The Agate Crocodile's Guide to Surviving Underwater

Looking for new preorders: a battle royale! [I Win the Battle Royale with My Saintly Heart]

[Apocalypse + supernatural abilities + coming-of-age + the male lead's true identity is revealed]

[Crocodiles fight over fate in the North Lake, while nuclear currents surge with sharp jealousy]

[The sand blocked my way, and the lake couldn't bear my brilliance]

[Tonight, I won't hesitate above the sea, shining with brilliant colors. The water has swallowed my head]

[Coming-of-age, robotic combat machine with maxed-out strength, agate crocodile x gentle, meek, healing fluorescent sea snail]

A great disaster a hundred years ago made it impossible for humans to set foot on the mottled, colorful land. Toxic fog blanketed the surface, so humanity built thriving bases underwater.

Through technology, humans could gain the abilities of aquatic creatures in the form of a biological grid.

For instance, some people could grow octopus suckers, while others could extend the plump red pincers of a crab...

A hundred years later, a raging nuclear-flow virus destroyed the biological grids and once again brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

*

Kelanna arrived at the impoverished North Lake Base. Her biological grid was a crocodile with agates embedded in its tail.

Only Murray at the base shared her amber eyes and sharp, orange-yellow dorsal ridge.

Among the docile lake dwellers, she was a dangerous crocodile.

Like every resident of North Lake, Kelanna had only learned three skills: how to use honorifics, how to contact the Safety Assistance Center, and how to prepare river and sea food.

"If you are attacked unexpectedly, do not try to fight back with your mild biological grid. Please contact the Base Safety Assistance Center."

"If you meet a kind-looking visitor from the Central Sea Base, use honorifics. Do not provoke the powerful biological grids of the undersea residents, and take care of yourself."

"We hope you are lucky enough to rely on an ocean dweller with a powerful gene grid, so you can survive more safely."

The voice rang out across North Lake at all hours.

Until Murray suddenly died on the coastline, and Kelanna was taken to the Central Sea Base, its splendor and brilliance depicted in the newspapers.

At the same time, she became the only person immune to infection.

*

Later, the leader's successor crawled into a fluorescent sea snail shell, propped himself up with both hands, his body covered in wounds, then knelt and raised his reverent gray eyes.

"Darling, I'm a despicable beneficiary. Step over my flesh and blood to achieve everything you want."

Then the crocodile ran toward the sea inlet...

[Reader's Guide]

1. After childhood, they can control whether their biological grid manifests. When it doesn't, they look like ordinary humans.

2. The heroine becomes the next ruler. She takes the lead in the relationship, and the woman is strong while the man is weak.

3. The setting is entirely fictional.

Content warning: The diction and phrasing can be a little overburdened with flowery language. My first novel had many shortcomings in its descriptions, and I'll keep improving. This story is somewhat stream of consciousness. Please don't make baseless accusations of cancerous writing!

Upcoming: [I Win the Battle Royale with My Saintly Heart]

Mind games | Strategic games | Battle royale | Survival | Infinite flow

Naili had been a well-behaved girl for over a decade. After her college entrance exams, she planned to follow her parents' wishes and attend the teacher's college they'd picked out for her. But a terrifying board game at a class reunion pulled her into a deadly game called "Eden."

[Eden Game Rules]

[Failing or breaking the rules will result in immediate death]

At first, Naili thought it was all a prank, until she watched someone who broke the rules fall into an abyss.

She realized it was all real.

[Drawing skill...]

[Your personal skill is "White Knight." Once per game, you can save any one player who has been sentenced to execution. The player you save cannot lie to you again during that game, or they will be executed.]

She could save people! Naili grabbed onto a glimmer of hope.

But on second thought, this skill wasn't that good. She could save other people, but for her personally, it was basically useless!

[The game is about to begin. This game's title is "Rust Core Undercover." Number of executions: 5-7]

Everything around her began to collapse. She saw the other seven players, just as panicked as she was. The first game had begun...

At first, Naili seemed like a crybaby who was only good for looking pretty. She attracted powerful players and won games by coasting along. She was also a bit of a bleeding heart, unable to stand players killing one another and wanting to help everyone.

Only after the powerful players who'd gotten involved with her started dying one after another did the other players realize something was wrong.

Months later, Naili had become skilled at using her ability to save the so-called big shots of the game, gaining loyal companions for the round, then pushing them into the execution arena with numb detachment. Her voice trembling with tears, she would softly say,

"I'm sorry. I never wanted to hurt anyone. This game forced me to do it."

Then she would wipe the blood off herself and enter the next game.

No one could have imagined that the game novice, the pretty face entangled with so many men, the coward with a universally mocked useless ability and an overwhelming bleeding heart, would defeat all those big shots and become the last one standing.

In this Eden, full of schemes, slaughter, and betrayal, she would bravely pick up a knife, win the game, and survive by her own strength.

Then escape from here.

[Healer skill, assassin-style play]

[The rules never said the people you save have to stay alive]

Theme: Never underestimate your own strength. Break free from the rules imposed on you.