I was in a transparent egg sack in a small little cave. From the cave entrance I could see a part of a coral reef. In the coral reef I saw many different species of fish. Both the corals and the fish came in almost all the colors of the rainbow.

But some other things are more important. Like how do I get out of this egg?

I wiggled my four tentacles around. I had no instinct for that, no clue why. So it took some time before I got them fully under control and got them to slowly move how I wanted them. It was weird moving something without bones. But that was my choice after all.

I worked quite hard to get my body to fully respond to me and act how I wanted. In total this took about a full day from waking up to fully understanding and controlling the body. I must note that a day seems significantly shorter here, about 4 hours I would guess.

My tentacles are about as long as the rest of my body.

I finally break out of my egg and take a look at the outside world. I look around and see the coral reef expand into all directions. I look up and see a... cloud?

I had a double take. What I was seeing is a gigantic collection of algae and plants that form up a floating island. It floated away from my direction. Seemed like what I experienced was not a day night cycle but a… What can you even call it? Plant cloud? Plant eclipse? I will keep it at a plant eclipse.

I also saw some big aquatic life surrounding, living and eating that floating island.

I looked further around and I saw that I was at a higher area and that the surrounding hills go down into the depths of the deep sea and whatever horrors may be there. I went exploring a bit into the direction the plant island came from. I saw some plants that grow straight up and seemed to have captured a different plant island. I wanted to approach the kelp forest but before I could even come close I saw a creature twice my size getting caught and eaten by a predator that hides in the kelp. Maybe I should stick to my little cave, and… That is it! That system thingy that SD talked about. I will explore that in the safety of my cave.

I was not scared, you were scared.

I went to my cave to have less fishes intruding.

A loud and low rumble vibrated throughout the entire coral reef. I quickly aimed for my cave and saw in front of me a giant fish eat the entire floating island with all the animals around it. In one bite. I am at the bottom of the food chain. I was even small enough to escape through its gills.

I was on the smaller side of animals in this part of the reef but I have no human frame of reverence. What I remember of aquatic biology would place me at an eighth of a human. But an unknown alien world means I could be 4 times their size.

I looked at the cave from outside and concluded, it is small, very small. I wondered how I fit inside. I tried to re-enter the cave and succeeded without any issues.

Right, octopuses can fit in any gap as long as their mouth, beak thingy fits.

Inside the cave, only the entrance is that small. I thought about how to access the system.

But before I could try anything a mind's eye is opened and some information is directly streamed to it. My real vision is not impaired but my attention is moved away from it.

Hi Stuward, sinds I did not bother with explaining in person here a message from me. This is the system. Any action or thought that wants to call this or a specific page forth will do that, you can even send direct requests that directly take action or only ask for parts of information. If you ever come across a piece of DNA that you do not think of as beneficial you can always devolve it. The quick DNA upgrade will also override things if they are better on every front. You can always view worse versions that you have collected. I bundled them together to not clutter all the UI’s.

~Space Doggo

PS there may or may not be more messages prerecorded.

    Size: 1

    Passive daily upkeep: 605 BM

    Biomass stored: 1.848 / 6.283

    Biomass for the next size: 0 / 32.808

    All beneficial non clashing DNA upgrades: 0 BM

    Clashing and non beneficial DNA upgrades: 0 new, 0 total

That helped a lot. I now knew what my goals should be. Mainly food and collecting more and better DNA.

Okay I could do this. Just as I had made up my resolve a little fish came to explore this cave.

I readied my tentacles and waited until it came close enough that I was confident in catching it.

I waited and waited and the beautiful orange and white fish came closer. I waited a bit more.

I ambushed the fish that was about a fourth of my length. My tentacles wrapped around the fish completely and I slowly brought it inward towards my mouth and ate it head to tail.

I am curious. What did I get from that?

    You got DNA for the following:

    Muscle tissue (worse than current)

    Bone tissue (not usable)

    Brain tissue (worse than current)

    Grills tissue (worse than current)

    Anemone immunity (Non clashing, beneficial, 283 BM)

    Heart tissue (Slight improvement extracted, 38 BM)

    Skin tissue (worse than current, skin pattern usable, 157 BM)

    Stomach acid (worse than current)

    Stomach tissue (worse than current)

    Liver tissue (worse than current)

    Retina tissue (worse than current)

    Fin tissue (not usable)

    Reproduction tissue (male) (single tentacle add-on, non beneficial, 159 BM)

    You got 80 BM

If I got that for every animal I was indeed glad I do not need to sort through it all.

But this was very bad, only 80 Biomass. Seems like I need to be a big eater. That settles it. I will keep my total biomass above the 2.000 and that means I have some space for emergency improvements and if my hunting goes bad. I hyped myself up for hunting more fish, I had a goal to reach 2.500 BM before going to sleep.

I did indeed not comment on the last item in the DNA list.

CosmicDragon

I was wondering, what would you do if you got this chance from SD?

Would you go for something lewd? Or would you live a slow and peaceful life in the outback? Would you ask for a body change?