System acted swiftly and ordered Foolish to command the worker ants and build a nest for him to spend the winter.
Foolish communicated with the worker ants by spraying special acid and touching their antennae. It did not take long before it led more than 100 worker ants from the ant nest nearby and started digging a few meters away.
As the middle management of the ant nest, Foolish had the power to assign normal worker ants.
Usually, a normal soldier ant could command dozens of worker ants, while Foolish, who was smarter, could command more of them, probably around 100 or so.
Theoretically, Foolish could command more worker ants because there was no upper limit to the number of ants that its antic acid could control.
However, commanding too many worker ants would undoubtedly make the soldier ants with poor command ability unable to attend to everything at once. Thus, the controlled worker ants would fall in confusion, lowering their efficiency.
Soldier ants seemed to be born knowing how to command and the appropriate number of ants they could control.
…
The idea of digging a nest was brilliant, but System found it unsatisfactory when watching Foolish lead the worker ants to dig.
Although he had asked Foolish to dig a wider cave, he did not know if Foolish had sent the wrong order or normal ants' intelligence was low. In short, the cave the ants dug was too narrow.
It took nearly an hour of communication for the worker ants to widen the soil near the cave's opening under Foolish's command.
Nevertheless, this was only the opening, and the width of the cave's interior was not known to System.
When System tried to get close to the cave to check, the worker ants would attack him without mercy. After all, System relied on Foolish to command these ants.
As a result, when the less intelligent Foolish commanded lesser intelligent worker ants, it led to a tragedy.
System ordered Foolish to transfer all these worker ants away. Then he discovered that except for the cave's entrance, the inner passage was almost identical to an ant nest. It was so narrow that he could not possibly go through at all.
Except for the first two hours, System and the ant construction team led by Foolish were making no progress for the entire afternoon.
If he kept ordering Foolish to command in the way he wanted, this group of ants would more or less understand and listen to some orders. But this was inefficient in order to meet System's expectations.
"Can't there be any more ants like Foolish?"
System looked at Foolish that was rubbing its limb. If there were hundreds of soldier ants like Foolish under his command, it would not be a problem to build one, or even five caves.
He instructed Foolish to continue digging the cave with the worker ants.
System approached the ant nest and tried to use [Mind Transmission] to find obedient ants like Foolish.
After driving nearly a hundred ants into a rage with his lies, System concluded that Foolish was just a special case among ants.
Even if deceived by his lies, normal ants would notice something wrong and then attack him without hesitation.
"A few dozen seconds?"
System suddenly realized something, but at that moment, he had yet to find the key point.
He thought for a while, played back the images with his [Information Entry], and then keyed in the information of the hundred ants that he had just tried to deceive into the menu of [Self-Information Generation] for statistical analysis.
The time between being deceived and going into a rage was generally around 30 to 60 seconds. Usually, these ants would believe him in the first 20 seconds, but at around 25 seconds, they would become dull and mentally confused.
The time those ants needed to awaken from confusion varied greatly from 5 to 30 seconds, depending on the individual differences.
"Could it be that there is an obvious difference in the lies I told?"
System shook his head. The information he gave to these ants using [Mind Transmission] was basically the same, and even the tone he used was similar.
System re-watched the images in [Information Entry] and was reminded of something. He recalled the images of [Information Entry] a few hours ago and found the key point he had thought of earlier.
A few hours ago, he had ordered Foolish to catch an ant larva from the nest.
Before eating the ant larva, he had also told it a lie using [Mind Transmission]. Although it had eventually caught him telling a lie, it had been deceived for nearly five minutes. Adult ants would see through his lies in a short period.
If he could get Foolish to catch more ant larva from the nest for him to test out…
No!
The success rate on ant larvae might still be low, but how about the eggs before they became larva?
By brainwashing ants from the egg stage, would they become as obedient as Foolish?
If this hypothesis was true, he could order Foolish to carry some eggs for him to brainwash. After the eggs were hatched and the larvae grew into adult ants, he would have many ants that only worked for him.
Unfortunately, it was impossible to determine the needed time for the process, as he did not know the dark-brown ants' growth cycle.
Also, Foolish could not track the amount of time spent. When System asked how long it took to mature from when it was born, it gave a puzzled look and could not answer at all.
If it took too long, for ants to mature, System could only give up and find another way.
…
While System was making plans about winter, a bug returned from Leyte Forest to the abyss across the void.
Leyte Forest was covered with ice and snow all year round, and ever since the Glacier Lord had disappeared 300 years ago, the ice and snow there had started to melt. It had become a place with four distinct seasons.
Shadow had been traveling between the abyss and the Leyte Forest for 30 years.
Every year at the end of summer, her master, an Abyssal Druid, would use a special secret spell and send her into the main world. She had to search for bugs that had power beyond their race limit and bring them to the abyss.
Shadow loved the sunshine of the main world, but she could not stay for too long.
Abyssal Druids, formerly known as Swarm Druids, specialized in ordering insect swarms in nature, and they belonged to a branch of the Druids.
After the Swarm Druids had surrendered to Demon Overlord Ogan, the Druids' traitor, the Swarm Druids, had been called the Abyssal Druids.
They used the flesh and blood of bugs to rebuild a demon nest, which could significantly improve the incubation efficiency of the newborn demons. Thus, they developed many new types of demons.
Shadow did not know that until ten years ago when she had slowly started to understand this.
Shadow was regretful as she had been forced to kill two of her kind who had betrayed the master.
At that time, she had known nothing.
Shadow knew that she possessed intelligence now, just like those two who had betrayed the master.
After handing over a bug, whose power had reached the limit of its race, to her master, Shadow had disappeared into the shadows.
However, she had concealed one special bug she had found in the Leyte Forest—Quin.
Shadow looked forward to meeting Quin again the following year. Although Quin was much weaker than her, she had something that she did not have…
At a rubble pile near Foolish's nest, System collected food onto a caved-in rock, and then secreted [Corrosive Slime], spraying it over the food.
Ever since he had found that Foolish could order the normal worker ants, System no longer had to worry about food or work hard to snatch from the ants.
All he had to do was sit back and wait for nearly 100 ants to carry food from the ant nest and act as his free laborers.
Now, System's constraint was no longer the time needed to catch normal ants but rather his consumption speed. After all, he could not swallow his prey straight down like a snake.
Undoubtedly, System would waste a lot of time if he chewed the food. Thus, he thought of using his [Corrosive Slime] to digest the food outside of his body, after which he would only need to suck in the half-digested food to save him a lot of time.
After leveling up several times, [Corrosive Slime] could allow him to secrete sufficient slime for him to complete the digestion outside his body.
Although some of his energy would be consumed by secreting and retrieving [Corrosive Slime], it was negligible when he had the worker ants to carry an infinite amount of food for him.
System's only concern was that the food would have a funny taste. After all, the slime would mix together different kinds of insect carcasses and mushrooms after melting them.
Fortunately, when System gave it a try, he found that the taste was not like he thought.
Grasshoppers had a completely different taste structure than humans, and System did not feel any weird flavor while swallowing this liquid. On the contrary, he found the taste delicious, which was similar to mixed fruit yogurt.
…
After swallowing the liquid, it made his abdomen bulge slightly. Then System tried to brainwash the few ant eggs Foolish had brought.
The dark-brown ants' eggs were translucent, white with a hue of yellow, and were about three millimeters in size, faintly emitting the signature acidic smell of ants.
These ant eggs were incubated to different degrees. One could see the ant larvae's outline through the outer layer of gelatin, meaning they were expected to hatch soon. Others did not have a solid shape of larvae formed inside, meaning they would take longer to hatch.
System used [Mind Transmission] and tried to communicate with them.
Unlike ant larvae, these eggs could send him intimate emotions as if they were returning to their mother's embrace once his [Mind Transmission] was connected.
The longer the time left to hatching, the more intimate their emotion was, but the weaker the spirit power they fed back.
If the ant queen had just laid the eggs and the larvae were undeveloped, they would not respond to System's [Mind Transmission]. Apparently, this kind of egg was like a plant that had not developed thoughts yet.
The ants that were about to hatch would see through his lie after being hypnotized for six or seven minutes. Then they would treat System as an eternal enemy, just like normal adult ants.
The eggs that still needed more time to hatch could be deceived for a longer time, and only after ten minutes would they realize that System was not one of their kind.
Unlike the eggs that were about to hatch, they would not permanently see System as their enemy.
As long as [Spirit Transmission] continued to reassure them with [Mind Transmission] when they regarded System as an enemy, they would believe that System was their queen again.
Of course, after some time, they would find out that System was not one of their kind again.
…
After a whole day of repeatedly brainwashing the ant eggs, System finally figured out the pattern to brainwash them.
By continuously communicating through [Mind Transmission], the time that the eggs believed him was significantly increased, and they had fewer suspicions.
If he followed this trend to keep brainwashing the eggs with [Mind Transmission], System would be able to subdue an egg in about three days' time and turn it like Foolish.
Although this method succeeded in meeting System's expectation, and it would not be a problem for him to control hundreds of ants using that way, System was unsatisfied with the outcome.
[Mind Transmission]'s efficiency in brainwashing these eggs was too low. He had to keep an eye on them at all times, as once they suspected him, he would have to use [Mind Transmission] immediately to calm them.
Otherwise, all his previous efforts would be wasted.
Thus, he had to monitor the eggs for about three days and could not leave for too long.
It was fine if there were only a few eggs, but he would be unable to implement this method if there were too many. Also, it would speed up his spiritual energy consumption, making it impossible for him to last for three days.
Nevertheless, with plenty of food at this point, System had nothing else to do.
As long as he continued to eat and waited for about 14 days, he would be able to reach Level 12 and then undergo his third molting.
System pondered for a while. 'Brainwashing the eggs is a better and more prudent option than venturing out in search of edible magical creatures.'
System ordered Foolish to steal a few eggs from the nest before asking it to continue leading the worker ants to construct his cave.
After that, System got busy near those rocks, discarding the eggs that were about to hatch or the ones that would take too long to hatch. In the end, System was left with 13 eggs.
With a rate of 13 eggs at a time, putting aside the time needed for resting, System would have 100 ants, loyal to him, in about a month. Of course, they were only ant larvae that did not yet possess any ability, and he would still be busy for a while after that.
In turn, System used [Mind Transmission] to send intimate emotions, like a mother to her child, to those eggs, and then responded to their feedback one at a time.
After experimenting for an entire day, System was very proficient in brainwashing the ant eggs. Though it was a bit exhausting to brainwash 13 ant eggs, it was not impossible to do so.
System observed the eggs in front of him and suddenly noticed something. Then a blue glow flickered in his compound eyes.
[Information Reading]!
System scrutinized the eggs, used his hard forelegs to scratch the eggs, and then put the eggs' mucus into his mouth to taste.
System eventually picked out a special ant egg from these eggs. The pattern on this one was slightly different from the others, and [Information Reading]'s analysis indicated that this egg was extraordinary.
System recalled his knowledge about ants in his previous life, as the habits of ants in this world should be similar to those in his previous life.
In a nest of ants, the eggs laid by the queen would be able to hatch to produce four types of ants. One of them was a male, known as a male ant who would mate with the queen or a female ant and die shortly after mating.
The rest were females, known as female ants, soldier ants, and worker ants.
Female ants had the right to mate, and if they were lucky, they could build a new nest and become the new queen. Usually, there would be only one queen per nest.
Soldier ants and worker ants were incomplete female ants. Although they were female, they could not mate. The soldier ants were mainly responsible for guarding the nest, while the worker ants had to take care of all the chores in the colony.
…
System stared at the extraordinary egg while his antennae kept shaking.
He could not tell if this egg was a soldier ant, a male ant, or a female ant, but it did not matter. By discovering the differences between the eggs, System was inspired.
Why would he want to brainwash normal worker ants?
He could brainwash a female and train it to become the ant queen!
If the queen regarded him as her kind, it was very likely that its children would acknowledge him, too.
He would be a new ant nest's owner!
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GOT IT