Aoyama pushed aside a cluster of damp ferns, his gaze falling on a fallen dead tree nearby.
The trunk had already rotted away for the most part, its surface covered in dark green moss, with a few clusters of wild fungi poking their caps through the cracks.
He was about to go around the decaying log to continue searching deeper for suitable firewood when his peripheral vision suddenly caught an unusual bulge at the base of the trunk.
“Hmm?” Aoyama stopped in his tracks.
He crouched down and leaned closer to the area.
In the gap where the dead wood met the ground, there was a fist-sized mound of earth, its surface riddled with fine holes.
Dozens of black ants, each about a centimeter long, were bustling in and out of the holes.
Their bodies were a glossy black, with a hint of dark red at the tips of their abdomens.
“An ant nest.” Aoyama’s face lit up with joy.
He used the blunt end of his rebar to gently scrape away the topsoil.
The soil was soft and gave way easily, revealing an opening.
A mass of milky-white eggs was exposed to the air, packed densely together.
Each one was about half the size of a grain of rice, glistening with a moist sheen in the dappled light.
He stared at the ant eggs, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
To be honest, for any normal human, the very act of eating ant eggs would require a massive amount of psychological preparation.
But Aoyama knew all too well that after such intense physical exertion, he needed protein to maintain his muscle and energy recovery.
A few wild berries were far from enough to sustain him for any longer.
“Ant eggs…
rich in protein and fat.” He pinched a few eggs between his fingers and brought them to his nose.
There was no obvious foul odor, only a faint, sour-astringent scent.
The eggs were coated in a thin layer of mucus, feeling a bit like caviar but softer.
Aoyama closed his eyes and popped the eggs into his mouth.
The tip of his tongue first met a faint sourness, followed by the release of a nearly tasteless fluid.
He forced himself not to chew too long and swallowed them whole.
“…Not bad.” No nausea, no discomfort.
He pinched another small cluster and put it in his mouth.
This time, he was more accustomed to it, even faintly tasting a nuttiness in the aftertaste.
Just as the third mouthful of ant eggs slid down his throat, Aoyama suddenly felt a wave of light dizziness.
He instinctively closed his eyes.
When he reopened them, a semi-transparent virtual panel had materialized in the center of his vision.
Its edges glowed with a faint blue light, and it hovered about twenty centimeters in front of him.
Consumption Log: Ant (Egg) × 28 Current Progress: 28/1000 Ability Unlock Countdown: Consume a total of 1000 Ant (Eggs) Unlocked Ability: Herculean Strength (Ant Trait—Able to lift objects 50 times one’s own weight) Hint: This ability will continuously strengthen as you consume ingredients from the same source Aoyama froze.
“…Could it be?” He stared at the virtual panel suspended in the air, stunned for a full five seconds.
Then he slowly raised his hand and waved it in front of the panel.
His fingers passed straight through the faint blue light, touching nothing.
He rubbed his eyes and opened them again.
The panel remained steadily suspended in place.
“I see…” Aoyama muttered to himself, his lips curling into an uncontrollable smile.
“So this is my cheat?
I can gain abilities just by eating?” He did a rough count of the ant eggs.
There were still four or five hundred ant eggs left in the mound.
Adding those that the worker ants were transporting into the inner chambers, gathering a thousand should be no problem.
With this thought, Aoyama wasted no more time.
He knelt by the dead wood, carefully widening the nest’s opening with his rebar.
Every few dozen eggs he dug out, he sent straight into his mouth.
The slimy texture accumulated in his oral cavity, and the sour taste gradually turned to numbness, but he didn’t mind in the slightest.
When he reached the five hundredth egg, the number on the virtual panel ticked upward.
Consumption Log: Ant (Egg) × 547 Current Progress: 547/1000 By the seven hundredth egg, Aoyama felt a faint warmth spreading through his lower abdomen, as if something was being awakened.
As he swallowed the last of them, his body began to emit faint sounds.
His muscle fibers seemed to be combed through by some invisible force, and a sense of tightness spread across his limbs.
Consumption Log: Ant (Egg) × 1001 Current Progress: 1000/1000 (Complete) Ability Unlocked: Herculean Strength (Ant) Effect: Muscle explosive power increased to 47 times the normal state; bone density is simultaneously strengthened to safely withstand the resulting recoil The virtual panel suddenly flashed, then shattered into countless tiny specks of light that seeped into Aoyama’s body through his skin.
It felt like an electric shock!
A tingling sensation shot from the base of his spine straight to the crown of his head.
Aoyama involuntarily arched his back, bracing his hands against the dead wood.
He heard his bones crackle softly, as if every joint was being realigned.
“Hah…
hah…
hah…” After three seconds, all returned to calm.
Aoyama slowly straightened up and spread his hands.
His ten fingers were still long and strong, his palms calloused from gripping the rebar, but at this moment, he could clearly feel a…
massive power surging through every single muscle fiber!
He bent down and picked up the half-meter-long rebar.
It felt light—as light as a plastic straw.
With a casual squeeze, he actually left a shallow dent in the steel surface of the rebar.
“…This much power?” Aoyama looked down at his palm; there wasn’t even a single red mark on it.
He tried lifting a basin-sized rock beside him.
With a slight exert of force from his hands, the stone—which weighed at least 30 or 40 kilograms—was effortlessly hoisted over his head.
He felt he could have easily lifted a few more.
“With this level of strength, I should be more than enough to handle whatever is in this forest.” Aoyama set the rock down, patted the dirt from his hands, and couldn’t suppress the grin spreading across his face.
He picked up the rebar again and weighed it in his hand; it still felt as light as a feather.
“Securing dinner shouldn’t be a problem anymore.” Aoyama continued searching upstream along the course of the creek.
He planned to check for animal tracks in the vicinity first.
If he could find small game like wild rabbits or pheasants, he’d have meat for dinner.
After walking about 200 or 300 meters, the terrain became lower and damper.
The creek took a bend here, carving out a shallow area where silt had accumulated.
A few dead leaves floated on the water, and the mud along both banks was trampled into a mess, marked by the footprints of various animals.
Aoyama crouched down to examine the prints.
There were hoofprints from deer and wild boar, as well as several claw marks from what looked like canids.
But what truly caught his attention were the tracks left in a muddy pool at the edge of the shallows.
“Hmm?” “What kind of tracks are these?” A drag mark about a meter long, as if some long, slender creature had crawled out of the water onto the muddy bank, leaving clear impressions of belly scales on the mud.
Aoyama followed the drag mark to the center of the muddy pool.
Beneath the murky water, he could just make out a dark silhouette resting on the bottom.
As he watched, a ripple spread across the surface.
The dark shape stirred.
Aoyama’s pupils constricted slightly.
He saw a crocodile, about a meter long, slowly rise from the bottom of the pool.
Its rough, scaly hide was caked in mud.
Its eyes broke the surface, pupils narrowed to vertical slits, as it turned its gaze toward him with unnerving deliberation.
It was a juvenile Siamese crocodile.
At around 1.2 meters in length, it wasn’t large, but it was still a formidable predator for an unarmed human.
Damn, there are even crocodiles in this forest?
Aoyama remained still, holding his crouch.
The small crocodile seemed to be assessing this intruder in its territory.
It slowly raised its head, its jaws parting slightly to reveal interlocking rows of sharp teeth.
A low, almost imperceptible hiss escaped its throat.
Perfect chance to test my new strength.
Aoyama slowly rose to his feet, his right hand tightening around the rebar.
He and the crocodile were separated by eight or nine meters of muddy flats and shallow water.
The juvenile crocodile seemed to sense his hostility.
Its front half lunged from the water, its four limbs churning through the mud as it scrambled rapidly toward Aoyama.
The moment it burst from the surface, Aoyama swung his right arm!
Swish!
His own movement was too fast for him to fully track.
He had hurled the half-meter-long rebar with all his strength, sending it whistling through the air in a straight, silver line.
The projectile pierced the crocodile’s open mouth from above, skewering the upper jaw and skull before erupting through the scales on its neck.
A spray of dark red blood misted the air as the steel rod thudded into the mud.
The crocodile’s body convulsed violently, its limbs thrashing wildly in the mire, its tail slamming the water’s surface into a muddy spray.
But after a few seconds, the struggle ceased.
The crocodile lay limp at the pool’s edge, blood gushing from the wound and staining the surrounding mud a dark brown.
My accuracy is decent.
Aoyama walked over and grabbed the crocodile’s tail, hoisting it easily from the mud.
The meter-long reptile felt as light as a bass in his hand, its weight barely registering.
He inspected the wound.
The rebar had struck with such force that the skull was almost completely destroyed, confirming the kill was instantaneous.
He also checked the crocodile’s teeth and claws, and only after confirming there were no venom glands did he nod in satisfaction.
“A meter-long crocodile…
that’s enough to eat for several days.” He hoisted the reptile onto his right shoulder.
Its rough scales scraped against his shoulder blade, but the weight was negligible to him.
He retraced his steps, his stride much lighter than when he had arrived.
He even had his left hand free to push aside the vines blocking his path.