System didn't hesitate before once more choosing to enhance the talent that was the source of his strength, [Digital Code]. A power more peculiar than [Molting and Growth] gradually flowed into his mind.

  The more System learned about this world, the more he felt that his [Digital Code] talent was exceptionally mysterious.

  A burst of white light fshed in his mind, and System appeared in the digital sea of 1s and 0s. He'd once more turned into a ball of light floating in the center of the digital sea.

  The strange power from [Pupation] continued to strengthen this world.

  There were no points of reference around him, but System felt that his light ball was rger than it had been the st time he was here, and the digital pnets around him also seemed to have grown.

  [Data Bank] and [Data Compition] had turned into two huge pnets that were revolving around him. There were two satellites revolving around the [Data Compition] pnet, which were [Ability Enhancement] and [Insect Ability Activation].

  The [Tools Menu] containing various small abilities had turned into an asteroid belt, and it was floating along the farthest edges of the gaxy.

  System looked away from the gaxy and stared out at the digital ocean.

  Compared to its state when he was here for his third metamorphosis many months earlier, the digital ocean appeared to have undergone some changes. Many of the numbers had densely combined together to form rge blocks with uneven shapes that floated in the digital ocean like isnds.

  These digital isnds didn't feel all that strange to System, and his attention was instead focused on a swirling ball that was floating in the digital ocean.

  This was a very small digital ball. Its shape was going through various strange changes, and it almost seemed to wriggle and jump as it moved around in the digital ocean.

  System, who was staring at the digital ball, had a feeling that he'd seen a ball like this somewhere before. It was extremely familiar.

  'Isn't that a slime?'

  System soon discovered why the ball seemed so familiar to him. Except for the difference between the tiny microorganisms that made up a slime's body and numbers that made up this ball's body, this little thing that was born in the digital ocean was basically the same as his old slime friends. He just didn't know if it would eventually split into two smaller digital slimes once it grew rger.

  System didn't stare at the digital creature that had been born in the digital sea for too long. With the strengthening power of his [Pupation] talent, the entire digital sea began rolling and boiling.

  A rge amount of numbers surged out of the digital sea and rushed toward the floating light ball. System felt like his light ball was merging with the numbers, and his mind became dizzy.

  His consciousness soon faded into darkness.

  ...

  When he woke up, the strengthening of his [Digital Code] was already over.

  Perhaps because his [Pupation] talent had an excellent strengthening effect, or maybe because moving closer to becoming a magical life form was such a big change, System's [Digital Code] (5/5) was directly upgraded by five levels to become [Digital Code] (10/10). It was now only one step away from breaking into a higher tier.

  [Data Bank] and [Data Compition] were also upgraded to [Data Bank] (8/10) and [Data Compition] (7/10).

  As for his other Derived Skills, they had also improved to varying degrees.

  In addition, while System was unconscious in the digital sea, he'd gained a new talent, [Datafication] (9/10), as well as two skills that were derived from [Datafication]—[Probe and Analyze] (8/10) and [Data Tempte] (8/10).

  The so-called [Datafication] talent didn't literally mean to convert the body into data like in a video game, where the body had no weaknesses, bones couldn't break, limbs couldn't be cut off, and you could only lose life points.

  If System had to expin how it worked, he would roughly describe his [Datafication] talent like the [Appraisal] skill in many games, which could dispy information about various objects.

  However, this [Datafication] skill was obviously more peculiar than [Appraisal], and it even had a magical effect.

  ...

  [Datafication] (9/10): A Special Talent obtained from [Digital Code] and [Perception]. System's unique Special Talent. Provides the ability to create, read, or edit an entity's data.

  [Probe and Analyze] (8/10): A Derived Skill obtained from [Datafication]. [Perception] can be used to analyze a target and dispy its data.

  [Data Tempte] (3/13): A Derived Skill obtained from [Digital Code], [Datafication], [Data Compition], and [Mental Transmission]. Allows you to give the target some of the abilities of [Digital Code].

  ...

  The ability of [Probe and Analyze] was very close to [Appraisal]. System could now more easily detect the composition of a target when he used [Perception]. At the same time, the combat power rating in his [Tools Menu] finally had a role. He could now detect and estimate the approximate range of a target's combat power.

  As for [Data Tempte], it was a magical ability that could grant some of the abilities of [Digital Code] to other targets, allowing the target to obtain some of the small abilities from System's [Tools Menu].

  However, this [Data Tempte] ability had many restrictions, and each time System granted an ability, it would consume a rge amount of his experience. If he granted too many abilities, it would even start consuming his lifespan.

  Since System was still in his pupa form, he wasn't able to test out his new abilities for now.

  ...

  After inspecting his enhanced [Digital Code], System continued waiting inside his pupa. It was extremely boring.

  His third pupation was taking a very long time...

  The bored System sometimes watched old videos. At other times, he used the [Data Compition] ability to recompile the various utilities in his [Tools Menu].

  The improved [Data Compition] ability had become easier to control, and System even tried to compile a few simple games to kill time, such as Tetris, Snake, and Breakout.

  But making these games quickly became boring. With his [Data Compition] ability, he only needed to think about it a little bit, and the game would become whatever he wanted, just like installing a plug-in. There was no challenge.

  System went back to watching old videos, and sometimes he took a break to study the ratman nguage. When he felt tired, he slept, and when he woke up, he continued watching videos...

  Just like this, in the darkness, he slept and woke up, woke up and slept, and the time recorded in his [Tools Menu] unknowingly increased to over two hundred days.

  He could sense that many figures had appeared around him, including Shava, Bck, Meatball, Aura, and many of his ant subjects.

  System, who was in a coma, had also heard a mental message that was sent to him by the queen ant, Linda. Linda, who had mastered the [Mental Connection] ability, appeared to have successfully broken out of her pupa, but she only visited him once during his pupation.

  System was very unhappy at first, and he thought that Queen Linda was cold-hearted. However, after he thought about it for a while, he eventually figured out why she hadn't visited more often.

  With the queen ant's enormous size, System estimated that she could no longer reach his chamber through the narrow passage once she started rapidly increasing in size post-pupation. It wasn't that she didn't want to visit him, but that she couldn't.

  During this period, he also detected a special existence in the chamber. It seemed that Ying, who had left to assassinate the old druid, had also stopped by.

  But System only felt Ying's presence for a few days, after which she disappeared again.

  ...

  Time passed bit by bit. System's pupation was taking longer than he'd imagined. His initial estimate of half year hadn't even been close.

  However, System could feel that the liquid inside his pupa was solidifying little by little, and he knew that his pupation would eventually end...