So I'm a Snake, Who Cares?

The hyenas that resembled Spot were fierce.

Of course, their fangs never reached me.

Kang!

Though it tried to bite me, it only bit air.

Instead, I bit its leg as I passed.

There was no need to look back.

The hyena that had been barking just before collapsed staggering with a screech.

There aren't many monsters that can withstand my 'Deadly Poison: Neurotoxin'.

How's Madam Rila doing?

Turning my head to look at her, she was surrounded by three hyenas.

She watched her left and right, but the hyena behind her charged.

"Grrrr!"

Madam Rila raised her arm to block, her mechanical limb glinting under the harsh arena lights. Her eyes narrowed, calculating the precise moment of impact.

A hyena's bite force is originally the strongest among beasts of the same weight class, a fact that has fascinated researchers for generations. Their jaw muscles are exceptionally developed, dense bands of fiber that give them their distinctive sloped profile.

I saw it in a comic book before, tucked away in the corner notes of a wildlife special edition - due to their habit of eating bones, their bite force approaches 400kg. They can crack open femurs like humans crack nutshells, pulverizing calcium and marrow alike.

It's an enormous force considering humans' bite force is about 60kg, barely enough to crack a walnut. Most people don't realize how weak human jaws are in comparison to nature's bone-crushers.

And this isn't even a normal hyena but a monster, so at least several times that. The mutation had warped its jaw structure further, the muscles bulging obscenely beneath its spotted hide, tendons thick as steel cables.

Even Madam Gorilla's strong forearm would be instantly shredded, the flesh and bone giving way like paper in a shredder. No amount of training could strengthen tissue enough to withstand that kind of crushing power.

If it wasn't a prosthetic, that is. The reinforced metal alloy gleamed, ready to meet those terrible jaws.

Crack!

There was the sound of the hyena's teeth breaking.

And Madam Rila grabbed the hyena's nape with her left prosthetic.

With her right hand she pounded its head repeatedly.

No!

Dudududududu!

That was the prosthetic's function.

Like a pneumatic drill breaking stone ground at a construction site.

The prosthetic fist vibrated rapidly and shattered the hyena's hard skull.

"Wh-what's that!"

Exclamations burst out from behind.

I marveled too.

Madam Rila, your gear is amazing.

This time the remaining two charged simultaneously.

Madam Rila threw the corpse she was holding at one and kicked the other.

Bang!

Then charged at the retreating hyena.

When she bent her right fist, a long blade sprang out.

Swoosh!

The hyena's neck was cut.

The head rolling away.

"Yip! Yiiip!"

The one survivor tried to flee.

As I was about to chase.

"Leave it to me, boss."

Madam Rila said reliably.

Then she slightly raised her arm.

Pewpewpewpew!

A bowgun fired from her fist part.

The hyena collapsed with a thud.

Are you Guts?

"I feel myself getting stronger..." Stay tuned for updates on empire

I could feel the flow of magical energy.

'A level up!'

It's hard for me to level up just killing these small fry.

But it seemed enough for Madam Rila.

I focused my eyes to look at Madam Rila's status.

──────────────

[Iron Arm Gorilla lv31]

[Traits]

[Gentle], [Loyal], [Prosthetic]

[Skills]

[Prosthetic lv9], [Tear Apart lv8], [Bite lv10], [Lariat lv8], [Roar lv3]...

──────────────

Madam Rila had undergone one evolution while we were apart.

What evolution was that again, was it the fourth?

Then when would the next evolution be?

By my intuition, probably at lv40.

Madam Rila's evolution will likely come before mine.

I hope I can give advice from the side.

"Excellent!"

Kadam opened our gate and came in.

And hugged Madam Rila with all his might.

He glanced at me and held out his hand, so I grasped it with my tail.

"You're both hired."

Successfully got the job.

==

Monsters' reproductive ability.

Of course, it varies greatly by species.

But overall, it's clearly superior to normal animals.

Because monsters don't become weak just from giving birth.

The born offspring often don't need special care.

Though there were cases like Centipede Mom who took extremely good care of her offspring, well.

Bowingie's offspring might have been stronger than the Little Green Snake siblings.

Anyway, if left alone, the zoo's monsters increase in number moment by moment.

The 'cleaning squad' exists to control that.

The cleaning squad's zookeepers presided over the monsters' deaths.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

I and Madam Rila got jobs in the cleaning squad.

Obern and Phili were also assigned to the cleaning squad.

That was decided by my strong will.

'This is a chance. Obern, Phili, a chance for you to get stronger.'

Obern was much weaker than publicly known, and Phili was just a child by my standards.

Being in the cleaning squad means you can hunt monsters.

In other words, you can level up more easily.

Though they say honing actual combat skills is important, leveling up is the basics of basics.

Fortunately, we could all work in the same team.

One person's help was big in making that happen.

Daisy.

She came trotting over.

Daisy looked at Obern, smiled softly and said.

"Honey."

"Daisy."

Kyaaaah!

Obern and Daisy had actually started workplace dating.

How did this even happen?

Even though I watched from right beside them, I couldn't understand how they ended up dating.

Obern was someone who said he'd treat her to a meal and took Daisy to the cafeteria.

Even I knew Daisy was hoping for a date.

Shouldn't they at least go outside the zoo, if not to a fancy restaurant?

Have some drinks, get closer while laughing together, exchange looks and confirm each other's feelings - isn't that theoretically correct?

But their dating process seemed to skip all that.

After going to the cafeteria a few times.

Daisy said she was full and suggested a walk.

After walking a bit under the moonlight, they naturally held hands without anyone making the first move.

I, tied to Obern's wrist, clearly saw it.

Surprisingly, that very day.

They kissed.

'What on earth happened? The old man saw too, right?'

"Ah I don't care about that!"

Though Pelerian prided himself on understanding heaven and earth's principles, he clearly didn't know what happened either.

'There's no plausibility at all. Like, the logical process of them falling in love is missing.'

"There's one thing I know for sure."

'What?'

"Someone who nitpicks about plausibility in falling in love has probably never been popular."

'...'

I was shocked.