The next morning, Ivan walked down the street toward school.
"Only two percent after a whole night… at this rate, even if I stay here until the time limit runs out, I won't finish merging this shapeshifting ability."
Getting Fantasy Points was a pain in the ass. He'd worked security at Vought for a month and hadn't seen a single point. Now that he'd finally made it into a fantasy world, there was no way in hell he was leaving with just one ability. Two at the bare minimum, or it wasn't worth it.
"Based on how parasites behave in the original story, there's no way they only have two abilities. So what, was that one I analyzed yesterday still a baby?"
Ivan kept walking, thinking through how to make contact with more parasites.
Just sitting around and waiting to bait one out was way too fucking slow.
Right as he was stuck in his thoughts, a boy in a light brown coat entered his line of sight. The kid had his head down, staring at his right hand, muttering under his breath like a lunatic.
"Shinichi."
Ivan suddenly spoke up.
The boy nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Careful. There's another one. My kind. Same species as me."
"You mean… Ivan is also infected?" Shinichi said nervously.
Seeing Ivan walking closer, Shinichi quickly pulled out his phone and pretended to answer a call. In reality, he was talking to his right hand.
"Not him. Someone else. It's getting closer to us."
"How can you even sense them?" Shinichi glanced sideways at Migi, who had turned into an eyeball.
Migi replied, "I can detect something like brainwaves."
"Morning, Shinichi." Ivan greeted him casually as he noticed they were heading in opposite directions. "Aren't you going to school today?"
"Shinichi, ignore him. We leave now. We have to find it before it finds us." The moment Migi saw Ivan getting closer, it withdrew back into Shinichi's body.
Shinichi scratched his head awkwardly. Just walking off would be rude, but he couldn't come up with a decent excuse on the spot. So he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"I was actually going to go to the police, but… I guess that's not necessary anymore. I'll head home instead. I just realized I forgot one of my workbooks."
Ivan couldn't help but grin when he saw Shinichi's face turn red as hell from lying.
Some people just suck at it. Shinichi was definitely one of them.
"Want me to come with you to grab it?" Ivan asked, amused.
"No, no need. I'll go by myself."
Shinichi refused immediately.
"Alright then." Ivan stayed where he was, watching Shinichi hurry off, a faint, knowing smile on his face.
On the other side, Migi reappeared in Shinichi's palm.
"That was strange. Why not just refuse directly?"
"You wouldn't get it. That would've been rude," Shinichi explained patiently.
Migi stared with its round eyeball, confused. "What do you mean by that? The truth would've been rude, but lying to him was good? Looks like I've still got a lot to learn."
Under Migi's guidance, Shinichi kept turning through narrow alleys.
Soon, at the end of one of them, he saw something that made his stomach drop.
A pet dog was chewing on the corpse of a golden retriever.
"A dog… eating another dog."
Shinichi's voice shook.
The pet dog noticed him. Its head split open and twisted toward him.
The sight looked straight out of a horror movie.
What made it worse, what completely broke Shinichi's sense of reality, was that the dog spoke.
"Did you fail too?"
"Are you dissatisfied with the host I chose… or the animal I inhabit?"
Migi sensed the overwhelming killing intent and immediately told Shinichi to run.
The moment Shinichi bolted, the dog's head sprouted a pair of fleshy wings. It took off into the air.
"Damn.. Not bad at all."
Only after both sides left did Ivan step out from around the corner. He looked up at the flying dog, interest clear in his eyes.
"Flying with nothing but flesh wings… that's impressive."
Meanwhile, Shinichi, hiding by a wall, thought he had gotten away.
Then he looked up.
The dog was flying straight toward him.
"You've got to be kidding me, this is just—"
Before he could finish, Migi transformed into a whip-like tendril and lashed out at the dog.
The creature was fast, but it was stuck in the air. With part of its body already turned into wings, it had no way to properly counterattack.
After a few exchanges, Migi's tendril pierced straight through its body and ripped out its heart.
Migi placed the still-warm organ in front of Shinichi.
"As expected, it relied on the dog's internal organs and digestive system to survive."
Shinichi stared at it, horrified.
"That… was one of your kind. The first you've come across."
"A dog? Figures. Guess its environment played a part, but still… that thing was stupid."
Migi's tone made it clear. There was no emotion behind it. Killing one of its own kind meant nothing, like crushing some random bug.
"…Forget it. Let's go. I need to find somewhere to wash this blood off my hand."
Not even two minutes after Shinichi left, Ivan showed up again.
He walked over to the dog's corpse and crouched down, studying it.
"Turning flesh into functional wings… yeah, this has some value."
Ivan picked up the shriveled carcass and stuffed it into his backpack, then headed home.
Skipping a couple classes wasn't a big deal. Right now, increasing his fusion progress mattered more.
Back in his apartment, he grabbed a fruit knife from the kitchen.
Holding back the nausea, he started cutting the thing open.
He didn't need to be precise like some med student. All he needed was a clear look at how the transformation worked.
Half an hour later, he finally figured out the structure of those flesh wings.
Straightening up, Ivan called up the panel.
Just like he expected, the fusion progress had jumped to 14 percent. A full ten percent increase.
So his guess was right. The more contact he had with parasites, the faster the fusion progressed.
"Phew~ Now this is more like it."
Ivan looked at his right hand, all five fingers now sharpened into blades, and smiled in satisfaction.
As for growing wings like that dog… not happening yet.
His weight alone made it unrealistic. Unless his wingspan hit over ten meters, there was no way in hell he'd be getting off the ground.
After that, he ran a few more tests. In this state, his stamina drained at about the same rate as sprinting at full speed. It still couldn't compare to a body fully enhanced by a parasite, but Ivan was already pretty damn satisfied.
"Looks like once this run ends, I'll need to find a way to fuse with a supe's stamina. Otherwise, even with shapeshifting, I won't be able to use it for long."
Just as Ivan was thinking about which supe would make the best target.. buzz buzz~!
His phone started vibrating in his pocket.
He picked up and put it to his ear. The moment he heard his teacher's voice, he quickly switched tone.
"Sorry, really sorry, I messed up my stomach last night. I'm heading to school right now. My apologies."
After hanging up, he instinctively wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.
"…Weird. I graduated years ago. Why the hell do I still get nervous talking to a teacher?"
________
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