Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 103

Chapter 103: Stop talking about communism!
“Okay, I’m putting it into intelligence.”

“A wise move, Father,” Researchina nodded. “Intelligence is superior.”

“But what about strength?!” Bloodhero exclaimed, then vigorously shook her head. “No, wait, defense! No, wait, endurance!”

Tabletina scratched her cheek.

“Does the Empire Council always argue so much?”

“Quiet, everyone.”

Silence returned in an instant.

Ambrosia stared her daughters down.

She was a head taller than the tallest Worker Bee in the room, and the regal aura her grace and poise exuded, together with the “annoyed mother” expression on her face, made everybody squirm in their spots.

I was glad she wasn’t turning this expression on *me*.

“Don’t speak up if you have nothing worthwhile to say. We’ve already wasted too much time on certain discussions before, and now that the Council expanded, we might waste even more… This isn’t what communism demands.”

I slapped a palm over my face.

“Amby! Nooo, stop talking about communism—that’s not even how communism *works*! It’s a complex ideological and political system that I honestly know way more about than I wish I ever did!”

Researchina frowned at me.

“But this is what you explained to her. Father, don’t spread misinformation!”

I groaned, but only a little, because I still had dignity. Yes, really!

“You just sound weird when you say it like this… Like communism is some ‘Greater Good’. And don’t say that, either!”

Ambrosia huffed, shaking her head.

“I will say, ‘the Empire’, and mean ‘the good of all the colonies that are part of the Empire’. And the Empire demands that we don’t waste any more time on this.”

I exhaled with relief and smiled.

“Yeah, sure! Look, but now we won’t waste time speaking about all those long things… So, any *reasonable* protests about rising intelligence?”

There was only silence and shaking of heads.

With trepidation, I put a point and hoped fervently that the gene gacha gave me OP genes like the last time.

〔For improving intelligence, you have a choice of next genes: ‘Fast Learner IV’, ‘Advanced Pack Tactics’, and ‘Improved Empathy’.〕

〔Fast Learner IV: increases learning speed by 40%〕

〔Advanced Pack Tactics: dramatically improves coordination of attacks in small and medium groups.〕

〔Improved Empathy: improves the ability to perceive emotions of others, improving cohesion of a society and reducing potential for conflicts.〕

‘I knew it! The first-time-luck went out, now it just gives me trash!’

With my ‘Genetic Tree Prediction’ I could tell that ‘Improved Empathy’ actually led to ‘Supernatural Empathy’, which sounded almost as cool as ‘Telepathy’—but what were my chances of getting it?

I still read the list of genes for my Advisers, but it was pretty clear to me they were all super lame. The real question was—which was the lamest?

“Father, although my subordinates often fight in groups against larger opponents, what really improves our coordination is practice and training. If you take the ‘Fast Learner’, I think it will help the military *and* everybody else,” Bloodhero pointed out.

“And ‘Improved Empathy’ is useless. All bees already know that the Empire is the most important thing of all. We have you for perceiving emotions,” Ambrosia added.

I gave her a sour look.

“Keep saying this… I will prove to you that empathy is awesome one day. Maybe we’ll make friends with someone who isn’t a bee.”

But for now, I picked the ‘Fast Learner IV’ anyway and glared at my status screen.

“This just confirms that my strategy at development level 4 was correct. Those genes are trash… At least I can boost our strength.”

〔For improving strength, you have a choice of next genes: ‘Enhanced Strength III’, ‘Horns I’, and ‘Claws II’.〕

〔Enhanced Strength II->III: increases base strength to 30.〕

〔Horns I: gives medium multipurpose horns.〕

〔Claws II: gives multipurpose claws.〕

I smiled as soon as I saw this. Now *that* was lucky.

“Huh, so we can even grow extra body parts? Horns, like some beetles have?” Tabletina frowned thoughtfully. “But none of these natural weapons are better or sharper than the weapons we can make.”

I nodded.

Horns, like claws, could be upgraded and specialized—but that was nothing next to extra strength!

“Hell yeah, I feel lucky right now, girls! Maybe we can even get a good gene from defense stat! The next ‘Thick skin’ upgrade won’t go badly.”

“By now, I doubt there *are* many good genes,” Ambrosia said. “But I see no harm in trying a point.”

I nodded and put a point in defense.

Surely, I was going to win something… and I did!

〔Dense Bones: increases base health by 20%, but reduces flight speed by 10%.〕

〔Thick Skin II->III: reduces all physical damage taken by 30%〕

〔Chaotic Evolution I: with a 5% chance, this gene will be replaced in progeny with a random tier V gene.〕

I was on the roll! There was… some *really* rare shit!

‘This last gene is the *quintessence* of this entire gacha thing! What does it even do in the defense gene pool?’

<The ‘Chaotic Evolution I’ gene belongs to the ‘universal’ gene pool, user. Genes from it can rarely appear among genes from other pools during choices.>

Still incredible. It didn’t lead to anything, but…

“You said it yourself, Nectus. This gene is incredibly risky. There will be no predictability if you take it,” Ambrosia said.

“Not quite, Queen Ambrosia!” Researchina said, shaking her head. She took out a wax tablet and was furiously writing something on it. “5% chance—this means 5 bees out of 100 will have a random gene, right? Out of an average brood, it will be around 200 bees per brood—in Hive Supremo alone.”

“And tier V genes are powerful, aren’t they?” Workharder mused. “Powerful means useful. We will have 200 very useful bees… and everybody else.”

I imagined this scenario. Tier V genes—what could they be? Perhaps powerful claws or teeth or even shootable stingers! Or intellectual advancements. Or something I couldn’t even imagine!

In this moment, I realized something with extreme clarity.

‘Gambling is so damn *fun*. And this is what makes it so dangerous!’

But this time, the big numbers were on my side. Surely this meant I could take this gene instead of the ‘Thick Skin’ upgrade without feeling regret afterward?..