[You Are a BUG.]
"…?????"
Those were the first words I saw after being transported into this world.
My name is Jang Ryu-o. I’m an ordinary college student, twenty-two years old, freshly discharged from the military.
It had been an ordinary day. The kind of day anyone could have.
The kind of day when I was supposed to shower, lie down, scroll through YouTube Shorts, and chuckle to myself.
You know how the YouTube algorithm works. One game review had found its way to me through the game-review recommendations I usually watched.
The game was called "Maze Hunter." Despite its simple title, it opened with a famous reviewer’s generous 4.5-star rating plastered right on the screen.
The player became a member of an expedition force that conquered labyrinths, exploring and pioneering unknown-filled labyrinths. A simple enough game.
But as I watched the reviewer lavish praise on its exceptional depth despite that simplicity, I found myself getting more and more absorbed in the video.
Since it had been recommended by a reviewer with tastes similar to mine, I was practically bewitched into adding the game to my cart and immediately hitting download.
If it had been a competitive game, I would have diligently studied beginner guides. But since it was a solo game, I decided to read the reviews instead.
As though it were living up to my anticipation, the review section was packed with lengthy English posts and blue thumbs-up icons.
There were also plenty of red thumbs-down icons and talk of bugs here and there… but what game in the world doesn’t have bugs?
As the percentage steadily climbed, so did my excitement. And when I finally pressed Start Game…
[You Are a BUG.]
With those words, I found myself alone in the middle of an empty field.
"What is this…?"
I looked around, but all I could see was a plain thick with lush green weeds and the wind brushing against my neck, made sensitive by cold sweat. There was absolutely nothing else.
The only clue I had was the text floating in this status window.
Surely it wasn’t mocking me by saying, "You are an insect."
Then what was it? Did I have some incredible cheat? An immortality bug? An infinite money bug?
There were far too many different kinds of bugs in the world for me to even guess.
For now, I pressed the X above the irritating text in front of me.
The status window that finally revealed itself read as follows.
[Status Window]
Name: Jang Ryu-o
Class: None
Title: None
Level: 1
HP: 100/100 MP: 50/50 Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 5 Luck: 5
Remaining Points: 5
Trait: BUG
Skills:
"…"
I thought seeing a stat window in real life for the first time would make me happy, but this status screen was even more underwhelming than I expected. I couldn’t find anything to say.
I was short on both information and mental fortitude, so I decided to just start clicking stat points.
First, Strength.
I raised Strength by one, but there was no noticeable change.
Did I get a little… stronger?
Maybe expecting too much from investing just one point was unreasonable, but going from 5 Strength to 6 was a full twenty percent increase.
But it sure didn’t feel like twenty percent.
Guess it uses a different calculation…
I got to my feet and began to run.
Now it was time to put a point into Agility.
I raised Agility while running, but I didn’t feel any lighter on my feet or any faster.
"Huff… huff… Then what’s Agility supposed to be…?"
Just then, a flying insect buzzed around me.
For some reason, its movements looked slow. I swiped my hand through the air, and the bug was crushed in my palm.
Normally, I would have just swatted at empty air while the fly leisurely escaped as if mocking me.
"Oh? What? Ah!"
A realization flashed through my mind.
Accelerated thought!
That was it. Raising Strength naturally made me faster, while Agility seemed to accelerate my thoughts.
Then what about Intelligence?
I skipped Vitality for now and invested a stat point into Intelligence.
MP: 70/70
Intelligence increased my MP pool.
I couldn’t immediately tell whether it made me smarter or anything.
My head was still a mess, so maybe it had nothing to do with that…
Going by that logic, Vitality would be…
HP: 150/150
Just as expected, my HP pool increased.
The only stat left was Luck, but I couldn’t see what good raising Luck would do in this empty field.
Wasn’t luck a relative and terribly ambiguous concept?
I didn’t deliberate for long.
I gently placed my finger over the arrow beside the Luck stat.
The reason I decided to put a point into Luck was that there was truly nothing around me.
That meant I would soon have to walk in some direction or do something, and I figured Luck might help, even just a little.
There was no basis for it, but shouldn’t I at least have some faint hope?
Hoping for even the faintest bit of hope, I placed my finger on the arrow.
At that moment…
[¿‽¿¿¿‽¿료! ¿‽¿¿‽‽‽]
"?"
As the status window became corrupted with question marks, my mind filled with them too.
Agility: 6 Vitality: 6 Intelligence: 6 Luck: ¿?9
"What is this…?"
I had no idea whether I should consider my Luck increased or think that something had gone seriously wrong.
The number I could see was "9," so it did seem to have gone up. But what if there was a minus sign attached to it?
I certainly couldn’t see a bright future ahead.
I still had no clue what was going on, but I felt like I would either starve to death or become some animal’s meal if this kept up, so I forced my unmotivated body to move.
Because I had to survive first.
"Sigh… Which direction does the sun move again…?"
Splat!
"…?"
I looked toward the source of the unpleasant sound and found a slime there.
Setting aside where the hell it had come from…
It wasn’t very big, at least.
The problem was that its murky color made it disgusting, and that it was moving toward me.
And that the slime was crouching like a cat about to pounce—the kind of pose I had only ever seen in YouTube Shorts.
I could instinctively feel that it was about to hunt me down…
Wobble…
Instinctively, I threw myself sideways and rolled.
Whoosh!
"You crazy bastard!"
Boom!
The black slime smashed apart the spot where I had been standing just moments ago.
Its power was so alarming that dust billowed thickly into the air.
I made my decision quickly.
Knowing that, just like in every cliché, the slime would pounce on me again as soon as the dust cleared, I simply ran.
Whoosh! Thud! Whoosh! Thud!
"Aaaaargh!"
Perhaps delighted to see prey for the first time in ages, the slime gave it everything it had to crush me flat.
If that thing landed on me, I would obviously be reduced to chunks of meat—or something equally unpleasant.
As if proving that people can exert more strength than usual when facing death, my legs moved more nimbly than they ever had before.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Boom!
"I should’ve dumped everything into Agility! Aaaaargh!"
No welcome message like "Agility +1" appeared, no matter how long I ran.
But the situation was far too urgent to feel disappointed.
I racked my brain…
It only charged straight at me like a boar, so couldn’t I just dodge left and right?
After all that thinking, dodging left and right was the best I could come up with…
But I had no other options. I kept glancing behind me and weaving from side to side every time the slime jumped.
Thud!
"Whoa!"
Thud!
"Gasp!"
Booom!
For what felt like forever, vibrations traveled through both my legs.
"You crazy bastard! Can’t you take it easy?"
Maybe it was getting frustrated by prey that was always just out of reach, because the slime began to pick up the pace.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Aah, aaaargh!"
All I could do was make pathetic noises as I ran across the plain.
My heart pounded violently and a ringing filled my head, leaving me capable of thinking only of what I needed to survive.
I have to dodge faster. More! More! More!
As I ran madly in diagonal paths, my steps gradually began to feel lighter.
It no longer felt like I was stepping on the ground, but like I was kicking off the wind just above it and taking flight.
With the pleasant sensation of wind wrapping around my feet, my speed steadily increased.
The slime grew farther away, and I gradually became accustomed to sprinting.
Though my stamina was nearly depleted, a refreshing sense of freedom filled me with joy.
Just like this, I could keep going…
Stab!
"Huh…?"
Crash!
Feeling something foreign in my stomach, I looked down. A slime stretched long like a spear was protruding through my abdomen.
I couldn’t really feel the pain.
The strength drained from my body, and the ringing I had thought was passing by sounded an alarm in my head again, forcing me to face the present situation.
I heard you’re not supposed to pull out something that’s pierced you…
Judgment and circumstance did not always align properly.
The slime that had dealt me a fatal wound had already melted away and spilled thickly over the ground, as if it had finished what it came to do.
Ironically, once the culprit that had plugged the wound vanished, my blood eagerly sprayed out through its new passage.
In the end, unable to move even a finger, I crawled over the dirt.
"Ah…"
Was this what it felt like for all the blood to drain out of your body? Hot, cold sweat seeped out all over me, yet I felt colder and sleepier by the moment.
I tried to resist the weight pressing down on my eyelids, but it was futile. Without seeing the light bursting from my abdomen, I closed my eyes.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Level Up!
Ding! You have acquired the essence of the "Executioner"!
[You have acquired the skill [LV.MAX Slime Body]!]
Ding! Additional points have been awarded for an unbelievable achievement.
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