Narrow Road Duel

Insect blood is cold; they are what people commonly call cold-blooded animals.

System felt that his personality had unconsciously changed after his rebirth.

Ever since he had casually snatched the plant sap gathered by several little insects after realizing they posed no threat, he had noticed this change in himself.

And when faced with these fresh, living insect eggs, only one or two millimeters in diameter, System's thoughts were likewise different from what they had once been—

What would these eggs taste like?

The plump eggs would likely hatch within a few days. System could see the little lives within occasionally wriggling through the eggs' translucent mucus. Judging from their shape, they should be the larvae of butterflies or moths.

His human soul made System feel somewhat nauseated, yet he still bit open one tender egg without hesitation with his mandibles.

A faint fishy smell wafted from the ruptured egg's mucus. After sucking up a mouthful, System aimed his mandibles at the lepidopteran larva struggling within it.

The mucus tasted like sweet milk, while the tender larva within the egg gave System the sensation of tasting rich, creamy milk ice cream.

"If it were chilled, it might taste even better."

As he devoured the eggs, a strange thought arose in System's mind.

This protein-rich meat was immensely helpful to System, far surpassing any plant leaves he had eaten.

He could feel subtle changes taking place in his body. The exoskeleton on his legs gradually became sturdier, while the mandibles in his mouth slowly grew harder and sharper.

Since awakening, System had constantly eaten tender leaves and leaf buds, yet no matter how much he ate, his stomach always felt hollow. After eating four or five eggs, he felt full for the first time.

That tingling, numb sensation spread through his body again. While cautiously watching his surroundings and savoring the food, System's experience bar unknowingly reached the threshold for leveling up.

This time, the soreness and numbness in his body were far more intense than when he had reached levels 1 and 2. System found no explanation in the data from [Self-Information Generation], but he knew it had to be related to the eggs he had eaten.

How could growth from eating nothing but vegetables possibly compare to balanced nutrition from both meat and vegetables? Anyone who was not an idiot could understand that with a little thought.

Even when working out at the gym, one had to supplement with nutritious beef or protein powder. Otherwise, if one ate nothing but radishes and greens every day, a year of grueling training would not match someone else's results after one or two months.

After reaching level 4, System's body grew from 0.7 centimeters to 1 centimeter. The exoskeleton covering his body became much harder, and his mandibles grew sturdier and sharper. He estimated that he could now handle mature leaves that had previously been difficult to bite through.

Compared to the growth on the surface of his body, the growth within his bloodline was even greater.

Molting Growth (10/13) had grown into Molting Growth (11/13), rising from level 10 to level 11.

A strange image came from within his bloodline. System sensed that the adult grasshopper he would become in the future had grown more ferocious and powerful.

More than that, System vaguely sensed an inherited message within his bloodline: as long as he raised Molting Growth to level 13, his body could undergo its third molt. After the molts at levels 5 and 8, he could undergo an entirely new transformation.

And after completing the third molt, he would even be able to hear the voice of the world once.

However, System found no further information in his bloodline about what exactly the voice of the world was. He only knew that it was something exceedingly mysterious.

Through this level-up, System's talent, Insect Adaptation (6/21), also grew into Insect Adaptation (8/21), rising by two levels at once.

System felt the blood throughout his body become more active, and his body seemed to grow more agile. He also gained a brand-new derived skill: [Dark Vision].

[Dark Vision] (2/5): A derived skill gained through Insect Adaptation. As long as there is faint fluorescence, it allows one to perceive surrounding objects in the darkness.

System could more or less sense the effects of the derived skill [Dark Vision], but its exact usefulness would have to wait until nightfall, when he could test it in practice.

If the effect of [Dark Vision] proved unsatisfactory, System would still give up eating at night. There were more insect hunters in the forest at night, and it was not worth the risk.

After fiddling with the light screen of [Self-Information Generation] for a while, System stopped looking through it and continued sampling the eggs before him.

Because he had leveled up and grown larger, System felt even hungrier. At the same time, his speed of devouring the eggs had increased noticeably, becoming fully twice as fast.

However, compared to his eating speed, the number of eggs required to reach level 5 had also increased. He had needed 6 eggs to rise from level 3 to level 4, but would need 30 eggs to rise from level 4 to level 5.

Still, the hundred-plus eggs before him would be enough for System to successfully reach level 5 before nightfall. If he swallowed them all, even reaching level 6 was not impossible.

After reaching level 4, the hooked spines on System's legs had become sharper, allowing him to hang upside down from the underside of a leaf with ease. Eating the eggs had also become much more convenient.

After another hour or so, System successively ate more than a dozen fresh, delicious eggs. His body gradually grew as well, increasing from 1 centimeter to 1.1 centimeters.

As long as he continued and ate another dozen or so eggs, he would reach level 5 and further improve his physical abilities.

But just then, as System greedily devoured the eggs, he discovered an uninvited guest.

Perhaps drawn by the faint fishy scent of the broken eggs, a dark-red ant appeared on the main stem of System's plant and crawled toward the branch where he was. It seemed that this ant's target was the eggs on this leaf.

The dark-red ant was about 0.8 centimeters long, slightly smaller than the black ants System had first encountered. However, its mandibles were somewhat larger than those of the black ants, and its biting power might be stronger as well.

System immediately crawled from the underside of the leaf to its upper surface and moved to meet the red ant.

The moment he saw the ant crawl up onto his branch from the lower part of the plant's fork, System immediately thought of the consequences of this dark-red worker ant's arrival.

Once this worker ant confirmed the presence of these dozens of eggs, an endless army of ants would soon follow.

Faced with an army of ants, escaping by leaping away with his powerful hind legs would obviously not be a problem. But these eggs would then be handed over to the ants for nothing.

Having tasted this delicious high-protein food and experienced the growth it brought to his body, System would never hand these eggs over for nothing.

An ant colony might be powerful, but System did not fear a single ant—especially not one this small.

After his upgrade, System was larger than this ant. Setting aside the sharpness of its mandibles, System was stronger than the ant.

And System did not need to fight to the death. He only had to use his powerful hind legs to kick the red ant off the plant's branch.

The plant's branches were hard and slender, and System soon ran headlong into the dark-red ant.

System controlled the hooked spines on his legs and climbed onto the side of the branch. The dark-red ant seemed to notice his presence. It hesitated for a moment, but when it saw System voluntarily make way, it continued crawling along the plant branch, following the bloody scent in the air.

The herbivorous grasshopper nymph did not put the ant on high alert. Ignoring System on the side of the branch, the ant crawled toward the leaf covered in insect eggs...

Seeing the ant approach, System found his angle and unleashed the hind leg he had been charging for so long!

In that flash of lightning, since he had never controlled his hind legs to deliver a kick before, System's strike veered slightly off course and only hit the ant's foreleg.

The ant's foreleg nearly flipped its body over, but the hooked spines on its remaining legs still kept it on the branch. It immediately launched a counterattack against System.

System continued charging his hind leg, preparing for a second kick, but the dark-red ant rushed over in an instant and clamped its mandibles tightly around one of his forelegs, releasing concentrated Ant Acid through them at the same time.

As social insects, ants attacked crudely. They did not know how to strike an enemy's vital points; once they bit their opponent, they simply refused to let go. If it had been a mantis or spider instead, System's head or neck would certainly have been attacked first.

An intense burning sensation from his foreleg shot into System's mind. His legs flailed wildly, tearing at the ant tangled around him. Gritting through the pain, he used his charged hind leg once more. This time, he successfully kicked the ant in the head!

Hiss—

As the dark-red ant fell from the branch, cloudy, translucent fluid splattered from System's foreleg. The tremendous force erupting from his hind leg had torn off the foreleg the dark-red ant had clamped onto in an instant...

The struggle between System and the dark-red ant had lasted less than two seconds, ending with System maimed. But he had protected his insect eggs.

He had been far too naïve about battles between insects. He had thought this opponent would be like that little white bug from last time, letting him push it around.

Herbivorous insects and carnivorous insects differed greatly in their fighting instincts.

Enduring the burning pain from his severed foreleg, System climbed back behind the leaf covered in insect eggs and began eating as quickly as he could.

If the bloody scent of these insect eggs drew ants over again, then he would have no choice but to flee. So he had to eat all the insect eggs as fast as possible.