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Chapter 1
I slowly raised my hand.
The moment I saw it, I froze.
I hesitated, wondering if I should even call this a hand. But since I—who was inside this body—was human, I decided to define it as such.
I brought the “hand” closer to my face.
Five short, chubby pink fingers. Soft fuzz covering them. Slightly long, claw-like nails.
Yes.
It was a rodent’s paw.
This time, I lifted my head.
In front of me, people in white lab coats bustled around, holding charts in their hands.
“Two hours have passed since Compound No. 9 was administered to Subject 23. No symptoms so far.”
“Subject 8 died 35 minutes after receiving Compound No. 5.”
“Subject 12 died 20 minutes after receiving Compound No. 6.”
Judging by the conversation, those people weren’t doctors—they were researchers.
“…Squeak.”
This was a laboratory.
And I was a lab rat.
The reason I transmigrated wasn’t anything grand.
I couldn’t go on the MT (membership training), so I was lying in bed watching an online lecture while absentmindedly scrolling through my phone. That’s when I found a novel.
I don’t remember the title.
But the keywords—reverse harem and emotional devastation—were exactly my type, so I jumped right in.
It had about 150 chapters, including side stories, which was a perfect length. I was instantly hooked.
After finishing the main story, I started the villain’s backstory side story with one hand while turning on the stove to cook ramen with the other.
Boom—!
There was a massive explosion.
‘I just moved in two months ago…’
I was so excited about scoring a cheap lease on a brand-new villa, only to find out it was poorly built.
I was sure I’d died without a doubt.
The explosion happened right in front of me, and I blacked out before I could even feel the heat.
But when I opened my eyes again, I saw a rat reflected in a transparent glass case.
‘Am I still alive? Wait, why is there a rat here? And why is it so big?’
I usually found rodents cute, but seeing a rat that matched my eye level freaked me out.
I stumbled backward in shock, and the rat also recoiled.
I held my breath and stayed still.
I carefully observed the giant, unfamiliar rat to see if it intended to attack me.
The rat, in turn, cautiously watched me.
It was clearly on edge.
The tension dragged on for a while, and eventually, I grew tired. I thought I was dead, but I wasn’t. Then I woke up to a giant rat in front of me—emotionally, it was exhausting.
I slowly sat down. The rat did the same.
‘…It’s not copying me, is it?’
At first, I thought it was mimicking my actions.
I nervously took a step forward. The rat crept closer.
It finally came right up to me. I reached out a hand.
Tap.
My hand touched a cold, hard glass wall.
At that moment, the surroundings lit up.
Only then did I realize it had been dark before. I could see so clearly, I hadn’t even noticed.
Wait. It was dark, yet I could see like it was daytime?
Squeak! Squeeee! Squeak squeak!
Suddenly, loud squeaking filled the air as something massive approached.
Before I could make out what it was, my body reacted instinctively in fear, trying to flee.
But it moved faster—it brought its face right up to me.
“Hm?”
A person.
An enormous one.
“Director, didn’t you say Subject 18 had cardiac arrest yesterday?”
“Wasn’t that the rookie’s responsibility? Must’ve messed up again. Just leave it. It’s so small and weak it’ll die soon anyway.”
The enormous monster turned out to be… a human.
“…Squeak?”
I was a rat.
I… was a rat? Really? I… became a rat?!
I blankly stared down at my paw, no bigger than an acorn.
Hey, you humans! I’ve become a rat! A rat!
“Squeak! Squeak! Squeeee!”
I screamed with all my might, but the squeaking that came out of my mouth only seemed to tell me to face reality.
“What’s with this one? It’s supposed to be in cardiac arrest, but it’s full of energy.”
At the same time, he lightly tapped the glass case I was pressed against.
But it felt like hitting a massive boulder—I rolled all the way to the opposite wall in one go.
Since my body folded nearly in half, I could see my fluffy white belly fur.
‘I’m… a rat…’
I brushed my stomach with my tiny pink paw.
It was disgustingly soft.
I didn’t get a good look, but I was clearly no ordinary rat. I probably belonged to some specific breed, but that didn’t matter right now.
The point was—I was no longer human.
So where was this? Did someone experiment on my body while I was unconscious and turn me into a rat? With no family and no guardian to object, I was the perfect test subject!
As I spiraled into confusion, I heard the researchers talking again.
“When is Wished supposed to come?”
“He always shows up unannounced. Be ready. Especially you, rookie. Another misdiagnosis?”
“Eek! I’m sorry! I’ll keep my mouth shut when Wished shows up!”
“Yeah, that’s probably for the best.”
Wished.
At that familiar name, my paw—still brushing my belly—froze.
<Side Story: Wished 1.>
The last thing I read before dying wasn’t a main story epilogue or an if-route. It was the backstory of the villain who brought ruin—Wished Hercule.
He was the villain of the novel and a snake beastman suffering from madness.
In his desperation to become a full beastman, he struggled right up until death, only to fall in love with the human heroine and head toward destruction.
Like father, like son—Wished’s father also fell in love with a human.
And Wished, the only known hybrid born between a human and a snake beastman, was the result.
Wished harbored deep resentment, believing his foolish father’s love for a human had made his existence unstable.
At just fifteen years old, he committed patricide.
Once he inherited the dukedom, the first thing Wished did was carry out unethical experiments to turn hybrids into full beastmen.
Beastmen who failed to fully transform were often abandoned by their families or tribes, making it easy for Wished to gather test subjects.
And apparently, this lab was under his orders.
While everyone else was transmigrating into birds, lions, or rabbits—
“…Squeak.”
Damn it.
I became a rat.
And not just any rat—a test subject in the villain’s experiments.
I don’t know how it happened, but being Wished’s lab rat made me realize one thing.
“What’s with you today? You’re all weak. You were fine yesterday… Ugh. Guess I’ll do it next time.”
My survival instincts were extremely sharp.
As soon as the rookie researcher John—who’d misdiagnosed me—left, I weakly slumped down and cautiously opened one eye to assess the situation.
Squeak! Squeak!
The other rats panicked and scattered whenever John came near.
In other words, they looked very healthy.
“Let’s go with Subject 23 today.”
I’m sorry, Subject 23.
I mourned the rat that had become today’s sacrifice in my place.
One week.
It had been a week since I became a rat and survived this insane experiment that could kill me any second.
My survival strategy was simple yet hard to pull off.
I acted weak just enough to avoid standing out in experiments, but not so weak that I looked useless. I pretended to be possibly recovering, like a viable test subject.
To put it plainly: I faked being sick one day and recovering the next.
While putting on that act over the past week, I’d learned some things.
First, the researchers clock in at 8 AM and leave at 4 PM.
They’re completely immersed in their research. The lab is secured with some kind of access system, so escaping is basically impossible.
And the most important part—the experiments.
‘Not a single rat has survived longer than 30 minutes after receiving Compound No. 5.’
