Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 58: "Intermission"

My name is Yosuke Tsuchiya.

I'm a 20-year-old college student. My hobbies are anime and video games.

That day I was rushing home to watch an anime I had recorded.

To be honest, I don't enjoy school at all, and I don't have any friends, but if I don't go, my parents will get annoyed!

The reason I'm in vocational school in the first place is to buy time to extend my time in society because I don't want to get a job.

As soon as the end of the school day is over, I run out of the classroom and run to the station.

It was raining when I got out of the school building, so I put on an umbrella and hurried ahead.

At that time, all I could think about was the online game I was addicted to.

Yesterday, I had warned a guy with bad manners and he snapped at me, so my friend and I stuck to him and PK'd him, so I felt good about that. I was so excited to do it again today.

Maybe that's why?

As I was running up the stairs to the platform through the station's ticket gate, my foot slipped.

My arms wandered through the air in an attempt to regain my footing, but I couldn't grab anything and fell through the air.

I felt a momentary floating sensation and a shock to the back of my head. That was the last thing I felt.

...U...u...what...

What was I doing?

I can't remember what I was doing before I woke up.

...Well, I went to school, I had class, it was raining...

Oh, I'm starting to remember.

I was on a station platform and I was on ...... that? I hit my head, and then what happened?

Where am I? Hospital? But the feeling I get... dirt?

I pick myself up and look around.

Wow! Grass? Trees are super big!

There were tons of ridiculously large trees and grass growing all around me.

What is this place? I don't understand.

I mean, what is it? How's my body? It's hard to move...what's going on...?

That's when I realized something was wrong with my body.

I have no arms or legs. And my body is black and long and thin.

What the hell is this? That's ridiculous! It's a gross worm, no matter how you look at it.

I thought I was going to go berserk, swinging my arms and legs around, but in reality, it was just a string-like body bouncing around.

I wanted to scream, but for some reason I couldn't even speak.

I flailed around for a while, but nothing happened, so I had no choice but to act.

I twisted and turned and started to move.

I had no idea what was going on, but I knew that if I didn't act, nothing would happen.

...In a case like this, the first thing you have to do is find someone!

That's the basics, the basics.

Huh? But is it safe to meet people in this form?

As I'm thinking about this, I hear the sound of grass being weeded out from behind me.

I stiffen for a moment.

What is it? I stare in the direction of the noise and see something approaching.

Is it a person? Or was it someone explaining the situation to me?

It was neither.

What appeared from behind the grass was a spider. And it was big.

Or maybe I am small. The spider was staring at me with emotionless eyes.

This is a bad idea....

I felt I was in danger. I moved away from the spider.

The spider shrank back and jumped, keeping its eyes locked on me.

Naturally, its target was me.

Realizing the spider's purpose, I desperately tried to escape, but my body was too weak to move, and the spider held me down.

I stared at the spider at close range. I screamed out in fear and horror, but my body was unable to speak.

The spider's fangs penetrate my body.

...Geeaaaah! I hate it, hate it, hate it.

For some reason, there was no pain, but only the direct feeling of my body being eaten away.

Black juice gushed out from my body, and the spider was slurping it down deliciously.

No, no, no, no, no. I can't believe I'm being eaten by such an insect without knowing why.

I tried to resist somehow, but... to no avail.

In my mind, I was crying out and staring at my body as it was being eaten away... but halfway through, my consciousness faded away... and I disappeared.

The next thing I felt was a hunger to the point of insanity.

I didn't know what I was doing, my eyes were turning red.

Then I came back to myself and I was standing in the forest where I was earlier.

What...what...what happened.

My perspective is high.

The trees and grass are normal size.

"What... what...? I hear voices."

I let out a few ahhhs and ahhhs, but it seems fine.

The next thing I check is my body, flopping around... what? Arms... too many?

In addition to both arms and legs, there's another thing I can move.

Something that looks like a hairy bug's foot is in my field of vision...I mean, my field of vision is also strangely wide.

I had an inkling of what was happening to me, but I wanted to be sure.

After wandering in the woods for a while, I saw a small spring, so I ran up to it and looked into the water.

"Haha, seriously?"

What I saw there was not my familiar face, but a monster of a spider.

In a word, it looks like a human being and a spider added together and divided by two.

The body of a gigantic spider has additional human limbs growing on it.

"...What the hell...what the hell is this!"

I exclaimed involuntarily, but no one answered me.

On a positive note, I'm probably grateful for this body in this incomprehensible situation.

I have tried various things I can do with this body, and I can produce strings and have high physical ability.

Perhaps it is also capable of a great deal of combat.

After I finished all my tests, I decided to climb a relatively large tree and check my surroundings.

I could climb a tree like this with ease.

I looked around from the top of the tree.

"What is this place?"

No matter how I looked at it, I was in the middle of a forest. I could see a small town in the distance, but the buildings looked unfamiliar.

At least, it was not a Japanese town.

What is it? Could this be...another world?

Could it be that I died and was reincarnated?

It's possible, considering the circumstances. I fell down the stairs so hard, it's not surprising that I'm dead.

This is... my time has come!

Isekai Tensei Musou kitaa!

This could go all the way to the harem life of my dreams, right?

Okay! That means I'll have to check my status first!

Open up! Status!

......... What's going on? Nothing's happening.

Is it the tapping one? I wave my hand around and try to get the screen to come up, but nothing happens.

Damn!!! Is it because I don't have appraisal skills? Or lack of level?

Anyway, it looks like I can't see the status right now.

That means I'll have to level up first.

I'm getting used to using my body.

I move through the trees, jumping from one tree to another.

I can even use strings to fly around like a certain American comic book hero.

Let's head for the city for now.

"Hyaho~oretueeeee!"

On the way to the town, I came across a goblin-like creature...or rather, in all likelihood, a goblin, and I tried to fight it.

I could see it's movement and I could avoid it after I saw it.

It's attack power is also moderate. I struck him with my original spider legs extending from my back.

The goblin was hit in the soft belly and fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

Scum! He's weak!

After that, I continued leveling up, killing goblins as I went, but I didn't feel like I was getting any stronger.

Besides... this body was bizarrely hungry, so foraging for food was a must.

At first I ate things like nuts and wild strawberries, but they didn't add up at all, so I had no choice but to eat the meat of the goblins I killed and the dog-like guy the goblins had with them.

At first I tried my best to make a fire, but it didn't work, and eventually I couldn't stand the hunger and ate it raw.

The taste...well, it was terrible, but I managed to eat it.

This body is great as long as I am not hungry, but when I run out of food, I really suffer.

I spent a few days like that, moving toward a town I could see in the distance.

As I was moving forward, I heard something. A metallic sound? I hurriedly headed toward the direction of the sound.

There, in a slightly open area, several men in armor were fighting goblins.

I decided to watch from a nearby tree.

The men are working together and fighting the goblins, but from my point of view.

They're not really putting their backs into it. I don't know what to call it, but they're not really into it.

I watched them fight for a while, but I was getting tired of it, so I decided to help them.

I jumped into the middle of the goblins and killed them instantly using my spider legs.

I was so tired of fighting with these small fry.

"--! --! --!"

I heard a yell from behind me.

I turn around to see the guys I saved pointing their swords at me.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Calm down. I may look like this, but I am a human being..."

I tried to talk to him and calm him down, but he slashed at me.

I catch it with my spider legs.

Huh? Hey, hey, hey. I saved him, but that's not right, is it?

I was so pissed off that I stabbed the guy who was slashing at me in the throat with my spider leg and killed him.

"If you don't want this to happen, listen to me."

The rest of the guys were backing away from me, weapons at the ready.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Just listen to me.

"--! --!"

What the hell are they saying?

Oh, man, I don't understand a word they're saying.

"-...-...-... --...-... --!"

A man who looked like the leader shouted, and at the same time, everyone scattered and ran away at the same time.

"Wait! Wait!"

I chased after the escapees.

At first, I focused on the one who looked like the leader. Don't think you can escape from me.

I catch up with them in a few seconds and seize them.

"--! --!"

I can't understand what he's saying.

He tried to stab me with a knife, which annoyed me so I killed him.

I caught a few more after that, but they all tried to kill me, so I killed them.

The number of people I killed didn't match the number of people I saw. In the end, I think I let some of them go.

It was inevitable that I missed some of them. But it's probably not good that I can't communicate with them.

But still, those guys from earlier were small fry. I wonder if they're better than goblins or not.

No, maybe I'm too strong?

Have I become a standard Warriors protagonist after all?

If that's the case, why don't I just go ahead without thinking too much about it?

I've done the battle and the tutorial is over.

I wonder if the next step is the heroine?

Is she in trouble somewhere, being attacked, or being sold as a slave?

Anyway, if I go to the town, some kind of event will happen.

I headed to the town while hunting goblins and beasts to gain experience, and after a few days, I was able to reach a position where I could see the town.

The enemies were too small fry to be of any use to me, and it was a piece of cake.

Now, let's see what the town is like....

I had the same feeling when I saw the town from afar, but it looks like a medieval town.

This is what you would expect in another world, after all!

There were guys with armor and swords, and guys in robes that looked like wizards.

Good, good, good.

Now, what am I going to do?

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go in like this, because I'll get attacked.

Or, given my status and abilities, should I go in and kill a bunch of people?

Or, should I do good deeds, win their trust, and go the harem route? ...Pfft, that's a good idea.

As I was looking at the town while thinking about my plan...I saw something strange.

...What is that?

A cage with iron bars and a crowd of people around it.

A fat old man in front of the cage is shouting something.

What is he doing?

After a while, a large man steps forward.

The little fat man nods and opens the cage and from inside... a girl?

The big guy pulls the girl's hand, and the girl doesn't like it and goes berserk, but when he slap her cheeks, she becomes quiet.

Hey, hey, hey.

What a horrible thing to do! All right! Let's save her!

I ran into town.