Law of the Swarm

Chapter 2 Double Moon
Not long after the level was raised to level 3, System's vision gradually dimmed.

The sun has set, and it won't be long before it gets dark.

As the sky gradually darkened and the slightly cooler breeze, there were more sounds of insects in the forest, some were crickets, and some were chirping cicadas.

System, who was eating young leaves, noticed that the grass in the distance was shaking irregularly, but it was difficult to see what was there with the compound eyes of insects.

Not long after, a silver-gray thing drilled out of the grass and moved towards him.

As the distance gradually got closer, the scene in System's compound eyes became clear. A silver-gray mouse passed under the plant where he was, and gnawed on the root of an unknown plant nearby.

Unlike the forest during the day, many insects and small animals are more active at night.

Not long after, the silver-gray giant rat disappeared into the grass after eating the roots of the plants.

And less than a few tens of centimeters away, System found a black spider about three or four centimeters in size releasing a silk thread to float in the wind.

The spider releases the "search thread" for the first step of weaving a web. As long as the thread flutters in the wind and sticks to something, it will start weaving based on this thread until it weaves a complete web.

The forest at night was obviously in crisis, and System gave up his plan to continue jumping to other plants in the dark to search for young leaves.

His eyesight becomes worse at night, and there are obviously more predators. As long as he is not careful, he will fall into the trap of predators.

As a herbivorous insect, hiding and starving for a night is very uncomfortable, but it greatly increases the chance of survival.

With a human IQ, he naturally cannot live recklessly like an ordinary grasshopper.

After all, the power of insects such as grasshoppers is their ability to reproduce, not the ability to survive each individual.

System struggled to cut off three small young leaves with his not-so-sharp fangs, so he decided to find a dead leaf on the ground and hide under it tonight.

These three young leaves can be his snack when he is too hungry to relieve his hunger a little.

The little grasshopper crawled from the branch of the plant to the stem of the plant very carefully, using the hooks on its feet to climb steadily to the ground...

……

Branches, scattered dead leaves, and some soil exuding a rotten smell, the ground environment was very complicated for him, a soybean-sized grasshopper.

System bit off three small fingernail-sized young leaves from the plant and only found two. He couldn't find the other leaf, so he had no choice but to give it up.

After laboriously moving the two tender leaves under a slightly damp dead leaf, System subconsciously glanced at the night sky, his worm head showing a bewildered expression in a humanized manner.

The grasshopper's eyesight is very poor, and he can't see things in the distance. He can't see how many stars are shining in the night sky, but he can see two moons far apart in the night sky, one white and one pale yellow.

This is no longer the original world...

System didn't look at the two moons in the night sky for too long. He had already turned into a grasshopper and lost his own memory. It made no difference whether he was in the original world or not.

He quickly got into the dead leaves, and quietly began to rest.

The body of an insect is very special. Although System has forgotten the name and memory of his previous life, some common sense things are still very clear in his mind.

It is very difficult for human beings to keep their bodies still completely. After a short while, their bodies will unconsciously twist a few times, but the body of a grasshopper is completely different.

System, lying prone under the dead leaves, maintained a motionless state effortlessly. He felt like a dead branch, completely still.

It didn't take long before the frequency and amplitude of his abdominal breathing began to decrease slowly, from one breath per second to five or six seconds, and finally he would only breathe once every few tens of seconds.

This is a strange dormant state. After entering this state, the hunger in System's abdomen rapidly diminished, and his whole body was like a dead thing, and he only needed to consume a very small amount of energy to maintain his vital signs.

System estimates that in this state, he can last for two or three days or even longer even if he does not eat or drink.

………………

pat-

With the sound of dewdrops dripping, System woke up completely from his half-asleep state.

Not long after his body entered a dormant state last night, his spirit gradually entered a half-dream and half-awake state. At this time, he woke up feeling refreshed. It seemed that even an insect needed a proper sleep.

The weather in the early morning was a bit cool, System moved his slightly stiff body, and his abdominal breathing quickly recovered from a dormant period of tens of seconds to once a second, and at the same time, a strong sense of hunger came into his mind .

After drinking a few mouthfuls of the dew dripping from the edge of the dead leaves, System began to chew the two young leaves hidden in the dead leaves yesterday to satisfy his hunger.

After a whole night, the taste of the young leaves became worse, and watching the changing information on the [Self-Information Generation Technique], System thoroughly determined the law of grade growth.

So far, there is only one way for him to increase his level, and that is eating.

Although no matter what kind of leaves he eats, his hunger can be relieved, but the effect of different leaves on his level improvement varies greatly.

And to measure which kind of leaf is more effective for him to improve, the rule is also very simple, that is the degree of deliciousness of the leaf.Even if the leaves of the same species have different tastes due to their freshness, their effect on level improvement will also be different.

"From this point of view, if you want this body to grow more at the same time, you must try to eat some delicious and fresh leaves."

"However, to find delicious young leaves and buds, you have to find more plants, which definitely becomes more dangerous."

"In my current state, there is no need to take risks at all, so the way to obtain food should be the same as yesterday to ensure my own safety."

After finalizing his action plan for the day, System concentrated on eating the two not-so-fresh young leaves.

As the level increased, the body became bigger, and it didn't take long for System to eat all of these two young leaves, and the eating speed was more than double that of level 2.

After the upgrade, his fangs became stronger. System decided to try to eat some slightly larger leaves today. If he succeeded, he would not need to waste time searching for young leaves and buds.

……

System, who crawled out of the dead leaves, quickly discovered a few uninvited guests near the dead leaves, five or six black ants about one centimeter in size.

After the night passed, the life in the forest also changed, replaced by a group of creatures that like to be active during the day, and the few ants in front of me are this kind of life that likes to be active during the day.

Five or six black ants were very close to him, and the nearest one was less than [-] centimeters away. The antennae on the heads of these black ants were moving back and forth, as if they were searching for food.

The speed of the ants was not very fast, and they did not find the grasshopper larva crawling out of the dead leaves. System easily moved away from the "ant search team" with a few jumps.

In fact, after seeing these ants, System didn't feel any fear, and his [insect intuition] didn't give him any signs of danger.

Once the grasshoppers hatch from their eggs, they are not food for the ants, who may hunt some giant Lepidoptera larvae (the larvae of butterflies or moths), but never catch a nimble ant grasshopper.

The main threat System faced was hunters like praying mantises who were camouflaged and killed in one hit, or accidentally stuck on spider webs.

Or the huge creature in front of him——

The body is covered with brown patterns with raised and hideous patterns, the beige belly constantly bulges, a pair of round eyeballs blinking from time to time, and an extremely huge mouth.

System jumped in front of the toad camouflaged in the pile of dead leaves after three consecutive jumps to avoid the "search team" of the ant colony.

Toad, also known as toad, is a very famous insect hunter known to System.

And now System is less than ten centimeters away from the toad.

He even felt the moist fishy smell exhaled from the toad's mouth...

(End of this chapter)