Darkness.
It wasn't the kind of darkness you got from closing your eyes, where faint colors and the ghost of light still danced behind your eyelids. No, this was absolute, suffocating, eternal black. The kind of void where you weren't even sure you still existed.
My first thought was simple. "Did I… die?"
The last memory came back in flashes. A room cluttered with energy drink cans and instant noodle cups. My VR rig humming with the soft glow of neon blue. My hands stiff around the controller after grinding twenty-four hours straight. My lips cracked, my eyes bloodshot, and my brain screaming at me to log off.
I hadn't.
Of course I hadn't. Hardcore gamers don't log off.
The chat had been spamming me, "Toru you're insane," "Sleep bro," "You're gonna die," like it was a joke.
Turns out, maybe it wasn't.
I didn't remember the exact moment, but my chest must have given out. Heart, brain, something snapped. And instead of waking up in a hospital bed, I woke up here.
Not that I could call this waking up.
Because… I had no arms. No legs. No body.
What I had instead was… wriggling.
Slimy, wet, nauseating wriggling.
---
> [ DEFYING SYSTEM – PROTOCOL 7 ]
User: Toru
Race: Parasitic Larva (Anomaly)
Status: Host Required
…Excuse me?
I would've laughed if I had lungs. Instead, a strange tremor rattled through my new body. That was when I realized the truth.
I wasn't human anymore.
I was something else.
And I could see it—or rather, sense it. My perception wasn't sight or smell or hearing, but all of them fused into a grotesque new sense. Every vibration on the cave floor tickled through me. Every drip of water echoed like thunder. The sour reek of moss and mold wasn't smelled but absorbed through every inch of my skin.
And then I saw… myself.
Not through eyes, but by some warped reflection in a puddle.
A worm.
No, not even a proper worm. A translucent, mucous-drenched larva with faintly glowing veins beneath its flesh. Its mouth was a circular ring lined with needle-like teeth, twitching and snapping at the air as though starving.
"…You've got to be fucking kidding me."
---
All those years of fantasizing about isekai—reincarnation stories where the protagonist wakes up as a chosen hero, or maybe a cool monster like a slime, or a dragon, or even an overpowered skeleton king. And me?
I was literally parasite trash.
Not a goblin. Not a kobold. Not even a chicken.
A parasite.
"God, if this is your sense of humor, screw you."
Still, the system message floated patiently in my head. That little glowing box was the only proof I wasn't hallucinating. I was in some kind of RPG world. My gamer instincts screamed at me to check for a status screen.
"Menu! Status! Inventory!" I yelled internally, like an idiot.
Something blinked.
---
System Box
──────────────────────────────
[ DEFYING SYSTEM – PROTOCOL 7 ]
User: Toru
Race: Parasitic Larva (Anomaly)
Affinity: Evolution / Symbiosis
Level: 1
HP: 25/25 | Biomass: 0
EP (Essence Points): 0
Stats:
• Strength: 1
• Agility: 2
• Vitality: 1
• Intelligence: 3
• Symbiosis: 5
Traits:
• [Parasitic Instinct] – detect weak hosts.
• [Essence Drain] – slowly absorb host energy.
• [Shared Senses] – link sight and sensation with host.
Skills:
• Assimilate Lv.1 – steal basic skills from host.
• Mutation Lv.1 – alter small organs.
• Symbiosis Lv.1 – minor buff while linked to host.
Quest:
• [Instinct Quest]: Find Host -> Infest First Target.
──────────────────────────────
"Oh hell no."
It was real.
It was happening.
I was trapped in a survival RPG as the squishiest monster possible.
---
The moment the system closed, a new sensation crawled into me. Hunger. But not normal hunger. It wasn't in my stomach—hell, I didn't even have one anymore. It was in every cell. Every strand of slimy tissue screamed for sustenance.
Not food. Not water.
Biomass.
I instinctively understood what that meant. Blood. Flesh. Life force.
The void in me pulsed, demanding. And then another message appeared:
> [ Warning: Biomass Depleting. Infestation Required in 30 minutes. ]
"Oh, you've got to be shitting me."
---
I wriggled across the stone floor. Slimy mucus trailed behind me. My body dragged like a slug. Each movement echoed too loudly in the silent cave.
The cave itself was… unsettling. Damp stone walls, patches of glowing fungus painting everything in sickly green. The air was stale, thick with rot. I could feel insects crawling in cracks, their faint life signatures like sparks in the void.
I could eat them. I knew it instinctively. But they weren't enough. My body demanded something bigger. Stronger.
A host.
That was when I heard it.
---
At first, it was faint. A shuffle. A stumble. Then clearer. Bare feet slapping wet stone.
And a breath. Ragged, pained, trembling.
Someone was coming.
My senses latched onto the presence like a radar ping. A figure limped into view, illuminated by the fungus glow.
She was small. Humanoid.
A goblin.
But not the drooling, deformed caricature from fantasy games. This was a goblin girl. Skin pale green, smeared with dirt and blood. Long dark-green hair, messy and tangled. Golden eyes wide with fear. Her clothes were rags, half torn, barely clinging to her form. One shoulder dripped crimson from a fresh wound.
She staggered, collapsed against the cave wall, clutching herself.
Behind her, distant howls echoed. Harsh, guttural voices of goblin males.
My system pinged again.
> [ Host Detected: Goblin (F) – Compatible ]
[ Infestation: Available ]
---
And my hunger… exploded.
Every fiber in me screamed: That one. Take her. Now.