So I’m a Fish, So What?

About an hour of full speed swimming later, my body gradually slows down until it eventually comes to a halt.

That was quite possibly the closest I ever was to death since my reincarnation, and I’ve gotta say, it was not a pleasant experience.

My heartbeat is still very chaotic, and it’ll probably won’t be going back to normal anytime soon.

I’m also feeling phantom pain in the areas I was hit by the squid’s tentacles.

To be honest, that entire situation was kinda my fault. I was too conceited and naive.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have been much of a problem had I been on land where the series took place, or at least in the living area, but that clearly isn’t the case now, is it?

Being in a completely unfamiliar place with most of my powers sealed, I somehow had the genius idea that letting my guard down would be totally ok.

Yeeaaah, surprise surprise! It freaking wasn’t!

In hindsight, I should’ve just taken shelter between the cracks in the ground. That would’ve made it impossible for that squid to even touch me.

Rot is highly effective against living beings, but its effect is drastically lowered on dead objects.

However, I panicked and that directly led to the worst result. This is actually one of my super intuition’s shortcomings, all emotions are magnified, including fear and anxiety. 

Honestly, the option I choose was pretty much nothing but a fancy suicide method. One little mistake during that entire process and I would’ve already been turned into dust.

My life experience as a whole is still very much lacking for someone of my power level.

I mean, just look at the Elroe Labyrinth next door, Kumoko-chan was able to calmly make use of everything she had and was able to defeat foes with much higher combat power than her.

As for me? I’d never dare to go into a fight knowing that my chances of winning are close to zero.

Sure, I might always be looking for stronger opponents to have some hearty battles, but my choice is always an opponent that’s within manageable range.

Nevertheless, compared to the system governed areas like the labyrinth, the rules of the dead zone should be closer to the norm in this universe.

So, if both me and Kumoko are stripped of the system and matched up against each other, I’d undoubtedly come out as the winner.

The chances of such a scenario are quite low however. The n%I = W skill directly connects our souls to the system, so the only way for us to get stripped of it is to become gods ourselves.

While I don’t doubt Kumoko’s achievements, I find it highly unrealistic for her to ascend in less than a hundred years. Ariel is definitely over a thousand years old, yet she’s still under the system.

Leaving that aside, I learned a valuable lesson from my first near-death situation.

Frankly, I didn’t encounter many setbacks since I reincarnated, except for that time all my plans nearly got fucked up by an evolution problem.

The thing is, even that wasn’t even a life threatening situation! 

I always mentioned my lack of fear for death in a very arrogant tone, but this slap from reality really woke me up. This time, my arrogance was quite literally beaten out of me.

Sure, I might not care much about my own life. However, there are people out there who do, people whom I would never want to see mourning for me.

Back then, when I looked down at my battered arms while enduring endless waves of pain worse than I could ever imagine, something just snapped in my mind.

My body went still and I actually had a mini-revolving lantern episode right then and there. 

The smiling faces of my loved ones flashed in my mind one by one, but then their expressions suddenly morphed into sorrowful ones with tears streaming down their cheeks.

And that’s when I realized it. Deep down, I’m actually very afraid of death… terrified even!

Although the fundamental reason differs, I’m just the same as everyone else when it comes to this matter.

So, in conclusion, I should stop playing around with my life already! 

I already had my second and third chances, and I sure as hell won’t be getting a fourth one!

After I was done reflecting on my shameful failure, I resumed searching for a way back.

However, I decided to go about it in a very slow and stealthy manner this time.

Slow in order to preserve as much stamina as possible. Stealthy because getting surrounded by more undead is the last thing I want happening right now.

I only have one arm to work with. My left arm’s still a stump after that last stunt I performed with it, but it was the only way I could get out alive.

Though I still have some lingering fear when I think back to my state at that time. 

For the sake of survival, I pushed a ton of magic into my arm, sliced it off, and threw it away as bait to distract the undead. 

And I didn’t even bat an eye! The ruthlessness hidden under my ordinary human disguise is quite scary, huh?

Sadly, while I’d love to regrow the arm already, it’s impossible for now. Activating any skills would make me a bright beacon for all undead in a large radius around me.

Since I’ve decided to go about this seriously, then I’ll make sure to thoroughly cover all aspects! 

I even went as far as to temporarily abandon my vision.

Spatial Awareness provides much more accurate pictures, so I just gave up my eyes and focused my attention into processing the information coming from my sphere.

Right now, I’m moving forwards while practically hugging the seafloor and mechanically sorting through my sphere’s feedback.

Nothing can escape my eyes in this state… Right now, I’m the fish version of Sherlock Holmes, hehe! 

Frankly, the possibility of me finding any ruins above ground is close to nil. 

I don’t know why, but Ouri seems to hate all ancient era creations with a passion. So, I bet ya three cupcakes she has already every single non-hidden facility out there! 

I mean, she even asked me to blow up a hidden laboratory!

How’d you expect any of above ground facilities to be intact when she’s already started out commissions to blow up the hidden ones?

Chances are, she has already demolished most of them, but was forced to spare a few of them because some urgent business came up.

That doesn’t make things easier though, finding one of those requires a discerning pair of eyes, extreme patience, and a buttload of luck.

Fortunately, I already have all the pieces of the puzzle. In fact, I might’ve already found myself a ruin.

You see, I’ve been following a peculiar crack for a couple of hours now.

A strong water current flows through it despite none of the conditions for its formation being present.

This led me to believe that there might be a water pipeline system hidden somewhere along this crack, similar to the water purifier back at the laboratory.

Either that, or it’s a huge undead aquatic animal just sucking in all the water at the end of the tunnel while eating.

Personally, I don’t wanna find out what monster can cause water currents as a side effect of eating, ‘Cause that means I’m basically heading towards a blackhole right now.

I can sense that the current intensity is uniform using my sphere though, so it’s hopefully the former.

Besides, this crack seems to be a part of the natural terrain unlike the other ones which are caused by a lack of nutrients.

 

Two hours later, the crack began to gradually expand in both width and depth, confirming my previous conjecture. 

By the looks of it, this’ll either lead me to a ravine or an underground cave system. I’ve also started to notice some bizarre details in my surroundings.

This fissure was natural up until this point and it’s still perfectly so even if you examine it closely, but I am picking up on some artificial details. 

Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure of my observation. 

This place has been abandoned for decades in all likelihood, so any man-made terraforming done here must have already been weathered by the water current over the course of the years.

I’m feeling optimistic about this though! 

And I hope this feeling comes from my intuition this time!

Back on Earth, Japan.

“I thought you’d let her cut down more Fallen before letting her leave. It is a rare chance for you to enjoy tormenting me, after all.” Ouri’s confused voice is heard through the headphones.

“It’s boring to watch her repeat the same actions over and over again, though I suppose her escape from the Arch Fallen was hilarious.”

Not paying her much attention, D’s fingers leave afterimages as they dance on her game controller.

Her game character faithfully obeys her commands, as he initiates combo after combo without leaving his opponent any room to retaliate.

“That can’t be it. Her upcoming plans don’t include anything you’d find entertaining. You gain nothing by doing this.”

“You don’t need to know why. Just go on with whatever plans you have as long as you don’t spoil my fun.”

A sigh comes through the headphone, followed by a chime indicating the end of the connection.

Seemingly not noticing, or perhaps just not caring, D’s eyes don’t move from her monitor.

Her gaming session goes on for another thirty minutes before she finally puts down the controller and brings up another window on her screen.

Glimpsing the figure of that half-human half-fish girl investigating her surroundings on the screen, D’s expressionless face shows a vexed expression and flickers of gold and red flashed through her obsidian eyes.

“Who would’ve expected the most notorious goddess to be influenced by your soul… Just who– no, what are you, Tomoko? I’m really… curious.”

For the first time in an uncountable number of years, D felt human emotions. Even her expressions became more humane as long as she’s not purposefully donning her mask.

The problem is, it was actually an outside factor that brought about such a change.

When creating the Mischief skill, D added in a true soul protection mechanism and linked it directly to herself on a whim.

However, as soon as Tomoko acquired the skill, this link was automatically converted into a two-way connection for unknown reasons.

Through it, both D and Tomoko can feel each other’s emotions and current state, but since D basically has no emotions, the connection was flooded with Tomoko’s emotions only.

Greed, longing, fear, pride, joy, etc… Suddenly experiencing such a strong influx of emotions, even someone like D was momentarily overwhelmed.

She did her best to bear with it at first, but was eventually forced to disable the skill.

“I hope she’ll forgive me for temporarily disabling it. Wait–since when did I care about that? Ahhh, it must be the influence of those emotions again.”

Sighing, D’s eyes close as she sorts through her emotions for nth time.

A few seconds later, her face morphs back into the usual expressionless one.

She is unable to hide the brilliance blooming in her eyes however, which makes it seem as if she’s donning a cold expression instead.

“It’s… not a bad feeling. I suppose it should be fine for me to indulge in it for a bit… right? Yeah, it should be ok.”

Nodding her head, she switches back to the video game window and begins another gaming session.

Unbeknownst to her, this decision would bring about incredible changes to both her life and the entire universe.