Fishing for Insects (Part One)

Three days later, in the cave.

"Ready?" Er Dongsheng asked with a smile as he watched the little succubus fuss with her tiny back basket.

"Mmm, Lulu's ready!" The little one tightened the basket on her back and answered proudly.

Three days had passed since that heart-stopping battle. Er Dongsheng and Little Lulu had both recovered from their injuries.

After three days in the cave, Er Dongsheng felt as though his bones were going soft from idleness. He decided to go out for a look around. The Abyss had no entertainment to speak of, and if he didn't find something to do, he figured he would soon go mad.

To his surprise, Little Lulu insisted on coming too. He hadn't wanted to agree, but her tearful pleading defeated him at once.

Fine, she can come. With what I can do now, what creature around here could hurt her?

After all, the presence of an Abyss Demon was no joke. There probably weren't many creatures in this forest foolish enough to provoke him!

He spent a little more time making the little succubus a basket like his own, only smaller and more finely made. Since advancing to a Demon, such work had become much easier. Against claws several times stronger and his vastly increased strength, even the tough vines that had once made his claws ache could only fall to their knees and beg for mercy!

The dainty basket delighted the little one. She kept putting her treasures inside and taking them out again, never tiring of it.

She didn't have much: a few pretty animal bones, oddly shaped pebbles, and several wooden toys Er Dongsheng had made for her on a whim. They were ordinary things, no great treasures, but to the little succubus they were precious. Normally, she wouldn't even let Er Dongsheng touch them!

"Then let's go!" Er Dongsheng swept a hand forward. Beaming, the little succubus took hold of his enormous claw, and the two figures, one large and one small, set off hand in hand.

Their goal was to gather fresh fruit and plants, and bring back some special meat while they were at it!

"Mm, this one's good. Tastes good, too. System, analyze its contents and record it!"

"Automatically named Blueberry Fruit. Contains trace amounts of active substances. Aids digestion, promotes blood circulation, and accelerates recovery from injuries!"

"Mm, not bad. Here, little one, try this." Er Dongsheng handed her the Abyss fruit the system had named Blueberry Fruit, then picked a few more from the tree to eat later. They were pleasantly sweet and sour, just the thing to whet an appetite.

"This one—pah, pah! Why is it so bitter?"

"Warning: trace toxins detected entering the body. System expelling toxins. Expulsion complete!"

"What the hell, this fruit's poisonous?" Er Dongsheng hurriedly threw away the blood-red fruit still in his hand. He opened the small wooden cup he carried, gulped down a mouthful of water, then quickly spat it out. In that brief moment, his tongue had gone slightly numb. The fruit looked so good, yet its toxin was this strong. What a trap!

"Record it, quick. Warn me ahead of time if I run into it again!"

Perhaps you had already noticed: Er Dongsheng had discovered another formidable ability of the Abyss System. It could analyze and record any object, organize the information, and store it in its database.

That ability was extraordinarily powerful. With it, he would no longer have to fret over the countless plants and animals of the Abyss, or worry that one careless bite would send him off to meet God without ever knowing what had happened!

His food options had expanded enormously. Even during the cruelest cold season, he felt confident he could make it through safely!

But the Abyss System's primary function, Game Space, remained a mystery to him. The system ought to have known something about it, but the wretched thing had told him that the system itself and the Abyss Heavenly Dao Will had taken a mutual fancy to each other and secretly joined together. Some of the Abyss System's functions had begun to change—no, evolve. Game Space was changing along with them, so it was temporarily closed!

When Er Dongsheng heard that explanation, he was so furious his nose nearly went crooked. The treasure he had worked so hard to obtain was simply gone? Swallowed by the Abyss System? He distinctly remembered telling it only to analyze the thing! How had analyzing it made it disappear?

Could you be any more of a rip-off?

Enough about that rotten system. Just thinking of it made Er Dongsheng's stomach churn with anger. Better to return to the brother and sister.

They wandered along, stopping here and there to taste this and that. If a fruit wasn't poisonous, they picked a few; if it was, they threw it away at once. Er Dongsheng was starting to think the system's analysis function was a rip-off, too. It insisted that he taste something himself first...

"Can't you see my tongue's gone numb? Good thing my body's resistant enough, or this lousy system would be the death of me!" he muttered. He glanced back at the little one, who was happily eating, her face smeared with red and blue fruit juice. When the little succubus saw him turn, she looked up at him hopefully, thinking he had found another fruit for her to try.

Not everyone in the Abyss could eat all sorts of different fruits with such abandon. The little succubus was truly happy now.

"Ah, forget it. Back to my life of toil!"

They wandered aimlessly, stopping and starting, and sometimes Er Dongsheng played with the little succubus for a while. Before they knew it, roughly three hours had passed. At last they reached their destination: a hollow sheltered from the wind, with a broad stretch of sand inside!

This was what they had come for: the hiding place of the Abyss Insect Beasts!

The Abyss Insect Beast was a small insect-like monster, about the length of an adult's index finger in his previous life—roughly ten centimeters. It had no offensive ability at all, and its defenses were pitiful. It fed on Abyss soil and rotting leaves, rather like an earthworm from his previous life. But it tasted delicious. How did that saying go?

Tastes like chicken, with a satisfying crunch. Yes, that was it. Grilled or eaten raw, its flavor lingered long after the last bite! In Er Dongsheng's memory, it was surpassed as an ingredient only by the Abyss Tree Heart.

But although it was delicious, possessed considerable vitality, and worked wonders for external injuries, it was extremely hard to catch. Not because it was fast, but because Abyss Insect Beasts usually hid deep in the sand and rarely came to the surface. At the slightest disturbance, they burrowed downward as though their lives depended on it. Catching one was hard—harder than climbing to the heavens.

"That won't stop me! I caught plenty of fish in my last life. You think I can't handle one little bug in this one?"

With a wicked grin, Er Dongsheng took something from the basket on his back. He peeled away the leaves wrapped around it, revealing a chunk of rotten meat. At once...

"Mmm, it stinks! It stinks!" The little one had been about to come over and see what her brother was doing, but she leaped far away, her tail drooping. The smell was clearly unbearable.

...Awkward...

"Ugh, that's too damn potent. It could almost rival a thirty-year-old foot-binding cloth from ancient times." He hurriedly closed the leaves around it again, and the air immediately freshened.

Er Dongsheng shook his head, dizzy from the stench, then called the little succubus over to help him get ready.

It was time to go fishing—er, no, insect fishing...