CH 3

C3 – The Horrifying Giant Beetle

Boom! crack!

Above the looming curtains of fog, a series of explosions echoed, making the air current chaotic around the vicinity. A bolt of lightning streaked past the sky, illuminating the boundless land, and disappeared in a flash.

The darkness of night came, singing of an unknown storm that would soon come.

Little Insect Girl finished eating a red insect and climbed her way into a hollow tree branch.

Looking down from above, the countless broken eggs were already occupied by a dense swarm of insects. Among them, there was a beetle that was hundreds of times bigger than a larva crawling among the insects. It attacked the red insects that threaded its way.

“What is that?”

For some reason, she felt a sense of familiarity.

‘Oh, I’m going to die, I’m going to die. Is my brain poisoned? Why do I feel this terrifying thing is familiar and kind?’

Little Insect Girl quickly crawled towards the inner part of the tree branch. She discovered that there was actually an unknown creature occupying the area.

It was a white creature with eight legs and a head full of tentacles. It looked like a mite and seemed to be stronger than a giant red insect.

‘Let’s call it giant mite for now.’

“Is it gonna be safe here? Why can’t I find a quiet and cozy place to stay with leisure?” Little Insect Girl thought helplessly. She slowly wriggled to a small concave area and used her tail to encompass her upper body.

She appeared similar to a snake. However, even the snake looked more graceful than her in this position.

Well, it wasn’t her wish to reincarnate in such a strange and disgusting creature’s body.

“I really want to go back in the past. It’s better to be a human and live a comfortable life” She reminisced about her wonderful times with her family and friends. Although most of her memories were already blurry, it still made Little Insect Girl feel uncomfortable.

The storm soon came. The deafening sound of dripping water was the only thing that remained, mighty and ferocious like a Tsunami itself. She was clearly residing deep inside the tree branch, but the water still made its way inside.

Every droplet of water was much bigger than Little Insect Girl’s body.

The outside world had already lost its vision to the unstoppable rain, and nothing could be seen except for the flickering rain droplets.

Little Insect Girl looked at the outside world in a daze. She did not know when, but a giant mite slowly crawled nearby.

“Can I eat it?” Little Insect Girl gulped, and her saliva started pouring out nonstop.

‘Maybe I can. If I obtain the components and skills, my surviving ability will also become stronger.’

The first time she encountered this kind of situation, she used [Venom Spit], so she could test it out now too.

Opening her mouth, she spat out some viscous liquid at the head of the giant mite.

Sizzle ~

A familiar corrosive sound echoed from the new foe. The giant mite rolled on the ground, and struggled with all its might. It looked like it was dealing with a lot of pain.

“I’m sorry.” Little Insect Girl climbed up and cleaved off two limbs with her tail. She went forward and picked them up, stuffing them into her mouth.

It didn’t taste as good as white and red insects. It tasted a bit like durian and its body fluid was also gray. After entering her mouth, it was very sticky.

“Oh, it’s a bit disgusting.”

However, it wasn’t that bad.

Little Insect Girl crushed the outer shell after a lot of efforts and swallowed the entire insect’s limb.

[Evolution points + 3]

“Eh, 3, so many?”

Compared to Little Insect Girl’s size, the giant mite was not too big. After about half an hour, she had already swallowed half of the mite’s corpse and obtained a Gnawing Skill Card.

[Combat Strength increased. Data obtained.]

Insect Girl (Mutated white insect, unnamed)

Level: 1

HP: 5 / 5

Endurance: 58 / 90

Components: Insect Fang (Attack 1), Soft Biological Shell (Defense 1-3)

Skill Card: Gnawing

Rating: Small Creature (Possesses the lowest level of combat strength, even ants look down on it)

…

“Ah, what a cruel remark.”

After her combat power increased, only then did she become a small creature? In other words, in the past, she was not even worth mentioning.

Little Insect Girl was trying her best to devour the whole body of the giant mite. At that time, she looked out of the tree branch and saw a huge black silhouette appear at the entrance of the cave.

It was the beetle she saw earlier.

Many of the white insects were soaked in the rain, and crawled deeper into the tree branches as if they were fleeing for their lives.

The power of nature ruled everything, and it was proved once again. The heavy rain had brought such disaster to the insects. Looking at their flustered appearance, they just looked like small boats sailing with countless holes in their body.

Little Insect Girl did not know why, but she felt a little emotional. Speaking of which, she was also a white insect, although she was a little different from ordinary ones.

The enemy was probably the red insect.

Just as she was lost in her own world, a black tentacle suddenly extended from the edge of the tree branch and clenched around her, pulling her outside.

“Ahhh!” Little Insect Girl’s eyes opened wide in fear. Under the storm, she was lifted into the air and then one… No, dozens of big black eyes looked at her.

Each eye was bigger than her body. Obviously, the huge beetle was observing her and each eye showed deep curiosity.

“Don’t eat me, don’t eat me…”

It was too terrifying, how could there be such a scary monster?

It was like a huge mutated mouth full of densely packed black teeth. Little Insect Girl trembled under the breeze of cold wind. Her soft insect tail kept protesting and struggling, but it was to no avail.

However, the beetle’s current mood was probably even more depressing than hers.

‘Why did I give birth to such a thing?’

‘It has only half an insect body, what is the other half?’

‘I’ve never seen it before.’

Both parties stared at each other for a long time. Just when Little Insect Girl was about to lose her patience, the big beetle finally put her back into the tree branch.

She was instantly surrounded by a large group of white insects.

“Ahhhh, I’m afraid of piles of holes.”

There were too many of them. One or two of them was still acceptable, but it was disgusting to pile them up like this.

Humans really couldn’t stand such a scene.

She squeezed her way to a high slope and pushed down the surrounding white insect. Little Insect Girl majestically coiled her body and looked down at those brainless and lazy creatures.

Life… oh no, it’s really hard to live with insects.

At the end of her line of sight, the white insects that occupied the majority were being chased again. The enemy was a group of giant mites. They were numerous, and their hunting efficiency was far higher than the red insects.

The mother beetle was probably in the dark as though what had been transpiring there. She originally wanted to protect her descendants, but she didn’t expect there to be even more dangerous enemies inside.

There was heavy rain outside, and there were strong enemies inside. It really was a bad situation.

“No, I can’t lose hope.”

If she didn’t continue to work hard, wouldn’t she be finished if she encountered even more terrifying creatures?

Little Insect Girl knew that the stronger the reproductive ability of a creature, the higher the mortality rate. This kind of small creature, giving birth to tens of thousands of insects at one go, could really be killed at any second. If she didn’t work hard to evolve, perhaps she wouldn’t have been able to survive to this point.

“I’m sorry, my fellow brothers and sisters.”

Quickly moving to the nearest white insect, Little Insect Girl began to eat nonstop.

When her stomach was full, the extra energy would be stored in the Soft Biological Shell to provide a powerful defense. In short, this was probably a good opportunity to accumulate Evolution points and Skill Cards.