New Ideas

Ever since becoming a bug, Rowan had lived a hard life. He'd never imagined there could be such a wonderful place, with food everywhere. Eat your fill, sleep, and when you woke up, you could eat again. You didn't have to do a thing to stay well fed.

It would've been even better if there were a computer with internet access. This was the shut-in life he'd dreamed of back then.

Unfortunately, he still had a bunch of little underlings crying out to be fed. Being a leader like him was a bit of a headache when he thought about it.

After eating his fill, he wandered around some more. This ant nest was quite large. Deep inside, he even found an Ant Queen.

The Ant Queen was much larger than the Soldier Ants, but not because she was stronger. On the contrary, compared with the Soldier Ants, her upper body looked far too slender.

The reason she was larger was her enormous abdomen, which made up two-thirds of her body. Given the strength of her limbs, Rowan seriously doubted she could even drag herself around.

In fact, during the entire time Rowan watched her, the Ant Queen didn't move at all.

A few Worker Ants bustled around her, carrying all kinds of food. They lined up and fed the Ant Queen mouth to mouth.

This reminded Rowan of an underling he'd once had who'd wanted to feed him mouth to mouth. Had that ant mistaken him for an Ant Queen? It was an embarrassing memory he'd rather forget.

Fortunately, he'd stayed firm in his resolve back then and forced his instincts to undergo some positive evolution, giving him the Mother Nest he had now. Otherwise, if he'd turned into an Ant Queen like the one before him, he'd honestly have been better off dead.

After scurrying around for a while, he found nothing else unusual. There were no hidden weapons or special breeds of ants in the nest, either, so Rowan put his mind at ease and leisurely crawled out through the ant nest's entrance.

His first visit to the neighbors had been quite fruitful. He was very satisfied.

By the time he returned to the Transport Team's gathering point, the lucky scout had disappeared. Rowan didn't linger and quickly headed back to the Insect Nest.

On the way, he ran into the Transport Team returning, so he went back with them.

After returning to the Insect Nest, he first checked on the Mother Nest. Nothing was wrong. It had a steady supply of food each day, with some left over for its own growth even after producing more.

Then he went and gnawed off a section of tree root to feed Big Black. After that, he headed to the Hatching Room. There were now more than ten Mature Form Black Ants. Apart from those in the Transport Team, five or six usually stayed home to care for the eggs.

The Hatching Room now held dozens of Insect Eggs and larvae. With the Worker Ants' help, the larvae from the first batch had already spun their cocoons. Once they emerged, they'd be fully grown little ants.

Of course, Rowan's Hatching Room still couldn't compare with the neighbor's, but he believed that was only temporary.

In the future, once he figured out what certain gene fragments did and had a sufficient number of resource-gathering bugs, he'd breed even stronger bugs. Flattening the ant nest would take no time at all.

Sooner or later, he'd have his own pond of wine and forest of meat, living a life of eating his fill, sleeping, and eating again...

Dreaming of a bright future, Rowan fell asleep.

The next day, Rowan got up early. He already had some new ideas.

First, he gnawed off a tree root to feed Big Black, then set off with the Transport Team.

About ten meters from the neighbors' home, Rowan began digging. This was going to be a huge job.

Rowan led the way, while the Transport Team carried the soil out. Whenever he got hungry, he'd go nearby, demonstrate Rowan's Combat Technique on an ant, then drag it back to share.

The Hatching Room back at the Insect Nest had some food stored up, so it wouldn't run out if they went a day without replenishing it.

This was Rowan's first time digging such a long passage. He dug quickly, but the soil still had to be carried outside. The farther he dug, the longer it took to transport it, too.

The Transport Team wasn't very efficient and couldn't keep up with Rowan's digging. In the end, he had to dig and carry the soil out himself.

He worked until nightfall, but had only finished a little over half the passage. Though day and night were much the same to Rowan now—back when he'd been scraping by underground, he hadn't even known whether it was day or night outside—he'd still kept some habits from his human days. For instance, when it got dark, he'd instinctively want to sleep. He might not have been tired, but his mind told him it was time for bed.

He loosely covered the entrance and did some camouflage. The mound of soil beside it stood out like a sore thumb, making the area conspicuous, but Rowan was still confident he could conceal the entrance.

Using the neighbors' scent markers as cover, he spread pheromones all around, conveying "Danger, keep away." He was sure it would fool those brainless Worker Ants.

Besides, scouts in this direction had suffered heavy casualties recently. Even though this place wasn't far from the neighbors' home, few ants came this way anymore.

He led the Transport Team in killing three Engineer Ants scouting nearby. They ate one on the spot, then carried the other two back to the Insect Nest, along with their body parts, to replenish their food stores.

After returning to the Insect Nest, he'd done plenty of work that day and couldn't be bothered to move anymore. Big Black would just have to go hungry for now...

When he woke again and crawled to the surface, it wasn't dawn yet. Rowan didn't want to venture out carelessly in the dark, either. He first went to the tree root to replenish his fluids. He'd eaten two meals of ant meat the day before, and ants' bodily fluids were all formic acid. Too much made him feel a little nauseated.

After rehydrating, he brought back a tree root for Big Black, who'd been hungry all night.

He spent some time thinking about his plans for the future. As soon as the sky began to brighten, he set out with the Transport Team and crawled out of the Insect Nest.

They hurried to the spot where he'd covered the entrance the day before. There were no signs it had been disturbed. It seemed his plan to use pheromones as a warning had worked perfectly. Then again, perhaps no scouts had come this way at all.

At Rowan's direction, the bugs got to work in an orderly fashion, continuing what they hadn't finished the day before.

Along the passage, Rowan had also left two chambers to serve as temporary Storage Rooms. It added to the workload, but by the time the sky began to darken, they'd managed to dig the passage beneath the neighbors' ant nest.

They stopped digging, covered the entrance, and found a few spectators to watch Rowan's Combat Technique. Then they returned to the Insect Nest with the conquered bodies.

After two days of preparation, Rowan's plan was about to reach its crucial moment. On the new day, he set out with the Transport Team. Everything depended on this.

He first led the Transport Team to the covered entrance. There were still no signs it had been disturbed. So far, so good.

Once all the bugs were inside the passage, Rowan ordered the Transport Team to wait in the temporary Storage Rooms and retreat first if danger arose. Then he crawled out alone.

On the way, he wondered whether the Transport Team could understand what he meant. These bugs' intelligence was genuinely worrying. They couldn't understand anything even slightly complicated. Once he had time, he'd have to find a way to make them smarter. At the very least, they needed to understand more complex commands.

Spreading the forged identity pheromones around him, Rowan once again approached the neighbors' home.