Every intelligent creature in Lilt Forest believed that winter would never end now that the Lord of Gciers had returned.

  The biting cold winds had caused the temperature in the forest to drop continuously. However, in the past two months, the ferocity of the cold winds had weakened a little. The severe winter climate in Lilt Forest had also stabilized, or at least the temperature was no longer dropping.

  In these few months, many creatures that thrived in the cold had appeared in Lilt Forest, including snow-white foxes, light blue frost slimes, butterflies with blue patterns, and some strange insects.

  The trees' leaves had mostly dried up, with many of them having already fallen to the ground. In pce of leaves, a special pnt could now be seen on the branches of some trees—a green and withered-yellow type of moss.

  This moss secreted special juices that were capable of dissolving ice and snow, and the inside of the moss couldn't be frozen by the cold.

  This special moss, along with a mushroom that had the appearance and color of snow, had become the basis for Lilt Forest regaining its vitality in winter.

  ...

  The sunny weather in Lilt Forest had sted for half a month.

  In this white world of ice and snow, the night's moonlight and starlight were bright enough to see by.

  Inside a snowy cave, a white mouse gradually awoke from his peaceful sleep.

  Just as it was the habit of mice in Lilt Forest's warmer days to hide during the day and come out at night, this white-furred mouse would also go out at night to forage for food.

  The mouse had only been born two months earlier. He'd never know how good the living conditions of his predecessors in the warmer climate had been.

  At that time, there had been pnts everywhere in the forest, and a variety of food could be found just by taking a few steps. There had also been delicious and nutritious earthworms and centipedes to eat that could be found by digging through piles of decaying leaves.

  But each situation had its pros and cons.

  Although food was scarce in the snowy forest, there were also many fewer dangers.

  The white mouse would never be able to imagine how scared his predecessors had been every time they'd gone out to find food in the forest.

  As he sniffed around with his sensitive nose, the white mouse had a simple idea. He'd search the forest for mosses and white mushrooms to eat, and at the same time, he'd try to track down the scent of that female mouse from earlier.

  A few days ago, he'd clearly heard the cry of a female mouse and saw the feces she'd left behind in the snow. However, in the past two days, he hadn't been able to find any trace of her. It was as if she'd completely left the forest.

  The white mouse suddenly smelled a delicious aroma. Following the smell, he soon found green moss and mushrooms piled up at the base of a tree.

  The two types of food were mixed together as if they'd been crushed. Even at a distance, the white mouse could smell a rich, sweet smell.

  He seemed to sense that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was due to his low intelligence. He hesitated for a while, but due to his hunger, the white mouse eventually rushed over and started eating.

  While eating, he suddenly had an idea.

  Obviously, his ability to see was better during the day, which made it easier to find food. Why did he always go out to search for food at night?

  A moment ter, the white mouse's face showed a puzzled expression. He noticed that his body seemed a little stiff, and his two front limbs that were holding the food started to twitch uncontrolbly.

  He suddenly fell to the ground, his entire body seeming to be paralyzed and no longer under his control.

  The cold wind blew on his belly, which wasn't covered with much fur. The white mouse wanted to roll over to avoid the cold wind, but found that he couldn't move at all.

  Before long, several strange insects appeared in front of him. They were gray and white in color and about four centimeters long.

  The white mouse had never seen this kind of insect before, but his survival instinct told him what they were. These were slightly rger ants, a kind of food that he could eat.

  Saliva began flowing from the white mouse's mouth. Ever since his birth, except for his mother's milk, the only foods he'd ever eaten had been moss and mushrooms.

  The white mouse watched as two of the ants crawled in front of him and opened their mandibles, as if they were preparing to bite open his throat.

  And that's exactly what they did.

  The mouse didn't feel any pain, and the blood that flowed out seemed not to be his own. He only felt that his body was getting very cold, and the cold wind blowing on his belly had become even colder. He really wanted to turn over...

  ...

  After the group of five gray and white ants killed the white mouse, seven more worker ants crawled over one after another across the cold snow.

  The twelve ants first drank some of the blood flowing from the mouse's neck. They then cooperated with each other to lift the mouse's body and carry it back to their nest.

  These ants seemed be more intelligent than ordinary ants.

  For ants in summer who also frequently carried rge pieces of food, there were always some ants with low intelligence doing useless work while the others struggled, and sometimes those dumb ants would even try to drag the food in the opposite direction.

  These twelve ants took almost the exact same steps as they carried the mouse's body, and they passed over the rugged snow as if they were walking on ft ground. Within ten minutes, they'd carried the mouse back to the entrance of the five-meter-deep wintering nest.

  There were only about a hundred or so ants in the nest, far fewer than could be found in other ant nests.

  There were two soldier ants, each about ten centimeters long, near the entrance of the nest. When the soldiers saw the worker ant team returning from their hunt, they briefly communicated with the workers using their antennae before allowing them to pass.

  A short while ter, more than a dozen ants crawled out of System's wintering nest. These twenty or so ants cooperated with each other to carry the mouse corpse inside the nest and into an empty chamber that was dedicated to meat storage.

  It was obviously a big deal to successfully catch a mouse with a trap containing paralysis toxin. For such rge prey, as long as their king or Shava didn't take action, the ants would basically only catch one every several days.

  Although these workers were all significantly more intelligent than ordinary ants, there were also obvious differences in each one's personal level of intelligence.

  One of them had a bck spot on her forehead. This worker ant, named Bck by System, had a high level of wisdom. In addition to the name Bck, she was also often called Little Bck by the king.

  Bck had a smaller body than the other workers. Although she was much rger than an ordinary bck and brown worker ant, in this nest, she only counted as an underdeveloped worker.

  However, as the king had once said, "When the heavens take away one thing, they will always grant another."

  According to the king, her body had the potential to activate a strange ability. After acquiring this ability, she would gain the power to transmit mental messages just like the king. In the entire nest, aside from the king and the queen ant, Linda, only Bck could potentially activate the ability to send mental messages.

  Bck's job was to patrol inside the nest. After the king discovered that she had extraordinary wisdom, he gave her a special task. She would normally spend her time patrolling the nest, but if any situations arose, she was supposed to report what happened to the king.

  However, Bck had searched every empty chamber where the king could often be found, but still couldn't find any trace of the king. Even Shava, the king's knight, couldn't be found.

  According to Bck's guess, the king had likely gone somewhere with Shava again.

  ............................

  TL Note:

  As you saw, this chapter has some Western names. Anyone familiar with the Isekai genre, especially settings that have knights and magic, is probably already used to seeing this, but it can still be a bit jarring to see the name Linda pop up in a Chinese novel.

  Please know that this is not a change I made. These are the names used in the original novel.

  Also, while worker and soldier ants aren't capable of reproduction, they're still female, which is why I'm using female pronouns for them. I'd originally chosen to call them 'it' like the original novel did, but it's technically wrong to do that and also sounds weird and awful, so I'm changing their pronouns in my test edit.