章節 4: Unavoidable Confrontation
編輯: Atlas Studios
Insects' blood was cold, and they were known as cold-blooded animals.
System felt that his personality had unconsciously changed after he had been reborn.
Not long ago, after he had realized that the tiny insects could not threaten him, System had so naturally snatched the plant liquid they had collected. It was then that he had realized the change in his personality.
When facing those fresh eggs, which were one to two millimeters in size, what System thought in his mind was also different from the original him.
'Just what would these eggs taste like?'
…
Those plump eggs might hatch in a few days. System could see a new life form within an egg, moving around inside the translucent mucus. From its shape, it should be the larva of a butterfly or moth.
The human soul within System felt a little disgusted, but he still used his mandibles to bite a soft and tender egg without hesitation.
The broken egg mucus oozed out a faint fishy smell. System sucked a mouthful of mucus and then aimed his mandibles toward the lepidopteran insect larva that was struggling within the mucus.
The mucus tasted like sweet milk, while the fresh larva within the egg made System feel like he was drinking mellow ice milk.
While swallowing the egg, System had a weird thought. 'If I could freeze it, it might taste even better.'
The larva's meat was rich in protein and invaluable to System as it far exceeded any plant leaf he had eaten.
System could feel that his body was transforming slightly; the exoskeleton on his limbs was turning sturdier, and the mandibles in his mouth were becoming harder and sharper.
After awakening, System had been eating tender leaves and leaf buds non-stop. But no matter how much he ate, System still felt that his stomach was hungry.
However, after System finished eating four to five eggs, it was the first time he felt that his stomach was bloated.
System's body could once again feel its long-lost numbing sensation. While staying vigilant and observing his surroundings, System enjoyed the delicious food.
System's EXP bar unknowingly reached the maximum, and he leveled up.
Due to leveling up this time, the numbing feeling coursing through his body was much stronger than when his level was at 1 or 2. System did not discover the reason in his [Self-Information Generation]'s statistics. However, [Self-Information Generation] knew that it had to do with the eggs he had eaten.
How could the growth of eating just vegetables be the same as having a balanced meal of meat and vegetables? As long as one was not an idiot, they could understand such a thing.
Even if one joined the gym to train their body, their diet had to be rich in beef with rich nutrients or protein powder. Otherwise, if one ate just vegetables, the effects of working out exhaustively for one year might not be more effective than those that trained for only one to two months.
…
After reaching Level 4, System's body grew from 0.7cm to 1cm. His exoskeleton became much harder, while his mandibles also turned sturdier and sharper. He would most likely be able to eat the mature leaves that were difficult to bite off previously.
As compared to his body's growth, the growth of System's bloodline was even larger.
[Molting Growth] (10/13) → [Molting Growth] (11/13)
Also, a peculiar image appeared in System's mind from his bloodline. System could feel that after turning into an adult grasshopper, he would become much more ferocious and powerful.
Not only so, but System could also vaguely sense the heritage information in his bloodline. As long as he increased his [Molting Growth] to Level 13, his body could undergo a third molting after Level 5 and Level 8. He could undergo an unfamiliar molting process.
After System completed his third molting, he could even listen to the world's voice once.
However, regarding what the world's voice was, System discovered no more information in his bloodline. He only knew it was an extremely mysterious thing.
Through this leveling up, System's talent [Insect Adaptability] had similarly grown.
[Insect Adaptability] (6/21) → [Insect Adaptability] (8/21)
Its level had directly increased by two!
System could feel his blood had become more active, and his body also seemed to have become more agile. Also, he had obtained a new Derived Skill [Dark Vision].
…
[Dark Vision] (2/5): A Derived Skill obtained from [Insect Adaptability]. One would sense the surroundings in the dark as long as there was a glimmer of light.
…
System could more or less sense the effects of [Dark Vision], but the specific effects still needed to be confirmed after he used it during nighttime.
If [Dark Vision]'s effects were not ideal, System would give up on feeding during nighttime, as the number of insect hunters in the forest at night was much higher. Thus, it was not worth it for him to risk it.
After clicking on [Self-Information Generation]'s screen for a while, System gave up on analyzing further and proceeded on tasting the eggs in front of him.
Because his level had increased and he had become larger, System could feel that his hunger had also intensified. At the same time, his speed of devouring the eggs had obviously increased and was twice faster.
However, the number of eggs needed to raise his level to 5 also increased as compared to the eating speed. System only needed six eggs to raise his level from 3 to 4, but from Level 4 to 5, he needed 30 eggs.
Fortunately, the 100 eggs in front of him were enough for System to successfully reach Level 5 before nighttime. If he ate all the eggs, he might even reach Level 6.
After raising his level to 4, the barbs on System's leg had become sharper and could easily hang upside down on the underside of the leaf, making it more convenient for him to eat the eggs.
Once again, after about an hour, System had eaten about tens of fresh and delicious eggs. His body size had also gradually increased, from 1cm to 1.1cm.
As long as he continued to eat over ten eggs, he would reach Level 5, and his physical capabilities would increase.
System, who was devouring the eggs in large mouthfuls, discovered an uninvited guest.
Maybe it had smelled the faint fishy scent of the egg being broken. A dark red ant had appeared on the stem of the plant System was at and climbed toward the branched out stem System was on. It looked like that ant's target were the eggs on that piece of leaf.
The dark red ant was around 0.8cm long, slightly smaller than the black ant System had encountered the first time. However, its mandibles were larger than a black ant's, so its biting strength should be stronger than a black ant's.
System immediately climbed from the underside of the leaf to the top and headed toward that dark red ant.
When System saw that the ant had climbed onto the stem he was on, he immediately thought of the consequences of its arrival.
As long as the worker ant confirmed the eggs' existence, an endless army of ants would swarm the place.
Naturally, when facing the ants' army, System would not find it difficult to jump away with his powerful hind legs and escape. However, the ants' colony would also gain those eggs free of charge.
After trying this type of delicious high-protein food and experiencing the food's benefits to his growth, System would definitely not allow them to obtain the eggs just like that.
Although the ants' colony was strong, System would not be afraid of just a single ant yet, especially a relatively small one.
After leveling up, System was bigger than that ant, so not mentioning the sharpness of the mandibles, System was more powerful than it.
Moreover, System didn't need to battle it to the death. He just needed to use his strong hind legs to kick that red ant down from the plant's stem.
The plant's stem was thin, firm, and long, so System quickly came face to face with the dark red ant.
System controlled the barbs on his leg and crawled to the side of the stem. The dark red ant seemed to have also discovered System's existence, so it hesitated. However, seeing that System had given way, it continued climbing forward, toward the fishy scent.
The ant was not vigilant against a herbivorous grasshopper nymph, so it ignored System that was at the side of the stem, and it crawled toward the leaf with eggs.
Upon seeing that the ant had climbed up, System, who had found the correct place to kick, released his hind legs that had stored energy for quite a long time!
In the blink of an eye, his attack slightly deviated from his expectation and only kicked the ant's front limbs. It was to be expected as System had not controlled his hind legs to attack and kick others again.
Its front limbs were knocked up, and its body was almost flipped over, but the barbs of the remaining limbs still allowed the ant to stay on the stem. Immediately after, it started to strike back at System.
System continued using his hind legs to store energy in preparation for the second attack. However, that dark red ant charged toward System instantly and used its mandibles to bite one of his forelegs tightly while simultaneously releasing strong formic acid from its mandibles.
Ants were insects that lived in colonies; their attacks were crude, and they did not know how to attack the enemy's vitals. They only knew to never let go after biting the opponent. In the case of praying mantises or spiders, System's head or neck would have been attacked first.
System felt intense, scorching pain coming from his foreleg. He used his legs to break away from the ant's mandibles. He endured the severe pain and once again used his hind legs to attack. This time, he successfully kicked the ant's head!
Thud—
As the dark red ant fell to the ground from the stem, a cloudy translucent liquid shot out from System's foreleg as well. The powerful explosive strength from his hind legs had torn off his bitten foreleg.
The battle between System and the dark red ant had only lasted for two seconds. It ended with System losing a limb, but he also successfully protected the eggs.
He had taken the battles between insects for granted and thought that this time his opponent would be like last time's tiny white insects, allowing him to bully them.
There was still a huge difference between the fighting instincts of herbivorous insects and carnivorous insects.
…
While enduring the scorching pain from the broken foreleg, System once again crawled toward the back of the egg-filled leaf. Then he devoured with his fastest speed.
If the eggs' smell attracted ants again, he could only escape by then. Therefore, he had to finish eating those eggs as fast as possible.
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