The Third Metamorphosis (Part 2)

It was just a pity that, during the molting process, he had lost Perception of the outside world.

System could not use [Ability Enhancement] to experiment on other targets. Otherwise, he would not have minded trying this ability to enhance Shawa, the soldier ant.

"I wonder if Shawa possesses [Limb Regeneration]."

If Shawa possessed [Limb Regeneration] like a grasshopper's, and it could be enhanced by his [Ability Enhancement], then the disabled Shawa would be able to grow new legs much faster.

System's molting was far more drawn out than he had imagined. After several bouts of wild speculation, he continued tinkering with his newly invented ability, [Tool Menu].

The more System used this ability, which had emerged from Data Compilation, the more functions he felt he could uncover within it.

He could add all sorts of game-like functions to the [Tool Menu].

Ding! Your level has increased.

Ding! Your [Tool Menu] ability level has increased.

Ding! You have gained 58 units of experience.

Just like in a virtual game, he could add a voice notification function to his body.

Whenever he leveled up, his skill level increased, or he gained experience through eating, it would automatically sound a notification.

These voice prompts could also be changed into text messages appearing in his field of vision. He could even add a time module and a direction module to his vision, displaying the time and direction.

These simple functions could remain continuously activated and consumed only a negligible amount of mental energy. System felt that he could leave them on forever without them having any real effect on his mind.

System realized that he was increasingly remaking himself into something like an online game.

As long as he added a health bar, mana bar, and a minimap in the corner, there would basically be no difference between him and an ordinary online game.

If System had possessed his current [Tool Menu] when he first awakened, there was more than a ninety percent chance that he would have believed he had been reincarnated into a game world.

System continued manipulating the [Tool Menu].

After being integrated, the [Tool Menu] was divided by System into several functional modules and renamed.

They were: My Information, Database, Read Analysis, and Practical Tools.

My Information corresponded to [Self-Information Generation], Database served the same function as [Information Input], Read Analysis was like the ability [Information Reading], while Practical Tools consisted of the miscellaneous little abilities System had created.

System discovered that Read Analysis, the ability that displayed the outlines of surrounding objects, could be modified to become even more practical.

After forming a simple idea, System immediately put it into action. Using the images stored in the Database for experimentation, he began modifying Read Analysis.

System had no way to strengthen its ability to analyze objects, but he quickly upgraded and optimized its function of making surrounding objects' outlines emit a faint glow.

Based on the type of object observed, System distinguished the glow colors produced by Read Analysis. Things that posed no danger were set to emit a green glow, things with little danger a yellow glow, and things that were highly dangerous or had never been seen before a red glow.

With that, once [Read Analysis] was activated, dangers and objects in the outside environment would become much clearer in his eyes.

System kept researching the various uses of [Tool Menu], to the point that he even forgot his body was in the midst of molting.

And while System was researching [Tool Menu]...

System suddenly heard a droning buzz. It was like a mosquito endlessly flying back and forth beside your ear while you slept, making it impossible to find peace.

As System searched for the source of the sound, he suddenly realized that he had arrived in an unfamiliar place.

All around him was a vast expanse of white, as though there were nothing there at all.

Even he himself was gone. He felt as if he had turned into a mass of air, or perhaps a speck of dust too tiny for the naked eye to see.

System seemed to hear a voice. Or rather than a voice, it was more like a mental message from Mind Transfer—yet completely different from Mind Transfer.

It seemed that this voice acted directly upon his soul.

"Could this be the voice of the world that appears during the third molting in the Molting Growth inheritance?"

"But I can't understand any of it at all?"

All of a sudden, System felt some inexplicable force descend from the void. The force merged into his soul.

System felt his vision gradually darken, and then he fell asleep...

As he stretched his body, a series of crackling sounds came from System.

By the time System awoke, his third molting had already been successfully completed.

After the third molting, System's body had grown to around twenty-five centimeters. He now possessed long antennae like those of the Grasshopper Queen, and an unknown, intricate pattern had appeared upon his green outer carapace.

He did not know what kind of plant the pattern came from. It was extremely strange, resembling the pattern on the Queen's body, yet completely different.

System moved his body a little and cleaned away the remnants of molting left on his outer shell.

System suddenly noticed an unusual change in his foremost pair of leg appendages. Near the hooked spines on those two front limbs, a conspicuous round notch had appeared on each of them. Within the notches, something brown seemed to tremble from time to time.

With a slight exertion of force, several dark brown buds suddenly surged from around the circular notches. Like tentacles, they kept growing and extending until they reached their limit at around ten centimeters.

Three such tentacles emerged from each circular notch. They were roughly two millimeters thick, highly flexible, and could be controlled freely by System, just as humans controlled their fingers.

System easily used the tentacles to pick up an ant larva beside him, then tore off a piece of glow mushroom nearby with them and placed it into the ant larva's mouth.

After being reborn as a grasshopper, System had missed human fingers beyond measure.

Only after losing his fingers could he understand all the benefits they possessed.

There were many things he could easily accomplish if he had fingers, but which were difficult to do with a grasshopper's leg appendages.

Perhaps it was precisely because of his obsession with fingers that, during his third molt, System had evolved these not-quite-fingers.

Yet although these tentacles were as useful as fingers, they were also ugly. System felt that having such tentacles appear on a grasshopper's body could not have been more awkward.

System idly controlled the little tentacles on his leg appendages when, all of a sudden, he seemed to sense something—

System shook his body and moved half a centimeter to the left within the cave. A second later, a loose grain of dirt fell from above, dropping right past System's head.

System suddenly recalled the voice of that mysterious world, the ability the world's voice had bestowed upon him, and certain information that had suddenly surfaced in his mind...