Rust - Chapter 985



Only Krnovel

Rust [RUST] – Episode 985

Being big meant being heavy and strong.

It goes without saying that it would take a lot of strength to move such a large body. If a bear stood up on two feet, it would be the size of a 3rd or 4th floor apartment building.

The shoulders of a large moose were as big as a single-family home. When rats started to weigh more than 20 kg, conventional biological knowledge became meaningless.

Being big and strong is an ability in itself. The heavy mass and the power supporting it were primitive but powerful.

That’s why mutations in nature generally occur in the direction of increasing size. So does that mean that only large things are strong and dangerous?

Kikrik-kikrik-

Srarararak-

It seemed like black waves were overflowing from the tunnel.

Its small size means it can fit into even the smallest of spaces.

Kkaaaak!

A sight of black, sticky ants digging into the ears, nostrils, screaming mouths, and eyeballs. The tunnel finishing workers were attacked by tiny ants.

“What is that?”

“The exosuit is out!”

“Huh? What about the sensor? Why isn’t the sensor working?”

If small things form a colony, more can fit in the same space. And if there is a means of attack despite being small…

“It’s a biological EMP!”

“That small thing? It’s just the size of a regular ant!”

“Are they all mutant ants?”

Believe it or not, the harsh reality that awaited them was brutal. In an instant, the exosuits became inoperable, as did the sensors. The people who had been working on the tunnel construction site due to the severe cold began to disintegrate alive one by one.

“Stop talking like an idiot and keep running!”

“Get out of the tunnel!”

“Open the door. Quickly!”

The tunnel entrance leading to the outside was firmly closed.

“The winter clothes!”

“No time to get dressed. Grab it and run!”

“It’s minus 70 degrees outside. I’ll freeze to death any minute!”

“Then are you going to die to ants?”

“Just go out and wear a winter coat! Just open it!”

The thick doors opened with a heavy metallic sound. I opened one and found a half-frozen space. It was so cold that they had made it double by leaving a space in the middle.

Kkirrrrrrr-

The tiny ants that had been swarming like ants stopped chasing each other and stopped coming inside when they were hit by the cold.

“They stopped!”

“Open the outer door quickly!”

“FUCK- Look at the temperature. Look at it with your eyes!”

“It’s minus 72 degrees. You should put on a winter coat.”

Those already wearing thick winter clothing began to open the outer hatch first.

“Hey! Wait a minute. I haven’t finished putting it on yet.”

“wait-”

Regardless, the hatch opened. The cold air of minus 72 degrees Celsius instantly began to fill the space.

Threeriririri-

Kik-kik–

A colony that moves like the tide.

Survivors sat down in place, watching the waves disappear deep into the tunnel.

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There was no CCTV footage, and no remaining footage from the tactical cameras on the exosuit. It wasn’t a matter of information, it was just that the hardware physically wasn’t there.

[Not only is it highly toxic, it is also highly degradable, like acidic rat saliva.]

Formic acid, which is like the acid of rats and seagulls with added toxicity. The absolute amount of poison was very small for an ant the size of a baby fingernail.

Since the absolute amount was small, even if a few bit them, it wouldn’t pose much of a threat to the large mutant monster. The poison couldn’t penetrate the thick leather and tough fur to reach the flesh and blood.

But even a small ant is a mutant monster. If a large monster starts biting inside through open places like ear holes and nostrils, it would be difficult for it to withstand.

Humans, who are already vulnerable to poison, are even more vulnerable. The moment ants enter the eyes, ears, or nostrils, they eat away at the flesh and bite the brain, that’s the end.

[If even one of them penetrates the brain or the eyes and ears, the human will lose its fighting power.]

The ants were clever. They clung to the clothes of the fleeing survivors, moved when they put on their winter clothes, and eventually burrowed into their ears.

[That. Didn’t they say that once ants fight, they fight until they die?]

[yes that’s right.]

[Why can’t we just tell our ants to fight?]

[The size of the ants there is small and their numbers are large, so our ants are at a disadvantage.]

The ones on the other side are on average 5~8mm in size, but this one is on the smaller side at around 10cm. The larger ones are already over 20cm, and the giant ants are basically 50cm.

The size difference was so great that it was difficult for this one to attack the smaller one. It was too small for the ant’s jaws, which spread apart from side to side, to bite.

There was no way to do it either. Even if death had spread, the holes made by the small ants were only about 5mm in diameter.

The gap was so small that it was difficult for the death creeper to dig through, and even if it did, there was no way out because the ants would block the passage.

“I wasn’t even tempted.”

He was so clever that he wasn’t even tempted after Maru swept it once.

However, it was difficult for Maru to guard the construction site, as the ants would rush in and create a garden of death, so it was meaningless because the same team would get involved.

One way or another, it’s a total mess.

“You said you tried communicating with pheromones but it didn’t work?”

[Yes. I thought I understood, but I attacked.]

The nurse answered Maru’s question.

“Are you sure you understood?”

[Yes? Yes. It definitely stopped for a moment.]

They had clearly stopped attacking until they had relayed a message from here and received the order. It didn’t seem to take that long, which means the place where the Queen was and where the tunnel had been dug through weren’t that far away.

[No way. You’re not planning to use tactical nuclear weapons, are you? Tactical nuclear weapons can’t be guaranteed to be effective.]

However, it was too dangerous to use strategic nuclear weapons. Not only was there a city right above, but the artificial earthquake caused by the nuclear explosion could affect the fault and cause a chain reaction.

“No. I was thinking about putting liquid nitrogen in it.”

[Liquid nitrogen?]

The ants chasing the survivors stopped chasing them when they got cold. How about actively utilizing that part?

[Hmm- liquid nitrogen. It doesn’t really work on land, right?]

[It might not be as effective as you think because the soil acts as an insulator.]

“Let’s try drilling a hole, filling it with liquid nitrogen, and exploding it.”

[Let’s negotiate?]

“Negotiation is good, or maybe ants poisoned by liquid nitrogen come up.”

[Simulation results. It was confirmed that there is an 83% or greater chance of driving out the ants currently near the tunnel.]

The liquid nitrogen attack began with the analysis of artificial intelligence Diana.

[Retreat.]

[Everything disappeared near the tunnel.]

Drilling a hole and popping a tank of liquid nitrogen worked at first, but after a few attempts, the ants began attacking the drilling rig.

They mobilized water to gnaw through pipes and damage drilling rigs to prevent them from digging deeper. During this standoff, a lethal pesticide for ants was developed.

[You can’t kill them all. As generations pass, pesticide-resistant ants will emerge.]

“It doesn’t matter. I have no intention of killing or driving them all out.”

The goal was to establish a territory and not disturb it. Just as the northern ant empire had decided not to disturb each other, the small ants underground were to the extent of being inviolable.

Na Ju-yeon’s new ant-specific pesticide was amazing. The ants responded to the pesticide, which penetrated in vapor form, by destroying their passageways.

The killing, blocking, and killing continued endlessly. After a standoff that lasted nearly a month, the nurse identified the pheromones of the small ants.

[Here it comes. The little ant has requested a truce.]

The little ants, realizing that it was pesticide, called for a ceasefire.

“There is no ceasefire. Either we end the war by not touching each other’s territory on the current front, or we continue to fight.”

[Huh? Are you okay?]

“Because it’s winter, they can’t come up anyway. It would be more dangerous if we make a hasty ceasefire and then the ants develop resistance to pesticides.”

[yes.]

The nurse conveyed to the small ant the meaning of the floor, that it was either a ceasefire or a war. If it were a human, it would have been a ceasefire during the negotiation period, but the ants had a different way of thinking than people.

[Negotiation is negotiation and fighting is fighting? This is really disgusting.]

Ki-sun was a student who was scared of the endless swarm of small ants that were dying from pesticides.

It was only after another week or so that the little ants finally decided to call it quits. This was after a new pesticide had been developed and additionally introduced.

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[Who would have thought that there would be little ants underground in Ottawa? There is so much water around here and so much groundwater that I never thought there would be anything underneath.]

[After checking, I found that there were small ant territories underground in other cities as well.]

Even in Montreal, under the ground in Quebec, tiny ants were found living there.

“We’ve decided that the area 30 meters underground is our territory. Let’s start construction without going below that.”

Originally, the plan was to build a large-scale underground city at a depth of less than 100 meters, impervious to nuclear weapons. But there was no choice.

[An experiment to add toxicity to the formic acid of common ants was successful.]

Research on the unique formic acid of small ants continued. Experiments were conducted simultaneously to transplant the mutation elements of small ants into friendly ants and to combine the factors of giant ants.

[I’ve discovered the cause of the giant ant mutation. From now on, we can increase the size of our ants.]

[I’m against making it bigger. As we saw in this incident, bigger size isn’t always advantageous.]

[I am also against artificially increasing the size.]

Although Ki-sun and Hood were against Na-ju-yeon’s claim to combine the two, they could not deny that if there was a conflict with the ants and war broke out again, the best way would be to stop ants with ants.

[But I’m against messing with genes. I know what will happen later.]

[I agree. They say it was confirmed through simulations, but we don’t know what will happen in reality. Considering that the liquid nitrogen tactic also produced different results from the simulations, I think we need to be careful.]

Ki-soon and Hood’s thoughts did not change.

[It’s not about growing them as big as giant ants. It’s about growing them 1.5 to 2 times bigger than our small ants, from 10 mm to 20 mm at most.]

Na Ju-yeon’s story about growing up to a weight class where she can win unilaterally.

“Let’s start with the formic acid that contains poison. Let’s leave the size alone.”

Following Maru’s decision, further mutations of the ants began.

‧

As temperatures began to dip into the minus 50s and 60s, and nights and dawns began to easily drop below minus 70s, the hunters were divided into two groups.

One side is hunting for mutated monsters that have fallen into hibernation, and the other is working on infrastructure projects such as tunnel construction.

“It’s not even safe.”

“Who knew there were ants like that under the ground?”

“Anyway, I negotiated with those damn little ants, so it’s okay now, right?”

“You were negotiating with the ant empire in the north, and now you’re negotiating with the ants under our city.” “The ants are my masters, my masters.”

“How can ants not do it?”

“You said you used pesticide this time?”

“If you don’t kill them all at once, they will develop resistance to pesticides.”

“Why don’t we just make a pesticide that doesn’t develop resistance?”

“I don’t know what to do with the technology I’ve put aside.”

“What good are supercomputers and quantum computers? They can’t even wipe out an ant.”

“Hey, stop it. If it had been another country, there would have been no telling how many casualties there would have been.”

“Yes. Everyone, be careful in the caves that lead deep into the ground.”

“Are your livers all shriveled up? What were you so scared of?”

“I’m saying this because it’s not just ants that are crazy, there might be other crazy things too.”

“Take it easy and come back.”

“Don’t go too deep.”

Even in temperatures of -60 to -70 degrees Celsius, hunters who set out to hunt would look backwards, stop for a moment, and then move forward.

The winter of the Holy Kingdom deepened like that.