The flood of grasshoppers gathered together and flew in a group over the forest. It was just like the scenes from System's bloodline inheritance.

  Perhaps they would fly over rivers, kes, mountains, and seas, and they would eventually reach even the snowy gciers.

  But none of that was relevant to System.

  After flying with the grasshopper swarm for more than ten minutes, his speed gradually slowed down until he finally stopped. The path he was going to take was different from the one these grasshoppers were on, after all.

  After he watched the queen's figure fade into the distance, System began his return trip to the part of the forest he was familiar with.

  'Now that those grasshoppers have destroyed the pnts around here, it looks like I'll have to find a new pce to forage.'

  'It's a pity that I'll have to abandon the food storage warehouse, but it doesn't matter. It won't take long to fill up another one.'

  'I wonder if Quin's trip will go as well as she expects? I hope everything works out for her...'

  System shook his head to dispel his sentimental thoughts and flew back down to the ground.

  As always, he turned on [Information Reading] to detect any surrounding movements. He noticed that there were hundreds of ants on the ground biting a mouse's body and jumped over. This was the first mouse that he'd seen since the rainstorm.

  The mouse's body still looked fresh, so it should have died somewhat recently. It was obviously a mouse that had survived the rainstorm. System pnned to snatch some of its meat from the ants.

  However, at this moment, he sensed a peaceful and tranquil aura spreading from afar. It was emanating from the same direction the grasshopper swarm had been flying in.

  When he sensed this peaceful aura that had a feeling of being close to nature, a figure emerged in System's mind—the old druid.

  As the special aura spread, the sound of cicadas that had been ringing through the forest suddenly quieted down.

  System saw a blue dragonfly that had nded on a pnt bud not far away suddenly fly up and head toward the source of the peaceful aura.

  At the same time, the hundreds of reddish-brown ants on the ground near the mouse corpse became chaotic. They wanted to go to the source of the peaceful aura, but they were also unwilling to give up on the food they'd found.

  This peaceful aura had a strong attraction for insects. System estimated that it was more than ten times stronger than the aura that had been sent out by the grasshopper queen.

  'Is it the old druid? What's he going to do?'

  System jumped to the tip of the branch he was on. In his blurred vision, he could see that an extremely unusual green glow had appeared in the distant forest.

  'What's that?'

  He hesitated for a moment, then spread his wings and started flying toward the green light.

  After he flew for a few minutes, the grasshopper swarm that had flown far away once again became clear in his eyes.

  Countless grasshoppers, along with some other flying insects such as dragonflies, cicadas, and butterflies, had surrounded a giant green ball of light that was about ten meters in diameter.

  The grasshoppers flew around the glowing green ball of light like a tornado and exuded an indescribable sense of excitement.

  The atmosphere was once more that of a festival, and the intensity was even stronger than it had been when the grasshoppers had first gathered together earlier.

  The flying insects surrounded the green light ball and absorbed the energy it was emitting. They became more excited and their flying speed grew faster and faster.

  System was also greatly attracted to the light ball, and he was somewhat tempted to fly into it.

  Would he become faster like the grasshoppers by swallowing this light ball's energy? He was just about ready to fly over to get a taste of the green energy when he suddenly stopped.

  System noticed a figure standing under the green light ball. He saw the old druid's emotionless face, which was completely different from the smile he'd been wearing back when he'd rescued the injured bird.

  For a moment, System was stunned. He suddenly understood.

  He finally realized why he'd felt that something was wrong the second time he'd seen the druid, back when the kind-hearted druid had been rescuing the bird.

  Beneath the disabled bird, there were actually two ants that were also seriously injured. While rescuing the bird, the druid had completely ignored the ants.

  People like to choose cats and dogs as pets. When they see others abusing their pets, they may even regard them as scum. However, those same people could easily kill flies and mosquitoes without batting an eye.

  After he tried to think about the situation from the old druid's perspective, System suddenly understood what was going on.

  In the druid's mind, grasshoppers might not be creatures of nature worth getting close to, but pests that destroy nature instead!

  If the duty of a druid was to protect the harmony of nature, then the druid's actions at this time were self-evident.

  This rge green light ball was probably something simir to the herbal fragrance that was produced by the slime.

  It was a trap!

  'But they just want to explore this vast world!'

  System could now see several skinny grasshoppers falling from the sky after losing their strength. Their wings were still spread out, but they were motionless. Grasshoppers were starting to fall from the sky like snowfkes, but the others were still reveling in the air without knowing what was happening...

  Reluctance, loneliness, resentment, and other emotions filled System's heart. The way he looked at the old druid was now completely different.

  He activated [Information Reading].

  A blue ring seemed to fsh in System's compound eyes. He was searching for the grasshopper queen. If anyone could stop the grasshoppers from committing suicide at this time, it would be her.

  While he was searching for the queen, a figure suddenly rushed toward him at a very fast speed and grabbed him tightly with its limbs.

  Before System could find the queen, she found him first and pulled him away.

  She was flying very fast. Even while holding onto System, her flight speed was two or three times faster than his full-speed flight. She carried him away from the green light ball as fast as she could.

  "Don't...get close, that green light...is dangerous..."

  The grasshopper queen sent a mental message to System, and her message revealed how worried she was.

  "Danger? Did you..."

  The queen didn't respond to System's mental message. She just clutched him tightly and fled.

  As she continued to fly away from the druid's trap, System felt her body twitch from time to time, and the frequency of her twitching was getting higher and higher.

  The grasshopper queen had obviously fallen into the old druid's trap, just like the grasshoppers who had already fallen from the sky.

  System twisted his body hard, but found that he couldn't break free from the queen's limbs at all.

  Her body kept twitching more and more frequently. After a few minutes, her speed gradually slowed down. Finally, the queen could no longer maintain her flying state, and the two grasshoppers crashed to the ground.

  Even though she'd fallen from the sky, the queen's limbs were still tightly wrapped around System.

  He twisted his body again, but suddenly felt a strange power that was coming from the grasshopper queen's body.

  He felt a tingling and refreshing feeling all over, which was somewhat simir to how he felt each time his level increased, but completely different at the same time.

  This mysterious power seemed to act on System's mind. His mind was filled with scenes that seemed to be memories, all of which were from the perspective of a brown and yellow little grasshopper.

  The compound eyes of this little grasshopper had much stronger vision than System's eyes, and they could even make out subtle changes in the clouds high above.

  He saw the little grasshopper escape from an ant's mandibles shortly after birth and watched it eat leaf buds while growing up. The experiences of this grasshopper reminded System of his own cautious life back when he'd first woken up in this world.

  This little grasshopper often stared up at the clouds in the sky and liked to jump to the tops of the trees to look around, even if that sometimes led to it being attacked by birds and almost dying.

  The scenes connected together one by one, and it only took a brief moment for System to observe several months of the grasshopper's experiences.

  At the end of these scenes, System also saw himself, a green-tailed grasshopper who always liked to twitch the antennae on his head while he thought.

  System could feel the emotions the star of the scene, the grasshopper queen, had felt whenever she'd looked at him...

  As the scenes transmitted by the grasshopper queen ended, her limbs that had tightly grasped onto System's body slowly loosened.

  System's experience bar had reached the peak of level 10 at some point, and he'd gained the Special Talent [Mental Transmission], as well as the Derived Skill [Mental Connection] from [Mental Transmission].

  ...

  [Mental Transmission] (6/22): A unique Special Talent given to System by Quin. Provides the ability to communicate with all things and transmit certain powers.

  [Mental Connection] (6/11): A Derived Skill obtained from [Mental Transmission]. Provides the ability to connect minds with another party, allowing the two parties to temporarily communicate.

  ...

  The grasshopper queen's body twitched slightly, and her limbs could no longer move. Only one slender antenna was left on her head. She kept reaching it out toward System, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach him.

  He moved closer and touched his antennae to the queen's antenna. He knew that she wanted him to do this.

  Using his newly acquired [Mental Connection] skill, System connected his mind with the queen's mind again.

  "...I couldn't see, that vast world..."

  The grasshopper queen's golden compound eyes were a little dim. She stared up at the clouds in the sky and sighed softly, then turned her dim eyes to System.

  "Can you help me, with one thing..."

  System immediately responded, "Yes, as long as I can do it."

  "I know you like, to eat meat...so eat me, take me to see, go and see..."

  As a gentle breeze drifted by, the grasshopper queen's antenna drooped down. Her body was completely motionless...

  "You..."

  System sent a message using [Mental Connection], but there was no one on the other end.

  For some reason, his body trembled slightly, and all kinds of inexplicable emotions surged unconsciously in his heart.

  He tried to stop his trembling body. According to the queen's st wish, he slowly aimed his mandibles at her body, opened, closed, opened again, and closed again, over and over and over...

  System wanted to bite her with his mandibles, but found that he couldn't do it at all.

  He finally bit down...

  He used his mandibles and legs to start digging into the ground!

  He was going to bury her body.