…How long have I been wandering around?
I guess I’d gone blank again and just kept walking aimlessly.
Tap, tap.
And then tap, tap again.
I don’t have a destination. I don’t even have a reason to walk… but I keep walking.
If I don’t, I feel like I’ll never calm down.
My thoughts keep getting swept away by stray distractions, and I can’t sort them out properly.
Then the smell of humans hits my nose again, and I turn in that direction.
After walking around for hours, I’ve gotten to the point where I can pick out the scent of humans and tell it apart.
And the conclusion I’ve reached here is only one.
Don’t get close to humans.
No, don’t even keep them in sight.
The moment I see a human, my empty stomach starts raging.
Thanks to that, my hunger feels insane.
I guess it’s because I threw up so many times earlier.
Even after chewing up and swallowing an entire human, I’m still hungry because of that.
…This won’t do.
I need to fill my stomach somehow.
Let’s look for food.
…But I don’t have any money right now.
Robbery is too risky.
Besides, just seeing humans is enough to make me lose my mind. If I actually make contact with one… I don’t even want to think about what happens next.
…Come to think of it, I’m still calling them “humans.”
This isn’t good.
That word is starting to stick to my tongue more than “people.”
…The more I think about it, the farther I feel from being human.
But in other words, that means I still have some humanity left.
That’s enough.
Even if my appearance is… like this… even if I’m a monster.
I want to stay human on the inside.
That’s all.
After another few hours passed, that wish to remain human in my heart was still intact.
But if this keeps up… it’s dangerous.
I won’t be able to hold out.
I’m hungry.
So hungry.
Insanely hungry.
Hunger is shaking my empty stomach like crazy.
I’m so hungry it hurts.
I feel like I’m going to die of hunger.
I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.
I even tried shoveling dirt into my mouth and filling my stomach somehow.
I tore bark off trees and ate that too.
I even tried pulling up weeds and chewing on them.
They all had one thing in common.
All three came right back up the moment they hit my stomach.
Of course they tasted awful.
But that wasn’t why I threw up again.
It wasn’t because they tasted bad, but because my stomach, which had been forced to swallow them, simply turned over and rejected them the moment they went in.
…Thanks to that, I realized again what my body wants.
Fresh blood.
Crunchy bone fragments.
Meat that hasn’t dried out.
Something like that.
Though I instinctively know it doesn’t have to be meat.
I don’t really know why.
What I do know for sure is that this hunger isn’t just physical.
Probably.
The instinct to kill.
The instinct of a monster.
The instinct of this body.
That’s the hunger I’m feeling because it hasn’t been satisfied. Probably.
In short.
My body wants me to kill a living thing.
…There isn’t a single bird or cat anywhere.
I even tried chewing on a bug, but that was hopeless too.
I didn’t throw it up, but it didn’t do a thing to ease the hunger.
This won’t do.
At this rate, I might really die.
I might die.
If this keeps up.
Die.
I don’t want to die.
I have to survive.
I need to find something.
So.
Hungry.
Hungry.
Hungry.
Hungry.
Anything.
Find anything.
Find it.
Human. Is there a human scent?
It doesn’t have to be human.
As long as there’s blood to wet my throat.
As long as there’s meat to ease this hunger…
“Kyehehehehehe! Humans, tremble in fear! I am the Crocodile Mole! After three years of underground life, I have finally emerged….”
“…Found you.”
Found it.
Found it.
Found it, huh?
Fresh meat.
Food.
Judging by the fact that it looks about four or five meters tall, there’s plenty of it.
Really, lucky.
“…Huh? What’s this. You found me… Oh. So you’re a monster too!”
Monster?
I don’t know what that is, and I don’t care.
What matters is the food in front of me.
“…What are you? Why are you looking at me like tha—kheh?!”
I don’t have time to waste.
I’m hungry.
So.
Die.
I lunge at him immediately.
My teeth pierce straight through the neck beneath the crocodile’s huge head.
“You… you bas—!”
I did pierce through the thick scales.
Still.
If his neck got pierced and he can still roar that loudly, then my bite went in shallow.
His skin is thick and his defense is strong, just as you’d expect from a body like that.
For this kind of opponent, blunt force would be ideal, but I don’t have anything like that.
“How dare you! How dare you bite the neck of Lord Crocodile Mole?!”
Shut up.
You’re noisy.
His hand comes at me fast, trying to shake me off.
The difference in strength is obvious. If I take that huge claw head-on, I’m dead.
So I thrust my hand forward hard at once.
Squelch!
“K-KRAAAAHHHHH!!!”
While his attention was on his neck, I burst one of his eyes.
That threw his hand off course, and instead of stopping, it kept going and stabbed into his own nose before pulling back.
The screaming bastard is loud.
Annoying.
I’ve always hated it when food is noisy.
Die already.
Die.
“Kh, kheh?! You… you little—!”
The shallow bite gradually starts sinking deeper.
He must have realized he can’t keep worrying about his burst eye anymore, because he reaches for me again.
Of course.
I know.
I’m weaker than him.
I’ve already confirmed that.
The difference is overwhelming.
I don’t really have anything that’s better than him.
My strength is overwhelmingly inferior. His muscle density is no joke.
My defense is clearly worse too.
And my speed isn’t overwhelmingly superior either.
I only got the upper hand because I attacked while he was careless.
Aside from speed, I’m not ahead of him in anything.
Even if I attacked wildly, this guy would probably win if he landed just one hit on me.
He probably knows that too.
It’s infuriatingly unfair.
But.
What am I supposed to do?
I need to eat this guy.
So I kill him.
One thing is certain: there are a few more differences between him and me.
First.
He’s stupid.
Second.
I can see one fatal weakness in him.
The claws that thickened and hardened for digging into the ground come rushing straight at me.
If I take that hit, I’ll die.
But.
The third difference between him and me.
The moment I feel the movement of his muscles clearly enough, my instincts ring like a bell.
I release the neck I’ve been biting and slam myself into the ground.
If he had been.
Just a little faster.
If his attack had been a little wider.
If his instincts had been a little sharper.
If the timing had been a little better.
If he’d been just a little smarter and aimed for my body instead of my head.
Just a little more—
“…………!!!”
If he had properly understood his own weakness—that each strike is powerful, but he can’t cancel an attack once it starts—then I would have been the one to die.
But.
That’s why I won.
Squelch.
Only after his own hand pierced through his neck did warm blood finally soak my head.
Really, lucky.
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