The structure of an ant nest is a pattern of intertwined passages and functional areas. Star ants do not have their own independent space. Generally speaking, the core part is the queen's residence and the place where the queen's food is stored. Some areas are where eggs are placed and hatched, and the outside is the living area for young ants.
From the time the Star Ant Tribe lays eggs, it takes about three hundred days to hatch, and it takes about two years to grow from larvae to adults. In other words, a production cycle of the Star Ant Tribe is three years, and the replacement cycle of the Star Ant Tribe is Probably around a hundred years.
The sensor moves all the way towards the center of the ant nest. Along the way, you can see a group of star ants that are blocking the passage. When this happens, the sensor can only take a detour, although the queen ant is far away. It may not be possible to detect these small detectors, but the star ants who are very close can detect it. Even if they don't know what the accident is, all matter is actually their food. They ate the sensor, and Lin Shu regretted it too late.
You must know that it took almost a day for the sensor to walk to this place. If they had to walk all over again, Lin Shu and Maoqiu would have to wait two more days, and the people outside waiting for the news would have to be more worried. a few days.
After patiently walking around for a long time, Lin Shu finally saw something different in front of his eyes. These were spider-like star ants and very small larvae star ants.
"This is the internal nanny star ant. Their job is to transport, care for and incubate the star ant eggs, as well as take care of the young star ants. They will release secretions from their tails to form flexible 'trays', and the eggs are placed in these trays." .You see, this is it.¡±
Lin Shu was surprised to see what looked like white spherical mushroom-like things growing on the metal cave wall. The 'support' had a thin handle connected to the metal cave wall. The function of this handle was to ease various force. Judging from the actual situation, the effect of these handles is very good, at least after the ant nest suffered such a serious disaster, not many of these ant eggs were destroyed.
What¡¯s even more interesting is these nanny star ants, which fix themselves and their young star ants to the wall with their secretions, just like spiders that weave webs.
¡°Those secretions are good stuff.¡±
"Yes. It is much more useful than the flexible safety device on the Hope. If the number is large enough, it can even be used as a structural anti-shock device, which is very good for use on the space city."
"It seems that the Star Ant Tribe has a lot of advanced things! Haven't I heard you say that before?"
"Without the mother worm, these things that rely on the production of lower-level star ants cannot be made. Let me tell you, I don't know the ingredients of that thing. I only know how to mix the genes so that the star ants can produce that thing. .¡±
Lin Shu smiled: "I don't mean to blame you, I just sigh. The Star Ant Tribe is indeed one of the most powerful races in the universe and has many good things."
"Um."
"We've arrived at this area. It shouldn't be too far from the queen ant, right?"
"Well, the food warehouse is next down. After passing the warehouse area, it should be the territory of the queen ant."
"This is" Lin Shu pointed at the big fat and white insects and asked in surprise.
"The function of transforming star ants is to convert ordinary substances into carbon-based proteins and silicon-based gels. Their diet is very complex. When there is no substance at all, they can directly feed on the energy condensate secreted by star ants. Eat it After removing the materials, they restructure the materials in their bodies. Then they excrete these spherical mixtures, which the female worms rely on to survive and produce."
Lin Shu nodded with emotion: "Amazing! It completely relies on living things to condense matter, and finally it can form a body as strong as a fighting star ant."
"Well, actually the ant nest itself is also made of the secretions of these guys, but this requires another kind of secretions."
"A very powerful material refining machine!"
Maoqiu hummed. She was still quite proud of Lin Shu's emotion.
"These bugs there are a lot of transformed star ants. They produce so much food, can the female bugs eat it?"
"I can definitely eat it. The mother worm almost keeps eating more. Moreover, not all of these transformed star ants are producing food. Many of them are producing substances to repair the ant nest. I think this queen must be stepping up her production to block the door." Something."
"Oh, you did the same thing back then? I thought you just used the corpses of star ants to block the door."
¡°Additional binders and filling agents are also required.¡±
Lin Shu nodded to express his understanding, but kept staring at the small projection he projected.
"Are these worker star ants dedicated to taking care of transformed star ants?"
??"They are also responsible for transporting food. By following these star ants holding food, you can reach the location of the mother worm."
During Lin Shu¡¯s meeting, with a thought, the sensor has been quietly attached to the food held by a working star ant¡¯s pliers. Now it doesn¡¯t even need to fly, and someone will naturally send the sensor to where it wants to go.
?¡
On the small asterisk, Niraya has arranged a shift, but no one seems to want to leave, and Niraya forced them to drive away. Now in this situation, everyone needs to be calm and must always maintain a high degree of vigilance, so It is very important to be full of energy, rest is a must, and you must not keep spinning.
At this time, Niraya¡¯s advantage comes to light. Even Xiaoxing needs to rest her functional areas in shifts, but Niraya is a model who does not need to rest at all.
¡°Elder Nilaya, is there any news?¡±
The sound came from the door of the command room before Jessie came in. This shows how anxious she is. It¡¯s no wonder that Lin Shu¡¯s mission this time is really frightening. Although Nila Yaya also knew that the risk was not great in theory, but she was still uneasy, not to mention Jessie, who was troubled by concern, and she was a person who never concealed her emotions.
"Not yet, but the lack of news is good news. It means that the plan is going smoothly. If we want to withdraw, Lin Shu will take the initiative to contact us."
Jessie forced a smile: "Oh, that's good."
As she said that, she had already stood next to Nilaya, her eyes carefully looking at the various data on the projection.
The fluctuations in the dragon's veins have completely calmed down, the burden on the small star has been very small, the anchoring stability is very high, and there is no need to make non-linear corrections.
In addition, judging from the projection of real space, the star ants in the ant nest seem to be busy sorting out. They are not in a hurry to get on the road, but are slowly speeding up in a uniform acceleration state, and the lost vanguards need to be replaced. , the sentinel soldiers also need time to recover, and the queen ant also needs time to readjust the state of the ant nest.
"It looks very calm. The more so, the more successful Lin Shu's action is."
"Well, I know that the queen ant must be caught quietly and replaced with a hair ball. The calmer the better."
Nilaya smiled handsomely: "Don't worry, the danger of this mission is really not as high as you think. Didn't Maoqiu say that even if you can control a large number of subordinates at the same time, the queen's spirit will always be They are completely consumed by daily affairs, so the alertness inside the ant nest is much lower than outside."
"Well, I know, thank you, Nilaya, it's good that you are here!"
"What can I say? Isn't this my value?"
"HeheI know, I'm going to pour tea for everyone, everyone has worked hard."
After Jessie finished speaking, she turned around and walked out, but Lan Yi had already come in with tea. Jessie greeted them and sent everyone's teacups to their workstations one by one. She smiled and said a few words to everyone, trying her best. to ease everyone¡¯s tension.
?¡
"It's been seventy hours. As you said, the level of vigilance inside the ant nest is much lower."
"Because I have never had the experience of being invaded by an ant nest, I don't think she will either."
Lin Shu nodded: "So, living in groups is the best environment for the growth of wisdom. Experience does not necessarily need to be experienced by oneself."
Maoqiu naturally agrees with this sentence.
"Master, the detector is about to enter the female insect's living space."
The scene on the projection changed. It was no longer the butt of a working star ant in the front, the head of a working star ant behind, surrounded by dark walls.
The passage suddenly opened up, and the sensor entered an open space. A huge female insect appeared in front of Lin Shu and Hair Ball. Above the body of the female insect, a hair ball that looked exactly like a hair ball was busy working. , because her body hair stood upright like a dandelion and kept shaking, forming a wonderful wave.
Lin Shu had seen this situation when Maoqiu was fully analyzing the data. He had to admit that Maoqiu's method of using body hair to control distraction was simple and effective. In fact, Maoqiu was not able to divide his mind into so many parts. But it can be classified and processed. Quick classification and grouping are the secret of the hair ball's powerful distraction ability.
" However, it is really a very complicated task for one person to deal with such a huge ant nest. The queen ant is really busy and hard, so the queen's management ability is not as strong as Lin Shu imagined. On the contrary, the management of the queen ant actually appears to be relatively rough. In a sense,It is said that the queen ant is not as powerful as Xiaoyu, because Xiaoyu can continuously increase its processing power by adding data cores and souls, but the queen ant only has one brain.
Lin Shu carefully observed the situation of the mother worm nest. In addition to the working star ants coming in and out, there were only dozens of communication star ants on one side, and there were not even a protective fighting star ant. The hard 'shell' was on the periphery, but the core was almost completely undefended. Lin Shu couldn't help but feel that he had made a fuss before. In fact, relying on his own speed, even if he rushed in recklessly, the queen ant would not There must be time to mobilize troops to intercept.
"Maoqiu, is there any problem?"
"No!"
"Very good, get ready to take action, this ant nest will be yours soon! Teleport!"