Contemplation

“Ahhh... My leg!”

“No, my subordinates are still down there!”

“Retreat, quickly retreat...”

Even if he closed his eyes, as long as he didn't close the screen, those voices would continue to pour into his ears.

Screams and cries echoed from the collapsing front lines as people were consumed by panic and fear.

Because the ant swarm never uttered any excited cheers of victory, the cries of the enemy forces sounded even more tragic across the battlefield.

With the giant mutated species as their vanguard, the swarm, capable of easily tearing even golems to shreds, showed no mercy whatsoever.

They were simply doing what they had to do.

Just like a farmer harvesting ripe crops in the field, or a fisherman casting a net to catch fish in the water.

To hunt for the food required for survival as the price of victory was, after all, a matter of course for any living being.

‘The golems' auto-repair function is a bit of a nuisance. It really is annoying; they manage to stand right back up even after being smashed with great effort.’

Lin Miao opened his eyes once more, frowning as he watched the retreating mages make a desperate gamble, letting their golems enter a berserk state.

Admittedly, these golems had already been knocked over by the giant horns of the heavy-armored ants—the swarm's newest and strongest mutated species—and clamped, torn apart, and crushed by the massive mandibles of the saw-jawed ants.

Yet, as long as the magic crystals at their cores remained intact, these improved combat golems could use surrounding materials to repair themselves and continue fighting until their magic power was depleted.

This was why the swarm, despite crushing the golems, had failed to completely annihilate the retreating imperial army.

【Elise is astonished by these unkillable enemies】

As could be seen from Elise's reaction, the golems' self-repair was completely beyond the swarm's common sense.

For living creatures, severing limbs, decapitating heads, and tearing bodies apart meant certain death.

In fact, the swarm had always ended the lives of countless enemies in exactly this manner.

But golems were not living creatures to begin with. This was the first time the swarm was facing inanimate weapons of war.

Therefore, they had not yet formed the concept of "must destroy the magic crystal in the chest," meaning their current offensive was mostly in vain.

“How should I tell them that the magic crystal is their weakness?”

Lin Miao, who had long known from posts on the Divine Net forum that the golems' weakness was their magic crystals, muttered blankly to himself.

Even if these berserk golems wouldn't last long before depleting their energy and shutting down, every single second on the battlefield was incredibly precious.

Lin Miao wanted more and more to teach the swarm more things.

Only when they knew and learned more could his voice and his will be fully conveyed to them.

“Hmm...”

As Lin Miao was distractedly scrolling through his phone, he spotted something on an online shopping platform he had opened to buy daily necessities.

‘Should I try putting this inside the terrarium?’

A crazy idea crossed his mind without warning.

What he saw was a humanoid toy robot with a battery compartment in its chest.

With the advancement of technology, this toy was much more exquisite and cooler than the ones he played with as a child, but the product description clearly stated a recommended age of 8–13, making it undeniably a children's toy.

‘To the swarm in the terrarium, this toy would probably be an enemy as powerful as those golems.’

This toy, which was smaller than his face, would look like a monster even larger than the golems on the battlefield in the eyes of the swarm.

He suddenly realized that he could perhaps use this toy to give the swarm some “training.”

Anyone who heard that he was going to train a mere ant swarm, rather than a cat or a dog, would surely think he had lost his mind.

But his swarm had long since transcended the boundaries of ordinary ants.

Especially Elise, who served as the brain of the swarm; Lin Miao could guarantee that the behavior and intelligence she displayed were far superior to those of cats or dogs.

He believed that the current swarm would definitely be able to read his intentions and learn how to deal with the golems.

Especially Elise; she would surely be able to deduce why he was putting this toy into the terrarium.

‘There's no harm in trying, right? If it doesn't work, I can just take it back out.’

As long as there was even a sliver of possibility, he was willing to give it a shot.

Over time, the swarm, which grew by devouring, would eventually find its own way to complete its evolution.

But sometimes, they also needed someone to give them a hand and accelerate the process.

Furthermore, the other deities on Terra were gaining stronger and stronger interference force by continuously expanding their servants and territories, and they would only interfere more in this world in the future.

The swarm also needed more of his help.

Compared to those other deities who had expanded across the universe for hundreds of years or even longer using the Divine Net, Lin Miao was undoubtedly still in the toddler stage... but even so, there were things that only he could do.

‘Actually doing it makes me a bit nervous.’

Just one day after placing the order, the package was delivered.

It arrived just as the imperial army had lost all its golems and suffered a total defeat, and before the swarm had time to process and transport all the captured prey back to the nest.

Lin Miao unwrapped the package and looked down at the toy robot and remote control in his hands.

To be honest, compared to those golems, this thing was truly just a toy.

It could only walk clumsily and swing its arms with creaking noises—just a thirty-yuan piece of plastic.

Just as he had learned beforehand, as long as batteries were installed in its chest, it could be controlled with a wireless remote.

“Should I give them a hint?”

Lin Miao originally planned to put it straight in, but after some thought, he used tape to stick a dead mealworm over the battery compartment.

His ultimate goal was to use this robot, which operated on a similar principle to the golems, to tell them that the enemy's weakness lay in the power source in its chest.

The current swarm was still unable to skillfully utilize special forces like magic power, unlike other races.

Before they could grasp that, they had to master as many tactical methods as possible.

“All right.”

Having made the preparations, Lin Miao carefully opened the lid of the terrarium.

Fortunately, he had already expanded the terrarium, so there was still plenty of space even after putting in a robot like this.

In any case, the swarm's main battlefield had long ceased to be this tiny terrarium, moving instead to that much vaster world.

【Elise has sensed a change】

Whether she saw it through the eyes of the worker ants guarding the outside of the terrarium or sensed it the moment Lin Miao opened the lid, a notification immediately popped up, stating that Elise had sensed an anomaly.

Lin Miao smiled and placed the robot directly into the terrarium.

The swarm's reaction upon seeing this object was extremely intense, as was plainly evident from the endless stream of notifications popping up one after another.

【The servants are astonished by the enemy falling from the sky】

【The servants are highly alert toward this existence, which is completely different from everything that has descended before】

【The servants instinctively sense that this is not prey】

Having already fought enemies like golems, it was only natural for them to treat a humanoid robot of similar shape as an enemy.

Instantly, all the defensive forces inside the nest rushed out.

These mutated species that had been in a dormant state—scythe-bladed ants, venom-sting ants, mutated soldier ants, and so on—all mobilized.

However, the swarm's strongest mutated species were not here; they were all produced in the nests at the front lines.

【Elise has fallen into confusion, mistakenly believing that the Great One intends to be their enemy】

Lin Miao gently operated the toy to make it take a few steps forward, and a notification immediately popped up stating that Elise had fallen into a panic.

The reason this nest did not have many defensive forces was precisely because they firmly believed that the Great One watching over them from above was on their side, making this nest absolutely safe.

There was only one way to clear up this misunderstanding: do not attack them, and simply remain stationary.

In fact, the swarm, which had originally swarmed out and was about to pounce, also stopped their movements one after another upon seeing that Lin Miao had stopped the toy from moving, showing a new reaction.

【Elise is contemplating. The Great One would never do anything meaningless】

Right at that moment, the reaction Lin Miao had been anticipating finally came from Elise.

The swarm, linked together by the hive mind, instinctively pursued the most efficient actions.

In this process, a clear understanding of cause and effect was the most important thing.

Only by accurately knowing the cause and reason could actions and results align without any waste.

【Elise orders a portion of the forces to attempt an attack on this enemy that fell from the sky】

If they didn't know the reason, they would simply find out.

Elise mobilized a portion of the forces to launch an attack on the stationary toy first.

“Yes, just like that.”

Watching the rushing swarm, Lin Miao wore a faint smile.

It takes two hands to clap. The swarm had extended their hand first, and now, it was his turn.

【Elise is deducing the Great One's intentions. The Great One wants them to fight this enemy. But this battle has another purpose】

This giant robot made of sturdy plastic was as hard as a golem.

The mutated species bit frantically and pierced with their venomous stings, but they could only leave some scratches and scrapes, unable to easily “kill” it at all.

Conversely, when Lin Miao merely operated the toy to move slightly, the ants clinging to it were shaken off and fell away by the force.

The toy's counterattack was limited to just this. Before they could pounce again, the toy stopped its movements, as if saying, ‘go ahead and try.’

【Elise recalls the past, when the Great One once fed them venom】

What's more, this was not the first time Lin Miao had trained them in this manner.

Back then, in order to successfully mass-produce venomous ants, he had also bought formic acid and put it into the terrarium.

【Elise orders an attack once more!】

‘They finally understand.’

Elise had finally fully understood his intentions.

She mobilized the forces and officially began attacking the toy robot, accepting this training.

Lin Miao believed that they would definitely find the meaning within this training process.

【Elise has discovered the mealworm on the enemy's chest】

As the swarm pounced again and again, Lin Miao operated the robot to shake them off, focusing on parrying their attacks.

This was exactly the same scenario as their previous battle against the constantly reviving golems. Without attacking the weakness, they would never be able to defeat it.

In the midst of this process, the swarm finally discovered the mealworm taped to the robot's chest.

As food, the mealworm held a special significance between them and Lin Miao.

【The servants recall the oldest memories of the swarm】

That was the very first food Lin Miao had fed them back when Elise and the entire swarm were just a few tiny ants in a test tube.

Even now, after they had devoured otherworld monsters, foreign races, and even humans, it was still the food Lin Miao would continuously bestow upon them as a reward.

That was the mealworm.

【Elise orders a concentrated attack on the enemy's chest where the mealworm is located】

In an instant, the ants all crawled onto the robot, desperately scrambling toward its chest.

Unlike the golems, limited control alone could not shake them all off.

Finally, several mutated ants crawled to the chest where the batteries were housed and began to launch frantic attacks.

They certainly couldn't know what a battery was; perhaps they only felt it was a block of metal even harder than plastic.

But they possessed the ability to perceive the flow of special energy. Perhaps sensing the electrical current flowing within the battery, more and more ants gathered, persistently gnawing in an attempt to dismantle the battery.

‘It fell off.’

Under a strength countless times greater than that of ordinary ants, the battery's connections were finally torn apart.

Deprived of its power source, the robot instantly ceased all movement.

No matter how Lin Miao pressed the remote control, there was no response.

【Elise instantly senses that the signal flowing within the enemy's body has disappeared. She finally understands that the power driving this massive body was precisely that tiny piece of metal they just dismantled】

“...She understood that quickly?”

The most important thing was what they could comprehend through this action.

Lin Miao had originally been prepared to repeat it several times if they didn't get it.

Yet Elise, in just one try, understood the cause and effect of this action.

Even Lin Miao himself widened his eyes in surprise.

【Elise has developed a keen interest in the dismantled power source. She recalls that those constantly reviving enemies from before also had such power sources inside their bodies. She begins to contemplate how powerful the swarm would become if they could possess such a power source as well】

Furthermore, her contemplation did not stop there.

In fact, Elise had recently begun to feel that the path for the swarm's continued evolution had hit a bottleneck.

All along, the swarm had only devoured the power contained within their prey, absorbing and utilizing it.

Over time, the gap between them and the other factions that developed technology through magic would only grow wider.

Naturally, they yearned for more powerful and efficient strength.