Chapter 8
‘Still, there are some good things about having a body like this.’
As Nereia swam through the deep sea, it murmured to itself.
Back when Nereia was human, exploring the deep sea required a great deal of preparation.
It needed a submersible that could withstand the immense pressure of the deep sea, spare oxygen tanks, communications equipment, and all the tools required for exploration.
Not having the tools needed for research was one thing. Even if Nereia had them, it couldn’t conduct proper research with its current body.
Aside from that, life now was better than life as a human.
It no longer had to worry about how to withstand the immense pressure of the deep sea.
It didn’t have to live with the anxiety of not knowing when its oxygen would run out.
Nor did it need a sturdy submersible or have to worry about how to make up for its limited food supply.
That was why Nereia suddenly thought:
Maybe...
‘Isn’t this better for a researcher?’
Ah... right.
‘I can’t write papers or present them now, can I?’
Back when Nereia was human, it had explored the deep sea dozens of times, discovering and studying all kinds of deep-sea creatures.
It had written papers about them and presented them to the academic community, but not for the money.
It had simply wanted others to see the new deep-sea creatures it had discovered.
And it had hoped that even more new deep-sea creatures would be discovered based on the papers it presented.
Even if all of that had become impossible now...
‘Still, my life now isn’t bad.’
Since there was no way to become human again, there was no point in dwelling on the negative and making itself depressed.
So, it should think positively.
With that thought, Nereia swam along the bottom of the deep, deep sea.
* * *
Nereia swam through the deep sea using its tail, its Mutant Propulsion Sac, and its Multi-Erosion Predation Organs, which could also serve as fins.
In particular, accelerating across the deep sea with the thrust from its Mutant Propulsion Sac felt surprisingly good.
How should it put it? It felt like going for a drive.
Maybe...
‘So this is why people like riding motorcycles or going for drives.’
How long had it swum along the seafloor, intoxicated by a sensation it could never have felt when it was human?
‘Something... feels strange.’
Nereia glanced around and tilted its head.
Just as nature had its own ways, the bottom of the deep sea had its own ecosystem.
And, naturally, various deep-sea creatures lived there as members of that ecosystem.
The hydrothermal vent where Nereia had undergone its first evolution had been teeming with all kinds of deep-sea creatures, hadn’t it?
But things were different now.
An ecosystem had clearly formed, yet no matter how much Nereia looked around, it couldn’t see any deep-sea creatures.
The only things it occasionally glimpsed were Deep-Sea Unicellular Larvae, drifting as if swept along by the currents.
What was going on?
Could this be an environment where deep-sea creatures couldn’t exist?
But...
‘No matter how I look at it, this place doesn’t seem like an environment where deep-sea creatures couldn’t live.’
It was a phenomenon that neither Nereia’s instincts as a deep-sea creature nor the knowledge it had amassed as a deep-sea researcher could explain.
Nereia paused and switched off the bioluminescent organs scattered across its body.
The faint teal light vanished, and Nereia seemed to melt into the darkness of the deep sea, disappearing in an instant.
Hidden in the darkness, Nereia began observing its surroundings.
There had to be a reason.
There had to be a reason other deep-sea creatures weren’t visible in a place with an environment suitable for life.
How long had Nereia remained hidden in the darkness, observing in an effort to uncover that reason?
Various deep-sea creatures began to emerge from all around.
A deep-sea creature resembling Earth’s horseshoe crab cautiously crawled out from between the rocks.
A deep-sea fish appeared from something that looked like coral.
Before long, various deep-sea creatures had emerged and begun to move about.
Some deep-sea creatures preyed on others.
Some tore at something resembling coral where deep-sea fish had been hiding, while others floated along, letting the currents at the bottom carry them.
‘Could this be...’
Because of me?
Watching from its hiding place in the darkness, Nereia wondered.
Nereia couldn’t help but think so.
After all, from its perspective, it had only been a few minutes since it had switched off its bioluminescent organs and hidden in the dark.
So...
‘Bioluminescent organs on.’
To find out for sure whether it really was because of Nereia, it once again infused its bioluminescent organs with mana.
The bioluminescent organs scattered across Nereia’s body began to emit a faint teal glow as soon as they absorbed the mana.
The moment Nereia reappeared, the deep-sea creatures were startled and fled.
They crawled back between the rocks to hide.
They desperately swam into the coral-like thing they had been eating.
If they couldn’t find anywhere to hide, they gathered dirt from the seafloor and covered themselves with it.
At the sight of the area turning deserted in an instant, Nereia let out an involuntary laugh.
So...
‘The other deep-sea creatures weren’t visible because of me?’
The reason Nereia could still occasionally find Deep-Sea Unicellular Larvae was that they weren’t creatures capable of proper thought.
‘This feels kind of empty.’
Now that it knew the truth, Nereia murmured to itself.
Come to think of it...
‘According to the information the system gave me, my Predation Rank was Lesser Predator, wasn’t it?’
Considering that no other deep-sea creatures had been visible near the Deep-Sea Predatory Larva, which had also been a Lesser Predator...
‘I guess it made sense for them to avoid me and hide.’
When Nereia switched off its bioluminescent organs, the deep-sea creatures appeared.
After watching them flee and hide whenever it turned the organs on, Nereia felt a little strange.
Back when Nereia was human...
Its only interest had been deep-sea creatures.
From childhood, through its school years, and even after becoming an adult, Nereia’s interest had always been focused on deep-sea creatures.
Perhaps that was why Nereia had no one it could call a friend when it was human. On the contrary, it had even been bullied during its school years for being gloomy and creepy.
Unlike back then, seeing other deep-sea creatures avoid it, flee, and hide from it now—how should it put it?
‘It’s novel.’
It was an entirely new and different sensation.
But that was the full extent of Nereia’s reaction.
Was it because Nereia had become a deep-sea creature?
Or because being bullied for its obsession with deep-sea creatures hadn’t affected it much when it was human?
At first, it had felt novel, different, and strange. But after switching its bioluminescent organs off and on over and over, Nereia had grown used to the creatures’ reactions and no longer felt anything at all.
Nereia simply thought, ‘So that’s why,’ and swam onward.
It figured that in a natural ecosystem governed by instinct, this sort of thing was actually more natural.
* * *
Perhaps the faint teal glow of its mana-fueled bioluminescent organs had bewitched them.
Some deep-sea creatures would approach without fleeing or hiding, even when they came face-to-face with Nereia.
While continuing its journey and eating them with the tentacles of its Multi-Erosion Predation Organs, Nereia suddenly stopped and tilted its head.
Just now...
‘I saw something.’
Nereia’s eyes had been formed from Mana Sensitivity and its Primitive Sensory Organ, combined with a variety of other traits.
As a result, Nereia’s eyes were a little different from those of ordinary creatures.
Thanks to that, Nereia could see things through its eyes that ordinary creatures couldn’t.
While swimming, Nereia had seen something through those eyes.
However, Nereia couldn’t be sure that it had really ‘seen something.’
When it turned to look again at the place where it had seen something, there was nothing there.
No traces characteristic of living creatures. No light characteristic of mana.
‘Did I imagine it?’
Right. I must have seen it wrong.
Just as Nereia thought that and was about to swim onward...
Flash-!
Whip-!
Nereia turned toward the mana-light that had flashed for an instant in the corner of its vision.
But...
‘W-what the hell was that?’
It had definitely seen a mana-light.
But there was nothing at all where the mana-light had flashed.
Nereia involuntarily shuddered, feeling as though it had just encountered a ghost.
‘W-was it really a ghost?’
Nereia wondered inwardly.
If Nereia had been human, it would have thought it had seen things and dismissed it as nothing.
But Nereia wasn’t human anymore.
And this wasn’t an ordinary environment, either.
This was the bottom of the deep, deep sea, where not a single speck of light could reach.
Besides, it was hard to believe this was the deep sea on Earth. Mana existed here, and all kinds of deep-sea creatures that couldn’t be found on Earth lived here. That was why Nereia wondered if this might be the deep sea of an entirely different world.
Which meant there was nothing strange about ghosts existing here, either.
‘Let’s just... go. Go.’
Nereia tried to ignore whatever it was, whether an inexplicable phenomenon or a deep-sea creature it had never seen before, and swam on.
But just as it tried to pour mana into its Mutant Propulsion Sac to get away from this place as quickly as possible...
Flash-!
The mana-light flashed again in the corner of its vision.
‘You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! What is it?!’
Startled by the mana-light that had flashed and vanished in an instant, Nereia screamed and swung all four of its tentacles toward the place where it had appeared.
The moment its tentacles, slicing through the seawater, swept through the spot where the mana-light had flashed...
Crunch!
Nereia felt something get pierced by its tentacles and let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately...
‘It wasn’t a ghost...’
Apparently, it hadn’t been a ghost after all.