My System Arrives 3 Years Earlier, But the Deities Haven't Come Yet

After registering the car and awaiting the lottery for a license plate, Zeng Shen drove the Wuling camper towards the Trade Tower to find Li Yuqing and her friends. However, as he left, a prompt sounded in his ears.

[The host has passed the botanical garden without alerting the powerful intelligent species and beasts within, gaining 10 survival points.]

"Hmm, right, there's an intelligent species group here. I might as well check it out since I have time," Zeng Shen thought, sending a message to Li Yuqing about running an errand at the botanical garden. He parked at the entrance, bought a ticket, and headed inside.

The botanical garden was vast, home to many centuries-old rare trees. On weekends, it was bustling, but today, being a Tuesday, it was relatively quiet.

"I wonder where that intelligent species group is," Zeng Shen mused, wandering for over an hour without finding the group mentioned in the system's prompt.

"The pine forest is up ahead, the last area. If I can't find them there, I'll have to double back," he muttered, heading towards the pine trees. As he neared an ancient pine, a long-awaited warning sounded in his ears.

[Warning: You are approaching the Giant Strength Tribe. With your current strength, stepping further will result in capture and being turned into food. Quickly retreat.]

"What? The pine trees are the intelligent Giant Strength Tribe?" Zeng Shen was puzzled.

If the ancient pines were indeed the tribe, communication and conversion into followers would be impossible, as one can't converse with a tree.

Nearby, a black ant on the pine's needle stared up at him. Frustrated, Zeng Shen vented by squashing the ant, prompting a dangerous alert.

[You have killed a Tier 2 Beast, a Rapid Ant Beast, belonging to the Giant Strength Tribe's Queen Ant. With your current strength, you risk being surrounded and captured by its beasts and followers. Please retreat.]

"What? The Giant Strength Tribe's Queen Ant? Could the tribe be ants instead of trees?" The realization struck Zeng Shen, prompting him to search around the pine for ant nests.

Soon, he spotted a knee-high pyramid-shaped mound a meter behind the pine, dotted with tiny holes bustling with ants.

Eyes brightening, Zeng Shen used the Eye of Insight on the mound.

[Giant Strength Tribe Nest]

"Ha! It's not the pine but the ants that are the intelligent species here," Zeng Shen rejoiced.

Transplanting an ancient pine home would be difficult, but moving ants was much easier.

However, he didn't rush to relocate the ants. First, he considered how to communicate with the queen ant after moving the nest, to make it and the colony his followers.

"Should I buy an ant farm box, isolate the queen and potential intelligent ants, then relocate them?" he pondered, glancing at his faith attribute (421 points), dismissing the idea.

The mound's size suggested thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of ants. Identifying intelligent species among them would be impossible. Better to move the entire colony.

Thinking it over, Zeng Shen decided the queen ant was key. If he could intimidate and subjugate the queen, making it worship him as a deity, it could command the colony to follow suit.

But how to communicate with the queen?

"Perhaps Beast Taming can help. Though useless on intelligent species, it works on beasts," he thought, suddenly inspired. "I can have the evolved ant soldiers relay my message to the queen."

He immediately used the Eye of Insight on larger worker ants by the mound.

[Intelligent Species: Giant Strength Tribe]

[Quality: Common]

[Tier 2: 0/1000]

[Name: Not Named]

[Skills: Not Activated]

[Faith: No Faith]

[Mood: Alert]

[Analysis: All worker ants in the colony are female, including this one. Like all female ants, it's industrious, obedient, and albeit plain, possesses remarkable strength.]

"Why the lesson? Who doesn't know all but a few ants are female? It's like a kingdom of women," he mused, realizing the tribe might be larger than expected.

"If so, capturing the queen means the whole colony of pretty female ants will be mine," he thought, eyes gleaming before regaining composure.

"Focus," he chided himself, recalling how demanding Li Yuqing could be.

Muttering, Zeng Shen used the Eye of Insight again on a larger ant.

[Insect Beast: Rapid Giant Ant Beast]

[Quality: Common]

[Tier 2: 0/1000]

[Name: Not Named]

[Skills: Not Activated]

[Faith: No Faith]

[Mood: Anxious]

[Analysis: An insect beast under the Giant Strength Tribe's Queen Ant, anxiously relaying a signal about a fallen comrade.]

"Perfect," Zeng Shen thought, using Beast Taming on the Rapid Ant Beast.

[Congratulations, host! Successfully tamed a pet, Rapid Ant Beast. Follower +1, Survival Points +10.]

"Nice, a direct hit," Zeng Shen exclaimed, mentally commanding the ant to his feet.

"Come here," he ordered. The ant complied, crawling to him.

"Spin," he commanded, and the ant spun in place.

"Good boy. You'll be my first general, named Blackie," Zeng Shen declared, before issuing serious instructions. "Relay to the queen: submit to me, worship me, and enjoy endless food, or face divine wrath."