Episode 110. Pinky (1)
“Why are you carrying eggs?”
Margaret asks with a wrinkled face.
I’ve been plagued by ants all day, so don’t worry.
“It’s a different color.”
“That’s right, only this one is pink like cherry blossoms.”
“Wow, Grace. Are you on the side of the male professor?”
“Well, it’s not like that. I was just saying whatever came to my mind.”
It’s a slightly different story, but Professor Magad once said, ‘A sorcerer should develop a habit of projecting his mana onto all substances to understand the essence.’
As far as magic was concerned, I was a good disciple, so I unconsciously injected mana into this uniquely colored ant egg.
“Five?”
A slight vibration was felt in the egg. A white, hazy figure struggles inside the egg, and then it pulls in its sharp teeth and rips the membrane out.
The young ant, which was pink with its entire body and even its compound eyes, looked around and completely escaped from the egg and settled on the palm of my hand.
square.
“host? I?”
Ants that sweep their antennae curled up like a fern with their front legs.
Sasak.
“… So. I want to rule here, so can you help me?”
Perhaps it’s thanks to the fact that he has my mana in it, I can feel his thoughts vaguely.
It is a dangerous place where there are countless competitors and a natural enemy called ‘Long Tongue’ invades from the outside. If you help yourself, I will never forget your grace.
What kind of thought was this?
“Professor Nam. just let’s go After all, if you escape the anthill, it’s over.”
Margaret, who was listening next to me, seemed reluctant to ask the ant.
“No, I help this ant.”
“ha.”
Margaret sighed and shrugged.
“There must be a reason. Yes?”
Quinn nodded as she read Margaret and asked me.
“Wherever I go, getting help from the locals is my priority. They are people who have adapted to the environment from generation to generation.”
“Are you saying you want the help of this ant? Are you going to help out for that?”
“I understand.”
“… okay. If that’s the case, I’ll be patient.”
“It’s me, Manhyuk. Where will the base camp be built?”
This is the place where the tunnel Ants were slaughtered, so I was going to move around a bit and use a clean room as a base, but thanks to that ant, I didn’t have to.
Quick, hot, that shit.
A pink ant that breaks down the carapace of Ant’s tunnel and puts it in its mouth even though it’s just born.
Not only that, but it is growing so fast that you can see that it is growing in size in real time.
Maybe within a few days it will grow to the level of a queen ant that just died.
Margaret, who was oblivious to the occasional ant eating show, came to her senses and pointed to Class B, who was looking at this from a distance.
“How do the ashes do it?”
The children of Class B, who almost became prey for the queen ant whose name was changed, were not in very good condition on the outside.
“Take a rest, then go back to the search team.”
Earlier, when we talked about base camp, he looked disgusted. He was probably thinking of escaping.
“Are you okay?”
“If you want to go out, you have to sell your feet. That would be motivating.”
At that time, the group of B class clapped and a student approached. Crunchy hair, slanted eyes, and broken glasses. Appearance that seems to express ‘I’ve had a hard time’ with the whole body.
“We agree with your opinion. Professor Nam.”
Oh~ Even if I die soon, is this because I want to be a hero? His voice is trembling, but his words are quite strong.
“OK. cheer up.”
Then, using light magic, light beads were made and floated on the heads of the class B guys.
Class B raises their heads as if attracted to them and looks at the light, then embraces each other and sobs.
In my experience, it gets a little better after pouring it out like that. It must be said that it is a feeling of dilution of the painful scenes that have been deeply engraved in the mind.
“It’s called Pinky.”
“What?”
“That ant. We named it because we thought we would be together for a while.”
Pinky? Are you serious?
While lamenting inwardly at the atrocious naming sense, thoughts came from the pink ant that was chewing and biting hard on its own people.
square!
I like it.
“Good.”
“really? it’s pinky Eat this too.”
Pinkie is eating yum yum, as Queen picks up the remains of Ant in the tunnel.
Margaret also watched the scene for a moment, then dragged the corpse of Ant from a nearby tunnel and put it down in front of Pinky.
square, square.
Then Margaret is amazed when she sees Pinkie eating what she gives.
“Leave it to the feeding queen. You will build a house with me.”
“Home? how?”
It takes some time, but the mud house is easy to build. By the way, shells also live on my Myrtos beach, so if you break them up and combine them, you can make cement in its initial form.
“Look at what I do and do it. Class B! You too, come and help.”
“Ah Okay.”
* * *
Day 3 of the exam.
Three houses were built in just one day in the cavity where the smell of pottery from baking clay and the fishy smell of the sea coexist.
“Manhyuk’s house is a little different.”
Are you sharp?
“It’s an illusion, it’s an illusion. Soil had leaked in, so it was just another layer of tile.”
If you ask me what kind of roof tile is in the basement, where neither rain nor snow, I’d say it’s because of ants.
Over the night, Pinky, who had grown to a certain extent, produced a large amount of eggs, and the young worker ants born in the morning were scattered everywhere.
In the process, the wind crawls on the ceiling and the soil pours down like rain, eventually making the tile.
Oh, by the way, my house is on the second floor, as Queen suspected. One more floor was raised by mobilizing a specialist in the construction board, Japanese food.
“there… .”
While we were talking with Queen, the head of Class B came and called us with a shy face and continued.
“Do you have anything to eat?”
We suffered from an empty stomach from day one. No matter how much I endured one day, I went crazy on the second day, but Margaret watched Pinky’s mukbang and said that she would eat it too.
Quinn and I both frowned, but when I put it in my mouth, it turned out better than I thought. Feeling a little steamed?
We satiated our hunger like that, but Class B refused to eat the food they had prepared for us.
“There is nothing but steamed ants.”
“… okay.”
“If you can afford it, just eat it. You can think of it as food from another culture.”
The guy stopped walking at my words and looked at me for a moment, then didn’t answer and went back to the group.
“Manhyuk, Pinky is weird.”
At Margaret’s words, let’s go to Pinky, who was frantically swinging his curled antennae from side to side.
“Um, ah.”
Square, square!
My precious worker ants are dying, please help.
“Queen, you go.”
“yes!”
After explaining the situation, Quinn flew to the location without hesitation and returned within 30 minutes with green liquid all over her body.
“It’s done.”
When I heard the story, it seemed that another queen ant had been born nearby. Probably one of the contenders Pinkie mentioned.
“Pinky, how many ants are there like that?”
He fiddled with his antennae with his front paws and replied that there must be about 30 like him.
“Well… . How many worker ants can you make with the power to make soldier ants?”
square.
It depends on what you eat, but generally the ratio is about 10:1. After thinking for a while, I made a decision.
“Keep making one ant. We will play the role of soldiers.”
A worker ant or a soldier ant is equally stupid when their antennae are cut off.
As long as we have our weaknesses, we have virtually nothing to lose.
four angles!
Then, when Pinky asked how to stop the invaders, I pointed my finger at Class B and me.
“There are only two ways to get here. We are enough.”
Pinky said she would believe it and concentrated on the production of worker ants.
As you can see if you play the classic strategy simulation game, you concentrated on gathering resources instead of producing troops in the beginning, but you survived until the mid-late game? Then there is no need for control and operation. Just take a picture with an explosive amount and press it.
that’s what i’m trying to do now
* * *
Day 4
Quinn and Margaret’s struggle has secured the surrounding safety, so the worker ants that went out yesterday morning are back today. With animals or giant insects on their backs.
Pinky was delighted and ate it.
Among the animals brought by the worker ants, we ate those that looked like rabbits or birds and were least damaged.
Class B, who insisted not to eat anything during the test, was eventually captured by the peppered rabbit meat.
“I ate well. If there’s anything you can do, just tell me.”
“If I had known it would be so delicious, I would have tried it when they gave me steamed ants.”
“Yeah, I told you to eat them while they were making steamed ants!”
One of the three made a hoarse voice, probably because the opinion was ignored by the majority vote, and the glasses leader of Class B comforts him by saying he’s sorry.
Then they left first, saying they would protect their area, the back passage.
“Pink. Are you bringing these prey from outside?”
square.
That’s right.
“How about outside?”
quadrilateral.
Pinky dismissed it as an environment in which it is difficult for humans to survive.
It’s the judgment of a guy whose intelligence is increasing day by day, so there must be a good reason.
square.
“Because of a heavenly enemy?”
It is said that a monster ten times bigger than himself called ‘Long Tongue’ ate half of the worker ants that came out. They say they’ve been tormenting them since their mother.
Listening to the story, it doesn’t seem like an entity that can do anything physically.
In the first place, we had no reason to make such an unreasonable move because we only had to survive for 10 days, so we focused on dealing with nearby competitors.
Food brought in from the outside was more than three times more efficient than when it preyed on its own species, and it was all reinvested in the production of worker ants.
two days after that.
As I watched the procession of worker ants carrying food that continued through Pinky’s mouth, I had an intuition that the time had come.
“Starting today, make a soldier ant.”
square!
next day.
We occupied 33 communal sites with similar shapes in just one day.
Of course, a group of queen ants united in the middle resisted a little, but since it was literally small, the queen was torn apart by Pinky’s forces without any action.
After all, no matter what world, there is no trade in quantity.
* * *
“Two days left.”
As he slowly murmurs while looking down at the sight of worker ants constantly feeding Pinky from the second floor of the mud house, Wiz, who has been quiet since the first day, suddenly hangs in his arms.
“Oh, Mr. Surprise. … Let’s hunt the long tongue? why?”
hang on.
He ignored the thought of throwing a thought that didn’t seem like a saying, ‘You must challenge the impossible to be a true magical boy!’
Day 9.
You can safely go outside whenever you want.
If it wasn’t for the monster called the long tongue, I think I would have gone out on the 7th day by force.
square.
Pinky, who has grown huge enough to reach the common ceiling, looks at me with compound eyes as she lays on the tile and puts the raspberries brought by the worker ants into her mouth.
“why.”
square.
“When are you going? See you, about ten hours left.”
I turned on the stopwatch as soon as I entered, so the remaining time is certain.
quadrilateral.
“yes?”
square, square.
To summarize the guy’s words that continued as long as his increased intelligence, it was a call to kill the ‘Long Tongue’ together before leaving.
The moment when I was about to refuse, not feeling the need to draw. The Queen suddenly appeared and sat down next to me.
“Worker ants.”
“why.”
“If we disappear, more will die.”
At the beginning, I had already intuited what was to come next, so I sighed inwardly.
“Can we help?”
Look at this.
“I get it.”
“Don’t do that, help Pinkie—, yes?”
“Because I knew. Rather than hearing you say something from outside, even if you fail, you win a match.”
“Manhyuk… .”
I did it first, but I thought I would have to see the real thing to get an estimate, so I put Margaret and Quinn on the back and headed to the place where the monster often appears.
“Are you here?”
square.
A worker ant led the way, and he brought us to a cavity with large holes everywhere.
The size of the hole gives a rough estimate of his physique.
“Is this enough for you to do?”
“Iknow, right.”
“Come and I’ll catch you.”
Contrary to their concerns, Queen and Margaret are also relieved to see a hole about half the size of a queen ant.
And then.
Nettle!
I heard the sound of the wind coming from the hole in the ceiling, and while I was digging, a worker ant crawling beside me was quickly pulled up and disappeared beyond the dark hole.
“Room, just that.”
Queen with a surprised face.
“It will rot.”
tongue.
That big hole was just a passage for the monster’s tongue.