Minglings 1: The Merger

[Monster Isekai - High Fantasy - Evolutions]
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Twenty minutes. That's all the time they had before a calamity would arrive that would rip them from their universe and deliver them to another monstrous and foreign one!

Jake, Mason, and the entire coffee shop listened in horrified silence to the declaration of the end of the world as they knew it. A few minutes of a broadcast, a speech by the leaders of the nations, and a prerecorded message - that's all the warnings they got.

Now, they have to choose a new form, a body, from options that were less than savory. From Goblins to cannibalistic insects, none would be anyone's first choice.

Filled with disbelief, Jake and Mason, both in their last years of college, see their plans for the future shattered.

Jake had plans. Become a game designer and create immersive fantasy worlds, preferably with dragons. Find a nice girl. Settle down. Perhaps have a few kids and teach them baseball. Now he must deal with the fact that any children he might have will likely hatch from eggs, and settling down... might be an issue.

Mason? His plans were more like vague ideas. See the world, travel to distant places, and meet different people. After that? Perhaps start a company close to wherever Jake would be.

Neither had imagined that parts of their plans or dreams would come to haunt them.

Worse, when they decide not to adhere to the advice and wake in the smoldering ruins, they are confronted with the consequences of their choice.

Outnumbered and hunted by what were once their fellow humans, they flee into a world of jungles and monsters. A world of eat or be eaten.

How are they going to stay alive in a world where a tree can eat a crocodile?

Still, there is a tiny spark of hope, if only they can stay alive long enough to evolve into it!