The rainstorm that had flooded Lilt Forest shortly after System's arrival in this world hadn't been some kind of once-in-a-century event.

  Every year during summer, there would be one or two long rainstorms in this region, but the time and scale of each rainstorm was different.

  However, System was surprised to discover that the ratman knew the time of the next rainy season. According to the ratman's description, System learned that the next rainy season would arrive within half a month.

  The ratman's words were very firm, and he seemed to be extremely confident about the arrival of the rainy season.

  But how did he know? Because of the nguage barrier, System could only vaguely understand. He specuted that it had probably been a ratman wizard who had predicted the time of the next rainstorm using a method simir to divination.

  As a race that lived underground, it was obviously reasonable for them to be prepared for a rainstorm that might flood their warrens.

  However, the sneaky look in the ratman's eyes always made System feel suspicious.

  System thought that this ratman might just look shifty naturally, but it still made him pay extra attention to the ratman's words. Today, he suddenly picked up on something strange.

  Although the ratman knew a rough range for the arrival of the rainy season, it wasn't too accurate. He only knew that the rainstorm would come within half a month. In other words, it was possible that there would be a rainstorm on any of those days.

  If that was the case, why did this ratman warrior take the risk of coming here to investigate? Since the rainstorm could come at any time, why wasn't it dealing with the flood situation that was about to occur at the ratman gathering pce instead?

  This was obviously not logical.

  System could think of three possibilities. The first was that he'd misunderstood some of the ratman's words. The second was that the ratman was concealing something. The third was that this very smart ratman warrior was lying to him.

  Because System knew too few ratman words and cked the vocal chords to speak and ask questions, his and Bck's interrogation of the ratman would definitely take a lot of time.

  However, if what the ratman had said about the rainy season arriving soon was true, System needed to start preparing as soon as possible to prevent the rain from flooding the nest.

  He didn't have much time to interrogate the ratman for more details.

  After torturing the castrated ratman with the aphrodisiac effects of his tentacles, System began inspecting the flood prevention renovations that Excavator had been doing around the nest.

  In the process of selecting the nest, System had taken into account how flood-resistant the location was, so the nest had been built on higher ground. However, in the pins, it obviously wasn't realistic to both be close to a water source and be on elevated terrain.

  Therefore, the location for the nest that System had chosen wasn't particurly high. Of course, if System had known that Excavator could find an underground water source, he wouldn't have deliberately chosen a location near a river.

  However, because of Excavator's ability to control the soil, the outer walls of most of the nest's passages were extremely dense, which would effectively prevent rainwater from penetrating.

  He only needed Excavator to reinforce some of the nest's less sturdy outer walls and raise the entrance of the nest in order to prevent rainwater from accumuting and pouring inside.

  After Excavator worked for a full day, a half-meter-high conical mound had formed at the entrance of the nest.

  System also used his [Pnt Growth] ability to camoufge the mound with vines and various pnts, making it appear less conspicuous.

  ...

  After finishing his work, System flew into the sky as usual and began observing what was happening in the distant Lilt Forest and at the ratman gathering pce.

  He could see that there were scattered rats and ratmen working busily at the entrance of the rat holes at the ratman gathering pce. Some rats were carrying food over to the hillside with higher terrain, where there seemed to be several ratman warrens.

  It seemed that the ratman's cim about the rainy season arriving soon hadn't been false.

  The elves in Lilt Forest weren't making any obvious movements to prepare for the storm. They were still pnting trees and assorted vegetation. Some of the elves were even pying and frolicking with a few leopards.

  When System looked at the many tree houses that the elves had built, he could tell that the elves didn't have any reason to fear the rain.

  During his flight, System also saw bck clouds approaching the eastern part of Lilt Forest from more than a thousand kilometers away.

  The surging bck clouds were like a big hand reaching out from afar, trying to cover Lilt Forest and the Warren Pins.

  System's blood trembled slightly, and his [Intuition] once again gave him an uneasy feeling.

  The storm was coming...

  ...

  Over the next few hours, the strong winds that had been blowing over the Warren Pins gradually stopped, and the air pressure began to drop.

  Ants were creatures that had an innate fear of rainstorms. Even though System had notified his ant subjects about the oncoming rainstorm in advance, the ants inevitably became panicked and anxious as it grew closer.

  It seemed that his ant subjects had also sensed the arrival of the rainstorm in advance due to the changes in the air pressure and humidity.

  The rain started falling a little ter than System had expected, with the first raindrops hitting the ground in the early morning.

  Moreover, when the heavy rain first arrived, there was a small hailstorm, and some hailstones as rge as pigeon eggs fell. System managed to absorb some frost energy for the first time since leaving Lilt Forest.

  He thought that these hailstones would make Aura, who was zy and had been cooped up in his chamber all day, finally react. After all, Aura loved frost energy.

  Unfortunately, even these hailstones couldn't arouse any interest in the zy butterfly. Compared to the hailstones, he still preferred sleeping.

  After eating two hailstones that had fallen near the nest, System looked over at Bck who was standing by his side. "How's the ratman now?"

  "It just wailed for a while about being hungry. Now, it's paralyzed from the paralysis toxin in the food."

  The antennae on System's head moved slightly, revealing a thoughtful expression. "Did the ratman do anything else?"

  Bck shook her head. She hadn't noticed anything.

  ...

  Ever since System had first learned that a rainstorm was coming, his [Intuition] had been giving him a sense of uneasiness.

  He had always thought that his uneasiness was due to the rainstorm, thinking that perhaps this storm would be a bad one that would result in his ant subjects being harmed.

  However, that wasn't the case. The heavy rain mixed with hail had arrived fiercely, but it wasn't as bad as System had imagined. There was actually no real threat to the nest after their extensive preparations.

  It was precisely because of this that System, after observing the falling rain and hail for a while, could return inside the nest with peace of mind.

  Even if constant rainfall caused the water level on the pins to rise to one meter, with Excavator's existence, the entrance to the nest could be continuously raised. System really couldn't think of any kind of threat that the storm could pose to the colony.

  In that case, the remaining discomfort from his [Intuition] naturally y with the imprisoned ratman.

  Unlike the unreliable [Insect Instinct], after System had heard the Voice of the World during his third metamorphosis and gained [Intuition] and [Perception], [Intuition] had never made a mistake.

  Something bad must be about to happen.

  Although he felt that this ratman still had some value, after weighing his options for a while, System still decided to get rid of the ratman in advance. He wanted to make sure that the ratman couldn't spread any news about System's colony or be tracked to the nest by his companions.