System turned his head back and forth. Through the gaps between the trees in the forest, he saw fshes of a white exoskeleton the color of snow. The translucent wings on the creature's back were vibrating at a high frequency.

  The unknown creature was at least half a meter wide and was moving extremely fast. It didn't attack System. Instead, it just kept rapidly flying around him in circles.

  'Is it trying to distract me, then attack when my attention wavers?'

  A blue light fshed in System's eyes again.

  'Not good!'

  System finally figured out why the unknown creature kept flying around him. As the white creature flew by, sticky silk threads would appear between the branches of the trees.

  The transparency of this silk thread was far higher than that of ordinary spider silk. Even though System had [System's Eye], if he didn't specifically look for it, the spider silk would be easy to miss.

  He knew that his best option now was to leave this pce as soon as possible before the silk threads were fully id out. If he didn't, then as soon as the trap was complete, he'd lose his chance to escape.

  However, System didn't act rashly. The opponent was too fast. If he fled without thinking, the opponent would easily catch up, and System would fall into an unfavorable situation.

  [Frost Form] activated!

  A yer of light blue ice crystal armor gradually covered the surface of System's body. His brown tentacles turned blue, and sharp ice spikes appeared at their tips.

  Because of his body's growth over the past six months, along with his improved control over his frost power, the energy consumption of [Frost Form] had been greatly reduced. Now, he'd only become exhausted after staying in [Frost Form] for about half an hour. The time it took System to transform had also been greatly reduced.

  He waited quietly. Realistically, all he could do now was wait. His thirty flexible, powerful tentacles tipped with ice crystal spikes were his greatest reliance.

  ...

  After System's careful observation, he finally saw the unknown white shadow clearly. The creature was half a meter in size, and he had a spider's body topped with a bee's wings.

  System felt some emotional fluctuations from the oddly shaped white spider. It seemed like the other party didn't want to kill him; the spider wanted to capture him.

  "Are you an insect?"

  Finding that he could sense the other party's emotions, System immediately used [Mental Transmission] and [Mental Connection] to try to communicate with him.

  Although he was sure that the ice crystal spikes on his tentacles could pierce through the other party's skull, System had a feeling that even if he did so, the other party wouldn't die immediately.

  If the creature had shallow wisdom and could communicate, then System's most powerful weapon would no longer be his frost power, but the wisdom that he'd inherited from his previous life.

  ...

  After hearing System's mental message, the half-meter-round giant white spider gradually reduced his flying speed. He soon nded a short distance from System. The spider had an expression on his face that made him appear to be thinking. At the same time, he conveyed a confused emotion.

  "Same, mental ability, as Ying. But you...not Ying."

  The white spider obviously had insect blood in his body and could communicate with System.

  His mental message to System had been very clunky. In terms of his ability to organize sentences in mental messages, the spider was at about the same level of intelligence as Shava had been before her second pupation.

  Although his nguage level was poor, System was very surprised by the content of the white spider's mental message.

  Ying—the insect beast that had named Quin.

  System had seen the vague appearance of that insect beast in a memory that the grasshopper queen had sent him, but that memory had been very hazy.

  'Could it be that Quin gave Ying the [Mental Transmission] ability before giving it to me? Who exactly is this Ying?'

  System's mind was full of questions.

  Looking at the nearby white spider that seemed to have calmed down, System continued asking questions.

  "Who is Ying?"

  The white spider showed a thoughtful look again. After a while, he answered System.

  "Master's, insect beast...no, not master's. She is, traitor, insect beast."

  "Master? Who is your master?" System asked.

  "Fes...Fes...Fes...Fes...I forgot."

  The white spider stuttered and transmitted mental messages many times. He seemed to know the name of his master, but for some reason, he couldn't remember it right now.

  "Did your master ask you to catch me?"

  System wore a puzzled expression. He really didn't know how a grasshopper like him could provoke someone to capture him.

  The white spider showed a thoughtful look again, then he answered, "Yes."

  Hearing the white spider's answer, System immediately asked, "Why do you have to catch me?"

  System's expression became serious. Fortunately, he had the [Mental Transmission] ability, and the white spider that had come to catch him was also an insect with above-average intelligence. Otherwise, even if he killed the spider insect, he wouldn't be able to learn the truth of the matter.

  The white spider's poor wisdom was obviously insufficient to easily answer System's question. He thought for a long time before responding. "Master, mission. Catch special...reach limit, insects."

  After he heard the mental messages sent back by the white spider, System breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like the other party's target wasn't him specifically. The two of them had just happened to meet by coincidence.

  "Did your master send you to capture insects that heard the Voice of the World and gained special abilities?"

  System guessed the other party's purpose after a little analysis, but he didn't know what the white spider's master was thinking. Looking for insects in the snowy Lilt Forest was going to be very difficult.

  System naturally couldn't know that the master of the insect beast was located far away on the twenty-sixth floor of the Endless Abyss, or that he had no idea about the changes that had taken pce in the main world's Lilt Forest over the past six months.

  "Listen to, the world...voice of, the world...master also, said."

  When he heard the white spider's answer, System nodded. It seemed that his guess had been right.

  He thought for a while before asking, "Must you complete the task given to you by your master?"

  "Must complete!"

  The white spider's mental message was full of unusually firm and excited emotions. System found that this white spider trusted his master very much, just like System's ant subjects trusted him.

  System knew that he might be able to keep communicating with the other party using [Mental Transmission] to dey for a while, but a battle between the two of them was inevitable.

  "Can you count?" System asked the white spider.

  "Ying, taught me."

  System's insect face showed a strange look. It was Ying again. If not for the special situation right now, he really wanted to ask in detail what kind of insect beast Ying was.

  "Then do you know how many limbs you have now?"

  After System asked, he began waiting. The white spider quickly raised its limbs and counted them.

  "One...two...three, four...six...seven, eight...nine, nine."

  It took nearly half a minute for the white spider to count its limbs. Although he counted wrong, the result wasn't very important to System.

  System stretched out his tentacles and slowly moved toward the white spider, gradually moving his thirty tentacles closer to the white spider's body.

  "You finished checking your limbs, so count mine now. Can you count how many limbs I have?"

  The white spider quickly stared at System's limbs and counted them one by one, while System secretly accumuted strength in his tentacles.

  As the number grew higher, the white spider counted with more and more difficulty. At the moment it reached twenty-three—

  Foosh!

  Except for the four tentacles that were supporting System's body, his other twenty-six tentacles all stabbed forth together at full strength!

  Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff...

  Skull, thorax, abdomen...

  The white spider's body was simultaneously pierced twenty-six times by System's [Ice Spike]-tipped tentacles. Its reddish-brown blood spshed everywhere.

  Thirteen tentacles pierced the spider's skull, four pierced its thorax, and the remaining nine pierced its abdomen.

  System thought that only one tentacle piercing the spider's skull wouldn't be enough to kill him, but with so many tentacles piercing his body at the same time, it would be impossible for the spider to survive.

  However, as System pulled out his blood-stained tentacles, the subsequent developments made his body tremble uncontrolbly.

  "23, 24...25..."

  The white spider was still counting System's tentacles, and the white spider's body that had been pierced by his tentacles was wriggling and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye...