Law of the Swarm

Chapter 35 Self Awareness
The soldier ant's mind seemed a little confused. After telling System that he was not the queen ant, it continued to send the message: "You are, the queen ant."

"Well, I am."

System used [Teleportation] to respond to the soldier ant Dasha. Although he was calm on the surface, his heart was already very flustered.

This was the first time that Dasha, the soldier ant, questioned him, but System knew it would never be the last.

As the intelligence of the soldier ant Dasha improves, it will definitely continue to question System.

And the ant eggs and larvae he brainwashed now, won't they question him in the future?

Give up brainwashing these eggs?

Or find a way to suppress the intelligence of these eggs?

System was a little confused, he had to think of a way to eliminate these hidden dangers.

And how to deal with the soldier ant Dasha is also very troublesome.

Keeping Dasha is undoubtedly a ticking time bomb, maybe the soldier ant Dasha will come to kill him one day if he finds out that something is wrong.

System already knew very well the soldier ants, the crazy combat units among ants. They would fight to the death with creatures that were not good for the ant nest like madmen.

But now he needs the soldier ant Dasha very much. After all, the construction of the overwintering nest must be completed by Dasha, and the same is true for storing food for overwintering.

System was very confused...

……

Fortunately, Soldier Ant Dasha only doubted System once, and didn't mention it again after that, as if he had forgotten about it.

But since then, Soldier Ant Dasha's behavior has become more and more strange.

Besides fiddling with the translucent stone that System gave him, Dasha would also go to a nearby puddle that hadn't completely dried up.

During some spare time when System gave it tasks, it would stare at the reflection in the water in a daze, and touch the reflection on the water with its feet from time to time, no matter it was day or night.

It seems to be thinking about something.

System would often spy on him from a distance. He couldn't understand what Dasha the soldier ant was thinking, but judging from this, Dasha probably wouldn't rebel against him in a short time.

It went on like this for two days.

During another communication between System and the soldier ant Dasha, Dasha didn't know what he thought of, and suddenly asked System: "I am, what?"

"You are a soldier ant." System replied.

"Soldier ants, what are they?"

"A kind of ant is responsible for protecting the ant nest. There are many types of ants, just like you are a soldier ant, and I am a queen ant." System explained.

Dasha, the soldier ant, seemed to have thought briefly, and not long after, he asked System a new question.

"I, why, am... a soldier ant? You, why, a queen ant?"

"This……"

Hearing Dasha's question and tone, System suddenly realized that he finally understood the reason why the soldier ant Dasha asked him if he was the queen ant a few days ago.

Dasha is not suspicious of the identity of the ant queen he fabricated, but because of the improvement of his intelligence, he has a new understanding of the world.

Dasha should be aware of the concept of self.

Self, also known as self-awareness or self-concept, mainly refers to an individual's cognition of his own state of existence, and is the result of an individual's self-evaluation of his social role.

In our experience, being aware of everything about ourselves and different from other things and other people around us is the self, that is, self-consciousness.

Undoubtedly, after this period of growth, Soldier Ant Dasha has developed its own unique wisdom, allowing him to realize himself.

At that time, it didn't look at the reflection on the water surface in a daze, but saw itself in the reflection, and became suspicious.

And Dasha's question has undoubtedly risen from an ordinary question to a philosophical level.

It's like asking a human being, why is he human?

Why is it a soldier ant, and why is System an ant queen?

This is a question without a clear answer, and it is difficult for System to answer it.

But System is not helpless, he can completely push the problem to fate, everything is due to fate.

Something as mysterious as fate is the most suitable to explain this problem.

But Dasha will definitely continue to ask what fate is, and continue the question endlessly, just like a brat who always likes to ask why.

Fortunately, the soldier ant Dasha didn't like to cry and make trouble after all, but a soldier ant in the ant nest.

After hearing that System ordered him to continue to direct the worker ants to build the wintering nest, it resolutely gave up its own doubts, chose to carry out System's order, and began to direct the worker ants to continue building the wintering nest for System.

……

The soldier ant Dasha was only aware of his own self, and it never had any doubts about System.

But this incident didn't completely reassure System.

If the soldier ant's intelligence continues to grow like this, it will sooner or later discover that System is not the same species as it is, but a grasshopper.

When that time comes, System can't predict what will happen.

Since System ordered Dasha to eat non-stop, Dasha's body size has grown further, and now it has reached 5.5 centimeters.

Although not as strong as System, the pair of huge fangs and the stinging needle at the tail were enough to pose a threat to System.

System felt a little uneasy, he was worried that at some point, the soldier ant Dasha would find out that something was wrong and attack him.

There is no way, Tem can only order Dasha to build his overwintering nest as soon as possible, and at the same time alienate the soldier ant Dasha, and reduce contact with Dasha.

System has already made a decision. When Dasha helps him build the wintering nest and fills up the granary in the wintering nest, he will let Dasha return to the ant nest without touching it.

Of course, he also thought about killing Dasha as a soldier ant after doing all these things in order to eliminate future troubles.

But he can't do this kind of thing where the bird is hidden and the rabbit is dead.

……

……

Little by little time passed, and Dasha's construction team gradually built more than half of the System's wintering nest, reaching a depth of 4 and a half meters.

Ants may not seem intelligent, but they build perfect underground nests.

The passages inside the nest extend in all directions, which can effectively ventilate from the hole, and the worker ants have gradually dug dozens of granaries for him to store food.

Over the past few days, System's brainwashed ant larvae hatched one after another from the eggs, and dozens of ant larvae had already gathered around him.

The first batch of ant larvae that hatched had condensed into pupae under sufficient food. It seems that the growth cycle of these ants is not too long.

And System also reached level 25 12 days before the end of his lifespan.

他的身体进一步增长，达到17厘米，并且血脉中的【昆虫适应力】（12/21）提升为【昆虫适应力】（13/21）。

Starting from level 11, every time the talent level of [Insect Adaptability] is improved, his grasshopper blood will transmit some images to him, and this time is the same, swarms of ants appear again in System's mind The scene of grasshoppers flying.

It's just that he still can't know what purpose the locust swarms have in doing this.

In this upgrade, his newly obtained derived ability [Keep Vision] (3/9) was upgraded to [Keep Vision] (4/9), and his vision was further improved.

But compared to these, System's biggest feeling after successfully reaching level 12 is his talent [Degeneration and Growth].

From the moment he reached level 12, the blood flowing in his body kept rolling like boiling, and the exoskeleton all over his body became extremely itchy.

His body is urging him to undergo the third transformation...

(End of this chapter)