Where the heck am I?
[Welcome to the fantasy world of Vesperia! Please enter your gamer tag: ______]
A gamer tag huh? Luckily, I already have one of those.
[Gamer tag inputted! Welcome to Vesperia: ApexHunter101]
The screen soon disappeared and I was left in a dark empty space. My body was curled up into a ball. I tried to straighten myself, but there was something hard covering me. My body felt weak, but still, I pushed with all my might until…
A crack!
There was a crack, and even though faintly, I could see a light. This gave me the motivation to push even harder, and soon the crack widened until there was a sizable hole.
I crawled my way through…
Wait!
Why am I crawling?!
My questions remained unanswered as something else caught my attention.
Are those… Centipedes?
Just a few inches in front of me were small creatures with dozens of legs, all ending in sharp points. Their body was divided into different segments and in front of their mouths were two pointed forcipules and a mandible used to chew through food.
Yep, they were definitely centipedes. Not only that, but their carapace was white, almost transparent. This meant that they had just hatched, and their bodies had yet to harden.
Then it struck me.
Turning around, I looked at the place I had just crawled from. My vision was blurry, and it was hard to see clearly unless something was moving, but I was certain that the thing in front of me was an egg. The same place I had just crawled out from.
Wait, no, this can't be.
Don't tell me that instead of gaining a legendary bloodline or a unique type of magic, I became a centipede!
My body was white just like the others, and I had two antennae on the top of my head. As for legs… I don't even know how many there were.
Maybe a hundred. Maybe more.
Even though they are named centipedes, they don't have exactly a hundred legs. They could have anywhere from 30 to 382 legs depending on the species.
Their bodies were divided into segments, and they had only 1 pair of legs per body segment. Since my exoskeleton was yet to harden, I couldn't move my legs. I was basically wriggling over whatever surface I was on.
The reason I know so much about centipedes was because I studied biology just before I dropped out of college.
Still, this was a big problem.
Amelia is going to kill me. How am I supposed to tell her that I turned into a centipede when I enter Vesperia? She would feel our hopeless situation was even more hopeless. Would I even survive long enough in this state to tell her?
If I die here, then I die in the real world, and vice versa. But if I leave right now, then I basically would be leaving my body exposed, and I would be killed anyway so I had to find somewhere safe.
What else am I able to do?
Just then, a thought came to mind. There is one thing…
'Status'
+-----+
Name: Liam Fairchild
Gamertag: ApexHunter101
Race: Myriapoda
Species: Centipede
Danger Level: F
Player Rank: 607/607
Level: 1
Strength: 1
Speed: 1
Defense: 1
Skill Points: 0
Biomass: 0
-Skills-
-None
-Forum->
-Storage->
+-----+
My status screen basically confirms it. I am a centipede. The only good news is that I am able to have skills. And there was even an option for biomass.
Not only that, but of all the players in the world, I was ranked dead last.
Figured that was the case. What player would be weaker than a newborn centipede?
I've never heard of anyone becoming a centipede or any other insect or animal. Sure there were rare cases where someone would become a dragon or even a noble vampire but never something like this.
This world had a ranking system where your stats, skills, race and level is calculated and ranked against the other players. This ranking can be seen by anyone through their status screen. Next to the rank is your gamer tag so no one will know my rank unless they know my gamertag.
There is also a forum that can be assessed from your status screen. In this forum, players can ask for help regarding monsters, potions, rare artifacts, bloodlines, skills and even other players. You can even recruit members if you are in the same area and want to form a temporary party.
The more I looked at the status screen, the more I realized that they weren't kidding; this world was really like a game.
Based on all my knowledge of gaming, I'm guess that if I obtain more biomass, then I would be able to fix some of this body's natural weaknesses and it it through continuous evolutions that I would gain strength. I could evolve my eyesight and hearing, for example. My vision was blurry, and my sense of hearing was non-existent.
The only thing I had of use right now was my antennae, which allowed me to smell and feel even the slightest vibrations in the air. This allowed me to sense the humidity, temperature, and even air pressure.
As for ears, I didn't have any. So instead, my numerous feet would play the part by feeling the pulses of movement on the ground. Still, with biomass, the option for an evolution was still possible, so at least all wasn't completely lost, yet. The only reason I even know what biomass was, is because of my days reading web novels and playing video games so I had a basic idea of how it worked.
I can do this! So what if I'm a centipede!
Just then, as I was regaining my composure, I saw something that almost made my skin crawl. One of the centipedes had already hardened its exoskeleton. Its carapace had turned a reddish-brown color.
Its legs too had hardened and were now functional for walking. This particular centipede must've been the first to hatch, which is why its exoskeleton hardened first.
But that wasn't what made my skin crawl. It was because this centipede was now eating the others that had yet to harden their exoskeleton.
This was bad!
Just after hatching, the exoskeleton is pale and soft like wet paper. The slightest damage could mean the end. I needed a place to stay until my carapace hardened since there was a predator nearby.
I needed to find somewhere safe, but how could I when my feet hadn't developed enough to move around properly? Not only that, but there were even more of my siblings that had already hardened their exoskeletons.
It must've exerted a lot of energy, making them hungry. For that reason, just like the first, they began eating the ones that hadn't molted.
The air around me trembled. I could sense it with my antennae.
Something was coming.
One of them was heading in my direction!