So I’m a Fish, So What?

Accompanied by a loud desperate cry, my prey draws its last breath as its large body crashes to the ground, signifying the end of another intense battle.

An extra day survived. An extra meal to stave off the hunger. Another increase in my imaginary experience bar.

This cycle has been repeated numerous times since I broke out of that eggshell and started a dangerous but thrilling adventure.

But... It has become more of a routine rather than an adventure by now. I feel like my life has slipped back into a similar mundane rhythm to the one I had back in Japan.

Search for prey. Hunt. Devour. Search for another prey.

I even gave up my meditative sleep in exchange for more time spent increasing my strength.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d never get tired of tasting the various delicious ocean bounties! But unfortunately, life just doesn’t work according to our wishes.

I can eat all I want, but since I’m still bound by the shackles of a mortal body, I’d eventually gonna be full.

If I define eating as my main activity just like an adult’s job or a child’s education, there will always be that bit of free time when they’d stop and go home.

A child might use that time to study or play games and an adult might just rest after a long tiring day of work, but things get complicated when I’m taken as the example.

With Exhaustion Nullification and a fast-approaching deadline, I waste no time playing around or resting, not that either one of those can be done in my current situation.

Think of it as having a dangerous unpaid 24/7 job with nothing but lunch breaks included. Ah, those lunch breaks require you to hunt for your own food. It’s honestly ridiculous.

Also, another unexpected problem has recently popped up, I’m feeling lonely! I’m starved for socialization, there’s practically no one I can communicate with down here.

I want to hear my Aiko singing me a happy song, eat some cake baked by Segawa, and go on a game speed run challenge with Ooshima!

Why did D have to throw me into this freaking godforsaken place?! I curse whoever had the stupid idea of making me a loner protagonist!!

Huff. Do excuse me, just had to get that off my shoulders.

Man, I really need someone to speak to around here, or I can make do with some interesting new discoveries in this eerie ravine.

I mean, Appraisal literally says this place is called The Devil’s Ladder. There must be some amazing hidden quests somewhere in here, right?

Some freaky biomes, perhaps. I would absolutely love to find some shipwrecks or abandoned laboratories as well!

I do know that there was a very advanced technological civilization on this planet sometime in the past, so there’s gotta be some ancient ruins somewhere, right?!

Back to reality, I just finished consuming as much as I could from my latest hunt.

My leveling speed seems to have decreased a lot more than I previously calculated.

Those worms are clearly higher than me in both evolution stages and levels, yet each level-up requires the experience value brought by killing at least two of those guys...

Though I don’t regret it, evolving into a Laethoul Ramae seems to have significantly slowed down my progression.

I wonder why...

 

“It’s because the system’s assistance rate has been accordingly decreased for you, little fish.”

Who?! Where?! What?!

“You’re too weak to perceive me, little guy. Just assume I’m your new imaginary friend.”

Assuming your body is imaginary is okay, but I’ll leave our relationship undefined for now.

“Hooh? You’re quite brave, little one. Aren’t you scared of offending some powerful guys out there and getting killed?”

I am indeed scared of offending powerful people, but I’m not really afraid of death.

 

Even if it makes me seem inhuman, it is the truth. I never was afraid of my own death.

Although I don’t remember many details about the beginning of that conversation, I still recall what I felt when Alkreya informed me of my first death.

Nothing. I was completely indifferent and quickly accepted the news.

As for the second time, I did try to escape and appeared to be a bit nervous when I felt that dimensional spell targeting the class, but it was just an instinctive action. Deep inside, I never cared.

What I care about though, is getting my loved ones implicated by my actions.

True powerhouses generally have no regard for human lives except for their own loved ones, so my own loved ones could get slaughtered if I offend one.

Why am I speaking in such a rude tone to a potential powerhouse then, you ask? That’s because I’ve already taken measures against any soul or memory-searching techniques.

My precious and important memories are already stored inside my Soul Grimoire instead of my brain where they’d normally be.

I personally stored them with the help of Manager-san a few weeks ago.

Having skills attached directly to my soul coupled with my terrifying genius has some advantages to it, y’know? Fufufu~

Using the Memory skill, which is integrated into Sage, I opened up a memory soul archive compartment inside my soul core. Then, I manually went through my memories and moved all the important bits to that compartment.

Even if my body is destroyed and my soul is captured, they’d never be able to read those memories as the self-destruct module would initiate with my death as a signal, not even the gods can bypass that.

Yup! It’s a first-class Tomoko brand self-destruction module! Ehehe~

I won’t get much into the details of how it works, but I can summarize the entire process by saying that the memories would get devoured.

That’s the only method I could think of to make the probability of data recovery approach zero.

 

“Not afraid of death, are you? Maybe that’s why you’re carefreely wandering around these dangerous waters, huh.”

Uhhh, I guess...?

“Is that so, fufu~”

Sooo, may I know your name, potentially kind sir...?

“You may call me Ouri, little one. Other details about my identity are up to you to discover.”

 

Ouri, huh? Not much can be gleaned from that name...

My super intuition tells me that this person has no malicious intent for me, but I shouldn’t completely trust their words.

Nonetheless, I did mentally breathe a suppressed sigh of relief upon confirming momentary my safety.

 

So, Miss or Mister Ouri, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?

“Oh? That would be a Miss for me. I should be the one asking this question though, little girl. Why are you intruding on my domain?”

 

Her domain, huh? Okay, this brings down the number of options.

A sealed powerhouse or a hermit. Also, Miss Ouri should belong to none of the three majorly known humanoid races.

It’s impossible for any of those guys to have a hidden powerhouse somewhere around here, things would’ve gone differently from what was shown in the anime if so.

 

I’m sorry if I’m intruding without permission, but... I was kinda born just a couple of miles away. I didn’t really have the freedom to pick where I’d be born.

“So it is! It doesn’t change the fact that you’re intruding though.”

... How may I be forgiven?

“You catch on quickly, that’s great! Well, you’ll have to go on some simple errands for me in the future... You’ll be rewarded accordingly of course!”

 

Why am I getting “Hey kid, you want some candy?” vibes from this...?

There’s absolutely no freaking way those “errands” will be “simple”. My intuition guarantees it!!

I have an intense urge to retort with something sarcastic, but I hold back as much as I could.

 

I guess it’s only fair then... Happy cooperation!

“Happy cooperation, little one. I hope you don’t disappoint me, fufufu.”

 

Fuck! I was being sarcastic you old witch!

Damn... I think I just gained an extra stalker.

Although I don’t know how strong this one is, using Telepathy and living all the way out here says a lot about her strength. She also knows some details about the system.

Sigh... I swear I’ll take revenge for all of this bullying in the future!

Whether it’s D or this Ouri creature, I’ll make sure they deeply regret it!!

Luckily, the combination of Sage and Soul Seeker allows me to hide my true thoughts and communicate what I want only.

That wom—creature’s mind-reading ability should have only picked up on what I consciously allowed her to through my Telepathy ability, the one that’s independent of the W System.

Looking at this situation in an optimistic way... I just got the western version of an old man’s soul ring, right?

The one where there’s some old dead guy’s soul residing in an accessory, and he helps the main character by teaching them martial arts or something else in exchange for getting revived in the future.

... Who am I kidding? That creature doesn’t seem to be helpful at all! She probably doesn’t need to be resurrected as well.

That won’t bring me down though! For I am the genius cute future goddess Tomoko-sama!

Hooh. That phrase can always ease my worries, huh? The words in there are becoming increasingly outrageous every time though.

Unfortunately, I was too nervous, so I kinda forgot to ask her about that system assistance thing she mentioned.

However, I assume it means my system difficulty was adjusted to hard mode. The higher the difficulty, the more abundant the rewards are, y’know?

The way I used the Burrow skill does seem to be more dependent on my personal expertise rather than skills after all, so I should be gradually breaking free from the system’s hold.

Some of the skills in my appraisal status should eventually become truly owned by me, not lent by the administrators. Should help me a lot after I ascend in the future.

I dunno what errands that creature will send me on, but I better increase my strength as much as possible until I receive her summons...

You can’t possibly go wrong when it comes to increasing your personal strength in any environment.

The strong eat the weak, it’s the universal truth.