The King and the Knight (Part 1)

After sensing the disturbance in his bloodline, System began eating frantically, guarding against the potentially excessive consumption during his molting.

He ordered Big Fool, who might betray him, not to disturb him, then prepared ample food near the ant larvae in the temporary nest.

System continued his preparations, secreting enough [Corrosive Mucus] near the entrance of the temporary nest to guard against any ants attacking him during the most vulnerable stage of his molting.

Once everything had been taken care of, System carried out his third molt in an empty chamber within the temporary nest.

System had thought this third molt would proceed as smoothly as the first two, but things did not develop as he had imagined.

Just as during his previous molts, he followed the rhythm of his body's bloodline, gradually absorbing the essence from his exoskeleton and leaving only the outermost layer of dross behind.

Based on his experience with the previous two molts, he only needed to leave the process to his body's instincts now. His insect body would naturally complete the molt according to the instincts inherited through his bloodline.

But this time was different.

The blood inside his body continued to churn, urging him to molt, yet his bodily instincts showed no sign of acting at all, as though they had no intention of molting whatsoever.

It was like being unbearably itchy yet unable to scratch—an agonizing feeling.

The information in [Self-Information Generation] likewise failed to produce the familiar Molting Growth pattern.

The shell covering his body had already softened completely. It was impossible for System to stop this molt now, but he had no idea how to continue it either.

His molt seemed to be missing something.

System recalled the image the queen had bestowed upon him before her death. The queen's third molt in that image had been blurry; she seemed to have been half-conscious at the time, nowhere near as lucid as he was now.

It seemed he had taken the third molt too lightly.

All along, he had merely pursued a third molt, wanting to use it to extend a grasshopper's lifespan.

Yet he had overlooked the fact that ordinary grasshoppers became adults after only two molts. For an adult grasshopper to continue on and complete a third molt was naturally exceedingly rare.

And because it was so rare, the grasshopper bloodline most likely did not carry an inherited instinct for completing a third molt.

In other words, he had no experience whatsoever to use as a reference for this third molt. Every grasshopper's third molt was impossible to replicate.

System did not know whether his guess was correct.

He tried to control the flesh and blood of his body and make it wriggle, but found that he simply could not do so. He could not even make his legs or the antennae on his head twitch slightly.

The blood in his body continued churning without pause, and as time passed, the turbulence only intensified, becoming like water at a gentle boil.

System felt that the blood vessels in his body seemed to be swelling slightly, while his blood appeared to be bubbling as though it were being boiled.

"Don't tell me I'm going to burst apart like this? Dying in a self-destruction like this would be far too amusing..."

System thought bitterly, finding amusement in misery.

Half an hour later, System's boiling, roiling blood had swollen the blood vessels in his body to an unimaginable extent...

Hiss—

Hiss—

System did not ultimately explode to death. Several cracks formed in the blood vessels of his body from the swelling, spraying white gas outward like a pressure cooker, while some of his white blood splattered out as well.

Perhaps it was the commotion of the venting gas, or perhaps the vaporized blood he sprayed out carried an especially thick, fishy stench, but before long, several ant larvae in the temporary nest slowly wriggled their way over.

Ant larvae resembled butterfly larvae capable of pupating in shape. Like crawling insects, their bodies were milky white.

But compared to butterfly larvae, aside from having heads, they did not even possess the sucker-like legs of butterfly larvae.

Other than wriggling their bodies, most of their movement depended on worker ants for assistance.

It had to be said that these ant larvae managing to wriggle all the way to System's side was no small miracle.

System used [Mental Link] on the ant larvae, and soon sensed the worry they conveyed to him.

System soothed the emotions of the three ant larvae through Mind Transfer...

Before long, the three ant larvae wriggled their bodies and gradually nestled against System's side, as though staying beside him made them feel safer.

Three hours passed, yet the blood in System's body still boiled and churned.

The food he had frantically stuffed into his abdomen earlier had been digested and absorbed by his body with extraordinary speed due to the loss of blood, and hunger began to rise from his abdomen.

System did not know how long he could hold on like this. If the molt remained unable to proceed, he would sooner or later exhaust all his energy and die.

His third molt still showed no obvious progress. He felt as though he could molt, yet something was still missing, and he could not make sense of it himself.

Over these past few hours, eleven ant larvae had gathered around him. They pressed tightly against him, occasionally rubbing affectionately against his now-soft body.

System did not know whether this molt would succeed. If it failed, and he died just like this...

Perhaps before dying, he would tell these ant larvae, just as the queen had, to eat his corpse...

Just as that thought arose in System's mind, he sensed an unusual vibration coming from above the passageway of the temporary nest.

Something seemed to be digging into this underground passage, and the disturbance was not small.

System felt the bodies of several ant larvae pressed against him tremble faintly. They had clearly sensed the unfamiliar visitor intruding into the underground passage as well.

Before long, System heard a series of "squeak, squeak" cries.

The intruder tunneling underground was clearly a rat, likely drawn here by the bloody stench of the gases he had expelled while his blood churned during molting...

The [Foul-Smelling Mucus] he had placed at the entrance had blocked the ants, but it had failed to stop the rat.

The sounds of the rat digging gradually drew closer...

System felt that death was unavoidable unless his third molt could be completed within a dozen minutes. After molting, he might still have a chance to escape with his life.

But completing a molt within a dozen minutes was impossible. Neither his first nor second molt had been that fast, let alone his third, which had not even begun.

"Am I really going to die like this? Even these ant larvae will die too..."

Because he was molting, System's body was completely unable to move. He could not even release the mucus from the glands in his throat.

The only thing he could use now was the mental power of Mind Transfer, but its level was too low. It only worked on insects and plants and would be of no use against a rat.

He had no means of fighting back and could only wait silently for death.

A few minutes later, under the faint light of the fluorescent mushrooms, System saw the rat's pair of eyes glowing a pale green.

It was a dark-gray rat, about fifteen centimeters long.

More than a dozen ant larvae wriggled their clumsy bodies in front of System, refusing to let the rat harm their "ant queen."

The rat scratched at the dirt in the cave a few times, then rubbed its cheeks with its paws. It seemed to regard System as a turtle caught in a jar and began to move at an unhurried pace.

System recalled that scene from many days ago. Back then, he had seemed to be just like this rat, blocking the cricket inside the tree hollow.

The cricket had lacked the courage to fight him to the death, while he lacked the ability to take a gamble against the rat...

And just then.

The rat suddenly let out a shriek. It seemed to have felt pain, sprang up, and rolled twice across the cave.

System saw a figure—it was Big Fool, the soldier ant!