It was a mild, pleasant evening on Blue Star as most people prepared to sleep. One unlucky person, however, was not graced with that luxury.
Her name was Emily, and she was a webnovel editor. While not her favorite job, nor what she dreamed of as a kid, it was still a means to an end to earn money anyways, so did it really matter?
Currently, she was editing the work of one of her less favored clients, the reason being that their grammar was horrific. Seriously, who spells they as twyh? She shook her head.
Still, they paid well, and were decently popular. Plus, she needed the money for her favorite pastime, gaming!
A new, advanced VR game had just come out, and it was called Heart of The Wild. As she finished editing the chapter on her light screen, Emily excitedly opened her phone to see that the headset and game she ordered (with advance payment money, mind you) had just arrived.
Rushing to the front door of her tiny, ground floor flat, she fumbled with her keys, searching for the right one. Finally, she opened the door, grabbed the box, and signed the touchpad the deliveryman held out to her.
Who uses touchpads anymore? she thought. So old fashioned. Skipping back to her room, Emily opened the sleek, shimmering box and took out the game code and headset.
Heart of The Wild needed a specialised VR set, and this limited edition one (once again, a splurge) had beautiful illustrations of the jungle on it, in blues and greens and pinks.
Apparently, this was the newest and most advanced holographic set ever, designed to feel exactly like real life. In anticipation, she put on the headset. [Welcome, 10th player of Heart of The Wild. Your ‘character’ will be assigned shor-]
She jumped. “Wait wha-” Unfortunately for her, though, she was cut-off before she could finish as the world faded to black.
She opened her eyes. Or rather, the world faded back into color, because she couldn’t seem to move her eyelids. Emily tried to speak. “Hisssssss…” What the…? Why was she hissing?
Now that she focused, she felt cold stone underneath her belly, and she couldn’t feel any limbs except for… a tail. The system’s cold voice rang out, shaking her out of her confusion.
[Error. Error. Player has not been given a human identity, but instead been assigned a ‘Green Snakelet’ setting. As compensation, and as the only player to experience this glitch, you will receive a unique system and cheat. Retrieving…]
As she flicked her tongue unconsciously, she viewed her ‘System’.
Name: Emily | Species: Green Snakelet (F-Rank) | Level: 0/5 [0%/100%]
Strength: 2 | Intelligence: 11 | Constitution: 4 (2) | Agility: 7 | Luck: 3 (max 10)
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
HP: 60/60 | MP: 11/11
Free Attribute Points: 2
Skills
Bite (Level 1) | Tail Flick (Level 1)
Bloodlines
Green Snake (50%, in growth stage)
Traits
Hard Scales | Mild Poison
Interesting… she murmured. Well, thought. She inspected her skills and traits closer.
Bite (Snake Variant)
Use your fangs to bite the enemy. Deals (4 x STR) damage that increases with skill level.
Cooldown: 1 Minute
Tail Flick (Snake Variant)
Flick your tail at an enemy to deal (3 x STR +(2 x AGI)) damage that increases with skill level. This skill also has a 5% chance of blinding the enemy for 20 seconds.
Cooldown: 6 Minutes
Hard Scales
Your hard scales give you a bit of extra defense. (+ 2 Constitution)
Mild Poison
Your snake poison gives you a 50% chance to inflict a weak poison (- STR/sec) that lasts for 20 seconds with any bite-type attack.
Her status was pretty good for a level 0 snakelet, but Emily didn’t know how they compared to other monsters, or players, in strength.
She slithered around to view her surroundings. Next to her were the shards of an egg, and she was in a dark cave. She guessed she was laid here by her ‘mom’, and then abandoned.
But still, I think I should get a LOT of compensation. I mean, other players probably got the identities of princes and princesses. I’d even take a simple villager! But nooo, I had to get put into a snake. She mentally sighed. Well, it certainly is a new adventure.
On the topic of compensation, she remembered her supposed ‘cheat’. System, where are you? she called out mentally.
[... Retrieved. Selecting Cheat… Cheat Selected. Passive skill ‘Níeh?ggr’s Devour’ acquired.]
Níeh?ggr? Hmm, sounds familiar… Anyways, let’s look at it.
Níeh?ggr’s Devour (LVL MAX)
By defeating (or devouring) an enemy, you can gain their traits, skills, bloodlines, or attribute points. The higher level the enemy, the smaller the chance of acquisition. (actual devouring has a higher chance of acquisition)
This cheat was… broken. Imagine her eating a dragon, or a griffin, or… She stopped herself. Don’t go having dreams of grandeur when you haven’t even left the starter village!
First, she decided to strengthen her stats a little. She noticed she had 2 free attribute points, and pondered on what to put them in.
Her strength was her lowest stat, and definitely needed improvement. If she put all of her points in it, her damage would double from 8 to 16 using Bite, which would improve her chance of survival for sure.
On the other hand, her luck was 3, and looked to be quite important. Maybe if I’d had more luck, she thought wistfully, I would be a queen instead of a snakelet.
In the end, she decided to put all her points in Strength. Luck was a luxury she couldn’t afford, and besides, she had a feeling you couldn’t use regular attribute points on luck anyways.
[Strength 2 -> Strength 4]
As the effect of the free points washed over her, she could feel that her fangs were stronger, and that even a regular attack would deal 4 damage.
Emily shook her scaly body, feeling that today was a day of great change in her life.
First, the game she had been anticipating all week finally arrived, the limited edition headset had been absolutely gorgeous, and probably the most important, ...she had become a snakelet.
Coiling up near her egg fragments for a nap, her vision faded into obscurity once again.
