Law of the Swarm

Chapter 36 The King and the Knight

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

Instruct Dasha who might betray him not to disturb him, and then prepare sufficient food near the ant larvae in the temporary nest.

System continued to act, secreting enough [Corrosion Slime] near the entrance of the temporary nest to prevent ants from attacking him during his weakest moulting period.

After everything was settled, System carried out his third transformation in an empty room in the temporary lair.

……

System originally thought that this third transformation would be as smooth as the first two transformations, but things did not develop as he imagined.

Like the previous two transformations, he gradually absorbed the essence of the exoskeleton according to the rhythm of the blood in his body, leaving behind the outermost layer of dross.

According to the experience of the previous two molts, at this time, he only needs to leave it to the instinct of his body, and his worm body will naturally complete the molt according to the instinct inherited by the blood.

This time, however, is different.

The blood inside his body was still churning, urging him to degenerate, but his physical instinct showed no sign of action at all, and he didn't seem to have any plans to degenerate.

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

The information in the [Self-Information Generation Technique] is the same, and the previous [Degeneration and Growth Mode] has not been able to appear for a long time.

The shell of the body surface has been completely softened, and it is impossible for System to stop this degeneration, but he does not know how to continue the degeneration.

Something seemed to be missing from his degeneration.

System recalled the image that the queen gave him when she was dying. The third transformation of the queen in the image was very vague. In that image, the queen seemed to be in a semi-comatose state, far less awake than he was.

From the looks of it now, he probably regarded the third transformation as too simple.

He has been only pursuing the third molt, hoping to prolong the grasshopper's lifespan by means of the third molt.

But it ignores that ordinary grasshoppers will become adults after molting twice, and it is extremely rare for an adult grasshopper to continue to complete the third molt.

Because of its rarity, it is very likely that the grasshopper bloodline did not inherit the instinct to complete the third molt.

In other words, he has no reference experience at all for the third molt, and the third molt of every grasshopper cannot be copied.

System didn't know if his guess was correct.

Trying to control the flesh and blood on his body to squirm, System found that he couldn't do it at all, he couldn't even control the slight trembling of the feet and the tentacles on the head.

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

System felt that the blood vessels in his body seemed to be slightly swollen, and his blood seemed to bubble out like boiling water.

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

System secretly thought of it with joy in his bitterness.

Half an hour later, System's boiling blood had already swollen his blood vessels to an unbelievable degree...

Chi-

Chi-

After all, System did not die in the explosion. The blood vessels in his body swelled, resulting in several cracks, which sprayed out white gas like a pressure cooker, and part of the white blood splashed out as a result.

Perhaps it was the movement of the gas, or the strong fishy smell from the blood vapor he emitted. Not long after, a few ant larvae in the temporary nest slowly squirmed over.

Ant larvae are about the same shape as butterfly larvae capable of pupating, reptile-like, and have a creamy white body.

But compared to butterfly larvae, they don't even have the sucker-like legs of butterfly larvae except for their heads.

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

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

System used [Spiritual Connection] on these ant larvae, and he quickly felt the worried emotions from these ant larvae.

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

Not long after, the three ant larvae twisted their bodies and gradually leaned against System, as if staying next to 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 swallowed frantically before had been digested and absorbed by his body very quickly due to the loss of blood in his body, and some hunger sensations began to spread from his abdomen.

System didn't know how long he could last like this. If the transformation was delayed, he would run out of energy and die sooner or later.

His third transformation still has no obvious progress. He feels that he can transform, but what is missing, he can't figure it out.

In the past few hours, eleven ant larvae had gathered around him, and these ant larvae were tightly leaning against him, and from time to time they would intimately rub against his softened body.

System doesn't know whether this transformation can be successful, if the transformation fails and he just dies...

Perhaps, before he died, he would, like the queen, tell these ant larvae to eat his body...

At the same time that System had this idea, he felt an unusual vibration, which came from above the passageway of the temporary lair.

It seems that something is digging this underground passage, and there is a lot of movement.

System felt a slight tremor from the bodies of the ant larvae next to him, and they obviously also sensed the strange visitor who broke into the underground passage.

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

The visitor who broke into the ground was obviously a mouse, and it should have been attracted by his blood churning and the stench of gas emitted during the molting...

Although the [stinky mucus] he placed at the entrance of the cave blocked the ants, it failed to stop the mice.

The sound of mice digging is gradually approaching...

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

But to complete the transformation within ten minutes, even if his first and second transformations were not so fast, not to mention that his third transformation has not even started yet.

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

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

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

He didn't have any means to fight back, so he could only wait for death silently.

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

It was a fifteen-cent-sized mouse, dark gray in color.

A dozen ant larvae squirmed their clumsy bodies to block System's front, and they did not allow the mice to harm their "ant queen".

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

System recalled the scene many days ago. At that time, he seemed to block the cricket in the tree hole just like the mouse blocked him.

The cricket didn't have the courage to fight him to the death, but he didn'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 Soldier Ant Dasha!
(End of this chapter)