Chapter 26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Transcendence (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Why the hell are they all gathering like that?'
A small scout ant perched atop a tree was gazing out at the vast plains stretching to the west.
That area marked the effective edge of the world as observed by the ants—and the limit of my own knowledge.
Someday, inevitably, the ants would push into that territory. Right now, a massive army was advancing amid clouds of dust.
Rather than armor or horses, they rode hulking wolves, and the fully armed orcs numbered far from few.
Even a rough count put them at dozens of times the size of the orc mercenaries who'd allied with the goblins before.
They were clearly marching for war.
So, who were they planning to fight?
'Raiding humans at a time like this?'
The human factions in the area had banded together to fight the ants, lost badly, and since then had hunkered down in fear.
If the orcs were moving to claim that now-vacant land, they could probably sweep up the abandoned territories and livestock with little resistance.
"Nope."
But it wasn't long before I smacked my lips in disappointment. The orcs weren't charging straight into battle with the humans; instead, they were selecting representatives for some kind of parley.
If they weren't planning to fight each other, there was only one obvious reason for dragging an army out here.
A common enemy—my ants. They were teaming up to take us on.
Subordinates are wary of the new enemies. The colony recognizes them as the same race as the warriors who invaded near the nest before.
The ants were especially on guard against the orcs.
Having once been burned by the orcs' uniquely tough combat prowess, they instantly clocked them as no pushovers.
However, the subordinates also remember the high-quality nutrients they possess.
Even against the horde of incoming orcs, they showed their signature predatory greed.
The ants who'd tasted them firsthand rated orcs as averaging high in strength, packed with so much Demonic Power it was incomparable to goblins.
Demonic Power, mana, Holy Power—all essential resources for the Queen Ant to devour and produce variant ants with those abilities.
To them, war was little more than a qualification exam for dinner.
They were wary of the massive orc influx but showed no fear whatsoever.
'Something feels off... but moving this fast?'
So I decided to leave dealing with them to the ants and turned my suspicions elsewhere.
They weren't linked by a single consciousness like the ants. How could they make decisions this quickly?
As if they'd received orders from some irresistible 'someone.'
Subordinates preparing for a total assault are reallocating forces. With new enemies appearing from the west, they can't focus solely on the south.
'No rush on time, anyway.'
After routing the human alliance, the ants had been prepping to sweep the humans' huddled fortresses and cities wholesale. Now they paused to regroup.
They needed a way to keep tabs on the orcs to the west.
The ants had grown enough not to throw everything at the nearest prey.
Endless predation, tempered by ice-cold patience to control it.
Even to me, the ants were getting downright terrifying.
In this situation, what role would the new soldiers play—the ones from the giant horse-fly wasp I'd fed the Queen Ant?
They'd shown exceptional size and form even as larvae, and now they were pupating in a specially prepared chamber.
Given the rapid growth of variants, they'd hatch soon enough.
"Jin-hyuk, you feeling okay? You've been staring off into space like a zombie."
"Ah, no, I'm fine."
As I glanced at the screen, someone spoke up.
It was my boss, Manager Park Jin-o, who'd stepped out briefly for some business.
I quickly averted my gaze. Get too absorbed in the invisible Divine Net, and you look like a spaced-out weirdo to normals.
If I were a hunter, it'd be different. But I'm supposed to be a total normie who doesn't even know the 's' in status window.
"Good to hear. Looks like we're done here anyway. Let's head out."
He jerked his chin toward the area behind him, where he'd just returned from.
Today, the two of us had come out to this remote mountain suburb on the city outskirts for field support, dungeon cleanup, and management.
For office workers at a hunter company, it was routine stuff.
'Hunters and otherworldly monsters.'
I wondered if his early quit suggestion was random as I watched Manager Park Jin-o dash off for some appointment. Alone now, I returned to the car and surveyed the bustling scene.
Hunters catching their breath after shedding system-reward gear—swords, spears, heavy armor.
Cranes hauling up the corpses of the monsters they'd butchered.
Life-or-death struggles and wars like this happened all too often in our world too.
And we couldn't rule out that the culprits were subordinates of deities using the Divine Net.
What if the monsters invading Earth right now were desperate underlings of some deity fighting to survive?
The very ones who'd stolen my family, my hometown.
"Hah."
Just a month ago, I wouldn't have entertained such thoughts. But now? Everything had changed.
Too many experiences, too much knowledge.
'...This isn't what I wanted. It was an accident.'
My grip tightened on the steering wheel.
The ants' otherworld expansion, their brutal slaughters, my deity awakening as a result—all sudden, unannounced.
Even the ants themselves had no clue what they'd done.
So becoming a deity didn't change my core. I was still a regular guy living a normal life. That's the life I want.
I'll keep going to work, keep up the daily grind.
This mindset would probably hold even if the ants ever truly understood and accepted my words.
A new rank is born in the colony at this very moment.
"Huge...!"
The new soldiers birthed by the Queen Ant after devouring the giant horse-fly wasp.
As I'd intended with the wings, the colony's first winged troops had arrived.
And wings weren't all they had.
Tough-looking black exoskeletons, razor-sharp stingers on their abdomens, legs bristling with spines.
They looked like a mashup of horse-fly wasp and ant straight out of a nightmare, tearing free of their pupae, drying their wings, and being tended by Worker Ants.
These new rank soldiers, forged from vast resources, inherently outranked others.
Watching the Worker Ants feed and groom them, I pegged their status above variant Soldier Ants.
The colony will cherish them as much as possible, given their production limits.
Their numbers were low too. Easily the colony's priciest, top-tier variant right now.
'So the flying scouts were a separate project, huh.'
Meanwhile, the flying scouts I'd wanted were produced separately.
Ants half the size of the variant wasp-ants burst from their shells en masse, wings buzzing as they took to the skies.
Half-size or not, they were crow-sized compared to the landscape.
They soared high, expanding the colony's vision by orders of magnitude in an instant.
"Talk about vast."
My linked view matched theirs.
I let out a quiet gasp at the expansive vista filling the screen—far beyond what the scouts saw.
A world utterly unlike mine. Boundless blue nature teeming with countless lives.
No nature doc could match this impact.
Opening up the view of the world like this was invaluable.
The Queen—and the entire colony—are thrilled.
But the ants seeing the same sight interpreted it differently.
So much prey left to devour.
What they craved remained unchanged from the start.
Prey to expand and evolve the colony.
Could I swear that even maxed intelligence would make them abandon that instinct, their very reason for being? Not a chance.
'No helping it. If they die, I die too.'
As the deity aiding their evolution, bound by shared fate—and still just a regular guy—I had no choice but to steel myself.
Now wasn't the time to slack.
Subordinates react to the supply of more prey.
On my way home, I tossed another new insect I'd grabbed into the breeding pen without pause.
Explosion dust beetle. Not huge, but with potent traits.
As expected, devouring this should supercharge the Venom Ants' evolution.
The Queen is immensely satisfied with devouring this new type of prey.
It sprayed scorching chemicals in fierce resistance, but like everything dropped in the breeding pen, it met its end torn apart alive by the ants—then devoured by the Queen, its abilities and genes fully usurped by the colony.
The Queen is certain the colony's Venom Ants will grow even stronger.
Impressed by how the beetle bowled over multiple Worker Ants in combat, the Queen hurried to prep new variants.
As predicted, she'd enhance the existing Venom Ants.
The colony protests. Current resources can't support adding another new rank of soldiers.
In the end, the Queen backs down.
The Queen's excited dreams of powering up the colony hit a wall.
Colony production and maintenance had maxed out.
I watched the Queen droop her antennae and turn away from the fierce protests of several Worker Ants.
'No way she's sulking?'
They looked like plain Worker Ants, but they embodied the colony's collective will. The Queen's wriggly back-turn at them drew a chuckle.
Thanks to my tweaks on future Queen genes, her independent ego—the most developed brain around—still influenced things heavily. But it hadn't overtaken the whole colony yet.
This was it. I wanted the colony to keep this balance going forward.
If her ego ballooned and hijacked everything, it'd be a brake-less dictatorship.
A simple, instinct-driven colony checking the Queen just right seemed to do the trick.
Subordinates resolve to sortie for more prey.
Still, the Queen's will wasn't entirely ignored.
Both she and the colony shared that core drive: evolution and growth.
Regrouped, the ants poured from the nest, splitting into hunting packs to launch operations.
Not a hint of disorder or hesitation—pure mechanical precision.
"---! ----!!!!"
From the flying scouts' view: city walls like sesame seeds, teeming with countless humans.
The southern human forces spotted the incoming ants and scrambled into defensive panic. I could see it clear as day. Pity them, but they'd keep fighting. The ants wouldn't let up. Ever.