New Changes

The environment here is complex and danger is everywhere; there is no time left for Rowan to slowly adjust his mindset.

He stops hesitating, telling himself to just pretend he is drinking milk tea.

Closing his eyes, he uses his mandibles to bite a small opening in the belly of the Camouflage Bug, and the thick juices flow back out from the wound.

He plugs the gap with his newly replaced chewing mouthparts, his mandibles opening and closing to drink up all the leaking broth.

In truth, once you get past the psychological barrier, the taste is actually quite good for a bug. After all, this is the concentrated essence of the Black Beetle's entire body, much like an old hen stewed for three days, with all the nutrients packed into the soup.

It is a pity that the sucking mouthparts, which could have served as a straw, were just replaced. Rowan feels like he is drinking from a pouch; he bites a small hole in the bag and slowly sucks out the liquid inside. Occasionally, there are solid bits, much like the pearls, grass jelly, or fruit pulp in milk tea—chew them, and the aftertaste is endless. (I hope this helps everyone enjoy their milk tea better.)

The Camouflage Bug's originally bloated belly gradually shrivels as Rowan's digestive system runs at full capacity, accelerating the digestion of the juices he sucked in.

Although this wastes a portion of the energy, given the size difference between Rowan and the Camouflage Bug, not doing so would result in even greater waste.

Even with accelerated digestion, he is still a bit overstuffed this time. After all, these nutrients are equivalent to the combined mass of the Black Beetle and the Camouflage Bug. The Camouflage Bug is fine, as it doesn't have much meat, but even without its shell, the Black Beetle's muscle mass alone is several times larger than Rowan.

By the time he finishes eating, Rowan can barely maintain his balance while walking. His bloated abdomen drags directly on the ground, and he must prop himself up on his limbs to crawl, looking extremely awkward.

His current state is terrible; he already lacks a speed advantage on the surface, and now he is even more clumsy. He does not want to be picked off by another bug, so as soon as he is full, he sticks his rear in the air and starts digging.

Only deep underground can he find a sense of security.

The tunnel he digs this time is a circle larger than usual to prevent his bloated abdomen from being squeezed. Moreover, this head-down, feet-up posture keeps his mouth tightly shut. With his mandibles fully closed, he looks like he is wearing a face mask, which actually improves his appearance a little.

Reaching a safe location with great difficulty, he hastily digs a small burrow. Before he can even dig an escape tunnel, Rowan falls into a deep sleep.

In his dreams, Rowan imagines himself becoming a massive black "God of War," rampaging through ant colonies with no equal. Then, he dreams of becoming an old, cunning assassin, using various external props for camouflage to ambush one ferocious, powerful bug after another...

Deep underground, at a depth few bugs can reach, a tiny house is carved into the soil, with a small black bug hiding inside.

At this moment, his body is undergoing certain changes.

Time passes, and after an unknown duration, Rowan finally wakes up.

Perhaps this sleep was a bit too long, as he feels a bit dazed upon waking.

However, after only a short while, he regains his senses and hurriedly begins to inspect his body.

Because his first pair of digging legs are too large and unsuitable for delicate work, his second pair of thoracic legs act as hands, with the fine hairs on them working at full capacity to carefully sense every inch he touches.

From top to bottom, he first touches his eyes; there is no change.

His mouthparts are still for chewing, and his digging legs have no abnormalities.

The number of his limbs is normal, with none added or missing.

His 360-degree panoramic eyes glance at his back; his shoulder armor is normal, his back armor has not changed, and it seems even his size is the same—still the size of a fingernail.

At this moment, he feels something abnormal in his abdomen and hurriedly twists his body to look at it.

"Huh? Did I only sleep for a little while?"

His abdomen is still bloated and round. A confused Rowan thinks the food hasn't been digested yet.

However, he soon notices something wrong; his abdomen hasn't shrunk at all, but has instead grown several sizes larger and much longer.

"What the hell, what kind of thing is this?"

Rowan cannot help but curse.

He had originally thought that absorbing the essence of the Black Beetle—even if it was second-hand—would be great if it could increase his size or strengthen his exoskeleton.

Even if he didn't evolve the Camouflage Bug's ability to produce glue on its back because he didn't directly absorb the bug meat, he would have settled for that. At the very worst, he would have accepted gaining its projectile-like mouthparts.

But what is this about his belly getting thicker and longer? Did he overeat and ruin his stomach?

For a moment, Rowan is at a loss.

He tries walking a few steps, but this thing on his abdomen severely affects his crawling speed and agility, and it feels awkward.

Not daring to be careless, he struggles to flip over and, like doing a sit-up, arches his upper body to take a look.

Seeing the situation clearly, Rowan curses under his breath. It turns out his abdomen didn't get bigger; rather, something else grew behind his rear.

Previously, his body was divided into three parts—head, thorax, and abdomen—which is the standard template for insects, but now it has become four parts.

His abdomen originally had nine segments; he lost three in a fight with the yellow ants, and although they healed, new ones never grew back.

Now, the remaining six segments of his abdomen look like a spring that was originally extended but has now been flattened and squeezed together into a small lump. Behind the abdomen is the new growth, which looks very similar to a bloated belly and also has circular rings, which is why Rowan had mistaken it for his stomach.

However, after wandering around, he realized that this last section acts like a trailer, making turns and such very inflexible. Upon closer inspection, he realized he had wronged his stomach; this thing had completely grown out from behind his rear.

Sigh, what is to be done? He was already at the bottom of the insect food chain, and now with this burden, unless he can find another long-term meal ticket like the White Grub, the danger coefficient for his future foraging trips will rise sharply.

After the panic subsides, Rowan gradually calms down. He recalls that every time he evolved new organs or abilities, there was a traceable pattern. As long as he finds some clues, he will surely be able to figure out what is going on.

First, he thinks of his first time on the surface; he didn't want nearsightedness, and subsequently, his eyes changed, his vision gradually improved, and his observation range expanded significantly.

Later, when digging was inefficient, he grew a new pair of digging legs, and to this day, he hasn't found a bug that digs faster than him.

After that, when he couldn't bite through tree roots and White Grubs, he grew a pair of large mandibles. When he fought the yellow ants and lost, he grew thick back armor. After eating the White Grub, he triggered pupation when injured.

Up until this most recent time, he replaced the sucking mouthparts he had always complained about with chewing ones.

Logically, eating the Black Beetle and the Camouflage Bug should have granted him some of their genetic fragments. Even if the Black Beetle's were incomplete or not absorbed, the Camouflage Bug's definitely were.

So now that the food is digested and the energy seems to have been consumed, why did an unrelated thing grow out?

He recalled the physical characteristics of the Black Beetle and the Camouflage Bug once more. His own form already bore a slight resemblance to the Black Beetle, so even if he had acquired its genetic fragments, the most likely outcome would have been an increase in size.

Yet, his physique remained unchanged, which ruled out the possibility that his bodily mutation was caused by the Black Beetle's genetic fragments.

As for the Camouflage Bug, its abdomen was long, narrow, and shriveled before feeding, becoming bloated and round only after it was full. What he currently had behind his abdomen was a combination of their respective traits, having become both long and round.

Could this be what caused the change in his body?

At first thought, he had almost been fooled, but this seemingly plausible guess was actually ridiculously absurd. Rowan shook his head; when the Camouflage Bug's abdomen bloated, its absolute length did not change. This was not some sort of genetic trait at all, but simply the result of being stuffed full.

Then what on earth was going on?