Chapter 50: The White Dots
In addition to those insects that died accidentally, many new ones were born every day.
With the hive’s territory now vast, the insects were busier than ever, working tirelessly day and night. Gone were the days when only a few hundred insects would huddle together at night. Back then, Luo Wen could easily count their numbers in a matter of moments when he had nothing else to do.
He sighed nostalgically at the simplicity of those earlier days, now long past. Today, he could only make rough estimates—the insect population had grown to at least fifty thousand.
As time passed, Luo Wen began experiencing some headaches in recent days, as many insects had fallen ill.
It was unclear when it started, but small white dots had appeared on the once shiny exoskeletal armor of the insects.
At first, these white spots were few and scattered, appearing on the carapaces of just a handful of insects. But in a very short time, the dots spread rapidly, covering the insects’ entire bodies. Before long, those afflicted with the white dots inexplicably perished.
The worker ants followed protocol, recycling the dead into protein, but in doing so, they inadvertently spread the white dots to others.
The white dots behaved like a plague, rapidly infecting more insects.
By the time Luo Wen noticed and focused on the issue, hundreds of insects had already died from the affliction.