Help! I changed the gender of the male protagonist in the yandere game

The moment the foul wind assaulted him, Hyakusuke reacted swiftly, blocking the approaching Head-Spider with his left elbow.

His left elbow joint was injured in that instant.

Fortunately, his arm armor, sturdy muscles, and bones withstood the blow.

This spider's strength wasn't significant; its only troublesome aspect was its hard exoskeleton. However, Hyakusuke was prepared.

With a dull thud, he slammed the Head-Spider against the cave wall, and the wakizashi-length ninja sword in his right hand swiftly pierced through the spider's mouthparts.

This single strike pierced the Head-Spider from the inside, its internal organs pulverized by the blade's tip.

"...A lesser demon, somewhere between a common monster and a full-fledged demon, troublesome but manageable for a low-ranking ninja like myself."

The problem lies in their numbers, and the fact that the monsters' exoskeletons and skin are reinforced by demonic energy, making them difficult to cut with ordinary blades.

Unless you're skilled, wildly swinging your sword will only result in it being deflected or broken upon impact. But, once you're proficient, you'll discover many clever methods.

After killing the remaining lesser demon, Hyakusuke applied some detoxification powder to his wound and treated it briefly.

"...I'll use that method."

Hyakusuke looked at the Head-Spider's corpse again.

In this world, even the physically strong tenant farmers can kill the weak, common monsters in the mountains with their farm tools.

After death, the spider demon's exoskeleton becomes soft. Hyakusuke sliced open its abdomen with his blade, removing the internal organs.

He particularly focused on the intestines, smearing their foul-smelling fluids on his equipment. He then evenly smeared the remaining fluids on the male protagonist, Yomei.

"It can't be helped... To traverse the cave labyrinth and find the Dragon Vein Pool, I'll have to take a bit of a detour. I can only try this method."

It's a bit stinky, but it can really save your life.

...

"My memory is actually pretty good."

Hyakusuke used his blade to cut through the spiderwebs, creating a makeshift rope to tie the injured male protagonist to his back.

Following his memories from playing the game, he navigated several branching paths and actually found the location of the Dragon Vein Pool.

"It seems these spiders rely more on scent than sight..."

Hyakusuke realized then that the large group was discovered not because the invisibility charms failed, but because the group was too large, leaving too many traces along the way.

Moving alone, coated in familiar spider scents, or using an invisibility charm, is much safer.

During his previous escape, he had been running aimlessly in a panic, his mind a jumble, completely disoriented while trying to evade the spider demons.

Once he calmed down, Hyakusuke followed the memories deep within his consciousness from playing the game, and found the deepest part of the spider's nest: the "Dragon Vein Pool."

The great spider ancestor of the nest was once a mountain god, worshiped by the natives hidden deep in the mountains. Later, the ancestor was defeated, and its descendants lost their divinity, falling into becoming monsters.

This great spider demon sought to regain its divinity, found the dragon vein deep within this mountain, and dug out an underground pit. This allowed the underground water to seep out, and the fluids from the earth's veins were accumulated in the pool, forming a man-made "dragon lair."

The cave where the Dragon Vein Pool was located was filled with glittering crystals, like a crystal grotto, likely a result of the Dragon Vein's power.

"It really is the Dragon Vein Pool."

Hyakusuke examined the pool and found that the water emitted a faint green glow, containing strong spiritual energy and the pure divine energy of the earth.

"Unfortunately, I'm not blessed enough to benefit from it... The power within the dragon vein can only benefit the land, making barren land fertile, allowing crops to grow vigorously, and strengthening the land gods. It has no benefit for ordinary people..."

However, although it has no benefit for himself, it will have an effect on the male protagonist, Tsukigahara Yomei.

He possesses the power of three powerful bloodlines, each exceptionally powerful on its own, and even more unbelievably powerful when awakened later.

The divine energy within the dragon vein can suppress his demonization, purify his heart, cleanse his soul, and stimulate his divine bloodline, allowing him to reshape his body.

"This is also a strategy that the heroines came up with later to help him. I'm just doing the same thing, so it should have the same effect, right?"

While muttering to himself, he stripped Tsukigahara Yomei of his clothes and threw his naked body into the Dragon Vein Pool.

The male protagonist's body sank into the bottom of the pool with a "plop."

There's no need to worry about him drowning. The vast dragon vein essence in this pool is enough to allow a person to survive even underwater.

Rather, Tsukigahara Yomei will undergo a new evolution within the Dragon Vein Pool.

"He's relatively weak now. After entering the Dragon Vein Pool, he might awaken new powerful abilities..."

The male protagonist should be able to awaken several different abilities in the future. I just don't know what power he'll gain now...

————Hehehehehe.

An empty laugh came from the depths of the hollow cave, an inhuman laugh.

Every hair on his body stood on end, and an icy chill ran like electricity along his spine into his brain. Hyakusuke's face was filled with astonishment and fear.

He suddenly raised his head and saw a head suspended upside down in the air.

It was a girl's face, hanging in mid-air. Most of her face was shrouded in shadow, but her mouth could be clearly seen smiling, a hollow, inhuman smile.

"You, what do you intend to do in my nest?"

Fuzzy, sharp spider legs clung to the cave ceiling. This was a terrifying spider demon resembling a female spider.

"It's" upper body was a girl wearing a kimono, her hair styled in the Hime fashion, with delicate features, bean eyebrows, and a mouth full of needle-like teeth.

The upper part was still somewhat acceptable... As for the lower body, it was an unmistakable giant spider, covered in bristles and a hard shell.

Hyakusuke swallowed hard. He didn't know how this spider demon had concealed its violent demonic energy and approached him—

No, at this moment, his brain was blank, his stomach began to churn, and his consciousness couldn't keep up with everything that was happening before his eyes.

At the same time, the giant spider's body fell downwards.

Boom!

The moment it landed, a heavy bass sound rang out.

Hyakusuke's body moved faster than his consciousness. He leaped backwards, and an explosion erupted on the ground, scattering countless sharp stones like bullets.

To avoid being caught in the blast, he had to lower his body, extending his legs and left hand to the ground.

However, the shockwave-like air current caused by the spider demon's weight impacting the ground almost blew him away.

Hyakusuke adopted a beast-like posture, crouching forward, with blood streaks on his cheeks and neck.

He was lucky to have not been killed on the spot.

In reality, the strength of the Kurohimeyama family's low-ranking ninja was only slightly greater than that of ordinary people. Although they had undergone some training, it was barely adequate.

This great spider was clearly a fierce demon surpassing the level of a full-fledged demon or great demon, and crushing him would be as easy as crushing an insect.

"What to do?"

Hyakusuke's mind was in chaos. Faced with such an insurmountable gap, his heart was filled with despair, and he even wondered if he could be reincarnated back to his original Earth in his next life.

To hell with it.

He raised his sword, intending to make a last-ditch effort.

After all, this shitty game world is disgusting!

"...Shadow Butterfly."

A subtle voice sounded.

This great spider vaguely sensed something, but was still a step too late. Time and space stretched and twisted in an instant, then were drastically compressed.

However, for the observers, namely the great spider and Hyakusuke himself, it seemed as if there was no beginning, no end, and no process whatsoever.

It was as if a second had been inserted into a video. Hyakusuke stared in astonishment as blood lines appeared all over the great spider's body, and every inch of its massive frame spurted blood mist.

The fierce demon-level great spider was dismembered into eight pieces, no, it was vivisected. Its limbs were shattered by sharp blades, and its internal organs and blood spilled from the broken limbs and torso, falling to the ground with a crash.

Hyakusuke was completely stunned. Okay, in just the blink of an eye, the once imposing monster had turned into a large pile of red meat and a sea of blood.

"You're lucky. If I had been any slower, you would have been dead."

The speaker was a girl, with long, pale silver hair cascading down, and thin bangs that obscured her right eye.

She was a beautiful girl, a girl with a glass-like, transparent quality. Because of that beauty, she seemed ethereal and unsettling.

"...Lady Kohagi, thank you very much for saving my life."

Hyakusuke didn't dare to look at her too closely. On the one hand, it was because the girl was wearing a demon-slaying uniform with a sleeveless design, which would reveal her armpits, and staring at it would be impolite.

On the other hand, the difference in status between the two was enormous. As a low-ranking ninja, his status was extremely low. He needed to know the etiquette of respecting superiors.

Although his modern-day thoughts didn't take it seriously, he had no choice but to kneel and bow deeply to the girl, who was even younger than him.

There was no helping it. In this world, a low-ranking ninja's status was very low, even lower than a servant's. However, his social standing was far inferior to that of the Kurohimeyama clan's eldest princess, the main family's young lady.

The girl's identity was none other than Kohagi Kurohimeyama, the number one heroine of "Oborozuki no Akira", and also the clan's most powerful demon-slaying swordswoman—and the fiancée of Tsukigahara Yomei, the male protagonist.

"By the way, where are the family's exorcists who were captured by the spider demon earlier?"

"Those people are basically poisoned by the spider venom."

Hyakusuke cautiously replied: "I judged that I couldn't rescue them alone, so I had to abandon them... Also, the young master of the Tsukigahara family is still clinging to life. I hope the young lady can find a way to rescue him—"

As he spoke, the Dragon Vein Pool behind him made a "gurgling" sound, as if the water was boiling.

Kohagi Kurohimeyama's gaze shifted from him and quickly moved to the Dragon Vein Pool.

"...What happened?"

Her delicate eyebrows furrowed as she looked into the pool. Faintly, black hair floated up from the water, and then a beautiful torso slowly rose from the faintly glowing emerald water.

'...What the hell?'

The face under the black fox mask that Hyakusuke was wearing began to distort—yes, he could see very clearly that the figure had long hair flowing into the water, and the voluptuous, snow-white body was startlingly bewitching.

'N-No way... That couldn't possibly be the male protagonist, Tsukigahara Yomei, right?'

The time-traveler shouted "NONONO" in his heart. If he were to remove his mask, one would see a desperate face similar to that in Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream."