After receiving the report, the protagonist rushed to the entrance of the lair. A team of male ants has returned here.
The protagonist takes a look and realizes that the male ants in this team are not the familiar Rollers or Rambos, but a male ant that once performed bravely in the counterattack against pavement ants.
The team actually brought back an earwig and a mealworm at the same time.
The earwig is an insect with a long and flat body, a yellow-brown carapace and maroon elytra, about one centimeter long. The most eye-catching thing is a pair of thick and long toothed tails at the end of its tail. Earwigs like to live in damp and dark environments such as cracks in tree bark, in dead wood or under piles of leaves, and feed on plant flowers and leaves, carrion or small insects.
Mealworm, also called mealworm, is the larvae of the yellow meal moth. Mealworm molitor is rich in nutrients. The dry product contains 30% fat and more than 50% protein. In addition, it also contains phosphorus, potassium, iron, sodium, aluminum and other macroelements and various trace elements. It is known as the "treasure house of protein feed". It is commonly farmed as feed and food in human society. Many bodybuilders take protein powders that contain mealworm protein.
This unlucky earwig was discovered by a hunting team when it was about to successfully hunt a mealworm. The original hunter and the prey became food for the ants.
The protagonist is full of interest in mealworms. This kind of insect with a docile temperament, diverse feeding habits, strong fecundity and rich nutrition is simply the best choice for the ants' livestock.
The protagonist asked the male ant where the mealworm was found, and the male ant passed the information package on the specific location to the protagonist, which was a depression dozens of meters away to the north of the nest.
The wedding flight ceremony had to continue. The protagonist signaled the secret to evaluate and count the prey. The secret ran over and patted the earwig carcass with his tentacles. He walked around in a circle, turned around, picked up two gravels and placed them in a square. She thought it was an effective medium-sized prey animal. She also rated mealworms as medium-sized prey.
Seeing that she had done something right, the protagonist extended his tentacles to praise her, and then asked the worker ants to lift the prey into the grain. Then the leading male ant set out again.
The protagonist stared at the little secretary at the entrance of the lair, evaluated and counted the three teams that came back with prey, confirmed that she was qualified for the job, and finally felt relieved.
The secretary is in charge of counting, the construction sites of the combustion chamber and harem are being constructed as planned, and the protagonist suddenly has nothing to do at hand. After thinking about it, the protagonist went back to the nest and called twenty soldier ants, and together they headed towards the place where the mealworms were found.
The protagonist raised hamsters when he was still a human, and had close contact with mealworms. He knew that this kind of bug was easy to feed, and even with the ability of ants, it could be freed or kept in captivity. If you can catch some live mealworms, you can start animal husbandry. This can be described as an agricultural revolution for the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, which relies heavily on gathering and hunting for food.
According to the information package given by the male ants, the protagonist headed north. There were pheromone marks left by the team of male ants along the way, so the protagonist would not get lost.
The protagonist has never been to this target area. It is a depression of several hundred square meters. The protagonist estimates that this depression is three or four meters lower than the altitude near the nest.
There are no big trees or shrubs in the depression, just a lot of weeds growing here and there. A lot of smelly water accumulated in the pits on the ground. The water inside had turned black, green and shiny, which made the smell in the area very unpleasant. The protagonist and his guards carefully avoid the smelly pool and search for the shadow of mealworms nearby.
Finally, the protagonist found two mealworms on a "rock" in the backlight and darkness. These mealworms seemed to be eating the "stone" underneath them.
The protagonist is a little strange. Although mealworms have a variety of food habits, they cannot survive by eating rocks. He and his escort carefully approached without disturbing the two mealworms.
The protagonist felt the appearance of the stone with his tentacles. It didn't feel as cold as the stone, and it felt slightly soft. What is this?
No matter how many there were, the protagonist decided to subdue the two mealworms first and capture them alive and raise them in captivity. From now on, the residents of "Dongyang City" will have a stable supply of high-quality meat.
The protagonist gave an order and the soldier ants immediately pounced on the mealworms. The two mealworms tried to escape after being attacked, but their soft bodies were quickly bitten by multiple soldier ants. The mealworms began to roll around, trying to shake off the ants, but to no avail.
The protagonist watched for a long time. The ants were ordered to be captured alive and did not dare to kill them. The mealworms have been struggling hard and appear to be difficult to tame.
The protagonist has no choice if the stalemate continues. The few ants around him are not enough to subdue the two rebellious mealworms and carry them back to the nest alive. In desperation, the protagonist had to let the guards bite the two bugs to death.
After killing the mealworms, the protagonist climbed up the strange "big rock". He noticed that there were gaps gnawed by the mealworms, revealing the inner material of the stone.
Upon closer inspection, the gray-black stone turned out to be light blue inside after being chewed out, with a grainy texture inside, but the protagonist still couldn't tell what material it was made of.
The protagonist was too lazy to worry about this "stone". He first abandoned the two corpses of mealworms and led his guards to search for the eggs of the mealworms nearby, but found nothing, so he had to take the corpses and go back first.
It was already afternoon. After returning to the entrance of the lair, the protagonist noticed that the thirty-two grids were more or less covered with white gravel.
The protagonist asked the guards to move the mealworm corpses into the granary. He ran to the secretary and asked Gun and Rambo which grid they were on.
When there were no male ants near the entrance of the nest, the protagonist quickly put a lot of white gravel into the grid where they were rolled. Soon there were obviously more gravel in these grids than in other grids.
The little secretary looked at the protagonist's every move with confusion. The protagonist did not explain to her, so as not to lead her to be innocent. The protagonist and the little secretary agreed not to tell other ants about this. Although the little secretary didn't know why, he agreed.
Soon it was dusk and the sun was sinking below the horizon. All the male ants came back with their teams one after another.
After the male ants gathered together, the protagonist asked all the teams to disband, and he personally led the male ants to count the amount of gravel one by one.
Soon the results came out: Roll first, Rambo Fly second, Rambo Van third, Rambo Fo fourth, Ram Boser fifth, Ram Botu sixth, Rambo Rui seventh. These are all thanks to the protagonist's help in cheating.
The eighth to twelfth places are all ranked according to the actual number of prey. The male ant that led the team to catch earwigs and yellow mealworms ranked eighth (actually first), which surprised the protagonist. The protagonist simply named him "Zhang Fei".
Another twenty male ants failed again, and they looked very frustrated. The protagonist comforted them that they could still participate in the wedding ceremony next year, which made them relax.
