Astral Cockroach

Once a warrior of the Human Race in the Galactic Federation, Banbu had undergone rigorous military training and possessed an iron will to fight.

Even if death was certain, he would do his best to give these two despicable woodpeckers a lesson before he died.

Banbu shrank into the corner at the top of the tree nest, raised his forelimbs, and gathered strength in his hind legs, planning to rush out the moment the tree nest was pecked open and launch an attack.

Although his claws were sharp, they were too small to pierce the woodpecker's feathers. Even if they did, they would only cause superficial injuries. He had to attack their eyes.

Banbu planned to take them by surprise and blind one of the woodpeckers before he died. If he succeeded, his death would be much more dignified.

"Coo! Coo!"

A woodpecker's miserable cry suddenly rang out outside the tree nest.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

A mournful and desolate cry.

The sound of pecking at the tree trunk stopped abruptly.

Banbu was surprised and waited for a moment. Gaining courage, he peered out through the pecked-open hole and saw a brown, black-striped scaly body slowly slide past the opening.

Snake scales?

Or a jungle python?

Judging from the shrill cry, a woodpecker must have been ambushed and eaten!

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

An angry cry, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings, quickly faded away.

A moment later, the python slid down the tree trunk.

The jungle returned to silence.

Banbu cautiously crawled out of the tree nest, quickly peeked out, and then quickly retreated.

There was no sign of the woodpecker, and the python's whereabouts were unknown. A deadly crisis had been resolved just like that.

The hiding tree nest was riddled with holes from the pecking. Banbu did not dare to go out easily. He endured anxiously until dark, then ventured out, quickly climbing down the mountain, found a new insect nest, killed the longhorn beetle larvae inside, had a full meal, and, guessing that there was no immediate danger, fell into a deep sleep.

In the middle of the night, he woke up, his weary body and mind recovered. He began to think: Without the protection of the Red Roach Tribe warriors, the cockroaches living in the mountains would attract a large number of predators. He had to move and stay away from this place of trouble!

Thinking this, he acted immediately, taking advantage of the good time.

He climbed down the mountain, plunged into the vast jungle, and ran quickly in one direction.

A rushing river blocked his way.

It might also be a stream coming down from the mountain, but he was too small at the moment, so it seemed particularly wide, becoming an insurmountable barrier.

The sky was about to dawn.

Banbu climbed a large tree and stood on the treetop to observe. This place was far enough away from the mountain, and only a faint blue shadow remained in his sight.

"Have I escaped the danger zone?"

"The sky is turning white, it's almost dawn, I must hide."

Banbu pondered, starting to search in the forest for tree trunks that had been bored by longhorn beetle larvae, planning to repeat the same trick, kill and eat the insects inside, occupy the tree nest, slowly eat all the insects on the tree, and then change to another tree, continuing that relatively safe nomadic life...

However, on second thought, it was not right: "What if I am targeted by woodpeckers again? I almost died in a bird's belly yesterday."

"Underground nests like ordinary cockroaches are even more unsafe. Predators such as snakes and rats can easily dig them open after smelling the scent."

For Banbu, who possessed human intelligence, this was not a difficult problem. After a little consideration, he decided to find a large tree with a large enough scale and hard enough branches to rely on, and dig soil under the tree to create a nest.

Using the convenience of his small size, the tough tree roots could well block invaders.

During the search, Banbu found another more ideal shelter—a black boulder standing in the jungle!

He tried it with his forelimbs, and it was hard enough.

Banbu looked around. There was a small patch of grass next to the boulder, and nearby were dense primeval trees. There must be no shortage of insects weaker than himself, so there was no need to worry about food.

A good place to settle down!

Without much hesitation, he moved his claws to dig under the boulder, spending a lot of effort to dig a passage and open up a space to live in.

Resting until noon, he continued to dig deeper into the stone.

In Banbu's consciousness, the feeling of molting and qualitative change became increasingly clear. His food demand increased, and he became more sleepy.

After eating his fill, he became drowsy, and after waking up, he was unbearably hungry and needed a lot of food.

The 19th molting and growth was a transformation from ordinary life to primal life, a genetic evolution, and an elevation of life level. The sleeping time would probably be very long.

Banbu had to ensure his absolute safety during his sleep.

Since the nest sloped downward along the stone, considering that rainwater might backflow on rainy days, after digging a distance inward, he simply turned sharply and dug vertically downward, forming a three-dimensional "N" shape.

The first lowest point opened up a slightly larger space to facilitate the backflowing rainwater to seep into the depths of the ground, named "Drainage Reservoir"; the first highest point could be used as a dry storage room for hoarding food; the second lowest point could be used as a hiding nest in case of danger, with leaf fragments stored inside for emergencies.

The vast excavation project took almost half a month, and the "Safe Shelter" was finally completed.

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Banbu could no longer hold on and shrank into the deepest nest, falling into a deep sleep.

...

"Rumble..."

Earth-shattering thunder, the earth seemed to be trembling.

"I am... Banbu, human? Cockroach? A branch of the Phoraspidae family, the Red Roach Tribe, a warrior..."

Banbu woke up.

Weak and powerless, dehydrated, his mind was dizzy and his consciousness blurred.

Almost instinctively, he began to chew the leaves in the nest. After eating all the leaves in the storage nest, he finally felt better, his physical strength was replenished, and his consciousness recovered slightly.

"Success?!"

"Almost failed!"

"The thunder woke me up, otherwise I would have continued to sleep until death."

It took a lot of brainpower to sort out the situation, and his head immediately ached.

Banbu only felt an unprecedented weakness, as if he was recovering from a serious illness. His physical strength was restored, but his nutritional reserves were extremely scarce. The entire insect seemed to be only an empty shell, and his internal organs and muscles were all...

A very uncomfortable feeling, as if he had been completely hollowed out, leaving only an exoskeleton, unable to muster any strength.

"Food! I need a lot of food!"

Banbu struggled to climb to the storage compartment.

He didn't know how much time had passed, or what he had experienced during that time. Before going to sleep, Banbu had specially hunted 3 longhorn beetle nymphs, dried and stored them, but now they were rotten and moldy and completely inedible.

Going to check the drainage reservoir again, it was a terrible mess. The backflowing rainwater was slowly rising, about to flood into the storage compartment.

"Spring rain is not so heavy, could it be... summer?"

Combining the temperature, Banbu roughly confirmed that his 19th molting had taken more than 1 month to sleep, directly from late spring to summer.

"Early summer? Midsummer? Or directly to the end of summer rainy season?"

Banbu thought, and was afraid again.

When he was a human, he had also experienced similar genetic evolutions through cultivation and advancement, and he also needed to fall asleep.

The difference was that humans mastered high-end technology and had specialized nutrient cabins. Each evolution was carried out in the nutrient cabin. Professional technicians took turns on duty, monitoring various body data around the clock, and intelligent systems calculated and fine-tuned the nutrient supply. It was easy and quick to complete the evolution.

Now that he was reduced to a cockroach, without any technological means to assist him, without external nutrient supply, alone, genetic evolution became extremely dangerous, and each molting and growth was a test of life and death.

This time, Banbu could be said to have succeeded, but also to have failed. He was only a little bit away from never waking up, losing his life in his sleep. It was the roaring thunder that woke him up and pulled him back from the brink of death.