Consciousness did not return all at once. It trickled in, like cold water seeping through a cracked foundation.
There was no pain. The agonizing, rhythmic throb of Kyouya’s severed arm had vanished entirely. The suffocating fever was gone. Instead of the cold, jagged rock of the abyss, he felt a strange, boundless softness. He didn't feel like he was lying on the ground; he felt like he was the ground.
Then, a voice echoed in the dark void of his mind. It wasn't the cold, robotic text of the standard Cascadia System. It sounded human. Feminine, sharp, and laced with an unmistakable tone of dry sarcasm.
"Genetic overwrite complete. Calculating probability of host's sanity remaining intact... Error. Host was already questionable. Proceeding with Status Update."
Kyouya tried to open his eyes, but he quickly realized he didn't have eyelids. He just... saw. His vision was a 360-degree panoramic view of the dark, smoky cavern.
"Host's passive intelligence [INT: ∞] has integrated with the local System architecture," the voice continued in his head. "Congratulations. I am your newly evolved cognitive AI. You may thank me later. For now, review your pathetic new parameters."
A sleek, redesigned blue interface projected itself into his mind.
[STATUS]
Name: Kyouya Kusanagi
Species: Slime
Level: 9
HP: 15 | SP: 30 | MP: 30
STR: 10 | AGI: 50
INT: ∞ (Integrated AI)
[NEW SKILLS ACQUIRED]
[Absorbing] (Level C): Can ingest organic/inorganic matter to sustain mass.
[Changing Size] (Level C): Can compress or expand liquid body volume.
[Flexible Body] (Level C): Immune to blunt force trauma. Piercing damage reduced.
[Breathe Underwater] (Level C): Liquid biology requires no oxygen.
[Shape-shifting] (Level C): Can mimic the form of absorbed entities (Requires sufficient biomass).
A Slime. Kyouya mentally sighed, his gelatinous, dark-violet body jiggling slightly against the cave floor.
"Hey, AI," he projected his thoughts inward. "What happened? I ate a Rank B reptilian wolf-thing. I was fully prepared to become a monstrous apex predator. Why am I a puddle of jelly?"
"Because you were Level 1 with the physical constitution of a damp paper towel," the AI replied, her voice dripping with condescension. "If I had allowed you to transform into a Rank B apex predator, your cellular structure would have violently collapsed, and you would have exploded into a red mist. I optimized the biomass to find a genetic sequence your soul could actually anchor to. Rank D Slime was the only viable vessel."
Kyouya wobbled forward. He didn't have legs, so he had to propel himself by shifting his internal mass, sliding across the dirt like a thick, viscous droplet of ink. It felt incredibly strange, yet undeniably freeing.
"Well," Kyouya thought, mentally shrugging. "I've read a ton of manga about slimes reincarnating and becoming overpowered. I just need to absorb things, build a village, and become a demon lord, right?"
"Negative," the AI sneered. "Please refrain from applying fictional Earth literature to an SSS-Class death zone. You are a Rank D Slime in Floor 100 of The Outland. Everything down here can kill you by simply stepping on you too hard. Your 'manga' logic will get you vaporized."
Kyouya paused his jiggling. The AI was right. He was at the absolute bottom of the food chain in the most dangerous place in the world. But a darker, more desperate question lingered in his mind.
"Is there any way to turn back? To become human again?"
The AI went silent for a few milliseconds, processing billions of calculations. "The probability is exceptionally low. However... it is not impossible. If you acquire sufficient high-tier skills, level up past Rank A, and absorb a compatible humanoid vessel, you may theoretically construct a human form using [Shape-shifting]."
Relief, pure and absolute, washed through Kyouya's liquid core. He still had a chance. He was currently a blob of dark violet slime stuck at the bottom of the world, but he was alive. And he was going to crawl his way back to the top.
Location: The Eastern Continent - The Sunderland
The sky above the Sunderland was a perpetual, bruised grey. Thick black smoke poured from the towering chimneys of munitions factories, creating a choking smog that hung over the massive military encampment.
Inside a heavily fortified strategy tent, the hum of mana-powered generators vibrated through the floorboards.
"The Northern Nation of Frontierra hides behind their snowstorms and their saintesses," a scarred Military Officer slammed his hand against a sprawling map on the table. "They don't know real war. They claim the demons there wear human skin and infiltrate the church. But here? In the Sunderland? It is open, bloody warfare."
Hiroto Kiya stood at the head of the table, pushing his rectangular glasses up his nose. Unlike his classmates, Hiroto had not been physically altered by the Goddess's blessing. He retained his sharp, handsome features and navy-blue hair. But the aura radiating from him was heavy and suffocatingly powerful.
Because his Rank was A, he could penetrate the System's privacy blocks and see the true names of the five transformed monsters standing behind him. They were his closest friends, now reshaped into weapons of mass destruction.
"The Demon Lord's army pushes against our ironclads daily," the Officer continued, pointing to a red zone on the map. "But the Demon Lord themselves? They haven't been seen in the frontline for a century. They rule from The Outland—an unmapped island in the central ocean. They are an ancient existence, over four hundred years old. Every Hero the Church has sent to the Outland has died. No one comes back."
Hiroto nodded gravely. "We understand the stakes, Commander. We will hold the line."
As the officer saluted and left the tent, Hiroto turned to his squad. They looked nothing like high schoolers anymore.
Taiyo Natsuki leaned against a metal pillar. His hair was split, a jagged mix of blazing crimson and deep ocean blue. His red eyes glowed with barely contained thermal energy.
[Taiyo Natsuki - Rank B] Ultimate: Twin Obsidian Dragon (S).
Skills: Crystalline Avalanche (A), Ice Magic (A), Fire Magic (A), Lava Body (B).
Next to him was Yuuto Ichigami. His hair was pure, blinding white, with a single ahoge sticking up—an ironic contrast to the one Kyouya used to have. Yuuto's silver diamond eyes practically radiated holy energy.
[Yuuto Ichigami - Rank B]
Ultimate: Light of Judgement (S).
Skills: High-Tier Light Magics (A).
Cracking his knuckles in the corner was Kenji Lopez. He looked more like a brick wall than a teenager, heavily muscled with brown hair and imperceptible, solid brown eyes.
[Kenji Lopez - Rank B]
Ultimate: Living Fortress - Eden (S).
Skills: Earth Magic (A), Petrified Bramble (B).
Sitting at the table and meticulously cleaning a massive, mana-infused sniper rifle was Reiji Kurokawa. Dressed in a sharp black suit, his dark hair and grey eyes gave him the look of a corporate assassin rather than a hero.
[Reiji Kurokawa - Rank B]
Ultimate: Omega Trigger - Absolute Death (S).
Skills: Infinite Burst (A), Weapon Creation - Guns (A), Item Box (A).
Finally, floating a few inches off the ground, was Kento Kirishima. His violet and white hair drifted like smoke, his violet eyes swirling with dark magic.
[Kento Kirishima - Rank B]
Ultimate: Explosion of Deaths (S).
Skills: Shadow Magic (A), Dark Fire (B).
Hiroto looked at all of them, his own Ultimate Skill, [Leadership (Level S)], pulsing quietly in his chest. As long as they were in a party, Hiroto's presence passively multiplied all their stats—and his own—by ten. They were an unstoppable tactical unit.
"Listen up, guys." Hiroto said, his voice carrying the natural weight of a born commander. "We are going to fight for the Sunderland. We're going to level up. But we have a secondary objective."
Taiyo looked up, a small flame licking across his knuckles. "What is it, Hiroto?"
"We aren't the only ones who were summoned," Hiroto stated firmly. "Shiori, Yua, Mei, Tatsuya... even Kusanagi. They are out there somewhere. I refuse to let Class 1-A be broken apart by this world. We are going to build our strength, and then we are going to find the rest of our classmates."
Reiji holstered a pistol, his grey eyes locking onto Hiroto. "You think a guy like Kusanagi survived a week in this place? He was a slacker. He probably got eaten by a low-level goblin on day one."
"It doesn't matter," Hiroto said, adjusting his glasses. "If he's alive, we find him. If he's dead... we avenge him. We stick together. Understood?"
"Understood!" the five boys replied in unison.
Location: The Western Continent - Vaeloria Kingdom
Far away, across the treacherous oceans and beyond the reach of the Sunderland's smog, the traditional medieval Kingdom of Vaeloria basked in holy light.
Deep inside the royal castle, sitting on a luxurious velvet couch, Tatsuya Minato aggressively mashed the buttons on a phantom, mana-constructed controller. He still wore his oversized hoodie, his grey eye bags prominent beneath his messy hair.
He didn't care about the King's banquet happening in the next room. He didn't care about Hiroto's grand speeches of teamwork, and he certainly didn't care about finding the rest of the class.
"Idiots," Tatsuya muttered to himself, his eyes glued to his system interface. "This isn't a team game. It's a solo survival horror. And I'm going to break the meta."
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