Juggernaut: Rise of the Zerg

Chapter 9 New Homes and Experiments

Except for the three expedition teams that had been lost, only two of the remaining seven lost their way and came back towards the northern ant nest, and the other two suffered heavy losses but still insisted on exploring south.

Until noon, Zero finally got a shock.

He discovered from the field of vision of the exploration team that one of the exploration teams encountered an insurmountable obstacle in the direction of exploration—water.

That is not the dew or rain that is usually seen near the ant nest, it is the rushing and turbulent river!
The turbulent water flowed from west to east, and the soldier ants with zero borrowed vision could not see the other side of the river. Of course, the soldier ants also could not see [-] centimeters away, which is not a reference for the width of the river. significance.

Among them, a worker ant who faithfully obeyed the order tried to enter the water, but was swept away by the current in an instant.

The other five ants did not dare to try to cross the river again, but continued to explore along the river for a while, then turned around and returned - if they didn't return, they might not be able to return to the ant nest before dark.Although the night does not affect their activities, the queen's orders are irresistible.

Although they didn't stay and explore by the river for a long time, Zero still got a lot of information from it.

For example, there are a large number of large and small stones by the river, such as reeds as tall as towering giant trees on the river bank.

"Surely there must be a stone that can be used as a breeding room here?" Zero thought with some joy.

Soon thereafter, two more exploration teams came to the river from different locations, and after a hasty exploration, they also turned around and returned.

Having obtained the desired information, Zero no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered No. [-] to start preparations. She would lead five male ants, nearly a thousand worker ants, and hundreds of soldier ants to settle near the river.

This is a mighty operation, and they will take away a quarter of the food reserves in the ant nest at one time.Unlike ordinary ant queens who build families, No. [-] is equivalent to directly leading a group to move to survive!
Under Zero's signal, No. [-] quickly organized the ant colony to which it belonged, followed the footsteps of the exploration team, and carried food far exceeding its own weight to the south.

In the evening, the ant colony led by No. [-] arrived near the river without any danger, and no insects along the way dared to harass such a large ant colony.

Zero chose No. [-] to build a new ant nest under a stone five meters away from the river. The surface of this stone is sloped, covering the bottom with a shadow, and it is also the highest place within one meter of the surrounding area. It is very easy to settle here. It is best to prevent rainwater from flowing into the ant nest.

There are many squirrels hidden under the stone, but they are not the opponents of the ant colony led by No. [-]. Hundreds of soldier ants swarmed up, and the squirrels who failed to escape in time turned into new rations for the ants.

After driving away the mouse woman, the soldier ants allocated half to protect No. [-] and the food brought from the nest, and the other half led the worker ants to quickly start building a new nest under the stone.

The sky quickly dimmed, and night fell quietly, but the tireless ants were still moving earth and rocks to build their new homes.

At dawn, this new ant nest already had a rugged passageway of more than 50 centimeters leading to the ground, a flat granary the size of an egg, and a slightly smaller insect chamber.

No. [-] was placed in this slightly smaller worm room, and many worker ants around were busy expanding the worm room, and moving food from the camp outside to the new granary for storage.

The new ant nest is about 70 meters away from the one where No. [-] is located, and it is covered with weeds. It is separated by four ridges, and the vertical distance is about two meters.

In the next few days, No. [-] was busy directing the ant colony to expand the nest where No. [-] was located, while Zero had a new project to work on—the earthworms in the breeding room began to hatch.

One to three earthworm larvae can be hatched from each earthworm egg, and hundreds of small earthworms can be hatched from fifty eggs in just five days.

The original breeding room simply couldn't hold so many earthworms, and it's unknown when the new breeding room will be found.

In desperation, Ling ordered to kill most of the earthworm larvae as food for the ants, leaving only ten as seeds for the future cultivation of the second breeding room.

At the same time, Zero let No. [-] continue to hatch five queen ants. With the success of No. [-], they will serve as the second batch of colonists and lead the ant colony to expand outward.

After a period of testing, Zero found that the food within the activity range of the ant colony in the same nest can only support the ant colony led by six queen ants at most, about [-]. It takes a long journey, and this process is accompanied by unknown risks.

Of course, there is another solution, which is to continuously expand the ant nest outwards, build more ant nest exits, and disperse the queens.However, this method is essentially not much different from what Zero is doing now, and even because the speed of expansion will become very slow, it seems very conservative.

Now Zero urgently wants to know the surrounding situation, and urgently wants to expand his field of vision.Under the condition of ensuring that the ant colony will not perish, he wants to explore the surroundings as quickly as possible. With this expansion method, the gaps left between the ant nests can be slowly filled as the ant colony expands in the future.

In addition, in view of the various situations encountered by the exploration team dispatched on the [-]rd, Zero needs an efficient explorer.

"If only there were an ant that could fly."

If there is an ant species that can fly, it can explore farther places, and even cross rivers to explore more unknowns.

"Flying...flying...wings...the queen?!!"

Zero suddenly thought of it, when the queen ant just transformed from a larva into an adult, didn't she just have wings and be able to fly?
With the current reserve of ant nests, there is no need for them to eat the fallen wings to reproduce offspring. The abundant food reserves are sufficient to meet their reproductive needs.

"Perhaps, I can cultivate unmated female ants as scouts for outward exploration?"

This idea is a bit bold. The female ant, as the reserve queen in the ant nest, is quite weak in combat ability, and is undoubtedly not qualified as a scout.

"However, this is not a problem. I just need them to explore as far as possible. As for the loss, there is basically no need to consider this." Zero made a decision.

Soon, No. [-] and No. [-] received the task of breeding the first batch of [-] female ants. These female ants will not mate with male ants to become queen ants, but will exist as consumables for zero outward expansion. When necessary, they will directly follow Zero's instructions, and will become Zero's eyes that can communicate at any time!At the same time, if necessary, they can mate with male ants at any time to become the queen of a new colony!
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(End of this chapter)