The Second Molting

Because of the accumulated rainwater, System encountered no more hyena-like ants while feeding on the dragonfly corpse. Those detestable ants had suffered severe losses from the downpour.

However, System did not believe the ants in the forest would perish because of this. Several consecutive days of torrential rain might be unusual, but rainstorms lasting a day or two must have been very common in this forest.

The many varieties of ants in this forest undoubtedly proved that they were not completely helpless in the face of heavy rain.

The vast, complex ant nests surely contained some empty chambers where a portion of the ants could cling to life. Once the rain stopped, they would crawl back out from underground.

System finished eating slightly earlier than expected. With an hour or two still remaining before sunset, he had devoured the entire dragonfly corpse. Then, dragging his swollen abdomen, he returned to the nest of dead leaves on his branch to rest.

After a whole day, some life had returned to the forest, and System heard the calls of several cicadas.

As the sky gradually darkened, the moon and starlight grew bright.

He even heard a cricket chirping. He had no idea how a cricket, which only knew how to hide beneath piles of rubble, had survived the torrential rain.

Perhaps because he had been reborn as an insect, System gradually understood the meaning behind the cricket's chirps. It was not merely due to the knowledge left over from his previous life—he truly understood the cricket's calls.

The cricket's chirping was filled with joy at having survived the rainstorm, while also expressing its desire to find a mate.

Aside from the few insect calls meant to seize territory, the vast majority were for seeking mates and reproducing.

System had never paid much attention to insect calls before. Only today, after eating and drinking his fill, did he suddenly realize something about insect reproduction—and himself—

He was a male grasshopper. Once he metamorphosed into an adult, he would mate as well.

Did that mean that after reaching Level 8 and metamorphosing into an adult grasshopper, he would have to find a female grasshopper to mate with?

Find a female grasshopper, show off his strong body, draw her attention, and then mate with her...

The human soul within System found the thought of grasshoppers mating deeply stifling.

Yet even more stifling was that when System pictured grasshoppers mating, the blood throughout his body trembled faintly. He actually felt a slight thrill of excitement.

System's body entered its usual dormant state, but that night, his mind did not drift into its usual half-asleep, half-awake state.

Even by the next morning, System's mind remained somewhat muddled.

Over the matter of insect mating, System's human soul and the instincts in his insect bloodline had battled throughout the entire night. In the end, his human soul held a slight upper hand.

But System did not know whether that result could still hold after his second metamorphosis, once he became an adult.

After all, his current grasshopper body was at most equivalent to a human child in puberty.

Once he metamorphosed into an adult grasshopper and encountered a female grasshopper, System was pessimistic about whether he could continue to remain rational.

By then, he probably would find it difficult to control himself.

System had considered eating less food to delay the time when he became an adult as much as possible, but in the end, he could not escape the fate of becoming an adult grasshopper.

Besides, becoming an adult grasshopper would increase his chances of survival. He had to live as long as he possibly could!

In the end, System let the matter go. He still needed to become an adult as quickly as possible. As for mating, he decided to let nature take its course and not dwell on it.

Three days passed, and System's luck was not very good. Aside from eating over a dozen sesame-seed-sized aphids during those three days, he found no other meat he could eat.

On the second day, System also underwent a near-death experience. A pale-green lizard over ten centimeters long launched a long-range ambush at him from a branch several meters away.

Because an insect's compound eyes had such a limited viewing range, System had not noticed any danger beforehand. In his panic, he had no choice but to leap into the water to escape with his life.

Fortunately, no fish attacked him in the water. His body was light enough to float on the surface, and after struggling to paddle, he managed to climb back onto a tree and narrowly escaped disaster.

Over those three days, the pooled water in the forest hollow receded considerably, leaving only the final thirty or forty centimeters of depth. The ground had already emerged in some higher areas.

By feeding on plants, System had successfully reached Level 8 a day earlier, and his body had grown to five centimeters in length.

Though he had yet to metamorphose into an adult, his body was already far larger than the three-and-a-half-centimeter adult Green-Tailed Grasshopper.

Perhaps it was because the food he ate was highly nutritious. Perhaps his Numerical Code talent had optimized his growth efficiency. Or perhaps the initial level of his Metamorphic Growth talent had simply been very high.

After reaching Level 8, System's Metamorphic Growth talent rose to Level 12. It needed only one more level to reach its maximum, and the newly emerged bloodline information also gave System a deeper understanding of Green-tailed Grasshoppers.

System had learned from the information in his bloodline that ordinary Green-tailed Grasshoppers were three and a half centimeters long. He also learned that grasshoppers like himself, born with Metamorphic Growth already at Level 10, were exceedingly rare—one in ten thousand.

It could be said that even without the Numerical Code talent, he still counted as an exceptionally gifted grasshopper.

After spending an entire day continuously devouring leaves and storing enough food in his abdomen, System returned to his nest and began his second metamorphosis.

Having experienced metamorphosis once before, System was much more practiced at the second. He quickly followed the instincts in his blood, softening his exoskeleton before controlling his flesh and blood to absorb the essence of that softened shell, leaving only the outermost layer of dross behind.

During the metamorphosis, System did not need to exert much control himself. Every change in his body was naturally carried out by the instincts of his grasshopper body.

System could feel the wing buds on his back rapidly growing and unfurling. At the same time, a layer of softened exoskeleton gradually wrapped around his wings, serving as protection.

Just as he had expected, the stirring from within his bloodline surged forth again. Metamorphic Growth mode appeared, and System once again gained an opportunity to strengthen one of his body's abilities.

This time, System did not hesitate. He chose to strengthen his Numerical Code talent again, and his mind once more appeared within that ocean of zeroes and ones.

System transformed into a white orb of light again, while several numerical spheres appeared and began revolving around him.

The sphere of [Self-Information Generation] was very small, far away from him, and moving swiftly.

The sphere of Data Storage was enormous and very close to him. Nearby, two even smaller numerical spheres—[Information Input] and [Information Reading]—circled Data Storage like satellites orbiting a planet.

As the power of his bloodline was injected once more during Molting Growth, the entire sea of numbers grew broader still.

The sea of numbers around System began to quake irregularly again, as though it were about to form another planet made of 0s and 1s. This new planet even seemed several times larger than Data Storage.

So long as this planet successfully coalesced, System would undoubtedly gain a new ability.

However, acquiring a new skill this time was clearly nowhere near as smooth as before. More precisely, the power injected from his bloodline lacked staying power. Before the massive numerical planet could fully take shape, it exploded apart with a thunderous crash from insufficient energy, and System fell unconscious once again...