Endless Evolution as a Centipede in a Game-Like World

A memory as vivid as day reconstructed before Amanda’s beautiful, crystal-like eyes. Something wet slid down her face. She reached out to grab it, hoping it would just rain, but instead, it was something she hadn’t seen before in a long while.

Her own tears...

Dark clouds lined the sky, perfectly fitting the day when her life turned for the worse. Her younger self threw herself over a woman laying lifelessly on the ground. A woman with platinum blonde hair and beautiful emerald eyes.

The two shared a striking resemblance to each other.

"Mother, wake up!" she wailed, even though she knew her mother would never wake up again.

How could she, when there was a hole in her chest where her heart was supposed to be?

Right beside her, her father kneeled down, powerless while covered in his own blood. A man that she once thought invincible reduced to nothing but a broken mess. Cassius’s eyes burned with hatred and rage as he stared up at the man who had committed this atrocity against his family.

"Why?! Why did you do this?! You loved her just as we all did! She was your family too, why did you have to kill her?"

Cassius’s blood boiled with rage, the landscape around him compressing through the force of his draconic might.

The figure that stood above him was unperturbed by his rage. He looked down at the mighty dragon king and spoke in an emotionless tone.

"She broke the rules. She knew better than to get involved with players."

The figure looked down at them with scorn. He himself felt anger towards the woman he killed. She defiled their species by procreating with the players meant to entertain them. Yet because she was his sister, he allowed her to give birth to another of the parasites, before he took life.

It was her last wish, and the only ,mercy he could grant her as her brother.

On the ground, next to the grieving family, was a young baby with its umbilical cord just cut. The newborn was silently laying on the ground, its skin turning blue from the lack of oxygen in its body.

No one paid the young infant any mind since their minds were solely on the dying woman.

The younger Amanda held her mother’s grip tightly and cried, blocking out everyone and everything around her. But suddenly, she felt her mother’s grip tighten, like one final jerk of life.

Immediately, she looked up at her mother, but her eyes were still lifeless. Yet her lifeless gaze was directed somewhere else. It was looking in the direction of the infant lying unmoving on the ground.

Amanda’s eyes widened. She felt as if her mother was trying to tell her something, and she immediately understood what it was.

"I’ll protect her, mom, don’t worry. I’ll protect my little sister!" As she made that promise, she slowly pried herself off the ground and climbed to her feet.

She walked over to the infant who was far too quiet for a newborn and picked her up off the ground. Its body emitted a chilling coldness that seemed to wrap around her. But slowly, she began to shake the newborn in her arms while speak to the child.

"You have to wake up, ok? Mom and I stayed up the whole night trying to come up with a name for you. Mom wanted to name you Ka’Zara. It’s a name from her home planet, but I didn’t like it, so I threw a stupid tantrum until she finally decided to choose the name that I wanted..."

Amanda leaned in close, as if she was revealing a deeply kept secret.

"Amelia... Do you like it?"

Slowly the baby’s icey blue lips parted and then...

"Wah, Wah, Waaa... Waaa."

Hearing the sound of her newborn baby sister crying, Amanda’s lips trembled into a smile as tears filled her eyes. Suddenly she was no longer watching in third person, as she was now holding her sister, from fire person view, reliving the memory just as it happened.

This was her last memory of herself crying.

As she shook her baby sister in her arms, Amanda became lost in time and didn’t even realize that the world around her had changed again.

Her face was wet with tears, although she was no longer in the memory. Her arms were wrapped around something firmly, even though her sister was no longer in her arms.

Furthermore, whatever she was hugging was embracing her back. Though its body felt strange.

She didn’t know what it was, but just for that moment, she didn’t care. Whatever it was, it felt warm, and she didn’t want to let go of that warmth.

She embraced it and allowed her tears to flow freely, something she hadn’t done in years.

"Amanda... are you ok?"

Suddenly, a voice echoed inside her head telepathically. It was a sensation she had gotten used to for the last few days, but a sudden realization caused her eyes to snap open with force.

When she opened her eyes, what she saw wasn’t a soft, fluffy pillow. It was a black, oily centipede!

"L-Liam!"

In a panic, she tossed the insect aside and frantically crawled to the edge of the platform, so close that another step backwards would lead her tumbling down into the dark waters.

Her hands covered her chest and most of her body. Suddenly, she felt naked, as if someone had seen something they shouldn’t.

"What were you doing?!"

"There was an octopus on your face. I killed it, then went to check up on you, and that’s when you pulled me in for a hug and started calling me Amelia."

Her face burned crimson as she experienced an emotion she had never felt before.

’Is this what embarrassment felt like?’

She couldn’t allow him to see her like this. No one is supposed to see her like this!

She was ready to accuse him of being a pervert and even threaten to tell Amelia about it. Anything she could do to keep her dignity, but just then, before she could, he cut her off, his voice dripping with urgency.

"This isn’t important right now. We have to prepare ourselves!"