When she touched fingers with the strange man, she lost her sense of smell, sight, and taste. The world was seemingly plunged into darkness while she felt the sensation of hurtling through the world. In a moment, her world was alight with pain. There was so much pain that she couldn't think about literally anything. Therefore, she stopped thinking and fell into a blissful slumber.

The next time the lady came to, the things she immediately noticed is her head is spinning, her everything felt underused, her body and the floor under her is wet with a slimy yet appetizing substance, her vision is blurry and her body already feels too human.'He did say my race is the true version of what I see in movies. So I guess that means no gorey births. I either came from an egg or straight out of the womb.' 

Licking her hands to clean it of slime so she can wipe her eyes clean, she notices her hands felt tougher as it didn't sink like how it normally would which means wiping her eyes clean would be a bit more complicated. 

She also notices how the chitin on her finger joints and wrists are segmented. Feeling her entire arm, she notices how her chitin is softer around her biceps and triceps.'Probably when I have to flex them.' she notes to herself. With her hands finally cleaned, she wipes her eyes with the back of her hands.'He did say I'd be a shapeshifter, so my forms should come from something, probably from the queen's own arsenal of forms. I shouldn't expect I'll have no eyes like an Annemorph.' she glides her hands over her head, feeling the telltale signs of a way-too-human yet still very inhuman face.'But my face feels too human. Why do I have hair? My nose is just slits and I have no lips. Still, my head is shaped way too close to a human's.' she chooses not to note her human ears and moves to her body.

From her observations, it's easy to tell how she looks like a pre-pubescent human-alien hybrid.'I can see the need for breasts and nipples but man, at least let me start with no breasts. Hmm, chitin on my torso is limited to the sides and back, no back spikes of any kind, the tail is there...I have a fanny. Do all of my race have genitals or do only queens have them? Not enough information... and my legs are normal T-rex legs so I can't complain. I figure I can turn into a more beastly form.'

It was about time she'd decided to survey the surroundings, so she started now. Fittingly enough, she can see in the darkness. There was no defining feature aside from the moss-like resin she knows and loves. However, she could tell she was in a nursery or hatchery as she can see her newly hatched brethren licking the slime off themselves or eating the remains of their egg which she notes to be similar to frog eggs. She can see the exit of the room at the opposite side being guarded by a plethora of annemorph drones that have a slight reddish glow coming from their open mouths. With every inhale and exhale, the glow brightens and dims. One of them started to calmly walk towards her and picks her up by the armpits. She can hear it sniffing her. Comparing her size to it made her think she was rather large for a pre-pubescent girl, easily being as Suddenly, she hears a female voice in her head.'This is the new queen? How strange, she looks fragile even for a newly hatched queen.' she can feel how confused and disappointed it is. So she's a queen. Does that mean only queens and empresses can shapeshift?'No matter, I'll take her to the empress all the same.'

The drone puts her on its shoulder and walks out of the the room and into the tunnels, making a single left turn into another room where she can already see the titanic form of the empress which is essentially a scaled-up queen, making a queen look like royal guard if you look at the size alone. The egg sac is present, although the eggs coming out are clearly different and much larger. The reddish glow is also present. Finally, the drone arrived at the foot of the queen and presented her to her mother.'It's...weak. A far cry from that human who stumbled upon our hive. We shall see how it fairs in the territory of that dragon bat.' The empress was quick on her decision.

A powerful wave of drowsiness starts to wash over the newborn humanoid. She tries to fight it off, which leaves her teetering from conscious to unconscious.'Remarkable, its will is strong. Maybe I made the right choice.' were the last words the former human heard from her new mother.

-------------------

(I'm gonna stop writing her talking in Tagalog. I'll probably only do it when she curses and definitely for plot reasons.)

The next time she awoke was in a birch forest with an untitled book at her side. Looking at a random page, nothing. But, 'Book, show me the life cycle of a mosquito.' When she commands the book, it showed the different stages of a mosquito arranged in order and in a circle with lines pointing to the next stage. A whole paragraph is dedicated to explaning the life cycle.

The book seems to sense her intent as the page became empty again when she is satisfied with it.'Can this thing disappear and disappear? Would be annoying if I have to carry it all the time.'

Sensing her wish, the book disappeared in a flash of light. Willing it to appear again, it came back through the same flash of light. Satisfied, she wills it away again.'Thank you, god...dream...guy?' she thinks while looking at the sky. Strangely, she received absolutely no response of any kind. She'd have thought that being the vessel of the dream who reincarnated her into this world, she'd at least receive at least a feeling out of nowhere after her thanks.'Whatever, gotta survive. Hm, I should at least test out my capabilities before planning my first move.'

She turns to the closest birch trees and silently apologises for what she is about to do to it and the dream who governs the land or nature, if there's any. She walks over to the tree and takes a look at the black hand she clenches into a fist before punching it with everything she got. Her eyes bulge out when she not only saw her fist plow through the tree, which feels like it didn't try to resist, but also hear the wind disturbed. The fallen leaves were swept away by the wind produced by her punch."Wow, so this is what's considered weak for a newborn queen? Is this some proportional strength bullshit? Probably."

She brings a hand to close to her face and opens her mouth, way too wide. It did allow her to see the reddish glow her adult brethren had. Now that she thinks about it, her chest was constantly thrumming, tingling and hot in a pleasant way. She thinks about the feeling moving up her throat. This unknown energy obeyed her will and now she can feel the energy raring to go out through her mouth. She aims her mouth to the sky and allows the energy to flow free in a stream. Her mouth was awashed by an intense tingling and heat as the strings of lightning arced forward into the distance. She grins in delight.'I wonder if all types of my kind have this ability. I'll find out, inevitably.' now that got her thinking.

Inevitably, she'd have brood. So, how intelligent would this version of annemorphs be? Do they have human level intelligence? Do they have emotions? Are they murder-happy? Are they blindly loyal or do they have a rational mind that would allow them to question and argue with her when it is appropriate?

"I think you should put those thoughts on hold and find some food, water, shelter or all of the above." someone tells her right by her left ear. She turns to the left and finds a miniature version of herself standing on her shoulder, dressed in a toga, a golden armguard on her left arm and a golden arm guard on her right arm."Who are you? Why are you dressed like Zeus?" she asks her mini-me."I'm your instincts and subconscious mind. Now get moving! We don't know how long the day on this world is so don't waste your time!" her instincts/subconscious disappeared with that message.

With her mind back on track, she kills two birds with one stone by testing out her jumping height and get herself a quick view of the land. Throwing caution to the wind, she jumps as high as she can. She ends up jumping so high, she feels like a flea. Doing a quick scan of the area, she finds nothing yet."Best world gen, yet. Umph!" Her sarcastic quip abruptly ended with the sudden lurch downwards from the pull of gravity hits her harder than she thinks it should. She stiffens her legs for landing, which buries her up to her knees. Only a rattling that quickly vanished was felt.

She starts jogging at a leisurely pace but stopping after a few seconds when she sees a strange scene. A mantis, carving into a log with its retractable metal blades."Eat it." her subconscious/instinct, still cosplaying as Zeus, tells her. She looks at the small figure on her shoulder in a weirded-out manner."Wot?" was her intelligent reply."Just do it." As she realised the alien Zeus cosplayer wasn't going to offer any explanation as to why, she shrugs.

She snatches the mantis by its front legs, which is where scythe-like blades emerge outwards for cutting, then biting down on it. She makes sure the front legs are saved for last before plopping them in her mouth before chewing. The crunching of metal was heard, sending shivers through her spine. She swallows and maybe regrets it as the dry metal powder has some difficulty passing through her esophagus, making her cough but keeps on swallowing to move everything down. When everything is down, she feels a rush of information. Like how the mantis can jump as high as a flea, it's eyes' capabilities, it's amazing levels of strength and most importantly, it's blades which can slice through stone if combined with it's strength."I decided to not show you what you think is irrelevant information about that mantis but you can access it any time through our hive's mental archives. Just think about it if you want to access the hive's mental archives." she heard her voice from the mental imagery of that alien Zeus cosplayer, but said mental imagery didn't show itself to her eyes.'Well that's convenient.'

"Now you can take on the traits and the abilities that come with that trait. Just imagine, for example, mantis blades." through the merit of being her instincts and subconscious mind combined, it (I will refer to the lady's instincts/subconscious mind as 'it') sent further urgings. The lady ran a hand from her pinky finger all the way to her elbow, hesitating. The urge got stronger and she relented, thinking of a blade appearing. From where she ran her hand through, the chitin and the flesh underneath splits open just enough for a blade resembling a cleaver to grow from where the flesh opened, extending out by 2 inches. The blade rung as she swung it a few times."I advise you to not dissolve any new parts you might sprout. You don't know when you'll need it and not have the necessary nourishment to grow them again." 

After another brief examination of the blades, she retracts them back into her flesh. Her mental manifestation's tone suddenly changed into that of cunning, weasly predator."That being said, there's quite a lot of fresh meat waiting to be consumed and assimilated. You can smell them, can't you?"

True enough, the scent of prey is tantalising to her. Somehow, focusing on a particular scent paints the image of the source of that scent. She is currently focusing on the scent of a strange version of a chameleon. It's a frilly sort of chameleon with sharp teeth and boasts the size of a medium-sized dog.

Another side effect of focusing on scent is that all other scents fade away and the target scent becomes more pronounced and easier to track. Her nose is telling her that this chameleon is nearby in the trees to her left. Her steps grow quiet as a result of her roaring instincts. She lets her instincts take over, and suddenly, she drops on all fours. She's acutely aware of her superhuman flexibility and her longer arms which allow her quadripedal movement. Her body immediately obeyed her instincts' command to jump up to a tree while orienting itself to be in the perfect position to climb it. Her claws effortlessly dug into the tree's tough bark. With instinctual ease born from her species' experiences, her hands' and feet removed themselves from the bark and moved up higher to climb the tree.

The chameleon definitely heard her on the tree and used its camouflage to blend in with the surroundings. To counter this, her ability to see through heat activated, and she was able to find that chameleon again. She pounced on it, and before it could even comprehend that it was still being targeted, red electricity shot out of her mouth, zapping and stunning the chameleon out of its camouflage. Not long after, her claws stabbed and sliced at the chameleon's, ending its life instantly. 

Her adrenaline-fueled mind comprehended that the chameleon was in a good position on the tree so it wouldn't fall to the ground even in death. Her tail shot out to wrap around and grab the chameleon in response to this so she wouldn't have to waste time and energy climbing for her quarry. When she dropped back down to the ground, her rational side was thrust back into the driver's seat. A jubilant no-teeth grin slowly grew on her face as the four brief seconds passed from the moment of her pounce to touchdown. A wheezy guffaw escaped her at the apex of her grin."Oh my GOD! WE'RE AWESOME! How did my body and monkey brain even know what to do?!" She blurts out to nobody in particular."That's our mother's instincts from back when she was just a juvenile like us. Glad I don't have to argue with you about letting our instincts have some love." Her mental manifestion answers her, looking quite proud of herself."Dude, you're me. You should know that we're different from most people. I already had a death fight with muggers back on Earth. I played games grittier than THIS. Hunting for food shouldn't be too hard on my psyche."

Hungry but unwilling to let go of the topic, she nonchalantly bites a chunk of chameleon meat."Gamey. But anyway, I shouldn't be having to say this. In fact, it should be the other way around but you're the one needing this kind of talk." she smugly points out to her mental manifestation."Ngrrrrr, go fuck yourself." 

The lady merely laughs to herself in victory as she takes in more and more information and abilities of the chameleon with every swallow of giant chameleon meat. In the end, nothing but its stomach and intestines were left as she didn't want to accidentally eat something... unsavory. Other than that, even the bones were eaten."Not bad. I gotta wonder how this or anything tastes like if it's cooked. Do you think we can visit civilisation again, or should we avoid them? I figured we'd clear up future misunderstandings in case we meet with their people... I just realised how crazy we must look if any sapient creatures see me talking to you, or in their eyes, myself."

"I mean, it's your choice to verbally respond to me. As I said before, I'm nothing more than the personification of your degeneracy AND instincts. Now about your question... maybe. It'd certainly help paint us in a better light once we do start a hive. It depends on them entirely. They could just lump us with the rest of monsterkind or they'll listen to us and allow us to be on our merry way. Alternatively, they'll listen to us and deem us a greater threat for our intelligence. There are a few other possibilities, but I'm sure you can think of those yourself. Personally, I'd suggest making hive first then bring an entourage with us to cover our escape... and get some clothes, that's sure to give us a great first impression."

While mulling it over, her instincts took over and began the search for more food and probably some water. Her head turned, her mouth opened, and her tongue shot out to snag a woodpecker/hummingbird hybrid. As the tongue approached the avian hybrid, it horizontally split open like a second mouth, revealing tiny but strong, barbed, and sharp teeth. The tongue struck half as fast as a mantis. The hybrid bird could only squawk before it was silenced by a surge of electricity. The tongue snapped back to its home, bringing the bird with its return. The event happened within two seconds, and the lady could only 'hm?' in surprise and confusion. Those feelings were swept aside by indignation when she felt feathers and blood in her mouth. She promtly took the bird out of her mouth."Hey, what's the big deal?" she asked her mental mini-me, miffed.

"I hope you didn't think you're full after that paltry serving. You're gonna need to eat more than that if you want to grow to adulthood by the end of tomorrow." Xeno-Zeus said in the familiar tone of your grandmother after you refuse to eat that one ton serving of her cooking just for you."Since when can you take control of my body?" the alien lady said while taking a bite of the woodpecker hummingbird, which was the size of a cat."I can only take control of our body when you let me, if your head's in the clouds or when you can't take control for some reason."

Grumbling to herself as she finishes the bird, she discards what she usually avoids and goes in search of more food. She spots a hand-sized dragonfly and traps it within her second mouth before eating it. Another noteworthy morsel was a chipmunk that, going by how big its cheeks are bulging, can stuff another chipmunk in them. Most of her time was spent stuffing herself with any edible food she could find, including fruits.

Then she heard the familiar sound of a honey badger behind her, slowly growing in volume. Anxiety mounts in her as she notices that it was as big as a great dane and had claws similar to an anteater's. The worst part was that they were definitely made out of steel. The menace with a temper made a show of aggression, swiping the air with its claws before charging at her. The world seemed to slow considerably at that moment. Taking advantage of being unaffected by this strange phenomenon, she extended her arm blades and parried the incoming claw strike, creating a resounding clanging. 

The honey badger, being a cunning one, saw this coming and quickly swiped with its other claw. The lady parried that too easily enough. The giant honey badger followed it up with a bite as it fell back to its legs. The lady countered it with an uppercut that sent the badger flying back and falling on its back. The lady leapt high and raised both of her hands in a hammer strike, intending to cleave the giant badger apart with her arm blades.

The badger rolls to the side while simultaneously returning to its paws but fails to avoid the stream of red lightning. Due to the lack of a charge up and the badger's thick skin and fur, however, the lightning only succeeds in briefly stunning the overgrown size queen. The alien lady doesn't fail to capitalise, though. 

With her left foot forward, body facing to the right, and knees bent to level her arms to the badger's face, she was poised to strike. She twisted her body taut to the left in an invisible axis and horizontally slashed the badger's face while her left claw was not far behind to hack. The attack was aided by her body, releasing its tension and lurching back to a more comfortable position. The badger yowled in response. With her claws partly digging in the badger's skull, she focuses and draws upon the electricity within and willed it to travel and burst through her arm. The badger's mouth was open, but no sound came from it. Its spasming body suddenly stilled, likely dead. Just to make sure, she harshly gouged out the badger's face and ate the flesh and bits of bone that came with her hand.

'Tough skin? Metal claws? Yes, please!' She gleefully cheered in her mind as she dug into the honestly-mediocre flesh of the giant badger. After finishing the weird badger, she'd just notice how her skin had tightened slightly.

"That means you're getting close to moulting." Her instincts told her."Soon, you'll be an adult queen! The start of our magnificent hive will begin once you finish! Also, don't you feel your shoulders aching? Specifically around this area?" She looked at the shoulder pad where her instincts was gesturing at. Now that she mentioned it, it did hurt, and the skin felt like it was stretched taut. Pressing against it, her eyes widened when it felt as if the bone was splitting to form something new."That new thing will be another set of arms." A grin appeared on the lady's face. Had another sentient being seen her face, they would've been at least unnerved. 

She would've liked to hurry along and eat more to moult earlier, but it seems that the skirmisg and the light show scared off the prey."Maybe it's time to find a suitable shelter." The lady silently agreed to her instincts and crouched with a mischievous grin."I always wanted to do this."

With a shout of "SCREW GRAVITY!", she leaped forward, her instincts guiding her trajectory so she doesn't crash through branches. With her high above the treetops and her forward movement running in the 90s, great distance was covered. But besides marginally taller trees, there wasn't anything. 

This went on for quite a while that despite hours of playing Leapfrog, nothing but hills and small clearings are of note."Worst world gen ever." Her mounting frustration loosened her mouth enough to say that. Until now, that is. In the horizon, she saw a beautiful, large spring and a cave inside a small hill across that spring.

Her leapfrogging came to an abrupt halt as she barely had time to react to the tingling nerves on her left side. Her tail shot out to protect her sides from the black panther with black mist wafting from its body. The panther was cunning enough to twist itself to avoid being skewered in the head. With their plan of action foiled by each other, the panther smacked into the alien instead. The two crashed into a tree and fell into a heap.

The lady was the first to react and elbowed the would-be predator. The panther gasped as all of its air was knocked out of its lungs, and the struck rib to split in two. In its panic, it burst into a cloud of black mist that hurriedly moved away from the alien. It took no time at all to reform in a comfortable spot but its prey had just readied itself in a quadrupedal stand.

The duo circled each other with the offender doing its best to intimidate the other while the defender is alert and protecting its vulnerable parts. The panther eventually got impatient and lunged with great speed, much faster than the honey badger. Just as she was about to lunge and counter the panther, her limbs were bound by tendrils of the blackest shade. The panther took this opportunity to pounce, aiming for the alien's neck. By controlling her strength, she jumped and curled her legs to let the panther pass below and stomp the predator into the ground.

The panther was shaking from that blow and almost couldn't disperse into mist out of the electrifying hand of the lady. The panther reformed close by and in the air to swipe its claws downwards. The lady nearly received the attack in full if she didn't handspring backwards. Instead, her legs' chitin completely protected her from any real damage to her body. It did throw her off her otherwise-perfect handspring and tripped herself.

She was unable to react from the bite that dug into her abdomen and received the full brunt of the attack with a scream of pain and rage. She drew back her hand with a grabbing motion. As her hand closed, lightning travelled through her arm and coalesced into something similar to Zeus' iconic lightning bolt. Although, calling the alien lady's version a lightning 'bolt' is an injustice to its size. The lady's version is more like a lightning 'pike' as it is easily twice as tall as herself

The panther's eyes widened in alarm, but that was all it could do as the red, seemingly volatile lightning pike is thrusted into its side. The panther instantly died as shortly after being impaled, the lightning pike lost cohesion and violently fizzled out, massively overloading its entire body. Its jaws loosened up, but with a careful precision, the lady pried its snout open and threw it to the side.

With the skirmish over, the adrenaline fades from her system and pain left her gasping."Eat. You'll need it to recover quickly." Her instincts told her. She wholeheartedly agreed and ate like an animal, gorging upon the panther's corpse. She couldn't tell when but she lost herself to her healing-induced hunger, leading her to eating even what she usually avoids. 

The next time she regained her senses, the pain had dulled to a terrible ache. The bleeding had stopped but the wound is still bloody and fresh. 

The first thing she sees is a pearl-sized dark ovoid crystal emitting black mist."This must be how that panther could use those shadow tendrils." There was no doubt in her voice. She winces as she inserts it into one of the holes on her stomach left by the bite. A soothing cold feeling washes over her body as the hole that she inserted the crystal into healed, effectively grafting the crystal to her body.

With that done, she pulls herself up and makes the slow walk towards the cave. When she got close enough, she was sure that this was the panther's home. Now that she knows she's safe, she hobbled as fast as she can to the spring and bathed herself, making sure that her wound is as clean as it can be with only water.

With her body 'clean', resting for the night is the last task of the day for her continued survival.'All in all, this world isn't as bad as I thought. Gymnastics, acrobatics, and thousands of hours of video games really helped out a lot. I better test the limits of my electric powers tomorrow so I don't end up tripping on my ass testing all sorts of moves.' Shortly after deciding that, sleep finally takes her.

A.N.: I should tell you guys that I haven't been in the writing business for long. I wanna hear some constructive criticism. I also do this for myself but I'd also appreciate it if you do like what I put out. Updates might be sparse but I can be motivated like any other authors of this website. The only reason I was able to post this chapter so soon is because I was already working on this story prior to moving to Scribble Hub. Now for some explanations. 

1. Annemorph is a portmanteau of the Latin words Annelus for worm and Morph for form. Their basic caste resembles a combination of Xenomorph drones and the Omega Metroids. You'll know more about how they look sometime relatively soon.

2. Where is the Litrpg elements? Where's the Almighty System? Not going to be present so soon but also not far into the story. There is a reason for why the System isn't in here, yet.

Anyway, that's all for now. Don't be shy with your comments.