flying ants in the sky to capture enough food for the ant colony.

The flying ant scouts in the sky were flying around, and one of them approached the edge of the forest again.

Of course, this was inspired by Zero. He has always been deeply curious about this deep mountain range, even if there are countless dangers in it.

The flying ants spread out and flew as low as possible as close to the grass as possible, slowly approaching the edge of the forest.A flying bird came out, and lightning swallowed a few flying ants into its mouth, but there were still a few flying ants that escaped, taking advantage of their size, and hid on the thick trunks of trees.

Because there are a large number of spiders in the forest, flying insects are easily captured by the transparent web, so they no longer rely on flying to explore, but just walk on the tree trunk.

However, this kind of behavior is not necessarily safe. There are also praying mantises and an unnamed predator on the tree trunk. When a single flying ant encounters them, it becomes fat on the chopping board, and there is basically no way to survive.

This is the conclusion that Zero has continuously sent flying ants into the jungle to explore for a long time. Many explorations in the past have failed to obtain anything valuable to the current ant colony.

until this time.

In the process of gradually going deeper into the jungle, the flying ants found a pine tree.It grew quietly in the jungle, without any surprises, but Zero still noticed it at a glance.

To be precise, he noticed the pine resin flowing from its body.

The moment he saw the turpentine, he had some ideas in his mind. If his ideas could be put into practice and be practical, it would indeed be of great help to the ant colony.

The colony of flying ants continued to explore deeper into the jungle, but nothing of value was found after that, until the colony was exhausted by the jungle's predators.

However, the discovery of turpentine was already the biggest surprise for Zero.More ideas came to his mind, such as using turpentine to solidify to build a channel above the river. Because of the lower density, the same volume of turpentine is much lighter than stones.

At the same time, under extreme conditions, pine resin can also become food for ant colonies.

This rosin will become soft in the sun, and it can wrap less dense substances in it, further reducing the quality of the same volume.Moreover, it is sticky, can be stretched, and can also be solidified. For ants, it can be used as a building material.

In addition, pine resin is also a natural fungicide, which can be placed in ant nests to prevent fungal growth.

Meanwhile, Zero had a bold idea.

"Since pine resin is so useful, can it be used to build earthworm farms?"

"But getting in shape is a hassle, and there's simply too much demand."

Zero was a little discouraged, he was sure that pine resin could be used to build earthworm farms, and the effect was better than natural ones.

But with the abilities of the ants, it is really impossible to complete the shaping conveniently, it can be said that there is almost no way.

Moreover, this is also an astronomical figure for the demand for pine resin.

"It would be great if the ants were bigger in size, or had a stronger ability to pull objects..."

Zero once again lamented the limitations of the ant's body.

If ants could have the size of a beetle and the forelimbs of a praying mantis, Zero would not be helpless in many things.Leaving aside, the frogs nearby will definitely not be able to escape the butcher knife of the ant colony.

Unfortunately, ants are ants, and they cannot become beetles, nor can they become praying mantises.

"Maybe, I can try to adjust the evolutionary direction of the ant colony myself?" A bold idea popped up in Zero's mind, and it was out of control.

"However, first of all, the food problem faced by the ant colony must be completely solved."

The breeding of aphids can only be harvested in spring and summer. Once in autumn, the gradually withered grass leaves will no longer provide much nutrition for the aphids, and the aphids will begin to prepare for wintering.

By then, aphid farms will almost cease to exist, and the colonies will still have to rely on themselves to get enough food.

　Ask for tickets every day! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)