The next day was a rest day, and Miki, for a rare change, stayed at home, sleeping soundly under her covers.
As for why.
Because the Great Qing was gone, the British Empire was gone, Little Japan was gone, and the Old Soviet, Old American, and Holy Roman Empires were all gone.
Referring to these several ant empires.
Over several months, they were successively annihilated.
The Great Qing had been developing well initially, but then, for some unknown reason, it went mad, and an error in its behavioral algorithm caused the entire ant colony to engage in a death march around the queen.
The ants, packed together, frantically circled until they collapsed from exhaustion and died, seemingly never stopping.
Miki watched for an entire day.
The scene, for a time, was reminiscent of an evil god's summoning ritual, filled with horror and ominousness.
Then Miki came over, poured a pot of boiling water, and the Great Qing was no more.
As for the British Empire, it was too brave, too curious, always wanting to leave the territory Miki had drawn, to venture into the Grand Line, to discover new worlds.
It didn't develop much, and wanted to start adventuring with only a few fleets.
Miki mused that rather than suffering a beating from nature outside and having the empire destroyed, she might as well help cure its sea addiction herself.
And then it was gone.
As for Little Japan, because its territory was too small, its insane and unrestrained resource extraction led to its demise.
It was literally its last frenzy.
Ants ate ants; the entire Great Japan... uh, it all fell into chaos.
The plump queen was the first to be dismembered, followed by ant cannibalism, until the last one died from lack of food.
This kind of rapacious ant was not the kind Miki wanted. Logically, the resources Miki provided should have allowed for sustained development.
As long as they weren't greedy, they could have stably maintained the operation of a tribal-sized group.
As for the Old Soviet, it split apart.
The vast empire saw its queen killed overnight, and the worker ant sisters, singing 'Arise,' formed their own legions, clashing upon sight.
They fought relentlessly.
But none of them could bear offspring.
Miki watched with great interest for a long time, curious as to who would be the empire's final queen, and if one would awaken parthenogenesis at the last moment, saving the crumbling imperial edifice.
In the end, they all died.
The reason for killing the queen was unknown; the reason for fighting was to snatch offspring, and among the offspring were handsome ones.
To prevent the other side from having an easy time, if they couldn't win, they would kill the offspring before leaving, resolutely not leaving a single one for their sisters.
It was quite superficial.
Miki had seen a similar scenario with Little France, also involving killing the queen and dividing assets, but Little France was much more harmonious, dying peacefully on its inheritance.
The entire society ceased to function and eventually ended.
Each empire's destruction had its own reasons, but the Old American one still opened Miki's eyes.
A group of sisters held the queen hostage, controlled reproduction, and in turn oppressed the other sisters. While the other sisters worked themselves to death and weren't even fed enough, they themselves lay on piles of food, eating and drinking, living excessively comfortably.
When an ant died from exhaustion, they forced the queen to frantically give birth; if she refused, they would beat and bite her.
When the worker ants became unhappy and started protesting and striking, they would one by one start feeding them honey; once full, the worker ants would happily go back to work.
This was how they maintained the functioning of their society.
Good heavens, what was the point of keeping such ants? For the New Year?
Miki scooped them all up and hung them under a streetlamp to dry into ant jerky.
As for the Holy Roman Empire, one could only say it had that flavor.
All of them were villains, enslaving several ant colonies Miki had introduced with irresistible force, their scale expanding like a balloon. At its peak, calling it the strongest would be no exaggeration.
They were incredibly skilled at things like building concentration camps to control prisoners.
But this wasn't the kind of ant Miki wanted.
She wanted the kind that was diligent and intelligent, super strong yet cautious, not fond of fighting but not afraid of it, following a sustainable development path, and even better if they could farm and unlock agriculture.
So far, such a type had not appeared.
However, the Holy Roman type was also very strong, which was quite a dilemma. She thought she could make do, as long as they could support a swarm, it would be a success.
But Miki didn't agonize for too long.
Because the Holy Roman Empire was gone.
The cause was a captured queen who, unable to bear the humiliation, took her own life.
Her swarm immediately fell into chaos, and the Holy Roman Empire, busy suppressing them, killed them all.
Following suit, other queens, seeing this, also committed suicide.
Those who didn't want to die refused to lay eggs and produce cheap labor.
The Holy Roman Empire suddenly lost a large amount of labor, busy suppressing the chaotic slaves who had lost their respective queens, killing so many that bodies were everywhere. In a moment of frenzy, they slaughtered all the remaining queens, and with that, this slave empire almost instantly collapsed.
After living for a while by gnawing on corpses, the last one finally fell on the empire's corpse.
Watching it felt quite epic, but when it all ended, another emotion welled up in her heart.
All the effort she had put in...
All futile!
But Miki could finally get a good night's sleep.
It was quite nice; everything was possible in her dreams.
Hitomi and Chiri sat by the bed, looking at Miki, who was curled up in a ball under the covers, their eyes filled with anticipation.
"Miki! Time to get up and eat!" Yumi, her mother, shouted from downstairs.
Miki wriggled like a worm, still wrapped in her blanket.
Hitomi and Chiri's anticipation grew even stronger.
Sleeping, she couldn't possibly be wearing a mask, could she?
Seeing that Miki was about to wake up, the two couldn't help but lean closer, their expressions even more expectant.
Miki, half-awake, was a bit dazed. She naturally threw off her covers and sat up, her dark, purplish hair scattered in disarray.
Several tufts of hair stubbornly stuck up.
She looked around blankly, her gaze falling on the disappointed faces of Hitomi and Chiri.
Am I not fully awake?
Miki lay back down and pulled the covers over herself.
Immediately after, she threw off the covers and sat up abruptly.
"How could anyone sleep with a mask on! Has this mask grown onto her face?" Chiri didn't understand and blurted it out.
Hitomi nodded vigorously beside her.
Miki clutched her head, running her hands through her hair.
"You two would practically want to poop with me, wouldn't you!? Get out of here!" Miki pointed to the door.
Chiri, unconcerned, pulled the nervous Hitomi and exited the room.
Thoughtfully, she closed the door.
That Chiri!
She definitely barged into the room without permission!
Miki was stunned for a moment, her blank mind gradually regaining its focus. Immediately after, she clapped her hands together, and an eerie purple quickly spread over her entire body.
About three minutes later, Miki tapped her mask. With a click, she opened her mouth and exhaled a puff of purple smoke.
Parasitic Minute Bugs is really useful.
Especially for cleaning, it's much better than Insects.
There are many bacteria that Insects can't clean, but Parasitic Minute Bugs can.
No matter how much sweet food she eats, she doesn't have to worry.
The excess calories can even help the bugs with digestion.
After getting up and getting dressed, she yawned and walked down the stairs from the second floor.
By the way, why did she sleep with a mask on? Because she got used to wearing it and often forgot to take it off.
Especially when drowsiness came over her.
Today, the food at Miki's house was as rich as ever.
When Miki sat down, Chiri was eating happily.
Hitomi, however, looked at the plates of various insects before her and stiffly swallowed a large gulp of saliva.
"Um, eating such a rich breakfast isn't very good for the stomach, is it?" Hitomi said.
"It's already noon," Chiri said.
Miki glanced at Hitomi, ignoring her.
Eat it or don't!
She filled a bowl with rice and reached for her chopsticks.
"If you're scared, how about I make you something edible?" Yumi, her mother, kindly offered.
"Who's scared! I'm not!" With a determined heart, Hitomi reached out her chopsticks.
This child, Yumi, her mother, looked bewildered.
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