Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 83

Chapter 83: Perhaps it’s time to cut the losses
〔Bee Empire〕

〔Wellness〕: 44 %

〔Population〕: 460 thousand

〔Territory〕: 48042 sq. kilometers

〔Settlement count〕: 22

〔Development level〕: 4

〔Development points〕: 288 / 1000

〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee

〔Attributes〕

> Workpower: 1542

> Military: 233

> Brainpower: 535

> Logistics: 255

> Resilience: 393

〔Resources〕:

> Food: 5586 units

> Building materials: 354 units

> Crafting materials: 32 units

〔Colony Council〕

〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (Bloodhero)

〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (Researchina)

〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (Things-Things)

〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (Workharder)

〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)

〔Technologies〕

Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Border Patrols, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Primitive Medicine, Work Camps, Literacy, Scientific Method, Basic Hygiene, Technology of Stone Age, Archives, Medicinal Plants

〔〕〔〕〔〕

I sat more comfortably and picked an empty wax table to copy the colony’s stats to it. Furniture wasn’t invented yet, but at least I had a caterpillar’s furry hide to soften the floor.

‘This isn’t so bad. Now that Researchina trained an entire battalion of Researcher Bees and put a Chief Researcher over them, our brainpower rose up dramatically. Our archives—and the amount of archivists—also doubled in size. Even our wellness grows a little…’

I stuck my writing stick into the wax, leaving a deep hole.

“Ugh, as if! As if things are good *at all*! Our food stores tanked! And that isn’t the worst of it…”

For the past 10 days, the population numbers were gradually decreasing as bees in subjugated hives died out. Clearly, without my intervention, the Paleness would’ve eventually taken these hives out entirely.

And the ‘Medicinal Plants’ technology was implemented, but it wasn’t *really* implemented. Researcher Bees have found a few plants that seemed to mitigate a few symptoms of common cold, and a root with mildly stimulating effect.

Researchina suggested using it to counter weakness caused by Paleness, but I told her it was a bad idea. Stimulants only gave a temporary effect, weakening the organism in the long run. Especially untested ones.

For all I knew, that root was stimulating because it contained cocaine! Yes, in my world, cocaine was made from coca leaves—but in my world, bees also didn’t have fingers, so what did I know?

In short, medicinal plants gave us no bonuses, while subjugated beehives were rapidly reaching the point of total collapse.

A week ago, I got a disturbing report from my little princesses. The messenger bees said in the latest broods left from the old Queens, a fifth of bees had emerged already affected by the Paleness.

And was immediately attacked by their own sisters for being too weak!

It was an incredible relief and a moment of pride to hear that my Queens have interfered and stopped the massacre before too many have died.

I didn’t know if they copied my behavior with a quarantine village, or if some of my morality rubbed off on them, but I was grateful either way.

At least these little bees deserved to live their brief lives to the end in peace. Although they weren’t my daughters, I grew used to seeing bees as human…

Even if I plainly kept all other insects in the ‘animal’ category.

(There was no going back to vegetarianism after a taste of caterpillar steak! Laws of nature were universal: the strong killed the weak, and made kebabs out of him!)

My princesses let the bees too sick for work just hang around the hive, doing easiest duties their simple minds could manage. It was merciful, and it was a drain on the hives’ resources.

They had storages, but these storages were rapidly decreasing.

I sighed, rubbing my forehead, and went back to copying.

There was still no solution. I had 114 days before a “game over” in “Ironman” mode.

‘Maybe I should go again after everything I know about the Paleness. Hell, with my 121 intelligence, if *someone* comes up with a solution, it must be me! So what do I know?’

What were the symptoms? Paleness, weakness, dizziness, sometimes headaches, loss of muscle mass.

Who got sick?

First of all, pupae, in all the hives. Bees who emerged from their brood cells already sick had the most pronounced symptoms. Although I wasn’t sure if this was a consequence of their arrested development or a quirk of the Paleness.

Second—the adult bees in subjugated hives. According to reports of my princesses, even previously healthy bees might suddenly go sick.

And besides all those, Forager Bees in Hive Supremo and Hive Hornet’s Nest were catching Paleness, too. And not just any Foragers, I’ve noticed, but those born before development level 4.

They suffered from the Paleness much less… And doing ‘Vertical Gene Transfer’ on them healed them—as far as I knew. So far, no treated bee went into remission.

‘This just doesn’t add up… If one of my latest genes protects the bees from Paleness—why do pupae get sick? And what gene in this set could protect the bees, anyway?’

I looked at the list of genes I picked back then: ‘Increased Lifespan III’, ‘Technology: Scientific Method’, ‘Flying Carriers’, ‘Throwing Wrists’, ‘Thick Skin II’.

Nothing about immunity or resistances.

‘Well fuck, this brought me back to square one. I don’t get it! What kind of illness behaves like that, affecting both children and adults, but not anyone between?’

I groaned, dropping my head in my palms, when I heard someone flying into the royal chambers; by the smell of her, I recognized Ambrosia without even turning to the entrance.

“Nectus, you are still here?” She sounded surprised. “Are you looking at system stats again?”

I heard her walking behind me and leaning over my shoulder.

“Yes, Amby.” I sighed and showed her the tablet. “And they look just as bad as yesterday. See?”

Ambrosia nodded.

“Perhaps… we should mitigate our future losses before it’s too late, then? Command the young Queens to stop laying eggs, wait for their broods to emerge while there is still someone to care for them, and call every able-bodied bee to Hive Supremo?”

I hummed.

“Our little princesses will be *so* pissed off… But it’s not the worst idea otherwise…”

Should I *really* go through with it, though?