Chapter 193: Taming the Future Queen Ant

The cocoon was now filled with Mental Power that clearly did not belong to Joo Joowon.

It crashed around wildly within the confined space.

The antennae on top of its head remained extremely active, constantly probing its surroundings.

Despite the space being so small that it had already explored every corner of it, the female ant still refused to give up.

Joo Joowon was certain that, before this, the female ant’s Mental Power had not been strong enough to project outside its body.

It could not even extend it a few centimeters.

Otherwise, he never would have chosen this particular female ant as his target.

After all, creatures with higher Mental Power usually possessed much sharper instincts.

Even if they did not know where danger came from, they would instinctively become much more cautious.

However, every living creature possessed tremendous potential when placed under pressure.

While Joo Joowon had not been paying attention to it, the female ant had quietly developed its own way of using Mental Power.

Or perhaps a newly born female ant naturally mastered Mental Power manipulation as time passed, even without anyone teaching it?

Joo Joowon could not reach an answer.

Nor did he particularly care.

As long as its level had not suddenly skyrocketed, everything was fine.

Besides, the female ant learning how to use Mental Power was actually beneficial to him.

He allowed his Mental Power to flow into the cocoon.

To the female ant, which was still probing its surroundings with Mental Power, this "signal" was incredibly obvious and powerful.

Its two antennae instantly stood straight up.

Joo Joowon used his Mental Power to transmit a message.

This idea had originally come from observing the female ant.

At first, he had no clue how to accomplish such a thing.

After reading the skill book, however, his understanding of Mental Power had advanced another step.

Only then had he barely become capable of doing it.

However, the messages he transmitted were nowhere near as clear as those sent by the Queen Ant.

The Queen Ant could convey its intentions so clearly that even creatures of entirely different species could easily understand what it meant.

Because of that, if the recipient’s comprehension was poor, they might misunderstand the message Joo Joowon was trying to send.

After all, what he was transmitting was equivalent to "standard human language."

To other creatures, it might as well have been a completely foreign language.

The female ant was clearly stunned.

Its entire body froze in place.

Joo Joowon could only see its antennae swaying occasionally, as though it were trying to digest and understand the information transmitted through his Mental Power.

That state did not last very long.

Soon, the female ant began moving again.

Its Mental Power collided head on with Joo Joowon’s like a string of exploding firecrackers.

Who knew what it had understood his message to mean.

Joo Joowon frowned.

He immediately suppressed the female ant’s Mental Power.

An overwhelming sense of pressure descended entirely upon it, forcing the female ant flat against the ground.

To be fair, the female ant’s Mental Power was not weak.

Despite being only the size of a fist, the amount of Mental Power Joo Joowon sensed from it was already comparable to what he himself had possessed when the Age of Apocalypse had first begun.

For an ant, that level of Mental Power was already exceptional.

What was even more impressive was that, when Joo Joowon himself had possessed that amount of Mental Power, he had no idea how to use it.

He could not even sense its existence.

However, the female ant had already learned to project its Mental Power outside its body while still possessing only that level of Mental Power, even if it could only extend it a few centimeters.

Ants had no vocal organs.

After being suppressed, it could not produce any sound.

Naturally, it had no way to beg for mercy either.

Joo Joowon maintained the pressure for a while before gradually withdrawing his Mental Power.

He then transmitted another carefully organized message.

This time, the message was much simpler and far more direct than before.

Submit or die.

He refused to believe that the female ant could misunderstand something so straightforward.

The female ant’s antennae swayed blankly as it struggled to understand the meaning of Joo Joowon’s message.

As a female ant that had only been born recently and had never seen the outside world, it found it extremely difficult to comprehend overly complicated information.

Everything it knew about the outside world came solely from the instincts inherited within its genes.

Building nests.

Reproducing.

Fighting.

These were things that required no thought at all and the female ant handled them with complete ease.

However, the moment thinking became necessary it was completely out of its depth.

It could not understand why this Queen would not communicate through pheromones.

Because it had been captured before it ever had the chance to see Joo Joowon, the female ant had no idea that he was not the same species as itself.

In its eyes, since Joo Joowon could communicate through Mental Power and it could also use Mental Power, that meant they belonged to the same species.

A newly born Queen of the same species had come looking for it.

What other reason could there possibly be?

Authority.

Killing intent.

The female ant desperately searched through the inherited memories engraved within the instincts of all ants.

At last, it figured it out.

The Queen in front of her wanted to build a nest together with it?!

No, that was not right.

The feeling radiating from the other party was exactly the same as that of the Mother Queen.

The female ant’s antennae swayed rapidly.

Suddenly, it understood.

This Queen wanted absolute control over the nest!

The female ant hesitated.

It was not because it cared all that much about control.

Even princess ants that successfully became queens ant were not guaranteed a peaceful life forever.

During seasons when food became scarce, some ant colonies would even abandon their Queen and part of their eggs in order to survive the harsh winter.