Hunting Crickets and Leaving

No one was born knowing how to hunt, but mantises and spiders were born with the instinct. There was nothing to be done about that.

But System's hunting skills could be honed over time. Though he had no inheritance passed down through his bloodline, with human intelligence and an insect's powerful physique, constant practice would surely make him an outstanding hunter.

After going through a few more hunts like this, catching a cricket would be as easy as turning his hand over for System.

However, System had no targets to practice on. Before metamorphosing into an adult, he was too weak; challenging powerful opponents would undoubtedly leave him crippled or even dead. After metamorphosing into an adult, he had been greeted by this rain-ravaged, barren world, with no prey for him to choose from.

System shook his head and came to the cricket's burrow, trying to crawl inside.

Just as System had observed before, the narrow entrance truly could not accommodate his insect head. If he forced his way in, he would surely end up with a bloodied, battered head—the loss would outweigh the gain.

But after carefully examining the tree hollow, a human-like smile gradually appeared on System's insect face.

The shape of this tree hollow was unusual: narrow outside and wide within, only six or seven centimeters deep. System could even smell a peculiar earthy scent on the cricket.

As long as he widened the wood around the entrance a little, he could crawl in successfully and devour the cricket.

And System happened to have a way to enlarge the entrance: his biochemical weapon, [Corrosive Mucus].

This corrosive liquid could easily eat through bark. It surely would not fare badly against wood, either.

Though he could not spit out much mucus, he could collect the fluid left after the corrosion and reuse it to reduce consumption. It would be more than enough to widen the cricket's tree hollow.

The cricket hiding inside the hollow was already like a turtle in a jar, with no possibility of escape left.

Foul, fishy-smelling mucus gradually secreted from System's mandibles, and the entrance to the tree hollow slowly began to melt away.

As System used [Corrosive Mucus], the cricket that had remained motionless in the hollow grew somewhat restless. Its body trembled faintly, shifting from side to side now and then.

Seeing this, System became even more cautious, guarding against the cricket suddenly darting from the hollow and escaping again.

More than ten minutes later, System had widened the entrance by half. The cricket inside, as though resigned to its fate, quieted down in the hollow, with only its abdomen still slowly rising and falling as it breathed.

After another ten-odd minutes, System successfully bit off the cricket's head.

No battle took place. As the corrosive liquid System secreted evaporated, the cricket had already been knocked unconscious by the toxic fumes before System caught it.

That explained both the cricket's initial unease and why it had suddenly become quiet after ten-odd minutes. It seemed the odor emitted by his [Corrosive Mucus] possessed a certain degree of toxicity.

However, the gas was not very toxic. Even in an enclosed space like a tree hollow, it took more than ten minutes to knock out the cricket. It was clearly unsuitable as a hunting method.

System did not stop eating. As he devoured the cricket's corpse, he pondered his next prey.

Food was extremely scarce after the rainstorm. No matter how he racked his brains, System could not think of anything he could hunt. In the end, his thoughts returned to those two spiders.

During his hunt for the cricket, System had more or less thought of a way to deal with the spiders.

He possessed an innate advantage that the spiders lacked: the ability to fly.

System's plan was to find a stick, grab it, fly up, and use the stick to jab at the spiders.

Of course, System did not think he could skewer a spider with a stick. What he wanted was to knock it into the water.

Though spiders could lower themselves on silk to keep from falling, he could launch a second attack to sever the thread. It would be somewhat difficult to pull off, but it had a chance of succeeding.

But that was all System could think of. A spider's strength would indeed plummet after falling into the water, but so what? Even if the spider was unlucky enough to drown, he would not be able to fish it out.

As System thought, his mandibles kept crunching away. After metamorphosing into an adult, the sharpness of his mandibles had risen by an unknown number of levels. Even the cricket's toughest skull was easy for him to crush.

Compared to ordinary meat, System preferred this kind of shelled food. It was like crunchy milk chocolate, a taste he had never experienced in his previous life.

After eating part of the cricket's corpse, System grabbed what remained and flew back to his nest of dead leaves.

After much deliberation, System ultimately chose to leave this place.

Over the past few days, he had become thoroughly familiar with the area within a hundred meters. He was confident that he could live here safely for two months.

But only by constantly moving could he discover more prey and opportunities, allowing him to extend his short remaining lifespan.

System decided to save the rest of the cricket's corpse to fill his stomach the next morning. Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, he would leave this place.

Compared to the dim night, System ultimately decided to explore the unknown forest during the day. His body needed proper rest, after all, and the darkness at night made his exploration far less efficient.

Before dawn, System had finished the rest of the cricket's corpse.

At daybreak, System emerged from his nest of dead leaves on schedule. He chose a direction where the terrain was slightly higher and began hopping forward.

Because his wings made such a tremendous roar, System did not choose to fly. No birds had appeared nearby in the days since the storm, but farther away, that might not be the case.

With [Information Reading] to observe dangers, System moved cautiously but not slowly. Five minutes later, he had hopped a hundred meters and arrived in unfamiliar territory.

[Information Reading] was highly efficient. On a rotten, dead tree, System discovered several grayish-brown mushrooms.

Mushrooms were undoubtedly nutritious food, composed of fungi.

But compared to green plants, System's body found the scent of mushrooms unfamiliar. He could not tell whether these mushrooms contained deadly poison.

Though their color seemed to indicate that they were not poisonous, System did not dare try them lightly. He hopped onto the mushrooms and observed them for a while before finally hopping away.

As System gradually moved toward higher ground, the standing water on the earth grew shallower and shallower. Several hundred meters later, puddles began appearing in the uneven hollows of the ground.

Not long after, just as System decided to rest for a while because of the expenditure from [Information Reading], he discovered more than a dozen insects he recognized.

They were a dozen or so ants commonly found in the forest, blackish-brown in color and about a centimeter long. System seemed to have encountered this species before.

At the moment, these dozen or so ants were tearing into a tadpole struggling in the mud. Excluding its tail, the tadpole was roughly three centimeters long, and it had already grown its hind legs.

As the pooled water had receded, the tadpole had been unlucky enough to become trapped in the mud. Even if the ants had not found it, death would have been inescapable.

System carefully surveyed the surroundings. Once he confirmed there was no danger, he charged straight at one of the ants.

With his adult body, charging into the ant swarm was no longer like a zebra rushing into a pack of hyenas—it was an elephant charging into a pack of hyenas.

He wanted to hunt an ant first and test what he could do now!