Chapter 715: The Right to Struggle

When those things first looked for chefs.

I had been able to predict that they would request the creation of a dish.

What kind of dish they would ask for was the only issue. There was no way there could be any other reason to call chefs.

But.

“A recipe?”

That request.

It was certainly a cooking request, if one called it that...... but it was a little different from what I had expected.

{That is right. What we want is not an excellent dish.}

What the creature wanted was not some dish with a powerful effect.

Rather, the opposite.

{The quality of the cooking may be ordinary. No, that would be better, rather. So I would like you to create a recipe for us.}

Something very ordinary.

The creation of a cooking recipe.

“A recipe for you. What does that mean?”

{Our essence is close to what you call parasites.}

When I frowned in puzzlement.

The being beyond the mist continued speaking.

{Our origin lies not in this world, but somewhere in the universe outside it.}

“I know you’re beings from outside. You aren’t the only ones like that in this world right now.”

{Then this will be easy to explain. The creator who created us planted one command into our genes. In a state where we have not undergone sufficient evolution, we simply follow that instinct engraved into our genes faithfully.}

“......An instinct engraved into your genes?”

{To parasitize more places, and increase the number of hosts.}

At those words.

I recalled the zombies I had seen before coming here.

An enormous number.

It was common knowledge that parasites had excellent reproductive ability, but.

'For them to multiply to that number in only a few years is at a level that makes no sense by ordinary standards.'

The reproductive ability of those things was grotesque.

The creature was saying the reason for that lay in their instinct.

{We instinctively seek hosts. After we infiltrate a host like that, if we judge that we have succeeded in settling there stably...... we immediately create offspring to infiltrate another host.}

“.......”

{There is no guarantee that the offspring born that way will find a proper host and succeed in parasitism. That is why all we can do is make as many attempts as possible. No matter how low the probability is, if there are many attempts, the number of successes rises as well. That is why the offspring one individual can produce number at least in the thousands.}

The sudden biology lecture was a little puzzling.

But the main point the creature wanted to make lay elsewhere.

{Where do you think the energy for that is obtained?}

“......Hmm.”

At those words.

I frowned and fell into thought.

It had been a part I had been slightly curious about already, so I had a personal guess.

“By eating the flesh of the host, or maybe absorbing mana from the surroundings...... no?”

{Unfortunately, no.}

“......?”

{The universe is vast. We are not beings that originated on this planet. Among those places, there are many worlds where mana does not exist. The types of hosts are also far too varied. The characteristics of the species we parasitize are far too diverse for us to use hosts as an energy source by eating them.}

Even on Earth alone.

There were herbivores, and there were carnivores.

The act of consuming something and converting it into energy was a considerably complex process.

Because of that, the energy sources most life could consume were more limited than one might think.

Humans, called omnivores, seemed to use everything as an energy source, but there were certainly energy sources they could not consume.

Just as plants converted carbon dioxide into glucose and synthesized nitrogen into amino acids to use as an energy source, but humans could not.

The energy sources of each life-form were different.

{If we made only a specific energy into our energy source, then in the end we would fail to parasitize in many worlds.}

It would be good if they could use as many things as possible as energy sources.

But to do that, they would need very many and very complex absorption organs.

Because of that, most life did not use its resources as a living organism on useless parts.

They underwent efficient evolution by leaving only necessary functions and degenerating unnecessary ones.

{We are parasites. Beings that take place inside the bodies of other living creatures. We already have the condition that we must be able to survive inside the bodies of other living creatures.}

I recalled what those rock giants, now collapsed, had shouted when we arrived here.

Had they said that in the end, these things were nothing more than bugs?

But.

I recalled what I had experienced in that Church.

There, I learned that not only humans, but many other life-forms were beings that could receive the System’s choice.

Humans were not superior to other lives.

Bugs were also not inferior to other lives.

To begin with, there was no superiority or inferiority between living beings.

{Many functions are already consumed solely to allow us to succeed in parasitism and endure under any hostile condition.}

Because the appearance of parasites was so simple, it was easy to think they were an inferior species by that much.

But the inside of the living beings they tried to parasitize was by no means an environment good for living creatures.

The host’s immune system would recognize a foreign being as an enemy and try to destroy it.

There were dangerous factors such as strong acidic gastric fluids or digestive enzymes in the stomach, and moving through thick muscle was not an easy thing either.

The very fact that they could survive inside it.

Was the result of parasites having undergone a high degree of evolution so they could survive even in that cruel environment.

If they were parasites from one world, it would be better, at least.

In this world, most of the things parasites parasitized were carbon-based organic life-forms.

If they could use those carbon-based organic life-forms as an energy source, energy supply itself would not be that difficult.

But the creatures that wandered through many worlds were different.

There was no knowing what kind of life-form existed in that world.

Already complex life-forms could not be made so complex that they could use countless kinds of energy as energy sources.

{The answer is.......}

Because of that.

The answer to the creature’s question, “where do we obtain energy,” was simple.

{“We do not consume it.”}

“......What?”

{It is exactly as I said.}

When I was first called here as a chef by these creatures.

There was something I had thought, even while finding it absurd.

Were these things even creatures that ate something in the first place?

And, absurdly enough.

{We...... do not additionally consume any energy.}

That thought of mine.

Had hit the mark exactly.

***

{We...... do not additionally consume any energy.}

Just as I had expected before coming here.

Those creatures were not consuming any food.

{When we wander the universe, our creator supplies us in advance with enough calories for activity. We infiltrate other worlds with only that.}

“.......”

{Through that, we succeed in parasitism and give birth to countless offspring. And so those offspring can give birth to even more offspring, we transfer most of the energy we possess to those offspring.}

“If that happens.”

{The strength remaining in the parasite that succeeds in giving birth to and spreading offspring is extremely faint.}

At those words.

I asked a question in puzzlement.

“You said...... you are even undergoing evolution, didn’t you?”

{That is so. I suppose it is to evolve to the next stage according to that world, and create an environment where other kin can parasitize hosts more safely.}

“That evolution alone must consume an enormous amount of power. You have no additional energy supply, and you hand over all the energy you were given to the next generation? How can something like that be possible?”

{It is simple.}

From beyond that mist.

A bitter taste reached me.

{We give up on survival.}

“......?”

{Our goal is to create hosts. An individual that achieves that goal, and even creates offspring capable of making new hosts, begins to evolve. This makes it consume more power.......}

The emotion I felt from that taste was sorrow.

{After giving birth to offspring, our lifespan is not even three years at the longest.}

“What?”

{On average, perhaps about two years.}

Two years.

Well, by the standards of bugs or parasites, that was not short.

But.......

'The lifespan of a species that evolves enough to acquire that much intelligence is about two years?'

That was...... short.

Far too short.

And.

{By coincidence...... roughly two years have passed since ruin came to this world.}

It had felt endlessly long.

But looking back, it had only been two years.

Compared to that density, it was an absurdly short time.

{Even now, somewhere.......}

Slide.

The goblin approached us.

The one that had been called Chancellor extended its hand.

What was in that hand.

-Screek.......

Was one giant rat.

“Pr, prince.......”

It had grown strangely huge, swelling to nearly the size of a large dog.

But its shape was definitely that of a rat.

'It was probably a rat that had originally been small.'

These beings were originally nothing more than parasites.

Before there were more of their kin, before parasitism became easy.

A small beast they could have barely managed to parasitize without help from other kin.

And.

-......Ghk.

The rat, which had been moving in the form of a corpse.

Suddenly stopped moving.

{The “natural deaths” of the kin who first set foot in this world are likely occurring.}

The rat, whose essence had been a corpse.

When even the parasite that had been forcibly moving it reached death.

Only then did it return to its original corpse.

“The king.......”

{.......}

“Has...... passed away.”

Prince.

And king.

Only after hearing those words did I understand the identity of that rat.

'The parasite that first began parasitizing this land of North Korea.'

There could not have been only one parasite that descended upon this vast land.

But that thing had surely been one of the beings that began in the zeroth generation.

The enormous number of zombies spread countlessly across this land.

A being corresponding to their progenitor.

Yes.

Like what I saw in the memory of that “flesh”.......

One of the bugs that gnawed at the barrier of this world, directly bored a hole through it, and fell inside.

And.

'The previous generation of the [Prince] beyond that mist.'

But.

For something that was supposed to be the progenitor of that enormous number of zombies, or one of the first beings to fall into this world.

{This is the ending given to us.}

The sight of that dead rat.

Was far too empty.

{A being that first fell into this world, and survived to the very end under the extreme situation of having to succeed in parasitism without the help of any kin. You do not know how much history existed inside that small body. And yet...... even a being no different from a great ancestor who spread us across this land dies so emptily from “starvation.”}

“......Starvation.”

{Simply because it was not given the calories to continue life any longer...... for no more than that reason.}

I felt the gazes of that goblin.

And the being beyond the mist turn toward me.

{We do not want this ending.}

“.......”

{So what we ask of you is this. Chefs.}

A chef was one who made cooking.

Cooking was something eaten.

And eating was, in other words, no different from the struggle of life to continue living.

But...... those creatures were incapable of that “eating.”

They had certainly been born.

But from the beginning, the possibility of struggling to continue the life they had been given had been taken from them.

{Please make us a dish we can eat.}

What the creatures wanted.

Was the right to continue that struggle.