New Life

The last moment in his memory was hazy. He seemed to have been in a hospital room, with people saying something around him, yet he had seemed utterly detached, his unfocused eyes gazing at the clouds outside the window...

"..."

He wanted to open his mouth and say something, but in the end, nothing came out.

After that, his vision darkened.

Then, after an unknown amount of time, he seemed to pass through a long stretch of darkness before appearing in this unfamiliar forest.

Using his forelegs to fiddle with the soft antennae atop his head, he lightly raised his hind legs and stumbled onto the tender leaf of an unknown plant beside him.

Two or three hours had passed since he woke up.

He still was not used to the mosaic-like vision of an insect's compound eyes. He could only see a few dozen centimeters ahead, and the image was fragmented, so he could never control his direction very well after jumping.

"Have I come back to life?"

He seemed to have forgotten his original name, but with his current body, he should be called System.

Race: Green-Tailed Grasshopper (Nymph)

Title: None

Name: System

Rank: None

Level: 2/

Special Talents/Skills: Numerical Code (1/1), Molting Growth (10/13), Insect Adaptation (5/21).

Derived Skills: [Self-Information Generation] (1/1), [Insect Instinct] (2/5), [Limb Regeneration] (2/11), [Green Camouflage] (1/4).

He did not know why he was called System, but after using [Self-Information Generation], that was the name that appeared on the light screen, so he tentatively called himself that as well.

[Self-Information Generation] seemed to be an instinct of his; using it was as natural as lifting one of his legs.

The moment System woke up in this forest, he had naturally used this Derived Skill.

Further selecting [Self-Information Generation] displayed more detailed information.

For instance, selecting a skill or talent would bring up detailed information about that skill or talent.

And if he selected the detailed information for his race, it would display the length and weight of his current body, along with some other things.

Length: 0.2 centimeters

Weight: 0.01 grams

If the information was accurate, he was now a grasshopper nymph roughly the size of a grain of millet.

The little grasshopper's antennae swayed back and forth as he carefully sensed the scents carried on the breeze.

A grasshopper nymph had powerful digestive abilities. As long as he stopped eating for even a little while, his body would become unbearably hungry.

He moved to the edge of the tender leaf and looked around once more. After seeing no danger, he took a bite of the leaf beneath him.

This tender leaf was tough in texture and tasteless as wood, making it difficult for him to want to swallow it.

System turned his head and looked around, then jumped onto the leaf of another unknown plant. Once again, he moved near the leaf's edge and observed his surroundings before eating. This time, satisfaction showed on his insect face.

To him, this leaf tasted as sweet as an apple. It seemed his body liked it very much.

So he began taking large bites.

Ever since waking up, his body had been hungry without end, as though he could never eat his fill.

An hour or two ago, after stopping and starting as he ate tender leaves several times the size of his body, he had reached Level 2.

After leveling up, his body had grown a full size larger in a thoroughly unscientific way, and his physical abilities had improved in every respect.

It felt somewhat like leveling up in a game, yet he was a real being of flesh and blood. There seemed to be some miraculous power within him.

Numerical Code (1/1): Grants the ability to quantify, calculate, and analyze, while increasing growth efficiency. System's innate talent.

Molting Growth (10/13): Grants the ability to gain further growth through molting. Molting occurs at Levels 5 and 8. A unique talent of certain insects.

Insect Adaptation (5/21): A unique ability to adapt to the environment. Levels can be raised by obtaining food, and there is a low chance of mutation when leveling up, with a chance to gain other talents or Derived Skills. A unique talent of insects.

If System had not guessed wrong, it was the Numerical Code talent that had caused his body to undergo game-like changes.

It was precisely because of this Numerical Code ability that he possessed the Derived Skill [Self-Information Generation], ensuring that after being reborn as a grasshopper nymph, he would not know nothing at all.

However, he had no control whatsoever over this Numerical Code. The moment he focused on it even slightly, his mind seemed to be cast into a digital ocean made of 0s and 1s, as though his consciousness were about to explode.

The two talents, Molting Growth and Insect Adaptation, were different. Though he could not control them either, he could sense them clearly, as if they were the flesh and blood of his own body.

The former, Molting Growth, was like an inheritance within his bloodline, allowing him to naturally understand how a Green-Tailed Grasshopper nymph like himself could become an adult Green-Tailed Grasshopper.

Insect Adaptation, on the other hand, was a mysterious power attached to his bloodline. He could not sense it directly, but its derivative skills, [Insect Instinct] and [Limb Regeneration], existed because of Insect Adaptation.

[Limb Regeneration] gave System the feeling that even if his legs were severed, they would grow back within a few days.

As for [Insect Instinct], it was an ability similar to a sixth sense.

It was precisely this sixth sense that allowed him to escape his first crisis in this world.

At the time, he had been happily chewing on the tender leaf beneath his feet. That unnamed leaf was the most delicious one System had eaten since waking up. It tasted like the big cherries from his previous life, filling him with happiness.

But just as he was immersed in it, his antennae sensed a strange presence. While System was still puzzled, his body began to tremble involuntarily, and he suddenly leaped away...

A withered-leaf-colored insect wielding two sickles suddenly crawled out from the underside of the leaf. It was about a centimeter long, probably a mantis nymph. Had he jumped even a moment later, he would have become that little mantis's fine meal.

It was also because of that crisis that System became much more cautious in his subsequent actions.

Whenever he ate leaves, he would move to the edge of the leaf and carefully check its underside for predators such as mantises or ants.

That crisis also reminded System of some things from the animal documentaries of his previous life. He recalled the bizarre and varied insect predators in those documentaries.

In the insect world, killing intent often lurked beneath tranquility. Even with [Insect Instinct], there were true dangers he would be unable to evade.

Perhaps next time, he might carelessly jump onto a leaf mantis disguised as a leaf and be eaten on the spot.

Carefully watching his surroundings, System continuously ate the tender leaves of various plants to ease his hunger.

As a grasshopper nymph, his mandibles were very soft, and he could only eat tender leaves and leaf buds. But he was also very small, so even a tiny piece of tender leaf could last him a long time.

And so, after System once again ate leaves weighing roughly three or four times his own body weight, he leveled up once more.

After a wave of tingling numbness, his body grew a little larger again.

Although his body had been constantly growing while he ate—going from 0.2 centimeters to 0.3 centimeters in just a few hours—the change after reaching Level 3 was even more obvious. He grew directly from 0.3 centimeters to 0.5 centimeters.

And because of the level-up, his Insect Adaptation (5/21) became Insect Adaptation (6/21), while [Green Camouflage] (1/4) became [Green Camouflage] (2/4).

System could not clearly feel the improvement in Insect Adaptation, but the upgrade of [Green Camouflage] caused obvious changes to his body. His color became a more vivid emerald green, and the leaf-vein patterns on his body became clearer and more lifelike.

P.S.:

To avoid needless comments later proving the author wrong, the author will share some common knowledge at the end of the first chapter.

All insects have blood and heartbeats.

Grasshoppers are herbivorous insects, but they also eat meat. When necessary, they may even eat their own kind.

Grasshopper young are not actually called larvae; they are called nymphs. "Larva" refers only to insects that undergo complete metamorphosis after hatching from eggs. For the readers' convenience, they will all be referred to here as larvae.

In addition, most Orthoptera, such as locusts and crickets, molt five times. But in this fantasy world, the author has decided that locusts molt twice, so please do not argue with the author about it.