"Another day where I will be all alone…" Kai mumbled with his eyes closed, calmly lying on his hospital bed.
-Knock!
-Knock!
"There's someone who's coming to see me?"
A tinge of confusion appeared on his face, and a distinct female voice resounded on the other side of it.
"Brother, it's me. Can I enter?"
'Ah, is today the day?' Kai thought as he remembered asking his little sister to buy him a game that was said to be 100% immersive.
Kai knew that the chances of it being a scam were quite high, but after years of being stuck in this bed, he had gotten desperate. He wanted to speak up and tell her to come in, but he didn't have enough energy to do such a thing. Instead, he whispered into the microphone placed right over his bed.
"Hilda, open…"
As he uttered that word, the AI, Hilda, recognized the voice command and opened the door automatically.
"Did something change while I was gone?" His sister asked him with her voice containing a tinge of hope.
"No… my situation didn't get better. I still can't see anything, and I can barely move a few millimeters."
A slight frown creased on his sister's face."Right…well, I got the game that you asked me to buy. Though, it's a little weird. It came in the form of a helmet."
In her grasp was a helmet that somewhat looked like an astronaut helmet.
"Here, let me help you put it on."
His sister climbed onto the single-person hospital bed, slowly lifted his head, and placed the helmet on his head.
"Thank you…" Kai mumbled, his voice hoarse and dry with every word he spoke.
His sister held a faint smile as she stared at her brother. She hoped that this game wasn't a scam and that he would actually be able to live like a normal human being again. After all, she missed her brother—the one who would be smiling widely and play with her when she was younger.
"I know I said that I would play with you for the first time, but I have a bunch of school assignments this week." She glanced at his frail body one last time, tenderly caressing his hair.
Kai, now 18 years old, had lost his mobility when he was 12 and his eyesight when he was 10 because of an unknown incurable disease. For the past years, his only friends had been the darkness and her sister, who would come to visit him once in a while. He had lived a gruesome life that he wouldn't even wish on his worst enemies. Still, he had never truly lost hope, grasping onto all the opportunities he managed to hear of.
"Still, next week, for sure. I'll play with you!"
"Mhm…"
"Alright, I'll leave you to it. Have some fun in there!" After uttering those words, she stood up from his bed and pressed the green button placed on the side of his helmet, powering it up.
It only took a few seconds after pressing the helmet's side button for Kai to fall into a deep slumber. He could no longer smell the unique aroma of his room or feel the weight of his blanket on his chest. Instead, he smelled something repugnant, and he could feel some thick liquid being wrapped around his legs, which was the source of the smell. He tried to open his eyes, but all he saw was pure darkness.
He heard a welcome message from the game administrators in the back of his mind.
[Welcome to Realms of Monsters!]
He found it strange that he didn't get to select his class or race. But that was only a minor detail compared to what he felt for the first time in so many years.
'It wasn't a scam! I-I can move...I can feel my limbs...I'm no longer a cripple,' Kai celebrated in his mind, completely ignoring the welcome message. He wanted to cry out of happiness, but no tears came out of the body he was currently inhabiting.
Nonetheless, he still couldn't see anything right now for some unknown reason. Something was restricting his vision. He tried to stand up, but Kai hurt his head against a somewhat hard material. He couldn't see what it was, but it was resistant enough to resist a head-butt.
It hurt for a moment, but the pain disappeared as quickly as it came. Thus, he calmed himself and began to think about the cause of his restricted vision.
Kai had always been this calm, analytical person. Even when he had lost sight or the use of his body, he had thought things through and tried to find solutions. He wasn't one to rush mindlessly into all kinds of dangerous situations for no reason. When he ran into a problem, he would always break it down to understand exactly what he was facing and how to solve it.
Wanting to make a little sense of his current situation, Kai brought one of his two arms forward and tried to move it forward, where he was once again met with a wall. Kai pressed his hand against it as he tried to follow the wall's shape.
Within a few seconds, he realized that it was an oval-shaped object as his arm had moved up at a certain angle. However, that was the least of his worries. It was the size of the object he was stuck inside. Kai still couldn't see anything, but from how little his hand had moved. He knew that he was in something extremely small.
However, that made no sense. This was supposed to be a game revolving around Monster Hunting, where the player base would be born as a humanoid of their choice. After they made their choice, they would be able to hunt monsters and absorb their essence to become stronger.
So, why was Kai in such a strange body? He knew he wasn't in a human body or any kind of humanoid body.
'Did I somehow awaken a secret race?' He naively thought.
There was only one way to find out. He needed to break out of the prison of darkness he was currently in.
He brought his arm back and slammed his small curled-up fist against it.
-Crack.
By the noise the wall had made, Kai knew he was making steps in the right direction as he continued hitting the wall in front of him for a few minutes. And finally, a ray of light pierced through the wall.
The first thing he noticed was that the wall was, in fact, an oval-shaped object, just like he had deduced, and it was barely thick enough to block out the rays of light. However, what shocked him the most was when his hand passed in front of the light, making it possible for him to see it.
'T-That's not a hand...I-I only have three fingers, and why are there green scales all over it?'
The feeling of urgency within Kai's mind was only accentuated as he hit even harder against the thin white wall.
The cracking noise intensified.
-CrAcK.
Kai was getting closer to finding out what he really looked like, as it was still difficult to tell with the meager amount of light inside the oval-shaped object.
-CRACK.
Finally, the white wall broke in half, and light shrouded Kai's new body.
Instantly, he looked down and analyzed the body he was currently in.
'So, I'm not in any kind of humanoid body, just like I thought. I really am a monster.' He made sure to observe all the features on his body to figure out what monster he was. 'Green scales all over my body, large claws at the end of my...fingers? Is that what you call those? And I'm so small that I'm barely taller than three apples. Yeah... I don't have a single clue what kind of monster I am.'
As far as he could tell, the monster he had woken up to seemed to be some sort of reptile. However, he couldn't pinpoint a monster in particular. He lacked knowledge about this brand-new game.
Looking around, Kai realized he had been stuck inside an eggshell. However, it was much bigger and thicker than one would usually see. After all, it had taken some considerable effort for him to get out.
'Ah...still, this sucks. Why am I a monster out of all things?'
As he asked himself that question, a voice suddenly echoed in Kai's mind with such power and might that it overwhelmed him, nearly knocking him unconscious.
[You have awakened the Mythical Evolution System.]
[You are the sole owner of the Mythical Evolution System. Your objective will be different from the rest of the players. Instead of becoming the strongest monster hunter, you will become the strongest monster in the entire world! Good luck.]
[Devour your first monster to evolve!]