บท 7: Insect Pupa and Fire
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
After System's level-up and molting, his mandibles had become much harder than before. Thus, now, he could easily bite through plants' mature leaves.
The taste of the leaf which could allow System to raise his level after eating 78g, was quite good. It tasted like the watermelons in his previous life, but it was slightly harder and blander.
As he continued eating that leaf, the data displayed in [Information Reading] changed to 93g from 78g. It looked like each leaf of the same plant and their effect on his growth differed.
Also, [Information Reading]'s ability could be improved, so System needed to gather more data.
System decided to try his best and eat a bit of every type of plant to complete his database and make [Information Reading] more useful.
…
However, after eating four to five pieces of leaves to ease his hunger, System suddenly felt reluctant. He was unwilling to continue just eating leaves. As compared to those leaves, the taste of insect eggs was much better.
After easing his hunger, it became difficult for System to swallow the delicious leaves.
If he were a normal grasshopper, his instincts might guide him, and he could continue eating leaves without worries. Gradually, he would grow and molt into an adult grasshopper.
However, he was fundamentally different from normal grasshoppers.
That difference was not his talent [Digital Code], which allowed his body to grow rapidly.
As compared to normal insects, the biggest difference was in his intelligence. Otherwise, no matter how powerful [Digital Code] was, he would have died when facing that toad.
Intelligence not only bestowed him with rational thinking, but it also gave him greed and ambition.
As System was eating the leaves, he would occasionally observe his surroundings. This time, he was not only looking out for hidden dangers, but he was also trying to find and think of any meat-type food that existed in the surroundings.
He wanted to eat meat!
…
System thought of a way to eat meat.
In his previous life, the reason humans could become Earth's rulers was because of wisdom. The first application of human wisdom was using tools to create fire.
System looked at his limbs, and his insect head revealed a complicated expression. He had no fingers on his limbs, so the difficulty of creating tools was extremely high. Also, even if he had fingers, there were no useful materials.
It couldn't be that he needed to learn from humans of the Paleolithic Period to smash stones and thus obtain sharp stone blades as weapons, right? Or should he learn from humans of the Neolithic Period and sharpen stones to create stone weapons?
Impossible!
He could have already bitten the opponent many times if he had the time to use stone blades.
The only useful material System thought of was the spiders' threads. He might be able to create many traps or weapons by using such a thread with his mucus.
However, on second thought, System gave up on that idea. Not to mention how he would obtain spider thread using his limbs but not get stuck in the spiderweb, just the time needed to obtain enough spider threads to make traps would be long.
Also, in the process of obtaining spider thread, would the spider agree?
Maybe, after he continued growing and increased his strength, System might be able to force the spiders to agree to hand over their cobweb. However, if even spiders were not his opponent, why would he need spider thread? He could find a spiderweb, kill the spider, and all the spider threads would be his.
…
In the end, System did not come up with any method of creating tools or traps. He did not have much of a choice with his current body.
If System still wanted to eat meat, the most effective method would be to use his [Information Reading] to search for hidden insect eggs in the forest.
Otherwise, he could prey on herbivorous insects weaker than him, like the tiny insects that could suck the liquid of the plants' stem.
Unfortunately, his [Information Reading] put a huge burden on his mind and was mentally exhausting. Thus, he could not use it for a prolonged period.
After System decided and finished eating a few more leaves, he jumped and searched for meat.
System became much braver and decisive because of his [Information Reading], which could be activated.
Although the far-away scenery outline his [Information Reading] offered was blurry, everything within a meter or two was extremely clear in his eyes.
System only needed to activate [Information Reading] for a few seconds, and it would reveal all the insect hunters hidden in the surroundings.
In just a few minutes, System had discovered a praying mantis disguised as a dead leaf and a piebald spider that was camouflaged as a flower.
In the searching process, System also discovered three grasshoppers. Their size and color differed slightly from him, so they should be a different species of grasshopper, belonging to his distant relatives.
System found a few insects, like flies and bees, landing on leaves to rest. He even saw tens of ants splitting the carcass of a dead dragonfly.
Numerous insects were hiding within the forest, but System did not discover the insect eggs or weak insects he needed.
It was challenging to kill those of the same kind or similar body size, and it would be unrealistic to capture the agile flies. As for charging towards the ants to snatch the dragonfly carcass, it was no different from a zebra charging towards a pack of hyenas—he still wanted to live.
System could only continue jumping around and try his best to use [Information Reading] to discover more things before his mental strength was exhausted.
After over ten minutes passed, and as System was about to give up, he found a prey safe to eat. Furthermore, there was enough for him to eat for tens of days and still not finish.
System discovered tens of butterfly or moth cocoons on a grayish-brown tree trunk with a peculiar shape and a loose bark. Their sizes and shapes were extremely similar to the tree bark. If it were not for [Information Reading], it might be tough to notice them.
Each of those insect cocoons was as big as 6cm, three times bigger than System. The cocoons were surrounded with some threads that firmly attached the cocoons onto the tree bark.
A common method that butterflies used to ensure the continuation of their race was for their larva to turn into chrysalis at the same place and then break out of the cocoon as butterflies at the same location. In the first few minutes after they exited their cocoons and became adults, butterflies or moths would be extremely weak. Thus, breaking out of their cocoons with other butterflies would greatly increase their survival rate.
System's mandibles could not help but drool as the protein-rich targets seemed extremely delicious.
If he could eat all of those cocoons, System's speed of growth would undoubtedly skyrocket, allowing him to become an adult grasshopper sooner.
System immediately used his mandibles to bite a butterfly chrysalis!
Unfortunately, he could not exert force at the oval-shaped dark brown chrysalis. Though, even if he could, his mandibles would also be ineffective against those hard cocoon shells.
After trying to bite for a few minutes, System's insect head revealed an annoyed look like a human. He had discovered delicious, protein-rich food, but there was nothing he could do to eat it. System was agitated.
'Looks like I can only find some sharp stone blades to cut open the outer shell. However, it's quite difficult to exert force while this body holds a stone. Will I have to wait until the instant they turn into butterflies and break through the cocoons before attacking? Sigh… It's simply unknown how long it would take for them to turn into butterflies. It can't be that if they turn into butterflies a month later, I will have to wait for a month, right? Then—'
Boom!
A huge explosion in the distance interrupted System's thinking. The instant he heard the sound, System saw a bright glow of fire tens of meters away in the dense forest.
The intense vibration and sound were gradually getting closer to System from afar where the explosion took place. Accompanied by continuous violent collision sounds, System saw that a few trees in the distance seemed to have collapsed.
After a while, a living creature burning with flames ran past System a few meters away—he could even feel the fire's heatwave.
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