The joy of discovering his unexpected identity was brief. The enraged croak of a frog was heard.
Bang! Bang!
Globs of spit flew one after another, but Jaekyung had already entered the water. He had dived in to momentarily escape the frog's wrath, but Jaekyung soon discovered another surprising fact. He could breathe even in the water!
Could he be a sea serpent? Were sea serpents able to breathe underwater? 'It doesn't matter.'
Whether it was possible or not, all that mattered was that it was beneficial in this moment. Besides, hadn't he promised himself dozens of times not to apply the knowledge of his past life to this one?
"Croak!"
The frog, which had been continuously spitting from outside, finally lost its patience and leaped into the pond.
"Good."
He could feel the frog following him, but its speed was not particularly fast. This meant that their speeds in the water were not as different as they were outside of it. Since the frog had hesitated before following him into the pond, there was still a considerable distance between Jaekyung and the creature.
Jaekyung calmly charged toward the lotus. The more urgent the pursuing frog became, the more at ease Jaekyung felt. 'Is this enough?
Or a little more?' Jaekyung was getting closer to the lotus, but at the same time, he was descending deeper. Little by little, so that the frog chasing him wouldn't notice.
Just as the bottom of the pond became clearly visible and Jaekyung was thinking, 'This should be enough,' and about to turn his body, a great ripple spread throughout the entire pond. In that instant, Jaekyung felt malice rushing toward him from all directions.
Dozens? Hundreds?
But just a moment ago...
"No." He had briefly overlooked it.
This pond had natives. Things whose origins were unknown. Swarms of large and small fish, or things resembling them, rushed in.
They each looked different, but they all had the same eyes. Eyes devoid of life, eyes that living things should not possess. 'Have they been brainwashed as a group?'
Whether they were brainwashed or not, it was clear their minds were gone. They were swarming like piranhas that had smelled blood. They were incredibly fast.
Even Jaekyung, who might be a water snake or a sea serpent, couldn't shake them off. He could move freely in the water, but they moved as if they were in fast forward, two or three times the speed. In an instant, dozens of fish with sharp teeth latched onto Jaekyung.
Individually, they were insignificant, but with hundreds of them latching on and biting all at once, the pain was beyond description. Fortunately, his body had become much sturdier after molting than it was before. If it had been him before the molting, he wouldn't have lasted long before all the scales and flesh on his body were torn away.
"Kuaaak!"
Blinded by pain, Jaekyung roared fiercely and opened his mouth wide. He thrashed his body to fling off the creatures clinging to him, and those that held on, he swallowed and tore apart. He felt something that was neither blood nor water fill his mouth.
Even amidst his fury, Jaekyung thought something was strange, but he did not stop moving.
Crunch!
He continued to struggle, but the fish, clinging to him like mosquitoes, held on tenaciously. Jaekyung descended to the bottom of the pond. As he rubbed his body against the uneven floor, dozens of fish were ground away.
"Croak!"
He thought he heard the triumphant croak of the frog from a distance. Jaekyung, whose reason had been clouded by either anger or pain, snapped back to his senses at the sound. 'That fellow seems to be in a very good mood.'
Well, it was understandable. The situation certainly looked advantageous for it. Jaekyung realized that the apparent state of his body was perfect for creating a misunderstanding.
His body, bloodied from being bitten by hundreds of fish, certainly looked to be in a serious condition from the outside.
'Not bad.
No, this is very good.' His body, already sturdy, had become so resilient after molting that it could hardly be called a normal creature. Even with hundreds biting and tearing at him, though the pain was distinct, it was manageable.
"Kuaak!"
Jaekyung roared, twisting his body in an exaggerated manner. What use was roaring underwater, one might ask, but it was an act he put his whole soul into. In this water, the cunning frog's means of attack were limited.
Even more so once all these grotesque fish were dead. Outside the water, it had spat gleefully, but what could it do in the water? It would probably have to swing its tongue or approach directly to attack.
'It's cautious.
It will wait until my energy is as drained as possible.' Jaekyung swept away the remaining fish, making it look as desperate as possible, while gradually coiling up. As if his movements were slowing because his energy was draining.
But that cunning frog was suspicious. Even though Jaekyung appeared to be in tatters, it kept its distance, showing its caution. Jaekyung, who was staggering as if he was struggling, glanced at it from the corner of his eye and clicked his tongue inwardly.
'How troublesome.
Should I pretend to faint?' No matter how strong you are, it's useless if you can't catch your opponent. It was an obvious fact, but experiencing it directly felt different.
If he could have caught that frog, he wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble in the first place. 'Nothing can be perfect, though.' It was greedy for a snake without a single leg to wish to be as fast as a hopping frog.
But even if his head understood, he couldn't help but feel it was a pity.
Meanwhile.
Outside the pond, Cheong-o was flapping its wings blankly from a distance.
"Hmph."
Cheong-o was currently contemplating. Could Jaekyung defeat the nasty frog? He hoped so, but he wasn't sure.
Jaekyung was strong, but the nasty frog was no pushover either. 'If it's now...' Cheong-o's gaze turned to the center of the pond.
The not-yet-fully-bloomed lotus lay on the water, as if demanding to be looked at. Once you saw it, you couldn't look away. Cheong-o, being somewhat accustomed to such experiences, was able to avoid being completely mesmerized, but that didn't mean he could perfectly control his heart.
Gulp!
Reason and instinct collided. Reason told him to swallow the lotus at once. It shouted at him to take the profit he could get now, since he didn't know if Jaekyung could beat the nasty frog.
Instinct, on the other hand, told him to wait. It advised him not to ruin the treasure by being hasty, as the precious treasure was not yet complete. 'What do I do!'
Cheong-o was stuck between a rock and a hard place. But without realizing it, he was slowly approaching the lotus. However, that small movement was detected by the frog, which was carefully watching its opponent from inside the pond.
"Croak!"
In that moment, the eyes of the frog, which had been calmly submerged, sharpened. The creature snapped its head around to glare at the surface above, then cast its gaze back toward the giant snake submerged at the bottom of the pond. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, then soon launched its body forward with force.
'You've come at last!' Jaekyung, who was growing tired of the battle of patience, cheered inwardly. The frog, which he thought might be trying to kill him through excessive bleeding, had finally moved, but he did not let his guard down until the very end.
He gave the approaching frog a weary glance and showed himself trying to counterattack with a trembling body. Did his soul-filled performance work? A long tongue shot out like an arrow.
The length that had already extended was 5 meters? No, it looked to be at least 6 meters. Jaekyung maintained his composure and stared at the rapidly approaching tip of the tongue.
Then, in a single motion, he dodged the bluish tongue tip that came right before his nose and bit the middle part of the tongue. Besides avoiding the tip of the tongue, which at a glance seemed like something he shouldn't touch, Jaekyung tried not to bite too hard.
It would be troublesome if he bit too hard and accidentally severed the frog's tongue. Jaekyung bit the middle of the tongue and moved his body. As if it had never been limp, his tail whipped out like a lash and struck the frog's head.
The astonished frog staggered as it was struck on the head. It was fortunate this was in the water; if it had been struck outside, one blow would have flattened the creature. The moment the blow landed, no, the moment the creature extended its tongue, this fight was as good as over.
Jaekyung took his time and wrapped himself around the creature's head and torso. With its tongue restrained, the only resistance the creature could offer was to push with its tiny limbs, but Jaekyung's tensed body was as sturdy as a rock. The frog's desperate struggles were no more than an itch to him.
* "Shhh-" A large snake's head rose above the water's surface. The corpse of the monstrously large frog was held in its mouth.
"Jaekyung!"
Cheong-o, who had been half-entranced on the lotus, came over, cheering. Seeing this, Jaekyung's eyes narrowed. Why was that birdbrain loitering on the lotus?
It was a situation that naturally bred suspicion, but Jaekyung decided not to think about it further. 'Even I was swayed.' That lotus was a truly strange thing.
Even he, who was confident in his mental fortitude from his past life as a human, found it hard to look away after just a brief glance, and he felt that if he didn't force his eyes away, he would stand frozen before it like a statue forever. 'I know it's unusual, but does that make it a good thing?'
Something special is not necessarily something good. Although his instinct was screaming that the lotus was an incredibly good thing, the degree of it was so excessive that it made him hesitant. 'This must be because of my past life too.'
The memory of being human, the reason derived from it, made him feel fear towards the abnormal. In other words, it was a baseless fear. Because unlike his past life, he did not know how many abnormal things existed in this world.
'I myself am one of those abnormal things.' So, in the end, it was a baseless fear, and a fear that must be overcome.
"Jaekyung! What now?"
The monster frog that had protected the lotus and the pond until now became a daily meal for Jaekyung and Cheong-o. They shared and ate the frog right in front of the pond. Though they shared it, Jaekyung ate 99 percent, and Cheong-o only ate about 1 percent of what was left.
"Well."
In any case, the master of the pond had now changed. Jaekyung and Cheong-o could now pick and eat the lotus whenever they wanted. But both Jaekyung and Cheong-o hesitated.
'To be safe, we should pick and eat it now.' Just as they had invaded today, another creature could invade tomorrow. The frog must have faced a considerable number of intruders until now.
'Can I protect it until the flower fully blooms?' The frog must have been confident that it could protect it. Indeed, it had protected it well until today, so it wasn't a baseless confidence.
But in the end, it failed and even lost its life. As he pondered over and over, Jaekyung felt that the dense fog around them had thinned a little. 'Right, this fog was also one of that frog's abilities.
Now that it's dead, the fog will soon disappear.' This meant it would become even harder to protect the lotus. He surmised that the reason the frog had spread fog here was not only to detect intruders but also to limit the enemies' vision.
Especially the birds flying around. 'The lotus is too conspicuous. It will draw them in even if they spot it from afar.'
Just like himself, the frog couldn't do much against flying enemies. Birds, which could watch for an opening as they pleased without being hit by attacks from this side, were the worst threat to protecting the lotus. 'It's not just me; Cheong-o won't be much help either.'
If the lotus had bloomed on dry land, he might have tried to cover it with trees or rocks, but it was blooming right in the middle of a pond, leaving him with no options.
'Ugh.'
What should he do? Should he just watch over it for now? But what if the monstrous birds he had seen before invaded?
Then, he would not be able to protect his life, let alone the lotus. 'I have no choice.' His worries were deep, but his decision was swift.
Jaekyung raised his body, heavy from eating the frog. Feeling Cheong-o's gaze follow him, he said.
"Let's eat it now. If we drag this out and spirit beasts invade, we'll lose everything."
"Ch..."
Cheong-o opened and closed its beak a few times and became sullen. The little one was not foolish, so it knew there was no other choice.
"Then..."
Jaekyung went to the center of the pond and carefully took the entire lotus in his mouth. He wanted to swallow it whole, but he remembered his promise with Cheong-o and held back. A partner who could fly and be his eyes in the sky, versus a few petals of a flower whose effects were unknown.
It was clear which one he should prioritize. A moment later. Jaekyung, who had come out of the water, finished distributing the shares as promised with Cheong-o. He gave a few of the unopened petals to Cheong-o and held the rest in his mouth.
Gulp!
Without hesitation, Jaekyung swallowed the lotus he held in his mouth. The moment the flower, which was pathetically small compared to the space in his large mouth, fell into his stomach, Jaekyung felt an indescribable refreshing coolness suffuse his entire body. And the next moment.
A sudden drowsiness washed over him. Before he could even feel that something was wrong, Jaekyung fell asleep. But his eyes were open, and his body did not lie on the ground.
He could still see and move, but he could not think. How much time had passed? The light returned to Jaekyung's vacant eyes.
'What was that?' Something had changed. What he saw with his eyes had changed, and what he felt with his senses had changed.
But what was maddening was that he knew something had changed, but he didn't know exactly how it had changed. But it had definitely changed. The world had changed.
'No, is it not the world that has changed, but me?' His mind was clearer than ever before. His thoughts were distinct, and his emotions were steady and clear.
As for the strength in his body... he wasn't sure. He had felt overflowing with strength even before.
"..."
Jaekyung was about to call Cheong-o but closed his mouth. He saw that the small bird, which had settled nearby at some point, was staring blankly into the air as if hypnotized. It was probably undergoing a change just as he had moments ago.
'The feeling is incredibly good, though.' Instead of disturbing Cheong-o, Jaekyung decided to slowly grasp and savor the changes that had occurred within himself. He lay his body down, coiled up, and looked at the sky with his eyes half-closed.
It was definitely the same sky he had seen countless times before, yet now it looked completely different to his eyes. Especially each of the innumerable celestial bodies hanging in the sky.
"Huh?"
Jaekyung's half-closed eyes flew wide open. One among the countless celestial bodies. That one, neither particularly large nor bright, suddenly began to grow in size without restraint, soon transforming into a giant eye.
That eye stared directly at Jaekyung, and he dared not turn his gaze away from it. The great eye held his gaze with sheer force. The pull was similar to the lotus that had entered his stomach, but its intensity was incomparably stronger.
Faced with this violent pull, Jaekyung could not even muster the will to resist. That mystical gaze completely overwhelmed him. -This is an invitation to you, our kin. Then, a mighty will descending from the sky conveyed its meaning. -We hold no malice.
Rather, this could be an opportunity for you, but everything depends on you. The will was calm. It was a mechanical notification. -We do not force.
If you refuse, you will not be invited again. The will echoed one last time. -Will you accept the invitation? Because the will did not oppress him, Jaekyung, while trembling and confused, was able to think.
'Invitation? Kin?'
It was full of words he couldn't understand, but one thing was certain. The statement that there was no malice must be true. Though it only conveyed meaning, the pressure emitted by this mighty will that delivered the invitation was something Jaekyung had never felt before.
Not even once.
His parents?
The two humans who had harmed them? The monstrous bird? Nothing could compare.
The pressure now was that overwhelming. A being this powerful would have no need to be so troublesome if it intended to harm him. 'Kin, did it say kin?'
What kind of kin? This invitation probably didn't come from some snake's den, so there was only one possibility that came to mind. The moment he thought of that possibility, Jaekyung's heart began to pound violently.
'I accept.'
The moment he made the decision in his mind, before he could open his mouth to make a sound. -Welcome, kin. Before him, a wonderland filled with countless brilliant lights unfolded.