"It's quiet, too quiet. Am I dead?"
"No that's not the case!"
Jinwoo tried to open his eyes, but it felt like they were glued shut, stuck to his skin.
Click, click, click.
"What's that sound? Keep quiet," he thought, without realising he was among dozens of newly hatched snailfish.
"I'm wet—like I'm in the ocean."
Unable to see, he couldn't survey his surroundings at all. The environment felt unfamiliar, yet oddly comforting.
"I'm at the hospital. Yeah, that's where I should be."
"Damn that old man! If he hadn't approached me, I wouldn't have had those useless thoughts about dying. What a crazy day!"
"I better get well so I can look for new jobs tomorrow."
A few minutes later, Jinwoo tried to feel his legs, but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. "Why... why can't I feel my legs?"
He opened his eyes repeatedly until they finally widened in shock at what he saw.
"Ha... Aahhhhhhhhh... what is this? Where's my fine body? My six-pack? My nice legs? And more importantly, why is there water everywhere? Am I under the ocean?"
He had so many questions, yet none could be answered.
He quietly looked around and saw fish swimming and flapping their fins as if they were dancing.
To test his mobility, he attempted to mimic the movements of the fish. To his surprise, he started moving, but his speed was extremely slow—this only confirmed one theory:
"I'm not human anymore!"
Shocked, he didn't know how to react. However, he knew he had to adapt and survive.
Survival was his main goal. It didn't matter what kind of species he was; Jinwoo refused to lose his will to survive.
"Let's see. Since I'm in the ocean, I must be a fish, but what kind of fish am I?"
The question troubled him since he couldn't see what his body looked like. So, he decided to conduct some experiments.
" Fish breath through their fins, as a fish sucks in water, it flows towards the thin feathary structures, the gills are covered with tiny blood vessels which pull oxygen out of the water as it passes through. This oxygen should then get absorbed into the fishes blood at the same time, the fishes realeses carbon dioxide and pushes the remaining water out through the slits of the gills giving it survival, but if a fish is taken outside the water, it collapse and dies, so all I have to do is stay way from the surface.
The ocean was deep and vast; even humans had only explored 20% of it. What they saw was merely a fraction of a larger mystery. Now, Jinwoo was immersed in that mystery, and to survive, he had to adapt and live like a fish.
He tried to move as fast as he could, but he felt like a tiny fish with no backbone. "Hehe... don't tell me I'm some small, spineless fish."
Turning around to survey his environment, he saw several small fishes ranging from 5 to 30 centimeters resembling snailfishes.
"Snailfish... eeh... I'm a snailfish!"
He was in deep shock.
He spun around in the water, feeling nervous and upset. "Why a snailfish? I already accepted my reality. Why couldn't I be a shark or some big predator? This is so frustrating."
"Aaaaaaaah!"
"I can't believe I'm a snailfish! What should I do? How do I survive?"
Snailfish are deep-sea carnivores that primarily eat small invertebrates like crustaceans, mollusks, and worms.
But Jinwoo understood the basic rule of survival: this wasn't land; this was water. There were no rules in the ocean that prevented a fish from killing another fish.
In the depths of the ocean, it was indeed survival of the fittest; no fish knew when it would die or survive from danger of the ocean.
Desperate to survive, Jinwoo realized there was no way home. With a lifespan of just 5 to 15 years, he had to learn how to survive in the ocean, constantly aware of the dangers surrounding him.
Soon, the newly born snailfishes began to swim in groups to search for food. Jinwoo, not wanting to starve, pressed forward and joined them.
After several hours of swimming and familiarizing themselves with the ocean, they all arrived at a location where they found some small shrimp and crabs.
"I'm supposed to eat that? That's disgusting!" He felt an urge to swim away, but then he remembered that this wasn't land; this was the ocean.
After some thought, he decided to go ahead and have his fill. After eating some shrimp and crabs, a blue system panel screen appeared before him.
[0.1 Evolution points obtained]
"Is this some kind of illusion?" The system didn't excite him; it felt like another burden had been placed on him.
"I remember that old beggar saying something about giving me a gift. Was this it? I think this is!"
After a moment of consideration, he decided to eat again, and the system panel prompted once more.
[7.5 Evolution points obtained]
A golden light appeared on one of his fins, and when it faded, a trident tattoo emerged on his fin. But Jinwoo had no way of knowing this because he could only see in one direction.
After eating, the snailfish began to swim deeper into the ocean. Jinwoo didn't want to be left behind, so he followed them.
"Wait a minute, why do I have to follow them? Why don't I just explore the ocean?" A sense of relief washed over him; all he needed to do was avoid the big monsters, and the surface entirely and he would be fine.
Even back on land, Jinwoo had always preferred to be alone. As an introvert with no friends to communicate with, he often spoke a lot when he was outside, but deep down, he longed for solitude.
So, Jinwoo swam ahead of the snailfish, but he was too slow to gain any significant speed.
"I remember on Earth when I used to read those stories. People would say things like 'status window…'"
Before he could finish his thought, a blue system panel appeared in front of him:
[Name: ________]
[ Lifespan: 15 years]
[Level: None]
[Title: None]
[Strength: 0.001]
[Speed: -0.1]
[Species: Snailfish]
[Special Abilities: None]
[Unallocated Evolution points: 8.5]
[Experience points: 0]
[Locked]
[Locked]
"Where's my name? I don't have a name? That's frustrating."
"I'm sure of it now; that old man is responsible for the appearance of this thing. So, what do I do with it? Do I just say, 'allocate evolution points'?"
[Allocating points to?____]
"Speed?"
[8.5 points allocated]
Immediately after he said that, it was as if his very cells mutated. Though he didn't feel much pain, he sensed that his tail was longer than before.
"Is this evolution?"
[Yes, it is evolution.]
"Ahhhhh... it talked! I thought you could only write words?," Jinwoo was surprised
[No, of course not. Two heads are better than one, anyway, right?]
"Who the f***k are you?"