Dark. Warm. Wet.
That's the first thing I felt when I regained consciousness.
Am I… inside something's stomach? What the heck?!
Just seconds ago, I had only wanted to close my "eyes" for a bit—trying to come to terms with my fate as a rotten egg in a world full of monsters. But the moment I opened my "eyes"—or whatever senses I have—I had rolled away and then suddenly…
"GRUGKK!!"
A huge lizard-like monster swallowed me whole!
"I-I got eaten?! I just started existing!!"
My body—or rather, my shell—was submerged in acidic fluid.
But strangely, I didn't dissolve. I wasn't destroyed. Instead, I was… absorbing something?
> [Power absorbed: Steel Scales Lv.1 – from Monster 'Stone Lizard']
"…What was that?"
A system voice? But there were no tutorials, no quests, no nagging AI. Just that one brief message—and silence.
My body felt hot. My shell began to change… growing tougher.
But the pain from the absorption process was excruciating. It felt like my insides were being grated with a rusty cheese slicer.
"I don't want to do that again! Getting eaten hurts like hell!"
But slowly, I began to understand:
If I get eaten, I can absorb the powers of the creature that swallows me.
But it's not something I can do often. I have to be selective. Even a basic monster like that Stone Lizard nearly cracked me.
Which means...
If I want to survive in this world,
I have to become the strongest.
So no one would dare—or even want—to eat me again!
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