Chapter 351: Gaemi and the Energy Pool

The queen ant herself did not possess much combat ability. Joo Joowon had looked at Gaemi’s panel before, and all of her skills were related to laying eggs. She did not have a single offensive skill.

Therefore, even if she went inside and used the Energy Pool together with Hwi, she might not be able to absorb much energy anyway. There was no reason why she could not go in.

Besides, when Gaemi had first moved here, Joo Joowon had already told her that she could use the Energy Pool. It was just that Gaemi seemed to have misunderstood and thought that this permission had a time limit. After the Lord’s Manor was built, she had never gone inside again.

Gaemi lay on Joo Joowon’s palm and rolled over. She wriggled around, trying to squeeze herself between his fingers. After a while, Mental Power finally transmitted her question.

"Is it your soldier ant that you gave birth to?"

Joo Joowon: "???"

He could not help wondering if, in Gaemi’s eyes, every living creature in the world was simply a different species of ant.

Surely not, right?

Then, when the ants found food, how did they view those animals?

After thinking about it, Joo Joowon felt that explaining to Gaemi that he was a human and Hwi was a cat might actually fry her entire brain. Given enough time, she would eventually realize that something was wrong on her own, so he simply said, "...Something like that."

At least he really did regard Hwi as his child, and Hwi really did call him Dad.

Only then did Gaemi finally feel psychologically balanced.

Those two cats released pheromones every day without restraining themselves at all. When Joo Joowon was not around, Byeol had even rubbed himself all over the territory, leaving his scent everywhere. It was extremely obvious.

Ant pheromones were used for communication and identifying one’s identity. Ants never behaved like this by deliberately "marking" territory. That was something exclusive to the queen ant. For Gaemi, walking around while surrounded by these scents was extremely uncomfortable.

Her instinct to compete made she subconsciously want to cover up the other party’s scent, just like how there could only be one queen ant in an ant nest.

However, this sudden thought was quickly suppressed by Gaemi’s reason. She was working for someone else, after all, and this area was not originally her territory. If she covered everything with her own pheromones, would that not be a provocation?

Had she not already been beaten up enough?

Why would she make things difficult for herself like this?

Therefore, out of sight, out of mind. Gaemi simply stayed inside the nest and stopped coming out.

She simply could not help wondering whether the situation with those two ants was the same as her own.

Or were they actually ants that Joo Joowon had laid eggs and given birth to?

Gaemi had been seriously thinking about this question all along.

Joo Joowon himself was simply an extremely strange-looking ant, so any ants born from the eggs he laid definitely would not be normal either. Moreover, their status would naturally be higher than her own.

There was a difference in closeness.

Just like how Gaemi herself would carefully choose among the ants she gave birth to. The ones she liked would be kept in the nest, while the ones she did not like would be sent outside to become foraging ants.

In any case, if those two were not born from Joo Joowon, Gaemi would immediately adjust their positions in her mind. Once her ant army was fully established in the future, she would immediately take action and vent the anger she had accumulated for her former self.

However, judging from the way those two usually treated Joo Joowon, Gaemi had already vaguely figured out the answer in her heart. Now that she had received confirmation directly from Joo Joowon, she finally felt relieved.

She could not compete with them.

Enduring for a while in exchange for peace and quiet was pretty good too.

Seeing that Gaemi had once again fallen into some strange thoughts, Joo Joowon really had no idea what was going through that tiny little head of her all day long. He simply carried her downstairs, found a place farther away from Hwi, and put her down.

"If you want to use it, then use it now."

"Would... would this affect big brother?" Gaemi blurted out.

Joo Joowon: "?"

This time, he really wanted to hold his forehead.

Ever since this guy had been affected by the Evil God, what kind of strange knowledge had she absorbed?

Had her ant nature really split into multiple personalities?

"...No, it won’t. Just stay here properly. We’ll talk about it after you come out of the cocoon."

Joo Joowon could not help wanting to sigh. Seeing Gaemi awkwardly and reluctantly agree, he immediately stood up and left.

Among all the animals and plants that spoke in simple and straightforward ways, Gaemi really was one of a kind.

After Joo Joowon returned from Hwarim, he truly had not thought much about making use of Gaemi.

This was not because he did not trust her. It was because Gaemi needed time to break out of her cocoon, and laying eggs and waiting for those eggs to fully develop also required time. Moreover, the levels of her soldier ants definitely would not be very high when they were born. They would need time to level up as well.

By the time this entire process was completed, who knew how much the red mist would have already developed and expanded?

Therefore, in Joo Joowon’s mind, raising Gaemi’s priority was indeed not very high. Otherwise, he would have started paying attention to Gaemi’s egg-laying progress long ago.

On the other hand, there was also the difference in resource consumption.

One had to know that under normal circumstances, soldier ants in an ant nest usually made up only about 5% of the total number of ants in the nest.