Flaw

At this moment, the Black Beetle, which had been sprawled in a pile of mucus, struggled to climb up from the ground.

Its physique was slightly larger than Rowan's. Modeled after the black-armored War God, it possessed a pair of giant mandibles on its head, elongated antennae for better signal reception, and an additional pair of digging legs, bringing its total from three pairs of appendages to four.

Looking at the result before him, Rowan gave a silent nod of approval. It was truly miraculous, and he felt much better inside.

One had to realize that in his past life, in a human world with such advanced technology, fusing the organs of various insects to the extent of this Black Beetle would likely have been an impossible feat.

Unless the insects were dead and glued together.

However, the one before him was alive. Moreover, judging by its movements, the newly added organs showed no signs of incompatibility and were used with complete ease.

But as he watched, Rowan discovered a very awkward problem.

He was actually unable to communicate with this insect!

This was a rather significant joke to play.

Who could have guessed that after all his painstaking effort—to the point where he had nearly crippled the Mother Nest—he would end up with something like this?

Rowan didn't know if this situation required communication via insect language, but he had never learned it; how could he possibly know how to speak "bug"?

Fortunately, although this insect couldn't communicate, it didn't attack him either. He wondered if it was because its prototype was a vegetarian heavyweight.

But thinking about it, that seemed unlikely. Even if a heavyweight was a vegetarian, it would still have a violent temper. The nickname "War God" that Rowan had given it wasn't just for show; it was earned through real, hard-fought battles. It was arguably the strongest frontal combatant among all the insects he had seen so far.

If that was the case, the insects hatched by the Mother Nest possessed an "enemy-friend identification system," so where had the interaction system gone wrong?

Rowan believed that under normal circumstances, it should have come with an interaction system by default. So, what exactly caused this current awkward predicament?

He sank into deep thought. The Mother Nest had grown from the gene fragments of an ant queen.

This had previously been just a guess, but after the Mother Nest was born, he was able to query the gene bank and confirm it. Rowan did indeed carry certain gene fragments of an ant queen, though he wasn't sure if they had come from the black ants.

He then thought about how the countless ants in an ant nest could function in such an orderly fashion; they must have some method of communication. Assuming his queen genes came from the black ants, could he have also absorbed the gene fragments that helped ants communicate with one another?

Thinking of this, Rowan hurriedly checked the Mother Nest. Fortunately, he could now indirectly view his own gene storage bank through the Mother Nest, or else this would have been truly difficult to handle.

Luckily, there weren't many gene fragments in the bank. While that should have been sad news, it saved Rowan a great deal of time at this moment.

Aside from the queen gene, the gene fragments from the black ants included one that should be called the formic acid gene; the new "spit-to-glue-houses" skill Rowan had acquired was related to this segment.

Beyond that, there was a gene that caused the body to secrete certain pheromones, though he didn't yet know what it was for.

Rowan analyzed that since formic acid could be combined with saliva to glue houses, the possibility of it possessing communication functions was relatively low. However, it was still worth testing.

And he would see the results immediately.

Rowan spat a few mouthfuls of saliva at the Black Beetle, but the Black Beetle showed no reaction to it.

Sure enough, formic acid couldn't be used for communication...

However, it was also possible that his saliva was no longer "proper" formic acid; it seemed to be mixed with gene fragments from the Camouflage Bug that secreted mucus to stick leaves onto its body for disguise.

Thinking about it this way, formic acid couldn't be ruled out just yet, though the probability was low.

So, there was a high probability that the gene fragment responsible for secreting certain pheromones was the interaction component. It was a pity he hadn't installed it into the Black Beetle when designing the blueprint.

By now, the Black Beetle had shed the weakness of its birth and was wandering aimlessly back and forth outside the Mother Nest chamber.

It looked like it was patrolling.

Could it be that it instinctively protected the Mother Nest? If so, then it was still somewhat useful.

The Black Beetle had one more pair of mandibles than Rowan, and they were covered in many sharp spikes. Although its intelligence was questionable, its frontal combat power should be stronger than Rowan's current self. With the Black Beetle guarding the Mother Nest, he could go further afield to scout.

Without further ado, Rowan first went to replenish his food, bringing back two tree roots and stuffing one into the Mother Nest. The Black Beetle, however, didn't stand on ceremony and snatched the other one away, as if Rowan were obligated to provide food for a combatant like itself.

Rowan cursed under his breath but didn't dwell on it. After all, he couldn't really get angry at an insect he couldn't communicate with; he would just treat it like raising a guard dog.

Carefully sealing the Mother Nest's little room and glancing at the Black Beetle, which was gnawing on a root and showing no reaction, he didn't linger and climbed toward the surface.

Ever since he had been burdened by the Mother Nest, he hadn't wandered on the surface for a long time. Returning after so many days, the air felt much fresher.

The dangers on the surface were far beyond what the underground could compare to, but he had his own advantages in both environments.

Underground, his digging speed was fast, and no insect could catch him yet. However, his early warning range was poor; he could only rely on the fine hairs on his body to sense vibrations to detect enemies. If he encountered something that didn't move, it was very difficult to spot.

Moreover, while he was fast underground, his turning was not agile. If he moved too quickly, his eye protection could easily fail, causing them harm.

On the surface, his observation range far exceeded that of other insects. Among insects, most of which were nearsighted, he could be considered to have "thousand-mile eyes."

Although there were still things like the "wait-for-the-rabbit" giant earthworms and ambush-style camouflage bugs, Rowan now knew of their existence and was on guard against them. With his high-refresh-rate eyes, they basically couldn't ambush him.

Therefore, Rowan liked to scout the surrounding area on the surface. Even if he encountered danger, he only needed to stick his butt up and he could return to the tunnels he excelled at.

At this moment, Rowan was patrolling in clockwise circles around the Mother Nest, constantly expanding his search range to see if there were any dangers nearby.

If the danger was small, he would see if he could solve it; if it was large and unsolvable, he would have to prepare early and run away quickly.

His antennae received some insect chirps from the surroundings. Within his observation range, two sources of sound came from black beetles. They were sprawled on tree trunks, emitting cries that sounded somewhat hysterical.

Rowan had no intention of provoking them; these heavyweights were existences he couldn't afford to offend at the moment. Besides, they were vegetarians. As long as Rowan didn't go over to stir up trouble, there was no conflict of interest, and they could coexist peacefully.

During his third circle of outward patrolling, Rowan discovered a target—an excellent experimental subject.