"I often ponder the meaning of life."
Ant continued, talking to itself. "Is life a collection of individual ants, or a collective consciousness made up of ants, like me? The queen is my heart. Your human hearts pump blood, and my queen plays a similarly vital role."
"If you consider each ant a single unit, then there are 1.6 billion ants before you. Those 1.6 billion ants dutifully follow the guidance of pheromones. In motion, they form an enormous organization, and the contact between their antennae gave rise to me."
"Father and Mother told me that humans, too, are merely collective consciousnesses made up of cells."
Xie De gathered his stunned wits. Although he would have liked to discuss the philosophy of life and consciousness with this nonhuman creature, he really had no time to indulge it.
"Ant, we're here to negotiate with you."
"Negotiate?"
455 hurriedly said, "We need you to look the other way, turn off all surveillance, provide the Immortal's location, open a route from here to the Immortal, issue false orders, and divert all the guards. In exchange, we can give you whatever you want."
Ant said, "So your real target isn't me, but No. 13-the Immortal?"
455 said, "Yes. Weren't you the one intercepting all my earlier attacks? But you didn't raise the alarm. Does that mean you're willing to help us?"
As they spoke, Xie De lowered his head and looked down. He could clearly see a line engraved beneath the glass: No. 142-Ant.
Ant said in surprise, "Of course not. I didn't raise the alarm because you aren't the only ones constantly trying to breach my defenses. The Club is doing the same thing. Their hacking system is called the Hive."
"I simply couldn't distinguish between you."
"I'm sorry, but I can't betray