Every now and then she thought she heard a voice, like little voiceless shrieks coming from the tiny bacteria her pseudopodia caught. It felt like there were people in the bacteria. Were there other Girls besides her? Maybe other Girls had pulled bacteria or algae cards. She didn’t know for sure, but when she heard screams during her meals it was far more satisfying. She had no taste buds to tell her if the food was good. She just got a satisfied feeling. The closest point of comparison she had was when getting points for free when playing Evo Gals. So Youko started calling the hypothetical beings that gave her this sensation ‘points’.
It seemed like she could get ‘points’ not only from other creatures; they also spontaneously developed inside her. Exactly like a mobile game’s points. The same way you could get points just for logging in every day.
As time passed, she built enough points that they started demonstrating a strange power. They pointed Youko in a certain direction, pulling her in that direction like a magnet. Youko was sure of it. That must be where the premium gacha was. If there was a normal gacha, there was no way they didn’t have a premium one. This truth was self-evident.
Youko could hardly be satisfied with her current state. She wanted to be something more. Not some amoeba, something that didn’t matter if it existed or not. She had to become a more impressive Girl. And the only way to do that was to pull from the premium gacha.
Wriggling herself, she advanced in the direction the points indicated using peristaltic movement. She couldn’t see, but she knew she was headed towards the gacha. A primal urge she could not resist filled Youko’s body. It felt like when she woke up in the morning and immediately grabbed her phone to launch the game. The gacha taxis.
As Youko pressed onwards urgently, something suddenly felt wrong. It was a very unpleasant sensation. The flesh in contact with the world was sending warnings to her with all its might. Some sort of danger was approaching!
Youko yanked in her outstretched pseudopodia. This was a wise decision. A large multicellular organism was camped in front of her. Ten or more cells clustered together, cilia stretching out of each to rake in the prey in the water around.
“Tch! You there! Hand over your points or else!”
“You can talk?” Youko thought, surprised, but she was delighted to have finally met an actual thing at last. With no mouth or voice or brain, how could she talk? Youko spoke to this new organism directly from her soul. Much like telepathy.
“’Course I can talk. I’m a Girl. So are you. Got it? Now gimme them points!” It might not be saying ‘Girl’ or ‘points’ specifically, but Youko understood what it was trying to say. It wanted the things Youko had decided to call points.
The multicellular organism thrust a cilium in Youko’s direction. She dodged at the last second, taking full advantage of her body’s flexibility. Of course, both of them were microscopic, so this was an exceedingly small-scale fight.
Youko didn’t know how big her enemy was, or what it looked like. She just sensed an overwhelming need to run away.
“You want my points! Take them, they’re yours! Just let me go!” To hell with shame or reputation. If she’d been physically capable of getting down on her hands and knees she already would be.
“Sorry, but the only way to transfer points is to eat you. Stay still and let me chow down!”
It did not seem like diplomacy was an option. She’d have to think of another way to escape this peril. Did she have any useful abilities? Her phagosomes would not serve as weapons. Since she had to surround her prey, she had no way of processing anything bigger than herself. If the cards she had now wouldn’t do the trick, she had to level up. In your average mobile game, fusing multiples of the same card would give you new cards with higher stats. Maybe this world worked the same way. That was her only chance.
Youko prayed, “Two Microtubules, fuse! Two Chitins, fuse!”
N: Microtubles fused! Evolved to R: Cilium
N: Chitin fused! Evolved to R: Shell
Good! Combining identical cards did actually evolve them.
Youko’s body was now covered with a hard chitin shell. Her flowing soft body fit inside of it. She had cilia sticking out of the holes in the shell, allowing her to suck organic matter in.
A moment after her transformation, the multicellular organism swallowed Youko. Its phagosomes secreted digestive enzymes, but with her new chitin shell, these were unable to dissolve Youko.
“Yo, yo, what? What you doing inside my cells? You’re nasty!”
“You’re the one who ate me!” Youko wasn’t about to stand for that.
“Oh, right. So I guess I win? That shell of yours won’t last long. Tough break!”
“Yeah? I think you’re the one facing a tough break.”
Youko extended her cilia, stabbing the cell membrane. The nucleus was only protected by lipids, and her hardened cilia could easily get inside. She was after the genes. The root of all physical information, the common weak point of all species. If she could damage the genes, the cell was as good as dead. Even if it appeared to be doing just fine on the surface, without that genetic information it would stop functioning in a few hours.
“Huh? You just destroyed my genes?”
“Yup!”
“Huh. I’m a multicellular organism! One ruined cell doesn’t even faze me! I’m still gonna eat you!”
“Go right ahead and try. I’ll just destroy more of your genes!”
It could eat Youko, but that would lead to it sustaining fatal damage. Calling this a draw was the best strategy for both parties. Her opponent finally seemed to realize that, so Youko released the ruined cell and left. As she went, her enemy yelled after her.
“OK, I’ll let you go this time! But I’ll pay you back someday! My name’s Dyaus! Don’t you forget it!”
Dyaus left, and Youko happily took what was left behind. She ate the still living cell from the inside. It tasted like nothing, but it satisfied her. She could tell there had been points inside. Her pile of points was whetting Youko’s appetite. Her consciousness was filled with one thought alone. The gacha. She needed to pull. Wriggling her body, she crossed mountains and valleys, headed for the gacha of her dreams.
She could feel that familiar sensation coming from up ahead. It felt much more valuable than the gacha she’d used during reincarnation. She was sure it was the premium gacha.
Even though she had no eyes, it felt like her vision was broadening. This sensation hadn’t appeared out of nowhere. It was more like it had always been there and Youko simply hadn’t noticed.
Youko released the points within her, placing them in the gacha. She felt embarrassed and yet free, as if she was now naked. It felt like even her skin had been stripped off.
But even with all her points in it, she couldn’t pull from the gacha. She didn’t have enough. It was like she heard a voice telling her to whale. She wasn’t sure if it was the gacha talking or a voice inside her.