A Guide to Cataloging Anotherworldly Creatures

A snake who seems harmless but is actually cautious and decisive × a cold, unsociable mermaid who’s actually gentle and even-tempered. (If you’re aquatic, you should date aquatic, obviously.)

Ye Ke is kidnapped on her way home from work. She thinks she’s about to star in an escape story, but instead she gets an upgrade story.

Has she been reincarnated into another world?

Good news: she’s not dead. Bad news: she’s turned into a snake. She might as well have died.

Fortunately, she still has an auxiliary AI System to tell her the basics of this world and how to get home.

After a long sigh, she diligently hunts monsters and levels up on the ocean floor, hoping she’ll eventually unlock a human form.

But can someone explain why a mermaid with a question mark where her level should be keeps following her around? And how does she always manage to loot the corpses with perfect accuracy?

When Seli wakes up and sets out to find food, she sees a little snake in her territory.

Is it an all-you-can-eat buffet?

But Seli is talked into sparing Ye Ke by her fast-talking. In truth, she just wants to see how unlucky a snake plagued by misfortune can get.

Afterward,

Seli takes the snake back to her territory, moved by her miserable plight. Not everyone can open three treasure chests and find a mimic in every one.

Thinking of an old friend she hasn’t seen in ages, she happily accepts the snake-person’s invitation to travel together.

-

Now that she has a human form, Ye Ke has less money than the face she shows the world. Her daily routine in this otherworld is to take jobs, earn money, level up, and pay for travel expenses. She makes the most of every minute like a master time manager.

She meets a blind Saintess of Light, a dragon who’s lost her wings, dwarves in a warm snowy mountain, skeleton undead with skin...

Ye Ke: Why are all these fantasy creatures so weird...?

Later, she discovers that not only are these fantasy creatures strange, but the entire world is strange.

-

The romance is slow-burn. Companionship is the longest confession of love, and the kind of affection that quietly seeps into your heart. By the time Ye Ke realizes she doesn’t just see the mermaid as a friend, a companion, or even family, things have already rushed headlong in a direction she never wanted.

Reader’s guide:

1. The worldbuilding is Japanese-style Western fantasy. It includes mermaids, dragons, elves, goblins, undead, and other fantasy creatures, as well as potion-making, alchemy, and a little astrology. The setting is highly original, so please don’t compare it to reality. This is a very long story.

2. The cast is not all female. There are some male characters, but they don’t make up a large proportion. They’re minor characters and cannon fodder, and none of them get a big moment. There won’t be any male couples, either. They’re necessary as villains and cannon fodder.

3. There are other female-female couples. None of them will grow any strange parts. In this world, two women can have children, and they have girls. This is just to explain why there are male fighters. Two men can also have children, and they have boys, but there are no male-male couples in the story. A man and a woman can have children of either sex.

4. The female lead grows stronger over time and becomes the strongest later on. She isn’t your typical good person.

Theme: Give the characters a happy ending