I Am The Swarm

Luo Wen deftly navigated to the hatchery deep within the ant nest. After a hearty meal, he selected a corner rarely traversed by ants and began digging.

Once he had created a small hole, he turned back to seal the opening connecting it to the hatchery. Then he continued digging outward.

Pheromones were truly a miraculous tool. After mastering their basic uses, Luo Wen had developed several extended applications.

For instance, using marking pheromones as coordinates was not a novel idea—Black Ants had long employed such a method. However, while they could only detect these markers by physically touching them with their antennae, Luo Wen could sense his pheromone coordinates from a distance.

At this moment, he was digging toward one of his marked coordinate points. This was the labor of the past two days with the transport team: the underground passage.

As the passage had initially been very close to the ant nest, Luo Wen quickly connected his newly dug tunnel to it.

Crawling into the underground passage, he summoned the waiting transport team. Together, they cleared the soil from the new tunnel. Luo Wen used his saliva to reinforce the fresh tunnel and carved out a temporary storage chamber near where the passage approached the nest. He ordered the transport team to stand by in the passage and sealed off the storage chamber’s entrance to the passage, carefully erasing the pheromones left by the transport team.

With everything in place, Luo Wen returned to the hatchery and began transporting food to the temporary storage chamber.

Although a few Worker Ants passed by during this time, Luo Wen’s legitimate identity prevented them from showing any concern.

Once he had stored enough food, Luo Wen sealed the connection between the tunnel and the hatchery, releasing pheromones that conveyed a warning to stay away. Then, he reopened the link between the storage chamber and the underground passage, summoned the transport team, and ordered them to carry the stored food back to the Brood Nest.

The plan proceeded smoothly. Like parasites on the ant nest, the Brood Nest began a life of indulgence.

Luo Wen was temporarily freed from the strenuous tasks of hunting, no longer needing to find isolated Worker Ants or demonstrate his Luo-style insect combat technique. All he needed to do was transport food to the storage chamber at intervals.

Unfortunately, such idyllic days could not last.

The ant nest supported a population of over a thousand ants, and their daily food consumption was staggering. Despite this, their stockpile of food was limited. This was evident from the number of Giant Mandible Soldier Ants—a specialized combat unit. Even with the vast population of Black Ants, they could only sustain around ten of these non-productive soldier types.

As the days passed and the Brood Nest’s population grew, the food reserves in the neighboring hatchery visibly dwindled. The Black Ants became agitated, confused by the mysterious decline in food.

Luo Wen was equally worried. The past days of comfort had been utterly enjoyable, but the number of ants in the Brood Nest continued to climb. He had already stopped having the Brood Nest directly hatch two adult ants daily, instead allocating resources for its growth and limiting daily output to ten eggs.

Even so, within a few days, when the pupating larvae emerged as adults, the Brood Nest would add roughly ten ants daily. Combined with the continuous hatching of another ten eggs, the rapidly increasing mouths to feed would soon overwhelm the ant nest’s resources. Luo Wen needed a solution.

Before he could devise one, his attention was caught by the Yellow Bugs in the hatchery. Luo Wen had already come to regard the ant nest as his food production base, so the sight of these parasites was particularly vexing.

With a thought, an idea formed in his mind. Unsure if it would work, he decided to test it.

Luo Wen slowly approached a Yellow Bug, which was feasting voraciously and paid no attention to his presence. Quietly, Luo Wen spat a glob of saliva onto the bug before swiftly retreating. The saliva contained a concoction of pheromones, essentially mimicking an alien identity—one unrecognized by the ant nest.

The hatchery was a vital facility, endlessly supplying fresh labor for the nest. Its importance was self-evident. When an unfamiliar scent of identity suddenly appeared in such a crucial location, the nearby Worker Ants, who were feeding the larvae, immediately noticed. They began to surround the Yellow Bug, while a few quickly scurried off to alert the patrolling Giant Mandible Soldier Ants.

Oblivious to the impending danger, the feasting Yellow Bug remained completely unguarded. Its prolonged safety had dulled its instincts, and it could not fathom that someone as cunning as Luo Wen would be plotting against it.

From a distance, Luo Wen watched as the Giant Mandible Soldier Ants approached. It was his first time witnessing the combat prowess of these fearsome warriors.

The ants clamped their powerful jaws onto the unsuspecting parasite. With a sharp twist of their heads, the Yellow Bug was torn in two. Despite its resilience, the Yellow Bug’s upper half was still moving, but it had no chance to escape. In an instant, the Worker Ants swarmed over it.

Luo Wen watched with a mix of awe and dread. Relying solely on pheromone-based identification to distinguish friend from foe was a glaring vulnerability. Fortunately, his Brood Nest employed two identification systems. Otherwise, any intelligent insect capable of altering pheromones could easily infiltrate and sabotage an ant nest from within.

Thankfully, he was the only such insect for now. However, given the vastness of the world, who could guarantee that other similarly evolved creatures wouldn’t exist?

Reflecting on this, Luo Wen decided that two identification systems might not suffice. Once his abilities improved, he would develop additional systems to ensure security.

Just like the old human television shows he remembered: in the past, when human technology was underdeveloped, they relied on sight to distinguish friend from foe. This allowed masterful disguise experts to infiltrate enemy ranks easily. It wasn’t until technological advancements brought fingerprint, retinal, facial, and DNA recognition that such vulnerabilities were mitigated.

These lessons from the past were worth remembering.

For now, this was a lower priority. His current dual-system approach was sufficient for the time being. His immediate task was to deal with the remaining Yellow Bugs to prevent further food wastage.

The other Yellow Bugs showed no reaction to their companion’s death, continuing to eat and drink as if nothing had happened.

One by one, Luo Wen spat the fake pheromone-laden saliva onto them and watched as the Worker and Soldier Ants eliminated them.

With the Yellow Bugs cleared, not only was a significant food burden removed, but their bodies themselves contributed to the nest’s food reserves.

Even so, it was only a drop in the ocean. With the Brood Nest on the brink of a population explosion, Luo Wen feared the ant nest would soon reach its breaking point.

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