Thanks to nomofoxx, the guy who doesn’t know the best names, and 4399 Beidou Five Stars for your monthly votes.
The protagonist wears a felt and crawls into a hole at the base of a big banyan tree.
The hole at the base of the big banyan tree was excavated to expand the nest area in [Linshui City]. At the beginning, the area of [Linshui City] was all on trees, with no underground area. The space was very narrow and the thermal insulation effect was poor. Winter was very difficult. A large number of stationed ants were frozen to death every year, and the remaining ants were also paving the way for barbaric ants. The army was killed in the invasion.
Every year, after the Reconquest War, the old Big-headed Ant Kingdom gets an empty city that is destined to be lost, so naturally there is not much thought to expand it.
After the protagonist controls [Linshui City], he can already defeat the winter invasion of the pavement ant barbarian army. The strategic location of [Linshui City] is very important. The protagonist almost manages this place as his "winter capital". He spends every winter here, so he naturally needs to expand his operations aggressively.
In addition to excavating underground caves within the limited land on the island where Linshui City is located and making full use of the natural cracks and caves in the rock, the tree cave area of Linshui City has also been expanded.
In the past, the big mandibles of the big-headed ants had no choice but to use the woodworm holes, which was naturally difficult to expand. However, with the help of copper tools, the ants of the God Envoy King's Legion can dig out some soft wood by themselves. Although it is more laborious than digging a hole in the ground, it is not impossible.
This big banyan tree is so huge that it has to reduce its density to maintain a strong trunk. There are many soft parts with low density and a large number of cavities in the trunk.
In the past, big-headed ants were unable to open these natural tree holes, but the ants of the Angel King's Army could. They dug a large number of criss-crossing passages in the big banyan tree, transformed the hollow parts of the trees into nests and connected them.
But even so, in winter, they still have to move underground. The warmth of the tree trunks is far worse than that of the earth. This is the biggest flaw of the tree nest.
The holes in the roots that the protagonist drilled into are several connections between the tree hole part and the ground hole part in [Linshui City].
From the meandering root passage upwards, after crossing the horizontal plane of the ground, the xylem on one side of the passage turns into the soft and white part of the inner bark of the tree. The protagonist knows that he has reached the ground.
A chill is coming, and it is only zero degrees outside today. Although there is a layer of bark between the tree holes, it is still a few degrees above zero, but it is no longer suitable for ants to move around.
The protagonist's felt is draped on his back, and is simply tied around his neck with ant silk, similar to a cloak. It has a good effect in keeping out the cold, but his abdomen feels a bit chilly, so it would be better to wrap a layer of silk around his body to keep it warm. But it is easy to have difficulty breathing when wrapped in silk.
It is really difficult for ants to have a piece of clothing that fits well in winter. Although ants have been able to weave some rough textiles, they are more often used as interior decoration, bed sheets or to make some wrapping skins. Such rough textiles are not suitable for wearing at all. On their bodies, the ants also lack the necessary tools to process textiles into clothing.
It was pitch dark inside the tree tunnel, but the protagonist could see things in the dark and was almost unaffected.
In other seasons, this passage will be illuminated by the light of blue fluorescent fungi. But in winter, fluorescent bacteria cannot survive.
On the inner side of the tree tunnel passage, there is a dark mud-like substance painted on the wall regularly every ten steps, with dried and thread-like remains of burnt yellow fluorescent bacteria on it. There is no trace of the beautiful blue light it once had.
These are the soil for growing fluorescent bacteria, which are composed of ant feces and some organic waste. The fluorescent bacteria absorb the nutrients inside to emit light.
Although the fluorescent bacteria are dead at this time, there are still mycelium in the soil. When the temperature warms up next spring, the fluorescent bacteria can come back to life.
In the [Linshui City] underground cave, there are still a large amount of soil with mycelium, which can be used to replace the fluorescent bacteria that have withered due to the exhaustion of nutrients in the soil at any time.
Before the protagonist promoted agricultural cultivation, fluorescent bacteria were the only crops that could consume ant excrement and household garbage, keeping the ant nest clean to a certain extent. Moreover, the soil with fluorescent mycelium does not have a foul smell. It may be that it can secrete substances that kill other bacteria and fungi, so that the soil will not be decomposed into malodorous gases such as hydrogen sulfide.
Walking in the dark and winding tree cave, it feels like exploring a maze in an RPG game. But the protagonist doesn't need to go around and try his luck. He has lived in [Linshui City] for a long time. He has walked all these roads before and has a three-dimensional map in his mind.
Even if the protagonist covers his compound eyes that cannot be closed and imitates soldiers or worker ants with poor eyesight who are blind in this environment, he cannot go wrong.
Follow the outer passage in the bark all the way up, then drill into a horizontal fork, pass through a tree hole the size of an orange, and then drill into a fork to reach the protagonist's summer residence in [Linshui City].
This summer residence is in much better condition than the small earth cave where the protagonist currently lives. It consists of a bedroom the size of a broad bean, a storage room the size of a walnut, and a living room the size of a plum. There are also simple wooden beds, pottery tables and other furniture.
This is the most heavily guarded area in the tree cave area of [Linshui City], and it is also an area that other ants cannot enter without permission.
In [Linshui City], where space is narrow, having such a two-bedroom apartment is like a presidential suite. When we first moved to the cave, we didn’t take away any of the furniture because the cave was so narrow. As a result, the protagonist can only sleep on a pile of silk beds now, which is similar to the accommodation conditions when he first traveled through time.
The protagonist ignored the furniture and went directly into the storage room.
There are several large jars in the storage room, the mouths are sealed with coarse cloth and yellow mud. There are some honeydew and fermented drinks in them, which have not been taken away. Anyway, the temperature is low in winter, these honeydew and fermented drinks are perfectly fine. Save it until next spring. The food stored in the hole is enough for the ants to consume.
The protagonist is not looking for these sweet luxuries that ordinary ants are flocking to. He turns his gaze to a corner.
There, there was a small, oval insect egg-shaped thing. This thing had a pitch-black carapace, the same color as the Destroyer's outer carapace.
This is a large mysterious ball brought back from the corpse of the Destroyer. The protagonist originally moved it from [Bridgehead] to [Linshui City], intending to study it during the winter when he has free time.
As long as this strange thing is not broken, it is still very safe and stable.
The protagonist picked up the mysterious ball with a pair of forelimbs and discovered that the mysterious ball, which was originally unresponsive, now had a warm temperature.
