Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 76 Eight Years and Return to the Peak

The autumn wind is bleak, and the ground is withered and yellow.

It's the harvest time of the year again, and many logistics ant species transport many mature sweet potatoes back to their nests for proper storage from various places on the island.

After eight years of development, the ant tribe has re-cultivated the entire island.At present, their number has expanded by an order of magnitude. Compared with the 100 ants eight years ago, there are now more than [-] million ants of various types active in every corner of the island!

This is a very large number, and it is almost the limit that the ant colony can reach at present.

In terms of numbers, it seems that the ant clan is far from being able to recover to the original maximum number. After all, before that disaster, they had a population of tens of millions!
However, this kind of thing cannot be counted in this way.

The original ant colony, no matter in size or strength, was completely different from the current ant species.

Take the most common builder as an example. If it were to compete with the original ant colony, it would not be an exaggeration to say that one could beat a hundred, and it would even be a bit too conservative.After all, it is no longer the little worker ant it used to be. The current builder is half the size of a palm!
Millions of such ants are active in various places that can be explored on the island, performing various kinds of labor.

There are guards with thick carapaces, standing guard to protect them next to the builders who carry food.There are transporters flying through the sky at high speed, with a huge sweet potato hooked on their feet.There are also diggers struggling to turn their bodies underground, pushing fully mature sweet potatoes out of the ground one by one for the builders to carry.Of course, there are also combat units in the water, they swim wantonly in a circle of continuous fish farms around the island, chasing fat fish one by one.

The island in the whole autumn is like a huge farm, each ant species performs its own duties, and they work together in an orderly manner to contribute to the development of the ant colony.

Fish farms have been built successively in the past few years. Even if the builders have undergone another evolution, and the number has increased by an order of magnitude, such large-scale projects can be built in just a few years It took a lot of effort to farm almost a week around the coast.

However, no matter what, they were finally completed within this period of time, and all the hard work was worthwhile.Today, these farms can also take on part of the burden of supporting the ant colony.

After experiencing the initial increase in numbers, in just one year, the ant colony completed the cultivation of the entire land of the entire island.

And in a short period of time afterward, through the most conservative calculations, Zero determined the total amount of ant colony that can be supported by all the food produced by planting crops on an entire island, and then he multiplied the number of ant colonies to this total amount One-half of that, or about 100 million.

This is not blind expansion. The reason why so many hatched is mainly due to the need to complete the fish farming belt around the island as soon as possible. Most of them are logistic ant species, so there are only a very small number of combat units.

Out of vigilance against various disasters, Zero properly stored half of the surplus food, most of which were hidden inside the mountains, and a small amount was deep underground, and a special water-proof structure was built.In this case, even if the flood floods the island again, as long as the duration is not too long, it is unlikely to threaten the food reserves of the ant colony.

In the current environment, Zero is not obsessed with expanding the number of ant colonies.Because if there is no corresponding demand for expansion, it is meaningless, and it will only consume food in vain.

Counting all the expansions of the ant colony before, there is an obvious purpose, and the group has never been expanded blindly.

The first few expansions were to obtain more living space, thereby obtaining more food and feeding more groups, which is a virtuous circle.

The increase in the number in the later period is to defeat the termite group and gain control of the entire island.

After defeating the termites, the huge number of ants immediately became a burden for the group, and Zero had to let some useless ants go into hibernation to reduce food consumption.

Therefore, a simple, purposeless increase in quantity is meaningless to zero.With the current output speed of the queen ants, as long as he thinks, within three to five days, he can expand the number of the entire ant colony to three times or even ten times, but this is not necessary, the environment in which the ant colony is now determines They simply don't need to be in such huge numbers.

After completing the construction of the aquaculture farm around the island, the ant colony slowly reduced the consumption of sweet potatoes, because compared with fish that are easily spoiled, the preservation time of sweet potatoes is obviously much longer, and the ant colony naturally gives priority to it. Consume foods with a short shelf life and waste as little as possible.

In addition to aquaculture farms, the underwater combat units of the ant colony are also constantly exploring and preying on offshore areas, which also provides a lot of food for the group.

In addition, in order to resist the disaster that may come again, the refuge facilities of the ant colony are almost all over the entire mountain range. There are sporadic ant colonies under all the rocks with stable structures, even between the mountains, and in the inner areas of the mountains. refuge base.

Although each of these refuge bases is small compared to their huge numbers, the total number of ant colonies that can be sheltered in all bases can still cover the current number of ant colonies!

Because the refuge is not a place to live for a long time, zero does not need to consider the livability, it is completely possible for the ants to squeeze in it.

It is also worth mentioning that, with the increase in size, this huge group of ants seem to be less afraid of the cold. Although they are still reluctant to go out in winter, this level of cold can no longer threaten their health. life.

If it wasn't for the purpose of avoiding the tsunami that followed the earthquake, there was no need for them to open up any shelters inside the mountains.

Now that the initial ability to operate in cold weather is established, the nests of the ethnic group do not need much temperature control except for the granary. The direct impact of this on the ant colony is that they no longer need to hide deep in the ground and rely on The insulation effect of the earth is used to maintain the temperature in the nest.

They can already come to the ground and survive in caves!

This is undoubtedly a great progress, which means that the ant colony has initially got rid of the influence of conventional weather on its activities, and no longer needs to waste too much labor to build too many complicated underground structures.

Now, from the sea to the central mountain range, from the sky to the ground, in this area, the ant colony once again became the only master!
They have developed new breeding industries, re-planned planting industries, and even expanded ocean fisheries outwards.

On the island, the Ant Clan does not have any competitors, except for the unpredictable natural disasters, in this area, they are already well-deserved overlords.

A thriving, well-fed race reappeared on the island, growing stronger.

However, Zero was not complacent about it.

He still can't forget how powerless he was when he faced the earthquake and tsunami, and he couldn't forget the despair when there was no food source, and he couldn't forget that the storm was just a useless person who could only hide in the cave.

Therefore, He will not be satisfied with this, and will never stop the pace of development because of the current achievements.

　Thank you all for following up! !I asked the editor yesterday, and he said that there are more than 200, which is incomparable with those big players, and maybe there are not even a fraction of others.

　　But for me, to be honest, I already feel like an author! ! ! (swelling akimbo laughing)
　　In addition, what kind of experience is it like to be urged to be put on the shelves by book friends?Makes me a bit tangled...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)