CH3-4 Bug Slayer Extermination Protocol
1079 Words
This... wasn't a hallucination.
He'd seen strange things during extermination jobs—mutated rats, gas leaks causing illusions—but this?
A game-like interface hovering in midair?
He reached out.
His finger passed through it... and the screen shimmered, shifting with his motion like it was reading him.
"What the hell is this…?"
A sudden realization hit him—this felt like those sci-fi mangas his little brother used to read. Systems, upgrades, hidden worlds.
But this was real.
Too real.
He hesitated, then said aloud: "Yes."
The screen pulsed.
> [Analyzing... Initiating Swarm System Tutorial.]
> [You are now recognized as: Compatible Host.]
[Background Status: Human – Exterminator.]
[Symbiosis Level: Initiated.]
A cold feeling ran up his spine. Symbiosis? With what?
Then came pain.
Not from outside—but within.
His skin prickled. His hearing sharpened. His body convulsed. He clutched his chest as something shifted inside him.
It lasted only seconds.
When he looked up again, the screen changed.
> [New Passive Skill Unlocked: Swarm Sense – LV1]
[You can now detect irregular bug lifeforms within 15 meters.]
"Swarm... sense?"
He stood up slowly. His breathing was returning to normal. But now, he could hear faint... movements. The buzz of something crawling—three floors below him.
He had never heard anything like that before.
He shouldn't be able to.
And yet... he knew exactly where it was.
"This isn't a bug spray job anymore."
He left the building.
The strange guard was gone.
---
Outside, Tokyo's city lights sparkled like a galaxy turned upside down. Neon signs, vending machines, people in suits heading home.
Normalcy.
But now it all felt wrong.
His phone rang. Boss's number.
Kaito answered.
"Hey, Kaito!" the voice barked. "Took care of the complaint?"
"…Yeah," he said, trying to sound normal. "One of the biggest I've ever seen."
"You're lucky, you know that? This building's got contract renewal on the line. You clean it out, we're gold."
"Yeah. Sure."
"You sound off. You sick?"
"No," Kaito lied. "Just tired."
The call ended.
He pocketed the phone.
As he walked toward the station, still shaken, a loud laugh caught his attention.
He froze.
Up ahead stood his ex-girlfriend, Yui, and her new boyfriend—tall, flashy, obnoxious.
She glanced at him. Smirked. Whispered something to the guy.
They laughed again.
Kaito clenched his fists.
He turned away.
"You should've stayed with a real man, Kaito," her boyfriend sneered.
Kaito didn't reply.
He kept walking.
But for the first time… he could hear something beneath their skin. A faint… hum.
Was it... them?
Or was it him?
---
Back at his apartment, he locked the door and sat in the dark.
He opened his hand. The mark from the fight—a strange, almost insect-like scar—was still there, pulsing faintly.
And in the silence of the room…
> [Incoming Mission Detected.]
[Zone: Sublevel B6 – Tokyo Underground Tunnels.]
[Objective: Investigate Anomaly.]
[Time Limit: 24 Hours.]
Kaito stared.
A new mission?
He hadn't agreed to anything. He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't a hero.
And yet...
He couldn't forget the feeling of that monster lunging at him.
Or how it melted after death.
Or how the city kept pretending nothing had happened.
"What the hell did I get dragged into…?"
---
End Of Chapter 3
Chapter 4: The Second Layer
> [You are no longer prey.]
> [Title Unlocked: First Stinger.]
> [Reward: Mandible Core x1 — stored in system vault.]
Kaito laughed.
Not joyfully — but the bitter, disbelieving kind of laugh that escapes when survival feels more like a punishment than a reward.
"I didn't ask for this," he muttered, staring at the blood still drying on his gloves.
The system, as always, responded with silence.
Elsewhere – Unknown Subterranean Shrine
A man meditated in the gloom, cross-legged atop a mound of fossilized insect shells. Crawling in spirals around him were grotesque beetles with distorted, almost human faces. Their eyes blinked sideways.
His own eyes glowed faintly, not with divinity — but with hunger.
> "Another one has awakened?" he asked, voice like a blade dragged across stone.
A servant — barely human, antennae twitching from beneath its hood — knelt beside him.
> "He slew a Seer-Bug, master. The system has accepted him."
The man's lip curled upward, not quite a smile.
> "Then the Mandible Ritual has begun once more."
He looked up, through the cracked ceiling of the shrine. Faint daylight filtered in.
> "The Hunt resumes."
---
The Next Morning – Kaito's Apartment
Kaito stirred beneath the half-torn blanket of his futon. Sunlight leaked through the curtain slats, too sharp to ignore.
For a moment, he almost believed it had all been a dream.
Until the mark on his forearm pulsed.
Thin black lines, like the legs of a spider, crawled across his skin in fractal patterns. At the center: a faintly glowing shard — the Mandible Core — embedded just beneath the surface.
His stomach churned. Not from fear.
But from the quiet certainty: there was no turning back now.
The doorbell rang.
Cautiously, Kaito pulled on a shirt, grabbing the pocketknife he kept under his pillow. He opened the door to find a girl standing there.
She wore a dark hoodie and fingerless gloves. Underneath her bangs, her eyes shimmered with restrained energy.
> "Kaito Shinohara?"
His grip on the knife tightened. "Who's asking?"
She held out a black card — not corporate, not government. The edges flickered with a digital shimmer. It bore a Sector Nine insignia.
> "I'm with Sector Nine. You're not the first to see them. We've been watching since last night."
She gestured toward his tattoo.
> "You killed a Seer-class Bug. That's not... normal."
Kaito's mouth was dry. "There are others like me?"
She nodded. "A few. Not many survive their first Hunt. You did. That makes you interesting."
> "So what now?"
> "Now, you choose."
Her voice turned cold.
> "Keep running... or join us."
> "And if I don't?"
> "Then the Swarm finds you again. Only this time, it won't send a Seer."
Kaito looked past her, into the hallway. Then back into his apartment: the makeshift traps, the scorched bug repellent cans, the dying plant he hadn't watered in days.
A life forgotten.
He stepped outside, locking the door behind him.
> "Alright. I'm in."
She gave him the smallest smile.
> "Welcome to the Second Layer of Tokyo."
---
End of Chapter 4
- Writer
