Laws of the Insect Hive

After feeling the change in his blood, System began to eat frantically to prevent excessive consumption that might occur when he molted.

Tell Dasha, who might be betrayed, not to disturb him, and prepare enough food near the ant larvae in the temporary nest.

System continued on, secreting enough [Corrosive Slime] near the entrance to the makeshift lair to prevent ants from attacking him during his weakest molting.

When everything was in order, System performed his third molting in an empty room in the temporary lair.

...

System originally thought that this third molting would be as smooth as the previous two moltings, but things did not develop as he imagined.

Like the previous two moltings, he gradually absorbed the essence of the exoskeleton in accordance with the rhythm of the body's blood vessels, leaving the outermost layer of dross.

According to the experience of the past two moltings, at this time, his molting only needs to be handed over to the instinct of his body, and his worm body will naturally complete the molting according to the instinct inherited from the blood.

But this time is different.

The blood inside the body was still rolling, urging him to degenerate, but his body instinct showed no sign of action at all, and it seemed that he had no plans to degenerate.

It's like the feeling that your body is itchy, but you can't scratch it, it's very uncomfortable.

The information in the [Self-Information Generation Technique] is the same, and the previous [Degenerate Growth Mode] has not appeared for a long time.

The outer shell on the body surface had all softened, and it was impossible for System to stop this degeneration, but System himself did not know how to continue the degeneration.

His degeneration seemed to be missing something.

System recalled the image that the Queen gave him when he was dying. In the image, the Queen's third degeneration was very vague. In that image, the Queen seemed to be in a semi-conscious state, far less awake than him.

Now it seems that he should have taken the third degeneration too simple.

He has only been pursuing the third molting, and wants to prolong the lifespan of the grasshopper by relying on the third molting.

However, it is ignored that ordinary grasshoppers only need to molt twice to become adults, and it is naturally extremely rare for grasshopper adults to continue to complete the third molting.

Because of its scarcity, it is very likely that the grasshopper bloodline does not have the instinct to complete the third molting.

That is to say, he has no reference experience at all in the third molting, and the third molting of every grasshopper cannot be replicated.

System didn't know whether his guess was correct.

Trying to control the flesh and blood on his body to wriggle, System found that he couldn't do it at all, and he couldn't even control the tentacles on his feet and head to vibrate slightly.

The blood in the body is still rolling, and the rolling blood becomes more intense as time goes by, becoming like slightly boiling water.

System felt that the blood vessels in his body seemed to bulge slightly, and some bubbles seemed to spew out of his blood like boiling water.

"Wouldn't it just explode like this? It would be too interesting to blow up and die like this..."

System thought to himself in pain.

Half an hour later, System's boiling blood had swelled his body's blood vessels to an unbelievable level...

Chi-

Chi-

System did not explode to death after all. The blood vessels in his body bulged, causing several cracks, and white gas was spewed out like a pressure cooker, and part of the white blood also splashed out.

Perhaps it was the sound of the gas spewing out, or the blood vapor he spewed produced a very strong fishy smell, and it didn't take long for a few ant larvae in the temporary nest to slowly wriggle over.

Ant larvae are about the same shape as butterfly larvae that can pupate, like reptiles, with a creamy white body.

However, compared to butterfly larvae, in addition to having a head, they don't even have the sucker-like legs of butterfly larvae.

In addition to being able to twist their bodies, they rely on worker ants to assist them for most of their movements.

It had to be said that it was no small miracle that these ant larvae could wriggle and crawl in front of System.

System used [Spiritual Connection] to these ant larvae, and he quickly felt the worried emotions that these ant larvae sent him.

System used [Teleportation] to soothe the emotions of the three ant larvae...

It didn't take long for the three ant larvae to twist their bodies and gradually leaned next to System, as if staying beside System would make them feel more at ease.

...

Three hours passed, and the blood in System's body was still boiling and rolling.

The food he had madly swallowed into his abdomen before had been digested and absorbed by his body very quickly due to the loss of blood in his body, and he began to feel some hunger in his abdomen.

System didn't know how long he could keep going like this. If the metamorphosis couldn't proceed, he would run out of energy and die sooner or later.

There was still no obvious progress in his third degeneration. He felt that he could degenerate, but what was wrong, he couldn't figure it out.

In the past few hours, eleven ant larvae have gathered around him. These ant larvae are leaning against him tightly, rubbing against his soft body from time to time.

System doesn't know whether this degeneration can be successful or not. If the degeneration fails, he will just die like this...

Perhaps, before he died, he would, like the queen, tell these ant larvae to let them eat their corpses...

At the same time when System gave birth to this idea, he felt an unusual vibration, which came from above the passage of the temporary nest.

It seems that something is digging this underground passage, and the movement is not small.

System felt a slight tremor in the bodies of several ant larvae next to him, and they obviously also sensed the stranger who had broken into the underground passage.

Not long after, System heard the cry of "jiji".

The visitor who broke into the ground is obviously a mouse, it should be caused by the stench of his blood tumbling and spewing gas during the degeneration...

The [smelly slime] he placed at the entrance of the hole blocked the ants, but failed to stop the mice.

The movement of the mouse digging is gradually approaching...

System felt that he could not escape death, unless his third molting could be completed within ten minutes, he might be able to escape after molting.

But to complete the molting within ten minutes, even if his first and second molting were not so fast, not to mention that his third molting hadn't even started yet.

"Is it going to die like this? Even these ant larvae will die..."

Because of the molting, System's body was completely unable to move, and even the mucus from the glands in his throat could not be released.

The only thing he can use at this time is his spiritual power [mental transmission], but this power level is too low, it can only be effective on insects and plants, and it will not be of any use to mice.

He has no means of counterattack, and can only wait to die silently.

A few minutes later, under the faint light of fluorescent mushrooms, System saw the mouse's eyes glowing faintly green.

It was a fifteen centimeter mouse, dark gray in color.

A dozen ant larvae wriggled their clumsy bodies in front of System, and they did not allow the rats to harm their "queen".

The mouse scratched the soil in the cave a few times with its claws, and then rubbed its cheeks with its claws. It seemed to think that System was already a turtle in a urn, and began to move unhurriedly.

System recalled the scene many days ago, when he seemed to block the crickets in the tree hole just like the mouse blocked him.

Cricket doesn't have the courage to fight him to the death, and he doesn't have the ability to fight the mouse...

And right now.

The mouse suddenly let out a scream, it seemed to feel the pain, jumped up, and rolled twice in the cave.

System saw a figure, it was a foolish soldier ant!