Chapter 2: The System

A screen thingy appeared in front of me so suddenly, which in the end, surprised me greatly.

Oop, why did that kinda rhyme? You better calm down Dr. Seuss.

I flinched hard and felt like my body took a screenshot. Reading the screen that popped out, I only had one thought in mind.

What the hell is there to congratulate on?! I'm a bug! And what's worse, I died!

Did I really? Wait, wait, wait, wait! Let's take a quick flashback!

I was at my apartment, cooking noodles, and I heard the water boil while playing that game on my TV. When I went to the kitchen... I found a guy. And then he stabbed me, I bled, and when I woke up, I'm a strange bug now!

....

AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA! Now this would be a funny story to tell everyone once I'm done with the whole "overdose like an actor in Hollywood after a small lick of cocaine but this time it's just anesthesia" phase. I should just wait this out.

Slowly, I crept into one of the "blades of grass" and hid, using it as some type of blanket— 'cause it probably is.

And so, I waited.

*10 minutes later*

And waited.

*30 minutes later*

Wow, this is taking so long, haha.

*An hour later*

This is... getting pretty scary now.

*Five hours later*

WHAT THE FUCK?! IS THIS FOR REAL?! AM I REALLY DEAD? FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!!

Let me test it first. 'Cause what if I'm just really really fucking high. Hoo!

I looked on the ground and right there and then, I wanted to check out my suspicion. If this hurts like I hit the ground, I've been reborn, but if it feels like concrete, I'll kill myself.

I closed my eyes and prepared myself to fall on the ground. Slowly, I embraced myself for the fall. Until it finally hit me.

*Thud!*

Ow!!!!

That felt like dirt. That defini-fucking-ly felt like dirt.

Shit. AAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!! SHIT!!!!

THIS IS FUCKING REAL! I DIED! LIKE, DIED, DIED! AND NOW I'M AN OVERSIZED WHITE BUG FIREFLY THINGY AND I HAVE A COMPUTER IN MY HEAD!

Did I reincarnate? That's possible. But why in the body of a... firefly larva??!!? I don't remember... argh! Wait, let's calm down. Hooh, hooh. First, let's reread this weird message on the floating and glowing screen in front of me.

It looks like those menu game thingies in the games that my best friend used to play. "A game-like system— just what I thought!"

Damn, this is so coquette! I just can't help but say—

FUCK YOU GODS! HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU EXPECTING ME TO REACT?! I FUCKING DIED! LET ME GRIEVE FOR A MINUTE BEFORE YOU GIVE ME A COMPUTER INSIDE MY HEAD!

I ranted and ranted for what seemed like a few minutes before I somehow temporarily calmed down. I figured that I should just accept this shithole that I'm in. No matter how hard I hit myself in the face, everything just stayed the same in front of me, and eventually, I lost all hope.

Now, I have just become an optimistic bitch who, as a matter of fact, probably lost her sanity a few seconds earlier.

Hoo.

"Tsk, you know what? No matter how I think about it, this is a bit cool. And they gave me a title too. I don't know what it does but... hah, thank you, Gods, I guess." I said sarcastically, thinking that they were kind to give me things that I didn't know how to use.

Screw them! Screw insanity and optimism, I'm still angry! How can they give me such a hideous body?! I know I'm going to turn into a beautiful firefly but I'll die again after that! Adult fireflies only live for about weeks and their main goal is to breed, and after that, they die. So they just made me live again to die. Funny.

In an unknown place, being a freaking firefly larva, having a system that I don't know how to use, and overall, being born to die again!

I just— ...hah, you know what? I should probably be thankful. Tsk, yeah. After all, people aren't usually given a chance to remember their past lives when they reincarnate. I didn't even think reincarnation was real. This is so new to me.

Psh, well! What's done is done! All I hope right now is that my killer is caught. Probably not possible at all since he escaped and ran. But let's not let these pessimistic thoughts get to us.

First, let's try to make use of what's given to me. This "system" of some sort.

"Now, how do I use this? God, it can't be something useless?"

*Ding!*

[To open up your status, say, shout, or think, "Status!"]

Wow, I guess it wasn't so useless after all. It even gives me a simple tutorial of some sort.

"So, uh, status?"

*Ding!*

[Name]: [Elaira Webb]

[Level]: [1/10]

[Title]: [The First]

[EXP]: [0/500]

[Race]: [Lunar Firefly] 

[Monster Species]: [Lampyridaetra Medica]

[Stage]: [Larva]

[HP]: [10/10]

[MP]: [30/30]

[STR]: [10]

[VIT]: [10]

[DEX]: [10]

[AGI]: [10]

[INT]: [40]

[WIS]: [40]

[LUC]: [--/--]

[Skills]: [Prey Detection: Lv1], [Strong Bite: Lv1], [Poison Injection: Lv1], [Light Magic: Lv1]

[Skill Points: 10] [Stat Points: 10]

Looking at it, it's safe to say that I don't understand anything.

What do all of these mean? Is it an equation? System help me!

*Ding!*

[HP]: [This category displays the overall health of the user. If down to 0, the user will die.]

[MP]: [This category displays the amount of mana the user has stored. If down to zero, the user will not be able to cast skills or spells.]

[STR]: [In short for "Strength". This category displays the overall physical strength of the user.]

[VIT]: [In short for "Vitality". This category displays the defensive status of the user. It is also responsible for the user's stamina. The more it rises, the harder the user's exoskeleton will be and the user will not get tired easily.]

[DEX]: [In short for "Dexterity". This category displays the way the user handles or deals with things such as tools with dextrous movements]

[AGI]: [In short for "Agility". This category displays the user's speed, evasion, and critical hits with skills and spells.]

[INT]: [In short for "Intelligence". This category reflects the user's knowledge about things. It also increases the user's magical attacks.]

[WIS]: [Short for "Wisdom". This category reflects the user's accumulated information through years of experience. It also helps protect the user from attacks by reducing the damage to a certain extent.]

[LUC]: [In short for "Luck". This category displays the overall luck of the user. It helps the user with situations that sometimes require luck to be on the user's side.]

Woah, it just summarized it all! I'm starting to feel much more genuinely thankful for this system.

Hold on— huh?

Looking back at my status, specifically in the skill category, there's... magic!!! I've got light magic!! I'm not sure what it does but it seems like I can control light. How is that even possible?! I don't know!? Magic!

To think that this place has magic in it. Did the Gods transfer me into another world? That's the most probable explanation right now.

But, I'm just glad that, somehow in a way, I'm not alone here. I have this strange system. And not to forget, magic! AHAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!

Damn, I sure do sound happy for someone who just died. But screw that! Magic! I can control the light by shifting the photons into the positions in which I designated them.

By calculating the coordinates and commanding the light particles in a fixed position of the time and space to follow the latitude and longitude that— I don't even understand what I'm saying right now but I know I can achieve great things, to say the least.

And also, I think I see my luck being the only stat without a number. Is it broken? I don't know why and I also don't know if that's a good thing or not but let's worry about that later.

I'm much more curious about what this little worm body of mine can do. Let's see my skills.

Seeing that there was a small letter "i" at the top right corner of the skills, I decided to imagine myself tapping it since it seemed like the system was connected to what I was thinking somehow.

And magically, it worked.

[Prey Detection: Lv1]

[Mana Cost: 10 MP]

[Cooldown: None]

[As a growing larva, the user needs to eat. A lot. Using the user's senses and spreading mana around, the user can feel and detect potential prey from 10 meters away. As of now, the user can only know the positions of nearby prey, but with experience and level-ups, this skill can improve further than it is now.]

That was simple. But it's fantastic overall. Can you imagine a hired assassin with this skill? Yeah! Totally cool. But alas, I'll never become one, not only is it because I'm an insect but it's that I don't want to.

Killing for a living doesn't sound very cute to me. I was killed after all... Wait, looking at the description once more, what does mana even mean in the first place? System, help me out a little bit more here, pretty please?

*Ding!*

[Mana]: [A natural occurrence in this world. It is produced by the trees, ground, water, and air naturally. It is the thing that gives all creatures here the ability to do extraordinary things. Mana is used in casting spells, using skills, and most importantly, magic. In other words, mana is the fuel for magical spells and skills. All the user has to do is to let their body absorb it naturally.]

Oh! So it is like fuel! Better save it up for more important things, then. So how do I do these skills exactly? Do I shout it in my head or... you know what? It'll all work out somehow. I don't want to overly rely on the system. I need to become independent. So let's just move on to the next one.

[Strong Bite: Lv1]

[Mana Cost: None]

[Cooldown: 20 Seconds]

[Since the user is living in a forest, this means that everything around here has adapted to fit just right into this place for survival. That includes the prey that the user is supposed to hunt. Having the user's strength gather up into the user's jaws, a strong snap will be released from the user's bite, which can easily tear apart the prey's defenses. The user's jaws will get stronger with each level-up of this skill or through experience.]

Just like the other one, it's simple but awesome. It sounds a lot powerful. Just calling it "Strong Bite" might be a bit of an understatement.

I'm kind of wondering about something. "Leveling up from pure experience"? That means that I just have to use them a lot right? The skills that are said to level up from experience. And skill points?

*Ding!*

[Skill Points]: [Spent to level up skills instantly and buy other skills.]

It was that obvious. I'm so dumb.

[Poison Injection: Lv1]

[Mana Cost: Depends on the user]

[Cooldown: 1 hour]

[Just like any other creature within this forest, the user's species' larvae have evolved a weapon to hunt for food that is hard to catch. Poison. In the user's former old world, firefly larvae inject enzymes into their prey to act as a dissolving agent to make food much easier to consume. Injecting specialized poison that the user is immune to and is mixed with mana, this lethal injection can even melt prey. The strength of the poison itself, however, is completely reliant on how much mana the user decides to put into it. The more mana, the more lethal it is. By leveling this skill up, the only result would be more storage inside the user's body for the poison to be stored.]

The more that I read, the more I'm amazed. This is so detailed. So to sum it all up, I don't eat leaves or plants at all. I eat live prey. Eugh, that sounds so disgusting! I don't think I'll ever adapt here. Much better to find humans— shit! Are there even humans here?

I've only come to realize this now. This is a strange world. I'm considered an alien here! But the trees and plants look the same as the ones back on Earth. Only much more vibrant. And alive. Woah! Now that I'm looking at it, this whole forest itself is glowing! There's a flower right there that's glowing, and there's a fruit of some sort on top of that tree that's emitting an orange hue.

Wait, let's get back to the humans. Now, thinking back at it, I don't think finding humans is a good idea at all. They might want to squish me or use me. This is so messed up.

[Light Magic: Lv1]

[Cost: None]

[Being a firefly larva from the species of Lampyridaetra Medica, the user has natural light magic within their body. The brighter the firefly of this species glows, the higher the tier of healing magic it contains. Due to this, the user's species is always hunted for their high healing properties. The user can manipulate mana and turn it into light particles, making it so that the user can do unimaginable things just from light. The user can also do basic healing magic and naturally disrupt dark magic.]

Scratch those loud shouts of excitement I made earlier. What the hell?! My species is being hunted for this light magic that I have?! This is the second confirmed bad news that I've heard the moment that I'm in here, aside from finding out that I'm dead! I don't know what kinds of creatures that'll hunt me in this world but it's better to be cautious.

What do I do? I don't want to die the moment that I'm born! Or hatched? Whatever! I'm supposed to die when I become an adult firefly anyway but I don't wanna die this soon!

Tsk, I should probably keep a low profile around here if I wanna live longer. I also think that I should cover my rear so that I won't be spotted easily. Yeah, I definitely should do that.

And so, I spent the next 6 minutes wrapping my ass with the leaf that I landed on earlier. I just used it like a bath towel back at home, I even used a tiny stick I found lying around and pierced the leaf to make it stay in place.

It's a bit hard moving with this new body and outfit but I'm getting used to it. What I'm still not used to is my unwavering anger at the Gods and my murderer for making me suffer this way.

But even after that abrupt change in my new smexy body that this big ass leaf gave me, I still don't feel safe. And after looking around, I finally found the root of my uneasiness. I'm in wide open space, ready to be snatched by a bug-eating bird of some predator who wishes to eat me.

Hah! Why don't I just wiggle my ass about and let all them hungry monsters see me much more easily?

Why don't I post a pic of my body adorned with all the spices in the world to complete my suicidal look while I'm at it? Huh?! Let's die again!

After finishing my thoughts, which were for sure NOT fueled with anger from my sudden death and my new pure and voluptuous body, I slowly crept under a huge rock that I saw in the distance. Lifting my leaf skirt slightly, I used my butt as a form of a flashlight, I lit the way and hid.

"If I want to survive here and not die as easily as I did before, I should learn how to fight. But that comes later. First, let's examine me, myself, and I first. I'm done with the skills, now let's see my species.

Opening my status back up again, I luckily found the all-familiar "i" figure on top of my species section. Imagining myself tapping that small letter "i", new information to be read presented in front of me once again.

[Lampyridaetra Medica]: [A legendary firefly species that has the greatest healing capabilities of all creatures. Used as an ingredient in most HP recovery potions, and even regeneration potions. Due to their unlimited and immense healing prowess, this species of firefly is known to have been hunted to extinction but has been prophesied to come back someday.]

Well, fuck.