Cockroach Man Evolution

As Alex Vorhal awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in another world into a gigantic cockroach. He collapsed onto his chitinous back, crashing through three school desks and chairs even as his fragile many legs covered in fine, sharp hairs wobbled frantically in the air and through his compound eyes saw many times reflected a dark room of chairs, desks, dust and wooden plank flooring. He heard a crunching sound, and the fear that one of his chitinous wings might be broken struck him. He tried as he might to rock back and forth and to get onto his feet, but found that he had not the strength to do it. I must be in another world, he thought, and transformed into a giant vermin. I see none of the elements from my many hours wasted on litrpg tales on Royalroad.com, nor any of the many isekai anime I have watched, and so it must be different in reality than it is in fiction.

He saw that he was in a sort of a classroom, as his twisting and turning did spin him about, even if he could not turn himself back onto his very vulnerable belly, to protect it from harm and to be able to ambulate once more. There were words on the blackboard, and they were moving, but they were written in human speech, and as a giant cockroach he could not read them, even if he could feel that there must be numbers counting down, as in his memory that he saw as if from a pinprick hole in a sheet of paper, he could remember classes of mathematics and numbers from a long time ago.

I know what I will do, Alex thought, I will attempt to interface with the system like the protagonists of my favorite tales do when they find themselves transported to another world.

And he went through the many motions of this experiment. When he attempted to speak, however, only an insectile hissing came from his mouthparts. When he looked for some journal where his stats may be described, he saw many notebooks and schoolbooks scattered about, but in each case, as his many-layered eyes went over them, he could not make out the words. Finally, he focused on one thought- Character Sheet- and an interface like that of a video game heads up display covered his vision.

Alex Vorhal

Level 0 [none] Vermin [none]

Capacities: Verisimilitude: 1 Savoir-Faire: 3 Avant-Garde Sentiment: 5

Attributes: Verisimilitude: Realism 0, Voice 1, Emotional Resonance 0 Savoir Faire: Ambulation 2, Dexterity 0, Acuity 1 Avant-Garde Sentiment: Abstraction 3, Absurdity 1, Revulsion 1

Notable skills:

Skittering: 4 Flying: 1 Digestion: 1

Traits:

Chitinous Exoskeleton: You may use your exo-skeleton to protect the interior of your body wherein the interior of your soft parts is. You can flip and fold your wings at will.

Evolution: By consuming the flesh of the dead, you may gain their features, by using the Evolving Stomach feature. The Evolving Stomach feature may be acquired only through the Evolution trait.

Seeing these messages and others flashing in front of his eyes Alex understood that he was in the sort of a second world where some video game characteristics would apply to him now. He thought he should be excited, but the strange twistings of his new mind did not seem to allow him to do so. And yet one of those many abilities gave him an idea for how he might be able to escape his imprisonment here on the floor of this cavernous and dark classroom. Instead of tightening and loosening his wretched new body, he focused on the firm muscle-parts by his shoulders, where the blades of his wings were, and he pushed on those muscles with all of his might. And as his wings opened up, he did throw himself into the air, and fell onto his belly, crashing painfully among the many desks and chairs, breaking pieces of his chitin on the hard wood and metal, but though he was injured, he was now upright as he had intended.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Without the ability to explore the writings in the classroom, nor the ability to carry many items with him, he instead skittered towards the door that lead to the exit from this initial room that he had been transported to. Alex would have liked to draw a map of his surroundings, but though he felt strange organs of pheromone and scent among his many new body-parts, he could not for the life of him figure out how he would use them for navigation. His eyes could not allow him to see more than a dozen feet ahead, but they also allowed him to see above and behind him, and so even as he was now a wretched bug, he did nonetheless feel safe in his great perception.

He skittered then first onto the wall and then down the hallway, passing by many empty rooms, like empty egg-sacs, their broodlings already hatched, and tasted the air for any new scents or tastes. He moved ahead without aim or purpose, and thought. If I just keep going I will certainly run into something useful. I would hate it if I happened upon another person from Earth turned into a bug, but one that hasn't had his chitin injured. I could not bear the embarrassment. But perhaps it would be for the best, as I will not be able to run the game of Mazes and Monsters for my friends if I am not back on Earth by this afternoon.

He did not know how long he had been traveling when he saw a crossroads appearing in the infinite hallways of this school labyrinth that he had awoken in, and in a hope for something other than what he had seen before, he skittered towards it, thinking that perhaps there he could explain that he could not be in another world at this moment, because he needed to run a game for his friends this very evening. Instead of people turned into insects, however, he met there two entirely human looking individuals. There was a man and a woman, and the man was very tall and well built with muscle and a firm jaw, while the woman was in a cardigan. Alex skittered hopefully towards the two, but as he got close, the man raised a club above his head and shouted:

"Get behind me, Clara! There is a vermin in these hallways, and it requires extermination," he shouted. "Hissssssssss, skreee!" Alex explained. "Brad, we should run away instead, as you cannot know if it is venomous or not, and we should not put ourselves in danger,!" the woman said.

Alex got even closer to try to explain that he was not a threat of any sort and did not intend the two any harm, but the man could not understand him, and so he rushed at Alex with his club and smashed him over the head. There was a wet crunching sound and Alex could feel one of his antennae going limp. In a terrible shame, he turned his back and ran as fast as his feet would carry him, even as Brad smacked against his hard chitinous shell, leaving bruises on the shiny carapace.

In his new-found shame and despair, with many pieces of his body flopping limply against the air, Alex fled away from the pair of humans.

It is not as I thought, he thought, I am the only one in this Tower that has been turned into a giant cockroach, or at least not everyone has. Oh, I am so embarrassed, this is so very shameful.

Alex kept running on the walls and the ceilings of the halls, his new body allowing him to replace down with up and up with down with ease. He ran quickly and did not feel much tired from the exertion, though he did think that he would like to eat. Eventually his whole antenna did pick up a taste on the air wafting from a cafeteria nearby. Alex perked up and turned towards this scent- it had the flavor of meat and gelatin on it, and he thought he would very much like to enjoy that. He reached the door to the cafeteria, and he balanced on his back four legs, pushing against the door with his front two. Slowly, unpleasantly the door opened.

Alex went into the cafeteria, and as he found the kitchen, there was a bone gremlin in there that killed him.

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