The wild boar pushed the clump of wet mud with its snout and stopped moving. Chen Hao was about to make a joke when a sour smell wafted into his nostrils, like someone had fermented rotten vegetable leaves in a tin bucket for a week.
He frowned and turned around, his gaze suddenly stopping as it swept over the tomato field.
The vines were trembling.
It wasn't the wind blowing; it was countless tiny black dots crawling. Beetles the size of fingernails covered the leaves, their shells glistening with oil, and the sound of them gnawing was as faint as raindrops falling on dry paper. In the blink of an eye, a whole leaf was bitten down to its skeleton.
"Damn it!" Chen Hao rushed over and slapped the insects hard. Several insects were flung away, but more immediately swarmed around them, their forelegs hooking onto their hind legs and forming a ball, like a string of moving buttons.
Smoke? He casually picked up a burnt stick from the side and poked at the earthen stove. Sparks flew out, and the swarm of insects only scattered briefly before quickly regrouping. Some even rolled around in the fire before crawling out and continuing to gnaw.
"Isn't this thing hot?" He stepped on it, feeling a slight cracking sensation under his foot, but the next second, all the surrounding insects turned to him, their antennae trembling as if they were having a meeting.
Nana was already standing at the edge of the field, arms outstretched, a miniature scanner sliding out from her wrist. "Chapter 175 Sample Offspring, population neural synchronization rate of 89%, possessing environmental adaptive evolution."
Translate this into human language!
"They have learned to divide tasks and cooperate, and have developed tolerance to heat source attacks."
Chen Hao took a breath and wiped his face: "We can't turn on the laser, we're afraid it will burn the seedlings; fire won't work, the soil will be ruined; grabbing by hand? I wouldn't have enough hands even if I had eight hundred." He stared at the leaf riddled with holes, "If this continues, we'll have to switch to digging up grass roots to eat tomorrow."
He suddenly looked up: "Let's make a medicine, specifically to cure these reckless creatures. We won't poison them to death, we'll just make them confused and let them die on their own."
Nana retrieved the scanner: "It's feasible. The success rate of the pheromone interference scheme is estimated at 67%, but we need to extract the main control signal molecules."
"Then hurry up and do it. I'm getting sick of watching them perform their 'swarm tactics'."
The laboratory was a shed converted from spaceship wreckage, with leftover parts from the last dehumidifier repair piled up in the corner. Nana placed the three captured live animals into the sealed chamber, and a faint scraping sound immediately rang out inside the glass enclosure.
The mass spectrometer hummed to start, and a series of waveforms popped up on the holographic screen, with the red, blue, and green lines intertwined.
“Three pheromones were detected in coexistence.” She swiped her finger across the data stream. “Z-11-hexadeceneacetate is the dominant pheromone for aggregation and feeding, while the other two are defense alert and reproduction-inducing signals.”
"So, they're eating while shouting 'Don't disturb them' and 'Come and have babies!'" Chen Hao leaned over the table, holding a half-stub of chalk, and drew a circle on the back of a scrap of paper. "Could we pretend to be a radio station and insert a fake news report? Like 'The mother insect escaped' or 'This land is poisonous'?"
Nana's optical eyes flickered slightly: "Simulated evacuation signal elements can theoretically trigger discrete behavior."
“Then let’s make a fake one,” he grinned. “Let them think the boss has left, and the underlings will naturally scatter.”
The formulation adjustment lasted two hours. In the first three spray tests, the insects would at most wiggle their antennae a couple of times, then continue to nibble. After the fourth adjustment of the antagonist molecule concentration, the nerve potentials under the microscope suddenly became disordered, and the insects' movements became sluggish.
"The success rate has increased to 82%." Nana turned off the alarm. "The formulation is light green and has good atomization stability."
"How about calling it 'Bewitching Water'?" Chen Hao reached out and took a drop of the sample, rubbing his fingertips together. "It smells like expired spinach."
"It is recommended to name it Z-11-A type repellent."
"Then it would be better to call it 'Nana Brand Insect Repellent'."
"Naming is not within the scope of the task."
The spraying equipment was a handheld fog cannon modified from a spaceship's exhaust pipe, powered by a battery connected to an interface on Nana's back. At 6:17 PM, the two entered the field area.
After the first area was sprayed, the swarm began to stir, but it was not yet out of control. The second area was only halfway through when the energy module's red light started flashing, indicating 12% battery remaining.
“We can’t hold out until the loop is closed.” Nana’s speech remained unchanged. “I suggest shortening the coverage radius and prioritizing the protection of crops in the core area.”
"No, even a small leak could trigger a backlash." Chen Hao looked around, his gaze landing on the dehumidifier at the entrance of the grain warehouse. "Wait a minute."
He ran back to remove the battery, but the screws were rusted shut; he had to kick them twice to loosen them. He carried it back, reconnected the wires, and the fog cannon restarted, emitting a low whooshing sound from the nozzle.
By the time the last spray was finished, the sky had already turned gray.
They retreated to a high point on the edge of the field, squatted down, and silently stared at the tomato field that had been eaten down to just stalks.
Ten minutes passed, and nothing happened.
Just as Chen Hao was about to sigh, he suddenly saw a beetle fall off a leaf vein, its six legs still kicking as if it were swimming in the air. Then, a second, a third... more and more insects crawled crookedly, their antennae flailing wildly. Some didn't even flinch when they bumped into their companions, just spinning around in place.
"Drunk?" His eyes widened. "Fuck you, really drunk!"
Synchronous display via microscopic projection: Disordered neural synaptic signals, resulting in the failure of the orientation perception system.
“They misinterpreted the evacuation order,” Nana confirmed. “The group’s organization has collapsed, and they are expected to completely disperse within twenty minutes.”
"It's environmentally friendly and doesn't use much electricity." Chen Hao laughed. "It consumes half the energy of lasers and doesn't damage the soil."
The evening breeze swept across the fields, carrying the lingering scent of medicinal mist. In the distance, a herd of wild boars had gathered sometime earlier, stopping at the edge of the field and sniffing the air with their noses close to the ground.
"Look, they've come to watch too," Chen Hao pointed. "Don't you think we've finally done something reliable?"
Nana didn't answer, but instead raised her hand: "A change in vibration frequency was detected, consistent with yesterday's mud-pushing signal."
"You mean...they're clapping?"
Before the words were finished, the lead gray-bristled wild boar lowered its head, dug up a clod of earth, gently pushed it forward, and then looked up at them.
Chen Hao was stunned.
He slowly stood up, brushing the dust off his pants: "I'll go get the notebook."
He turned around and took two steps, then stopped: "Wait, don't write down the data yet."
He turned back, took a carrot out of his backpack, walked to the edge of the field, bent down and put it down.
The wild boar didn't move.
He took another half step forward and pushed the carrot forward a little.
The gray-bristled boar slowly approached, its snout lightly touching the carrot. It didn't eat it, but instead carefully flipped it over with its tusks, as if checking something. Then, it raised its head and let out a short grunt.
The remaining wild boars followed one after another, each one digging a hole in the ground as it passed by.
"Is this... a response?" Chen Hao scratched his head. "Or do they want to invest?"
Nana stood still, her optical eyes locking onto the marks on the ground: "The pits are spaced 3.2 meters apart, arranged in a straight line, which matches the row spacing for tomorrow's sowing."
"You mean...they're helping us mark the furrows?"
His mouth was open, and he couldn't close it for a long time.
In the distance, the last beetle wobbled as it crawled out of the field and disappeared into the grass. The wind rustled through the newly sprouted buds.
Chen Hao plopped down on the edge of the field and looked up at the sky.
"We need to name this medicine tomorrow," he said. "It can't be too rustic, nor too high-tech."
Nana walked over and stood beside him.
"How about Haona brand insect repellent?"
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