-30- Woodlouse

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Another midsummer had arrived. The azure sky was clear and spotless, while sunlight poured down like molten amber, gilding the abandoned harbor with a golden rim.

Sixteen-year-old Rosalind stood atop a watchtower that had partially collapsed, silently observing the derelict port below. The salty sea breeze brushed past her nose. Moss and ivy blanketed the tower walls, and dewdrops glittered in the sunlight.

Compared with the girl who had first arrived here six years ago, Rosalind had undeniably grown both more mature and more beautiful. Her figure had stretched to nearly one hundred and seventy centimeters, standing a forehead taller than the teacher she had once looked up to. The delicate roundness of childhood had faded from her features, replaced by a quiet composure very much like her teacher’s, though enlivened by a few more sparks of vitality.

After looking down for a while, she propped her notebook against the rust-covered railing and lowered her head to write.

“Grayport City harbor district, gathering site of aberrant beetles… All are beetle-type base forms. No evolved forms observed… Bodies rotten and covered in exposed flesh… Primary methods of attack: claw strikes and horned headbutts… Note: They favor dark places such as shipping containers and cracks in breakwaters. Beware of ambushes…”

A short while later, having finished recording all her observations of the aberrant beetles, Rosalind hummed an unknown little tune. Like a gust of wind, she left the top of the watchtower and drifted down to the abandoned streets of Grayport City.

Traveling from place to place and documenting information on various aberrants was a long-term assignment her teacher had given her at the end of last year.

The primary reason was that, after years of training and with military-grade weapons at her disposal, Rosalind now possessed the strength to survive alone in this wasteland. She no longer needed to remain within designated safe zones and could freely explore areas beyond the Central District—even regions outside Ish City.

Of course, there were still two dangerous areas she was forbidden to approach: the Ish Mountains and Rua City, which lay beyond them. Even her teacher regarded those two places with apprehension. Having learned to think before acting, Rosalind naturally kept well away from them.

She stepped slowly along the silent street, crunching over gravel and rubble as sunlight carved the shadows of the ruins into sharp-edged shapes.

But in the very next moment, two enormous woodlice suddenly sprang from the shadow of the ruins beside her. They were aberrant woodlice covered in flesh, each more than a meter long. Their blood-red heads possessed no additional organs—only enormous abyssal mouths split wide from side to side and lined with countless sharp teeth. They became two foul-smelling black blurs as they lunged straight for the girl’s head.

A clear flash of surprise crossed Rosalind’s face, but she did not panic. Being attacked without warning by an aberrant while walking through the streets was perfectly normal. She was used to it.

Dark crimson glowing runes suddenly surfaced across her skin and clothing. She erupted with tremendous force, kicking the ground hard enough to crack it as she darted sideways and avoided the fatal strike.

She then smoothly drew the alloy battle blade slung at her waist within its metal sheath. Blue light swept through the air, and the two aberrant woodlice burst apart like sacks filled with pus, spraying foul yellow bodily fluid in every direction. Rosalind had been prepared for this, however, and dispelled it with Wind Manipulation before a single drop could touch her.

“Phew… Damn it. No matter how many times this happens, they still manage to scare me…”

Muttering under her breath, she rinsed her beloved blade with a simple water spell before returning it to its sheath.

She then lowered her gaze to the two corpses.

They were, in fact, what people commonly called pill bugs—only grotesquely oversized. Their mutated heads had become cavernous mouths packed with no fewer than several hundred tiny, densely arranged fangs. Even a child who had played with pill bugs countless times would probably have suffered a severe bout of trypophobia upon seeing them here.

Yet Rosalind was not staring at the corpses to desensitize herself. Over the years, she had seen far too many disgusting aberrants for two giant woodlice to matter.

What truly puzzled her was that she had not encountered any aberrant woodlice during her exploration of Grayport City last year. Now, however, their numbers were steadily increasing, as though they were multiplying rapidly somewhere.

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The crucial point was that aberrants possessed terrifying regenerative abilities and seemingly endless lifespans so long as they continued eating. Yet when it came to reproduction, neither she nor her teacher had ever witnessed anything of the sort. Their continued existence appeared to stem from ordinary wild animals reproducing, then being infected and transformed by aberrants in an endless cycle.

So why were the aberrant woodlice of Grayport City becoming more numerous? As a student entrusted with her teacher’s expectations—and as a seeker of knowledge—Rosalind felt it was her responsibility to find out.

First, she would gather what clues she could. If she encountered danger, she would retreat immediately and return to inform her teacher…

She silently reminded herself of this, then entered a small alley and picked up the arcane skateboard she had left there. Its runes lit up, and the board glided forward without a sound, carrying her through streets overgrown with iron ferns as she ventured deeper into Grayport City.

Because she was flying close to the ground with little noise and was not conspicuously exposed in the air, Rosalind encountered few dangers along the way.

However, as she neared the harbor’s central district, a dense, heart-pounding rustling, accompanied by inhuman snarls, caught her attention.

Rosalind immediately piloted the board upward and landed atop a nearby ruin that remained relatively intact. There, she saw a scene that shocked her deeply.

Hundreds of aberrant woodlice were advancing as a mass, devouring every animal and aberrant they encountered along the way.

Afterward, those woodlice that had eaten their fill immediately returned to their original position. None of their companions attacked them. The remaining woodlice continued surging onward, headed toward a destination no one could say.

Rosalind froze. These aberrants actually knew how to act collectively. They shared a common objective and did not attack one another at all!

This completely contradicted her impression of base-form aberrants as mindless killing machines without any sense of self.

Impossible. How could this be happening? Could they all be evolved forms?

Rosalind knitted her brows, and a powerful sense of strangeness and unease rose within her.

According to her teacher’s classification, aberrants were generally divided into two levels.

The lowest level was called “base-form aberrants,” or simply “base forms.” Their characteristics included mutated heads, exposed flesh, grotesquely deformed features, and an absence of self-awareness. They attacked their own kind and devoured everything before them.

The higher level was called “evolved forms.” These possessed less exposed flesh, had developed new offensive or defensive organs, and also exhibited a limited degree of biological instinct—an instinct that drove them to seek benefit and avoid harm.

Over the years, Rosalind had encountered both levels.

Base forms were by far the most common and were often killed instantly by her, just like the woodlice she had dealt with moments ago. Evolved forms were rare, and their strength varied greatly. The most powerful could pursue Rosalind until she fled in every direction, while the weaker ones were merely somewhat more troublesome than base forms.

But the swarm before her…

If they were base forms, then they clearly possessed the ability to recognize their companions and did not attack one another. If they were evolved forms, then setting aside their staggering numbers, their mutations were limited to their heads and the great swaths of exposed flesh covering their bodies. Outwardly, they displayed every characteristic of base forms.

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Why was this happening? Could it be a unique trait of aberrant woodlice—that they possessed some ability to identify their own kind through pheromones?

But if so, why did the aberrants of other insect species lack the same ability?

Moreover, the direction in which the partially fed members of the swarm had retreated was the Ish Mountains. That was one of the two places on Ish Island her teacher had once sternly warned her never to approach.

Could this have something to do with the danger within the Ish Mountains?

At that thought, Rosalind had already begun to consider retreating. To be safe, she should return and consult her teacher first.

But just as she was about to step onto her board and fly swiftly back to Ish City, a malicious gaze suddenly drew her attention.

She immediately raised her head and saw a pitch-black humanoid silhouette standing atop a ruined high-rise not far away, staring directly at her.

It was a humanoid aberrant clad in black scales—and without a doubt, it was an apex evolved form. Four pairs of dragonfly-like wings grew from its back. At the ends of its arms were two razor-sharp bone blades. Its black face resembled an iron mask with enormous gray-white compound eyes, though the vague contours of its features could still be recognized as almost human.

So… so highly evolved…

It was probably the most advanced evolved aberrant she had ever seen—and by an overwhelming margin.

Rosalind’s mood sank. Her knuckled right hand slowly moved toward the alloy battle blade at her waist as she prepared to fight while retreating.

According to her teacher’s judgment, among all biological aberrants, the less exposed flesh they possessed, the more advanced their evolution. An aberrant that had completely concealed all external flesh stood at the very pinnacle of its kind—a monster that even her teacher would have to face with all their strength.

Rosalind drew the alloy battle blade and began backing away inch by inch, trying to reach her arcane skateboard. To her surprise, throughout the entire process, the humanoid aberrant standing high above her on the rooftop made no attempt to stop her escape. It watched as though observing a play that had nothing to do with itself.

Why wasn’t it attacking?

Rosalind’s vigilance and confusion deepened. She even wondered whether its vision might be impaired—that although it appeared to be watching her, it was actually unable to see very far.

But at that very moment, she suddenly saw the mouth of the humanoid aberrant, positioned on its otherwise impassive face, slowly curl upward.

A tiny, unmistakably humanlike arc appeared there—contemptuous and filled with malice.

Was that… a smile?

Rosalind wondered whether she had seen incorrectly. Yet the instant she blinked, the humanoid aberrant vanished abruptly from the rooftop, as though it had never existed at all.

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