Rust - Chapter 951



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-951

Ms. Kim muttered while checking the status board.

“They are some terrible bitches.”

“yes?”

“The ant bitches’ torsos and heads are starting to hide tightly. Whether their limbs are cut off or not.”

“ah-”

Kim Yang reorganized the information that the crow search party had brought back. At first, they found the entrance to the ant hole quickly, but after Maru cleared a few places, they began to camouflage the entrance.

‘There are more and more places that have not only camouflaged themselves but also completely destroyed their entrances.’

So it was difficult for the crow search party to confirm from a distance. When they flew low or landed to confirm directly, the waiting ants would attack them by surprise.

Even though the scout crows were elite, they were not strong enough to escape a trap set by the thousands.

The number of crow search parties disappearing without leaving a single feather behind is increasing. If this continues, we will have to give up the search before finding the ant empire.

A long vertical wrinkle formed between Kim Yang’s eyebrows. The equipment that could respond to the biological EMP generated when mutant monsters gathered also had limitations.

Even for the crows that were on the same side at the time, if they were to gather together, even reconnaissance cameras and communication devices would be disabled. So, in order to minimize the biological EMP effect, they were using various methods to avoid the biological EMP, such as having them sit with their heads crossed in front and behind each other on the airship, or making a non-conductive cabin that could accommodate groups of 100 or so.

As a result, unlike ants that can easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of units, the crow unit was able to naturally manage supplies with 20,000 to 30,000 units.

The story is that when 100,000 people fight against 100,000 people, the ants move as a group, while the crows are scattered into 3 or 4 places.

Naturally, there was a difference in the concentration of troops. Furthermore, since it was a situation where only simple firepower support was possible without semiconductors, there was a high risk of each unit being destroyed.

As the battle with the ant swarm continued with 200,000 and 300,000 troops waiting behind them after 100,000 were completely wiped out, the crow unit’s losses increased.

“How’s the mood among the crows?”

“Eh-again- it’s not good.”

“That’s natural. The kids are complaining openly. That kind of stuff.”

“Eh- but since he’s nearby···.”

The nurse’s words trailed off, but Miss Kim caught on.

“Huh- so that’s what it is, then?”

“yes yes.”

The Crow Brigade suffered such severe losses that if the Great Baekjeong had not been nearby, they would have run away immediately.

‘The magpies never wanted to come out of their farmland in the first place.’

In this situation, we didn’t have enough air power to search for the Ant-Year’s base. It would have been nice if we could have used drone units.

‘Huh? Wait a minute.’

Kim Yang’s eyes scanned the status board again. She blinked as she checked the characteristics of the operation area again and watched the combat footage from the previous day.

Huhuhuhuh—

‧

“So, should we use artificial rain?”

[Yeah. It doesn’t need to rain that much, even if it’s just a drizzle, the winged midges won’t be able to fly properly.]

The temperature dropped below zero at night, but during the day it was above 7~8 degrees Celsius. There were days when it snowed at night and rained during the day.

Since the operation was carried out during the spring drought, the forest fires were no joke. The Empire, which was suddenly inhaling smoke and ashes, continued to protest.

If Maru had been dispatched, the forest fire would have been resolved cleanly without any problems, but since they couldn’t get there, they couldn’t help but use firepower.

When the Crow Force moved in small groups, they were ambushed, and when they moved in large groups, large-scale aerial battles literally took place.

Because of the nature of aerial combat, it was difficult for Maru to intervene directly, so most of the cases ended with the crows retreating due to being outnumbered.

“It’s artificial rain.”

After preventing close-range reconnaissance using crows, the ants went beyond camouflaging their entrances and began digging fake ant holes to lure Maru.

I thought it was an ant hole and went in with a hypersonic bunker buster, but there were cases where the pupil itself was a trap.

There were many cases where the pupils would collapse as soon as Death was pushed into the hole. Since that solid ant hole couldn’t collapse in an instant, it must have been a trap.

[There’s no way they would have built a drainage facility in the ship.]

Maru nodded at Kim Yang’s story that even if they built a drainage facility, it wouldn’t be prepared as meticulously as a real pupil.

“That certainly seems likely.”

By using artificial rain, the fighting power of the winged insects could be weakened, and at the same time, the ants could distinguish the traps they had dug.

Using rain there also had the effect of putting out forest fires, and it was even possible to appease the empire that was whining about dying from the smoke and ash.

“How is the situation in the Empire?”

[There’s been a lot of noise about the maritime city issue these days, and other than that, things seem to be going strangely.]

This side was also complicated by the issue of relocation to the floating city, and it seemed that the Empire was the same.

“Is everything okay, Kisun?”

[Uh… um. That’s what they say. Yeah. It’s been a while since you’ve been isolated, so wouldn’t it be good to have a visitation? Something like that?]

After the ant situation was sorted out, it was Maru who decided to go for an interview with Ki-soon.

‧

The artificial rain operation was more effective than expected.

The movements of the wings soaked with moisture were definitely dull. No matter how many there were, they were not able to fly properly, and even if they did fly, they did not fly for long.

The crows began to fly in anger. They began to slaughter the winged ones as if to vent all the anger they had suffered.

Kaaaak! (Tear me to pieces!)

Caw! (Kill me!)

Neither the insect wings that were good for turning nor the formic acid were of any use to the crows. This was because the formic acid, which had become more concentrated after mutation, had been diluted by the rain.

And crows were birds that sometimes enjoyed bathing in formic acid by deliberately attacking ant colonies to kill parasites stuck to their feathers and shooting them with formic acid.

The moderate concentration of formic acid now was not threatening at all, only bringing back memories of it warming my body.

In an instant, the ant kingdom was divided into traps and non-traps, and Maru appeared several times to sweep away the ant kingdom.

The nurse flew the drone.

[Princess Ant is here?]

“Princess Ant? Why Princess Ant all of a sudden? What’s your business?”

I had some fun using artificial rain. The ants responded to the artificial rain faster than expected.

[Ah-again- So, I’m asking why you keep attacking. What should I say when you say you want to see the king?]

“···Tell him to wait.”

An envoy was sent from the ant empire.

‧

Kikrik-kikrik-

The ant princess’s behavior, as she looked around while preening her antennae, was very cautious. Seeing that she still had wings, it was clear that the ant society had changed a lot.

“What is your business?”

“Uh- So. I’m curious as to why you keep attacking?”

The nurse used a pheromone interpreter to choose her words.

“You guys are funny. You attacked first, so why are you attacking me?”

“Ah, I killed all the ants that attacked me, so there’s no reason to fight anymore, right?”

Look at these. So the population has been regulated. Are you saying there is no reason to fight anymore?

“There must be a being who gave the order to attack the Holy Kingdom. If that being were to order us to attack at any moment, wouldn’t war break out again? I don’t want to create such an uncertain situation.”

The nurse who interpreted Maru’s words had her eyes wide open when she heard Princess Ant’s words.

“Huh? Huh? Just a moment.”

A nurse with a serious expression on her face is talking to the pheromone interpreter. As the conversation seems to be getting longer, Maru asks Ms. Kim.

“What happened to the ants in our neighborhood?”

“Sent to prepare for the tunnel construction.”

In retrospect, it was strange that the ants did not actively utilize their tunnels. It is true that it would not be easy to stop ants in the tens of millions from digging deep into the ground.

It was clear that the ants, who quickly came up with countermeasures to Maru’s Garden of Death and artificial rain operation, did not use the tunnel operation.

“I’m saying you don’t really want to fight.”

“?”

Even so, the number of dead ants had already exceeded hundreds of millions. If they were able to send out princess ants even after spending hundreds of millions, it would mean that the main force was still intact.

While talking to Ms. Kim, the nurse also hesitated as to whether she had finished talking to Princess Ant.

“What did you say that made the story so long?”

“So. E-again-”

The nurse, who seemed to be searching for something to translate, began to explain while choosing her words.

“The ants said that they could not refuse the orders of the Great Mother.”

The first queen of the ant empire.

The so-called great mother’s pheromone is said to be absolute.

To counter it, you need a queen with similar levels of pheromones, but ant colonies of similar size have already been pushed out by Maru long ago.

At that time, the ant empire killed every single queen and princess they saw, and blew up the center with tactical nuclear weapons.

And the Holy Kingdom absorbed the independent minor satellite kingdoms and used the labor of ants to spur the construction of floating cities.

There was a story about an ant kingdom that had defected to the Holy Kingdom and was trying to create a front line by extracting electricity, but the ants were all said to turn into enemies if they came into contact with the pheromones of the ant queen, who is called the Great Mother.

“Is this a threat?”

“Huh? No. That’s not it. I asked if there was a reason to fight like that.”

Ants originally fought until one side was destroyed. But the northern ant empire was not like that.

“We have not been actively fighting so far because we intend not to continue the war, but we said that if we continue to be attacked like this, we can no longer tolerate it.”

“Unacceptable?”

Maru-ga picked up a laugh.

“Yes. The Great Mother. She proposed peace. She asked me to get a definitive answer directly from the King of the Human Kingdom.”

“Peace. What if the term peace that we use and the peace that ants use have different meanings?”

A question mark appeared above the nurse’s head at Maru’s question.

“Huh? Huh?”

“What if the peace that the ants are talking about means the unilateral subjugation of one side? The peace they are talking about means our surrender. Shouldn’t we confirm that first?”

It was similar when the Divine Kingdom absorbed the satellite ant kingdoms. The queen ants of the satellite kingdoms chose to submit to the Divine Kingdom.

They did not try to negotiate individually on equal footing, or to negotiate by uniting their forces through a coalition.

“Ants have a clear hierarchy. So if the great mother ant is looking down on us, there can be no peace.”

“Yes? Yes.”

While the nurse was once again looking serious and head to head with the princess ant, Maru thought back to the old ant empire and kingdom.

At that time, the ant empire was studying humans. There were traces of attempts to synthesize pheromones that could communicate with humans.

They were farming using moss and mycelium, and also raising livestock using cockroaches, aphids, and insect larvae.

Clearly, if it was civilization, it was civilization. Those ants were experimenting on humans. That’s why Maru ended the ant empire.

‘Do ants have the concept of coexistence?’

It was a place where a bitter smile formed. If you think about it, humans also did not coexist with each other and caused countless creatures to become extinct, but it seemed like they were expecting too much from ants.

‘I wish I could find the main base like last time.’

The Northern Ant Empire kept its headquarters hidden.

“Uh- Well then. How about we settle this by defining our own territories and ending the war?”

As expected, the concept of peace was different.

“It’s a matter of territory and war. I would like to send an official envoy from this side as well.”

“They said they would welcome me in the Satellite Kingdom.”

He said he wouldn’t reveal his main base. Since he openly said he would welcome them at the satellite kingdom, it means he definitely knows that the other ant empires have been raided.

“The ant bitches responded better than I expected.”

Even if the war continued, it seemed unlikely that it would end quickly.

“Let’s draw a border and end the war. But we need underground resources. If there are underground resources in that area that we need, it would be good if we could mine them.”

Negotiations with the Northern Ant Empire have begun.

======

======

Boston, the temporary capital of the empire.

After fierce debate and conflict, the deal was passed. Some of the New York reconstruction projects were approved, and in return, the location of the sea city was decided to be in the middle of the waters between New York and Boston.

It was negotiated to link Boston and the maritime city to rebuild high-tech industries, and to rebuild the financial industry in the maritime city and the rebuilt New York.

Criticism of sharing continued, but isn’t that the case? Imperial politics temporarily regained peace.

What broke that peace was the unexpected Panama incident.

“Your Majesty, an emergency distress signal has arrived from Panama.”