I could not possibly be in a worse situation. I think death may be preferable to a fate as terrible as this.

[Human System and Bee System have combined to create The Beest System!]

A System with a wicked sense of humor is a recipe for disaster in more ways than one, if the stories are to be believed.

"... Did that say human?" The humming which came from the bee whose body I now inhabited became much less friendly. Did it have some sort of grudge against the humans in this world?

"You can see that? What is it?"

"You… are not aware of the System? What exactly are you?"

"I'm a person. A human from Earth, which I assume is another world entirely. Name's Enno."

The humming became curious rather than angry. Seems like my deflection worked.

"Earth? A different world?"

"Before we get into an endless spiral of questions, let's just answer the ones standing."

"...Very well. The System is the guiding hand of all species. It is a gift from our gods that allows us to grow and understand the world around us. As far as I know."

As far as it knows? How did it even know all this information in the first place? As if to answer my question, words suddenly popped into existence before my eyes.

[Name: (Unnamed)]

[Age: 1 months]

[Subtype: Queen]

[Status: Mortally Wounded]

[Abilities:

* Create Egg (Lv. 1)

* Combined Mind

* Queen Piping (Lv. 1)

* Venomous Stinger

]

[Mind: 10th Degree]

[Tapped Mind: 0% / 95%]

[Mind Locks:

* Life (5%)

]

Alright! Finally, some progress. As expected, the status menu had a ton of helpful information. Mostly. I assumed most of the information is related to the original bee - queen bee apparently - and its (her?) body. Which meant that I was in control of a female bee's body. Just an eensy-weensy difference from my male human one.

The lack of abilities that seemed immediately helpful was disappointing, and the 'Mind' information was way beyond what I understood. Thankfully, I had a guide right here in my new bee noggin.

"Hey, uh, Queen? Can you explain a bit about these abilities and information?" I tried.

The humming resumed, still seeming more uncomfortable than our first interaction. I would have to investigate Queen's relationship with humans of this world, but for now, I needed to get us out of this situation.

"All I know is what I was born knowing. I am not aware of what a name is, but the other information is mostly self-explanatory. As for abilities, these are actions I am- was - capable of as a queen bee, simple actions I was born to use to build my hive."

"And what about Mind?"

"I am unsure. It may have something to do with my ability to communicate with my offspring. That feels most natural."

A sound guess. A magic bee probably wouldn't just communicate with other bees with pheromones or noises or whatever.

Maybe I could inspect the system menu thing for more information?

I poured my focus into thinking about the new ability I had been notified of, [Combined Mind], and my efforts bore fruit.

[Combined Mind:

Acquired by: Attaining the imposs-]

Fuck! A sharp pain broke my concentration, the injuries not content with being ignored. I needed to take care of this pronto.

Right. I could ignore my arm for now. It hurt like a motherfucker and the cauterized wound was sloppy, but it was stable and not in immediate danger (probably). The big problem at the moment was the nasty burn coating a significant portion of my abdomen and... I wanna say thorax?

The only things I know about treating burns are cool water, aloe, and bandages. Water is the most immediate necessity, and I'm sure finding some won't be overly difficult with Queen's help. Bandages might be tough, but I could press some leaves or something on the burns to close them off.

No idea how I would do anything about aloe. I don't even know what it is about aloe that helps burns in the first place.

"Queen? Is there any sort of water nearby? I need to treat these burns somehow if we want to survive," I gasped internally. The pain was messing with my head, confusing me.

"Water, hm? Unfortunately, I cannot perfectly recall where the nearest bit of water might be. I… believe there was a lake near my old hive, but…"

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Hm. This seemed like as good a time as any to learn about Queen's past. Anything to take my mind off the pain.

"So… What exactly happened? You're injured and lost. Does it have something to do with your hatred of humans, or is that like a monster thing?"

After a solid few minutes of silence, Queen urged me to do my best to get a look outside the tree trunk. Thankfully, my insectoid, uh, 'feet,' and the tree's rough interior made climbing the walls not much of a challenge, most of the difficulty coming from the pain. I only just realized how huge I was, clearly some sort of magic bee. My- I mean, Queen's body nearly filled the radius of the tree trunk, and even if it was a small tree, I think it would be bigger than any bee on Earth by a huge margin.

I climbed weakly up to a hole in the trunk to peek outside and was inclined to believe that my new crazy compound bee eyes were fooling me.

Outside was something that could only be described as a hellscape.

The sky was thick with black smoke and dark gray clouds, the sun barely able to penetrate the layers of gray, causing the world to look like a colorless wasteland. The ground had no grass, scorched black and mixed with some sort of white mineral. This place had clearly once been a forest, but the only sign of such an environment was countless charred lumps resembling tree trunks or stumps. A deafening quiet pervaded the world except for the occasional sound of thunder roaring overhead. Some of the blackened lumps on the ground were nearly identifiable as some sort of animal.

Even more disturbing than the burned and blackened land were unsettlingly unnatural features. Huge gashes in the ground peppered the area, boulders that seemed oddly out of place strewn about. Random spots on the floor seemed to glow with an ominous light, and metallic spikes were driven into the ground at various points. In sporadic intervals, giant multicolored crystals jutted out of the floor, some reaching far into the sky.

"What… happened?"

Queen's humming felt solemn as she spoke a single word: "humans."

I tried to gently lower myself back to the bed of leaves, but I bumped into the ground a little too hard.

"GodDAMMIT!"

"Speaking ill of the gods? Not very smart for a human."

"Oh, shut up. Are you sure you can still feel this pain?"

Silence from the Queen. Fine then. I mentally grimaced at the trunk looming above us. The hole I had peeked through was too small to squeeze my fat queen butt through, and the only way out seemed to be from the broken top. I tested my crumpled wings and winced. Not flying out. The only way would be to bear the pain and climb.

One step. Two steps. Three. The burns flared as I reached the peephole. Only a million miles to go. Each step increased my pain tenfold, my mind going numb as I tried to power through. Suddenly, I realized that I was an out-of-shape office worker who liked to read and watch tv for several years, and powering through life-threatening injuries was not exactly a skill of mine.

Please. I had to get out of this tree trunk or die. I had to go up.

I couldn't take it anymore. I let go of the wall and slowly floated upwards.

Bwuh?

"What the hell is this?! What's happening?!" I mentally yelled as my slow ascent wavered. I hurriedly tried to imagine going up and out of the tree trunk, and my awkward slanted rise continued. As I floated, the numbness in my mind buzzed. How was this possible?

"Mind!" I tried yelling the parts of my status I wanted to see, but all I really needed to do was think about it.

[Mind: 10th Degree]

[Tapped Mind: 1.1% / 95%]

[Mind Locks:

* Life (5%)

]

Aha! Suddenly, I had a bit more hope. The unknown Mind stats have to do with psychic powers!

"You didn't tell me you could use psychic powers, Queen! This solves pretty much everything."

"I do not know about these 'psychic powers.' As I said, my instincts are to use my Mind to influence my kin. My hive. What you are doing… it is wrong."

Whatever. Psychic powers! And if such a small amount of my maximum capacity could make me fly, imagine what I could do with more!

I pushed more concentration into moving upwards, trusting my instincts to guide me.

[Tapped Mind: 2% / 95%]

A sudden burst of speed shot me upwards, blasting me through the hole at the top of the trunk! I panicked and cut off the concentration, plummeting toward the scorched forest floor.

Concentrating is a little tricky when you're falling to your death.

After a few sudden stops and jerking motions, I hit the ground with a thud. The pain became so intense that I began to black out again. Luckily, a queen bee kindly hummed like a runaway freight train directly into my brain.

"AFTER ALL OF THIS YOU ARE GIVING UP? AWAKEN!"

I did my best to groan as I stirred. Right. Water.

"Which way to the lake?"

"Do not worry. When you begin moving, I will guide you."

Great. Not like our collective lives were in danger or anything. With a bit more care, I concentrated on moving up and forwards. Keeping an eye on my Tapped Mind, I tried to keep it around 1%. Enough to float but not enough to fly. Queen's humming felt like a game of hot and cold in my ears, becoming louder when I was going the (presumably) right way.

Days passed. Wait, no. My pain-addled brain turned minutes into an odyssey-sized adventure, each moment spent floating around bringing us closer to the grave. I really hoped Queen knew where she was going. As far as I could tell, we were going in circles, the only landmarks around being charred wood and the occasional rainbow crystal.

Queen said humans had caused this destruction, which confused me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I knew the danger humans can pose to the environment as well as anyone, but senseless destruction like this was unusual.

Humans destroy for their own gain, but that would be more along the lines of deforestation. The carnage here told a different story. Burning an entire forest? Killing all living creatures in sight? Not to mention the trenches and crystals and salted earth.

This was a war.

Either Queen didn't want to tell me the truth or she didn't know, but if humans were the cause of this state of this hellscape, then I had to tread very carefully around them. Or whatever they were fighting against.

Not to mention that humans in this world were apparently capable of this destruction. Burning a forest is one thing, but the crystals? Queen never indicated they were natural formations, so humans probably did it somehow. What sort of Abilities would you need to make those? Was there magic in this world I just didn't understand? Could the psychic powers of Mind have something to do with it?

As I traveled, the most striking thing I noticed was the quiet.

What was once probably a lively forest was quiet as death. No animals. No wind. No leaves rustling. The experience was nothing like living in the city. I had even been in small towns with more noise going on. Initially, it felt like a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle I was used to, but as the seconds stretched on, the silence was choking me, trying to snuff my life out single-handedly. The sudden rolling thunder that occasionally broke the silence actually made it worse, the unexpected change and anticipation torturous. At this rate, I would even welcome Kanan's loud voice, anything to distract me from this agony.

"-op I say! Stop, Enno!" I was jolted from my tormented stupor by the forceful command. That was disturbing. So far, it had seemed like Queen had no influence on the world, relegated to a voice in my head. Did I imagine the power behind her order?

"We are approaching my birth hive. The lake is nearby."

Finally, some relief! This area looked about as unique as the rest of the forest, but if some water were nearby I wouldn't complain. Queen's humming became quieter and sadder, and a quick glance at the ground revealed why.

A giant lump blended in with the blackened trees. Smaller chunks peppered the former patch of forest, thousands and thousands of tiny corpses strewn around the lump.

Bee corpses.

Clearly we had found the former hive, but it wouldn't help much. I made sure to hover close to it for a second, if for nothing else, to comfort Queen. At the top of the burned hive, a massive corpse lay. The hive's queen and, I assumed, Queen's mother.

"We should continue. Please."

Respecting Queen's wish, I floated away, leaving the hive behind. I had no connection to the hive but did feel sympathy for Queen's situation. If I could survive, she would at the very least survive with me.

After some searching, I found the lake, its inviting waters shining a brilliant shade of black.

Fuck.

The lake in question was tiny, which would have been fine, but more than half seemed to have evaporated. All that was left was a sad little pool of inky water, murky and thick, stained by ash and mud.

I hesitantly hovered above the tiny pool. A bloated frog, clearly some fantastical variant with actual horns and deep red skin, floated in the pool belly-up.

Maybe washing off an injury in that water wasn't a great idea. I set myself down very carefully on the former lakeside and stared at the sky. Welp. Looks like this second chance was a bust. Guess I'd just have to die again and hope for another otherworldly restart with overpowered abilities.

The silence was again broken by thunder and I cast a glare at the sky. What was the point of thunder without rain? I had long lost hope of rain considering the thunder had been happening for a while now. No rain. No lake. No water to be found.

"Would it really be so bad to try the pool?"

"You're joking, right? I'm surprised burns this bad haven't been infected already, though I don't know much about bee biology," I snapped. Queen noticeably bristled at my tone, but whatever. I was about to die.

Some concentration, and I took to the air again. Why? Great question. I thought I had given up but apparently not. I willed myself to rise above the ruined treeline and further into the air.

"Perhaps giving up would truly be the best outcome. You could easily allow us to drop. Or disable the Lock for a more painless death."

The bee's words wafted through my ears. There was some important information there somewhere, but right now, water was all I had room to think about.

I still had hope. The lake was still water, becoming dirty from the ash and having nowhere to go. Running water like a river at least had a chance of being clean. If the sky absolutely refused to rain, then there might not be any ashy runoff.

I searched desperately, but water was nowhere in sight. All I could find were the same old charred remains of the forest.

Hmmm…

I searched with a different eye. Where were there the most trees? The most animal corpses? Were there any mountains nearby? Any sign that could point to water. I pushed, willing myself towards an area packed with crispy animal and plant corpses. A particularly tall crystal spike seemed familiar as I flew toward the burned grave. This area was in the total opposite direction from the lake. Maybe Queen was instinctively moving towards running water in the first place?

As I approached, I witnessed the most beautiful little stream I had ever seen. The tiny ribbon of mostly clear water surrounded by ash and blackened animal remains appeared like a crack in my heart, and Queen agreed. This was hope.