Metal Crab Rising

Location: On the surface....

The surface, a seemingly bleak, post apocalyptic world... Or is it?

Animals and insectswere living peacefully, unless they are hunted by a certain Nomad in White for her lunch (she eats the entire animal).

There are various buildings everywhere, all of which were abandoned or were destroyed, bullet holes were present on some of them, and it seems like a battle had already finished right around here.

Corpses of strange, crustacean-like creatures were around on the ground without life.

These crustacean-like creatures had a metallic carapace, some of them having completely metallic bodies, while some looked a little more grotesque, flesh-like bodies with the same metallic carapace.

These are called Raptures.

There were also a few bodies of women in bodysuits and military gear, but almost a dozen of them looked completely identical to each other.

In the corner, there was a small metallic crab exiting the shadows. In terms of small.... Let's just say around half the size of an average human.

Its four legs let it crawl at a slow pace, as it's emerald "eye", or to be a little more accurate, was a core like the others of his kind.

Some parts of its body were damaged with some bullet holes and scratches.

This metallic crab is you.

A mere, simple human soul from a world similar to yours shoved into this body, left to your devices to survive, and a system will help you to evolve and survive. Knowledge is power, and getting stronger is a goal.

Now that you were liberated from the constraints of the Modern Era, you didn't mind going along this life of yours.

You are now Metal Crab.

To be honest, you really just started out as a foot-sized rapture, and in a month of surviving you have grown to this size. Camping skills were also pretty good in letting yourself feel warmth for a while.

Here are your stats:

[ Name: Metal Crab

Title(s): Fullmetal Crab

Gender: Male

Rank: Servant ]

[Evolution Rank: 5

Evolution Points: 0 ]

[ Code: D.M.T.R (Iron) ]

The first three are self-explatory, the fourth is a classification of his current rank, which is second to the lowest.

Don't let those stats ignore the fact that you're stronger than an average human. With that heavy body of yours only Nikke and other Raptures could be a threat to you.

Simply put: You started out as a Husk/Thrash, then gained enough evolution points by eating fellow raptures and recently used all those points to unlock nodes on the "Evolutionary Tree" to become a Servant-class.

The following ranks are as follows: Elite/EXID, stronger versions of a Servant that are considered Sub-Targets in the game.

Then the Centurion-Class raptures, which are technically leaders of packs of raptures. These guys are much stronger than the Elites.

And then, the Tyrants. They're in their own league because of their special abilities, it might take years for you to evolve into one.

Enough of this, there was something to scavenge for.

"Oh, look what we got here! A good catch!" You said, excited as you approached the corpses.

Despite you understanding what you said, in an outsider's perspective you were just making sounds similar to what a rapture would make, in a happier tone.

Your glowing, green core flickered to match the emotions you feel at this moment.

As you were near a Nikke, you used one of your legs to get a better look at her.

Pink hair, dull, lifeless eyes, a clothing that masked her lower face, and a typical military uniform... She's a Mass Produced Nikke, albeit heavily damaged.

And then, you pressed your leg onto her bosom, where her core is located, looking for any remnant of energies she had.

[ EP +1 ]

[ EP +1 ]

[ EP +1 ]

.....

It goes on until you've harvested all the energies she had. You've gained only fifty points, but since there's some more to harvest energy from, you didn't mind it. Eventually you have recovered enough of your energy.

The current generation of Raptures rely on obtaining energy from external sources like Power Plants to recharge, and the older generation raptures rely on hunting and consuming humans or Nikke to regain energy.

Well, you could do both due to evolving.

Staring down at the dead Nikke, you wondered what to do with them.

"Should I eat them?" You wondered, before leaning down and with barely any hesitation, you ate their heads one by one, feeling a bit sorry because of that.

"Oh well... It's better than eating them alove, their human brains filled with nanomachines are going to be quite essential for me." You spoke to yourself, just as you ate the rest of their bodies.

They tasted strange, though. It's like eating chicken curry mixed a bit of metal.

Nikke are delicious. Better than the Husk rank Raptures and Servant rank raptures you kept hunting for a while

Just eating them allowed you to regenerate damaged parts slowly and made you feel refreshed and good as new.

Even your carapace gained a bluish hue on its dull, greyish silver color.

Then, the sound of a bell being rung, the system gave out some good notifications along with another strange feeling on your entire body.

[ +750 x9 = +6,750 Evolution Points ]

[ Evolution Obtained: Goddessium Exoskeleton ]

[ Goddessium Exoskeleton

- Your body is now made up of Goddessium unlike all other Raptures (with the exception of Heretics) ]

What.

[ Note: Your Goddessium Exoskeleton has 10% purity, to increase the purity of the Goddessium Exoskeleton, use Evolution Points ]

[ Goddessium Purification (45%) - 5000 Evolution Points ]

Oh well. Gotta get to the point.

Goddesium is an alloy used mainly to produce Nikke. It's incredibly tough while still feeling similar to human skin.

This means that the moment you upgraded the Goddessium Exoskeleton, you have become much tougher and lighter than before.

[ Evolution Rank is now 11 ]

But what happens if you eat Unique (SR to SSR) Nikke?

Maybe you'll find out later.... If that were possible.

You could've continued scavenging, but you heard the sound of helicopters going your way.

Were those two attack planes, or not? Immediately, you crawled into a corner where you cannot be seen by anybody within a certain angle.

While you hid, you observed the two aircraft going to one place. Those were both large helicopters that carry a large group of people.

You wonder what those copters are there for....

Then with a single motion, you exited your hiding spot, staring at the two airships before deciding to follow them.

Oh, that was until one of the airships slowed down, its hatch opening up to reveal a Nikke in blue with some men in similar-looking brown uniforms. They were just some random commanders from a place called the Ark.

That Ark in question being a massive underground post apocalyptic city.

And the Nikke you saw was a Product 08, a mass produced Nikke from Missilis Industries, aiming at you as you stopped in your tracks to take a closer look at her and the airship through zooming in on the two.

Her commander gestured at her to shoot at you, chuckling and chattering to the other commanders as they stared at you.

Then, you looked at your system.

You saw a glowing node on your Evolutionary Tree, and that node looked incredibly useful.

[ Parry

> Who cares about blocking stuff when you can just parry!?

> A Perfect Parry is the best parry!

> Bends reality to parry certain attacks with various effects like briefly staggering enemies or returning projectiles back with twice the power!

> Cost: 1,250 EP ]

"I'm gonna buy it." You said, before simply tapping on the node to purchase it, leaving you with only 500 EP left. "Now, to test it out!"

{ ~×~~×~×~×~×~×~×~×~ } 

Meanwhile, at the same helicopter's cockpit....

"Uh, what are we doing, exactly? Aren't we supposed to return to the Ark right now?" One of the pilots asked the other, confused at what he was doing.

They were on the middle of returning from a mission that had been successful with some casualties like some Nikke, but since these girls were treated like they weren't human, these guys didn't care.

"Don't worry about it! We're going to celebrate when we return to the Ark for a successful mission, anyways!" The main pilot replied confidently, looking at the display showing the cabin of the airship where several commanders along with some Nikke who were barely damaged were present.

"We'll just let their Nikke kill another rapture, and then we'll go forward to the ark again, how about that?"

The other pilot beside him shrugged his shoulders, until....

When the Nikke fired her shot, the bullet suddenly returned back to the aircraft, piercing through the Nikke's helmet without killing her, and then damaging the hull of the aircraft.

"Woah!!"

Because of the sudden damage, the aircraft was tilted forward, forcing the two pilots to hold their control wheel tightly to stabilize the aircraft.

"What the hell was that?!" One of the pilots yelled out, before checking on the commanders on the cabin.

These guys were panicking, shouting at each other as the Nikke who shot at you has her eyes open in shock.

"Dude, you shouldn't have told your Nikke to shoot that thing and just let us go back to the Ark!" One of the commanders yelled at the other, but before the other commander panicked and pointed at the Nikke.

"Uh, it's your fault! You couldn't aim perfectly!" Said commander blamed her, before the other commanders, like monkeys with little common sense, immediately agreed with him.

"Get off this airship, d-defect!"

... And several commanders pushed the Nikke off their airship when she stood still, before they started to calm down after the airship immediately left.

Starting this day, while news about the existence of a a heavily intelligent rapture, who is none other than you have been taken down before it spread, certain people wanted to find out about your existence.

Luckily, they didn't get a clearer picture of your appearance.

What about the Product 08?

At the ground, you walked towards her as she hopelessly stared at you just after she finished firing many rounds at your body, and her

While some definitely hit your body, due to your incredibly tough body, these bullets did barely anything to damage you, but you still needed to protect your core.

The girl gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and slowly accepted her fate....

So, what will you do with her?

Will you befriend her?

Or...

Will you end her?

Whatever your decision (comment) will decide her and your fate.

(SPOILER: You wouldn't want to be lonely, wouldn't you?)

{ ~~ TO BE CONTINUED ~~ }

Note: I made this story just to pass some time if I ever get a little bored or I don't have any ideas to push forward my other Nikke story.

As written on the synopsis, this story is experimental

Second Note: I considered making the protagonist have the Punishing Virus because it's similar to corruption of Nikke, but then I realized the Punishing Virus is dozens of times deadlier because it can affect all living beings from plants to humans.

It probably would've been a bit more complicated to write.