Law of the Swarm

Chapter 15 The Clumsy Locust Hunter

The time estimated by System was about the same. When the sun went down, he successfully sucked up two chrysalis and began to return to his nest of dead leaves.

Due to the increase in body size, the originally very spacious dead leaf nest is now a bit narrow, and it is estimated that the nest will not be able to accommodate him if it is upgraded to two levels.

System, who returned to the lair, did not give up foraging at night, but took a short rest.

When the food in System's abdomen was basically digested and his body became more flexible and reached its peak state, he would carry out his first hunting action at night.

After five days of heavy rain and natural disasters, there were very few creatures in the forest that System could hunt and kill.

Most of the insects that System could find after the heavy rain were cicadas that liked to sing, but he was not sure that he could kill the cicadas, because these cicadas would fly away as soon as they saw the slightest danger.

Moreover, the activities of these cicadas are very irregular. Although they sing from time to time, it is difficult for System to find them if they really want to find them.

In fact, there are prey that move very regularly and are easy to find. Another kind of movement is very regular, and System can be sure that the prey are two spiders.

One is dark brown with a size of 6 cm, and the other is slightly smaller with a size of 3 cm. The whole body is covered with yellow and white patterns.

After the heavy rain, the two spiders have re-weaved their webs. They will stay in the center of the web at night, and rest in temporary nests in the corners of the web during the day.

However, to System, these two spiders were more of a hunter than a prey. System felt that if he challenged these two spiders, he would probably kill himself and be directly killed by the spider's fangs.

After some consideration and choice, the target that System finally chose was the chirping cricket, which is also an insect with a fixed nest.

The location of this cricket's nest was found by System two days ago, and it was a narrow tree hole.

It is because of this tree hole that the cricket escapes the natural disasters brought by the heavy rain.

Two days ago, he was just a grasshopper larva, and he had no obvious advantage over the aggressive male cricket, which was 3 cm in size. He was easily injured or fell into the water during the fight, so System was in the larva. During the period, he did not shoot the cricket.

Now that he has become an adult grasshopper, System's strength has become stronger, and it is obviously not a problem to deal with that cricket.

However, after molting, System's size became much larger, and he was no longer able to penetrate the cricket's tree hole, so he could only wait for the cricket to come out of the tree hole and sing at night before ambush.

……

After the food in the stomach was digested, it was completely dark.

After preparing everything, System jumped a few times and came to a branch near the cricket tree hole.

The cricket's tree hole is actually very close to System's nest, only five or six meters away.

[Green camouflage] activate!

The pattern and color of System's body slowly changed to the color and pattern of tree leaves.

Due to the limitation of this derivative ability, System can only change into a color similar to green, and his body shape is out of proportion to this branch, so it can be said that there is a big flaw.

But if he chooses a branch farther away, System is not sure about attacking the cricket, he can only hope that the arrival of night will make the cricket unable to detect him.

He went into a dormant state without moving, waiting for the cricket to go out to sing at eight or nine o'clock every night.

At this moment, System was like a poisonous snake waiting for its prey to take the bait, quietly waiting for the cricket to appear.

Snakes are one of the best hidden hunters in nature. When food is scarce, they will even wait for their prey for several days without eating or drinking.

It can be said that reptiles like snakes and some insects have brought the idiom of "waiting for rabbits" to the extreme.

Whether it is reptile snakes and crocodiles, or most arthropod mantises and katydids, their hunting method is to wait for the rabbit, guard in one place, and then wait for the prey to enter the attack range, and then suddenly deliver a fatal blow.

Compared with these low-intelligence hunters, although System is also sitting on the sidelines, his purpose is clearer and more efficient.

He knows exactly when and where his prey will appear.

As System expected, when the pale yellow moon was at a little more than 45 degrees from the ground, the cricket crawled out of the tree hole in time and jumped onto the branch next to the tree hole.

The male cricket, who was looking for a mate, obviously didn't find System hiding obliquely above it, and began to sing while vibrating its wings on its own branch.

System's strong hind limbs began to gather strength, and the muscles of his wings were also ready to go, and he kept simulating in his mind the hunting action after rushing over.

With a gentle breeze blowing, System suddenly launched an impact on the male cricket, his wings made a crackling sound, which further increased System's speed.

In the blink of an eye, System's hunt failed...

Compared to those senior hunters with low intelligence who simply waited on the sidelines, System's hunting skills were far too immature.

The first half of System's ambush was perfect, maybe replaced with a praying mantis or a katydid, and he had already succeeded at this time.

But as a generally small green-tailed grasshopper, he didn't have the hunting instinct in his blood.

System could only make hunting plans according to his own understanding.

His plan is very simple. It is basically to control the cricket with its four forelimbs, and then use its fangs to bite off the cricket's head.

There was actually no problem with System's plan, but his movements were really rough, and his luck was not too good.

System's sudden attack was very quick, and the cricket didn't react in time, but the first two forelimbs that System stretched out only held the cricket's smooth wings.

With the sudden tremor of the cricket's wings, the hooks on System's forelegs were unable to exert force, and his attack landed a little unstable. As a result, the cricket escaped from System's arms like a loach... …

……

System made a quick decision the moment the cricket broke free from his arms, and immediately got up and moved backwards, blocking the cricket's hole.

There was still a few centimeters of stagnant water on the forest floor at this time, and it was impossible for the cricket to escape to the surface of the water. The only place where this cricket could protect itself was the tree hole.

However, when System quickly blocked the hole, he suddenly found that the cricket had disappeared.

Because of the [information reading] ability, the outlines of everything within one meter around him shimmered in System's eyes, and there were no ripples on the water surface under the branches of the trees. Obviously, the cricket did not dive to escape.

"Is it hiding behind the leaves?"

Recalling the direction in which the cricket escaped from his arms, System stared at the few leaves growing from a branch not far away and fell into thought.

The tree's leaves are maple-like in shape and size, with short petioles that make them easy to hide in.

System hesitantly moved towards the leaves, but it didn't take long for System's tentacles to detect a slight vibration, and he quickly retreated towards the hole.

But it was too late, the cricket had already fled back to its tree hole.

The cricket's hiding place is actually directly under the branch.

Because of the inertia of human thinking, System has forgotten the general ability of insects to hang upside down...

(End of this chapter)