Part 1: The System Awakens
Aya blinked.
Then blinked again.
Then did it one more time, just to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.
Nope.
The floating blue screen was still there. Hovering in the empty air like some smug, all-knowing deity, pulsing with a soft glow, completely ignorant of the fact that it should not exist.
Aya stared.
Her tiny ant brain struggled to process what she was seeing.
This was not normal.
Caves were not supposed to have floating system screens. Caves were supposed to have rocks, bugs, damp air, existential dread, and the occasional hungry predator.
Not... this.
Her first instinct was to assume she had finally lost it.
Had she hit her head too hard? Inhaled too much cave dust? Was this some weird near-death hallucination?
"Okay… okay… maybe I finally lost it. Maybe I inhaled too much cave dust. Maybe—"
[Status Update: Biology successfully reconstructed. Potential increased significantly.]
Aya froze.
Then, before she could even question what that meant—
A wave of heat exploded inside her.
It ripped through her tiny exoskeleton, a burning surge of energy that felt like someone had just dumped boiling magma straight into her veins—if she even had veins.
Then, just as fast, it was followed by an icy shock, like someone had dunked her in an arctic freezer.
She twitched violently. Her legs shook. Her body felt simultaneously weightless and unbearably heavy.
Aya let out a strangled choking noise.
"What—what the hell—?!"
Her exoskeleton hummed. The sensation wasn't exactly painful, but it was intense.
Like her very existence was being rewritten.
Like her biology was being taken apart and reassembled into something else.
Was this... evolution?!
For one horrifying second, a thought crossed her mind—
Am I being cooked alive?!
The worst part? It felt possible. She was, after all, a bug. And bugs got roasted all the time.
She had seen ants spontaneously combust under magnifying glasses.
Was this karma? Some twisted cosmic joke?
Before she could spiral further into an existential crisis, the sensation vanished.
Like a switch being flipped, the burning, the freezing, the humming in her body—it all just stopped.
Aya collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
Her antennae twitched wildly, trying to pick up any changes in her surroundings.
She felt... different.
Not stronger. Not weaker. Just... different.
Like something inside her had been tweaked, fine-tuned, adjusted.
Before she could dwell on it—
[Ding!][System Status Updated.]
Aya jerked her head up.
The floating blue screen had changed.
Her antennae twitched with anticipation.
Slowly, hesitantly, she lifted a trembling leg and tapped the screen.
The text shifted.
Aya held her breath.
And then she saw it.
Her very own status screen.
And at that moment—
Aya knew.
She wasn't just some weak little bug anymore.
She had a system.
And everything was about to change.
Part 2: I HAVE STATS?!
Aya stared.
Then she screamed.
Not out loud—because, unfortunately, ants didn't have lungs or vocal cords—but if she could, she absolutely would have. Instead, her entire tiny bug body vibrated with uncontrollable excitement as she processed what she was seeing.
A real, actual, honest-to-god STATUS SCREEN.
[Status]Name: AyaRace: AntlingLevel: 3Species: Aegis Mandible [Soldier Ant] 🛡️ → Armored frontline soldiers, protecting the hive.HP: 63/70MP: 70/70SP: 59/100IP: 22/100
HP = Health Points | MP = Magic Points | SP = Stamina Points | IP = Immunity Points
Average Offensive Ability: 21Average Defensive Agility: 23Average Magic Ability: 31Average Resistance Ability: 18Average Speed: 37
[Species-related skills]🛡️ [Pain Suppression - LV2] – Temporarily ignores minor injuries.🦷 [Razor Mandibles - LV4] – Increases bite attack damage.🕳️ [Quick Burrow - LV1] – Instantly digs into the ground for cover.🏃 [Tunnel Sprinter - LV2] – Moves faster underground.🧠 [Tactical Pheromones - LV5] – Grants the user the ability to produce different pheromones to signal or communicate with her kind.
[Basic skills]🕵️ [Stealth - LV4]⛏️ [Digging - LV6]👀 [Night Vision - LV3]☠️ [Poison Resistance - LV1]💢 [Pain Resistance - LV2]
Aya's mandibles dropped open.
Her antennae twitched violently.
Her brain? Completely fried.
Her emotions? A chaotic mess.
This… this was real.
This wasn't just some weird dream sequence or hallucination. It wasn't a cruel trick of the cave lighting. It wasn't some random glitch in reality.
She actually had a status screen.
Which meant…
"I HAVE STATS?! I HAVE A SYSTEM?! I'M NOT JUST SOME BUG GETTING STEPPED ON ANYMORE?!"
Aya lost her goddamn mind.
She scurried in excited circles, practically bouncing with uncontainable joy. Her legs twitched. Her antennae flailed. If she had a mouth capable of smiling, she would've grinned like a lunatic.
All those painful, humiliating, miserable moments of struggling to survive—
All those days spent running, hiding, nearly getting squashed, nearly getting eaten, nearly dying over and over again—
MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, SHE FINALLY HAD A FIGHTING CHANCE!
She had stats. She had skills.
She even had magic points.
Could she use magic?! She didn't know yet, but SHE HAD MP, SO MAYBE.
Aya spun around in pure glee, waving her tiny legs in the air like she just didn't care.
"THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING! I CAN GET STRONGER! I CAN LEVEL UP! I CAN—"
And then—
A thought struck her like a lightning bolt to the face.
She froze mid-dance.
Her paranoia kicked in at full force.
"Wait. Wait. WAIT."
Her excitement slammed to a screeching halt.
Her tiny insect heart dropped.
She took another look at the screen. Really looked at it.
And that's when she saw it.
That one little, innocent-looking line.
Species: Aegis Mandible [Soldier Ant] 🛡️ → Armored frontline soldiers, protecting the hive.
Aya's entire body stiffened.
…Wait.
What did that mean?
Soldier ant?
Armored frontline?!
HOLD ON. WAS SHE STUCK IN A COMBAT CLASS?!
"NO. NO, NO, NO—WAIT. I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS! I'M NOT A FIGHTER! I'M BARELY A FUNCTIONING SURVIVOR—"
Her tiny legs wobbled.
Oh god. Oh no. This wasn't some power fantasy. This wasn't some "Congratulations! You've been chosen to be the protagonist!" moment.
This was a setup.
A DEATH TRAP.
Her entire body twitched with dread.
Why was she a SOLDIER ANT?! Why not a scout? Or a forager? Or literally anything less dangerous than being a freaking frontline meat shield?!
Aya screamed internally.
This wasn't some cute, fun, beginner-friendly system.
This was the kind of system that threw people into nightmare survival scenarios with zero warning.
She whimpered.
"Okay, okay, let's not panic—no, wait, too late, I'm ALREADY PANICKING—"
Her antennae flailed wildly.
She needed to think.
She needed to assess the situation.
She needed to figure out what this system actually wanted from her.
And most importantly—
She needed to update her survival guide immediately.
Aya took a deep breath.
She had stats now. She had skills.
But she was also stuck with a system that probably wanted her dead.
…Okay.
This was fine.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
...Crap.
Part 3: And Then Everything Went Horribly Wrong
Aya was still celebrating.
She was still in the middle of her manic, overexcited, reality-defying victory dance—
And then the system spoke again.
[Teleportation sequence initialized.]
Aya froze mid-dance.
Her tiny, victorious ant legs stiffened.
Her antennae twitched wildly.
Her insect brain took a full three seconds to process those words before her entire body locked up in absolute terror.
"...Wait. What?"
[Welcome to the Bottomless Labyrinth. Home to many, many strong monsters.][First Mission Activated: Grow strong and survive.]
Aya's soul left her body.
Her blood ran cold.
Her excitement? Instantly dead.
Her mind? SCREAMING.
Her tiny, fragile existence?
DOOMED.
She let out a mental shriek so loud, she was pretty sure it shattered the fabric of reality.
[Teleportation commencing in 3… 2… 1…]
"NO. NO, NO, NO—WAIT. WAIT. WAIT—"
WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY ABOUT DEATH TRAPS?!
SHE KNEW IT. SHE FREAKING KNEW IT.
This system wasn't a blessing. This wasn't some 'special protagonist moment.' This was a cosmic execution sentence disguised as a tutorial.
"STOP, ABORT, CANCEL—"
She tried to run.
She tried to dig.
She tried to do literally anything to stop what was happening—
But it was already too late.
[Teleportation commencing in 3… 2… 1…]
The world imploded.
The cave around her collapsed into a void.
A monstrous, invisible force yanked her tiny bug body into the abyss.
Her senses exploded.
Her mind went white-hot with agony.
It felt like she was being shredded into pieces, folded like a piece of origami, stretched like an elastic band, then crammed into a cosmic blender set to MAXIMUM SUFFERING.
Up? Gone.
Down? Deleted.
Her entire existence twisted and churned, warped and spun—
And then—
THWACK.
Aya's face met the ground at terminal velocity.
PAIN.
IMMEDIATE. BLINDING. PAIN.
Her entire body rattled like a broken wind-up toy. Her exoskeleton screamed in protest. Her antennae vibrated uncontrollably like malfunctioning radio signals.
"OW. OW. OW. OW. OW."
Aya groggily lifted her head.
Everything hurt.
The cold, damp stone beneath her felt solid, rough, and unforgiving. The air was heavy, thick, and suffocating. A strange, oppressive silence hung in the space around her, broken only by the faintest sounds of…
…Dripping.
Something dripped from above.
Plip.
Plip.
Plip.
Her antennae twitched dangerously.
Aya swallowed hard.
Slowly, painfully, she forced herself to stand. Her legs shook. Her senses buzzed with warning.
Something was wrong.
No—everything was wrong.
She was no longer in her cave.
This place was… different.
Bigger.
Darker.
Wrong.
The walls stretched endlessly into pitch-black shadows. The ceiling was so high up, she could barely make out the jagged stone edges.
And the worst part?
The air reeked of something ancient.
Something hungry.
Something watching.
Aya gulped.
Her antennae twitched again—
And this time, she felt it.
Movement.
Dozens.
No—hundreds of tiny, unseen things shifting in the shadows.
Skittering. Slithering. Crawling.
She was not alone.
Her blood ran ice cold.
"...So, uh… about that whole 'I finally have a system' thing…"
A slow, creeping horror sank into her tiny bug heart.
This wasn't some safe, easy, beginner-friendly leveling zone.
This wasn't some cool isekai tutorial where she got free weapons and power-ups.
She wasn't given a safe place to train.
No.
She had been dumped into an actual hellhole filled with monsters that could and WOULD rip her into tiny ant-sized shreds.
This wasn't a blessing.
This wasn't an opportunity.
This wasn't some cool isekai cheat power fantasy.
THIS. WAS. A. CURSE.
And she had just signed herself up for the most extreme version of "Survive or Die" in existence.
Her tiny bug legs trembled as she slowly, hesitantly, turned her head toward the dark abyss ahead.
The skittering grew louder.
The slithering crept closer.
A single, distant, bone-chilling growl rumbled from the depths.
Aya screamed internally.
"…Yep. I'm so freaking dead."
[Side Mission Updated: SURVIVE.]
Part 4: The Worst Possible Starting Area
"Ow. Ow. OW."
Aya groggily lifted her head, her entire exoskeleton rattling like a piece of cheap furniture after an earthquake.
She felt like she had been slammed into the earth by an angry god.
Everything hurt.
Her antennae twitched weakly. Her legs wobbled. Her vision spun.
And then—she realized.
The world around her was dark.
But not just any kind of dark.
Not the kind of darkness that whispered, "Oh, it's just nighttime! Look at the stars!" ✨
Not the kind of darkness that said, "The lights are off! Give it a second, your eyes will adjust!" 🕶️
No.
This was the other kind of dark.
The kind that consumed everything.
The kind that swallowed sound, ate light, and sat there—waiting.
The kind that whispered straight into your soul:
'Welcome to your grave.'
Aya's insect heart pounded.
She didn't just see the darkness—she felt it.
The air was cold and damp, thick with an unnatural stillness.
The walls stretched endlessly into an abyss so deep, she couldn't tell if it was a cave, a tunnel, or a void that never ended.
Somewhere above, something dripped.
Plip.
Plip.
Plip.
Aya's entire body stiffened.
That… that wasn't water, was it?
And then—
Something big moved.
Deep.
In the distance.
The faintest, heaviest shift of something massive.
Aya froze.
Her antennae twitched wildly, scanning the air, reading the vibrations—
And that's when she realized.
She wasn't alone.
Not even close.
Her instincts screamed.
Her senses went haywire.
She felt movement.
Everywhere.
Not just one thing.
Not just a few things.
Dozens.
No—hundreds.
Skittering.
Slithering.
Crawling.
Scuttling.
A horrific, nightmarish orchestra of limbs scraping against stone.
Aya's breath hitched.
She snapped her mandibles shut, forcing herself to stay still.
Her antennae trembled.
Her legs locked up.
And then—
somewhere in the darkness—
something let out a low, wet, hissing noise.
It was close.
Too close.
Aya's soul left her body.
Every single alarm bell in her tiny ant brain was ringing at maximum volume.
She didn't need to see it.
She didn't need to hear it.
She felt it.
A presence.
No—many presences.
Lurking. Watching.
Waiting for her to move.
A single thought smashed through the sheer terror flooding her mind.
THIS. IS. THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. STARTING. AREA.
Who—WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND SPAWNS A LEVEL 3 BUG IN THE MIDDLE OF A MONSTER-INFESTED DEATH CAVE?!
Where was the tutorial zone?!
Where were the weak, friendly NPCs?!
Where was the safe place to train?!
Why wasn't there a cute little village where she could farm slimes or pick berries or something?!
WHY WAS HER LIFE JUST IMMEDIATE NIGHTMARE MODE?!
Aya wanted to cry.
If she had tear ducts, she would have already been sobbing hysterically.
But instead, she just stood there.
Paralyzed.
Silent.
Trapped in a darkness filled with things that wanted to eat her.
Her instincts screamed at her to do something.
Run? No. Too dangerous.
Fight? No. Too weak.
Dig? Maybe—but what if the noise attracted something?
She needed a plan.
She needed to think.
She needed to—
A single, bone-chilling growl rumbled from the depths of the cave.
Aya shut down.
Her mind went blank.
Her body refused to move.
The shadows stirred.
The air grew heavier.
And she realized.
The things in the darkness weren't just moving randomly.
They were closing in.
Aya wanted to scream.
Instead—she did the only thing her instincts told her to do.
She slowly. Carefully. Lowered herself to the ground.
Pressed her tiny body against the cold stone.
Held her breath.
And prayed.
[Stealth - LV4] activated.
Somewhere in the distance, a massive set of claws scraped against rock.
Something let out another hiss.
And then…
The darkness went still.
Aya didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't blink.
Because she knew.
If she moved even a little—
She was dead.
Part 5: This Is Not A Tutorial Zone
"So, uh… about that whole 'I finally have a system' thing…"
Aya's voice came out as a whisper.
A very, very weak whisper.
Because the realization had finally, violently crashed into her brain like a flaming meteor.
This wasn't a beginner-friendly leveling zone.
She wasn't given a nice, safe village to start in.
She wasn't handed a weapon, armor, or literally anything useful.
Nope.
She had just been thrown headfirst into a pitch-black death trap, surrounded by monsters way beyond her understanding.
A place so deep, so dark, so utterly horrifying that even her primal instincts were screaming, "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE."
This wasn't a blessing.
This wasn't a lucky start.
This wasn't the kind of system where she'd slowly grind levels, make some friends, and go on a grand adventure.
This was a freaking execution.
Aya stood there. Completely frozen.
She could still hear it.
The sound of claws scraping against stone.
The deep, slow breathing of something massive, hidden in the dark.
The shifting, crawling, slithering chorus of things that were very, very much alive.
A shiver ran through her tiny ant body.
Her legs trembled.
Her antennae twitched.
She gulped.
And slowly—very slowly—she turned her head toward the abyss ahead.
Something growled.
Not a normal growl.
Not a dog growl.
Not a wolf growl.
Not even a bear growl.
This was a deep, ancient, stomach-turning sound that rumbled through the cavern like an earthquake.
A sound that whispered, "You do not belong here, little insect."
Aya's soul fled her body.
Her mandibles clicked shut.
Her mind short-circuited.
Her antennae drooped in defeat.
She felt it in her exoskeleton.
That wasn't a normal monster.
That wasn't a "level 3" enemy.
That wasn't something she could fight, or run from, or even reason with.
That was something ancient.
That was something terrifying.
That was something that had probably existed in this death cave for centuries—
And she had just spawned in its living room.
"Yep."
Aya exhaled sharply.
She didn't cry.
She didn't scream.
She didn't even panic anymore.
She just accepted her fate.
And then—
She collapsed onto the cold, unforgiving stone, curled into a tiny ball, and whispered the only words she could manage:
"I'm so freaking dead."