I Am the Swarm

After arranging the work on the front line, Luo Wen hurriedly returned to the swarm base camp without delay.

Together with the brood, after careful inspection and comparison, there was no part of the absorbed red ant gene fragment that could make the black ant surrender.

This was huge bad news, and Rowan was a little dazed.

The red ants conquered the black ants not because of their genetic talents, but because of their charisma?

"Are you kidding me?"

In any case, although I can't figure out the specific reason, the result is already doomed.

Luo Wen didn't dwell on this issue for too long, he started to deploy new worker ant panels.

Originally, he wanted to load the red ant stinger onto the existing worker ant template, but it turned out that the stinger was not compatible with the formic acid solution injection system.

They not only conflict in the position of the tail, but also overlap in the internal position of the sac that stores sting venom and formic acid solution.

Since it is impossible to have both, we can only choose one, and Luo Wen fell into deep thought.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and it suddenly occurred to him that although those red ants are half the size of black ants, they specialize in fighting and do not produce. Judging from these characteristics, they are more like soldier ants. I have always been confused by their size, so if I think about it this way, the red ants turned out to be a species whose members are all soldier ants.

"No wonder it's so fierce."

Thinking of this, he then based on the template of red ants, first replaced their red pigment genes with black ones, and his troops had to be uniformly dressed.

Then, in addition to the standard configuration of acid-resistant armor, gene fragments such as ejection start, strength, chitin armor, and jaw enhancement were added.

The new troops that have been deployed are also small-scale soldier ants. Their instincts are full of fighting factors, and they do not undertake any production tasks. They are about the same size as red ants, but they are stronger than red ants, with thicker armor and larger and stronger jaws.

Although this makes them lose a little flexibility, but with launch assist, this small flaw can be fully made up.

Rowan gave them a simple name-Soldier Ants.

Then he didn't stop, thought for a while, and prepared two new bugs.

One is based on the spider as a template, adding some of his own eye genes, the carapace gene of the black beetle and the chitin armor enhancement of the legs.

The new unit is called Transport Worm. As the name suggests, it is mainly responsible for transportation. Using a spider as a template can make it grow very large, and the spider's feet are very flexible and move very fast. And the loaded spacious carapace allows it to carry more supplies.

Although they are logistic units, their attack capabilities should not be underestimated. At critical moments, the armor-covered feet can be turned into spears, piercing through the enemy with the assistance of high-resolution eyes. This actual combat system has been tried by Luo Wen himself, and it is very extraordinary.

The second is a purely logistical unit called slime worms, which use ordinary worker ants as a template and add the slime genes of camouflage ants. Their task is to cooperate with the transport bugs, glue more materials with mucus, and fix them on their backs. After the materials are delivered to the designated location, the mucus is released to assist in unloading the materials.

In the war with red ants, the logistics must be done well, and they also use the mode of war to support war. If it becomes a protracted battle, whoever runs out of supplies first will be finished first.

But thinking of the black ants that are several times larger than them, these are their living food reserves. Not only can it be used as cannon fodder, but it can also be slaughtered for food when you are hungry.

"It's really troublesome." Luo Wen squinted his eyes, it's best to find a way to deal with them first.

But now, do a good job of preparing for the war. Due to the excessive energy consumption of producing ant queens, the mother nest only produced fifty queens, and then went all out to produce three new types of troops.

It will take some time for the new batch of queen ants to hatch and grow. Before that, the production intelligence of the new species depends on the mother nest. Since the first batch of ant queens didn't have the means of production for the new species, Rowan ordered them to go all out to produce worker ants.

Worker ants are currently the only long-range fire output of the swarm. Moreover, if the red ants are defeated and their territory is taken over, a large number of worker ants are needed to develop the territory.

Therefore, at this time, their number is naturally as many as possible.

After arranging the work in the rear, Luo Wen hurried back to the front line. After all, he was still worried about the resilience of the bugs, so he had to sit in the town himself to be at ease.

In the days that followed, messengers frequently ran around the territory to convey Rowan's instructions.

Luo Wen went to the enemy-occupied areas many times to conduct investigations in person, and found that the red ants were also mobilizing their troops. After returning, many of the teams that had gone out began to gather towards the border between the two sides.

A large group of red and black ants gathered together, and the initial estimate of the number reached more than 200,000, and this number is still increasing rapidly as time goes by.

They sweep around the border, and occasionally a small group of troops break into the territory of the swarm to carry out harassment and sneak attacks.

The two branch bases were wiped out due to their remote location and the delay in asking for help.

When more sub-bases were attacked, reinforcements arrived in time to drive the red ants away.

The situation is getting worse and worse, and a big war is about to break out.

On Rowan's side, the new troops at the rear were gradually maturing. From the air, a large number of transport bugs could be seen continuously heading to the frontline positions from the rear with eight long legs.

They either carry food, or carry densely packed small soldier ants.

Due to their small size and low energy storage, soldier ants are not suitable for long-distance marching. Carrying them on the back of transport insects can effectively reduce food consumption.

Since the troops have been at a disadvantage, the swarm troops have shrunk their troops and mostly focus on defensive counterattacks. The vast land outside has become a hunting ground for the red ant coalition. Therefore, although they cannot transport supplies as well as the swarm, they can still maintain a large army size by mopping up.

The new batch of fifty queen ants finally matured. They were sent to the front line by a special escort team on transport insects, and began to produce small soldier ants on the spot.

The mother nest no longer produced soldier ants, and after ten queen ants were produced again, it began to produce transport worms and slime worms with all its strength. This can reduce the transportation consumption of the soldier ants.

At the same time, the rear has also released the restrictions on the aphid pastures, consuming the richness of the vegetation to produce food with all its strength.

When the first batch of soldier ants produced by the queen gradually emerged from their pupae, Luo Wen issued an order to dispatch most of the digging ants from various places to the front line.

These guys lost their jobs digging tunnels after the ant nests were wiped out. Now all of them have turned into manure movers, and their main job every day is to fertilize the vegetation.

And after this period of investigation, Rowan already had a rough plan in mind, and they needed to be used.

The digging ants in the distance took the transport insects, and the closer ones crawled by themselves, and arrived at the designated location one after another in a few days. Luo Wen roughly counted them, and there were almost 50,000 ants, accounting for 80% of all the digging ants in the territory.