Tsuwo led the way past the busy line of workers as I closely followed behind her. Her large demeanor creates a nice path despite the sheer number of ants scurrying around in the dirt hallways. Looking at her I realize since I’m queen I’m a bit larger than her. 

Ho, ho, ho! Being average height all my life finally changes, now I can experience looking down at smaller… ants like how those taller boys have looked down at me back in high school! 

Following Tsuwo, we exit the egg chambers into a vast and spacious area. Dirt pathways leading everywhere straightforward from every angle. It looked like we were in a giant dirt dome as big as a sports stadium would be. Ants were climbing the walls, running through the dirt ways, and carrying various things in their jaws. As we walk down the path some ants stop and bow their heads to me then move on as we pass them. Looking around the dirt dome, I see no male or soldier ants in sight. 

It really does seem like Tsuwo is the only soldier-ant left… I wonder if she feels any remorse towards losing her ant in arms and her last queen. I feel compelled to ask since I always thought even ants would have some feelings. Well this isn’t like those family cartoon movies where even feelings can have feelings, this is reality! Yeah as… real as a reality where a girl being reborn as an ant queen can be. 

Tsuwo leads me into a large dirt chamber, seemingly big as a two-story house. 

Why do the proportions inside this colony’s anthill seem waay too big??!! Is this how it looks like in an ant’s perspective of their dirt home? Geez was the previous queen’s tush the size of a whole charter bus or something? 

I walked to the middle of the chamber turning to face Tsuwo who eagerly awaited my next order. 

“Thank you Tsuwo, could you wait by the entrance for me? I need some time to think.” 

“As you wish, my queen Ariki.”

She exits the room proceeding to guard the humongous chamber entrance. Finally having the time and space to recollect myself, I take a deep breath, and scream. Scrambling around throughout my giant chamber. Going through all the motions and emotions finally sinking in the harsh reality that my new life is being an ant queen. 

“I know, I know, I know, there’s no way this isn’t real! Everything from my sense of touch to the sense of smell feels so damn real! I said I wasn’t freaking out, but now really is a good time freak out about all this! My joyous future college life! My family!  My best friend Isa! Even my upcoming date with my long-time crush! Aaaaaahhhhhh!” 

Meanwhile, Tsuwo fidgets at the entrance from Ariki’s loud panicking chirps, torn between whether she should check on her queen or not. But decides to diligently follow her queen’s orders and stand guard in silence. 

After some time passes, I quiet down lying exhausted on the ground from skidding around making a circular trail in the room. 

Okay, now that I got that all out of my system I can rationalize my situation one step at a time. I’ve read a dozen books and watched plenty of shows, movies, and anime regarding plots that happen like this. Well.. not Exactly like this... There must be a possibility of returning to my previous life, maybe at least becoming human again. I still dread the birthing and mating sessions that’s required of me… And if there isn’t a possibility then I have to think of how to comfortably live this new ant life. 

Running through my different thoughts, I feel a sensation flow through my body as if I switched on a light bulb in my head. Then to my surprise, a small menu screen appears in front of me.

What the heck?! 

 [Status] [Colony] [Base] [Map]

This just raises so, so, so many questions. Now is this a fantasy game-like world where I was reborn as a royal insect and now I have to somehow fight for survival. Come on Isekai gods what’s up with all these weird plot twists and plotlines! I think being reborn as some slime would have been cuter! But I’m so happy to see something familiar. 

Me and Isa loved playing together online mainly RPG, and MMORPGs because that’s how we first met before we discovered we were in the same school and class. I never noticed her since she kept to herself in the far back corner of our classroom, but after getting to know her, we formed a deep connection to each other. Although she had recently started showing signs of liking me more than just a close friend, I did my best to keep our relationship just close friends. Because of her troubled life, I suspected that she’d get more than attached to me, not that I mind. 

Realizing this now... I feel horrible for leaving her alone by dying.

I shake my head pushing that train of thought back for another time looking back at the menu screen. An arrow appeared directly by whatever I looked at.

>[Status] [Colony] [Base] [Map]

  [Status] >[Colony] [Base] [Map]

  [Status] [Colony] [Base] >[Map]

I guess checking my status should answer some of my questions and theories. I guess I would be titled ‘Fire Ant Queen’ level 1 or something, I wonder if I kept my name?

>[Status] [Colony] [Base] [Map]

[Status]

Name:

Race: Fire Ant 

Class: Queen 

LV 1 

HP: 2,000/2,000 (green)

MP: 400/400 (blue)

SP: 500/500 (orange)

Offense: 1,000 Defense: 1,000 Magic: 500       

Skills (20):

[Hard Skin LV 5] [Strength LV 7] [Life LV 7] [Fly LV 4] [Command LV 7] [Accuracy LV 5] [Touch Sensory LV 5] [Smell Sensory LV 5] [Vision LV 3] [Movement LV 3] [Aura Detect LV 8] [Intelligence LV 7] [Fire-Breath LV 7] [Tactics LV 5] [Persuasion LV 6] [Charm LV 10] [Resistance: Fire LV 7] [Resistance: Poison LV 5] [Poison LV 5] [Bite LV 5]

Wow 20 skills in total and my base stats are decent… I guess, I don’t know this world’s standards for good or bad stats. My class is Queen which makes sense.. And I was right about being a fire ant. Looks like there’s a “race” and “class” system here. Is this even another world or a video game with next gen. graphics? Ah... well my guess is since I am a queen I should have fairly better base stats than this entire colony, with the exception of Tsuwo. But ho, ho, ho! Charm LV 10!? So that means I’m totally beautiful by ant queen standards, beauty never failed me then and it shall not fail me now! Also, I don’t have a name I guess that doesn’t carry over… Do I have the ability to name myself?

[Status]

Name: >Ariki Kuin 

Hmmm… well I would have chosen my online character name, but I’m literally me controlling me, not controlling some made up avatar of me. Kinda tacky to use my full name in a new life like this though…  Killer Kuin does have a nice ring to it since I am a queen and it rhymes. Ehhhh...

[Status]

Name: >Ariki

Perfect! Maybe there might be a possibility that I find someone I know… ehhh on second thought, it’ll be all kinds of weird and awkward and I don’t even think anyone I know would've died recently reborning as an ant or something. Anyways! Moving on… the other skills are cool aside from my Charm, I have Fire-Breath, and Fly. Soo that means I’m close to a dragon now aren’t I? An insect fire dragon queen! Well that’s till I mate and lose my wings… Now I really wanna avoid mating to keep these precious wings. Hmm… 

I stretch out my wings to inspect them. 

These are wings alright, all in perfect condition. 

I flap my wings around for a bit to warm them up preparing myself for flight. 

Here goes nothing.

The speed of my flapping wings accelerates and slowly I feel my legs levitate from the dirt. Dust kicked around below me as I lifted my large body off the ground. [Fly LV 4] activates.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! I’m really flying! Wooooo! Weeeee! 

Flying around doing spins and U-turns in the air. I try to slow down, but I end up crash landing onto the floor. Muddled from the initial crash, I struggle to get up and dust myself off. 

Ouch… As thrilling as that was, I never flew before plus this room is big but it would be better to fly out in the open, I’m gonna have to practice outside. So… now Fire-Breath… how would that work? Do I propel fire from my uh… jaws or spit out a fire inducing acid like how some insects do, because the former would be a heck of a lot cooler. 

Facing the wall, I opened my jaws wide and concentrated, at first I felt nothing. I tried imagining flames coming out of my jaws in order to somehow activate the skill. Just then a small orange flame ignited, snapping into blue flames before jetting out like a laser, incinerating a hole into the wall. [Fire-Breath LV 7] activates.

Tchh! Zzzzrrrrrr! Fwoosshhh! 

While crackling and sizzling small cinders danced about before fizzling out, letting only smoke gush from the hole.

Sssssss! 

Woah, woah, woah?! Really?! This isn’t even a Fire-breath, more like a Fire-beam! I’m practically like that one giant kaiju lizard with his radioactive breath attacks, but in ant form! Well… it is LV 7, but with this insane power… makes me wonder how powerful I am with my other high LV skills. Makes me wonder how powerful Tsuwo and the rest of the ants are… most importantly how powerful these ‘Two-legs’ are. They were able to defeat the last queen and the rest of the soldier ants. Wait… ‘Two-legs’ in the insect world there is no insect with 2 legs, they all at least have 6 legs. Unless these insects were some type of weird new insect species in this world I’m in or maybe it’s an animal? Why would an animal attack ants… unless it was an ant-eater even then it walks on all fours… so… that would mean Tsuwo was talking about…  humans? Humans?! Wait, wait, wait a second. 

I look around the giant chamber room, putting two and two together. I finally realize why everything in this ant hill is so big. 

Back then the ants we passed by were carrying boulders not small rocks, proportions of these dirt structures are huge because… we’re also huge! That would make us insects, giant insect monsters to humans since we’d be… bigger or as big as them in this world! 

Chills ran down my ant body, feeling like I was naked out in the snow. 

What a reality I got myself born into… waaaaah! Why couldn’t I just become some sort of princess of a prestigious kingdom, or secretly not-so-average girl in a peaceful village, or even an adventurer tasked to leveling up and saving the world, not a giant fire ant queen who has to make babies to survive! Waaaaah!