Comic strip: Survival on a deserted island, surrounded by heroines

Only after confirming that they were truly dead did he straighten up.

"The ability to see all things is really useful. If I couldn't see their movement trajectories, they would be really hard to kill."

Aoyama looked down at his left shoulder. His coat was torn open, revealing three shallow cuts on his skin. They weren't deep; the skin was just scratched.

He moved his shoulder to make sure he wasn't injured.

"This is where the value of external wound regeneration comes into play."

As he spoke, Aoyama squatted down and began to process the spoils on the ground.

The two velociraptors together weigh about 500 to 600 pounds, but it's inconvenient for him to take them all back right now.

After thinking for a moment, Aoyama decided to take a portion of the best quality meat from each of them.

He deftly deboned the meat with a machete, cutting off the tendons from the two hind legs and the tenderloin from both sides of the back, wrapping them in large leaves, and stuffing them into his backpack.

"I'll give them a little something extra when I get back. Velociraptor meat should be a bit more tender than bear meat, right?" He also collected the two tail bones, planning to make soup with them when he got back.

Once he eats it, he'll know how many velociraptors he needs to kill to unlock his abilities.

After disposing of the body, Aoyama found a stream nearby to wash the blood off his hands and filled his thermos.

He stood up, looked around, and after confirming that there were no other dangers in the area for the time being, continued to search forward.

"Let's go take a look to the north."

The path deep in the forest was more difficult than I had imagined.

The torrential rain washed away many sections of land, and several previously passable roads were completely blocked by landslides and fallen trees.

Qingshan had to take a long detour, walking up a dry stream valley while keeping an eye on his surroundings.

After walking for about half an hour, he climbed over a gentle slope and suddenly the view opened up before him.

It was a small clearing, about two or three hundred square meters, that had been cleared by a landslide. All the trees that had grown there had been uprooted and lay crookedly around, revealing the moist, reddish-brown soil underneath.

The sunlight poured down without any obstruction, making the open space so bright it was almost dazzling.

But what Aoyama noticed was not the open space itself, but the densely packed things on it.

It was a green ocean.

"Is this a grasshopper or a locust?"

These things don't quite resemble the locusts he remembers.

He is temporarily called Grasshopper.

At this moment, tens of thousands of grasshoppers gathered on this open space. They lay on fallen logs, stones, and exposed soil, even overlapping each other, emitting a continuous and low buzzing sound.

Each of these grasshoppers is as long as an adult's index finger, yellowish-green in color, with thick hind legs and wings folded over their backs, glistening with an oily sheen in the sunlight.

"Let those with trypophobia go first."

Aoyama stood still, silently watching the scene unfold before him.

"Is there probably around ten thousand of them?"

He took a few steps closer, and the grasshoppers, startled, took flight with a buzzing sound.

It rose up like a plume of green smoke, circled twice in the air, and then fell back down.

They don't seem to be too afraid of people, or perhaps there are just too many of them to care about having one more or one less.

Aoyama stroked his chin, his mind racing.

"Grasshoppers...are high in protein, easy to digest, and can be fried, grilled, or boiled."

"The key is that they are easy to catch, and these guys are gathered together like a buffet."

He recalled the wilderness survival shows he had watched before.

If it's a locust, then it shouldn't be eaten because it's poisonous.

However.

For Qingshan, whose physique had been strengthened multiple times, the locust's poison had no effect on him at all.

He looked around to make sure there were no other dangers, then squatted down to study the grasshoppers' habits. "Why are they all connected? Is this a live stream of insect footage?"

"Forget it, let's just grab the ones that aren't connected and grill them."

He decided to grab some to test the waters first.

Qingshan placed his backpack and weapons on a relatively clean rock nearby and began to bend down to catch grasshoppers on the ground.

He moved very quickly.

His all-seeing ability allowed him to pinpoint single locusts among tens of thousands of grasshoppers.

He reached out and precisely pinched a grasshopper's back with his thumb and forefinger, causing it to exit the biosphere.

The grasshoppers were quick to react, but Qingshan was even faster.

"One, two, three..."

"Fifteen, sixteen... how come there are still skirt ps?"

"Twenty-five... Oh, this one is big, it's definitely a king grasshopper."

"Forty-two...that's about right, let's leave it at that for now."

He caught more than forty grasshoppers in just one minute.

Aoyama returned to the rock, checked the surrounding environment, and then chose a flat rock to start a fire.

He took out his lighter, bent down and gently blew on it a few times, and the flame popped up with a "whoosh".

He carefully laid out thin branches, then added a few thicker pieces of dry firewood, and soon a small campfire was lit.

He then pulled a sharpened stick from his bag and threaded the grasshoppers from the net bag onto it one by one.

More than forty grasshoppers were strung together in three strings.

Aoyama took one of the strings and slowly turned it over on the fire. The high temperature of the flames caused the grasshopper's exoskeleton to change color rapidly, from greenish-blue to charred yellow.

A unique aroma, characteristic of burnt protein, gradually wafted into the air.

It's a bit like grilled dried shrimp, but with a hint of fresh, grassy sweetness.

"Hmm...it smells quite nice."

Qingshan flipped the skewer a few more times until the grasshoppers' shells became brittle and oil droplets sizzled on their surface. Only then did he take the skewer off and blow on the heat.

"Start it."

He took the first bite.

The crispy shell cracks between your teeth, and the texture is somewhat like a thoroughly fried shrimp, with a unique caramelized aroma and a hint of saltiness.

That's mineral salt naturally present in the grasshopper's body.

Aoyama chewed a few times and swallowed, his eyes lighting up slightly.

"...I must say, it's actually quite delicious."

[Feeding Log: Green Grasshopper x1]

Current progress: 1/50

[Effect Preview: High breeding efficiency (grasshopper) - Continue consuming homologous ingredients to complete activation.]

"High reproductive efficiency?"

After thinking for a moment, Aoyama decided to continue eating.

He started eating them one after another, his movements swift and efficient, and the three strings of grasshoppers were quickly devoured.

After he chewed up and swallowed the last grasshopper, Aoyama patted the crumbs off his hands.

"We're still short a few."

Qingshan caught a few more and roasted them to eat.

"That's 50 enough."

At the same time, a semi-transparent virtual panel silently appeared in front of his retina.

The edges of the panel shimmered with a pale blue light, and simple text appeared on it.

[Feeding Record: Grasshoppers (adults) x50]

Current progress: 50/50 (Completed)

[Ability Unlocked: High Reproduction Efficiency]

[Effect: Increases reproductive power and significantly enhances recovery abilities. (Only available when in a group)]

[Note: This allows for a more efficient replenishment of the energy consumed during reproduction from food.]

Aoyama's movements stopped.

He paused for two seconds, then slowly blinked.

"This is my seventh special ability?"

"High reproductive efficiency..."

Qingshan pondered these four words, his expression somewhat subtle.

"Stronger reproductive ability... what kind of ability do you mean?" His lips twitched.

"The recovery ability is significantly enhanced in a group, which is quite useful."

"Simply put, it means the battery life is better when fighting in a team, right?"

He threw the stick into the fire, watching the flames lick the stick and leave a charred mark on its surface, then thoughtfully stroked his chin.

"Moreover, it can obtain energy from food more efficiently to replenish what is consumed."

"This is equivalent to indirectly improving the efficiency of food utilization, allowing the same meat to extract the energy it needs."

Qingshan stood up, stomped out the embers of the fire with his feet, and shoveled several handfuls of soil to cover it. After making sure there would be no fire hazard, he bent down to collect his backpack and weapons from the ground.

Ants give us strength, ground beetles give us environmental adaptation, ground beetles give us wound regeneration, dragonflies give us omniscience, frogs give us jumping ability, fish give us underwater breathing, and grasshoppers give us high reproductive efficiency...

He hung the fire axe and composite bow back on either side of his backpack while muttering to himself.

"I have more and more abilities, but it's still not enough."

"These abilities aren't monstrous enough; I need more!"

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, stretched his shoulders, and felt the subtle changes brought about by the new ability.

"Although they achieved high reproductive efficiency, their bodies did not show any obvious changes."

"Is it like what's written in the instructions, that it only triggers under specific conditions?"

"In a group setting... isn't that when there are other people around?"

Qingshan turned around and walked in another direction.

"We'll test it out then and see if the recovery speed has increased."

He walked a distance, then stopped and looked back at the open space.

The grasshoppers were still densely packed together, and the sunlight fell on their oily carapaces, making them shimmer with thousands of tiny points of light.

"What a pity, it really wasn't a locust."

"If it were a locust, its abilities would probably be even stronger, right?"

In Qingshan's view, locusts, as one of the 'natural disasters,' are not much fewer in number than dragonflies.

Although one is a group and the other is an individual.

"For members of the same race, different breeds can only acquire one special ability, or will they extend outwards like a technology tree?"

Qingshan pondered for a moment, then strode toward another area.

He kicked aside a piece of rotten wood at his feet, and several earthworms frantically burrowed into the soil.

He was quick-witted and grabbed them directly.

"This is too slippery to eat, let's grill it instead."

After roasting them, Aoyama was surprised to find that earthworms were quite capable.