Infiltration

Rowan found a lucky test subject first. This one was truly lucky, as it didn't get to witness the opening move of Rowan's Combat Technique.

After observing the test subject for a moment, Rowan instinctively used his newly acquired ability, gradually adjusting the pheromones he emitted.

Pheromones are a general term for compounds that facilitate chemical communication between organisms. They have many subdivisions, and basically all plants and animals produce various types of pheromones.

Examples include altruistic pheromones, selfish pheromones, cooperative pheromones, aggregation pheromones, tracking pheromones, alarm pheromones, dispersal pheromones, sex pheromones, and so on.

Ant pheromones, in particular, are a mixture of multiple components, including the scent of the ant colony itself, which they use to communicate with their companions, much like an ID card.

Rowan was now adjusting this very pheromone. His new ability allowed him to infiltrate the neighbor's household registration system and fabricate an identity out of thin air. Afterward, Rowan displayed this fabricated identity.

As the distance to the scout ant shortened, it finally detected a faint, unfamiliar vibration approaching, and its antennae extended.

The scout ant's antennae touched Rowan, probing him back and forth. Rowan waited nervously for the result, unsure if anything would go wrong the first time he used this ability. He was ready to counterattack at any moment.

Fortunately, after probing for a while, the scout ant found no anomalies. Since Rowan didn't display any further information, only his "ID," the scout ant ignored him and continued its search ahead.

Rowan thought for a moment, then moved his body, blocking the scout ant's path again.

This time, he not only presented his "ID" but also displayed another message: "There's food over there, follow me."

The scout ant's antennae twitched for a moment, and it actually chose to follow him.

Rowan then led it a short distance away from the ant nest before displaying Rowan's Combat Technique. The scout ant, not understanding why its "own kind" would suddenly attack it, couldn't mount an effective counterattack before it died.

Rowan's eyes lit up; he seemed to have discovered a new hunting method.

He dragged the scout ant's corpse to the rendezvous point with the transport team and left a "take it back" pheromone on it, of course, using the one derived from his Hive ID.

This was a precaution in case he wandered too far and couldn't return in time. If the transport team returned without a new mission and ran around aimlessly, it was less than twenty meters from the ant nest, and if they ran in the wrong direction, it would be a death sentence.

Although Rowan had more and more subordinates now, he wasn't that well-off. He saved where he could and took precautions for situations he could foresee.

The transport team making an extra trip gave Rowan more time to slowly experience his first infiltration journey.

Displaying his forged ID, Rowan swaggered towards the entrance of the neighbor's nest.

More and more black ants appeared on the path, but they either ignored Rowan completely or touched him with their antennae before moving on.

Rowan easily passed through the layers of defense and reached the entrance of the ant nest.

Looking at the dark opening, he didn't rush in. The ant nest had previously hidden soldier ants, and who knew what other strange soldier types might be lurking within.

Although the Yellow Bug had boldly entered before, its life was certainly not as precious as his, so he had to be sneaky. No, he had to be cautious.

He chose a spot and began digging beneath the ant nest. His fuzzy body could sense a large network of dense, hollow passages underground in this area.

Around the ant nest, he dug several passages, not wide, just enough for him to pass through. This way, if he encountered danger, he could dig into a nearby escape route. Small worker ants now posed little threat, and large soldier ants would have difficulty navigating these passages.

After finishing, Rowan returned to the surface and went to the entrance of the ant nest.

Taking a deep breath in his heart to calm his slightly tense mood, he then crawled into the ant nest.

The entrance of the ant nest was filled with all sorts of messy pheromones. A large number of black ants were coming and going, making the already spacious entrance extremely crowded.

Although Rowan looked no different from them except for his color, this place only recognized Hive IDs, not appearance or species.

As long as you had our colony's ID, you were one of us. It was that simple and crude.

A soldier ant crawled out of a cave, its massive body blocking more than half of the tunnel, exerting considerable pressure on Rowan. Moreover, the terrain here was not suitable for agile combat, and if he were discovered as an undocumented ant, the consequences would be dire.

Fortunately, this soldier ant showed no signs of abnormality. Rowan, like other black ants, stepped on the soldier ant's head and crawled over it, heading deeper into the nest.

The ant nest gradually branched into many paths, some wide, some narrow. Rowan, at his current size, couldn't pass through the narrow ones. This was his first visit to his neighbor's house, and he wasn't sure if arbitrarily widening their passages would be considered impolite, so he honestly continued along the wider paths.

The internal structure of the ant nest was very complex. Fortunately, Rowan had no specific destination; he was just visiting for the first time, so he wandered around randomly.

However, the passages he could pass through were all main routes. After meandering, he slowly arrived in a huge, hollowed-out cave.

This was the neighbor's hatching room. The cave was covered in a layer of eggs and pupae, with some larvae wriggling among them.

Several soldier ants patrolled the area, along with a dense crowd of worker ants. They were constantly bringing food into the room, while others were busy processing the food, eating it, and then regurgitating it to feed the larvae.

Mixed in among them were several Yellow Bugs. Their yellowish-brown bodies, a size larger than the worker ants, stood out conspicuously among the black figures.

However, the ants didn't find them unusual. The Yellow Bugs, like some worker ants, ate the food on the ground. But they skipped the step of regurgitating the food to feed the larvae.

Rowan watched from the side, exclaiming, "Awesome!" He was amazed at how brazen the Yellow Bugs were. They infiltrated someone else's nest and freeloaded. No wonder he had only seen Yellow Bugs entering the ant nest before, but none leaving, which had made him nervous during this infiltration, fearing the ant nest harbored some secret weapon.

He hadn't expected these guys to have no intention of leaving once they arrived; they just moved in.

Rowan picked up a piece of food from the ground, which appeared to be the muscle of some insect. After eating it, he picked up another piece. Rowan didn't recognize this one; it looked like a secretion from some insect or plant, and it was sweet.

One piece here, another there, food was everywhere. This was the accumulation of an ant nest with over a thousand members.

Rowan also felt a bit reluctant to leave.