Laws of the Insect Hive

Chapter 53: Dangerous Situation!

Roar—

Suddenly, the dragon opened its huge mouth and let out a dragon’s roar, which made System’s blood boil.

The dragon’s roar and its body’s unique aura made System’s body tremble.

System had just been mechanically flapping his wings to maintain his state of hovering in the sky. The sudden dragon’s roar stunned him, and he lost control of his body.

System could see the frost-covered teeth in the dragon’s mouth and a small tongue in the dragon’s throat, just like humans’.

Meanwhile, just as System thought the dragon would swallow him in one mouthful and become its snack, the dragon gradually closed his mouth.

System could feel the blatant banter in the dragon’s eyes and expression. Obviously, the dragon did not want to eat him but just wanted to scare him and see his reaction.

The dragon closed its mouth, but System seemed to hear the dragon speak in an unknown language.

That language was similar to its previous roar from afar, the volume was not high, but it appeared in System’s mind very clearly. Also, System could understand that language completely.

“So it was you, you’re a-a…” The Frost Dragon revealed a puzzled expression. It seemed to be in doubt as to what System was. In the end, it was unable to figure out just what System was no matter what.

“What are you again?”

The Frost Dragon’s voice was filled with hesitation, but after a while, it lost its patience as if not wanting to recall such an unimportant matter.

“Forget it. Most likely, even if I ask you, you won’t be able to understand with your intelligence.”

The Frost Dragon let out a sound full of laziness and opened its mouth to yawn. Then, it flew away.

…

That Frost Dragon, whose body was covered with blue ice crystals, had flown away. That dragon’s colossal body did not even create a little breeze when it flew. It was a peculiar spectacle.

However, System had no time to ponder over the dragon’s flying state. The dragon’s yawn had emitted a weird cold aura, and part of it had entered System’s body.

In the beginning, System did not feel anything was abnormal, as such an aura may be cold, but not impossible to endure it. He even realized that his EXP bar had suddenly increased from 3% to 11%, meaning that the cold aura was beneficial to his body.

However, as time passed, System felt that his body was stiffening. Simultaneously, a layer of frost was gradually forming on the surface of his body, and that layer of frost slowly became thicker.

System also noticed that his flapping wings’ speed was becoming slower. It was unknown when, but his wings had already been covered in a layer of hard ice crystals.

His long antennae had already hardened from the cold, so even if he gradually flew downward, his antennae would not vibrate even the slightest.

System’s wings became much stiffer while his body got heavier, and soon, he would lose his ability to fly as more frost was covering his body.

In the end, System’s descending speed increased.

…

It was unknown why, but System was thinking of his recent insect hunts and the process. Due to his exceptional vision and agile movements, looking for food outside was already as relaxing as it could be.

After System caught some insects, he would often only eat a few mouthfuls before throwing the remaining insect carcasses away. Also, he would even use his tentacles to inspect and experiment on some unlucky insects.

He would choose to kill and eat a few mouthfuls of some insects while throwing some away after experimenting. However, as for whether he actually killed those insects or set them free, even System himself could not remember without checking the images his [Tools Menu] recorded.

Thinking back, the dragon’s attitude and treatment toward System was identical to how he treated those normal insects.

The dragon might only be curious and wanted to see what he was on a whim.

After seeing System, it scared him first and left after losing interest.

However, it was the cold aura, which the dragon emitted unconsciously, that led System to his current predicament.

System’s spread-out wings had already lost all ability to flap, and even his limbs and tentacles would gradually be unable to move.

Shortly after, his always-beating heart also stopped.

As System’s spread wings formed a special angle, his body was like a spinning top, spiraling and falling toward the ground.

His body stiffened and could not be controlled, but his mind was not damaged. Thus, his eyes could still clearly view the surroundings. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling.

System could clearly hear the cracking sounds of his wings as they collided with the tree branches. His originally soft and tough wings were like fragile ice. Half of his wing had broken into quite a few pieces the instant it hit the tree branch. The exoskeleton, which was in charge of protecting the wings, had also broken from the root due to the collision.

Subsequently, his body came in contact with another few tree branches, and finally, he landed within a pile of thick dead leaves.

One of his powerful hind legs had completely shattered while only half of the other was left. As for his limbs, only two of the other four could be counted as complete. The two antennae on his head were both broken off, and even one of his eyes had shattered due to the collision. There were also various cracks on his abdomen due to the hits…

System discovered various of his shattered body parts in a pile of dead leaves nearby.

However, what was surprising was that System did not die. Moreover, as he had landed onto that pile of dead leaves from the sky, his heart had started to beat again. The beating frequency was extremely slow, only jumping once after every few seconds.

System opened his [Tools Menu] and checked on the information about his body. Surprisingly, even as his body had turned into this, he still had 71% Health left. It was unknown how such a thing was calculated.

“It might be due to the insects’ tenacious vitality. If other creatures were to become like this after falling, they would definitely die.”

System recalled Shava and the mouse’s battle. Even when she had lost her limbs, Shava had continued struggling to move.

However, Shava’s case was different from System’s current predicament—his body had been frozen stiff. He tried to move his but was unable to do so. He could not even move his mandibles.

System could only feel the snowflakes falling from the sky occasionally. Those snowflakes would immediately melt after dropping onto the dead leaves, but if they landed on him, they could maintain their snowflake state and not melt.

Apparently, his body was colder than the snowflakes.

As time passed, System noticed that his remaining Health was decreasing steadily. In less than ten minutes, his Health decreased from 71%to 53%. He was still unable to move his body, but his heart rate increased slightly.

Who knew when he could recover the ability to move?

After ten more minutes, System could feel that his body was getting slightly weaker. Also, the snowflakes, which landed on the dead leaves beside him, needed more than ten seconds to completely melt now, and his [Instinct] gave him an uneasy feeling.

In reality, there was no need for [Instinct]’s warning as System already knew the seriousness of the matter. The snowflakes in the surroundings went from melting immediately to melting after more than ten seconds after landing on the ground, meaning the temperature was dropping.

If System could not recover his ability to move, then as the temperature gradually decreased, it would be impossible for him to move even if he wanted to…