In the days that followed, Wang Chong pondered for a long time, deciding he should check on the other nurse insect.
After a short while, he noticed many eggs had hatched, leaving behind empty shells.
Wang Chong was stunned once again. He saw the remnants of the other nurse insect's body!
It looked like an over-eaten cabbage.
Wang Chong's heart sank, and he immediately turned back.
He had been complaining about his grotesque form, but now he understood. This fat body was meant to be the queen insect's first meal!
Anxious, he rushed back as fast as he could.
He had seen queen insects countless times before. Even as larvae, they were terrifying. In his current state, he was nothing more than a sitting duck.
Using the metal fragment from his brain as a reference, he now knew his body size: about as thick as a ping-pong ball and as long as a sausage.
In comparison, the insect eggs were only the size of sesame seeds. Generally, newly hatched insects were about twice the size of their eggs. Though two sesame seeds might seem insignificant, Wang Chong didn't dare underestimate them. He was certain that as soon as a queen insect hatched and devoured him, it would grow several times larger within minutes!
He had been unable to find a way out all this time, and he absolutely refused to wait for the larvae to consume him.
The only option now was to devour them first.
The nurse insect's specialty was eating! Wang Chong roared internally:
"Before you devour me, I'll eat you all first!"
The hatched eggs at the other end of the cave differed from those before him.
The eggs here were slightly smaller, with thinner, more delicate shells, and a whiter color.
Looking at the dense mass of eggs, Wang Chong felt a chill. Even if only a thousandth of them hatched, he would be doomed!
Although Wang Chong felt that becoming an insect made life meaningless, he believed that a bad life was better than no life at all. He wasn't ready to resign himself to being devoured.
After finding a suitable spot, Wang Chong took a deep breath. The short, thick legs under his body worked like conveyor belts, continuously feeding eggs into his mouth.
Initially, the human part of Wang Chong felt nauseated, but... the taste wasn't bad...
It was somewhat like soup dumplings, or perhaps beef balls...
So, Wang Chong ate with relish, despite feeling incredibly disgusted...
He tried hard not to think about what he was eating, imagining them as just a mass of soup dumplings!
It was either their death or his own!
Devour!
Devour!
Wang Chong didn't dare waste a moment. His mouth worked non-stop, quickly clearing a large area. He roughly estimated that he had swallowed no fewer than five hundred eggs.
The other nurse insect hadn't come looking for him when its eggs hatched, suggesting that each had its own territory. The urgent task now was to consume all the eggs in his area!
If time allowed, he'd clear the entire place!
After eating about two thousand eggs, Wang Chong suddenly noticed a change in temperature. He realized he could use the day-night temperature difference to estimate time.
With this in mind, he paid closer attention.
He noticed that in about a day, he could consume around ten thousand eggs. However, after reaching about nine thousand, his pace slowed significantly. He had to control the compression in his "abdomen" to squeeze the eggs in his stomach, making room for more.
There were millions of eggs here, and Wang Chong knew that insect eggs typically hatched in about a week! This meant he wouldn't even consume a tenth of them before they started hatching – counting from when he "reborn."
Wang Chong grew anxious, silently praying that the hatched areas had other nurse insects.
For now, he could only do his best!
He focused on devouring as many eggs as possible in his area.
However, by the second day, things changed. Somehow, Wang Chong's appetite decreased dramatically...
He had been feeling nauseous all along, but his nurse insect instincts had kept his appetite strong. Now, even the nurse insect part of him seemed "tired" of eating...
Wang Chong cursed his luck, forcing himself to suppress the nausea and continue swallowing one egg after another.
But this slowed his pace considerably, and worst of all, after consuming about three thousand eggs, his stomach was already full!
Wang Chong grew increasingly anxious. Initially, the eggs were full of fluid, like beef balls, but over the past few days, they had become more like chicken eggs, and now they were starting to solidify!
He strained to look back and see how many eggs remained around him. Glancing at his tail, he paused, suddenly realizing something was off.
It seemed... his body had become shorter and darker in color.
After observing for a while, he confirmed his suspicion.
Why was this happening? Wang Chong was startled. Could he be undergoing metamorphosis?
"But now isn't the time for evolution! Damn it!" Wang Chong roared internally, disregarding what he might become. He continued to compress his "stomach" while devouring more eggs.
After half a day of this, his body felt like it was about to burst from overeating, especially the rear half.
Wang Chong persisted a bit longer, but the pain grew increasingly intense, forcing him to stop.
"Damn it! Am I giving birth or something?!" Wang Chong cursed inwardly. If he were still human, he'd be rolling on the ground clutching his stomach by now.
"Ah!" Suddenly, his body split open at the rear, and an oily white liquid gushed out.
"That feels so good!" Like releasing days of pent-up urine, Wang Chong felt a wave of relief wash over him. He vaguely sensed that... a hard shell had formed inside his stomach?
Wang Chong was puzzled, but the oily white fluid continued to flow out, causing him to panic again: "Will I die from excessive blood loss?"
But Wang Chong was helpless at this point, able only to watch as the fluid kept pouring out.
Meanwhile, nearby eggs had started to move occasionally.
He resigned himself to his fate.
Now completely drained of energy, and unable to stop the hatching of so many eggs even if he had the strength, Wang Chong simply lay on the ground waiting for death.
However, the expected weakness didn't come. Instead, Wang Chong felt more energized.
Noticing his once round belly now resembled a deflated balloon, Wang Chong twisted his body and shook it off. The skin fell away, revealing a deep gray body underneath.
"So I really did evolve?" Wang Chong was surprised. Although his body was still clumsy and bulky, it was much better than before.
His legs seemed to have grown longer too. What delighted Wang Chong most was that each leg now ended in a sharp point – he finally had some form of weapon.
A very faint sound caught his attention. Looking over, he saw a leg thinner than a needle emerging from one of the eggs!
Shocked, Wang Chong quickly ran over, stabbed it with his leg, and twisted, killing the larva.
With this development, Wang Chong dared not delay. He moved swiftly, stepping on eggs, using his legs and what he decided to call his "hands" for now. Each strike punctured an egg.
More and more eggs began to shake, with increasing frequency.
Finally, a larva broke free from its shell! It jumped up and looked around, freezing in place.
Wang Chong inwardly sneered. Your supposed feast is now here to kill you! He rushed over and impaled it.
But in just a short while, dozens of larvae had emerged. Seeing that the situation was beyond control, Wang Chong fled towards a spot on the cave wall he had identified earlier.
That part of the wall was slightly concave, offering protection on three sides. Here, he could at least put up a fight for a while.
More and more eggs were hatching. Initially, about ten larvae emerged per minute, but this quickly escalated to over a thousand per minute. Terrifyingly, the larvae instinctively sought out nurse insects upon hatching. Finding none, they began to devour nearby unhatched eggs, with some even starting to cannibalize each other.
Soon, a dense swarm of insects filled the cave.
Wang Chong hardly dared to breathe. Although he was much larger than the larvae – like an elephant compared to chickens – having witnessed the horror of queen insects firsthand, he didn't dare underestimate them. In fact, he was afraid and praying for survival.
The newly hatched larvae had no wings and could only crawl on the ground, limiting their range somewhat.
Wang Chong's position was relatively hidden, but given the sheer number of insects, a few groups eventually discovered him. Most ignored him, with only one group pausing briefly.
Wang Chong sighed in relief, guessing that in his current form, they couldn't distinguish friend from foe.
Based on his understanding, larvae required massive amounts of energy when hatching. It was well known that the human brain contained the most energy in the body. Nurse insects not only cared for the larvae but also seemed to maximize this energy transfer.
After devouring the nurse insects, the larvae should be able to leave.
But now, unable to find nurse insects to consume, the larvae had started devouring unhatched eggs. As more larvae hatched and fewer eggs remained, they began to cannibalize each other.
To human eyes, this might have looked like tiny insects fighting. But to Wang Chong, it was both awe-inspiring and terrifying!
This was warfare on the scale of tens of thousands of armies!
Wang Chong knew that as fewer prey remained, some larvae would eventually turn their attention to him.
As he worried, he heard a hissing sound.
A group of about a hundred larvae had fought their way to his location. They were locked in combat, with any injured larvae quickly surrounded and devoured by others.
The swarm approached Wang Chong, who silently prayed for them to pass by quickly.
Suddenly, one larva stopped and stared directly at Wang Chong.
"Hiss! Hiss!" The hundred or so insects gradually ceased their fighting and turned to look at Wang Chong.
Wang Chong knew he was in trouble and braced himself.
"Hiss!"
Like a war drum sounding, the swarm of larvae charged towards him!