"Every year, around 1500 people die from bee stings all over the world. But do you know how many *bees* die from human hands every year? Millions! Billions! You kill them with bare hands, with poisons, with pesticides and with your endless destruction of wild nature… And you are one of these murderers!"
As stupefied as I was in the face of a goddess, for all the difference it made in my position—I still protested.
"But I just shooed that bee away! It didn't *have* to sting me! I didn't kill it, it killed itself!"
"Silence! You threatened it, so it was your fault for taking that sting! And now the poor bee is dead, and it will never come back home…"
And neither will I.
I was stuck there, in the afterlife, in front of a giant bee—Goddess of Bees, as she introduced herself earlier—while being nothing but a shapeless blob of a soul in a vague grayness of the afterlife.
How did I get there?
Well, I just shooed a bee away from my ice cream on a sunny day. It stung me, and I died from a sudden and acute allergic reaction that made me suffocate. This was it.
The worst time to find out that you are deathly allergic to bees is when you are stung by one.
And my life before it… one word—unremarkable. Not pathetic, but not notice-worthy. People like me either become statistics or live boring lives until they become old. I really expected the latter option!
The unfairness of it all was so incredible that I spent several days processing it. Went through a *lot* of angst, believe me. But in this strange realm, I had all the time necessary—until the goddess appeared.
As much as I calmed down before that, now I got emotional again.
"Well, neither will *I* go home now! Can I just go back to life? Please?"
The Goddess of Bees lowered her antennae.
"I was in a bad mood earlier, so I made you die from allergic shock. Now I think this was a little harsh… And the God of Humanity is giving me grief… So I'm going to give you a second chance. A reincarnation."
I gasped.
"Like in those isekai animes?"
I swear, if bees could roll their eyes, the goddess would've done just that.
"Yes, sure. I will even give you a system, and even an extra boost." There was a sound like a snapping of fingers. "You humans like systems, right?"
I mostly knew things about the latest anime trends via Internet osmosis, but nodded anyway. The systems usually had the most OP protagonists, and if I was being isekaid—was that the right word?—I would need all the boosts I could get.
Suddenly, the Goddess of Bees giggled.
"But God of Humans never told me *where* to reincarnate you."
Uh-oh.
"In your next life, mortal, you are going to be one of us! Just a small bee in a huge world! With the powers I grant you, you shall bring the bee tribes to dominion akin to that of the humankind of your world and squash all who stand in your way."
"What?!"
"For that, your system will reward you. Some of these rewards will increase your natural lifespan—and it's the only way you can hope to live a long life in this world. After all… Drone bees only live for a few months naturally. I'm sure this will motivate you to work hard on establishing the bee hegemony."
"WHAAAT?!"
"But don't worry, the insects in your next world are very human-like, and many other things are similar to what you are used to. I'm really doing you so many favors here, mortal!"
"NO YOU DON'T!!"
The goddess ignored my screams. Her skyscraper-sized leg descended upon me, squashing my soul and sending it from grayness to the darkness of being-not.
***
I woke up with a gasp.
There was not a second of doubt in my mind that everything I've gone through was real.
This made me ecstatic to realize that I still had a pair of hands to clutch my chest in panic. Then I looked again and realized that there were *two* pair of hands.
I was awake, lying on the floor in a tiny empty room with dark yellow walls and floor. The surrounding air was warm and thick with a smell of honey and a strange musk. A low buzzing hum was filling the background.
The shape of the room was that of a hexagonal prism put sideways.
'Am I in a beehive? Is that bee buzzing I hear from the outside? Am I actually *a bee*?'
I sat up and examined my body closer.
It wasn't the body of a normal bee, but neither was it human at all!
It was a strange fusion of a man and an insect, with four mostly human arms, two mostly human legs, a pair of large transparent wings, and a strange fat tail growing out of my ass. It looked like a bee's abdomen, just scaled to the size of everything else. And it lacked a stinger.
I was *sort of* a bee. A completely naked bee, with very human dangling bits between my legs, barely hidden by fur-like fuzz. *Just* barely modest enough to be PG-13, but it didn't feel safe at all.
And when I was examining myself, an orange floating panel appeared in front of me.
〔Drone Bee〕
〔Active title〕: None
〔Health〕: 10 / 10
〔Stamina〕: 10 / 10
〔Attribute points〕: 0
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Age〕: 30 d
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 71 d
〔Attributes〕
> Strength: 8
> Agility: 40
> Endurance: 8
> Defense: 10
> Intelligence: 100
> Perception: 43
〔Special abilities〕
Flight, Horizontal Gene Transfer
〔Genes〕
Enhanced Intelligence X
〔〕〔〕〔〕
This had to be the system the Goddess of Bees promised. And there was another thing she promised—a timer counting out my remaining days.
'71 days? 71 days?! Will that even be enough to write my will? Oh right, I have nothing to pass on anymore! Or anyone to pass things to! My will won't take any time to write *at all*!'
'Wait, it says "71 d". Maybe it means "decades"? Please, let it be decades. I can be satisfied with decades…'
I almost choked on saliva at the sound of another voice—genderless, emotionless, and synthetic—in my head. But like a smart guy I was, I realized quickly that it was just my system and not an onset of schizophrenia.
'And how can I increase that number, system?'
'Uh-uh. And how do I get attribute points? For leveling up? There's no EXP bar or levels…'
The system must have meant the beehive I was in.
'What is my colony's current development level?'
Another window popped up in front of me.
〔Your colony〕
〔Wellness〕: 86 %
〔Population〕: 20 thousand
〔Development level〕: 1
〔Development points〕: 12 / 60
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Attributes〕
> Workpower: 13
> Military: 11
> Brainpower: 4
> Logistics: 15
> Resilience: 8
〔Resources〕:
> Food: 151 units
> Building materials: 13 units
〔Technologies〕
Dance Communication
Hive Building
Food Preservation
〔〕〔〕〔〕
'Oh cool, I only need 48 development points to the next level! Oh shit, but I have no idea how to get any.'
The system gave no support. However, as a smart guy I was, I could figure things out myself. This clearly was a strategy thing, and I was a grand strategist.
At least in the "Civilization of Sid" game, I always played on Grand Strategist difficulty or higher. Not to mention other strategy games. This was really getting more and more familiar to me as I thought about it!
Suddenly, there was a tearing sound from the front wall of my cell. I stumbled back with a gasp and saw a hand like mine—with long, claw-like fingernails—tear through a thin wax partition there.
The hand neatly cut out a half-circle and peeled it aside like a flap door. On the other side of the 'door' was another bee-creature similar to myself.
The bee was absolutely naked except for the thick, fuzzy hair on her wrists and crotch. I still could see that she was a woman—her body proportions were telling, even if her chest was almost flat. Her face was pretty, but androgynous, and was very youthful with cute, round cheeks. Her eyes were fully black, without sclera or pupils.
My hands went to cover my crotch before I even thought about it.
And when I focused on the bee-girl, a status window hovered nearby.
〔Queen Attendant〕 〔Ally〕
〔Health〕: 10 / 10
〔Stamina〕: 10 / 10
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Age〕: 31 d
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 45 d
〔Attributes〕
> Strength: 8
> Agility: 40
> Endurance: 9
> Defense: 10
> Intelligence: 3
> Perception: 43
〔Special abilities〕
Flight, Barbed Stinger, Wax Production
〔〕〔〕〔〕
The bee-girl didn't pay attention to my stupor as she leaned inside my cell. She was hanging onto the wax wall with only a pair of arms and her legs, but it looked effortless.
"Drone, the Queen calls for you," the Attendant said. "It's your time to mate with her."