I Am the Swarm

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye, and now the worm's nest has changed a lot.

Above the worm nest is a transit station that acts as a false nest. Four spacious passages connect it with four ant nests. Worker ants who come and go in the passages continuously transport the food in the ant nest to the transit station.

Then wait for the passage between the transfer station and the worm nest to reopen in the evening, and then transfer the food to the worm nest.

Above the transfer station, the soil that was excavated and transported from the tunnels was built into a high mound, which not only prevented water from flooding the cave in rainy days, but also buried a lot of undivided food, such as the bodies of many sentinel worker ants. .

In the continuous blood transfusion of the four ant nests, the worm's nest has developed rapidly. The number of adult worms has exceeded 1,000.

And these newly bred bugs are all ants whose genes have changed greatly after being upgraded. Although they have the same appearance and habits as ants, they are already a combination of several insects.

As soon as the temporary worm nest was dug, Rowan took the lead in ordering the mother nest to produce more than 200 eggs of digging ants, and added a soil-eating gene to them to ensure that they would not die in the difficult environment in the early stage. starve.

Digging ants not only have all the functions of ordinary worker ants, but they are also good at digging holes. The four passages connecting the ant nests add up to more than 1,000 meters, which are all thanks to these new species of ants.

The channel was dug, and with a stable food source, Rowan deployed worker ants with formic acid spray. They are less capable of melee combat, mainly responsible for carrying food, and long-range fire support in combat.

Then there are the new soldier ants, which are based on the original soldier ant template and add different gene segments. The main manifestation is the difference in attacking weapons. Some are the hook-shaped big teeth of the natural yellow ant, some are the enlarged version of the jaw of the black ant itself, and some are the giant jaw of the black beetle.

At the same time, the strong genes of the black beetles have been added to them, and the soldier ant genes of their half bodies have been added, so that their mature body size is larger than that of ordinary soldier ants, and their combat effectiveness is also stronger.

In addition to this, there are a small number of special units, such as reconnaissance insects with clairvoyance, their visual distance is more than 20 meters. However, because the intelligence is not very high, the ability to express and describe the detected situation is limited, and it is not of great use at present, and it needs to continue to be upgraded and cultivated.

There are also spy bugs. The four ant nests are scattered. It is impossible for Rowan to run back and forth for thousands of meters every day to complete the work of infiltrating and transporting food. In desperation, this kind of bug that would change its own pheromone was formulated.

Also limited to intellectual problems, these bugs have a poor ability to do their jobs. However, they have a certain self-learning ability. After Luo Wen taught them for more than a month, they were finally able to barely complete the task independently.

After that, Rowan gave them the job of smuggling food from the nest, although their performance was still flawed. It's not that he has a big heart, he has his own understanding.

First of all, the safety of these bugs is still guaranteed, and black ants cannot recognize their camouflage. At most, their finishing work was not done well, and the black ants noticed the smuggling channel.

However, the strength of the worm's nest is not what it used to be, so what if it is discovered? Although the number of members of the ant nest is several times that of the worm nest, Rowan is still confident that it will be leveled.

If it weren't for the fact that their tool worms did a pretty good job, maybe a few ant nests would have been lost around.

Just a few days ago, the ant nest in the southeast found a smuggling channel, and a few scout sappers got into the channel. Afterwards, the ant nest gathered a large number of troops and rushed into the channel. The worm nest also responded quickly. The transport worker ants also served as the task of reconnaissance, spreading pheromones along the way, and the transport team retreated slowly from the channel in an orderly manner.

Then, the soldier ant army of the worm nest entered the passage, and the worker ants of the transport team also stopped retreating and followed the soldier ants to the battlefield. After the two teams met, there were not many BBs, and the battle broke out directly.

Soldier ants on both sides blocked the passage, and the worker ants took the opportunity to attack by biting tentacles and pulling arthropods. However, the worm's nest is equipped with a long-range strike phalanx. After several rounds of formic acid sprayed down, the opponent's worker ants suffered heavy casualties. Although soldier ants have higher defenses, they also burn weak parts such as eyes and tentacles.

And all the bugs in the nest have been added with acid resistance genes. Therefore, although the formic acid spray is indistinguishable from enemy and foe, it did not cause any damage to them except to wash their carapaces with extra brightness.

The wounded soldiers of the ant nest were naturally no match for the troops whose nest was intact. Without the support of the worker ants, the formation of the ant nest soldiers was directly overwhelmed.

The sappers of the insect nest swarmed up, grabbed their arthropods and pulled them, placing them into five-horse corpses, unable to move. And the big E soldier ants took the opportunity to go forward and behead them.

Afterwards, the worm's nest soldier ants took the lead in charging, and the momentum was broken.

It was all the way to the hatching room of the ant nest. With Rowan's intervention, the army retreated. As the defeated side, the ant nest naturally did not dare to have more BBs, and could only knock down teeth and swallow blood.

According to post-war statistics, the nest lost nine soldier ants and dozens of worker ants. The ant nest lost 71 soldier ants and nearly 1,000 worker ants. It can be said that the first battle was beaten to half.

Although the worm nest has lost some, it has harvested a large number of ant carcasses. These are all high-protein foods and are excellent food reserves. Most of the mounds above the hive are the spoils of the war.

But then, the amount of food obtained by this ant nest was greatly reduced. It made Rowan fall into deep self-reflection. Why is it so hostile? If there is a conflict, why not discuss it with a friendly person?

Even if he wants to fight, he can close it when he sees it. He feels a little sloppy. Although they fought at that time, watching the army of insects charge all the way, their blood boiled, but the destruction of the ant nest also delayed its own development.

To support the post-war reconstruction of the ant nest, Rowan temporarily closed the smuggling channel to let them rest for a while. Fortunately, their eggs have not suffered any loss. I believe that under such a strong support policy, they will soon be able to take up the job of tool worms again and do a better job.

Rowan did not participate in this local war, because his body size has also changed greatly. After he gave up the infiltration job, the transport channel was never expanded. If he participates, it will not only block the passage, but also affect the combat power of himself and other bugs.

Through this war, Rowan felt that the IQ of these worms had significantly improved. If you want to describe it, the original bug is like a simple machine, and it must have instructions to work. And this batch of new bugs seems to have a certain AI intelligence, can complete some more complex tasks, and also have a certain learning ability.

But what caused this change, Rowan speculated that it might be the continuous growth of the nest, or it might be the interaction of multiple gene segments. Of course, this is just a guess, and the specific reasons require further observation and experimentation.

In short, for Rowan, this is a good change.

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