My eyes are sticky with blood that’s dried and clung to them.
My arms and legs are trembling so badly I can barely stand up properly.
There isn’t any strength left in my body to begin with.
A stabbing pain keeps nagging at one corner of my head.
But.
Still.
Even so.
I won.
“........”
Maybe I’m too exhausted.
Only one thought fills my head, like a single color of paint spread across a blank canvas.
My empty mind is white.
I’m dazed.
The taste of blood won’t leave my mouth.
I’m really, truly tired and worn out.
I feel like collapsing right here and now.
...At least now I can.
Because.
Even though I’m in this much of a wreck....
“...I won, so....”
I bring my trembling hand to that bastard’s head.
Grip it tight.
My other hand clamps down hard on the opposite side.
Right, left.
Like sawing through a log, little by little.
I twist until the flesh loosens.
Then, at some point.
When instinct flashes through my mind in a split second—
Crk! Crk-crk-crk-crk-crk!!!
Fwoosh!!!
I yank the head clean off the body.
At the same time, the spine that comes with it dangles, spraying blood everywhere.
Doesn’t matter. I’m going to eat it anyway.
I start claiming the reward for this long, empty stretch by stuffing the torn-off head into my mouth and chewing.
The bastard’s blood is bitter and astringent.
But.
It feels sweeter than anything I’ve eaten so far.
What do you call this feeling won through hardship?
A sense of accomplishment?
Yeah.
Maybe that sense of accomplishment has taken over my whole body, and I’m just seeing every bite through rose-colored glasses.
It tastes awful, really.
And yet it feels better than anything I’ve eaten before.
With those random thoughts drifting through my head, I crunch down on the dangling spine and swallow it.
This time, I tear off an arm.
The arm, already ragged from the prolonged fight, comes off easily.
The armor that had been hard as iron is already in tatters too, so it’s easy to chew through.
When I bite down, the juices bursting out are... honestly.
Maybe I’m only finding it this delicious because I’ve been starving all day.
I hadn’t gone hungry at all during those few days of slaughtering monsters in the mountains.
Murmur murmur murmur....
“...........”
...You’re noisy when I’m eating.
When did they get here? Humans are gathered off in the distance, whispering and staring at me like they’re peeping.
Well.
I guess it makes sense.
The sounds of battle—things breaking, collapsing, exploding—had finally died down.
Too bad, but it can’t be helped.
I give up on savoring it slowly and decide to hurry through the meal a little.
I shove my hand into the gaping hole in the stomach and pull it apart to both sides....
Kwadududududuk!
Kwadeuk!
Szzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzak!!!
Then I tear it in half.
The armor is too hard to eat, so I’m just trying to get to the contents faster.
Using my claws, I quickly slice off chunks of flesh, swallow the meat whole, and drink the blood.
I don’t especially like swallowing it whole, since I can’t enjoy the juices that way, but in a situation like this, there’s no faster option.
After I finish clearing out the flesh from the upper body, all that’s left is the lower half with the legs attached.
Now if I just eat this....
“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
“Other monsters appeared!!”
“Hey! Now’s not the time to be targeting the surface dwellers!”
“Where is that guy!”
“There! It’s the monster hunter!!!”
“Kill him! Whoever kills him is the next king!!!”
“........?”
What the hell is this....
Crack.
“Kwoaahhhhhhh?!?”
...Free snacks.
I punch through the head of the one who suddenly lunged at me just as I was about to eat the lower half, then get to my feet.
Even if I’m feeling like total garbage right now.
There’s no way I can’t wipe out this level of trash.
“W-What the hell!”
“Its head got pierced in one hit!”
...The fact that they popped out of the ground, and the fact that they’re saying they’ll become king by killing me.
For some reason, this guy feels like he’s one of them.
I lift up the remaining lower half.
“...H-Hiiik?!”
“The general got taken down?!”
“No way! He was the strongest among our subterranean people after the old king!!!”
Gulp.
Gulp.
Guuuuulp....
“...Phaaah....”
I finish swallowing the lower half and turn my eyes toward them.
I’ve completed the Daily Quest, too.
Feeling vitality surge back through my body, I smile.
“...You said you were subterranean people, right?”
What do you taste like?
There are about several dozen of them, so it’d be nice if they all tasted different.
First, I’ll take one of them quickly....
...
......
.........
If I don’t get out of here fast, I’ll die.
I knew it instinctively.
This isn’t the time to deal with these things.
I burrow into the ground and start fleeing with every ounce of strength I have, at full speed.
[Instant Acceleration]
[Body Transformation]
I use every means I have to accelerate my body.
I focus all my muscles into the arms digging through the earth.
I’m going to die.
I’m really going to die.
It’s the same kind of presence as that strong bastard, Vaccine Man, from before.
My breath catches, and my whole body trembles.
Cold sweat pours down like rain.
My skin prickles.
My pupils shake.
My breathing turns ragged.
Run.
This isn’t an opponent I can beat.
There’s no way I can beat something like that.
I can’t even begin to fight it.
I have to get as far away as possible.
It’s getting closer.
The tingling sensation grows stronger.
I start hearing the subterranean people’s screams.
At this rate, I’ll die-
“...I almost... died....”
The 630 points I gained from killing the subterranean general.
I invested every last one of them into SP.
And this was the result.
Kugugugugugugugugugu....
Far behind me, the place I had just been.
Rises up.
Shimmering green.
The broken pavement.
The crushed streetlights.
The writhing subterranean people.
The cement floor.
The buildings.
Everything rises up, then eventually bunches together into one mass.
Crushed and compressed, it finally transforms into a single sphere and drops to the ground with a heavy thud.
There was no way the subterranean people caught inside it had survived.
“........”
Only then does the human floating in the air far away catch my eye.
A girl with short green hair and a small frame.
She tilts her head, then flies off somewhere else, and I can only stare blankly at that monster.
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