Chapter 5 - Incredibly Delicious

Flickering shafts of light filtered through the dense canopy of the lush green forest. The sounds of crispy leaves being rustled by the wind undulated across the vast expanse trees like the surging waves of an advancing tide, before receding back into the ocean of malachite green. On the forest floor, at the foot of a particularly tall beech tree, a soft, snow-white blob could be seen lying unconscious on the flat surface of a phyllite rock.

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A stray ray of sunlight that streamed down flickered in mid-air, before landing weightlessly on the fuzzy blob. The cute round blob stirred, but didn't feel like waking from its restful slumber so it merely shifted a little on the rock before drifting back to sleep again.

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The system was helpless and could only attempt to wake up the fervently napping glutinous blob a second time. The blob twitched once, then furrowed the little bit of flesh between its firmly closed eyes before relaxing again and continuing to sleep.

The system would be crying in frustration if it had the ability to experience emotions but luckily, it did not. It tried to rouse the lazy blob from its ceaseless sleep once more.

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No response.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The system scanned through its stored files to look for a feasible solution.

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BZZT. The globular blob was cruelly jolted awake by a strong bolt of electricity. Its senses were heightened and the sleepiness that just recently consumed it had been driven away by the shock. It remained frozen where it was, feeling rather discombobulated.

<> The system informed innocently, as though that electric shock from earlier had nothing to do with it.

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AGE: 0 YEARS

SPECIES: MOCHI MONSTER

LEVEL: 0

STATUS: INEDIBLE

HP: 10000/10001

MP: 900000/900001>>

Ryuunosuke diligently read the words on the imaginary screen before him. Kami-sama had really granted his wish and reincarnated him into this new world as a non-human creature. He felt very grateful that his selfish request was humored. His days of endless toil were finally over and he could now live an unfettered life as a free spirit. He looked at the screen again and stared at the words MOCHI MONSTER, pondering what it meant when an icon with a little question mark popped up. He mentally clicked on the icon and a wall of information materialized before him.

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An exceptionally rare creature inhabiting the DEMONIC FOREST. White, fuzzy, and round in appearance. High magical potency. Low defensive abilities. Its particularly tender and sweet flesh and abnormally high magic retention makes it an irresistible delicacy in the eyes of other creatures. Only one remains in existence still. Its predecessors perished as a result of over-consumption.>>

Cold sweat ran down Ryuunosuke's body, chilling his very core. Alarm bells were ringing in his mind as a sliver of fear crept through him. He could not fully process what he had just read and had to read it again. Tender and sweet flesh? Irresistible delicacy? His predecessors perished from over-consumption? He wanted to take back the gratitude he felt towards Kami-sama earlier. No matter how he looked at it, he had reincarnated for the purpose of becoming premium monster-kibble. What was the point of all this if he was just going to die anyway? He looked at the stats page again once he had calmed down. At least there were some redeeming points to his reincarnation; his HP and MP stats seemed like they were very high so he is not ungrateful. Maybe if he practiced magic and learned how to defend himself, he would be able to escape from being eaten.

There was also another item on the stats page that puzzled him. Underneath the line that indicated his level, his "status" was shown to be "inedible". He hoped that this meant what he thought it meant; that he was an inedible mutant species and thus would not have to fear predation. Itching to know the answer, he hastily clicked on the question mark icon that popped up when he stared at those words intently.

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Incredibly delicious. Its easy-to-chew, sweet flesh melts on the tongue. High magic content and very nutritious. Also has healing properties and many other benefits. Although technically possible, it is not advisable for the HOST to eat itself as the act of which would cause more damage than the benefits it would provide.>>

Ryuunosuke sighed. It looked like he was too optimistic and naïve in his thinking. The status was only applicable to him and not all creatures. Actually, the fact that it only applied to him made a lot of sense. What use would it be if he were able to see what other creatures could eat? This information was surprisingly useful, as it meant that he could eat whatever he scavenged without having to worry about it being poisonous or not.

Just when he was deep in thought, a loud rumbling sound like roaring thunder during a tempest erupted from the pits of his stomach, causing his snow-white body to be tinged with a rosy glow. Two pink azalea flowers grew from his plump cheeks, making him look even more adorable. Looks like he was going to be using his new-found skill sooner than he thought. He decided to search for some food in the premises immediately and quickly satisfy the beast that was making a racket inside his belly.