The Monster on the Bed
I woke up from a light sleep with a queasy stomach, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself transformed into a huge bug lying on the bed in my shabby one-room studio apartment.
Countless legs clattering together, a massive black shell that reflected light.
Multiple eyes divided into separate parts, and long antennae hanging down and twitching.
None of them made sense, but the truth that made my skin crawl was that I had become a bug.
What the hell is this? Why did I turn into a bug?
…
“A.”
I jolted awake from a ridiculous dream. Of course, it was ridiculous that a person could suddenly turn into a giant bug.
The Tower had appeared in the world, people awakened, and the Hunter profession was born, but turning into a huge bug was too scary to be real.
Not just a person, but a person-sized bug.
Just thinking about the dream gave me goosebumps all over my body.
“Ugh… my skin’s getting goosebumps.”
…Huh?
Something felt wrong. I thought I had just spoken, but my voice didn’t come out.
…Something strange must have happened.
“A… aaah?”
My lips moved on their own, producing a sweet, slender voice I didn’t recognize at all. I shot up from the bed.
SLOSH-
Even with the heavy sensation in my chest, my body froze again.
It was weird. Anyone would feel something strange about this.
That’s how weird it was, so I rushed to the bathroom and felt even more oddness.
“What the… eek.”
I hadn’t paid much attention earlier, but my vision was several times wider and clearer than usual, and my head felt a little dizzy.
It was like too much information was flooding my brain.
The boxes rolling around on the floor, the address written on top of the boxes, the numbers under the barcodes…
Even the small details I would never have noticed before were clear as day.
Despite my throbbing head, I staggered toward the bathroom again.
Really… I had to check what the hell was actually happening.
“What the hell… is happening? Umm?”
When I looked in the mirror, a person I had never seen before stood there.
Or rather, since it was obvious that I was the one standing there, there were two of me.
Long black hair reaching my waist swayed like the bug in my dream, glittering with reflected light, sparkling like a gem.
If there was fine silk in the world, this would be it—my hair flowing smoothly as I moved.
My skin was so white I doubted I had ever seen anyone this pale.
My appearance was the most beautiful I had ever seen.
And my chest was so huge I could feel the weight when I stood up earlier.
But the strange part was…
Yellow—actually golden—eyes that sparkled strangely.
More precisely, my pupils were split into multiple parts, looking bizarre.
Like the eyes of the bug I had dreamed about, divided…
Form that humans shouldn’t have and definitely shouldn’t possess.
“Wait… bug?”
As I examined my appearance, the bug from my dream came to mind.
I wasn’t sure, but my current change was similar to that nightmare bug.
Was this a prophetic dream meant to tell me something?
But what could I possibly learn from this?
“Umm?”
I had never noticed before, but the surroundings kept appearing in my eyes, so I hadn’t paid attention.
It was something I had never seen in my life. No, I thought I would never see it while I was alive…
Congratulations. You have awakened by meeting the conditions.
It took a while, but I reached out toward the message fading away.
[Congratulations! You have awakened by meeting the conditions.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Status Window]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name │ Lee Seong-eun
Age │ 22 / Gender │ Female
Trait │ Bug Queen (EX)
Skills │ Metamorphosis (F) / Mother (EX)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The status window floating in front of me made me panic and I fell backward, hitting my butt.
“Ugh… you startled me.”
This must be the status window that Hunters see.
I thought it had nothing to do with me. Honestly, I didn’t even know I was a Hunter.
It wasn’t easy to awaken, and I had never thought about it.
If anyone could awaken as a Hunter, everyone would have tried.
I had thought it was impossible for me, so I never gave it a thought. If I had known this would happen, I would have taken Hunter courses.
“But… it looks so weak?”
Looking at my status, it was obvious how weak it was.
From what I had heard in the community, awakening usually came with more skills than this.
Moreover, I didn’t have any classes that others had, and I had never heard of this kind of trait.
I wondered why there was no class but I had a unique trait.
Honestly, I didn’t see any way to do anything about it.
“Well, then…”
Maybe I was misunderstanding something.
First, I should check what I had.
- Pinnacle of all bugs. Ruler of insects, and their mother.
The explanation made me wonder what to do with it. It was too vague.
I couldn’t understand anything from a single line.
All bugs’ pinnacle? Ruler? Mother?
If someone could understand from just that, they must be amazing.
Still, there was more I hadn’t seen yet.
- Evolve to your ultimate ideal.
- Evolve everyone to your ultimate ideal.
Again, vague.
Was every skill and trait in this world like this?
Couldn’t I tell what the abilities actually were?
- The mother is the source of life, creating and evolving new lives.
- Collect B (Bug) Points and fulfill your mission.
- B Points: 1
…Haa.
My head really felt dizzy. Had I ever felt this dizzy before?
It was hard to understand what the abilities actually were.
Creating new life? Was I some kind of god? This was ridiculous.
“Do I make monsters that kill everything?”
[Insufficient Metamorphosis.]
……
I stared at the message reacting to my words.
Insufficient Metamorphosis? What did they mean by “pervert”?
…Actually, I knew that pervert wasn’t the right term, but I felt strange.
“Then what can I do?”
Honestly, I wondered if there was an answer.
Talking to the status window…
If someone saw me, they’d think I was crazy talking to myself.
[Would you like to create the insects you can birth right now?]
Contrary to my expectations, the status window was surprisingly kind.
…If that was the case, why hadn’t it asked before?
I was a little annoyed, but I decided to try anyway.
Nothing bad could happen by trying, right?
“Ugh.”
My vision spun, and the fuzzy feeling gathered at my fingertips. I flipped my hands over.
On my palms sat a small, round egg-like object.
Like it was draining energy from my body, it grew longer and longer.
“Wait, no way…”
I wanted to cancel the skill, but I didn’t know how.
CRACK-
The egg cracked and something slithered out—a bug with many legs, a long body, and a black shell.
It was almost the size of my fist, giving me goosebumps.
SQUISH SQUISH-
It crawled around on my hand, and I couldn’t even look away.
Of course I would have screamed if I looked.
The problem was that with my expanded vision, I couldn’t close my eyes to avoid seeing it.
So I had to face it.
A bug that looked oddly cute with yellow eyes like mine, yet gave me the creeps.
“G… gwaaaah-!”
Without realizing, I shook my hand and it clung to my wrist like it didn’t want to fall, dangling.
I really hated it! Let go! Please let go!
No matter how hard I shook, it didn’t budge.
The many legs sticking to my wrist… didn’t feel good at all.
“Hah… ha… hah…”
After waving my hand for what felt like minutes, the bug wiggled its antennae happily as if I had played with it. I was dumbfounded.
I had moved so hard to throw it away, and it liked this? Was this correct?
Still, good thing—its affection had increased slightly from my earlier actions.
Maybe it looked a little less gross.
Naturally wrapping around my wrist felt like a bracelet.
Well, it wasn’t bad, and it had character…
[Condition satisfied. Metamorphosis is possible.]
“Umm?”
The sudden system message made me wonder again.
Metamorphosis being possible meant using the Metamorphosis skill, but I couldn’t risk it without knowing what would happen.
Would I turn into some weird monster?
I had never heard of such a skill, but…
“…Well, I guess I have to try using it?”
Even if it was bad, I might as well try… I was worried about side effects.
I had heard of skills with side effects, but none were mentioned here.
Evolution… my instinct was telling me this was what I had to do.
After taking a deep breath, I used it right away.
[Starting Metamorphosis.]
SWOOSH-
Instantly, the threads wrapping my body made me panic.
…Is this Metamorphosis? So what the heck was a “pervert”?!