New Idea

Ever since he turned into an insect, Rowan had been living a life of hardship. He never imagined there could be such a wonderful place where food was everywhere; he could eat until full, sleep, and wake up to eat again—a life of plenty without having to lift a finger.

It would be even better if there were a computer with internet access; this was the life of a shut-in he had dreamed of back in the day.

Unfortunately, he still had many little subordinates waiting to be fed, and the thought of a boss ending up like him was a bit depressing.

After eating his fill, he wandered around. The scale of this ant nest was quite large, and in the depths, he even discovered a queen ant.

The queen's body was much larger than that of a soldier ant, though this wasn't because she was stronger. On the contrary, compared to the soldier ants, her upper body appeared overly slender.

The reason she was larger than the soldier ants was due to her massive abdomen, which accounted for two-thirds of her total size. Given the strength of her limbs, Rowan highly doubted she could even drag herself along.

Indeed, during the time Rowan spent observing her, the queen hadn't moved her body even once.

Around the queen, some worker ants moved back and forth, carrying various foods and lining up to feed her mouth-to-mouth.

This reminded Rowan of a time when one of his own subordinates tried to feed him mouth-to-mouth. Could that ant have mistaken him for a queen back then? That was truly a memory he couldn't bear to look back on.

Fortunately, he had remained firm in his resolve, forcing his instincts to undergo some positive evolution, which led to the creation of his current, independent Mother Nest. Otherwise, if he had turned into the likeness of the queen before him, he would rather be dead.

After scurrying around for a while and finding nothing else of note—no hidden special weapons or unique castes within the ant nest—Rowan felt relieved and crawled out of the ant hole exit in a leisurely manner.

It was his first time visiting a neighbor, and the harvest was bountiful; he was very satisfied.

He made his way back to the transport team's assembly point, but that lucky scout was already gone. Rowan didn't linger and quickly returned toward his own insect nest.

On the way, he ran into the returning transport team and followed them back.

Upon returning to the insect nest, he first checked on the Mother Nest. Everything was fine; the Mother Nest now had an ample daily supply of food, allowing for both production and a surplus for its own growth.

Next, he went to gnaw off a piece of tree root to feed Big Black. Then, he went to the Hatching Room. There were now over a dozen mature Black Ants; excluding the transport team, there were usually five or six left at home to take care of the eggs.

The Hatching Room now contained dozens of eggs and larvae. The first batch of hatched larvae had already spun cocoons with the help of the worker ants, and when they broke out, they would be mature little ants.

Of course, Rowan's Hatching Room was still a far cry from his neighbor's, but Rowan believed this was only temporary.

In the future, once he figured out the functions of certain gene fragments and possessed a sufficient number of resource-gathering insects, he would be able to breed even more powerful bugs. Flattening that ant nest would be a matter of minutes.

Sooner or later, he would have his own pool of wine and forest of meat, living a life of eating and sleeping...

Dreaming of a bright future, Rowan fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, Rowan climbed up early. By now, he already had some new ideas.

He first gnawed off a tree root to feed Big Black, then set off with the transport team.

Arriving about ten meters away from his neighbor's home, Rowan began to dig a hole. This was a major project.

Rowan was responsible for clearing the path ahead, while the transport team hauled the dirt out. When hungry, he would go out, find an ant nearby to demonstrate Rowan's Combat Technique, and then drag it back to share.

The Hatching Room over at the insect nest had a small reserve of food, so they wouldn't run out even if he didn't supplement it for a day.

This was the first time Rowan had dug such a long tunnel. He dug quickly, but he still had to transport the excavated soil out of the hole. As the digging distance increased, the transport time multiplied.

The transport team's efficiency was low and couldn't keep up with Rowan's digging speed, so eventually, he had to dig and transport the soil out himself.

He worked until dark, but the progress was only a little over halfway. Although day and night were much the same to the current Rowan—back when he was struggling to survive underground, he never knew if it was day or night outside—he still retained some habits from his human days. For instance, he habitually wanted to sleep when it got dark. Even if he wasn't tired, his consciousness told him it was time to sleep.

He buried the entrance casually and did some camouflage. Although the extra mound of dirt made the spot somewhat conspicuous, Rowan was still confident he could hide the entrance.

He used his neighbor's identity markers to sprinkle pheromones all around that signaled "Danger, do not approach." He believed that fooling the brainless worker ants like Zhu would be no problem.

Moreover, because the scouts in this direction had suffered heavy casualties recently, very few ants came around here, even though it was close to the neighbor's nest.

He led the transport team to take down three scout soldier ants nearby. They shared one on the spot and brought the body parts of the other two back to the insect nest to fill the food reserves.

After returning to the insect nest, he had done a lot of work today and was too lazy to move again, so Big Black would just have to stay hungry for now.

When he woke up again and climbed to the surface, it wasn't dawn yet. Rowan didn't want to venture out rashly in the dark. He first went to the tree root to replenish his fluids; having eaten ant meat twice yesterday, he found the ant body fluids, which were full of formic acid, a bit nauseating.

After replenishing his water, he brought back a tree root for Big Black, who had been hungry all night.

He spent some time thinking about future plans to pass the time, and as soon as the sky turned slightly bright, he led the transport team out of the insect nest.

They arrived at the spot where he had buried the entrance yesterday. There were no signs of disturbance, so it seemed his plan to use pheromone camouflage for warnings was very successful. However, it was also possible that no scouts had come this way at all.

Subsequently, under Rowan's leadership, the insects began the unfinished work from yesterday in an orderly fashion.

In this tunnel, Rowan had reserved two spots as temporary storage rooms. Although this increased the workload, he still managed to dig the tunnel to the area beneath the neighbor's ant nest by the time the sky grew dim.

He stopped the digging, buried the entrance, and found a few spectators to watch a performance of Rowan's Combat Technique before bringing their conquered bodies back to the insect nest.

After two days of preparatory work, the plan Rowan had envisioned was about to reach its critical moment. On the new day, Rowan took the transport team out; success or failure hinged on this one move.

He brought the transport team to the buried entrance first. There were still no signs of disturbance; the start was very smooth.

After the insects entered the tunnel, Rowan directed the transport team to stand by in the temporary storage room, instructing them to retreat first if they encountered danger. Then, he crawled out of the tunnel alone.

On the way, he wondered if the transport team could understand his intentions. The intelligence of these insects was truly worrying; they couldn't understand even slightly complex expressions. When he had time in the future, he must find a way to improve their intelligence, at least to the point where they could understand some more complicated commands.

Spreading the forged identity information around him, Rowan arrived once again before his neighbor's door.