Discovered

The current solution to the problem is to continue searching for new Black Ant nests to share the pressure, or to wait until the number of insects in the Mother Nest reaches a certain level, then completely annihilate an ant nest, turn them all into rations, and occupy that territory.

The two methods do not conflict; one can search for new Black Ant nests while simultaneously eroding the neighbor's nest. It is just that, in doing so, Rowan will have to get busy again.

It shouldn't be too difficult to engineer a few Spy Bugs to infiltrate the nest and feast. However, expecting them to complete Rowan's current work—stealing food while cleaning up all traces—is likely beyond the intelligence of these insects.

If they were to slip up and be tracked by the Black Ants back to the Mother Nest, it would be difficult to defend given the Mother Nest's current combat strength. Therefore, the work of infiltrating the nest and transporting food must be done by Rowan himself.

As for exploration, Rowan has already searched the area within dozens of meters around the Mother Nest; to find new Black Ant nests, he needs to go further afield.

The insects currently in the Mother Nest are basically modeled after Black Ants and are effectively blind, relying primarily on close-range contact with their antennae to complete search tasks.

This method faces many dangers, and as the distance of travel increases, the probability of encountering danger will increase exponentially.

With the current number of insects in the Mother Nest, it is difficult to sustain such heavy losses.

Now he needs new insects that can see with eyes, possess a certain field of vision, and can detect many dangers on the road in advance, then summarize and report the gathered information.

But the matter returns to the starting point: Rowan can likely engineer the hardware, but the insects' intelligence cannot complete such complex reconnaissance tasks, and intelligence is something he cannot engineer.

The insects currently in the Mother Nest are fine for mechanical, repetitive tasks, but they are clueless when it comes to slightly more complex missions and cannot understand Rowan's intentions; these all require Rowan to take the field himself.

When he has the time and ability in the future, he must create some insects with brains. They don't need to be many, just enough to have someone capable of leading the team when things happen.

Complaints aside, the work that needs to be done cannot be neglected. Every day, Rowan transports enough supplies to keep the transport team busy for a day into the temporary storage room, then seals the passage connecting to the Hatching Room tightly, covering the surrounding area with pheromones like "Danger, Do Not Approach."

After doing this, he crawls out of the Mother Nest and begins to explore further afield.

Development within the Mother Nest is also proceeding in an orderly manner; the first batch of pupated larvae have broken out of their cocoons and become the new generation of adult ants. As they gradually grow, they will participate in various aspects of the work.

The Mother Nest has now become larger, and although Rowan's own size has grown recently, he estimates he can no longer pull the Mother Nest as it is now.

Operating on the principle of staying prepared for danger, Rowan used Big Black as a template and removed its digging leg genes, because after observation, he found that its giant mandibles in front of its head actually conflicted with the digging legs. That pair of giant mandibles, which unfolded wider than its body, was not very convenient for underground activities.

At the same time, he added pheromone gene segments for communication and identity recognition, then had the Mother Nest produce a dozen or so eggs based on this. If they can hatch successfully, they will specialize in fighting and guarding the Mother Nest in the future.

This is the first time Rowan has used a template of his own design to hatch insects via eggs.

This is a brand-new attempt; he does not know if these insect templates, which are not mature in the natural world, can also be produced starting from the egg stage.

If these insects with brand-new gene sequences can have a complete developmental process, be born successfully, and grow into mature forms, then he believes that when the Mother Nest's resources are abundant, a series of non-naturally evolved insects—but ones possessing many advantages and functions—will be born one after another.

By then, the Mother Nest's sphere of influence will expand like a snowball, and there will no longer be a need to parasitize ant nests to suck blood for growth as he does now.

Imagining a bright future, Rowan is full of motivation, and things seem to be moving in a good direction.

A few days later, hard work pays off; Rowan discovered another Black Ant nest in a different direction from the Mother Nest.

The scale of this nest is even larger; Rowan discovered at least 50 Soldier Ants inside. Based on this, the number of members in this nest might reach three or four thousand.

The nest not only has a larger, more spacious Hatching Room, but there are actually two of them, in addition to several food storage rooms. The worker ants grind food that is not currently being eaten and is not easily perishable into powder with their mandibles, then secrete some mucus to wrap it to prevent it from spoiling or rotting.

Of course, the Hatching Room is filled with even more Yellow Worms. These parasites actually dared to steal from Rowan's granary; it is simply unforgivable. Consequently, Rowan gave each of them a mouthful of thick phlegm.

This newly discovered nest is about a hundred meters away from Rowan's Mother Nest. Moreover, the number of Black Ants is high, the daily patrol range is very large, and there are no patrol blind spots. This passage for stealing food must be dug for at least 50 meters or more. For Rowan, this is a truly massive project.

Fortunately, Rowan's subordinates have increased quite a bit. Leaving more than twenty ants for the transport team to move food and more than twenty newly emerged ants at home to take care of the larvae, he led the remaining dozens of ants to begin the grand excavation work.

Now, Rowan's daily work is quite fulfilling. Early in the morning, he first runs to Ant Nest No. 1 to transport food to the storage room, seals the passage, and lets the transport team work on their own. Then, he returns home without stopping, takes the excavation team to Ant Nest No. 2 to dig the passage, and along the way, he finds some members of his new neighbors to demonstrate Rowan's Combat Technique, lest this skill fall into disuse.

The Black Ants who watch the performance usually cannot afford Rowan's appearance fee, so they can only pay with their lives, ending up being eaten by the excavation team.

Time flies, and just as this ultra-long smuggling passage is about to be completed, something goes wrong with the transport team.

Because the smuggling passage to the old neighbor, Ant Nest No. 1, was dug nearby by relying on a patrol blind spot, it was only about 10 meters away from the nest.

However, as Rowan's focus shifted and he stopped going there to perform Rowan's Combat Technique, the number of scouting worker ants in that area gradually increased.

Just today, as luck would have it, the transport team had just crawled out of the passage entrance carrying food when they ran head-on into a scouting worker ant.

That worker ant saw so many ants that looked just like it, yet lacked its own identity credentials, and immediately wanted to step forward to argue.

The transport team was not in a good mood either. After their antennae touched violently, they eventually started fighting.

The scouting worker ant was, of course, no match for the numerous transport team, but it was the transport team's first time fighting, and with so many insects, they actually let that worker ant run away...

The transport team didn't pay it any mind. As a result, after they transported the food back to the Mother Nest and returned, they were caught red-handed by the scout who had gone home to gather reinforcements.