While humans didn't possess any hunting ability at birth, mantises and spiders were both born with the ability to hunt thanks to their strong instincts and specialized bodies.

  However, System's hunting skills could be gradually polished and improved. Although there was no inheritance information from his bloodline, the wisdom of a human combined with the strong physical fitness of an insect would forge him into an excellent hunter as long as he kept practicing.

  As long as he was able to go on a few more hunts, he would definitely catch the cricket easily.

  Unfortunately, he had no targets to practice on.

  Before his first metamorphosis, his strength had been insufficient, so challenging a strong opponent would have undoubtedly led to him becoming disabled or even dying. After his first metamorphosis, the rain had forced him to face a barren and desote world, so there were currently no prey avaible to choose from.

  System shook his head as he crawled his way over to the entrance of the tree hole and attempted to forcefully burrow inside.

  As he'd observed earlier, the narrow entrance was definitely too small for his insect head to pass through. If he tried to force his way in, he would no doubt end up with a crushed head, and the gains would surely outweigh the loss.

  However, after carefully observing the tree hole, System's insect face gradually revealed a human-like smile.

  The shape of this hole was very strange—narrow on the outside, wide on the inside, and about six or seven centimeters deep. As long as the wood near the hole was chipped away to widen the entrance, he could successfully drill inside and prey on the cricket.

  And System had the perfect method to expand the hole—his biochemical weapon, [Corrosive Mucus].

  This corrosive substance could easily dissolve tree bark, so corroding wood shouldn't prove to be a challenge, either.

  Although he couldn't spit out a rge amount of mucus, he could still recycle it after use to reduce consumption, so there would be no problem expanding the cricket's tree hole.

  The cricket hiding in the hole was like a turtle in a jar; there was no possibility of escape.

  The [Corrosive Mucus] gradually dripped down from System's mandibles, and the bark and wood around the hole began to slowly dissolve.

  As System used his [Corrosive Mucus], the cricket that had so far remained motionless inside the tree hole began to feel a little uneasy, and its body trembled slightly, moving left and right from time to time.

  After noticing the cricket's movements, System began working with more caution. He wanted to make sure the cricket couldn't suddenly jump out of the hole and escape again.

  After a little over ten minutes, he'd managed to expand the hole by half, and the cricket had calmed down as if it had accepted its fate, with only its abdomen still moving slowly as it breathed.

  After roughly another ten minutes, System successfully bit off the cricket's head.

  In the end, no battle took pce. As the [Corrosive Mucus] System secreted evaporated, it left behind a toxic gas. The cricket had fainted from the fumes before System could even reach it.

  It was only natural for the cricket to have been restless at first, then suddenly become quiet after more time passed. It seemed like the smell of System's [Corrosive Mucus] was somewhat toxic.

  However, the toxicity of this gas wasn't strong. It took more than ten minutes to poison a single cricket in a confined space like the tree hole. It was obviously not feasible to use it as a means of hunting.

  ...

  System didn't stop eating. While he ate the cricket's corpse, he was thinking about his next prey.

  After the rainstorm, food was very scarce. Even after pondering for a long time, he couldn't think of any creatures to hunt. Finally, his thoughts returned to the two spiders.

  In the process of hunting the cricket, he'd thought of a way to deal with the spiders. He possessed a unique advantage over spiders, which was his ability to fly.

  System considered finding a wooden twig, grabbing it, and then flying up and using the twig to poke a spider.

  Of course, he wasn't delusional enough to think that he could pierce through a spider's exoskeleton with a simple twig. What he wanted to do was knock the spider off of its web and into the water.

  Although the spider could use its silk thread to prevent itself from falling, System could unch a second attack to break that thread. The operation would be a little difficult, but there was still a chance of success.

  However, his imagination only counted for so much. The spider's strength would indeed drop sharply if it fell into the water, but so what? Even if the spider was very unfortunate and drowned, System still couldn't fish it out of the water to eat it.

  ...

  System's mandibles kept chewing while he thought. After he'd transformed into an adult, his mandibles had once again grown sharper. He could now easily chew through even the strong skull of a cricket.

  Compared to ordinary meat, System liked this type of crunchy food even more. It tasted like crispy milk chocote, a fvor he'd never experienced in his previous life.

  After eating part of the cricket's body, he grabbed what was left of it and flew back to his leaf nest.

  After giving it some thought, he'd finally chosen to move out of the nest.

  After staying here for so many days, he was very familiar with the area within one hundred meters. He was sure that he could live here safely for two months.

  However, only by constantly traveling could he find more prey and better opportunities, potentially allowing him to extend his short life.

  System decided to set aside the rest of the cricket's body until the next morning. He'd finish eating it after he woke up, then leave once he'd filled his stomach.

  Instead of heading out in the darkness of night, he'd finally decided to explore the unknown forest during the day. After all, his body needed proper rest, and his limited vision at night also greatly reduced his exploration efficiency.

  ...

  System had already finished eating what remained of the cricket's body before dawn.

  In the early morning, he crawled out of the stuck-leaf nest for the st time, chose a direction that led toward slightly higher terrain, and began jumping off into the distance.

  Because of the loud roar of his wings, System had decided not to fly. Although there hadn't been any birds around in the few days since the rainstorm, it was hard to say how far away they'd gone.

  Because he had [Information Reading] to observe for dangers, System acted cautiously, but his speed wasn't slow. Five minutes ter, after having jumped and crawled about one hundred meters away, he finally found himself in an unfamiliar pce.

  [Information Reading] was very efficient. System found several gray-brown mushrooms on a dead and rotted tree.

  Mushrooms, a type of fungi, were undoubtedly a nutritious food. However, compared to green pnts, his body was unfamiliar with the smell of mushrooms, and he couldn't tell whether or not these particur mushrooms were poisonous.

  Although the color of the mushrooms seemed to indicate that they were non-toxic, System didn't dare to try eating one easily. He only jumped onto a mushroom and observed it for a while before eventually jumping away.

  As he gradually moved toward a high-lying area, the water on the ground became shallower and shallower. After a few hundred meters, the only water he still saw was the occasional puddle.

  Not long after, just when System had decided to take a break because of [Information Reading]'s mental consumption, he found a dozen insects that he was familiar with.

  They were a dozen of those ants that were so common in this forest. These ants were bck and brown and about one centimeter long. He seemed to recall having encountered this type of ant before.

  At this time, the dozen ants were biting a tadpole that was struggling in the mud. The tadpole was about three centimeters long, not counting its tail, and had already grown hind legs.

  After the accumuted water had receded, this tadpole had been unlucky enough to get trapped in the mud. Even if the ants hadn't discovered it, the tadpole wouldn't have been able to escape death.

  System carefully observed the surroundings and found that there was no danger. He aimed at an ant and rushed in directly.

  When System's adult body charged toward the group of ants, he was no longer a zebra rushing toward a group of hyenas, but an elephant doing so instead.

  He was going to hunt an ant to test his current skills!