"Appoint point to Growth"
The choice was obvious to the Hollowkin.
Big meant strong.
The moment the command was accepted, his body began to change.
Growth came fast—unnatural, violent. The limitations that once defined his race vanished as the Gene Point forced his body past its natural maturity. Fabric stretched in every direction, fibers groaning as they reshaped themselves to accommodate the expanding form beneath.
The process took time, but when it ended, he stood three times taller than before.
He examined himself in silence. Rotating his hand. Watching the cloth tighten and loosen with each movement. He ran a short distance, testing his balance, adjusting to the new distribution of weight.
When he stopped, a smile crept across his face.
If the ants saw him now, he could escape. That much was certain.
Before, he had believed he could destroy the entire nest. Now he knew better.
There were too many of them. One more boulder wouldn't change that—might not even work anymore. He didn't want to admit it, but fear seeped into him. Just imagining their mandibles piercing his cloth body made a cold sweat bead across his stitched forehead.
His plan would not be followed.
An interruption came—sudden and unwelcomed.
A deep red screen tore into his vision.
[Issued Command ]: Purge the Amblyopones colony.
[Time Limit ]: 48 hours
[Reward ]: ???
[Punishment ]: Death.
His heart sank.
Earlier, when he had issued commands to the system, he had felt powerful. Now, he felt the opposite—utterly powerless.
He was wrong. He had no free will. No power at all.
Punishment meant death, and he knew—knew—that disobedience would end the same way as the others. Exploded.
Cloth scattered across stone walls.
As if to confirm his fear, the system acted.
Pain unlike anything he had ever known surged through his body. It felt as though invisible creatures were tearing at him from every direction, pulling, stretching, ripping at every inch of his form. No part of him was spared.
Then it stopped.
His body didn't relax. It panicked.
His heart hammered uncontrollably. Breath came shallow and fast. Dizziness threatened to drag him to the ground. When he finally regained partial control, he forced himself to breathe—slowly, deliberately.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Again.
And again.
Eventually, the panic loosened its grip.
Running away was no longer an option.
The Hollowkin realized something then—his body did not truly belong to him. It belonged to the system. That truth burned. He hated it. Hated the invisible hand wrapped around his existence, tightening whenever it wished.
Since the moment he awakened, his autonomy had been stolen.
A memory surfaced in his simple, underdeveloped mind:
"Be the last to stand and claim the crown"
Maybe… there would be freedom there. Maybe the crown was more than survival. Maybe it was escape"
A faint spark of hope flickered in a sea of darkness.
He didn't know if it was true. But he would try—harder than before.
The crown had to be the answer.
With renewed purpose, he turned towards the place where he had found the dagger. He needed more meat. The same strategy as before—careful, indirect, deadly.
He took a turn. Crossed a fork.
It should be here, he thought.
When he arrived, hope vanished.
The bodies were still there—but stripped clean. Whatever flesh had remained was gone, picked bare by others.
Rage surged.
"Damn it. Fuck. Why—why, why?"
Curses spilled from him like poison, uncontrolled and raw. Like a spoiled child that didn t get its dream car at his 18th birthday.
Reality was cruel.
Cruel, just like the system.
Only then did he remember: he was not the only creature fighting to survive in this cave.
He remained fixed to the spot, massaging his temples—or at least where they would have been, had he been human.
Like a caveman, he formed a rudimentary but simple plan.
"Me find small creature"
"Me tall. Me have pointy thing"
"Me kill"
"Me get meat"
Satisfied, he set off once more, determined to find something smaller than himself. The first creature he encountered would die. Its flesh would become bait for another trap.
It didn't take long.
Soon, he found one—and it was smaller than him.
Its appearance resembled the worm he had seen earlier, but something was different. Its skin shared the same pale white color, yet instead of white spots, it bore orange markings. Its tongue was split—but the similarities ended there.
This creature did not drag its belly across the stone. It walked.
Arms.
Legs.
Fingers.
The Hollowkin crept closer.
The reptile hissed, a clear warning not to trespass into its territory.
The battle was about to unfold.