Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 56 Predicament 1 (Please read more!!)

With the supply of food, the queen immediately began to reproduce.

With the current reproductive efficiency of the mutated queen ants, it only takes four days to produce the same queen eggs as herself, plus the time it takes for the hatched larvae to grow into adults, within ten days, the number of queen ants will increase A substantial increase, hundreds or even thousands is not a problem.

Of course, Zero wouldn't do that.

At present, there is a lot of waste to be done, and the sudden shortage of food makes it impossible for Zero to produce the desired ant species as he wants. He must start to calculate carefully, how to consume less food and obtain the maximum benefit.

Everything seems to be back to the beginning, the only difference is that the ants are no longer weak insects the size of rice grains, but generally strong laborers the size of pebbles.

After producing twenty eggs that were pregnant with queen ants, Zero immediately stopped this activity, and instead started to let them start producing builders.

The hatching efficiency of builder eggs is much higher than that of queen eggs, and it takes only six days for them to grow from eggs to adults.

After moving out the grain from the two nearby granaries, the builders continued to move to another granary that was closer.

Of course, due to the severe blockage, this kind of progress is not high. If the current builders only rely on the current builders to complete this project, I am afraid that when they dig through, there will only be a pile of corrupt residue left.

However, under the continuous production of the queen ants, more builders will join in six days at the earliest, and there will be a steady stream of builders to complete the incubation after that, and the excavation progress will be greatly accelerated by then. There is still hope for some food.

As winter is approaching, the most important thing for the ant colony that has experienced a catastrophe is to store food.

However, the ground has spread all over the Ze country, and almost no grass grows. We can only dig as much as possible from the previous grain reserves. Every grain is very precious.

The ant colony, which has been accustomed to a spacious life in recent years, was forced to return to a tight life. The builders worked day and night, constantly moving the earth and rocks in the passage leading to the granary. Existing excavators step forward to deal with it, and then the builders will dredge it.

This kind of efficiency is actually very high, but this granary is not close to the cave, and the passage is very damaged. Many places have to bypass the original passage and re-open the connection next to it. This part of the work consumes a lot of time.

Six days later, more and more builders joined in, greatly advancing the progress of the project.

With the increase in the number of builders, the excavation work for this passage gradually had redundant labor force, and Zero also decisively started the project to open up the fourth granary.

Although I don't know how much food can be left after excavating the past, it is better than nothing. Now is not the time to be disgusted, as much as there is.

With the continuous efforts of the ant colony, the passage to the third granary was re-opened after ten days.

The originally spacious cave has completely collapsed, and the water-soaked sweet potatoes are buried in disorder under the earth and rocks, and some of them have already shown signs of corruption.

If you want to get food here, you must first clear these earth and rocks.

Another five days later, another granary was also opened, and the grain stored in it had begun to rot on a large scale. The collapsed soil and rocks destroyed the protective layer on their surface, and the subsequent flood brought a large number of microorganisms. The dark space has long lost its original function, and can no longer provide the effect of preserving food.

In line with the principle of not wasting, at the intersection of autumn and winter, Zero sent builders to start excavating the last granary.

I didn't have much hope at first, but this time, the granary gave Zero a surprise.

The last granary is located on the oblique upper part of the cave. Due to the obstruction of the rocks, the passage leading here turns around, sometimes going up and sometimes going down, forming an effective water-proof structure.

Originally, when they were on the grass, the ant colonies would build this kind of waterproof structure underground. Even if the rainwater flooded the caves, the caves would not be flooded in a short time.However, given the current situation of the ant tribe and the degree of muddy ground, even if some granaries are well preserved, it is impossible to rescue them.

However, the granaries on the mountainside are different from those on the ground. After all, no one would have thought that this place would be hit by floods one day, so for the convenience of transportation, the four granaries were basically on the same level as the cave, without any separation. water measures.

And this last granary was not originally the main force for supplying food to the cave. It was actually mainly providing food for the ant colonies on the mountainside. Unexpectedly, by chance, it could be preserved intact, even because it was surrounded by rocks. , and basically did not collapse, maintaining the original dry environment.

The discovery of this granary made Zero University heave a sigh of relief.

The cold winter has come quietly. During this period of time, the remaining food in No. [-] granary, which is the most corrupt, has been completely consumed, and even more than half of the stock in No. [-] granary has been consumed.This is only the beginning of winter, and this group of evolved ants has a huge appetite. If the No. [-] granary is not well preserved, Zero doubts whether the remaining food will last until next spring.

Even now, Zero has not completely let go of his worries.

Next spring, after the devastation of this year, there will not be much food left on the island.Although in several granaries, Zero found some various seeds that were preserved by the ant colony as food due to the large number, but even if they were sown in spring, he still had to maintain the ant colony before the autumn harvest survival.

Therefore, after completing the excavation of the No. [-] granary, almost all the ants in Lingling stopped their activities in order to reduce consumption and save food.Only a small number of daily-feeding queen ant builders are left active.

"We must find more food!" Zero said to himself.

However, Zero had no idea where to look for it, so he had to wait until spring came before going to the plain below the mountain.

Although the new generation of assassins are not afraid of the severe cold, but now, the ground below the mountain is completely soaked in frozen soil, and there is no point in going out.

Zero plans to wait until spring comes, hatch a group of explorers, and let them search for possible food in every corner of the island. On the other hand, let the builders plant the preserved seeds as soon as possible to ensure the harvest next autumn.

"This is the only way for now..." Zero had no choice.

This disaster hit him too hard. More than ten years of painstaking efforts were ruined. He who originally thought that the ant colony would no longer have a survival crisis, is now full of insecurity in his heart.

…………

The cold winter passed day by day while the ant colony was dormant, and the originally icy cold wind blowing across the earth finally brought a little warmth.The sun also began to radiate its original temperature, and the permafrost on the ground gradually softened—spring came.

(End of this chapter)