Chapter 1

‘I guess it won’t help to think about it.’ I decided to stop feeling discouraged at this point. It’s not because I’m more optimistic than others that I take things lightly. Amorph is a combat species with strong vitality, but not during hatchling times. All I have are possibilities and potential. Right now, I’m just a fragile being that will die if I don’t eat something within an hour. So I need to move diligently before my remaining energy runs out. Where I am now is inside a massive metal structure. I’m well aware that it’s a spaceship made of alloy, swimming in the sea called space. ‘Looks like something out of MegaCorp or StarUnion.’ Either way, they are not friendly forces to me. Looking around, I saw a stack of containers about three times the height of a person. Plastic boxes were visible between the stacked containers. As my chin-mounted auxiliary apparatus twitched, various pieces of information were implanted in my mind. ‘A fascinating sensation.’ Experiencing the ‘Super-sense’ that used to be implemented in the form of a minimap in the game was completely different when felt directly through my body. Smells were heard like sounds, and sounds were seen, mixing the senses together to convey information. It was a sense that allowed me to perceive everything within its range simultaneously. At the tips of my claws, I could feel the vibrations generated by the fusion engine. The faint smells of various elements like oxygen, carbon, and more mixed in the air stimulated my auxiliary apparatus at its tip. The auxiliary apparatus extracted the fact that there was something edible among the various smells and transmitted it to my brain. My top priority now was nutrition. The fact that food was not far away was reassuring. My three pairs of legs moved towards the prey as they stepped on the cold metal plates. Each time my claws touched the grating-style floor, it made a squeaky sound. I passed through the forest of containers and reached the plastic boxes. Using my claws, I climbed up on top of one. Upon reaching the top, I noticed that the box had a lock that required a password to open. ‘It’s a password. Let’s see.’ I leaned close to the number plate, and as my auxiliary apparatus twitched, fingerprints on the surface flowed into my mind. ‘1234, really?’ Even in the space age, the security level was this low. I pressed the button firmly with my front legs. A sound from inside the box indicated that the lock had been released. When I opened the lid, there were vacuum-sealed calorie bars stacked inside. I pulled out one from the top. With a simple tear using my claws, I took a bite. The texture was like chewing on a rubber eraser, but the game’s tooltip had mentioned that it was designed exclusively for nutrition, and it seemed to be true. ‘Well, at least I succeeded in replenishing my nutrition.’ It didn’t taste good, but the high calorie content made me feel energetic all the way to the tip of my tail. As I was about to take another bite, something caught my senses. My tail moved like an arrow and quickly pierced through the unknown object. ‘A cockroach?’ The sharp fangs were lodged in the cockroach. It struggled to escape but eventually fell limp. I devoured the cockroach as if possessed. Its exoskeleton broke as it was crushed between my teeth, and its juices sprayed. It was a juicy creature, seemingly well-fed and grown. After I finished eating it, a different message appeared in the text box from before. [Predation effect activated! Successfully obtained ‘Wings’ genetic essence from ‘Cockroach.’] [Extracted the ‘Wings’ from the biological characteristics of ‘Cockroach.’] [Do you want to apply the ‘Wings’?] ‘Oh?’ Getting a genetic essence this quickly is quite lucky. Genetic essences can be considered the alpha and omega of Amorph operations, as it’s a crucial element. The more genetic essences you acquire, the stronger you can evolve as a creature. ‘Wings.’ In a game set in space, wings themselves are unlikely to have any special significance. But this is not a game; it’s reality. Considering that I’m a gliding caterpillar, this trait is closer to being useful rather than bad. It allows me to establish dominance when hunting and provides an advantage in escaping. ‘Accept.’ [Trait application in progress.] It felt like something was squirming on my back, and wings with the smooth and elastic texture characteristic of chitin grew. The ship’s owner, humanity, was my enemy. Even without considering the background story of the game, it was hard to believe they would take kindly to me. ‘They’ll try to find me once they realize that the cargo is dwindling. And then? Death or experimentation.’ To avoid a bleak future, I had to meet the conditions for evolution as quickly as possible, surpassing the Hatchling stage. To do that, I needed to expand my activity range beyond this cargo hold. ‘That was a lot of rambling. In short, I have to catch cockroaches diligently if I want to survive.’ ‘Let’s change locations.’ Cockroaches were sensitive and intelligent insects, so they never ventured into areas where their comrades had died. They knew that danger lurked in places where their fellow cockroaches had met their end. At first, I didn’t know this fact and wasted 30 minutes sitting in the same spot, accomplishing nothing. ‘Let’s go!’ I bent my eight legs to the wall, then suddenly exerted all my strength, propelling myself upwards. My body rebounded elastically and soared into the air. While floating in mid-air, my wings spread wide from my back. In human terms, it was like the muscles around the dorsal area, equivalent to the latissimus dorsi muscles, were tightly engaged with power. [PR/N: The latissimus dorsi muscle is a broad, flat muscle that occupies the majority of the lower posterior thorax.] As I began to flutter, my body, which had been falling, slowly rose into the air. A creature resembling a desert spider, fluttering its wings as it flew. If someone with a weak heart saw this, they might faint. Even while flying, my visual and auxiliary apparatus never stopped searching for cockroaches. ‘At this point, I’m truly an honorable Amorph.’ Lost in frivolous thoughts, I suddenly detected two cockroaches. There was one on the wall, and another was diligently crawling on top of a plastic box. I decided to catch the one closer to me, the one on the wall. I adjusted the angle of my wings, and my body turned in the direction of the cockroach. The cockroach seemed to be lost in thought or distracted, completely unaware of my approach. I grabbed it with my front legs, like an eagle snatching a fish. Before the little one could escape between my claws, I swiftly grabbed it and popped it into my mouth. Its seemingly pristine exoskeleton shattered, and juices along with bits of innards spewed out from its side. With one more left, I held it in my mouth, eyeing the next target. ‘Oh no.’ The one near the floor noticed me. It scurried down beneath a box. With its small body and its legs pointed towards the floor gap, once it slipped through the crevice in the alloy sheet, my hunt would be over. ‘I can’t let it escape!’ I pushed the wall with my four pairs of legs to secure thrust and shot towards it like an arrow. The creature was already probing the crevice with its antennae and head. As soon as its lower half was visible, I landed like a missile, smashing into the unforgiving iron that offered no semblance of softness. Pain surged through my entire body due to the impact, but my focus was on the creature’s rear end. My tail shot out like a mantis hunting its prey. It sliced through the air, and the tip, equipped with a sharp stinger, entered the hole in the metal sheet. The creature, which had just breathed a sigh of relief, panicked. Its brain, which had considered an immediate escape, was now split in two by the sharp sting. ‘Phew.’ By a hair’s breadth, I succeeded in hunting them both. My tail returned triumphantly to its place, bearing the proud spoils of victory. After finishing processing the carcass I had in my mouth, I started eating the creature attached to my tail. Just as I was about to finish devouring it, the long-awaited message appeared. [Predation effect activated! Successfully obtained ‘Robust Vitality’ genetic essence from ‘Cockroach.’] [Extracted the ‘Robust Vitality’ from the biological characteristics of ‘Cockroach.’] [Do you want to apply the ‘Robust Vitality’?] ‘Of course, accept.’ A qualitatively different vitality coursed through my entire body. Muscles had thickened around the once long and slender legs, and the sheen on the chitinous exoskeleton covering my back and belly had improved. Now, it begins. In comparison to my body, it was an incredibly vast and expansive cargo hold within the ship. The time had come for me to break free from the world where I first set foot.