...It was almost finished eating by the time six minutes had passed.
Its size wasn’t small, but after eating monsters like this before, I’d learned how to consume them quickly.
So I was able to finish off almost all of the crocodile monster, which stood around two to three meters tall, in just six minutes.
And.
If there was one thing I realized.
High-rank monsters, fitting their rank, are tastier than most low-rank ones.
Without a doubt, the tastiest monster I’d eaten so far was that fat tentacle monster I hunted at the convenience store.
Nothing has surpassed that.
I really did tear into it happily back then.
Its blood, in particular, had an overwhelmingly better taste than the others.
...Come to think of it, I still hadn’t washed up.
No. That’s not right.
Thinking about it, there was no need to wash.
My lower half had already been blown off and grown back from scratch.
What was there to wash on something brand new?
Anyway.
This high-rank monster was the second tastiest after the tentacle monster.
Though.
If there was something strange about it.
That dragon-level... Vaccine Man? Was that it?
When I ate that guy’s corpse, I couldn’t taste anything at all.
So there are three possible explanations.
First, the difference in rank was just too extreme.
The gap between the very top of low-rank and dragon-level.
You wouldn’t be wrong to call it the difference between heaven and earth.
In fact, just from the way that thing moved, I got blown away.
Still.
If the difference in rank was that overwhelming, what was the mechanism behind it affecting my sense of taste?
...That was probably the only, and biggest, flaw in the theory.
Second.
It was just that guy didn’t taste good.
...Well.
That’s pretty realistic.
But even so, for there to be no taste at all is a little...?
Still, there aren’t any other obvious flaws.
Lastly.
Third.
I’d gone crazy in the head.
“........”
...Come to think of it.
Isn’t this actually the most realistic explanation?
I did hit my head somewhere.
I got thrown around, too.
And when my lower half got blown apart from a missed punch, I lost consciousness.
Yeah.
Maybe this really is it.
As I chewed on the crocodile monster’s remaining heart, I thought about it.
Gulp.
[Promotion condition achieved]
...A promotion.
So that meant I’d become high-rank now.
Even by my own standards, the feeling was astonishingly calm.
Maybe it would have been different before.
Excitement, anticipation.
But.
Once I realized how much of a joke high-rank really was, I didn’t feel much of anything.
That was after I’d come to understand that even if I promoted, this was still a world where I could be cut down with ease.
I might run into a demon-level or dragon-level monster just walking down the road.
You never knew what would jump out at you, or where.
There would probably be plenty of situations where my resistance wouldn’t work.
So this was a cruel, difficult, absurd world where I could be crushed, torn apart, and die in a miserable instant at any time.
An unfair world.
...So.
I wasn’t moved by this growth.
I’d just achieved something I should have achieved someday.
I’d just crossed something I had to cross.
I certainly wasn’t satisfied with high-rank.
If I wanted to survive, I had to get stronger.
To survive being caught up in the disaster that was a dragon-level monster.
I’d have to become dragon-level myself.
[Would you like to promote now?]
[Y/N]
Y.
Of course—
Hah....
...Kuh, heh.
“...K-keeeeeeeeeeeek?!?!?”
What is this,
this.
I didn’t expect—
“K, ugh... uuuuuugh...!”
...Pain.
A pain like my whole body was being torn apart.
I can’t even describe it.
Burning pain and tearing pain and being crushed and smashed and split and cut and collapsed and severed and ripped out and broken....
“A, hghhhhh...!”
Why.
Why am I doing this...!
Damn it.
Damn it.
Damn it!
Ah, it hurts.
It hurts so damn much...!
This is...
“K, ha....”
I’m...
“...Kyaaaaaa! Kyaaaaaaaaah!!!”
It hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurtsit hurts...!
Stop, stop it.
Enough.
No.
Stop....
Enough already....
...As if.
I’m not stopping.
I’m not giving up.
I’m not quitting.
Endure it.
Bear it.
‘Heh, heh... hahahaha! Got him! I caught this monster!!!’
This kind of pain.
‘The will of the Earth demands your extermination, but... I never thought you’d be this much of a piece of trash. You’re not even worth killing.’
Compared to the fear and pain I felt, this is nothing.
‘Another one-punch! Damn ittttttttt!!!’
So.
There’s no way.
I’d give up over something this small.
“K... hhhhhhh...!”
My muscles twisted, tore, and melted together.
My flesh was crushed, liquefied, cut apart, and forcibly stitched back together.
The back of my head split open, and something grew out.
My skin hardened in pieces, then crumbled away.
New scales sprouted.
My bones disassembled and reassembled themselves.
It hurts like hell.
I curse.
Tears spill.
I smash whatever’s nearby without caring what it is.
My whole body convulses.
Spit leaks out.
My eyes roll back.
It feels like I might go insane.
Honestly, it feels like it would be better if my lower half got blown off a few more times.
But.
That still isn’t enough to make me give up.
Never.
I won’t give up.
It’s better to hurt.
So.
Collapse.
Cool it down.
My head.
My thoughts.
Calm them down coldly.
Don’t run from the pain.
Don’t fall.
Don’t act weak.
If you give up here, you’ll only remain weak.
Get up.
Creak.
“Ke, heeheee...!”
Get up.
Creak, crack.
Creak, creak.
“K-kha, haaaaa... kiiieeeee...!”
Get up.
Crunch.
Creak, creak, creak.
Crack, crack, crack, crack....
“Kii, hiiiiiii...!”
Get up.
Crack.
“-Kiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”
Get up.
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