Chapter 1 - The End Tastes Like Udon
Mornings in Tokyo were always too loud, too fast, too crowded—yet somehow, they carried a rhythm. A rhythm he had long learned to dance to. He, a man in his mid-twenties with sleep-deprived eyes and a mind wired to code, was just another cog in the city's ever-spinning machine. His name? Not famous. Not feared. Just a line on a company ID badge: Ren Nakamura.
Ren worked as a software engineer for a mid-sized tech firm, the kind that promised "cutting-edge solutions" and delivered never-ending overtime. His specialty was embedded systems and electronics—he could build circuit boards from scratch, program microcontrollers blindfolded, and debug spaghetti code before his third cup of instant coffee. People called him a wizard with machines, but when it came to people? Not so much.
Despite his introverted shell, Ren had one passion that lit him up like a well-grounded circuit: food. Not just eating—he revered food. He maintained a digital food journal, documented every ramen bowl he slurped, and had strong opinions on regional okonomiyaki styles. Where others saw lunch, he saw an art form.
It was supposed to be just another late night debugging session.
Renzou "Ren" Nakamura stared bleary-eyed at the matrix of code on his monitor. Glitches in a prototype firmware for a smart rice cooker—it had kept him tethered to his desk past midnight for the third night in a row. A half-eaten cup of convenience store udon sat beside his keyboard, its broth cooled, the noodles swollen and soggy.
"One more line..." he muttered, hands hovering over the keyboard.
With a tired sigh, he bundled up and headed down to the street. The city was quiet—late, but not asleep. Neon signs blinked like tired eyes. As he reached the crosswalk, he saw her—a young woman stumbling across the street, eyes glued to her phone.
A delivery truck was speeding around the corner. Too fast. Too close.
Without thinking, Ren dashed forward.
The impact came like lightning. The world spun. Udon. Code. Screams. Then darkness.
Pain never came.
Just the sound of crunching metal, and then—
Darkness.
He floated. No weight, no body. Just thought.
Was this death? There were no pearly gates. No judgment. Just silence.
Then, a voice.
[?] "You saved someone. Interesting."
It wasn't a human voice. It resonated from everywhere and nowhere. Deep, mechanical yet somehow familiar. If Ren were to describe it, he'd say it sounded like the synthesized voice of a supercomputer narrating a dream.
[?] "You died with unfinished dreams… and an unusually powerful craving for food."
Ren thought, *"I didn't even get to try the black garlic duck udon..."
[?] "You wish to eat again, don't you? To taste the world."
"Of course I do," he replied silently. *"There's so much left. Ramen stalls in Osaka, curry shops in Sapporo—"
[?] "Very well. I shall grant you a second life. One where your hunger may shape your destiny. Your passion for food, your knowledge of machines—they will be your weapons."
The presence, though lacking warmth, exuded calm precision—like an intelligence built from silicon and ancient algorithms, threading fate like lines of code.
A strange sensation. Not pain. Not cold. Just… nothing. And then, an echo:
[System Notification]
[Soul identified. Processing qualifications for reincarnation.]
"Wait. Reincarn—huh?"
[System Notification]
[Unique disposition detected: Analytical Mind. Food Obsession. Creativity Under Pressure.]
"Hold on! Where am I?! What's going on?" he tried to yell, but his voice didn't carry. Or maybe he didn't have one?
[System Notification]
[Reincarnation initiated. New form: Slime.]
Then, everything went white.
He awoke to wetness. Cold stone pressed against him, or rather, against something. He wasn't sure what he was anymore.
He tried to breathe, but didn't have lungs. He tried to sit, but had no limbs. His entire being was gelatinous. Squishy.
"What the actual hell am I?"
Consciousness returned in drips. Ren felt... jelly-like. No bones. No hands. No desk, no screen. Just a squishy awareness and a profound sense of what the heck is going on.
He tried to scream. No mouth. Tried to run. No legs. But he could move—kind of. Wobble? Jiggle?
He took in his surroundings through some strange, all-around sense that wasn't quite vision. Darkness. A cave. The air was damp, mineral-rich. Somewhere nearby, the faint echo of dripping water.
He sloshed forward and landed with a splat beside a puddle. Something told him to look into it, and though he had no eyes, he "saw" the ripple.
No face. No body. Just a wobbling blue orb.
He was a slime.
A literal slime.
He might've screamed, if he had a mouth.
Instead, thoughts bounced in his mind in rapid confusion. How am I thinking? Am I just… thinking to myself, or is this out loud?
He didn't speak—not really. He would later learn that this world allowed mental communication between certain beings. But for now, he didn't question it. He just... accepted it.
More wobbles. More impacts. More input.
[Analysis: Rock. Sedimentary. Trace minerals detected.]
"Whoa. I just... analyzed that?" he thought. It felt natural, like opening a folder on his desktop.
[Analysis: Plant detected. Edible. Nutritional value: moderate. Suggest digestion.]
[Skill Acquisition]
[Skills acquired: Absorb. Analyze]
Somewhere in the back of his mind, a system interface had opened up—like a debug console, but for reality.
Ren was a slime. A very confused, very curious, very hungry slime.
And the taste of the herbs he just absorbed? Surprisingly similar to sansho pepper.
Maybe reincarnation wasn't going to be so bad after all.
And yet, somewhere deep within his core, past the confusion and panic, a single thought bubbled to the surface:
"...I wonder if this world has udon."
[Milestone Achieved: Reboot Complete — Reincarnated as a Slime]