Just like every other day, I spent today lounging around.
Ah, My Home really is a blessing.
Food just shows up on its own, security is top-notch, so I can sleep soundly even in the middle of a dangerous Dungeon.
I laid soft silk over the hard floor, so the sleeping comfort is second to none.
While spinning silk — a daily habit at this point — I rolled around lazily.
Ah, bliss.
Come to think of it, my past life was pretty hectic day in and day out.
I never really realized it at the time, but looking back now, averaging four hours of sleep a night is seriously messed up, isn't it?
My daily cycle back then was: wake up, go to school, come home, game nonstop, and crash the moment late-night drowsiness peaked.
That was my whole life.
Gaming was fun, but thinking about it now, there was always this nagging sense of obligation — a feeling that I *had* to play.
Being a free-to-play player who kept up with the top ranks in online games filled me with pride, and I tried to live up to everyone's expectations. Before I knew it, I'd pushed myself past my limits.
The idea that someone like me would try to live up to other people's expectations? What a joke.
Solitary and supreme.
I couldn't have cared less what anyone else thought.
Or so I believed — but since starting this life, I've realized I wasn't entirely free of those very human feelings.
So when I finally settled into a life where there's genuinely nothing to do, it felt like an incredible release — like I'd thrown everything off my shoulders.
At first, I worried that once boredom set in, it would become unbearable. But that turned out to be unfounded.
An environment with no internet and no games is certainly boring, but it's not unbearable.
Apparently, my baseline for happiness is lower than most people's.
Honestly, just being alive is enough to make me happy.
With food and shelter guaranteed, my current life is as good as it gets.
I've even started thinking I might just spend the rest of my life right here.
I don't know how long a spider's lifespan is, though.
Still, even if I feel that way, I know someday I'll have to leave My Home.
Unexpected situations, environmental changes, the appearance of a powerful enemy that tears through the web.
I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm sure that day will come.
Nothing stays the same forever.
So I resolved to steel myself for when that time arrives.
I made that decision, but — way too soon!!
I wasn't ready!!
In my panicked field of vision, one of My Home's entrances was engulfed in flames.
I'd just dozed off when fire suddenly erupted.
My My Home, which I'd crafted with painstaking effort, was being slowly swallowed by a sea of flames without any resistance.
My spider silk, which I'd prided myself on as invincible — it turns out it has a fatal weakness to fire.
But why did the fire start so suddenly?
The answer became clear almost immediately.
People.
There was a man standing behind the flames.
He held a torch in his hand.
He must have used that torch to set My Home on fire.
This is bad.
The flames were obscuring my view, but I could make out several figures standing behind the man.
There was no way this fire was accidental.
They were clearly acting on alert — wary of a spider's nest.
If that was the case, they had to know there was a spider Monster — me — somewhere inside.
If I stayed here, it was a two-way death sentence: burn in the flames, or be cornered by the humans.
Fortunately, the fire hadn't reached me yet. If I left through the escape route on the opposite side, the humans shouldn't be able to catch up.
I took one last look around My Home.
Since my Reincarnation, I'd spent the vast majority of my time here.
I'd crafted it with all the care in the world.
This was where I'd made all my discoveries, and where I'd celebrated and despaired with each one.
This was the place that had protected me all this time.
If I'm being honest, I might be even more attached to this place than I was to my room in my past life.
That's how much time and love I'd poured into it.
I broke into a run.
In the opposite direction from the flames.
Nimble and deft, I wove through the intricately layered spider web.
The final web.
Cross that, and I could never come back to this place again.
Cross that, and there was no safety left anywhere.
Even so, I slipped through that final web without a moment's hesitation.
I had an overwhelming urge to look back, but I didn't.
Right now, all I could think about was getting as far away as possible.
And just like that, I was driven out of My Home.
As an aside — the adventurers who set fire to My Home apparently discovered a massive cache of my silk balls left in the center of the lair.
The fire hadn't reached that far, so they were lucky enough to collect it all.
Clothes made from that silk sold for outrageous prices.
Apparently, even the king of some country purchased some, and it became quite the topic of conversation for a while.
I wouldn't learn about any of that until much, much later.