Led by Meruem, the Chimera Ants arrived at the original King's base—the Republic of East Gorteau. To be honest, Meruem could have chosen another country, or even stayed in NGL. But the problem was that NGL's human population had been decimated; if the Chimera Ants needed to expand, NGL was clearly not a good choice. Although Meruem had told Netero he bore no ill will toward humans, under those circumstances it was complete nonsense. And even if Meruem had no ill will, would humans really leave him alone? The answer: heh.
Compared to other small countries, East Gorteau was much easier to take. First, its military strength was poor. Second, it had no notable—or even remotely capable—Nen users. For the ant army under Meruem now, this was like stomping lowbies. Exaggerating a bit, even a single division captain could storm the royal palace. What's more, the current head of East Gorteau was just a puppet stand-in. The real leader had long since retired, and his underlings were dimwits—bullies against ordinary people, useless against Nen users. The palace, though, was well built and looked quite comfortable to live in. Most important of all, this country didn't have the Rose nuke. Other nations likely possessed this weapon capable of annihilating the ants; Meruem didn't want to take that risk. So East Gorteau became a solid choice.
"Wutian, I appoint you as Prime Minister. You'll manage day-to-day affairs. The governance of our ant race will be in your hands from now on." After easily taking down the palace guard of East Gorteau and occupying the palace, Meruem sat on the presidential throne and began granting posts to the squadron leaders. Wutian here was that butler-like old turtle.
"Thank you for Your Majesty's trust. This old minister will give his utmost." The old turtle's eyes curved into slits with his smile—he clearly liked his post. Well, to be fair, even when he didn't smile, his eyes were about slits.
"Blair, I appoint you court physician, responsible for treating all our wounded Chimera Ant warriors." Next up was the octopus from the original, who had some medical ability.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Compared to the old turtle, the octopus was noticeably cooler. Ants loyal to the Queen still harbored some resentment over her death. But due to the Queen's order—and since Meruem indeed had the ability to lead the Chimera Ants to glory—these Queen-faction ants continued to follow Meruem. With time, they would ultimately be loyal to him. In the original, if the King hadn't been bloodthirsty and arbitrary, and hadn't directly caused the Queen's death, nearly all ants would have obeyed him—at least on the surface.
"Bihorn, I appoint you Grand Marshal of the Royal Guard. You're in charge of the entire ant race's vigilance and defense. Our safety will depend on you." Admittedly, "Royal Guard" and "Grand Marshal" didn't exactly match, nor did a marshal's duties with those of a sheriff. But the Chimera Ants didn't know that—and hey, mixed styles were in.
"Thank you for Your Majesty's grace." Among those below the Royal Guard, old bull Bihorn, famed for unmatched brute strength, was delighted with this impressive-sounding position—even if he didn't quite understand it. Look—those two before me had four-character titles; mine has six! He flexed his muscles for good measure—then wilted when he saw Youpi standing beside the King. Clearly, the "strongest brute force" bull had once compared strength with Youpi—and got wrecked.
"Peggy, I appoint you Grand Academician. You're responsible for spreading knowledge throughout our ant race. Don't disappoint me." Peggy, the owl and Meleoron's adoptive father in the original, had a scholar's aura when he first appeared. His Nen was unknown; sadly, the King one-shotted him on debut. Making him Grand Academician fit him well.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. I will assimilate all the knowledge of human society and teach it to our race," Peggy said with severe, bookish dignity. He was also the first among the Chimera Ants to think of giving everyone names.
"Cheetu, Colt, Meleoron, Ace, Bloputa." The remaining five squadron leaders received different posts: the goofy cheetah Cheetu became Chief of Recon, since he ran fast—in essence, chief of the scouts. The chameleon Meleoron and the mantis Ace were put into the Anbu (black ops), with Ace as minister thanks to his higher combat power. The lobster Bloputa was made artillery chief, in charge of long-range strikes. Colt was made Sky General, responsible for aerial units. As for the three Royal Guards, they had no need for titles; they were effectively Meruem's personal guard.
"Colt stays. The rest of you may go. Remember—Nen training begins tomorrow." Meruem kept Colt—who'd been distracted earlier—and dismissed the others to rest. The "Nen training" meant teaching the squadron leaders the correct way to use Nen, to keep them from going off the rails—like Cheetu in the original, who abandoned his speed edge to make a laughable barrier game.
"I know where your sister is." Back at the nest, although Colt hadn't left like some squadron leaders, he hadn't planned to follow Meruem either, because the Queen—whom he cared for most—had died. In his previous life, he died to protect his sister; protection was his obsession in this one. Ironically, after rebirth he had made the Queen—who had devoured him and his sister—his object of protection even unto death. With the Queen gone, he lost his purpose and the will to live. Unlike the original where little Kite appeared, Colt had no clue what to do. Perhaps despairing quietly to death would have been his end. But Meruem was a transmigrator—he knew Colt's sister had also been reborn as an ant, and he knew exactly who she'd become.
One line—"I know where your sister is"—restored most of Colt's past-life memories. Hope rekindled, he chose to follow Meruem. Yes—Colt finally remembered whom he had to protect: his little sister.
"Your Majesty." Colt spoke first, as expected. The ever-stoic, rigid Colt could not remain calm upon hearing news of his sister. Clearly, ants had feelings just like humans.
"Soldier ant Reina." Meruem slowly spoke the four words.
Seeing Colt clutch Reina and cry out loud, Meruem felt a thousand things. Ants and humans are the same—they cry, laugh, get angry, and grieve; they weep when hurt and laugh when happy. Once upon a time—or in their previous lives—they were human. Since they were ants now, they might as well live brilliantly. Perhaps leading the Chimera Ants to dominate the world wasn't a bad idea either.
"Um, squadron leader, sir… please don't be like this, okay?" Unlike Colt's unrestrained emotion, Reina clearly didn't understand what was happening. A lofty squadron leader suddenly rushed up to her and hugged her, sobbing—she panicked. In this timeline, Reina did not leave with Hagya's squad. Compared to following a squadron leader, it was much safer to stay with the King. Besides, Meruem had kept an eye on her; even if she had gone with Hagya, he would have brought her back. It was an excellent way to win hearts—one soldier ant in exchange for a squadron leader's total fealty? A bargain by any measure.
But siblings are siblings. Even if their past-life memories had almost faded, their bodies still carried the same blood. The remnants of memory helped them recognize each other again. In the original, they both had relatively happy endings—Reina returned to her hometown, and Colt found a new object of protection—Kite reborn. But brother and sister might never have met again. In this life, because of Meruem, they reunited. Perhaps their endings wouldn't be as "good" as in the original. Was that better or worse? Only heaven knows.
"Then let me become even stronger. I'll lead this adorable crew to dominate the world—let's see how far I can go this time." Alone in the palace, Meruem took out a severed arm—Chairman Netero's. He slowly raised it. Behind him, a red figure with ominous aura and horns atop its head opened its maw. Meruem placed the arm into the creature's mouth. This was Meruem's unique Nen ability. He named it—"Taotie."
From then on, every ant entered high-intensity special training. Born with bodies stronger than humans and greater innate talent, ants needed only a bit of training to become strong—even soldier ants were no exception. Soldier ants might lack human-level intellect, but they made up for it in simpler minds. Aside from a very few, the Nen they developed was almost uniformly Enhancement. In contrast, among the troop leaders and squadron leaders, not a single one was an Enhancer. Other than the soldiers, the only Enhancer among the Chimera Ants was Pouf. At the same time, not only were the ants steadily improving their Nen, but Meruem also ordered Pitou, Pouf, and Blair to conduct another experiment to boost the swarm's strength—the Ant Modification Plan, a.k.a. artificial ants—transforming humans into artificial ants, like Palm in the original. Meanwhile, Meruem issued another order that puzzled some ants: no more eating humans. Those who had recovered past-life memories strongly supported it. Meruem's original motive was simple—he didn't eat people. As a transmigrator, aside from a few with heavy tastes, who could stomach human flesh and brains? The mere thought was nauseating. Compared to bloody, reeking human meat, Meruem preferred real cuisine—say, Chairman Mao's favorite red-braised pork.
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