Bab 2: Two Moons
Editor: Atlas Studios
After System reached Level 3, his line of sight gradually darkened.
The sun had already set, and the sky would soon turn dark.
As the sky gradually dimmed and a slightly cold breeze swept over the forest, the chirps of insects, including crickets and cicadas, increased.
As System was eating the tender leaf, he noticed that the grass in the distance was shaking irregularly. However, it was difficult for his insect compound eyes to distinguish what exactly was there.
Soon, a silvery-gray thing appeared from the grass and moved toward him.
As the distance between them gradually decreased, the image in System's compound eyes became clearer. A silvery-gray mouse dashed underneath the plant System was on and started gnawing on an unknown plant's rootstock.
The forest differed in the daytime. At night, plenty of insects and small animals were more active.
After a short while, the silvery-gray mouse finished eating the plant's rootstock and disappeared within the grass.
Meanwhile, System noticed a small black spider around three to four centimeters big. It was on higher ground than him, tens of centimeters diagonally from his position, extruding spider thread that was floating in the wind.
This scouting thread was the spider's first step to weaving its cobweb. As long as the thread stuck to something while floating in the wind, the spider would weave its cobweb with that thread as the foundation.
At night, the forest was full of dangers, so System gave up on trying to jump to other plants in search of tender leaves.
System's eyesight became poorer because of the darkness, while the number of predators increased significantly. If System relaxed even for an instant, he might get caught in a predator's trap.
Although it was uncomfortable to hide and starve for an entire night, he was a herbivorous insect so his survival chances would increase greatly.
Naturally, System, who had the intelligence of a human, could not live as rashly and impulsively as normal grasshoppers, whose strength lay in their reproductive ability and not in the survival ability of each individual insect.
System used his blunt mandibles to cut three tiny tender leaves before deciding to find a piece of a dead leaf on the ground and hide under it.
The three tender leaves could become his snacks when his hunger became unbearable. They somehow appeased his hunger.
The small grasshopper carefully crawled toward the plant's stem and used the barbs on its legs to crawl to the ground.
…
The tree branches, scattered dead leaves, and the soil were emitting a rotten smell. Such a ground environment was extremely complicated for System, who was the size of a soybean.
Out of the three tender leaves, which were the size of one's pinky fingernail, System only found two after biting them off the plant. Unable to find the third leaf, System had no choice but to give up on it.
After making great effort to move the two tender leaves underneath a damp dead leaf, System subconsciously looked at the night sky. There was a blank human-like expression on his insect face.
The grasshoppers' sense of sight was inferior, making them incapable of seeing things in the distance. System could not see how many shining stars were in the night sky, but he could see that there were two moons far from each other, one white and the other pale yellow.
This place was no longer his original world…
System did not look at the two moons in the sky for too long. He had already turned into a grasshopper and lost his memories, so it made no difference whether he was in his original world or not.
He crawled within the dead leaf and rested silently.
Insects' bodies were extraordinary. Although System had forgotten his name and some memories of his previous life, he was still clear about some things, such as general knowledge.
Humans would find staying still challenging, as one's body would subconsciously wriggle after a while. However, a grasshopper's body was completely different.
System, who was lying underneath the dead leaf, was effortlessly staying still. He felt like he was as still and lifeless as the dead leaf.
Soon, the breathing frequency and the extent his abdomen moved at decreased and his breathing gradually lengthened from one to two seconds with each breath to five or six seconds each time. Finally, he only needed to breathe once in about every ten seconds.
This was a peculiar hibernating state. Once System entered that state, the hunger in his abdomen rapidly decreased as though he was dead. Thus, he only needed to consume a meager amount of energy to maintain his vital signs.
Most likely, System could last two to three days or even longer without eating or drinking in such a state.
…
Drip…
Dew dripped down, its sound awakening System from his half-asleep, half-awake state.
Last night, shortly after his body had entered the hibernation state, his mind had also gradually entered a half-dreaming state. Now that he had woken up, System felt refreshed. It looked like even an insect needed proper sleep.
The weather in the morning was slightly cold, so System moved his slightly stiff body. Soon, his breathing returned to normal, which was one breath per second instead of one per tens of seconds when hibernating. At the same time, an intense sense of hunger overwhelmed him.
After drinking a few mouthfuls of the dew on the dead leaf's edge, System started chewing on the two tender leaves he had hidden within the dead leaf.
After an entire night, the tender leaves had lost some of their taste.
Meanwhile, System looked at the information regarding [Self-Information Generation] that had changed. His [Self-Information Generation] had confirmed the pattern of increasing one's level.
So far, there had been only one way for him to increase his level, which was to feed.
Although he could appease his hunger with all kinds of leaves, the consumed leaves made an immense difference in increasing his level effectively.
Simultaneously, the pattern that determined which leaf was the most effective was also very simple—it was its deliciousness!
Even when it came to the same type of leaves, the taste might differ due to the freshness, and the effectiveness of raising his level would also be different.
'Looks like if I want this body to grow more in the same amount of time, then I will need to eat fresh and delicious leaves as much as possible. However, to find delicious tender leaves and leaf buds, I will need to find more plants, which will undoubtedly be more dangerous. Given my current state, there's no need to take risks. Thus, the method I use to obtain food should be the same as yesterday to ensure my safety.'
After deciding his course of action, System concentrated on eating the two tender leaves, which were no longer that fresh.
Because his level had increased and he had grown bigger, System devoured the two tender leaves swiftly. His eating speed was twice as fast as when he had been at Level 2.
After System had leveled up, his mandibles had become sturdier. Thus, he decided to try and eat some slightly bigger leaves. If he succeeded, System would no longer need to waste time searching for tender leaves and leaf buds.
…
After crawling out of the dead leaf, System quickly discovered a few uninvited guests nearby. There were six black ants around the size of one centimeter.
After nighttime, the forest's living creatures were replaced by those that liked to be active in the day. The ants in front of System were such living creatures.
The six ants were extremely close to him—the nearest one was only 30 centimeters away from him. The antennae on those black ants' heads were twisting back and forth as if they were searching for food.
The ants were not fast and did not notice the grasshopper nymph that crawled out of the dead leaf. Hence, System easily evaded the ants' search team with a few jumps.
In reality, after seeing those ants, System was not afraid. At the same time, his [Insect Instinct] did not react to any signs of danger.
After grasshoppers hatched from their eggs, they would not be ant food anymore. The ants might kill some huge Lepidoptera larvae, such as the larvae of butterflies or moths, but they could never capture an agile grasshopper.
The primary threats System faced were still the hunters, such as praying mantises, that would kill in one shot after camouflaging themselves or accidentally getting stuck on the spider thread.
Another threat was the enormous creature in front of him right now…
A bulging, hideous brown pattern covered its body, and its light brown abdomen was continually expanding and shrinking, while its round eyeballs would occasionally blink. Even worse, it had a huge mouth.
After three continuous jumps to evade the ants' search team, System had jumped in front of this toad, which had been camouflaged in a pile of dead leaves.
The toad was a famous insect hunter that System knew.
Meanwhile, System was only 10 centimeters away from the toad. He could even feel the moist stench exhaled from the toad's mouth.
-- Hadiah diterima