Because of the accumuted rainwater, System didn't encounter any hyena-like ants again while eating the dragonfly corpse. Those annoying ants had been severely harmed when the forest flooded.
However, System didn't expect the ants to die out just because of a bad storm. The continuous heavy rain for many days might have been an anomaly, but rain that sted for one or two days must be very common in this forest.
The fact that such a wide variety of ants lived here undoubtedly showed that they weren't helpless in the face of torrential rain and floods.
The ants' huge, complex nests would surely have a number of empty chambers set aside to allow at least some of each colony's ants to survive disasters like this. As long as the rain eventually ended, ants would once again crawl out from underground.
...
After leveling up and acquiring his new [Hunger Resistant Physique] skill, System's eating speed was slightly faster than he'd expected. By one or two hours before sunset, he'd already eaten the entire dragonfly corpse and dragged his swollen abdomen back to his stuck-leaf nest on the pine tree to rest.
By the end of the day, the forest had regained some vitality, and System could hear the sounds of several cicadas.
As the night gradually darkened, the moons and stars could be seen shining brightly in the sky.
That night, System even heard the chirping of a cricket. He didn't know how a cricket that usually only lived under piles of debris had survived the heavy rain.
Perhaps because he'd been reborn as an insect, System gradually began to understand the meaning of the cricket's chirping. This wasn't because of any knowledge left over from his previous life. It felt like his grasshopper body was somehow allowing him to comprehend the cricket's chirps.
These chirps were full of the cricket's joy at surviving the heavy rain, and also expressed a desire to find a mate.
Except for a few insects that chirped to cim ownership of territory, most of them chirped to attract a mate in order to reproduce.
System had never paid much attention to the chirping of insects before. It wasn't until today, when he was full and satisfied, that he suddenly pondered insect reproduction, which also raised a question about himself...
He was a male grasshopper, and male grasshoppers would also mate after metamorphosing into an adult. Once he turned into an adult upon reaching level 8, would he have to find a female grasshopper to mate with?
Finding a female grasshopper, showing off his strong body, attracting her attention, then mating with her...
System's human thoughts made the idea of mating with a grasshopper seem very depressing.
But what was even more depressing was that when he thought about mating with a female grasshopper, his blood trembled slightly, and he actually felt a little excited.
...
That night, System's body entered a dormant state as usual, but his mind didn't enter its typical half-asleep and half-awake state.
When the next day finally dawned, System was still a bit confused.
Because of his jumbled thoughts about insect mating habits, his human mind and the instincts in his insect blood had fought against each other all night long. By morning, his human side was holding a slight advantage.
But System didn't know whether this result could be maintained once he reached adulthood after his second metamorphosis.
A key point to realize was that with his current grasshopper body, System was at most equal to a human child in adolescence.
Once he metamorphosed into an adult and met a female grasshopper, he was pessimistic about whether he could continue to maintain his rationality. He estimated that it would be difficult for him to control himself by then.
He also considered eating less food to dey the day when he would reach adulthood, but he quickly set aside that notion. In the end, he couldn't escape his fate of becoming an adult grasshopper.
Besides, becoming an adult would increase his chances of survival, and he must fight as hard as possible to survive!
System finally let things go. He still wanted to become an adult as quickly as possible. As for mating, he decided to set it aside and wouldn't think about it too much for now.
...
Three days passed, and System's luck wasn't very good. In these three days, apart from a dozen sesame-seed-sized aphids, he hadn't find any meat to eat.
On top of that, on the second day, he'd gone through another near-death experience. A light green lizard more than ten centimeters long had unched a long-distance attack on him from a branch a few meters away.
Because the observation distance of an insect's compound eyes was too short, System hadn't noticed any danger before the attack took pce. He'd been forced to jump into the water in panic in order to escape.
Fortunately, there hadn't been any fish in the water to attack him.
His body was light enough to float on the water's surface, and he'd eventually managed to paddle his way over to a tree before fleeing the area.
After three days, the newly formed ke in the forest had receded a great deal, with the remaining water reaching only thirty to forty centimeters deep. Some high-lying areas had even risen back above the water's surface already.
One day earlier, System had successfully reached level 8 by eating pnts, and his body had grown to five centimeters in length.
Although he hadn't yet metamorphosed into an adult, his body was already much rger than the 3.5 centimeter length of an ordinary adult green-tailed grasshopper.
Some possible reasons for his rge size may be that the food he ate was nutritious, or because his talent [Digital Code] optimized his growth efficiency, or because his talent [Molting and Growth] had a high initial level.
When he'd leveled up to 8, System's talent [Molting and Growth] had also upgraded to level 12, only one away from its max level.
When he leveled up, System had also learned more about green-tailed grasshoppers thanks to some newly emerged bloodline information. That was how he'd found out about the 3.5-centimeter-long body size of an ordinary adult green-tailed grasshopper. He'd also learned that grasshoppers like him, who were born with [Molting and Growth] at level 10, were very rare, and the odds of it happening were only one in ten thousand.
It could be said that even without his [Digital Code] talent, System was still a very gifted grasshopper.
...
After swallowing leaves for an entire day, System began the return trip to his nest so that he could undergo his second metamorphosis.
After experiencing his first molt, System was much more proficient the second time around. He quickly softened his exoskeleton according to the instinct in his bloodline, then controlled his flesh and blood to absorb the essence of the softened exoskeleton, leaving behind only an outermost yer of dregs.
During the metamorphosis process, he didn't need to actively control the changes to his body. All of them would be completed naturally by following his grasshopper instincts.
He could feel the wing buds on his back growing and stretching rapidly, and a yer of softened exoskeleton gradually wrapped around his wings to protect them.
As he expected, his blood became agitated once again, and [Molting and Growth Mode] soon activated. System now had a second chance to strengthen his body.
This time, he didn't hesitate. He again chose to strengthen [Digital Code]. His mind once more arrived in the digital ocean of 0s and 1s.
System's mind transformed into a white ball of light, and several digital pnets appeared and moved into orbit around him.
The pnet that was [Personal Information Generation] was very small, far away, and orbited him rapidly.
The [Database] pnet was very rge and very close to him. At the same time, there were two smaller digital spheres near [Database], namely [Information Entry] and [Information Reading]. These two spheres revolved around [Database] just like moons orbited a pnet.
When the power stored in his blood by [Molting and Growth] was injected again, the entire digital sea grew wider.
The digital sea near System began to vibrate irregurly, as if it was about to form a pnet composed of 0s and 1s again. Judging by the strength of the vibrations, this new pnet would most likely be several times rger than [Database].
As long as this pnet converged successfully, he would undoubtedly gain powerful new abilities.
However, the new abilities were obviously not going to be obtained as smoothly as they had been the st time. To be more precise, the power injected from his blood wasn't strong enough. The huge digital pnet shattered before it could fully form due to insufficient power. System immediately bcked out and fell into a deep slumber...
