Chapter 54
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Contradiction (4)
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"Aaaah... my leg...!"
"No, my subordinates are down there!"
"We need to retreat now..."
Even with my eyes closed, as long as I didn't turn off the screen, the sounds kept coming.
The screams of those panicking amid the crumbling front lines, terror-stricken and shrieking in fear.
Thanks to the ants, who didn't raise excited cheers of victory, the enemies' voices echoed across the entire battlefield, sounding all the more desperate.
Yet the ants, who had pierced even the golems by leading with their massive variants, showed no mercy whatsoever.
They were simply doing their jobs.
Like a farmer harvesting ripe crops from the field, or a fisherman hauling in his net full of fish.
Hunting prey to sustain themselves as living beings was only natural in exchange for victory.
'Is the golems' auto-repair function getting in the way? It's definitely annoying. They get smashed to pieces, only to stand back up.'
I opened my eyes again and stared at the golems that the retreating mages had left to rampage wildly, abandoning all caution.
Clearly, these golems were the strongest variants the ant colony could produce—heavy armored ants' horns toppled them, and sawblade ants' massive jaws crushed them as they fell.
However, these improved combat golems had a function allowing them to regenerate their bodies using surrounding materials until their mana ran out, as long as the magic stone in their core wasn't destroyed.
That was why the ants, despite toppling the golems, couldn't wipe out the retreating imperial forces.
[Asmora is perplexed by the undying enemy]
Judging by Asmora's reaction, the golems' self-repair was clearly beyond the ants' common sense.
The golems desperately regenerated, clinging to the ants pursuing the imperial forces, and the ants pounded on them from all sides.
For living creatures, chopping off limbs, severing necks, and tearing bodies should naturally mean death.
In fact, that's how the ants had finished off enemies until now.
But golems weren't living beings to begin with. They were the first inanimate combat weapons the ants had faced.
Thus, the ants' assaults, lacking the concept of destroying the magic stone in the core, were nearly meaningless.
"How can I let them know the magic stone is the weak point?"
I muttered blankly. I already knew from mentions in the Divine Community that the golem's weakness was that magic stone.
Sure, those rampaging golems wouldn't last long anyway—they'd exhaust all energy and stop functioning—but even that brief time was precious on the battlefield.
The desire to teach the ants more grew stronger.
Only if they knew and learned more would my voice and will reach them fully.
"Hmm..."
As I fiddled absently with my phone, I spotted something for sale on an online shopping site I'd opened to buy daily necessities.
'Should I toss this into the breeding ground?'
The crazy idea flitted through my mind without warning, as if it were the most natural thing.
What I was looking at was a humanoid robot toy with batteries in its chest compartment.
Advanced as the times were, it was far more sophisticated and cool than the toys I played with as a kid, but as the description said for ages 8-13, it was unmistakably a children's toy.
'To the ants in the breeding ground, this toy would be as strong an enemy as a golem.'
Smaller than my face, but to the ants, it was a monster bigger than the golems they'd just fought.
I wondered if I could use this toy to "train" the ants.
Training ants—not even dogs or cats? Anyone overhearing would think it was insane.
But my ants had long surpassed ordinary ones.
Especially Asmora, the colony's brain—its behavior and intelligence made me confident it was far smarter than any dog or cat.
Maybe the current ants could understand my intent and learn how to fight golems.
Especially Asmora—I believed it would somehow infer and discover why I put it in there.
'No harm in trying, right? If it feels off, just pull it out.'
Having judged it possible, I decided to give it a shot.
Over time, the ants with their powerful growth through predation would figure it out and evolve on their own, but sometimes they needed a nudge or boost.
Besides, other deities would use the intervention power they'd secured by rapidly expanding subordinates and territories in Edellion to interfere even more.
The ants needed more of my help.
Compared to other deities expanding across the universe via the Divine Net for centuries or more, I was barely taking my first steps... but there were things only I could do.
'Now that I'm actually doing it, I'm nervous.'
It arrived the next day after ordering.
While the imperial forces had fled after losing all their golems, and the ants hadn't finished processing and transporting their secured prey.
I tore open the packaging and looked down at the toy robot and its controller in my hand.
Compared to real golems, it was truly just a toy.
A 50,000-won plastic lump whose only moves were clumsy waddling steps and creaky arm swings.
As expected, plugging batteries into its chest allowed wireless control.
"Should I give them a hint?"
Right before dropping it in, I taped a dead mealworm to the battery compartment.
The goal was to use this golem-like robot to teach them that the power source in the chest was the weak point.
The ants still couldn't properly wield special powers like mana, unlike other races.
They needed to learn countermeasures before they figured that out someday.
"Alright."
With preparations done, I cautiously opened the breeding ground lid. Thanks to the major expansion, there was plenty of space even after adding the robot.
The ants had long since made the vast world outside their main stage anyway.
[Asmora detects a change]
Whether through the eyes of a worker ant outside the breeding ground, notifications popped up that Asmora had sensed something the moment I opened the lid.
Chuckling softly, I dropped the robot inside.
The ants' intense reaction was evident from the barrage of notifications.
[Subordinates are perplexed by the enemy appearing from the sky]
[Subordinates are on alert at the appearance of a being utterly different from anything dropped from the sky before]
[Subordinates instinctively sense it is not food]
Having already learned about golem enemies, it was natural for them to see this humanoid robot, similar in appearance, as a foe.
Defensive forces surged from the nest in an instant.
Variants on standby in dormant states: blade ants, venom stinger ants, variant soldier ants, and more.
However, the strongest variants weren't here. They were produced at the nests on the foremost front lines.
[Asmora falls into confusion. It mistakes the great being for an enemy]
When I nudged the toy forward a bit, a notification said Asmora was panicking.
Why were defenses here so light? Because they firmly believed the watcher from the sky was on their side, making this nest safe.
There was one way to clear that misunderstanding: don't attack them and just stand still.
Sure enough, the ants, who had swarmed out ready to pounce, began reacting as I kept the toy motionless.
'Come on, think. Why did I drop this in?'
[Asmora thinks: The great being never acts without meaning]
The reaction I'd hoped for emerged from Asmora.
Connected by the hive mind, the ants instinctively pursued efficiency. Grasping cause and effect clearly was crucial in that process.
Only by pinpointing causes and reasons could actions and outcomes avoid waste.
[Asmora orders a portion of the forces to attack the enemy from the sky]
If you don't know the reason, test it out. Asmora moved some forces to strike the motionless toy first.
"Yes, that's it."
I smiled faintly as the ants charged.
To clap hands, both sides must reach out. The ants had extended theirs first. Now it was my turn.
[Asmora infers the great being's intent. The great being wants them to fight now. But this fight has another purpose]
The fairly sturdy giant plastic robot was as tough as a golem. Bites from variants and venom stings only scratched it—it wouldn't go down easily.
On the other hand, a slight movement from me flung the clinging ants off, overpowering them in strength.
My counterattacks stopped there. Like inviting them to keep trying until satisfied, I didn't move again until they charged once more.
[Asmora recalls the past, when the great being gave them poison to eat]
Moreover, this wasn't the first time I'd trained the ants this way.
I was the one who'd supplied formic acid to help them mass-produce venom ants easily.
[Asmora orders another attack]
'You got it.'
Finally, Asmora fully grasped my intent.
By deploying forces for a full assault on the toy robot, it had accepted the training.
I was certain it would uncover the meaning in this process too.
[Asmora discovers the mealworm attached to the enemy's chest]
When the ants swarmed, I focused the robot on shaking them off and neutralizing their attacks.
Just like fighting the endlessly reviving golems. They wouldn't fall without hitting the weak point.
Amid that, the ants finally spotted the mealworm taped to the golem's chest.
The feed mealworm held special meaning between us.
[Subordinates recall the colony's oldest memory]
Back when Asmora and the ants were mere worker ants in a small test tube—the first food I ever gave them.
And even now, as they devoured magical beasts,, and even humans from that other world, I steadily bought and fed them mealworms to imprint it as a reward.
That was the mealworm.
[Asmora orders focused attacks on the enemy's chest where the mealworm is]
The ants swarmed onto the robot's body, desperately crawling toward the chest.
Unlike a real golem, limited control couldn't shake them all off.
Finally, a few variant ants reached the chest compartment and battered it wildly.
They had no idea what a battery was. It might just seem like a harder metal lump than plastic.
But with their ability to detect special powers like mana, they sensed the electricity flowing from it—a horde gathered, tenaciously biting and tearing at the battery.
'Got it.'
Their far stronger-than-normal strength finally dislodged the battery connection.
Cut off from power, the robot froze instantly. No response, no matter how much I pressed the controller.
[Asmora detects the signal in the enemy's body suddenly cut off, realizing the power moving that giant body came from the small metal lump they just extracted]
"...Already?"
The key was what they could learn from this action.
I'd planned to repeat it several times if needed, until they got it.
But Asmora grasped the reason and result of what we'd done in a single try.
Even I was startled, eyes widening.
[Asmora takes interest in the extracted power source. It recalls that the endlessly reviving enemies last time had such a power source too. And it thinks how strong they would be if they could have one themselves]
And it didn't stop there.
Asmora had lately been sensing limits in evolving the ants further.
Until now, the ants had only absorbed and used powers contained in their prey.
Inevitably, they were falling behind forces developing magic-like techniques with those powers.
Naturally, they craved stronger, more efficient power.