I think.
'......I think I'm fXcked.'
Therefore I am.
GURRRRRGLE—
Curled up inside a dark, cramped, round space, I looked at the line of text before my eyes.
-<You are the 3,021st egg of the 'Kraken'>
It seemed I had fallen into the mobile game I used to enjoy.
'Raising a Hungry Kraken.'
The player controls a small squid and roams the sea.
A simple game in which you dodge things like poisonous sea urchins, anemones and bigger monsters while eating small prey, grow the squid's body large, and in the end become the ruler of the deep sea.
......And it seemed I had transmigrated into that game.
I kept reading down the status window before my eyes.
-<Survive in this sea.>
A place with neither light nor heat, the fathomless deep sea completely cut off from this world.
As I said before, it seemed I was fucked.
BURRRRRBLE.......
Spitting out bubbles, I gave it some thought.
This soft, tough membrane surrounding me seemed to be an eggshell.
In that case, I would have to tear it open and get out for anything at all to begin.
If it were up to me, I would rather not be born and just stay here for good, but.......
-<Your kin begin the 'competition.'>
-<1 minute remains until the eggshell is forcibly torn open.>
-<59.>
-<58.>
-<57.>
.
.
Unless I was an only son cherished like gold and jade, that was impossible.
I was the 3,021st son.
Above me alone there were 3,020 older sisters and brothers, and I couldn't even guess how many younger siblings there might be.
So anyway, the point is that I had to get out of here fast, before something nasty happened to me.
RI-IIIIP!
I stretched out both arms with all my strength.
......Wait, it's not two arms.
I had 8 arms.
To be precise, it would be right to call them 'tentacles,' not 'arms.'
SLITHER— WRIGGLE, WRIGGLE—
It was fascinating that I could use each and every one of as many as 8 hands independently.
When I was human, even drawing a triangle with my left hand and a square with my right was hard.
'Are there 8 because they're arms? Ah, an octopus has eight legs to begin with. But I look like a squid? What is this?'
Well, anyway.
RIIIIP!
I tore through the eggshell and came out.
What lay before my eyes was the scenery of an undersea cave.
In the cold, dark sea, my body was reflected in detail on the surface of a translucent anemone that gave off a faint light.
'It's just like the lore.'
Pale pink fins fluttering at the very top, a stubby, plump body and two eyes, a chubby beak, and wriggling legs.
It was rather far from the terrifying figure that coils a single tentacle around a warship and drags it into the deep sea.
The reason was as follows.
-<Kraken 'Infant Form'>
-The larva of some cephalopod.
Having just hatched from the egg, it has almost no combat ability.
-Combat Power: 2
-Traits: <Absorption>
It was because I was an Infant Form that had just hatched from the egg.
'A kraken, of all things.......'
I raised the fourth tentacle from the right and pressed it to my forehead.
On top of my 'head'...... no, my 'body,' the 'two ears'...... no, the 'two fins' fluttered.
An appearance closer to a baby squid than a kraken.
'I turned off the monitor and there was some squid there...... This goes way beyond that level.'
I had truly become a squid, no, a baby kraken.
'Right, I did break out of the egg. Now what do I do?'
In truth, I already knew the answer.
RUMBLE—
Because the body is honest.
'I'm hungry like crazy.'
A kraken is a creature that needs a great many calories.
In its Infant Form, it can die from merely starving for a few minutes.
'I'd better eat something first. If I don't want to die right away.'
I looked around.
My field of view was almost entirely darkness.
Apart from the faint light a few strands of anemone were giving off, I could see nothing.
Just then.
'!'
I spotted something.
It was a small fish darting in and out between the anemone's tentacles.
White stripes on an orange base.
No, is it orange stripes on a white base?
It was a familiar fish I had seen many times somewhere.
-<Clownfish>
-A small, colorful fish.
Also called the clown among the anemones, it seems to be resistant to the poison of some anemones.
-Combat Power: 1
-Traits: <Faint Poison Resistance>
'That's Nemo, right there.'
Strictly speaking, it was a clownfish.
'First of all, thank you for the meal.'
I charged at Nemo.
The moment I stretched out a tentacle and was about to grab it.
...STING!
A pain like a hornet's sting burst out, tingling, from the tip of my tentacle.
'What is it?'
Startled, I backed away.
It was not Nemo that had caused me pain.
It was the anemone, standing guard as if to protect Nemo.
'That Nemo punk...... it was in a symbiotic relationship with the anemone, wasn't it?'
The clownfish is one of the few prey you can eat early in the game.
And that anemone, in a symbiotic relationship with the clownfish, has a fairly stinging poison besides giving off light.
Judging by the pain like a hornet's sting that touching an anemone's tentacle brought, the game's lore seemed to have been reproduced in reality as it was.
'In the game too, touching that anemone a few times cut your Combat Power.'
But that didn't mean I could give up.
Because right now I was hungry enough to die, and in a few minutes I actually would die!
'If I die here, there's no telling what will happen...... so for now, I'm going all in, eat or no eat!'
I shut both eyes tight and stretched out a tentacle.
Perhaps heaven helped, for Nemo had just then poked its head out of the anemone.
With the tip of my tentacle I snatched the sluggish thing by the scruff of its neck.
A rough sucker was attached to the tip of the tentacle, and it instinctively sucked tight onto Nemo's body.
Nemo thrashed fiercely, but its Combat Power was 1 at most.
My Combat Power was 2, so that was a full twofold difference.
In the blink of an eye I wound my tentacles round and round Nemo and stuffed it straight into my mouth.
MUNCH— MUNCH— MUNCH—
Didn't someone say not to discuss life with a person who has never chewed bread soaked in tears?
With a person who has chewed a seawater-soaked Nemo alive, though, I doubt anyone would want to discuss anything at all, whatever it might be.
For the record, the taste was...... extremely stable.
A taste that would have me throwing up stably and without any fuss.
Would something have been different if I'd had soy sauce and wasabi?
But history has no if.
There was neither soy sauce nor wasabi here.
GU-LP!
I held down the urge to throw up and swallowed the clownfish.
At that very moment.
-DING-DONG!
The status window changed.
-<Kraken 'Infant Form'>
-The larva of some cephalopod.
Having just hatched from the egg, it has almost no combat ability.
-Combat Power: 3 [+1]
-Traits: <Absorption>, [+]<Faint Poison Resistance>
Was it thanks to 'Absorption,' the kraken's unique trait?
I seemed to have absorbed part of the trait of the clownfish I had just eaten.
CRACKLE—
Orange scales peculiar to the clownfish sprouted on my body and tentacles.
So this punk had orange scales on a white body.
'My Combat Power went up by 1 too. I absorbed the Combat Power of the clownfish I ate, just as it was.'
This too was exactly as in the lore of 'Raising a Hungry Kraken.'
A monster in this game can prey on a monster with lower Combat Power than its own, and it absorbs that Combat Power just as it is.
In the kraken's case, it has a skill called 'Absorption,' so it does not stop at absorbing Combat Power but even takes others' skills for itself.
'It's a cheat race, but...... the early game is just too weak.'
By its lore, a kraken's Infant Form is not much different from an ocean sunfish.
It dies at the slightest thing, then dies again at the slightest thing, and so out of billions of eggs, the individuals that make it to the near-adult form number one or two at most.
'I'll survive no matter what and make it to the adult form. No, beyond that, I'm going to live a long, long time, until I'm smearing shit on the walls.'
The older a kraken gets, the stronger it becomes.
'Meaning there's none of that growing old and feeble crap.'
Old soldiers never die, they just get fucking strong.
I moved forward.
And then.
...STING!
I ended up stung by an anemone again.
'Ow, that stings!'
Cursing, I pulled my tentacle back.
Still, perhaps because I had just eaten a clownfish and acquired 'Faint Poison Resistance,' it did hurt a little less than before.
'Earlier it felt like a hornet's sting, and now it feels like a honeybee's.'
What does that matter, when what hurts still hurts?
When I went toward the front of the cave, luminous anemones grew thick enough to fill my whole view.
At this rate, I didn't know whether I could even get outside.
At that very moment.
BZZZT!
From up ahead came a sound like something being electrocuted.
When I raised my head, I saw a small shark that had tried to come in here get stung by the anemones and panic, scared out of its wits.
'Oh. So these anemones were a good thing.'
From the look of it, these anemones seemed to be serving as gatekeepers guarding the kraken's eggs.
That must be why they drove off an intruder trying to come into the cave, as they did just now.
'I see. A situation really is what you make of it.'
The thug that had been blocking my way until a moment ago now felt like a dependable bodyguard.
'For the time being I should stay in this cave, comfortable and cozy, and get a grasp of the situation.'
With my eight tentacles crossed like folded arms, I nodded.
Just then.
CRUNCH— CRUNCH— CRUNCH— CRUNCH—
A strange sound came from behind me.
SQUELCH— SQUELCH— SQUELCH— SQUELCH—
What is it, this chilling, grotesque noise?
CRACK— CRACK— CRACK— CRACK— SNAP!
I slowly turned my head to look.
There, one of my kin that looked exactly like me was swimming.
-<Kraken 'Infant Form'>
-The larva of some cephalopod.
Having just hatched from the egg, it has almost no combat ability.
-Combat Power: 4
-Traits: <Absorption>, <Cannibalism>
With the corpse of yet another of our kin held in its mouth.
GRIN—
Its eyes meeting mine, my kin curled up both ends of its beak.
The sight was so hideous and grotesque that I nearly threw up the Nemo I had just chewed and eaten alive.
SLITHER—
My kin came toward me.
I backed away.
At that moment.
...STING!
A burning pain flared in my back.
When I turned my head, a wall of anemones was cutting off my retreat.
'Ah.'
I realized.
These anemones were not a firewall protecting 'Sweet My Home.'
They were the fence of the 'Blood-Soaked Battle Royale Indiscriminate Slaughter Colosseum' that my kin were about to hold among themselves.