‘What the hell do you mean by bacteria?!’ Jules exclaimed.

‘[Beep! Hosts’ body appears to be an unidentified bacterium.]’ A robotic female voice replied within his mind.

Jules tried to open his eyes but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t do it. Even weirder than that was the feeling that he did not, in fact, have any eyes. Starting to panic a little he tried to move his arms and legs. There was no response if anything it just caused his body to wiggle.

‘This can’t be real…’ He said, quickly realizing that he was not actually speaking but just yelling in his head. Confusion rapidly mixed in with his panic.

‘I-I was on the roof… and-and… Bobby and Miranda did…and the white orb hit me… and now a bacteria! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?’ Jules had reacted as any normal human being would have if thrown in this chaotic chain of events.

After taking his time to calm down and take all this information in, Jules’ thought became more coherent.

‘According to that weird voice, I died and became a germ. Heh, my luck is trash. Out of all the possible reincarnation I’ve seen in isekai novels, this one has to be the worst.’

[Beep! Multiple threats have been detected nearby. Threats identified as unknown bacteria.

Similarity to host: 95%

Numbers: Estimated, 200 Million

Location: Left arm muscle tissue (dead)

Individual threat level to host: E

Group threat level to host: S]

The voice snapped Jules back to reality. Now aware of the danger, Jules carefully tried to understand his surroundings. As stated by the voice Jules was supposedly located in a corpse’s left arm. He could feel a dense viscous fluid surrounding him, that fluid seemed to contain some sort of energy. The fluid moved very slowly as if countless other creatures were swimming in it. Jules quickly made the link with the other bacteria. He even found that if he focused on the movements of the fluid, he could roughly guess their location!

Since they had been marked by the voice as a threat, Jules decided to avoid them and go to an emptier location. He found that by wiggling his body, he was able to freely move within the fluid. Having died before and considering himself lucky to have been reincarnated, he wasn’t going to waste this new life by heading straight for danger. Therefore, he was resolute about making the most of it.

‘Um… Alien computer thingy, since you can tell how many bacteria there are, can you tell me the nearest location without any?’ Since Jules had been given this alien thing, he might as well make the best of it.

[Beep! My designation is ‘Xeno Probe 879402’.] The voice said.

At the same time, a map of the arm appeared within Jules’ mind. It somewhat looked like holograms from sci-fi movies. He found that he could zoom it in by focussing on it. However, the resolution of the map was gradually decreasing the further away it was from him. He quickly found himself on this map, he was a tiny green dot somewhere near what seemed to be a bite wound. Near him was a sea of tiny red dots flowing from the bite. These probably were the threats that the Xeno Probe talked about. Speaking of which Jules found having to refer to voice as ‘Xeno Probe’ to be annoying. Preferring to use names Jules decided to rename the probe.

‘Xeno Probe. I will now refer to you as Xena!’ Coming up with uncreative names was one of his specialties.

[Beep! Order received. ‘Xeno Probe 879402’ has been renamed to ‘Xena’.]’

With this Jules felt like things were starting to get better for him. Following the holographic map, Jules quickly found himself in a space with next to no other bacteria. Once he had found a nice empty spot he decided to experiment.

‘Since I’m a bacteria, I should be able to replicate right?’ Thinking back to his biology class at school he decided to try absorbing some on the surrounding fluids.

As the fluid entered his body, he felt the strange energy within building up inside him. Over a few minutes, the energy quickly filled him up, pushing outwards, making him feel inflated like a balloon. When he felt he was about to explode, his body started stretching until it reached twice its original length. At this point, it started to shrink right in the middle until it was separated into two.

This was an extremely weird feeling for Jules. He still had control of his original body, but on top of that, he felt that his consciousness was split between the two bodies! This created a huge sense of relief as he was worried, he would remain a single bacterium until he died. But now that he knew that his mind was not tied to a single body but instead to the species, he felt like he had a chance at survival!

Over what felt like hours, Jules had greedily been absorbing the fluid to increase his numbers. Now that he had over 10 thousand bacteria, he decided to try eliminating some of the threats. This body was not big enough for the two of them.

‘Xena, bring up the other bacteria’s stats and name them ‘Alpha bacteria’.’

[Beep! Displaying Alpha Bacteria stats:

Similarity to host: 95%

Numbers: Estimated, 1 Billion

Location: Torso and left arm (dead)

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Individual threat level to host: None

Group threat level to host: A]

Is Jules could be smiling this is exactly what he would have been doing right now. He picked out a few isolated Alpha bacteria and surrounded them with hundreds of his own. He had one of them move forward to see how the Alpha bacteria would react. It slowly made its way towards Jules’ bacteria and suddenly, in a fraction of a second, it stretched out and engulfed its opponent. Within seconds it had been completely assimilated and the Alpha bacteria had divided. This was significantly faster than just sitting there and absorbing the fluid!

Mimicking the Alpha bacteria, Jules started attacking all of the isolated ones to quickly increase his numbers. After dealing with all those present in his area, he had managed to build up his numbers to over 100 thousand! By this point, he definitely no longer focused on each of his bacteria. Although he could still control them individually if he wanted to, he was more like a strategist sitting behind the scenes.

‘Xena bring up the map.’

Now that Jules had over 100 thousand bodies providing him with information, the map was now far more accurate. However what worries Jules is that within that time, the Alpha bacteria had reached numbers of nearly 1.5 billion. Once they ran out of space to take over, Jules was sure he would be their next target. And if was not strong enough by then, he would be completely eradicated.

On the map, a green area, the size of a needle head, near the elbow was visible. This area was the are that Jules had under control. Extending from the bite was a small area in dense red that gradually dimed the further out it got, going as far as the torso, this was the Alpha bacteria’s territory. Despite having hunted a lot of these, the casualties Jules had inflicted upon them was insignificant.

However, all hope was not lost, Jules had a plan. He got all of his bacteria to move up towards the shoulder, killing all Alpha bacteria they met on the way. Thanks to his tactics the brainless germs stood no chances as long as they did not possess overwhelming numbers. On a few occasions, Jules sensed huge gatherings of Alpha bacteria and avoided them. This trip allowed Jules to increase his forces by another 100 thousand.

Jules now occupied an area slightly below the shoulder. The concentration of Alpha bacteria there was much lower than where he was before. Thanks to that, Jules was able to quickly build up his forces.

With time the concentration of Alpha bacteria within the arm had increased tremendously. Having foreseen this Jules had been slowly eating away at their numbers while increasing his. He had also sent small groups to eliminate the Alpha bacteria population within the torso. He now had over 5 million bacteria under his control and had deployed them in a ring completely sealing off the arm from the rest of the body. Due to this all alpha bacteria that tried to make their way across were ruthlessly absorbed. If they were to ever make their way across, they would have to charge in huge numbers. However, these possessed no intellect and therefore such a coordinated attack was impossible.

Although the current concentration of Alpha bacteria in that area was not enough to alarm Jules, it had been slowly increasing. If this were to keep going, they would eventually manage to breach through. Jules could only hope that he would have enough numbers by then.

The concentration of Alpha bacteria near Jules had reached a critical point. Their numbers within the arm alone had reached over 50 billion compared to Jules’ meager 100 million. Due to this, they were applying significant pressure on the blockade that Jules had created. They were currently in a stalemate; Jules was absorbing the Alpha bacteria as quickly as they were absorbing Jules back.

The tide of the battle was slowly turning against Jules when he suddenly heard Xena’s voice, immediately putting a smile on his ‘face’.

‘[Beep! Analysis of Alpha Bacteria complete. Some components could not be comprehended. Weaknesses have been identified. Optimal attack plan created!]’

Soon after having renamed Xena, he had been playing around with her functions to figure out what she was capable of. It seemed Xena was capable of super powerful computing far exceeding that of supercomputers in his old world. With a bit of searching, he had quickly found the analyzing feature. He had tasked her with analyzing the Alpha bacteria, and now she had just finished that task. He had also discovered another of her ability, ‘memory transfer’. Xena had the ability to transfer any information directly to Jules’ memory, saving him the time he would have taken to learn it as well as giving him an in-depth comprehension.

‘Some components could not be comprehended?’ He asked himself.

‘Whatever. Let’s put that optimal plan of attack into action’ he eagerly thought.

Although Jules no longer controlled the bacteria individually at this point, since they were part of him, he was somehow able to get them to follow specific instructions. He got Xena to transfer the plan to his memory. The process was painless; however, he could feel the information entering his mind. This was a very strange feeling to him because although he had never learned that information before, it was as clear as if he had spent years engraving it in his mind.

Now having the process in his mind, Jules ordered his bacteria to follow it. This action resulted in an instant change in the tides of battle. Each of his bacteria was now guaranteed to win against the other side one on one. He no longer had to group up on each Alpha bacterium to take them out. This gave him a huge upper hand.

Thanks to Xena’s tremendous analysis power, Jules’ forces managed to rapidly increase in numbers and might. Nonetheless, when compared to the Alpha bacteria’s growth rate this was still not long enough.

After another while, the battle was back to a stalemate. The Alpha bacteria had now reached unbelievably large amounts and even showed signs of coordination! Xena could detect that most of them were making there way up to the shoulder to group up and launch a coordinated attack. Even if only a third of the 200 billion bacteria made their way up, that would be plenty enough to take care of Jules’ one billion.

Surprisingly Jules remained calm upon learning of this. All he did was watch as his forces were slowly decreasing in numbers.

The time for the Alpha bacteria to launch their attack had finally arrived. A huge wave consisting of 100 billion bacteria invaded Jules’ territory. Jules had put up a fight, however, there was nothing he could as he was being engulfed bit by bit. Soon enough nothing was left of Jules. The Alpha bacteria seemingly rejoiced at having eliminated the enemy that had been annoying them for so long. As they were about to go invade the torso, a tremendous wave of 150 billion bacteria surged out of it. It was Jules!

Jules had sneakily been sending his own bacteria to the torso. Through the help of Xena, he had been able to optimize their growth within the body. Since these were not fighting, they were able to replicate at exponential speeds. The blockade’s sole purpose was to delay the Alpha bacteria so that he could build up his own force.

He had sent 9% of these to go attack the Alpha bacteria. Due to his superior numbers and technique, Jules made short work of the enemy bacteria army. Following which he swiftly conquered the arm back. And exterminated the remaining of the Alpha bacteria. This was an absolute victory!

In no time he completely took over the body, his numbers reaching over a few trillions! He was sure that with time he would have been able to reach at least 30 trillion bodies.

Still celebrating his victory Jules was relaxing when he suddenly felt the attraction of his original bacterial body. Focussing his attention on it he could tell that it was somewhere within the brain of the body. The cell started shaking and started to glow. The light got stronger and stronger, even though Jules no longer had any eyes to be blinded by. The light slowly dimmed revealing clouds and the outline of some trees.

Somewhere in the Arcane world. The body of a dead girl called Anne that had met a grim fate suddenly opened its eyes.