I didn't know how much time had passed in there, but apparently I'd been inside that cocoon for ten years. And finally, it was time to wake up. When I opened my eyes, my body looked the same, but it felt completely different—like all my organs had been rearranged.
I looked around and saw that the larvae who entered the cocoon with me had already emerged, transformed into humanoid insects.
Then suddenly, I realized I could hear what the bugs were saying. I could hear them perfectly—but I couldn't understand a single word.
The newly emerged ones all began walking in the same direction at the same time. They didn't even look alive—more like flesh-and-bone robots. It seemed that if I wanted to survive in this world, I had to do what they did. And I definitely didn't want to find out what would happen if I didn't.
I followed behind them, observing the place as we moved. The surroundings looked like a massive earthen city carved inside a giant cavern. And even though it resembled a city from afar, there wasn't the slightest sign of life. It felt like I was the only conscious being there.
Eventually, we came across a soldier, and that's when it hit me:
When I came out of the cocoon, I had the body of an adult. At first I wasn't surprised to be around the same height as the other insects—maybe they were small when they first emerged. But I had seen these soldiers before, and I only came up to half their height. Now… now I was maybe only twenty centimeters shorter than them.
There was a clear size difference between soldiers and workers, and apparently the larvae who had gone into the cocoon with me were workers. Which meant I was also part of the worker caste.
A soldier bug led the workers—and me—to where we were supposed to work.
Here, we planted giant mushrooms and harvested them once they grew, carrying them to the storage chambers.
The biggest difference between my old body and the new one was that bug food no longer made me nauseous. In fact… it tasted good.
I also felt more resistant to thirst, hunger, and exhaustion.
For a few years, I did almost every job a worker could do in the colony—farming, caring for larvae, tool crafting, nest construction. One thing that separated bugs from us was that they had no concept of money or trade. Everyone just worked to strengthen the colony and survive.
No one needed any extra motivation.
And unlike us, they didn't need entertainment either.
It was as if every single one of them had been born only to work.
One day a question struck me:
"If I grew by taking someone else's cocoon before… what would happen if I did it again?"
That question stayed in my mind for a long time—until the next maturation ceremony arrived.
This time, I didn't want to be a worker.
I wanted to be a soldier.
And after all these years, I knew the colony well enough.
When sleep time came, I slipped into the ceremony chamber where the military units transformed. I tore open one of the cocoons—
and climbed inside.