Overlord: Rise of the Zerg

Time passed day by day, and it was midsummer in a blink of an eye.

The builders failed to live up to Zero's expectations. After testing, they were unable to transport objects similar in size and mass to sweet potatoes, which meant that they were also unable to completely transport and store the plants that Zero planted on the grassland.

This disappointed Ling. Of course, the current ant colony's food reserves are also increasing after Ling Xue hid the mutant soldier ants. Now that he is not planning to increase the number of ant colonies, there will be no food crisis in the short term.

However, as the ant colony completely took over the entire island and drove away or even eliminated all existing threats, the original ecosystem has been destroyed.

Zero can clearly feel that the number of insects on the entire island is decreasing rapidly. Although the ants are still carrying food to the ant nest, the difficulty of finding food has been rising.

It is undeniable that the massive reproduction of ant colonies has harmed the ecological environment of the entire island, and for the sake of the safety of the ant colonies and itself, it is impossible to reduce the number of ant colonies, so this situation will not get better, but will continue. worsen.

It is foreseeable that one day, all insects on this island will gradually disappear, and even the plants on the island may be affected by the disappearance of insects.

Of course, this is not certain, but what is certain is that the ant colonies have not had enough food and clothing to sit back and relax, and the threat to their survival still hangs over their heads.

This situation will never improve unless they return to their original state and live in obscurity.

From the time Zero led them to carry out large-scale reproduction and expansion, today's results were destined, and it was also destined that they could only keep moving forward in the future.

Zero's original plan was to use the builder's larger size and larger load to try to transport the plant roots that Zero called "sweet potatoes" but were not exactly the same as sweet potatoes. He was planning ahead and expected them to be able to carry the load in the future. Take up the burden of food for the ant colony.

As the ant colony mutated and grew larger, Zero keenly discovered the shortcomings of the original earthworm farm and aphid pasture.

Earthworms are okay, after all, they are larger and are good food for the mutated soldier ants, but aphids, which are only the size of gravel, are completely unable to satisfy the appetite of the mutated ants.

After the ant colony occupied the entire island, the aphids were also carried to every corner of the island. In order to maintain the survival of the grass, the ants had to reduce the number of aphids. As a result, there was an upper limit to the output of aphids. Although it has not been fully achieved yet, it is only a matter of time.

Although Zero currently has no plans to breed mutant ants on a large scale, it is foreseeable that mutant ants will replace the current ant colony in the future, and he has to prepare for this.

The output of aphids is indeed gradually becoming useless. At present, ordinary worker ants can still make a profit from grazing aphids. When they are eliminated in the future, it is impossible to send ants that are several times or even ten times the size of worker ants to do this. The thing about grazing aphids – it’s so inefficient, it’s a job that makes ends meet.

Therefore, how to provide a food source for the mutated ant colony has also been put on the agenda. This experiment using the builder was an attempt, but it unfortunately failed.

However, although sweet potato rhizomes cut into pieces cannot be stored for a long time, they can provide an energy source for the ant colony in the short term. However, this also means that during the season when sweet potatoes cannot grow, this source will be cut off.

As for another existence called "berry" by Zero, the builders and even ordinary soldier ants can easily move it.

But similarly, this water-rich fruit is more difficult to preserve than sweet potatoes. Once dropped, it will decay extremely quickly and cannot be used as a long-term food source.

Even so, Zero ordered the ant colony to cultivate these two plants as much as possible. In the past, during the autumn harvest season, they could fully meet the needs of the ant colony.

However, misfortunes never come singly.

Following the failure of the builder's experiment, bad news came again from the cave laboratory.

Zero's second queen ant mutation experiment failed!

In the spring, Zero gathered a large number of first-order mutant queens and second-order mutant queens in the cave, preparing to start the experiment again, and even prepared a large number of control groups, hoping to control variables more accurately in the future to achieve The variation effect you want.

However, the results also disappointed Zero.

Whether it is a first-order mutated queen that mutates from an ordinary queen, or a second-order mutated queen that eats the mutated soldier ant corpses in a termite colony and then eats the termite queen again to mutate for the second time, in In this experiment, no matter how much termite queen meat Zero fed them, they no longer changed at all.

Zero initially thought it was due to the temperature. After all, the last time they mutated was in early winter, when the temperature was dropping rapidly, even approaching subzero.

But He soon discovered that was not the case.

After the arrival of spring, several spring rains fell, during which there was a late spring cold, and even a thin snow fell again. This weather lasted for several days, and the temperature in the cave was almost the same as that in early winter.

However, this group of queen ants still showed no signs of mutation.

Zero guessed that it might be because the time was not long enough. With the idea of ​​making bold guesses and verifying carefully, he continued to feed the queens the termite queen's insect meat. At the same time, he set up a large number of control groups based on environmental changes.

However, until midsummer, the queen ants were still eating and drinking without any movement.

Ling knew clearly that it was not the time. More than three months have passed without any movement. If it takes longer to mutate, Zero has no patience to wait any longer.

He removed a large number of control groups, leaving only five first-order mutant ant queens and five second-order mutant ant queens to continue eating insect meat in the cave to test whether it would take longer for changes to occur, and then Turn your attention to the food problem of the ant colony.

Since I can't come up with an answer and I don't have any new ideas in a short period of time, I might as well think from another angle.

"Since this colorful glass gem can cause termites and ants to mutate, maybe it can also cause aphids and even earthworms to mutate similarly?" Zero guessed boldly.

"If aphids can grow larger, then they can become a food source in the future..."

Thinking about Zero, he rejected his idea. A larger size means a larger food intake. The plants on the grassland cannot withstand such a hustle and bustle. The upper limit of aphids has been severely limited by the environment. Even if they mutate, they will not be able to shoulder this important task.

"Maybe earthworms are a good choice?"

Things about gems are not completely metaphysical. This will be explained later. In order to avoid misunderstanding, I will explain it here. At the same time, in order to avoid spoilers, no in-depth explanations will be given. Sorry, this has caused misunderstanding.