Laws of the Insect Hive

There was no obvious reaction when the black light entered System's body, but instead made him energetic, as if his body had endless strength.

The strength and flexibility of his tentacles also increased slightly, as if the black light was some kind of tonic.

However, with the emergence of this energetic feeling, System realized that he seemed to have lost something very important, his heart became empty, and the insect blood on his body seemed to be whining.

The body of an insect cannot cry, but if he is still a human, he will be in a state of continuous tears at this moment.

What's wrong with me? What did that black light make me lose?

System stretched out his tentacles and carefully examined his body.

Thirty tentacles are intact, even the small hooks on the tentacles are intact, and his tentacles, eyes, and exoskeletons all over his body are all right.

But the more he probed his body with the [perception] power of his tentacles, the more System discovered what his body lacked, not simple limbs and organs, but an ability in the body.

[Numerical Code] Normal, [Pupation] Normal, [Insect Adaptability] Normal, [Perception] Normal, [Teleportation] Normal...

Feeling that the several talents that he depended on for survival had not been lost, System felt a little relieved, but instead of disappearing, the feeling of emptiness in his heart intensified.

System opened the [Tools menu] and looked at his self-information. All the talents and derivative abilities in his body are still intact, but in the column of his talents, there is a brand new talent— -【Curse of Severance】.

...

[Curse of Severance] (11/11): A special talent obtained by System from the self-sacrifice of the Rat Man wizard. Lose the ability to mate, lose a part of lifespan, increase the consumption of lifespan, and gain a small increase in physical fitness.

...

Perhaps because this ability has slightly improved his physical fitness and spirit, [Curse of Severance] was placed in his talent column.

System quickly used the ability of [Data Compilation] to adjust the information of [Curse of Severance] into the column of abnormal status.

After checking the information of this sinister curse, System finally knew what he had lost.

Because of his talent [numerical code], System felt a little bit of it, and then he could clearly perceive the curse attached to his body.

His lifespan lost 250 days in an instant, and his future lifespan consumption increased by about one-third, that is, for every three days, he would lose four days of lifespan.

Had he lost 250 days of his life as a grasshopper as an adult, there was a good chance he would have died on the spot.

But if he really got this curse when the grasshopper was an adult, maybe he wouldn't lose so many days of life, because this curse reduces lifespan proportionally.

Not only his lifespan, but because of this sinister curse, he also completely lost the ability to mate. Although he still has an organ responsible for mating, that organ has completely lost its ability.

System found that it was the same when he [sensed] himself with his tentacles before.

When he was just using his tentacles to [perceive] his physical state, he didn't realize that he was no longer able to produce that kind of excitement.

Although the title Xenogeneic Insect had already told him that he could not reproduce, it was only impossible to reproduce, and now he has become unable to reproduce and completely lost the ability to mate.

Once the mating is successful, the essence of life will be passed on to the offspring, and then die.

The [Curse of Severance] and the title Xenogeneic Insect were like a double insurance for System, so that he no longer had to worry about death due to mating.

But even so, System still felt very lost, not the lost 250 days of life, but simply because of his loss of mating ability.

Reluctance to mate and inability to mate are two completely different concepts.

Even if he was so afraid of mating and death, System did not have any thoughts of castrating himself.

The curse of cutting off descendants and shortening lifespan...

System's fangs trembled, being hit by this vicious curse, no one could be in a better mood than him.

Not only did System become sad and angry, he also became somewhat regretful, and he was even more afraid of these rat people.

In the final analysis, System still underestimated the enemy. Although he imagined many kinds of abilities of the Rat Man spellcaster, he still imagined the Rat Man's abilities too simply.

Just like this rat man casts a spell to sacrifice himself and use a curse in despair, in this magical world, he must have more and more strange abilities.

Even with the protection of Shava, it may not be able to preserve himself well.

System looked at the stone statue in the room. Before the rat-man wizard blew himself up to sacrifice himself, System felt a little unusual about the stone statue.

But now, System could not help but fall into it.

The stone statue stained with the black blood of the Ratman exuded an indescribable aura, which made System unconsciously stretch out his tentacles to touch the statue.

However, System quickly realized his behavior and gradually retracted his tentacles.

It seemed that it was because System resisted the temptation.

With an inexplicable and strange sound, the nearly 20-centimeter-sized stone statue on the bookshelf cracked little by little, and then shattered like sand.

The strange stone statues and the fear of the rat people made System have no plans to stay here.

System simply scoured some books in the deep room of the Ratman's cave, and then took Shava out of the Rat's Cave and returned to the lair he was constructing.

At the same time, System sent two worker ant knights to monitor the rat man cave in turn to see if there was any abnormality in the tree cave.

...

...

It was expected that the investigation from the rat did not happen again, and there were no unknown visitors in the rat man cave.

It seems that the rat sent to investigate these days is just the single action of this rat man spellcaster, and no other rat man is involved and informed.

After reading a pile of books left by the Rat Man wizard, System also roughly knew what the statue enshrined by the Rat Man was.

Although he didn't know the text in the book, System could still understand some of the pictures in the book. In a very delicate animal skin book, System saw a stone statue made by the Rat Man. A very similar picture, but this one is more beautiful.

The delicate animal skin book had a black outer skin, and the text on it was completely different from the text on the other books of the Rat Man wizard, and System still did not recognize it.

The portraits in this book seem to possess a strange power.

When System watched it for the first time, he even felt the existence of the paintings and calligraphy in the animal skins come to life for a moment, and those shadows even came alive, like smoke, and System even saw the dark red pupils hidden in the shadows...

However, when System continued to flip through the book and read it again, the existence in the animal skin portrait would become static again.

But the strange thing is that after System watched the video recording in the [Tools menu], the portrait of the book he had watched before came alive again, and System saw the red one again. eyeball.

That's not an illusion.

System speculates that the Rat Man wizard should have obtained the power because of the existence in the portrait.

However, System rummaged through all the books of the Rat Man wizards, but couldn't find a way to lift the curse, or in other words, even if there was a way to lift the curse in these books, System would not recognize it.