The Pupa and the Firelight

After leveling up and molting, System's mandibles had become much harder. He could now easily shred mature leaves from plants.

The leaves System had chosen, which could level him up after consuming 78g, tasted fairly good—similar to watermelon from his previous life, only harder and rather bland.

As he ate these leaves, the 78g reading in [Information Reading] became 93g. It seemed that even different individuals of the same plant had certain differences, resulting in varying effects on his growth.

Moreover, the [Information Reading] ability still needed improvement. He needed to gather more data.

In order to make better use of [Information Reading], System decided that from now on, he would sample a little of every type of plant he encountered to improve his information database.

Yet after eating another four or five leaves to ease his hunger, System suddenly felt unwilling to accept it.

Extremely unwilling.

Compared to these leaves, insect eggs clearly tasted far better.

Now that his hunger had eased, these once-delicious leaves suddenly became hard for System to swallow.

If he had been an ordinary grasshopper, he might have followed his instincts and peacefully eaten leaves, gradually growing and molting into an adult grasshopper.

But he was fundamentally different from an ordinary grasshopper.

It was not the Numerical Code talent that allowed his body to grow rapidly.

Compared to ordinary insects, his greatest difference was his intelligence. Otherwise, no matter how powerful his Numerical Code was, he would have died beyond death when facing that toad.

Intelligence had not only given him meticulous thought—it had also bestowed upon him greed and ambition.

As System ate the leaves, he continually surveyed his surroundings. This time, he was not merely checking for hidden dangers, but searching and pondering over the possible sources of meat nearby.

He wanted meat...

System pondered ways to find meat.

Humans in his previous life had become the rulers of Earth through intelligence, and humanity's earliest application of intelligence had been the use of tools and the creation of fire.

System looked at his legs, a complicated expression appearing on his insect face. His legs had no fingers, making tools extremely difficult to craft. And even if he had fingers, he had no useful materials.

Could he imitate Paleolithic humans, smashing rocks to create sharp stone blades for weapons?

Or imitate Neolithic humans, grinding stones into stone-blade weapons?

Impossible!

By the time he finished using a stone blade, his mandibles would have already bitten the opponent ten times over.

The only useful material System could think of was spider silk. Those mucus-coated strands could be used to make many traps or weapons.

But after thinking it over, System gave up on the idea. Setting aside how he could cut off a length of spider silk with his legs without getting stuck to it, how long would it take to gather dozens of strands and make a trap?

And while he was collecting the silk, would the spider agree?

Perhaps after he continued growing and became stronger, he could force spiders to hand over their webs. But by then, if spiders were no longer his match, what use would he have for their silk? Wouldn't it be easier to just find a web and take down the spider directly?

In the end, System could not think of any way to make tools or traps. At least, with his current body, there was nothing he could do.

If he still wanted to eat meat, the most effective method was to use [Information Reading] to search for insect eggs hidden in the forest.

The next best option was preying on herbivorous insects weaker than himself, like the little bugs he had encountered last time that sucked the sap from plant walls.

However, [Information Reading] placed quite a heavy burden on his mind, and he could not use it for too long.

Having made up his mind, System ate a few more leaves before beginning to hop about in search of meat.

After gaining the activatable ability [Information Reading], System's actions became much bolder and more decisive.

Although distant scenery remained blurry even when [Information Reading] outlined its contours, everything within one or two meters was crystal clear to his eyes.

As long as he activated [Information Reading] for a few seconds now and then, every disguised insect killer around him would have nowhere to hide.

In only a few minutes, System discovered a praying mantis disguised as a dead branch, as well as a flower-patterned spider disguised as a blossom.

During his search, System found three of his own kind. Their size and coloring differed slightly from his, so they were likely different species of grasshopper—distant relatives of his. He also saw several insects resembling flies and bees resting on leaves, as well as dozens of ants dividing the corpse of a dead dragonfly.

There were countless varieties of insects hidden in the undergrowth, but for the moment, System had not found the insect eggs or weak insects he needed.

Hunting creatures of his own size was obviously difficult, and preying on nimble flies was unrealistic. As for charging into an ant colony to snatch the dragonfly corpse, that would be no different from a zebra charging a pack of hyenas. He did not want to court death.

System could only keep hopping, using [Information Reading] as much as possible to discover more things before his mental strength ran dry.

More than ten minutes later, just as System was preparing to give up, he finally discovered a safe food source. There was quite a lot of it too—enough that he would not be able to finish it even if he ate for more than ten days.

On the trunk of a grayish-brown tree with deeply wrinkled bark and a strange shape, System found dozens of butterfly or moth pupae. Their colors and shapes closely resembled the bark, and without [Information Reading], he would have found them difficult to notice.

Each pupa was a full six centimeters in size, three times as large as System. Strands of silk clung around them, fastening the pupae firmly to the bark.

Gathering in one place to pupate, then emerging in one place as butterflies, was a common method butterflies used to carry on their species. After all, during the first few minutes after breaking from their cocoons, these butterflies or moths were extremely vulnerable. Emerging from their pupae together with dozens of other butterflies greatly increased their chances of survival.

System's mandibles began to drool unconsciously. These protein-rich morsels were sure to be delicious.

If he could eat all these pupae, it would undoubtedly greatly accelerate his growth and allow him to become an adult sooner.

System immediately bit toward one of the butterfly pupae with his mandibles!

The oval, dark-brown cocoons gave his mandibles no purchase at all. Even if he could exert force, his mandibles would be unable to do anything to those hard cocoon shells.

After trying to tear at them for several minutes, System's insect head took on a humanlike look of frustration. He had clearly found a huge batch of delicious, nutrient-rich food, yet there was nothing he could do about it. The feeling sat badly in System's heart.

"Looks like I can only find a sharp stone blade to smash open the shell, but it's hard for this body to grip a rock and put any force into it."

"Do I have to wait until these cocoons break free and become butterflies, then attack them at that very moment?"

"But when these cocoons will turn into butterflies is completely unknown. If they transform a month from now, am I supposed to wait for a whole month?"

"Then..."

BOOM!!

A tremendous noise from afar interrupted System's thoughts. The instant it rang out, System saw a dazzling blaze within the dense forest several dozen meters away.

Powerful tremors and thunderous sounds gradually drew closer from the distant burst of fire toward his position. Amid a continuous barrage of violent impacts, System saw several trees in the distance seemingly being smashed down.

A few breaths later, a creature covered from head to toe in flames roared past several meters from System, accompanied by billowing waves of heat...