...Information about the monster that appeared in City A was reported on the news.
'The tremendous vibrations and deafening blasts are continuing! The massive explosion that suddenly struck City A has expanded in scale, almost as if the entire city...'
According to the report, it was an incredibly powerful one.
“...Shall I go take a look?”
And so I arrived in City A.
The purple monster wasn’t hard to find.
Nor was the little girl crying for her mom and dad.
The purple monster reached out a hand.
No.
Its hand twisted into something grotesque.
I was about to run over and save her right away.
If something hadn’t suddenly cut in at that exact moment.
“...What’s that?”
I had seen it before.
Definitely in the newspaper.
The lizard monster that was said to have killed a hero.
That lizard monster suddenly rushed in and swallowed the crying girl.
The purple monster’s face twisted at the sight.
Its fist swung immediately.
And the moment that fist landed.
The lizard monster burst apart weakly, dropping the girl into a hole it had somehow already dug.
...So that really was a lizard monster, right?
No matter how I thought about it, no matter how I looked at it.
It was a monster.
And an incredibly weak one at that.
So weak I almost wondered if it was weaker than the monsters that often caused trouble in front of my house.
That lizard monster had rushed in to save the girl.
...
......
“I don’t know about the complicated stuff. Anyway, is he a good guy?”
So, since he was still alive, I saved him first.
While snapping at him, as if he had already given up at the end.
...Come to think of it, that was definitely the first time I’d ever saved a monster.
No.
More than that, it was the first time I’d ever seen a monster save someone.
Maybe that was why I had something I wanted to ask.
But.
I thought dealing with that purple monster came first, so right after saving the half-destroyed lizard monster, I finished the purple one off immediately.
Yes.
Finished it right away.
With one blow.
“Gyaaaaaaah!!!”
Again.
Again.
It ended in a single blow again.
I screamed.
I’d gotten too strong. Way too strong.
I’d been hoping this time I’d finally get to feel the thrill of battle.
But once again, it was only hollow.
And because I screamed like that, I didn’t notice the lizard monster had disappeared somewhere.
When I looked around to find him, he was already gone, along with the trail of blood that had been cut off mid-way.
“...I, sur, vived.”
I survived.
I lived.
I didn’t die.
Why was I about to die again?
Why had I done something that would get me killed?
I’d been thinking something right before I was on the verge of death.
What was it?
“I survi...ved.”
-Thud.
-KWA-DANG!!!
...What was that?
Ah.
Right.
My foot caught on a thick tree root, and I fell over.
That made sense, considering how bad my legs were right now.
My lower body and major organs had been blown away wholesale.
And they were all regenerating.
After spending a few hours alternating between crawling and walking, my organs were probably almost fully restored by now.
When one or two limbs were blown off, regeneration didn’t take that long, but when organs were gone, it definitely took time.
Thanks to that, my limbs were only at the stage where the bones had finished regenerating and the muscles had just barely started to recover.
No wonder I tripped over a tree root.
And.
...It hurt like hell.
Since the nerves in my limbs were only now starting to recover, I had no skin, and anything that touched me sent waves of pain crashing through my body.
If I didn’t keep forcing my mind onto something else, I’d collapse and start screaming.
I didn’t want that.
“...........”
...Yeah.
I really did survive.
The pain made me realize it all over again.
That I had truly survived.
Survived that living disaster.
“...........”
...Honestly, I didn’t want to think about anything.
My head was full of things, but my emotions were numb.
Everything felt too unreal.
I met a dragon-level monster.
I resisted that monster.
I was left half-dead.
A man casually saved me and smashed the dragon-level monster with one blow.
...And I got away from there using my skills.
I wasn’t sure what that man’s intention was in saving me.
He told me not to give up on my own, but I had no idea whether that was sincere.
Was there some other scheme behind it...?
...
......
.........Ah.
I don’t know.
I was too tired to seriously think through something like that.
For now, I got out, didn’t I?
Wasn’t that enough?
I was in pain, miserable, and gritting my teeth just to keep from collapsing on the spot.
I was tired.
I wanted to lie down somewhere.
...But.
No.
Not here.
At least not here.
Falling now would be dangerous.
If I collapsed here—
-KWA-KWA-KWAK!!
That would happen.
The instant I swayed and put on a fake stumble, I dodged something bursting up from underground.
“...Damn it.”
Of all times.
My whole body hurt.
I was in terrible shape.
My regeneration was too slow.
My limbs wouldn’t recover faster until my internal organs finished regenerating.
This was the worst.
“Oh? You dodged that. As expected, my younger brother really was beaten by someone with some skill.”
...Another crocodile head?
He was probably around two meters tall.
He was about half the size of the crocodile monster from before, and he was wearing sunglasses.
And... tch.
“...You’re strong.”
The skin that had barely regenerated gave me chills.
The attack that missed me had split the surrounding trees apart just from the shockwave.
...If it had hit me, I would’ve died pointlessly. I’d have been cut clean in half.
“Just as I said! I am the Crocodile Mole, landowner of the crocodile territory! I came here to avenge my younger brother, the Crocodile Mole, who was killed by some bastard...!”
...Ah.
So it was Crocodile Mole, not Mole Crocodile.
Yeah.
One thing was certain.
“...Heh-heh-heh... Still, I honestly thought you’d be around my level.”
“........”
That guy was at least demon-level, maybe higher.
If that last attack hadn’t been holding back, then maybe he was only demon-level... but I had to hope for that.
Anything above demon, and no matter what I did, I’d never beat him.
The only bit of good news was that his presence, as I sensed it by instinct, looked pathetic compared to the dragon-level monster.
...Even so, he was still a burden.
For me right now, he was definitely a problem.
I still didn’t know whether it was impossible.
But... it was hard. As expected.
“...........Huuuu.”
But.
I’m not scared of trash like you at all.
And more than anything else—
“...I’m hungry.”
The energy consumed by regeneration was more than ordinary, apparently.
I wish I’d realized that sooner.
Thanks to that.
I’m unbelievably, insanely hungry.
So I made my decision.
This bastard in front of me—I’m definitely going to eat him.
I don’t care whether he’s demon-level or dragon-level.
If I eat him.
Then I eat him.
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