Shinka no Mi (Shiranai Uchi ni Kachigumi Jinsei)

2 . 進化の実

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---

"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!

TL Note: Where’s the F*ing Gorilla??? -Solistia