When my consciousness awakened, the first thing I felt was a strong sense of confinement. I felt as if I were being squeezed into a room that was barely big enough to contain my body. Desperately, I moved my arms and legs, trying to break free from whatever was compressing me.
It seemed that a soft membrane was enveloping me, and simply moving my limbs wasn't enough to stretch or tear it. So I focused my strength on a single point, piercing the membrane with the sharp ends of my hands and feet. With a small popping sound, a hole was made in the membrane, and I gradually tore it apart by widening the hole.
"Kishii…?"
Emerging from the membrane, I looked around. It appeared that I was in a large room with metal walls and floor. Only the ceiling was covered in glass with low transparency, allowing dim light to enter.
However, the issue at hand is not my location, but rather the objects around me. It was a white, elongated egg, nearly the same size as me, with a taut membrane that enveloped me as well. In other words, the creature inside this membrane was my sibling.
Observing my sibling's appearance through the membrane, I saw a creature that was pure white, composed of several segments with eight legs, two pincers, and a tail with a sharp stinger at the tip. In short, it was a scorpion.
I climbed atop my sibling's egg, attempting to gain a better understanding of the situation from a higher vantage point. It was then that I realized that not only were there scorpion eggs like my own in this room, but there were also eggs of various colors and species, creating a spectacular display of noxious colors.
I questioned how I even had the knowledge to identify myself as a scorpion, and how I possessed such a high level of cognitive ability as a newborn. Moreover, where was this room located? Questions continued to arise, but one thing was clear—I had a mission that I must prioritize above all else.
Interestingly enough, while I had doubts about possessing my own knowledge, I had no doubts about my mission. It was as if my instincts knew that it was natural not to question it. It was confusing to think that not having doubts could be a doubt in itself…I couldn't even make sense of it myself.
As I delved deeper into contemplating my own existence, the glass ceiling above me lifted. Suddenly, a giant boy and an old man peered down at me. The boy had soft-looking blonde hair and a cocky yet perfectly proportioned face, while the old man had unkempt, bushy white hair and a sickly thin, withered appearance like that of an old tree. They both wore expressions of delight as they looked down at me.
The knowledge within me whispered that these two were members of the Furu people, a species within the human race. The definition of the human race is having two arms and two legs, one head, and possessing a high level of intelligence that includes the ability to speak a language.
The Furu was the largest within the human race, living mainly on the plains They were known for their combative nature and were constantly engaged in battles with other races. Even among themselves, there were instances of groups within the Furu race fighting against one another. So, it was safe to say that their reputation for being combative was not misplaced.
However, the fact that the Furu race looks so big means that I am very small. When I think about it, it makes sense. Scorpions, as a species, are generally small. In other words, this place that I thought was a room… was actually a box for incubating.
"Oh, it's finally hatching!"
"Please calm down, young master. The real show is about to begin."
The old man reached into the box with a pair of tweezers and tried to grab me. I panicked and tried to escape, but I had nowhere to hide, and the difference in size between us was overwhelming. Despite my struggling, he easily caught me.
I tried to wiggle my arms and legs to get away, but the old man seemed to be skilled in handling tweezers and had me firmly fixed in place, making it impossible for me to escape. Will I die like this without fulfilling my mission?
The old man, who seemed unaware of my fear, picked me up with the tweezers and tossed me into another box. This box was made of wood and seemed to be less sturdy than the previous one, but it was apparently custom-made. This was because intricate patterns were drawn on the walls and floor inside the box.
When I saw the patterns, the knowledge within me cried out that these were spiritual circuits used for some kind of spiritual arts. However, I did not know what kind of art it was for. Although I had knowledge of spiritual art, it seemed that I did not understand the technical aspects. It appeared that my knowledge was not all-encompassing.
"However, it's quite small."
"The offspring of insects are usually of this size, young master."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, young master. It is said that the individuals that hatch quickly have a strong soul and body. By breeding various types of insects, and hatching more than tens of thousands of eggs laid on the same day, the fastest individual among them… this child will surely become a strong insect."
"I see. Anyway, if you can raise it to be strong, that's all that matters."
"As you wish."
The old man with bulging eyes and bony hands hovered his hands over the spiritual circuit. As he did so, a burst of spiritual power emanated from his hands, causing the circuit to glow red. The energy was then converted into a black and red thread that bound my body tightly.
The pain was indescribable—not physical but rather a soul-crushing agony that left me writhing and screaming in high-pitched agony. I felt as though I was about to lose consciousness, yet the spiritual binding refused to let me go. For what felt like an eternity, I endured the excruciating torment of this spiritual art.
"Phew… The 'soul binding is now complete, young master."
"So now I can give orders freely?" asked the young master.
"That is correct, young master. The authority to give orders belongs to you and me, but the priority is yours," replied the old man.
"I see. I'll leave it to you then."
After being released from the torture-like pain, I couldn't move a single joint. As I listened to the conversation between the two Furu members, I was stunned by the sight of my own body reflected in my compound eyes, now adorned with bright red patterns despite not having fully developed pigmentation yet.
When the door opened and closed again, the old man picked up my body with a pair of tweezers. I didn't resist or struggle, partly because it was too much effort to move, but also because I reasoned that since they had gone to all this trouble, they wouldn't kill me.
I wondered where they would take me next, but was surprised to find myself in a box meant for hatching me and my siblings. There were already thousands, if not tens of thousands, of insects hatching, forming a sea of wriggling bodies. Among them were not just my scorpion siblings, but also various other insects such as centipedes, spiders, millipedes, cockroaches, and more.
A fierce battle for survival was already underway among the insects. Scorpions grasped cockroaches with their pincers, while centipedes bit them, and spiders jumped in from behind to sink their fangs in. Elsewhere, mole crickets swarmed around unhatched eggs and severed limbs, squabbling and cannibalizing one another.
"I see, the rest of the pack is eating each other. It will be good nourishment. As your master, I command you to use all your strength to fight and kill every insect in the box."
"Kishiii!?"
As soon as I received the command, the markings on my body glimmered with a sinister light. The intense urge to kill surged within me. I felt a sense of duty to quickly fulfill the old man's command and eradicate all the insects fighting below with my own hands.
Normally, it would be difficult to resist such a strong sense of duty. However, I had a mission that I had held since birth. It was something deeply ingrained in my soul, and even powerful spiritual arts could not overwrite it. It was this mission that helped me maintain my sanity.
But as a result, I seemed to be opposing the new command. My soul was under great strain, causing excruciating pain that made me grit my teeth. Unaware of my internal struggle, the old man released me from the tweezers and mercilessly dropped me into the sea of insects.
"Screeeech!"
"Shaaah!"
"Hushuuu!"
I quickly flipped over, feeling the danger to my life after falling to my back. My intuition was correct. For a moment, I had exposed my vulnerability by being flipped on my back, and as a result, insects came attacking me from all directions.
These insects showed no emotion or intelligence in their eyes, driven purely by their instincts and hunger. Among them were my own siblings. They seemed to have no hesitation in cannibalizing each other. I suppose that's just how insects are. But then again, I too am an insect.
"Kiiishaaa!!!"
However, that doesn't mean I'm willing to be killed and eaten. Perhaps it was due to the old man's orders that triggered my fighting instincts, or maybe his words were correct, or it could be the power of knowledge within me. Either way, fortunately, I knew what I needed to do to survive.
I caught the head of the centipede approaching from the front with my pincers and threw it into the swarm of millipedes. As for the cockroaches coming from behind, I stabbed them with the non-poisonous stinger on my tail and swung it like a blunt weapon. Until the needle falls out, it'll be my weapon.
From then on, I fought desperately. I cut off the insects' heads with my pincers, twisted their bodies, and finished them off. After they broke, I used them as a stabbing sword to pierce the insects. I used my long abdomen as a whip to smash the insects I stabbed with my tail onto the ground and crush their heads and bodies. I focused solely on hitting the vulnerable spots of the insects that came within range of my attack, accurately and with a single strike.
This tactic worked precisely because I was fighting against newborn, weak insects that had no intelligence. They didn't learn from the deaths of their fallen comrades and simply acted on their instincts.
Furthermore, once I regained my footing, there was no longer any reason for them to target me specifically, and I was just one of the many insects to them. I was never again intensely targeted. The most dangerous moment was right after I was thrown into the swarm.
The battle of the insects was fierce, and as a result, their numbers dwindled quickly. The floor, once covered in eggs, was now littered with countless dead insect corpses, and the bodily fluids that had splattered during the fighting stained not only the floor but also the walls on all sides. However, as the number of insects decreased to a few hundred, the fighting rapidly subsided. This was because those who survived could now feast on the corpses of their fallen brethren.
Amidst the silent and scattered insects now busily feeding on the corpses as if the previous fighting had been nothing but a lie, I alone continued to kill the insects. This was because my orders were to annihilate all of them.
Although the old man's commands could not fully control me, because I retained my rationality, I still suffered from unnecessary mental anguish. However, if I followed the old man's wishes, the pain that tormented my mind would be significantly reduced.
After all, these were the same creatures that had been killing each other up until now. Even if I killed them all, including the scorpions that were my siblings, nothing would change. I swiftly killed all the surviving insects without hesitation, and finally fulfilled the old man's orders. At that moment, the pain that had been weighing on me suddenly disappeared. It seemed that the criteria for fulfilling the orders had been met.
Ah, I'm exhausted. I haven't even been alive for an hour, and I'm already covered in wounds. My pincers were cracked, my soft exoskeleton has been pierced by fangs, and my tail's stinger was broken. I was in a state of complete disrepair.
What will I be forced to do from now on? Can I fulfill my mission, "to survive for a hundred years," that is engraved in my soul in this condition? First and foremost, can a scorpion even live for a hundred years? With nothing but anxiety, I focused on surviving for the time being, and I stabbed my broken pincers into the spider carcass in front of me, devouring its flesh.