It was a hot afternoon in the large forest. A small red squirrel nibbled on an acorn as it sat on the branch of a tall tree. It was content as it ate its meal. Satisfied. careless. A fatal mistake it would not live to learn from as a shadow swooped down from above and swallowed it whole. It let out a short-lived cry as the predator swiftly closed its mouth and gulped it down, trapping it in its gullet and suffocating it. Strong muscles contracted and it squeezed and crushed its prey within.

hanging from a higher branch was Jade. She had wrapped her lower half around the branch to strike down from above her unsuspecting target. It had been a harsh few months, but she had adapted to her new form and life. It was hard, so hard she wanted to give up, to let some beast end her. But then they would win. And if there was one thing J.J hated, it was losing. So she survived, fought tooth and nail for her life every single day. She wouldn't roll over to die, she would get them back for this.

Running on a heady cocktail of hate, spite, and determination she learned to thrive in her environment.

From a mere garden snake cowering in fear of the smallest of shadows, she turned herself into a deadly predator. She sought to improve herself every single day. From insects and berries to rodents and even other serpents. She watched, she learned. The law of the land was harsh. Since birth, things were out to get you. Many times had she sneaked into an unattended nest to pilfer some creatures' younglings. There was no place for hesitation or misguided kindness here.

A lesson she learned was to only aim for smaller prey. Not only because they were safer to hunt, but because having a large animal inside of her made her vulnerable to other creatures looking for an easy meal. Another reason was that of the changes she had gone through.

While she could get used to many of the new changes, even the fact she had to swallow live animals, the feeling of them kicking in her stomach while being disgested alive would still occasionally haunt her, there was one thing that frustrated her to no end. She couldn't feel "full". No matter how much she ate, even when she still had a meal inside of her, she would always feel hungry. It was maddening. She assumes it was a side effect of her transition to a new species. Snakes don't ever stop hunting.

Even in captivity, they would often overeat and develop obesity. She could barely control herself, but even then the feeling would persist. the nagging sensation of impending doom, of a need to acquire and hoard more food. She felt like having an anxiety attack, and she wanted to scream out. Even when resting and finishing a meal, her eyes would unconsciously track for signs of prey, always seeking the next meal. If she repressed it for too long the pain would intensify and her head would pound like a claustrophobic kid being locked inside a crowded elevator.

And so she hunted. Even if she didn't always eat them, the action eased her instincts and left her with some peace, if only for a few hours. While other snakes are lethargic, sleeping most of the day away and only hunting in the early morning to heat up in the sun, she spent most of the time active. After all, if a human can train and grow stronger, why can't a snake? She practiced all kinds of maneuvers and movement, practicing her stealth and tracking on a large variety of creatures. In this world seemingly hell-bent on her destruction, the only tools she had was her sharp mind and new body. She had to master her new form as quickly as possible, to know every inch of it and control it as freely as if she had been born in it.

She slithered down the tree and went down the small burrow she now called home. It had belonged to a small family of rodents before she liberated them of it along with their lives. Exercise and a high food intake diet had seen changes to her body. No longer was she the thin snake of barely three finger's width and mere foot in length. She was now four inches wide and two feet in length. Although she had to hide from a majority of the animals here, she was no longer bottom of the food chain. Even others of her "species" which she had encountered couldn't match her in strength nor speed when she fought them.

Her scales were tough, her muscles dense and supple, and her reflexes lighting. And she would only grow from here.

Life was finally settling down. It wasn't good by any means, but she was content by the way things were going. She should've known better.

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Congratulations!

Out of 10,000 lucky humans who had been selected for the 73rd batch, you are amongst the 1,259 to survive The First Year!

Rejoice, as you shall all be rewarded according to the efforts you've made!

Always remember, The Gods are watching.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

 What the fuck? Jade almost fell out of the tree she was resting on when she suddenly saw the blue screen appear in front of her eyes. She tried to look away, but it followed her line of sight no matter what she did.

She checked her surroundings before carefully slithering down her nice perch to the hole she had called home for the past year. Finally, in a secure location, she began to carefully read the message. She wasn't quite sure what she was feeling, but she was shaking. Was it shock? Rage? Or perhaps, though she loath to admit it even to herself, fear?

This was clearly a system message like she had often read in novels and mangas back in her previous world. She already knew she was in a fantasy setting based on her past experience with the creatures of this forest, but this was on another level. Still, it wasn't all bad as it meant she could grow much stronger than the limits of her species, she didn't know if evolution and species change existed here, but it gave hope she could regain her former body. It wasn't all sunshine and daisy either though. 

How many people died she wondered. If she assumed every batch consisted of 10,000 people...didn't that mean 730,000 were kidnapped already? The population was only 7.7 billion. That meant almost a tenth of all of humanity was taken. It was a bone-chilling thought. Especially if you considered that only roughly 12.5% of them survived the first year. Wouldn't that number just continue to dimish? Would everyone in her world eventually be displaced here, or perhaps another world? What was the rate of incoming batches? Were they even still humans? What if some were even more unlucky than her and turned into a bug?

She was by no mean a saint, she would probably even classify herself an asshole indifferent to her fellow man at times, but not even she could just shrug off the possibility of the extinction of humanity. Would she be stuck in this godforsaken world surrounding only by things trying to kill her? Was that how she would spend the rest of her days?

If she still could, she would've broken into a cold sweat at the thought. She was never one to shy away from hardships. Physical pain didn't scare her, but that, the idea of being alone forever did. She wasn't one for crowds, but even someone normally as cold as she longed for companionship. She didn't feel it much in the beginning as she could only focus on survival, but the past year had been hard on her physically and mentally. 

The isolation was grating at her as time flew by, like a thousand paper cuts, it didn't kill you per se, but it was absolutely miserable, to say the least.

She made up her mind then and there to try and help people if she could, only when it was within her ability, and to get some friends. But first, she would get strong, so strong that nothing could threaten her again. She would be in control of her own life, and no manner of man, beasts, or Gods themselves would get in her way. After all, you can't save anyone if you can't even help yourself. Only those with power are able to have freedom and choices. A harsh fact life had repeated thrown in her face time and again. 

She looked through the screen when she saw a small blinking icon in the corner, she prompted it to open.

Jade Jaeger (Copperhead)

Rank: 0

Age: 1

Strength: 9

Agility: 10

Vitality: 13

Defense: 7

Dexterity: 8

Divine Gift: Shedding Skin

Racial Traits: Venomous

It looked like the standard RPG set up, if not for the small amount of stats. Where was Intelligence or Wisdom? Did levels not exist or had she not reached a requirement to unlock it?

She didn't know, and relying upon assumptions was a quick way to get you killed here. She tried to mentally focus on each option until something happened. That's how it usually worked in the novels anyway, and voila, within moments it happened.

Rank- A system of scaling of a beast's power. Once one reaches the required requirements, different evolutionary paths will open to increase in rank.

Strength- Improves the body's power

Agility- Improves the body's speed and reaction time

Vitality- Improves the body's life force, healing, and resistance against ailments

Defense- Increases the body's toughness, unique to armored beings

Dexterity- Improves control and coordination of the body.

Divine Gift- A blessing bestowed by a Deity. Most are rewarded for accomplishing great feats, others are because of gaining favor.

Racial Traits- A special ability that is inherent to a species.

It appears that some stats were only exclusive. You must already meet the criteria for them, or unlock them yourself. A stat for mana might very well exist, but she just currently didn't have it. The average range for her species in stats was 7-8, but her training had evidently paid off. It was even more impressive when you consider the fact she was merely 1 year old compared to the others.

Her divine "gift" had unlocked her vitality stat and helped her improve it. Shedding skin. Someone up there had a sense of humor she supposes. It helped her heal faster as she thought, but there was another aspect she didn't figure out. If she could gather enough energy then she could force herself to go through a molting process. It would heal her much more quickly though reduce her in a weakened state for a short period of time depending on the extent of the injury she was healing. The new scales would be slightly stronger than before, like a broken bone healing back tougher. Definitely not something she could use in battle, but helpful for recuperating faster and surviving the aftermaths. 

All fine and dandy, but it was the Rank aspect that truly made her giddy with joy. Were she still human, surely her mouth would've split in half from the grin she felt. Not only did the chance of her regaining a humanoid form drastically increase, but she found her path to power. She didn't have concrete detail, but the implications were enough. All living things had rank, and all could evolve above their stations in life if they were willing to put in the time and effort. 

The Gods were watching huh? She just couldn't wait to show them what the inside of her stomach looked like.