Shinka no Mi

Chapter 2: The Seed of Evolution

After being transported, all I’ve done is wander aimlessly through this forest. I’ve spent the better part of an hour doing so. I had no choice but to empty my bladder in the middle of a thicket, and even after that I still did nothing but wander aimlessly.

And now my feet were at their limit. I wasn’t even wearing proper shoes, you know? I left my outdoor shoes in my locker…! I only had my flimsy indoor shoes on me.

Besides, it’s harsh for a fatty to walk in a forest for an hour. Can’t I do anything about this? No, probably not.

“…and man, I’m starved…”

I was insanely famished. How much longer do I gotta walk in circles? The hunger was gnawing at me.

“I-is there anything that looks edible…”

After I said that I looked all around the vicinity, and I didn’t even see one insect, let alone any animals. There weren’t even any nuts, berries, or mushrooms.

“Oh no, am I gonna die of starvation? …This can’t be!”

It was hard to keep my stress under control all by myself.

“Motherfuckin’…foooooooooooood!”

I kinda felt like yelling, so I did. Even so, it didn’t calm me down.

“Foood! Gimme some foooooooooooood!”

I scream my lungs out. It was even kinda fun. But it’s probably too late. As I was doing stupid things, there was a sudden rustling in the thicket.

“Is it food?!”

I thought aloud and hurried to the thicket.

“Graaaaaawr…”

“…OH SHIT…”

There was a huge-ass wolf right in front of me.

“Aroooooooo…”

“I’m sorry!! Forgive me!!”

I have no idea why, but I was prostrating myself in front of this wolf.

What else was I supposed to do?! There’s a 5m(15ft)-long gray wolf right here! Scaring the shit out of me with its hungry eyes! It gets even scarier when I see the fangs peeking out behind its lips!

I’m fuckin’ scared! That’s why I’m prostrating myself. It kinda seems like it might forgive me…?

“Graaaawr!”

“Figures…?!”

In the end my prostration was useless, and the wolf was ready to pounce me.

Since I was already prostrated on the ground I rolled as hard as I could, and somehow dodged the attack.

“Eeek! Jesus Fuckin’ Christ!!”

Shit, I just got to this world. Good thing I already peed…! Otherwise I would have pissed myself!

“Graaaaaw…”

The wolf seemed surprised that I was able to dodge, and cautiously kept its distance.

But it appeared that rather than looking at me as ‘prey’, it was thinking more along the lines of ‘what is this thing?’, like a curious baby who had to mouth everything.

I mean, it looks like the wolf’s eyes are full of curiosity, though I have no idea why.

Yeesh, I was the one looking for food, now I’m suddenly gonna be the food…someone help me!

As if my wish was granted, I could hear a rustling from the thicket on the other side.

“Is it my savior?!”

My tension was maxxed as I turned to look behind me.

“Graaaaawr….”

“…OH SHIT…”

That was the second “OH SHIT” of the day.

This sucks so bad! Already a second encounter?! I gotta get out of here! I am so dead!

“Hey! If you’re gonna eat then do it already! …Please be gentle?”

I laid face up, arms out, and legs spread eagle.

But—

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“Graaoo graw!”

“Graaaawr…Awoon!”

For some reason the other wolf was picking a fight.

“Awoowoowoo!”

“Gruaawr!”

I try my hand at translating.

“<Gimme that fooood!>”

“<Nevaaaaaaar!”>

Or something like that, probably.

……

“…Better run.”

While the wolves were preoccupied with each other, I took the chance to quietly escape.

◆◇◆

“T-this sucks…”

Grumblerumble

My stomach has been yelling at me for a while now.

I somehow managed to avoid the Dead-End where I’m eaten by wolves. I’ve spent the last 3 days sleeping in a tree I somehow managed to climb, and hid desperately from wolves and the like.

I can’t even drink water in this situation.

I barely have the energy to move anymore, much less climb a tree.

Again today there was no sign of creatures to eat, and I aimlessly searched for nuts, berries, and mushrooms.

“…Am I really…gonna die?”

I’m known as the guy who always stays positive, but right now I’m feeling nothing but depressed.

I’m a fatty, enduring 5 days without food is tough.

Worst case scenario, I could eat the weeds growing around here and munch on the overgrown leaves. Even dirt would be better than nothing. I just want something in my mouth.

“…Ah, this bites…”

Right as I said that my energy fully depleted, and I face-planted on the ground.

“…..”

My face hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t have time to care about it.

“Man, if I don’t get some food quick I’ll…”

I hurriedly moved just my head and bit a chunk of the ground.

“Geh?!”

S-so hard…

I couldn’t sink my teeth in at all, the ground was so hard.

“It’s all…over…”

I mumbled. It was finally time for me to close my eyes.

“…mm?”

I could hear some creatures making a racket.

The noise seemed headed in my direction.

“—-Eee!”

“–Eee eee eee!”

“Graaawr!”

I casually glanced in the direction of the sounds.

What I saw was a troop of monkeys running like mad while carrying an armload of fruits and nuts each. They were being chased by wolves, likely the same ones I evaded five days ago.

“Eee! Ee oo ee!”

“Gya gya gya!”

“Graaoooooooo!”

I heard something fall.

The monkeys paid me no heed as they passed by overhead.

And it sounded like they dropped something.

“Hahahahaha!”

The wolf was distracted by the monkeys and ran right past me.

“W-what is it?”

Even though I wondered, I didn’t have enough brain power to process it, I was that exhausted.

“At least…if eating it is gonna kill me, that’d be better than starvation, right?”

I unconsciously ask myself.

But since I’m alone there was no answer.

“Haha….”

Somehow a natural smile floated to my face

Looking back on it, I didn’t have a very good life.

I was already being bullied in kindergarten. Then Elementary school, Middle school, and even into High school it continued.

I was bullied in a lot of ways. I was beaten, my possessions hidden, subjected to vandalism, got water dumped on me…and even more vicious acts.

Despite all that, I managed to remain positive, probably because there were still people out there that treated me like a human being.

It may not have been a very good life. But, the people who treated my kindly, conversed with me, played with me, touched me even… The greatest treasure in my lousy life was that “Friendship” that always remained a part of me.

Hino from the class next door was like that. Along with Shouta and Kenji. Even though our classes and grade levels were different, Kannazuki-sempai and Miwa too… There were plenty of other people in the same school that treated me normally too.

None of them treated me as something less than human. It’s a possibility they just did that to make themselves look better. But…I was still happy they treated me like a normal person.

And I got along well with my family. Though after Mom and Dad passed away, relations with my relatives became worse over the inheritance…

So I chose to live alone and to protect my inheritance. Uncle Ichio ended up becoming my legal guardian though.

In the end I used my parent’s inheritance to do whatever I wanted, and became fat and ugly…it’s entirely my own fault.

It wasn’t my life that was all that lousy, it was myself.

“Hahaha…I’m really running on empty…”

So this is what dying feels like…I don’t like it. At all.

If I died, I wonder if anyone will cry…or be sad?

I think the world of my friends, but I don’t want it to be a one way street.

“But…I guess…if I’m dead…it won’t…matter…”

As I was slowly losing consciousness, I looked toward what had dropped.

“…Haha…a tree nut, fell…”

With my vision getting hazy, I saw the nut that had fallen by the wayside.

…………………………

…………………

………….

……..eh, tree nut?

“?!”

I was suddenly fully conscious.

“I-it’s really a nut.”

Yes, what landed before my eyes is an honest to God, nut.

I have no idea what kind of nut it is.

But it was light brown and shaped like a rugby ball, it couldn’t be anything but a nut.

A tree nut. A real tree nut.

It’s just what I’ve been waiting for.

F-O-O-D!

“Fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!”

I had been on the edge of Hell itself, now I was crawling across the ground for all I was worth.

I had no idea where this last burst of energy came from.

But even so, I clawed the ground while crawling forward.

My goal, the nut right in front of me.

Was it my survival instinct kicking in? I could see nothing but the foodstuff as I crawled on without shame or care.

“ooooOOOOOO!!”

And then—my hand finally touched the nut.

“!”

I grasp the nut tightly. I seize it.

This is my food now. I won’t give it to anyone else. …Even if it was originally the weird monkey’s food.

I gripped it with unusual strength.

I then hold it up in front of my face.

My nails were bleeding from gripping the ground so hard. It actually hurt pretty bad.

But other than that, I was too captivated by the food.

Just to be absolutely certain, I use the “Analyze” skill on the tree nut.

[Seed of Evolution]

The Analysis could only reveal the name.

There is some information about an effect, but like the time I Analyzed Aoyama, it was all garbled and unreadable.

But at least it didn’t seem poisonous. Then there’s only one course of action left for me to take.

“…Time to eat!”

With every bit of my strength, I munch on that so-called Seed of Evolution whatsit.

It looked like a light brown rugby ball, and I thought it would be hard and taste like an almond.

However—-

“It…tastes like shit…”

It was a terribly awful taste.

Unnaturally so.

Man, why was that monkey even making this part of its diet? Is there something wrong with its tastebuds?

But it’s still precious food. I won’t complain. I eat the whole thing.

Normally, I would have stopped eating it, but right now I devour it without a second thought.

As I was eating, I noticed something.

“…My nails…healed?”

Yes, at some point, my nails that were bent and broken had completely healed.

And even though I only ate just one Seed of Evolution, my stomach was feeling full.

And then I finally finished eating the rest.

“Aaahh…that tasted terrible!”

I rubbed my belly as I said so.

〖The Seed of Evolution’s effect has been activated〗

I heard a voice in my head say.

Wha? Effect? What kind of…

I thought something would happen, so I stayed still.

……………….

………….

…….

“Nothing’s happening?!”

Nothing happened at all.

Stop messing with me! I decide to check my stats just in case, but it’s still just a beautiful line up of freaking 1s! You got something else to say?!

Well, I guess that means I don’t have to worry over every single thing I eat. Right now I’m full and alive and should just appreciate those two things.

“Oookay…What’ll I do now?”

If I just wander aimlessly again, it’ll just be a repeat of before.

“At least I know creatures do live here. For now I should try to find where they live.”

Those wolves are scary, but it could be okay to approach the strange monkeys.

Plus, I fear I’ll probably die if I don’t get a move on, which is the last thing I want.

I don’t want to regret anything. I want to survive with my heart intact.

The first step is to get closer to the monkeys, find out their feeding grounds and secure a food source.

“Now that I know what to do…Mission start!”

I’m filled with determination to reach my goal of surviving this harsh place and getting food.

…But before that, I have some business to take care of. Since I’m about to shit myself!