[Battle over.]

[+521 EXP]

[Level up! +1 Stat Point. HP refilled.]

[Biological Carapace: 5/5000]

So much? It was basically half the EXP the bandit guy gave! I was stunned.

For a brief moment, I considered trying to eat more of them. No, what was I thinking? Those things taste worse than death!

"Hey! If you keep eating more of my grass, I will really leave!" Sheepy continued to shout.

Sorry, the ant tasted super bad.

I was really curious as to what the biological carapace Tablet mentioned was, but I decided now wasn't the time.

"If you think it tastes so bad, why the heck did you eat it?" Sheepy looked at me like I was some kind of dumbass.

I had no choice! And how would I know how it tastes before I ate it?

"Who the heck goes around eating stuff they fight? You should have tried to stomp it with one of your spinny leg thingies!"

Huh. Sheepy had a point. If I could chew them, I should be able to crush them with my wheels, right?

Before my headlights dozens of ants had crawled out. Some were as big as the one I just ate.

Nope.

I quickly drove away in the direction of the tree Sheepy was on.

Jump on me!

"Wait, wait, what?"

In a hurry, Sheepy somehow managed to hop from the tree and land on my roof as I drove haphazardly. It wobbled around constantly and was bleating in panic.

"Hey! I'm going to fall if you keep going so fast!" it screamed.

Okay, I guess I didn't want to lose my only translator. The ants were chasing me with insane speed, but I uh... should be able to deal with them, right? I was really scared of being tossed again though.

With a bit of reluctance, I slowed down. Sheepy hurriedly jumped off and scrambled into my carrier.

By then the ants had caught up. I started to panic a little.

Tablet! Add 1 point to my defence!

[DEF 3 -> 4]

Wait, should I have invested it into STR instead? A 33% boost in HP might have been more worth it!

[Too late.]

Shut up!

The good thing was that only the small ants were fast enough to reach me right now. As one of them neared, I accelerated backwards, aiming my wheel at the one most upfront.

"Bang!"

[-3 HP]

What the heck? The ant... it was unharmed and burst my tires with a single bite! I reeled in pain. Not good, I had to escape!

I quickly halted and switched to driving forward as quickly as I could. The burst tire was a huge problem, but luckily I had the bright idea of using shapeshift to change the metal part on the inside into the same size as my other wheels. I was a lot less stable and it hurt a lot to keep exerting the burst tire, but at least I wasn't that much slower than before. I could escape safely at this rate!

"Skraaaa!"

The ants suddenly sped up! What? Whyyy? Did they get motivated when they saw one of their friends bursting my tires? Screw it, I still had 17 HP! Engine Burst!

[Engine Burst innitiated]

[+50% STR & SPD]

[-1 HP / 3s]

Immediately, my radiator started burning incredibly hot. Hot air spewed from it and it started to make funny noises that worried me a lot. Just what I wanted. More pain. I really started to hate those ants.

With my increased speed, the ants started to fall behind. After an agonising 10 HP burned, they were finally out of sight. Urgh. My radiator was red hot. I was at 7 HP.

How miserable! Well, at least I survived, right? I guess now I just had to wait for the regen like in games.

["Unfortunately", you have 0 HP regen by default as you are a machine.]

WHAT? This is bullshit! Humans don't recover from fatal wounds with a few minutes of rest either, do they? Why is realism being in play with some kind of game system?

[Because this is real life. Not a game.]

And how is healing back to full health after levelling up realistic?

[I could remove that feature if you want.]

...

Sometimes I really hated Tablet.

Great. Now I had to somehow kill enough stuff to level up while in such terrible condition. What was I going to do, face more ants? I really didn't like the thought of that.

Hey Sheepy!

It was huddled in a pile, trembling.

"What? Are the ants gone now?"

Yes, I outran them. Do you have any ideas where I can find strong monsters? I need to fight to heal.

Please suggest something weaker than the ants...

"What? How does that even wo- you know what, it doesn't matter," said Sheepy. "You know what? I think I know where you can find monsters like that!"

What are they? Are they weaker than the ants?

Sheepy started to get aggitated for some reason.

"There's a pack of wolfs that live a good distance away. They are monsters! They... they killed my wife! And my friends!"

What? You had a wife?

I was shocked. This dumb sheep could attract a partner? Were the standards of ewes that low?

"Well... my would-be wife. It was only a matter of time until she fell for me!" Sheepy seemed sheepish.

Okay, it was just speaking nonsense then. Still, I felt kind of bad for it though. To have lost all its friends to a pack of wolves... that must have really hurt. Was that how it became so badly injured when I first met it?

I see. So, are they stronger than the ants?

"No way! Those crazy ants are so tough! Nobody sane would go near them, not even the wolves! If you can eat one of the giant ants in a bite, then you can definitely kill those bastard wolves easily!"

That was good to hear. I was relieved.

So how many of those wolves do you think would it take to defeat one of those bigger ants?

"Honestly? I'm not even sure if the entire pack could beat one of those. They are so tough, the claws would just bounce right off!"

Huh, I guess that made sense. Those smaller cat-sized ones were even able to survive getting crushed by my wheel unharmed... wait, how was I able to even bite through the large one?

[The system allows you to consume material required for upgrades, ignoring the strength of the material itself. Material upgrades will permanently increase your stats, mostly relating to DEF and HP.]

Breaking news! A giant ant has appeared out of nowhere on a busy street! Witnesses said it went on a rampage, causing 11 people to be heavily injured. Fortunately, there were no deaths.

Police attempted to apprehend the monster, but it appeared all guns were unable to even dent its carapace. Attempts to trap it with a reinforced steel cage were made, but the ant managed to tear it apart with ease.

Soon after, a weird man in a costume came out of nowhere and attempted to fight it but was also defeated with serious injuries. Passersby attempted to help him by calling an ambulance, but he refused their help and promptly escaped while leaving blood all over the place. Very inconsiderate.

Luckily, there was a super smart and cool man called Oppie! He singlehanded slew the beast, making everyone cheer! Even the police were clapping and everyone gave him a-

What? Why are you trying to stop me? I'm just reporting the news-

Ophie was yet again apprehended for attacking the same news reporter.