To be honest.
Both outwardly and inwardly, I had given up being human.
My abnormal recovery speed, the unnaturally strong urge to kill, my violent instincts.
And on top of that... the craving for fresh meat and blood that kept flaring up now and then.
This thing wasn't human.
So even trying to brainwash myself into thinking I was human...
...what should I call it?
Ah, right.
I had resigned myself to it.
That was the right expression.
Literally speaking, it was no longer possible to keep brainwashing myself into believing that, at least in my heart, I was human.
I had become a 'monster.' That was the objective state I was in now.
...The fact that I had become like this in just one day was terrifying, if nothing else.
I didn't even know why I had been thrown out of the sky.
I didn't know why I was in this state.
I didn't know why I had to worry about any of this.
Had I even been human in the first place?
Come to think of it, not even a speck of memory remained from before the fall.
There were too many things I didn't know.
Yes.
That was it.
Still, I thought I had found calm and peace of mind in warmth.
So why, of all times, did it have to happen then?
[Daily Quest: Eat one monster within 24 hours (0/1)]
[Reward: 10 additional allocatable points, full stat recovery]
[Failure: Death.]
...Haaah.
This was a headache.
Eat one monster a day.
Seeing as it was called a 'daily' quest, that probably meant it would keep going every day from now on...
Why?
Why did something like this pop up?
And why now?
It showed up just when I was trying to finally find some peace of mind. It was way too deliberate.
...Maybe I could learn something from this?
I brought the blue rectangle up in front of my eyes again.
[Main Quest: Accept your identity as a monster (1/1). Time limit: (10/100) hours]
...Nice. No need to look any further.
I found it right away.
So this was it.
The Main Quest was complete.
...Now that I thought about it, the content was pretty unsettling.
In the end, I had acknowledged that my outer appearance was that of a monster.
And I had clearly resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't human on the inside either.
But I hadn't said I would become a monster inside too. If anything, it was the opposite.
Just giving up on being human was enough to satisfy the condition for accepting my identity.
And then....
[Until the next Main Quest is updated, Daily Quests will continue.]
So once the Main Quest ends, a Daily Quest appears at the same time... was that the idea?
Like finishing one hard job and finally getting to rest, only to be kept from resting by a bunch of petty overtime tasks until the next job comes in.
And I was the one stuck with that treatment.
Damn it. That was disgustingly malicious.
Besides, it wasn't like monsters I could actually handle would just pop out of nowhere because I went looking for them.
I thought about it from the perspective of other monsters besides myself.
Normally, they probably ate things other than meat or blood just fine.
Then where would a hungry monster go to fill its stomach?
Based on that thought, I came here.
A convenience store.
It stood lonely beside a hiking trail that was probably rarely visited.
I had only a faint memory of seeing it while running, so I roughly picked a direction and walked until I got here.
...I was dying here.
Had I always been this weak?
I had definitely walked for two hours without stopping.
Sweat beaded even between my scales, and my breathing was rough.
At least because I had walked slowly, my heart was still keeping its pace.
Thinking about how I had run myself into a frenzy yesterday, I couldn't help seriously wondering whether that had really been me.
I had no idea what I had even done.
Still, I had arrived somehow.
So I was just about to start checking the surroundings first.
That was before I heard an excessively loud rustling sound from inside the convenience store.
“...So you really do just pop out of nowhere.”
“Heh-heh~! Tasty, so tasty! Hey, human! Bring me more!”
“B-but...”
“Hey. Are you not hearing me, huh? I said bring it, so bring it!!”
...A monster.
Unlike the monsters I had met before, it didn't have any animal body parts attached to it.
It was just enormous, with a body shape that was otherwise basically a fat human.
It had three eyes, and it was stuffing its face with snacks, bread, frozen dumplings, and anything else it could grab using tentacles that looked like transformed hair.
It seemed to be making what looked like a part-timer human run errands and bring it food.
...No, no. Wait a second.
Setting aside the fact that there was even a convenience store in a place like this, what was with the part-timer?
“H-hahaha... why... why, why... why is a monster attacking on the very day I was about to quit...”
Oh dear.
Poor guy.
...Maybe I should stop with the idle thoughts there.
“Khuh~! Now this is the taste, this is the taste!”
Watching it pop open a bottle cap with one of its tentacles, I learned three things.
First.
Its tentacles were fast and precise.
In combat, that probably meant accurate, rapid attacks or disruption.
There were about seventeen of them, too, so it would be a real pain to deal with.
That said, the tentacles themselves didn't seem very durable, and they couldn't feel touch through them.
One tentacle's tip had been torn while opening the bottle cap, but the thing itself didn't seem to notice.
Judging by how most of the tentacles still looked fine, its regeneration was probably strong too.
Second.
Its thick-looking arms probably had poor control over their strength.
If something that big also had precision, that would have been terrifying.
But the fact that it was using only the tentacles to hold the bottle and open the cap made that clear enough.
In other words... if I got hit by one of those arms, it would do massive damage to me.
Third.
Its legs were probably weak.
Seeing it sit in the middle of the convenience store without moving, those short, stubby legs didn't seem suited for quick movement.
...Worst-case scenario, it was just lazy.
If that was the case, I couldn't predict its speed.
Not only that, but with three eyes, its field of vision would be pretty wide.
And with such a huge size difference, I couldn't win head-on.
So.
Could I kill it?
Of course.
All I had to do was use this.
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