Laws of the Insect Hive

Watching the scorpion corpse and the ant squad in the gravel gap, System thought briefly...

As darkness approaches, the ant colony's range will begin to gradually shrink, leaving only a few worker ants to patrol around the ant nest.

But when a large amount of food is found, the ant colony will send a large number of worker ants to carry the food in the dark.

Ants are one such creature, hoarding food from summer in preparation for the harsh winters and lack of food.

System recalled a little story from his previous life.

It is about the grasshopper musicians laughing at the ants who work hard all day for not knowing how to enjoy life in summer, and the lazy grasshopper is judged by the cold in winter.

The story sets off the industriousness of the ant with the laziness of the grasshopper.

The fact is also true, ants are indeed a hard-working life.

"But even without the severe cold of winter, grasshoppers can't live that long..."

Recalling the story, System thought of himself, and he looked at the lifespan column on the [Self-Information Generation Technique], 62 days.

After this dark night, his lifespan will become 61 days.

Anyone who knows that the countdown to their few lives will be unhappy.

However, System was also glad that he had such a countdown so that he would not suddenly die suddenly at the end of the autumn.

Without thinking about it, System found a dead grass branch and jumped towards the ant team.

After a whole day of fighting and sparring, System was already very familiar with the worker ants of this black-brown ant.

Ants are fools to play with if they can successfully deal with their innate fighting instinct.

Usually after encountering an enemy, these ants will bite the opponent and secrete acid (pheromone) with a pungent smell, and other ants who smell this smell will swarm up and continue to secrete this acid, attracting More ants until the opponent dies or escapes.

System’s method of attracting the dozen or so ants was also based on this principle, grabbing the ants to make the straw sticks stained with the ants’ acid, and using the straw sticks to attract the dozen or so ants away.

...

From catching a hapless worker ant and forcing the worker ants to secrete acid onto the straw, to attracting most of the ants around the scorpion.

System's actions were very smooth.

Step by step, he led the ants to a puddle two meters away, and finally inserted the straw sticks containing acid into the silt of the stagnant water.

Because ants hate to touch the stagnant water, these dozen ants circled the stagnant puddle in circles.

System did not observe these stupid ants any more, and returned directly to the corpse of the scorpion two meters away.

Stopping the ant squad from calling out to the ant nest companions around the scorpion corpse, System began to test the two ants that remained near the scorpion corpse with [Corrosive Slime].

Although it is a good idea to use [Corrosive Slime] to draw the ground as a prison, it is also a major premise that [Corrosive Slime] has an effect.

After more than ten minutes, System's test turned out to be successful, and the [corrosive slime] had an obvious repelling effect on the ants.

If there are no special circumstances, these ants will take the initiative to avoid them at a distance of three or five centimeters from [Corrosive Slime]; and if System provokes the ants, even if [Corrosive Slime] is close at hand, they will rush come up.

Using his powerful hind legs to kick the two ants away one after another, System began to draw the ground with his [Corrosive Slime] as a prison.

System’s dungeon was not drawn directly with mucus. After all, the amount of mucus he could produce was really limited. He secreted a little more near the fixed line where the ants moved, while in other places it only dripped sporadically.

If unfortunately ants break into the restricted area, then he can only manually expel the ants.

...

After the rainstorm, there were too many creatures that were active at night, and even the common rodents and mantises in the early stage of rebirth did not come across half of System after the rainstorm.

Except for a few mosquitoes flying sporadically, System's feeding was not disturbed more.

The only flaw was that as time went on, System was a little tired because he didn’t rest.

The scorpion carapace was a little less tough than the butterfly chrysalis, but it was tougher, and System could not tear it apart with his claws.

However, his armor-piercing weapon [Corrosive Slime] still has a significant effect.

After corroding and softening the scorpion's carapace, it didn't take long for System to eat the flesh under the scorpion's carapace.

The rich milky aroma is mixed with the taste of cherries or strawberries, which is somewhat similar to the taste of cream pudding after solidification.

It may not be the tastiest, but it suits System the most.

This is still because the flesh of the scorpion has been soaked in rain for a few days, and it is not very fresh, otherwise the taste of this food will be even better.

The experience provided by the same weight of scorpion meat is about 1.5 times that of the chrysalis.

However, the effect of this kind of scorpion meat on [molting and growth] is not very large, and it is not half that of an ant of the same weight. It seems that the molting of scorpions is far less effective than that of insects.

After System ate it for one night, the effect of this food on [Metamorphosis Growth] was reduced by more than half.

He can only give up this kind of food that suits his appetite.

Early morning hours.

Dragging his slightly bloated abdomen and eating all night, System returned to the tree hole not far from the ant's nest, where he wanted to rest.

Although there are ants passing by from time to time in this tree hole, System has an invisible wall through the experiment of drawing the ground as a prison, which is his [Corrosive Slime].

This liquid is secreted around the tree hole, and the ants will take the initiative to avoid it if they smell it.

However, [Corrosive Slime] is very volatile, and most of the smell will disappear after a few hours, but a few hours are enough for System, and a few hours are enough for him to rest and recover.

System quietly entered a dormant state in the tree hole, and at the same time was half asleep and half awake, thinking about the next plan.

Yesterday's foraging was quite successful, although it wasn't as fast as eating worm pupae all the time.

But at this rate, he can reach level 9 in three days, and reach level 10 in a dozen days, and his [Metamorphosis Growth] will also become full at that time.

...

As it approached noon, the effect of the [Corrosive Slime] near the tree hole weakened a lot. Two ants had already bypassed System’s tree hole one after another. Fortunately, these two ants did not bother him.

At this point, System's body had basically finished resting, and he decided to wait a while before starting a new round of foraging.

And at this moment, System heard the continuous sound of birdsong more than ten meters away.

After the torrential rain, System had not heard the chirping of birds for a long time. From the bird's voice, System heard some misery and sadness.

The antennae of the insect were very sensitive to the direction of sound, and System quickly discovered that the bird was not in the sky, but on the ground.

"Did it fall to the ground from injury?"

System speculated that the bird might have been injured by some kind of hunter attack in the forest. He had no idea of ​​joining in the fun and was still recuperating in the tree hole.

But a few minutes later, the bird was still chirping, and it was clear that no hunter had dealt the fatal blow to the bird.

System got out of the tree hole and finally decided to watch this unfortunate bird.

Across the weeds in the woods, System saw a 20-centimeter bird with brown, red and white feathers struggling on the ground.

It looks similar to a pheasant, but a little smaller than a pheasant.

System saw some blood on the ground, and the bird didn't know what was injured, so it could only keep flapping in place.

Not long after, perhaps because of the smell of blood, a search team of ants with needles appeared. I believe that the army of ants will kill them soon.

System watched and waited quietly by the side, and decided to take the opportunity to loot some pheasant and try it out later.

However, the scene of the ant army besieging the crippled pheasant that System was looking forward to did not appear in the end, and inaudible footsteps gradually came from the dense forest.

The birds struggling on the ground were finally dragged up by a hand whose owner was the old Druid that System was looking for...