Law of the Swarm

Chapter 108 Black and the Butterfly

The activity of [Plague Slime] is about ten days, that is to say, if it is not dealt with, the plague bacteria in [Plague Slime] will survive for a long time.

System, who had already given up on the plague experiment, didn't know, because a few days ago he conducted an experiment on fish and shrimp spewing [plague mucus].

Hundreds of kilometers away, the converging streams formed a ratman gathering place next to the river. Because of drinking the river water, nearly one-third of the casualties gradually appeared.

About [-] ratmen and thousands of rats were infected with System's plague and died.

Even the Ratmen who were good at dealing with plagues couldn't handle the plague produced by System.

But it is precisely because of this powerful effect and the plague that will not infect all the ratmen, that the ratmen think it is a gift from Rafal, the god of plague and curse.

Perhaps by virtue of this plague, they can revive Rafal, who fell into a deep sleep and can only appear in his sleep, and descend an avatar in the main world to guide the progress of the rat people.

A ratman wizard collected some of System's plague and sent it to Helencia, the ratman's city.

……

……

System didn't know much about the disaster in a ratman gathering place hundreds of kilometers away. In fact, after a few days of experimenting on the plague, System got tired of studying the plague.

The effect of the plague will continue to be strengthened with the [Ability Strengthening Technique], and it will become stronger, but this will not increase System's life level.

Facing the deadly danger [Plague Slime] will not help either. After all, although this plague is deadly, it has a long delay and cannot be instantly fatal like a spider or a poisonous snake.

On the contrary, Rafal has been trying his best to lure him to continue to gain the power of the plague in his sleep. It seems that spreading the plague has many benefits for Rafal.

However, at that time, System didn't know much about the plague effect of [Plague Mucus]. He thought that the germs studied by the Ratman wizard were just tasteless. With his willpower, System successfully resisted the temptation of the evil god.

……

Since three days ago, System, who finished the plague experiment, has been researching the activation of [Body Transformation] from time to time.

By manipulating the gelatin of [Plague Slime] to continuously deform, System has a unique understanding of the deformation ability of [Body Deformation].

It's not that there is anything in common between the transformation of gelatin and the transformation ability of [Body Transformation], but the transformation ability of [Plague Slime] brought a kind of stone from other mountains that can attack The unique feeling of jade.

Even [intuition] brought System a feasible feeling, he could indeed activate the [Body Transformation] with a high level cap, and then allow his body and gelatin to transform at will.

But before activating [Body Transformation], System still had two things that he didn't know how to deal with.

One is that the butterfly chrysalis, suspected to be the remnant soul of the Glacier Lord, has reached the final stage of pupation, and it is estimated that it will break out of the chrysalis within two or three days.

These days, the Glacier Lord's consciousness has not been awakened, or System did not notice it when he woke up. After all, it is impossible for System to sense the butterfly pupae anytime and anywhere.

As the chrysalis was about to break out, the frosty breath emitted by the butterfly chrysalis became more and more intense. In order to prevent the cold air from the chrysalis from harming the ant people, System alone let the excavator create it. An underground chamber.

System didn't know whether to pupate the butterfly chrysalis in his nest, or send the butterfly chrysalis away, watching the butterfly chrysalis emerge from afar.

System was a little confused.

Compared to the entanglement that the butterfly chrysalis was about to break out of its chrysalis, which caused System to be entangled, there was another thing that made System helpless.

Blake, the extremely clever worker ant, is dying.

He wasn't infected with the plague, and he didn't suffer any special injuries. Black's lifespan was just about to reach its end.

System's ant people are generally gray in color because of the cold resistance he strengthened for the ant queen Linda, but they don't live longer than their predecessors, the dark brown ants.

The lifespan of ordinary black-brown worker ants is about ten months, and the worker ants Black may be the reason for the congenital deficiency. Its life span is even shorter than that of ordinary worker ants.

……

After System was reborn as a grasshopper, his view of things gradually became like that of a bug.

Just like humans can swat flies with a fly swatter without any burden, System can now kill any irrelevant life without any burden.

As long as killing those lives is beneficial to him, he will do it without hesitation.

He can kill insects just out of interest, because he has experimented with killing intelligent ratmen and gnolls, and even his own kind of grasshopper, and he can kill them mercilessly if necessary.

However, although his personality tends to be bug-like, System still retains some emotions.

In other words, even bugs, after having wisdom and thinking ability, will also have certain emotions, joy, anger, sorrow and joy.

It's like Shava likes shiny things and his tentacles; the little meat ball hates being alone and likes to fly outside; the excavator likes to add water and mud quietly with the dirt; the ant queen Linda likes to produce flowers for her when she has nothing to do. The ant eggs that lay down check the number; the hook that controls the lightning hates the rain...

Although he knew that Black's life span was short, System still became a little overwhelmed when he learned that Black was about to die.

Although System would feel sad when ordinary ant people died, but for existences like Shava and Black, System would undoubtedly cherish them more.

……

It was Black who told System that Black was about to die.

Black didn't have System's [Tools Menu] that could display lifespan information, but he still knew that his lifespan was about to come to an end, just like some old people who had reached the end of their lifespan in the previous life.

In fact, Black didn't feel too uneasy, he just told System about some big and small things that happened to the ants in System's nest in a normal tone as usual.

But when the conversation with System was about to end, Black suddenly asked System a strange question.

"Wang, after those ratmen die, will they still think? Can they still see and feel, but they just can't make their bodies move?"

There was a tinge of expectation in Black's spiritual message, but System hadn't heard anything wrong at that time.

Without thinking too much, System replied: "Probably not, death is death, why do you ask this?"

After waiting for more than a dozen breaths, Black sent a spiritual message to System.

"...Is that so, I just thought of this question suddenly." It seemed that after knowing System's answer, Black's mental message was a little lonely.

After a while, Black didn't leave System's empty room to go about her business.

And just when System was puzzled, Black suddenly sent another spiritual message to System.

"Wang, if I die, can you take off my eyes before burying me? The tentacles are also fine, I want to stay by your side."

And hearing this, System finally realized that Black's life was coming to an end.

(End of this chapter)