A Strange Place

"People can be unreliable, which is why I find solace in video games; at least there, I know what to expect. Even mediocre games follow a basic formula. Once you dive into them, they can't betray your trust. Despite everyone around me claiming I'm wasting my life, I disagree. Games are the only things I can rely on completely—they can't hurt me like others have. There's no heartbreak or neglect in a virtual world. Or so I thought. I was just in my room, grinding for a mythical drop, when suddenly everything went black.

When I came to, I wasn't in my room anymore. It wasn't the first time I'd blacked out while gaming, but it was the first time I'd awakened underwater, surrounded by tadpoles. This must be one of those lucid dreams I've heard about. A sudden surge of pain hit me—a hunger I'd never felt before. I needed food, or I was going to starve. Since I'm dreaming, I can probably conjure something to eat. Come on, dream, give me a fresh chicken sandwich. But nothing appeared. Well, now that I think about it, you normally don't feel hunger in your dreams.

Regardless, waking up underwater after being in my room is impossible in reality. But I still need to eat, so I should probably get moving."

"Wait a minute, something's missing—something important. I scan my body to find the source of discomfort, and it almost instantly clicks: WHERE THE HELL ARE MY LIMBS? My arms and legs are gone, and now that I'm paying attention, I feel something that I didn't have before—a tail, or more specifically, a hind fin. I appear to have taken the form of some kind of fish. I guess that explains the lack of need to hold my breath. But the question is, how in the hell did I manage to get myself into this?

I don't think I died, or at least I hope I didn't. I mean, I wasn't the perfect image of health, but I was only seventeen. But right now, I don't have time to dwell on the past. In the now, I'm a newborn, starving fish without a single way of defending myself. I regain my bearings and start moving. Swimming in my new body comes as easy as breathing, almost like it's encoded into my brain.

I swim for what feels like hours before I come across something—a small fish of some kind. I don't recognize it, but then again, I wasn't really into fishing, so it's probably just a lack of knowledge in the field. It's munching on some sort of aquatic plant and isn't paying much attention to what's happening around it. I figure it might be easy prey, so I start to engage. I move slowly to ensure the vibrations of the water don't give away my position. I creep closer until I'm in striking range and lunge at the smaller fish."

Its scales gave away instantly and its small frame collapsed under my jaw with a sickening crunch. its fragile bones crunched underneath my jaw as I began to swallow my prey I readied myself for a disgusting taste but it never came, it wasn't pleasant by any means but it wasn't bad. it simply tasted like nothing. the food slipped down my throat "New source of nutrients detected open the status menu to invest bio points" a voice belonging to no one, in particular, rang through my head, the voice was feminine but it was emotionless sounding similar to a certain A.I. assistant I'm familiar with. and what does it mean status, but before I could continue my question a dark grey screen appeared in my field of view

Name: Rain

Species: umbra Rana(Shadow Frog) hatchling

Status: Level 1( Xp:20/100)

Skills: Boost(Lv:1), Strong Bite(LV:2)

Passive Skills: Poison coating(Lv:1)

Stats:

HP:(15/15)

str: 3

Speed: 10

Int: 15

Will:4

def:3

Mana:(0/0)

Biology: Eyes(0), Tail(0), Skin(0) Poison(0)

Bio points: 10

Skill points: 0

Interesting. This is just like something out of a game. Well, I guess I'm not a fish after all; I appear to be a tadpole, although I don't feel very small. Maybe animals in this world are larger than on Earth. I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a shadow frog, so that's interesting. Anyway, I heard something about investing bio points. As I said this, another screen opened.

Use points(Warning stats may change based on investments)

Upgrade Eyes: 5 bio points

Upgrade: Tail 5 bio points

Upgrade Skin: 5 Bio points

Upgrade Poison: 10 Bio points

Hmm, so I get bio points by eating stuff, and I guess I can use them to upgrade different body parts. Well, I have 10 bio points, but I'm not sure what to do with them. I assume tail upgrades affect my speed, and skin upgrades affect defense, so I'll upgrade both of them once. "Would you like to finalize your upgrades?" Why not, let's go, I guess.

Suddenly, a burning sensation enveloped my entire body. It burned like nothing I ever felt before, almost like sitting in hot grease. It persisted for another two minutes before the burning stopped. "Upgrades finalized, stat changes applied. Speed increased by four, defense increased by one." I never want to feel that ever again—all that pain for such a minor increase. Regardless, I should probably find somewhere to rest that's not in the middle of the open.

I begin to move and immediately notice a difference. My top speed is significantly faster. I almost smacked into a rock when I took off before I realized how much faster I had gotten. Inspecting my tail, it appears to have sharpened to help me cut through the water. I couldn't tell what happened to my skin, but that wasn't that big a deal.

As I was searching for a spot to rest, a shadow began to loom over me. I didn't even need to turn to realize I had caught the attention of a predator. It probably happened while I was upgrading my body. Before it could attack, I darted toward what looked like a wall in an attempt to find someplace to hide. But the shadow loomed closer. I tried to use my speed and higher maneuverability to make it give up, but it continued its chase.

The creature lunged, I dodged its lumbering attack and swam above it. I finally got a look at the creature giving chase. It was a snake with fire-red scales that reflected sunlight almost like steel, and two razor-sharp fangs that glowed a brilliant red as it launched toward the floor of the pond. It turned back towards me, fangs still glowing a bright red. I narrowly dodged it by swooping underneath its jaw. The beast was starting to get frustrated—I could tell because the glow its fangs produced got more intense. I needed to move faster, but I was already pushing as hard as I could.

As the thought of moving faster entered my brain I felt a trigger go off in my head and I immediately got a ridiculous boost of speed I put a 20-meter gap between me and the snake in a second I watched as the snake chomped air expectantly only to be confused because its prey had disappeared. I continued to the being much more mindful of my surroundings before I found a small crack to settle in . "combat has ended announcing rewards, Boost has progressed to level two, awarded 20 XP for escaping opponent 5 levels above your level, total XP(40/100) skill point awarded for outsmarting opponent 5 levels above yours open skill shop to spend" skill shop I guess that's how I get new skills. as the words entered my brain a panel appeared

Skill Shop: amount held( 1)

Sonic Blast: 1sp (launches a sonic wave to disorient opponent)

Stealth: 1sp (hides the user's presence)

Poison Spit: 5sp (user spits a ball of concentrated poison burning opponents it comes into contact with)

Well, I only have one to work with, and no matter how badly I want an attacking skill, I should probably prioritize stealth until I level up, and confirm skill "Stealth." I felt the information rush into my brain; it felt like a warm shower. It stopped after a couple of seconds, and I dozed off, hoping that when I awoke, I would still be in my bedroom.