Rust - Chapter 708



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-708

With the introduction of ants, the recovery process accelerated.

“How did you tell me to do this?”

“I told you to drop one drop in the direction you want to work.”

There was a bit of a hiccup on site because we had to use pheromones to determine our location, but after a few attempts at matching up, we were humans and ants who seemed to get along quite well.

“If you just give them their positions, they’ll take care of everything else.”

“I told you that only educated people would come.”

“One bear room is finished.”

“Not only was he good at transporting materials, he was also good at painting.”

“Even the ant? Ant? Ants don’t have pincers on their legs. How do they do that?”

“Should I call it spit? Saliva? I mix that with something like freshly made cement and apply it to my chin. It just kills me.”

Ants are literally natural workers. A soldier ant, the size of an adult male’s forearm, weighs about 2 kg. These light soldier ants can support hundreds of times their own weight.

Since they can move almost 50 to 60 times their weight when carried alive, it has become a common sight at construction sites to see ants the size of a forearm moving 40 kg bags of cement.

Since the soldier ants that were the main force of the ant army were like this, the general ants, the top level individuals in the ant army, were literally the kings of the labor world.

The General Ant, which is the size of an adult male’s thigh, weighs 12 to 15 kg. It has a strong bio-armor that can deflect most bullets. It also has muscles that are so strong that they are unrivaled among mammals and reptiles.

The sight of a 12-15 kg general ant lifting and moving a 2,000 kg SUV was literally stuffed on the SNS of the Holy Kingdom.

Since these ants swarm in groups of 150,000 to 200,000, or even 300,000, and participate in the restoration work, it is only natural that the work is completed in an instant.

The problem was the compensation that had to be paid to the ants.

“If we are to provide the promised meat balls to the 300,000 soldier ants, we will need 300,000 kg per day. In addition, we have agreed to provide 10 kg of meat balls to the large general-level ants, so if we continue like this, we will not be able to supply enough.”

Hood, who was in charge of communicating with the ants that came in as workers, uploaded graphs of supply inventory and construction status onto the monitor.

As many as 300,000 to as few as 150,000 horses were mobilized per day, the supplies that had been accumulated were quickly dwindling.

“You said soybeans are fine, so let’s try substituting them with soybeans.”

“If you don’t mind cultured meat, we’ll mix that in as well.”

Maru nodded at Hood’s request.

‘It’s cultured meat.’

The technology for producing cultured meat was acquired from the Riser Pharmaceutical Group, and there were even methods for additional research in preparation for emergencies.

And now, the Holy Kingdom has accumulated enough technology to create cultured meat of various textures.

In addition to responding to climate change, we have been researching cultured meat and alternative meat for a long time to see if we can replace the cannibalistic desires of cannibals.

Riser’s attempts to control the cannibal’s appetite and overcome the problems that arise when cannibalism is not practiced through human cultivation were unsuccessful.

Although it is clearly human meat from a scientific standpoint since it was cultured, it is not free from the side effects associated with cannibalism.

‘Considering that even the Geese Riser, who had used up all of his research resources, eventually gave up, we must assume that it is not simply a problem of replication, propagation, or cultivation.’

There were many incidents that were difficult to explain with existing science, such as the situation that occurred as a result of the spread of a mutant virus and the sudden onset of animal mutations.

‘Once I finish the water city related technology, I’ll have to look into mutant viruses and rapid mutations with quantum computers.’

“When we fed them a mixture of soybean meat and cultured meat, the ants’ satisfaction level increased.”

The answer was to use quantum computers to produce meat balls that suit the ants’ tastes.

‘But it’s still fake.’

Suddenly, Maru felt like he was hearing Kim Yang’s voice.

No matter how delicious it is, whether it’s cultured meat or soy meat, they said it was fake.

Didn’t you say that soy meat or cultured meat doesn’t have the vivid life that real meat has?

‘So, the only meat that is meat is real meat.’

Maru chuckled as Kim Yang’s seriousness came to mind.

‘Is this life?’

The life that a living being builds up as it lives.

In other words, up.

Perhaps a relationship of entanglement.

If the reason why cultured meat could not control the appetite was because of the absence of life, karma, and entanglement…

What was the identity of that thing that was sealed underground in Japan?

Maru, who had been lost in thought for a moment, focused on the report.

“The road construction will be finished soon.”

“Yes. If things proceed at the current rate, the restoration work will likely be completed within two weeks at the latest.”

‘It’s the full moon. It’s the full moon.’

The construction was faster than expected, but Maru wished the time had been shortened even more.

“We have enough production capacity, so let’s hire more ants.”

“Huh? Are you saying we should hire more than 300,000 people?”

The hood was startled.

“The more ants that participate, the easier it will be next time.”

“···I see. I understand.”

As more ants fall in love with the taste of meat balls, future cooperation will become easier.

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‘Promises are kept.’

To put it another way,

‘The contract is executed.’

This was a kind of line that Maru had.

The reason why he maintained a somewhat creaky relationship with the empire of Dan Brown was also because of the line.

When Maru was a mercenary, unlike the powerful or the military, Den Brown had a clear give-and-take. They exchanged opinions on what each wanted and negotiated the price.

The results of such exchange were definitely implemented.

Work according to the contract and get paid for the work you do.

Execute and deliver as promised.

This simple principle was the basic policy that supported the Divine Kingdom. Maru kept his promise, whether it was to a crow, a wolf, or even a field mouse.

The same goes for compensation for labor.

The mice and ants were paid the promised amount in kind, and the crows and wolves received generous bonuses.

“Aren’t wolves playing around and eating raw these days?”

“Not really. There are a lot of long-distance patrols now that spring has arrived.”

It was the PD who explained the reason for giving performance bonus to the wolf pack.

“Are you getting used to communicating with ants now?”

Hood answered Maru’s question, which changed the topic from performance-based pay to ants.

“Yes. A conversation about living standards is possible.”

Ki-soon gave her opinion on the idea that communication was possible.

“You know, ants. They’ve even completed their training, so wouldn’t it be a shame to just disband them?”

“We decided to pay by the day. Even if there is no work, if you save up, you have to pay by the day.”

“If we could communicate at a living standard, what if we led the ants to help rebuild New York City?”

“···It is possible, but would it be of any practical benefit?”

New York was half blown up by a hydrogen bomb. Hood wonders what good it would do to send ants there.

“The practical benefits are sufficient.”

“How?”

Of course it was. It wasn’t for nothing that the human resources center made money. If you dispatch 300,000 units of labor and only take 10%, where would that be?

The Empire would need to obtain meat balls from the Holy Kingdom to pay for the ants, so both sides would benefit. At the same time, it could serve as a platform for introducing the ant empire and the American empire to each other.

“Is that possible? If New York were to blow up and the Empire’s economy were in a recession, would they hire ants? If they were to release money, they would release it to the Empire, and if they were to give jobs to the Empire’s people, they would give them jobs.”

New York City’s population was trending toward 10 million, but the rat attacks and hydrogen bomb disposal left between 6 and 6.5 million people homeless and without jobs.

It was not easy to accommodate 6 million displaced people by dispersing them to areas around New York. But it was also impossible to accommodate 6 million people by spreading out mats and pitching tents in New York.

Even during the golden age of the United States, if 6 million people were displaced in one place, the surrounding economy would be devastated, but now is the end of the world.

It was virtually impossible for the empire’s economic power to feed, house, and even create jobs for 6 million displaced people.

“Rather than using the displaced people as labor and spending years clearing the rubble, I think it would be better to introduce them to cost-effective ant friends.”

“···Ants in an empire?”

“······.”

“······.”

“Keep going.”

Ki-soon shrugged and explained the situation.

“I think that old man has been having a headache lately.”

“It can’t be helped, since he blew up New York with his own hands.”

“Well. We’re focusing on building a floating city, starting with the mega float that will be the foundation of the city. We’re putting all our technical manpower into that, but we’re having a hard time because public opinion is still against rebuilding New York City. So it seems like we’re playing a bad hand.”

“handshake?”

“Public opinion is not good, the economy is in ruins, and even if we start preparing right now, what are we going to do about the 6 million displaced people? Even if it’s summer, if we fail to prepare for winter, most of them will freeze to death.”

“So. You shook hands?”

Ki-soon’s squinted eyes became even narrower.

“What can I do? If I don’t get rid of the bean powder right away, all the problems that have been suppressed will explode all at once. That’s probably why I think I just threw the mulberry in first.”

The story of how he changed the term ‘government of the people, for the people, by the people’ to human and declared it to be an empire for humanity.

PD and Hood understood the context.

“It seems that they declared human-centrism and tried to check the confusion caused by cannibals and vampires.”

PD’s interpretation was that it was a declaration of justification for disposing of non-humans.

A government for the people, policies only for the people. So, they tried to prevent division by creating the image of an empire where people live together.

“Declaring human-centrism seems to mean that not only cannibals and vampires, but also mutant monsters and animals are excluded. In that kind of atmosphere, I wonder if taking worker ants with you is a bit… dangerous.”

In America, ants were considered one of the pests.

As New York falls apart, will the stressed-out New Yorkers just sit by and watch ants the size of their forearms scurry around?

“It’s dangerous. But wouldn’t it be better to open up now to avoid the worst? At least now, we’ll be able to see the ants’ participation in rebuilding New York, so they won’t cause any trouble.”

That was something I didn’t know. It was America, where such strange things happen.

Maru sorted out the situation. Gi-sun’s idea of ​​sending worker ants while simultaneously taking advantage of the situation and cooling down the empire that had been heated by the declaration of human-centeredness was not bad.

The only stumbling block was that there was a risk factor. The ant colony didn’t care about that risk. They didn’t care much even if a few or a few dozen died.

“Since the ants said they don’t care about small incidents, check with President Dan Brown to see if he needs worker ants.”

“Yes, yes, Your Majesty.” Ki-soon answered lightly and headed to Imperial Boston. To Boston, not New York.

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Dan Brown had no intention of rebuilding New York City on its site.

Even if we succeed in rebuilding it in the same way, why rebuild a city that is sure to collapse before long?

But the citizens wanted to rebuild New York. They wanted the city that never sleeps, the city of the splendid night, the city of the golden bull to be reborn.

“So. Are you suggesting that we use ants as workers?”

“Yes. You’re not going to rebuild New York anyway, are you? If you care about public opinion, you should show that you’re cleaning up the rubble and rebuilding, and we ants are experts in that.”

Ki-soon suggested that I try using worker ants for half a day, not even a day.

“You know things aren’t good right now, right?”

“I know. Likewise, you knew that the human-centered declaration was dangerous, right?”

The two people who exchanged labor supply contracts shook hands.

And Dan Brown was astonished. In just half a day, the rubble strewn around the Chancellery was cleared away.

“What the···.”

Ants clinging to a half-destroyed reinforced concrete building, completely dismantling the building.

oh my god.

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After inspecting the defenses of the Newport News Shipyard, Hee-yeon immediately headed out to check on the mutant spiders.

[Please note that this is an inefficient choice.]

The assistant AI again tried to dissuade him.

If your goal is to capture mutant spiders, you can just give orders to acid rats or fire rats. You don’t necessarily have to go all the way to Link and do it yourself.

[It may be fine for simple reconnaissance or defense, but it is true that it is insufficient for responding to on-site situations.]

Hee-yeon spoke as if she had finally found the words. It was good that Link didn’t make any slurred sounds.

[No communication problems.]

[Sensor is operating normally.]

Even though the spider web was close enough to be visible, there was no radio interference or electronic interference.

[Not nearby?]

[Nothing is caught by the motion detection sensor or biometric detection sensor.]

Heeyeon tilted her head.

Because in the last footage the acid rat took, there were spiders in a group.