Jinwoo Seo struggled to understand the system. Although he had already accepted the reality of being a fish, the system only made his mood worse.
"Who are you?" he asked in his mind.
A masculine voice, similar to his own, replied, [I'm the evolution system.]
"Evolution system? Can I ask you more questions?" he inquired, curiosity piqued.
[Yes.]
"Are you a god?" he pressed.
[No! I'm not a god; I'm part of your soul.]
"So, I'm sharing my soul? I don't understand what it means for you to be part of my soul," he said, thoroughly confused.
[Picture water inside a water bottle.]
"Yeah, I'm imagining it," he replied.
[Now, think of a foreign stone inside that water. This foreign stone is divided into 907,650,564 parts.]
"So my soul is the water inside the bottle, and you're the foreign stone in my soul?" he deduced.
[Now you understand.]
"Yes, I understand. You're a parasite," he mused.
[....]
[ No! I'm not a parasite I'm a system ]
"Can you be removed?" he asked.
[No, I only experience death when you die.]
"Then what can you do?" he inquired.
[Hold on.]
Tons of information flooded into his brain, revealing the purpose and reality of the system.
"Alright. Experience points are for me to gain higher levels of strength; they serve as a currency for the system shop. Evolution points, on the other hand, allow me to evolve into something greater, it's like a species upgrade. For example, I'm a snailfish right now, but if I eat a shark and gain evolution points, I can transform into a shark myself, right?"
[Yes, evolution points can also be used for strength improvements, just like how you used them to increase your speed. Now you're 8.5 times faster than any snailfish, but be careful how you use them next time; it could be a waste, the stronger you're, the harder it will be to get evolution points. You can use evolution points to evolve your skills,and can also get evolution points from system missions.]
"Will I ever be able to evolve into a human one day?"
"Of course! Evolving into a God is even possible."
"God? I don't want to be a God. I just want to go back to my normal life, get a job, become rich, and live like any other human."
"You will have to survive in the ocean first."
With that in mind, Jinwoo started swimming deeper into the ocean, searching for something to eat. He searched and searched but couldn't find a single morsel.
Suddenly, a large piece of rock grazed his skin, causing his fins to pull, and a small amount of blood splashed into the water.
"Ouch."
"Shit… I hope there aren't any sharks around, or I'm done for."
But his worst fear came true—a shark, about seven weeks old, appeared.
Paralyzed with fear, Jinwoo charged ahead at full speed, but he wasn't fast enough.
The shark opened its jaw, preparing to take a bite.
"Not today, sharky!" Jinwoo curved to his right side and swam as fast as he could.
Just ahead, there were beautiful corals and small stones that could offer him refuge from the shark. He thought the shark had lost interest and that he was safe, but the scent of blood was difficult to mask.
Soon enough, three more sharks joined the chase.
Fearing for his life, Jinwoo avoided the corals and stones, knowing the sharks would just bite through them.
"System, what should I do now?"
[.....]
There was no response.
The wound was worsening. 'I can't believe this! How many sharks are pursuing me? I'm just a small baby snailfish; I wouldn't even fit in their jaws.'
Jinwoo wasn't fully focused on what was in front of him; instead, his attention was drawn to what was behind him, as if the sharks were toying with him.
When Jinwoo finally turned to look ahead, he was shocked to his core.
Another shark had been attracted by his blood, and Jinwoo paused, halting his escape.
He waited for the sharks to rush at him, planning to dive beneath the surface just in time to make his escape.
'Snailfish have been recorded at the depths of the ocean, reaching up to 8,336 feets deep, while sharks can dive to depths of at least 10,000 feet. However, most sharks don't typically dive deeper than 3,000 to 5,000 feet, and very few go beyond 10,000 feet. I just hope these hungry-looking sharks aren't deep divers.'
Soon enough, the four sharks rushed toward Jinwoo, their jaws wide open, ready to bite. To them, he was dinner, but for Jinwoo, he was trapped in a nightmare.
It became a competition over who would get the first bite. As soon as they lunged at him, Jinwoo dove deeper into the ocean with all his strength.
The sharks collided with each other, but it wasn't enough to injure themselves.
Jinwoo didn't want to witness the outcome of his plan; all that mattered at that moment was survival.
Before he knew it, he had rushed through the depths of the ocean, reaching 7,000 feet.
Jinwoo seo was reaching his limits, but due to the fear of being eaten alive, he dived deeper into the ocean.
After few hours of constant downward dive, Jinwoo had already reached 12789 meters where he saw land under the ocean. 9 meters away from him was divided into two halves where he could go deeper, but he stopped due to lack of strength.
"The ocean is scary, it's getting too cold for me, how deep did I go?."
[ 12789 meters ]
"Aahhh…don't scare me like that."
Soon enough Jinwoo felt hungry again, his stomachs showed signs and he was in constant pain from the wound he had.
On the land close to him, there was a red pointed grass that was buried beneath the ocean "There is just red grass, is it safe for eating?"
[ You have to touch it for me to analyze it ]
Jinwoo rushed ahead and touched the red looking grass with his fins, a system panel appeared up in front of him.
[Red algae : This is a plant that grows beneath the ocean under 12000 feet it grant's low- poison immunity, healing and pain relief]
" That means it's safe for eating. Jinwoo started eating, and his wounds miraculously healed.
[ You have gained properties of healing, you have gained a skill low - regeneration ]
[ You have gained a skill low -poison resistance ]
[ You have gained 9.6 Evolution points]
"9.6, that's a lot, what stat should i_____"
Just as he was about to finish his sentence, a giant shadow flew by. It was something too attractive for the eye to miss, its tentacles ethereal and glowing with lights, it was like something out of the movies.
"Beautiful!"
" A jellyfish, that's so awesome.....!."