Big-Headed Ant

After realizing that the Big-Headed Ant territory was indeed unexpectedly small, Rowan began to pay attention to the surrounding trees during his exploration, wondering if they were also engaged in animal husbandry.

Even with animal husbandry, it would be difficult to support so many combat units with such a small territory without damaging the vegetation.

Rowan did find some Aphid on the trees along the way, but there was no sign of large-scale aphid farming. However, he made another unexpected discovery.

On the yellowish-brown muddy ground, an unusual stream caught Rowan's attention.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that this small stream was actually made of flowing leaves. The leaves were being transported by Worker Ant of the Big-Headed Ant colony. Regardless of their size, each ant used its mandibles to hold leaves several times its own size as it moved.

The transport team also included some larger Soldier Ant, who patrolled around the stream. While ensuring the safety of the Worker Ant, they were also responsible for clearing some small obstacles along the way, making the originally uneven road a little smoother. Of course, they had to detour around obstacles that were too large.

The Green Leaf Creek flowed in the direction of the Big-Headed Ant Nest, Rowan walked against the current.

Soon, he discovered the source of the leaves.

This was a rather tall tree, at least fifty meters high, and the green stream flowed down from the top. However, due to the dense branches at the top, Rowan couldn't see it clearly.

However, it doesn't matter; the sticky hairs on his Walking Leg are enough to support him as if walking on flat ground on the smooth rock face, and climbing a tree is a piece of cake.

Having altered his pheromones to disguise himself as a rock that should be avoided, Rowan dodged the Big-Headed Ant and sped upwards along the other side of the tree trunk.

Looking at the tops of the trees, he saw a magical scene.

On some tender leaves at the top, the Worker Ant of the Big-Headed Ant use their mandibles like scissors. They insert one end into the upper part of the leaf and use the other end to cut from bottom to top, repeating this process over and over again.

Finally, a portion of the leaf was neatly cut off, and they carefully lifted it with their jaws to avoid it falling, before it became part of the green leaf stream.

The Worker Ant that followed continued to cut the leaf until it was completely cut.

Even Big-Headed Ant know how to protect vegetation. They only collect about one-third of the leaves from each branch, leaving two-thirds intact, in order to minimize the impact on the vegetation.

Their behavior made Rowan wonder if there was an intelligent soul directing them.

However, Rowan discovered that the Big-Headed Ant did not eat these leaves; they simply cut them up and carried them back to their nest continuously.

What are they trying to do?

Rowan knew that the Worker Ant working in his Aphid Pasture usually fed themselves first. Any leftovers would be shared with their neighbors, and only after everyone was full would they carry the remaining food back to the nest...

Rowan had been watching for so long, but he hadn't found a single Big-Headed Ant stealing the food, which was highly unusual.

When he first discovered this place, he thought these leaves were on the diet of Big-Headed Ant. If so, it would explain why they had so much labor and manpower despite having such a small territory.

You should know that none of the other ant species Rowan had seen ate the leaves of this tree.

Now it seems the situation has changed; if Big-Headed Ant don't eat leaves, then why do they go through the trouble of collecting them?

Rowan was puzzled, but he knew it must be related to the secret of their powerful ability to mass produce troops. He had been wandering around the Big-Headed Ant territory for so long, and this was the only unusual place besides the chimneys of their nests.

The secret must be hidden inside the Ant Nest. Rowan was itching to know, but unfortunately, due to his size, he had long since given up the work of infiltrating and spying.

So now we have no choice but to resort to some special measures.

Although the Big-Headed Ant don't seem particularly aggressive, even if their territory is small, they still block the expansion of the Swarm, and a battle between the two sides is inevitable sooner or later.

That will be the time when the secret is revealed.

Now, Rowan needs to seize the initiative and fight a well-prepared war.

Encountering a stronger new opponent, Rowan was somewhat excited, and he returned to the main base in a very short time.

Upon examining the Mother Nest, it was discovered that the Super-Giant Big-Headed Soldier Ant still use the same ordinary ant nutrition system. However, their muscles are unusually developed and powerful, allowing them to expel oxygen to a greater distance, thus supporting their enormous size.

The muscle-strengthening gene fragments are quite useful, but the others are just so-so.

After creating several new insects, Rowan planned to learn from the Big-Headed Ant and classify Soldier Ant and Worker Ant into more than a dozen different sizes. However, he later realized that this was unnecessary, as Swarm have their own development patterns and there's no need to copy everything.

For example, Big-Headed Ant use Soldier Ant and Major Worker and Median Worker as transportation tools, Minor Worker workers are responsible for securing the transported goods. However, the Swarm has Transport Bug with stronger carrying capacity, as well as Mucus Bug responsible for securing the items, making it even more convenient.

As for the production plan, we'll place an order for 500 Ant Queen first, Ant Queen.

Before engaging the Big-Headed Ant, the first step is to deal with the Red Ant Nest and the territory that will take over their territory.

These 500 queen Ant Queen were initially deployed to the front lines to mass produce troops, and later they were sent out to take over territories.

Of course, a Red Ant Nest doesn't need five hundred Ant Queen, but adding the Big-Headed Ant would be about right.

This is called being prepared for a rainy day.

Of the Ant Queen, over 500 were too far from the northern front line, as transporting them would consume too much resources and thus not be assigned production tasks. However, they did have a mission: to transport supplies to bases closer to the front line.

Meanwhile, the remaining nearly two thousand Ant Queen began to mass produce more soldiers.

As time passed, the newly produced insects at each base gradually emerged from their pupae and were then transported to the Frontline Base along with large quantities of supplies.

A month later, including the Northern Army that had already been summoned and stationed there, the Swarm had gathered a total of 500,000 Soldier Ant of various species and more than 1.5 million Worker Ant.

With the addition of various auxiliary troops, the total number of troops reached a staggering 2.1 million.

This is the largest military operation the Swarm has ever undertaken. Rowan showing great sincerity, raising the strategic threat level of the Big-Headed Ant to the highest level, and is going all out to deal with it this time.

As the saying goes, "An army marches on its stomach."

This army of over two million is the maximum force the Swarm can currently muster; that's over two million mouths to feed. Behind the army, there are over two thousand Branch Base, with over twelve million Worker Ant ensuring logistics. Throughout the territory, there are over five thousand Transport Bug, continuously transporting resources produced by each base to the front lines.

Even so, due to the short notice, there are still some shortages of supplies.

But it's alright, there's a Granary right ahead of the army...