Ant Spy

"Queen, egg."

Compared to normal insects, Foolish, the soldier ant, was quite clever. Normal bugs could hardly sort out words using [Spirit Connection].

After just one afternoon, Foolish was able to send a simple message to System. Although it was not as good as Quin, it was counted as a bug with superior intelligence.

The soldier ant was not really foolish, but just simple-minded and prone to believe in others easily.

Foolish was convinced of System's concocted identity—the ant queen.

Foolish really believed that it was System's child, so it would do everything System told it.

"Go get me an ant larva."

After receiving an ant egg from Foolish, System continued his test on the soldier ant. He had ordered it to rob normal worker ants' food, steal food from an anthill, bring out ant eggs and larvae…

System's test escalated step by step. He found that even if he asked Foolish to commit suicide or to assassinate the fake ant queen in the depths of the anthill, Foolish would not hesitate to obey.

However, System simply tried to give the orders and stopped it immediately.

He would not let Foolish commit suicide. Also, it would not do System any good to let Foolish assassinate the ant queen in the anthill, regardless of whether it could succeed.

After choosing a crevice, System ordered Foolish to carry food in it while he jumped away from the anthill.

…

The sky darkened, and System explored around the forest in the darkness.

Due to [Dark Vision] and his newly acquired ability,0 [Subtlety Vision], System's vision in the dark was much better than during the day. Ever since System inherited Quin's spiritual power, he could continuously use [Information Reading] for more than ten minutes, which was three times longer than before.

In fact, while System previously had been out foraging in the dark, this was the first time he tried to explore. There were many mosquitoes in the forest at night, fluttering together in swarms, and seemed to be mating.

The spiders appeared on their webs every few meters apart, and one or two toads with bulging abdomens would appear on the ground, reaching out their tongues to catch the mosquitoes in the air.

The forest at night seemed dangerous and creepy.

It was not long before a small bat showed up in the sky, flying back and forth. System tensed his nerves and was ready to avoid this bug-eating predator.

However, before System made a move, he realized that the small bat had noticed him and flew away quickly.

System was suddenly enlightened.

This bat, which was about his size, did not take him as prey at all. It chose to keep a distance from him instead, which clearly showed its fear of him.

He was no longer the same little grasshopper he was back then.

System ignored that bat and continued to explore around. There was a variety of possible prey for System at night, but most of them were not what he wanted. Undoubtedly, it was more efficient to snatch the ants' food than hunting these bugs.

System's target was an edible magical creature like the slime.

While inheriting Quin's power, System also had access to many of her memories.

The memories about Quin acquiring [Mind Transmission] and the world's voice were vague, but the part about the plant that allowed her to grow quickly was clear.

Quin had trodden on a path different from normal grasshoppers only after eating the pale blue fruit.

…

Though System's idea was good, searching for magical creatures in the forest was like fishing for a needle in the ocean. System searched all night but gained nothing.

In the morning, System returned to the ant nest where Foolish as he had utterly failed.

Surprisingly, he made an amazing discovery, giving him a way to hibernate peacefully. With this, he would not have to look for magical creatures to boost his strength as quickly as possible. After all, searching for the pale blue fruit that Quin had eaten was like buying a lottery ticket, which could only be encountered accidentally.

All he had to do was prepare with a peaceful mind, steadily gain EXP, and undergo his third molting after ten days. Then, he would be able to spend the entire winter with ease, even if there were two or three months of snow.

This startling discovery came from Foolish. After an entire night, Foolish had filled the rock crevice, which System had chosen at random the previous day, with food.

The crevice was large for ants, as it was about the size of a can of coke in his previous life.

It was not because of its strong strength that Foolish had filled it in only one night. In fact, normal soldier ants were only larger, and their ability to carry things was not even comparable to normal worker ants.

Like normal soldier ants, Foolish's ability to carry food was equally poor. Thus, it would not be able to fill the crevice even if ten of it carried food all night long.

Foolish had filled the crevice with food because it had sought help from the worker ants.

When System returned, nearly a hundred worker ants were moving around his crevice.

Under Foolish's command, these worker ants placed the food they were carrying in their mouths into the rock crevice.

Soon, the crevice was filled. The worker ants continued to pile on the food in the crevice, while Foolish wandered around and guided the worker ants to move from time to time.

Foolish had far exceeded System's expectations.

System, with his human intelligence, had not even thought of letting the soldier ant command the worker ants to carry food. Nevertheless, Foolish had thought of it.

Since Foolish could command the worker ants, System immediately thought of countless possibilities, including a plan to build a nest for hibernation with the help of these ants.

Ants were good at digging, so System could build an underground nest effortlessly and make it luxurious, too.

He had planned to dig a simple cave two meters deep down into the ground that would allow him to escape from the coldness of winter.

However, now, he was capable of digging a five-meter deep cave with these hard-working worker ants. They would also dig many rooms in the cave as his granaries.

All System needed to do was ask Foolish to instruct the worker ants to make the cave wider, allowing him to access it freely.

As for filling the granaries, this could be done by these hard-working worker ants too. If the food collection process was too slow, he could even ask them to bring resources from their nest's storage.

When winter came, he could stay still as if he was hibernating and eat non-stop underground to further enhance his strength.